fluvia 94: Fluvia and the Pre-Debut Party

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Chapter 94: Fluvia and the Pre-Debut Party

“What will you do about Aunt Hubrissa?”

“What should I do? It’s pointless to treat such a woman too carefully, but dangerous to not treat her carefully at all.”

Edgar sighs a bit, watching my aunt fume angrily as she stomps off into the crowd.

I can almost see clouds of smoke billowing from her ears.

“Do be wary of that sort of behavior from your peers as well.”

Edgar lectured me as the adults begin to separate more clearly from the children.

“Surely children can’t be that bad.”

I can’t help but laugh at him, but Edgar gives me a long, serious look.

“Although you are something a little different, don’t underestimate how fast children grow up. Not to mention children of nobles.”

“That’s…”

Well, I know that, but I’m having a hard time believing that there could be 8-year-olds as malicious as Aunt Hubrissa.

Then again … children can also be cruel some times, and I would believe it if you say that children can pick up the bad habits of their parents.

Even though I was already wary of having thirty-two 8-year-olds attempting to engage in ‘socializing,’ but now I’m really feeling anxious.

Thankfully, Brother and I have already paired up as partners for the cotillion, so we’re free to escort each other around.

If I’m going to spend the rest of the evening talking to children who wish to appear more grown up than they actually are, I’m going to need some moral support right next to me.

How convenient that Brother is coming over now.

I see Father and Mother in the distance, waving and beaming at the two of us with high hopes and expectations in their eyes, but I’m not sure what they’re hoping for.

I mean, once again, Brother and I are already partners.

Not only that, but we ALREADY know the most prominent children in the group, namely the First Prince and the Minister of Magic’s son, and are in fact rather good friends with them.

I suppose we would do well to make good impressions on the rest of the debutees, though.

My goodness, how did a party with a bunch of prepubescent children become so high-stakes?

As Edgar walks back towards Father and Mother, he pats Brother on the shoulder and whispers something in his ear.

“What did he tell you?”

I asked when Brother arrives at my side.

“Just to behave myself and remember I’m escorting a precious person.”

Brother’s voice reveals a bit of a, ‘I already knew that, why are you telling me?’ tone, but it’s probably better that Edgar had reiterated those instructions.

It’s true that Brother cares little for his own dignity, but he’s surprisingly protective of my reputation.

Good job, Edgar.

As I’m congratulating Edgar in my head, Brother stuck out a hand.

“Sister, shall we?”

He says it with a smirk and a mischievous glint in his eye, but I’m sure he’ll behave.

Probably.

It seems the practice at home pays off, and Brother’s physical abilities are naturally high to begin with, so it was a simple matter to gracefully enter the side wing set up for the debutees’ use from the main wing where all the relatives are waiting.

To tell the truth, I also had to practice hard to show this sort of lofty gracefulness.

Mother makes gliding into a room so easily, and although I may be an adult inside, I have accepted that I’m the daughter of this Duke’s Lady.

It would be remiss of me to clomp in like an elephant and risk tarnishing Mother’s reputation as the leading lady of high society.

I can’t deny that I’m pleased when the other children in the room turned to watch Brother and I enter with the appropriate amount of amazement in their eyes.

“Young Lord Fedor, Young Lady Fluvia, it’s nice to see you tonight.”

Our good friend, the son of the Minister of Magic, Mattias Wynchestor approached us.

It may have only been three years, but children grow so fast.

Mattias Wynchestor has become a very handsome young man, his delicate features having become more refined and a little more muscular after keeping up with Brother and Prince Anthony for these past few years.

“Hallo.”

Brother is impertinent as always, not even bothering to try to give a formal greeting.

“Greetings, Young Sir Mattias. It’s indeed a pleasure. Has your escort for the Cotillion already been decided?”

I curtsied, ignoring Brother’s impropriety in favor of triggering my ‘small talk’ skill.

Although this pre-party is officially for the children to find their own partners for the Cotillion, there are naturally quite a few mechanisms performed behind the scenes for many nobles that don’t want to leave things to chance.

Looking out at the other children, most of them have already paired off.

Unfortunately, Mattias sighed, his shoulders slumped.

“Yes, it seems that Father wasn’t too concerned about it.”

Yes, Minister Wynchestor does seem like the type to completely disregard his son’s escort for his debut, but I thought Lady Priscilla might have been a bit more prudent.

It seems Mattias isn’t looking forward to having to find his own escort.

Before we could continue the conversation, the lights dimmed, and we turned towards the front of the hall as Prince Anthony stepped onto the stage.

As the lanterns on the stage lit up to illuminate him on the stage, Prince Anthony magically amplified his voice and began to speak.

“Thank you each and all for joining us today. As Anthony Flos-Valed-Regna, I am pleased to welcome the Young Lords and Ladies who will be stepping out into society this Debut Season.

We are gathered here today in order to acquaint ourselves with our peers in order to bring the Crown’s Cotillion to its greatest success yet.

As representatives of all the other debutees within Valed, we have the responsibility to display the dignity and poise that belongs to the upper nobility of our country, and it’s our greatest hopes that everyone can learn to enjoy themselves while displaying that dignity and poise tonight as well.

Without further ado, may the party begin.”

Brother, Mattias, and I clap along with the other children as Prince Anthony concludes his speech, giving a slight bow with his hand held over his heart.

As Prince Anthony steps down, he takes the hand of a young girl as her escort, walking quickly over towards the three of us.

“Nice speech, Prince Anthony.”

Brother remarks with a smirk, but he doesn’t tease him as much as he usually does.

In response, Prince Anthony just gives a dry, “Haha.”

“It was indeed a well presented speech. Are your responsibilities done for tonight?”

Mattias asks.

“Eh, well, yes. Mother – Queen Henrietta will close out the evening, so it’s just a matter of acting according to my status for the rest of the night.”

Prince Anthony doesn’t look terribly thrilled about having to act as Valed’s First Prince for the rest of the night, but there’s no choice.

The point of this party is for the children to get used to acting according to their statuses after all.

“Good evening, Prince Anthony. Might I ask who this lovely Young Lady is?”

I curtsy slightly before turning towards Prince Anthony’s delicate looking escort.

I already know, of course, but it’s a matter of courtesy.

“Of course. This is Young Lady Janis, the granddaughter of Earl Margot. Young Lady Janis, these are Young Sir Mattias, Young Lord Fedor, and Young Lady Fluvia.”

It will be nice to be able to drop the ‘Young’ in front of everyone’s names soon; it really is quite a mouthful.

So it seems that Earl Margot has decided it’s better to give Young Lady Janis the opportunity to be Prince Anthony’s partner for the Debut Season.

I see Young Lord Kasen, Earl Margot’s grandson from Earl Margot’s next heir in the line of succession, crossing the room swiftly as he approaches us in order to greet the Prince, Earl Dellarose’s children, the son of the Minister of Magic, and his cousin.

My my, we’ve become quite a powerful group on this side of the hall.

“Good evening, Young Lady Janis, Young Lord Kasen, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I gently rest the end of my closed hand fan on the side of my chin as I nodded and bobbed a slight curtsy towards the newcomer, Young Lord Kasen.

His escort at his side is, unsurprisingly, Young Lady Orsella.

She looks absolutely adorable, but also a little intimidated by Young Lord Kasen.

It can’t be helped; it feels like the all the men in the Margot family line carry at least 25% of that arrogant aura.

They’re not fundamentally distasteful people, but it’s very easy to assume they’re looking down on you even if they’re not thinking about anything.

I think it was called a ‘resting bitch face’ in my previous life?

“Greetings, Young Lady Orsella, it truly is a pleasure to meet you again. How are you doing?”

“Greetings, I’m doing well.”

Young Lady Orsella smiles shyly.

Most noble children didn’t end up with playmates outside of their family, unlike Brother and I, so it can’t be helped, I suppose.

After trading pleasantries for a bit, I can’t help but look around the room.

My goodness, so many pretty and handsome children here.

It’s times like these that I can believe that this is the world of an otome game; since there are thirty-two of this country’s highest ranking noble children in this room, there’s no doubt that many of them would make an appearance in the game, even if only as background characters.

I end up letting Brother do most of the socializing, for his own practice, as I survey the other children who will be debuting with us.

As Edgar said, the children are all already a lot more mature than I assumed they’d be.

In perfect replica of their parents’ relationships, the other debutees have already begun mingling in certain groups, and many of them keep glancing towards the powerhouse our group is, especially with the addition of the two grandchildren of Earl Margot, clearing looking like they want to barge in to introduce themselves.

However, the density of the highest rung of nobility is a bit too high for their taste … well, if they were less disciplined like Young Lady Birenna, perhaps a few might have started barging in.

Mattias and Prince Anthony seem to have recognized that staying in this group will keep the unwanted attention away, but it would be remiss of us to let the Prince set such a bad example by not making the rounds, so when the conversation drifts to a lull, I took Brother by the arm.

“Well, it was indeed a pleasure to see all of you, however there were some people we should give our greetings to.”

I hinted, tugging a little, barely noticeable, to lead Brother away.

“Ah… yes. That’s true.”

Prince Anthony seems to deflate a little, but do your best tonight~.

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<a/n: Not gonna lie, I kind of wanted to just skip the rest of Debut Season. I can barely remember the names of all the characters I already have, let alone all the names I’d have to make up if I was going to go into a lot more detail into the socializing. But it’s not like I can just cut ALL of it out … yeah, so I was procrastinating while trying to decide how much I really HAD to include to still give the debut stuff the attention it deserves.>