“Where did the Pig Princess go?”

Under the sunset, Nuelle started sitting on a sturdy chair made of intertwined wooden stems, lazily reading the storybook lent by Princess Asti.

“Poor Princess Asti is not a pig. After having dinner with me, she said she was going somewhere tomorrow. Hades, did you have dinner?”

At the sound of Hades’ voice from behind, Latifa smiled and spoke.

Thunk.

Suddenly, something was placed on the book page she had been reading.

“Hmm?”

“Oh, I picked it up. Take it.”

Though the edge was slightly broken, the small triangular object with engraved rose flowers and a teddy bear was an item well-known to Latifa, an item from the Empire.

With the surface, still moist as if wiped off recently, a subtle smile formed.

“…This is a metronome.”

“Metronome?”

What Hades brought was a metronome used by young ladies in the Empire to practice piano to keep the beat.

Click, click.

After rolling the stiff leaf back a few times and unlocking the lock on the center, the small device began to sway accurately, shaking left and right without breaking the beat despite the passage of time.

Ding Ding Thump, Ding Ding Thump, Ding Ding Thump.

“Is this it?”

Listening to the cheerful Ding Ding Thump, Hades, who had been silently hearing the sound while lying down, asked, seemingly amazed.

“Yes. This is it. You can also change the beat.”

“Ha! I thought it was a great item, but it turns out there’s all kinds of useless stuff.”

Hades, who seemed strongly irritated, roughly swept back his forelock. However, there was a deep regret evident in his actions.

‘3 beats…’

Listening to the familiar 3 beats from her childhood rather than the exotic and flowing rhythm of the desert, Latifa, who had been lost in thought, recalled the grand ball at the palace.

Thump Thap, Thump Thap, the sound echoed in the palace’s banquet hall, picturing the lovely attire of Eysik, who would ask Latifa for a dance.

Latifa, smiling gently, closed the book and asked him.
Kungjakjak, kungjakjak. The days when the sound echoed through the banquet hall of the Hwang Palace, imagining Yeongsik, dressed in a splendid uniform, requesting a dance from Latifa, had long faded, but the romantic atmosphere lingered.

Latifa smiled faintly, closing her book, and asked him, “Hades, do you know waltz?”

Hades, who had been stubbornly tapping, slowly turned his black eyes towards her.

Anyway, this wasn’t a palace. To her, who was left with only regret and disappointment, what Fraulein Latifa could offer was only joy.

“W- Waltz?”

Looking at Hades’ face, which mimicked Latifa’s words with a slightly dazed expression, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Waltz, it’s a dance where men and women of the empire dance together.”

Apparently, there was a toy-like device among the spoils that soldiers had taken after the war with the empire, attached to a small leaf next to a small triangular box. Hades thought it might be a similar device to a metronome, so he didn’t doubt it.

Even though he wound the small leaf next to the triangular box attached to the small triangular box next to the triangular box, no music came out. However, Latifa, boasting that she knew how to use it properly, proudly presented the item to him.

Even after going to the trouble of crossing the dusty clutter up to Palli Strauss’s northern materials, she only found a device for counting beats.

Hades’ face was turning rare shades of embarrassment, but Latifa didn’t notice.

“How can I not know the dance of the fallen empire?”

Hades’ voice was blunt.

But Latifa, not minding his rough attitude, gently bent her blue eyes, raising the beautiful light blue hem of her cheetah-like dress slightly.

It wasn’t as rich as the empire’s dresses, but with thin white veils layered in the lining, Latifa’s skirt left a fluffy cloud shadow in the air with each step.

“The basic steps of the waltz are simple. Look at this. One, two, three, turn. One, two, three, turn. Just move your feet like this to the beat of the metronome.”

Latifa, excited at the thought of the empire after a long time, began to step on the waltz.

But Hades’ gaze was not on the waltz steps but on Latifa’s face, explaining it. His eyes were fixated on her face.

When her long eyelashes fell down, they were slightly darker than her bright silver hair, but they sparkled more every time she blinked, and her cheeks had a pink flush as if slightly tanned by the afternoon sun.

Descending from her pure white nose, her lips explaining the steps seemed small, densely packed, and more like a luscious small fruit than a human mouth.

“How is it? Easy, right?”

After finishing the explanation, Latifa raised her head slightly to look at Hades. However, he was not focused on her steps but was staring blankly at her face.

When her aquamarine eyes rolled and met his black eyes, Hades, as if hiding something, reflexively retorted with a detached air.

“A dance that’s not funny. It’s not even big and powerful, just spinning weakly like a calf that can’t even get its own blood. What kind of dance is this?”

“Even grants the wishes of the dead. Can’t you dance for me just once?”

“Wish?”
At Latifa’s mention of a wish, Hades twitched and hesitated.

Had she ever pleaded with Hades to do something for her, claiming it as a request?

Was there ever a time when Latifa, not asking for favors for others, spoke of a wish entirely for herself?

Hades asked her in a slightly softened voice, “So, is your wish to spin around in this place like a footwork exercise?”