The lesson was about etiquette, something they learned at a young age. That was true for any culture and era. Things like greetings, table manners, politeness was taught very early on.
So why this lesson was even necessary for these...relatively older kids was beyond him. They already knew how to walk and talk.
It was like practicing the same thing over and over again until it became muscle memory. The bow, the greeting, the dance.
For everyone else, to clarify.
Ann, as in Reis, was struggling with the so called early age education.
To be clear, he knew most of it. He had a good grasp of the mannerisms and poker face. 'Ann' was an expert on the poker face section, no one would ever know what he was thinking.
But when it came to waltzing, he couldn't even figure out what he was doing wrong. He followed the direction, the guidance, and even tried to take advantage of muscle memory. But nothing worked.
He had stepped on Lunive's toe so many times while practicing that she started threatening him before refusing to help at all. Apparently her toes were more important than her brother.
Made sense.
Avena and Clara both gave up after a few tries. Even Sir Xander, who happened to be one of the strongest warriors of the kingdom, admitted defeat in the face of his utter lack of talent.
|Skill unlocked: Natural Dancer|
|Anyone within range has a small chance of being thrown off balance when the user's footwork comes into contact with theirs.|
|Effect: +20% movement unpredictability.
+15% evasion.|
The first skill he received, and it was a troll.
"Well, at least now we know someone isn't impersonating Ann," Avena pointed out, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the rest.
"There's only one on the continent with such unparalleled talent for dancing."
". . ."
Did he just dodge a bullet by having two left feet?
|Synchronization: 75%|
'Stop that, will you! Just let me know when it's a hundred!'
|Reorganizing notifications.|
Reis did feel slightly offended about the whole thing, but he actually had another reason for being even worse than the original at this.
"How do you expect me to dance in this cold?"
Sure, he couldn't dance to save his life apparently, but his hands and feet had gotten so cold, he could barely control his movements. How was that his fault?
Lunive laughed. "Brother Ann, even if you're embarrassed, blaming it on an imaginary cold is too much. It's barely a few weeks after summer."
'Well, I'm not suited to the weather here! My body—'
His thoughts came to a standstill.
It wasn't his body, at least not the original. It was Ann's, one that lived in this world forever. This body should be used to the weather.
Was it because he wasn't fully synced with this character yet? Or was he catching some illness?
|The temperature outside is 30 degrees. Your body is healthy, with no sign of illness other than some fatigue from not getting proper sleep.|
'Thirty degrees?? You mean 30 F, right?'
|30 C.|
Ok. He was definitely dying. That had to be it. He wasn't feeling thirty degrees. It was like his blood had grown cold from the freezing sensation that continued to brush him. Over and over.
It wasn't ice cold; he wouldn't have been able to function if that had been the case. It was more like someone had put him in an air-conditioned room and constantly fanned him for hours, and still going.
"Since you cannot get the steps, your highness, you need to take the other option after all. It's non negotiable."
He looked at Clara questioningly, bothered by how everyone was suddenly ecstatic after hearing it.
Other option? There was one? Then why was he even doing this?
"That suits Brother better anyway!" The youngest of the six, Adonis, practically jumped from excitement.
'Is it some funny thing?'
They weren't going to dress him as a clown, right? That didn't seem to follow royal ethics.
"Since you insisted this will work, I tried," Clara sighed, "But there's no sign of improvement and the banquet is only days away. It's better for you to switch."
To what?
Couldn't they be more specific?
He'd rather do anything else than risk his feet on the dance floor. If he accidentally broke someone's toes...that was a scenario he'd rather not imagine.
But everyone was suspiciously excited. So much so that they started discussing among themselves how they should train their beloved brother Ann in the next few days, ignoring the man in question.
Well, it was out of his hands anyway.
No one noticed him slipping away to a corner, shivering once in a while. Or perhaps they just let him retreat for now.
Even after retrieving the previously thrown-away blanket and wrapping it around himself like a cocoon, Reis felt the chill down to his marrow.
How could he be the only one feeling this cold?
*
Someone did notice though.
The one responsible for the phenomenon had notice. More like, he couldn't help noticing it.
Because the human in question would accurately shiver the moment his eyes fell on him.
Coincidence? Surely, it had to be.
Can the twelfth time be considered a coincidence? Maybe.
But could the gaze falling right to the side from where he looked be a coincidence?
He couldn't help but look even closely.
"Fascinating."
A human actually noticed his energy. That which even higher beings sometimes failed to spot.
Looking after some lower creature? How degrading. Those so called gods existed far to long if this was their idea of respite now.
That was what he originally thought.
But it wasn't that bad of an idea after all. Looking at how just his distant presence, barely a gaze, made the human creature curl up into a ball, he, too, felt excited.
Respite or not, this was definitely something worth investigating.
The only creature not excited about his situation, not even slightly amused, would have had a heart attack if he had known any of this. Luckily, he didn't have that kind of hearing ability.