Lindsey Pale, a teacher at Serendia Academy (26-year-old, bachelor, currently looking for a nice gentleman), was in a state of shock. She was a ballroom dance teacher. However, most of the students at Serendia Academy were children of noble families. As a result, the students had already taken up ballroom dancing by the time they entered the school, and even though some of them were not very good at it, none of them had ever failed their exam before.
…Yes. It was until now.
What on earth is the scene that unfolded in front of me? Thought Pale who widened her eyes.
One couple dancing in front of her. The male student's name was Glenn Dudley. The female student's name was Monica Norton. Both of them were students who had just transferred to the second year of high school.
"I feel our tempo is lagging a bit, so let's speed it up!"
"Nooooo! Please stoooop!"
The female student, who has no sense of rhythm at all, was being pushed around by the male student, who was pacing up at twice the original tempo… no, rather than dancing turning each other around, they're more like spinning around.
It was nowhere near what you would call a dance. If anything, it was the image of a large dog running around at will and its owner holding the leash, being dragged around. The male student was hurling, twirling, and dragging the female student around.
Then again, if you ask me if it is only the male student who has the problem, that is not the case.
The female student was the same way. She didn't even know the basics of dancing and her steps were a mess. It was a miracle that they hadn't fallen until now.
Eventually, as soon as the song ended, Monica Norton, unable to withstand the momentum of the sudden stop, rolled vigorously across the floor and eventually hit the wall, twitching.
Running up to Monica, who has swirly eyes, Glenn shook Monica's shoulders and shouted.
"Oops, my bad! H-Hey, are you okay?"
"P-Please… don't… shake me…"
To Monica, who had turned white and stopped moving, Glenn exclaimed.
"Please don't die!!!"
You're the one who put her to an end… was what everyone thought in the room.
Watching the ridiculous exchange, teacher Pale announced to the two misfits.
"Glenn Dudley. Monica Norton. I will have both of you take a re-examination in one week."
＊ ＊ ＊
Monica was one of the top magicians in the Kingdom of Ridill, and one of the Seven Sages who had been granted the right to meet the king face to face.
Two years ago, at the age of fifteen, she has become the youngest person ever to be chosen as one of the Seven Sages. She was the only existing magician to use non-chanting spells and was a prodigy known for having developed several new spell formulas.
Have been ordered to secretly escort the second prince, Felix Ark Ridill, she then infiltrated Serendia Academy. While secretly escorting the prince by making full use of her specialty of non-chanting magic, she was able to enjoy leisurely and splendid school life… or not.
Although Monica has outstanding grades in the fields of magic and mathematics, when it comes to the other fields, she was at the bottom of the heap. A clumsy among the clumsy.
One particular example of this was her terrible lack of physical ability.
Just doing a run for a bit would leave her out of breath, and stumbling over nothing has become her daily occurrence.
The fact that she had been holed up in a mountain cabin for the past two years after becoming the Seven Sages, almost never going out, only added to the decline in her strength.
…The end result of her ballroom dancing performance was a catastrophe.
The ballroom dancing class was held jointly between the two classes, which their partners were basically appointed by the teacher. That was decided so to make sure the students were paired up with those of similar abilities.
Monica's partner was Glenn Dudley from the next class over.
Apparently, Glenn was a student who transferred at the same time as Monica. Although that golden brown-haired boy was a bit peculiar, he has a very friendly smile.
Glenn was taller than most boys his age, and Monica, who was smaller in that regard, had to look far up to see Glenn's face.
Frankly speaking, the gap in their height made them unsuitable as dance partners, but the reason why the teacher chose them as a pair was probably because they were both transfer students, and their dancing skills were relatively unknown.
"My name is Glenn! Nice to meet you!"
Glenn said this with a friendly smile, but the best Monica could do was hanging her head down fidgeting.
Monica's extreme shyness makes it difficult for her to have a proper conversation with people she has never met before—especially when it comes to men.
Still, Glenn didn't seem to be offended and stood in the dance hall holding Monica's hand.
His confident demeanor made Monica think that he must be a good dancer.
But, in the next moment, Glenn said with a friendly smile.
"I've never done any ballroom dancing before. At least, I'm going to try to imitate what I've seen!"
You're lying, right? The second she thought of that, Monica was swept away by Glenn.
Thus, they were both given a re-examination together.
＊ ＊ ＊
If this continues, they will inevitably fail at the re-examination as well.
That's why they decided to borrow a room to practice dancing after school.
Nevertheless, with two beginners, there was nothing they could do about it.
So Glenn said, "I've brought a helper!" and dragged a certain person along with him.
"Oh… Hi."
Glenn dragged in Neil Clay Maywood who had a troubled look on his face and was also a student council member like Monica.
"L-Lord… Maywood…?"
While Monica widened her eyes at the appearance of Neil, who she regarded as the most kindhearted student council, Glenn looked at Monica and Neil in turn, curiously.
"Huh? You two know each other?"
"Miss Norton is also a student council member, like me."
"Eeeeh!? I didn't know that!"
Glenn exaggeratedly turned his head and gazed down at Monica.
Glenn may not be a bad person, but his voice was too loud for Monica's ears.
While she's shivering with fear, Glenn nodded his head in admiration.
"Monica is a transfer student like me, isn't she? And yet she's already become student council, that's amazing!"
"No… that's…"
"Oh, I'm sorry for calling you by your name! But I'm not good at being formal, so please call me Glenn instead!"
"Um… Er…"
While Monica was struggling with her response, Neil calmly intervened, "Please leave it at that."
"Miss Norton's troubled, so don't press her too hard."
When Neil said this, Glenn went silent like an attentive dog.
Although Neil was a small and modest boy, he was well-liked by the people around him. Glenn also seemed to adore Neil.
Neil made sure that Glenn was quiet and smiled, lowering his eyebrows to reassure Monica.
"Glenn is a classmate of mine. He asked me to watch him practice his dance, so I agreed to be his temporary instructor."
"I-I'm sorry… for the inconvenience…"
"Not at all. In times of trouble, we have to help each other."
The smiling Neil, who said this, exuded an aura of a good person from his entire body. That's why people love him.
"Well then, let's practice right away!"
To Glenn, who spoke impatiently like a dog that can't wait, Neil gave him a troubled look.
"If possible, I'd like you're practicing with music like the real performance… And since I need to watch your dancing, it would be better if there's someone who could play the piano."
There's a piano set up in the dance room for performance. During the exam, students have to dance according to the music played on.
But Monica didn't have anyone she knew who could play the piano… Or rather, she didn't have anyone she knew well at this school in the first place.
As Monica turned her head apologetically, the door to the dance room swung open.
"Well, I guess I don't have a choice! I'll play the piano for you if you want!"
It was Monica's classmate, Lana Collette, who spoke quickly while curling her flaxen hair around her finger. Apparently, she was eavesdropping at the door.
Glenn and Neil looked surprised, alternately looking at Monica and Lana.
"Are you Monica's friend?"
"…yes…"
Nodding quickly at Glenn's question, Monica turned pale.
Would Lana not find it annoying to be called her friend?
If Lana looked uncomfortable or if she frowned even a little bit—while Monica shuddering at the thought of such a scene, Lana drew closer to Monica before ruffled her hair with pride.
"That's right! You should be grateful because I, your friend, is going to help you!"
Monica raised up her face timidly to look at Lana.
Lana didn't look annoyed in the slightest. In fact, she seemed to be holding back her smile.
"Thank you…"
Monica squeezed her chest over her uniform and thanked her in a faint voice.
She had a feeling if she didn't hold her chest, her heart would jump out of her chest with joy.
