DanMachi Vol.15

CHAPTER 5 : BLUE FLAME

"Hey, Crozzo, you good-for-nothing runt!"

Welf turned around reluctantly. This was exactly why he hated fancy balls and dinner parties.

The walls and pillars had all been festooned at great expense with so many sparkling embellishments that they hurt the eyes. A swirl of elaborately dressed nobles flowed gracefully across the dance floor to lilting string music. Overhead hung a vast number of magic-stone lights sourced from the Labyrinth City arrayed in a huge chandelier.

It was a lavishly decorated hall, and it was just one part of the huge castle that also boasted sweeping balconies, gardens, and fountains.

This was a royal ball.

"A runt from a disgraced family like yours dares to show his face here? It's pathetic to see your ilk clinging to past glories. Or were you just hoping to snag some scraps from the banquet?"

A group of young scions from powerful noble families grinned at him unpleasantly. Welf had been forcibly pulled along by two of the duller-looking bullies on the orders of a third boy who looked about ten, which was close to Welf's age as well. His slim frame was clothed in well-tailored clothes, and he looked down with a sneering, superior gaze.

Welf hated everything about the atmosphere of this ball. Amid a swirl of sparkling dresses and beautiful music, the nobility and royal vassals in attendance sniffed one another's rumps as they jockeyed for advantage. Behind their flowery language, each and every one of them was licking their chops. Welf was undoubtedly still a child, but this was what his eyes saw.

It was a world of performance and superficiality, without a single trace of anything sincere or genuine.

The attendees were all sweetness and flattery, and they would all gladly kick over anyone else here in their desperation for personal gain. And any who retired from the vicious political infighting was treated with the scorn and cold mockery that Welf was now receiving.

He had been dragged here by his family, who were eager to curry favor with more powerful nobility, but if it was going to be like this every time, Welf would much rather have preferred to be shut away in a dirty workshop polishing hammers.

The thought occurred to him vividly as he faced the group of boys who'd come to sneer at the only son of the once great, now fallen Crozzo family.

Just as Welf was making a distinctly unnoble grimace, another boy suddenly approached them.

"A son of Hron, ganging up with others just to humiliate one person. Not very seemly."

"L-Lord Marius...?!"

The appearance of Marius, the first son of the nation's king, surprised both Welf and his tormentors alike.

His honey-blond hair and knightly posture told of the fine-featured man he would become. The term lordling suited him perfectly.

In addition to the gift of his appearance and his Status, his handling of the unreasonable demands placed upon him by the king and his patron deity alike had begun to distinguish him even at the tender age of twelve. Welf had heard that there was no end to the stream of nobility attempting to flatter their way into his good graces.

It seemed like he had come to stop the bullying, but Welf suspected it was only on a whim.

That said, when he looked at the stoic crown prince who regarded everything surrounding him with annoyance, he had a strange sense that the prince hated this ball as much as he did.

The noble boys had been so startled that they forgot to pay their proper respects, tripping over themselves until they eventually smiled unpleasantly as they seizedupon a gambit.