"Hold on...!"
The crimson-haired girl already bit into the cupcake when she suddenly furrowed her brows and turned to her friend with cream in the corner of her mouth.
"If you know so much about him, then why do you need to come to see him? Don't tell me you want to steal him away from Kierul, and on her birthday no less!"
Ehmi gasped in disbelief, leaning towards Miriette and making her frown and lean back in order to keep up the distance between them.
"I am not going to steal anyone, so get off of me already!"
"Ah...! Sorry..."
Miriette ended ups spilling a bit of the juice on the floor which made her scoff angrily at her crimson-haired friend who reflected upon her actions and backed off politely.
"In the first place. If my intuition is correct then it will not be considered stealing, but retrieving lost property."
"Eh?!"
The dark-haired girl muttered under her breath, but Ehmi did catch at least some of what she said.
Ehmi was dying to learn what Miriette meant, but her curiosity had to wait.
Just as the crimson-haired girl was turning towards her friend, the massive door opened for the entrance of the guest of honor, the birthday girl herself.
As mean-spirited and borderline cruel as it may sound, everyone gathered there knew that the occasion or the person isn't of importance so most of them just turned around intending to ignore the young lady Kierul...
"NOBLE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S THE PERSON YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING TO SEE AT THIS SPLENDID EVENING~!" x20
...but it turned out to be a completely impossible task when twenty masked boys descended the staircase and their identical voices boomed over the ballroom, synchronized to the point of sounding as one, so loud that the musicians entertaining the people were overwhelmed.
They all were wearing identical high-quality tuxedos and donning white porcelain masks that completely covered their faces with no spaces for ears, nose, or mouth, and they all had slick black-haired pulled back into an elegant hairstyle.
"THE YOUNGEST STAR ON THE FIRMAMENT OF THE HELTEROSE FAMILY! KIERUL BERRA HELTEROSE~!" x20
Just as if they were a single person, twenty boys got down on one knee and pointed at the top of the staircase and chanted, literally forcing everyone present to follow their instructions because of the borderline ridiculous amount of charisma.
Then, Kierul showed herself accompanied by hand by yet another identical masked boy.
The birthday girl looked lovely, her shoulder-length hair was curled up cutely, softening up her sharp-looking eyes and giving them a gently look, her dress was in great taste too, not overly fluffy nor extravagant, a tasteful white dress with a few bright red accents to truly showcase the color of the girl's eyes and hair.
Interestingly, as for the choice of jewelry, young lady Helterose showed a rather minimalistic take – two small obsidian earrings and a simple necklace with a single obsidian shard with filed edges.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOUNG LADY KIERUL~!" x20
The score of boys once again overwhelmed the ballroom with their voices and immediately began clapping their hands in a celebratory ovation, purposefully breaking the harmony and creating a dissonance creating the illusion of the whole room clapping.
Actually, most people were so shocked that they did join in, and hence, the girl who was supposed to be ignored became the absolute center of attention.
"Thank you, everyone. I humbly welcome you to my birthday party, please eat, drink, dance, and enjoy yourself to the fullest in my name~"
Kierul spoke gently and puffed out her chest looking around the bewildered crowd, the corners of her mouth trembled upwards when she localized her family, especially her oldest cousin, the first daughter of the current head of the Helterose family.
That annoying girl in her third year in Aspakeony Academy was shaking from bottling up anger and jealousy which made for such a delicious sight that Kierul could barely stop herself from licking her lips.
"My lady, is my performance satisfactory so far?"
"Top quality, keep up the good work~"
Aku's muffled whisperer flew out of his mask and Kierul honored him with a soft smile.
The two descended the staircase, and with each step, they took a pair of other masked boys who would stand up and follow them...
...but when the noble lady and her masked attendant reached the bottom of the stairs, they were followed by no one, as all the masked boys turned out to be Aku's copies created by the law of Gemini and dissipated into spiritual energy upon the star power release, further stunning the already flabbergasted crowd.
"Aku~ Once again you are proving yourself to be far too competent~!"
Once their feet touched the floor, the two children were approached by a sixteen-year-old red-haired boy who seemed very keen on ignoring Kierul and messing up her moment and tried to achieve so by pulling the masked attendant away from her.
He was rather pushy too, placing his hand on Aku's shoulder and trying to get him to let go of Kierul's hand.
"Aquarius. Leo. Pisces."
"...!"
The masked boy didn't even budge though and merely let out a sigh without even looking at the older boy whose eyes suddenly became unfocused.
"Big brother Urtervia~! How is the party going for you?"
Seeing the red-haired disruptor sway, Kierul smiled and took a step forward, letting go of Aku's hand and politely curtsying to her eldest brother and offering him her hand.
"Kierul...?"
While Aku was standing in the back, using his master as a shield, Urtervia blinked a few times staring at the girl's hand, and then shook his head before smiling brightly at his younger sister.
"Oh, dear me. I must have helped myself to one glass of wine too many. My lovely sister, happy birthday~!"
Without any warning, the red-haired boy dropped to one knee and lowered his head to kiss the top of Kierul's hand.
"First of all, please forgive me, I do not have a presentation prepared... Because no matter what I checked out, everything seemed too insignificant to convey how much I care about you, my beloved sister. I could wish you a good husband, wealth, and happiness, but I know that you will seize it all with your own strength regardless of the whims of fate. Therefore the only wishes I offer you are that of health so that you would stay as the pillar of our family for decades to come~!"