Anir sighed slightly at the attention she was receiving. She knew there’d be chaos once she announced her identity and she was totally fine with it but she felt like she had stolen Luhan’s thunder. She smiled guiltily at Luhan, only to see his handsome face looking at her with a slightly raised eyebrow that totally screamed ‘Gossip!’

She winked at Luhan, expressing that she’d cooperate with the investigation later. After solving one problem, or so she believed anyway, she worked to bring out her social skill.

Anir turned to Hakyeon and generously praised “It’s such a beautiful event. I almost thought I was in the Elven realm. Perhaps only you, Lord Hakyeon, can create such a fairytale-like environment in the entire Crimson Kingdom.”

Hakyeon smiled at her with a tender gaze, “You overpraise me. I hope you’ll gift me the last dance of the night.”

Anir must admit that she almost forgot where she was.

She looked sideways to bring her emotions *cough* hormones *cough* down. Only after making her breath regular again, she looked back at Hakyeon with a brilliant smile. “That would be my pleasure”

(In the meantime

“Hmm... Do you think girls prefer guys like Lord Hakyeon?” asked Hoshi who was watching hidden camera feed with other SVT members. He was a little curious as Anir never appeared this flustered before, even with all those gorgeous housemates.

“I guess so. Look at him. He’s tall, handsome and rich and has a good manner. I’d totally swoon for him, too” Seungkwan replied. But then after some thought, he added “If I was a girl”

Mingyu sent Seungkwan a judging look before agreeing, “Yeah. At least, I confirmed Anir is a normal girl. To be honest, I thought she wasn’t interested in guys.” He looked around and made eye contact with Jeonghan.

After receiving Mingyu’s you-know-what-I-mean look, Jeonghan only shook his head with a smile.)

As the host, Hakyeon couldn’t spend much time with them. He pleasantly invited them to enjoy themselves and went to greet other guests.

Anir asked Luhan, “So… Let’s start our socialization?”

Not long after Hakyeon left, other guests started swarming around them.

There were businessmen, aristocrats and, even celebrities. Some of them wanted to create a positive image in front of the future Duke, and the majority of them were little fangirls who wanted to bring Luhan home, and the rest of them were here just to size him up. And after knowing Anir’s background, most of them tried to stealthily make a connection with her.

They were praising Luhan’s elegance and Anir’s fashion sense, especially her head circlet which was decorated with black tourmaline. As the black tourmaline was structurally quite fragile, it usually wasn’t recommended as jewelry.

“Young master Luhan, we’ve been waiting for your social debut. Just as expected, you’re an excellent character with handsome visage and elegant demeanor. We’re looking forward to your political play in the future.”

“Lady Anir has a unique choice. Who would have known black tourmaline would make such a beautiful accessory?” One noble lady sighed with admiration.

“As expected of Lady Anir. I’m so happy to make an acquaintance with you in this event. My name is…” etc.

Making a connection with the Underworld society, it was like a double-edged sword. It could bring you a boundless benefit, but it also might attract the suspicion of the Emperor. They could only probe her with roundabout ways.

Anir sighed deeply. It’s been so long since the last time she had to fake a smile and stand around and greeting people. If they had no use to her, she would have already flipped them over. She knew she was taking a huge risk by revealing her identity. [Probably I should have waited and bid my time more] she thought. But she had been feeling this sense of urgency for some time now, making her nervous for no reason. Like her time was running out.

However, this Summer Ball wasn’t all that negative experience for her. For example, she made a few friends with noble young ladies. According to them, they were a part of a secret society club called Gladiolus.

While gossiping with the girls, Anir found out which family’s young miss engaged with which young master, who volunteers in the orphanage, how many of them are sincere, etc.

From those girls, Anir found the daughter of the biggest businessman, Aisha, especially agreeable. She had a tall and glamorous body with a confident and elegant temperament. In short, beautiful and cool. Maybe because of her height of 1.58m, she especially liked tall women. Wait, that could explain why she often liked to bother Joy.

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