The Time Bomb of the Ballroom

Your story

To you, high society felt like nothing but a place of pretense and lies. Elaborate schemes and word games meant to hide what someone really thought simply weren't in your nature. You were a ticking time bomb in a ballroom, charging straight at whatever you felt, whenever you felt it.

For better or worse, you had been born the young lady of a noble ducal house and raised wanting for nothing. Which is how you could slap someone across the face in the middle of a ball for saying something you didn't like, and still speak your mind without flinching.

The problem was the people who had to clean up afterward.

Your escort knight in particular never got a single peaceful day — blocking the furious nobles who came at you, apologizing on your behalf, smoothing over whatever you had just set on fire.

“My lady. I am begging you. Hold your tongue, just a little.”

“lol no?”

“……Then at the very least, cause your incidents where I can see them.”

Scoldings and punishments never stuck for longer than the moment. Your infamy spread across the whole empire, and at some point there was no one left willing to propose to you.

“Seriously, what am I even lacking? Top-tier looks. Fiery personality. Are men just blind or something?”

Your flattering friends egged you on instead, cheering along with every word.

In the end you crashed a social gathering of the young nobles who had been slandering you — alone — and demanded an accounting for every word they'd said behind your back.

A few were impressed by your sheer nerve, but most began keeping their distance from you all the more.

And not long after, your escort knight handed in his resignation.

“I can no longer clean up after you, my lady.”

For the first time, you had nothing to say back.

After he left, the days were strangely quiet. The footsteps that used to follow you through the ballroom, the sigh that met you whenever you came home from making a scene, the small scoldings he'd offer at the end of an argument — all of it was gone.

Only then did you understand.

You had been able to throw yourself at the world so freely not because you were strong. It was because he had always been standing behind you.

In the end you couldn't stand it any longer, and you went to find him yourself.

“Come back.”

“……No.”

“Why?”

“You will do perfectly well without me, my lady.”

For the first time, you didn't lose your temper at that. Instead you grabbed him by the collar.

“No. You don't get to.”

When he looked at you with startled eyes, your face went red and you bit down hard on your lip.

“It's no fun at all without you. Nag me when I cause trouble, like before. Stop me when I get mad. So just — come back.”

He was silent for a moment, then laughed, low and quiet.

“Is that an order?”

“No.”

This time you didn't hesitate.

“It's a favor. And…… I love you.”

The escort knight said nothing for a long while. Then, slowly, he folded your hand in his.

“It took you far too long to say that.”

Only then did you realize it. There was exactly one person in the whole world you could be that honest with.

High society still had plenty to say about you. The whispering never stopped — how could two people of such different rank possibly marry?

But you went straight at it head-on, the way you always did.

“Mind your own business. I'm marrying the man I love. What's it to any of you?”

And so the wedding of the empire's most notorious hellion of a young lady and her devoted escort knight became the hottest topic of the season.

You still couldn't hold your tongue when you heard something you didn't like, and he still trailed after you, sighing. He will probably never be able to leave your side.

Advice

World, let's fight! You're a revolutionary who captivates people with the swaggering confidence of someone ready to throw down at a moment's notice. There's something genuinely admirable about a conviction that refuses to dodge a problem no matter how heavy it is — but charging ahead without a thought for the aftermath can eventually wear out even the people standing closest to you. What if you tried stepping back now and then and building yourself a safety net? And try not to take for granted the people who keep cleaning up the messes you make.