After the whole history lesson, Miles and Collones chatted while Collones was showing Miles around the house. 

While walking around in the garden, Collones started talking about the masquerade that was being held in two weeks time. She told him about all of the different traditions and rules that applied to the ball. Miles listened very carefully and tried to remember as much as possible. He also made sure to ask questions about the things that he didn’t understand. At one point, Collones mentioned something about their traditional dance. Miles was in a world completely different from the one he grew up in, and he had always been interested in different cultures and their traditions, so of course he wanted to know more. 

Collones gladly told Miles about everything he wanted to know, and when he was finally done asking all of his questions, Collones asked him if he wanted to learn the dance. Collones did tell him that you would need quite some energy to perform the dance properly, and that it wasn’t always easy, and even though Miles really wasn’t a big fan of dancing or anything other than archery, he decided to say yes, since he thought it seemed pretty interesting. Plus, it would seem a bit weird if he was the only one at the entire ball that didn’t know the traditional dance, that literally everybody knew. 

Collones smiled at him and told him to follow her, since she wanted to get started right away.

Collones led him to a big, fancy ballroom. The room was mainly white, with big pillars and windows decorated with complicated gold details. The room had a very high ceiling, and from the ceiling, multiple big chandeliers were hanging down. They were all covered in diamonds from top to bottom and around the middle of each chandelier there were two rows of… candles? Were those real? They looked pretty real, realer than most of the fake ones he’d seen. When he noticed the melted wax and the small plates under each candle to catch the melted wax, he realised that they were in fact real.

Collones told him to wait there while she found one of the servants, who could help with the demonstrations. After a few minutes, she came back with Laura. 

“Hi Miles!” Laura greeted him with a smile.

“Hey Laura. Won’t Johan be mad if you aren’t working? I honestly think he’s kind of scary” He replied, already somewhat knowing how scary Johan can be. Collones chuckled and answered:”No, don’t worry. She was done with her daily chores, and if he even tries to say anything, I’ll just tell him I told her to help me. Now, are you ready to learn how to dance?” 

After the little chit-chat, Collones told Miles that they’d start with the basics, and that there isn’t much of a difference between the male and female parts, so he’d probably learn both or simply the gender-neutral one. She added that they’d start with a demonstration and thereafter teach him the moves, so that he’d know what he was learning to do, and how it was supposed to look. 

She walked over to something Miles could only describe as a weird-looking old vinyl player. Collones turned on the weird vinyl player and hurried back to Laura before the song started. 

When the song started playing, Miles immediately thought about ‘Bella Ciao’. It’s kind of a weird comparison, Miles knew, but he thought they seemed pretty similar, and he liked it. When Collones and Laura started dancing, they seemed to really enjoy it and were so energetic. Collones was right, as the song went on, they both pretty much did the same moves with only a few smaller changes here and there. 

After the song was over, Collones turned off the weird vinyl player before going back to Miles and starting to explain:”The songs we usually dance this dance to sound a lot like this one, but this is usually the one we play at the masquerade, so I’m going to teach you how we usually, somewhat, dance to this song. Of course, people dance a bit differently, so you’re just going to learn the basics, and if you want to, you can add your own little twist. So, you’re going to start out like this,” she gently pushed him over to Laura and showed him where he was supposed to put his hands and feet. Collones started teaching him how to dance, and before he knew it, nearly half of the day had gone by, and it was time for dinner.

All the servants had their own little dining room that they’d eat in, while mr. and ms. Vanques ate in the main dining room. Of course, some of the servants had to eat a bit later than the others, but that was because they were setting and cleaning the table mr. and ms. Vanques were sitting at and taking care of any of their needs. 

Dinner for the servants was simple: some bread, mashed potatoes with seasoning and sauce, and a small piece of meat if there was any left. Meanwhile, mr. and ms. Vanques’ meal was fancier and consisted of more fruits and vegetables, more meat, fancily prepared potatoes and much more. 

After dinner, the servants would clean up and go to bed, everyone in the same room. Apparently, it was a consistent routine that everyone knew in their sleep. 

The next morning, Miles was woken up by Laura, telling him to get ready and get in line. He did as he was told, and Johan came in, just like the day before. The only difference was that he didn’t yell at them, and only gave them a small piece of old paper, where there was a list of tasks for them to complete that day. 

Thereafter it was pretty simple, everyone just did the tasks they were assigned and afterwards went over to Johan to see if there was anything else for them to do. But while the others were doing their extra tasks, Miles with Collones and Laura, learning how to dance in the ballroom. 

For the next a bit over a week and a half, it continued like that. Just the same routine over and over again. Miles, Collones and Laura had just finished one of their last ‘dancing sessions before the masquerade, when Collones said:”You’ve improved so much, dear! I’m so proud of you! But since the day of the ball is moving closer and closer, we won’t have as much time to just dance, if we’ll even have any. So therefore, if you have any time at all, I’ll be here helping the others putting up the decoration, and you can just come whenever you’d like, so we can all have a quick break and dance to the song maybe once or twice. Does that sound alright? And also, do you remember the rules I told you about when this song starts playing?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, it’s alright, and I feel pretty confident about the dance. And yes, of course I remember the rules: I can dance, but only if I’m sure that none of the tables I’m serving need any help. I can only ask my fellow workers if they want to dance. I can not ask any nobles if they want to dance, but if any nobles ask me, I need to say yes, unless there’s a good reason for me not to be able to. See? Easy,” Miles answered, already having memorised the four rules. 

He had never really had a hard time memorising things, which is probably why he did so well in school, since his brain kind of just sucked up the information after hearing about it just a few times at max. He was very lucky, and he was grateful. He usually hated studying, and was therefore happy that he only had to go over the things for the test once or twice the night before.

“You have a great memory, don’t you Miles? Well, hurry up and go to dinner, we have two long days ahead of us!” And with that, Collones rushed Miles and Laura out of the room, and they both hurried over to their dining room.

They had all gotten much comfortable with each other, mostly just Miles, after all of the hours they had spent together for the past days. But it makes sense: they had already spent countless hours together, dancing, talking and having fun. And Collones and Laura are just those kinds of people that make you feel welcomed and at ease. 

After dinner, they all went to sleep, ready for the busy day ahead.