Vanstein Copyright

Chapter 15 – The Girl with the Silver Hair

On London’s nighttime drinking district – Paddington Street – there was a young girl running frantically, her bob-cut silver hair in a mess.

Owing to the steamy fog, the girl could not keep her eyes far ahead.

While being cautious of passersby who suddenly emerged from the white fog, she slipped by them.

“I wonder how much further will they pursue me?”

From behind, looming with heavy footsteps, was a robust man, nearly six and a half feet tall, clad in an orange suit. With his massive body, rivaling that of a professional rugby player, the man charged forward, knocking down passersby without any regard for them.

“How come only one of them is going after me?”

Even without looking back, the girl could sense the change behind her.

There were supposed to be two of them chasing after her earlier, but now only the footsteps of a single man can be heard. Was the other one intending to intercept her preemptively or was he awaiting her to escape into a narrow side street?

Either way, it was merely a matter of time before the girl, unfamiliar with the area, would be caught, even if she kept on running. If there were any alternative means of escaping, it would be to… blend in with this night fog and conceal in the shadows or in a store.

At the perfect moment, a stone staircase leading to the underground came into view.

At the eaves of the building hung an iron sign in the style of a piano with the words “Crazy Louis” on it.

There was no time to hesitate.

As she descended the stairs in a low, sliding posture, gasping for breath, the loud footsteps that had been drawing near quickly drifted away.

Apparently, she had successfully dispersed him.

While relieved by the silence that enveloped the area, a faint melody line caught her attention.

When she turned around, she found a solid iron door, and the sound was escaping slightly through the gap.

As she brought her ear close to the door, the sound was distinctly recognizable as that of a piano.

“So here… is a piano bar!”

The girl stood up, her amber eyes sparkling.

She swept the dust off her blouse and skirt and ran her hand over the ends of her silver hair, which fell over her shoulders.

With her appearance in order, she gripped the handle of the iron door with both hands.

Opening the heavy door at last, the sound of a frenzied piano and cheers of the audience washed over the silver-haired girl like a flood.

As she remained there for a while, startled by the sheer volume, a man near the entrance gestured and urged her to shut the door quickly.

When she managed to close the heavy door again, the man spoke to her.

“Is this your first time in a place like this, young lady～? Shall I teach you various things～?”

He looked and behaved like a frivolous man. The girl disregarded his outstretched hand and headed for the counter, but the man persistently spoke to her from behind.

When the girl refused to respond, the man’s arm suddenly wrapped around her shoulders.

“Let’s get along～I’m going to buy you a drink～”

As the girl was ready to land an elbow strike, the man’s body suddenly separated from hers. No, the guy’s body was pulling away from her.

Looking back, she spotted a young man with blonde hair and emerald eyes, pulling the frivolous man’s joint apart.

“This is not a pretty sight, Thomas. Since you’ve been rejected, you ought to just give up like a grown man.”

“Adonis, you… ouch! That hurts! Alright, alright, just let me go!”

Adonis shoved Thomas’s body aside like he was playing with it.

Thomas staggered on the tatara, but swore softly as he continued on his way to the table of the men who seemed to be his friends.

Then Adonis turned back to the girl and smiled.

“Are you okay? He’s always like that when he spots a cute girl. As long as you sit at the counter, you’ll be safe with the master.”

“Ah――”

As she looked up at him, his smile was dazzling and boyish like a young boy. The girl’s words of thanks were interrupted in mid-sentence.

His slender physique, toned by light muscles, and his elongated tenor voice. Furthermore, it was no wonder that the girl’s cheeks were dyed red after being shown the adeptness with which he had driven away the unceremonious flirting man. Perhaps because of this, she was too embarrassed to utter the words “thank you.”

As if in a panic, the girl tried to convey her gratitude with gestures, but this was probably taken as a cue of rejection. Without speaking further, Adonis lightly bowed and returned to the counter where he had been sitting alone.

I mustn’t let this go on, otherwise, I would be perceived as an ill-mannered woman. As a lady of Inglez, where civility was paramount, she could not condone such behavior.

Although hesitating for a moment, the girl followed Adonis to the counter and took a seat on the stool next to him.

“Um… thank you very much for earlier… you’ve been a great help.”

“Oh, you’re welcome. Did you come to listen to the piano?”

Adonis looked back at the piano stage behind him.

When the girl likewise turned to the center stage, a blonde girl was performing a jazz.

“I like the piano.”

While the silver-haired girl put on her best smile and replied, Adonis never took his eyes off the blonde girl on the piano stage.

Why do men like blonde girls like this?

“Oh, then you’ve come to the right place. She is Angela, the billboard pianist here. There aren’t many girls who can play like that.”

“Yeah… she is very good indeed. She can play complex arpeggios swiftly and precisely, and her octave sequences are very consistent.”

“Are you learning the piano by any chance?”

The girl couldn’t tell a lie on the spur of the moment with those joyful emerald eyes facing her. The urge to present a little bit of a good impression outweighed her usual logic.

There are plenty of girls who can play the… piano. It wouldn’t matter if I played a little or not.

“I can play reasonably well… at least as well as she can.”

“Oh, that’s amazing… Let me have a look at it.”

The left hand of the girl with a boastful expression on her face was taken by Adonis in a very natural gesture.

The girl’s chest was agitated. She had never experienced such a thing lightly done to her by a member of the opposite sex.

“After all… they are almost the same size as Angela’s…”

At the man’s monologue that slipped out, the girl promptly withdrew her hand.

Since a while ago, Angela this and Angela that. Whose hand does this man think he had grabbed?

“W-what are you doing…!? It’s rude.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. You’re just about the same age as Angela, so I wanted to verify that there was no difference in the size of your hands.”

A spark of fury ignited in the girl’s heart when Adonis apologized without any guilt. She was overwhelmed by the impulse to teach him who he should consider as an object of comparison.

At that moment, the performance of the jazz was over, and Angela was beginning to ask for the next request for a song.

The girl raised her hand, determined.

“Ah! Then the silver-haired girl over there!”

After discovering an unusual girl of her own age at the counter, Angela nominated the silver-haired girl.

The girl stepped down from her stool with a fearless smile.

She was not intimidated by the attention, and the manner in which she strutted her way to the stage exuded a certain charisma.

Once on stage with the stunned audience behind, the girl brushed off her beautiful silver hair and confronted Angela.

“Ah… Umー”

Angela, who had not expected her to come up to the stage, was about to say something to restrain her, but the silver-haired girl silenced her with only a glance.

Her amber eyes flickered like blazing flames.

“My request is!”

Angela was frightened by the sudden loud voice.

“I will play!”

When she gave out a roar to the audience, the old guys in “Crazy Louis” were abruptly fired up at the arrival of a new beauty.