In the form of maps and drawings and pieces of note paper pinned up on the massive bulletin board in the senior’s office, connected into a sprawling web by red yarn, their first contract of the year was slowly taking shape.

It was decided that the ball would be a golden opportunity for infiltrating and soundlessly executing the assassination. While they could simply take down all the guards with force, that would be too messy, and negatively affect the professional reputation of Rose.

However, their new schedule for the first contract has become even more compact, forcing each task group to work overtime to conduct all the preparation in time.

“We acquired almost all of the tickets for the ball, though some still slipped past into the hands of other people,” Leo reported to the rest of the seniors sitting around the conference table. “A team has already been sent to attempt to buy the tickets from those people, or to inform them that the ball is canceled.”

“Okay,” mumbled Julius with a nod. “Sandra?”

“Yes,” said Sandra as she stood up and Leo sat down. “Background checks on Schulz have revealed nothing of concern. He is, as far as what we normally get, just a mundane rich person. Though he made his money through shady business, there has been no evidence of any dabbling in the business in recent years. He is unmarried, and is usually seen as a grumpy old man by his neighbors.”

“Very well. Izzy?”

Izzy stood up, flicking the notepaper in his hand open with a graceful snap of the wrist. He lightly coughed into his other hand before beginning his report. “We have conducted detailed scouting and mapping of the mansion grounds and surrounding neighborhood. Due to the large number of guards, it has been very difficult to attain entry into the mansion without detection. I decided that the risks involved were not worth the reward, so only conducted mapping of the mansion interior through windows and clairvoyance.”

“I see,” Julius nodded. “The plan is coming along well, once it is completely finalized, we’ll brief our task groups individually. All six will be taking part in this contract, except for those off on assignments. We’ll be having some classes about parties and how to blend in. For now, keep watch over Schulz’s mansion, note anything of interest. Juno, how are the roses?”

Juno, a slim girl with a small stature, the master gardener of Rose, stood up from her place. “They’re currently budding, and if my intuition is correct, will be blooming in about two weeks.”

“Will they be ready in time for the contract?”

“I’ll make sure they are,” she bowed.

“No need to be so formal,” Julius chuckled. “Alright then, if nothing else, meeting adjourned.”

*****

When the weather gets too warm for jackets, then the roses will be blooming soon.

When those plump buds spread their splendid crimson petals, it’s time to sharpen their blades and get to work.

Every year, when that little patch of special roses bloom, it’s always a big event.

After all, their entire existence revolves around those red flowers.

“Idris!” Andrei called out from behind, snapping him out of his daydream. “You gonna do your bed or not?”

Idris blinked a few times, he had been staring out of the dormitory window for slightly too long. The room was getting empty, everyone had already left for their afternoon classes, while his blankets were still a mess on his bed.

“You a rough sleeper?” Asked Andrei jokingly as Idris began straightening out the twisted blankets.

“You’ve slept next to my bed for like, what? Five years? You should know by now.”

“Six years.”

“Yeah, all the more reason.”

With practiced fluidity he straightened out his sheets, neatly folded the blanket into a tofu-like block, patted the creases out of his pillow, and stretched one last time before leaving the room with Andrei.

“We’re doing the dance class today right?” Idris asked.

“Yep, they need to teach us how to act at a ball to blend in.”

“So it did indeed get decided that we’ll be infiltrating the ball?”

“Not infiltrating,” Andrei said with a smile. “More of… taking over the ball.”

They didn’t have to go far to find their classroom, which for this afternoon, was the spacious entrance hall of the manor. All the members of Rose, old and young, crowded the hall, chatting and laughing, waiting for the class to begin.

“Idris, Andrei!” Shouted Noah, standing at the edge of the crowd with some other apprentices.

It has now been almost a month since they arrived here, and it was getting hard to tell that they were new here.

“Hey Noah, how you doing?” Asked Andrei.

“Good!”

“Have you seen Saya anywhere?”

“She’s over near the entrance, I think,” Sasha, a third-year apprentice, said, pointing to the wide door of the manor on her tiptoes. “I saw her talking with some of the master apprentices.”

“Thanks.”

They headed towards the entrance, and sure enough, Saya was there, chatting away with a few older students.

Raina, a tall master apprentice with wispy amber hair, noticed Andrei and Idris approaching, and gently tapped Saya on the shoulder.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Idris! Andrei!” She shouted happily as she turned around and saw them walking towards her. “Ready for the dance?”

“I don’t think we’re going to start dancing today,” answered Idris. “Maybe a few basic moves.”

“I thought we were gonna dance…”

“The seniors said that we’ll be going over basic etiquette and some basic moves today,” said Raina. “No fancy stuff today.”

“Aww,” Saya pouted. “I wanted to dance…”

“We’ll get the chance very soon,” Raina said with a chuckle. “Maybe you can start picking out a partner now.”

“Partner?”

“Yeah, a dance partner,” she shot a glance at Idris, exaggerating her movement enough so Saya would notice. “You know, someone you really want to…”

“Okay! Enough! I get it!” Saya shouted. “No dancing today!”

Raina broke down into laughter as Saya’s cheeks grew bright pink. She bulged her cheeks out like a pufferfish to show her indignation.

“I’m just kidding,” said Raina, patting Saya on the head like a puppy.

Suddenly the crowd grew quiet, as it normally does when the seniors make their entrance.

Idris looked about to search for their presence and found them standing in a row on the second-floor walkway.

“Good afternoon,” Julius boomed.

“Good afternoon!” They shouted back in unison.

“Columns and rows, please! Clap clap, make haste!”

They quickly shuffled themselves into a neat block of rows and columns, as disciplined as the great armies of the four kingdoms.

“Today we will be going over the basics of party etiquette, dance steps, and how to act like a posh elite instead of assassins at our next contract,” Julius continued. “Of course, not all of you will be attending the ball, some of you will be on security, coordination, or logistics. The younger of you, those less than sixteen, will not be taking part in the ball. But, all of you should learn, just so you can blend in.”

Julius gestured to Yelena, who stepped to the front, right up against the polished wooden railing.

“Yelena, being our local dance enthusiast and partygoer, will be leading us through these classes,” Julius nodded to Yelena. “The floor is yours.”

Yelena is the best infiltrator at Rose and one of the younger seniors, only a year older than Izzy. Being an expert at both shadow magic and clairvoyance, her skillset makes her especially well suited to espionage and information gathering. However, in her spare time, she is an avid dancer. She often attends parties and balls during the New Year holiday, and so is quite familiar with how to act at one.

“At a ball, you must act the part,” she began in her unexpectedly deep but soft voice. “Speak to each other like you are speaking to a senior. That means minimal slang, no swearing, formal language, and fancy vocabulary. When the music starts, you don’t necessarily need to begin dancing like performers, but you are expected to at least move a little with the rhythm.”

She looked at Julius and the other seniors, her slim lips curling into a slight grin. Yelena isn’t exactly known for being the warmest person ever, and her sharp eyes and petite lips definitely didn’t do much to alter that reputation.

“Today we will be going over a basic waltz rhythm and dance step, a favorite of the ballroom. There will be no music today, but we will have that shortly. Those of you who are not familiar with dancing, please head down to the ground floor,” she said as she looked around at the other seniors.

Julius chuckled after realizing what she meant. “Come on, let’s go,” he said to the other seniors, and they headed down to the ground floor, leaving Yelena alone on the second-floor walkway.

They joined in with the rest of the students, forming a line at the front to not break up the neat formation.

“Okay,” Yelena said as she held up her hands. “You usually dance a waltz with a partner, but today we can practice solo. A waltz follows three-four time, which in simple terms, means that the music follows a rhythm of threes. One two three, one two three, one two three…”

They whispered along with her voice, some of them tapping their toes to the rhythm. Though skilled assassins, most are not that familiar with music or any of the arts.

“And then, you move your feet like this,” said Yelena as she began stepping in a graceful, rhythmic pattern. “There are six movements to the basic box step, but we will still count in threes. One, you step your left foot forward. Two, you step your right foot forward and to the right. Three, you find your right foot with your left. Four, you step back with your right. Five, you step back and to the left with your left. Six, you find your left with your right, ending back at where you started. Keep in mind that as the following partner, you begin on four, stepping back with your right. Understood?”

“Understood!”

“Alright, let’s try then. One two three, one two three, one two three…”

At first, their steps were messy and uncoordinated. There was more bumping into each other and fumbling their steps than actual dancing.

But soon they got familiar with it, and before long they were moving to the rhythm. Forward, right, back, left, they moved together to each count of three.

“Swing your leg in more of a curve as you step out,” Yelena told them as she walked in between the rows and columns. “Don’t move it in a straight line, be more loose.”

They stepped and swung and turned and tapped, their gentle steps barely making a sound against the floor.

“Even without the music, this is kind of fun,” said Saya with a smile.

Idris never had any interest in dancing, but he had to admit that there was something satisfying about stepping his feet to the rhythm.

By dusk they were twisting and moving on command, barely breaking their neat formation as they stepped to the counts of three.

The next day, seeing their fast progression, Yelena decided to have them dance in pairs.

“Idris…” Saya turned to him with blushed cheeks. “Want to be my partner?”

“Sure.”

But on the first step they took, Saya ran head-first into this chin.

"Saya..." Idris whispered, rubbing his aching chin. "You're following... start with your right..."

"Ah!" Saya chuckled awkwardly. "I forgot."

So they stepped to the rhythm with their hands linked as Yelena wheeled in an old grand piano, tuned it on the spot, and began playing a soft, slow-paced piece. One two three, one two three, the hall had become a ballroom, and the dancers on the floor lifted and bounced in sync, lost in the entrancing melody.

They hadn’t realized it, but they were falling in love with dancing.

Next, they learned the fast and dizzying polka, then the jolly and skipping schottische, then the four-people quadrille.

By the end of the first week, music and dancing were becoming commonplace at the Rose Manor. In their spare time, they would pester Yelena about playing the piano, or practice their steps out in the courtyard. Every afternoon the garden would be filled with students, twirling and skipping under the last of the falling blossoms.

“I didn’t think it would be this much fun,” Andrei said one early April day as they sat resting after practice.

“Right!” Saya shouted excitedly. “I can’t wait for the ball…”

“It’s soon,” said Idris, counting the days in his head. “Very soon.”

Then, a week before the ball, they were awoken in the early morning by the crashing of cymbals.

Without doing their beds they all hurriedly rushed out to the entrance hall, apprentices, masters, and seniors alike, excited for the good news they heard once every year.

At the center of the entrance hall, in the warm light of the rising sun stood Juno, cymbals in hand, a huge smile on her face.

She took in a deep breath, before shouting at the top of her lungs.

“The roses are in bloom!”