Ethan Richard Blackwood, a key member of the team assigned to help Lillis in the operation against McHart, was supposed to play a crucial role in the mission. He had been given a magical signaling device to receive Lillis's gathering signal, but he hadn’t even noticed when she sent it.

Due to the sudden appearance of an unexpected prince, Ethan had lost any chance to pay attention to the signal or anything else.

“Prince Antonio, please don’t misunderstand.”

“Misunderstand... That’s what people usually say.”

“What?”

“I tried my best not to care when I heard that Lady Agnes was part of your party after that day. After all, aptitude for swordsmanship and magic isn’t gender-specific, so it was only natural that the one destined to be the greatest mage, my fiancée, would be part of a party led by someone like you, called the Hero.”

“Who’s your fiancée, exactly?”

Ethan overheard Agnes mumbling something about how they weren’t even engaged yet, but he couldn’t afford to focus on her words. He was too busy sensing the dangerous aura radiating from Prince Antonio, who had drawn his sword against him.

“I’m aware that there are some unsavory rumors about your party. They say almost all the women in your group are infatuated with you.”

“That’s a misunderstanding, Prince Antonio.”

“Is it? Yet, your track record with women is quite impressive. The saintess of the Aurelia Church, who must maintain her purity until the Demon King is defeated; an elf from the Forest of the World Tree, known for their pride; and even Princess Sera, the so-called Moon Shadow Princess. If you can control even royalty at your whim, how hard could it be to seduce the daughter of a mere baron?”

“Please stop jumping to conclusions. Besides, I didn’t seduce anyone.”

“Whether you seduced them or they came to you willingly doesn’t matter. What matters now is that you’ve laid your hands on my fiancée... enough to bring her as your partner to this depraved gathering.”

Ethan felt an overwhelming sense of injustice, but Antonio's suspicions were not entirely baseless. Events like these, hosted anonymously at noble gatherings, often had unsavory intentions behind them.

Even if Agnes had attended alone (which wouldn’t have been possible without an invitation), Antonio would have come to retrieve her. Seeing Agnes attend the noble gathering with a partner was enough to send him into a fit of jealous rage.

Bringing a partner to such an event often signified a desire to find someone to “share” or “exchange” with.

Even if the man in question loved only Agnes for life, Antonio, being a prince, couldn’t simply let such a love affair continue without intervention. But allowing her to be thrust into the vile hands of these debauched nobles was something he could never forgive.

...Of course, the real reason Ethan and Agnes were attending this gathering was entirely different from what Antonio imagined. But Antonio, unaware of their true intentions, had acted on the words of his half-brother, McHart, and snuck into the event, only to find Agnes and, without thinking, charged at Ethan.

‘This is bad. I’ve never fought Antonio before, so I don’t know his patterns...’

Ethan couldn’t afford to waste time on Antonio, not knowing when Lillis’s magic signal might return. But ignoring him wasn’t an option either, given the attention they had already drawn. The best course of action would be to quickly end the sudden duel and slip away in the ensuing confusion, but Ethan had a feeling that wouldn’t be easy.

Ethan’s actions were mostly guided by his knowledge of Luminor Academy, a game he had played and studied extensively. He had followed the main route to become strong, and whenever he encountered unavoidable battles, he used his past experience to navigate through them.

He knew how to handle characters he frequently interacted with or fought against, which was why he often achieved excellent results against opponents like Ethan, Natalie, and Caraham. However, this knowledge also meant that he was less prepared to deal with opponents he hadn’t faced before.

In the game Luminor Academy, Antonio’s presence was rather subtle. As a late-born prince who had lost out in the struggle for the throne, he was naturally sidelined.

He wasn’t completely absent from the game, but his role was limited to a temporary ally during an event involving Seraphine's kidnapping, nothing more.

His performance wasn’t impressive enough to include him as a regular party member, so Ethan rarely used him in battle, preferring to keep him out of the way.

‘He’s probably weak. But even if he is...’

Fighting an opponent whose exact strength was unknown always came with a sense of unease. Especially since this wasn’t the original Luminor Academy world but a version where Lillis had already twisted several events.

Ethan couldn’t be complacent, assuming that Antonio’s skill level was the same as it was in the game. He sincerely hoped to avoid this fight.

“Prince Antonio, I have no desire to cross swords with you. I can explain that everything you’re thinking is a misunderstanding.”

“Later, you say... When would that be?”

“Perhaps after tonight...”

“By then, it would be too late. My fiancée will already have been tainted by your unsavory touch.”

“...”

“I’m not the type to demand purity from my future wife, but I certainly don’t want her to experience something she’ll regret later. Especially when I can prevent it.”

“Sigh...”

“...Tsk.”

Ethan let out a deep sigh, and from behind him, he heard Agnes click her tongue in irritation. Antonio had no idea that his actions, which he believed were for Agnes’s sake, were steadily lowering her opinion of him.

If something happened to Lillis or if things went irreversibly wrong tonight, Antonio might as well give up any chance of winning Agnes's affection in this lifetime.

The pink-haired priestess, Cerista, glanced between the prince and the hero, unsure of what to do. She was the only person in the banquet hall who had noticed Lillis’s signal.

According to the plan, Cerista was supposed to use her Concealment Blessing, or Agnes was supposed to cast her invisibility magic, so they could slip out unnoticed once the signal was received.

But given the attention they were drawing, Agnes couldn’t use her magic, and even if Cerista used the Concealment Blessing to hide among the people, the effect would be minimal.

Unsure of what to do, Cerista watched as Ethan reluctantly drew his sword from its scabbard.

Screech.

“Yes, of course, real men should settle things with their swords.”

“That’s a very sexist remark, Prince.”

Antonio’s words, though already grating, managed to lower the Red Mage’s opinion of him even further.

‘I don’t know if I can pull it off, but I’ll have to subdue him without killing him. It would be ideal if I could just knock him out...’

If Ethan accidentally killed Antonio, it would complicate matters beyond repair, not to mention severely limit his ability to act as the hero. If Antonio, like McHart, had been influenced by demonic forces, killing him might have been justifiable. But the prince in front of him was simply a fool blinded by love.

However, if Ethan held back too much and got injured, it would be counterproductive. And if he lost, he and Agnes would be trapped here.

That would mean Lillis, who was facing McHart alone, would likely end up missing tonight and be found as an unrecognizable corpse in a few months.

Ethan couldn’t allow that to happen, especially since Lillis was a rare ally from his homeland and someone he had grown close to over time.

‘I need to knock him out and escape using the ensuing chaos. If I can’t hold back in the first exchange, I’ll have to choose to save Lillis instead.’

If it came down to saving only one, Lillis was the right choice.

With this in mind, Ethan’s sword flew toward Prince Antonio, and Antonio’s sword moved to counter the strike when suddenly...

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

“Arrghhh!!!”

...A sound that could never come from clashing swords rang out from Prince Antonio’s side.

Squish!

“Ugh...”

“Huh...?”

Ethan, realizing what had happened a beat too late, froze with his sword in mid-air, turning his gaze to the fallen prince and the mysterious attacker.

A woman who had suddenly intervened in the duel and kicked the prince in the side now stood there, furiously shouting the name of the prince she had just floored.

“Antonio!!!”

Despite the clear offense of laying hands on a member of the royal family and interrupting a duel involving royalty, no one in the hall dared to reprimand her.

For she, too, was of royal blood, just like Antonio.

And her rank was even higher than his.

“Sera...”

“Antonio!!! What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Drawing a sharp blade in a noble gathering like this—are you out of your mind?!”

“Guh... S-Sister Sera...?”

“You suddenly left the palace tonight, claiming you had an urgent matter... I thought you were the only one with some sense left, but...!!!”

All eyes in the banquet hall turned to the shouting Seraphine, whose uncharacteristic display of emotion was impossible to ignore. Even Ethan noticed that she was intentionally drawing everyone’s attention.

Ethan didn’t know how Seraphine had found her way here, but it was clear she was giving him an opening. Realizing this, Ethan immediately planned to regroup with Cerista and use the Concealment Blessing to escape...

‘...Wait, where’s Ethan?’

‘If you’re looking for Lord Ethan, he slipped out during the earlier commotion...’

Of those who remained in the hall, Cerista was the only one who had noticed Lillis’s signal and stayed behind.

Ethan had already left the hall to respond to Lillis’s call long before.