I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince - Chapter 237 [Variable (3)]

T/N: This bonus chapter is sponsored by James B. (3/14). If you enjoy reading and are willing to help me catch up to the latest chapters faster by sponsoring bonus chapters, see my Ko-fi.

Gyeongmwajogyegigwat Volt was the core personnel recruited for the Machart Subjugation Operation with Lilith’s help.

As he was expected to be the core of this operation, he also had a magic signal device to receive Lilith’s gathering signal, but he was currently unaware of the signal she had sent.

Due to the sudden intrusion of a certain prince, Gyeongmwajogyegigwat lost even the luxury of looking elsewhere, let alone at the magic signal device.

“Prince Antonio. Please don’t make any unnecessary misunderstandings.”

“Misunderstandings… That’s what everyone usually says.”

“What?”

“Even when I heard that Miss Agnes had joined your party after that day, I tried not to care as much as possible. I thought it was natural for my fiancée, who will become the greatest mage, to be in your party as the Hero, since the aptitude for swordsmanship and magic doesn’t appear based on gender.”

“…Who’s the fiancée?”

Agnes’s muttering that they weren’t even engaged yet reached his ears, but Gyeongmwajogyegigwat didn’t have the luxury to focus on that.

He was feeling a not-so-good premonition from Prince Antonio, who had drawn his sword towards him and was emitting an ominous aura. [Only on DarkStar Translations]

“I also know that some indecent rumors are circulating about your party. I hear that almost all the female members of the party are swooning over you.”

“That’s a misunderstanding from the start, Prince Antonio.”

“Is that so? For someone saying that, your record with women is quite impressive. From the Saint of the Church of Aurelia who must maintain her purity until the Demon King is subjugated, to the elf from the World Tree Forest known for her strong pride, and even Sister Sera, called the Moonlight Shadow Princess. For someone like you, who can manipulate even royalty at will, could you possibly not seduce a mere viscount’s daughter?”

“…Please don’t make strange assumptions. And I didn’t seduce them in the first place.”

“Whether you seduced them or they attached themselves to you on their own doesn’t matter much. What’s important now is that you’ve touched my fiancée. …To the extent of bringing her as a partner to such an indecent party.”

Gyeongmwajogyegigwat felt like going crazy with frustration, but Antonio’s suspicion was somewhat reasonable.

At such noble exchange meetings, excluding regular Imperial Events or birthday parties of nobles from various regions, events held anonymously by the organizer often had impure purposes.

Even if Agnes had attended alone (which would have been impossible without an invitation), Prince Antonio had intended to participate and take her out himself, and the fact that Agnes attended the noble exchange meeting with a partner was enough to excite him with anger.

Attending such an indecent event with a partner usually meant looking for someone to ‘do it together’ or ‘swap’ with.

Even if, giving him the benefit of the doubt, the other person was a man who would love only Agnes for life, Antonio wouldn’t have the right to stop that love even if he was a prince, but Antonio’s stance was that he could never forgive someone who would push her into a lecherous den of trash noble youths.

…Although Gyeongmwajogyegigwat and Agnes had a completely different purpose for participating in this party than what Antonio thought, Antonio didn’t know that purpose anyway. He had secretly participated after hearing from his half-brother Prince Machart, just in case, and upon discovering Agnes’s presence, he rushed at the Hero without considering the situation.

‘This is bad. I don’t know Antonio’s battle patterns well since I’ve never used him as a combatant…’

He didn’t have the luxury of wasting time with him in a situation where he didn’t know when Lilith’s magic signal would come. But even if he wanted to ignore him, it was impossible to leave the Banquet Hall with all eyes on him like this.

The best option was to quickly end this sudden duel with Antonio and slip away in the confusion, but Gyeongmwajogyegigwat had a feeling that even that wouldn’t be easy.

Most of his game progression was based on knowledge gained from capturing the heroines and his single playthrough experience. As such, he had grown stronger following the standard route of the last playthrough of the game, and in other unavoidable battles, he had dealt with them by remembering his experiences during that playthrough.

He knew how to deal with characters he had often used in the game or faced as enemies, and this also greatly influenced his excellent performance against Ethan, Natalie, and Caraham in the Swordsmanship Department. However, knowing how to deal with experienced knowledge also meant that he didn’t know well how to deal with opponents he hadn’t experienced.

Antonio’s presence in the game, Luminor Academy, was subtle. His position as a late-born prince who had lost in the competition for Imperial power was inevitably such.

It wasn’t that he had never encountered him in the game, but his presence was no more or less than that of a royal character who had temporarily helped during the event when Seraphine was kidnapped.

He had almost no memory of using him because his performance was too subtle to be included as a regular in the party, and in actual battles, he remembered just leaving him in the back and fighting with other characters instead of putting him in the front unnecessarily.

‘He’s probably weak. He’s probably weak, but…’

Fighting an opponent whose exact abilities were unknown always brought tension. Moreover, this world was not the original Luminor Academy, but a world where Lilith had been acting on her own whims and twisted some events.

Gyeongmwajogyegigwat honestly didn’t want to fight if possible, as he couldn’t let his guard down thinking the prince would be at the same level as in the game.

“Prince Antonio, I don’t particularly want to cross swords with you. I can also explain later that all of this is a misunderstanding on your part.”

“…Later, when is that?”

“Probably after tonight…”

“That would be too late. It would be after my fiancée has been tainted by your impure hands.”

“……”

“I’m not the type to demand purity from my future wife, but at least I don’t want to create something she’ll regret experiencing in the future. Especially if I can prevent it with my own power.”

“Haah…”

“…Tch.”

A deep sigh escaped from Gyeongmwajogyegigwat, and behind him, a small clicking of the tongue could be heard from Agnes as she looked at Antonio.

Antonio still didn’t realize that his actions, which he thought he was doing for Agnes’s sake, were being negatively evaluated in her mind in real-time.

If something were to happen to Lilith because of this or if something irreversible were to occur… it would be better to consider that there was no possibility of Antonio winning his love in this lifetime.

The pink-haired priestess watching this scene looked back and forth between the prince and the Hero, not knowing what to do. Seriste was the only person remaining in the hall who had noticed Lilith’s gathering signal.

According to the pre-planned strategy, she had intended to use her concealment blessing or have Agnes use invisibility magic to leave the banquet hall as soon as they received the signal.

However, in the current situation where everyone’s attention was focused on them, Agnes couldn’t use invisibility magic, and even if she used the concealment blessing to hide among people and erase her presence, its effect would be minimal.

What entered Seriste’s view as she paced back and forth wondering what to do in this situation was Gyeongmwajogyegigwat, who after much deliberation, finally drew his sword from its scabbard.

Shing.

“Yes, men should indeed communicate with swords.”

“That’s a gender-discriminatory statement, Your Highness.”

The internal evaluation of the crimson mage, which had already been lowered as much as possible, was further reduced by that remark.

‘I don’t know if I can do it well, but I need to subdue him without killing him somehow. It would be good if I could end it with just knocking him unconscious…’

If he made a mistake and ended up killing the prince, not only would the story be twisted, but his activities as a Hero would be severely restricted. If he had been a royal influenced by demons like Machart, there might have been room for excuse even if he killed him, but the prince in front of him now was just a fool blinded by love.

But if he held back too much and got hurt himself, it would be putting the cart before the horse, and if by any chance he lost, his and Agnes’s feet would be tied to this place.

If that happened, Lilith, who would end up in a one-on-one battle with Machart, would go missing tonight, and her nameless corpse would probably be found somewhere a few months later.

…As a fellow countryman and someone he had built a friendship with in the community, Gyeongmwajogyegigwat absolutely couldn’t allow that.

‘I need to knock him unconscious and leave while everyone’s attention is on the prince, using either invisibility magic or the concealment blessing. …If I judge that it’s difficult to hold back after exchanging the first blow, then I’ll have to choose Lilith’s side.’

If he could only save one of them, that would be the right choice.

With such thoughts, Gyeongmwajogyegigwat’s sword flew towards Prince Antonio, and as Antonio’s sword was swung to parry his…

Thwack!

Thwack!

Whack!

“Ugheeeeeek!!”

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

Thud!!

“Ugh, urgh…”

“Uh, uh…?”

Gyeongmwajogyegigwat, who realized the situation a beat late, stopped his sword mid-air and turned his gaze towards the fallen prince and the unidentified assailant.

Meanwhile, the mysterious woman who had suddenly intervened in the duel scene and delivered a flying kick to the royal’s side shouted the name of the royal she had knocked down with a voice full of anger.

“Antoniooooo!!!”

Although it seemed like she had undoubtedly committed a serious crime by daring to lay hands on a royal and intruding on a sacred duel involving royalty, no one present could reproach the woman who had kicked Antonio’s body.

The woman who had subdued the royal facing off against Gyeongmwajogyegigwat with a flying kick was also of royal blood.

Moreover, a royal with a rank one step higher than Antonio.

“Sera…”

“Antoniooooo!!! What are you doing now?!!! Drawing a sharp blade at a noble exchange meeting, are you in your right mind?!”

“Ugh, urk… S-Sister Sera?”

“You suddenly said you had plans this evening and dashed out of the palace… I really thought you were at least a sane child among them all…!!!”

As Seraphine shouted with an uncharacteristically high pitch, interrogating her younger brother, all of the nobles in the hall focused their attention on her, and Gyeongmwajogyegigwat could sense the intention behind her actions, which were different from her usual self.

Although he didn’t know how Seraphine had found out and come here, what she was doing now was an action to ‘gather everyone’s attention’ in the banquet hall.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity that would never come again, Gyeongmwajogyegigwat immediately tried to join Seriste and Ethan, use the concealment blessing, and leave the scene…

“…Wait, Ethan?”

“If you mean Young Master Ethan, he left the banquet hall earlier during the commotion…”

Among those who remained in the Banquet Hall, only Seriste had noticed Lilith’s magic signal and stayed in that place.

Ethan, who had noticed Lilith’s gathering signal first, had already left the hall long ago.