41. She Struck First

Ke Fei’er’s face was so close that our noses were nearly touching! Moreover, this wicked script insisted on emphasizing the true protagonist’s specialness at this moment; a beam of moonlight skillfully filtered through the gap in the curtains, perfectly illuminating Ke Fei’er’s face.

Even without any beautiful clothing to accentuate it; without a flashy background for decoration; or without striking a cute pose to add points, at this moment, the phrase “stunning beauty” seemed inadequate to describe the girl before me, even making Ke Fe’ er seem a bit less valuable.

The next moment, the script’s reminder finally jolted me awake after I was “enchanted” for just a moment!

【Nilu was not fast asleep; she was eavesdropping on the sounds inside the room!】

Hiss! What the hell was I thinking about peach just now as a villain!? My hand was almost around her waist; isn’t that asking for death!?

However, I calmed down. Miss Nilu was still eavesdropping, and Kefir hadn’t “woken up” at all. As the saying goes, whether drunk or not, people can get drunk on their own; for Kefir to dare come to me in in the middle of the night, it was definitely not a coincidence, but an ambush!

In an instant, her body leaned over, and that warm sensation pressing against me was something I feared I wouldn’t forget for the next few months. Thanks to this overly close physical contact, at least it made Kefir feel a bit of shame; after fidgeting for a while, she ultimately didn’t take any “further” actions against me.

At times like this, as long as the male takes the initiative, it would probably lead to something, but I didn’t want to court death.

“Eugene, because of my matters, you can’t find peace in the Rosia Empire. So rather than continuing this dangerous situation, why don’t we set off back to the Great Ying Empire as we previously discussed?”

“No.”

I firmly refused. Kefir wasn’t giving up voluntarily; she was giving up for my sake. If I agreed out of fear of death, I would become a timeless sinner in the script.

“I don’t care about the so-called reward treasures…”

Kefir still wanted to persuade me.

But the problem is, I do care! Those are definitely treasures that can elevate you! However, I couldn’t reveal this secret, and at this moment, I had a better reason to reignite Kefir’s fighting spirit, rather than retreating just because I encountered danger.

“The prophecy says so; you don’t need to worry about my safety. Moreover, we can’t just leave whenever we want; there’s something suspicious about this whole affair…”

“…”

Seeing Kefir’s silent expression, I sighed inwardly: the true protagonist is indeed not some foolish, sweet Mary Sue. Kefir, haven’t you already started to suspect the recent series of events directed at me?

Clearly just a background character, the passerby managed to stage a revenge of that level tonight, which was already illogical within the script. This was explained earlier when Kefir chatted with me after her bath, feeling shy and embarrassed.

“Indeed, tonight the passerby came to bother me again, and he boringly boasted that he sent two people to find trouble with you. Just then, you sent the message that you were attacked, and after I mentioned it, the passerby’s reaction was very … surprised, not like he was pretending.”

Clearly, the problem lies in whether the two lackeys sent by the passerby to trouble me and the professor were truly the same group as the assailants who attacked me and the professor tonight!? After calming down, I also found an explanation for this.

“Kefir, the problem might lie with the two people sent by the passerby. You mentioned ‘two people,’ but do you remember that at the last moment tonight… three people emerged.”

Kefir didn’t respond; she merely leaned against me, tightly gripping the hem of my clothes.

Combining the earlier incident where I was almost set on fire and the death scripts surrounding me, I had my suspicions.

“Kefir, what I’m about to say is merely my guess, unrelated to any prophecies.”

Taking a deep breath, I ultimately decided to tell Kefir, after all, if this “problem” wasn’t explained, it could very likely affect Kefir’s path to leveling up, rendering all our efforts in vain.

“I believe someone has deliberately set their sights on you and me. As a royal of the Great Ying Empire, you naturally can’t influence this, so the target shifted to me. The previous series of ‘framing,’ including tonight’s incident… Perhaps someone is deliberately using others to achieve this.”

To describe it in words, it’s “framing,” and coincidentally, I remember each special death script clearly, and indeed, there is one related to “framing”—【Eugene was framed and killed by Professor Moriarty.】

So…

“This person could be your mentor, Professor Moriarty.”

The death script that had been shadowing me tonight was thus explained; it wasn’t that my escape skills had worsened, but rather that Moriarty was right beside me, certainly capable of killing me at any moment. And the earlier false do-gooder, true spy incident might be connected. After all, everyone had a “kill me” script, and it wasn’t a joke.

But that “possibility” was something Kefir would definitely struggle to accept, so I decided to keep it hidden for now.

I could feel Kefir beside me suddenly breathing more rapidly.

“Eugene, the professor is my mentor; even my stable strength after breaking through was guided by her…”

But she wants to kill me, and guiding Kephiel to level up won’t conflict with that.

After a moment of silence, as if realizing this reasoning was a bit inappropriate for me, Kephiel made up her mind.

“Tomorrow I’ll talk to the professor…”

“Wait, for now, it’s best to keep it hidden and pretend nothing is wrong.”

“But…”

“This has nothing to do with the prophecy, it’s just my guess. So, if possible, I’d like to conduct a small test. You wouldn’t want to confront someone without knowing the situation, would you, Kephiel?”

Earlier, Letty told me: the spy who framed me was just protecting herself. She had stolen many confidential documents from the Rosian Empire. If all of this was indeed the work of Moriarty, then her intentions could be more terrifying than I could imagine.

Phew… The project competition or whatever, isn’t it just a facade? This script must be the true “hardship” on Kephiel’s path to leveling up, right? Professor, if you block Kephiel’s advancement for your own selfish reasons, don’t blame me for classifying you as a “villain.”

“Let’s pretend nothing happened, Kephiel.”

“Because according to the prophecy, something big is definitely going to happen next…”

——

Recently, I will start preparing the color illustrations for Volume Three as a benefit for its release. Of course, Volume Three will feature Queen Louise IV, so please look forward to it.