Lucas felt that there was someone following them but when he glanced back, he could see no one. He thought it might be a professional assassin hired by his father again so he kept his guard up.
"By the way, Lucas. Are you gonna stay here for a long time, hmm? You know what, I'm actually happy these past few days! Ask me why?"
"…"
"My older sister found someone to bother instead of me! Haha, I am very thankful for the count's daughter, Liila, for diverting that monster's attention away, you know"
Charles comfortably told Lucas the happenings in the palace while he was gone. Lucas may appear expressionless but one couldn't deny a small change in his expression when he heard Lilia's name. He thought it strange that the prince still hasn't met Alice, stranger even was that the character Lilia is in the palace earlier than what the novel has said. Following the novel's timeline, four years from now, Lilia will be introduced as Charles' fiancé. It should be another four years when Lilia will frequent the palace but it seems to be happening now.
He then looked at his sword, from the moment he was born until now, he used it for protecting the prince currently chatting his mouth away. Whenever he knew the prince was in danger because of his father's schemes, he would immediately go to the palace and protect the prince's life at all cost.
So what led him to defy his father? What was it that caused his character to morph away from the novel's setting? One would think it was because of his undying loyalty to the royal family. It was a noble reason, however; in any situation, to know already one's life's mission the moment he was born is too good to be true.
The reality of the situation was that he was being forced to protect the crown prince by an entity known as System 441.
"Hehe, Lucas, it seems you will be able to gain points if you protect that crown prince again today. I just love your father, don't you as well?"
441 talked to Lucas in his head. Lucas remained stoic as he didn't respond to his system but continued walking.
"Hmph, meanie. At least respond to me when I'm talking to you...."
"Where are you going anyway? Lucas?"
The crown prince kept his pace up to that of Lucas' as he asked this. Lucas also didn't know where he was going, he just wanted to lead on the assassin following them and have an idea of its location. The crown prince acted oblivious about that person following them as he remained confident that whoever or whatever it was, the person beside him will protect him at all cost.
Kiel didn't know that his stalking has already been made known to the two boys. All that they were clueless about was where his exact location was since he remained invisible. Kiel was quite bored following the two around as he soon found out, that the boys he was following also didn't have any exact location to go to. Only the crown prince was talking while the other remained quiet.
Inside a building, Clouie and Lilia was busy trying their best to keep themselves awake and listen to what the teacher was telling them. Lilia was preoccupied when she coincidentally looked out the window and saw two boys around her age donning knight's clothes walking side by side. At the scene, she couldn't help but widen her eyes. She knew that other than Clouie, another boy with silver hair was the prime minister's son. She recognized him as her fellow villain.
Clouie had made it so that her system will auto-deduct points from her, every time Lilia and Charles would meet face to face. A situation with only Lilia seeing Charles and Charles not seeing her is not considered by the system as a face-to-face meeting so Lilia was allowed to look at Charles. Her observation then moved on to the other boy with blond hair.
Going back to Lilia, she didn't assume it was Charles as aside from Charles, there were many other boys who have similar hair. She was a person who learns from her mistake and since the thieving incident in the marketplace, she made it an effort to recognize the facial and body feature of the people she laid her eyes on, a character in the novel or not. She was observing them from above when suddenly; black-robed men with swords surrounded the two boys below. One of the men commanded his colleagues to begin their attack and all hell broke loose.
Lucas unsheathed his sword and began defending the crown prince. Charles, knowing that he had a reliable ally, just stood close to Lucas.
"Oh my, Lucas, you must protect me, okay"
Charles, even though he too had a sword and was an excellent swordsman didn't try anything to defend himself. A sword was coming for his neck but he didn't budge. Lucas luckily deflected it away. After that dangerous situation, he even went so far as to go in an Indian seat position right there and then.
"I'll just take a seat here and watch a good show!"
Charles had observed years ago, that this cousin of his has some sort of superpower and had kept it a secret to himself. There were many times when he thought he was really staring at death's face but it would completely vanish every time Lucas appears. Of course, unknown to him, those impossible situations were always resolved with the help of Lucas' hard-earned points. Lucas was already aware of the fact that every time he was there, Charles would act like a helpless brat who couldn't protect himself.
Kiel who was following them felt his world slow down when he saw his target almost getting killed by the robed assassins. He wanted to join the fray but he didn't really learn the way of the sword so he would just be in the way. He might even get accidentally killed in the process so he just continued watching the dangerous situation.
When he saw the crown prince take a seat, he was even more baffled and worried for his life. That was the most dangerous position one could take if under attack as it would take time to get up when one needed to run away. He then felt that the crown prince was either suicidal or just plain stupid. He thought that it is very much possible that it was another deviation in the story. He stood there praying for the wellbeing of the two under attack.
Back to a room inside the castle, watching the two boys below was Clouie and Lilia. Lilia has called on the attention of the tutor and Clouie about the assassination currently happening below. As their tutor saw it, he went hysterical and immediately called for the palace guards to get there, leaving Clouie and Lilia in the room.
"Clouie, aren't you gonna help your cousin? I wonder why that boy he is with is just seating there… Isn't that dangerous?"
Lilia felt it was a strange situation below because the black-robed people's target was clearly the blond boy but Lucas, her fellow villain, was protecting him. The black robed people seemed to hesitate every time they are about to inflict damage to Lucas with Lucas either kicking them away or slashing them with his sword.
"Oh that, don't mind them too much it's a usual occurrence here anyway"
Clouie unworriedly told Lilia and when Lilia asked who the blond boy was, Clouie responded that she was not sure as they were too far to see who it was. Clouie felt relieved that Lilia doesn't seem to recognize the crown prince. Some palace guards immediately responded to the threat so they can see from above that knights were already on their way to assist the two boys. The incident concluded with Lucas and Charles unharmed. Some assassins were caught while some got away. However, those who got caught immediately committed suicide by biting their tounges.
Kiel continued watching and since he was invisible, he was not worried. He marveled at the prowess that Lucas has shown while he kept giving Charles a disappointed gaze. At that time when another of the assassin was about to cut off Charles' head, Lucas immediately acted and stabbed the assassin through the heart.