Raziel quickly realized how devastating this news was for Sylfi. Her reputation would undoubtedly suffer greatly, with people viewing her as a dirty, unfaithful woman.
The fact that she was a noble only made the situation worse.
In this medieval setting, the nobility places great importance on political marriages, making them highly complex. When powerful families arrange engagements between their children, they must meet specific requirements to avoid bringing shame to their names.
For men, these requirements are not as stringent, but for women, they are much harsher. A wife candidate must be attractive, maintain her purity, and always keep her image in check to be considered a qualified spouse.
Receiving a headline in a newspaper claiming that an engaged noblewoman has a lover is extremely damaging, tarnishing both her reputation and her family's honor.
"That's pretty bad..." Raziel said, looking at Sylfi, who was glaring at him furiously.
"YES, IT IS!" she shouted, gripping his collar even harder than before.
Raziel didn't know what to say because this was his fault. He recalled his conversation with Erick before entering the arena to watch the qualifiers. It seemed that people had misunderstood his words in a very damaging way.
"Because of your declaration, people assumed I'm betraying you, and now I'm being painted as an unfaithful woman!" Sylfi said, her voice a mix of anger and frustration.
"If my dad sees this news, I'm going to be in big trouble because of YOU!" Her voice trembled as she fought back tears.
"Sigh... You're right. This was my fault. But please, let go of my collar and let's talk about this," Raziel said, gently trying to remove her hand.
Sylfi tried to say more, but a chill ran down her spine when she noticed Eve glaring at her coldly from behind Raziel. The intensity of Eve's gaze made Sylfi release her grip on Raziel's collar.
Raziel then invited Sylfi to his office to discuss the matter privately. She accepted reluctantly, but he assured her that he had no bad intentions towards her.
In the office, Raziel sat at his desk while Sylfi took a seat on the couch, clutching the newspaper with an angry expression.
"Getting out of this situation is going to be tough..." Raziel admitted, scratching his head.
"I know!" Sylfi confirmed, glaring at him.
An awkward silence settled in the room for a minute.
His mind raced, weighing whether he should involve himself in this matter. Raziel knew he wouldn't suffer too much damage. However, Sylfi, at this point in the lore, couldn't do anything to clean her image on her own.
Maybe Erick could help her, but as the principal source of the scandal, his involvement would only add fuel to the already burning house.
Suddenly, another important thing came to mind. As soon as his father heard about it, he would likely seize the opportunity to demand better benefits from Sylfi's family, knowing that finding another husband for her would be difficult since any other noble house would refuse to accept a "tainted" lady.
While wrestling with the problem in his mind, a muffled sound started to echo in the room, catching Raziel's attention. He quickly identified the source of the sound coming from Sylfi, who now appeared frozen in place for some reason.
"What happened, Sylfi?" Raziel asked, noticing her strange behavior.
"M-My father... is calling me..." she said, her gaze fearful as she pulled out a strangely shaped green stone from her pocket.
This was a communication stone.
Sylfi held the stone with trembling hands. This particular one was set to receive only mana signals from her father's communication stone.
She already knew what would happen, so Sylfi put some mana into the stone to activate it and quickly said, "Father, this is no—"
"SHUT UP!" The voice coming from the communication stone interrupted her angrily.
"I don't want to hear anything from you! I'm just calling to tell you that if Mikael Harvestead decides to break off your engagement because of your stupidity, never dare to come back and call me 'dad' again, insolent daughter!" Sylfi's father displayed his anger, making the girl shake in fear.
"B-But it w-was no—" She tried to say something with trembling lips, but her father interrupted her again.
"SILENCE! I told you, I don't want to hear anything from you! I've already instructed the servants to block your entrance to the academy house until I solve this situation. Pray that Raziel's father accepts my new offer; otherwise, I will disown you instantly." With that, the communication stone stopped glowing, indicating her father had cut the mana signal, making the girl's heart sink in despair.
Raziel didn't say anything. He only stared at Sylfi, who started to cry in silence. She didn't even move, just froze in place, holding the stone in the same position with tears falling down her white, smooth cheeks.
This was a sad and awkward situation for him because he didn't want to harm her in any way. After all, she is a good person with a great future ahead, even known as the Ice Empress in the future.
He knew that Sylfi never had a good relationship with her family, as she was the last in the line of succession, with her two older brothers being the priority and pride of their father.
To make things more complicated, she was the daughter of a concubine who had died many years ago. As a result, Sylfi was largely neglected by everyone in her family, including her father. She was merely considered a bargaining chip to be traded for marriage benefits.
In the game, when Erick defeated Raziel, he ordered him to break off his engagement with Sylfi. However, Raziel was stubborn and broke his promise, declaring that Sylfi belonged to him alone.
When Raziel was finally killed by Erick, Sylfi still felt very bad about his death, despite his scummy personality. It showed that she wasn't a bad person; she simply didn't like the disgusting approaches he usually made.
Raziel's death caused a lot of headaches for Erick and the other girls, leading to many troubling events in the future. It took considerable effort to resolve these problems, but by around episode nine, if you had already chosen Sylfi's route, she decides to abandon her family to follow the protagonist.
Because by that time, she had already gained considerable fame as an independent Class B adventurer.
While Raziel was thinking about it, Sylfi tried to stand on her feet to leave the office, but her legs trembled, and she fell, sitting on the ground with a helpless expression.
Even though Sylfi had a bad relationship with her family, she was still very dependent on them financially. They could even expel her from the academy, cutting their patronage, which would make things difficult when she started her career as an adventurer.
Sylfi tried to gather the strength to stand up but couldn't move.
She even started to think about begging Raziel to do something about it. However, his previous declaration had already proven that he had stopped liking her, so he would likely never offer help, given his bad personality.
He's probably laughing at her situation, seeing it as punishment for her repeated rejections of his advances in the past.
As Sylfi flooded her mind with such thoughts, she suddenly felt the presence of someone standing in front of her. Looking up, she saw Raziel looking at her with a warm expression. He knelt down, gazing intently into her eyes.
Raziel then gently wiped the tears from her face, saying, "I'm sorry... I'm really sorry for this."
"I heard your conversation, and I think it's very unfair that your father didn't even give you a chance to explain. He even blocked you from entering your own home, and as a father, he should never do such a thing," Raziel said, giving her a gentle smile while removing his hands from Sylfi's smooth cheeks.
The girl was stunned hearing his words; she had never thought Raziel himself would be able to speak so gently. This guy had always acted rudely and pridefully, often giving her lustful looks. Seeing him like this made Sylfi doubt the sincerity of his words.
"I know you doubt the sincerity of my words because I've always acted like an asshole and a horny dog, so I don't blame you," Raziel said, smiling in a way that made Sylfi a little scared, as it looked quite menacing.
His words also spoke out loud what she had been thinking, causing the girl to widen her beautiful yellow eyes.
"Well, since this is my fault, I'll try to help you with this problem, but I need to think about how. Go try to rest, and when I find a solution, I'll let you know."
Raziel then asked her if she had any friends she could stay with for a while until they resolved the situation. Sylfi took a few seconds to answer, still stunned and a little suspicious of his sudden willingness to help.
Sylfi said she didn't know anyone who would allow her to stay, as she didn't have many friends in the academy. After all, she was completely different from Anya, who could befriend anyone using her fake persona.
This made Raziel consider whether she could pay to stay in a hotel or get a temporary dormitory room. However, she said the women's dormitory was already full, and her money was running low.
He thought about paying for a room himself, but his current funds were needed for future investments. With his father currently angry with him, he doubted his uncle, Jasir, would help this time, as his father likely had already instructed Jasir not to lend him any more money.
The only solution on his mind was to let her stay at his house for a while, something he knew she would probably refuse given her personality. Despite this, he offered it, anticipating her likely response.
"Well, you're probably going to refuse, but... you can stay in the guest room if you want," he suggested, scratching his head and bracing for a big 'no.'
"...Okay," she answered with a low voice.
"I knew you would refuse, so we ne—wait, what? You accepted?" He was genuinely surprised to see that she had accepted his proposal.
"Of course I accepted. If I refused, where the hell would I go? I don't trust you, but I'm not stupid enough to be stubborn in this situation that YOU have put me into," her voice sounded a little irritated as she spoke.
"Sigh... I see..." Raziel got up, sighing.
Raziel then offered to help her stand up. She accepted reluctantly, and once he had her seated on the couch again, he quickly called Clarice, instructing her to prepare the guest room.
The girl obeyed and quickly went to prepare it while Raziel called Eve to help Sylfi with anything she might need.
When Raziel left his office to go to his bedroom, Eve stepped in front of Sylfi with a menacing smile, prompting Sylfi to ask what she wanted.
Eve, not wasting any time, said, "So you're the unfaithful bitch, right?"
The moment Eve finished her words, Sylfi was overwhelmed by a sudden, intense wave of murderous intent from Eve, causing her to choke in fear.