episode_0067

The Huang Palace attack incident.

It was a historically significant event that contributed greatly to creating the background of the game ‘Luminor Academy’.

And it’s no wonder, as this Huang Palace attack incident brought about three major changes to the overall story of ‘Luminor Academy’.

One of them, as mentioned earlier, was that the royal family felt a sense of crisis from the movement of the demons.

As a result, not only did the academy expand its student body to be able to respond to the war not only between countries but also with the demons, but it also admitted students based on their abilities rather than nobility.

With this change in the academy’s recruitment policy, the ratio of nobles to commoners, which was originally 8:2, shifted to a ratio closer to 6:4 among the new students, leading to a future that would change the overall atmosphere of the academy as time passed.

The second event was the rescue of ‘Inferno Agnes’, who was in danger of losing her life in the monster wave, by ‘Moonshadow Princess Seraphine’.

Just as Orion appeared at the Rose Hall just before dinner, he would have likely found useful manpower among the nobles and responded to the monster wave in the original history.

And Agnes, like in this world, would have responded to Orion’s call and participated in the operation to block the monster wave.

However, no matter how much Orion tried, it would have been difficult to predict which region the monsters would flood into and how many.

Orion managed to block the area where the most monsters were expected to come, the Huang Palace North Gate, but unexpectedly, even more monsters flooded into the Huang Palace West Gate.

Of course, since this is a summary of the story, it may not be entirely accurate. After all, the protagonist did not directly experience the events.

Anyway, the second event was Seraphine rescuing Agnes, who was cornered at the Huang Palace West Gate in a crisis situation.

As a result, Agnes pledged loyalty to Seraphine, leading to the history of the Elizabeth family entering the royal court in the official ending.

“….”

“Ah, ah, ah….”

And the last event is the death of Riji Lin Ogust in front of me right now.

Her death at the hands of this monster wave caused the Ogust family to feel betrayed by the royal family, and it became a decisive factor in Karahm causing the ‘Seraphine Kidnapping Incident’ during the 3rd year.

Of course, since the Huang Palace attack itself was caused by the demons, not the royal family, it may be hard to understand why the Ogust family, who killed Riji, would join forces with the demons.

But the reason why the Ogust family felt betrayed by the royal family was sufficient.

Because, according to Seraphine’s choice, Riji also had a ‘future that would not die’ that day.

‘Moonshadow Princess Seraphine’ was a character who could use various powers related to the moon according to her title.

And one of her abilities was the use of a future sight that could see the near future only on the day of the full moon.

In other words, Seraphine’s choice not to save Riji despite knowing she would die meant that she made the decision.

“It’s more like she couldn’t save her than she didn’t save her.”

Since Seraphine only had one body, in order to save Agnes at that time, she had to give up on Riji.

Some may question why, if Seraphine saw a future where Agnes and Riji were attacked, she didn’t just not invite them to the party from the beginning.

However, Seraphine’s future sight was not a versatile ability that could be used in such a manipulative way.

First of all, the future sight does not allow her to choose the future she wants to see, but simply shows it, which was the first limitation.

The second limitation was that the future sight always forced her to make a ‘choice’.

At first, the images in her mind were blurry, but as time passed, the future vision of Seraphine began to solidify little by little.

When the scenes became clear enough for her to understand the situation, it was time for her to choose between the two futures she had seen through her future vision ability.

And in the future vision of Seraphine during the ‘Royal Palace Attack Incident,’ there were two options: one was to save ‘Lizie Lin August,’ and the other was to save ‘Agnes Elizabeth Blaze.’

“And at the crossroads, Seraphine chose to save Agnes.”

I don’t really know why she chose to save Agnes instead of Lizie. That part was not revealed in the game.

Anyway, the important thing was that at that moment of decision, Seraphine chose Blaze’s daughter’s life over August’s, which led to Lizie facing death among the monster horde without Seraphine’s help.

“In the future, when the August family learns about the crossroads of Seraphine’s future vision, it becomes a decisive factor of betrayal.”

The August family, who had protected the western part of the empire for almost 300 years, felt betrayed by Seraphine’s choice to prioritize Blaze’s daughter’s life over the August family’s succession.

This betrayal led to a sense of betrayal towards the Argentia Empire itself, especially since the August family had been loyal to the empire for several generations, making the betrayal even more devastating. It’s said that it’s scarier when a fan turns into an anti.

The reason why she was easily subdued by Karaham in the ‘Seraphine Kidnapping Incident’ was because of this background.

…Anyway.

Although the introduction has become lengthy, what I want to say is this.

In this ‘Royal Attack Incident,’ originally, Lizie would have lost her life in the monster attack.

But now, Lizie is in this shelter.

This means that this shelter is also at risk of being attacked by monsters soon.

When I saw Lizie’s face, a brief thought crossed my mind.

“…Damn, this is bad.”

Yes, come to think of it, in the original story, there were several nobles who died or were injured besides Lizie.

It wouldn’t make sense for mindless monsters to target Lizie specifically to kill her.

It would be more plausible to believe that one of the people who died in the attack was Lizie Lin August.

In other words, this ‘shelter’ will soon be unable to withstand the monster wave and will be attacked by monsters.

And in the process, there is a high probability that Lizie will be caught up and killed.

Apart from everything else, it also meant that my life was in danger. If monsters entered this space, the confusion caused by the noble youths who were only concerned about their own survival would create a chaotic mess.

Furthermore, I, as I am now, was a pathetic maid with no combat ability, not even a decent dagger to protect myself. It would be quite challenging.

“And just when all the capable combatants were taken away by Orion….”

The people in this shelter alone cannot prevent the impending attack.

Although most of them are nobles, they should be able to use basic magic to some extent, but it would be difficult to expect cooperation from panicking noble individuals.

Even Kara seems to have been called in to block the monster wave, as she is not here.

When I saw Liz’s face, the next thing that would happen naturally came to mind, and my heart began to feel suffocated.

As we noticed each other, a cautious voice called out to me from Liz’s side.

“Uh, uh, uh, uh, Edan’s fiancée… I-I’m right, right…?”

“…Yes. It’s nice to see you again, Liz.”

“Ah, I’m really sorry about earlier… I didn’t even know you were Edan’s fiancée….”

“…No, it’s fine. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“I-I won’t be rude like earlier again!”

…Why is she being so annoying.

Ignoring Liz, who was bowing her head and apologizing again for something that had already passed, I seriously thought about how to ensure the safety of both me and Liz in this situation.

After all, she is a character who is treated significantly in the “Luminor Academy,” and it would feel a bit uncomfortable to see her die right in front of me.

Above all, saving Liz could be of great help even in the future world.

“If I can do just that, at least I can prevent a future where August betrays us overnight.”

The betrayal of the Augustus family in the world of the “Luminor Academy” dealt a significant blow to the empire.

Just to clarify, my goal is not to see the ending of the “Luminor Academy.”

That is the job of the protagonist, the “hero,” and the other main characters, and I never wanted to get involved in that main story.

What I want is just the peaceful and stable daily life of the Argenitia Empire.

I just hoped it wouldn’t be a tumultuous empire where the entire village is destroyed by a monster attack overnight, or the city is captured by demons and we have to participate in a refugee procession.

That way, I could step away from the story and live the life of an adventurer in a stable manner.

Just protecting one person and making the betrayal of the Augustus family a thing of the past would be enough.

“If only Edan or Kara were here, it would have been much easier.”

With their skills, they could easily protect two women and fight without any problems. Although they were both called to block the monster wave, they were not here.

In the end, except for the palace guards, it meant that I was the only one capable of meaningful combat in this place.

…Well, honestly, it’s a bit subtle to say that I am capable of combat.

I have only reached level 6. I was slightly stronger than a rookie soldier in the territorial guard.

Compared to monsters, I was at a level where I could have a good fight with a level 7 Black Rabbit.

I don’t know the level and scale of the monsters that attacked the palace in the “Palace Attack Incident,” but it was clear that the 10-20 palace guards here could not stop them.

So, it probably means that they were not weak monsters that could be killed with a single magic arrow or shockwave.

The only skill that could definitely deliver effective damage was ‘Mana Blast,’ but…

“This… is not a skill that can be used wastefully.”

There were many problems with using just that one skill and going into battle.

Using a large-scale magic like Mana Blast in front of so many people would undoubtedly attract attention.

Above all, if the monster attacks continue even after using Mana Blast, it will be a situation where we can’t do anything.

The means to protect our lives, at least to some extent, would probably be just a dagger.

Unless we’re near the kitchen, there’s no way to find a weapon equivalent to a dagger in this main hall.

‘…Ah.’

No, maybe it’s possible to find one.

Even in this situation, Lillis might be able to obtain a weapon similar to a dagger that she can wield.

The range of ‘daggers’ that Lillis can equip at the Luminoir Academy was wider than expected.

From modified weapons like kukris to items like frying pans or ladles, they were all considered ‘daggers’ for Lillis as long as they had a handle and a blade of a certain length, allowing her to synergize with them.

Perhaps even Liji had one.

A weapon equivalent to a ‘dagger’ that Lillis could use in battle.

“Liji.”

“Yes, yes!”

“Do you happen to have a knife?”

“…Huh?”

Even in a fantasy world filled with swordsmanship and magic.

Still, as a noble lady, she would probably carry at least one self-defense weapon in her possession.