The Prince and the Prince (3)

Antonio Robert Valtoria.

The Fifth Prince of the Kingdom of Baltoria, a tragic prince who was suddenly thrust into an unplanned Imperial Succession Conflict due to the assassination of the First Prince.

In the game 『Luminor Academy』, his original role was that of a mediocre support character.

He could be recruited as a companion, but his abilities were so-so, not enough to keep him around for long. Instead, he could occasionally provide assistance if a royal character was needed when Seraphine wasn’t available.

It was an unavoidable situation for Antonio. At the time Phillipson was chosen as the successor, Antonio was only ten years old.

How could he have possibly predicted that Phillipson would die five years later and he would be thrown into the Imperial Succession Conflict?

While Seraphine might have prepared to some extent through her foresight, Antonio had no such ability.

Thanks to this, from a player’s perspective, he was merely a royal character who could be utilized without interfering with Seraphine. Just a character who kept to himself and preserved his life.

Still, objectively speaking, he was a rather likable character. In 『Luminor Academy』, all of Seraphine’s siblings, except Antonio and the youngest princess, were either rivals or obstacles.

In other words, Antonio was originally supposed to play the role of a recluse, staying out of the other siblings’ sight, occasionally offering help to the protagonist as a potential companion….

“Please accept my heart, Agnes Elizabeth Blaze yang!”

“What…?”

For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly confessing to Agnes out of the blue.

‘…What exactly did I mess up?’

No, come to think of it, maybe it wasn’t me, but Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot who messed up. This time, no matter how much I thought about it, I felt truly wronged.

After all, it had only been about half a year since I started getting involved with Agnes, and as for Antonio, this was practically the first time I’d ever met him.

Logically, it had to be the Hero who had caused something, not me.

…Right, that’s it. After all, I wasn’t the only variable that appeared in this world.

And Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot would be in a position to enjoy a much freer open-world RPG than me, who couldn’t go anywhere without Ethan, so it wouldn’t be impossible for him to build a connection with Antonio before the Part 2 story if he put his mind to it….

“From the first time I saw you, I was completely captivated by your beautiful magic!”

‘…Huh? Magic?’

“Two years ago, you appeared like a comet and protected the Imperial Palace’s East Gate, thanks to which I, too, was able to escape the danger of that day.”

‘…Two years ago? Imperial Palace East Gate?’

“I cannot express how much I’ve dreamed of meeting you again since that day. There were times I even thought I might never see you again.”

‘Wait, if this story is true, then….’

Two years ago, the Imperial Palace’s East Gate, and magic.

As far as I knew, there was only one incident that could combine these keywords with Agnes.

It was the moment the Masquerade Ball, Seraphine’s birthday banquet, naturally came to mind.

‘Wait, then what Agnes said about meeting Antonio before….’

Could it be that they met while she was clearing monsters at the Imperial Palace’s East Gate?

No, why didn’t Agnes tell me such important information properly?

Of course, I didn’t ask properly and just brushed it off, but for an incident of this magnitude, she should have explained it herself!

With Prince Antonio’s sudden string of bombshell declarations, the murmuring in the hall grew louder and louder.

…And Agnes, suddenly the center of everyone’s attention, was rolling her eyes, wearing the most flustered expression I had ever seen on her.

“I, I….”

“Yes, Agnes yang!”

“I, I don’t know anything about it…!”

“……Yes?”

“Ah, ahh, ahhhhhh…!!”

“W-wait a moment! Agnes yang!!”

-CRASH!

Unable to bear the surging gazes, Agnes chose to flee.

Prince Antonio stood blankly, extending an empty hand towards the spot where Agnes’s retreating figure had been, after she burst through the doors of the Noontide Sunflower Hall.

“Q-quickly bring back the person who just left! She might become a Princess Consort!”

“””Yes!!!”””

And then, the Imperial Palace Guards who were guarding the banquet hall immediately rushed out to find Agnes.

Taking advantage of the commotion, I also quickly rushed out of the banquet hall.

“I’ll bring Agnes back! Ed, please wait a moment!”

“Lily?! Wait, how do you know where Lady Blaze is….”

“It’s okay, I can find her!”

Even though I hadn’t focused on攻略ing Agnes in my previous life, I knew her basic habits.

So, for now, I had no choice but to find Agnes before the Imperial Palace Guards.

Whether to persuade her to come back or just send her home, I could think about that after I found her.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

The process of finding Agnes was surprisingly simple.

She had a consistent pattern in the direction she habitually walked when faced with an awkward or embarrassing situation.

It was a pattern I naturally came to know, even though I had never deliberately tried to攻略 Agnes. After all, Agnes was a character with excellent performance, having been taken as a companion in nearly 20 out of 24 clears.

‘The Imperial Palace Guards probably scattered and went down to the first-floor exits.’

Usually, in such a situation, those fleeing would consider escaping completely outside.

Of course, the Imperial Palace Guards didn’t really have the right to stop a guest who wanted to go home, but Agnes had, after all, abruptly cut off a conversation with Prince Antonio, the host of the banquet.

At the very least, they had a pretext to try and persuade her for a while.

‘The premise that Agnes ran away might be wrong from the start, though.’

No matter how embarrassing the situation she faced, Agnes was still representing the Elizabeth Family at this event.

To prevent the so-called ‘old farts of the family’ from finding fault with her, she wouldn’t just leave without permission.

She was probably just trying to spend some time alone in a secluded spot, and I could roughly guess where she might have gone.

She had a habit of seeking out ‘high places’ when she needed to think something over.

‘And there’s only one high place she could run to from the Noontide Sunflower Hall.’

The stairs on both sides immediately after exiting the Noontide Sunflower Hall. If you go up those stairs, you reach the 5th Floor Outdoor Garden.

It was a place in the Imperial Palace that was almost always open for guests, except at night, so it wasn’t difficult to guess Agnes’s movements.

-Thump.

“…….”

As soon as I opened the door to the outdoor garden and stepped outside, a red-haired noble lady came into view.

By her height and build, it was clearly Agnes. I slowly walked up behind her.

“Why did you suddenly run away, Agnes yang?”

“…What, it was you.”

“Who did you think it was?”

“…Seraphine, or that prince I don’t know.”

That prince she didn’t know.

From Agnes’s perspective, it wasn’t entirely wrong. After all, she had suddenly received a confession from Prince Antonio in a completely unexpected setting, so it was natural for him to feel like some unknown person.

Based on the conversation we had a week or two ago, it didn’t seem like they had a deep connection. It even seemed like Antonio had only heard Agnes’s name for the first time today.

I naturally became curious about what kind of connection they had, and hoping to help her with her worries, I first asked for the full story.

“What’s your relationship with Prince Antonio?”

“…No relationship at all. We just know each other by sight.”

“But Prince Antonio doesn’t seem to think so. You said you met him once before, right? When was that?”

“…Do you remember that day two years ago? The day a swarm of serpents attacked the Imperial Palace.”

“Ah, yes.”

“…Antonio was the one I fought with at the East Gate then.”

…Somehow, I thought that might be the case.

Well, considering the original game’s story, it was a natural conclusion.

During the King Serpent Attack Incident, the Imperial Palace’s North and West Gates weren’t breached because reliable main characters were defending them.

In 『Luminor Academy』, it was a fact naturally learned while progressing through the story that Orion defended the North Gate and Agnes and Seraphine defended the West Gate, where the boss monster appeared, during that incident.

And in the case of the South Gate, the defense forces were insufficient, allowing the attack to succeed and Lizzie to die.

However, for the East Gate, I only knew that the defense held after many sacrifices, but strictly speaking, it was a somewhat unnatural development.

If it was a monster wave that could be stopped by just the Imperial Palace Guards, it was strange that the South Gate, further from the lake, was breached while the East Gate was defended.

But if Antonio had participated in that defense, the story would be different.

Even with his mediocre stats, the fact that he was a potential companion meant he was a character with quite useful abilities, which couldn’t be denied.

Of course, at that time, Antonio would have only been about fifteen, so he wouldn’t have been able to perform as well as other characters, leading to many sacrifices.

“At first, I didn’t even know he was a prince. I just thought he was a young knight among the guards.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. As soon as I entered, two people looked to be in danger, so I provided magic support from the rear. The prince also seemed exhausted, so I pulled him back for a bit, and after that, the remaining personnel took turns defending. That’s all there was to it.”

“That’s a bit more mundane than I expected.”

“…Did you expect some kind of story about a prince on a white horse saving me from danger? That was really all it was.”

…Well, Agnes isn’t primarily a physical fighter, so she probably didn’t find it that difficult. Antonio and the other guards who had been defending the East Gate before Agnes arrived would undoubtedly think differently.

It wasn’t entirely impossible that he mistook his pounding heart in a life-threatening situation for love, due to the Suspension Bridge Effect.

And it was also a clear fact that the casualties decreased after Agnes provided support. Considering the original story, Prince Antonio would have survived somehow, but some of the other guards would have lost their lives.

“So, did you exchange names then too?”

“Huh? No, we didn’t exchange names.”

“What?”

“He collapsed near the end of the battle, and I just heard the guards saying things like, ‘Thank you for saving His Highness.’ That’s when I learned his name.”

“Ah, so that’s how it was….”

“After that, there was no reason to meet, so that was the end of it. …So I don’t really understand why he’s suddenly saying strange things to me.”

…So, it’s like this, right?

For Antonio, while his life was being threatened, Agnes suddenly appeared and saved the lives of the guards.

She joined the front lines with him and fought against the monsters.

Amidst that, he developed strange feelings for Agnes due to the Suspension Bridge Effect, then collapsed from exhaustion.

And when he woke up again, the woman who saved him had disappeared without even telling him her name… Is that the feeling?

‘It’s not entirely incomprehensible that he’d get excited and charge in as soon as they met.’

Still, publicly confessing at his own birthday banquet seems to cross the line quite a bit.