"Oops."

The man then put a finger to his chin and hummed as he scrutinized Arthur's suit like an art critic.

"Hmmm... yes, the red of the wine contrasts well with the suit."

Arthur was confused. He didn't know whether or not the man intentionally spilled the wine on him.

"Umm... Are you okay?" Arthur asked with concern.

The man immediately looked up at Arthur and exclaimed, "oh my! I'm so sorry for spilling the wine on your precious suit! My hand slipped, it really did!"

No matter how you look at it, it was an over-the-top and very theatrical voice. However, Arthur still couldn't tell whether or not the man was being genuine.

"..."

"I spilled wine on the Hero of Light. Whatever shall I do?"

"W-Well," Arthur stuttered, still confused by the situation, "it's fine. I can always clean this up with magic later."

The man's grin grew wider as he patted Arthur's shoulder. "Thanks, but I still feel bad. I'll pour you some wine to make up for it."

"You really don't need to—"

But the man had already made his way toward a nearby table and poured another glass of wine. As he approached Arthur again, the glass of wine "slipped" from his hand and stained the front of Arthur's suit.

"Oh!" He gasped. "Sorry! I did it again! How clumsy!"

Looking at the man's wide grin and the chuckles coming from the people who was behind him, Arthur was still confused.

'Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.'

"It's okay. Everyone makes mistakes, right?"

The man snickered and patted Arthur's shoulder with a whisper. "I'm glad you're as 'innocent' as people make you out to be, Arthur Kilvillain."

'...Why do I have the feeling that he's calling me stupid?'

However, Arthur soon discarded such thoughts. It wasn't good to assume that everyone had bad intentions. Plus, this was a good chance to make a new friend! Or maybe, a new rival!

Clearing his throat, Arthur extended his hand out with a smile. "Seems like you already know about me. What's your name?"

The man looked at Arthur's hand in disdain before answering in a haughty voice. "I can't believe you don't know who I am. Very well, I shall enlighten you. I'm G—"

But before he could finish his sentence, the whole banquet hall was plunged into absolutely darkness. In the middle of the venue, however, was a spotlight that shone upon a robed figure that looked very out of place amidst the luxurious clothes.

"Welcome!" He said. His voice boomed in the silence of the banquet hall. "I am Keller, a branch vice-manager of the Darkest night."

Not waiting for anyone to scream in fear at his presence, he continued. "Today, I'm here to massacre you all."

Just this sentence alone made Arthur's blood boil. However, he still managed to somewhat keep his calm and assess the situation.

'Looks like he's C-ranked.'

Arthur was confused. Why did this guy decide to attack the banquet alone? Even if he was C-ranked, there were hundreds of students here. Not to mention, Arthur himself was present. 'Did he have a death wish?'

Unfortunately, Arthur's question would soon be answered as Keller snapped his fingers and shouted, "come on boys! Show them!"

Instantly, several muffled screams could be heard, before 6 robed men walked out of the darkness and into the spotlight with students struggling in their restraints.

Reveling himself in the horrified expressions of the students, Keller continued. "There are many more of us inside the darkness, so—" he grinned. "—attack wildly. Maybe you'll be able to get out of here alive."

"Who do you think you are?! I'm prince Gabriel Salvant, and you shall release me right now!"

The self-righteous shout came from the students who were taken captive. Arthur paid more attention to them and noticed that the one who shouted his name out loud was the young man that spilled the wine on him earlier.

"Oh, you're the prince?" Keller spoke with a high-pitched voice; it was hard to tell whether it was a mocking or excited tone. "Great! Then we're going to have even more fun!"

After sowing seeds of doubt and discord amongst the students, Keller clapped his hands. "Enough of that, let's start the main event! Lights out!"

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But the spotlight was still running.

Frowning, Keller clapped his hands even harder this time.

"I said, lights out!"

But it was still shinning brightly.

Before he could clap again, a high-pitched sound rang out from the ceiling, reminisce of the sound that microphones always made when they were turned on. After a while, the sound disappeared and was replaced with a voice.

"ONE TWO THREE... TEST, TEST, CAN YOU ALL HEAR ME?"

'This voice... Theodore?' Arthur thought.

"WHY AM I EVEN DOING THIS? OF COURSE YOU FUCKERS CAN ALL HEAR ME. ANYWAY, I'M HERE TO TELL MR. SHADY CULTIST THAT I'VE REPLACED HIS MASSACRE EVENT WITH SOMETHING ELSE."

"What?! Who are you!" Keller shouted angrily.

"OOOH, I CAN HEAR YOUR SHOUT ALL THE WAY OVER HERE. ANYWAY, I'M NO ONE SPECIAL. WHAT IS SPECIAL, THOUGH, IS THE NEXT EVENT. I CALL IT—"

Theodore paused for a few seconds for dramatic effect.

"—THE LIGHTSHOW. ENJOY!"

After Theodore's voice ceased, nothing happened for a few seconds. Then, Arthur could feel something dripping onto his head. He swiped the liquid with his finger and brought it close to his eyes to examine it.

'Red... but this is blood, not wine!'

Arthur frantically looked around. Blood was dripping everywhere from the ceiling, and no one seemed to have noticed it except for Arthur. He wanted to just scream and warn everyone, but stopped himself upon considering the possibility that it was Theodore's plan.

Luckily for him, he didn't need to make a choice since Keller had also noticed it. "What is this blood?!"

As if on cue, the blood on Arthur finger shook violently before shooting to the left of him. Then, the highly pressurized beam of blood froze into a crystalline structure.

Simultaneous screams of pain reverberated through out the banquet hall as soon as the blood hardened. Arthur turned toward the closest scream and dashed toward it. When he got close enough, he noticed that the one who screamed was a robed man, who was lying on the floor with crystallized blood embedded in his chest.

Horrified, Keller pointed toward the door to the second floor and screamed, "GO UP THERE AND KILL THAT BASTARD!"

Several robed men rushed toward the doors. Half of them were skewered by hardened blood on the way there, but the other half managed to get through the door. However, horrible screams of pain and agony could be heard as soon as the men closed the door.

Things only got worse from then on for Keller. Tiny needles of Light poked holes through the ceiling and show toward the remaining men, killing them.

After a few minutes, the "lightshow" was over. However...

"HUH, THE LEADER IS STILL UNSCATHED? THAT'S UNEXPECTED."

Keller, gasping for breaths since he spent the last few minutes dodging the attacks, cursed loudly.

"DAMMIT! COME DOWN HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN! YOU COWARD!"

"GOOD IDEA."

Unexpectedly, Theodore listened to Keller's words. With a loud bang, the ceiling collapsed, kicking dust up into the air. As the dust settled, the figure of Theodore standing arrogantly atop a pile of rubble was revealed.

However, something was strange. Red electricity occasionally sparked on his body, and his hair had turned gray instead of black.

"Y-You!" Keller shouted. "You dare?! I'll have you know, I—"

But before Keller could finish his sentence, Theodore pointed a finger at him and shot a [Lightning spear]. The spear pierced Keller's leg, making him scream in agony.

"Talk less, fight more," Theodore yawned.

With bloodshot eyes, Keller quickly grabbed prince Gabriel and used him as a shield. "I-I have your prince!"

"I guess you do," Theodore sighed. "Looks like I'll have to fight you directly."

Theodore rolled his sleeves up and dashed toward Keller, preparing to swing his fist. As soon as Theodore reached him, Keller shrieked and held Gabriel up like a meatshield.

'His stance...' Arthur thought as he observed Keller. '...It's full of openings. Grabbing prince Gabriel just made things worse for him.'

Just as Arthur was about to cheer preemptively for Theodore's victory, something strange happened. Theodore's fist didn't strike Keller's fully exposed body. Instead, the attack connected with prince Gabriel's face.

"Gurghh!"

"Oops." Theodore said with the straightest face possible. "My hands slipped. Let's try attacking Mr. Cultist again, shall we?"

His fists landed on Gabriel's face again.

"Arghhh!"

"Oh my, how careless of me."

And again.

"You bastard! You're doing this on purpos— AHH!"

"Hey hey, I'm trying to save you here, prince Gabriel."

"I'll remember your face— Gurghhh!"

"I'm touched that the Imperial prince will remember this lowly peasant."

Though, with the shit-eating grin that was plastered on his face, Theodore's words didn't seem too credible.

After several more attacks, Theodore finally got serious and knocked Keller out in one precise hit. He then roughly kicked Gabriel away to grab Keller by the neck.

"Goodbye, c—"

"WAIT!" Arthur shouted.

And Theodore waited. With Keller's neck still in his grasp, he watched as the crowd parted way for Arthur to approach him. As Arthur was only 3 steps away from him, Theodore sighed.

"Haaah... what do you want?"

"Don't kill him! I believe that even he can repent."

Theodore scowled and muttered, "this shit again?" Then, he let out an even longer sigh. "Fine... I won't kill him." His lips suddenly curled up into a grin. "You're right about keeping him alive. I need to torture the information out of him after all."

"That's not what I m—"

"Thanks for the advice, Arthur," Theodore cut him off rudely. Then, he promptly made his way to the exit.

Before he left, Theodore left some final words.

"Praise Goddess Lyra!"

***

As soon as I left the banquet hall, the Cultist leader in my grasp regained consciousness.

'Well, I'm pretty sure he never fainted.'

And his next words only proved my suspicions.

"P-Please! I'll tell you everything! Please let me live!"

"Oh, I lied." I said in a nonchalant tone. "I don't actually need your information. All I wanted was to make that pushover shut up. Now, for everyone's sake, die."

"WAI—"

I crushed his throat.

Throwing his body into [Alternate storage], I tapped the brown grimoire on my waist to make myself invisible. Then, I entered the banquet hall again to observe the situation.

Since Adel and I intervened in time, hardly anyone got injured. Most students were either breaking down crying or getting rid of the corpses.

'Tch, how weak-minded.'

There was one thing that satisfied me though, and it was the fact that many people were murmuring about Lyra.

'This should increase her Divinity by a hefty sum.'

Then, I opened the door to the second floor and entered it. As soon as I did so, I saw a flight of stairs leading up.

"Oops, almost fell for my own trap there."

I dispersed the illusion and looked down the deep hole that was in the middle of the stairs. As I had expected, a dozen or so Cultists were impaled by the hardened blood spears I planted inside the hole. What I didn't expect, however, was the fact that a familiar silver-haired Angel was standing at the bottom of the pit, crossing her arms and pouting at me.

"Adel? What are you doing there?"

She didn't answer and instead glared at me.

"Don't tell me... you also fell for the trap?"

Her glare intensified.

Chuckling, I climbed down to get rid of the corpses and helped her up.