The night wind was cold.

Muen’s heart was colder.

He turned his head to look to his left. The girl with the seductive tear mole at the corner of her eye was holding onto his arm, gazing at him deeply, her brows and eyes brimming with a tenderness that could make one’s soul sway.

He turned his head to look to his right. The maid with her hair tied up high and a dignified bearing was tugging on his sleeve, smiling brightly, her gaze fixed firmly on him, filled with infinite dependence and longing.

Ah, how strange.

This was obviously the kind of left-embrace, right-hug situation that any man would dream of, and the girls beside him were peerless beauties who had already shared skin-to-skin intimacy with him, their distance below zero...

So why was it, at this very moment, that he couldn’t help but feel like bursting into tears?

Why did he feel like he’d rather fight a group of Evil God cultists than stay here?

“Now then, Young Master, answer us. Which one do you choose?”

“That’s right, junior, answer. No matter what your answer is, we won’t blame you.”

How nice... they won’t blame me even if I’m this much of a scumbag...

As if!

You think I’d believe that?

This was clearly one of those ultimate “If me and your mom both fell in the water, who would you save first?” kind of forced-choice traps!

No, this was even more terrifying.

Because once the question became about two people... that meant double the joy, double the excitement...

And double the knives.

Sweat had already soaked through Muen’s back. He desperately wanted to find a chance to slip away, but the two of them were holding onto him tightly, clearly not intending to let him go without an answer.

What do I do, what do I do?

No matter which one I chose, it felt like my ending would be miserable.

At that moment, Muen’s brain spun faster than it ever had before. If not for his body still feeling weak, he would have even considered activating Time Delay just to get more time to think.

But facts prove that, in moments of greatest crisis, humans always burst forth with immense potential.

And in that instant of sudden inspiration, he caught hold of a way out!

“You, over there—come here.”

Muen suddenly waved toward someone not far away.

“Me?”

Jinze, who had been hiding in the shadows eating melon seeds like a spectator, froze and pointed at himself.

“Muen Campbell, are you calling me?”

“Who else if not you?”

Muen put on a kindly smile. “Come here. There’s something very important I need to discuss with you.”

“Something important...”

Jinze frowned.

He glanced at Anna on one side, then at Anne on the other. The two of them only gave him a casual glance before moving their eyes away without care, their attention still locked on Muen, waiting for his choice.

Jinze was puzzled.

But out of deference to Muen’s identity, and because of those words “something very important,” Jinze obediently walked over.

“Say it, what’s so important?”

“It’s just...”

Muen’s smile twisted strangely. His figure suddenly flickered, breaking free of the soft grasps of the two girls. In the next moment, a fist the size of a cooking pot expanded rapidly in Jinze’s vision.

“I’ve had enough of you. What are you looking at, you damn single dog!”

“Wha—”

Jinze’s eyes went wide in shock. He never could have imagined that Muen Campbell would actually attack him at a time like this.

Was he insane?

But it was too late to realize it now. Even if Jinze’s cultivation was higher than Muen’s, there was no way he could react to such an illogical, sudden strike—especially when he was completely off guard.

And so Jinze was sent flying with a single punch.

The scene instantly fell silent.

Everyone—even Anne and Anna—widened their beautiful ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) eyes in astonishment, staring at Muen, not knowing what madness had seized him.

Jinze sprang up from the ground like a carp flip, rubbing the red mark on his cheek, and roared in fury:

“Muen Campbell, do you know what you’ve just done!?”

“I know.”

Muen nodded.

“I attacked a Silent One—and a fairly high-ranking one at that.”

“Then do you know the consequences of what you’ve done!?”

Jinze’s nose was practically crooked with rage. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Broad daylight, clear skies, and he had assaulted a Silent One without reason.

How long had it been since such a ridiculous incident happened? Did he really think the Silent Bureau was afraid of some duke’s son?

Most importantly, you called me a single dog again!?

What’s wrong with being single? Does being single eat your family’s rice?

Jinze immediately pulled out a pair of specially-made shackles used for imprisoning cultists, snarling viciously:

“Muen Campbell, your actions are a grave crime!”

“I know that, naturally.”

Muen gave a reckless smile, his eyes full of the arrogant, domineering air that belonged only to a duke’s son, as if he hadn’t taken this misdeed to heart at all.

But just as Jinze tensed up, thinking he was about to pull some other outrageous stunt, Muen suddenly thrust out both hands, bowed his head sharply, and said:

“So, please arrest me, ah Sir!”

“...Hah?”

Jinze: ???

Anne: ...

Anna: ...

Jinze was still bewildered when he suddenly felt two gazes land on him, growing more and more meaningful.

Jinze’s burly frame shuddered, and he instantly understood.

Muen Campbell—you set me up!

Faced with those two gazes growing colder by the second, Jinze’s hand holding the shackles began to tremble uncontrollably.

One of them carried killing intent so strong it was nearly tangible—obviously not someone to provoke.

The other, according to rumors, was very likely the next Swordbearer.

So here was the question.

At this moment, was it the Bureau’s face that mattered... or his own life?

...

“What’s wrong, not arresting me? You’re a famous Silent One, and yet you’d let someone slap your Bureau’s face like this?” Muen raised his head and grinned.

Watching the ever-stiff, unyielding Jinze fall into hesitation, then sensing those two murderous gazes shift off him and back onto Jinze, Muen secretly gave himself a mental thumbs-up for his genius.

From here, no matter what Jinze chose, he had a way out.

Arrest him? He’d use the chance to slip away.

Not arrest him? He’d keep pestering and buy time.

No loss either way.

Most importantly, he had so easily shifted the conflict, plucking himself out of the center of the whirlpool. What wit, what improvisation.

Hmph, a mere two-person love triangle, watch me step across it with ease—

“Well, isn’t this lively.”

But just then, a cool, clear voice rang out across the scene.

Muen’s involuntarily raised smile froze instantly.

Stiffly, he turned his head toward that familiar silver-white figure in the distance.

Feeling the two gazes beside him abruptly shift from Jinze to that figure as well, bristling with the wary tension of predators meeting a rival beast, Muen swallowed hard and croaked out, in a voice like a dying man squeezing sound from his throat:

“Ce... Celicia, what are you doing here?”