Chapter 185: 15-year-old Inglis and the Two Leading Actresses (38)

It was now the climax of the performance, the kissing scene between Mariabelle and Prince Malik. Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte who were seated in the audience seats were watching it with rapt attention.

「Ooh……Here it is, here it is!」

Prince Malik, played by Ian, raised his hand gently to touch the hair and cheek of Mariabelle, played by Inglis. It was heating up! Her heart was leaping out of her throat.

Inglis had said that perhaps Ian or someone else would come sabotaging or subverting their attention, and thus they were prepared for that, but so far, nothing out of the line happened.

In the last duel scene, Inglis and Yua were a bit overworked and destroyed some parts of the walls and the ceilings, but it was not something out of the line but rather an expected outcome and, in fact, Rafinha was glad that the destruction ended there.

However, Yua suddenly collapsing and bringing an end to the duel was probably unexpected even for Inglis. For Inglis, who was more beautiful, adorable, and more uninterested in boys than anyone else, wouldn’t want to put herself through the kissing scene. She must have planned to enjoy the duel as much as she could and handed the victory to Yua once she had had enough.

However, Rafinha had another thought. There was no way things would go so smoothly for her. Ever since they were little, Rafinha had seen time and time again Inglis got carried away and went overboard when it came to battles.

Thus, she knew all too well that this would happen, and she wished for it as well.

After all, she really wanted to see Inglis being honestly embarrassed.

And that was exactly what was happening, with her cheeks flushed red, her head turned down, and her voice a little shaky as she delivered her lines.

「That’s it, you’re cute! You’re so cute up there, Glis!」

「She really is……Now we are the one who is anxious!」

「Yes, it sure makes our hearts throb!」

Leone and Liselotte, sitting shoulder to shoulder with her, were also as expectant as she was.

「Seeing her like this, Miss Inglis sure looks adorable and picturesque.」

Principal Miliera, who was sitting one row behind them, also gave her comment.

There was a possibility that something might happen at this moment, but overanxiety would turn the mood sour. Now that it came to it, she wanted to see Inglis kissing!

Not to mention, she wanted to use this as an opportunity for Inglis to turn a new page as a girl and kindle her interest in boys. This was the first step to getting her to marry Raphael and become Ymir’s Marchioness in the future. Besides, if Rafinha should tell Raphael about this, he surely would become more incentive.

This was a win-win for all sides. And so, sally-forth! Do it until the end!

While in truth, however, Inglis looked embarrassed because she was trying to resist the urge to punch Ian in the face, but…

That feeling didn’t get across to Rafinha and the others. They were speechlessly staring at the pretty figure of Inglis on the stage, but then…

Right before the kiss, Inglis shifted her face.

「Aah……!」

——was what they thought, when suddenly Inglis vanished from their sight.

「Eh……?!」

Clink!

As the dry sound of something being smashed reverberated, their vision turned dark. It wasn’t so dark that they couldn’t see anything, though, as the hole in the ceilings that Inglis made shed some light into the building. All of this happened because the lights in the theatre had gone out. However, this wasn’t part of the script. In other words…

「Miss Rafinha! Miss Leone! Miss Liselotte! As planned, do your parts!」

As expected of the Principal, her reaction was one step faster than Rafinha and the others. As soon as she waved her cane Artifact, her figure distorted in space and disappeared. The same thing happened to the other audiences who were buzzing with the sudden event.

「Yes!」

「Understood!」

「Leave it to us!」

The voices of the three echoed through the mostly empty and silent theatre. However, this didn’t mean that there was nobody else in the audience seat that heard them.

「Th-, this is……?!」

That voice came from near the center of the gallery, exactly where King Charleas was seated a few moments ago.

It was from a rather large man with short, chestnut-colored hair with a brutish atmosphere. Despite not being in the cold season yet, he was dressed so thickly it was hard to see anything from his neck below.

No doubt about it. It was the man she saw last night when she dropped off Alina; a man named Diego. There were two other men next to him, dressed similarly. Their eyes were swimming around, looking at their surroundings after everyone had disappeared.

「S-, something happened?!」

「Kgh……! Where did the King go?!」

It seemed that they were plotting to take advantage of the chaos to strike in the dark.

However, their target, King Charleas, was no longer here.

It was because they had been quarantined into a subspace that Principal Miliera created with the power of her Artifact. In the last incident, she used it to quarantine the Magic Stone Beast that Ripple summoned to minimize the damage to the surrounding area, but this time she used it for evacuation to ensure safety.

Leone’s black greatsword had the same power, and it should have been her role to evacuate everyone, but…

With Leone’s current strength, she would bring everyone within her area of effect into her subspace. Should at least one of the assassins be within her area of effect, they would be transferred in as well, making the evacuation moot. Furthermore, her area of effect wasn’t large enough to encompass the entire gallery.

In that regard, Principal Miliera, who possessed a Special Grade Rune and boasted a higher level of competency, could cover the whole theatre under her influence, leaving only Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte for them to disarm the assassins.

That was why, considering their response to the unforeseen circumstances, they decided to ask Principal Miliera to take the role of ensuring safety in case something did happen.

They determined who the assassins were during their five-man dance in the first act, when Inglis leaped to the center of the gallery. The performance that wasn’t in the script in the first place was actually not a service for the audience but rather a means to find out anyone suspicious within the gallery. According to Inglis, the criteria was people with an abnormal flow of mana.

And Inglis was right, as the man named Diego and his goons, all of whom were excluded from the spatial transfer, were clearly targeting King Charleas.

「Too bad for you, His Majesty is already in safety! Just give up and hand yourselves!」

Rafinha held up her beloved bow Artifact, the new Flowing Radiance that Special Envoy Theodore had given to her, and declared imposingly.

「Big Sis Rafinha?!」

But then, another voice rang from another place.

「……?! A-, Alina……?!」

Apparently, Alina was also left behind in the audience seat.

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