A Feast at Hongmen

Therefore, facing the invitations sent by the ladies and madams, he accepted them all.

That being said, there weren’t many, only five in total.

Two of them were even joint invitations from a few noble young ladies who admired him or were curious about the outside world; even if he attended, there likely wouldn’t be any gossip.

This situation arose because the influence of that scummy pinkette was not to be underestimated by most noble young ladies and madams.

Given a hundred times their courage, they wouldn’t dare to make a move on the Hero before the Saintess… even if the King had no intention of pairing the two.

But people are diverse; for every timid person, there are naturally those who fear nothing.

Hence, there were the other three invitations… but in Luke’s eyes, this was far too few.

This was not because he was desperate or that his thoughts were controlled by his lower half.

Rather, he was afraid that the scummy pinkette would only observe and take no action for the first few times, so he wanted to create more good opportunities for her to strike.

Fortunately, that scummy pinkette was no gentleman; her revenge sought only speed, precision, and ruthlessness—

‘Sir Luke, why did you agree?’

At dusk, Luke was stopped by Iris, who, upon hearing he had accepted the invitations, quickly showed an expression of exasperated disappointment.

‘They extended such a warm invitation, I really couldn’t bring myself to refuse.’

Seeing Luke’s refreshed and upright demeanor, completely oblivious to the danger of the situation, Iris became even more heartbroken. No longer caring about politeness or subtlety, she quickly said:

‘Sir Luke, please make sure to leave as soon as possible after dinner, and whatever you do, do not linger!’

‘Alright.’

‘And, please be sure to check if anything strange has been added to the food, and also be careful not to have too much contact with them…’

‘No problem.’

Luke pretended to listen attentively to everything, and once Iris left, he went straight to the designated location, following the messenger to visit Madame Mary, the first to invite him.

As for information on Madame Mary, Luke had already figured it out; she was a forty-year-old widow.

Her count husband had died when she was just twenty, leaving her with a two-year-old child.

Facing numerous schemers who coveted the count’s wealth, she worked tirelessly, navigating between various factions, carving out her own path and preserving the vast family fortune.

However, by the time those around her no longer dared to belittle her, her youth had long faded in the infighting, her body had become tainted in the process of relying on others, and her son, whom she had struggled to protect, refused to understand her.

She could only drown her sorrows in alcohol, leading to drunken indiscretions and an increasingly decadent life…

Now, when others were unwilling to offend the Saintess, she did the opposite, as if wanting to dye the entire world with her own filth, thereby making it turbid…

‘She’s a pitiable woman.’

Luke smiled faintly, his face filled with anticipation.

In contrast, outside the Countess’s villa, a group of people had gathered.

As the saying goes, good news travels slowly, but bad news spreads like wildfire.

In just two or three hours, news of Luke accepting invitations from notorious ladies and madams had already spread throughout aristocratic circles.

Aside from those lewd nobles who congratulated Luke on becoming a “fellow traveler,” most nobles, both male and female, were displeased.

Especially the fervent Saintess fans among them, who quickly gathered outside Madame Mary’s mansion, loudly protesting with amplification magic.

Madame Mary ignored them, silently casting soundproofing magic to cover the entire mansion, while dispatching guards to stand at the gate to block the crowd, clearly intending to forcefully take the Hero.

Just as both sides were in a heated standoff, Iris, accompanied by three noble young ladies, scaled the wall and infiltrated the Countess’s mansion.

Don’t misunderstand, this was not Iris having understood Elia’s true intentions and bringing people to catch them in the act… although the other three indeed had such intentions, Iris’s own thought was to find an opportunity to rescue Luke.

‘No, no, no, Iris, if that Hero actually dares to do something to displease Lady Elia, you absolutely must not intervene!’

‘That’s right, if he can’t even resist a woman like Madame Mary, he’s not worthy of being Lady Elia’s companion!’

‘Not a companion, a servant!’

The three young women were self-proclaimed ultimate fans of Elia, founders of the Saintess’s Personal Guard (an unofficial organization), and usually had a fairly good relationship with Iris. Seeing her near the mansion, they guessed she was going to sneak in and quickly followed.

Considering the three were bigmouths, not bringing them would likely result in them making a huge fuss nearby, so Iris had no choice but to protect the trio, evading various guards and detection magic, and entering the second floor of the main hall where Madame Mary was entertaining Luke.

After deploying invisibility and soundproofing barriers, the four of them peered over the railing, observing the situation below.

Upon seeing Luke’s behavior at the dinner table, the three young women immediately exploded.

‘Why is this bastard Hero smiling so happily!’

‘How dare he eat something given by that vixen?’

‘His hand touched, it touched… Aaaah, why doesn’t this damned Hero dodge!’

Although Iris’s reaction wasn’t as intense as the three women’s, she was also displeased with Luke’s every move, thinking that she had already warned him, so why was he still so careless?

‘Could it be that Sir Luke has been hit by mental manipulation magic?’

In fact, there was mental magic; Luke had detected it as soon as he saw Madame Mary.

It was very subtle, of a considerably high technical level, and even wrapped in a layer of blessing magic as a disguise… Clearly, the caster was not Madame Mary, but that scummy pinkette.

Disabling the magic was very simple, but doing so would likely be sensed by the caster, so Luke adopted a method of fighting poison with poison.

Strictly speaking, the scummy pinkette was casting a reverse purification magic that amplified psychological darkness, which didn’t actually fall into the realm of mental manipulation magic, but its effects were similar.

However, being interdisciplinary was ultimately no match for a specialist.

The moment the true mental magic was cast, Madame Mary’s psychological darkness instantly erupted… Yes, you didn’t misunderstand, Luke was fanning the flames.

After all, no one stipulated that fighting poison with poison had to be done through mutually counteracting methods—

‘Are you laughing at me too?’

Madame Mary’s expression suddenly turned grim.

‘My respected lady, I assure you I have no such intention.’

‘Don’t quibble!’ Madame Mary slammed her hand on the table, her eyes dark and profound. Remembering or thinking of something unknown, her beautiful face twisted into a knot, becoming terrifyingly hideous. ‘Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking; you just look down on me, thinking what I do is despicable, right? How ridiculous! What you’ve done, I don’t know how many times more sordid and vile it is than mine!’

‘My deepest apologies.’

‘What good are apologies? Can what I’ve lost be recovered? You despicable wretches, I demand you pay with your lives!’

At Madame Mary’s command, a group of guards surged into the room.

The eavesdroppers upstairs were completely stunned by this scene.

‘What’s going on? Weren’t they supposed to be seducing him? How did it turn into a fight in the blink of an eye?’

Iris, however, didn’t dither, swiftly pulling out Artemis’s Bow from her spatial ring, preparing to open an escape route for Luke.

However, just as she drew the bowstring, gathering energy for an arrow, a telepathic message floated into her slender ear.

[Please do not attack… I can handle it.]