A Skilled Emotional Liar

After Kefiel hooked her arm around mine and said something earth-shattering and soul-stirring, I watched as that Louis Twenty-Three ran off with surprise and barely hidden glee.

Such a familiar scene, such a textbook reaction.

As someone who reads scripts every day, I immediately understood what was happening—this was Kefiel subconsciously using the ultimate trick every protagonist knows: playing the pig to eat the tiger!

Doesn’t that mean I’ve just become cannon fodder!?

I wanted to chase after her and explain, but then my mind instantly filled with all kinds of fancy death scenarios, which made me freeze in place like a coward right next to Kefiel.

While observing Kefiel’s expression, I carefully and cautiously pulled my arm out from her big, pale embrace.

“Miss Kefiel, Big Boss Kefiel! What on earth were you doing just now!?”

I’m just a decorative leg ornament, and yet Kefiel almost stuffed my hand inside her clothes earlier!

If this misunderstanding spreads, the way I die in my script will instantly upgrade to ‘not even ashes remain’!

In response to my complaint, Kefiel simply flipped her hair and gave me an extremely “protagonist-like” smile.

“You don’t understand.”

I don’t understand?

Oh, I understand all too well that your protagonist soul is burning with the urge to play the pig and eat the tiger.

What I don’t understand is why you’re making me the cannon fodder!

“Why do you care so much? Just relax.”

But in the very next moment, all my panic vanished because Kefiel, while pushing me along a little impatiently, gave me the biggest reassurance possible.

“As long as you’re by my side, nothing will happen.

No… weren’t you planning to cling to my thigh?”

As if to hide something, Kefiel kept pushing me, and those two big, pale things on her chest occasionally pressed against my back.

“If anyone dares to mess with you, I’ll run them through with my sword.

Now hurry!

Let’s go to my room; everyone’s watching here.”

After saying that, Kefiel turned her slightly flushed face to the side.

Hehe~ I’m all yours to use.

I’m your personal hand guard, your little round shield.

This thigh… is so comfy to hug!

After that, under Kefiel’s urging, I followed her and Miss Nilu straight to Kefiel’s private residence—a separate small building a good distance away from the grand estate I saw at first glance.

That suits Kefiel’s status.

After all, she’s the protagonist.

How could the protagonist live with random background characters like me?

What met my eyes was the simplest furniture and decorations, though of course, when it comes to the protagonist, it’s not called simple—it’s called understated elegance, or rather, playing the pig to eat the tiger!

Soon after, Miss Nilu went straight to the kitchen to prepare tea with practiced ease, which suggested that she probably lives here with Kefiel most of the time.

A moment later, Nilu brought out the tea tray, and Kefiel, while closing the door, finally told me the deeper purpose behind what she just did with Louis Twenty-Three.

“Euclid, to be honest, I believe that Louis Twenty-Three, the person you just met, is my rival in the competition to be chosen for the ruins expedition.”

“Mm.”

I nodded.

I haven’t read the script, but based on experience, I can guess at least 80%.

Kefiel sighed with a hint of self-mockery: “Actually, I’ve been troubled for a while because I couldn’t improve my strength.

So I’ve been somewhat distracted in my performance, and there are even rumors that I’ve regressed in power.

That’s why my father, who’s in charge of this, didn’t agree to let me be selected.”

Then, Kefiel smiled at me.

“But this time, I want to prove myself again!

Not just to Father, but to Louis Twenty-Three as well.

That’s why I did what I did—so I can completely slap their faces later and show them who I am!”

“Oh… oh!”

She even wants to slap her own dad’s face.

Wow…

As expected of Kefiel!

As expected of the protagonist!

I, Euclid, will cling to these gorgeous white thighs through heaven, earth, water, and stone if I have to!

Then Kefiel lifted my chin, just as I was pretending to sip tea like a dead man, and looked at me with that wild, domineering, cool, wicked, and dangerously alluring stare.

“Euclid, what are you pretending not to know?

You have to cooperate this time.”

“What!?”

“From Louis Twenty-Three’s reaction, the family probably already knows I brought a man home.

You don’t need to know my plans, but you can’t be as cowardly as you were just now when you saw Louis Twenty-Three, right?”

Come on, Kefiel!

How can I not be scared?

You’re the protagonist—when you show off, it’s called playing the pig to eat the tiger.

But me?

I’m a big villain!

If I show off, it’s called digging my own grave!

“I’ve already thought of a solution for you.”

Kefiel’s lips curved into a beautiful arc.

“It’s fine that you acted timid earlier to make Louis Twenty-Three happy.

But when you meet my father later, you have to switch gears and give Louis Twenty-Three a hard slap in the face, because someone like him will definitely go snitch to my father.”

Showing off in front of the protagonist’s dad… in front of an eighth-rank swordsman who’s half a step from sainthood…

I think I know why my script includes a death scene labeled ‘not even a corpse left.’

Kefiel seemed dissatisfied with my hesitation and puffed her cheeks: “Euclid, you’re my personal cleric!

How can you let people look down on you forever?

And what are you afraid of?

As long as I’m here, no one on this continent can touch you.”

Miss Nilu hurriedly covered her wide-open mouth in shock.

I’m not going to fall for the protagonist just because of that line, but hey, when the thigh offers itself this much, pretending to be dumb would mean picking a fight with fate.

“So, what kind of image do you want me to play?

A domineering CEO?

An invincible powerhouse?

A descendant of the Ye clan?”

“…”

I don’t know…

Hmm, if I had to pick something really intimidating and mysterious…

The next second, I flipped my hood over my head and reached out to Kefiel, using the most classic con-man trick I’ve always used as Euclid, the big bad prophet.

“I am Euclid, the divine messenger hated by all yet untouchable by any.

Lost maiden, shall I tell you… your destiny?”

Kefiel didn’t answer.

She just… stared at me.

“…”

How did I do?

Say something!

Don’t just stare!

But Miss Nilu clapped her hands: “Mr. Euclid, you just seemed like a completely different person!

Just like… well, like the protagonists in the books I’ve read!”

What!?

I panicked immediately.

I’m a villain pretending to be a protagonist.

That’s straight-up career suicide!

“Ahem, Kefiel, I… I’ll improvise, okay?

Don’t overthink it.”

“Mm… mm.”

This time Kefiel didn’t insist.

Instead, she gazed at me for a moment, then suddenly snapped out of it and hurriedly patted her already flushed cheeks.

“Whatever!

Nilu, take him to fix his face and then bring him to the main hall’s meeting room.”

“Father said… he wants to see us.”