Sister, take a sip

As soon as the words fell, Louis Twenty-Three could no longer stand steady.

Her face changed colors like a magic trick, from red to green, from green to blue, and finally to a deathly pale white.

The countless layers of makeup on her face were smeared by the cold sweat seeping out from nervousness, turning into a strange mess of colors.

In no time, Louis Twenty-Three’s face looked like a multicolored garden.

She could barely breathe, her voice sounding like someone suffering from asthma.

“You… what nonsense are you spouting!? Uncle, it seems not only is his identity suspicious, but he must have some kind of mental illness as well…”

“Then let me make it clearer.”

What I saw in her script shocked even me—there were so many things in there that would make a grown man blush and his heart race.

“Didn’t you say it yourself, Miss Louis, that a candidate must be flawless? That Kefir isn’t qualified?

But didn’t you just spend last night with a handsome, elegant, and dashing man, going to places and at times that make people think otherwise?

Or were you two just going to play cards?”

[Louis Twenty-Three walked into the Durace Hotel last night with a blonde man and only returned this morning.]

That’s exactly how the script described it, so there’s no way it’s wrong.

So…

“Nonsense!”

At the moment when the cold sweat on her face had almost glued her makeup into a paste, Louis Twenty-Three finally couldn’t hold it in and reached out to grab me!

Even for someone like her, killing me—a defenseless man—would have been a piece of cake, but…

Her hand hadn’t even fully extended, trembling with anger and fear, when Kefir slapped it away.

“Stay away from him.”

This time, Kefir was serious.

The force behind her slap not only knocked Louis Twenty-Three’s hand aside, but almost sent her sprawling to the floor.

After casting an incredulous look at Kefir, Louis Twenty-Three immediately put on a victim’s face, pretending to cry as if the person standing beside her wasn’t Kefir’s father, but her own.

“Uncle, look! This shady man does nothing but spout nonsense and now he’s slandering me to save himself!”

Kefir, my precious thigh to cling to, was getting even more irritated now, but just as she was about to speak up for me, I held her back.

Miss Kefir, Boss Kefir, you’re the protagonist here~

How can something as trivial as this sudden extra villain who can be defeated with words make you step in?

I’ll handle her for you.

All you need to do is let me cling to your thigh when she gets mad, just like before.

These petty issues aren’t worth your attention; otherwise, what’s the point of me being the thigh-hugging villain?

Even thigh-huggers have professional ethics.

Kefir’s faint sigh told me she agreed, and with the protagonist’s aura protecting me, I was even more confident.

“Think I’m lying? Want me to give more details? Like that blond hunk’s name?”

Louis Twenty-Three was trembling all over like a leaf in the wind.

After staring at me with doubt and suspicion for a while, she hastily changed her tune.

“You… you don’t understand! I had official business to attend to! But how do you know!? You must have followed me!”

Panicked, she didn’t dare press the accusation of stalking any further and instead desperately clung to that excuse.

“Uncle, look! Kefir is always hanging around shady people like this!

There are even rumors she’s been slacking on her training lately, and her strength has declined…

Forget other qualities; just in terms of strength, as a candidate, she might already be…”

“Strength? Miss Louis Twenty-Three, are you sure you want to compare that with Kefir?”

One problem hadn’t even settled before she brought up another, trying to use strength as an excuse to claim superiority.

But first of all, Kefir’s the protagonist—she can’t lose to a side character like you.

More importantly…

What I saw in the script about Louis Twenty-Three didn’t disappoint me at all.

[Louis Twenty-Three’s dual fifth-tier strength was achieved through the use of expensive forbidden drugs, not natural ability.]

So she’s basically doping.

I was just wondering why a background character could be this strong.

“Indeed, Kefir might not have shown much lately, but that’s just a normal fluctuation in her state.”

I glanced at Kefir, but she turned her head away and ignored me.

“But you, Miss Louis Twenty-Three, secretly popping little pink pills—isn’t that even more against the rules?”

“Hmph, you must have water in your brain! To smear someone as upright as me, you’d even say I took pink…”

Halfway through her sentence, Louis Twenty-Three suddenly stiffened, standing unsteadily as her face darkened.

The little fairy had turned into a raging demon—haha!

Finally realized I even know the color of your pills, huh? Basic skill, no need to thank me.

Uncle Zerora, standing off to the side, frowned in alarm, his voice sharp with suspicion:

“Louis Twenty-Three, what pills is he talking about?”

“T-That… it’s… all just his nonsense!”

In her panic, Louis Twenty-Three drew her sword recklessly.

I didn’t even need the script to know she wanted to skewer me like a pig.

But before she could even make her move, Kefir—who had stayed silent until now because I was “running my mouth”—intervened without hesitation.

“Dare to come at him again? Louis Twenty-Three, next time it won’t end like this.”

She precisely grabbed Louis Twenty-Three’s wrist, knocked the sword from her grip before it could even clear the sheath, and then twisted her arm.

A pig-slaughtering scream echoed as Louis Twenty-Three raised her head to glare at me.

So cool, so crisp, no unnecessary words—just action!

Truly worthy of being the protagonist, Kefir.

My adoring gaze made Kefir turn her head away in embarrassment.

Then, she let go, leaving Louis Twenty-Three disheveled and howling about “cover-ups” and “you’ll pay for this” like a textbook villain before storming out of the conference room.

When everything finally fell silent, Kefir slowly turned to her father.

“Father, I’m renewing my request for the qualification to enter the Goddess Ruins.”

She paused.

“And if you so much as lay a finger on him, you’ll never see me again for the rest of your life.”