I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

Chapter 195

Antonio Robert Valtoria

The fifth prince of the Valtoria Kingdom, Antonio Robert Valtoria, found himself unexpectedly drawn into a power struggle for the throne after the sudden assassination of the first prince.

In the game Luminor Academy, Antonio was originally intended to be a support character with mediocre abilities. He could be recruited as an ally, but his skills were not impressive enough to justify keeping him for long. He was mainly useful when the player needed a royal character in the absence of Seraphine.

Given his situation, Antonio had no other choice. At the time when Philip was decided as the heir, Antonio was only ten years old. How could he have predicted that five years later, Philip would die and he would be thrust into the competition for the throne?

Even if Seraphine, with her ability to foresee the future, had made some preparations, Antonio lacked any such advantage. As a result, from the player’s perspective, he was just a royal character who didn’t interfere with Seraphine and could be used occasionally without much consequence—a character who did just enough to survive.

Still, objectively speaking, Antonio was a fairly likable character. In Luminor Academy, apart from Antonio and the youngest princess, all of Seraphine’s siblings were either rivals or obstacles.

Thus, under normal circumstances, Antonio would have remained a reclusive figure, staying out of sight of his siblings and occasionally helping the protagonist as a potential ally.

But then...

“Please accept my feelings, Miss Agnes Elizabeth Blaze!”

“What...?”

I couldn’t fathom what could have driven Antonio to suddenly confess to Agnes like this. It was beyond my understanding.

‘...What did I do wrong?’

No, thinking about it, maybe it wasn’t even my fault. It’s possible that Bolt did something to trigger this. No matter how much I thought about it, it seemed unfair to me.

After all, I had only been involved with Agnes for about half a year, and as for Antonio, this was practically our first encounter. Common sense suggested that whatever happened must have been Bolt’s doing.

...Yes, that makes sense. I’m not the only variable that appeared in this world.

And Bolt, unlike me who can’t go anywhere without Ethan, is free to roam in an open-world RPG. So if he wanted to build a relationship with Antonio before the second story arc, it wouldn’t have been impossible...

“I was completely captivated by your beautiful magic from the moment I first saw it!”

‘...Magic?’

“Two years ago, when you appeared like a comet to protect the eastern gate of the royal palace, I was saved from the dangers of that day.”

‘...Two years ago? The eastern gate of the palace?’

“I’ve dreamed of the day I could meet you again since then. I feared we might never meet again.”

Wait, if this story is true...

Two years ago, the eastern gate, and magic.

There’s only one incident I know of that involves all these elements and Agnes.

The memory of the masquerade ball on Seraphine’s birthday suddenly came to mind.

‘Wait, could it be that when Agnes said she had met Antonio before...?’

Could it really have been when she was fighting monsters at the eastern gate of the palace?

Why didn’t Agnes mention such an important detail?

Of course, I hadn’t asked about it directly and had just brushed it off, but still, something like this should have been brought up!

The murmurings in the hall grew louder with each of Antonio’s shocking declarations. Meanwhile, Agnes, now the center of attention, looked more flustered than I had ever seen her, her eyes darting around in confusion.

“I... I...”

“Yes, Miss Agnes!”

“I... I don’t know anything about this...!”

“...What?”

“What’s your relationship with Prince Antonio?”

“...There’s no relationship. We just know each other’s faces.”

“Well, it seems Prince Antonio doesn’t see it that way. Didn’t you mention you met him once before? When was that?”

“...Do you remember two years ago, the day the serpent horde attacked the palace?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, I fought alongside Antonio at the eastern gate.”

I had a feeling it was something like that.

Considering the original game’s storyline, it made sense.

During the King Serpent attack, the northern and western gates of the palace were held thanks to key characters stepping in to defend them.

In Luminor Academy, it was Orion who defended the northern gate, while Agnes and Seraphine managed to hold the western gate against the boss monsters. Players would naturally learn this as they progressed through the story.

As for the southern gate, it fell due to insufficient defense, resulting in Lizzy’s death.

The eastern gate, however, was held with great sacrifice. But the game’s narrative didn’t explain much, leaving it as an oddly mysterious event.

But if Antonio had been part of the defense, it changed things.

Even with his mediocre stats, Antonio was still a viable companion with enough skill to be useful.

Though at the time, Antonio would have been only about fifteen, which might explain why the defense led to such heavy casualties.

“At first, I didn’t know he was a prince. I just thought he was a young knight among the guards.”

“Really?”

“Yes. When I arrived, I noticed a couple of guards in danger, so I supported them with magic. Then, seeing that the prince was exhausted, I pulled him back for a moment, and we took turns defending the gate. That’s it.”

“That’s a bit more mundane than I expected.”

“Were you expecting a story about a prince on a white horse saving the day? That’s all there was to it.”

Well, Agnes was not a physical fighter, so she probably didn’t find it as challenging as the others. But for Antonio and the other guards who had been holding the line before her arrival, it must have felt quite different.

It’s possible Antonio mistook the adrenaline rush from the life-threatening situation for feelings of love.

And it was true that Agnes’s intervention had reduced the casualties. In the original story, Antonio might have survived without her help, but many of the other guards would have lost their lives.

“So, did you introduce yourselves during the battle?”

“Huh? No, we didn’t even exchange names.”

“What?”

“When the fight ended, he collapsed from exhaustion, and the guards were just thanking me for saving the prince. That’s when I found out his name.”

“Oh, I see...”

“And that was the end of it. I never saw him again after that... So, I don’t understand why he’s suddenly saying such strange things to me.”

So, it’s like this?

From Antonio’s perspective, during a critical moment when his life was in danger, Agnes appeared and saved the lives of the guards.

She fought alongside him on the front lines against the monsters, and in the midst of the chaos, he mistook the adrenaline for love before collapsing from exhaustion.

When he woke up, the woman who had saved him had vanished without even revealing her name... something like that?

‘I can see how he might get a bit too excited upon meeting her again.’

Even so, confessing his feelings so publicly at his birthday banquet was probably a step too far.