Speaking of which, our boy is a total wreck, scratched up and exhausted. What happened? Absolutely nothing. He just desperately struggled to defend himself.
And right now Celia wakes up, points a sharp sword right at his face, and demands his final words.
He frantically tries to calm her down, but she just bluntly states that he is going to the afterlife without another word.
Panic mode activates. He is not even sure if he gets reincarnated again, so he wildly blurts out that his intentions came from genuine, real love. Sitting there glowing with fake emotion, hoping the universe grants him a lucky second chance, only to almost get his damn neck sliced open.
She harshly scolds him, swearing he really is completely disgusting.
He quickly apologizes and begs her to chill, arguing they did not even go all the way.
She snaps back that he is absolute trash for even calling those actions sincere. If he had actually tried to win her over with some real effort, maybe she would have genuinely accepted the marriage. But instead he took the super sleazy route. Cheap drugs and dirty trickery.
He desperately tries explaining that he never actually meant to insult her pride. She cuts him off cold and orders him to his knees.
Then suddenly a faint noise on the other side of the heavy door catches her attention. Grabbing him tightly by the neck, she forces him to command whoever is outside to leave immediately. She throws him hard to the floor, telling him to get dressed and handle it, mostly because he is totally about to die anyway.
This poor guy is stuck between three awful choices. Get killed by Celia, get publicly hanged by the king, or end up trapped in some bizarre dungeon by a stranger. Wait, was that the protagonist in his vision? It looked like some completely different lunatic.
Meanwhile the other girl casually pulls on her tights, calmly promising he will be dead any minute now.
Moon finally opens the door to check and violently jumps back.
It is a maid, claiming they spent time together earlier, and she has kindly brought him some food. He tells her to just set it down and says thanks, but then he realizes he has never seen her before. So who exactly is she?
She claims she was hired for the banquet. Kind of weird, considering absolutely no new maids or extra staff were supposed to be brought in today.
She nods, then suddenly dashes right forward and completely knocks him down. In that moment he realizes her real target is Celia. She leaps at him with twin knives. A huge explosion hits, and when he looks up, the ice queen at least managed to defend herself.
Celia demands to know if her totally idiot brother sent this assassin. The maid smiles. Those details are strictly confidential.
Meanwhile, in a totally different room, golden orbs are floating around, whispering that the princess dies tonight at the Campbell estate. And that hit will officially be the absolute end of someone. No clue who this mysterious white-haired girl is, but she clearly knows exactly what is coming.
Back in the room, right after that blast, the maid steps back. She admits Celia has some incredibly dense magic, but her whole expression drops when she hears the next incantation. Celia is suddenly charging forward with a massive ice spear and nearly skewers the assassin right through the skull.
While these two absolutely tear into each other, our guy realizes something grim. When gods fight, the mortals suffer. There is literally nothing he can do here.
He frantically tries opening the door, but it is locked shut. They are still going at it. He ducks behind cover, realizing that insane maid must have cast some kind of heavy barrier spell to keep everyone else out.
And then a detail clicks for him. That sudden change in plans to bring in outside staff, from just yesterday. The only possible way an ambush could be set up this perfectly is if someone inside has been leaking information.
He barely dodges a stray attack. Right now all he can do is pray that Celia actually wins. But then, looking over at her, standing there looking completely fierce, bruised up, and gripping her spear, he seriously starts wondering if that is actually a good thing. She might just kill him, too. Honestly, maybe it really would not be so bad if she died. No one would ever even find out.
Right then the maid laughs, calling Celia a total genius.
Celia snaps back that she can already feel somebody using gravity magic to mess with her footing, meaning there is a second attacker. She commands the maid to reveal who it is, or they both die right here.
The assassin just smiles. The rumors were right. Celia really is an absolute genius.
Celia completely snaps, telling her to shut up and talk. Who is orchestrating this? Especially if she wants to be spared.
But the maid casually admits she is not here to kill anyone. She is just buying time.
Suddenly the entire room violently shakes. That is when the grey-haired maid announces the chamber is fully sealed.
The second assassin reaches right into her pocket, pulling out a strange vial, declaring that she offers the lives of one hundred children as a dark sacrifice to the lord of the melted world. Celia instantly recognizes that foul energy. It is a dark god. But the mage just smirks, begging this entity to come down and completely suppress this whole world.
Pure red energy floods the room, slamming Celia hard against the wall. She knows if those rats show up now, she does not stand a chance.
The maid happily confirms it. Sure, they are rats. But the real target tonight is the princess.
She goes in for a lethal strike. Celia snatches the dagger from our guy and blocks the attack head on. The maid is completely shocked. This girl is bloodied, beaten, and exhausted, yet somehow still perfectly avoiding the vital points.
Still, it barely even matters now. Her magic is completely spent. One brutal kick to the ribs sends Celia crashing into the floor.
But Celia is just built different. She gets right back up.
The assassin promises to make her death painless, lunging forward for the final finishing blow.
Blood sprays everywhere.
But guess what. Our boy actually jumped in front and tanked it, taking the hit head on. Zero blocking, zero deflection. Just raw courage.