Julien had a thoughtful look as he stared at the two people he'd just turned into stone… alongside the few animals that were in the vicinity of his spell. "I really did go overboard with creating that spell huh?" he said to himself, a bit surprised at the effectiveness of it. Yeah, he really will have to be more careful with the spells he creates next time like his mother said. He just got carried away.

Yes, that's the excuse he's going to go with.

"P-Prince Julien… are you really Leone…?" Valerie's voice behind him shook him out of his thoughts, and he turned to her with a raised brow.

"Of course it's me, Alicia. Did you really think I'd forget you? You always got yourself in dangerous situations that I had to save you a lot you know~?" he smiled, "Don't you remember that time at the beach? You cried so much when you got stung by the jellyfish that I had to hug you tight for half an hour until you got exhausted and fell asleep, the crybaby childhood friend I always took care of. Alicia Dewford. I could never forget you." as he said this, he smiled softly at her, patting her head out of habit as he saw the tears that were spilling from her eyes, "You're my beloved partner, it would be a disgrace if I had forgotten you."

It was weird, saying this to someone who very clearly wasn't Alicia, but somehow… he knew it was her. She may have looked different, but he still knew it was her. His childhood friend—no, his partner.

Her bottled up emotions seemed to have reached its limit as she suddenly cried out and hugged him tightly, placing her head against his chest. The sword she had been holding fell to the ground as she poured out all her emotions towards him. "Leone! Leone… I'm sorry! I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I'm never going to run away again… I'm not…" he couldn't completely understand her muffled cries, but it was clear that she had been heavily affected by their separation back on Earth.

Julien/Leone closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he pulled her closer, "It's okay. I'm here Alicia, I'm not going anywhere, I'm here. Don't worry…" he softly whispered assurances to her as he combed her hair to calm her down, quieting her sobs down as she gripped tightly onto him.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Julien opened his eyes and looked around, seeing Nora beside Lorentz, speaking with him as they took care of the wounded knights and mages who had guarded them to the best of their abilities. He furrowed his brows slightly as he thought about the sacrifices that have been made, not all the guards were able to survive, rather, only few were really able to…

In the end, it was an ambush huh. Weird… he'd never heard of this happening within the game—or rather, there wasn't really much backstory given to the villainess Valerie, was there? Even though he'd scoured through the entire game, Riverside Crossing, for every little bit of backstory of all the characters, especially Valerie… there wasn't much.

Rather than that, her whole backstory was simply shrouded in mystery. In the first place, how exactly did Valerie and Prince Julien get engaged together in the first place? Thinking about it logically… there would have been no reason for someone like Valerie to be engaged with someone as talented as Julien.

… wait, was that why many characters within the game hated Valerie in the first place? And for Julien… oh. Thinking about it retrospectively, if such an accident like this happened in the game, even if it wasn't for them being engaged, the ties between Elise and Nora would have been enough for someone as caring as the Queen to take her friend's daughter in her family to protect her…

The Darnum house wasn't exactly kind to those without talent, after all. Thinking about that, he looked down to Valerie who was in his arms, meeting her violet eyes that were staring at him in a trance. She blinked, but then he smiled, and it looked as though she fell into an even deeper trance as her eyes looked at him with a slightly ecstatic gaze, her cheeks flushing just enough for him to notice.

He held back a chuckle at seeing her like that. That looked more like the Valerie he knew in the game, that gaze which she seemed to only show towards the prince—ah right, he was Prince Julien now.

Speaking of which, thinking about the game, Prince Julien never was that cruel against Valerie unlike the others huh. Even when he had exiled her, he never looked at her with anger, it was more as if…

He was looking at her with regret.

… His perception of the Julien from the game was suddenly given a new light. He was starting to dread meeting the main character (the heroine) more and more now.

Still, the stare that Valerie/Alicia was giving him was getting uncomfortable. "Uh… Valerie, are you going to stare at me all day? I mean, I'm fine with it, but…" he said to her with an awkward smile, snapping her out of her trance.

Valerie's cheeks turned incredibly red as the realization of her actions finally dawned on her, "O-Oh!" she let go of Julien and hurriedly made some distance between them and prostrated before him. "I—I'm sorry for my sudden actions! I-I've done something unreasonable to his highness I-I…"

Julien had to fight the urge to roll his eyes, it made sense why she would do this, but did she really have to go this far? "Miss Valerie, please raise your head. And… what was so unreasonable of a woman suddenly hugging her betrothed? Valerie, you're my fiancee, it is none other than my duty to comfort you." he said to her with a smile, internally cringing at his own words. He really should have thought those words through, now his mother was going to laugh at him. No, rather than that, she might even use it against him.

Valerie's cheeks couldn't have gotten redder than this as she heard what Julien had just said to her with that ridiculously handsome smile of his, as expected of a love interest in a visual novel. Though in fairness, she really should have seen it coming considering who was Julien right now. Alicia just had put out Leone as a wild guess for who the prince might have been, but in hindsight, it was an incredibly ballsy move from her, she literally had no basis for it other than the fact that he seemed to be acting in a similar manner to her, something that could have just as easily been a coincidence.

Regardless, here they were now and she'd literally just thrown herself onto him and cried out years of pent-up guilt a moment ago and she was very sure that the people around them were able to see that. Worst of all, he was the crown prince and their engagement wasn't even made public yet… Then again, the only other noble in the area was her mother, so it doesn't matter much.

Also, why was he embarrassing her so much with his words? H-He can't be playing with her heart like this.

"Valerie?" his face appeared in her vision, making her remember that she was still looking down, so he leaned down slightly to look up at her, "Did I overdo it?"

Valerie gulped, resisting the urge to suddenly slap his face away out of sheer embarrassment, "Y-Yes! I… I just need a moment. Sorry." she mumbled, turning away from him, holding her hands close to her chest.

"Alright." he muttered reassuringly, "Just call me if you need me."

"Yes…" she closed her eyes as she calmed herself down. She heard his footsteps fading out as he walked away from her, presumably to talk with her mother and guards.

Valerie looked at her sword that she'd dropped to the ground, frowning as she remembered that she was practically useless against mages. This was what the game meant when Valerie had no talent huh... it was rather sad, considering just how ridiculously powerful magic was in this world. Swordsmen weren't completely useless, but it didn't matter much when there was a high-ranking mage involved.

Though thinking about it carefully… if she wasn't protecting her mother, she might have been able to do something about that mage. Picking up her sword, she remembered something. Didn't that mage look familiar?

Furrowing her brows, she walked towards the enemies they were facing just lately that were now stone statues. She had to talk with Julien about that magic later, alongside many other things, but right now there were other matters to attend to. Looking closely at the mage, she saw long purple hair, red eyes, and… a demonic tail.

Lilith.

Feeling danger incoming, she moved back and raised her sword, just in time to deflect an ice spike that was shot towards her. The stone cracked and Lilith and the hooded swordsman, Johann, were no longer statues. Glaring at them, Valerie dashed towards them as they were attempting to escape.

The swordsman blocked her way, and the hood was blown away, revealing his face, Johann… as she saw the scar and black hair that accompanied his glowing red eyes, her eyes widened.

"Johann Valenn…" Valerie couldn't help but mutter, causing him to glare at her.

One of the game's main love interests, what?

What was he doing with the succubus Lilith who was one of the main villains in the game? Valerie didn't have time to think however as she was forced back by Johann who was strengthened by Lilith's magic. Another spell was heading towards her, one she didn't have time to block, but before it could hit her, Julien was suddenly beside her again as he easily deflected the spell.

"You recognize those two?" Julien asked her, "They seem familiar but…"

"Johann Valenn and the succubus Lilith. I don't know why the hell they're together here." Valerie replied shifting her sword, "I didn't think that a love interest would actually be a villain."

"Isn't that a sort of trope though? But that's weird, Johann… he was completely different in the game." Julien said, pointing his ward towards them, who were starting to glow ominously. "You think I'd let you two escape?" he said to them, his voice reverberating with his magic. What did Leone do as Julien to get this strong? "Stay." 

Dark purple chains suddenly shot up from the ground around the two who seemed to be preparing a spell. Contrary to Valerie and Julien's expectations, the dark chains that moved towards Johann and Lilith suddenly shattered.

"What?" Julien looked astonished, "No, this is…" 

"Sorry, prince charming, but we'll have to take our leave now!" Lilith waved at them with a grin, "See you later!" she laughed.

Valerie narrowed her eyes, feeling a large amount of mana moving. "Julien." she glanced at him, bracing herself.

Julien cursed, "They're seriously trying to kill us now." he said, mostly to himself, as he raised his wand above him, "Sanctum!"

A large red barrier appeared around them, just as a bright light filled their vision.

Can these mages stop with the blinding lights already?