The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess

"Fight me!"

Conan’s eyes twitched as the dust cleared up, revealing a red haired boy in what seemed to be the Academy’s uniform.

’Just when I thought I’d get some rest,’ he thought as he slowly stood back up.

He was certain that this was also part of the entrance test and there was no way he could reject.

With a sigh, his eyes glowed as he scanned the newly appeared challenger.

{Scan successful, displaying target’s parameters.}

{Rank: C+

Mana Type: Fire

Threat Level: High

Note: Approach with caution.]

Conan’s eyes immediately widened, the student before him was the same rank as the hound, and yet his threat level was even higher than the B-Rank beast.

And the interface was warning him to approach with caution? Just what type of monster was he standing against?

The red haired boy suddenly looked up the sky before grinning, "I guess even Adrian is interested in you."

He then looked towards Conan again before saying, "maybe if I impress him enough he’ll finally agree to fight me?"

Conan’s eyes twitched again, so they were both looking to impress the same person?

"I see," he muttered and immediately took a fighting stance, lightning surrounding him, "I wonder how many points I’ll gain from defeating you."

Darius looked at the kid before him in surprise, the next moment, a wide grin appeared on his face.

"I like you kid," he said as flames surrounded him, "try not to lose too quickly."

The two stared at each other for a few seconds and a moment after,

BOOM!

"Huh?" They were snapped out of the impasse as an explosion went off a distance away.

A few seconds after, the magic tools that were currently projecting the forest immediately collapsed, leaving them in the open field again.

"Attention," a voice amplified by a magic tool was suddenly heard all around them, "the academy and the royal capital is currently under coordinated attack."

An attack?

Both Darius and Conan looked at each other, decided to put their fight on hold for now.

"All candidates are advised to remain in the testing grounds," the voice continued, "you will be guided to safety by the second years around, until then, stay where you are."

With that, the voice was cut off, leaving a couple of panicking candidates behind.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Is this part of the test?!"

"No, no way this is real.."

But before they could panic any further, a voice suddenly interrupted.

"Silence!"

Standing before them again was the same instructor that had introduced them to the test earlier.

There was a frown on her face, almost as if she didn’t want to play babysitter but rather be part of the fight itself, but wasn’t given any other option.

....

Which was exactly what happened.

She’d rather be fighting by Leon’s side out in the capital, but with what the attackers had done to the headmistress, she was the only one that could keep the academy safe.

"Listen carefully," she said, her voice both loud, and commanding, "this is not a test."

The murmurs died instantly.

"If you panic," she continued, her gaze sweeping across them, "you will die. If you disobey instructions, you will die. And if you think this is some kind of opportunity to play hero, you will die."

There was absolute silence after her words, even the most arrogant candidates shut their mouths.

Good.

At least they weren’t completely hopeless.

Behind her, several second-year students had already gathered, and that was mostly class One’s Weirdos.

"Second-years will escort you to the inner barrier," Tess added,"You will remain there until further notice."

"Um," one of the second years, Lisa, suddenly spoke up, "classmates Darius and Adrian seem to be missing."

Tess looked around, and sure enough, the two weren’t among the second years gathered around.

She understood why Adrian was not here, but Darius, that idiot was just going to look for a fight.

"So is the standout candidate," the sleepy student pointed out, and they noticed that even Conan was gone.

"Damn it," Tess muttered under her breath as she massaged her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

She then let out a sigh and turned towards the second years, "I’ll look for them, for now, just escort your juniors to safety."

With that, she disappeared.

***

[A few minutes earlier.]

Adrian looked below him, spotting both Darius and Conan who had finally met up.

He expected this much, so he just waited mid air to see the results of Alvíss’s project.

He was curious of how strong Conan had truly gotten, unfortunately, it seemed it wasn’t meant to be, because the next second,

BOOM!

He turned to the side with a frown on his face as he listened to the announcement, immediately recalling what even this was.

Something that shouldn’t have happened without Isla in the cult’s hand, so what the hell was happening?

Adrian’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he recalled why that attack had taken place in the first place.

The Royal Palace.

There was a treasure within that the cult needed, and the attack provided the much needed distraction to retrieve it.

Normally, Adrian wouldn’t care if they retrieved it or not, since that was the problem of the two main protagonists.

But this time, thanks to his interference, a couple of things had changed, one of which was Renelle’s and her family’s presence there.

"Damn it," Adrian muttered and the next second,

[Shadow Swap]

But unlike what he expected, nothing happened when he tried to swap with his clone planted on Renelle.

"What’s going on?" He asked and Noctis immediately replied.

«It seems your shadow is within a different dimension,» it answered, «that’s why you can’t swap with it.»

Adrian’s eyes narrowed, "a different dimension?"

That told him one thing, he has appeared, since he was the only one capable of such a feat.

And that meant his lady was definitely in danger.

With a frown, Adrian flapped the shadow wings behind him.

If he couldn’t get to her instantly, then he’d just have to go the long way.