I silently looked down at the sharp sword aiming its tip at my neck.

There were long marks and dark drops of blood in the area where the sword grazed against me.

I slowly blinked and watched the man with the blade against my neck.

I never expected to meet the male protagonist from the novel like this.

‘This never happened in the original storyline.’

While going down the stairs, I encountered countless knights.

When I finally came out of the stairway by knocking them out one by one, a man blocked my path, the main character.

He had been waiting for me, standing back against the wall in a relaxed manner.

“I don’t know you, but you seem strangely familiar. Do you know me?”

Hypron and I had met a long time ago. We often greeted each other at the banquets and had even danced together.

‘What the hell?’

As far as the novel goes, he still had to put down the auction house.

But why are you waiting for me in advance?

I wouldn’t have been so nervous if Hypron didn’t know me.

‘If he finds out who you are, it’s over.’

“I hope it’s just my feeling, but I don’t think it’s my imagination for some reason.”

“….”

“You know me, don’t you?”

“…….I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s my first time seeing you today. Who hasn’t heard of Sir Hypron here?”

I deliberately answered him, letting him hear my voice-modulation magic, indirectly telling him I was a man.

So he wouldn’t guess I’m a woman, especially not Serina.

‘Even so, it’s a sloppy cover.’

Of course, if he takes my mask off, my efforts would be in vain.

I am wearing a men’s costume, but he will recognize me as a woman if he looks closely enough.

Even if I changed my appearance using the transformation magic right now, I was out of time.

From the beginning, I was wondering if I should do some metamorphosis magic, but I gave up because I had used up a lot of mana.

‘Damn it.’

In this lifetime, it’s the first time I’ve been so nervous, trapped in a frustrating situation in which there is no escape.

My skin became so sensitive, readily reacting to the cold air. Goosebumps sprung up all over my body.

It would be impossible to beat him no matter how much magical power I pulled out.

If Alastair was the strongest swordsman on the continent, Hypron was the best swordsman on the continent.

His talent was different from the start.

Since he was a child, he had honed his skills.

It was so great that a standard sword-fighting test could never be done with him.

He didn’t stop there and became a swordmaster within a few years of starting sword lessons.

In a word, the human named Hypron was born with plenty of male lead buffs.

There was no chance I would beat him.

That was not to say that there wasn’t a chance of success if I ran.

“Well, we will see if you take off your mask.”

Hypron laughed low and took his blade off on my neck.

I stumbled back, but he overtook me with a large stride.

“……!”

He reached out to my mask.

I have a hunch that I’m going to get caught.

I closed my eyes tightly.

I couldn’t block his hand and felt helpless.

“……!”

As Hypron tried to snatch my mask, someone covered my face with a gigantic hand.

My face was covered with one hand, and his other hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me into his arms.

What the hell is going on here?

The split second I wondered about it, my view was shaken by the force.

My body was floating.

I groaned at the sudden weightlessness.

I could tell that the person who shielded me from Hypron was a man based on his size and the texture and physique of his chest’s tight muscles that I was pressed against and his hard back that I had grabbed.

He eased the strength of his hand in case my face would hurt. Even in such an urgent situation, the caring attitude was a little funny.

Also, I felt a strange sense of relief.

‘Teleportation····· he must be a wizard.’

Meanwhile, Hypron’s moment to take off my mask was interrupted, and he murmured in a stunned voice that was cut off.

My vision began to obfuscate, and I realized the man teleporting us again.

Abruptly, I could see the slave auction house from a distance being devoured by a fireball.

The moment I registered the scene, my view changed again.

The auction house that was embroiled in flames evaporated. Instead, I was now looking at a wall made of wood?

I looked around, perplexed, trying to find out what was going on.

It was dim. I was in a room.

The floorboards creaked under my weight. I looked around.

The stale smell of lumber stung my nose.

Nearby was an old wooden table.

‘It’s like a deserted cabin.’ (TN: Noooo, save the f*ing elf!)

“You….”

The man took his hand off my waist.

Then he stepped back a few steps.

When I looked back in a hurry, a man was wearing a robe tightly wrapped around him.

It was the man who had bid against me for Igelto, the one that declared an astronomical amount.

The man who caught my gaze trembled and turned as if trying to run away.

Are you running away after helping me?

I slightly frowned.

“Who are you?”

Oh no.

A feminine, delicate voice comes out of my mouth.

When we teleported, I must have dropped my magical voice-modifying tool.

But the man didn’t react to my sudden and dramatic voice change.

As if you already knew my voice.

“I’m grateful for your help. But why are you running away?”

The man seemed unwilling to answer.

It seemed to me that he wanted to run away from this situation.

It was pretty funny to see him sweating as if he was embarrassed.

I approached the man at a slow pace. As I got closer, I saw the man’s body stiffen, so I laughed.

***