" Kid, why do you suddenly become mute? Are you turning into a coward now?"

The Maple-leaf city major's aura flared up, and even the surrounding could feel the pressure from him.

And of course, Ethan, who felt the brute force of Maple-leaf city's major aura was the one who gets impacted the most.

If not for his own cheat that makes his spirit beasts grew to a pretty high level, he had been long bowed down to this tremendous amount of pressure.

Ethan clenched his fist, and with a tone full of firmness, he said.

" I'm sure of it. I saw with my own eyes that this guy stole the diamond, and if what I say is wrong, I will gouge out my eyes and give it to you directly. But if I was right, I hope the honorable sir will apologize."

Whoaaaa.

The crowds were shocked by Ethan's words. Betting his own eyes only for some word of apologies. This was a super uneven bet that none of them would be able to take, and for that youth to make a bet like this, the crowd couldn't help but feel a bit charmed at his persona.

As expected of the protagonist, they would always get a higher stand in the morale and made the public admire them easily.

Behind Ethan, the three harem members of his have their eyes already red. It was a lie if they said that they didn't feel touched by Ethan's words. Such manly words make their heart beat faster, but worry also filled their heart. Nonetheless, Celine was ready to use her family background and wealth to beg mercy for Ethan if something bad were to happen to him.

The crowds and the three girls were not the only ones who were shocked by Ethan's words. Even the Maple-leaf city major felt a bit of appreciation for the youth in front of him.

" I like your guts boy, but I hope you won't go back on your words. Guards, check this guy for me."

Of course, the thing that happened after this followed the standard route of the event in a galge game world.

The diamond was found on that guard's body.

The guard turned to be a thief that has been disguising himself as a guard.

The thief tried to run away with the diamond only to be stopped by Ethan, and they battled for a bit but eventually got away after leaving the diamond in Ethan's hand.

All of it was the standard route and looks like it has been set up by the will of the world for the protagonist to shine.

In the middle of it was Ethan, who stole all of the spotlights. For youth like him to have such bravery and be able to prevent the theft of a precious diamond like that, he clearly was the main protagonist of this ball.

Unfortunately for Ethan, the things that were going to follow after this was all out of his prediction.

Just when the crowd praised him, and the Maple-leaf city major was about to reward him, a voice came out from the crowd that makes his head full of anger.

" Sir, I may have some objection about this."

That voice was none other than our beloved side character, Ray Carmelo. And behind him, be brought someone who was tightly bound by the rope.

" Sir, I have a suspicion that they might be in cahoots, and this was staged in purpose to make you let your guard down, so he has an opportunity to strike you down."

*Boom*

Ray's words invited laughter from the crowd, and they thought of Ray only as a narrowminded and jealous person that envied Ethan's achievement. But when Ray revealed the man that was bound by him, the crowd suddenly became silent.

From the start, Ray had predicted this kind of situation will happen, as there was no way that the protagonist would finish the villain in one battle, so he had instructed Chongky to keep a closer look at this guy, and catch him when he left the building,

" Sir, I have caught the thief for your sake. During their previous battle, I somehow felt that this guy showed some leniency and purposely let the thief escaped from us."

Those words really hit like a truck for Ethan. In fact, he was indeed belittling the thief too much and only showed his second spirit beasts, resulting in the thief being able to escape from him. But he was too prideful to reveal that fact to everyone. All that could come out of his mouth were some curses that only made the crowd prejudice turned bad against him.

" This.."

" Actually, we don't need to have this debate at all. Let's just ask our thief."

Ray released the knot that binds the thief's mouth, enabling him to speak again. Of course, everything was under Ray's plan.

He had used one of the rewards from when he reduced Skye's protagonist halo into zero this time.

.

[- Suggestion note]

[ You could put one suggestion into someone that has no mind protection.]

.

Actually, this item was not as good as what you guys thought. This would only work to someone with no mind protection or immunity, and most of the protagonist or antagonist has them. However, this worked well with this petty thief, who surprisingly doesn't have any.

Ray had put the illusion that Ethan was his partner, and Ethan had been turning back on him by handing him to the guards. Thus, when the knot in his mouth was loosened, the first sentence that came out from his mouth was..

" Ethan!! You traitor. You are the one who proposed this idea, but now you turned your back on me??? Hahahahaha, even the hell wouldn't accept a backstabber like you."

Just with these words, the people instantly turned suspicious against Ethan.

The people in the celebration ball were in no way an amateur in business. Most of them had their own company or an heir of a super family, thus they had their own way in knowing whether a person was lying or not. And seeing the expression of this thief, they could see that all the words he said were a truth straight from his heart.

" This... I-I was slandered. You have been stealing my girl from me, and now you want to steal my spotlight too? You damn scammer!"