Their romance storyline only begins on the second playthrough?

Chapter 16: What should I do if my mentor tells me to seduce a girl?

That was an obvious, overt conspiracy.

Cecilia captured Duke Sanders' daughter and attempted to use her special ability, [Symbiote], to summon a [Heroic] Fallen Demon Seed.

Furthermore, Cecilia wrote a letter by hand—[To the Professor]—to Merrick.

The letter stated, "I will willingly stop if Professor Merrick can come and destroy my plans." It also provided a specific location to Merrick.

Merrick, having accepted the provocation, knew it was a dead end, but driven by his guilt towards Cecilia and absolute confidence in his own strength, he went alone to the meeting.

The final result is self-evident.

Merrick is dead, killed by Cecilia's blade.

This is one of the "tragedies" that Rod spoke of, and also one of the things Rod wanted to change.

After all, aside from the fact that Merrick was his professor and taught him a great deal, Merrick, as a former strongman, was obviously of great help to his development and in handling the Phillips matter.

Therefore, changing Merrick's death is what Rod must do.

but……

Even if Rod said something like, "You'll die," Merrick would just laugh it off and not care at all.

That's just the kind of person she is...

Arrogance? No, it was her guilt over Cecilia becoming a demon, her self-reproach as a professor for failing to guide her student in the right direction, and it couldn't be explained by just a few words.

Rhodes knew this well, so he remained silent for a while and then placed the matter of change in a simpler way—

"That's correct, so let's set aside their goal for now."

"The key is that their second target is the daughter of the Duke of Levi Sanders—Ivina Sanders."

"They want to use Ivina to fuse with the power of the Demon God's Echo, thereby summoning a powerful demonic force as their trump card to control Phillips."

As demonic seeds summoned by the echo of a demon god, they are all extremely dangerous... Therefore, Professor Merrick, I believe we must avoid this and protect Miss Ivina.

That's right. Since we can't solve Merrick's problem, we might as well just solve it from the beginning.

As long as Ivina doesn't become a vessel for the Demon God, Merrick will have no enemy he can't defeat.

If Merrick had no enemies he couldn't defeat, wouldn't he have survived?

Merrick's expression gradually changed from arrogant to thoughtful, and after a moment, it returned to normal.

"This news is interesting... Rhodes, not bad. The Echo of the Demon God, huh? That's certainly a problem."

"It's my pleasure to be of help..."

Merrick interrupted Rod's pleasantries, "But protecting that little girl is no easy task, Rod."

"What do you mean?" Rhodes paused slightly, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.

He then added, "With your abilities, you should be able to handle this with ease, right?"

"You don't know?" A sneer appeared in Merrick's eyes.

Rhodes shook his head.

He, however, was unfamiliar with this information.

Because he was completely focused on Lilith's hair-printing quest during his first playthrough, he knew nothing about the Duke's mansion or this little-known duke's daughter.

And by the time he learned of Ivina, it was already after Ivina had died and become a vessel—

"Let me briefly introduce you to Ivina Sanders."

She is a monster with a special physique, a [mutated] [Star God Species] that can be strengthened by feeding on human blood.

Therefore, from a young age, she suffered from extremely severe mental illness, with emotional instability, riots, and obvious bipolar disorder.

Apart from her parents, almost no one could get close to her; at the very least, anyone who did would cause her mental state to deteriorate further and she would launch extremely vicious attacks.

She was like a wild animal, only willing to stay in the Duke's mansion.

But here's the problem... It's difficult to protect her from the Duke, and I can't leave the academy. So, of course, there needs to be someone to bring her to the academy and ensure that she stays quiet and doesn't have an attack, even while she's there.

After all, the Duke couldn't possibly spend every day with his daughter at the academy.

In other words, do you understand the situation, Rhodes? Now, there is no so-called "person" who can bring her to the academy, and there is no "person" who can protect her in the Duke's mansion forever.

Unless... a new person appears who can lead her out of that cage.

Merrick's eyes were now fixed on Rhodes, and he suddenly sensed something was wrong—

Oh no, could it be...?

"So, I'll leave this to you, Rod Chivenlance. As the person most familiar with mental illness in the world, you should be able to do it, right?"

"You have half a month to bring Ivina to our academy and keep an eye on her to protect her."

really.

Just kidding... He's busy hunting demon seeds to become stronger, how could he waste time on this?

"Wait, wait... Professor Merrick... I only lived in the Melanie Empire for nine years before I couldn't stand it anymore and left. How could I possibly understand [mental illness]? Besides, I can't do things that others can't..."

"No.

You have another natural advantage because your good roommate, the second princess Felicity, who is just as aloof as Ivina, is one of the few people Ivina is willing to associate with, and Felicity is currently staying at the Duke's mansion.

Felicity knew almost no one else in Phillips, after all, she had come to Phillips because of you.

In other words, you're the only one with a legitimate reason to integrate into that environment and bring Ivina out with you.

"?"

At that moment, a huge question mark popped into Rhodes's head, and he completely froze.

"That's right, only you have the right to play the emotional card. Bring back the girls with my request."

Whether it's Ivina or Felicity.

Felicity... hasn't been to school in a long time either.

As Merrick spoke, his fingertips flickered, and suddenly a piece of parchment appeared, already covered with writing.

With a flick of her finger, the parchment flew to Rhodes's feet.

"Take my envelope to the Duke, and he'll understand the situation and let you complete this task. Consider this a small favor I'm doing as your professor—rescuing a young girl, don't you think? Haha..."

"...I just feel like I'll only increase my chances of getting into trouble."

"But you can't find a suitable partner? Why not give it a try?"

Rhodes was speechless for a moment.

Nothing more...

but--

"Since it's a commission, Professor Merrick, what will my reward be?"

"You've just broken through to the second level of advancement and need the [Link Scroll] to upgrade your skill level, right?"

Obtaining the Soul God's Link Scroll in the Kingdom of the Star God must be a very troublesome matter, right?

Therefore, your reward is three [Soul Seeds] and [Link Scrolls] that will raise your skill by two levels.

[Link to the secret scroll].

Each deity has a unique method of creating secret scrolls, which is a special way to strengthen the basic [divine seed] network.

By strengthening the secret scroll, the favored one's [skills] can be upgraded, and the only way to upgrade [skills] is through [linking secret scrolls].

Most importantly... each of the [Linked Scrolls] is a special [solution] bestowed by the gods, and therefore, it is incomparably precious.

Therefore, when Rhodes heard this, he said decisively:

"OK."