If I knew I was going to be blocked, why would I bother defending myself, you geniuses? And the player who controls both the blocker and the protector knew about the lack of blocks. And, of course, he protected me. Why defend yourself if you know that there's absolutely no reason for any of the factions to kill you?
I think the Perst had a good reason to visit you at night. You were just lucky – otherwise, they might not have been able to kill you, and they would have executed you during the day. Then you decided that by using protection, you had revealed yourself, so you decided to protect yourself again to deflect suspicion. How – you wrote it yourself above.