Meanwhile In a dimly lit office,

"What are you doing here.... Alina?"

Alina looked at him angrily, her chest heaving as she stood before the massive desk.

"Didn’t I tell you not to come here openly?"

Elias told her coldly, his eyes not leaving the documents in front of him. "If Dante’s men see you-"

"Oh, please! You’re acting like this is some real world," Alina snapped, waving a hand dismissively.

"I don’t care what they think. I can just erase them if I have to. They’re just ink and paper, Elias."

Elias glared up at her,

"You’re really misusing your power now, Alina. You’re getting reckless."

"Me? Misusing?" Alina laughed, a high, piercing sound. "I am the main character of this world. I can do whatever I want with the side characters. They exist for me."

Elias ignored her, leaning back and sitting on his chair with a heavy sigh. He didn’t want to pay any attention to her delusions, closing his eyes to block out her entitled rant... until she uttered a name

"...Viella did that. She’s such a vicious bitch I just want to kill her soon"

Elias’s eyes snapped open, an unusual interest flickering in them. The air in the room suddenly felt colder,

"What did you say?" Elias said coldy hiding the interest growing within him.

"What? You weren’t listening to me, Elias? Are you kidding me?" Alina snapped, her voice rising with irritation.

Elias didn’t move. He just stared at her with irritation.

"I told you to repeat it, Alina," he said.

The air in the office suddenly felt heavy, Alina felt a chill run down her spine. His voice sounded... different. He was losing his patience, and a frustrated Elias was a dangerous one.

She quickly swallowed her pride and recounted the scene, her words tumbling out in a rush.

"That fake Viella... she actually pointed a finger at me! She even had the audacity to throw hot tea on me! I wanted to just... I was so angry! The way she was smirking at me, I wanted to rip that face off, I wa—"

"Noisy."

Elias cut her off with a single, sharp word.

He finally looked up from his desk, his golden eyes lack any kind of warmth. To him, Alina’s tantrum was just a distracting buzzing sound.

He wasn’t thinking about Alina’s burned hand but instead he was thinking about Viella and a sudden smirk appeared on his face.

"You’re whining about tea," Elias whispered, his fingers beginning to tap his gold fountain pen against the desk.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"While over there Viella is learning how to be the perfect character for my role"

Suddenly he started laughing like maniac....then stopped.

"Do you realize what that means, you brainless girl?"

Alina stayed silent, her breath hitching.

Elias leaned in, his shadow swallowing her whole. He got dangerously close to her ear and whispered,

"It means she is finally learning how to play the role of the Villainess, Alina. And you of all people should know what happens when a Villainess truly wakes up."

The implication sent a violent shiver through Alina’s body.

"I... I have to go," Alina stammered, her confidence crumbling. "Dante must be waiting for me. He’ll be worried."

Without waiting for a response, she hurried toward the door, desperate to escape.

As she flung the door open and rushed into the dimly lit corridor, she slammed hard into a broad chest.

"Watch where you’re going!" she sneered, not even looking up at the man she’d bumped into. She brushed her shoulder off as if she’d touched filth and stormed away, her heels clicking frantically against the stone floor.

Inside the office, Elias didn’t look at the door. He picked up his gold fountain pen and began to hum a low, distorted tune.

Elias leaned over his desk, his fountain pen scratching against the paper. He wrote Viella in the center of an empty page. Then, he began to draw a circle around it. Then another. And another.

The circles became a dark, trapping her name in a cage of black ink.

"Oh, Viella... why are you getting so interesting?" he muttered, his voice tilting into a manic pitch. A wide smile stretched across his face, one that reached his ears but never his eyes.

"I wonder... can those little hands point a gun at me? Or will they just tremble until they snap?"

He leaned back in his chair, his head hitting the headrest with a dull thud. He ran his fingers through his hair, tugging at the strands until they were a mess.

A low, breathless laugh of pure excitement escaped his throat.

His man stood still, still scared to utter a word Infront of this psycho. Yet he did,

"Boss..."

The voice from the doorway was a mere whisper.

In a split second, the manic light in Elias’s eyes vanished.

"Speak,"

he commanded, his voice as flat.

"We are still looking for the dagger... we couldn’t find it anywhere. The CCTV footage from that hallway... it’s gone too. Wiped clean."

Elias stood up slowly, the legs of his chair scraping against the floor.

The man at the door flinched, his shoulders hunching .

Elias didn’t yell. He simply looked at the terrified man.

"Gone?" Elias repeated, his voice dangerous

The man stood still.

Elias took out a gun and pointed at the man’s right leg. And bang- he shot.

The man groaned in agonizing pain, collapsing onto the floor as blood splattered everywhere, staining the expensive rug under him.

Elias stepped forward, his polished leather boot pressing firmly onto the fresh wound. He leaned down, his weight grinding into the man’s shattered bone, and spoke in a low, terrifyingly voice, clearly a warning for him

"If you do not find it by tomorrow morning... your other leg will be the next one to go."

The man’s breath came in ragged, wet hitches, his fingers clawing at the floorboards. Elias watched with a look of clinical curiosity, as if he were watching a bug struggle under a microscope.

"Do you understand?"

Elias whispered, his voice dropping into that sweet, saintly tone that made the violence feel ten times worse.

"I don’t like typos in my story. And a missing dagger is a very... messy... typo."

He pulled his foot back, looking at the blood on his sole with a flicker of genuine annoyance. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a clean silk handkerchief and began to wipe the red smear from his shoe.

"Get out," Elias commanded, the manic glint returning to his eyes as he turned back to his desk.

As the man dragged himself out, leaving a thick trail of red behind him, Elias sat back down. He picked up his pen and began to hum a soft, distorted lullaby. He stared at the name Viella on his desk, his mind racing through a thousand different ways to break her.

_____________

T

he moment Viella woke up, she felt a wave of clarity wash over her. The heat of the fever had finally gone, leaving her skin cool and pale.

Outside the window, the sky had already turned into a deep, fast evening purple.

Gurgle.

Her stomach let out sound of hunger. Just as she was about to sit up, the door clicked open. A maid she didn’t recognize stepped in, carrying a tray of light broth and tea.

"How are you feeling, my lady?" The maid asked, her voice hushed as she set the tray down on the bedside table.

"I feel much better," Viella replied, her voice still a bit raspy from the dry heat of the fever.

As she sat up, the silk of her nightgown shifted against her skin, and the memory of that icy, possessive touch on her lower back flashed through her mind. She remembered the sensation of a cold handkerchief wiping her brow and that dark, vibrating whisper about "punishment." It didn’t felt like dream but infact it felt like it was realty.

"Hey..." Viella started, her eyes searching the maid’s face. "Were you the one who came into my room a while ago? While I was sleeping? Did you wipe my face and stay with me?"

The maid looked momentarily confused, her eyes darting toward the door. She had spent the last three hours in the laundry room, terrified to even walk past the Lady’s wing after seeing a certain shadow lurking in the halls. But, fearing she would be punished for "neglecting" the sick mistress, she quickly lowered her head and stammered out an agreement.

"A-ah... yes, my lady," She lied, her voice wavering. "I came in to check on you. I... I wiped your face to help with the fever. I hope it was to your liking."

Viella narrowed her eyes.

"I see," Viella murmured. "You can go now, Sarah."

The maid turned and left hurriedly.

"Something doesn’t feel right...."

Before Viella could even begin to process, the door flew open with a bang.

"My ladyyyyy!" Lily burst in, nearly tripping over the rug in her excitement.

Viella jumped, for such sudden act

"Lily! What happened? Why do you look so... uh, thrilled?"

Lily’s face was flushed, her eyes wide with the adrenaline that only comes from successful mission. She leaned in close, checking the hallway one last time before clicking the door shut.

"I got to know some very interesting information," Lily whispered

Viella leaned forward, her hunger forgotten.

"Tell me then!"

"Like you asked, I sneaked near Elias’s office. I had to hide behind the heavy curtains because... well, he was in a mood," Lily shuddered, momentarily remembering the sound of a gunshot.

"But I overheard them talking. My lady, it was about some dagger... And it’s missing! Elias is now furious. They’re tearing the estate apart looking for it."

Viella’s eyes sparkled. The fog from the fever had completely cleared, replaced by a sharp, calculating electricity. She looked at Lily, and a slow, knowing smirk spread across her face.

"Are you thinking the same thing I am?" Viella asked.

Lily nodded vigorously, and they both whispered it together

"It’s the dagger they used to kill the original Viella."

"Yes, my lady! I can guarantee you that," Lily whispered, clutching her hands to her chest.

"But the main question is... why does he need it so badly right now? If he’s the writer, shouldn’t he know where he put it?"

"Hmm..." Viella began to think,

If Elias, the man who control this whole world can lose control over a simple dagger, that it’s not as simple as it sounds.

"We need to find the dagger before they can, Lily," Viella whispered, her voice sharp with a new sense of urgency.

"If that dagger is the key to Original Viella’s death in the original script, then whoever holds it holds my life."

Lily nodded vigorously, her expression turning solemn and determined.

"As you order, my lady! I will definitely find it. I’ll keep my ears pressed to every door and my eyes on every guard. If it’s within these walls, I’ll get it for you."

Viella watched Lily slip out of the room, her small frame disappearing into the shadows of the hallway.

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TO BE CONTINUED