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Candlelight bathed her room as Emily helped Penelope put on her nightgown, it was an especially chilly night.
The fuschia haired lady felt as if both the universe and the little help that the game oh so graciously bestowed upon her had completely deserted her. She still had trouble making sense of the situation she was in.
She had rushed to her room after the incident at the incinerator, after confirming that the mirror could not be broken by normal means (by repeatedly bashing it with a hammer), she had immediately sent it to Vinter's estate fearing what Yvonne- No, Leila would do if she found that accursed mirror.
By the time Emily had returned and bandaged Penelope's hand that was injured by gripping the mirror shard too tightly, the sun had already started dipping into the horizon.
As the sun set deeper, Emily assisted Penelope in putting on her nightgown and braiding her hair before bed. Penelope could immediately tell that her maid noticed that something was off, even after Vinter had erased most of her memory of the day but Emily didn't say anything, either not wanting to risk further deteriorating her lady's mood by asking, or she assumed that she already knew the reason, that being Yvonne.
Well, that wouldn't be wrong, but it wouldn't really be right either, since it wasn't actually Yvonne that had ticked her off, it was Leila.
Leila.
She shuddered lightly at the name, out of anger or fear, she could not tell.
Her mind wandered as she thought about what that demonic thing had said to that son of a bitch Iklies, something about him being of noble blood, a Prince. What in the world was that supposed to mean? Last she remembered he was a mere slave from a defeated nation, at least that was what the game description had said, unless...
This fucking game had another twist. She silently swore the first thing she was going to do when she left this damn game was find the people who made it and gut them like fishes, then leave them a bad review, obviously.
Great, So now Yvonne is one of the greatest demons to ever exist (Did that possibly have any connection to Penelope being transmigrated into this world?) and our little Iklies is the prince of a dead nation. At this point, she wouldn't even bat an eyelid if a freaking dragon popped out of the earth and started grilling everything like barbecue.
Iklies... If you look at it from both their point of views, either one was a victim of this wretched game. They both had everything they loved taken away from them, and are in devastating circumstances that they have little to no control over. If the circumstances had been different would she have seen him in a different light? She buried those thoughts away, it was useless to think about it now, afterall, he bought Yvonne into the the mansion knowing full well her life in the Eckart household would be ruined. Infact, he had *hoped* it would be ruined so that she could rely on him and him only. That disgusting mentality is the reason why he ruined all chances of reconciliation. Why oh why had he done the one thing Penelope could never have forgiven?
He was in the wrong and no amount of apologies could ever fix that, abandoning him was the right thing to do. But Penelope wondered if she had been just... a tad bit too cruel to someone who was almost in the same situation as her.
"-dy M'lady!"
Penelope snapped back into her senses just in time hear Emily groaning at her.
"M'lady! I was done 5 minutes ago. May I have permission to retire to my headquarters?"
"Ah, yes go ahead Emily, my apologies for keeping you so long, have a good night."
Emily turned towards the doorway, just before stepping out the room she spun around.
"Also, M'lady... I don't know what happened, but please remember that you are not alone, if nothing else, please remember that I shall always be by your side."
She only nodded in response, but Emily seemed more than satisfied with the gesture.
Penelope suddenly realized she needed to appreciate all the work Emily does for her, maybe get her another gift.
"I'll be off then, sweet dreams M'lady!"
She chimed, skipping merrily into the hallway.
Yup, definitely need to get her a gift.
She was alone in the room now. She stood infront of her mahogany dresser, staring at her reflection, she admired her strawberry-pink locks, petite figure and neatly bandaged hand.
She sighed and recalled how long she had been here, all the progress she had made, just... gone overnight. She decided she would make a escape plan tomorrow. It was far too late in the night for scheming time, though she was still seething with rage, even a villainess needs her rest.
She stepped towards her candle that lay on the dresser beside her bed, and softly blew on it, darkening the room.
And then she heard it.
*Clack*.
She suddenly wished she hadn't blown out the candle.
The door creaked open slightly, had Emily forgotten something?. She didn't hear any footsteps in the hall before the door opened though, maybe the wind had just pushed it open... or maybe it was someone who excelled at hiding the sound of their footsteps.
She grabbed the thing nearest to her, a small pointed comb, she shuffled closer to the door, trying to calm down her racing heart.
"Emily?"
No response.
It probably was just the wind, but something in her gut was screaming at her to run away. She slowly backed up towards her bed, if it really was just the wind she was going to sleep with an open door tonight because suddenly, she felt a little powerless with nothing but a handcomb as a weapon.
"Is someone there?"
The door creaked wide open and the figure of a person emerged in the door frame but Penelope's eyes still hadn't adjusted properly to the dark. A knot twisted in her stomach.
*thud*
*thud*
*thud*
The figure moved directly infront of her suddenly, she didn't have time to react. She clutched on to the comb for dear life.
This wasn't Emily. Emily would have definitely said something by now. There was a random stranger in her bedroom.
She unwillingly recalled all of Penelope's deaths in the game, how they came at any time, at any turn.
She had run out of luck.
She was going to die.
She wanted to scream and shout, to alert someone, anyone, but her throat felt like sandpaper and she couldn't speak. She felt tears well up in her eyes.
"Master, it's me."
If her throat felt like sandpaper before, it felt like plain sand now. Iklies? What was he doing here? It was almost past midnight, how the hell did he even enter the mansion? There are guards all over the place and Reynolds room was a few floors under her's, one wrong move and everyone would know that something was up. Though even if she did scream, it would be far too late by the time somebody entered the room.
Fear morphed into adrenaline. It coursed through her veins, making her hyper aware of the tines on the handcomb digging into her flesh. She could hear her every heartbeat thrumming in her ears. She decided to straight up ask him why he was here, Plan B was Iklies getting 'Death by comb' carved on his tombstone, although she wasn't very sure of it's success rate.
"What in the actual fuck are you doing here Iklies?"
The reply was just as confusing as her situation.
"Master, i did it."
Moonlight dimly illuminated the room as her eyes finally adjusted to the dark. She blinked in confusion before she caught a whiff of the overbearing and all too familiar metallic smell of blood. His hands were behind his back, it looked as if he was holding something. His shirt was damp with blood, sticking to his body, his sword pendant that she had once gifted him for favourability was covered with crimson red and a small, almost unnoticeable strand of hair.
She was not quite sure what to say, so she settled on observing him, his ash coloured hair glinting in the moonlight that seeped through her curtains, seemed as if they were glowing. His eyes, even with light shining into them, seemed dull, devoid of emotion as if they longed to remember how to feel. And the favourability bar. That fucking favourability bar. Deep, dark red, flashing like a broken siren. It really matched his state right now. It served as a permanent reminder, of how fucking miserable she is.
She worked all her life to get attention and respect. And she got it. After years of bullying and pain, she finally had her own life. And then she came here. Worked so, so hard to get it back. Then this little bitch went and ruined everything. She took back what she had thought earlier, she wasn't cruel to him at all. In fact, she was quite merciful, by having enough self control to not rip his head off right now.
This was it. This was the last straw. All thought left her. The anger she felt when he bought Yvonne back was laughable compared to what she felt right now. If the speech at the incinerator wasn't enough for him to get the message, she was going to smash it into his thick skull, right here, right now.
"I thought I told you not to call me that."
Iklies tilted his head to the side like some sort of confused puppy, then let out a low chuckle.
"Master, for even if you do not accept the reality, it will always be the same. From the moment I met you till the day we die, You shall be my one and only lady."
Then he stepped closer. And she stepped back. She didn't mean to, it was out of instinct. That same instinct bought a tiny semblance of sense to her head. Maybe she shouldn't provoke the man sopping wet with blood, maybe she should ask where it's from. But she subconsciously knew. The clues were all there. The tiny strand of hair glinting on his sword, the stench of the thing he was holding behind his back, and common sense told her all she needed to know about where the blood was from.
"Master."
He whispered.
"It was surprisingly heavy, I had to carry it all the way here to show you. Won't you reward me?"
His arm slowly stretched out from behind his back. Penelope shut her eyes tightly. She wished that this was all a dream, that Emily would wake her up any moment now and it would be a normal day again. Oh, Emily, she went the same way he came. She hoped nothing bad had happened to her. Before she knew it, tears had started streaming down her face.
She opened her eyes. And let out a shriek.
It was a head. A human head. With no body attached. It had long pink hair and it's eyes were wide open, rolling upward into it's- Her skull. One of her eyelids was stuck to her brow. Her mouth was slightly agape and Penelope noticed that her tongue was missing, as a result thick, red blood was coming down her chin in drips along with some light pink spit foam.
Penelope's entire body was shaking. She started heaving and sobbing heavily. Her legs gave out and she sunk to the floor, her hand on her mouth not doing much to muffle the sound of her cries.
*Ping!*
Penelope's looked up, there was a singular word on the screen that had popped up.
[ERROR]
She blinked.
[ERROR. }
[[E̸̡̯̜̱̔̅̽͛R̴̻̉R̵̝̫͠Ọ̵̯̉͐̒̚Ṛ̶͙͈͊͑͂͝ ]]
[S̸̫̍Ỳ̵̪Š̸͎̎T̷̡̥̐̾E̸̛͍̣M̶̲̅̀ ̶̛͙͎̋Ḭ̷̩̋S̶̠̚ ̵̙͇͒̉H̷̲̙̽A̴̼̰̐V̶͓̈́̀Ị̵͕̒N̴̢͘G̸͔̽ ̶̙̓͐ͅḐ̶͊͆I̴̳̔F̶̼̲̅͋F̸͚̠̉͝Ì̴̺́͜C̴̰͂U̷͔̐Ḷ̵͐T̵̠̖̀I̷̟͘E̷͈̿͝S̶̤͂̅. ]
[CANNOT SEND PLAYER: CHA SIYEON BACK TO KOREA, QUALIFICATIONS UNABLE TO BE MET.]
She just. Couldn't. She couldn't process the information. She couldn't believe what was happening. She couldn't stop sobbing. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. Everything was too much. Everything hurt. Everything.
She curled up into a ball. And nothing existed anymore.
×××
The mattress sunk as the severed head was tossed on it. Iklies stalked towards the still figure. He crouched to her level. Cold, bloody hands lifted her chin. He gazed into her blank emerald green eyes. He slowly reached into his back pocket without breaking eye contact. Her face showed no reaction, remaining emotionless.
"From the moment I met you till the day we die."
His eyes crinkled as he bought the object up to her neck.
"You shall be."
A small click was heard.
"My one and only lady."
Iklies slipped on his ruby red ring, and smirked in triumph as he observed how mesmerizing she looked wearing his collar. Oh how the tables have turned.