5 You Snooze, You Lose

That night, I spent planning further. I was not in the mood to sleep and waste my day. Also, I'm a little worried about life. I was still not sure about a few facts so I tried to absorb everything I could from that world that day.

It was a 'you snooze, you lose' situation for me. So I chose to stay awake a few more hours. Out of those things I've found, three were the most important.

The first one is something you already know. It is about the timeline.

I'm two years ahead of the time. According to the novel, the story starts in the year of the rabbit, which naturally meant two more years for me. Once the story started, my character will be dead soon. This is exactly why I'm in a hurry to plan things. I'm a little privileged since I have read this novel so many times. But since my life is at stake, I believed that it was fair for me to have a few favours.

The second one was a weird and funny business. It was about the first meeting of the two leads of 'Romance, please'. The first meeting of these two can only happen once the story started. Because, according to the novel, these two only get to meet after my character's death. Even though Flora was the prime suspect, Edward could sense innocence in her. This probably stopped him from killing her. Still, he was not sure. So at times, he threw tantrums. Once he is calm, he'll be knocking on her door wanting to apologize. Once she opens the door, his face would turn stern then he'll leave without saying anything.

Well... Romance...

Weird, isn't it? Since I'm already in their world, now it appears to be weird for me. But when I was reading, I was enjoying every bit of it.

Coming back to the second fact I've discovered, I could see the proof as well. If you have observed carefully, you would've noticed, that just before Edward was going to visit my room, Flora suddenly wanted to get the medicines so left, making them unable to meet. Also, in the third chapter, I mentioned above, I mentioned that these two only brushed past each other. I've watched so many soap operas with the same scene. Even in my late teens, I used to believe that I also somewhere brushed past my soulmate!

I facepalmed with this thought. What a clown I am! This transmigration is making me witness my very own stupidy. Now only reality hitting me hard. I brought myself back from self-pity.

I marked in my mind map that their first meeting is an important balance that must be kept at all costs. Cause, if they meet early, I assume that the story would naturally be brought forward and begin two years earlier, reducing my life expectancy. Therefore I gave this balance a name!

'Encounter curse!'

The 'encounter' part is for them and the 'curse' is for ME!

The third one is the most important of all. This is probably my way out of this death trap. It is about making alliances.

Out of all these people, there are only a few whom I could consider teaming up with. Cause, the people on the advantageous side of the plot are hard to be convinced since they wouldn't want to change the story. The rest can be naturally called the 'team villains'. For some reason, I felt like this is where I belonged too. Because naturally, villains are the ones who are not happy with what's going on around them. They would try and try to change things around them and in the end, they'll mostly die trying! I would also fit under this category! But evilness is not the only thing needed to change the plot. Power was also equally essential. So I have already narrowed down from the list of villains to the list of powerful villains!

The first and the evilest one is Evelyn, who is a well-known villain. In other words, the character is based on Fortuna. She is the one who killed the princess(ME) despite the princess being her best friend! It was just because she was jealous since Edward loved his sister a lot.

Is that a reason to kill someone? Besides, the princess was his sister. Isn't it normal for him to love the princess since she was the only little sister he ever had? What 'Romance, please' tried to convince the readers is that Evelyn wanted all of Ed's love for herself. She is an incredible epitome of obsession and a psychotic villainess who would kill for no reason! Murder was like her hobby. 

'Urgh, she is crazy,' I thought. So I chose to stay away from her and erased her name from my list.

The next one was the queen. Juno... She also became the villainess once her daughter died. Though she was not evil like Evelyn, she was cruel at times. She was also powerful compared to Evelyn. Still, I wouldn't want her to be my ally. Because it would take a lot of time and energy for me to explain the details to her. I can already imagine how exhausted I would be if I started a conversation about this with her. For some reason, I strongly believed she wouldn't understand. Even if she did understand, she wouldn't believe me. I erased her name too.

The third and the final name... Victor Marshrider. The Mars... The war god... The gorgeous villain...

He is the most powerful villain of 'Romance, please!'. He is also an unfortunate character like me. He didn't end up dying though. His sufferings were even sadder than mine. He indeed went through a lot of physical and mental hurt throughout this novel.

Marshrider was the duke of a neighbouring kingdom named Dagresh. It was also a big kingdom but not as big as Astrana. (Since the male protagonist's domain should be the powerful one...!)

The king of Dagresh had always been jealous (nobody knows why!) of Ed like any other king in their world. So he had planted many spies throughout the kingdom of Astrana. He also appointed their duke as the head of this spy team. (Ok, that's also weird, but that's how the novel goes!). So this Victor had been living in the kingdom of Astrana for a few years, even before the story starts.

He had already met with Flora a few times and her innocence and kindness had twisted his untwistable heart in some way. He befriended her. Then fell for her. At last, he went crazy over her. Well, you are right! He is the second male lead of the story! So at the start of 'Romance, please' Victor and Flora were already friends and Victor was already head over heels for her! When Edward forcefully married her, Victor was mad and he chose to return to his kingdom. He shut himself in a tower.

In the middle of the novel, there was a time Edward chose to break off their marriage. It was because Evelyn had prepared strong fake proof against Flora, which indicated her as the murderer. Since Edward was too reluctant to kill Flora (I can still see his sister's soul floating and asking 'Am I a joke to you?'!), he chose to break off their marriage for his sister's sake (makes no sense!). I paused reminiscing the plot! Goodness! When I was reading this exact same story, wasn't I enjoying all these dramas? Now that it is me who's going to die, my perspective had changed, considerably!

I sat with my hands on my temples. I was feeling ashamed and confused at the same time. I recalled all the perspectives related quotes I had read to back up my sudden change of mind! At last, it felt like it was okay to change! So I put my embarrassment aside and continued to recall again!

At that time Edward broke up with Flora, this Dagresh dude somehow managed to be there on time to protect her (Nobody knows how!). He kept Flora safe and took care of her. Although Flora was crying the whole time, he was still obstinate in not letting her cry. He was too angry with Edward so he intrigued the Dagresh king to rage a war against Astrana. He led the army himself! He was savage in this war and because of this he officially became one of the evil characters in the novel. In the second half of the novel, he was the main dark character, in other words, the villain. But if you ask me, I would say that he stayed as a hero when it comes to Flora. That's how much he loved and cared for her. Whatever he had done was just because he wanted revenge. It was all for her! So when Flora went to the battlefield begging these two men to stop fighting, Victor retreated. Because of this, he lost his position as the Duke of Dagresh. (Obviously! I would have fired him too!)

At last, when Flora agreed to marry him to repay his gratitude, Edward appeared on their doors asking for her forgiveness. At that time he had already found out that Evelyn was the killer. Flora didn't agree to go back, though her marriage with Victor was called off. It was because Victor had already realized that her heart still belonged to Edward!

At that time, Ed was the king of Astrana and it was extremely dangerous for him to stay in Dagresh. For Flora's sake, Victor even hid Edward in his castle and let him live there for a while. (If it was me, I would have called out the Dagresh guards!!!). But the cohabitation made the plot a lot more interesting. It was very fun to read, indeed.

There were a few moments of bromance between Ed and Victor which the fans loved a lot. A quarter of the fans started shipping these two boys. (I'm one of them). At last, since the love between Ed and Flora is the truest one, Victor remained as the official second lead of 'Romance, please'. He got nothing after all his efforts! That's how pitiful he is.

In my point of view, he is a good guy. He was kind in the beginning. He fell in love with Flora not because of her beauty but because of her naivety. He never forced her to do anything. He was the only one who treated her with due respect and care. He truly wanted to help her out. Every time she was in trouble, he was there to save her.

In my opinion, Flora should be the one to fall in love first, not Victor. He had indeed helped her that much. But according to Venus's idea, love wouldn't happen because of gratitude. So it never happened between Victor and Flora.

This makes me curious! Why do the nice guys never get the girl? Maybe it's also a romance novel formula. Poor Victor ended up staying single for the rest of his life, just like me!

Since Victor was unfortunate just like my character, I finally chose him as my ally. According to the timeline, I didn't have to wait for two more years to find him, since he was already there in Astrana. I should be able to find him just by following Flora. He could be found somewhere near her.

I recalled his physique, tried to draw a portrait of him, and ended up drawing something terrible. At last, I listed down his features.

Victor was a tall, hazel-eyed, black-haired guy who mostly wore a scarf covering his head and lower face. He always wore black dresses. Because of his mask, people usually only got to see his fiery eyes, implausibly artistic eyebrows and well-proportioned forehead. He also had a cut scar on his temple which was considered a shred of evidence of his valour.

If Venus had described his eyes, nose and lips separately, it would have been difficult for me to find him in the crowd. But on the contrary, in a city where no people wear a mask, it is going to be a piece of cake for a princess to find a guy with a mask. I strongly believed that it is going to be too easy for me to find him from all these descriptions, and I was not wrong.