32 Chapter 18: Meeting the Heroine

"Nice to meet you." Emilia smiled kindly.

As soon as she smiled, her beauty shone through the whole room and everyone seemed to quiet down. Emilia had a presence of loveliness and prettiness, every movement was elegant, just like the petals of a flower fluttering in the breeze. Her silky, cerulean hair tumbled to her elbows and her big, cornflower eyes sparkled with warmth. Even her rosy pink and creamy white silk mini-dress and her dainty blush slippers seemed to be in awe of her beauty.

My blood chilled. The heroine of the otome game?

Emilia would be described as a beautiful lily, and Ivory would be known as the 'Black Rose'. I hadn't anticipated that Emilia would be here at this ball, the otome game had mentioned that Emilia only met Ivory for the first time during the Academy. So, what was the heroine doing here?

"As mentioned before, my name is Emilia." Emilia introduced herself to me, the sound of her voice akin to singing, "May I call you Ivory? Forgive me, I'm not one usually for formalities."

"You may." I smiled faintly while nodding.

I pursed my lips. It was just my luck to meet the heroine, the person who would send me to my doom. This encounter would need to be immaculate to avoid any rivalry or hatred to secure my future.

"Great!" Emilia grasped my hands with her dainty, creamy white hands, "I hope we can be friends in the future!"

"Uh… Yeah..." I sweated nervously, avoiding eye contact.

"Emilia." Sardonna walked past us, "We're going."

"Yes Sardonna!" Emilia smiled at me warmly, "I hope we can meet again, Ivory."

Emilia quickly caught up to Sardonna, staying one step behind her and her pink ribbon attached to her dress fluttering.

Sardonna and Emilia? That was clearly was not in the otome game. Was I shifting the story? I just hoped the story line would not be changed too dramatically.

I felt someone tap my shoulder,

"Lady Sardonna was oddly rude towards you." Kyle frowned, "Is she bothering you in any way?"

"Don't worry about it." I smirked, "I'll handle it myself."

"Well, ignore that Sardonna brat!" Raven grabbed my arm while grinning, "There's food over there! I call dibs on the macarons!"

"No way!" Kyle chased after us, "Leave me some!"

"Too bad!" I laughed, "Run faster, Raven!"

***

After a few hours, I arrived home. It was late at night, but I headed towards the study room and wrote down names of the otome game characters.

So far, I had met all the influential characters in the otome game except for one character.

Angelina.

The second villainess.

Unlike Ivory, she was a lot smarter and calculating. She did not resort to blatantly bullying Emilia in front of everyone, she only caused harm to Emilia secretly. She was going to be a lot harder to deal with. Should I go and become on friendly terms with her? I doubted that it would work. After all, Angelina was currently residing in a different country for her father's work.

Oh well, no point worrying about it I had better go to sleep.

***

"Young Lady Ivory." A maid knocked on the wooden library door, "Prince Kyle and Raven are currently in the sitting room requesting for you."

"Very well." I sighed, tidying all the books I had messily placed on the table,

I walked down the hallway, my shoes clacking in the empty silence. Mother and Father had gone on an imperative business trip, much to their reluctance and had left me with the trusted servants of our house. I made my way towards the sitting room and opened the door.

"Guess whaaat?!" Raven jumped in front of me, "It's the founding festival!"

"No." I refused.

The founding festival. A day where the rich and poor celebrate the founding of the country. In other words, a waste of my time.

"But you're still young, don't waste your youth by studying only." Kyle steered me towards a chair.

"Come one Ivory." Raven looked at me with sparkling puppy eyes, "Pleeease?"

Honestly, this boy could win anyone over with those puppy eyes of his.

"Just this once." I reluctantly agreed, smiling secretly as they celebrated.

***

I remembered this scene in the otome game. The festival was flooding from arcade games back from home.

"How about we have a competition against each other in that game over there." Kyle pointed towards the Pac Man machine.

"Hah." I smirked, "It's on."

***

"You see, you're just a simple beginner at these wondrous games around us." I playfully elbowed Kyle, "You'll never beat a pro like me."

I had won the game and Kyle now owed me some free food.

"Hey Ivory!" Raven tugged my sleeves, "Can you help me win that prize?"

"Oh, that one?" I pointed to the adorable sheep pillow.

"No, the one next to it!" Raven's golden eyes gleamed with excitement.

I look at where his was looking at and saw a creepy cow with unequal proportions smiling evilly at me. I rubbed my eyes a few times to check if I was seeing correctly.

I turned to look at Kyle to confirm if I was looking at the correct toy. Sure enough, Kyle had a slightly disturbed expression.

"Don't question it." Kyle muttered, patting me on the back.

"Uh…sure." I nodded, much to Raven's delight.

***

"…A haunted house?" Kyle read the sign as we stared at the large manor.

"This looks like fun!" Raven rubbed his hands together in glee.

While Kyle and I stared dubiously at the manor, Raven already entered the building without any hesitation.

As Raven hummed a song while Kyle and I cautiously inspected our surroundings.

Only shadows.

It was impossible to see anything other than the path illuminated by torches.

"You guys should be careful." Raven warned, "I would hate it if anything bad happened to both of you."

"Speak for yourself." Kyle sighed, "You really should be careful."

"What do you mean? I'll be perfectly fine." Raven turned around to face us, smiling.

Just as Raven's back faced the shadowy unknown, a figure drenched in blood sneaked up behind him.

I was unsure if the haunted house was going to be safe as we were currently in the world of magic.

"Be careful-" I exclaimed, running forward.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Raven asked, continuing to smile as he swiftly knocked out the stranger by hitting their pressure points.

"…Nothing." Kyle and I chorused, unsheathing our weapons just in case.

"I think my shadow powers awakened recently." Raven mentioned nonchalantly.

"That's not a really good joke, you'll have to work on that." I continued to walk on.

"But it's true!" Raven argued stubbornly, "Lately I've been able to see better in the dark and I can control my shadow!"

"Hah. No way." Kyle shook his head. "I only awakened a few months ago, how can you suddenly gain powers at such a young age?"

"It doesn't matter anyway." Raven muttered before chasing after a random bat.

***

"WHOEVER CAN CATCH THE MOST BUTTERFLIES WINS A PRIZE!" A man hollered at the crowd.

Butterfly nets were distributed and a door leading into a glass house was opened. Inside were flowery plants and exotic trees. Butterflies of different shades and colours fluttered their vibrant wings.

"…I'll sit out for this." Raven grinned, "I'll be sitting over there!"

"We'll win some prizes for you!" I gave him a thumbs up sign with a determined expression.

"Fighting!" Raven cheered while laughing.

"I bet I'll catch more butterflies than you." Kyle smirked.

"Hah." I mocked him, "You wish."

"Loser has to dress up as the opposite gender for a whole day." Kyle announced, brandishing his net like a weapon.

"I have plenty of dresses that'll fit you." I stuck out my tongue before racing towards the fluttering butterflies.

"You got a head start!" Kyle complained, "Cheater!"

***

Raven:

"How pitiful." A dead butterfly lay on the ground, shielded by the shade of the tree.

***

"If I kill him, will I get arrested?" I asked Raven, gesturing at Kyle.

"Believe me, I would've killed him now if I wouldn't get punished." Raven huffed angrily, "Being the first prince must have its quirks…"

"I won!" Kyle did a victory dance, "We'll have to go shopping for male clothes soon!"

"I'll going to kill him." I struggled against Raven's hold as I unsheathed my daggers.

"Fight against the temptation!-" Raven gritted his teeth.

"Okay I'm sorry for teasing you, I'll stop." Kyle laughed, patting my head, "I'll look forward to beating you next round."

"We'll see." I smirked.

As we continued down the stony path, the night stars glimmered and winked above us.

"WATCH OUT!" Raven screamed, pulling us harshly to the side.

Kyle and I fell awkwardly and painfully onto the ground just as a carriage hurtled past us at full speed, dust billowing behind it.

"Some people are so irresponsible these days." Raven tsked, patting the dust off his clothes.

"Thanks Raven." Kyle picked himself off the ground, holding out his hand so I could stand up.

"…Ivory?" Raven tugged at my sleeves as I sat very still on the ground.

My blood chilled.

Angelina was back.