I'd Give Up The World For You

Juliet mulled this over. Rukelion Blaze was an intelligent character in the prequel???he had to be in order to take over the world???but ended up losing most of his cleverness as the bloodlust drove him mad.??

Leo May had already participated in two wars but wasn't bloodthirsty based on everything she had seen. Why though? Was it solely because he had Veronica in his life???

Could the effect of one person change a character that much? Admittedly, she was a very bright, happy person but that shouldn't be enough to turn someone obsessed with revenge to the light.??

She didn't end up getting any further information as they all knitted but she did lose track of the time. Before she knew it, the front door flew open and Veronica's husband came trudging tiredly through the door. He didn't seem surprised to see the other women on the couch, which had to mean Elaine had been here when he came home more than once in the past week.??

"Leo!" Veronica said with a warm smile in his direction. "How was the rest of your day?"

"I was stuck in meetings for most of it. Are you feeling any better?"

"Much. Your little lunchtime surprise really perked me up so thank you."??

Elaine frowned. "You weren't feeling well earlier? You should have sent word! I wouldn't have come over if I had known."

"It's fine!" Veronica reassured her. "I'd much rather spend that time with you than by myself and it really wasn't a big deal. As I said, I started feeling better after lunch so there was no reason not to meet up today."

"If you're sure???you really need to take care of yourself, Veronica. Anyway, I should head home and get started on dinner. Thank you for having me over! I'll see you tomorrow."

"And I'll see you next week," Juliet added. "Thanks for letting me tag along."

"Any time!" Veronica replied as she waved her friends out the door.??

The last thing Juliet saw as she shut the door behind her was her friend standing up to kiss her husband. It left her unsettled because if Veronica truly was in love with Rukelion Blaze she was either going to get her heart broken or lose her life at some point. Juliet didn't want either of those things to happen!

She thought there was nothing she could do for the next week but was proved wrong only a few days later. A tournament was being held within the castle gates and she and a few other girls were in charge of providing clean towels for the participants and taking the dirty ones away so she was coming and going from the arena all day.??

At one point while handing a towel to a soldier whose face she recognized from being present at Elaine's wedding she happened to look up and noticed Leo May sitting in the stands close to the front. What was he doing here???

He couldn't be here in a military capacity since he was wearing civilian clothes and this wasn't his day off since she knew his and his wife's matched up. He had specifically taken the day off to be here.??

Why? What purpose could he have coming to a tournament that he wasn't participating in???

Juliet was suspicious and decided to hang around as long as she could get away with to watch him. For two fights he did nothing but sit there boredly but she noticed on the third, which involved someone else that had been at the wedding, he sat up and watched everything closely.

She tried to keep one eye on him and one eye on the fight. It seemed that the soldier in question was going to lose to the royal guard he was up against.??

Then, unexpectedly, the royal guard's grip on his sword slackened and the soldier was able to take him down in an instant and move onto the next bracket. The crowd was confused for a moment before roaring with applause.??

The soldier she had given a towel to before clapped him on the back on his way back to the waiting area. She noticed that Leo May had leaned back in his chair with a satisfied expression very different from the one he normally had on around his wife. It was more smug than anything.??

Why was that? Because his friend had won unexpectedly or because he had something to do with it???

Tragically, Juliet was called back to deliver dirty towels to the laundry room and bring more clean ones up so she missed the next several matches but about an hour later she noticed the same pattern. A soldier she recognized from Elaine's wedding was up and won against his seemingly more powerful opponent because of a sword slip.??

Once again, Leo May looked smug when the match was over. She was nearly certain he was doing something at this point. The real question was what.??

Rukelion Blaze was a fire mage. A ridiculously overpowered one at that. If this was only two years away from the world ending he was getting close to his full strength if he hadn't reached it already.??

Juliet had never specifically written about an ability to manipulate the heat of objects without setting them on fire but that didn't necessarily mean he hadn't developed it on his own. She already knew the story had changed; that was the whole reason she was here.??

Why had she been sucked into the story? To prevent this world from being destroyed or to set things back to the way she had written them???

She sincerely hoped it wasn't the latter. She didn't want to see all the people she had met here die at the hands of a madman! A madman who didn't seem mad in the slightest right now. He was perfectly in control.??

In control of what though? Why was he making people he knew win? That didn't seem like something Rukelion Blaze would do without a purpose???But what reason would a transmigrator have to do this? What exactly was going on here?

Juliet wasn't supposed to speak to any of the contestants unless they spoke to her first so she ended up talking to another servant she spotted milling about. "Hey! Do you know what this tournament is for?"

He looked at her like she was stupid. "This is the royal guard selection tournament. Several went missing with the crown prince so it's entirely likely that this year even the second or third place winners will be offered the honor. What rock have you been living under?"

Her blood ran cold. Royal guards could go virtually anywhere within the castle. There was only one reason she could think of that someone would purposely make their friends win. Rukelion Blaze was trying to plant spies inside the castle. He was going to execute his plan earlier than she thought!

Juliet was horrified. He had to be the real deal then, bizarre behavior aside. She couldn't fathom why someone from earth would plot to take over the kingdom of Mirea.??

Which meant the transmigrator had to be Veronica. The singing voice she thought she heard had been feminine and her husband must have picked up those modern phrases from spending years by her side.??

She couldn't have read DOWN IN FLAMES. If she had there was no way she could be so carefree considering what country she was in. She had no idea how much danger she was in being in love with the villain! She probably didn't know anything about her husband's true nature.??

Juliet had to warn her but how? Would she believe something so terrible about the man she loved even if it was the truth???

This was the worst possible thing that could have happened. A shrewd, not insane Rukelion Blaze was much more dangerous than one who had lost his head. He was going to be able to execute his plans sooner and then they would all be screwed.??

Was there anything she could do? Anyone she could tell???

She had no way of warning the king since she was a lowly servant and wasn't sure who else to report her suspicions to. Who would listen to her? He was a lieutenant colonel and a war hero!??

If she went spouting off an unsubstantiated story about him she might get executed or at the very least imprisoned. Then she wouldn't be able to help anybody.??

'I know he's going to take over the world because I wrote it and, by the way, we're all living inside the world of a novel right now' wouldn't cut it. Why did the truth have to be so ridiculous?!

Veronica was her best bet. As a transmigrator at the very least she wouldn't accuse Juliet of being insane right off the bat if she said she was the author. Convincing her that her husband was up to no good would be the real problem.??

The mightiest roar from the crowd yet assaulted her ears and she flinched. She had completely forgotten where she was. Had the tournament ended???

Peeking out from where she was collecting towels, Juliet's heart sunk when she saw who had won. It was one of the soldiers from earlier that Rukelion Blaze secretly helped win. She looked up at him in the stands and saw a grin she could only describe as evil on his face.??

All the blood in her body froze in terror. Maybe he was less composed than she had thought and everything in front of Veronica was nothing but an act.. Once a villain, always a villain. She knew someone like him could never truly be in love!