I'd Give Up The World For You

Juliet had been struggling ever since she fled the capital in the dead of night. First, she had no idea where she was going. When she finally did get directions she realized she had gone about twenty miles the wrong way. 

Since she had no rations on her when she left she used up most of her money on food and slept outside since it was summer. That left her vulnerable to mosquitoes, among other things. 

She was exhausted, sunburned, covered in bug bites, and generally looked a mess but she couldn't spend the last of her money until she reached the town Ripore Academy was in. She had to look more presentable then if she wanted to get a job as a member of the staff. 

Stupid villain! Juliet cursed Rukelion Blaze from the very bottom of her heart for making her flee when she was unprepared. A couple more months and she would have had enough money to travel comfortably. 

Running away may have been a cowardly move but someone had to go try and get the protagonists to minimize the damage before things got worse. It may be four and a half years early but what else was she supposed to do? They would still be a force to be reckoned with even if they weren't at their full power yet. 

Rukelion didn't seem to be at his full power either. If he was he would have completely destroyed the castle while they were trying to make their escape. That was what he did in the prequel. Everyone inside of it died.

Honestly, it was amazing she and the other servants all made it out alive. Who had that royal guard been, anyway? Nothing like that had happened in the scenario she wrote but she also supposed that it happened earlier than it was supposed to so things could have changed. 

Why was everything so different? Was it solely because Daisy landed in this world? 

Juliet couldn't think of any other reason. She had shown up almost exactly where the plot of the prequel began and ended up influencing young Rukelion's decisions. He was supposed to be touring the continent as a mercenary right now not taking over the capital!

Going the destroy-the-enemy-from-the-inside route by becoming part of the military had really worked out well for him. Maybe she should have gone with that idea from the start but she hadn't been able to see how that would work from a creative standpoint. Yet here they were. It definitely worked!

It was a moot point now. What she had written didn't matter because things had changed. At least in the draft that never got published. 

She had to believe that the main plot would be accomplished from Down in Flames. If nothing else, that the protagonists would be able to defeat the villain and everyone would be free to live as they pleased in a democratic system instead of dealing with potentially unstable kings.

That was what kept Juliet going as she slogged across the countryside in the heat. It only got hotter the closer she got to the academy since it was in the southwest part of Mirea not far from Zel. 

She would kill for air conditioning right now! Or at the very least one of those little fan misters. 

It seemed like forever before she finally made it to the right town. She had lost track of the days so she had no idea how many weeks she had been on the road. She found herself a boarding house, cleaned herself up, and flopped onto the bed in utter exhaustion. 

Juliet slept for about sixteen hours straight and when she woke up she felt like she had been hit by a truck. That lessened once she had been awake for an hour or so and had eaten something. 

At that point she felt well enough to go out and look for a job. Goodness knows she was going to need one but she would prefer trying the academy first. The closer she was to her protagonists the better. She wouldn't be able to ingratiate herself into their lives as easily if she didn't have access to the campus. 

She put on her nicest dress and made sure her hair was done up before walking over there. It would be helpful if she had some sort of reference but unfortunately she didn't. No one in this world could vouch for her except the other laundry girls at the castle and she had no idea what had happened to them after she escaped. There would be no way to contact them regardless. 

Unlike back home, potential employers couldn't simply call or email references. What she needed was a letter. 

Juliet paused. Couldn't she fake one? She knew more about this world than anybody. She could come up with all sorts of references if she was of a mind to. She could make herself look like the most hirable person ever!

Instead of going straight to the academy she turned around and went to the boardinghouse knowing there was stationary available in her room. She had always been handy with copying different types of handwriting. When she was in school her friends used to pay her to forge parental signatures on notes that had been sent home. 

Coming up with two or three different "references" would be easy enough. All she had to do was pull up her memories of other people's handwriting. Using hers was too dangerous in case she got hired and people saw it later. 

Her deceptive little project took several hours since she had a hard time brainstorming fictional people to have written the letters. She was sure to use different colors of ink and ensured they were fully dry before rolling up, folding, or otherwise creasing them in a variety of ways so they would look distinct from each other. 

When Juliet was done she gazed at the finished product proudly. No one would ever guess these had been written by the same person at the same time!

She took her letters and headed back out toward the academy. Since it was summer hardly anyone was around. She had drawn a rough map as a reference during the writing process so she could relate certain areas of campus to each other in her head so she knew how to get to the headmaster's office. 

Even though classes weren't in session he should still be around. Ira Brooks too. He didn't have a family and preferred sticking around doing extra research with various professors to going back to his benefactor's house in the summer. 

Juliet couldn't deny she looked forward to meeting him the most. She wished the circumstances weren't so dire so she could more fully enjoy it. He had been a lot of fun to write. 

Most main characters in novels she had read were either sarcastic or the type who was born to be a hero. She had wanted to write someone who became one reluctantly. Someone who by all means shouldn't have been put in charge of saving the world but managed to do it well anyway. 

Ira was too serious. Too bookish. More like one of a hero's sidekicks than a hero himself. 

That was one of the things people liked most about him. By the end of the novel he had learned to interact with people more effectively but his basic nature hadn't changed. He had simply learned to express himself better. 

Juliet had loved writing Ira. Of all her characters she was most attached to him. A boy smart enough to become anything who became a doctor because he wanted to use his knowledge to help others despite not initially being very good at showing he cared. 

He came across as apathetic to others much of the time. He was known for being a cold genius at the academy who did not work well with others. 

Krae recruited him anyway because he needed both his brains and his magic. Throughout their adventure he was able to learn how to better show he cared about people. In fact, of everyone in the group he was probably the most empathetic of all. 

He should be the easiest to convince as well provided she used the right logic on him. He was a very logical person, which was both a help and a hindrance depending on the situation. She desperately hoped it would be a help this time. If she couldn't sway him using logic they were all doomed. 

In the book he was persuaded because he was a water mage and was best suited to go against a fire mage. Someone had to do it since the world had largely been destroyed with only small pockets left untouched. 

The world hadn't been destroyed yet to her knowledge so convincing him of the danger might be more difficult. Should she try and talk to one of the others first? She would have to wait until the new term started but she didn't have that kind of time!