I'd Give Up The World For You

Juliet was so over all the love in the air when the end of the world was nigh. She didn't sell her socks nearly fast enough and then there was less demand once spring came. She had to switch over to knitting lighter socks but thankfully Veronica had already shown her how to do that.

She spent what little spare time she had knitting furiously and trying to figure out how to get to Ripore Academy and what to do once she was there. You couldn't do an internet search on buses, trains, or planes here so she would have to find a merchant caravan or something headed out that way. She had no idea how she was going to pull that off.

Then she had to insert herself into the academy as staff (there was no way she could pass as a student), find her protagonist and his entourage, then convince them to abandon their studies and save the world. That would totally go well!

With a heavy sigh, Juliet leaned her head against the wall. She had been here for months and still didn't know anything about Rukelion Blaze's whereabouts.

If she had to guess, he was off conquering the rest of the continent and simply hadn't made it here yet. The only conflict she had heard of was the war with Zel but Mirea started it and that had ended not long after she arrived in this world.

Winter had melted into spring. She was running out of time!

How could she stop him, anyway? Even if she did manage to get her protagonists involved they had no way to locate him. The tiniest whisper of his whereabouts would be helpful at this point.

This early in the timeline he would be an imposing man covered in scars with a shaved head to hide his hair color and an eyepatch over his yellow eye since blue eyes were more common. Once there was no need to hide anymore he ditched the eyepatch and let his hair grow out long and unkempt, reflecting the madness within.

Juliet tried not to lose hope but it was becoming progressively more difficult as time went on with no progress. Rukelion Blaze was a ticking time bomb and there was nothing she could do about it.

Elaine came bouncing through the door with a grin on her face and Juliet could tell she had just gotten news from her boyfriend. Apparently, even pragmatists could fall in love.

Good for her. And more importantly, good for the guy she was seeing. Her behavior had changed over a month ago and Mitzi wouldn't let her hear the end of it with the 'I told you so's. She was too happy to care.

She wasn't happy after reading that letter though. Her face fell and she slumped onto her bed as the letter fell out of her hands. Did breakups via text still happen here?!

Juliet might regret this but… "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, it's fine. But Silas can't meet me in the morning like usual tomorrow because he has some sort of appointment. He said he'll take me out for lunch but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with myself until then."

Ugh. Here she thought it was something important. "Why don't you take the chance to sleep in for once?"

"I can't sleep all the way until lunch! I suppose I can sleep a couple of hours later though and then practice hair and makeup on myself. I want to look especially pretty for my date since we'll have less time together," Elaine mused.

Juliet didn't understand her logic but was glad the girl had figured something out so she would quit fussing. She got back to her knitting, sufficiently distracted from thoughts of everyone's impending doom for the time being.

The following morning she headed out to sell her socks as usual and spent several hours standing around at her rented stall trying to attract customers. She sold all of them before lunch, which was unusual considering the decline the past several weeks. Making them lighter must have made a difference.

She was on her way to the flower shop to potentially visit Veronica when she got distracted by two men walking past her. She wasn't eavesdropping on purpose but it was kind of hard not to listen in with the way one of them was complaining.

"I cannot believe you dragged me out here for this. What do I know about ring shopping?"

"More than I do! At least you've done it before," the other one said defensively. "The only other person I know who has is Dudley and I can't disturb a newlywed."

"Conrad, you do realize I only knew which ring to get because it had flowers on it. I know absolutely nothing about your girl's tastes. What sort of things does she like? That might be a good place to start."

Juliet raised an eyebrow. Wasn't Elaine's boyfriend's surname Conrad? She had only seen the man once in passing and had no memory of what he looked like, though Elaine claimed he was handsome.

She could only see his side profile but she supposed he was cute enough. He had a square face covered in freckles and a mop of light brown hair skimming his eyebrows.

The man with him was taller with bronze brown hair cut short and in her opinion was the better-looking of the two. She could make out part of a scar across his forehead but that didn't detract from his looks at all.

Out of curiosity, she followed them into the jewelry store. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do. She may have just found out what that appointment Elaine mentioned yesterday was. Boy was she in for a surprise!

"She likes pretty things," Conrad said anxiously to his friend. "But how am I supposed to know what she thinks is pretty?"

"That is probably the most generic, unhelpful descriptor in the history of the world," he replied flatly.

"I know! You don't need to tell me that."

"Then why did you drag me here on my lunch break? I might not have time to eat because of you! If I have to eat while doing paperwork I might risk getting jam on it and then I'll get yelled at."

"…you sound like you're speaking from experience." Conrad's friend went silent and he let out a small snort. "Wow. Who busted you for it?"

"Major Armistead. It was when I first got promoted and I've been careful not to take any shortcuts since," the friend said in a grim tone.

"Well, doesn't that sound just like him!"

"Just pick something, will you?"

"Alright, alright. What do you think of this one? It's engraved with kind of a pretty pattern on it and is in my price range. I don't want to get her something completely plain since I don't think she would like that much but I can't afford anything with stones on it."

"Perfect. You get that and I'll get back to my lunch break in peace. You didn't even need me for this!"

Conrad went to go pay while his friend impatiently tapped his foot waiting for him to hurry up. He might act like he didn't want to be here but he still didn't abandon Conrad now that the job was done.

Juliet hurried out of their way before they could realize she had been following them and in the process she got a glimpse at the other side of their faces. Her heart nearly stopped when she realized that Conrad's friend was wearing an eyepatch.

Stupid! There were probably a lot of people that wore eyepatches in this world. There was no way that Rukelion Blaze would do something as sappy as helping someone pick out a wedding ring. Or be married! She had seen the ring on his left hand as they passed but even if she hadn't Conrad mentioned that he had gone ring shopping before so at the very least he had a fiancée.

Nevertheless, she followed the man with the eyepatch discreetly even after he parted ways with Conrad. He went back to the military base but that didn't tell her anything she didn't already know.

He had been with a military captain talking about a major they were both acquainted with. Of course he was in the military!

He couldn't possibly be Rukelion Blaze. Juliet's overly stressed brain was jumping to conclusions. There was no way he would join the military of a country he was trying to destroy…though there had been some fan theories now that she thought about it.

She hadn't gone with any of them when writing her prequel because she hadn't been able to spin them into a full idea. How would one man feasibly be able to destroy his enemy from the inside?

It had been easier to go down the mercenary route. If he was following the storyline he should be out touring the continent with the mercenaries right now.

However, Rukelion might not be. Juliet couldn't remember exactly what led to her being here—the details were fuzzy—but she felt like it had something to do with trying to submit her draft.. She had wondered what brought her here a million times but never got any answers. What if it was because things changed?