Dante reached the same familiar estate. As the headlights cut through the iron gates, the guards scrambled to intercept him, waving their arms in a desperate attempt to stop the high speed car but Dante didn’t slowed down.

Infact, He pressed his foot harder onto the gas, the car surging forward until the front bumper slammed into the center of the ornate metal.

CRASH.

The gates buckled and shrieked, tearing off their hinges. He didn’t stop until he reached the front steps, as he stepped out, his white shirt was colored by dried red blood everywhere.

Inside, Elias was at his desk, the only sound of scratching his fountain pen enchoed through the room. He paused, the nib hovering over a word, as the sudden sound interrupted him. A thin, knowing smile touched his lips.

By the time Elias reached the grand foyer, the front doors had already been kicked open.

Dante stood there with fury visible on his face.

"Oh, oh... what a surprise," Elias said, his voice smooth as he descended the marble stairs, adjusting his cuffs. He gestured toward the wreckage of the front gate visible through the open doorway.

"What brought you here, Mr. Dante? It seems like it’s an urgent matter, huh?"

Dante didn’t waste words. He lunged across the foyer with high speed, his hand snapping out to yank Elias by the collar, slamming the smaller man against a decorative stone pillar with a thud.

"You are the one who sent those men, aren’t you?!!!" Dante hissed

Elias let out a sharp, mocking laugh, his head lolling back against the stone. "Hah! And how can you be so confident, Mr. Dante? First, you break into my house, then you harass me... and now you’re claiming I sent men to kill you? My, your imagination is as vivid as your wounds."

"Answer," Dante growled, his grip tightening until Elias’s airway began to constrict, his knuckles turning white.

"Answer before I make your life a living hell."

Elias started to laugh. A high, melodic sound that chilled the air.

"Oh, is that so? Oh my god, I am so scared! Ahahahaha!"

Dante’s eyes darkened, a flash of genuine madness flickering in his gaze as he prepared to drive his fist into his smirking face.

"What? Want to punch me? Go ahead," Elias whispered, his laughter dying down into a grin.

He leaned in closer, "And you’ll know what happens to those who mess with Elias Noir, Mr. Dante~"

Dante didn’t pull his fist back. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. It was the same signet ring Elias had been wearing but gone missing when he was dealing with his own men.

"Dante Valerio Moretti doesn’t come empty handed, Mr. Elias," Dante hissed, his lips curling into a smirk.

Elias’s smile faded, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the piece of jewelry. "A piece of a ring can’t prove anything," he countered, his voice losing a fraction of its mockery. "Anyone could have stolen that."

Dante merely raised an eyebrow. With his other hand, he pulled out a folded stack of agreement papers, the exact documents bearing the signature of the deal made to dismantle the Moretti empire.

Elias frowned for a heartbeat, the gears in his head turning, but then he smirked again, leaning back against the pillar as if he were enjoying a particularly good play. "I wonder why you’re so mad... is it because of your little maid, Alina? Or is it~ Viell-"

"Do not take her name from your filthy mouth, Elias." Dante’s voice dropped to a low warning sound. His grip on Elias’s collar tightened.

"You dared to target both me and Alina. If you touch a single strand of her hair again, I will not only come back here, I will drive a dagger into right into your chest."

Dante emphasized the word dagger with a warning that felt far too specific to be a coincidence.

Elias raised his eyebrows, his gaze darting across Dante’s blood streaked face. He was examining every single details, trying to see if this was an act or a genuine break in the script.

"You indeed amaze me..." Elias whispered, a creepy, wide smile slowly splitting his face once more.

"I wrote you so well."

CRACK.

Before Elias could finish his thought, Dante’s fist collided with his face. Blood spread out his mouth.

That’s what Dante needed, His blood.

With that....

Everything went blank.

_____________

Reaching the mansion, Viella and Lily noticed the estate was silent. Lucian wasn’t home yet? thankfully, he was away on a business trip and wouldn’t be back until two days.

Viella was too tired to think, her limbs feeling like jelly as she dragged herself up the stairs.

She retreated to the guest room and clicked the door closed with a thud. She turned, and her eyes immediately landed on the desk, on that original book and those cursed pages that had been ruining her peace.

"Seems like this was no use at all... ugh," Viella groaned, the frustration bubbling up in her chest.

She crossed the room in a blur of motion, snatched the book and the loose pages, and threw them onto the floor with a violent shove. She reached for a lighter, her thumb trembling as she sparked the flame. She watched the fire lick the edges of the paper,

"No book. No plot. No nothing. I don’t know what happens now nor I care," she whispered to the empty room. "All I want now is just to go back..."

She watched until the last of the manuscript burned into gray ashes. As the light from the fire died out, her vision began to blur. The exhaustion finally won, and she fell onto the soft bed beside her, her consciousness slipping away before her head even hit the pillow.

But the room wasn’t done with her.

Suddenly, a wet sound echoed from the floor. From the center of the gray heap of ashes, a dark liquid began to appear. It wasn’t ink. It was..... Blood.

____________

"My ladyyy!! It’s getting so late, wake up!!!"

Lily’s voice pierced through the room.. Viella groaned, pulling the pillow over her head. After the blood, the gunshots, and the horrifying sight of the bleeding last night, all she wanted was to disappear into the mattress forever.

"Ugh, Lily... five more minutes," Viella mumbled, her voice thick with sleep. But Lily wasn’t having it. With a decisive whoosh, she yanked the heavy velvet blanket off the bed.

"My lady! We need to get you ready for the function!!!"

Viella sat up abruptly, her hair a bird’s nest and her eyes squinting against the morning sun.

"What are you even talking about? Function?"

"What do you mean?" Lily raised an eyebrow, looking genuinely concerned. "Don’t tell me you’re going to forget your own pre-wedding ceremony!"

Viella’s heart skipped a beat.

"Huh? Pre-wedding... what?"

"Wake up early! Let me go inform Lord Lucian that you’re finally awake. He’s been asking for you."

"Wait—Lucian? He’s back?" Viella stammered,

"Wasn’t he supposed to be gone for two more days on that business trip?"

Lily shook her head, a small, patronizing smile on her lips. "What are you talking about, my lady? He came back yesterday afternoon already. Did you forget? You even had tea with him."

"What- what? But yesterday... how?" Viella’s voice trailed off. Yesterday she was in the woods. Yesterday she shot Alina. Yesterday she burned the world down A.K.A the book..

"You’re probably still half-asleep. It’s okay," Lily said, patting her hand. "Wash your face and freshen up first. I’ll be back with the maids."

As soon as Lily clicked the door shut, Viella lunged out of bed. Her feet hit the cold floorboards as she ran toward the spot where she had started the fire. She dropped to her knees, searching for the charred wood, the smell of smoke, or even a single flake of grey ash.

Nothing. The floor was polished.

Her head snapped toward the desk. Her breath hitched in her throat as her eyes landed on the surface. There, sitting exactly where it always was, was the Original Book.

"No... no, no, no! I burned it! I watched it turn to dust!" she hissed, her hands trembling as she reached for the book.

She snatched the book and threw it open, expecting to see the same rotten blood written storyline. But as the pages fluttered open, her eyes widened.

The pages that had once been filled with rotten blood were blank. Clean. Not a single word was written on the paper.

"Don’t tell me..." Viella whispered, a cold chill crawling up her spine

"We are going back again—!!!"

____________

Alina, who had been shot through the chest only hours before, stood perfectly fine in front of Elias. There was no blood, no wound. Beside her, Elias, whose face should have been shattered by Dante’s vengeful fist, looked flawless.

"See? I told you Dante only loves me. He saved me during that attack~" Alina said, her voice lilting with a sweet happiness.

She began to pace the room, her eyes sparkling with a shallow triumph. "Yet you didn’t believe my words! See how he saved me? Ahahaha! How he embraced me in his arms and shot that man! Damn, I wish that bitch Viella had been there to see who Dante actually belongs to." She smirked, her fingers tracing the air as if she could still feel the warmth of the "Male Lead" protecting her.

Elias rolled his eyes, barely listening to her mindless chatter. His mind was busy somewhere else.. He remembered the

unscripted behavior of Dante’s rage from the night two days ago, the way the man had barged through his front door specifically to warn him never to lay a finger on Alina.

On the surface, Dante was acting exactly as he had been written, the protective, obsessive lover. But Elias’s instincts never lied. Something was still fishy. The "Dante" who had punched him felt... different.

He felt a sudden, sharp need to retrieve the book from Viella immediately. His knuckles turned white as his hands gripped the edge of his desk.

"Hey! Are you even listening?!" Alina grumped, stomping her foot like a spoiled child.

Elias looked at her, his expression flat and bored. "What now, Alina?"

"I asked you how you wrote Viella’s ending! I want to know, is it painful? Where’s the book? Let me read it!" She leaned over his desk, her face twisting into something s

Excited.

"Is she going to die today? I’ve been asking for two days now, yet you’re not saying anything. Tell me! Dante and I are getting married tomorrow."

A delusional, dreamy sigh escaped her lips as her eyes glazed over. "You know what? You should kill her right in front of us... the very moment we kiss~"

Elias rolled his eyes again, a sneer tugging at the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t care less about Alina’s wedding fantasies or her petty jealousy.

All he was interested in was knowing what Viella had done to the book. He had let her take it, letting her believe she had won, certain that a mere character couldn’t change the ink of its creator.

"The book is exactly where it needs to be for now," Elias murmured, his eyes darkening as he reached for a fresh pen. "And as for Viella... her ending will be exactly what she deserves"

Elias looked at the date

"One more day left for you to decide what your answer will be....My Dear Viella"

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. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

TO BE CONTINUED