Alice had a curious look on her face when she finally opened the door to her bedchamber. “Este? Isn’t the ball still—”

  Estel surged forward without a word and pulled her into a tight embrace.

  Caught off guard, Alice froze, her hands hovering awkwardly for a second before slowly returning the gesture.

  “Este…?”

  “You idiot,” Estel murmured into her shoulder, voice trembling. “Why did you just go back to your chamber without telling me? What did Marcus talk about with you earlier? Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

  “S-sorry, I was just…”

  There was a brief silence before Alice continued, a conflicted emotion fshing across her face.

  “Come in. There’s something I need to show you.”

  Estel stepped into the room without protest, her heart still pounding as Alice gently closed the door behind them and moved towards a small writing desk by the window.

  “What’s this?” she asked, her eyes immediately drawn to a piece of parchment lying atop the desk. It looked yellowed with age, and the corners were singed bck as if someone had tried to burn it.

  “Marcus told me that he found this in Seraphina’s childhood home,” Alice muttered, picking it up. “And he wants me to help transte it.”

  “Seraphina’s…childhood home?” Estel widened her eyes in shock. “How did he—wait, no, how did you know that Seraphina hailed from Meridian?”

  “I don’t really know how to expin it…” Alice scratched her head with a troubled expression. “When the game is first booted up, there is a cutscene that shows Seraphina’s backstory. It tells the pyer that she is from a faraway isnd known as Meridian, and ran away to the royal capital to escape the violence that ravaged her homend. That’s how I know Seraphina is connected to Meridian in some way, but I never expected Marcus to actually uncover such a thing.”

  She held the parchment up to the candlelight.

  “Anyway, that’s not the important part. Look at this, Este. Do you recognise these symbols?”

  “?”

  Estel leaned forward, squinting her eyes to properly make out the lines of text. “I’m not sure I can read them…”

  She paused when she scrutinised the oddly familiar symbols once more.

  “W-wait a minute,” she said slowly. “I’ve seen these words before…isn’t this written in your nguage, Alice?”

  “Yep, bingo.” Alice fshed a grim smile. “Do you know what that means?”

  Estel frowned. “Is Seraphina…a witch just like you?”

  “Worse,” Alice said ftly. “It means that I’ve been mistaken about this entire story from the very beginning. It has slipped my mind all this time, but when Marcus showed me this and I thought about it…”

  She bit her lip in frustration. “I realised just how weird our entire retionship is.”

  “W-what?” Estel swallowed nervously. “I don’t quite understand—”

  “Este, doesn’t it seem strange how easily we became close?”

  She froze.

  “Up until the Margrave’s invitation, the events of this world followed the general storyline that I remembered…yet, there were still a number of ‘coincidences’ that confused me,” Alice revealed. “You coincidentally found me on the same night that you were dumped by the Crown Prince, but in the original story, you chose to confine yourself in your room because you were too ashamed to show your face. And coincidentally, your backstory deviated from the original Estel, which made it much easier for me to approach you.”

  You are supposed to be the viliness, so I was half-expecting you to come here to seek my help sooner or ter…but this is definitely too early for that. And it seems that your character development has deviated from the plot too…

  “I did suspect that something was amiss, but I didn’t have any solid evidence then,” she admitted. “There were other things that didn’t quite add up too, like how quickly you got used to my flip phone despite it being the first time you’ve seen something like it, and how the Captain is close to you when he is supposed to be the love interest of Seraphina…”

  Alice trailed off, then met her eyes unflinchingly.

  “Este, the most logical conclusion I’ve reached is that this story has been completely rewritten from the start,” she whispered. “You were never meant to be the ‘viliness’ in the first pce. Just as how Captain Marcus was never meant to be the ‘second male lead’, and how I was never meant to be a ‘background extra’. In fact…”

  She let out a resigned sigh. “It’s probably safe to assume that this world isn’t even my story at all. Everything—the characters, the setting, even the plot itself—they have all been meticulously recreated by the author of this imitation simply to deceive me.”

  A heavy silence pressed down between them.

  “I-if what you are saying is true,” Estel uttered at st, her voice suddenly hoarse, “then…who is the real author?”

  Her gaze dropped to the parchment in her hand. “Who else could it be?”

  “I—n-no, I still don’t get it!” She fumbled over her words in her fluster. “D-didn’t you say that everyone in this world is a mere ‘character’ that you created? How is it possible for Seraphina to be the author when you are right here?!”

  Alice looked up, calm and expressionless. “It’s perfectly possible. As you said, the fact that I’m standing in front of you means I’m now a ‘character’ too, don’t you agree?”

  Estel stared at her, stunned.

  “B-but that is still…” she faltered. “Does this mean everything we have done so far is all for naught? We have just been pying into Seraphina’s hands this whole time?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  Alice waved the parchment. “And the evidence is right here.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, taken aback.

  “What I mean is, Seraphina isn’t as powerful as you imagine her to be.” Alice pointed to the top of the parchment. “Though most of the title is gone, there are still two words that I can make out: ‘First’ and ‘Revision’.”

  “First revision…?” Estel paused to think. “You mean, what’s written here is a draft of Seraphina’s story?”

  “Mm-hmm. In other words, this story has already pyed out before. This isn’t the first time that I’ve known you as Este, and neither is it your first time knowing me as Alice.”

  Her ruby-red eyes gleamed in the candlelight.

  “Now, let me ask you something—why did Seraphina discard this draft? For what reason would an author feel the absolute need to rewrite a story from scratch?”

  “Wouldn’t that be because…” Estel blinked. “…the story didn’t go as pnned?”

  “See, Este? There’s your answer.” Alice smiled in return. “We may be ‘characters’, but we are not bound by the plot. Seraphina cannot control our actions. We can change this story.”