The Butler looked down the window to see who it was.
"It's only a cat. A stray cat probably" The butler informed.
Adrian sighed "Those annoying things. Have the guards kill off any of such tomorrow. I don't want to see them again. Brings bad omen" He instructed.
"Yes My lord"
******
Eden still sat in his room, celebrating the fact that he had potentially escaped death while trying to figure out a way out of here alive.
Planning an escape tonight as Lenny had previously suggested didn't seem possible at the moment at all.
There were guards outside and potentially more around them. So they'd be caught and killed on the spot if they even tried stepping a foot out without permission.
"I'm back" Lenny announced as he jumped into the room from the window.
"Where did you go?" Eden walked up to him.
"I am just coming from his room. The marquis guy" Lenny said
"Really?"
"Yes"
"Is he dead yet?" Eden was certain he drank the poison. So he was expecting death from his side.
"No"
"Fuck"
"He took a remedy pill or something"
"What? So he really tried poisoning me. And that drink was indeed poisoned. I was right all along" Eden didn't know if it was the right time to celebrate his intuition.
"I don't think it was poison. More like something to make you unconscious"
"So he wanted to make me unconscious to kill me with his hands?"
"I guess. He probably felt poisoning could be less effective on you" Lenny shrugged.
"At least I dodged death with my wits. Again" Eden felt proud.
"But this seems like a preparatory plan to test you. The main plan of theirs is coming. Soon"
Eden swallowed "So a more dangerous one is coming... Soon?"
Lenny nodded "That is why we need to get out of here. Fast"
Eden began pacing around the room "Escaping won't be possible. The security here is tight"
"Then we have to find a better means" Lenny said.
They were mute for some time, engrossed in thought.
"In such a situation, I don't think I can protect myself at all. I don't even have the powers. How useless" Eden sighed, frustrated.
He had come to realise how tiring his life had become in a blink of an eye.
As If spending hours working at the gay bar and entertaining the annoying customers wasn't stressful enough, he just had to enter his worse novel while running around to avoid being killed because he was some third rate villain that was destined for death anyways!
Or a cannon folder??
What a fate!
"And you can't escape from any of the main characters in it as well. Especially for the fact that it's still in the arc where you're supposed to be killed. You'll only be free from them when they kill you and move on with other aspects of the storyline" Lenny explained.
"But I can't let them kill me off either" Eden sighed.
"If only you were a minor character or something. It'd be fair. Or a support role. Or at least a villain whose head everyone is not after"
"Being a villain sucks" Eden said "I know already. So don't rub it in"
Eden was in thought now "I think it's time I try my luck with the plan I had already set in Motion. Make a wild bet on it"
"The one with The Crown prince?" Lenny asked.
Eden nodded "At first I thought after escaping with you I won't need to carry out the plan again. But since it's obvious I can't escape them. I guess I'll have to use them"
"How? Blackmailing The Crown Prince?"
"Sort of. I'll make him protect me. Amongst the male leads, he's the most powerful in terms of authority. And he's the closest person I have now since I've already fooled him with the poison stuff"
Eden added "I'll now have to use that against him to make him protect me against everyone who wants me dead. I'll have to stand behind him while using him as a shield to survive"
Eden figured he'd be reliable considering he had actually studied the silly characterization of the crown prince.
Eden was good at analysing plotlines and characters while reading novels. He didn't read only for fun, but read critically. And that was one of the reasons he hated this novel. He found it critically insulting to his intellect.
So with his knowledge of the characters and their characterisation, he could somehow read through them and predict what they could and would do.
And he would start with The Crown Prince who he had already started with.
"Which means you'll have to also find a way out of here if you wish to go back to the Palace" Lenny explained.
"I know" The thought of going back to the palace felt like walking back into the doom he had escaped.
But it was vital. If he wanted to survive in this cruel world that wanted him dead, he would have to step into the enemy's den and find the most suitable and powerful enemy who could protect him.
And that was what he was going to do.
"The Banquet."Lenny recalled "There's a banquet in the palace"
Eden recalled as well "Yes. In two days. If I could attend that banquet, I could meet the Crown Prince"
All Eden needed now was to find a way to meet him. What he would say or do didn't matter. He would come up with that. And he was sure that what he would come up with would work.
He was just that confident.
"And. This banquet..." At that moment, Eden had just recalled the timeline he currently was in in the book.
He had read this in the book. This Royal banquet had happened a few days later after the wizard of EL was beheaded.
It was a banquet which the King used to celebrate his achievements of killing the wizard of EL.
But in the current plotline Eden was in. He wasn't killed. The wizard of EL is still alive. So why the hell is the banquet still holding?