Anniliese stood before me with an innocent grin on her face and I blinked twice to confirm what I was seeing.

‘When did she come here? How did she even find me?’

Many questions emerged in my head as I kept gawking at her. And soon, she snatched away the last remaining of my Cornetto.

I opened and closed my mouth like a fish to say something, but lacked the proper words to convey my messed-up thoughts.

Her actions were both cute and brazen at the same time. She was my female lead but her behavior was going beyond my expectations. 

'If this continued then how the hell, I am supposed to stop the butterfly from ever flying.'

I had to do something or the consequences would be dire for me to handle.

"When did you get here?" I asked casually, fixing my demeanor, and bringing my smiling poker face to the light.

"Just now!" She chuckled, putting the last pieces of cornetto in her mouth. "It's good you know."

She exclaimed and I looked at the wannabe tech guy as he looked at me with a face full of confusion.

'Like, what the hell is wrong with this girl?' I guess we both had the same question.

"So, what are you doing here? Getting a new phone?" Anniliese leaned on the counter, inspecting the new piece displayed on the screen. "It's cheap."

'Who the hell calls a thousand dollars mobile cheap?' I screamed inside, but maintained my calm expression remembering her father was equivalent to Elon Musk in this world.

"Yes mam. It is cheap. We have a million times better product than this." The salesman pitched in, noticing her expensive attire and sunglasses resting on her head and I was sure his strategy was to sell a mobile to her now.

"Really, show me then?" Annie lifted her head and the guy behind the counter went inside with a too proud smirk on his face.

'Someone is too excited!' My eyes followed his back until he completely disappeared then my attention shifted towards Anniliese or rather towards her boobas.

I mean her black inner t-shirt really failed to cover her cleavage.

My staring didn't last long as she tilted her head to look me in the eyes and I averted my gaze.

'Control yourself Tim, control. You must not fall for your female lead. She is only for the protagonist. Full stop. The end. Kaput!'

I reassured myself but it was too late. She was already eyeing me suspiciously.

“What?”

“What? Nothing!” I answered, shrugging my shoulders and she shook her head in agreement as if nothing had happened.

“By the way, what happened to your face, hand and mobile?”

“Oh…my hand… Nothing much actually.” The bandage wrapped around my forearm gave away everything but I had better excuses. “Some drunk guy hit me from behind and I hit the road ahead. My hand got injured a little and my mobile is in pieces. That’s it.”

“I see…” Annie nodded with a thoughtful countenance but soon started touching me randomly to look for any injury which she obviously did not find.

“I am fine!” I let out a nervous laugh, scratching my swollen nose.

“Still, drink this.” Two vials containing greenish liquid materialized on her hands out of thin air which she gave me. “One for body and one for mana. You will be ready in no time.”

“Yeah, but how much does this cost?” I was not going to drink a half-million-dollar potion for this little injury. And what if she asked for the money? How was I supposed to pay that much?

‘I can’t be a slave.’ My entirety shuddered as the thought of being someone’s toy passed through my mind. ‘Nope! It will never happen. I will never drink these potions.’

“Relax! You don’t need to pay me.” She sighed first then giggled next. “All this is yours anyway.”

“What mine?” I questioned, as her words felt a little unnatural.

Yes, this world was mine but no characters should be aware of that. It was their reality, their home, their everything.

‘I am a deviant and I am the only one who knows it. No one except me should know that.’

Then what did she mean by everything was mine?

“Never mind.” She waved her hand, noticing my puzzled face. “Just take it.”

“Listen, I should not…” I tried to object again but my words were cut short.

“Take it!” She spoke in a tone carrying little to no emotion and eyes with a deadpan look.

“Ok! Ok!”

I raised my hands, accepting the defeat and taking the two potions. In return she gracefully smiled, folding her hands which looked a hell lot scarier than I could ever imagine.

Soon the sales guy came back and showed her the special edition mobile which cost a little more than four thousand dollars and I took that S21 which was also paid by her.

No matter what I said, she did not agree, thus I took it but promised myself to pay her back when I would have money.

And just like that we exited the shop and walked towards the bus stop Infront of the hospital.

Now Anniliese covered her face with a black mask and sunglasses on her eyes, hiding her face completely except her hair which surprisingly did not get a lot of attention.

“That works huh!” I commented when she fixed her glasses a little, observing the pedestrians walking beside us.

“Yes, it works.” Her tone came out a little harsher than I expected. “But I am not a fan of this nonsense. I can’t even buy a coffee alone without getting approached by people.”

“That’s really a pain in the ass.” I somehow managed to stifle my snigger and faked a concerned look on my face.

“Trust me, someday I really want to meet that person who came up with this whole advertisement garbage.” She snorted, stomping her foot in anger and I whistled inelegantly, looking sideways.

“But where did you leave Arthur?” I added, trying to divert the attention to another topic.

“Arthur?” Anniliese looked at me. Her expression was perfectly masked behind the mask but I still could see her face turning bitter. “Why would I know about him?”

“He was with you, right?” 

“So, what?” Her tone went one octave higher. “Why does everyone think I must know about him? Am I his wife, his girlfriend, his mother, sister anything…?”

“I…” Technically she should be in a relationship with him by now, but I had no idea what the hell was going on now. Everything was getting messed up.

“No, right?” She shouted, attracting everyone’s attention. Some laughed, some gave odd eyes and some just did not mind. But for me it was a bit uncomfortable. How did she even become this irritated, just after getting out of that store?

“Yeah…” I shook my head frantically, agreeing with her words. For some reason, I really was getting bad vibes from her.

“Then why the hell do you think I know about him? Let him die in some gutter, I couldn't care less.” She sighed, focusing on the road. “Even Mello is better than him.”

“Mello?” I naturally seemed bewildered as I had no recollection of ever adding a Mello character in here. “Who is he?”

Hearing my words Annie’s steps halted as he removed her glasses and rolled her eyes, which roughly translated to are you fucking kidding me?

I got that but seriously, there was no mention of any Mello in my book? Or was I having Amnesia?

“You seriously don’t remember your dog?” She dropped the bomb on my head, rolling back her glasses.

This time my steps halted as I looked at her with wide eyes and mouth hanging open. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

‘First that town, then my parents, now my dog. Just what the fuck is going on here? Who the hell is doing this?’

I was screaming inwardly for answers but had none. Nobody was here to answer anything.

“How long is dewdrop from here?” I grabbed Anniliese’s shoulders.

“What?” She appeared puzzled but I had no time to chit chat.

“How long?” I raised my tone, shaking her a little.

“Ten hours!”

“Let’s go.”

Leaving her shoulders, I grasped her hand and started running, pulling her with me. But soon my legs halted after a sudden jolt.

I turned around to see and the reason was Annie clutching my hand tightly.

“What are you doing?” She asked, letting go of my hands and taking away her mask and glasses. “Why do you want to go home?”

“I need answers.” I replied bluntly. That imaginary town had answers to my every question and I had to be there as soon as possible.

“What answers?” Certainly, she did not know what I was talking about but I could not explain anything. It was beyond me.

“I will tell you but first we need to, no I need to be there.” I began to leave, drawing my mobile out for directions but stopped once again as she gripped my shoulder, dragging me backwards.

“What about the academy? We have classes tomorrow?”

“I don’t care!” I screamed as she took a step back, traces of fear and confusion visible in her eyes. “I have to reach Dewdrop at any cost. Believe me Annie, it is important.”

I controlled my tone, realizing I was losing my cool but something had to be done. There was no time to sit around.

Butterfly was already flapping its wings! And if it flies, then hell would let loose.

“You really believe it is important!” Annie responded, grasping my hands.

“Yes.! It is beyond any of us.”

“Let’s go then!”