After a sleepless night, the light of day didn’t seem much bright to Lillian. She couldn’t stop thinking of the mysterious person that popped in last night. It didn’t help that his name sounded so familiar. And how did Penelope know his name?

‘Manier… that’s the same name Penelope muttered! But… Manier Calligo? Was there a character with that name? A name of a male character that started with ‘M’... ’, she then realized, ‘The sorcerer, ‘M’? That unnamed, powerful, famous sorcerer that Penelope hired to kill Annabella? The one they all called ‘M’? The one that was also Penelope's childhood friend? No way.’ She shrugged off the idea of him being so important. After all, it would be terrifying to know that someone who potentially could kill your sister, or you, would be living next door.

She turned to face downward, a little tired, and her golden locks fell down in front of her face. They reminded her of one of close friends in her past life, who she met in herx university. He had beautiful, chestnut brown hair, but always dyed it a creamy light blonde. She had always wondered why, though the answer was probably very obvious. 

However, she had no time to dwell on the lost past. She had to recap on the events that would come later in this novel, the main plot, and climax.

‘First off, the reason why Penelope would come to hate Annabella was because: even though she herself was engaged to Stell – the two of them truly both in love, there was an incident where innocent Annabella, who was their friend since childhood, accidentally spilt tea on herself when meeting Stell, which then led to him letting her in his room to change, which further led to a misunderstanding from Penelope. 

The aforementioned incident was the latest in the string of these sort of scenarios that keep happening, and blinded by love, jealousy and the misunderstandings, Penelope came to hate Annabella, although she really should have hated Stell instead.

Since she becomes despicable, due to the fact that this is the beginning of her becoming toxic – and also because she starts to harass Annabella, Stell grows to dislike her, and when he meets up with Annabella at the magic tower when it suddenly collapses, he saves her, and they begin to catch feelings for each other.’ 

She sighed. The magic tower scene wouldn’t happen now. And she wouldn’t want to purposely make it collapse and put her sister in danger.

‘Thus, Stell attempts to call off his approaching wedding, and tries to break his engagement with Penelope, but she resists, insisting that this is the last connection she has with him, and that she cannot let him go.

Nevertheless, the engagement is broken, and the poor thing that Penelope is receives the confirmation letter on her own birthday. 

This is when she truly tries to murder Annabella. One of the attempts included hiring the sorcerer ‘M’ to murder her, buying him out with rare magic stones he was looking for in his research – ones that could save lives. Of course, he fails. 

All this was the climax. In a last ditch attempt, she pretends to truthfully apologize to Annabella at a banquet, and hands her the poisoned golden apple. Gullible little Annabella puts the apple on her plate to eat later, but Lillian, full of greed, ate it instead, which resulted in her death. Hence, Penelope is arrested, and gets a life sentence, but because she has already been mentally tortured enough throughout this whole plot, she decides to just end her life and stabs herself at the trial, feeling that she would rather die more “painlessly” here, than later in prison. 

This marks the end of the main arc: Annabella and Stell get married and live happily ever after, Penelope is dead, Ambre is depressed and becomes a neet that refuses to go out of the House of Plectra’s manor and meet anyone, while Vale and Arancia are shocked by the sudden marriage.’ 

This could all be solved if Penelope and Stell had gone to couple counseling, and Penelope also a psychiatrist to help with her distortions. But, of course, there wouldn’t be much of a plot left after that. So here we are. 

Lillian wanted to change this. She wanted to give Penelope the happy ending that she deserved. 

Penelope was actually one of her favourite characters to write, as she made more sense than Annabella, who was much too naive. It was quite shocking when she found out that Penelope gathered a lot of hate from the readers, even though she did anticipate it happening. 

And yet again, she sighed. 

***

“My lady!” Chance opened the door, “A letter addressed to my lady has arrived from House Plectra!

‘House Plectra? Could that be from Penelope?’

Chance brought the letter in. 

It read:

‘Dear Lady Lillian of House Vicus,

With great wishes, I would like to inform you that I had a splendid time at your tea party.

I am writing this letter to invite you to my tenth birthday tea party.

It is scheduled for the first day of the third week of March, two weeks from now. 

With best wishes,

Lady Penelope of House Plectra’

This was where Penelope's engagement to Stell would be announced! And this time Lillian was invited… 

She felt chills in her spine. The more she thought about it, the more Penelope felt like someone she used to know… but who?