27.

A late-night moonlight that resembled a broken glass shard.

The Rose Cross Boarding School felt entirely deserted, with no signs of human presence.

The eerie silence in the building was even unsettling.

But there was one human figure confidently crossing those gloomy corridors.

That person was none other than Victor.

“All right, I can finally leave this damned boarding school!”

Victor was in a very excited state.

A hefty ledger was tucked into his side.

The enchanted ledger that would bestow immense wealth upon Victor.

The ledger’s true nature was a statement detailing Lord Craig’s donation to the boarding school.

Naturally, that donation was made as payment for detaining Lucian.

Though it was weaker evidence compared to a handwritten letter, it was enough to threaten Lord Craig.

“Hah, Elze is actually helping me for once!”

Victor’s eyes sparkled with joy.

Indeed, it was all thanks to Elze that Victor obtained the donation ledger.

More precisely, Elze’s characteristic laziness had led to the opportunity to steal Lord Craig’s donation ledger.

Victor handed a few coins to the maids Elze had already planted.

The maids easily stole the ledger and handed it over.

‘Last time, Elze’s audacious face caused quite a problem when she stole the letter…’

Thinking about Elze’s cheeky expression at the time, Victor ground his teeth.

If only that letter could have been delivered to his colleague on time, he could have left this insufferable boarding school a bit sooner!

The general plan for the future was roughly as follows:

After handing the donation ledger to his colleague, Victor planned to quietly hide within the boarding school premises until Dante returned.

And then, he would extort a good chunk of money from Lord Craig and make his way to another country!

He envisioned purchasing a new noble title, living a luxurious life, and extravagantly throwing money around.

Victor’s lips were now adorned with a contented smile.

Oh, what a perfect plan this was!

With brisk steps, Victor left the building.

He didn’t encounter anyone, and he easily arrived in front of the wine cellar.

It was to be expected. The current time was 2:47 in the morning. Excluding the guards diligently watching the surroundings, everyone in the boarding school would be sound asleep.

Victor swung open the wine cellar door and called out cheerfully.

“Hey, Mike! Have you been waiting long? I’ve come…”

However, Victor couldn’t finish his sentence.

His colleague, disguised as a milk delivery man, was on his knees, crying, with a tear-soaked face.

“Uh, ugh…!”

The colleague writhed as if possessed by a demon.

Both hands were tied behind his back, a sturdy gag was fastened over his mouth, and he was surrounded by the large, burly guards of the boarding school.

And then…

“They saw everything from here, huh?”

A gentle voice, entirely at odds with the grim scene, pretended to act casually towards Victor.

Victor knew whose voice it was.

“No way!”

Victor widened his eyes and swiftly turned his head.

Click, clack.

The characteristic sound of high-heeled shoes for women echoed.

A stunning beauty broke through the guards, her honey-colored eyes fixing upon Victor.

She then offered a radiant smile like a newly bloomed rose.

“Nice to see you, Victor.”

With that greeting, Victor felt as though the ground under his feet was crumbling away.

* * *

Although Victor resisted vigorously, he couldn’t overcome the brutal grip of Dante’s handpicked guards.

“Take them away.”

With a stern gesture, the guards took Victor and his friend, both battered, and disappeared. They were likely headed for the boarding school’s underground prison. I don’t understand why the school even has an underground prison.

Finally, back in the safety of my room, I longed to collapse onto my bed and get some rest. But…

“Sigh.”

After letting out a long sigh, I glanced at the wall clock with a sidelong glance. The current time was 3:33 in the early morning.

I was exhausted from an hour of intense adventure, and now I had to write a letter, something I wasn’t looking forward to at all.

I nervously opened my desk drawer. The first thing I saw was a bunch of dried roses meticulously preserved in there. It was the premium letter paper that the original Elze had kept exclusively for Dante.

Most people typically sprayed perfume on letter paper, but the original Elze had gone through the trouble of preserving dried flowers with the letter paper.

By the way, she had even selected and dried those roses herself.

She said something like she couldn’t bear to subject her beloved man to artificial fragrances.

‘But for someone like that, she certainly did apply perfume quite generously,’ I thought, squinting my eyes as I held the pen.

In any case, I needed to report to Dante that I had captured Victor.

‘Well, what should I write?’

I scrutinized the letter paper. The moment I thought of writing a letter to Dante, my heart raced, and I didn’t like this feeling one bit.

Just how much did the original Elze love Dante? How deeply did she cherish him that merely having a piece of letter paper in front of me made my heart flutter like this?

What must it have felt like to witness the original female lead, who struggled her whole life to attain a love she could never achieve, so effortlessly claim it just by putting some letter paper in front of her?

I wonder how she felt…

‘Well, I don’t really know.’

I sternly shook off my attempts to get sentimental. If I were to be honest, from Dante’s perspective, I might have messed up his plans. He had been monitoring Victor for some time and was waiting for him to contact his old organization to wipe them all out. However, by intervening, Dante might have to work extra hard to apprehend the scattered members of the organization.

Even so, the reason I embarked on this adventure was…

‘Dante shouldn’t become completely fed up with me.’

I had already deducted many points with Dante.

Even though it was part of my plan, I let Lucian attempt to escape due to the absurd reason that I didn’t properly monitor him. Moreover, I wasted an enormous amount of money at the Tilda clothing store. Of course, my involvement in the clothing store job was to exploit the sparrows, and at the same time, to avoid suspicion by showing a similar aspect to the original Elze.

It was an inevitable situation for me, but…

‘Dante hates being bored.’

At least now that I’ve captured Victor, I should be able to spark his curiosity, just enough to make him glance back at me once.

Curiosity to the extent that Dante won’t dispose of me as a nuisance.

‘If Elze also has some unexpectedly interesting qualities, why not leave her around a bit longer to enjoy her antics?’

That kind of judgment would suffice.

However…

‘Don’t cling to him too desperately.’

Because Dante despises women who cling to him.

I need to act without making it look too strange and to avoid Dante getting irritated with me.

This isn’t passionate romance; it’s something entirely different.

But considering that I was the one living on borrowed time…

I quickly scribbled a sentence on the letter paper.

<I’ve caught Victor communicating with the outside.>

The recipient is Dante De Offenhei.

Even in the original story, Dante was quite a twisted character. Even though Lucian and Benedict, the main male leads in the original, had significant obsessions with the female lead, at least they didn’t cross the line.

Or at least, they didn’t cause any physical harm to the female lead.

Actually, when it comes to the moment of kidnapping, they might have already crossed the line…

Anyway, going back to the original story, Dante was the central figure who added the dark element to “Violet Fragrance.”

Should we call him the spiciest male lead?

There were abductions, violence, bloodshed, excessive coercion, a borderline erotic and highly immersive relationship…

By the way, Dante is also the least promiscuous male lead in “Violet Fragrance”…

‘I’ll finally get to see that ‘handsome face’ of his.’

Well, it’s not that I want to see it; I’d rather not see it in my entire life.

With that thought in mind…

I put down the pen.