Chương 24: BEWARE THE AUTHOR BEHIND!

Ophelia stared, stunned. The buildings surrounding Grandiflora Square were of all different types and styles. Clearly, the district didn't have an HOA - one store looked more like a miniature castle with stone towers, while an apartment looked like a modern high-rise ripped straight out of Tokyo. In the webtoon, the author had drawn and mentioned a variety of stores and buildings within his story, location indeterminate - however, in the flesh, this world seemed to have decided they were all located right here.

But that wasn't the strange part. Dozens of mages stood on the rooftops of these buildings, observing the Square below them. Bianca herself was on a floating chair. Like an empress, she gazed down at the kingdom's subjects with infinite boredom, a lock of white hair falling over her shoulder. Ophelia and the kids hadn't taken this route to the Black Apron Headquarters, so they hadn't come across this spectacle before.

"I'm sorry, the apprenticeship competition is almost over," apologized the girl manning the sign-up stand. She gave Toma and Marika a sad shake of her head.

"The final duel is happening right now. If you're quick, you can still take a look!" A roar went through the crowd. Ophelia, for some reason, had a bad feeling. The headmistress had never taken on an apprentice in canon. Why the change? She left the kids with Auriette and shoved her way through the crowd to the front row of the makeshift dueling pitch. Two teenagers were casting spells at each other.

A boy with floppy, mousy brown hair and a nervous grin, and a petite girl with many facial piercings and a fierce expression. The boy was dancing backwards as the girl shot spells his way, spellfire scorching the cobblestone. One spell even hit a window, shattering glass. Ophelia thought it was obvious who was going to win. The girl was pressing the offense, and— Just then, the girl tripped on thin air, stumbling to the ground. The boy, hardly believing his good luck, almost fumbled his wand in his excitement.

He cast [Bind], a cocoon of thick ropes wrapping around the girl. With a triumphant expression. He set a foot on top of the cocoon, raising his wand to the sky heroically. Ophelia narrowed her eyes. How could the girl have tripped over nothing? Ophelia scanned the crowd. Bianca was observing the proceedings with a mask of calm sternness, but to Ophelia it was obvious she was clearly not really paying attention at all. And the other important mages didn't seem to have noticed anything unusual.

She kept looking until… Until… Until through the window of one building, she saw a golden-haired man holding a pair of binoculars, a pleased grin curling across his lips. Azazel? Why was he here? Why did he look so happy? What— Ophelia's neck almost cracked as she turned to look at the boy again, the one who had just won. His nervous smile, his freckles, his plain hair. There was something extremely annoying about him. Something familiar about his bland and unappealing character design.

"And the winner of the competition and Archmage Albini's newest apprentice is… Timothy Toppleton!" No. No. T-Timothy?! As in the Timothy that Rin married in the webtoon at the very end??? How could this be possible? He had been a terrible mage, and— Ophelia saw red as she glared Azazel's way. And Little Timmy obviously had some help. That demonic author! What was his obsession with this character?

He had butchered his own work to forcefully pair Timothy and Rin together in canon, and now he was trying to include this loser in the story again? How could Ophelia possibly let this go? The cursed last chapter of Slayer's Requiem had basically killed her in real life! She silently warped into the building, right next to him. He let out a very unmanly shriek, dropping his binoculars. She grasped him by the collar and pinned him against the window, baring her teeth.

In the other hand, white threads of pure emptiness danced violently around her fingers.

"I'm pretty good at magic, you know? I wonder what would happen if I forced a spatial realm to form inside of you - if it would seal your organs inside, preventing you from respawning, or if you would explode!" Azazel waved his hands defensively in front of him.

"You seriously need to chill out! Why are you so pissed off? All I did was rig a tournament—""That's exactly why!" snarled Ophelia.

"I don't want that loser anywhere near my apprentice!"

"Look, clearly there's a misunderstanding here." Ophelia uncurled her hand from his collar.

"Timothy isn't funny. He's not cool. He sucks. Why do you insist on including him in the story?" Azazel frowned.

"That's just your opinion." She paused.

"Is he… your self-insert?"

"No! Who do you think I am? I'm a serious writer." He huffed.

"Timothy is my favorite minor character, okay? He's fucking hilarious. Don't you remember when Rin came into the wand shop he was working at for the first time, and he was so shocked he toppled into a pile of wand boxes?"

"Yes. He's annoying." Azazel grasped her hands within his, like they were dear friends, and proceeded to give her the most condescending smile she had ever seen in her entire life.

"You've been doing… okay with the story so far. But I'm the author. This is my world. Trust me, this setting is way too depressing without some comic relief like Timothy to lighten things up. He's a huge fan favorite. I always wished I had introduced him earlier in the story." Ophelia ripped her hands out of his. As if she would just roll over and let Azazel "tell his story". He already had his chance! She had to protect Rin from this guy no matter what. What if Azazel tried to make Rin marry Timothy again?

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Then and there, Ophelia decided that she would sacrifice her life again to prevent that outcome.

"Speaking about your depressing setting, I've seen searching for a therapist around here, but I can't find anyone who remotely matches the job description. I can't believe you added figurines into your setting, but not therapists." He gave her a strange look.

"Why the hell would I do that? Readers hate therapy scenes. Like, I'm not joking. They really, really hate them." Ophelia scowled at him.

"Fine. Then explain this to me. Do you have some kind of teleportation ability? How did you get all the way from Snowreach to Rosenarte so quickly? Even a normal mage around your level would have to spend a week or two chain warping to make the journey." A smug smile curved Azazel's lips.

"Not [Warp]. [Winnow]. I can move through the shadows as though I'm part of them."

"Winnow?" Ophelia blinked.

"Oh, were you a fan of ACOTAR?"

"What? No! That Romantasy drivel? What are you talking about?"

"If you weren't a fan, then how do you know the abbreviation for it?" she asked testily.

"Unfortunately, I read it for market research. It was a phase, okay? Back when I still thought I could stomach writing romance for women."

"Well, then you obviously got winnowing from there." At his blank look, she elaborated.

"Rhys can also winnow through shadows." The blank look continued.

"He's a, you know, a Shadow Daddy."

"I'm not a Shadow Daddy!!"

"I DIDN'T CALL YOU ONE!!!" He stared at her, aghast.

"I came up with winnowing myself! I didn't plagiarize that faery porn garbage! It's possible for two authors to independently land on the same idea, you know!"

"Yeah, but you like literally just admitted you'd read it." The air distorted and a figure slid into existence. Bianca Albini looked between them, her head slightly tilted. The sunlight from the window dappled her upper half, warming her dusky brown skin, and her icy white hair took on a strangely iridescent tone.

"Who is this person?" asked Bianca in her smooth voice. What - so the powerful Archmage didn't notice when the demon lord was casting around tripping hexes, but she noticed the second Ophelia did anything? How was that fair at all? Azazel got on one knee, flourishing out an arm.

"Lady Archmage, I am the Duke of Ravenfa—" A silver zipper appeared across his mouth. He mumbled the last of his words against closed lips, eyes wide. Bianca looked to Ophelia.

"He's a person of ill repute," she said bitterly, glaring down at him. Bianca blinked.

"So, a close friend?"

"Huh?" Not only was that laughably false, it was the last thing Ophelia wanted Bianca to believe about her and Azazel. No - she had no connection to the demon lord at all!

"You only insulted him once. He must be a very close friend of yours." Her tone held a bit of humor and forced warmth, but her eyes were incredibly cold as she examined Azazel. Crap. If she Soulgazes him, she might realize who he actually is! Wait… was that such a bad idea? If she exposes Azazel now, then he would be forced to stop his meddling. But he might also be forced to stop living.

Ophelia wasn't quite sure she wanted Ravenfall's death on her conscience quite yet - he had been a human from her world, after all, and the only person she could talk to openly without any pretenses. Even if she found him annoying, knowing he was in this world with her made her feel like she had a partner in crime with this transmigration thing– Maybe 'partner in crime' was a poor choice of phrasing here…

"He's just one of my many suitors," said Ophelia blithely.

"Nothing too special."

"Suitors?" said Bianca quietly.

"As in plural?" Was that also something Lady Vyx had been keeping from her fellow Archmage? Going by the volume of letters that Ophelia had found in Lady Vyx's office, every major house in the kingdom had sent several offers this century alone, not to mention the foreign powers. And the offers from other kingdoms were quite juicy indeed. Ophelia waved Bianca off.

"What is this whole apprenticeship competition for anyway? Please tell me it's a joke. That kid who won has a C-Grade Natal Skill."" Actually," mumbled Azazel through the zipper." He's got potential!" Bianca sighed.

"I recalled that you were concerned for Rin, about who the academy might make her share a dorm with. I thought that if your apprentice had a roommate of equivalent status, that might ease your worries." Unfortunately, Ophelia couldn't possibly be more worried.

"He's a boy," whispered Ophelia.

"It isn't appropriate for him to room with a girl."

"They would have their own rooms, connected by a small shared space," said Bianca, raising a brow as if she couldn't understand Ophelia's concern.

"Besides, the boy hasn't even reached Level 10. What threat could he pose to your apprentice?" What Ophelia couldn't understand was why Bianca had gone through such lengths to give Rin a roommate. Surely, there were single dorms available. Unless… unless Bianca suspected her in some way, and was planting a spy near Rin in order to get information from her?

"Now that we both have apprentices, I suppose, for efficiency's sake, we could train them together," mused Bianca. Oh. She wants to keep tabs on me herself! Ophelia had to nip this in the bud quickly.

"Like you said, your apprentice is barely Level 10. What benefit could they gain from training with each other? Rin's natural talent will always put her ahead, it would be cruel to pair her with someone as talentless as Timothy," said Ophelia, trying to wheedle herself out of the situation. Bianca's lips pursed just the slightest bit.

"Are you claiming my apprentice will never match up to yours, even with my personal guidance?" Ophelia felt like she had tripped into dangerous territory. She felt like prey beneath Bianca's suddenly competitive gaze.

"Look, Bianca, you just picked some ragtag kid off the streets…"

"I could turn a mere earthworm into a world-renowned mage, if I had the desire," said Bianca sharply.

"At the end of the year, there will be an academy competition for all first years. We'll compare Rin against Timothy, and see who the better teacher is." Azazel was practically doing a cheerleading routine behind Bianca. Ophelia wanted to groan and smack her forehead. How had she fallen into this? Before Ophelia could speak, Bianca interrupted her.

"Of course, that's hardly fair - I've been a teacher for over two-hundred years. When my apprentice wins, which will be only natural, I won't tease you about it too much." What?? It was one thing for Timothy to win a competition. But for him to win a competition against Rin? The protagonist? Impossible! No, actually, it might truly be impossible. There was a chance that one of the laws of the universe stated that Rin would never lose a fight.

"He won't win," said Ophelia sharply.

"Rin will turn him into a red smear."

"We'll see." Bianca sent one last glare at Azazel before turning on her heel and warping from the room. The second after Bianca had left, Ophelia remembered the teacup that Bianca had left in the seamstress's shop. She'd forgotten to give it to her again. She sighed. Well, she'd have plenty of opportunities when they were both at the academy, she supposed. Azazel mumbled a few things to Ophelia, pointing at the zipper on his mouth.

"What?" said Ophelia.

"It's a good look. Trust me, I'm an expert when it comes to fashion." She warped back to Auriette and the two kids, who were buying ice cream cones from a street vendor. Ophelia and the group started walking back home. She smiled at them, talking about this and that, trying to hide the unease rearing its head in the back of her mind. Tomorrow was the Blood Moon Festival. The day Lady Vyx had suffered a poison flare up. And the day the starter villainess had died.