Intrigue

Control

" What did you just say to us?!"

"Magnus—"

"No! You can clearly hear his obvious sarcasm, Kai! And now he's roping poor, innocent Lady Alisa in his lies!"

Rowan winced from the hate laced in the voice of the Third Prince. He looked at the two arguing and silently rolled his eyes. Damn, Alisa? Innocent? As if! That woman was the devil incarnate! She was by no means innocent! Rowan looked at Alisa, only to accidentally catch eye contact with the Second Prince. Sage was looking at him with furrowed eyebrows and eyes that practically said, 'You're different today.' Yeah, probably because the real Prince Rowan was gone.

Ah damn, what is he supposed to do? Uh... Oh! Okay, he's got a plan. Now, it may be a stupid one, but he never said he was smart, did he? While the two Princes were fighting, the other one was preoccupied with staring at them. Rowan made eye contact with Alisa; she was already staring at him with determined eyes. Oh, it seems she has the same plan too! Though... That meant he was going to be dragged... How cruel!

The Second Prince suddenly stood up and came in between the two other arguing Prince's, probably to placate them. Rowan slowly glided across the grass, going towards Alisa in the subtlest way he could manage. Which... It wasn't really that subtle, but the Three Prince's were too preoccupied with fighting. As soon as he got closer to Alisa though, a fly, or three, got in his way... He was talking about the Prince's, if you uh... Didn't get the sarcasm...

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

Magnus just couldn't keep his eyes off Alisa for one second, could he? Yes, that was an insult. Why must you be so perceptive you damned b***h?!

"Huh— Prince Rowan! What are you doing? Since when were you there?!

Oh great, here comes the first fly. Oh sorry, he meant the First Prince.

"Prince Rowan— wait! We aren't done questioning you!"

Sage, I love you, and you are my favorite male lead. But please, for the love of God, shut up.

Plan A: always take your best friend with you when in a dangerous situation! If you get caught, do Plan B!

Plan B? Well...

Rowan looked at Alisa, Alisa looked at Rowan... Oh dear, this was going to hurt him, wasn't it?

"Run?" Rowan asked.

"Run" Alisa nodded and answered.

Plan B? It was to run. Run for your life.

Without another word, Alisa took Rowan's wrist tightly and sprinted, dragging him through the dampened grass, forcing him to run with her. Well... Try to run with her.

"Ah! s**t! Slow down, you i***t!" Rowan yelled when he accidentally tripped on a rock. This resulted in him almost falling down. Though, due to Alisa tightly holding his wrist, he was put back up and running with, or after her... Again.

"No time to slow down! We have three probably experienced runners after us! If we slow down for even a second, we'll die!" She yelled loudly, probably loud enough for the Princes to hear if they were near... Ha, that rhymed, nice.

Rowan felt extremely offended on behalf of the Three Prince's.

"Hey! They're Prince's! They won't kill us just because we ran away from them!" Rowan yelled. He could basically feel Alisa rolling her eyes at him, even though he couldn't see her.

"I don't care! You're the villain, right? They won't kill me, but they'll definitely kill you!"

Okay, yeah. Rowan had to admit... She had a point... Damn it, he would never say it though! She'd never let him live it down if he admitted it!

"Lady Alisa?!"

Rowan cursed under his breath, why were they so fast? Were they trained to catch thieves or something? You know what, they probably were... Rowan looked behind him, which was probably a dumb decision. That was how people died in horror movies, right? Looking back was incredibly stupid. Well... he was stupid too, so... Yay?

"Rowan! What have you done to Lady Alisa?!"

Rowan yelped when he saw the Three Prince's quickly catching up to them, how are they already right behind them?! Also, why was he being blamed?! Alisa was the one that suddenly grabbed him! Although it was both of their plan to run... Rowan bit his lower lip, this was getting out of hand.

What to do, what to do...

If he didn't think of anything now, it was possible that they'd run out of energy and the Princes would catch them. Rowan didn't even know where they were!

"You're the one who got us into this novel!"

Oh shut up, memory Alisa! He doesn't need this discouragement right now! He needs... A plan, a smart one, which is absolutely impossible, since the plans that he makes aren't smart. But still, he needs to at least try.

Rowan looks back at the Princes again. He then tries his hardest to look around him, trying to see if anything could be of use.

'Damn, nothing. We're going too fast, I can't focus!' Rowan thought frantically.

He looked in front of Alisa to try to find... Something! His eyes widened; Alisa was probably so focused on getting away that she hadn't noticed anything in front of her. His eyes then narrowed, if he could just distract those damned Princes for even 5 seconds! But how?!

Think, think, think, think.

Rowan looked back again. s**t, they were getting closer, he took a deep breath, he was stupid. Like, really stupid, and his plan? Even stupider, but if it was going to go well, then it'd be fine...

Rowan took all the courage and strength he had, and stopped moving, ultimately stopping Alisa too. She stumbled but gripped his wrist tight to stop herself from falling. She looked back at him with a bewildered expression.

"What are you doing, you i***t?!" She yelled at him.

His abrupt stop distracted the Prince's running after them. They all stumbled and accidentally fell. Rowan looked back and lightly snickered at the sight.

"Pfft..."

"Urgh..." One of them groaned.

Rowan wanted to just take a picture of the sight, but before he could sink the scenery in his mind better, Alisa grabbed his arm and bolted, leaving the Prince's by themselves, Rowan yelped before following her.

They kept running, not knowing where they were going, they both just wanted to get as far away from the Prince's as they could. After a few minutes, they both stopped since they ran out of energy.

Rowan fell on his knees from exhaustion, he was heavily panting, sweat on his forehead. It was quiet besides the noise of panting and birds twittering. Before Alisa spoke up with a tight voice.

"You shouldn't have risked yourself like that."

Rowan looked at her. Ah damn, he knew that look. He sighed and lightly smiled.

"I'm fine, don't worry. If they didn't stop then I would've just let them take me, so you could run away! Aha..." Rowan chuckled.

He shrunk in on himself when he saw Alisa glaring at him. Damn, he needed to say something else.

"... Joke...?" He said to try to lighten the mood. Alisa huffed and crossed her arms, her expression was serious.

"Don't do that, seriously. If you do, I'll just kick their asses and then kick yours for being so stupid." Rowan knew she was not joking about that.

He'd seen it firsthand in their past life, Rowan could not use his right hand since it hurt so much after she made him copy words on a paper 100 times. Self-sacrificing was not something Alisa apparently liked so much...

"Look, I'm really fine, okay? No need to worry!" He flashed a reassuring smile; he heard her huff and that reassured him that she was okay.

"Well, I think I have an idea about where we should go!" he said proudly and enthusiastically.

"Oh?" Alisa looked at him with a quirked eyebrow, obviously curious.

"We're going..."

"To the Original Prince Rowan's rented mansion!" Rowan said with cheeriness.

He basically had sparkly stars for pupils in his eyes, but could you blame him? He was looking at a mansion! Well, he's seen lots of mansions, but he's never owned one! Ah, he was going to have lots of fun with this...

Well, he was going to try. With Alisa around, she was definitely going to stop him from having his fun in this new world. But that wouldn't stop him! Sure, Alisa would probably hold onto him and very much make a leash just so she could keep track of him. But so what? He's escaped out of leashes before. Yes, 'before'. She's kept him on a leash before. Lots of times actually, he just gained knowledge to get out of them one day!

................ He tried chewing on them once. It unfortunately didn't work. Alisa caught him and slapped him so hard he couldn't even remember his own birthday.

"... Wait, how'd you even know where his mansion was? We don't have a map or a guide!" Alisa asked with bewilderment.

"When we landed here, I actually landed on a map." Rowan said bluntly while holding up a slightly wrinkled paper containing a badly drawn map.

"And you didn't tell me?!" She said with irritation. She was normally always calm unless it came to the people she hated. This guy was her best friend, and yet she wanted to slap the s**t out of him every day.

"Well, I told you now! Doesn't that count?" Rowan pouted, his expression turning into childlike innocence.

Alisa sighed and took the map out of his hand. She heard a "hey!" from Rowan, but he didn't complain any further. She inspected the map with furrowed eyebrows.

"Huh... Seems pretty legit, I guess." Alisa said with reluctance, she pursed her lips and looked at Rowan.

"Doesn't this seem too suspicious though? How'd a map even get there?" Alisa said with caution.

Rowan sighed and took the map from her with a small smile.

"Come on, Ali. At least we got a place to stay in this new world. Now how about we just go inside? I wanna see the bedrooms!"

Rowan walked past Alisa with an excited expression and a cheery smile. Alisa gritted her teeth and grabbed his hand with a worried expression.

"I'm serious Ro! How could a map mysteriously end up in a forest? And on the path to the Original Rowan's place!"

Before Rowan could say anything, Alisa continued to ramble on with a worried and frustrated expression.

"We were in the middle of that forest, and there's a map that suspiciously starts at where we stopped when we were running from the Prince's, and it leads us to the Original Rowan's mansion? How is that even possible?!" She raised her voice subconsciously.

Rowan winced but didn't stop her from her rambling. He patiently waited for her to finish. A minute passed and Alisa took a deep breath after she finished. Rowan blinked.

"..." He stayed silent.

"..." Alisa looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, obviously wanting him to say something.

Another minute passed of complete silence between the two, before Alisa gave up and broke the silence.

"Aren't you gonna say something?" She said with slight exasperation, a little tired from all the talking and rambling she had just done.

Rowan gently smiled, while Alisa looked at him with bemusement. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. It wasn't because Rowan didn't say anything, oh no, it wasn't that at all. It was because Rowan was smiling.

Was it shocking for her to be surprised to see him smiling even though they'd been best friends since middle school? Kind of. Look, Rowan smiles, a lot. But most of them are usually fake, and she means customer service kind of fake.

But this time, he's smiling, genuinely. Like, he's smiling a real, genuine smile. He rarely does that! Sure, she'd seen him genuinely smile at her, but it was only rarely!

Alisa quickly snapped her mouth closed and crossed her arms, huffing.

"What are you smiling for?" she said indifferently.

Alisa heard him chuckle, and she quickly glared at him with a warning look. Rowan waved his hand while shaking his head.

"Nothing, nothing. Sorry. Look, Ali, I know this whole thing doesn't seem... Right. But what else can we do? It's not like we have any clues about how the map got there."

Alisa opened her mouth to cut him off, but Rowan raised his hand with a firm look, which got her to close her mouth.

"Let me finish. Like I said, this does seem suspicious, but we can't really do anything, can we? We don't know where anything is. If we refuse whatever... Or whoever helped us, then we wouldn't know what to do in this world."

Alisa pursed her lips, not refuting anything Rowan said. She knew he was right; they would die in this new world if they didn't have any help. She sighed and nodded reluctantly.

"I guess you're right..." She admitted sullenly, she raised her eyes to meet his gaze.

"So... You really think someone knew we would end up there?" She said worriedly.

Rowan took on a serious look and nodded. Rowan being serious was not something she was used to. He was mostly so funny and relaxed.

"I do. The map wouldn't have ended up there for no reason. Someone or something knew we would be there. The problem is, I don't know how they knew. And I certainly can't figure it out if I don't have any clues."

Alisa bit her bottom lip from anxiety, this was... Worrisome. They had just gotten here, and Rowan already suspected something was up? Well, that was bad. Whenever Rowan had a bad feeling or a suspicion, he was mostly always right about it. Which made Alisa worry more.

"Look, we don't have any clues. And I'm sure you're tired of walking in heels all the way here, right? Let's just take a break before we... Do anything else in this world." Rowan said with a reassuring smile.

Alisa sighed and nodded; he was right, high heels were tough to walk on. She had lots of aggressive thoughts about just throwing them away and walking barefoot, dirty feet her a*s, she tripped so many times!

"Fine... Let's just go in then. You better pray that Original Rowan has good food or else I will hit you." She said threateningly.

Rowan nodded, quite literally praying internally. He took her hand and dragged her in front of the mansion. Some guards were there, but they immediately bowed and stepped aside when they saw Rowan, though they looked a little confused about seeing Alisa along with him. Rowan just smiled and waved at the guards and went through the courtyard. The guards looked bewildered when he waved at them, weird.

He did his best to not look too suspicious while looking at the giant courtyard, he tried not to let his jaw drop. Who needed this big of a courtyard? Damn. They reached the entrance with two massive doors and two guards at each side.

"Prince Rowan, And... Lady Alisa...?" The guards said with confusion. Nonetheless, they bowed. Rowan smiled at them and lightly nodded.

Rowan opened the doors and couldn't stop himself from gawking. The walls of the estate were white, clean white, it almost blinded his eyes. Though it looks like the Original Rowan's eyes were used to the pristine walls. Spoiled b***h.

Rowan snapped out of his thoughts when Alisa let go of his hand. She looked around for a moment before turning back to him.

"Does the map have any way to get through this ridiculously huge mansion? Because I need my food," Alisa said with a face of nonchalance.

Rowan rolled his eyes and answered her with sarcasm.

"You think the map will randomly change? I don't think that's how maps work, Ali, it's not like we have a guide or something."

Alisa huffed and crossed her arms; she was about to respond when she was cut off by another voice.

"Prince Rowan, welcome back Your Highness. And... Lady Alisa..." The person said. Rowan quirked a brow, he inspected the person.

It was a man no older than 25. He was quite handsome, obviously not as handsome as the male leads, but still handsome nonetheless. He was wearing reading glasses, (which was kinda weird?) His hair was slicked back, and he was wearing a suit.

Hm, Rowan wanted to ask him a question. But he knew that wasn't a good idea. He should act like the Original Rowan, right? That's how villainess novels work.

"Do you read?" Rowan asked subconsciously. Alisa looked at him like he was stupid, which he would agree to in this situation, because why the hell did he have to say that?

The servant looked at Rowan in surprise before he schooled his face blankly. He nodded.

"I do, Your Highness." He says without anything else. Rowan hums, the servant (butler?) bows before giving him a paper that was rolled and tied with a piece of string.

"Duke Raven wanted me to give this to you, Your Highness." The servant said nonchalantly.

Rowan tilted his head and grabbed the scroll. Duke Raven... Who was that again? Was he even an important character? Hm... He remembered all the important characters, but he strangely didn't know this one. Maybe he wasn't an important character then? Probably just a supporting ally of the original Prince Rowan.

He untied the string and opened the paper with a bored and calm expression, although after he saw the contents of it, his expression turned into a series of emotions. Shock, confusion, seriousness, suspicion, and then it turned into a blank look. Obviously, hiding his thoughts to not worry Alisa, and he was damn good at it too. But she knew better. Whenever his expressions turned too enthusiastic, or too blank, it meant that he was hiding something.

Alisa walked up next to him quietly to see the paper; her eyes widened at what she saw. A... Map? Of the whole mansion...

The two stayed silent, still in shock. After a moment of silence, Rowan glanced at Alisa and spoke.

"Hey, what do you see?" He asked with curiosity. Alisa was confused yet also slightly irritated at his calm tone.

"What do I see?! A map of the entire mansion! It's quite literally what we needed!" She said with a huff. What the hell was going on? First, they conveniently got a map of how to get to the mansion, then they get another map on how to navigate the entire place!

"Ro, be honest with me right now. Am I dreaming? Is this real? Do we have a magical stalker in our hands? I knew I should just have hid you away when that boy confessed to you in 3rd grade! They're gonna take you away and lock you in a tower, and you'll never see the light of day again!"

Alisa yelled as she took hold of his shoulders, shaking him back and forth. Rowan just kept looking unbothered. He wasn't even looking at her, he was just looking at the map pensively.

A minute passed with Rowan staring at the map with a nonchalant expression, completely ignoring Alisa at his side. He closed his eyes and hummed. Well, this was certainly… Annoying. Not knowing what was going on made him want to rip his hair off. It made him want to take back the control he initially thought he had when they both landed in this world.

Control was important. Too important for him. He needed it, craved it, hell, he even coveted it for himself.

What would happen if he didn't have control over this situation? He would be a chess piece, a pawn.

No, he would rather die again than be a chess piece on the board. If he wanted to protect himself, to protect Alisa, then he needed control.

He needed to be the other player on the other side, playing against whoever he needed to play against.

First things first, he needed to find out what, or who he was playing against. And he thinks he might just have a clue. After all, it was right in front of him on the piece of paper he was holding. Even if Alisa strangely couldn't see anything. The words were practically glowing, almost as if they were going to burn the paper.

'Choices are Decisions. Decisions are Choices.'

'A clue for a pawn.'

'ᕓႰป₣ỻᗺꗪ†ᕓ'