Rich people like contracts. A lot.

“Damn,” Laia muttered. She sat cross-legged on her gigantic fluffy bed. Saffron tucked close to her side. In her hands was a thick stack of paper that could very well cause a concussion given the right use case.

“You sure this is right?” She asked.

Saffron nodded, “I made sure to double-check after retrieving the file and double-checked again on the way back here. There is what you asked for.”

Even though this system was a stingy one and an overall disappointment, the presence of Saffron kind of made up for it. He was a cheat in his own right; being able to access every aspect of the system and keep objects in a spacial realm.

Once she had found out, she had sent him on a little mission and he had done his job excellently. Paired with a distinctly British accent and formal speech, she couldn’t help but think the little thing resembled a feline version of a bat’s best friend.

Her lazy ass was very glad to have him on her side, but she digressed.

She was still fucking pissed that she had to endure a side quest. Weren’t side quests supposed to be an optional thing? Why the fuck was she getting more work to do?

“Alright. Thanks for your help,” she sighed; scanning the mountain of dead trees again.

Crisp bold text glared up at her from the page.

‘The following will confirm the terms of the agreement between Raine Athanasia Hastings and Alexander Jason Norton. In the event of separation, the initiating party will concede ownership of the previously agreed-upon settlement to the other.’

Damn rich people.

Eventually finding herself on page 37 with the end still far from sight and gaining nothing but a headache, Laia knew it would be best to concede least she be traumatized.

Each party obviously had access to very beefed-up lawyers. Threats dressed up in legal jargon littered the entirety of every single piece of paper.

She didn’t even know why she thought that she would be able to find a loophole or anything. They were playing with big guns, of course. It had taken 11 pages in size 9 font to disclose the properties and estates that were under her name.

Her dowry had taken up 18 pages.

Reading the extent of her new wealth had shocked her numb. She was now brushing through mentions of private islands and five-star hotels without batting an eye.

She just wanted to ask her new family members why the fuck they thought giving a 21-year-old a huge fortune was a good idea. 21 was an age when bad decisions would be made on the regular.

Case in point: Raine had forcefully married a man who didn’t love her.

The male lead had been written to be like every other male lead. He was a man who just oozes masculinity and charisma wherever he goes. Tall, dark, and handsome. Who, despite the many parasites trying to leech off of him, only had eyes for only one woman–the heroine of the story.

Raine was not the heroine of this story

Laia was thanking god for that.

During the time she had written this, it had probably been the era of ‘I’m not like other girls’ girls and unnecessarily shitty CEOs. Hell, she doubted she had even been old enough to understand what healthy relationships even looked like. She didn’t have enough patience to deal with some stuck up asshole who could get off on the image of his own face.

For now though, she was stuck with him.

It wasn’t very subtle and all very legal, but the Hastings had strongarmed the Nortons into the marriage. The magnitude of the dowry alone reinforced the idea.

Nortons were new money. Hastings had their roots planted and entwined with other large trees. Could upstarts survive in a playing field that required relationships and connections to maintain success? The answer was apparent.

They had two options: surrender with benefits, or surrender bloodied.

They made a rational decision.

Laia really wished they hadn’t.

Then she wouldn’t have to deal with a troublesome legal situation. But what’s done is done. Now she had to deliberate whether it would be best to threaten her husband by kidnapping his lady love for ransom, or if killing him off now would be the better option instead.

The latter option seemed more appealing, since there was a point in the plot when he did have her killed. He’d likely gone after her family too, since he would no longer be scared of them then. Why not beat him to the punch while he still hadn’t established himself? It would be a good few years before he ventured into the underworld.

Decisions, decisions.

The beginning of her original plan to complete the main quest had been severely compromised by the side quest. It was a pain in the ass to have to work around the two conditions. She wasn’t even sure when the demands would end– three mandatory quests might span over a length of years.

She was a writer. She understood how to milk a story line for all it’s worth.

Seeing as this was a world based on a romantic novel, the plot was finding all kinds of ways to get her to interact with the male lead. Main quest: he was her husband. Side quest: he was in charge of the dowry properties.

There was something important everyone needed to understand. Everyone who was not the main character but associated with them is cannon fodder. Cannon fodder get cannon fodder fates. It was only a matter of when.

Why become cannon fodder if she could escape said sad fate? She was already being threatened with death by a stupid dismembered robot voice. She wasn’t going to let anyone or anything else try to kill her.

She paused.

“Hey, Saffron?” She called out, “I’m not the only one who was sent into an alternate dimension thing, aren’t I?”

The feline looked up from licking its paws. She had to stop herself from touching his head. “Well, yes. The young master has an unsightly habit of throwing people he doesn’t agree with into worlds at will.”

“What happened to those guys?” She asked.

He glanced at her, “They all died.”

Fun.

“Ah!” A little detail that escaped her yesterday suddenly wormed its way back into her mind. “You mentioned something before about your Young Master’s older brother guy being able to save me, right? What about now?”

Saffron shook his head, “He wouldn’t be of any help anymore. Once you enter this world, you have to bear the rules of it. He’s bound to them too. Even if he tried to return you to your world, if you haven’t completed the quests yet, you’ll still bear consequences.”

Laia opened her mouth, before closing it again. A twitchy, wry smile found itself on her lips.

She once again thought of kidnapper kid.

Yup, there was no way she would be leaving him alive.

“You shouldn’t worry too much, Lady Laia. Every one of those people were actual criminals, unlike you. Their downfall was that they received quests from the system but refused to do them. As long as you are able to fulfill the system’s demands, then you should be able to return to your home world safely. I swear to you that I will even see it through,” he bowed.

She wanted to let out a laugh.

A success rate of 0%.

Fabulous.