"This world is shit."

The young man scrubbing the floor with all his might has his lips bruised and with a pair of purple soulless eyes he could pass off as somebody who looked like he is near at death's door. 

"Why the hell was I even here in the first place?"

He continued to mutter to himself unaware of the fast approaching footsteps that grew closer and closer,  a sign that trouble is coming his way.

"Oh? No wonder the hallway has a foul smell. The dog was finally free from probation, huh?"

The young man's aggressive scrubbing of the wooden floor was put to a halt when he notices whose wretched voice it was that degraded him. He clenched his jaw, and his hand held on tightly to the piece of cloth he was using to wipe the floor.

"What is it this time, Kai?"

The man whom he addressed as Kai snickered when he heard his name being called by the young man who he saw as someone less of a human, and more of a filthy dog who found his way in Oleander, his territory.

"Nothing. I just like seeing you clean and do a good deed, dog. Especially, when your face is so close to the floor it looked like you were licking it passionately."

Kai and his two cronies laughed their head off as they continue to mock him.

The young man on the other hand suppresses his anger by taking a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves down.

But if they go further, he isn't a hundred percent sure that he wouldn't knock a certain someone unconscious again by punching him in the face. Although, doing so, would cost him his dinner and his warm bed by going into probation again and being locked inside the abandoned stables at the back of the brothel where it's freezing and his companions mostly rats.

"Ahaha... Haha... Haaah...", Seeing that the young man was unaffected. Kai's  smile slowly fades and was immediately replaced with a frown.

"You look like you're dead it's not even worth laughing at you. Tch! This is a waste of time."

Kai was irritated, the reason simply because the young man didn't show any reaction even when mocked and was made a fool of. Kai wanted attention but it wasn't given and in retaliation he kicked the bucket that the young man was using, spilling water on the wooden floor before he stormed off with his eyebrows furrowed and his cronies following closely behind him while shooting disgusted gazes at the indifferent young man.

The young man was used to Kai, and his attempts to intimidate him to assert dominance over him but over and over again he would blank out and do the unthinkable; punching the number one hostess of the brothel in the face, and costing the owner what could have Kai earned that night because of a bleeding nose or a small injury on his face. And after many times he learned that patience is a virtue. He knew Kai wanted a reaction from him, to use his emotions against him but if he showed Kai that his attempts does not faze him one bit.

Kai would simply leave him alone, just like what happened a moment ago.

And in all honesty, the young man has more problems than Kai's daily harassment because as far as his knowledge serves, according to the novel 'Crimson Carnation', The brothel Oleander was attacked by assailants who was waiting for the right opportunity to murder the notorious villain of the book known as 'Hell Flower' or to be exact the most famous general of Asphodel; Zora Clyborne, tonight. 

Exactly, before dawn.

The young man's head is currently occupied on how to survive this night.

The fateful night where Zora Clyborne, the villain herself would seek him out because of the powers lying dormant in him or to be much more accurate, the powers this body he transmigrated into has.

The only difference was that he knows how the whole story will go and he, who was in the body of someone who is nothing but a side character, a canon fodder wanted to make sure of his survival even if it costs him everything but his life.

The body he is in remains nameless even in the novel yet the ninth mana wielder was mentioned a lot in the novel as a side character who died by Zora Clyborne's hand due to the ninth mana wielder's ability to heal any wounds, illness and even keep Zora's madness in check.

It was written in the novel that the ninth mana wielder met with Zora at Oleander, and by force the villainous general forced the ninth mana wielder to aid her by providing her his blood and eventually, when Zora descent to madness due to her lover wreaking havoc on the entire empire of Asphodel and killing off every single Clyborne there is,even the blood of the ninth mana wielder was not enough to satiate her bloodlust and from there she started killing off anyone who got in her way. 

It wasn't exactly clear how the ninth mana wielder died but in the novel it was said 'his blood sacrificed to the mad general, and his body gone cold while Asphodel, the empire was burned to the ground. The people cry in fear and despair but their pleas fall on deaf ears while the emperor continue to wreak havoc in the name of his own justice but this was not for long. For Zora Clyborne, the last of the Clyborne family, single handedly slaughtered the emperor's soldiers and even her trusted friend whom turned his back on her who was loyal to Davien.'

Everytime the young man think back on the novel he read, and he is now currently stuck in, the spine chilling last few words that he kept on reading over and over again nearing the climax of the story made him feel goosebumps time and time again.

And in the last chapter of the novel, it was written that the villain Zora Clyborne then killed her lover, her childhood friend in a cold-blooded manner by beheading Davien and she sat on his throne while laughing maniacally then suddenly bursting into tears as she lose before her very eyes everything that she tried to protect and held dear. 

Zora lost her family, her lover, her friend and the empire that she was trained to protect all those years. She was the villain of the novel and at the same time she was also the tragic heroine who had no choice but to kill the hero. 

The novel ended there, and the author who wrote it refuses to further elaborate what it is that happened to Asphodel and Zora which left many readers confused and enraged because of how the ending was cut short.

He knows the feeling because he was one of the fans of the novel when it came out.

He who came from another world by chance.

"Tst! Why the fuck did I even end up here in the first place. If I had known this will happen to me, I shouldn't have read that stupid book.", The young man muttered to himself as he scrub the wet floor aggressively again and again in an attempt to dry it while trying to brush off the worst case scenarios that could happen tonight in his head.