When they made sure they were finally alone after the fiasco Jane gently closed the door as she sighs out of relief. “Argh, Dios mío! Do you have any idea how hard it is to not utter a word in your mother language for something you forgot what it’s originally called in English?” Jane spoke feeling better as she finally got to drop her fake accent that she’s been keeping up all day. “Why does this world that I got into never have a language I’m comfortable with besides English...” She mutters, pouting. “As if being an immigrant before all of this wasn’t bad enough. I get to experience this shit all over again this time without anyone knowing Spanish let alone ever heard of it...” She sighs, both hands running through her dark hair in frustration as she glances over to Victor hoping he’d give her any form of advice or even cheer her up in any way. 

“Ay cheer up, mate! Normally I wouldn’t complain since I mainly speak this language, but I gotta admit keeping this fake accent intact along with being careful not to slip up in the wrong place at the wrong time could’ve really been a sticky wicket for us.” Victor finally spoke, sighing in relief as well, and didn’t hesitate to drop his fake accent, “Almost blew my cover this morning by saying “snag” today!” Victor laughs boisterously, lifting the mood and yet again makes him earn another confused look from Jane. His face flushed a little bit. Embarrassed, he scratched his cheek as he didn’t mind explaining what he just said to her.

“Well, for what it’s worth it’s nice to know that there are others who share my pain in this crazy world.” Jane playfully punches Victor’s arm as he perks up in pure shock, rubbing arm and winces.

“OW- Wait? You mean ya’ already found others who reincarnated/transmigrated as well?!” He exclaims the panic in his voice as he suddenly starts bombarning Jane with all sorts of questions. “Who are they? Did they look friendly enough to be allies? Can you track them down? We need to meet up with them and-“ Jane flicks the top of his forehead as Victor stumbled backwards, instantly wincing from the pain as he rubbed his forehead.

“I was talking about you, pendejo.”

“Hey.” He pouts, narrowing his eyes at her for a moment until snorting out a laugh. “Language. And I’m certainly not stupid, Shelia.” He smirks. “Remember, what did we talk about?” He asks her, waiting for a response as if he was a parent that just scolded a child. She didn’t bother to hide her groan and reluctantly replied, nudging her glasses. 

“Ugh, no speaking or cursing in Spanish outside our safehouse.” She mumbles loud enough for him to hear her. She wants to pound that cheeky smile of his that was plastering on his face. He pats her head forgetting that she flicked his forehead a moment ago. He furrowed his eyebrows.

“Safe house? I see this more as a base of our operations.” He is deeply offended that this cozy cottage that they bought earlier is viewed this way, but instead he laughs it off given how serious Jane is to their current situation. Any normal person would’ve instantly view him as a lunatic if he told anyone that this so-called “world” that they’re living in is nothing more than a fantasy romance book some author wrote either they self insert themselves for fun or to pay the bills, but Jane was an exception mainly because she immediately believed him the second he understood her Spanish and found that they’re in the same boat ever since.

“I mean like you said. We are currently avoiding this world’s “plot” so what better way to do that than to stay away from the deranged “main characters” in our cozy little casita while being safe and sound.” She heads over to the pile of pillows making herself comfortable while reading a book she picked up.

“Say where did you get that book?” Victor points at the green thick cover book and wonders where it came from and was aware that both of them are flat broke after purchasing the safehouse and he was certain that it didn’t come with a book.

“Why, courtesy of the weirdo I met in the library!” She grins over to Victor ignoring his confused expression and continues. “Cabrón was extremely surprised the second he found out I could read and had the gall to spout some bullshit that women of my "status" aren’t meant to be here and that I should run off to my master.”

“And your response?” Victor raises an eyebrow and already had a feeling that he wouldn’t like the direction her story was heading.

“Why, I lovingly kicked his groin, of course! Honestly I was testing to see if he’d hit me, but he was too much of a gentleman to which it pissed me off more. Don’t worry, I soon got out of there before the guards showed up!” She laughs, while the man gawks at her in disbelief not before his curiosity got the better of him.

“Crikey, Jane.” He sighs, gently rubbing his temples. “And the book?”

“I guess it’s his way of apologizing?” The girl ignores Victor’s questioning looks while she proceeds to lick her thumb flipping the pages over and being completely engrossed in the book and continues, “Either that or the dude has seriously fallen love with me.” She answers him with a coy smile while giving Victor a wink.

“You’re unbelievable and full of yourself.” He retorts, taking a sip of his bottled water quenching his thirst from not only for his daily training and the running he had to do for the day.

“What? I might have awoken something inside of him. You never know, he could be daydreaming about getting crushed between my firm thighs as we speak~” She resorts back shamelessly by striking a playful pose reminiscent of a famous romance tragedy film she used to watch. This pose of hers along with her sudden inappropriate joke led Victor to choke on his water and immediately spit it out, coughing violently as Jane quickly asked him if he was alright to which he sheepishly shrugs her off with a weak thumbs up.

“Speaking of guards.” She puts down her book not before marking down the page and looks at Victor as if she instantly figured something out. She immediately arises from the pillows and suddenly heads over to him. “What if that captain knight fellow you talked about turns out to be the male lead in this world?!” She gasps in excitement. “I can totally see it!” The woman grabs onto Victor’s shoulder as she raises her arm in the air barely containing her excitement while pressing her cheek next to his. “Now picture this, the loyal knight who’s practically and literally the heroine’s shining knight in armor who’s been there for her straight from the beginning and fought long and hard for her safety. It makes perfect sense that he’s the male lead for sure.” Jane nods frequently, drawing her own conclusion and connecting her own dots.

“For a reader who’s mainly into action and thriller works ya’ sure know your way around romance tropes...” Victor smirks at her knowing how much she was adamant about not knowing a thing or two about romance literature and was certain that she said something along the lines of how much it was “waste of time” if no one was dying according to her.

“I stand corrected.” Jane frowns upon seeing his smile, releasing him from her grip as she didn’t like his teasing. “My Abuelita practically forced me to watch her favorite soap operas all the time and I go by what I think which direction the story is heading. It’s obviously him-”

“Strewth, hold yer horses, mate.” Victor quickly interrupts her. “Remember when I told ya’ he was the captain of the knights squad, yeah?” Jane slowly nods in confusion and doesn't understand what his application got to do with anything. “I hate to break it to you, but if he’s a knight that started off as a regular bloke and got to where he is through sheer guts and elbow grease, odds of him bein’ the male lead of this world are bloody slim. Not to mention it’s usually men with the higher status and influence who have the high ground. I’m talkin’ about the big three here, mate.” Jane raises her eyebrow.

“Que?” Was the only word that came out of Jane. She always knew out of the two of them Victor was the knowledge one in this genre. He always loved rambling on about the story structure and it’s cliche tropes despite not understanding a word he said.

“The crown prince, the northern duke and the master of the magician tower.” Victor elaborates further listing the male leads one by one with his finger. He proceeds to drag a nearby wooden easel along with some drawings of three distinctive handsome young men. Jane didn’t recall ever seeing that wooden easel before and claims that it came out of nowhere. The expert out of the two points at one of the men that he sketched based on his memory using his wooden sword resembling that of a professor.

“Be sure to write this down. There will be no room for error.” Jane suddenly notices his entire demeanor shifts. His old carefree self was no more and was replaced with a stern and passionate man. She swore her glasses would’ve completed his look. Noticing his stern staring she quickly grabs a notebook and a quill in hand like the diligent student she is.

“First you got your typical crown prince who’s next in line to the throne. He’s usually like the fairy tale prince you see in the books. The bloke’s charming, free spirited, and for some reason horsing around with women. His typical characteristics are blue eyes and blonde hair which are considered top-notch features by the high society’s standards. They always reckon that it’s a sign that symbolizes the royal family’s traits.” 

“Got it. Blonde hair, blue eyes and a playboy with inbred blood.” Jane slowly nods, jotting down.

“Next up is the cold northern duke. Unsurprisingly the most popular choice among the fans. He first seems to be your typical cold blooded bad boy, but the twist is that he’s actually socially inept when it comes to interacting with people hence causing the misunderstandings or what I would like to call it “filling gaps” in the story. He's usually a war hero that slayed many monsters and soldiers from other empires alike. His reputation always revolves around him being a complete monster, because apparently he’s a major threat to social circles.” Victor adds in a frustrated tone, clearing his throat. “Also according to the stories he’s exceptionally a “genius” who is bloody good at everything, except that he’s never been in a relationship let alone touched a woman so he’s quite aloof in that area.” Victor begins to sweat slightly, as he mutters quietly enough for Jane, secretly hoping that the Duke doesn’t have super hearing abilities. “Scratch that. It’s the only area he’s aloof at and I don’t think he’s ever touched a woman apart from his dead mum.”

“Got it. Red eyes, black hair and zero body count in the second department.” Jane nods, motioning the number zero with her fingers, to which it earned her a snicker from Victor.

“Lastly, and it’s best for us to not get involved with him at all. The master of the magician tower. He’s the most powerful magician in these types of worlds and hence he’s most likely to be insane as well…” Jane politely interrupts, raising her arm in the air resembling that of a curious student.

“How batshit crazy are we talking?” 

“Excellent question, mate!” She smiles, proud of herself for asking such a good question.

“That solely depends if he’s currently obsessed with the female lead if she even manages to get in contact with him. That type of character always and I mean always possesses powerful magic is bound to be bloody unhinged; his only flaw. A classic example would be that he won’t hesitate to murder ya’ if you look at him the wrong way, mate.” She jots down this time paying extra attention.

“Then what are his signature characteristics?” Upon noticing his drawings Jane notices that there are messy sketches that were crossed over regarding the man’s appearance. Victor muses.

“Hmm, the most popular ones I can think of on the top of my head have the characteristics of silver/white hair, but I’m not so sure about the length of his hair or the exact colors of his eyes. There’s a possibility of him using magic to shapeshift that is also quite high. So if you do see a handsome distinguished gentleman wearing some robes along with an innocent smile… Just run.” Victor sternly warns her.

“Aww, but do I have to?” Jane whines. Her dark eyes sulked in disappointment. Possibly not paying any attention to the red flags that Victor just listed. It was already too late, because her attention was fixated the second she heard the word “magician”. She continues, “Think he can show me the magic trick where they saw someone in half inside the caja?!” She asks in excitement, mimicking the movement of sawing someone with her hand. 

“More like he’ll bloody cut a guy in half for entertainment if he ever gets bored.” He sighs, “That bloke will do anything to achieve his own twisted plans even if it means wiping off our existence with a snap of his finger.” Victor shudders, already thinking of a mental image in his head. “He’s dangerous and unpredictable compared to the other two so please heed my warnings for once, Jane.” He holds both of her shoulders, his amber eyes met with her dark brown ones. His words carry the seriousness in them. “It’s not a game. I don’t want ya’ to end up as a bloody meat pie.”

Noticing the weariness in his voice Jane gently places her hand on his own to comfort him with a soft smile. “Hey, don’t worry about me.” She gave him a minute. “You sure know your stuff, Vic.” Jane admits, feeling impressed about Victor’s knowledge upon this world. “That way we can use that to our advantage and come up with all sorts of strategies on what not to do in this godforsaken world!” Jane raises her arms in the air emphasizing her relief that she’s at least with an expert that knows his way around the tropes.

“Aren’t you weirded out in the slightest that I know so much about this sort of genre despite being a guy?” Victor slightly flushes, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully feeling somewhat embarrassed to admit to the fact that he likes to read literature that is mainly targeted towards the female audience. 

“Why?” Jane asks, not feeling bothered at all. “Eh, you like what you like. What’s there to be ashamed about?” She shrugs casually. “Unless you enjoy reading about psychotic characters unleashing their bloodlust upon the main characters cuz’ I’m totally up for doing that too.” Victor smiles softly at Jane’s words not before realizing what she had just said, a concerned smile slowly begins to form on his face.

“What did you mean about the last part?”