Second Female Leads' Playbook

"Lady Odette, Lord Henri has come. He's in the library," Sarah reported. 

I gave her a vague nod while flipping over a page of the leather bound volume. 

"Lady Odette, did you and Lord Henri really have an argument? You seldom go out of your room to meet him!" 

"That's because I don't want to meet him," I drawled as I rolled my eyes. 

"But he's here to meet you! He cares for you so much to the point of coming here to tutor you!" 

I chuckled at this totally incorrect news. "Alright. I will go and meet him later today. Now shoo, go prepare tea." I waved my hand to dismiss my nagging maid. 

Now after giving the love birds five days, it's more or less time Henri fell in love with Rachelle. Don't disappoint me, Henri. I smirked. Let's visit them after my tea. 

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I creaked open the old oak door to the library and peeked inside. Both Henri and Rachelle were sitting side by side with their heads huddled close together over a spell book. Rachelle was so focused that a lock of her shiny hair escaped her braids. The lock of hair fell in front of her eyes. Henri looked up and tucked that hair back behind her ear. Rachelle looked up with her face red as she smiled sweetly back at Henri. 

An exact copy of a scene out of a romance novel! I could not believe those romantic scenes in trashy romance novels, as my Father so kindly categorized them, could happen in real life!

I banged open the door to the library and shouted excitedly, "I brought you guys snacks!" 

Henri jumped at the sound of my voice and immediately leaned as far away from Rachelle as possible. He even started doodling on the paper in front of him. 

"Odette! I... I was wondering where you are these few days!" Rachelle said with her face still red. "It's not the same without you studying with us! You said you would study with me. But you just never showed up. Leaving only Henri and me!" 

"Now I am back, with snacks!" I grinned. "You see there's tea, cookies and... where are the cakes? I must have left them! Let me ask..."

"I will go!" Rachelle shot up from her seat and then rushed out of the room. Her face was still bright red.

"Ask Sarah to bring it over," I finished the sentence. I shrugged as I went to close the door of the library. "Hi, Henri. So there's only the two of us left." I grinned. 

"Well... yeah..." Henri squirmed uncomfortably. Henri started to tidy up the table as he said, "You should study, Odette. Rachelle is very talented. She caught up a lot during the past few days while you are playing around." 

Very soon, she will catch up and overtake you too, I thought silently. 

"I know." Still grinning as I leaned on the wooden door of the library, "You should thank me, Henri. Do you have fun studying with Rachelle? Just the two of you." 

"What... what..." Henri stuttered with his ears all red. 

"Calm down, calm down. I am just saying you two seem to be good study partners," I stated innocently. "Oh, Henri, you haven't mentioned the fact that you are my fiance to Rachelle, have you?"

"No, why should I?" Henri squirmed uneasily. 

"I understand, I understand. If you mentioned that tiny fact, Rachelle might not flirt with you. Totally understandable." 

"What... we're not..." 

"It's alright. It's alright." I tried to motion him to calm down. "I am here for a deal. A deal you won't regret." My lips quirked up. 

"Deal?"

"Let's break off our betrothal."

"What? What are you playing at, Odette?" Henri narrowed his eyes. 

"It's a great deal! By breaking it off, you can flirt with Rachelle all you want! You can even marry her! Both of our families will agree, they just want someone from my family to marry someone from yours. Whether it's me or Rachelle, it doesn't matter. But it matters to you, am I right?" 

Henri eyed me with distrust. "But you like me, why would you give up like that? If you think by pretending to step back, I will fall for you. That's not going to happen, Odette. I know you, don't try to hurt Rachelle!"

I rolled my eyes. "You don't know me. Not anymore. Well there are certainly some conditions you have to follow."

"Conditions?"

"I have to be the one to announce it. I dumped you. Not the other way round. And you and Rachelle can only announce that you two are together or wed only after I have married. Not before my wedding. Sounds like a deal?" I raised my eyebrow. Well I might never marry though. 

"Why are you doing this?" he was still eyeing me skeptically. 

"I just don't want to marry you, simple as that. Let's sign a contract." I took out a piece of paper from my sleeve. "Then I can trust you." 

"A contract? A magic one?"

"Of course. We both have to swear to our gods. Do you want to go over your terms or not?" I offered him the sheet. "Rachelle is coming back any second." 

Once a contract was signed between two sorcerers, the two were bound by magic and their gods. They would face certain consequences if it's broken. The consequences were decided upon between the two parties before the contract was signed. In our case, the one who broke the contract had to be disowned by family.

No one wanted to break a contract bound by magic as there were no loopholes around it. You're sealing your contract with you gods as witness. 

He quickly glanced through the paper and eyed me suspiciously one last time, clearly wondering why I was giving him up. But he knew this was his chance to freedom, so he bit his thumb and smeared his blood on the contract. He handed me the contract. I smiled and took out the needle I had with me. I pricked my thumb and followed his lead by smearing my blood on the contract. 

At the touch of my blood, the contract disappeared with only lingering black smoke. 

Henri stared in confusion, "The smoke..."

"What? You worry that I would fail a spell as simple as to draft a contract? You scrutinize the contract before signing, didn't you?"

The tiny crease between his eyebrows smoothed, "Must be a trick of the light. I thought the smoke was black in color. Yes, I scrutinized the spell on the contract before signing, you did a surprisingly good job."

It's now my turn to feel anger bubbling inside me. "That's an elementary spell. Are you looking down on me?" 

"Eh..."

I gave him one final stare and walked out of the room. He was right about the smoke being black in color though. That's because the spell I used was from the book of god of darkness. If he broke the contract, it would not kill him, I was just an average sorceress to begin with, it'd just give him a day or two bad luck. 

I hummed as I returned to my room.