The next targets of suspicion would be maybe-not-so-murderous young master Alex's parents. Quillan no longer worried about the plot point where someone tries to kill male lead Jesse, he read Alex's background to find out what kind of crime he did to get him arrested and the most likely seemed to be drugs, underage drinking maybe? However, this Alex stayed firmly away from anyone that was even rumored to have a relation with someone affiliated with drug usage.
The mission was to make sure the plot continues how it was supposed to go, Ambrose says that there would be no cutting corners. Quillan had a feeling that Ambrose would let it go either way, so he went and looked up what other crimes he could have done.
Was he cruel, doing this to an innocent teenager? Definitely. Did Quillan care? No.
He only cared about the fact that he had to do his mission. For Quillan, this entire world was fantasy, he was interacting with fictional characters, so no matter how much warmth Flynn's parents gave his indifferent heart, he felt that none of it was real. Quillan felt that in this entire place, only he and Ambrose were real. It was probably because of how unrealistic and fiction-like the plot of this world was, how unreal everyone around him felt, how they were almost without any flaws unless the world gave them far too noticeable ones.
An example of these flaws would be was how shy Jesse was, but then he got over that and became confident and suddenly it was like he was utterly perfect. Everything was unreal and that…made him hyper aware of every single detail of their actions, logic did not apply to this reality, seeing as this wasn't even the reality he was used to.
…what was the reality he was used to?
Quillan didn't know that. Not knowing, not remembering, these things made him feel scared and panicked and he desperately wanted to know why. If framing someone else would help him, then he would do it.
Quillan was selfish, he knew that. It didn't bother him.
Now, how does one make someone else commit a crime? Admittedly, he had no idea how to do that, but he didn't have to, right? There was no guilt or pity. Not a sliver sadistic glee or anything like that and Quillan didn't pay attention to it, asking Ambrose in his head, "How do I do this?"
The plot said that Alex had gotten arrested, not for how long or if he even went to jail. Ambrose sounded confused, "Do what?"
"Frame somebody, make them commit a crime or get them arrested." Quillan heard choking and something shattering, not even pausing or showing a little expression. Ambrose shouted, "Why the fu—dge are you asking this?! What the hell is going on in that horrible mind of yours?! You're not planning on doing that to that Beryl are you?!" He sounded enraged, horrified even. Quillan didn't care about that, he just asked, "So, how do I do it?"
"You, you bastard! Utterly depraved, inhumane, bastard! I should've put you in his body instead! You…" he suddenly sounded exhausted and just done with life. Ambrose was quiet for a long time and Quillan was about to bother him about it again when he started. "Go…get some sort of thing to happen with someone more powerful…and charge him of assault…" Ambrose was unbelievably quiet and Quillan almost couldn't hear him.
Quillan lifted his lips in a dark smile, satisfied.
What a joke, as if he had not known that that was the easiest way to do it. Ambrose though, didn't seem to hate him after all and was helping him, how cute. Let's see the limits he can be pushed to.
"Then, help me contact with some sort of drug lord in the area?" Perhaps Quillan's voice betrayed him and the dark amusement he felt and Ambrose started yelling again. "Don't take me as some sort of shortcut! Go figure something out yourself."
Cory Amber came home only to see his son smiling at the air really oddly. He took off his glasses and wiped them before putting them on and seeing the normal expression on his son's face as he greeted him back home. "…I think I need new glasses." He muttered to himself, making a mental note. Also noticing how he was staring into space just now. Perhaps his son finally had someone to bring in as a daughter-in-law.
Ambrose sighed and slumped down exaggeratedly onto the couch. What the hell is that guy Quillan thinking! Damn idiotic, unfeeling, cruel bastard who just so happen to be Quillan. Ambrose continued cursing out Quillan out loud, not even bothering about how said guy was listening to it. He was rather repetitive with his words, and for some reason refrained from saying curse words.
Quillan said nothing about it, almost gleefully listening to someone else curse him out.
Wow, that came out a lot creepier than intended.
"You're a real creep you know that?" He heard Ambrose mutter under his breath after not eliciting any reactions. "Touché," Quillan states, "weren't you the one who forced me here and has been watching my every move?" The word 'every' was emphasized and Ambrose frowned for a moment, something Quillan couldn't see, before exploding again, "Pervert! Disgusting, shameless pervert!"
Quillan checked a box in his mind, finally confirming that Ambrose either couldn't hear his thoughts, an absurd idea that got lodged into his brain for no reason, or didn't want to hear them and that Ambrose has been watching him, probably unless he was in the bathroom. That would mean that he knew, or at least had an idea, that Quillan was taking advantage of loopholes and cutting a lot of corners.
Ambrose is someone who helps him, despite probably not wanting to and watches over him and he had said something about getting benefits if he completed this world. For some reason, the word "system" comes to mind but he gets rid of it.
"Do you have any other questions?" Ambrose asks him, a bit more calm and clearly trying to be patient with Quillan. "Of course. You had mentioned benefitting myself if I completed this world, what will I get? If I fail, what will happen?"
"Two and a half years of your memories. If you fail…then you will simply not get the memories of that world and therefore have a two and a half years worth of blank space in your mind." Ambrose sounded as if he was waiting for Quillan to ask this the whole time, ready for anything with a written script in hand. Quillan can easily imagine that Ambrose was doing that exact thing, imagining it in his head.
Familiar, he felt extraordinarily familiar with this man.
Perhaps something happened, because Cory brought Quillan to the company's headquarters the next day, an odd smile on his lips.
Quillan didn't particularly care about the Amber family, nor does he care about the business. He smiled though, slipping on perfectly the mask he had created to play as Flynn's persona. Cory had taken him to a sudden meeting to prepare him for them. No one doubted anything, thinking him to be an immature brat who needs to grow and experience more of life before he even begins to stand at the level they were on. Quillan says nothing about it, Ambrose laughs at their foolishness.
Whether it was Quillan or the original Flynn, neither of them were naïve sheep.
This time, one of the people they met was the head of the Beryl family. There was a reason Alex—otherwise known as not-so-murderous-young-master—was just a second generation rich young master, which is that his grandparents had been lucky enough to save an influential person. That was literally it.
The Beryl's current wife was also from common roots, falling in love with some rich guy and all the stereotypical things. Only, this time, the parents didn't fit it but instead welcomed it, to a lot of people's scorn. She wore modest and formal clothing, not looking at all like the other usual mistresses with low cut necklines and tight clothes, a simple silver bracelet with a single emerald on it.
Quillan looked at it for a while before smiling oddly.
An emerald, did that gem not symbolize love and more importantly, rebirth?
Quillan would like to think that he found who had been reincarnated back in time to alter the plot. One that he had to fix and make sure everything goes back on track. The easiest way would be to take the problem out by the root, but by now, that would cause many other things to go astray but, well, did that matter? The most important thing would be to preserve the main outline of the plot, not the details. Quillan was sure that Ambrose or whoever it was judging this test—because what else could he compare it to?—would let him do that.
That night, an anonymous email popped up in Madam Beryl's mail. She said nothing about the question her husband asked, not letting him see it, completely without doubt that he would trust her. She knew her husband too well, it seemed, he did just that.
Madam Beryl, Rowan Beryl, didn't stop what she was doing, increasing her vigilance around other people and making sure that nothing unwanted happened. Alex was still her son who she loved, there was no way that she would let him get arrested. That was fine for Quillan, they never did specify the time he had been arrested at. Just that he was and the male central figure—who he had forgotten the name of by this point—had better school days after.
Meaning that he had to at least do it before they graduate. Quite enough time, considering the school year was barely a quarter in.
He could create havoc and just skip classes right now, but that would be boring. Quillan definitely wasn't suited towards business and politics and such, school would be a better choice no matter how boring it was. Besides, the world's central figures were there.
Nothing isn't interesting when the protagonists of a world are involved.
Several days after Rowan Beryl got an email, her son was accused of bringing illegal weapons to school. Arrested by the police, she fell into a panic.
Things weren't supposed to be like this, why, didn't the world give her a second chance to prevent everything? Why is it like this? Who did it, why, how, why, why her son, why her family?
A deeper panic fell in place when apparently, her son kept a diary and the actual weapons were found.
Rowan knew for a fact that her son never kept a diary, she checked every single nook and crevice of his room weekly, weapons? She hardly let him sleep without someone watching, how would something like this happen?
Quillan wondered why he was here in the first place, if everything had been set to happen.
He wasn't the one to frame Alex.