The moment Shiloh entered the novel, every waking moment had been torment. She didn't appear in a nobleman's house unlike Dala had, but the sheer amount of ambient magic in this 'world' made her physically ill. She should have known better than to touch a cursed artifact. She just didn't expect it to be disguised as a romance novel. Hours passed as her sense of time was scrambled with the pounding migraines and inability to find where Lizzy was. She had tried to find a way out of this world, to no avail. But in the time she spent here, she was able to test the boundaries of this self-contained dimension. First, the laws of common sense. There were none, absolutely none. The rule of aesthetics and blind lovey-dovey romance was the overarching law that governed this technicolor purgatory. Two, only things important to romance mattered. As long as she laid low and stayed away from certain areas, the agonizing pain and nausea would be far less. 

If she could find the cornerstone of this world, she might be able to try to destabilize it enough to spit her and Lizzy out. Without it, the magic of this place would completely fall apart. There was one small problem though…she didn't know what the novel was about. All she knew was it was some sappy love story, but she had no idea who or what was important. Trying to work backwards, she tried to single out that which might be considered critical to the novel's plot line. And so began a series of trial and error, which to the general public became known as the 'noble lady stabbings'. After trying to get help the normal way, Shiloh came to the conclusion that none of these people were actually real and just figments of the cursed book's creation. That was made clear after she stabbed a woman who was said to be engaged to a duke's son. The blood looked terribly realistic, to the point that Shiloh began to panic when nothing different was happening–but a day after she fled the scene and stayed hidden, news spread that the woman was fine.

That woman went about her business like nothing had happened at all. No trauma, no increased security, no manhunt for the attacker. That itself was terrifying.

And so, this was why Shiloh was able to mentally justify attacking people in broad daylight. As she was fleeing the scene, what caught her off guard was one of the ladies at the party catching up with her. Instead of spouting lines of justice or indignation, she said she wanted to come with her?! Shiloh stared in shock for a few seconds before it finally dawned on her. "OH THANK GOD!! Finally, an actual human being!" Throwing a look over her shoulder, she saw the guards were approaching. "Alright, come with me–let's get out of here." Quickly Shiloh grabbed Dala and continued to run, taking off into the nearby landscaping to throw the guards off their trail. It was all a blur until they were outside the capital city gates, Shiloh letting go of Dala then and crumpling onto the ground with a wheeze. The throbbing pain in her head was easing up, and she could actually hear herself think.  

Luckily for her, the masked person was also a person trapped in the book. That much was obvious from their reaction and exclamation over finding a real human being. Before she knew what was happening, she was lifted off of her feet and the both of them were fleeing far away from the capital city. She was almost impressed by the distance until she remembered that distance was strange in this world and so was time. When they were far enough away, Dala jumped to the ground and brushed herself off before turning to the masked person and holding out her hand to them to help pull them to their feet.

"The name's Dala. And please tell me you have a place to stay. I am NOT going back to that manor." She said with a shudder.

If she had to watch those creepy staring servants who had smiles every second, she would go insane. Everything about this world was wrong in every single way. The things that seemed normal and made the world seem real were missing while every important event was dramatized. Even the death of the green haired girl was in slow motion. Dala desperately wanted to get out of here. The masked figure finally revealed themself as Shiloh. Dala's jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she recognized her old teacher.

"Wait WHAT?!" She exclaimed, "I didn't think you read romance novels?!"

That was the most surprising thing of this entire situation. Shiloh explained her side of the story, how she arrived in the novel and what she had been doing ever since getting there as they both walked back to her home base.

"So we both are looking for Lizzy then? At least we know it's the same book and not some interconnected web." Dala commented, "So how do you think we can get the hell out of here? I still don't have access to any of my magic so if it needs that I'm afraid I won't be able to help much."

"I was just about the say the same thing! Good thing I ran into you, Dala. I was pretty sure I was on my last straw there." Shiloh had found a cabin in the woods that was unoccupied. At first when she entered she found some suspicious things, like a secret tunnel that led out to a spot near the capital city, some changes of clothes, and stocked up provisions. She had a slight pounding headache as she entered it, but as time went on that faded. She had taken out all the secret road markers that led to this place, and even got rid of the more questionable items. Strangely enough, that made her nausea and migraines disappear. With her working theory on the way this world functioned, this area must've had some sort of minor plot significance before she vandalized the nearby area. It was her hideout now.

"Looks like we're both trying to find her, yes. And this self-contained dimension seems to be isolated completely too. The main focus was romance, and I suppose the creator only had one thought on the brain." Good for them, as she didn't think she'd be able to handle more madness. Opening the door to the cabin, she let Dala in as she checked that no one else was around. Closing the door, she then lit a lantern and hung it up. "So I have a theory about this book. If this is a self-contained dimension, then there has to be something holding it together. Sort of like a machine–there are many working components, but if you remove the most important one, it falls apart and stops completely. Normally that would be the power source or something close to it, but I haven't found anything that matches so far."

 Rubbing her head, she added: "This entire 'world' is made of magic. Something has to be providing that magic, or at least giving it some sort of way to sustain itself. Unfortunately that means I feel like I'm dying on the inside thanks to all this dense concentrated magic in the air, but it's especially bad when I'm inside the city." She then went over to a bucket, and proceeded to empty the contents of her stomach. After a few minutes, she was better. "Ugh… Anyway, we're in the same boat more or less. I can use my magic but it's hard due to the strain on my focus. So long story short: we find the centerpiece of this book, we wreck it, it should destabilize enough to throw us and Lizzy out."   

Dala quietly listened to Shiloh's explanation of what she has discovered or theorized so far. If it wasn't for the fact that Dala came from the real world and knew about the strangeness of their reality, her thoughts would have sounded like mad ramblings. Even now she was still trying to wrap her head around the entire situation. Then poor Shiloh went and puked in a bucket. Suddenly Dala felt relieved to have little access to her own magic, else she might be just as pukey as Shiloh. Dala took a moment to look at their surroundings, finally noting the suspicious nature of the cabin. If this…well it WAS a romance novel so it must have been part of the plot at some point. Perhaps that's something else Shiloh changed?

"Got it. So that's why you went after one of the nobles. You were trying to figure out who was an important plot person." Dala deduced, "Have you tried killing the pink princess yet? I'm not certain but she may be plot-relevant."

Apparently, the pink princess was not the main character or important enough to throw the story off, which was somewhat a relief to Dala since it could have been THAT kind of story. She slumped down on the floor and began thinking about what their next move should be. Even if they killed off an important character, it wouldn't be enough. They needed to destroy a plot point or kill a character who was so relevant, the story couldn't ignore it. That meant love interests and protagonists. They couldn't keep going one by one, they would need a proper plan.

"We need to lure the love interests and protagonists out." Dala stated, "If we keep going one by one, we'll never get anywhere."

She paused for a moment and began thinking up a plan. This was one of the few times she was actually thankful of all the trope talks, book conventions, and scoutings that Simone dragged her through.

"Let's try a hunting competition first." She suggested, "It shouldn't be too hard to get them to do it, considering it'll go with the theme of the book and all the side characters are daft. The one who wins the competition could be our male lead. And if any women talk to an extremely handsome man for more than five minutes, there's a chance that she could be a protagonist as well. Plus it'll guarantee everybody will be there so we may find Lizzy. What do you think?"

Yes, out of desperation to get out Shiloh had done things she never would have tried in the real world. The madness of this world was wearing her down in more ways than one. Anything or anyone that stood out enough to be significant was in her strike zone, and yes she had attempted to 'assassinate' Princess Amelia. When she did though, the world completely reset to the point in time where she first was sucked in. While that did derail the story, it wasn't enough to completely destroy it beyond repair. Apparently the prince wasn't supposed to go the angst route. Dala took what she had learned through various experiments and came up with a suggestion to make things more streamlined. If she wasn't being plagued with nausea and a constant headache every moment, Shiloh would have been able to make a more coherent plan outside of a systematic stabbing spree. Thankfully Dala was here to handle that.

The suggestion of the competition was rather clever, and it had many purposes. The hunting competition would be used to see if this was specifically a male-centered romance fantasy, where the story revolved around a leading male character's relationships. Even though this was a romance fantasy novel, it was important to know what angle they were coming from. "If they're important to the story, they'll definitely come–male or female." Finding Lizzy was also a bonus too. "Let's do it. It's our best shot so far. Question is, do we set this competition up ourselves or do we wait for it to happen? I didn't really have time to learn much about the customs and holidays of this kingdom before I began my 'process of elimination'." Even if the guards were incompetent, she technically was a wanted criminal now for attempted assault on a dozen noble houses. 

Dala didn't even think about the moral implications of killing an npc since this world was fake and made up. Hell, even if they were real her attitude was always in favor of survival. Shiloh seemed to approve of the plan so the next step was figuring out how to make the event happen. Her status in the court was too small to influence such a huge event. The only person who could really get the ball rolling on the hunt was the protagonist of the story. That led them into a circle where they always ended up needing the help of the protagonist. Unless..

"So we know for sure the prince is an important character?" She asked, "Normally I wouldn't suggest this but since we're working on the rules of a romance novel, we could try creating an anonymous letter to the prince. It would ask for him to present a hunt where the secret admirer would reveal their love. I know it makes no sense to us but from the love interest's eyes, this would be enough of an inciting incident to get the event rolling."

The trick was getting some half-decent writing in the letter. If it looked like a legit love confession or at least a request from a lover, then it would work. Problem was, Dala had no idea how to write such a thing and she lacked the charisma to back it up. Her eyes looked to Shiloh.

"I don't know much about lovey-dovey stuff. How's your handwriting?" Dala asked.

She hated the idea of writing a love letter and every word would be irritating.

"I think it's safe to assume the prince is important. Marrying a prince or an equivalent man with wealth and high social status is a typical teenage fantasy for young women." There was a reason why the concept was used so much. It was practically a staple of romance novels. It would appear they would need to create the situation themselves to see who would come, and that meant one thing… "I should probably be the last person to ask for writing a love letter, however I do know how to imitate another person's handwriting." She said, looking to the side. Once you went through another person's private letters enough times, it was easy to pick up on their writing habits and use of written speech. She had used this skill many times when infiltrating households to cement herself in a position where she could observe her targets. Posing as a member of the hired help was too easy. Nobody bothered to pay attention to whoever was cleaning the stables or sweeping the floors.

Fortunately she still remembered how she criticized one of her staff members when he was trying to write an invitation of his own to one of Angela's sisters. A small smile came on her face as she remembered putting him in a choke hold until he admitted it needed revising. "I know just how to do it." Auron's handwriting would work just fine here. It was flowery and sappy enough. With some ink and expensive stationery, she cracked her knuckles and went to work. Writing as someone else wasn't as hard as it looked–you just needed to imagine how they would think. After a painstaking half hour, she was done. "It's vague enough to make someone jump to conclusions but specific enough to make them act according to the plan." She let Dala read it over to see if it needed revising. 

Thankfully Shiloh took up the letter-writing duty while Dala began looking for some actual clothes that she could borrow. The sooner she could get out of that puffy dress, the better. Something else she noticed about this world was its strange fashion. Its almost if somebody purposefully dressed all the women in ridiculous fashions so that the protagonist would stand out in comparison. She found an outfit and slightly modified it to make it fit her better. Then she went back to Shiloh to review the letter. The letter itself seemed fine to her, though she wasn't an expert on anything romantic.

"Looks good. Now, all we have to do is sneak this into the palace." She stated, "You've slipped in and out of there enough times. What's the security like?"

Even if this was a crappy romance novel, it must have better security for the prince than what she experienced at the manor. This would be the first time she sneaked into a palace, then again she probably wouldn't take any tips. Even if security was better, the npc's were pretty stupid. Doing anything like this in the real world would lead to ultimate disaster.

"Then it sounds like we have a plan. Once the hunt is announced we can scout out for the best spots to use while looking for our targets. But first we need to get that letter thing handled." Dala stated.

"The security in the palace is a joke. I've broken into houses with better defenses than that. But just to be safe, I'll need at least a day or two to make sure our target receives it and it doesn't go missing." After the 'princess assassination' fiasco, Shiloh wasn't going to take any chances on letting the cursed book 'fix' anything she did. Fortunately there were loopholes they could abuse, and as long as they avoided triggering scenarios that were flagged as important, they could get away with just about anything. "Hunts would typically take place in a privately owned section of a forest, if the book is actually following reality for once." She mulled. "Since we have a foot in the door, any gossip about high society should be easy to get a hold of. I can get some more clothes if we need extra disguises. Since nobody pays attention to anybody who isn't a noble, I can scout around while doing odd jobs in the city." 

"I also can pick up some more supplies, like materials for traps and weapons." Another man's trash was another man's treasure–in this case, anything nobody would miss could be used. "The family that you fell into is probably going to be looking for you though, and there were a lot of witnesses back at the tea party." Not one of her best moments, but it was the best idea at the time. "I'll be observing on the side too to see if I can learn more about who or what the core element to this self-contained world might be."

There were a few things she had to go off on. Normally if a cursed item had a reputation, then that was due to people discovering its victims. Those types were either too dangerous to leave unprotected or only dangerous enough to be an outright menace. Objects that were more subtle and less aggressive in their effects could slip by unnoticed for years, even centuries. Just like how mass killings drew the attention of the local law enforcement more than something that looked like an accident. Both her and Dala had gotten trapped by it after all. Since there wasn't as much information out about what this cursed book did, there was greater danger as they didn't know exactly what they were dealing with. 

Despite the lackluster security, they both decided it would be best to play it safe. Although the characters were dumb, the cursed book was not. If they were to ever get out of here they would have to treat the novel like it was the real opponent. For the next week or so, they would have to stock up on information and disguises along with any weapons they could get their hands on. Shiloh then mentioned how that family she had been staying with would likely be looking for their lady. Although their security was even worse than the palace security, they would make an attempt to find their lost lady.

"I can handle that. Years of being alone in Vilpamolan taught me a thing or two about hiding." Dala said, "I probably will just go around from house to house and steal whatever shit I can find."

After living in Vilpamolan, this place would be a cakewalk as long as she avoided any of the main characters or triggering an event. Once they sorted out their plan, both of them went straight to work. The delivery of the letter wasn't too difficult, though Shiloh had to pull Dala away from the kitchens else she would have eaten everything and ruin their entire plan. Once the letter was delivered, the prince practically leaped at the hunting idea and ordered for it to be put together immediately. In a matter of days, the hunt was put together and everybody who was anybody was invited. Hundreds of tents sprawled across the open fields surrounding the private royal forests. Horses were prepared, hunting dogs were ready, and almost nobleman was eager to begin. The noble ladies were all having a little picnic as they gossiped about who would win. The sun was shining, the sky was clear and all the flowers were in bloom. It was sickening to Dala.

She had taken up a position as a servant boy taking care of the women's luggage. Dala wanted to be a maid so at least she could sneak in some of the food but Shiloh had pointed out how risky such a move would be considering that noble family was still looking for her. The benefit to this was that nobody ever looked her way or even bothered with her since all their eyes were drawn to the male love interests. She was able to go in and out and wherever she pleased as long as she didn't bother the ladies. Dala was assigned with targeting the women while Shiloh would go after the hunters. The winner would be killed while she would look for any lady who had significant romantic moments with handsome men that were over a minute long.

The hunt was about to begin.