I died and was reborn into an Otome game!? (Hiatus)

Part 5

"Jayne, where are you going?" Ana chased after her.

Jayne abruptly stopped running down the corridor to face her, "Abraham is going to die, okay, I can't let that happen." She continued running.

"And what do you plan to do?"

She stopped again, "Octavia can put a stop to this, I'm sure I can convince her to not let this happen." And with that, she burst open Octavia's doors. "Octavia!"

Octavia woke up, still slightly groggy, she moaned and rubbed her eyes, but when she saw Jayne, that all changed, "Oh my gosh! Jayne! You're alright." She ran up to hug her. Holding her so tightly that Jayne was having difficulty breathing.

"Ah, Oc- Octavia! P- Please." She choked.

She quickly let go, "Oh, I'm so sorry." She affectionately stroked Jayne's arms, "It's just, I'm so happy you're awake."

"Yeah, um, about Abraham?"

"Oh, that brute!" Octavia roared before Jayne could ask her question, "He hit me, you know? Because he thought I poisoned you. Which I didn't," she quickly reassured, "I would never harm you, you know that Jayne, right?" A twinkle of fear glimmered in her eyes.

"Uh, yeah, I, I know that, but, um, can you, maybe, let... Abraham... go?" She nervously laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

"Let- Let him go? He hit me, Jayne, do you not care about that, he gave me a black eye!"

"Well, yeah, I understand that, but, he can stay in prison for a few days, but like, can you not execute him?"

Octavia frowned, touching her swollen eye, "Why? She mumbled.

"He only, he only did that because he thought you poisoned me, I'm sure if you thought he poisoned me you'd do the same."

Octavia shifted the blame, "It's not up to me, take it up with my father."

Jayne nodded, "Alright." She turned to leave the room

"Wait." Octavia grabbed her arm, "Why do you, why do you care so much about him?" She frowned.

Jayne pulled her arm out of Octavia's grasp, "He's my friend, Octavia, since we were ten."

"Still." She folded her arms, "Isn't it about the quality of a friendship rather than the longevity of it?" She wanted to have a closer bond to her than what the peasant boy had.

"Yes, and my relationship with him is very high in quality." Jayne decided to be a little bit devious, "And if he is killed because of you, I don't want to be your friend anymore." She stormed out and slammed the door before Octavia could reply.

Octavia processed what just happened. That was the first time anyone had spoken harshly to her, well, besides Abraham, but this was the first time anyone she actually cared for spoke harshly to her. An unfamiliar pain banged against her chest, she had to breathe through her mouth to control it. Tears escaped her eyes, "What's happening?" She mumbled, "This, this isn't supposed to happen." She ran back to her bed to rest, "She, she's not meant to do that. Why did she do that? Why did she defend him? He's a spineless, pathetic, unworthy of love little troglodyte." The feeling of rage was suppressed with immense grief, "I can't, I can't lose her, no, no, no-no-no. She can't hate me. I can't let that happen if she hated me... I don't know what I would do." She thought out loud, not even aware she was speaking her inner monologue.

-

Anastasia was waiting outside the entire time, listening in, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" She chased after Jayne, who was making her way outside.

"What do you mean?"

"Your role in this story now is to be Octavia's friend, and as Octavia's friend, you're not supposed to threaten her with breaking off your friendship."

Jayne pushed open a backdoor, making her way to a certain house, "I thought I already told you, Ana, I do not care if I mess with the timeline, Octavia can get a new friend for all I care."

"I thought you wanted to be her friend so that you would be relevant to the story, why has that changed?"

She stopped to turn to face her, "Uhh, I don't know, maybe it's because Abraham's life is on the line?" She proceeded to walk to the Morton house.

Anastasia stopped walking in realisation, "You're emotionally attached."

Jayne too stopped walking, "What?"

"You're emotionally attached to him."

"Wha- excuse me?"

"Yeah, it makes sense, you don't have any other friends, do you?"

Jayne opened her mouth to argue but realised she was right, "I, I, I don't want him to die, okay, is that not a reasonable emotional to feel, to not want someone to die, are you some kind of sociopath?"

"You burst into Octavia's room in the middle of the night instead of waiting till the morning like a normal person."

"He's going to die, Ana! It's literally a life or death situation, I think I'm behaving very normally, thank you very much."

"You invited him to your private picnic date with Octavia." She further tried to prove her point.

"That's because I wanted the two of them to get together, okay? If I'm the best friend of with a duchess and the man she's married to, I think the quality of my life would be raised tremendously, so I'm sorry that I don't want to be poor."

She continued running to the house and unlocked the door with a key that Mr Morton gave her. He always welcomed her into his home. Although he may not appreciate her coming into his home in the middle of the night.

"Mr Morton? Mr Morton!"

The sound of a door opening made Jayne look behind her, "Oh what do you want you pepperquack!"

"Mr Morton." She ran up to him, "Abraham has been locked up the dungeons!"

"I know."

"Do you think you can- wait, you know?"

"Of course I know, it was the story of the day, hitting duchess Octavia like that... I don't know what got into him, he was always such a sweet lad."

"Can you do something about this? I mean, you're on good relations with the Duke, right? Can't you talk to him?"

"I saved his life nearly 50 years ago, he doesn't care for me no more."

"But, but, there must be something we can do, isn't there?"

Mr Morton looked down, "There is one way."

"Yes?"

"I'll discuss it in the morning, sleep in Abraham's room for now."

"What?!" She squeaked.

"What? It's not like he's using it."

"I couldn't possibly do that, I'm mean, it's a boy's room."

"Oh don't act like that, I don't want you running in the middle of the night back to your bed, so just stay here, okay?" He patted her shoulder.

She sighed, "Fine."

He went back to his room, and she went into Abraham's. It was surprisingly clean for a teenage boy's room, she was glad to not find any tissues lying around. She lied down on his bed and sung a little song to comfort herself and send her to sleep.