Zachary Solace. The man who was the villain to the story My Dearest King. The leader of Solace, the leading information organization of the underworld. The shoddy story was about the daughter of Earl Colern, Maria Colern and third prince Alfred's love. As a lowly daughter of an Earl, Maria works up the ranks to be worthy of the third prince and to be socially accepted. She gains allies, crushes cannon fodder, and ultimately wins the heart of her prince. Together, they strip the original crown prince of his title and bestow it upon Alfred. Marrying one another and becoming a perfect couple others would look back to in history and admire.
Zachary Solace was a love rival, AKA villain in this story. He loved Maria's spirit, she was hard working and never took no for an answer. However without Zachary, Maria would be nothing but the Earl's daughter. Try as she might, she wouldn't have been able to climb the ranks so far in her lifetime much less attracted the attention of prince Alfred. Maria accomplished great things, yes, but that was only because Zachary made that possible. She wanted to destroy the daughter of a marquess's reputation? Zachary provided the information or set up to make it happen. She wanted to ally with a duke's son? Zachary blackmailed him into complying.
Zachary hoped that Maria would eventually come to love him instead of Alfred, but when he finally realized that she had no change of heart at all and instead hated him, he went crazy. He meticulously set up a trap for Alfred and Maria and attempted to kill them on multiple occaions. Being the male and female lead, they obviously didn't die, but Zachary died instead. In the final confrontation, the female lead, oblivious to all he did for her behind the scenes, looked at him in disgust and spoke.
"You love me? I don't know you. I worked so hard to be worthy of Alfred, yet you want to take that from me?! Dream on!" One has to know as well that other minor characters had hinted to her about Zachary and what he had done for her throughout the book. The girl thought back and roughly counted ten instances. She sighed in her mind and felt newfound disappointment for the supposed protagonist.
After this final confrontation, Zachary was then tortured, publically humiliated, and shamed. Not to mention his information agency/mafia was destroyed by their "ally" Noland Greene.
At that point, she stopped reading. The female lead was hypocritical, mean, and a liar. The scene with Zachary just added ignorant to the list. And to top it all off? Zachary, her favorite character in the whole damned book, was killed off. She had two words for the author. Fuck. You.
"What are you thinking about?"
A deep voice interrupted her thoughts. She hurriedly regained her composure and looked back to the man. Faking a smile that became more genuine over time she replied.
"Nothing important."
Zachary's eyes narrowed as he voiced his displeasure.
"I don't like it when people lie to me. Any subordinate of mine that is deserving of my trust does not betray it. Ever. Much less when we are three minutes into meeting."
The girl was startled and started to sweat. What was she supposed to say? Oh, yeah. I just was thinking about how we are all from a novel and you fall in love with the female lead and die a tragic death. So, still want to take me? The only place he would take her after saying that would be the mental institution or the underworld. She shuddered at the thought and decided to tell a half-truth.
"I'm just wondering how I'll earn your trust and become someone worth remembering."
He looked at her in displeasure, knowing that she wasn't being completely truthful, but reluctantly let it go.
"That's not something I will tell, its up to you. But you're quite a frank little one, aren't you?"
He smirked at her and she felt her heart speed up a bit. He snapped his fingers and seemed to remember something.
"Ah, yes. What is your name? I remember introducing myself, but as for you, I still do not know who you are."
She was about to tell him her name from her previous life but then decided not to. The past is in the past, using the same name still bound her to that world in a way. She didn't have anything to go back to. As an orphan, she had a really hard upbringing with little to no support. Anything she had she worked ten times harder for than anybody else. Her boyfriend just used her for pleasure, but she did as well. They never had a trusting relationship and didn't get too lovey-dovey ever. No siblings to speak of, and all of her "friends" she considered more to be acquaintances. She closed her eyes and tried to come up with a name she wanted. It was a first, naming herself.
She opened her eyes after picking a name and stuck out her hand. She spoke in a steady and professional tone with a light, yet true smile.
"Lorena. Lorena White."
Zachary looked at her with a smile and shook her hand.
"A pleasure, Lorena. I look forward to seeing what you'll do in the future. Don't disappoint me."