Hearing Athenaunch into another round of plot analysis, her gossipy nature fully ignited, and Hera decided to divert her attention. She pulled out her phone and dialed Gerald’s number. It barely rang once before he picked up. "Yes, hello, Young Miss?!" His voice, brimming with excitement, echoed through the line.


    Hera didn’t have time for small talk. With the arrival of Leo and the others imminent, she got straight to the point. "Gerald, could you confirm for me if Alice Quinn was on the guest list for the hotel’s restaurant today and at what time she arrived?"


    After sending her instructions, Gerald immediately set to work. Once Hera ended the call, Athena was already looking at her with a knowing expression. "Are you suspecting that this was actually part of the storyline? But Dave wasn’t the one drugged, nor was he with his assistant and a dignitary from Japan," Athena reasoned, though she was still trying to understand Hera’s train of thought.


    "Then tell me, how many people were there in the private room with Dave when he was drugged ording to the story in the novel?" Hera asked nonchntly.


    "There were only three of them because the dignitary’s entourage was dining outside in the general dining room..." Athena’s words trailed off as if she was starting to understand where Hera’s thoughts were going.


    "Then, how was Dave drugged and who was responsible?" Hera then added, as if they were ying a question-and-answer game.


    "Dave was drugged by a potent drug that was smeared..." Athena’s eyes grew wider as she remembered the information from the report Hera had shared. "What the fuck?! Babe! Are you telling me that I was actually part of the storyline without even knowing? Was I supposed to be the naive young sole heiress from the novel who was only mentioned once because of Dave’s drugging incident? I wasn’t even introduced or given a family name!" Athena looked seriously aggrieved. Her attention had shifted from the drugging incident to the revtion of her unwitting involvement in the storyline.


    Yes, even Hera hadn’t paid too much attention to this part because, like Athena, she focused closely on the novel’s descriptions. However, since experiencing deviations from the novel from the beginning, she thought many events wouldn’t follow the original flow. She believed there would still be some inevitable events, like Alexi choosing Minerva. In essence, the major events were still happening and following the storyline. So, she thought that when Dave was drugged, it should at least involve him being in the same ce and meeting the same people.


    And since she didn’t know exactly when that would happen, she had given him a gentle reminder at her house and a bottle of antidote to counteract the effects of the aphrodisiac. Only now did she realize how potent the aphrodisiac truly was.


    The novel didn’t provide all the crucial details about the drug used or the exact timing, so it made sense why Athena thought they could rely on hearing about the dignitaries to gauge if that event was happening. Although Dave was not the one who was drugged and many things were different, Hera felt there was a strong possibility that this was still the storyline unfolding.


    And just as she could steal the female lead’s luck and life, the events and developments of the storyline might also shift depending on the characters involved. In essence, the world’s consciousness was likely adhering to the general framework of the story, substituting characters who fit the descriptions from the novel to fulfill the scenarios. If that were the case, it might be easier for her to seize someone else’s fate.


    This also applies to the people around them. However, she believed that altering or stealing the fate of the female lead and male leads would be significantly more challenging.