Free Web NovelChapter 21: Yandere...
Vance aggressively cleared his throat with the sound echoing like a literal gunshot in the small room.
The Sergeant had seen exactly what happened to the last man who looked at that woman with lust...
Vance remembered the blinding flash of fire... He remembered the sickening smell of vaporized flesh... He wanted zero part in whatever psychotic romance had developed in this dugout overnight as he wanted to survive the day.
Caius’s crimson eyes snapped open.
There was no groggy transition.
He was instantly awake. His muscles coiled with immediate tension as his Void-enhanced senses registered the six unfamiliar rapidly beating heartbeats currently occupying his space.
The sudden movement of his chest woke Aurelia.
The Villainess slowly lifted her head from his collarbone.
She blinked her glowing crimson eyes with her sleep-fogged mind taking a fraction of a second to register the harsh light... the freezing wind and the six staring men currently interrupting her peace.
The transition was instantaneous and terrifying.
The soft, peaceful expression on her flawless face violently vanished.
Her glowing red eyes narrowed into razor-thin slits of pure malice.
The ambient magic in the dugout violently reacted to her waking emotional state. She didn’t speak.
She didn’t move from Caius’s side... She simply glared soul-crushing daggers at Vance and the six recruits.
The ambient temperature in the dugout aggressively spiked by thirty degrees in a single terrifying second as the freezing air instantly turned into a suffocating oven.
The damp dirt walls violently hissed as the moisture rapidly evaporated from the soil.
The crude bravado of the scarred thug instantly evaporated.
The man let out a pathetic, high-pitched gasp.
He violently scrambled backward with his heavy boots slipping in the mud as he aggressively bumped into his terrified comrades.
He was completely paralyzed by the suffocating aura of death actively rolling off the blonde woman.
He felt as though he had just stepped into the open maw of an active volcano!
Caius let out a soft exhausted sigh.
He didn’t panic and he didn’t draw his sword.
He casually, smoothly raised his uninjured left hand and gently, firmly patted Aurelia’s slender shoulder.
It was a silent, entirely pragmatic physical command to stand down.
Miraculously, defying every single law of magical theory, the heat immediately receded.
The stifling, searing pressure vanished from the room. Aurelia broke her terrifying glare, instantly turning her face back toward Caius.
Her expression violently turned back... instantly softening into docile devotion as she leaned her weight securely back against his muscular frame, entirely ignoring the men she had just nearly incinerated.
Vance stared at Caius with his slate-gray eyes entirely hollow, completely devoid of any remaining sanity.
The Sergeant didn’t ask questions.
He didn’t demand an explanation for the impossibility of a man touching this woman without turning to ash as he didn’t want to know.
"Gear up," Vance barked at the terrified recruits with his voice cracking slightly as he hastily distributed the rusted iron chainmail and the tin plates of hot breakfast rations. "Eat your slop... The scouts report the main wave is shifting its trajectory though they won’t be coming today."
Without another word, Vance aggressively turned on his heel and marched right back out of the dugout, completely abandoning the fresh meat, leaving them entirely alone with the two terrifying anomalies.
The six recruits practically pressed themselves backward into the opposite dirt wall.
They huddled together like terrified sheep, keeping as far away from the dark corner as possible.
The newbies kept their eyes glued exclusively to their tin plates with their hands violently trembling as they were absolutely terrified of the blonde monster to even chew their rations loudly.
Aurelia completely ignored their miserable existence.
She sat up slowly, delicately untangling her legs from Caius’s, but she remained pressed tightly against his side.
"Hold on Caius..."
She reached into one of the open supply crates left near their cots and pulled out a battered tin plate containing a thick cut of hot salted military meat and a steaming loaf of fresh, dense bread.
She turned back to Caius.
Her glowing crimson eyes were entirely soft, filled with an obsessive devotion that bordered on religious worship.
’Huh? Did she become a— Yes I’m sure of it... She’s become a Yandere, Caius... It’s all your fault!’ Caius thought to himself.
She held the tin plate out toward him, her pale hands completely steady.
She wanted to offer it to him.
Aurelia wanted to sustain the only living creature in the entire universe that didn’t burn at her touch.
Caius looked at the steaming food, and then slowly looked up at her flawless expectant face.
He didn’t feel a single ounce of hunger.
In fact, the idea of putting heavily salted low-tier military rations into his rapidly evolving stomach seemed entirely unnecessary.
It would provide absolutely zero stat boosts...
"I’m fine," Caius said smoothly.
He shook his head slightly, gently pushing the plate back toward her. "You eat. You completely zeroed out your mana core yesterday dropping those pillars of fire. You need the calories to replenish your reserves significantly more than I do."
Aurelia frowned slightly as a flicker of stubborn royal defiance crossed her perfect features.
She didn’t put the plate down.
Instead, she shifted even closer.
Her soft thigh pressed firmly against his muscled leg.
She looked up at him through her thick golden eyelashes with her glowing crimson eyes locking directly onto his.
"Then feed me," Aurelia demanded.
Caius paused, his crimson eyes locking with hers in the dim light.
He realized exactly what she was doing.
’Yandere... I didn’t ask for this at all.’
She was fully leaning into this new attachment.
Caius let out a long exhausted sigh that puffed into the freezing air.
’The things I do for bomb defusal...’ Caius thought, resigning himself to the bizarre reality of his progression fantasy.
He didn’t refuse.
Caius reached out.
His large, calloused, dirt-stained fingers took the steaming loaf of dense bread directly from the tin plate in her hands. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
He casually broke off a small bite-sized piece of the crust and he raised his hand slowly toward her face.
Aurelia’s eyes fluttered shut.
She leaned forward, parting her soft lips, and gently took the piece of bread directly from his fingers.
Her soft lips briefly brushed against his calloused skin.
’Mmm...’
The sensation was amazing and then she chewed slowly with her eyes remaining closed as a smile touching the corners of her mouth.
Across the dugout, the six new penal recruits were absolutely losing their minds.
They were pressed hard against the freezing dirt, clutching their own rations with violently trembling hands, watching the scene unfold in horror.
They had just seen this woman’s glare nearly boil the ambient air in the room, threatening to incinerate them all into ash.
And now, seconds later, she was happily eating out of the muscular noble’s palm like a completely domesticated pet.
The psychological whiplash was entirely too much for their mortal brains to process!
Caius broke off another piece of bread, casually feeding it to her with the cold expression of a man performing necessary weapon maintenance.
Suddenly, the temperature inside Caius’s mind violently plummeted into the absolute, terrifying zero of the Void.
’Oh, this is absolute peak cinematic romance, Reincarnator...’ Ereba’s smooth melodic voice echoed loudly against the inside of his skull.
The Goddess of the Void was wide awake now, and she was thriving on the psychological absurdity of the situation.
’I have analyzed your digital archives of romantic media,’ Ereba mused, her divine presence swirling lazily, fully treating his life like her new favorite interactive anime series. ’The Villainess has completely imprinted on you. Look at her. Her soul is practically purring in my divine senses... She has entirely surrendered her autonomy to your vessel...’
Caius internally pinched the bridge of his nose, breaking off another piece of bread for Aurelia, maintaining his outward stoic facade perfectly.
’Please don’t encourage her, Ereba. I’m just trying to keep the walking nuke stable and pacified before the second wave hits the palisades.’
’Oh, I am not encouraging her, Champion...’ Ereba clarified immediately.
Her tone violently changed.
She dropped the playful, degenerate gamer persona entirely as it was replaced instantly by a heavy and deeply possessive divine authority that resonated with the crushing weight of the true Abyss.
’I find her absolute, mortal devotion to your vessel highly entertaining... but she is playing with forces she cannot possibly comprehend. Let her cling to your physical body all she desires. Let her feed from your hands but just ensure she does not try to push her golden magic deeper. If her spark attempts to breach the sanctity of the Void within your soul...’
Ereba let out a soft and utterly cold laugh that sent a shiver down Caius’s spine.
’I will delete her from the world entirely.’
