Chapter 267: A Creepy Yandere Stalker.
My smile turned even more pleasant as I looked at her. "So, what is it that you wanted to discuss with me, Ms. Spectator?"
The woman in front of me let out another soft chuckle.
"Some people truly never change, huh?" She spoke in an amused tone. "But well... I can’t say I dislike that about you."
The shadows around her shifted slightly.
"As for what I wished to discuss with you, it’s actually quite simple." Her voice carried a strange excitement. "I have been watching your life for quite some time now and believe it or not... I am your biggest fan."
She leaned slightly forward.
"An avid fan, you might say."
My expression remained calm but inwardly, my guard rose even higher.
"The way you fought and tamed that bear back in your family’s forest. The way you remained so calm after being teleported to meet the Trickster and everything else afterward..."
Her tone became increasingly unsettling as she continued.
"My favorite moment was when you manipulated Hel into reviving you with her own powers. Even now, I still get goosebumps just thinking about that moment when you killed that filthy lizard. Though admittedly, I had hoped you would do things a little differently during your encounter with Vael’runn."
She tilted her head playfully.
"But it was still interesting nonetheless."
She continued listing event after event from my life but the more she spoke...
...the deeper my frown became.
Seriously.
What the hell was this?
How could she possibly know all of that?
And if that wasn’t enough, there was something even worse.
She knew about the Trickster and about my very first meeting with him which meant she had been watching me for far longer than I initially imagined.
Just thinking about it made my skin crawl but I didn’t allow even a hint of that discomfort to show on my face because I knew exactly how to deal with unstable people like this.
"Ahh... nice to know that." I made sure my voice remained steady. "But did I know you personally in another world?"
She didn’t answer. Instead, she simply continued talking about different moments from my life, praising how "heroic" I had been here and there.
Fuck.
Having an enemy of this level was already bad enough... But she also had to be some creepy yandere stalker.
And for all my earlier bravado...
...I genuinely had no idea how to deal with people like this.
Sure, there had been women in my previous life who were overly obsessed with me but nothing even remotely close to this extent.
"I..." For the first time, her voice wavered slightly as shadows around her trembled faintly. "I never wanted to meet you like this. To meet you face-to-face. To speak with you. To remain in your presence for so long... I was happy to see you from afar to see you outsmarting those stronger than you. To cheer you without being noticed."
Her voice softened into something strangely vulnerable.
"But you forced me into this. My subordinate died because of you but his life never truly mattered."
The darkness around the room deepened.
"Nothing mattered before you... but why did you have to grow so soft? Why did you start caring about useless NPCs?"
A suffocating pressure filled the room.
"Answer me, dear Rael. Do you know how difficult it is for me to watch you play the role of fiancé with that worthless vermin of a woman? How difficult was it to watch you punch Vael’runn for her sake? How difficult is it to watch you reveal your true emotions to that disgusting woman who calls you her brother? And then those other whores around you, waiting desperately for your attention."
"I want to kill them."
The temperature dropped further.
"I want to kill every single one of them, but the world wouldn’t—cough."
She suddenly coughed and then, as though snapping out of a trance, her posture straightened once more.
"Ah... apologies." Her tone instantly returned to its earlier calmness. "I seem to have gotten slightly carried away."
"So yes... what was I saying again?" A soft laugh escaped her lips. "Ahh, right. The reason I came here was to see how you were doing... and to politely request that you start behaving properly again."
Her voice remained gentle.
"But if you continue like this... If you continue giving your attention to those whores... then I will have no choice but to burn this entire world to ashes."
The pressure in the room intensified.
"Everyone you care about. Everything you treasure. I will destroy all of it..." Her voice softened into something almost affectionate. "...before chaining you beside me forever. So that your eyes can focus on me... and me only."
The shadows trembled lightly.
"Do you understand, my dear Rael?"
She giggled.
I was speechless.
Not a single word came out of my mouth. Normally, I always had a response prepared in advance. A lie, a manipulation, a joke, something but at this moment... even that felt impossible.
What the hell was this?
Usually, I would have tried to use someone like this. A woman obsessively devoted to me, a woman holding immense power, a a woman who could potentially become more useful to my survival than almost anyone else.
And yet...
All I felt was a strange emotion I couldn’t properly describe. My heartbeat thundered loudly inside my chest as the faces of the people around me flashed through my mind one after another.
I quickly forced both the feeling and my thoughts aside but then her voice echoed through the room once more.
"Why... are you smiling like that?"
My hand slowly reached toward my face. My smile was still there but one corner of my lips had risen slightly higher than the other...
...because I had unconsciously bitten down on the opposite side. I looked at my hand now stained with crimson blood?
"So, you have chosen, huh?"
An ominous sensation spread through me but before I could say anything, she suddenly pushed her chair back and rose to her feet in anger.