Chapter 68: Fiancée

“She transferred here? Just like that?” Lily asked, her golden eyes wide with disbelief.

“Hey, you are not helping, Lily. Stop with the dramatic gasps,” I sighed, gently pinching her bare waist to bring her focus back to me. “Just tell me who she is without the suspense.”

Lily pushed herself up slightly, straddling my lap. She looked down at me with an expression caught somewhere between exasperation and profound pity.

“Master,” Lily said softly, her voice trembling slightly. “Lady Emma is the sole daughter of Count Arlon.”

“So?” I raised an eyebrow, taking another sip of wine.

“Well… you know, Master, Count Arlon and your father, the Duke, are incredibly close friends. They served in the Vanguard together.”

“And?”

“And,” Lily swallowed hard, her chest heaving, “as high nobles are prone to do… they turned their friendship into a permanent political alliance. Lady Emma Arlon is your officially recognized, legally binding fiancée.”

I choked on my wine.

“What?!!” I coughed, grabbing a napkin.

“Yes,” Lily nodded, rubbing my chest soothingly. “And I am honestly shocked you forgot about her, even with your memory issues. During your childhood, you were inseparable. She practically clung to your shadow everywhere you went.”

“Why?” I wheezed, my mind racing. “Just because our fathers forced an engagement on us?”

“Not exactly.” Lily’s expression softened into a bittersweet smile. “When you were both ten years old, Lady Emma wandered off into the restricted hunting woods during a banquet. A pack of Dire Wolves cornered her. You… you grabbed a training sword and ran in after her.”

Lily shuddered, her golden eyes dimming at the memory. “I still remember that dreadful day. The guards found you standing over her, surrounded by dead wolves. You were so bloody, Master. Your ribs were shattered. If the High Priest hadn’t been attending the banquet to heal you personally, you would have died.”

I blinked.

’Well, damn,’ I thought. ’The original Alex might have had a trash mana circuit, but he was an absolute gigachad as a kid.’

It was completely understandable now. You save a sheltered noble girl from getting eaten by monsters at the cost of your own life? Of course she’s going to fall head over heels for her savior.

’So, I basically inherited a fiercely devoted, top-tier noble chick for free?’ I smirked internally. ’Jackpot.’

As I was reveling in this incredibly convenient new information, Lily’s hands suddenly gripped my shoulders tightly. Her nails dug slightly into my skin.

“But you must be careful of her, Master,” Lily warned, her voice dropping to a dead-serious whisper. “She is… dangerous.”

“Dangerous? How?” I scoffed. “She looks like a fluffy marshmallow. And she’s obsessed with me.”

“That is exactly the problem!” Lily hissed, looking genuinely frightened. “She is violently obsessive towards you. There were several incidents in the past where she harmed herself just to force you to pay attention to her. When you locked yourself in your room after your mana circuit was diagnosed as defective, she intentionally drank a mild poison just so you would have to visit her at her bedside!”

My smug smile froze.

“She also threatened a maid with a pair of gardening shears because the maid accidentally washed your shirts before she could ’smell’ them,” Lily added, shivering.

I felt a cold chill creep down my spine.

’Hold on. A cute, bubbly girl who acts like an angel but is secretly a violently obsessive, self-harming stalker who threatens people over laundry?’

Isn’t that the absolute, textbook definition of a Yandere?

“That’s why I was so surprised she transferred here,” Lily continued, shaking her head. “Count Arlon enrolled her in the Saintess Academy in the East to separate you two, hoping she would calm down. How could the Count allow her to come to Merchen?”

If Count Arlon had heard her words right now, the poor, stressed middle-aged man would have probably burst into tears. It wasn’t like he wanted to send his daughter to the epicenter of danger.

But Emma was completely uncontrollable.

According to the high society rumors Lily proceeded to nervously list off, Emma’s time at the Saintess Academy was a disaster. When a senior noble girl mocked the “Trash of Edelhart” in the cafeteria, Emma reportedly smiled, walked over, and drove a silver fork through the back of the girl’s hand, pinning it to the table. She had also ’accidentally’ set a professor’s robes on fire because he confiscated a locket containing a lock of my hair.

At last, facing expulsion and the sheer terror of his own daughter, the Count had to bend his head, pull every political string he had, and request an emergency transfer to Merchen Academy just to keep her contained.

“Master,” Lily whispered, leaning her bare chest against me, seeking comfort. “She is completely unstable. If she finds out you’ve been… intimate with me…”

I stroked Lily’s back, my mind racing a mile a minute.

A Yandere fiancée was a double-edged sword. On one hand, she was an incredibly powerful, fiercely loyal pawn who would literally kill for me. On the other hand, she was a ticking time bomb who might try to stab my harem members in their sleep.

’She said she was sneaking into my room tonight,’ I remembered, my eyes darting to the locked balcony doors.

[System Warning: Extreme Threat / High Reward Event Approaching.]

[Target: Emma Arlon (Yandere Fiancée).]

“Lily,” I said, gently lifting her off my lap. “I need you to go back to the servants’ quarters for the night.”

“What? But Master, I haven’t finished feeding you—”

“Now, Lily,” I used my commanding tone, effectively cutting off her protests. “If Emma really is as crazy as you say, I need to handle her alone. I can’t have her finding you half-naked in my room on her first night here.”

Lily pouted, her golden eyes flashing with disappointment, but her survival instincts clearly won out over her lust. She quickly pulled her maid uniform back on, smoothing out the wrinkles, leaned down to kiss me deeply on the lips, and hurried toward the door.

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