The air reeked of rose petals and vanity. Even the oak furniture had been polished like it was preparing for a royal inspection. Sunlight stabbed through stained glass, splashing broken rainbows across the velvet-red carpet like spilled paint.
And in the ornate canopy bed at the center of the room, a pair of eyes snapped open.
Rei's vision swam. The ceiling was impossibly high and decorated with swirling golden sigils and carved angels that looked like they might come to life.
His skull pulsed like someone had installed a broken grandfather clock in it—and then thrown in a few nightmares for good measure.
Yet the worst part wasn't the pain or confusion. It was the sudden, deafening silence. For a moment, the world held its breath.
Then a sharp, collective intake of breath echoed through the room, followed by a crescendo of high-pitched screams.
"HE'S AWAKE!!"
The voices were shrill, panicked, and yet strangely jubilant. It sounded like the alarms of a dozen musical sirens all screeching the same news: The host of their obsession, their beloved, their reason for existing, was alive.
The canopy curtains whipped aside in a fluttering storm of silk and perfume.
A dozen heads popped through the doorway like nosy flowers on murder stems flushed cheeks, sparkling eyes, and the unsettling stillness of apex predators in corsets.
Eyes glittered with unshed tears, hands trembled, and lips quivered in desperate hope.
They were gorgeous sickeningly so. The kind of beauty that didn't bloom, but stalked.
Each smile was a warning.
"Rei!" cried a voice with a breathless urgency as a pair of slender arms reached out.
"Thank God! You're awake!" Another whispered, pressing a cold, trembling hand to his forehead. "You scared us all… don't ever do that again."
"Remember me, Rei? You promised we'd get married someday!" chirped a little blonde girl, her blue eyes wide and sparkling with naïve devotion—but tinged with a fierce hunger beneath the surface.
Rei's heart slammed against his ribs like a trapped bird. His mouth opened to speak, but no words came.
The room spun, his vision blurring, as the dozen noble girls flooded forward, surrounding his bed like a ring of sharp, glittering knives.
The weight of their gazes bore into him like molten iron.
Some faces were tear-streaked. Others wore smiles so wide they seemed to split their cheeks.
But none looked away.
The girls whose are now women, though to Rei's foggy mind they still seemed impossibly young and were draped in dresses of jewel tones and fine lace, each a perfect picture of noble grace twisted with something darker. Their eyes burned with possessiveness, adoration, and obsession.
And Rei, still weak and dizzy, could barely catch his breath.
He wanted to scream. To bolt. To disappear.
But even as his limbs trembled, a calm, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
[System Booting…]
[Welcome, Host!]
[You have awakened as Duke Alister's heir, Rei Velvet.]
[Current Status: Weak, disoriented, surrounded by 12 affectionate noblewomen.]
[New Mission: Survive the next five minutes.]
[Warning: Affection Levels Critical. Threat Level: MAXIMUM.]
[Hint: Smile and pretend you love them all.]
The words echoed like a sinister lullaby, and Rei swallowed hard.
Survive the next five minutes.
He didn't even know how to survive the next five seconds.
A hand brushed his forehead. Cool and delicate, like touching a rare flower, yet gripping with an iron determination.
"Your fever's breaking, Rei. You're so strong…" whispered Lilia, the Duchess of Velvet and the most delicate among them. Her silver hair spilled like moonlight across the bedspread. She smiled softly—but her eyes held a spark of wild desperation.
Rei blinked, trying to focus.
Memories crashed against his mind like a tidal wave.
He recalled distant echoes of a life he'd never thought he'd relive: childhood laughter, whispered promises under starry skies, and the slow, insidious transformation of sweet friends into… this.
"Yanderes," he thought numbly. The sweethearts from hell. The kind who smiled while sharpening a blade behind your back and kissed you before swinging it.
They were obsessives devourers. Fairies in frills, armed with delusions and designer knives.
And they had all waited. For him.
Suddenly, the bedroom door swung open with a theatrical flourish.
The air thickened.
A new presence filled the room with cold, confident, and dangerous Aura.
Lucivella — the Demon Queen, oldest of the wives, and absolute mistress of patience stepped inside with a languid grace.
Her black velvet gown whispered secrets as she moved, and her eyes gleamed with knowing amusement.
"So dramatic," she purred, sweeping her gaze across the flock clustered around Rei.
"Finally you are back from the dead. Took you long enough, darling. I had my assassination vows renewed twice."
Her voice was silk over steel.
The others parted as she approached, bowing with feigned reverence.
Rei's pulse quickened, torn between fascination and terror.
For the next few minutes, the room became a cacophony of competing voices, each girl vying for his attention in their own obsessive way.
"Rei! Do you remember our secret spot by the lake?" said Seraphina, her sun-kissed curls bouncing. "I waited every day for you, even when you were sick!"
"You owe me your life!" Drakana growled, crimson wings folding behind her. "Our fire pact is eternal!"
The silver-haired "Big Sis" cooed softly, brushing a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "I bathed you, fed you, cared for you. Nobody understands you like I do."
Lucivella sipped wine and smiled "I hold the final claim. Your soul and mine are entwined by blood runes no one dares break."
Rei's head spun. Trying to respond felt like shouting underwater. His voice cracked like a boy hitting puberty in front of a firing squad.
"I… I don't understand…"
Before he could say more, the system beeped again.
[Mission Update: Accept one hug.]
[Warning: Declining will cause emotional damage (yours).]
Suddenly, a pair of arms encircled him.
It was Seraphina, with her heart pounding like a trapped bird "Please, Rei… just one hug."
Her warmth was a tidal wave.
Rei's mind screamed run! but his body froze.
He felt the soft press of her cheek against his chest.
The other girls gasped and shifted, eyes flashing with hunger and competition.
The room felt like it might implode from the intensity of their affection.
And then the system pinged again.
[Hug accepted.]
[Mission complete: +1 Affection.]
[Next mission: Gain affection from 5 yanderes without dying.]
Rei's heart hammered in his chest as the girls closed in.
He realized, with growing horror, that his simple wish for peace was about to be drowned in a flood of love or death.
Just as the atmosphere reached a fever pitch, a sudden pop echoed through the room.
A little cloud of smoke appeared in the corner, and Eris—the goddess with a penchant for chaos and fanservice—floated in, sipping bubble tea upside down.
"Oh, dear Host! Look at you all cuddled up! How adorable!"
Her voice was light and teasing, but her eyes sparkled with mischief.
"I brought popcorn, by the way. I think one of them poisoned it. Isn't this fun."
Rei groaned.
"Goddess, please! Not now!" Rei said in his tired voice.
Eris grinned and shrugged.
"Well, I did say Survive the next five minutes. Tick tock, tick tock!"
What followed was a whirlwind of frantic emotions, whispered promises, jealous glares, and desperate confessions.
Rei flailed between managing each girl's fragile feelings, dodging physical affection, and trying not to faint under the weight of their obsession.
"Rei! We should celebrate with tea and cakes!" chirped one.
"No! We should train together! Bond through combat!" growled another.
"Rei, your room is a mess. You need my help organizing!" another protested.
Lucivella raised an eyebrow.
"Do try to survive without embarrassing yourself."
The system continued to beep relentlessly.
[Survival Missions Activated:]
▸ Smile while dying inside
▸ Pretend hugs aren't death contracts
▸ Side-step love brews like landmines
Rei's brain short-circuited.
As he stumbled through the emotional gauntlet, Rei's thoughts screamed in panic.
Why did I agree to this?
I just wanted peace!
Why does everyone have to be this intense?
Is this what happens when you press the giant red button without reading the manual?
He swallowed his panic and forced a smile.
"Okay, okay… I love you all," he croaked.
That was… probably a mistake.
Just when Rei thought maybe—maybe he'd dodged a love-induced bloodbath, his nose twitched. And then he sneezed loudly and fatally.
And at that very moment, one of the girls — the quiet one and silver-haired one — blushed furiously and whispered:
"Will you marry me?"
Rei froze.
His soul left his body before the sneeze even finished. Because he knew. Oh gods, he knew.
To Be Continued...