The goosebumps on Mathieu's skin refused to go away as he left Karina's cabin. The warning of suicide if he left her, terrified him.
'What yandere shit is this? I should be scared of myself for finding this attractive before.'
Fantasy and reality were two different things. He could swoon about it in fiction, but in reality, it was petrifying.
Karina was the best blesser in the whole East Sea. Her power was enough to build an underworld empire independent of her father's, gaining a following of her own.
Mathieu hoped to stop a war between the Duremonts and the D'Angelos with her help, and she had promised her assistance.
She helped him reach the gold rank last night. Mathieu found out that he actually had another cheat beside the favorability points. He didn't have to spend a single coin to rank up. He was yet to test his new power, but he could feel it thrumming under his skin.
She wasn't portrayed as a yandere in the game, just a shallow villainess, who cared only about looks.
He looked like a beggar when they met, and didn't care about her at first. Their one night stand was a result of too much wine and a moment of weakness. She was at her lowest. He offered a shoulder to lean on, not knowing the consequences would be this dire.
'I guess it's true what they say, never stick your dick in crazy.'
His steps felt heavy as he headed towards the prison cells. Karina wanted to keep Mathieu by her side, not allowing him return to the Diamante Kingdom.
He tried to convince her to let him go by promising to come back once he settled his business with his family. She wanted to come with him, which he refused, not wanting to put her in danger.
That's when he remembered how the second male lead was famous for having connections in every corner of the world.
He asked her if he could have a talk with Lucian and she went nuts, ordering Mathieu to stay away from him. She thought Mathieu would leave her for him, which he found absurd.
'Lucian and gay? That playboy is anything but gay,' Mathieu ended up revealing Lucian identity as the Glory's founder, and his famous harem of courtesans, to calm Karina down.
It seemed to work at first, and they went to sleep, only for her to pull this yandere card on him.
'How is she going to accept Adeline if she's like this?' Mathieu tried to calm him with the fact that all harems in novels sort themselves out in the end, somehow.
He just had to assure them of his love, and they would eventually learn to share. They were not as crazy as they appeared to be. It would be just fine, at least. That's what years of novel reading taught him.
"Where do you think you are going, Duremont?" A pirate blocked Mathieu's way, his spear pointing at his chest.
"I would like to check on one of your prisoners," Mathieu said, putting on his usual calm face.
"You are not going anywhere," the pirate said, and two more joined him, their disdain for Mathieu clear in their expressions, "We received a direct order from Miss Karina. You are not allowed to see the priest."
Mathieu could feel the hostility coming off them in waves. He couldn't just attack and kill Karina's men, that would make things worse. He didn't want to start a fight here, but his gut was telling him something was wrong.
"What if I insist?" Mathieu asked, standing his ground.
"Then we will have to take you back to your room, by force if we must." The lead pirate took a step forward. His stance and grip on the sword showed that he was not afraid to use it.
Mathieu turned around. The pirates laughed behind his back, mocking him, "That's a good whore. Get back to work."
"I heard the youngest Duremont had to take out his lack of talent on the hay heads to feel better about himself," one of them said, making the others laugh.
The other guard elbowed him, "Stop badmouthing her plaything or she won't give us a blessing."
The first guard huffed and mumbled something under his breath.
Mathieu turned around and pushed through them, his astral plane expanding, an anti gravity field surrounding his body.
The pirates slowed down as if they were moving through water. Their strikes were telegraphed and sluggish. They were silver-ranked pirates, not bad, but not good enough to challenge a gold rank.
Mathieu moved through them like a ghost, dodging their attacks, and pushing them away with a flick of his wrist.
He didn't use his swords, not wanting to kill anyone. He arrived at the cell and peeked through the small window. The sight before him made his hair stand on end.
Lucian was on the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds, his clothes soaked in blood. His eyes were closed, his face pale.
'She really tried to kill him...Just because I said he was my friend...' Mathieu's hand trembled, his breathing ragged.
He noticed that someone treated the wounds on his body, only the clothes were stained with blood, no new bleeding. His chest was rising and falling. Lucian was alive.
Mathieu sighed in relief, his heart still pounding. The close call shook him to the core.
The alarm blasted through the ship, causing his body to tense up in attention.