How To Survive A Cute Ghost Yandere
Chapter 25: My darling’s going to think I’m cheating if he hears you

Chapter 25: Chapter 25: My darling’s going to think I’m cheating if he hears you

Erness walked calmly, her footsteps so soft they made no sound at all, leaving behind a silence swallowed by the clashes and battle raging somewhere above.

With a frozen smile fixed on her face, her gaze settled on a room resembling some kind of laboratory.

"...Hey, Erness..."

"..."

The laboratory was filled with disgusting black slime, coating every corner with a wet, sticky sound. Right in the middle of it all sat a young man, his body sunk into that viscous fluid.

Their eyes met.

The young man laughed awkwardly, his face pale with fear. The fluid had spread up to his face, swallowing the entire lower half of his body.

"It’s me, Cray, you remember, right? We’ve been together this whole time lately, hehe. Come here, can you help me?"

"..."

"I’m really scared. I don’t know what’s happening, but this black slime suddenly did this to me."

"...."

"You’re going to save me, right? Right? You won’t leave me, will you? You already told me that before! At first I worried you were lying, choosing to date someone other than me, but... we’re here together again, I trust you won’t betray me. So come on, Erness, come save me."

Erness stayed silent through all of it, listening to Cray ramble on without end. The young man genuinely looked utterly desperate.

Then, a sweet smile spread across Erness’s face.

"Sure, sure, I’ll save you. So stop whining like that, okay? My darling’s going to think I’m cheating if he hears you."

Hearing that, Cray smiled happily. Of course, he ignored whatever Erness had actually said, entirely fixated on nothing but being saved.

"O-okay, so come here...!"

Erness nodded.

Her pale white pupils flickered slightly, losing their color. White serpent scales began emerging across her body, crawling up toward her face.

"...Erness...?"

Her nails lengthened slightly, turning sharp as razors.

The next instant, Erness’s body vanished from where she stood, reappearing not far from Cray.

Slash—!!

With a crooked smile on her face, Erness struck at Cray, targeting his throat directly.

But Cray was still far from dead.

He looked dazed. The black slime swallowing his body surged slightly, then rose up as a shield between himself and Erness.

Kreg—!!

Erness’s claws raked across the slime, which had hardened to something like solid metal. The smile on her face didn’t fade—she poured in more Soul Essence, then—

Slash—!!

The slime split apart. Torn open, revealing a gaping hole between her and Cray, who was now weeping.

"Why? Why? Why? Why are you leaving me too? Why does everyone, why do all of you leave me? What did I do wrong?!!!"

Cray screamed without a shred of restraint. His unraveling mind sent the black slime around him surging into a wild frenzy.

One of them shot out like a tentacle, striking straight at Erness.

Baam—!!

The attack hit nothing at all. Erness materialized in empty air, watching one attack after another come rushing toward her.

Baam—!! Baam—!! Baam—!!

The room, filled with glass-like objects, was reduced to rubble. The sound of shattering glass rang out everywhere like some kind of death knell as Erness worked to dodge her way clear of the entire room.

Every time an attack came, she’d simply vanish, or the strike would pass straight through her body, as if she’d never been there at all, before disappearing.

Realizing there was no way to even close the distance, Erness glanced briefly toward the black slime homing in on her stomach. Right then, a white door, visible only to her own eyes, appeared, and half her body vanished behind that door that only she could see.

The tentacle pierced straight through her stomach without leaving a single wound on her. Another door then swung open, and Erness’s body vanished into empty air.

Thousands of white doors bloomed throughout the laboratory, clinging to the floor, the walls, the ceiling, even floating in midair like standalone mirrors.

"...Well, well, just as I thought, this is such a hassle. Tsk."

Erness felt genuinely annoyed that she hadn’t had the chance to finish off Cray before all of this happened.

"Now that I think about it, this is all because my darling’s been giving me so much trouble. I’ll punish him for it later."

The smile on her face began shifting into something else entirely—darker, completely different.

Erness listened to Cray’s voice for a moment longer, the voice of someone who’d completely lost his mind.

"I’ll kill you! All of you! All of you! Erness! Alen! All of you who pretended to be kind to me but abandoned me the moment I actually needed you!"

Cray screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you so none of you can ever leave me again! That’s right! Your corpses, I’ll eat all of you, keep you all inside my stomach."

Then a twisted smile spread across his face, flushed red as though he were falling in love.

"That way, nothing will ever separate us again."

Boom—!!

The slime went to work. Everything around it was smashed to pieces.

Erness left that place immediately. In her current state, she’d have a hard time stopping that thing.

"...I need to find my darling first. I can’t let this end like that..... Right?"

Erness’s pupils flashed with a cold glint in that moment.

***

"Argh...! Ow! Ow, that hurts! H-hey w-wait...!?"

"S-shut up! You bastard, we’re gonna get caught!!"

Godon clamped his mouth shut tight. But Lovia, still fumbling awkwardly to tend his wounds, made him want to scream from the pain.

Having fought a considerable number of monsters far above their own level, they’d all sustained plenty of injuries.

Not far from Godon, Alen sat with a deathly pale face, his academy uniform already stripped off to serve as makeshift bandages.

Right then, he glanced at Godon, who genuinely looked tortured, then looked at Lovia. A shiver crawled across his skin.

"Lovia."

"What? I’m busy right now."

"Please, after this, would you come with me somewhere?"

"Where to?"

"To learn how to do first aid properly."

Lovia’s body jolted, and with her teeth gritted in irritation, she yanked the cloth she was using to bandage Godon, pulling it hard, then shot a glare at Alen.

"Eghk...!"

"Are you saying my skills are bad? I don’t think it’s that bad, is it?"

"Argh...!!! Loviaaaaaaa!!"

Alen’s body tensed as he gave a hollow, powerless smile. Thoroughly gloomy, thoroughly traumatized.

Right, this was a genuinely traumatic experience.

"...Godon’s going to die."

Lovia blinked, glancing at Godon, whose mouth looked like it was foaming from holding back his screams.

"Ergh... Hagh... Huft..."

"Ah, sorry."

Alen looked away stiffly. He couldn’t stand to watch that cringe-inducing sight any longer, so, ignoring Godon’s whimpering, he tried to clear his mind by focusing on their current situation instead.

The rock they were tucked against was a massive boulder. It sat pressed right up against the cave wall, letting them hide in the narrow gap between them.

’What a strange monster.’

Alen peered out through the gap in the rocks. He had no idea what kind of monster that was—while he’d recognized a few along the way earlier, there were also plenty he couldn’t identify at all.

Like that monster with three tails over there. Those weren’t just tails—each one ended in a serpent’s head. Its body belonged to a fox, but sized like a massive wolf.

How could a monster like that even exist?

While he was studying it closely, Alen suddenly caught movement on the other side, through the narrow gap in the rocks. He spotted a few students who seemed to be carefully making their way across the cave passage.

He blinked for a moment.

"That’s... the Saintess and Eiros? Oh, and Valkas too...?!"

The moment Alen looked at them, the group on the other side looked right back, and both sides froze in awkward silence for a moment before Valkas finally waved, giving a relaxed smile.

He then pressed a finger to his lips, silently asking Alen to stay quiet for now. Not knowing what else to do, Alen simply nodded in agreement.

Either way, seeing Valkas there made Alen feel genuinely relieved. Of course it did—Valkas was one of the strongest first-year students Alen had ever seen.

That guy was an outlier!

So Eiros and the Saintess would be fine over there.

***