VILLAIN'S HAREM IN OTOME GAME

Cinon and the guards hauled the mangled, wheezing carcass of the syndicate boss toward the medical cells.

Silence reclaimed the ruined chamber.

Aria didn’t let go. She remained pressed against Eren’s back, her arms locked across his chest, offering an unwavering anchor against the violent tremors wracking his body.

Eren let his head fall backward, resting lightly against her blue hair. He closed his eyes, drawing in a long, ragged lungful of air, forcing himself to calm down. His right hand hung limply at his side, knuckles still dripping blood off his fingertips.

"Did you calm down?" Aria asked softly, her breath warm against his nape.

"...maybe," Eren rasped, his voice rough and stripped of its usual mocking cadence.

Aria slowly loosened her grip and turned him around, her golden eyes sweeping over his blood-splattered face. Without a word of disgust for the gore, she lifted the expensive hem of her gown and wiped away the blood streaks smeared across his cheekbones, his jaw, and the corner of his lips.

The silk stained deep red, ruined beyond redemption.

Once the last trace of another man’s blood was wiped from his skin, Aria’s expression hardened, her jaw clenched.

THAP!

Her palm met Eren’s face, turning slightly with the blow. He didn’t flinch or try to dodge. He let the stinging pain bloom across his cheek, quietly accepting the reprimand.

"Idiot," Aria hissed, though her eyes shimmered with a fragile, furious ache.

Grabbing his uninjured left wrist, she tugged him forward. "Move. We’re leaving this cellar."

She hauled him past the door, dragging her silent fiancé down the corridor and completely ignoring the two frozen figures standing by the cell doorway.

Seraphina and Emily remained paralyzed, their jaws opened to the point that they could swallow grapefruit.

A casual, easygoing noble boy had transformed into a monster within three seconds, crushed a guy’s face with bare hands, overwhelmed the palace’s strongest captain through sheer raw vitality, and then allowed his fiance to leash him with a single embrace and a slap.

"What in the absolute... actual fuck... just happened?!" Seraphina finally erupted, her hands flying to her temples.

Emily didn’t answer. She wasn’t looking down the empty hall. Her dark eyes were fixed on the floor of the cell.

There, half-buried in the shattered remnants of the chair, lay the thick chains. The links weren’t cut by a sharp blade, nor melted by high-tier flame arts.

They were torn in half like cotton thread.

"What is he...?" Emily whispered, her voice trembling in dread as a cold sweat formed on her face. "Princess... what kind of monster did you and Lady Aria bring into your side?"

***

Eren sat with his forehead planted flat against the table of the outpost’s lounge, letting out a long wheeze.

"I’m completely done for," he groaned.

His coat was splattered with Santa Claus’s blood, his knuckles throbbed with a dull ache, and the left side of his jaw still stung with the imprint of Aria’s palm.

Slowly, he opened one eye to assess the situation.

Sitting directly across from him was Aria. Her arms were tightly locked beneath her bust, her golden eyes were fixed on him in an unblinking, ice-cold glare of fury. He had witnessed this exact expression as villainess dozens of times behind the glowing PC monitor back in his old life. Seeing it live sent a chill straight down his spine.

’Yup. I fucked up.’

Beside Aria sat Princess Seraphina, whose blood-red eyes were practically trembling with equal, temperate rage.

Then Emily placed a glass of water right beside Eren’s slumped head. The dark-haired knight kept her distance, casting a wary, deeply unnerved glance at his knuckles.

"We are having fresh changes of clothes brought from the palace wardrobes, Lord Volsver," Emily said, her tone meticulously formal, hiding the dread in her chest. "Please remain here until then."

"Thank you, Lady Emily," Eren muttered, dragging himself upright.

He picked up the glass, deliberately trying to ignore the twin glares burning holes into him. The silent treatment was escalating and it made him uncomfortable.

Taking a slow gulp, he drained the entire glass in one go, set it down with a neat little click, and folded his hands over the table in the professional diplomatic posture he could muster.

"So... could one of you fine ladies please say something? Anything, really. The silence is doing terrifying things to my nerves."

Seraphina slammed both her hands on the table as she shot to her feet, leaning across the table like an enraged silver dragon.

"Shut your damn mouth, you brainless monkey!" Seraphina snarled. "Shut it before I personally sew those lips together!"

Aria didn’t yell. Her voice was a low, dangerous, lordly hiss that was infinitely worse. "Care to explain why you were three seconds away from turning an essential accused’s skull into strawberry paste, Eren?"

"I was merely conducting an aggressive interrogation," Eren replied smoothly, crossing his arms and attempting a casual shrug.

"Aggressive follow-up inquiry?!" Seraphina shrieked, throwing her hands in the air. "The man had already spilled Baron Kiliyan’s name! He gave up the transport method, the payment scheme! The interrogation was literally over! You ripped an iron chair and broke chains with your bare hands!"

"The guy had a punchable face, Princess," Eren argued back, his blue eyes narrowing slightly. "He was begging for it."

"Why the hell did I ever let you into my team...?" Seraphina muttered, dropping her face into her hands, her headache reaching biblical levels.

Aria placed her palm over Seraphina’s wrist to steady the princess’s boiling temper. Then, turning her golden gaze back onto Eren, the haughty anger in her features gradually receded—replaced by a raw, fragile vulnerability that made Eren’s defense hitch in his throat.

"Eren," Aria whispered, leaning forward. "You never lose control like that. Not even at the duel with Reinhardt, not ever. Seeing you turn into... into that unrecognizable beast down there... it was genuinely terrifying."

Her eyes pleaded with him. "Stop deflecting with jokes. What did he say to you?"

Eren sat frozen under her gaze. A bitter guilt that weighed heavily in his chest.

He let out a long sigh, his shoulders slumping as he dragged a hand down his face.

"He brought up Violet," Eren admitted quietly, his voice devoid of its usual mocking edge, blue eyes fixing on the grain of the wood. "He laughed in my face and told me that no matter what I did, I wouldn’t be able to protect her. He said if the syndicate already marked her... and that she’s destined to drown in The Substance just like the future I knew."

A cold silence settled over the lounge as he looked up at the two women. "And I don’t let anyone touch the people I swore to keep alive."

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