North x Northwest - Chapter 353

Bubbles…Soft, fragile, and fleeting. They drift without purpose, bursting at the slightest touch.They aren’t weapons. They aren’t threats. Just harmless playthings, forgotten the moment they vanish.But what if bubbles weren’t so innocent?What if, in a world of Hunters—where magic shatters mountains and fists split seas—someone awakened a Skill based entirely on bubbles?A joke. A death sentence.Goblins would laugh.The weak would pity him. The strong wouldn’t even bother to look twice.But powers can hide secrets. And some truths are buried in plain sight.When a nameless F-Rank awakens the “Bubble Skill,” no one expects him to survive.Let alone rise.However, the indomitable spirit of River Faelan refused to die.Step by step, he climbed to the top—shattering every limit placed on a “mere” Bubble Mage.He proved them all wrong.And he’ll do it again,Even if it means starting from the very bottom… for one more time.

The Emperor had issued an official decree to appoint a successor to the throne—one who would become the next ruler of the empire.But instead of a direct appointment, the successor would be determined through a formal battle among the princes and princesses.A battle that would drag in many factions, overflow with conspiracies, claim countless lives, and reshape the entire continent... was about to begin.But among the contenders, there was one prince who had no intention of fighting—Nolan.Handsome, lazy, and utterly annoying, Nolan was well-known for the many unflattering titles given to him by those around him.Nolan: “Fighting to become emperor? Please... I just want to relax and enjoy life.”Rather than compete, he convinced his twin sister to fight in his place while he supported her from behind the scenes.Nolan: “My dear sister, I leave my future in your capable hands!”And with that, the prince’s journey toward a life of leisure—relying entirely on his sister—officially began.

Ren Arakawa thought getting stabbed by his psycho ex-girlfriend was the worst way to die, and it would end his story. Turns out, it was just the prologue. He wakes up in a parallel earth full of dungeons, monsters, hunters and way too many women with clingy tendencies and knives.To make things worse, the goddess who reincarnated him? Yeah—she's the Yandere Goddess, the divine creator of obsessive love and the world he is going to reincarnate is female-dominated world, and she’s mad Ren called his ex “crazy.” So she curses him:“Every girl who likes you will become yandere. Like, explosively, murderously, loyalty-soaked yandere, to them you will be their oxygen. Good luck, idiot~ Go ahead and realise how amazing this yandere love is.”BUT—plot twist—the God of Creation, who’s been hiding in a broom closet in heaven since the beginning of the universe to escape his yandere stalker (guess who?), snatches Ren’s soul mid-reincarnation and gives him a cheat skill:[Heartsteal] – Absorb one power from any yandere girl who's obsessed with you.“My guy...you should help me...this bitch is driving me crazy..”Now Ren just wants to survive dungeons and not die from accidental love. Instead, he’s collecting powers:A healer who murders teammates because they looked at him wrongA pop idol who sends her fans to the shadow realm for shipping her with someone else other than RenA plant mage who grows garden clones of him to cuddle and possibly do other thingsArmed with sarcasm, trauma, and increasingly dangerous girlfriends, Ren must climb the power ladder, level up, and eventually punch a literal goddess in the face to break the curse and destroy the concept of Yandere and be a free man.Love? Nope. Power through emotionally unstable women? Absolutely.

Aries Aime Heathcliffe. A princess from the small kingdom of Rikhill was loved by all. With her beauty that was enchantingly demure and a wise mind, she had caught a lot of attention and captured the hearts of many. One of them was the dashing crown prince of the Maganti Empire.

Overcome by the desire to have her and his interest in the land of the small kingdom, the crown prince of the said empire would stop at nothing. The knights from the Maganti Empire marched across the masses and seized the four-hundred-year-old kingdom of Rikhill.

The kingdom of Rikhill fell into ruin overnight. The crown prince left no members of the royal family alive aside from his war trophy, Aries. After suffering in his hands, Aries found the perfect chance to escape.

That was when he took her to the world summit. A gathering of each sovereign from each kingdom and empire for peace talks.

There, she met the emperor of Haimirich, Eustass Silvestri Abel Bloodworth. Overwhelm by desperation, Aries begged him to take her in. It was too late when she realized that the man she asked for help was far more cruel, twisted, and downright diabolical than the crown prince for taking her as his… pet!

EXCERPT:

With a pair of crimson eyes hovering over her, Aries held her breath. When the corner of his lips curled up devilishly, she couldn’t react fast as he swiftly flipped their position. She only realized it when she was saddling him, gazing down at Abel, wide-eyed.

“No one is above me in this empire and even out — not even the law, but look at you,” he intoned with a devilish smirk. “Staring down on me… so daunting.”

Aries bit her lip, planting her palm on her inked chest. “Your Majesty…”

“Do you now understand the power you hold, darling?” Abel carefully wrapped his fingers around her wrist, chuffed by her reaction. “Only you, Aries, may go above me and the only person in this world who can look down on me. No one else.”

He raised an arm and ran his fingers through the side of her hair, settling his palm on the back of her head before he pulled her down until her face was a palm length away from him.

“You better use this at your own disposal,” he whispered, tilting his head as he lifted it up to claim what’s his. HER.

Meet Eustass Silvestri Abel Bloodworth, the sadistic tyrant, who reigned an empire with an iron fist. With his pet, Aries’ increasing presence in his boring, dark life, he was set to kill her. But alas, every time he thought of taking her life, he finds himself changing his mind.

The more he kept her by his side, the more it got harder to dispose of her. And the more he yearned for something deeper and darker... it was driving him insane.

With a secret he was keeping from her, what would Abel do if Aries found out about the rotting truth behind the empire and the emperor? Would he kill her? Or kiss her? Perhaps cage her?

And if she found out that Abel wasn’t just a normal human, would she try to escape? Or would she accept that he wasn’t just a demon incarnate?

In a complicated world that tainted them black, was love even possible to bloom between a pet and her master? Watch as these two play the dangerous and insane game of love and lust.

Who would be the master and the pet? Who was the prey? Read to find out more.