Help! I'm just an extra yet the Heroines and Villainesses want me!-Chapter 28

William’s mind was racing while trying to process what was happening as Seraphina continued kissing him with an intensity that bordered on desperate, and he could feel her hands gripping his shoulders hard enough to bruise.

He finally managed to push her back slightly and gasped for air while staring at her with complete shock written across his face.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded while trying to put some distance between them.

Seraphina’s expression was wild and unfocused, her crimson eyes dilated in ways that didn’t look entirely natural, and she was breathing heavily while staring at him like a predator that had just caught prey.

"Mine," she repeated while reaching for him again. "You’re mine, William Cross."

William scrambled backward and got to his feet while his mind frantically tried to understand what had triggered this sudden change, and then he remembered the system notification right before she had jumped him.

[Catastrophic Allure Activated]

The curse. The damned curse had finally done something beyond just tracking percentages, and apparently when certain conditions were met, it could trigger active possession or obsession in the affected targets.

"Seraphina, you need to calm down," William said while keeping the fire between them as a barrier. "This isn’t you talking—have you been feeling... unusually emotional lately? Maybe some, uh, hormone symptoms?"

"I don’t care about hormones," Seraphina said while moving around the fire with predatory grace. "I’ve been watching you with Lyanna and Claire, pretending I didn’t care, but I can’t anymore. You’re mine and I won’t let them have you."

She lunged across the fire with speed that caught William off guard, and he barely managed to dodge to the side before her hands could grab him. This was bad, really bad, because Seraphina in a normal state was already dangerous, but Seraphina under the influence of a supernatural curse that amplified possessive tendencies was potentially lethal.

And he absolutely could NOT let anyone know about the curse.

"Listen to me," William tried again while continuing to evade her attempts to catch him. "You need to fight whatever this is. Have you been tracking your monthly cycle? Because the timing seems—"

"I don’t want to fight it," Seraphina countered while her sword hand twitched toward the weapon at her hip. "This feels right. You’re supposed to be mine." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The commotion was apparently loud enough to wake people because tent flaps started opening and confused faces emerged to see what was happening.

Claire came out of William’s tent first and immediately assessed the situation with sharp intelligence cutting through her sleepiness.

"William, what’s going on?" she called out while staying at a safe distance.

"Mine!" Seraphina snarled while finally drawing her sword, and the sight of the blade made everyone freeze because they all knew how deadly she was with that weapon.

Marcus emerged from his tent and took in the scene with growing alarm. "Seraphina, put the sword down. We’re all friends here."

"He’s not your friend," Seraphina said while pointing the sword at Marcus without taking her eyes off William. "He’s mine. All of you need to back away."

Lyanna appeared next and her analytical mind immediately started working through the problem while maintaining a safe distance from Seraphina’s sword range.

"This is clearly an external essence-induced obsession," she said while pulling out a small notebook from her pocket. "Those are mainly triggered by curses.."

"Curses?" William questioned nervously. "I don’t know what happened she just suddenly began behaving like this while we were taking"

Everyone turned to stare at him with varying expressions of disbelief.

"William," Lyanna said slowly. "Are you seriously suggesting that Seraphina drawing her sword and declaring you as her property is just... menstrual symptoms?"

"I don’t, probably" William said while continuing to dodge Seraphina. "PMS can be very intense, I read about it in a book once...Hormones are powerful things."

"I will stab you," Seraphina said flatly while advancing on him.

"See? Mood swings" William said while gesturing frantically. "Textbook case!"

Sara had emerged by now and was watching with wide eyes while clearly trying not to laugh at William’s increasingly desperate attempts to avoid mentioning something related to him.

"William," she said carefully. "I don’t think Seraphina normally tries to murder people during her period."

"First time for everything!" William said while vaulting over a log. "Bodies are weird! Sara, you’re a woman, back me up here!"

"I am absolutely not backing you up on this," Sara said while definitely holding back laughter now.

"This is a very strange situation," Lyanna said firmly while flipping through her notes. "There should be countermeasures, but I need to find—"

"I think it’s her hormones, she just need to calm down" William insisted while Seraphina cornered him against a tree. "Very aggressive hormones...Possibly combined with the stress of the Vale! And maybe she ate something weird it could be food poisoning affecting her judgment!"

"I’m going to tie you to that tree," Seraphina said while her grip on the sword tightened.

"See? Irrational threats" William pointed out while trying to edge away from the tree.

Claire had been watching everything with calculating eyes and suddenly spoke up. "William, are you actually trying to convince us that Seraphina’s supernatural obsession with claiming you as her property is just because she’s on her period?"

"...Yes?"

"That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard."

"It’s a very bad period!" William said defensively.

Marcus moved with surprising speed to grab Seraphina’s sword arm from behind, using the distraction of everyone staring at William in disbelief.

"Everyone calm down!" he shouted while struggling to maintain his grip as Seraphina tried to break free. "William, stop talking about periods! Seraphina, stop trying to claim William! Can we all just be normal for five minutes?!"

The struggle became more chaotic as Seraphina fought to free herself while William tried to help Marcus without getting stabbed and the others attempted to assist without making things worse.

In the confusion, Sara made a desperate decision and threw a bucket of cold stream water directly at Seraphina’s face.

The shock of the cold water combined with the sudden disruption seemed to break something in Seraphina’s single-minded focus, and she stumbled backward while releasing William and dropping her sword.

She blinked several times while water dripped from her hair and face, and her expression shifted through confusion to dawning horror as she apparently realized what she’d just done.

"I..." she started while looking around at everyone’s defensive positions and William’s wary expression. "What did I just..."

"Hormones took over," William said quickly before anyone could mention curses. "Totally normal biological response to, uh, monthly cycles combined with essence cultivation amplifying natural chemistry! Happens to the best of us..."

Seraphina’s face went pale as the situation hit her, though whether from embarrassment or genuine fear was unclear.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked while her voice cracked slightly. "I remember wanting to... but everything’s fuzzy and—"

Nobody got hurt," William assured her while maintaining his distance just in case. "You just... lost control for a bit."

Seraphina sat down heavily on a log and put her head in her hands while her shoulders shook slightly.

"I’m so sorry," she said. "I don’t understand what happened. One moment we were talking and the next I just..."

Lyanna was watching with intense curiosity while clearly trying to understand what had just occurred. "This is unusual. I’ve never heard of essence cultivation causing this kind of sudden behavioral change without some kind of external trigger."

"Maybe the Vale’s essence is affecting her differently?" William suggested quickly. "Or she’s been pushing herself too hard with cultivation?"

"Or," Sara said slowly while looking at Seraphina with concern, "could this be some kind of... female thing? I mean, hormones can do weird stuff sometimes, especially combined with essence cultivation..."

William latched onto this immediately because it was perfect cover. "Yes! Exactly! That makes total sense! Hormonal fluctuations plus the stress of the Vale plus intense essence cultivation could definitely cause some kind of... episode like this!"

Lyanna frowned while clearly not entirely convinced. "I suppose it’s possible that hormonal changes could be amplified by essence cultivation in unpredictable ways, but I’ve never read any documentation of something this extreme..."

"First time for everything!" William said perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. "Bodies are complicated.. Especially when you throw cultivation into the mix"

Marcus was looking at Seraphina with genuine worry. "Are you feeling alright now? Like, actually alright?"

Seraphina looked up with tears starting to form in her eyes. "I don’t know. I feel like myself again but I’m terrified that it could happen again and I wouldn’t be able to stop it."

"Maybe you should rest," Claire suggested while still watching Seraphina warily. "If this is some kind of cultivation-induced hormonal thing, sleep might help stabilize things."

"I don’t want to sleep," Seraphina said while wiping at her eyes. "What if I wake up and attack someone? What if I hurt William?"

"You won’t," William said with more confidence than he felt. "This was probably just a one-time thing. Your body adjusting to the Vale’s essence or something. It won’t happen again."

He had absolutely no idea if that was true, but he needed everyone to believe this was a temporary medical issue rather than a permanent supernatural curse.

Lyanna was still frowning thoughtfully. "We should monitor this carefully. If it happens again, we’ll need to consider walking back to get proper medical evaluation."

"It won’t happen again," Seraphina said while trying to sound certain. "I’ll be more careful with my cultivation. I won’t let myself lose control like that."

The group stood around in awkward silence while processing what had just happened.

"Maybe we should all try to get some sleep," Sara suggested. "It’s been a... very weird night."

"Understatement," Marcus muttered while running a hand through his hair. "Seraphina, maybe you should bunk with Sara tonight? Just in case?"

Seraphina nodded while looking devastated. "I understand. I don’t trust myself near William right now anyway."

People slowly started heading back to their tents while casting uncertain glances at both Seraphina and William. Claire stayed close to William as they walked back to his tent, and once inside she turned to him with arms crossed.

"William?" Claire said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"If this happens to me, and you try to tell everyone it’s because of my period, I will actually stab you."

"Noted."

"Good night."

"Good night."