Reborn as an Yandere : Yandere X Yandere-Chapter 228: Boiling Herself!

"What the hell is she doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be in the tribe?" Maruti thought.

There was no answer in her mind. Just a big, confused blank.

Then another thought hit her like a rock.

"Was this the reason Esdeath didn't show up to class?" she wondered. But that didn't feel right either. Esdeath wasn't someone who got scared easily. In fact, she didn't seem to be scared of anything.(Except Lortell)

And neither was Maruti.

But still, this whole situation felt extremely awkward. Especially after everything that had happened in the Vanara tribe.

Her cheeks started to burn just thinking about it.

"Should I jump out the window and run away?" she thought, glancing at the open window beside her.

But then she shook her head quickly, biting her lip.

"No! That'll make me look like a coward!" she scolded herself, sitting up straight and trying to act normal.

At the front, the teacher, Hestia, stood beside Sasha and began to introduce her to the class.

"She is Samsara Vanara, a barbarian," Hestia said in a calm voice. "It's been many, many years since any barbarian has decided to study in our academy. Mostly because of some... personal and historical disagreements between us."

She looked around the classroom as students whispered among themselves, curious and surprised.

"But," Hestia continued, smiling gently, "things have changed. Ironically, her younger sister was already secretly studying with us. And since we treated her well, the Vanara tribe's leader has decided to be friendly with us and send his elder daughter to study too."

That made the whole class freeze for a second.

Younger sister?

Everyone looked at each other, trying to figure out who she meant.

Then Hestia dropped the bomb.

"Her sister is none other than Maruti. A very talented—and quite popular—student that you all know well!"

Gasps filled the classroom.

"What?! Maruti?!"

"Maruti is a barbarian?!"

"No wonder she's so tall!" someone said.

"But I thought average barbarian height is above 195 cm! Maruti looks under 190 cm—don't tell me she's a midget for her tribe!" a girl whispered with a giggle.

Maruti clenched her fist under the desk and stared straight ahead, trying to act like she didn't hear that. But inside, her pride stung a little.

Even with the chatter and disbelief spreading across the room, no one could deny it. Hestia had spoken the truth.

All eyes now shifted to Sasha again.

Sasha calmly stepped forward. She stood tall and proud, her expression serious but respectful. Then she gave a small bow and said in a deep, confident voice,

"My name is Samsara, but you can call me Sasha."

But she spoke in her tribal language. The words were unfamiliar and heavy, with a tone that sounded like the wind echoing through a mountain.

Everyone stared in silence.

"What did she say?"

"Did anyone understand that?"

"Sa-saha? Sasha?"

People mumbled, puzzled and unsure.

Sasha tried to speak in her mother tongue at first, but after noticing everyone's confused faces, she realized they didn't understand a single word. So, she took a deep breath and decided to speak in the kingdom's language instead.

But the moment she opened her mouth...

"I-I, Samsara... umm... you call Sasha... umm...!" she stammered. Her words came out all wrong and messy, like broken pieces of a puzzle.

Sweat started forming on her forehead.

"Damn it... I never took this language seriously... My speaking is terrible! What should I do now?" she panicked inside her head, trying not to show it on her face.

Hestia noticed the struggle. She could see Sasha was having trouble with the language and was just about to help her when—

"She's saying her nickname is Sasha, so please call her Sasha," a calm voice echoed from the middle of the class.

Everyone turned their heads in surprise.

It was Ethan.

"When did you learn the tribal language?" Violet asked from behind him, leaning forward with curious eyes.

Ethan blinked, feeling caught off guard. His mind raced for an excuse. In truth, he had lived a whole different life before and knew many languages because of it—but there was no way he could explain that to her.

"Haha... It was a long time ago, back when I lived in the village," he said with a sheepish smile, scratching the back of his head. "I just wanted to look cool, so I tried learning it..."

Violet raised an eyebrow but didn't push further.

The class was still buzzing with whispers when Hestia clapped her hands.

"Everyone, stop talking!" she said sharply, bringing the room to silence. She then turned to Sasha and spoke in her tribal language.

"Since Maruti is your younger sister, how about sitting with her?"

Sasha's eyes moved to where Maruti was sitting—second to the last row, next to the window. But the moment their eyes met, Maruti quickly looked away, pretending to stare at her notebook.

Sasha narrowed her eyes and replied in a serious, calm voice, "I always like to be ahead!",

Hestia blinked, unsure of what to say. She glanced around and then smiled.

"Okay then. Since Ethan understands your language, how about sitting with him? The seat next to him is empty. He can help you learn our language too!"

Sasha nodded and began walking toward Ethan's desk.

But before she could even take two steps, voices burst out from behind.

"Wait, no!" Emma stood up in protest. "We all agreed only one person sits with Ethan each day! That's not fair!"

The class laughed quietly. It was no secret anymore—Emma, Violet, and Sylvania all liked Ethan. They even had an agreement about who gets to sit with him: one girl per day.

And today was Sylvania's turn.

Violet and Emma were sitting behind them, waiting for their own turn the next day. But now, out of nowhere, a new girl—tall, strong, and clearly very pretty—was going to sit beside Ethan every single day?

That felt like cheating to them.

Some students chuckled. Others whispered with envy. Hestia, however, acted like she didn't hear Emma's complaint at all.

Sasha didn't really understand what Emma had shouted, but before going to Ethan's seat, she leaned toward Maruti and whispered softly,

"Mei... meet me after class."

Then she stood up straight and walked to Ethan's desk, sitting down beside him calmly.

The size difference between her and Ethan made the whole scene even more dramatic. Sitting next to her made Ethan look like a little boy next to a tall warrior—almost like a main character in one of those weird stories where a shotacon MC ends up with a tall, cool girl.

"Hmph!" Sylvania, Violet, and Emma all puffed their cheeks and looked away at the same time, their faces red with cute frustration.

-------------------

At the same time in Esdeath's dorm room, a dense essence aura filled the air. A few essence stones lay scattered on the bed, their glow faint but heavy. Selen was gone—Esdeath had sent her to Lortell, telling her to spend time with her.

She cast a silent magic over the room, sealing every sound. Then, without hurry, she walked toward the bed.

A wooden bathtub stood in the corner. Esdeath undressed, revealing her snow-pale skin, and stepped into the cold water. The tub was small, forcing her to bend her knees tightly.

"I hate when there are conditions to get stronger," she whispered, her voice low and bitter.

She took out a glowing orange-red stone. Heat rose from it in small waves.

"Furnace Fire Essence Stone."

It was a one-time use essence stone, also very useful in refinement process, Specially for fire type ones.

The moment she activated it, it dissolved into the water like powder. Instantly, the water began to heat. It didn't stop rising. Steam curled into the air. The temperature surged.

Pain struck her body. Her skin began to burn, boil, redden. But she didn't scream. She had already used a durability essence stone earlier—her skin was far tougher than normal.

Still, when the water surpassed human limits, even her toughened flesh began to suffer. Her skin bubbled, roughened, boiled.

To an outsider, it would look like she was seeking death.

But she knew what she was doing.

Teeth clenched, she endured silently. Every second felt like hours.

Fifteen minutes later, she emerged.

Her body trembled. Her skin was a mess of red and white, the surface layer fragile, like it might peel at the slightest touch.

Staggering toward the bed, she fell to her knees. Her fingers brushed the other essence stones.

"The real painful part starts from here."

Esdeath picked up the essence stone called "Hour Pass Like Months." It was a rank C time-type essence stone—and a dangerous one. Using it would make one hour, a whole month to her body also speeding up the refinement process. But in return, it also consumed a month of her lifespan for every hour it stayed active.

She had one and used it to refine a Loyalty essence stone. Now, thanks to looting Elara's clone, she had a few more.

"Better not tell predictor about it," she told herself and activated the stone.

The moment the time distortion began, she quickly grabbed the main essence stones for her body refinement.

First was the Black Iron Bones essence stone, rank C. She had skipped the lower "Iron Bones essence stone", and gone straight to the stronger one. It would harden and reshape all her bones to make them unbreakable like metal.

Then came the Moonfrost Skin essence stone, also rank C. It was an upgrade from the Silver Jade Skin. It would make her skin look smooth, delicate, and beautiful—but also ghostly pale, like snow. Since her skin was already pale, she didn't care about the side effects.

She also had the Silver Emerald Muscles essence stone. Together, these essence stones would increase her strength, endurance, magic resistance, and even protection against fire, frost, and physical attacks.

"If only I had the Golden Veins essence stone," she thought. "That, along with cleansing my blood, would increase my ESR talent to Rank A."

The blood cleansing wouldn't be hard. She could use blood-type essence stones, and she had Lortell—a vampire. That part was simple.

But the Golden Veins essence stone was rank B and extremely rare. Even Lortell might have trouble finding one.

"Let's get started."

She rolled up a thick piece of cloth and bit down on it to stop herself from screaming. Then she clutched the three main essence stones in her hand and absorbed them all at once.

Before, she couldn't do this. She was too weak and inexperienced. But now, with her stronger body and the burning experience from her past, she could.

She had even boiled her skin earlier on purpose—to speed up the replacement of her outer layer of skin. Everything was planned.

She didn't dare use a pain nullification essence stone either. The lower-rank ones wouldn't help, and she didn't have a rank C. If she asked Lortell, she would ask thousand of questions and if she finds out about it, She would never let her beloved Esdeath go through this.

Suddenly, the pain hit like a storm.

It mixed with the earlier pain from boiling her body and pain from being her stats too high for her body. It was worse than anything she had ever felt. Her body twisted and ached, her muscles screamed. Her bones felt like they were being crushed and reshaped at the same time.

She collapsed on the bed, face-up, teeth biting deep into the cloth. Her hands grabbed the sheets with all her strength. The pain broke the silence spell she had cast over the room.

"I knew this would happen... that's why I prepared the cloth," she thought.

Only soft, muffled groans leaked from her mouth, but inside her mind, everything was chaos.

She could feel her bones being replaced by black iron, her skin peeling off and reforming with the Moonfrost's pale shine, and her muscle fibers tearing apart and rebuilding themselves with emerald strength.

The pain was so sharp, so deep, she wanted to scratch at her body and tear it apart. But she didn't. She held on.

Blood oozed out from her pores like sweat, soaking the bed in red. Her eyes lost focus. Her pupils trembled, ready to disappear. She was close to fainting.

But she couldn't.

If she fainted now, the process would fail. She'd have to go through it all again.

"Hold on. Just two more minutes," she lied to herself. "Two more..."

She kept repeating it again and again.

And in this way, what felt like a never-ending hour finally passed.

Her body went numb. She couldn't move. But the pain was gone. Only her head felt heavy, and her breathing was weak.

"Even though I used Hour Pass Like Months, I don't think I can move for eight or ten hours," she thought, forcing herself to stay awake.

"One year of life... gone. Well, I have Steal Life skill, so lifespan isn't a problem anyway."