The Yandere Villainess’s Past Life Was That of a Lonely Woman. After Reflecting and Stopping Her Stalking of Her Fiancé, He Somehow Started Approaching Her Instead. - Chapter 22

“That’s because she made a contract with a dark spirit.”

Hydra’s words made me point at him without speaking. I had to force myself not to blurt out, “Was that your doing?”

Apparently my accusation landed. He shook his head to deny it.

“It wasn’t me. The dark spirit who contracted for the kiss of death was a different one.”

“Do you mean there are lots of dark spirits?”

“It is not just darkness. Darkness, fire, and the rest are only rough categories.”

Like how black roses and black lilies are lumped together as black flowers. Hydra’s explanation made me think. I see, so each element branches into finer types.

“So which dark spirit put that curse on my lips?”

“Beats me. Dark spirits are secretive by nature. They like to hide their names and true forms.”

Hydra said that fire or water spirits might casually call themselves things like hearth spirit or well spirit. But dark spirits kept their faces and names hidden. That felt oddly familiar to me from my previous life. I found myself oddly sympathetic toward dark spirits. Hydra’s tone, for what it was worth, leaned toward a brighter disposition.

“But most of the dark spirits that used to haunt Lycoris seem to have left.”

“Eh, why?”

“Who knows. Maybe she did something they disliked. Like getting friendly with a light attribute.”

“Light attribute? Oh.”

He must mean the heroine. Well, we were not exactly getting along, but still. So dark spirits get upset even by that level of contact. How fussy, I thought. Also, if their leaving meant the kiss curse stopped working, that would be a relief.

I asked Hydra to check whether Lycoris had any other contracts with dark spirits.

“They are probably just sulking, but I think they will come back sooner or later.”

“Like kids who run away from home after a fight with their parents.”

“Yeah, it seems the contracts last until she graduates from the academy.”

Even when the spirits hold the upper hand, they probably cannot unilaterally break a contract. Hydra’s words made me tilt my head.

“Until graduation? Why set that condition?”

“I think it’s because the spirits’ demands were harsh.”

He listed examples, and my heart skipped a beat. Death for anyone who kisses her, forbidding her from cutting her hair shorter than a set length. Hearing those penalties made me anxious. I had trimmed my bangs a bit in the infirmary earlier. Could that be why my magic did not trigger against Lucius?

“And making the contract last until graduation was to protect the things she held dear.”

Lycoris was not able to oppose those with her own power. She wanted the protection of dark spirits. She had once wished for that, and the curious spirits contracted with her. In exchange, they sometimes interfered with her body and mind and imposed conditions.

“But recently Lycoris was swallowed by madness and seemed to have forgotten even that.”

Hydra said, a little sadly, that it would have been nice if someone had at least told him the enemy’s name. I could not bring myself to name any likely suspects.

If young Lycoris somehow knew Lucius’s bad ending from the game when she was a child, then she had probably begged the spirits to help her win against the heroine. But that backfired. Lycoris changed, Lucius’s heart drifted away from her, and in the end he turned to the heroine.

If someone had schemed this, I wanted to punch them and scream. It felt vile. I bit my lip.