The SSS-Rank Date

Chapter 2 My Darling, Save Me!

I screamed. The creature peeled itself from the ceiling, limbs cracking into place, and dropped.

I ran.

The candle died when I swung around. I found the stairs with my shins and clawed my way up, one hand dragging along the damp wall. Rough stone stripped skin from my palm. Behind me, claws struck the floor, the wall, then the first step. The sound came faster each time. By the last few steps, I could hear the creature breathing through its split mouth.

I burst through the iron-banded door and nearly fell into the grand hall. The other players stared past me into the dark, but none came forward to help. I kept going without choosing a direction. Distance was the only plan I had.

Then I struck a cold, solid chest.

Hands closed around my shoulders before I hit the floor. I looked up.

It was him. Valerius.

Silver hair had fallen across one crimson eye. Up close, he looked exactly like the romance target I had chosen: pale, beautiful, and too young to belong in this castle. The system warning sat behind that face. Valerius stared down at me while the thing in the catacombs scraped closer.

With claws striking the stairs behind me, I chose Valerius.

I locked both arms around his waist and buried my face in his shirt. The fabric was fine enough to belong to a prince rather than a servant. He smelled of winter air and old parchment, clean scents that cut through the blood in the hall. More important, he stood between me and the door.

“Darling!”

Every muscle under my arms locked.

I glanced back. The doorway was empty, and the scraping had stopped.

This worked.

I tightened my grip before he could remove me.

“Darling, save me! Please be my boyfriend. I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks!”

His body stayed rigid, yet he made no attempt to push me away. I waited for claws, fangs, or the system’s promised obliteration. None came. Something beat under my ear, slow and steady. Apparently vampires did have hearts. Or Valerius did.

“No.”

It was the first word I had heard from him. His low voice carried through his chest and into my cheek. If I had still been inside a romance game, that voice alone would have earned him an entire route.

He said no. I stayed exactly where I was.

The system chimed in my head.

*[WARNING: Boss Valerius exhibits extreme aversion to physical contact. Analysis of previous game logs indicates a 100% fatality rate for players initiating unauthorized contact. Average time to obliteration: 2.7 seconds.]*

*[Current contact duration: 34 seconds. Anomaly detected.]*