It had been two years since I first performed, and since then, I’d performed a few more times. My plan seemed to have worked flawlessly, as we got a lot of donations over the past 2 years. Now we don’t have to worry about money and can actually afford to buy things like good clothes, better food and games for the children.
When I performed for the second time, I did it with the piano, after which I got many offers from guilds and nobles to sponsor me, some even wanted to adopt me. I also got an official invite to attend the ’Nelix Academy’ when I turn 16.
Though I declined every offer except for attending ’Nelix Academy’ as my goal was to get into the academy, after all, that’s where most of the waifus are at.
"Hehe, I can’t wait to go and meet all of these heroines and make a harem." I said in a quiet voice while grinning lewdly.
It was raining heavily outside so I was sitting by the window with my guitar in my hands playing a melancholic tune, that was when I noticed a carriage—old and broken, clearly not meant for comfort stopped outside the orphanage gates.
Me, Grandpa, and Grandma went out with umbrellas to see what was going on. When two town guards jumped out of the carriage with grim expressions, between them was a young girl who looked like a twig and had mana-sealing handcuffs on her wrists. She wore filthy rags and her black hair were very dirty as if they weren’t washed in years. She had bruises and cuts all over her body which didn’t look like it was done by a monster.
That was when she made eye contact with me with her lifeless red eyes.
After seeing the amount of pain, grief, and suffering behind her eyes, all of my plans to manipulate her to be my lover went out of the window. Even after all that suffering she still has a flicker of hope in her eyes, but it was drowned by an overwhelming amount of grief and pain.
That was when Grandpa asked in a worried tone:
"Another orphan?"
To which the taller guard nodded and said
"Her parents were nobles.... Abusive ones. They died in the monster attack last week. She is the only survivor and the guild didn’t know what to do with her. She has also awakened her mana."
After hearing that Grandma’s eyes softened and she said in a soft tone:
"We will take her in"
The guard nodded and removed her handcuffs.
The moment the cuffs fell to the ground, Alicia flinched, looking at us with eyes that were expecting to be hit.
I didn’t know what to do or say as she was the same as me in my previous life but even worse.
"No matter what, I will save her and not let her become a villain. She deserves happiness after all she has been through."
I mentally thought to myself as I went ahead to support her, but when I got close to her, she pushed me with strength that would have injured any mortal, while, muttering something I didn’t catch.
After seeing this Grandma came running to my side and helped me up.
"Are you fine or hurt anywhere?" She asked in a concerned voice, to which I just nodded.
"She is a bit wild, so be careful with her."
The taller guard suddenly said and hurriedly left.
....
In the evening everybody was sitting in their chairs to eat, but Alicia just kept staring at the wall, not eating anything. None of the children were willing to talk to her after seeing her behaviour with me in the morning through the window, even though some tried, they were met with only silence, after which no one tried to talk to her.
After eating my dinner I walked with a guitar in my hands, and sat next to her keeping some space between us so I didn’t seem pushy. I stared playing a soft and gentle tune, with my skill.
After hearing my music her eyes flickered towards me with recognition, but she didn’t say anything. She just sat there unmoving just listening to my tune.
After I finished playing, she stood and silently went to her room to sleep while I went outside to train.
I continued playing music and singing for her everyday. I never tried to overstep my boundaries and talk to her when she clearly wasn’t in the right state of mind, my songs didn’t ask her questions, they were the type of songs that told her that I understood her.
One evening when I was playing a song Alicia walked up to me and sat beside me. At first she didn’t say anything, but when I finished the song, she whispered to me in a low voice.
"Thank you"
When I looked at Alicia’s eyes, I saw that she wasn’t just staring into nothingness, but was actually looking at me.
"She is starting to open up to me. Her trauma runs very deep and only my music can help her out. I would love to see her smiling like a normal child." I thought to myself as I went out to train.
From that day, me and Alicia would sit by the firewood every evening and I would play her songs while she looked at me intensely.
One day I gave her a flute to play, but she didn’t take it instead, she hugged me as if her life depended on it
Then..... she started crying— letting out all the pain and suffering she went through with her tears, her body was trembling in my arms and her her voice come out as broken. I gently started patting her back and whispering to her in a gentle voice.
"You are fine now" "Nobody will hurt you" "You will be loved"
She cried and cried for almost 30 minutes, and as soon as she stopped crying, she ran towards her room at full speed. I could swear I saw a blush on her face.
After that, she slowly started opening up to me and even started playing and doing other things, she still wouldn’t talk to anyone else than me, but with my help she slowly started opening up to others and now she laughs and plays with other children like any other child her age. Though, she only ever fully opened up to me.
THREE YEARS LATER
It’s been three years since Alicia came to the orphanage and she now behaves like a perfectly normal child except for when she is with me.
"I definitely made her a yandere didn’t I?" I muttered while slowly slipping tea.
Yeah so to explain how things turned out like this and why Alicia is now batshit crazy for me I would neet to tell you what I did in the past three years in detail, but I’m to lazy to tell you, so I will just tell you a small summary of what I did.
Now before you call me a manipulater, let me tell you that I didn’t even use my acting skills on her. I genuinely wanted to help her and make it so that she doesn’t becomes a villain, and over the past few years I have genuinely come to love her.
Over the past three years I would sing for her almost everyday. I even started feeding her the food I made myself as she wouldn’t eat anything given to her.
That was my first mistake, after that she wouldn’t eat food made from anyone other than me. After constantly asking and begging her to eat her food when I am not home , she reluctantly agreed to eat, but now she sits on my lap while she forces me to feed her. And why do I get the feeling that this was all part of her plan.
I obviously declined it at first but then she took out her ultimate weapon—puppy eyes. I’m weak to them okay, and she looks like an adorable hamster when she pouts and look at me with those eyes.
Urgh, and thats just the start of it, at the start she wouldn’t talk to anyone other than me but after slowly encouraging and helping her she can now perfectly talk and play with others.
Next mistake? One day when I found out that she was afraid and couldn’t sleep alone in her room I asked Grandma for me to sleep with her in my room for ’ONE NIGHT’ to which she agreed. Now I always wake up with her hugging me like a koala and when I told her to sleep in her room, do you know what she said to me.
"Sob....sob.... do you not want me anymore... ? will you leave me too?"
"-_-"
Even though I knew she was acting, I just couldn’t bring myself to say no to her as she had indeed suffered a lot so just went ahead with her act and now I always get teased by grandpa on how I have already gotten a wife for myself.
Oh, only if he knew how many wives I was planning on having. Well, that’s the short version of the story, I did many more things to help her during the last three years.
And I am not stupid to not see the signs of her turning into a yandere, it’s just that she was mentally unstable at that time and would always genuinely cry whenever I told her to stop clinging or give me some personal space.
And did I forgot to mention that she is crazy jealous about me, I mean she wouldn’t even let me talk to any other girl alone after a girl tried flirting with me, and don’t ask me how she knew it even I don’t know the answer to that, but one thing I do know is she knows me too well, like she knows almost everything about me.
Now being so handsome was also a problem, even though I am only 10 I am already 5’4 and absurdly handsome, and no I’m not being a narcissist I’m just that handsome.
Anyways coming back to the point I am just too damn handsome so i would sometimes get hit on by a few girls. And that made Alicia jealous and by jealous I mean very, very jealous, she clung to me like glue for 2 whole days after she saw that girl flirting with me.
While my days were busy helping Grandma and Grandpa and handling Alicia and training with Grandpa in the evening, I was living a somewhat normal life. Yes, I told them that I awakened my mana 1 year ago.
But my nights were anything but normal, I would head out at night to the nearby forest to practice my mana control and sword techniques.
"I have already killed every animal in this forest yet I didn’t get anything out it. At this rate, I will never get more skills, I need to go out to hunt actual monster."
I sighed softly and went out again again to train. I also discovered that I can perfectly see in the dark thanks to my perfect body passive.
"Well today is the last day I will train alone, afterall it’s time that I start exploring the world and hunting monsters to actually make use of my devour skill"
I just finished my training and was thinking about asking Grandpa to teach me some advanced sword skills if he knows some, when I suddenly sensed some movements near me thanks to a skill I got on my own. I named it [Mana Sense], as it helps me sense sudden movements of people near me from the disturbance in mana.