Dollface

'' Two months, two months passed, and he didn't start his revenge yet?!''

This voice was mixed in the air, as if it were normal, with pleading dying shouts of a group of bandits.

All of the surrounding blood and screams were her daily work: she was enacting revenge on them because of the thousands of people they robbed and killed during their lives.

She seemed unaffected by the scene: the only cause of her present rage was the inactivity of her possibly new chess pawn.

He seemed promising during their first meeting: bold, fast on the uptake, with initiative, and much much potential.

Her hopes and dreams of revenge were self-echoing each other thanks to the chance that he could turn out useful to achieve her desires.

She waited one week: he was training.

That was the right choice: he wouldn't be able to kill a bug with the starting stats of that poor suicidal fellow and would end up killed by the monsters in the forest.

Her mind, though, felt separated into two(three) parts regarding his training partner: a phoenix.

The story was simple.

When they first met, she was slightly worried about the possibility of Rubra killing Eric out of distrust.

In a matter of minutes, she was hitting her right leg and sat down on her comfy sofa, laughing without restraint.

She was watching the show where a lying weakling managed to make a naive force of nature his subordinate.

At that moment, her mind was happy because of what he had just achieved, but in a way, she was worried about that phoenix.

She dreaded Eric would manipulate her into becoming his lover and that his thirst for revenge would diminish, but the third part was still hidden in her conscious mind.

Then her voice was tinted in interest and slight possessiveness:''He needs an Oscar, outstanding as he is, he will be mine. ''

She said that, but by saving his soul in the past she had finished all the causality she had put aside for thousands of years, after all, his soul wasn't ordinary. Because of that, at this moment in time, all she could do was observe him, and if an imminent danger would present itself, she would call the friend who asked her for help with his reincarnation.

Basically, she was using her blessing as a means to check on him: she felt like some kind of stalker.

The strangest thing was that a relative of the victim was happy about it and asked her to watch over him.

She slowly started taking interest in his behavior, his movements, and the possible thoughts she could derive from the first two.

Unluckily, she couldn't read his intentions anymore with his body obstructing the view, but she wasn't unhappy about that.

His body proportions respected perfectly the Golden Ratio remembering the sculpture ''Doriforo'' by Policleto.

He was a gifted son of Hephaestus.

Unconsciously Nemesis became more and more invested in the daily life of that incredible golden-eyed man.

She was binge-watching his life as if it was a tv series: privacy and human rights could be damned for all she cared.

When she had to do her job, she sighed slightly: Nemesis wasn't that sad, knowing that she could catch up while Eric was sleeping.

When he fought the monsters to level up, the hair: dark as hers, made her feel a strange affinity with him, as if she was the one fighting in his body.

She was so absorbed she spoke by herself as if trying to communicate with the man on the other side of the screen. Then that happened.

She was eating while enjoying their dinner interactions, as usual.

Nemesis didn't actually need to eat to survive, but she tried following along, cooking the recipes of Eric and she liked the taste so much that this scene became her new daily habit whenever she didn't have to work.

Then she heard him joking with Rubra:'' Didn't you ever eat something this good?''

She didn't give it much importance at the moment but, after a few minutes, Rubra was crying in his arms.

Nemesis felt as if punched in the pit of the stomach, her thought erratic.

*How did that happen?

I literally saw every second of the process and couldn't see it coming. *

Oh well, his acting is incredible after all, it isn't that strange

Then she heard his final words''I'm here with you.'' and was able to see his struggling face as if he was fighting not to cry.

Her thoughts continued with the same line, yet with weaker conviction than before.

*Full immersion, uh.

Who are you, the secret son of Stanislavski?! *

From that day on, the real-time series she called ''Stalking Eric'' became more stress-inducing for her.

Every time Rubra smiled or laughed at what he said, she didn't miss a chance to mock Rubra for laughing at someone who was tricking her.

Slowly a competitive spirit was born in her, comparing herself to Rubra.

*Yes, she has a couple hundred(millions) years less than me, but that's it, that's all she's got on me.

Moreover, my first interaction with him was way more engaging, and he's still lying to her.

He will continue on his path for revenge. *

She accepted being slightly jealous about her close relationship with him, but that was just because she didn't want her to steal his new promising pawn.

*Yes, just a promising pawn. *

She continued speaking to herself as if trying to convince herself.

Her worry grew with the passing of days, Eric was able to fend off the Cinder Forest monsters for a long time, but still, he stayed because he asked Rubra to come with him, traveling along the outer world.

Again Nemesis had mixed feelings about this: she was happy because he didn't forget about his revenge, but for some reason, she didn't manage to rejoice about the addition of the crimson phoenix to his team.

At that moment, she understood her thoughts were irregularly illogical: Rubra was easily manipulated by Eric and strong.

*She can help him during future fights, so why do I feel uneasy about it? *

Then an idea hit her like lightning from the sky.

*Her red wings, right! *

*How dare she have her wings the same color as mine! *

Her defense mechanism had yet to be deactivated.

In this painful-to-watch way, time passed and the current moment arrived.

After finishing her work, she returned to her personal domain to catch up with her bitter-sweet show, but something unexpected was happening: Eric was hiding in what seemed like a hollow rock, and Rubra was weeping, calling for him.

*That crybaby is that her go-to solution for everything?! *

The verbal harassment was still going strong, but she was somewhat relieved the two lovebirds were arguing, thinking that this was the good time for Eric to finally leave the forest.

Then she heard the sudden voice:''How could I ever kill the person I love?! ''

*You sneaky, thieving, overgrown chicken! *

For some reason, there wasn't any swearing, but the abuse was getting hasher.

''Interesting isn't it? '' Nemesis suddenly heard a feminine, silken voice behind her back but answered unconsciously.

''More like enraging, to be honest. ''

Then she understood what just happened and asked with a dry voice, while raising and turning to watch her:''Why are you here, dollface?''