The World’s Strongest Are Obsessed With Me

Chapter 1

Prologue

At the Frederick Empire’s Imperial Palace training grounds, the knights were holding their breath at the young man’s aura, which was increasing right before their eyes. The young man was tellingly handsome, even at first glance. But his hair—floating in the air despite the windless weather—sent a warning to everyone that was there.

His ocean-blue eyes were burning in anger.

The knights took a step back from the young man and raised their swords. Their eyes were filled with resignation.

We’re doomed.

It was an unexpected and major accident.

There were people who were called the Transcendents in this world. With one born in each generation of the four duke families, they were more talented than the average person in all aspects. Each had a special talent of their own that flourished from their nearly-boundless magic.

But they all had a weakness. The more they used the powers gained from their magic flourishment, the more their souls deteriorated, forcing them into a rampage.

There wasn’t a way to turn them back to normal once this happened. All anyone could do was wait for another Transcendent to rescue them.

Soon, Emperor Alexandro Duncan Michelio II, who was also a Transcendent, would appear and suppress the young man. The knights just had to hang on until then.

But... will we be able to? He’s about to consume the entire training ground.

Beads of sweat formed on the knights' backs. But then…

“Goodness! Brother!”

A girl’s voice rang through the training ground, cutting through the tense atmosphere with its utter bizarreness. The knights turned around in surprise. There was a young girl with the same gray hair and blue eyes as the young man approaching them with quick strides.

The knights were unable to stop her in their fright. In the blink of an eye, the girl stood in front of the young man and wrapped her hands tightly around his cheeks. “This! Is why! I said! Don’t! Overexert yourself!”

That was when the unexpected happened. The young man’s aura, which had been bubbling as if it might unleash destruction around him, slowly dissipated. His blinding blue eyes also dimmed, leaving a faint gleam. Slowly, recognition started to return to his eyes.

He murmured sadly as he grasped the girl’s hands with his own. “I’m sorry... Dahlia.”

The knights had never seen a Transcendent who had gone into rampage regain clarity, especially not with the help of someone else. At the inexplicable miracle the young girl called Dahlia had performed, their jaws dropped to the floor.

* * *

Once she was done calming her brother down, Dahlia sighed on her walk back.

How did that happen?

The emperor, who had appeared just a moment too late, was holding a flower bouquet instead of a weapon to appease her brother.

“This is a gift from the bottom of my heart.”

“I don’t need it!”

The emperor had drooped in disappointment and gone back the way he came.

Aren’t they supposed to be doing their work...?

Suddenly, a man stopped Dahlia in her tracks. He was tall and muscular. This handsome man with black curly hair was Meldon Artus, the master of the Artus family, one of the four duke families of the Frederick Empire. He was also a Transcendent.

Meldon coyly pushed Dahlia against the nearest wall and spoke with a soft voice. “M’lady. I think it’s time for you to choose.”

“Ch-choose what?”

“Well...”

Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed Meldon’s shoulder and shoved him away from Dahlia. “Who else would accompany you to the ball besides me, Miss Dahlia?”

The person who had done the shoving was a blue-eyed golden-haired knight, tall as a mountain in his cloak and armor. He was Duke Lewain Blueport, master of the Blueport family. He was also another Transcendent.

Dahlia sighed. She had been sighing a lot recently. “I’m not going with either of you.”

The two immediately looked at her with hurt expressions.

“Then will you be going with His Highness Cederic again?” Meldon asked in a blatantly irritated tone.

Cederic was the second prince of the empire and the Transcendent of his generation within the royal family. Dahlia shook her head. “No.”

“Then who?” Lewain asked, nearly in tears.

Dahlia raised her chin. She announced her decision confidently. “I’m going to the ball with Adrisha this time.”

“Pardon...?” The two men asked with wavering voices.

“Dahlia!”

Just then, a woman came running down the end of the corridor with an overjoyed expression. She hugged Dahlia immediately and glared at the two men with wary eyes. “Dahlia's attending the ball with me this time. She won’t be needing anyone else.”

This was Adrisha Beniterre, the main character of the game Ouroboros’ Labyrinth.

Although the original plot of the game was dark and abusive, having her on the receiving end of all the Transcendents' overwhelming love and obsession...

I’m glad Adrisha’s not suffering through all that, but… Dahlia carefully went over how this situation had come about.

Hikan Pesteroz

Dahlia Pesteroz remembered her past life when she was thirteen. She was often called "unique" before she recalled her past life because she was the only one who felt uncomfortable ordering the servants around in a world where that was normal. However, she never dreamt of being someone from a different world, or of recalling a past life.

She did end up remembering it out of the blue, suddenly realizing that this was the world of Ouroboros' Labyrinth, a game whose target audience was women in her past life.

Which also meant Dahlia was teetering on the brink of death.

There were two reasons as to why. First, Ouroboros' Labyrinth was a hopeless and dark women’s fantasy game that had a 19+ age restriction.

Second, her brother, Hikan Pesteroz, whom she hadn’t seen for the past thirteen years, was the most unhinged character among the many male leads in the plotline. He was so uncaring that he would kill his family if he found them annoying. In that sense, it was a relief that he was the only child of his family in the game.

But why?

Why did this Dahlia character exist in this world, and why was she his sister?

Damn it.

None of this was in the original story!

From what Dahlia could remember, Hikan Pesteroz was the only child of Duke Pesteroz’s family. But now there were two: Hikan and Dahlia. It meant she was like an extra sprinkle on top of Ouroboros' Labyrinth that had appeared out of nowhere.

She didn’t know why she was the final villain’s sister in a world where everything else seemed to correspond exactly to the game’s story. In fact, she didn’t want to know.

She already knew the Pesteroz family was bound for destruction as a result of Hikan’s evil deeds in all the plotlines that were offered in the game. So she was certain her life as his sister, Dahlia, was bound to end on the execution stand too.

The one thing she could feel relieved about was that she realized the truth of the world she was in before the original events of the game began.

Currently, Hikan Pesteroz was only sixteen. Since his mind would begin to deteriorate after his eighteenth birthday with his magic flourishment, she still had plenty of time.

Magic flourishment. This was the concept in Ouroboros' Labyrinth that dragged the story into the darkest of all depraved plotlines.

There was a legend that the great dragon blessed the Frederick Empire at its founding so that the four duke families and the imperial family would have one magical child born to each generation. But because the emperors and dukes enjoyed a frivolous life, there were also rare instances where commoners were born with magic. (Dahlia thought that idea was added to the plot because it would be boring to have all the male leads be nobles.)

Anyone who was born with magic was called a "Transcendent."

Magic manifested differently in each person. For example, Dahlia's brother Hikan could defeat an entire order of knights with a single sword after going through his magic flourishment. From what she could remember of the game, some of the Transcendents had unique assassination skills, while some could read a person’s thoughts by looking into their eyes.

But there was one major flaw to their power. The more the Transcendents used their magic, the more their self-control deteriorated, which then resulted in a rampage. And there was no way to heal a deteriorated mind.

The potential male leads, who were already half-crazed, risked their lives, waged war, and went on rampages just to get rid of the other male leads... driving each other to the brink of madness. To make things worse, Hikan Pesteroz—who already had a villainous side to him—was the first to lose his mind.

The story itself is ludicrous. If I was going to reincarnate, I would have preferred a peaceful world.

The only difference in this entirely fictional world was Dahlia herself.

Hikan might look at his cute sister and decide to live an upright life, right...?

But Dahlia immediately erased that idea from her mind. From what she remembered of him in the original story, that was a ridiculous thought.

Hikan was, for some unknown reason, at his maternal family’s home. That was why Dahlia hadn’t seen him for thirteen years. She had no way of knowing what kind of state the final villain of the game was in.

Dahlia thought that somehow they might be able to live like strangers for the rest of her life.

Unfortunately, her meeting with Hikan came faster than she expected.

* * *

It happened while she was munching on a snack of bread and doing the homework that her tutor had given her. There was a noise outside that was soon joined by her nanny’s begging. “Young master, please! You can’t! You can’t just barge in there!”

By the time she realized what her nanny was begging for, Dahlia was prepared.

Oh, he’s finally here.

Just as she'd expected, the door to her room flung open, and a teenage boy strode in. The boy was really handsome, with silver hair and blue eyes.

So... that’s my brother and the final villain of the game, Hikan Pesteroz.

He was young, but his gaze alone was fierce enough to make a grown man tremble. Dahlia nervously swallowed the bread in her mouth.

I think I’m going to vomit.

She was certain his magic hadn’t flourished yet, but if someone told her he had lost his mind long before his magic flourishment, she would have believed them solely based on his cold attitude.

Well. It was explained in the story that the Transcendents were born different. Not only were they exceptionally smart, they were arrogant enough to ignore all the rules of society. She felt the stereotypical atmosphere of a Transcendent from Hikan.

Her nanny appeared behind him in a panic. “The young miss isn’t ready to...”

Ready?

Dahlia stared at Hikan with wide eyes. He stared back at her, emotionless. “Father has died, Dahlia.”

At a loss for words, she glanced at her nanny, who was nearly in tears. Poor nanny. She had seemed a little anxious the whole day, probably because she was thinking about whether or not she should break the news to Dahlia.

The news didn’t especially faze Dahlia, given her memories of her past life. Besides, her mother had passed soon after she was born. Her father was never in the mansion because of his busy schedule, so she didn’t feel too sad.

Maybe he went mad because he never received love from his family. That had been one of her assumptions about Hikan while she was playing the game, so she recalled their deaths clearly.

Should I make a sad face for my nanny at least? was what she was thinking when she felt his gaze.

Hikan’s gaze.

He was staring at her as though he was dissecting her, without a single hint of affection toward his only remaining family member.

Dahlia immediately noticed, being sharp-witted as she was, that Hikan was measuring her worth. He was thinking about how and where he would be able to use this child later—the only other Pesteroz. He was going to decide how to use her by gauging her reaction to their father’s death. Perhaps it was because he knew that a person’s character could be molded in their early years and thought it might be possible to manipulate her.

What kind of human does that?!

Dahlia stared at Hikan in shock as he spoke. “You’re...not crying.”

Dahlia immediately snapped out of her daze at Hikan’s dull voice. This wasn’t the time to be shocked. She was being assessed by the strongest evil villain of the game, in his teenage form. She could tell it was too late to change him, seeing how his personality was already twisted at such a young age.

In the original story, Hikan’s family always collapsed. She was probably going to die too. That meant she had to run away, as fast as she could, no matter what.

Whatever end Hikan created as the final evil villain was his responsibility. All she had to do was avoid being executed alongside him.

Since he’s already a hopeless cause, I should try to get his guard down so I can escape.

Dahlia immediately accepted her position. She was going to play the part of an innocent and stupid younger sister! Her goal was to make Hikan think, There’s no point in paying attention to her, and that moment was going to be her chance to escape.

Which meant she had to make Hikan less wary of her, or not at all. She had to be recognized as an innocent and stupid younger sibling no matter what.

What would he think is a stupid person?

Hikan approached her, step by step. Her heart immediately shriveled out of nervousness.

Just then, her hand bumped against the bread on the table. It was what remained of her snack. She had no time to think. She grabbed it and shoved it in Hikan’s direction.