Why do I keep attracting Villainesses?

Chapter 39: JACOB’S POV (BONUS Chapter)

So long as we got rid of this annoying shark infestation, I could live a carefree life going forward.

I could continue to help the village, keep Artria company, and maybe even find some time to actually enjoy the beauty of this underwater world without stress.

I felt like I had finally cracked the code to this "reincarnation" thing. I had survived the worst of it, and now I was on the path to the good life.

"I’m coming home!" I yelled out loud, my voice bubbling through the water. I felt a surge of exhilaration.

My tail was moving with a light, easy rhythm, and the sun was hitting the sand in beautiful patterns. I felt untouchable. I felt like the hero of my own story for once.

But then, something struck me as odd.

I slowed down, my fins twitching. I looked at the rock formations around me.

There was a specific jagged arch of stone to my left and a deep, dark trench to my right that looked uncomfortably familiar.

’Why do I get the feeling I’ve seen this place before?’ I thought to myself. A cold shiver ran down my spine.

My heart rate, which had just started to calm down after the shark chase, began to spike again for some reason.

"Several days...."

A voice came from directly behind me.

It was low, raspy, and carried a weight that made the water feel like lead.

I turned my head in confusion, my body moving slowly as if through thick syrup.

I prayed I was just imagining things. I prayed it was just a lingering ghost of my fear.

But as my eyes landed on the figure standing a few meters away, my face went completely pale.

"When did you get here?!" I blurted out in fright. My voice was high-pitched and cracked.

Standing there was my mistress. Persephone.

Taking a closer look at my surroundings, a wave of dread filled my heart.

The exhilaration from earlier vanished, replaced by a cold, numbing horror.

I realized I had made a catastrophic mistake.

In my rush to lose the sharks, I hadn’t been paying enough attention to my navigation.

I had been so focused on getting away that I hadn’t looked at "where I was heading.

To think I had actually swum all the way back to my mistress’s nest.

The cave, the very place I had been a prisoner, the place where I had nearly died, was sitting right there, just behind her.

"Several days...." Persephone said again. Her body was trembling visibly.

She wasn’t wearing that cold, smug expression she usually had.

Instead, she looked... broken. Her hair was a mess, floating wildly around her head, and through the thin gaps, I could see a pair of bloodshot eyes fixed on me.

She was clenching her fists so tightly that her knuckles were white.

I gulped down in fear when I saw dark, red blood leaking into the water from her hands.

She was digging her own claws into her palms so hard she was wounding herself.

The sight made my stomach flip.

This wasn’t the "boss" I knew. This was someone on the edge of a total mental collapse.

"I spent several days grieving over your death...." she muttered through gnashed teeth.

The words were followed by a series of small, frantic bubbles. She slowly raised her head to meet my gaze.

When she finally looked at me, my fear reached a peak.

Her face was absolutely livid. It was a mask of pure, unadulterated rage and betrayal.

"And yet here you are, talking about living comfortably with another woman...."

My blood turned to ice. She definitely heard what I’d said earlier. To think she even heard me talking about Artria.

The one name I knew I should never mention to her.

"M-Mistress, it’s not what you think," I said, raising my hands defensively in front of my chest.

My face was filled with a desperate anxiety. I backed away, my tail twitching nervously. I looked like a cornered animal, and that’s exactly how I felt.

’Just how much luck did I use up with those sharks to have ended up back here!!!’ I screamed inwardly.

I wanted to cry but no tears came out.

I had just outrun a hundred sharks through pure skill and luck, only to deliver myself right to the doorstep of the one person I needed to avoid.

It was the ultimate "out of the frying pan and into the fire" scenario. I was wallowing at my own stupidity.

"And not just any woman... But that heartless woman!" Persephone hissed.

Her voice was dripping with a hatred so deep it felt physical.

A wave of pressure suddenly began emanating from her body.

The water around her began to swirl and darken, and the pressure struck me like a wall, forcing me back several paces. The water around her seemed to groan under the weight of her displeasure.

’F*CK! She’s too far gone to be reasoned with!’ I screamed in my head.

There was no Talk no Jutsu I knew of that would save me from this one.

Her eyes were glowing with a dark, cursed light, and the water was beginning to chill to the point where my scales were starting to hurt.

She wasn’t seeing me as Jacob; she was seeing me as a possession that had betrayed her with her greatest enemy.

Without hesitation, I did the only thing I could do. I turned and bolted away.

’I have to get out of here!!!’ I kicked my tail with everything I had, ignoring the pain in my muscles from my earlier swim.

I didn’t care where I went this time, as long as it was away from her. I felt like a rabbit trying to outrun a storm.

"How dare you run away from me!!!"

Her piercing scream came from behind me, echoing through the water.

It was a sound of pure agony and fury.

One moment, the voice was in the distance, and I thought I might have a chance.

But the next moment, I heard it right next to my ear. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

She was too fast. Even with my shark strength, I was nothing compared to her when she was like this.

"You’re mine! Not hers! I didn’t make you for her!"

She whispered frantically into my ear, causing a chill to go down my spine.

My scales stood on end the next moment when I felt her soft, cold hands clamp down on my neck like a vice grip.

I felt the air, the water, forcefully lodged in my throat.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t move.

My hands reached towards my neck instinctively, trying to claw at her arms just like I had done during our last fight.

"I won’t let her take everything from me again!" Persephone screamed.

Unlike before, this time around, she didn’t give me that opportunity.

She didn’t let me fight back.

The moment she grabbed my neck, She used her incredible strength to dive.

We plummeted towards the ocean floor at lightning speed.

The change in pressure was so sudden it made my ears pop painfully.

The sand and rocks of the seabed rushed up to meet us.

I tried to struggle, or squirm, to do anything, but she was like a mountain I couldn’t overwhelm.

BAM!!!!!

The last thing I felt was an excruciating, sharp pain on my face as we hit the jagged rocks of the floor.

Then, everything went blank.