Reincarnated as Duke’s Heir
Copyright© 2025 by TheSmartOne
Chapter 26: Fox
William and Sirius stared in stunned silence.
They had seen Thania in battle, watched her command legions of undead, witnessed her bring entire kingdoms to their knees. She was the Queen of Death—cold, ruthless, and untouchable.
Yet now, as she held the unconscious five-year-old Lucas in her lap, gently stroking his hair with an expression bordering on tenderness and obsession, the scene before them was simply ... unbelievable.
Neither of them wanted to think too deeply about it.
Because thinking meant understanding, and understanding meant accepting—and frankly, they weren’t sure they wanted to accept whatever the hell was going on here.
Of course, knowing William, he couldn’t just keep his mouth shut in a moment like this.
“ ... Am I witnessing my favorite trope?” he mused aloud, rubbing his chin. “Older woman and younger man? Are you a Mi—”
He abruptly cut himself off.
His instincts screamed at him.
He felt it—the cold, suffocating weight of Thania’s intent pressing down on him like the hand of death itself.
Slowly, he raised his head.
Thania was staring at him.
Her usually impassive gaze now carried a silent threat. A warning that needed no words:
Continue that sentence, and you will die.
William felt a chill crawl up his spine.
“Fuck ... I think I just read your thoughts perfectly. That’s scary. How expressive can you even be when you want to?”
He shook his head and quickly decided that silence was the better part of survival.
Lucas might be her obsession, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be the person she used as a sacrifice for her necromantic experiments.
Sirius, the self-proclaimed only sane person in this group, had been watching this exchange with mild amusement. And, like the responsible, level-headed individual he was...
He immediately decided to make things worse.
“So,” he drawled, his golden serpentine eyes glinting mischievously. “What exactly is this about? Am I about to witness a centuries-old woman fall for a five-year-old child? Thania, that’s illegal as hell. Are you sure you can—”
He didn’t finish his sentence.
A skeletal hand, wrapped in a violet necrotic aura, suddenly materialized in front of his throat.
Sirius barely managed to retreat in time, his body slithering back into the shadows as his forked tongue flickered in agitation. His usually calm face now carried an expression of genuine surprise.
“The hell? I was just worried about you, okay?” he hissed. “How do you think the world will see the mighty Queen of Death and Decay—”
He didn’t get to finish.
More skeletal hands emerged from the darkness.
Dozens.
They clawed at the ground, reaching for him, each one radiating the unmistakable intent to kill.
Thania’s voice, when she finally spoke, was eerily calm.
“I’m not even trying hard to catch you,” she said. “But if you continue speaking, you will not like the outcome.”
Sirius wisely shut his mouth.
A heavy silence filled the forest.
Then, for the first time since the encounter, Thania looked up at them—her gaze filled with something dangerous.
Something possessive.
“I don’t care what the world thinks,” she said softly.
The obsession in her tone sent chills down William and Sirius’ spines.
“What matters is that I will be with him. Forever. I will make sure of it. No one will take him away from me. And whoever dares to harm him ... will live the rest of their life in unending torment.”
Her fingers tightened slightly in Lucas’ hair, her thumb gently tracing his cheek.
Sirius looked at William.
William looked at Sirius.
“ ... Not gonna lie, Thania,” William said after a moment. “That speech just made me understand why people like yandere girlfriends.”
Thania blinked.
“Yandere?” she repeated, tilting her head.
William immediately shut the fuck up.
Now that he had confirmed she was a textbook yandere, it was critical to know how to act around her.