Feeling like he was in danger, Don shuffled back until his back hit the edge of his bed. This prompted him to immediately turn around and pull the bedsheet off in an attempt to find something to defend himself with, but unfortunately, there was nothing.
'Shit,' he inwardly thought before turning to face the unknown figure that was fast approaching.
"Predator, it's me," the figure called out in a female voice lacking emotion.
'A woman? No, a girl?' he wondered, but still remained very cautious. Although the tone didn't sound aggressive, it didn't exactly seem friendly either.
Before he could say anything, the system prompt appeared in front of him.
———
**Congratulations, sidekick Lady Noir has been met**
———
Don immediately recalled that, among the content he was shown, there was mention of having one sidekick. This immediately eased his heart and caused him to feel relief. 'Does that mean I'm being rescued?' The thought brought a smile to his face, and he immediately stood upright.
"Lady Noir?" he called out.
"Yes, it's me," the girl confidently replied, but as she did so, Don couldn't help but wonder, 'Will she realize that I'm not the real Don from the way I talk to her or treat her?' He worried about this new problem, but he could do nothing about it for now.
Soon, the silhouette of the figure became clearer, revealing a young woman no taller than 160 cm. Although the dust had yet to fully settle, Don could roughly make out most of her features.
She had long, flowing black hair that almost seemed to shimmer under the now flickering light in the room. Her eyes were a deep amber color, and strangely enough, her pupils were white instead of black. Her skin was also mildly pale and seemed to lack any and all blemishes, looking incredibly smooth and flawless.
She wore a form-fitting turtleneck, which made it easy to make out her modest chest. For bottoms, she wore what looked to be black leather shorts that left much of her thighs visible. They too were as flawless as the skin on her face. As for her shoes, she wore a pair of black high-heeled boots. Although her attire seemed more focused on fashion than efficiency, considering she didn't have a single speck of dust on her, it was hard to say.
'She looks a little young,' Don thought before narrowing his eyes. 'Wait a minute, is that why I'm called Th-?'
Before Don could finish that line of thought, another system prompt quickly appeared.
———
**Lady Noir possesses 100% trust in The Predator. Character profile unlocked.**
———
Shortly after the message was displayed, the prompt expanded from a small rectangular screen in front of Don's eyes to something close to being an augmented reality display. As he looked at Lady Noir, he could now see various information about her constantly floating across his field of view. The piece of information that most caught Don's attention was her background.
———
**Lady Noir, also known as Elle Thorne:** The heiress to the Thorne business empire.
**Background Summary:**
As the last born of the Thorne family, L. had always been treated as a princess by her family. However, when her parents died and it was revealed that she would be the sole heiress, jealousy and envy caused her to be isolated from as young as age 3. By age 8, she had completely stopped socializing with others and mostly kept to herself within the family library of their main home.
There, she took an interest in the occult and began to purchase countless arcane artifacts from across the globe, one of which granted her a powerful familiar with whom she worked to orchestrate the deaths of all her siblings and extended family, leaving her as the only Thorne alive.
Now without a family or friends, a lonely Elle took to enrolling in a common school in an attempt to make friends without revealing her identity. However her personality made this impossible and she was treated as even bigger outcast.
It was at this time she encountered Don, an edgy pre-teen a few years her senior. Surprisingly, where most found Don's actions to be edgy, weird, and unrealistic, she found his ways to be charming and pure in nature.
She became the only person who believed he could one day conquer the world, even accepting the role he assigned her of sidekick. In turn, he also became the only person who didn't treat her as a freak and genuinely played with her.
One day, though, Don felt he had played around enough and decided to leave his childish persona behind and pursue a more realistic goal, as it felt impossible to become either a supervillain or hero with the lackluster powers he had. Elle insisted that he must continue to pursue his dream of conquering the world and that she would help him to the fullest. Following this, she began to constantly send him plans on potential ways to grow as a supervillain and conquer the world everyday for 10 years, despite him never replying back quickly or at all sometimes.
Freaked out by this, Don deleted his accounts and fled to Calambia, where he was soon arrested after stealing a sweet roll.
———
After reading this information, Don came to the immediate realization that he had met Lady Noir before. 'Running away to Calambia seems a bit extreme. Did he have no idea what she looked like after growing?' Don immediately thought, still amazed by the beauty he was currently seeing. In the world he lived in, it would be absolutely unmatched.
While Don was too immersed in his thoughts, he hadn't noticed that he had remained silent for far too long. Lady Noir spoke up, "Predator, are you not happy to see me?" she asked in a bit of a shaky tone. Despite her intimidating appearance, she seemed rather fragile.
"Oh," Don was unsure how to answer this, but before he could think of something proper to say, she continued, "I was so scared when you stopped replying to my messages for more than six months and even more scared when you deleted your account. I thought for sure you didn't want me anymore, that someone had stolen you away from me. I never cried so much in my life. I swore I would find whatever took you away from me and tear out their heart, then yours so you could never leave me." As she muttered this, a small smile appeared on her face, which would look sweet if it wasn't for the words she was uttering. "But I'm glad that's not the case. Somebody was just jealous of our plans and our future. And so they locked you up. And I found you. I finally found you," she muttered repeatedly with a small smile and an odd look in her eyes.
However, her smile soon faded as she added, "But you're not happy to see me, are you? You hate me now. You don't want me anymore."
Don felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard those words, feeling like if he allowed them to continue, it wouldn't end well for him. So he immediately shook his head. "No, no, no, it's not that at all."
Realizing he was panicking, he quickly cleared his throat and explained. "It's not that, Lady Noir. It's just that uh.. words cannot describe how happy I am to see you. When they locked me in here, I thought I had lost everything," Don revealed dramatically, even going as far as to raise his hand and close his eyes slightly as if he were reciting poetry.
This seemed to work though as Lady Noir raised her head with her eyes showing a certain creepy glimmer for the words being spoken. Don continued on to say, "I lost count of how many nights I went to sleep thinking about you, hoping that they didn't find you. It all happened so fast I couldn't warn you. It was selfish, but I knew I had to get away. That way they would focus their attention on me and not you."
'I hope she buys this or I'm really in trouble,' Don thought, but looking at Lady Noir's expression, it seemed he was successful. She looked up at him with awe. "I knew it. You could never forget me, and I never forgot you. Now fate has brought us together, and together we shall remain until the sweet embrace of death takes us," she declared.
'Shit, what have I gotten myself into?'