Why Do Soot Sprites Love Konpeito Candy?

When I was seven years old, my younger brother went into anaphylactic shock after sneaking a handful of peanuts. Outside the emergency room, my mother slammed my head against the wall over and over, her face twisted with rage. "If you had been watching him like you were supposed to be, this never would have happened! You should be the one with a ruptured stomach, not him!" After that, whenever my brother so much as caught a cold, my mother forced me to eat spoiled leftovers as punishment. I once prepared an elaborate feast. She flipped the entire table and made me crawl on the floor to lick it clean. When I said I wanted to study culinary arts, she poured hot oil over my hands. My father wanted to send me to vocational school to learn a trade, but my mother clutched my brother to her chest and wailed. "She destroyed her brother's health! She owes him a lifetime of service!" When I was fifteen, my brother's gluttony cost my father an important business deal. I took the blame without even being asked, and the furious client forced me to drink more than half a gallon of hard liquor. By the time I was sent home with a bleeding stomach, my father had already scolded my brother. My mother took out her anger on me instead, slapping me so hard my ears rang and my vision went dark at the edges. "You useless thing! You should’ve choked to death at that table! I get sick just looking at you!" I coughed up black blood. From my pocket, I pulled out a piece of sour candy that had gone soft and sticky. It was the only treat my mother had ever given me with a smile, back before my brother's allergic reaction. I put the candy in my mouth and swallowed it down with the taste of stomach acid. The candy was so sour it made my throat burn. Whatever came next, I just hoped I would not have to be my family’s garbage disposal again.

I was the ultimate pick-me girl at the office, and somehow, I ended up inside a horror game before New Year's Eve. Seeing the bloody lady crawling in the dark elevator, I screamed out loud. "Oh my gosh! Where did you get that lipstick? It's perfect! It makes your skin look three shades lighter!" The bloody lady blinked at me in confusion as I helped her up. She even recommended the exact lipstick shade. Then I turned around and came face-to-face with the chainsaw-psycho general manager with multiple personalities, swinging his weapon around. I tied a little bow on his chainsaw. "Everyone else only cares if your chainsaw is sharp. I'm the only one who cares if you're tired from swinging it all day." The monsters in the room looked at each other, all thinking the same thing… Why did this feel weirdly wholesome?

To survive the elite Aethelgard Vanguard University, you must have a legendary bloodline or a death wish. Loveth has none of those. She does have a stolen identity ring, a blood seal that blocks her forbidden magic, and a burning thirst for revenge against the noble family that threw her away like trash. She enters the academy under the name of a dead girl, aiming to keep her head down and climb the cutthroat ranking system from the absolute bottom at Rank 500, destroying her bloodline from the inside. But her plan falls apart on the very first night when she comes face to face with Crown Prince Kaka. Kaka is the academy’s undisputed rank 1. A lethal, arrogant storm-wielder weaponised by the royal court. But behind that perfect, untouchable facade, Kaka is dying. His magic core is cracking from a dark family curse, threatening to rip him apart from the inside out. But when a midnight showdown forces Loveth to unleash her hidden ash magic, Kaka learns her deadly secret. But instead of revealing her, he sees that her forbidden power is the only thing that can stabilise his failing core. Now, Loveth is bound to the school's most dangerous tyrant by a contract she didn't sign. He needs her power to stay alive; she needs his shadow to take her revenge. But when the academy’s trials turn deadly, and a darker conspiracy lurks beneath the school, the thin line between their mutual hatred and protective obsession starts to blur. In a school where falling behind means death, trusting the enemy could be her best weapon. Or her last mistake.

Bring something found. Find something lost. The paradise island of Foxgrove hides a secret. It is said that a fox deity lives in the island's tallest mountain, Mt. Kitsune. At the foot of the mountain is an inn where, according to legends, one can find what they have lost if they trade something they have found, as long as the fox is pleased. Vivi is the granddaughter of the owner of the Chocolate Kiss Inn. She returns to the island with her little sister in order to help her grandmother manage their family business, when her peaceful life is suddenly disturbed by the arrival of a VIP guest. Leo, the VIP of Cottage 2, is a popular idol at the peak of his career. He visits the island to spend his vacation there and ends up getting close to Vivi. In truth, he is there in search of something. Will they ever find what they are looking for? Or will they find something equally worthwhile?

My best friend and I were pulled together into a steamy dark-fantasy romance novel, where we became the Demon King's newest sacrificial consorts. As someone who had actually read the original book, Elodie went pale. After all, this was the raunchiest, most over-the-top novel the two of us had ever read. She grabbed my hand, trembling. "Camille, if I'd known, I never would have wished on my birthday a few days ago to die of pleasure in some gorgeous man's bed. Now it looks like that dream is actually coming true—except the price is my life..." What she didn't notice was the drool sliding down the corner of my mouth. As the highest-ranking succubus, I'd spent years disguised as a human in the modern world, starved of nourishment and all but withering away. Now I'd crossed into a world with no morals and no rules to hold me back. It suited me perfectly. So the moment I laid eyes on the Demon King in front of me—blisteringly hot to the touch and devastatingly handsome—I didn't hesitate for a second. I lunged forward and sank my mouth into his veined, muscled chest. "Sorry, Elodie. A blessing like this, I'm claiming for myself!"

After being chosen by a horror game, I took over a food stall in a small town. A ghoul tried to eat me, his huge, bloody mouth a gaping maw, but I quickly shoved a focaccia sandwich into it. He chewed and then said, “Oh, forget it. With food to eat, I’ll kill her tomorrow.” The next day, I made delicious pierogies, then skewers and stews. All the ghouls who stopped by gave up on trying to kill me, focusing on eating instead. The audience watching me was shocked that I could survive all the way to the end with just my cooking.