How to Turn Down Rewards from Your Archnemesis

Yega Leicester is an ordinary female college student.

Now she's got a huge problem.

The bad news: she has a nemesis from a past life she can't even remember.

The good news: she stabbed her nemesis from the start.

The bad news: her nemesis is a vampire, so he can't be killed with a single stab. She'll have to find a way to stab him a few more times.

The even worse news: her nemesis seems like an S but is actually an M, and the knife makes him feel good.

The first time she stabs him, he gets angry. By the Nth time, all he does is beg her: "Miss Leicester, harder..."

Yega: Why does it feel like I'm just rewarding him?

Her nemesis is named Aetheros, and he's an arrogant vampire.

As Yega gets involved with the Vampire Hunters' Guild, she discovers to her horror that she's not just unlucky, she's a great villain.

In her past life, she killed Aetheros's younger brother.

But what does anything done in my past life by [the witch Jormungandr] have to do with me, [ordinary college girl Yega], in this life?

As someone who doesn't give in to pressure, Yega still decides to kill Aetheros.

He's completely insane. Even though he knows Yega is working with the vampire hunters to hunt him, he still shows up to meet her.

But things don't go as planned. She fails to kill him and instead draws the attention of the Progenitor, putting herself in danger.

So she seizes the opportunity while he's weak, exchanges blood with him, forms a blood pact, and forces him to abandon his grudge and protect her.

With the Progenitor hunting her, Yega is taken to his manor, and the two begin an official life of hiding out together.

Living with your nemesis is thrilling.

He keeps his eyes on her every day and follows her everywhere, as if he wants to nail himself to her.

But she realizes her nemesis's pain-loving tendencies are getting worse.

He won't eat or sleep, and despite being a vampire, he doesn't bite her. Instead, he keeps wanting her to bite him.

How strange. She hates him, yet seeing him punish himself makes her furious.

So when she accidentally catches him hurting himself, she grabs his black hair and pushes him down into a chair.

"You like pain, right?" she says expressionlessly. "Then I'll make you hurt."

"Tell me if you can't take it anymore, but I won't stop."

"You like this, don't you?"

*The female lead is cold, sharp-tongued, and stubborn, but when she falls for someone, she becomes fiercely protective. In her past life, she was a powerful witch. There are other circumstances behind the killing of the male lead's younger brother.

*The male lead is a vampire, a genuinely gloomy vampire ghost: an insane, clingy mess with serious issues. He loves pain because he feels guilty toward his younger brother and the female lead, and uses self-harm to distract himself. After getting together with the female lead, his trauma basically turns into a kink.

*Both leads are powerful, and they're true nemeses. There is a melodramatic past-and-present-life plot, with blood, tears, and sweat. Everyone ends up a mess.

*They were three years apart in their past life. In this life, the age gap is about 200 years.

*Very male-lead-centric, no female-lead suffering. The male lead will pay back all the pain the female lead goes through in the first few chapters.

*This story started as an idea I had in college, several years ago. The writing in the first few chapters may differ from the later chapters. I revised it a bunch, couldn't figure out what else to change, so I'll leave it as is. Maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised when you get further in.

*Also, I'm terrible at writing synopses.

*Happy ending.

Theme: Character determines fate