The Choices of Detective Sylph [Western Fantasy]

New novel coming soon: The Caged Bird Variations. Please add it to your collection! The blurb is at the very end. Sending love.

Blurb:

Arrogant, sharp-tongued young lady x combat-maxed, sweet-faced but secretly sinister servant

Sylph was searching for her missing mother when she came across a skeleton servant.

Sylph: This guy looks filthy. He doesn't suit my refined taste at all.

But then she saw the skeleton servant take on ten opponents alone, fighting with unstoppable force.

Sylph rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Well, that's not a bad deal.

Who knew the cunning skeleton servant would glance at her and change his tune? "Since Miss has acknowledged my worth, that means you agree to the contract between us."

Sylph: Wait, what contract?

Draven: In return, I will claim the kiss of true love you offer me. That's what it takes for me to return to my original form.

Sylph: !!!

How could a pampered young lady accept such a demand? But faced with a treacherous and perilous world, she had no choice but to agree for now, swallowing her pride.

Even though she needed his help, she didn't change her arrogant, overbearing nature. She often nitpicked and ordered her servant around, and kept putting off fulfilling her promise.

But the servant, so respectful to her face, secretly harbored improper thoughts about his beautiful mistress. After coveting her for a long time, he crept into Sylph's room one dark, stormy night, determined to personally silence his arrogant, rude, yet stunningly beautiful little mistress.

After a long, arduous journey and countless brushes with death, following cases like a string of murders aboard a train, a sinking cruise ship, and a cursed mermaid town, Sylph discovers that her mother's disappearance is connected to a bizarre, notorious string of murders from ten years ago.

Preview of an upcoming novel:

A fake siblings romance in a rented apartment

Dark, obsessive little sister x gloomy sister-obsessed big brother

1.

When Shen Zhixing was eleven, his father, who had divorced not long before, started a new family.

A strange woman led a shy, delicate little girl up to him, pulling a suitcase with one hand and holding the girl's hand with the other.

His father smiled and told him, "Her name is Shen Wei. From now on, she's your little sister."

His sister was four years younger than him. Her hand was soft, and her cheeks were rosy. Like a little shadow, she stuck to him every day.

Shen Zhixing didn't mind.

Four years later, a car accident killed their parents. Shen Zhixing looked at Shen Wei, who was hugging a teddy bear with a dazed expression, and silently pulled her into his arms.

The cool rain pattered on his shoulders. He swore to himself that from then on, he would be someone Shen Wei could depend on.

He taught Shen Wei to read and write, washed her clothes and cooked for her, and used his slender frame to hold together their crumbling home.

2.

Shen Wei couldn't say when her feelings for Shen Zhixing had changed, but by the time she realized it, her mind was already full of him.

When she drank water, she thought of Shen Zhixing's bobbing Adam's apple. When she wrote, she pictured the smooth, defined muscles of his arm. When she ran, she thought of the faint scent of soap on the hem of his fluttering clothes.

Her entire adolescence revolved around Shen Zhixing.

But Shen Zhixing said they were siblings, and that it wasn't right.

Why wasn't it right?

They weren't even related by blood.

If she fell in love with her big brother, of course it was his fault.

Whatever it took, she would have Shen Zhixing. Even if she had to bind him with the shackles of family ties and keep him by her side for the rest of his life, she would make him entirely hers, inside and out.

3.

But no matter how hard Shen Wei tried, no matter how carefully she planned, Shen Zhixing remained unmoved. He watched her laugh and fuss like an elder watching a child who couldn't get the candy she wanted.

Just then, her late mother's younger sister came looking for her. She offered to take Shen Wei in and cover her living expenses and tuition from then on.

Shen Wei thought her aunt was right. She couldn't keep holding Shen Zhixing back. He had his own life to live. They should return to being siblings and set their relationship back on the proper path.

But Shen Wei never expected that after she boarded the bus to leave, she would doze off for two hours and open her eyes back in the familiar rented apartment.

Waiting for her was a Shen Zhixing who had lost control for the first time.

His eyes red, he tied her to the headboard with a cloth cord. His expression was obsessive and unhinged. "You want to leave me? Dream on, Shen Wei."

Only later did she learn that, in this abyss where forbidden love and desire were intertwined, Shen Zhixing had been the first to fall.

Theme: Everyone has one, and only one, most important thing.