The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 41

 

But what followed wasn’t the sensation of lips touching lips. It was the feeling of fingers brushing past my ear.

 

So… Lionel had simply tidied up my hair that had gotten disheveled from the wind.

 

“Wh-what was that!”

 

“Did it make you uncomfortable? I apologize.”

 

“No, it’s not that it made me uncomfortable…! You just startled me. You shouldn’t touch a woman’s hair so carelessly.”

 

“I see. I apologize. I won’t touch it again in the future.”

 

“No, well, you don’t need to go that far… Just don’t do it so suddenly… We’re going to be, you know, stuck together for life…”

 

I covered my face with my long hair to hide my embarrassment and shame, rolling only my eyes around.

 

Then suddenly, I had this thought.

 

‘He doesn’t do this with other people too, does he?’

 

With that face, if he did such things, it wouldn’t just be a crime—it would be a life sentence. I hurriedly warned Lionel.

 

“I feel like I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but you absolutely cannot touch other women’s hair. Only touch my hair. Got it?”

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

“And, and, um…”

 

As I fidgeted with my hair, I belatedly realized how this situation had unfolded.

 

“So what does this mean?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“You asked what I thought of you.”

 

I thought he was going to show me through actions instead of words, boldly trying to kiss me, but that wasn’t it.

 

‘Could it be that he just reached out to tidy my hair because it was disheveled?’

 

…No way! That can’t be it!

 

“I am…”

 

Yes, I am! I am what!

 

With the determination to hear an answer no matter what, I stared wide-eyed at his lips alone, when the carriage stopped abruptly without any consideration for the moment.

 

“We have arrived, Lady.”

 

“What? Already? No…”

 

I was about to tell them to take another lap around the capital since we had plenty of time, but the door opened before I could speak.

 

It happened to be on Lionel’s side. He got out of the carriage first, as if he had no lingering attachment to the answer he had been about to give.

 

“Your hand.”

 

Lionel, who had let go of my hand when getting out of the carriage, extended his hand to me again for escort.

 

I glared at that hand endlessly, then turned my head sharply to look at Uni, who had already gotten down from the driver’s seat.

 

“Lady?”

 

To Uni, who was making a puzzled expression as if she didn’t understand why I was glaring at her, I complained inwardly since I couldn’t shout in front of Lionel.

 

‘You said you’d drag out the time appropriately!’

 

How could you stop the carriage at such a crucial moment!

 

* * *

 

“Well… how about that.”

 

The depths of the slums. Ashen Web Street.

 

Walking leisurely through a place where even residents who had lived in this area for a long time would never set foot, Fry continuously let out exclamations of admiration.

 

Perhaps that sound was irritating. Someone poked their head out from above a roof patched up with worn-out planks.

 

“Who’s making all this noise from early evening, keeping people from sleeping!”

 

“It’s me, you fool.”

 

“Ugh, B-Boss?”

 

Nix, a black-haired woman with an eyepatch over her right eye, was so startled she nearly fell off the roof.

 

With amazing balance, she barely managed to hold on and then leaped down from the building like a cat.

 

“Didn’t you say you were going to meet with the leader today?”

 

Given the leader’s status, making contact required several days of careful movement. After all, the leader’s residence was none other than the Imperial Palace.

 

Fry had left at dawn today saying he was going to meet the leader, so it should take at least several days for him to return. Why had he come back so early?

 

“The meeting’s already over.”

 

“What? How?”

 

“The leader came out to meet me all the way to the front of the slums for some reason. Though I don’t think it was intentional.”

 

Fry chuckled as he recalled Lionel silently distributing bread at the relief tent, the malicious rumors someone was deliberately spreading, and Cecilia appearing at the perfect timing as if to deny those rumors.

 

From the moment she sent someone to the underworld to gather information about her fiancé, he had suspected she wasn’t an ordinary lady.

 

“Our leader seems to have met his perfect match, doesn’t he?”

 

“What? …Ah, you mean that duke’s daughter?”

 

The engagement between the Second Prince and Duke Roheim’s daughter had caused quite a stir even here.

 

It was natural. From their perspective, their future mistress was being decided.

 

“How was she? Is she as pretty as the rumors say?”

 

“She’s pretty, but she’s quick-witted. And has excellent initiative too.”

 

Cecilia coming all the way to the relief tent and staying right next to Lionel must have been to directly refute the rumors someone was spreading to slander him.

 

Even as his fiancée, there was no need for her to step forward while risking damage to her own reputation.

 

“And that’s not all.”

 

“Then what?”

 

“Do you see this?”

 

Fry waved his hands back and forth in front of Nix.

 

Every time his pot-lid-sized hands moved in front of her eyes, Nix’s single eye followed the movement.

 

Nix, who had been following the movement with a blank expression, soon spotted a small note tucked between his fingers.

 

“Is this a message from the leader?”

 

“That’s right. And the duke’s daughter caught this.”

 

“What?”

 

“I’m not completely certain, but…”

 

Otherwise, why would the duke’s daughter have extended her hand to such a lowly commoner, asking for a handshake?

 

Fry had no idea. That Cecilia had really extended her hand without any particular thought.

 

“She didn’t figure out that our leader is the leader here, did she?”

 

“No way. Who would know? That the distinguished future Emperor is the leader of the underworld.”

 

In reality, even within the underworld, only a few people knew the leader’s true identity.

 

Whether male or female. Whether old or young. They had deliberately spread all sorts of contradictory rumors so no one could deduce the truth.

 

This work had been ongoing since the previous leader’s time, so even then, no one knew that the leader was an old woman.

 

“So what’s the leader’s message?”

 

“See for yourself.”

 

“Oh?”

 

How unusual for our boss to hand over the leader’s message so easily?

 

Nix thought this while catching the note Fry threw to her and quickly checking its contents.

 

[Classify information about the Roheim family as confidential.]

 

Classify information about the Roheim family as confidential.

 

The meaning of this was quite simple. It meant to manipulate things appropriately so that anyone investigating the Roheim family would gain nothing.

 

“Wow, of all families, Roheim…”

 

Was Roheim just any ordinary family?

 

They owned more than ten different types of mines, and the plains belonging to Duke Roheim’s territory grew enough wheat to feed half the empire’s population.

 

The empire’s largest vineyard and biggest brewery were also part of the duchy, and the businesses Roheim was involved in were too numerous to count on ten fingers.

 

Recently, they had even begun sponsoring the Frost Tower, actively expanding their influence into the magical tool market, making the saying that half of the empire’s gold coins flowed into Roheim’s coffers seem like no exaggeration.

 

Just when it seemed the Emperor could frame them for treason or something and confiscate their wealth, the marriage arrangement between Roheim and the Imperial Family was made, so it seemed Duke Roheim had submitted to the Emperor at just the right time…

 

“Classifying Roheim’s information as confidential at this timing means hiding all the evidence the Emperor could use against them, right?”

 

“Sharp as always, you little rascal. You’re ready to take on official missions now.”

 

“Well, I am now… W-wait a minute. You’re not planning to assign this to me, are you?”

 

Sure, I’ve said several times that I want to take on official missions now! I even threatened a few times that I’d go out and cause major trouble if you didn’t give me missions!

 

“But Roheim is too big! How can I cover all of this by myself!”

 

“I’ll assign you two subordinates. That should do it, right?”

 

“That’s still only three people!”

 

“Don’t want it? If you don’t want it, I’ll give it to someone else.”

 

Fry held out his hand. Nix made an “ugh” sound while pondering, then finally put the note in her pocket.

 

“Then you have to let me go outside too.”

 

“Outside? Why?”

 

“Do you think manipulating information is easy? And if we want to upgrade the Roheim information to classified status, we absolutely must stop by the Frost Tower.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because…”

 

Nix recalled the information she had recently obtained and rolled her eyes to one side.

 

“It’s classified now. I can’t tell you.”

 

“This little brat?”

 

To avoid Fry approaching to give her a headlock as always, Nix nimbly threw her body and leaped up onto the roof.

 

And she waved her hand with a giggling laugh toward Fry, who was looking up at her with a stupid face like a dog that had been chasing chickens.

 

“Well then, I’m off to carry out my mission! I’ll come back to report in a month!”

 

“You brat! It’s once every two weeks, hey!”

 

Fry shouted, but Nix had already left the scene.

 

Pretending not to hear Fry’s screams echoing like an echo, Nix picked her ear and giggled.

 

‘Yahoo! I’m finally going on an official mission with subordinates too!’

 

If she made even the smallest mistake here, she would slide back down there again.

 

After crawling up from that rock bottom somehow.

 

She absolutely had to do well. Incredibly well.

 

‘First, let’s go hide the fact that Cecilia Roheim is a magic tool creator!’

 

Neither Nix nor Fry could have guessed.

 

That in fact, the information Lionel wanted classified was only that one thing.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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