The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 7
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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 7
“Why? Is there something wrong with that?”
I answered with fire in my eyes, momentarily angry, but Lionel, who remained calm by himself, quietly shook his head.
“I was wondering if you had a reason to come here often.”
“Of course I do. My fiancé is here, isn’t he?”
When I glared at him with intensity in my eyes, meaning ‘Do you even realize you’re my fiancé?’, Lionel answered again with a calm expression.
“You mean you’re coming to see me?”
“Of course! We’re going to get married and become husband and wife later. For that to work, shouldn’t we have in-depth conversations and get to know each other?”
Of course, whether we’ll actually end up getting married is still uncertain, and what I really want is to observe whether you’ll turn dark or not!
“Rio, do you know anything about me?”
When I asked interrogatively with my hands on my hips, Lionel blinked once and then listed the information he knew like a machine outputting programmed answers.
“Cecilia Roheim. 16 years old. The youngest daughter among the first son and two daughters of House of Roheim. Born in winter, no Academy education history but studied under the Frost Tower Master…”
“Wait. That’s enough. You can stop there.”
What? So he wasn’t completely uninterested in me after all?
I felt my hurt feelings melting away slightly and cleared my throat with a small cough.
“So you did investigate me?”
“Yes. But there was less publicly available information than I expected.”
“That makes sense. I haven’t really done any external activities.”
Publicly speaking, that is.
“Anyway, Rio, do you think knowing just that much about the person you’re going to marry in the future is enough?”
“Then what else should I know?”
‘Ugh, how frustrating!’
I barely managed to resist grabbing the back of my neck and collapsing.
As I’d been thinking since earlier, he had a talent for saying things that could sound sarcastic if misheard, but making them sound exactly as intended without any emotion.
The fact that he was really asking because he didn’t know was problematic in its own way.
“Apart from objective information like age and background, you should at least know what I like and dislike, what I’m afraid of and what bores me.”
“…”
“I think that intimate relationships like marriage require knowing each other inside and out, and even that’s not enough.”
I was worried about what I’d do if he asked ‘why’ again here, but surprisingly, Lionel nodded without questioning.
“Because there’s no end to learning.”
No, that’s not what I meant by that… Whatever. As long as we reach the same destination, it doesn’t matter which road we take.
“Anyway, you agree, right?”
“Yes. I’ll make time for it separately. Maxim.”
At Lionel’s call, the aide who had been waiting nearby opened his notebook and began frantically scribbling something in it.
‘That looks like some really difficult calculations…’
Well, it’s not my schedule.
‘Fighting!’
I turned my gaze away from him and looked at Lionel.
“Since I came unannounced today, I’ll get up and leave now. And… Uni.”
Uni, who accurately caught the meaning in my glance, held out the gift box she was carrying to Lionel.
“This is a personal engagement gift.”
“An engagement gift…? You don’t need to give me something like this.”
“Don’t be so cold about it. Hurry up and open it. Are you going to ignore my sincerity?”
Lionel sighed softly, but eventually did as I asked and unwrapped the package to check its contents.
Inside the luxurious wooden box was a fountain pen.
The jet-black body with a subtle luster had delicately carved rose patterns, and blue gems were densely embedded at the cap and clip ends.
“By the way, those gems are blue diamonds.”
“You made a fountain pen with blue diamonds?”
“They’re small, so what choice did I have?”
If they had been just a little bigger, I would have made cufflinks instead.
“But among the blue diamonds I own, this one looked most similar to my eye color, so it was one I treasured. Since I’m specially giving it to my fiancé, think of me often when you look at it. Understood?”
Lionel, who had been lost in deep thought with his eyelids lowered, shook his head and held the box out to me.
“Really, I cannot accept something so precious. Please take it back.”
“Are you saying you can’t accept a token of love from your fiancée right now?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
“Ah, you’re embarrassed because you didn’t prepare anything? You can give me something later. I can wait.”
After speaking coyly, I stood up from my seat, leaving the box on the table.
And I emphasized:
“Don’t lose it or give it to someone else. Think of it as my token of love and make sure to treasure it well!”
“…”
“Understood?”
When I pressed for an answer again, Lionel slowly nodded as if he couldn’t resist anymore.
“…I understand.”
It was an answer that felt as dark as if it were submerged in a swamp.
Thanks to that, I could guess the future of the fountain pen I had given Lionel.
* * *
About two hours after Cecilia left.
-Knock knock
“Your Highness. The First Prince has come to visit.”
Lionel’s hand, which had been moving busily to handle the work that had piled up during the 30 minutes he had given to Cecilia, stopped.
A faint sigh escaped his lips as the situation he had anticipated unfolded.
Without noticing this about himself, Lionel stood up properly from his seat and greeted Cayen.
“Welcome, brother.”
“Yes… You seem to have been busy today too. My capable younger brother.”
A pale face and frail body. His gait from the door to the sofa in the middle of the office was so weak it made observers anxious.
Nevertheless, his presence was definitely extraordinary.
Perhaps it was because, unlike Cayen who sat sprawled carelessly on the sofa, Lionel’s posture standing across from him was respectful and perfectly rigid.
“Why are you standing there? Sit down. My neck hurts.”
“Yes, brother.”
Even though it was his own office, Lionel only sat on the sofa after permission was given.
The person who brought tea afterward was not a servant of the Second Prince’s Palace, but Cayen’s servant. This was because Cayen had once coughed up blood after drinking tea served by a servant of the Second Prince’s Palace.
A thorough investigation revealed no poison in the tea or teacup, but the servant who had brought the tea that day had to be expelled from the Imperial Palace.
“I heard everything. The daughter of Duke Roheim came for bridal lessons and met with you before leaving?”
“Yes.”
“What did you two talk about?”
His voice was irritable, as if suspecting whether the two had formed an inappropriate relationship.
In contrast, Lionel answered in a calm voice without any emotion mixed in.
“She said that since we’ll be husband and wife in the future, we should know a lot about each other, and she wanted to have time for conversations going forward.”
“So you agreed to do that?”
“Yes.”
“Ha, husband and wife… Husband and wife.”
After muttering lowly, Cayen fell silent.
Lionel also sat upright without saying anything.
Only the tea, which had been warm enough to steam, quietly grew cold.
“I’ll be going now.”
Eventually, Cayen, who hadn’t touched his tea even once, stood up immediately as if he had no more questions.
“Come to think of it, I heard the daughter of Duke Roheim gave you a gift before leaving?”
It wasn’t particularly surprising that Cayen knew about this.
After the servant was expelled due to that tea incident, the servants of the Second Prince’s Palace who took turns attending to Lionel were more loyal to Cayen than to him.
“Yes.”
“What is it? Show me.”
From the beginning, Lionel didn’t have the option to refuse. Even if he rejected it, Cayen’s attendants would ransack this entire room.
It would be troublesome if the room became messy when work was piling up. Therefore, Lionel silently took out the wooden box he had stored in his drawer and handed it to Cayen.
“A fountain pen? …Indeed, a fitting gift from the Duke of Roheim’s daughter. It has a nice grip.”
Cayen gripped the fountain pen several times, then even spun it around between his fingers.
Despite calling it a precious item with his own mouth, his handling was quite rough, but Lionel was the only one who minded this fact, even subconsciously.
After satisfyingly enjoying Lionel’s flinching every time he nearly dropped the fountain pen on the floor, Cayen put the pen back in the box and closed the lid.
Then he stood up from his seat, holding the box.
“I happened to have my cherished fountain pen break recently. I can take this one, right?”
“You mustn’t lose it or give it to someone else. Think of it as a token of my love and please! treasure it well.”
Suddenly, Cecil’s voice brushed past Lionel’s ear.
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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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