The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 100

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 100
Clop, clop.
I sat quietly, listening to the rhythmic hoofbeats of the horses pulling the carriage.
Where on earth were we going?
Watching the carriage race down an unfamiliar forest path, anxiety began to creep into my chest.
Moreover, Sisrain’s condition….
‘He looks like he’s stepped straight out of an adult film today.’
The man sitting beside me with a massive, beast-like frame had murky red eyes that seemed strangely unfocused.
As if he’d been drugged,
or as if he were enduring some terrible pain or impulse.
I asked carefully.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
“….”
His eyes, buried deep in the black seat, shifted briefly toward Anette.
Anette.
Only when he looked at her did the haze in his gaze sharpen into focus. It was always like this when he saw her. Even in the depths of agony.
So he said,
“I’m fine.”
―But truthfully, he wasn’t.
This morning.
Owen had secretly summoned the Royal Physician from afar for his master, the Crown Prince.
He was a specialist in treating Sisrain’s mother and the bloodline of Mephistopheles.
Heirs of the Mephistopheles lineage who had awakened their formidable powers often suffered seizures—what they called the “bloodline curse.”
Sisrain, who had awakened his powers in the Forest as a child and had even been forcibly enhanced in the Crevasse, could not escape this affliction.
The power known as the “demon’s ability” grew stronger as if using his body as a host.
The stronger it became, the more it corroded his mind and sharpened his senses.
―His maternal grandfather, who had suffered from the bloodline curse, eventually lost his powers, went berserk, and murdered the wife he cherished above all else.
After regaining his senses, consumed by overwhelming self-loathing, he ended his own life.
The Royal Physician, well aware of this history, wore a worried expression.
“Your symptoms have worsened recently. The condition was improving, but I cannot discern the cause….”
Owen asked,
“Is there anything that stands out to you?”
“Your powers have grown significantly stronger. Since arriving on Bayonere Island. It’s a peculiar phenomenon.”
What could be on Bayonere that would cause this? The Royal Physician’s brow furrowed deeply.
Then Sisrain, who had been unable to leave his bed since morning, spoke.
His voice cracked like rusted metal.
“If the power exceeds its threshold… I’ve heard it can suppress this damned condition.”
“That is correct.”
The Royal Physician replied.
“Long ago, among Mephistopheles’ ancestors, there was one who succeeded.”
“….”
“Mephistopheles’ ability is called the ‘Rampaging Demon.'”
The Royal Physician’s voice deepened.
“Those who are swayed by that power ultimately lose their reason entirely. However, if one ‘perfects’ a more powerful force… one eventually reaches the realm of commanding that demon like a servant.”
The perfection of a more powerful force.
The realm of wielding the demon’s power as one’s own servant.
Reaching that pinnacle meant this affliction could be suppressed.
―I knew well how to perfect a more powerful force.
“I’ll have to visit Crevasse.”
“…!”
Owen flinched in surprise.
“Absolutely not! Your Highness the Crown Prince, have you forgotten your last experience?”
The last time I visited Crevasse, my appearance had been utterly wretched.
The sight of my master emerging from that terrible hellish pit was nothing short of devastating. That image still haunted Owen’s nightmares even now, long after the fact.
―Such suffering was not something a human could endure.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
The Royal Physician regarded him quietly through his spectacles with wrinkled eyes and spoke.
“If you visit ‘Crevasse’ this time, you will surely lose control. In fact….”
“….”
“I cannot even guarantee you will return alive.”
For others, even a single visit was a hellish torment that robbed them completely of reason.
The very fact that one had entered that place multiple times was already abnormal.
Ordinarily, one either went mad or died within.
Thus I was the sole ‘survivor.'”
“Even experiencing similar suffering could pose grave danger to Your Highness in your current state.”
“….”
Before the silent Crown Prince, the aged and deeply concerned loyal subject bowed.
“Please, exercise caution.”
* * *
Gerard’s Palace in Eldorado.
Prince Gerard had been sitting motionless in his wheelchair for hours.
Like a lifeless object.
Avilos, who stood beside him lost in thought, posed a question to his master—likely contemplating the same matter—about the greatest ‘problem’ they now faced.
“Your Highness, even if we search for the woman, will Crown Prince Sisrain simply stand idle?”
“…He’ll go mad with fury.”
This was a man who had waged an entire war to find a single woman.
A man who had pursued her relentlessly for over a decade.
What would happen if we attempted to take Anette from such a Crown Prince?
Without even thinking deeply, I could imagine how that ‘monster of Crevasse’ would emerge.
Prince Gerard finally opened his mouth.
“Unless I exert my full strength, I won’t obtain it.”
“Then do it.”
“I’ll activate it.”
“…!”
Prince Gerard made his way toward the Separate Palace—that desolate, lightless structure that resembled a demon’s lair.
The door to that forsaken space, where even the vines had withered to a desiccated brown and not a trace of life remained, where only ancient stone statues stood in eerie solitude, opened for the first time in ages.
Prince Gerard extended his arm into the void. As the veins across his limb writhed like a separate, living entity, he swallowed hard against the pain.
“Venenum.”
Shhhhh—
At the summoning of his contractor, the curse-class sorcerer responded immediately.
The spirit that had been parasitizing Prince Gerard’s body slithered free, coiling into the form of a thick, obsidian serpent.
The serpent, its dark crimson tongue flicking, seemed to be smiling.
[ Gerard, how foolish. Your strength is not yet sufficient to control me, is it? ]
“….”
The serpent’s eyes narrowed to slits.
[ Did I not tell you? You must strengthen yourself by utilizing that woman’s power in order to control me. …Otherwise. ]
“I’ll continue to crumble, just as I am now.”
Prince Gerard had contracted with a curse-class sorcerer beyond his capacity to manage, and he was rotting from within.
He had devised only a desperate plan, clinging to the hope that one day he would master that power.
In truth, when he first discovered Anette, that plan had seemed on the verge of success.
Once he placed that child in the Forest and nurtured her safely within his own cradle, Prince Gerard’s future had appeared promising.
—Until that woman vanished like smoke, driving him to madness.
[ You are far too weak now. Therefore, you cannot wield my power. Gerard. ]
The serpent, the cursed Venenum, spoke as though mocking him.
Yet in Prince Gerard’s eyes burned an unmistakable resolve.
A determination to seize Anette, whom he had yearned for so long, and a willingness to pay any price to achieve it.
“If I burn my own life as fuel.”
[ … ]
“You said it would be possible to wield your power.”
Shhhhh—
Despite the serpent’s expressionless visage, it appeared remarkably delighted.
Its vertical golden pupils dilated with striking clarity.
[ Then you will die soon enough, unless you rebuild that rotting body with Exordium’s power. ]
“I’m already dying as it is.”
Prince Gerard was grasping at the last rope at the mouth of hell itself.
“I’ll stake everything on this.”
[ Kekekek, well reasoned! In fact, that child has already awakened the power of a sorcerer! ]
“…!!!”
Prince Gerard’s eyes widened in shock.
“Why didn’t you… Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
The serpent climbed the moss-covered goddess statue with an irritatingly fluid grace, its body undulating across her form as it answered.
[ Isn’t it entertaining? ]
You, alone, agonizing so desperately, conflicted, obsessed, crumbling.
―My foolish human contractor.
Bastard.
Prince Gerard’s teeth ground together with a sharp crack. Yet simultaneously, a peculiar exhilaration bloomed within him.
It was the thrill of knowing he had chosen correctly.
[ So, the first curse I’ll cast by consuming your life is? ]
Venenum’s curses fell into two primary categories.
‘Mind control’ and ‘time.’
What Prince Gerard had chosen was….
“I’ll make Sisrain return to ‘the most agonizing moment of his life.'”
―You’ll be trapped in Crevasse again, little brother.
Go mad and perish within it for eternity.
I’ll reclaim what is mine—what I should possess.
* * *
“Are we still far?”
We’d already traveled quite some distance, yet our destination remained ahead.
I gazed at the endless forest beyond the carriage window and asked Sisrain.
“The perfect location is rather distant.”
“….”
‘The perfect location?’
What perfect location could he possibly be seeking?
I spoke with a smile.
“The more we travel, the more curious I become. Why did you bring me all this way?”
Then Sisrain gently took my hand.
‘His warmth is like a burning coal.’
Meeting his crimson eyes, he whispered.
“Should I tell you beforehand?”
“Yes.”
“We are….”
Just as he was about to continue, Sisrain’s expression suddenly hardened and he pulled me urgently into his embrace.
“Close your eyes.”
―Crash!
A violent impact struck with enough force to shatter the carriage.

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