The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 107

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

Chapter 107
…Did you just say that? I’m going to lose my mind.
Tap!
Without thinking, Anette covered Sisrain’s mouth with both her hands.
“Please stop talking, Your Highness!”
Above her small hands, his crimson eyes gleamed with playful mischief—a gaze so boyish it was almost endearing.
Soft, full lips brushed against her palm.
“…!”
Anette yanked her hands away with a start, her eyes widening as she glared at him.
“I can’t let my guard down for even a moment with you.”
“Then lower it.”
“No.”
Anette swung open the carriage door wide.
Then, with a confident gesture of her finger, she pointed outside and spoke.
“Get out, now!”
“…”
Whoooosh—clatter, clatter.
The carriage was racing like the wind, pulled by magnificent thoroughbred horses that thundered forward with relentless power.
Get out?
If I jumped from here, I’d normally break my neck.
He raised his thick brows and spoke as if feigning grievance.
“From a moving carriage? …You’re truly merciless, Anette. Commanding the Crown Prince of an entire nation to leap from a galloping carriage to his death?”
“You won’t die from this! Your Highness is incredibly strong, after all…”
And don’t invoke ‘Crown Prince’ only when it’s convenient for you, Sisrain.
As for what came after, I had nothing to say in return, so I kept it to myself. After all, I was the one who first drew that line with ‘Your Highness the Crown Prince’.
…But to think he’d follow suit like that—how petty.
“Anette.”
“Yes?”
Somewhere along the way, those playful dark eyes had returned to their usual Sisrain.
Anette found herself drawn into those crimson irises, meeting his gaze.
“Think about it seriously. If you become my wife, protecting you becomes easier. No one would dare…”
A rough hand brushed against Anette’s cheek.
“―to lay a finger on you.”
His voice was low and resolute, yet tender as a lover’s.
“That’s why I became Crown Prince.”
The very purpose of my entire life.
It was solely.
“To place you upon the most exalted throne, Anette.”
In those crimson eyes burned an obsessive yearning and affection.
A gaze that stirred both the danger of being ensnared and a peculiar exhilaration, alongside fear.
Like a small creature caught in a trap,
yet also like the master who perfectly possessed and dominated the most noble man in Eldorado.
It was around the time Anette was experiencing these contradictory and subtle sensations.
He smiled faintly and pressed his lips against her cheek.
“…!”
Then, just as he had boarded the carriage without difficulty, he leaped from the moving carriage and vanished. As if it were all a lie.
“Haa….”
Click—
Anette closed the carriage door.
As if awakening from hypnosis, only now could she barely breathe in the cramped space.
She gazed out the window.
“….”
The landscape rushing past behind remained unchanged, yet the temperature had shifted distinctly.
His scorching warmth still lingered, making her heart race.
―Vivid and crystal clear.
* * *
“It’s been a while, Duchess.”
Gerard gazed down at the gaunt, emaciated woman lying in the dim room.
Unconscious, she barely survived on magical sustenance alone.
Her honey-colored hair, so similar to Anette’s, still shone brilliantly, but her pale green eyes had long ceased to see the world.
“You’ve grown even more beautiful.”
He recalled the first time he saw her—a pregnant woman on the eve of childbirth.
In his eyes, which bore the mark of his obsession, he had glimpsed a fierce and radiant soul.
She had been carrying quite a useful child.
As a boy then, Gerard had pursued her obsessively.
So much so that it was unclear whether he desired the child or the widow who had lost her husband on the battlefield.
―That was why, at first, he had no intention of harming her.
“That child’s soul is special. If you promise that I will awaken it and it becomes my strength… I will guarantee you and the child a brilliant future beyond measure.”
He had thought a woman carrying a child without a husband would waver.
But she was remarkably strong.
“Your Highness, I will ensure my child lives the life they desire, wholly and completely.”
She had wrapped her rounded belly protectively and refused with absolute certainty.
“This child is neither my possession nor your tool. Please withdraw.”
Gerard ultimately cursed her.
He could not yet properly wield Venenum’s power, so the curse dealt a deep blow to himself as well, but his rage was great and he had to have that child.
‘How dare you. Defy me.’
Thereafter, the Duchess weakened day by day, barely managing to give birth before losing consciousness and collapsing.
Gerard stole the newborn from the unconscious Duchess, but kept her alive.
Venenum asked.
[ Why do you keep that Duchess alive? Gerard. ]
“If by any chance my eldest daughter failed to awaken… then I’ll have to use that woman as fertile ground to cultivate an excellent soul.”
Gerard was no longer a boy—he was a monster.
Consumed by inferiority about his birth, he had grown progressively filthier and more grotesque with each passing year.
His pupils gleamed coldly in the darkness.
“Duchess Valienne.”
Gerard seized a handful of her hair as she barely managed to exhale.
“Your daughter has magnificently awakened Exordium. At last, I have her in my grasp. It took such a… very long time.”
“….”
He dared to inhale the fragrance woven into her locks, and Gerard’s eyes blazed with exultation.
“You should have listened to me from the start.”
―Then you and your daughter would have enjoyed wealth and honor in my embrace.
How foolish you were to end up like this.
“Your daughter will eventually come to Eldorado, but she will never see her mother alive for even a single moment.”
His gleaming eyes bore down upon the unconscious woman before him.
“―You will die.”
“….”
Now that Anette had awakened, I no longer needed fertile ground.
It was wise to eliminate any sprout that might become an obstacle beforehand.
Ssshhh—
A crimson aura seeped from Gerard’s hand into her forehead.
“…!”
Duchess Valienne’s breathing, shallow as a corpse’s, quickened ever so slightly.
“How foolish.”
Gerard spoke with glacial contempt.
“Had you accepted my proposal, my affection, you could have become Empress.”
He stole her breath away and slipped from the chamber as naturally as a serpent.
No one—not a soul in the Duchess’s quarters—knew that an outsider had entered or left. As if he were a lifeless phantom.
* * *
“Sister.”
“Oh, you startled me!”
Just as we were nearly at our destination, the carriage door suddenly burst open and someone climbed in.
―It was Heinrich.
…Is boarding a moving carriage really this easy?
I wonder if Kyle is next?
I automatically shifted inward to make room, scanning the world outside the window.
“Heinrich, this carriage isn’t just pretending to move, is it?”
“Why would…?”
His beautiful eyes narrowed. I shook my head in apparent bewilderment.
“―It’s nothing.”
Nothing at all, sister.
I can smell that beast’s stench here. On you too.
‘How revolting.’
“…I felt nauseous, so I came inside. Sister.”
Heinrich nestled into Anette’s embrace, deliberately coating himself in her delicate fragrance.
Marking his territory anew.
Anette’s expression shifted to concern at once.
“My dear, feeling sick again? I should have brought motion sickness medicine. I didn’t know you’d be coming along….”
“Mm.”
Cradled in Anette’s warm embrace, he exhaled with impure intent, his audacious violet eyes gazing up at her gently.
“When you hold me like this, Sister, it feels better.”
“Does it? Thank goodness….”
Anette stroked Heinrich’s back softly, tenderly cradling him.
Sister, do you know?
Most of the time, this touch is so sweet.
But sometimes it’s utterly unbearable. The way you touch me so carelessly, as if I were merely a child. I wish that even in these trivial moments when your hand reaches me, you would feel tension, fear even.
―I know exactly how to make that happen.
“….”
Long, pale fingers gently caressed her forearm.
If I altered this touch even slightly,
your entire body would flush crimson.
With a dark heart concealed within, Heinrich smiled at Anette like an angel.
“Sister, did Sisrain not propose to you? That you marry him to resolve this crisis?”
“…!!!”
Anette blinked. Unable to lie, her expression screamed ‘How did you know?’—she looked exactly like a rabbit caught red-handed stealing carrots.
Heinrich laughed softly.
There’s no way that bastard would miss such a golden opportunity―
or so Heinrich thought.
“Sister, making such an important decision as marriage just to navigate this crisis… that doesn’t seem right.”
“You’re right. Your words make sense.”
Anette nodded in agreement.
Heinrich lifted his head from her shoulder and gently grasped both of Anette’s hands.
“But there’s no surer way to avoid being registered than marriage itself.”
“….”
Conflict flickered in Anette’s eyes. Heinrich seized that opening without hesitation.
“Then what if we entered into a ‘contract marriage’ instead?”
“…!”
“Marry me. I’ll divorce you after one year.”

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