The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 110

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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 110
A letter from her mother—written with a fading mind, scattered in places, yet brimming with desperate love.
Anette could not let go of that letter.
“It’s my fault.”
Her eyes appeared hollow and vacant.
“I should have investigated the locket beforehand and found my mother. She was lying there, waiting only for me….”
Patter, patter.
Tears fell weakly from her jade-colored eyes.
She spoke calmly, yet unable to suppress the sorrow that threatened to overwhelm her.
“If I had found her sooner, perhaps… I could have prevented this death.”
“….”
“In the end, she died because of me.”
Her tone was measured, but it was laden with sharp self-reproach and cold self-condemnation.
Perhaps she had grown too accustomed to being an orphan.
When one is born with a certain misfortune, and that life repeats twice over, one begins to accept that ‘misfortune’ as the ‘default setting’ embedded in one’s existence.
Without accepting it, the thorns embedded in life pierce too painfully.
So she had come to believe that solitude was inevitable for her.
She hoped that unlike her past life, she would not search for her parents with such fervent hope, only to die disappointed in the end.
Perhaps she had thought this without even realizing it.
Then Kyle grasped her hand firmly, for she was trembling pitifully.
Kyle spoke to her.
“That locket was ordinary by any measure.”
Or rather, it was less than ordinary.
A locket made of worn wood, without even a photograph inside.
Before it shone, it looked like garbage. There was no hope whatsoever that something so common could lead to finding one’s parents.
“I would have thought the same.”
―Even the Guild Master’s judgment was identical to mine.
“This locket only becomes special when the other person’s life is in critical danger. So even if you had investigated it beforehand, the outcome would not have been different.”
“….”
Yet his words seemed unable to dispel her sharp self-reproach.
Anette’s small frame continued to tremble, and her lips were bitten raw.
Kyle found it heartbreaking how she was so harsh with herself. She, who always comforted others warmly, seemed incapable of offering herself the same kindness.
“You are simply… grieving.”
“….”
“You lived alone your entire life, and you have only just realized that the mother you barely managed to find has passed away right before your eyes.”
Kyle knelt on one knee and met Anette’s wet gaze as she hung her head.
“So do not punish yourself by forcing blame onto this sorrow.”
The true nature of that self-reproach and regret is, in fact, grief.
“Simply… allow yourself to grieve as much as you need.”
As Kyle gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into his embrace, Anette finally wept openly.
Like a twelve-year-old girl who had lost her parents’ hands.
* * *
“Miss, we have prepared some things for you. Would you like to see them?”
“Yes, please show me.”
After weathering a tempest of emotions and finally settling myself, Victoria spoke to me.
She guided me to the entrance of an enormous room.
“When the Duchess was still conscious, she ordered these items to be gathered here.”
Mother… prepared these for me?
The massive door, meticulously maintained so that even its hinges made no sound, swung open gracefully.
My eyes widened as I gazed inside.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life.’
The room was impeccably organized, yet it gleamed brilliantly throughout.
Ah, all of this is―
‘Things worthy of giving to a daughter?’
Victoria spoke.
“These are items you should have rightfully received had you been raised in this mansion from the beginning. Every gift from your first birthday through last year’s birthday is here as well.”
“….”
It felt like stepping into a shop from a fantasy.
The kind of shop I had longed for and dreamed of when I was very young.
At the very front sat a small doll—a tiny rabbit plush that a small child might play with.
As I ventured deeper inside, there were dresses suitable for three-year-old and five-year-old girls.
And adorable little shoes as well.
‘Not knowing when I would return, she prepared everything, one by one….’
Holding only a locket that could tell if I lived or died, thinking of my growth each year, difficult as it was to recall.
I touched each piece of my mother’s love with my fingertips.
Tears threatened to spill at any moment.
For my three-year-old daughter taking wobbly steps, for my curious seven-year-old daughter, for my twelve-year-old daughter beginning to show her girlish nature.
―For my daughter who had grown into a woman, into a lady.
Perhaps every gift Mother had wanted to give was contained within this room.
“…I find myself crying so often today.”
“Please dry your tears, Miss. For me, today is not merely a sorrowful day.”
Victoria gazed at me and smiled gently.
“It is the day my new mistress has arrived.”
“….”
Perhaps it was not only Mother who had been waiting for me.
Contrary to my expectation that Mother would resent me for causing her suffering, the servants of this mansion seemed to have been eagerly anticipating my arrival.
Rather than simply preparing things out of duty to their mistress… this room was filled with affection.
As I felt their invisible support, my wavering heart grew resolute once more.
“Yes, Victoria.”
I answered cheerfully and smiled back at her.
It felt like I was traveling through time.
In this room, I could feel sincerity and welcome in every step, making my heart swell with emotion.
The vast chamber seemed endless.
The deeper I walked, the more I encountered luxuriously glittering jewels and exquisite dresses befitting an adult noblewoman.
I was prepared enough to debut in High Society dressed exactly as I was.
And at the end of that room.
“….”
Inside the glass case of the display cabinet lay the true gift Duchess Valienne had left me.
The seal of House Valienne itself.
My turbulent thoughts cooled, and I assessed the situation in an instant. I had always been adaptable, after all.
―Very well.
I’ll decide here.
I chose a brilliant crimson dress, radiant as a freshly bloomed flower.
“I’ll take this one.”
Then I turned to Victoria and smiled.
“My battle attire.”
“…!”
Victoria looked at me with an ambiguous expression, her eyes narrowing.
I raised the corners of my mouth as I asked.
“You haven’t told anyone that I’ve arrived, have you?”
“Of course not, my lady.”
“Please keep the secret a while longer. I want to give Gerard the greatest shock before revealing myself.”
“Ah…!”
Victoria seemed delighted by the noblewoman’s rough words and fighting spirit.
She smiled, her eyes crinkling with amusement.
“I shall obey your command.”
―It was the first command issued by Valienne’s new master.
* * *
“You’ve endured much hardship. Congratulations, Your Highness.”
Avilos bowed respectfully. His master’s happiness was his own happiness.
His face was tinged with subtle joy.
“At last, today you shall have her in your grasp.”
“….”
It had been over ten years.
She was the woman he had finally managed to seize after such relentless effort.
The elation Prince Gerard felt today was incomparable to Avilos’s.
Gerard twisted his lips while dressed in his formal regalia. Unlike the buttons fastened ascetically up to his neck, his smile was vividly, painfully saturated with desire.
For days, he had felt like a beast before a drugged piece of meat. Every day he awaited the feast.
“I can’t wait to see that woman’s face.”
Impatient footsteps descended from the resplendent carriage and walked toward the Banquet Hall.
This banquet was one Prince Gerard had orchestrated specifically for his ‘daughter’.
He had summoned every noble in the realm.
Ordinarily, a formal adoption was concluded quietly—merely summoning the High Priest to process the paperwork—but he wanted to display it before everyone.
Now, to make clear whose Anette had become.
The Crown Prince who had pursued her with longing, the temperamental Archmage, the loyal guard dog at her side—all would become like a dog chasing chickens.
This banquet was the seal he pressed with his possessive desire.
“Prince Gerard has arrived!”
The moment he stepped inside, every eye fixed upon him. Conversely, his crimson gaze locked onto a single woman. There she was, her image searing through his retinas and crystallizing vividly before him.
A woman whose presence burned itself into his vision with absolute clarity.
Eyes lifted with fresh vitality, golden hair that gleamed as though scattered fragments of sunlight, delicate lips and skin smooth as ivory.
She was utterly radiant—like a flower bursting into bloom for the first time after a long winter, its petals still glistening with morning dew.
The girl who had slipped from his grasp a decade ago had blossomed into this luminous woman, now facing him directly.
His heart convulsed.
A frenzied possessiveness and vengeance carved into his very bones surged forth with searing intensity.
―He found himself desperate to see that pale, innocent face contort with fear and despair.
“Anette, you came.”
….
Prince Gerard made no effort to conceal his true intentions. His eyes betrayed his dark designs with transparent clarity.
Anette didn’t even offer a greeting, simply glaring at him with brazen defiance.
Snap!
In that instant, Prince Gerard seized Anette’s arm and brought his lips to her ear, his voice dropping to a menacing whisper.
“How does it feel to be dragged back like a dog after running away? I hope it mirrors what I felt ten years ago, you reckless girl.”
I felt the small body in my grip tremble slightly.
Prince Gerard’s voice grew even lower, more sinister.
“I’ve been waiting for this day, my daughter.”
He wanted to see fear bloom across her face at last. Just as he began to pull away and turn his head—
Crunch.
Anette seized his collar and pulled him close, her eyes meeting his directly.
Her jade-green eyes narrowed as she whispered.
“Thank you, Father. I’ve been waiting for this day too.”
…!
There was no fear in her gaze.
Only the fierce determination of a wild beast ready to strike back against its tormentor.
The girl he had tormented had grown into a woman of strength and steel.

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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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