The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 113

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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 113
In that instant, Prince Gerard’s vision blurred as the face of a young girl surfaced in his mind.
“Anette, how did you know that cigarette case belonged to me?”
Her bright jade eyes sparkled as she spoke with the innocent face of one who had never known deception.
“The Imperial seal was engraved on the front of the case. That’s how I knew it belonged to the Imperial Family.”
“….”
“So I narrowed the scope by eliminating possibilities, Your Highness.”
―It was all a lie.
The performance of a clever, exemplary student.
In truth, she had picked up his cigarette case in the Grass Forest, witnessed the High Priest’s death, and quickly fled from his embrace.
‘I’ve been played.’
Rage consumed him. His teeth chattered with fury. Deceived by a mere twelve-year-old child.
No—that child had grown into a formidable woman, and now she was strangling the very breath from his lungs.
‘Was this the look in her eyes?’
The gaze he, who had lived so shamefully, was destined to bear.
The nobles around him had begun to regard him with eyes brimming with shock and contempt.
‘I never anticipated this.’
Panic seized him before anger could take hold. For one who had cherished his noble reputation as dearly as life itself.
She, who had trampled that reputation without hesitation, opened her mouth once more.
“That man was an elderly gentleman awaiting his grandson’s wedding.”
Her voice was clear and commanding.
“Witnessing such an elder’s throat cut without mercy, I could never become your daughter.”
“…!!!”
The assembly erupted in murmurs.
At her brutal words of beheading, the nobles covered their mouths in horror.
The High Priest’s face had grown ashen from the beginning.
“That is why I fled. To a child as young as I was, Your Highness was far too terrifying.”
In the sudden silence, all eyes fixed upon Anette’s voice.
Every gesture, every glance, every movement of hers.
The newly appointed Duchess Valienne possessed an inexplicable power to draw people in and command their attention.
Like her mother before her, the former matriarch.
Like Derchis Valienne.
“I realized it was time to return. To succeed my mother and reveal the truth.”
The image of a prodigal daughter who had sinned and fled was instantly reversed. Of course, so too was the image of the magnanimous father who had embraced her.
“There is no evidence…! Will you listen to such madness? It’s impossible that I would do such a thing.”
Madness flickered in the “magnanimous” prince’s eyes. He pointed to his chest, proclaiming his innocence to all.
Yet the momentum had already shifted to the new Duchess Valienne.
Her claims aligned perfectly with every circumstance, and she had meticulously prepared witnesses and evidence to support them.
Fabricated lies crumble before powerful truth.
No matter how sterling a prince’s reputation, suspicion would inevitably cloud their eyes.
“Everyone, silence!”
At that moment, a thunderous voice struck them all like a hammer.
The High Priest’s piercing gaze swept between Prince Gerard and Anette in turn.
His expression was measured and impartial, yet beneath it lay a layer of desolate fury—the wrath of one who had lost Arthur High Priest.
“I shall conduct a thorough investigation into these accusations against the Prince directly within this Grand Temple!”
“….”
Prince Gerard’s vision darkened.
‘Damn it.’
The death of Arthur High Priest, revered by all, was no trivial matter.
Had this merely been a matter of funding illegal orphanages, the Grand Temple would never have intervened so directly.
‘This was the goal all along.’
Dragging up the priest’s death from a decade past—that was precisely what she had orchestrated.
‘A cunning and terrifying woman.’
I had to admit it: I had underestimated her.
Anette had orchestrated every detail of the situation with meticulous precision, and now she answered with perfect composure.
“Thank you, High Priest. As a witness to reveal the truth of these accusations, and as a citizen of Eldorado seeking justice, I pledge my fullest cooperation.”
Her jade-colored eyes drifted subtly toward Prince Gerard, whose gaze had hardened.
Meeting his razor-sharp fury head-on, he instinctively understood.
She knows everything…! Everything I did to her mother!
If that were true, this was merely the beginning. In those eyes burned an unbreakable will to destroy him, no matter the cost.
Cold sweat trickled down his spine.
‘I must eliminate the root.’
All I truly need is her power.
As long as breath remains in a body that possesses Exorodium, I can extract its strength by any means necessary—
―There’s no reason to keep her alive and whole!
‘Become like your mother.’
As Prince Gerard’s eyes gleamed and swept across the surroundings,
Marquis Tennessee, who had been steadfastly supporting him, muttered from beside him.
“What an infuriating woman. Crawled up from some cesspool, yet plays the duchess so convincingly. …She’ll have her head severed soon enough.”
The Marquis, with his murky swamp-green hair and golden eyes, twisted his lips into a sneer.
“―Wouldn’t you agree?”
In that instant, crimson light swirled within Prince Gerard’s reddish eyes.
「 Mind Control 」
The power of Venenum.
“…!”
The Marquis’s eyes went vacant, and like a puppet with severed strings, he slumped before drawing the blade—
The Holy Knight’s sword that had been approaching Prince Gerard.
Before the Holy Knight could even register his shock, the Marquis lunged toward Anette at an inhuman speed.
‘…Everything’s spinning.’
Exhausted from her mother’s death and days of relentless tension, Anette faced the descending blade in a weakened state.
“Ah.”
I needed to dodge.
―Thunk!
The sound of a deep piercing came through. Drip, drip. Crimson blood fell to the floor.
Anette’s head snapped up, her eyes suddenly alert and focused.
Beneath disheveled black hair lay eyes dark and crimson. A high bridge of nose and tightly clenched lips were visible.
I felt large hands holding me firmly in an embrace.
It was Sisrain.
“…!!!”
* * *
The night before.
Sisrain held his large hand up to the moonlight streaming through the window, examining it.
His long black hair hung loosely as he reclined in the wheelchair. The tilt of his head accentuated the sharp line of his jaw and the prominence of his collarbone.
His lips moved slightly.
“Strange.”
A low voice escaped him.
“It feels like ants crawling through my veins….”
The sensation of moonlight settling upon my hand.
The cold air.
It heightened my already acute senses even further.
Whenever my power had intensified in the past, I’d become sensitive enough to feel the flow of blood through my veins. Just like now.
“Has your strength grown, sir?”
“Yes.”
Sisrain answered Owen tersely, then swallowed a sensory-suppressing medication.
He followed it with a gulp of potent liquor, swallowing everything in his mouth at once. A heavy, hot breath escaped like that of a wounded beast.
Yet the sensation scarcely subsided.
―It was a sensation bordering on agony.
“Your symptoms have worsened recently. The illness was clearly improving, yet I cannot fathom the reason….”
“Your power has grown considerably stronger, sir. Since arriving on Bayonere Island. It is a most peculiar phenomenon.”
The Royal Physician’s words came back to me.
My strength had increased without even visiting Crevasse, and the suffering had intensified.
“It seems Bayonere Island was not the problem after all.”
Owen’s expression darkened.
He had secretly hoped the strengthening was due to some geographical factor or the island’s inherent power, but now that hypothesis had to be discarded.
Even after leaving Bayonere, my master’s condition worsened with each passing day.
―It was decidedly, an ominous sign.
“She already fears me enough as it is. If I have a seizure on top of that, it would be quite the spectacle.”
“…Is that truly your greatest concern?”
Your own suffering must be immense, yet you fear only that Lady Anette will be frightened.
Owen shook his head at his master’s unwavering obsession.
Swish―
As Sisrain rose to his feet, the black silk robe cascaded across his muscular frame like rippling water.
He walked barefoot as he spoke.
“I must find the cause.”
His crimson eyes had grown turbid, and he exhaled rough, ragged breaths as if barely restraining his senses.
“If I don’t find it, this pain will drive me to convulsion or death.”
Owen could not hide the pity in his gaze, but he quickly composed himself into the expression of a loyal subordinate and bowed his head.
“I will assist you.”
* * *
“Aaaaaaah!”
The moment Sisrain recognized the marquis charging toward Anette, he launched himself forward.
His turbid crimson eyes gleamed like those of a beast of prey.
The scarlet robe billowed like a wave of blood, and he had swept her into his embrace in an instant.
It was then.
A searing pain, as if his body were burning, tore through him.
“…!”
Thunk―!
Under normal circumstances, he would have evaded the marquis’s strike with ease, but instead he had to catch the blade with his bare hand.
His concentration had shattered from the sharp pain that suddenly spread throughout his entire body.
The edge of the marquis’s sword grazed perilously close to his abdomen.
“Hgh, hgk… Ahhh!!!”
The marquis’s eyes widened in horror as he belatedly realized what he had done.
High-pitched screams erupted from the surrounding crowd.
Blood was dripping from the body of the Crown Prince, the one called the “Monster of Crevasse.”
“What is this…! I, I’m sorry… Your Highness. I beg your forgiveness. Please, p-please forgive me.”
Sisrain’s crimson eyes narrowed to slits.
In a single fluid motion, he drew his blade and severed the marquis’s head.
The merciless decisiveness drew terrified screams from those around him.
Gerard’s face was struck with shock.
“…!!!”
The man called a monster without blood or tears gazed down at the small woman limp in his arms.
Her strength had drained away, her legs giving out beneath her as she began to slip from his embrace.
He caught her small frame gently in his arms.
“The banquet is concluded.”
With a low bow to those assembled, Sisrain cradled Anette tenderly and walked away from the hall with unhurried grace.
Leaving the Banquet Hall devastated in blood, shock, and suspicion.

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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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