The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 12

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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 12
“…Thank you!”
I accepted the apple with both hands, cradling it carefully as warmth bloomed across my cheeks.
‘It’s just an apple, yet why am I so happy?’
Feeling the sincerity behind his gesture—how he’d climbed the tallest tree to give me the most beautiful fruit—my heart swelled with emotion.
We’d struggled to even converse at first, and now here I was, receiving a gift from him.
“Sisrain’s gift is like treasure to me!”
The moment I broke into a radiant smile, Sisrain’s ears flushed crimson.
“….”
He scratched the corner of his sharp eyes as if distracted by something else.
Just then, a vibrant, confident voice pierced through our tender moment.
“Sister, look over here!”
Heinrich had arrived. I clutched the apple to my chest and turned my head about, searching.
‘Huh? Where is that? I don’t see Heinrich anywhere…?’
“Ta-da!”
Then, from beside a mountain-high pile of apples, Heinrich’s head suddenly popped into view.
“Look at this. I picked so many, didn’t I?”
…Heavens, my dear Heinrich had stripped the entire Apple Orchard bare!
Upon closer inspection, every apple tree around us stood completely denuded, their branches as bare as a bald head.
“What do you think? I’m good at picking apples too. Impressive, right, sister?”
“…Y-yes!”
I sincerely apologized to the apple trees.
I was genuinely expressing my remorse to the trees before the boastful Heinrich when Caroline came running from the Mansion with hurried footsteps.
Caroline called out, “Anette! Mimosa is asking you to come to her room.”
“Now?”
“Yes, right now!”
“Yeah, right now!”
* * *
‘What could this be about?’
Standing before Mimosa’s door, I knocked with a hint of nervousness.
Knock, knock.
A cold voice from within responded, “Come in.”
Whenever I stood before Mimosa, I couldn’t help but feel tense.
Yet I masked it with a gentle smile, presenting myself as the model student—obedient and eager to please.
“You called for me, Mimosa?”
Mimosa held a file bound with twine—a record book, I realized upon closer inspection.
“I called you because I have something to ask, Anette.”
“Yes! Please, ask me anything, ma’am.”
“Did you perhaps touch this ‘record book’ when you entered my room last time?”
The record book contained the personal information of all the children.
Their age, what abilities they had awakened, their grades, their temperament.
And what experiences had brought these children all the way to The Forest.
It was literally a ledger that contained everything about these “trees”.
Naturally, I had never touched it.
“No, ma’am. …Has something happened?”
Mimosa’s cool golden eyes pierced through me as she stared.
“Two nights ago, someone broke into my room and left traces of having searched through the children’s life records.”
“….”
“It seems someone contacted Putolio about this.”
“…What?!”
I was so startled that I covered my mouth.
I had always wondered how Putolio managed to find Sisrain in The Forest.
If he had a location-tracking artifact or spell cast on him, he would have come immediately. But he didn’t—he came with a time delay.
‘So someone deliberately told Putolio where Sisrain was?’
Who would do something so cruel.
“It certainly wasn’t me, ma’am. …You know how much I care for Sisrain.”
“I know.”
Mimosa folded the life records and set them down, accepting my words simply.
“I also believe it wasn’t something you did, Anette.”
“….”
“But for the sake of procedure, I’m questioning all the children who have access to my room.”
She was certain it was one of the children’s doing.
In the original work, Mimosa was only a minor character with a brief appearance, so there wasn’t much information about her. But she had proven to be quite perceptive.
If she had reached that conclusion, there must be a clear reason for it.
“If you learn anything at all, come tell me.”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
Mimosa said, “You may go now,” and turned away with her cold expression once more.
I left the room with a grave look on my face.
‘Who could have done such a thing.’
Could it be connected to the shadow of that child I saw at the Secret Hideout last time?
Instinctively, I became certain that both were the same person.
I could only arrive at this conclusion.
In this Forest,
there was a child tormenting Sisrain.
And doing so with malicious intent—trying to drive him far, far away.
“….”
My fists clenched involuntarily.
* * *
When I returned to the Classroom before lessons began, I rested my chin in my hand and observed the children.
They all appeared happy, kind, and innocent.
‘Trying to have a child sent into slavery—that’s a cruel act for someone so young.’
…No, that’s not quite right.
If anything, being a child might make them capable of even greater cruelty.
Rather than having carefully considered the life that awaited Sisrain as a slave, it was likely just a simple desire—that Sisrain would disappear.
“….”
I turned the bright red, glossy apple over in my hands.
‘I have to find them.’
There was no telling what else they might do with such blind determination.
If they were bold enough to inform on his location and alert the Slave Trade Business, they would certainly make another move.
‘I let it slide twice, but there won’t be a third time.’
I sharpened my mind with the keen cunning of a badger hidden in tall grass.
For now, I set aside my deep love for the trees and unfurled cold suspicion instead.
The ‘suspects’ I had narrowed it down to numbered exactly two.
And the first was none other than this child.
“Heinrich, Heinrich! Do you want this brooch?”
The name of this beautiful child with platinum blonde hair and brilliant cyan eyes was Vivian, and she was eleven years old.
Vivian was a little lady who showed the budding signs of beauty despite her youth.
She was, by her own account and everyone else’s, a devoted follower of Heinrich.
Vivian had been present when Heinrich awakened her ability, and after witnessing his formidable Class 1 magical power—so potent he had to wear a mana suppression device—she had fallen for him at first sight.
Her own magical power was weak, which only made his seem all the more extraordinary.
From that moment on, she trailed after Heinrich constantly, and he found her quite bothersome.
Heinrich frowned and spoke as if swatting away an annoying fly.
“I don’t want it. Please stop pestering me and go away.”
But Vivian was not easily discouraged.
She asked again, her chin propped on her hand as she gazed out the window at the indifferent Heinrich.
“But why won’t you reply to my letters? …Is the content not to your liking? Should I write again?”
Heinrich looked at Vivian with his thin violet eyes and spoke.
“I don’t care about the content. I tore them up without even reading them.”
“…!”
‘Goodness, his attitude toward girls is absolutely terrible!’
I felt the sting of secondhand embarrassment just watching.
Sure enough, Vivian suffered an emotional wound from Heinrich’s utterly tactless demeanor and finally retreated.
Of course, I couldn’t entirely blame Heinrich.
She followed him so relentlessly despite his rejection that he was practically developing a neurosis.
Especially the letters—she’d already sent over thirty of them. Each one ignored.
‘In the original story, she was an obsessive follower too.’
Vivian loved what Heinrich loved and blindly despised what he despised.
‘That’s why she tormented Sisrain so viciously, following Heinrich’s lead.’
Because doing so earned her Heinrich’s attention.
But in the original story, Sisrain never sought revenge against Vivian specifically—likely because he simply didn’t care about her.
In the end, I had received no one’s attention.
I studied Vivian intently.
‘Vivian has potential.’
Her fundamental nature was that of a model student with a strong sense of duty—if she had discovered our Secret Hideout, she would have reported it without hesitation.
As for contacting Putolio… it could have been because Heinrich was already showing such obvious disdain for Sisrain.
‘Besides, Vivian cleans Mimosa’s room.’
She had easy access to the student records.
As I sat lost in thought, Vivian’s eyes met mine.
“….”
She narrowed her eyes with displeasure, glared at me, then turned her head away sharply.
‘Hmm, I’m being disliked.’
Vivian despised me quite thoroughly. The more Heinrich followed me, the more her disdain seemed to deepen.
I was the only existence Vivian did not blindly adore according to Heinrich’s preferences.
Well, she had every right to dislike me.
‘Wariness from a little girl… honestly, it doesn’t frighten me one bit.’
I shook my head lightly.
In any case, no matter how suspicious the circumstances, I could not easily suspect Vivian.
Given the severity of the crime, I had to approach this matter with extreme caution.
I could not afford to wrongfully accuse an innocent child.
Still, among my two ‘suspect candidates,’ the first could not be anyone but Vivian.
The second candidate was….
Just then, Heinrich appeared, cutting through my reverie.
“Big sister, give me a reward. I picked the apples best and looked coolest doing it.”
Suddenly, I recalled when I first met Heinrich.
A boy with eyes as cold as a deep winter forest, bristling with thorns….
At first, Heinrich treated me poorly, but I could only accept it all.
Because I loved him so much.
Even when he was merely the protagonist of a novel, I had cherished that boy dearly.
I understood that despite his cruel behavior, he was simply a lonely child—his heart was not inherently wicked.
But in this situation, the child with the strongest motive against Sisrain was… Heinrich.
I barely managed to steel myself.
‘The second suspect candidate is you. Heinrich.’
“Big sister.”
Heinrich’s beautiful eyes, reminiscent of a winter night, curved softly along his sharp gaze.
“As my reward, can I sit next to you and attend class today too?”
The boy smiled prettily, resting his chin in his hand, utterly unaware of the turmoil in my heart.
‘Now that I’ve identified Heinrich as a suspect candidate, my heart aches.’
Self-reproach welled up unbidden.
How could such a cute, innocent, and kind child—so gentle he couldn’t hurt a fly (though admittedly, during his socialization training, Heinrich had once torn out a fistful of a certain marquis’s hair)—possibly be guilty!
My affection for my favorite clashed fiercely with reason, and I pressed my forehead with a groan.
‘If Heinrich had done it, that would be even worse.’
Heinrich was fundamentally the type of child who understood what kind of treatment awaited those dragged away into slavery.
Which meant he had done it with full knowledge of the consequences.
Under normal circumstances, I would have unconditionally defended him, insisting that Heinrich could never do such a thing.
‘But this is… a matter concerning Sisrain.’
In this Forest right now, the person who most wanted Sisrain gone would undoubtedly be Heinrich.
I was well aware that the spoiled child who had always believed it was natural for me to belong solely to him had grown to resent Sisrain greatly these days.
And besides, think about the original story.
The character setup and motivation for hatred were far too perfect.
“Sister, why aren’t you answering?”
Heinrich rested the back of his hand on the desk and propped his delicate face upon it, gazing up at me.
His violet eyes sparkled with mischief.
“….”
I hardened my gaze and spoke.

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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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