The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 122

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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 122
* * *
“Let go of me!”
Duncan resisted violently.
The once-immaculate Duncan was now a sorry sight. His vest was torn, and scratch marks marred his cheeks.
“Just stay still, will you? Stop flailing about like a fish out of water. Annoying.”
Bound tightly in restraints that nullified magic, Duncan was dragged along as Bulk wiped his blood-stained hands across his own collar.
Bulk’s magic rifle had struck Duncan’s mana sphere with perfect accuracy, detonating it.
The carriage was reduced to splinters, and while both men managed to escape with their lives through practiced skill, ultimately Bulk’s extensive combat experience won out, and he succeeded in capturing Duncan.
“The Grand Duke will not take this lying down.”
Struggling, Duncan glared at Bulk with blazing eyes.
Bulk scratched the back of his neck and spoke.
“Huh? You think you’re the only one with a master? I have one too. My master won’t sit idle either.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Another Larva beside him—currently accompanying them as part of Winston’s Shield—nodded along with a sinister expression.
At that, Duncan, feeling something stir within him, cried out as he was dragged away.
“My master has a truly terrible personality!”
Bulk erupted as well.
“My master operates with subtle cunning!!!”
It was in that moment.
“….”
“….”
They exchanged glances filled with an unspoken compassion toward one another.
Both felt a sudden kinship.
Ah, how futile was this contest of master-induced suffering.
In the end, only the servants attending them would be worn to the bone.
Sensing the shift in atmosphere, they entered the Reception Room of Marquis Winston’s Estate in solemn silence.
Kyle occupied the sofa, his body sunk deep into its cushions, his interlaced fingers supporting his chin.
“Kneel.”
Duncan dropped to his knees before him, his teeth grinding audibly.
This was Duncan, who had once been wielded like a limb by Vivantum himself.
Moreover, this loyal adjutant rarely bowed his head before others.
―It was Heinrich’s command that made it so.
The arrogant master had trained even his own instruments to such standards.
Thus, despite being bound and forced to kneel before the Marquis in such a degraded state, his eyes remained as fierce as those of a freshly captured beast.
“Marquis Winston, I will not forgive this rudeness. You should have made a formal summons request to the Grand Duke.”
“….”
“If I return, the Grand Duke will take this matter up formally as a grievance.”
Kyle, who had maintained his silence while wearing leather gloves, finally spoke.
His voice was gentle yet carried profound depth.
“Are you certain you’ll be able to return to your master?”
“…!”
In that instant, Duncan’s spine stiffened as though a spear had been driven through it.
This man was serious.
I could feel that his grave might very well be this Reception Room.
He was more than capable of it, and his demeanor suggested he would.
‘The scent of blood.’
Despite his quiet, docile gaze, I sensed a merciless killing intent lurking beneath.
“I won’t ask at length. Was it you who reported Miss Anette’s location to the Prince?”
“….”
Duncan’s pupils dulled to ash gray.
Only now did he seem to grasp why he had been brought here.
In the Reception Room devoid of light, Kyle’s pupils deepened to a dark forest green.
He posed the question again to Duncan, whose lips remained sealed.
His voice was emotionless, without inflection.
“Because of you, the Duchess fell into danger. She who had been living there contentedly, in quiet simplicity.”
“….”
“Furthermore, in the unofficial battle that ensued, I lost my subordinates.”
This was something Duncan hadn’t known. That Winston’s Shield would have reason to engage in combat there….
But if Prince Gerard had dispatched a Tracking Team, and the Marquis had sought to protect her and Bayonere Island, it would have been inevitable.
Above all, Duncan had little knowledge of the circumstances at that time.
He hadn’t been on Bayonere Island.
―He had come to Eldorado in secret to meet with Prince Gerard.
“Answer me. What was your reason for doing such a thing?”
Kyle’s pupils turned glacial.
“What did your master say? What order did he give you to commit such madness?”
“….”
Duncan remained steadfast in his silence.
Then the Marquis’s hand rose. A leather-gloved hand, sharp and merciless, struck his cheek with force.
With a loud crack, he reeled to the side, blood pooling in his mouth.
The hand that seized his hair roughly held no warmth, no mercy.
Click—
A magic gun was shoved into Duncan’s mouth. Like a muzzled beast, he drooled from the corners of his jaw as the Marquis interrogated him without wavering.
“My brother died in that battle.”
“….”
For a moment, Duncan closed his eyes as though sensing death.
If he didn’t speak, he felt certain his end would come in this very place.
―Duncan decided he would simply die.
Though resentment had accumulated far more than affection toward his master, he could not dare betray him.
As though reading the shift in his resolve, Kyle’s pupils narrowed to slits.
“Then I have no choice but to tell Duchess Valienne everything.”
“….”
“That it was the work of your master, Grand Duke Hyacinth. That he drew in Prince Gerard, destroyed Bayonere Island, and on top of that, drove her ‘mother’ to death.”
The head of Larva was skilled at coercion and swaying hearts—always by laying out nothing but the truth.
“She believes her mother’s death is the responsibility of the ‘informant’ who revealed her location.”
“….”
“I’ll tell her that’s your master. Just as it is.”
“…!”
Only then did Duncan’s eyes, which had been stubbornly shut, snap open.
His pupils trembled with anxiety.
Kyle received that unease and agitation with an expressionless face and spoke.
“Your master would quite enjoy that.”
Duncan understood.
If such a thing were to happen, his master would find himself in an irreversible situation.
His master’s very soul would die.
His master, who had spent his entire life yearning for her alone, driven to madness—would surely shatter into pieces.
If he were to receive even a glimmer of contempt in her eyes.
―Could he breathe normally, could he live like a human being?
“Mmph, mmmph!!!”
Only then did Duncan thrash about desperately and open his mouth.
Kyle removed the muzzle from his mouth.
“Please, anything but that… I beg you. Marquis Winston.”
Duncan, now visibly humbled, bowed his head.
“I’ll tell you everything.”
To protect his master, he lifted his head and spoke.
“My master had no such intention in doing what he did.”
―Let’s hear it then.
With that look in his eyes, Kyle slowly settled onto the sofa.
He was curious to hear just how freely that loosened tongue would wag.
* * *
“The bloodline of a filthy courtesan could never be my son, could it?”
Young Heinrich listened with bated breath to what Belesak was saying—what his father was saying.
“Then, who is that wretched little beggar who came to the Grand Duke’s Residence?”
“An existence born because I couldn’t kill him.”
To the question from his father’s wife—no courtesan—Belesak described Heinrich in those terms.
That woman, clearly the father’s legitimate wife, smiled with satisfaction, cradling the baby in her arms with delicate hands that had never done a day’s hard labor.
She seemed to treasure that child dearly.
That day was when Heinrich first sought out his biological father.
Clinging to the window frame outside, listening to that conversation, Heinrich quickly climbed back down.
His small hands were so swollen they had turned nearly purple, frostbitten, and a single thin garment was all he wore.
My stomach was empty.
―It was winter.
Even after hearing that conversation, I pretended not to notice and returned to the entrance,
hoping that perhaps he might still see me.
If he saw me, who looked exactly like him, would his heart change…?
The doorkeeper’s expression darkened as soon as he opened the entrance door and saw a child who barely reached his waist.
And he spoke, softening his master’s words as much as possible.
“He says he cannot meet you because your appearance is unseemly.”
“….”
“Now get out.”
If the original words would have killed a child’s spirit, the softened version carved an irreversible bruise into the child’s heart.
As I left the Grand Duke’s Residence that day, I wiped my cheeks with small hands, again and again.
But I could not stop the sorrowful tears.
After that, no one came to the funeral of my mother, who had abandoned the world. As if it were only natural, Belesak turned away.
At the funeral of the courtesan who had struggled through life, only her young son and a priest who cared for the poor attended.
―That was Heinrich’s first and last memory of his biological father.
“….”
This place was the 99th floor of the Mage Tower.
The nine Grand Mages lived permanently in the Mage Tower, and I lived together with them and their families.
The mages who worked for them also resided here with their families.
Perhaps that was why.
This common space was filled with unusually harmonious family groups.
Standing there like a distant stranger…
Heinrich whispered in a very small voice.
“I shouldn’t have come alone.”
I was drifting in that warm scene like an impurity.
Tug,
Someone pulled at Heinrich’s collar.
From his waist.
“….”
Silver hair, and gleaming eyes. Lips red as cherries.
It was a boy who looked exactly like me.
―And a boy who also looked exactly like my father.
“….”
In that instant, Heinrich’s expression crumpled.

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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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