The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 124

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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 124
* * *
After sending Duncan away.
Kyle sank into deep contemplation.
For a long while, he remained motionless, his body buried deep into the sofa.
Bulk and One-Eye stood on either side of Kyle, rolling their eyes at each other in silent conversation—a sophisticated form of communication far more complex than mere sign language.
Bulk’s eyes darted expressively.
‘We’ve identified the culprit, haven’t we, One-Eye? We should tell the master right away that it’s the Grand Duke. Then we can eliminate one rival with a single stroke.’
One-Eye’s singular eye moved with dazzling precision.
‘It’s rather underhanded, though. The master must be troubled by it.’
“—Troubled, indeed.”
Just then, Kyle spoke with measured gravity.
One-Eye shrugged as if to say ‘I told you so,’ marveling at the master’s scrupulous conscience.
“When should I tell the master so that his affection for Grand Duke Hyacinth crumbles more completely?”
“…!”
“…!”
Wait, wasn’t the master not that kind of person?!
Hastily examining the master upon second thought, One-Eye noticed his jade-green eyes were engulfed in a subtle, unsettling gleam.
‘Ah, the master is at it again….’
Larva marveled in unison.
Kyle stroked his chin thoughtfully as he spoke.
“That irritating bastard dug his own grave. How perfectly convenient.”
One-Eye, who prided himself on knowing the master thoroughly, cautiously resurrected his earlier argument.
“Surely the master dislikes such underhanded methods?”
“Love is inherently filthy and underhanded—one can only seize it by abandoning all scruples.”
“…!”
Oh, quite impressive.
For a master so ignorant of romance, this was remarkable progress.
Kyle spoke with quiet conviction.
“I learned it thoroughly on Bayonere Island.”
While they were quarreling, Heinrich had slipped into Anette’s embrace like a cunning fox—that shocking display had granted me enlightenment.
“…Sister.”
“…I was so frightened.”
Moreover, lately the Crown Prince had been summoning Anette to the Imperial Palace at every opportunity, exploiting his position (or so it appeared to Kyle).
“Everyone is throwing themselves at this with all their might, abandoning all restraint.”
At first, I thought they were simply mad, but now I understand.
They harbor the same feelings as I do, which is why they act this way.
—Because they are desperate.
Because it seems impossible to survive without her.
They are all devoting their entire lives to this one woman.
“….”
So I would have no room for compromise either.
The only thing troubling me in this situation was….
If I revealed the informant’s identity, she would be deeply hurt.
This wasn’t really an opportunity to eliminate a rival—it was the conclusion of a ‘request’ she had made of me.
Anette had every right to know about this matter, and telling her was morally the correct choice.
But.
She would suffer a terrible wound.
Kyle pressed his weary eyes with the heels of his hands. A deep sigh escaped him.
‘Indeed, a dilemma.’
* * *
“Here is your porridge, Your Highness.”
Anette was at the Imperial Palace.
Sisrain had claimed that his condition improved whenever he spent time with Anette, and had taken to summoning her frequently.
When it became far too frequent, Anette finally declared:
“Unless you’re ill enough to need porridge, I won’t be coming anymore.”
And yet today, he had suddenly sent word that he was indeed that gravely ill.
‘This is clearly malingering.’
Anette stared at Sisrain intently.
“….”
He reclined against the bed with perfect composure, regarding her with those characteristically sharp eyes.
Whether from fever or not, his gaze seemed more haggard, but that was all.
‘He doesn’t look fatally ill at all.’
Then Sisrain leisurely traced his throat with his hand.
It was merely an action born of heat, yet from Anette’s perspective, it appeared somewhat provocative.
Sharp shadows were etched beneath his angular jaw and collarbone.
She averted her gaze slightly and offered him the tray of porridge.
“You can eat it yourself.”
“What are you saying? You should feed me.”
Sisrain’s eyes softened as a subtle smile crossed his face.
“My dear.”
His voice emerged tender yet deeply low, somehow carrying an unsettling resonance.
“You’re being rather cruel to a sick man.”
Being ill was unavoidable, but using it as an excuse to act spoiled was unacceptable.
‘I can barely maintain my composure as it is—one moment of weakness and I’d be swept away.’
I spoke with deliberate severity.
“You’re perfectly capable of feeding yourself, Crown Prince.”
It’s not as though your hands and feet are paralyzed, is it, Crown Prince?
“Is that an order, Your Highness?”
I deliberately narrowed my eyes as I asked.
If I answered that way, he would have no choice but to refuse. It was all calculated.
Sisrain wouldn’t issue me commands, after all.
As expected.
He laughed as though he’d heard something amusing.
“No.”
“Then I’ll summon a maid to assist with your meal. I can pull the bell cord for you.”
If you lack the strength to hold a spoon.
I spoke with deliberate teasing in my voice, then rose and reached toward the bell cord at the head of the bed.
It was slightly out of reach.
Just as I stretched my arm further, a firm grip encircled my waist.
“…!!!”
I tumbled onto Sisrain in an instant. His face was inches from mine.
For the first time, I vividly recognized that this place was a Bedroom—and that we were alone.
Just the two of us.
It had been a precarious situation from the start.
His fever burned high; sweet, scorching breath scattered across my neck. Yet the large hand gripping my waist felt unyielding. When I tried to move, his arm tightened with force.
His crimson eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Stay still like this.”
His low voice pierced straight through my heart.
“That’s an order.”
* * *
Heinrich sat in the Reception Room of Grand Duke Valentigo’s Residence and surveyed his surroundings.
Premium carpets lay across the marble floor, the buffalo leather sofa offered a soft seat, and the family emblem carved into the pillars gleamed with gold and rubies.
‘Still living well, I see.’
The thought came with a hint of bitterness.
Before Belesak Valentigo, Heinrich’s biological father, was selected as one of the nine Grand Mages of the Mage Tower, he had lived in the Grand Duke’s Residence outside the Tower.
The only Grand Duke’s Residence Heinrich had ever visited was that one, and even then it had been incredibly…
‘Magnificent.’
Breathtakingly so.
A man who had consistently lived well and prospered.
―But why.
Why did he abandon my mother and me.
Heinrich clenched his fist quietly, his expression darkening. That was when it happened.
“As people age, they tend to dwell on past mistakes. …It’s late, but surely you must wonder how much he thinks of the son he treated poorly?”
A fragment of conversation the servants had shared surfaced in his mind.
“….”
His clenched fist loosened slightly with a soft sound.
Heinrich rested his chin on his hand and exhaled slowly.
At that moment, the heavy Reception Room door swung open and a tall man appeared.
“…!”
Belesak Valentigo.
He bore the wrinkles befitting a man of middle years, yet bore a striking resemblance to Heinrich.
Where Heinrich possessed a beauty reminiscent of his mother, Belesak’s features were decidedly more masculine—save for one thing, which remained identical.
‘That arrogant gaze’.
That, without question, was what he had bequeathed to Heinrich.
“….”
The moment I met my biological father for the first time.
The instant our eyes met, an inexplicable sensation prickled through my fingertips.
Belesak observed Heinrich sitting motionless without so much as a greeting (he appeared somewhat stiffened), then settled into the seat across from him in the Reception Room.
Thump-thump-thump.
Heinrich’s heart quickened slightly.
What would he say first?
An apology?
Regret for the past?
Contrary to Heinrich’s turbulent thoughts, what Belesak uttered was, unexpectedly, quite simple.
“Grand Duke Hyacinth, you’ve gone to considerable trouble coming here.”
“….”
Abandoned together with my mother since the umbilical cord still connected us, and the first words upon meeting are those?
Heinrich let out a short laugh, but his eyes widened sharply and his facial muscles stiffened.
That attitude of treating him with formal courtesy as a stranger grated unbearably.
And the audacity of casually invoking his adoptive father’s house name.
So the sincerity he would never normally voice erupted forth.
“You cast me aside like useless livestock, and now you come with an apology?”
“….”
At those blunt, piercing words, Belesak’s expression hardened slightly.
But that was all.
He merely gazed at Heinrich with an inscrutable face, his violet eyes—identical to Heinrich’s own—unwavering.
“Don’t you think it’s far too late to play the father?”
Heinrich had always possessed the habit of speaking more bitterly when wounded.
“When I was in the womb of a woman of no noble birth, I was worthless garbage….”
“….”
“But now that I might become the Mage Tower Master, suddenly I seem useful, is that it?”
“No.”
Belesak denied it plainly.
In that moment, Heinrich felt his eyes grow wet.
Looking at that face, I understood.
My biological father had not summoned me to apologize.
Simultaneously, I judged coldly. A self-deprecating laugh escaped unbidden.
‘I was chasing a foolish dream.’
Heinrich’s gaze shifted to one side.
In the center of the Reception Room hung a family portrait.
Belesak, my biological father, his wife Ariadne, their son Eric, and their youngest daughter Marina.
―A harmonious and perfect family.
So complete that the woman he’d discarded long ago and her bastard child were utterly beneath his consideration.
“I have never once regarded someone as lowborn as you as my ‘son.'”
Belesak interlaced his fingers slowly, leaning forward with a sneer.
“Let me be direct.”
“….”
“Withdraw from candidacy for Mage Tower Master. Someone as base as you has no right to it.”

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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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