The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 125
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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 125
“Why would I…?”
Heinrich responded to Belesak’s demand that he withdraw from candidacy for Mage Tower Master with an expressionless question.
Belesak’s body stiffened with a jolt.
This lowborn wretch dared to question him back without the slightest courtesy—such audacity.
In truth, he was the most promising candidate for the next Mage Tower Master among the nine Grand Mages.
He had accomplished much within the Mage Tower.
All of it had been for a rosy future, for his own ambitions. Those ambitions pointed precisely toward the position of Mage Tower Master.
“I have devoted my entire life to the Mage Tower! Even before I entered it! It’s absurd for a latecomer like you to become Mage Tower Master.”
“….”
“Especially a worthless wretch like you.”
Heinrich lifted the corners of his lips—those crimson lips he inherited from his mother—into a smile.
Heinrich’s smile was as beautiful as always. Belesak’s expression twisted accordingly.
…What was so amusing?
It was an entirely unexpected reaction. The young Heinrich of old would have wept and fled at such harsh words, nothing more than a small, fragile boy.
Yet the child he had abandoned had grown into such a magnificent adult.
“Heh, so you’re trembling in fear that this worthless wretch might steal the position of Mage Tower Master from you.”
“…What did you say?”
“Then simply win fairly in the ‘vote’ and become Mage Tower Master. …Why don’t you?”
Zian’s eyes gleamed with a subtle smile, sharp and cutting.
“Do you lack confidence?”
“…!!!”
Crash—
Belesak, unable to contain his fury, struck the table. His face flushed crimson in an instant.
“Your genius talent came from me in the first place!”
How pathetic his true nature was. This was the very thing he had tried not to say, fearing it would sound petty.
“If you hadn’t met that lowborn courtesan from the beginning…!”
Suddenly, Heinrich’s brow contorted.
Clang—
In that moment, an aura of deep violet radiance emanated from Heinrich, shattering all the decorations at once.
“…!!!”
Belesak’s pupils trembled. Among the Grand Mages of the Mage Tower, none possessed such overwhelming pressure. The disparity in magical power was unmistakable.
In that instant, Belesak understood why people called Heinrich a genius.
Under the aura he radiated, it was nearly impossible to move a single finger.
A languid yet somehow more sinister voice flowed forth.
“Do not insult my mother. She was far more noble than a vulgar human like you.”
Zian’s eyes shone with a brilliance that seemed to devour darkness itself.
Though those violet eyes were inherited from him, their light was entirely different.
They bore the exact gaze of a woman who, abandoned by her husband, had borne a child alone and resolved to raise him with unwavering determination.
In this moment, Belesak lost his ‘arrogance’ and trembled violently.
Shiiiiik—
At Heinrich’s gesture, Belesak’s collar was yanked sharply. In the same motion, Heinrich seized him by the front of his shirt and rose from his seat.
“…!!!”
Their eyes were now mere inches apart.
“I have surpassed you. The meager talent you bestowed upon me doesn’t even amount to one hundredth of my power, so don’t delude yourself.”
There is not a single grain of my life that you have any claim to.
Heinrich issued his warning to this perfect stranger who bore his own likeness.
“And never summon me again, Grand Duke Valentigo.”
“…!”
“I lack the patience for it.”
He released the weakened Belesak roughly, as though discarding him, and walked out of the Reception Room.
His gait remained as arrogant and refined as always.
* * *
“It’s an order.”
It felt as though he had cast a spell. The words themselves became shackles, binding my entire body tightly.
I couldn’t move.
Under normal circumstances, I could have expressed disappointment at receiving an order, or added a playful remark to lighten the mood.
“….”
Why was this different?
The gaze from those eyes—darkened with desire, crimson and black—felt unlike anything before.
Suffocating, yet strangely… not unpleasant.
“Anette.”
His eyes were utterly incomprehensible.
He maintained dominance with an overwhelming presence, never relinquishing control, yet simultaneously his gaze clung to me desperately.
So desolate and pitiful it seemed, so earnest.
“It seems you’ve forgotten my proposal.”
“I’ve received more than one ring, after all.”
When Anette deliberately responded coldly, Sisrain’s eyes twisted subtly.
Those fathomless eyes fixed upon her, and his lips curved beautifully upward, framed by a sharp jawline.
He scoffed as though it were obvious.
“But it’s me you love.”
“….”
My eyelashes trembled slightly. My cheeks felt warm, and I hoped Sisrain wouldn’t notice my agitation.
I deliberately responded with confidence.
“…How can you be so certain?”
He’s constantly watching for an opening, and if he discovers that I’m drawn to him as well, he’ll try to consume me entirely. It would become irreversible.
“….”
Sisrain lifted my slender wrist gently.
There, a pattern visible only to two people in the world was inscribed.
A flower that climbed my wrist like a vine, blooming ever more brilliantly with each passing moment, nourished by something unseen.
He traced the distinct blue veins across her pale skin with his fingertip, and Anette reacted sensitively, her fingers slowly curling inward.
Her wrist was so delicate it seemed it would snap with the slightest pressure.
When she asked how he could be certain of his feelings, he offered an earnest answer.
“Every time I see you, I check your pulse.”
“…!”
Anette’s small lips parted in shock, her eyes flashing with protest as she glared at him.
“How could you do something so ungentlemanly? That’s quite rude of you, Crown Prince.”
His exposed heart ached.
‘There have been times my heart raced from fear too.’
He wanted to object, but for some reason the words wouldn’t come easily.
“Since I’ve already been marked as an ungentlemanly man, why not go a bit further?”
Go further with what?
That was when it happened. His vision tilted dramatically, and suddenly her golden hair was scattered across the bed in disarray.
Before she could resist, the massive man was leaning over her.
Thump, thump, thump.
Her pulse began racing relentlessly where their skin met.
The weight of his muscular body pressing down on her made her chest tighten unbearably.
“…Sisrain.”
Anette called his name pitifully, her eyelids trembling.
Sisrain smiled softly as he caressed her hair.
“From this angle, you’re breathtakingly beautiful, Anette.”
Despite the nonsense he was spouting, the way he spoke her name sounded sweet.
Anette gazed up at him as if enchanted.
How could he have such persistent eyes?
Cruelly wrapping the lifeline around my wrist and his own heart.
She felt Sisrain’s gaze on her lips. In that instant, her red lips parted slightly.
At that minute movement, Sisrain’s dark eyes gleamed like a predator that wouldn’t let its prey escape.
It felt as though swallowing and drinking this like life itself would make all the pain disappear.
In reality, the closer they got, the more painful it became—like dancing in flames—yet he only wanted to kiss her.
Their lips nearly touched.
It felt as though closing even the smallest gap would make everything irreversible.
A strange emotion clawed fiercely across her entire body, tingling and burrowing deep.
They both felt the same way.
Right then.
“…That’s why.”
―Just before her red lips could meet his, they pulled away.
“That’s why I can’t trust you, Sisrain.”
“….”
Anette gazed up at him with clear eyes.
“I don’t know if you truly care for me, or if you’re just enjoying the game of possessing me.”
Sisrain looked down at her as if waking from a trance.
Anette’s jade-green eyes were not nearly as scattered as his own.
It was truly a peculiar thing.
Even though he held her confined in his embrace and looked down upon her, she never once felt as though she were beneath him.
In the power games played between lovers, Sisrain always felt himself losing.
It was not an unwelcome defeat, yet he could only truly possess her if he won.
“What must I do to make you trust me? Tell me.”
“…I don’t know either.”
‘I don’t know my own heart completely, after all.’
Anette’s eyes darkened slightly.
To accept you with only the heart of a child would be impossible…We have been apart for far too long.
It’s strange, isn’t it.
When I try to love you, I feel something dangerous.
She rose from the bed and withdrew from his embrace, steeling herself to become as cold as possible toward him.
“Sisrain….”
For now, there was simply too much to do.
Finding the informant, managing the duchy properly, avenging myself against Gerard.
All were urgent matters, and I wanted to push my feelings for Sisrain down to second priority.
―This unease and this precarious affection.
‘If I don’t draw a line, I’ll keep walking this dangerous edge just as I did moments ago.’
Soon after, she spoke with cold resolve.
“I must decline your proposal, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
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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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