The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 129

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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 129
It was a sensation I had never experienced before.
A fresh, jade-green power—luminous as spring’s own hue, sparkling like fairy dust scattered upon the wind—enveloped Sisrain’s wounds.
“….”
My hands, which had been a mangled mess from gripping shards of glass, were now pristine and whole.
―It had been so long.
Since my body felt this light.
Anette, witnessing the power of her ‘buff’ take effect for the first time, stood gaping in wonder.
It was miraculous.
As miraculous as Sisrain’s sudden recovery.
“Kyaa!”
In that moment, Sisrain slipped his hand beneath Anette’s arm and lifted her effortlessly to her feet alongside him.
Anette clutched her chest, her heart thundering wildly against her ribs.
“…Sis, are you alright?”
Moments ago, he had been on his knees, weeping and clinging to her. Now, save for the bloodstains, he appeared completely restored.
He was the robust Sisrain of old.
“….”
Unable to conceal my bewilderment, I summoned Mephistopheles’ power to my palm.
A crackling sound—like black electricity—sparked and dissipated.
For but an instant, I felt an overwhelming force.
Different from before.
Only then did I answer in a low voice.
“It seems I’m fully healed.”
“Really?!”
A radiant smile bloomed across Anette’s face. Had it worked?
The innocent girl truly believed that my kiss had cured me, and she was overjoyed.
In a sense, she was right.
My power had been steadily intensifying, pushing past its threshold until the moment of completion. Without her ability, it would have been impossible.
Of course, the process had involved excruciating pain, but I had focused entirely on the exquisite sensation she granted me through our kiss, transforming the agony into something almost like pleasure.
Observing Anette’s innocent, unsuspecting face, I soon called for Owen and set about restoring order.
Owen appeared quite overwhelmed upon seeing his master restored to health—he bit his lips to hold back tears—but he maintained his composure.
He simply bowed before Anette and expressed his sincere gratitude.
After Owen departed to manage the Imperial Palace’s ‘eyes and ears’.
It took little time to tidy the ruined chamber, to erase the bloodstains, and to don a fresh shirt.
“Anette, I’ll escort you to the Duchess’s Residence.”
“…Huh? No, it’s fine.”
Isn’t he recovering far too quickly?
―Like a lie.
“I’ll take you.”
In the end, at Sisrain’s insistence, I found myself boarding the carriage with him.
Clop, clop.
As the carriage passed through the nighttime streets, I sat there in a daze.
‘…Did I perhaps dream all of that?’
Glancing to my side, there sat a handsome face, unmarred as always, showing no signs of distress.
Moreover, the atmosphere between us made it clear that neither of us intended to speak of what had just transpired.
“Sisrain.”
“Mm.”
He responded with a low rumble from his throat, his sharp, dark eyes flickering toward me.
“Just now….”
“Just now?”
There was so much I wanted to ask.
Whether we had truly returned to that day from before. Whether that was why he had held me so desperately.
But the memory of my own shame at displaying such vulnerability kept the questions from spilling forth.
And besides―
I recalled the voice he had whispered softly against my lips at that moment.
“It’s not enough.”
“….”
“―Not nearly.”
I let out a light cough and turned my gaze forward, ultimately laughing it off awkwardly.
“It’s nothing. Really.”
Sisrain returned his gaze ahead with his usual impassive expression.
‘I should probably convince myself that the kiss from before meant nothing.’
…Otherwise it would become awkward. But was it truly nothing?
Without thinking, I recalled myself embracing that thick neck, breathing heavily as Sisrain’s black hair scattered around us, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
My heart raced slightly.
‘This is troublesome.’
Who knew what schemes Sisrain would concoct using this as leverage.
But no such thing occurred.
Sisrain quietly escorted me to the Duchess’s Residence and spoke to me from within the carriage.
“Sleep well, Anette.”
“….”
I stood there dumbfounded before belatedly nodding my head.
The carriage departed just like that.
‘…?’
I watched the carriage leave with a blank expression for quite some time. Then I entered the Duchess’s Residence with an odd feeling in my chest.
Victoria had worried greatly when I suddenly left, but ultimately expressed relief that everything had been resolved well.
I responded appropriately and retired to my bedroom as usual.
In the very late hours of dawn.
I lay beneath a plush goose-down quilt on my immaculate bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
“…What could it be.”
Then, finally grasping the nature of this feeling, I muttered to myself.
“Why does my heart feel so empty?”
―It was a mystery.
Sisrain received contact again not in the morning, nor at midday… but late in the evening of the next day.
「 I’m sending a carriage. Come to the Imperial Palace. 」
‘Really, why does even the note feel hollow?’
Should I just refuse to go?
I narrowed my eyes.
* * *
This was the Magic Tower District, where the Mage Tower stood.
With the Founding Festival approaching, people seemed animated. The streets decorated in vibrant colors were beautiful, and laughter filled every corner.
Heinrich walked through it all.
―As if his very soul had departed.
The light had vanished from his beautiful eyes.
“Withdraw from candidacy as Mage Tower Master. Someone as lowborn as you has no right.”
What had he hoped to find by coming here?
…His father’s belated concern?
It was laughable.
He had boldly told his biological father never to catch his eye again, yet here he was, wandering like a broken, defective human whose spirit had shattered in some fundamental way.
He didn’t know how many days had passed, or how long it had been since he’d drunk water.
Yet his body had long forgotten hunger.
Like a man starved of spirit, Heinrich emptied his mind of thought and simply walked.
His feet felt impossibly heavy, yet he couldn’t seem to stop.
His disheveled silver hair hung down, obscuring his beautiful eyes as they grew cold.
Whiiiish―
Heinrich’s dry lips trembled slightly.
“This isn’t the first time.”
No, it wasn’t the first time.
Having his spirit shattered like this.
The first time he was ever ignored was by his father, and the first corpse he ever witnessed was his mother’s.
There was someone who kept him alive through all of that.
“Sister….”
My Anette.
You pieced together my fractured spirit and heart again.
It happened in The Forest.
It was when I was crying at the Lakeside in winter, longing for my mother.
A golden-haired girl who had recently taken to speaking with me sat down beside me.
Her name was Anette.
Twelve years old, one year older than me.
Yet I had never once called her “sister.”
“Ah, is Heinrich crying?”
“Who’s crying! You again? …Get lost.”
No matter how hard I tried to resent my mother for turning away and leaving me, the truth was there were more days when I missed her.
Whenever that longing overwhelmed me, my mood would plummet, and I’d deliberately seek out cold places to sit idly all day long.
I had to freeze my heart solid.
If I could freeze my heart as cold as that lake, perhaps this sorrow would dull and hurt less.
―Those were the thoughts of my childhood.
“But the weather is so cold, I can’t just leave you here alone, can I?”
“…What does it matter.”
“I brought you some warm soup.”
“I’m not eating it.”
Slurp, slurp.
That mysterious blonde-haired girl began eating the soup by herself, right beside me.
“It’s so warm and delicious!”
“….”
“Mmm~ It’s the best.”
…She really was a strange one.
She kept drawing my attention, which irritated me.
And worse, the aroma of that soup was so savory it annoyed me.
“Want a taste?”
“….”
Before I knew it, my mouth was watering, and I had no choice but to surrender and nod.
“Just one bite. Since you’re asking.”
“Okay!”
The corn soup was sweet, savory, and wonderfully warm.
It was a flavor that sent hot blood flowing all the way to my fingertips, leaving no room for my heart or chest to freeze solid.
Why was it so delicious?
That soup she had given me.
No matter how many soups I tasted after that day, I could never recreate that flavor.
“…Heinrich, you finished it all?”
“Be quiet.”
I held up the soup cup, now empty at the bottom, my face flushed as I spoke.
“…The portion was just small to begin with.”
“Hehe, okay!”
Anette smiled brightly at me, and I found myself thinking that this gentle-looking girl was rather pretty.
Then, the girl spoke.
“Heinrich, it’s okay if you don’t want to see your mother.”
“….”
“I’ll always be here for you instead, until you become happy.”
With such affection to give, that small girl spoke as solemnly as an adult.
Heinrich’s heart raced with such intensity.
The girl grasped his hand, her jade-green eyes shimmering with light.
It was so warm.
The heart that had frozen on that cold hill, that he had desperately wished would turn to ice, melted effortlessly against her warmth.
Heinrich carefully opened his silver eyelashes and asked.
“…Why?”
As he asked, tickled by something like foxtail grass brushing against his heart, the girl smiled beautifully.
“Because you’re the best to me!”
Only Anette smiled at him like that.
Even now, it was the same. For him, there was only Anette.
What pieced together his shattered heart and allowed him to live was her alone.
“…Sister.”
Heinrich called out to her softly, his voice barely a whisper.
Suddenly, he wanted to see her so badly… it felt like he might die.
Life returned to Heinrich’s eyes, which had lost their light.
He wet his lips.
“Anette.”
His sluggish, weakened pace quickened with each step. Before long, Heinrich was running.
What would unfold moments later―
He could not even dare to imagine.

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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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