The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 131

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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 131
Startled by the confession, Anette’s hand brushed carelessly against a leaf, and the fireflies that had been drinking the dew scattered into flight.
Beautiful lights embroidering the black night.
Breaths mingling with fervent heat.
And those words of confession—as if he were laying bare his very heart for her to see.
“Sisrain.”
For the first time, Anette felt his heart with crystalline clarity.
“….”
How strange.
The fear had vanished upon hearing that confession.
The uncertainty and incomprehensible future that had once terrified her now miraculously transformed into anticipation.
Even the waning moon held its breath that night, casting its pale light obliquely upon them both.
And beneath a certain silver birch where fireflies drifted lazily upward, there stood one more witness to this scene.
Heinrich’s eyes twisted in anguish.
His breath, precarious as though standing at the world’s edge, shattered white into the empty air.
Heinrich slowly turned and departed from the Garden.
He could say nothing.
* * *
“We must stop this. We absolutely must.”
Number 19 declared with grim resolve.
Having returned to Eldorado after helping with the bakery work, he had only just received the belated update on the “Master’s romantic situation.”
Upon hearing all the circumstances—particularly the grave current situation where Sisrain kept summoning Anette under the pretense of being ill—Number 19 suddenly became this resolute.
Kyle frowned as he watched Number 19, who had swollen by three kilograms from eating bread and now looked puffy, and asked.
“Stop what exactly?”
“If he’s ill, where would he lie down? Not in bed, surely? If they keep meeting alone like this, what will happen? The atmosphere will become all strange and flirty.”
‘Strange and flirty?’
Kyle’s eyebrows rose at that peculiar expression.
Number 19 clenched his fists and spoke.
“…The Crown Prince and Miss Anette will end up falling in love!!!”
Even Bulk, who had been listening seriously, nodded his head.
“Indeed, I once had a woman I loved.”
“….”
“….”
It was a fact no one was remotely curious about. Yet Bulk persisted undeterred.
“I shared my first kiss with her while she was caring for me during my illness.”
“…!”
“…!”
Everyone was taken aback.
It was not the fact of kissing while tending to a sick person that shocked them.
It was the revelation that there existed a kind-hearted woman willing to kiss that menacing, bristly-bearded face of his.
“―Was it just a dream?”
Number 19 rolled his eyes as he spoke.
In any case, Bulk’s words lacked credibility, but if the other party was the Crown Prince, it was entirely plausible. He was quite handsome, after all.
One of the thugs with a menacing appearance spoke seriously, resting his chin on his hand.
“If something like that really happened….”
“That would be a disaster.”
“We’d have to stop it, we really would.”
One of the Larva members, blessed with particularly vivid imagination, spoke with a shocked expression.
“The two of them kissing!”
―His imagination had already taken him that far.
Just then, a heavy BANG! shattered the overheated atmosphere as a fist struck the table.
Kyle quieted everyone down and spoke tersely.
“All of you, shut up.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Yes, sir.”
He stroked his chin as he spoke.
“Going to care for a sick Crown Prince is her choice. Don’t be childish about it.”
“…But the two of them.”
The thug whose imagination had extended to kissing writhed with barely contained anguish.
Kyle looked at that face and spoke.
“Even if something happens between the two of them, it’s none of my concern whatsoever.”
“….”
“What matters is her ‘heart’.”
The Larva members, who had been rolling around like unripe persimmons, could only close their mouths and accept this mature man’s sound conclusion.
True enough. If everyone who kissed in the heat of the moment ended up married and in love, Bulk wouldn’t still be single by now.
“Her heart hasn’t been decided yet.”
Kyle was looking directly at Anette.
He observed her heart more carefully and meticulously than anyone else.
As long as her heart belonged to her alone, Kyle would simply persevere.
To give her the choice to select him, to quietly do what he could for her and respect her.
―That was Kyle’s way.
‘First, I should finish the commission.’
The next day.
Kyle requested a meeting with Anette.
Anette, as she had been lately, looked somewhat tired, but readily accepted the meeting.
After having everyone leave the Reception Room, Kyle finally broached the subject.
“Master, I’ve found the ‘informant’.”
Click―
Anette set her teacup down on its saucer. Her face bore an expression of surprise.
“…Is that truly so?”
“Yes. We found the informant not long ago, and he confessed to everything.”
Who could it be?
The person who set Gerard in motion. It was just that, but the butterfly effect had caused so many things to unfold.
The Tracking Team came to the peaceful Bayonere Island, and everything fell into chaos. Back in Eldorado, instead of spending time with her mother, she now found herself preparing her funeral.
Anette wanted to find the source of it all.
Only by unraveling the tangled thread from its beginning could everything become clear.
Kyle observed the desperate longing in Anette’s eyes and paused in thought.
‘I hope she doesn’t suffer too great a wound from this.’
She was strong, after all.
“The culprit is Grand Duke Heinrich. The ‘informant’ was his adjutant, Duncan, who carried out the deed under his master’s orders.”
“…!!!”
―Heinrich?
The area around Anette’s eyes darkened.
* * *
“You say Grand Duke Hyacinth cannot be reached?”
“He has not returned to the Grand Duke’s Residence for quite some time. Unfortunately, we too are awaiting word from the Grand Duke.”
“…If you manage to contact him, please tell him that Duchess Valienne came looking for him.”
“Yes, Duchess.”
―Heinrich had vanished without a trace.
I reached out to the Mansion, and even to the Mage Tower, but everyone could only shake their heads.
He wasn’t at the research laboratory where he usually secluded himself for his work, and he had quite literally ‘disappeared.’
‘How could this be?’
―So irresponsible, Heinrich.
He simply vanished?
After exposing my location to Gerard, after committing such terrible deeds.
He disappeared without even giving me the chance to confront him.
I felt betrayed.
“As you might have guessed, Master, his intentions were not malicious.”
“….”
“It was a foolish mistake.”
Kyle explained the reason behind Heinrich’s actions.
It was to obtain me, he said.
But regardless of his purpose, the circumstances had already unfolded, and nothing could change what had come to pass.
I dismissed my guards and wandered aimlessly until I thought of a place where Heinrich might be.
And, for the first time in ages…
After nearly a decade, I found myself heading there.
―The Forest.
The place where we first met. The Lakeside of that forest where I had spent so much time with Heinrich.
Even as I made my way there, I prayed he wouldn’t be there.
That place held only our cherished memories, after all.
“The Forest’s building has truly disappeared….”
On my way to the Lakeside, I suddenly stopped by the Forest.
The Forest was closed, and the old building looked heavily weathered. Something felt off.
It was when I passed through that place and finally reached the Lakeside.
“…!”
I caught sight of a silver-haired figure hunched over in a seated position.
‘Heinrich.’
That man, staring blankly at the Lake with an empty expression, wore the same face I’d seen when I first laid eyes on him as a child.
I trudged toward him with heavy steps.
“….”
Heinrich showed no reaction, as if he felt nothing and was conscious of nothing.
The moment I stood before him―
My heart felt as though it would literally burst.
“…What are you doing here?”
The Lakeside wind swept through his silver hair. Heinrich remained silent like a doll.
Heat slowly kindled within me. And in my eyes as well.
“Heinrich, you told Gerard my location, didn’t you?”
“….”
“Is that right? Was it you?”
Say it yourself, Heinrich. Just once.
At Heinrich’s refusal to answer or even meet my eyes, I bit my lip.
―How could you do this.
How much I cherished you with all my heart.
To me, who had only ever prayed for your happiness.
“Because of what you did, the people of Bayonere were nearly put in danger!”
“….”
“I never exchanged a single word with Mother. If it hadn’t been for you, perhaps… I could have saved her.”
I felt my voice growing sharp as I spoke.
“Say something! Heinrich….”
Then, Heinrich’s parched lips moved slowly.
He answered very quietly.
“Yes. It was me.”
Soon after, Heinrich rose slowly from his seat. His gaunt, withered face finally became visible. Heinrich confessed without emotion.
“I did it.”
“…How could you do something so terrible?”
Heinrich’s eyes narrowed. He laughed with a twisted smile.
“Didn’t you know? I was always bad. You foolish older sister kept saying ‘good Heinrich, our Heinrich.’ I was rotten from the start.”
“….”
“Foolish Anette, you were deceived by me.”
Anette remained perfectly still, gazing quietly at Heinrich.
Just receiving that cold gaze was enough to tear Heinrich’s chest to shreds.
Heinrich found himself thinking of what had happened here at the Lakeside in this very moment.
That naive, kindhearted girl who had fallen into the Lake, deceived by my own cruel jest.
“…Wow, Heinrich swims so well? You’re really amazing. So cool. *cough cough cough!*”
I should never have loved you back then.
“Sister, why are you being so kind to me?”
“Because I love you, Heinrich. You’re my favorite person in the whole world!”
I should never have believed those words.
Pitter-patter, drip.
Scalding tears streamed down Heinrich’s cheeks.
“That’s who I am. I’ve always been a terribly wicked bastard.”
Only you, in your innocence, never knew.
“….”
“So―”
With hands trembling pitifully, he seized both of Anette’s arms.
His eyes brimming with despair, he collapsed and cried out.
“If you won’t love me most, then hate me most instead….”

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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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