The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 134

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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 134
Before I could even respond to his words about staying the night, his scorching lips met mine first.
In that instant, breath escaped me, and something far sweeter and hotter than air enveloped my senses.
Through the precarious gap between our lips, we felt each other’s heat as kiss after kiss made my chest throb with aching intensity.
My heart raced—as though I were playing a dangerously reckless game.
But it was so sweet that I found it nearly impossible to stop.
“Ha….”
Our lips parted as softly as marshmallows.
The brief, electrifying kiss ended. Sisrain’s sharp, penetrating gaze fixed upon me.
His large hand was gently caressing my flushed cheeks, which had grown warm without my noticing.
As though he might devour me again at any moment.
Was the kiss insufficient for me, or for him? He asked if I wanted more, but in truth, Sisrain’s thirst seemed far deeper than mine.
Though his expression remained impassive, his face was drenched in desire—as though he had thought of nothing but “this” all day long.
―It was frightening, in a way.
Yet that very fear sent an inexplicable thrill racing through my chest in rapid, delicious beats.
Had I lost my mind?
I carefully composed my expression and continued our conversation from before the kiss.
“…People will talk, Your Highness. Staying the night without even being married.”
Using formal speech when drawing boundaries had become my habit now.
His lips curved into a mischievous smile.
“I wish they would talk.”
“Pardon?”
“About how a beautiful and promising Duke who has just seized the Duchy, and the Crown Prince of Crevasse—that monster—….”
“….”
“Are alone together.”
His large hand wrapped around my waist without hesitation. My spine stiffened instantly.
Through the thin fabric, his scorching warmth felt vividly real, searing down to my lower abdomen.
His sharply defined lips moved.
“Day and night without distinction.”
“…Without distinction.”
I found myself echoing his words in a daze.
Then Sisrain’s head lowered slowly. Hair as black and lustrous as silk that had absorbed the night sky cascaded down.
Swiftly,
his sharply defined lips caught the ribbon of my dress. White teeth gleamed briefly.
As he pulled the ribbon slowly, the delicate knot unraveled with ease, revealing the opening of my dress.
Against the exposed skin, both the cool night air and his scorching breath touched me simultaneously, raising goosebumps across my body.
“Without a moment to breathe.”
“….”
“Every day, intoxicated by each other.”
Though he spoke as though spreading rumors, it was essentially a declaration of war. A seduction.
My heart pounded so fiercely I could feel it with every breath, my pulse racing visibly beneath exposed skin.
I knew better.
Show even the slightest opening before this man, and he would devour me entirely today.
I forced myself to speak with feigned composure.
“We can’t let rumors spread, Sisrain.”
“Then shall we keep it secret?”
“…!”
Watching his crimson eyes curve with subtle amusement, I felt a flicker of surprise.
What? He could make that expression?
It was as if….
an innocent boy inviting me to play along.
“A secret, then. Just the two of us knowing.”
His long fingers wove between mine with deliberate slowness, interlacing them.
“―How about it.”
When we’re together day and night without a moment’s respite….
How could that possibly remain secret?
‘How did it come to this?’
At this point, such thoughts were inevitable.
I had clearly rejected his proposal not long ago.
I had drawn a firm line and pushed “the Sisrain problem” far behind other more pressing matters.
Yet somehow he had caught up to me again, shaking my heart relentlessly.
It was always like this.
‘The real problem is… I’ve changed.’
Before, he had felt like a hunting hound about to sink its teeth into my throat.
But now….
I trembled with anticipation as much as I feared. My heart raced enough to offset the dread entirely.
“I love you.”
It was likely because of our last meeting—that kiss and his fervent confession.
That confession had been so sweet and tender it clouded my mind…
“I love you, Anette.”
―He kept making me giddy like this.
Sisrain pressed his lips deeply against the back of my hand, his eyes open and fixed on mine.
I could feel the heat radiating from those crimson irises.
I barely managed to avert my gaze as I spoke.
“…I can’t sleep deeply when someone’s beside me, so this won’t work, Sisrain.”
“I’ll put you to sleep.”
“How?”
“Soon you’ll feel so pleasantly drowsy and exhausted that sleep will come easily.”
“…!!!”
That sounded incredibly suggestive!
I quickly rose from his lap and stepped back at a distance.
“I really must leave now, Your Highness.”
Then I pointed firmly toward the window. He let out a low chuckle.
“How unreasonable. You want me to leave through the window?”
But you came in through there, didn’t you?
And it seems like you wouldn’t get hurt at all jumping out the window.
“Don’t cry because of another man.”
“….”
“If you cry again in the future….”
My heart will ache. Is that how it works?
As I gazed at him with a slightly hopeful expression, Sisrain drew closer and cupped my chin.
Those ominous crimson eyes met mine.
“I’ll make you cry because of me instead.”
Your Highness, you’re truly insane, aren’t you?
‘He never changes.’
Just as I thought that, a sweet voice descended upon my ear.
“I’ll make you cry tears of joy.”
His unexpected words caused my cheeks to flush slightly.
The phrase “make you cry tears of joy” carried a different nuance than everything before.
It sounded like he was promising to make me happy. Was this the obsessive version of his previous sentiment?
“Sleep well, Anette.”
He pressed a light kiss to my forehead, then in an instant, he was atop the window’s railing.
Beneath the cascading moonlight, his black hair gleamed like the light pooling in a crystal glass.
The crimson-hued robe fluttered in the wind.
“…!”
He vanished below the window in a heartbeat.
I rushed to the window and peered down, but Sisrain had already left no trace behind.
―He had disappeared as if it were all a lie.
“He really did leave through the window?”
When the front entrance was right there.
Though I suppose rumors of the Crown Prince coming and going from an unmarried duke’s mansion at night wouldn’t look good.
‘…He was being considerate of me.’
The night breeze was cool.
My heart, racing and flushed with warmth, seemed reluctant to cool in that gentle wind.
* * *
“Heinrich? What a vulgar name. He’ll grow into a man as base as his mother.”
Belesak Valentigo abandoned the pregnant woman. The reason was simple.
He was a fanatical purist, and he believed his encounters with courtesans were merely the pursuit of pleasure.
A courtesan—Heinrich’s Mother—whom he had seen for ten years.
Yet the fact that such a relationship, spanning a decade, could truly be called love rather than mere indulgence, held no importance to him.
So consumed by his own ambitions that he failed to recognize the affection budding within his own heart—he was a nobleman through and through, ruthless in his nature.
“…But this child is yours, Grand Duke. He truly is.”
“Never show yourself before my eyes again. Abandon any hope that the thing you birthed could ever become a son of the Valentigo name.”
When the courtesan he had discarded took her own life and that of the child not long after, Belesak was shaken, yet he did not regret his choice.
No—he could not afford to regret it.
He drank through the night at her funeral, and afterward, he often saw her phantom form lingering in his vision, but nothing more.
Sometimes he heard her voice calling to him, but he ignored it.
He did not want that son either.
Even if his blood ran through the child’s veins, the filthy half-breed would not have inherited even a speck of his talent.
“I am destined to become the Mage Tower Master. I cannot afford to take in a bastard son and give my enemies leverage. …Do you know what price I paid to enter this Mage Tower and become one of the Nine Archmages!”
To become a flawless Mage Tower Master with an impeccable record, Belesak had lived his entire life.
His dream was to become the Mage Tower Master and have his own son succeed him.
Thus, his sole life’s ambition was to inscribe the greatness of the Valentigo Grand Duke Household into the annals of the Mage Tower and have it shine brilliantly for generations to come.
―Which is precisely why it was such a shock.
“It appears the next Mage Tower Master will be Grand Duke Heinrich Hyacinth.”
In truth, Heinrich had inherited not merely one hundred percent of Belesak’s talent—he had inherited far more than that.
Meanwhile, Eric, the son born to his noble wife, possessed magical talent that fell woefully short.
Rolling the dice with Belesak’s talent, Eric had come up a ‘1’.
Heinrich, by contrast, was a perfect ‘6’ incarnate.
Everything came easily to Heinrich.
With genius-level insight, he crafted magical artifacts, ascended to Archmage status with effortless grace and earned universal acclaim,
―and now, with power that eclipsed even the Nine Archmages, he had become a candidate for Mage Tower Master, threatening the very goal that had consumed Belesak’s entire existence.
If only I had taken Heinrich in!
…If he had been ‘Heinrich Belesak’!
Such thoughts occasionally crossed his mind, yet Belesak could not bring himself to acknowledge Heinrich.
To do so would mean regretting his decision to abandon that courtesan—the one he might have loved so long ago.
It would mean regretting his entire life.
And so, instead of acknowledging Heinrich, he chose to become the Mage Tower Master himself.
By joining hands with Prince Gerard—a man identical to himself, thirsting for the highest seat, yet currently without recourse.
It was time to place his bet.
“….”
“Welcome, Grand Duke Valentigo.”
Belesak removed his robes and took his seat.
“I am grateful for your hospitality, Prince Gerard.”
“I hear you are a mage who uses ‘paralysis poison’ that leaves no trace….”
Beneath long gray hair, eyes of pure crimson swept across Belesak.
Then his lips twisted into a smile.
“Surprising. That an Archmage of your caliber would create something like that.”
“….”
“I mean no offense, but typically, such things are crafted by those whose hearts are pitch-black and whose nature is base.”
Belesak’s lips curved upward, his smile unmistakably self-deprecating.
“Your Highness could never fathom the life I have lived.”
Belesak reached into his garments and withdrew a medicine bottle, clutching it in his palm.
“…!”
Prince Gerard’s eyes gleamed with intrigue, but Belesak held the bottle firmly, refusing to release it as he spoke.
“You must honor our agreement.”
“….”
“Once you reclaim your former power, you will use your influence over the Mage Tower’s vote to appoint me as the Mage Tower Master.”

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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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