The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 138

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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 138
‘…Love for her.’
My father’s teaching: do not love only for yourself, but love purely for Anette’s sake.
Father’s words planted a small revelation in Kyle’s burning heart.
I understood why my father had spoken those words.
Love born from the desire to reach someone, to be by their side, to be together—such love could easily twist into selfishness.
That was what he meant to guard against.
For Kyle, who had devoted his entire life to loving her, I wanted to try that too.
I wanted to experience love that existed purely for her sake.
―I would always prioritize her wellbeing over my own comfort and desires.
“….”
Clench.
My fist tightened beneath my sleeve.
With the resolve made, my chest swelled with emotion.
A new melody began, and people started spinning and embracing one another beneath the brilliant cascade of light.
Kyle’s gaze searched through the crowd for only Anette.
Where could she be―
Where is she now.
Where could she be?
What is her heart feeling now.
“You cannot be faithful only to your own emotions. What matters is her heart.”
Until now, Kyle had loved passionately alone, devoted only to waiting for her, but tonight a new curiosity was born within me.
I felt I would continue to chase, until this question was answered—the trace of that one woman who shone brightest within that luminous crowd.
* * *
‘Heinrich, where on earth have you gone?’
Ever since parting with Bijeje, I had been searching for Heinrich.
Those violet eyes gazing at me from behind the mask remained vivid in my mind. That gaze hooked into my heart like a barb, again and again.
Why did you look at me with such eyes, Heinrich, making me search for you.
That gaze was like.
…someone about to fade away.
Such fragile and withered eyes they were.
“Ah.”
Just then, someone collided with me as I searched frantically for Heinrich.
Though the other person had bumped into me first, I responded with utmost nobility and courtesy.
“My apologies.”
It was the Red-Masked Man. The eyes within that mask were murky as stagnant water.
“…Oh, what a sweet little bird has flown into my arms. Is that what you desired?”
―What nonsense is this?!
His words alone were cloying and crude.
But tonight was a romantic evening for masked strangers seeking suitable companions, and I decided to exercise humanity and forgive him this once.
“It was merely an accidental bump. I hope you have a pleasant evening.”
“Wait.”
The rude man’s grip on my wrist was so forceful that my expression hardened involuntarily. My wrist throbbed from the intensity of his hold.
He grinned wickedly as he spoke.
“What kind of healthy man would let a young lady slip away without even noticing she was rejecting him?”
“….”
“I’d like to make tonight enjoyable for you, young lady.”
I stared at him with an expressionless face, then yanked my wrist free with a sharp pull (my grip strength, honed by years of work at the Bakery, was formidable).
“…?!”
The man lost his balance like a newborn fawn and stumbled toward me.
I looked down at him with a cold gaze and sneered.
“With that frail body of yours, you couldn’t please any woman, so stop deluding yourself, sir.”
Then I flashed him a bright smile directed at his flustered face.
“Now leave―”
Before I burn all your hair off.
With Um’s power, I could probably incinerate it right down to the roots.
I was seriously contemplating whether to curse this man with baldness for the sake of the other women’s peaceful enjoyment at tonight’s banquet when it happened.
Something massive collided with the back of the flustered man.
It was another man—towering and solidly built like a fortress wall, with a head taller than the first, possessing an impressive stature.
Hair as black as if it were swallowing all the light in the world.
A black mask that concealed his handsome features but could not hide the sharp jawline and masculine contours beneath.
And those crimson eyes within―
Were fixed on a single point with a chill that made my knees tremble.
On the insolent hand gripping my wrist.
“…!!! I-I-I’m terribly sorry!”
In that moment, the arrogant man seemed to have realized something.
Who he had collided with.
“P-Please spare me, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
‘The mask isn’t hiding anything at all, Sisrain.’
…It’s unmistakably Sisrain!
There’s no point in wearing a mask like this.
After all, there’s no other man with such a build and bone structure, so he stood out distinctly even among the crowd.
But more than that, Sisrain hadn’t said a word, yet the man was already begging for his life.
“….”
―Ah, seeing Sisrain’s gaze, I understood.
“I-I’ve been terribly rude! Duchess Valienne.”
The man bowed apologetically to me as well.
He had deduced who I was simply by observing Sisrain’s reaction.
‘How did rumors of Sisrain and me spread throughout the Empire?’
I couldn’t fathom it, but one thing was certain—a new rumor would spread like wildfire: ‘When he grabbed her wrist, the Crown Prince looked like he was about to kill him.’
His unfocused crimson eyes, dulled as though tainted by something bitter, gazed down at the man as one might regard an insect.
He seemed intent on crushing him beneath his thumb like something too trivial to warrant any other method of disposal.
Fearing a bloodbath might erupt in the Banquet Hall, I stepped forward.
“I shall grant you forgiveness. Leave the Banquet Hall, and do not show your face here again tonight.”
“Y-yes!”
“Now go.”
The man bowed his head frantically as though a goddess of salvation had spoken, then vanished at the speed of light.
‘Phew.’
I had saved a man’s life.
“Would it be acceptable if I danced the next dance with the anonymous gentleman in the black mask?”
Anette extended her hand first. It was rare for a lady to request a dance in such a manner.
Yet if a lady truly desired a particular gentleman, she need not remain silent about it.
Especially on a night as secretive as this one.
Sisrain cast a brief glance toward his adjutant, Owen, who stood at a distance.
Owen nodded and vanished from his place like the wind, pursuing the man from moments before.
Unlike Anette, Owen understood well that his master knew no such thing as “forgiveness.”
Especially not where she was concerned.
Anette held the highest priority in all of Sisrain’s calculations, and there was never compromise in his devotion to protecting and cherishing her.
Of course, Anette need never know what measures he would take.
Knowing her cautious nature, Sisrain concealed his cruelty and showed her only sweetness.
―Perhaps for all his life, it would remain so.
He would deceive her slightly, wear masks of pretense, fear that she might come to dread him, and spend his existence thirsting for her affection like a man perpetually parched.
“You chose me tonight, then.”
Taking her small hand, he bent his broad back like a beast in willing submission, his voice at her ear dripping with sweetness.
Anette felt her face flush intensely.
Even when he spoke the same words, they felt different coming from him.
“…Dancing once does not constitute a choice.”
The corners of his mouth beneath the black mask curved upward handsomely.
“Then dance well, and I shall earn your choice, my lady.”
His formal speech, more restrained than usual to match tonight’s theme, stirred something strange within her.
―Her chest tingled.
He wrapped her slender waist with hands large and rough as a beast’s paws—hands so powerful they could crumble her to dust with the slightest pressure.
Like a slave provoking through submission, Sisrain whispered against her ear.
“Discover what else I might excel at.”
Thanks to the dress’s design, his warm fingers traced the exposed curve of her back with meticulous care, as though etching his fingerprints into her skin.
“….”
Anette’s heart raced.
Yet it was no longer fear that quickened it.
The fear had lifted, and her racing pulse had transformed into an intense magnetism and affection toward him.
A man who had entrusted her with his heart, who showed her unwavering devotion.
My steadfast shelter.
A person who overcame countless sorrows and came to me at last, holding me with tenderness.
A person who spoke their true heart, saying they loved me.
Anette cherished him.
The two danced, holding each other.
Everything in the loud, bustling Banquet Hall faded away until only the two of them remained.
* * *
The final waltz lasted long enough for Kyle to discover Anette.
“Anette….”
Just as Kyle was about to ask her for the final dance, he noticed the man standing beside her.
It was Sisrain.
Anette had asked Sisrain for the final dance, and the two soon began to dance together with affection.
Kyle’s gaze followed Anette.
Her radiant smile.
Her cheeks flushed with shy warmth.
Her eyes brimming with tenderness….
Kyle, who had lingered at Anette’s side his entire life and observed her every expression, was seeing such a face for the first time.
In that moment, he understood with absolute clarity.
Where her heart truly lay.
“….”
Kyle, who had always observed her with meticulous care and keen attention, realized her love before Anette herself did.

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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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