The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 21

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 21
“….”
Meanwhile, there was a child who had heard this confession without sleeping.
It was Sisrain, who used the bed next to Anette’s.
His crimson eyes glowed quietly in the darkness. The boy then closed his eyes without a sound.
He pretended not to notice Heinrich’s quiet tears from behind him.
* * *
The next morning.
Two notices were posted on the bulletin board from early in the day.
「 Vivian has been sent to the Forest Cathedral with 45 demerit points. 」
The first notice wasn’t particularly interesting since everyone already knew about it, but the second notice was what captured the children’s attention.
「 There will be a ‘Level Test’ tomorrow. Members of the Tree, please prepare yourselves. 」
“Wow, there’s a Level Test tomorrow!”
“I hope I become level 4 this time.”
“Shasha, what level are you at now?”
“I’m at level 5 right now…!”
Julian, being a young child, was unranked. Everyone else had been assigned levels, but Sisrain had never participated.
So this would be his first Level Test.
Sisrain was reading the notice in place of the sleeping Anette when he suddenly glanced to the side.
Heinrich, whose eyes were swollen like a pufferfish, was reading the notice.
Sisrain looked at those eyes and asked quietly.
“…Can you even see the letters?”
Heinrich, his eyes puffed up, barely managed to blink and responded irritably.
“Well enough to hit you once or twice.”
“Why do your eyes look like that? Did mosquitoes only feast on yours?”
“Don’t start with me. I’m in a foul mood today.”
Sisrain simply stared at Heinrich with his hands in his pockets.
Slowly, Heinrich’s irritation flared up.
“Damn it, why are you staring like that, you beast?”
“Why did you do it.”
“…What did I do?!”
Unlike Heinrich, who jumped up in protest, Sisrain spoke quietly.
“You’re the one who told Vivian about my Secret Hideout.”
“…!”
Heinrich’s face went pale in an instant. Then he asked sharply.
“You heard?”
Sisrain’s crimson eyes narrowed.
“If you didn’t want to be overheard, you shouldn’t have told anyone. You were careless.”
Realizing that Sisrain had heard the confession he’d been muttering to himself last night, Heinrich’s face flushed red, and he dragged Sisrain to a deserted place.
Before the aggressive tomcat, Sisrain remained as calm as still water.
“Thanks to you coming early, I nearly got beaten to a pulp by Mimosa, and might’ve ended up back in the Cave. If Anette hadn’t been there, it would’ve been a disaster.”
Heinrich flinched in surprise.
‘What? Since when does this beast speak so eloquently?’
I’d never heard him string together so many words before. He was better when he stayed quiet.
At least then he wouldn’t have caught me off guard like this.
“W-what are you trying to say?!”
“I nearly got into serious trouble because of you.”
The conscience that had ached all night while I wept in remorse began to throb again.
Heinrich found himself feeling somewhat sorry toward Sisrain despite everything.
So he grew even angrier at himself.
“I’m not sorry at all, you hear me?”
He stomped his foot with a heavy thud.
“Not one bit sorry for a beast like you! You monster!”
Yet somehow, when he said it that way, it sounded like ‘I’m a little sorry.’
“…Hmm.”
Sisrain’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Heinrich’s face had turned red as a ripe tomato, as if it might burst if pricked.
He ground his teeth and clenched his fists so hard they trembled.
“If you tell my sister about this, I’ll kill you.”
Heinrich’s teeth gleamed as he released a murderous purple aura.
That’s when Sisrain casually dropped his words.
“I won’t tell.”
“…!”
Sisrain stood quietly, his hand never leaving his pocket.
Meanwhile, Heinrich’s pupils trembled.
‘Why? If I were in his position, I’d definitely tell on him.’
Once Anette learned the truth, she’d surely hate Sisrain. Then Anette would be his alone again—wasn’t this the perfect opportunity?
Heinrich’s small mind couldn’t comprehend it, so he asked again.
“…Why won’t you tell?”
Sisrain frowned as if the question were childishly naive, then answered.
“Because I’m not as petty as you.”
Heinrich bit his teeth with a ‘tsk,’ feeling frustrated, but had no real comeback.
Which only made him angrier.
Sisrain continued with a composed expression.
“And besides, it would make Anette sad if I told.”
“…!”
That answer struck Heinrich’s chest like a hammer blow.
Without another word, Sisrain simply left Heinrich there and walked away with heavy footsteps.
Left alone, Heinrich felt an inexplicable sense of defeat and something strange stirring within him.
‘What? This beast who was living in a Cave just recently.’
He spoke as if he cared for his sister more than I did, and it irritated me.
But I certainly felt that he loved Anette just as much as I did.
And that he was doing this for Anette’s sake.
My feelings were strange, peculiar, and somehow complicated.
“If I told her, Anette would be sad.”
“Tch, damn it!”
Heinrich kicked at the dirt ground.
“Damn it! Does he think he’s so cool acting all noble by himself? How infuriating.”
Speaking as if he were doing me a favor,
and pretending to be so magnanimous!
“Who do you think you are, hiding my secret for me… What gives you the right?”
As he grumbled and fumed pointlessly, Julian came bounding over from a distance.
Julian, his cheeks flushed red, sparkled his large sky-blue eyes as he spoke.
“Where did Sisrain go, Heinwi?!”
“…It’s Heinrich, not Heinwi.”
Heinrich lowered his eyes and opened his mouth in an irritated manner.
“That damn bird…”
.
“No.”
Then, hesitantly and awkwardly, as if making an embarrassing confession, he pointed with his finger to where Sisrain had disappeared.
“Sisrain went that way…”
Strangely, Heinrich felt a little sorry for calling him a “damn bird.”
* * *
Mimosa’s Office.
She was conversing with someone through a communication device. The other party was J, a longtime patron of the Forest.
“Yes, J. As you said, I’ll conduct the level test tomorrow.”
An approving voice came from the other end. A question about Sisrain followed. Mimosa listened quietly and then answered.
“That’s right, Sisrain was nearly discarded. But Anette has been taking care of that child lately.”
[ Has Sisrain improved much? ]
J asked.
“Of course. That’s why Sisrain is growing into a proper member of the Forest now.”
Sisrain had awakened a powerful ability, but the child was so sensitive that he was essentially unusable at this stage.
The fact that someone was looking after Sisrain was something Mimosa had already anticipated.
The trap she had set to capture Sisrain clearly had blood on it, yet his ankle was unharmed from the start—which had seemed suspicious.
The disappearance of a healing potion from the Infirmary was surely no coincidence.
Afterward, when Mimosa discovered Anette caring for Sisrain at the Secret Hideout, she knew who the culprit was.
And when Putolio arrived, it was that clever Anette who had skillfully steered the informal trial in a favorable direction.
“As requested, you’ve removed all the peach fuzz from the meal. Thanks to your consideration, the Count will be able to dine without any allergic reactions. I’m grateful for Mimosa’s thoughtfulness.”
This was what the secretary had said to Mimosa when she came to check the food before the informal trial.
And that day, evidence was found that Anette had smuggled out an entire basket of peaches from the Food Storage.
‘Clever, indeed….’
In truth, the summary trial held little importance.
At that time, Sisrain was steadily improving, so if I lost the trial, I had resolved to simply pay the fifty million gold without protest.
Sisrain’s worth far exceeded a mere fifty million gold.
However, the fact that Anette cherished Sisrain so deeply was quite intriguing.
Mimosa spoke to J.
“Anette is creating synergy by looking after Sisrain. It’s something I’m greatly anticipating.”
[ But if Anette doesn’t awaken, she’ll be useless. You understand that, don’t you, Madam? ]
J spoke in a slightly lowered voice.
[ Don’t forget that Anette is the most important talent in our Forest. ]
“…Of course. That child is truly special.”
A faint smile graced the corners of Mimosa’s wrinkled mouth.
“With the eye into which I’ve embedded my enchanted object, I see that child’s talent clearly at every moment.”
Mimosa recalled the first time she met Anette.
More precisely, the moment she first beheld that child’s ‘soul’s color’.
Talent of the highest purity.
A brilliant light burning with intense radiance.
That light was of the gentlest hue, yet it shone with such brilliance and beauty that no darkness could ever dim it.
She knew at once.
That child was the one Mimosa had waited for her entire life.
That child possessed the makings to become the Forest’s greatest ‘awakened one’ in all its history.
Yet despite possessing such tremendous talent, Anette had lived quietly in the Forest all this time.
A model student type, worryingly unassuming.
Usually, children with exceptional talent had peculiar edges like Heinrich or Sisrain, but Anette always smiled gently and enjoyed tending to the other children in modest ways.
She neither demanded nor desired anything.
It was only after meeting Sisrain that Anette made her first request of Mimosa.
“I’ll take responsibility and fix him, Madam.”
Anette stepped forward to cure Sisrain’s water trauma and to clear his name of the theft accusation.
Mimosa continued to give such opportunities to Anette partly because that child was a diligent model student whom she could trust, but the real reason was….
‘I was curious. Very much so.’
How that precious child would grow.
“As you know, J, Anette is a Special Grade 1 level child, and beyond that.”
Though she never showed it, thinking of Anette always made her heart race with anticipation.
“And if tomorrow’s proceedings go well, Anette will finally stand at the ‘pinnacle of the awakened ones’. All awakened ones will bow beneath that child’s feet.”
[ Do you plan to force an awakening during tomorrow’s level test? ]
“Yes, we’ve decided to move forward.”
If the chick cannot break free from its shell on its own, then the shell must be rolled off a cliff.
Mimosa lifted a teaspoon and stirred her teacup gently.
The blood-red black tea formed a small whirlpool within the cup.
She lowered her eyes and whispered.
“If an Unawakened continues to live worthlessly like that… from our perspective, that child might as well be dead.”
[ I concur, ma’am. But what if forcing an Awakening actually results in their death? ]
Mimosa’s cold expression flickered, revealing a deep, ravenous hunger—then curved into a smile of unparalleled cruelty.
She took a quiet sip of tea before answering.
“Well then… if they die tomorrow, isn’t that simply the child’s fate?”
After all, even the most beautiful flower bud that fails to bloom becomes nothing but an impurity to be pruned away.
[ Tomorrow is looking promising. ]
With that response, the communication device fell silent, the connection severed cleanly.
Mimosa’s cold golden eyes reflected in the darkened screen.
She gazed out the window and whispered languidly.
“I’m looking forward to it too. Tomorrow.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————