The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 22

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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 22
The morning of the next day.
All the children had gathered at the Forest Hall.
This mansion was built within a vast real forest, and we called the entire woodland surrounding the mansion the Forest Hall.
I gazed at the children huddled together like chicks.
‘Mmm, the forest air smells wonderful. The little ones are adorable too.’
My mood brightened, and I smiled gently while surveying my surroundings when my eyes met Sisrain’s.
“Oh? Sisrain! You have an earring I’ve never seen before!”
Sisrain seemed uncomfortable, fidgeting with his ear as he answered.
“Ah… the teacher called it an ‘Ability Suppression Earring.'”
“Wow!”
‘How envious.’
What must it feel like to possess an ability powerful enough to require suppression?
An extra like me would never know, no matter how long I lived.
At that moment, an arrogant voice drifted over.
“Ugh, I’m so tired of these tests. It’s definitely going to be ‘Rank 1 Special’ again anyway!”
“Of course it will be, right? Our Heinrich is truly amazing~”
As I smiled and responded, Heinrich’s face flushed innocently despite his own boasting.
“Tch, naturally. That’s why I’ll protect you for life, older sister.”
“Aww, how reassuring?”
Heinrich brought his fist to his mouth and coughed, “Ahem, ahem,” his face growing redder by the moment.
“You’d prefer a strong husband to a weak one, right? You see, if you marry me later, I’ll be amazing…”
“Anette! Anette! Look at this! Do you see this?”
“Huh? What is it, Shasha?”
“…Older sister, if you marry me.”
Shasha bounded over like a rabbit, and my attention was drawn away, so I didn’t properly hear what Heinrich was saying.
“Ta-da, it’s a rabbit bell!”
“Wow, Shasha, the rabbit bell is really cute.”
“Yep! I’m going to run around hard like a rabbit!”
“Awesome, Shasha!”
“…Who exactly am I talking to?”
Heinrich muttered awkwardly, and Sisrain, watching from beside him, shook his head slowly.
Shasha clenched her fist and spoke.
“This time I have to reach Rank 4 for sure!”
A one-rank increase goal! That’s a reasonable target, Shasha.
As for my reasonable goal…
I scratched my cheek slightly embarrassed and smiled with lowered brows.
“I’d be happy just maintaining Rank 5!”
Since I was a model student, I received grade points for ‘academics’ and ‘conduct,’ which was how I reached this level.
Most ordinary unawakened people remained at Rank 9, nearly the lowest tier.
Actually, there’s no real need to measure my level.
Sigh, now that I think about it, I feel rather melancholy.
‘If I can at least maintain level five with my meager talents, that would be respectable enough.’
Just as I was lost in these gloomy thoughts, Rose—who always oversaw the level tests—appeared.
She wore her characteristic radiant rose-pink smile and clapped her hands together with a sharp snap.
“Alright! Today, as announced, we’ll be conducting the ‘Level Test.’ Everyone received their necklaces, yes?”
“Yes!”
Julian answered the loudest of all, his sky-blue eyes sparkling brilliantly.
“For those of you in the Tree who’ve participated before, you already know, but let me explain again—that necklace is for your ‘safety.’ If you find yourselves in danger, call me through the necklace from anywhere.”
Rose raised one hand high as she spoke with cheerful enthusiasm.
“Then I’ll come rescue you right away!”
‘Hehe, I should be perfectly safe then.’
I had the necklace, and if worst came to worst, I could always summon Julius through the Pluto Clan ring.
Lulu. This test is apparently ‘lying down and eating pudding.’
I was grinning contentedly when Rose continued speaking.
“Your level increases by defeating ‘monsters’! Oh! But don’t worry! The monsters look incredibly cute, and they generally won’t harm you.”
“Yes~!”
“However!”
Rose’s expression grew stern as she raised her index finger for emphasis.
“Each of you will be assigned a zone matching your level, so be careful not to stray from it. If you accidentally wander into a high-level area, it could be dangerous! Also, those of you wearing ‘suppression devices’ must never remove them under any circumstances. Understood?”
So the rules were simple.
1. Defeat many monsters (low-level monsters won’t attack members of the Tree, but high-level ones might be different)
2. Stay within your assigned zone
3. Do not remove the suppression device
‘Hmm. The rules are the same as last time.’
The children gathered together all had their eyes gleaming.
Each of them seemed brimming with determination.
“Well then, good luck. Begin!”
Piiiiik—
With Rose’s whistle, light erupted from the children’s necklaces. Simultaneously, a brilliant flash of light engulfed them all.
* * *
“Wow, I’m in the same zone as Anette again! This is amazing!”
“Looks like it, Shasha.”
Teleported to the Low-Level Zone, I surveyed my surroundings alongside Shasha.
The crisp, refreshing scent of the forest was lovely, and the clustered spring blossoms were beautiful. The atmosphere here was quite peaceful.
“Let’s do our best, Anette!”
“Okay!”
I nodded enthusiastically, holding in my hand a childishly gaudy magical wand.
It was the only weapon given to the unawakened.
‘Sigh, it’s cute but so embarrassing.’
It was then, while I was crying internally, that a strange sound came from beneath my feet.
―Kyuuung?
Huh? What kind of sound is that? A terrifying monster must have appeared!
As I hurriedly looked down at my feet, it was exactly as I’d feared.
The arrival of my ‘first monster’—a slime.
…Though calling it terrifying was a bit of a stretch.
The pudding-like, gelatinous creature bounced toward me with a springy gait. Then it cried out.
“Kyuu.”
‘…Ah, now I feel bad about defeating it!’
The monster I needed to defeat was so pathetic that I hesitated for a moment. But to maintain my level 5 status, I absolutely had to catch monsters.
Having steeled my resolve, I let out a battle cry and swung my wand.
“Hyah!”
The slime bounced off the wand with a twang and flew far away, crying “Kyuuuung.”
“I defeated it!”
“Me too, me too! I want to catch a monster!”
Shasha, inspired by my display, dashed off with a pitter-patter into the deeper forest. I quickly followed after her.
How far did we run like that?
We finally encountered a small monster with the appearance of a mole on a narrow forest path.
“Kihihi.”
…The mole was laughing in an unpleasant way.
With tiny black eyes like millet seeds and a long snout, it sniffed and snuffled while facing off against Shasha.
Shasha chanted a summoning spell with a grave expression, as though she’d encountered an incredibly powerful monster.
“Felesto!”
Poof—something was summoned.
‘…The chick I summoned during last class!’
―Peep? Peep peep!
A yellow chick, no larger than a baby’s fist, materialized and tilted its head in confusion.
By any measure, it was far too small to defeat the mole. As expected, the mole sniffed with its long snout and sneered.
“Kikikiki!”
“….”
Shasha’s pink cotton-candy-like twin tails, which had been floating buoyantly, drooped downward with a sag.
Her face was filled with disappointment.
“…It seems I’m still not strong enough to handle a mole monster.”
“No, don’t give up! You can do it! Shasha!”
I cheered on the little one.
It was then that Shasha’s eyes brightened as she heard my encouragement. She looked at me, nodded solemnly with an “Mm,” and cried out.
“Felesto!”
―Peep, peep peep?
Another chick appeared.
“Felesto!”
— Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.
“Pelesto!”
— Chirp, chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
As an enormous army of chicks materialized, the sneering mole snorted in surprise, its nose twitching.
Shasha thrust her index finger forward with solemn determination and cried out.
“Warriors, attack!”
The yellow chick warriors flapped their wings and launched a pecking assault—peck, peck-peck, peck-peck!
“Kyaaaak!”
The mole panicked and fled in disarray, then burst into smoke and vanished.
Shasha’s face overflowed with joy.
“Yes, we did it!”
“Wow, that was amazing. You were wonderful, Shasha!”
We were embracing each other in celebration when my necklace suddenly rose into the air and began emitting a crimson light.
‘Crimson light?’
I had never seen it glow like this before.
“Ah, Anette?! …Anette!!!”
With Shasha’s shocked face as the last thing I saw, the crimson light swallowed me whole in an instant.
“…!”
* * *
“Ugh!”
I landed hard on my backside with a thud, tumbling into an unfamiliar space.
I panicked and quickly scanned my surroundings.
Before my eyes, a majestic waterfall cascaded down with tremendous force, and the trees were so dense and thick they seemed to blot out the sky itself.
The air carried that distinctive cold, briny scent of deep forest vegetation.
‘Where am I?’
This is definitely not the edge of The Forest. The trees are packed too densely.
“…Shasha?”
I called out her name cautiously, but only the sound of wind answered. It was clear no one was nearby.
‘Is the necklace malfunctioning?’
I examined the necklace, troubled.
Should I call for Rose now?
Normally, I would have chosen the safe path without hesitation, but I was wearing the Pluto ring right now.
If things went south, I could always summon Julius.
‘There’s no need to call Rose and take a cowardice penalty for nothing.’
If I called her and this place turned out to be a Low-Level Zone as well, I probably wouldn’t even maintain level 5 this time.
I calmly got to my feet and brushed the dirt from my clothes.
“All right then.”
So I should make the rational choice, shouldn’t I?
First, I tore the hem of my pants and tied it to a tree to mark the path.
Then I began moving forward.
In my left hand, I gripped the necklace, while my right hand—the one wielding my weapon—was prepared at a moment’s notice to rub the ring if necessary.
Yet suddenly, a question crossed my mind.
‘…What could Sisrain and Heinrich be doing right now?’
* * *
Heinrich was sprinting through the depths of The Forest. This map, designed exclusively for Special Grade 1 hunters, was a minefield of traps at every step, with death lurking in each passing moment.
Whoooosh!
At that instant, white snakes as massive as anacondas lunged at the boy with their jaws gaping wide.
While running, Heinrich glanced sideways and whispered a brief incantation.
“Decarto.”
Crackling with dark crimson sparks, the energy in the boy’s hand swiftly took the form of a blade.
Heinrich evaded the rushing assault and cleanly severed the serpent’s head with a horizontal slash.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several more snakes attempted to coil around Heinrich’s body, but they too fell like autumn leaves beneath his blade.
“Tch, relentless creatures. Yet not one of them could even graze my clothes….”
Heinrich swept back his silver hair and smirked, then kicked at the monster’s corpse with his foot.
His beautiful, arrogant violet eyes gleamed with confidence.
“This is maddening. I’m so overwhelmingly strong that I can’t even lose if I wanted to.”
Just as his lips curled upward, thick thorned vines suddenly erupted from the ground, coiling around Heinrich’s ankles and dragging him downward. Crash!
“…!!!”
A trap.
The ground crumbled beneath me, and I barely managed to catch myself with one hand, clinging to the edge like I was suspended over a cliff.
“Ugh.”
I tried to shake off the vines, but I could no longer feel the flow of mana from my core.
It was as if something had blocked the current.
‘A mana-resistant monster?’
“…Damn it!”
Cold sweat dripped down my back. Glancing at the ground below, the collapsed earth appeared quite deep.
Wind rushing up from below sent my silver hair fluttering wildly.
‘If I fall from here, I’ll be seriously injured.’
Or worse—I’d die.
Meanwhile, the thorned vines continued their relentless effort to drag me downward.
“Damn! Hell! Why is this plant even here!”
No matter how hard I gritted my teeth and resisted, my grip was steadily weakening.
Just as my trembling strength reached its absolute limit.
‘I’m falling!’
A hand suddenly thrust forward before me.
“…!”
Backlit by a single beam of light piercing through the dense forest, the rescuer’s face remained obscured.
Squinting my violet eyes, the features gradually became clear through the rays of light.
Hair as dark as a starless night, and eyes burning red with a bestial gaze.
This familiar yet irritating sensation… I knew it all too well.
It was a boy Heinrich knew quite well.
“Catch.”
Sisrain waved the hand he extended toward me.

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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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