The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 41

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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 41
* * *
All the children in the Dormitory were so deeply asleep that they could have been carried away without stirring.
Beyond the dark window, the cries of crows echoed—caw, caw, caw.
I was lost in thought.
‘Will my method actually work?’
Now that I had provoked Gerard, I felt the tension creeping in.
In truth, revealing to Gerard—who had been obsessed with the cigarette case—that it was in my possession was an extraordinarily perilous decision.
It was evidence from a murder scene, after all!
‘Gerard won’t know exactly where he lost it.’
One careless slip of the tongue, and he’d immediately discover that I had witnessed it.
No, actually, that wasn’t the real problem. If I spoke carefully enough, I could avoid being caught, couldn’t I?
The real problem was—
‘Gerard’s method of handling problems.’
Rather than leaving alive some uncomfortable human who might be a witness…
‘He might find it more convenient to kill me and recover the cigarette case.’
As my cold, logical thoughts reached that conclusion, I swallowed hard.
Oh no, save the future bakery owner!
‘But I have Sordi and Um on my side.’
If things went south, they would come to my aid. Besides, I had another advantage.
‘The fact that I’m only twelve years old.’
To adults, a twelve-year-old is merely an immature creature.
Moreover, they think of me as someone so weak that I could be disposed of at any moment if I became an inconvenience.
‘In other words, I’m not a threat.’
Compared to the High Priest, who possessed social status and honor, I was truly like the difference between a dangerous predator and a fluffy hamster.
In reality, even if a twelve-year-old dared to go around saying ‘The prince killed the High Priest!’, no one would believe them.
Of course, if I decided to spread such a story, I wouldn’t behave like an ordinary twelve-year-old.
But Gerard didn’t know that.
‘So he’ll let me live.’
It would be far easier to make a simple deal than to kill a child and stir up trouble among the Nobility who had sent me the golden rose.
Yes, exactly.
I was nodding to myself when it happened.
Tap, tap-tap-tap.
A sound came from the window.
“Huh?”
When I turned my head, a crow was tilting its small head at the window, a scroll as large as its own body clenched in its beak.
My eyes flew open in an instant.
‘A carrier crow! Gerard must have sent it.’
Like a nimble hamster diving toward a cashew, I scrambled—rustle, rustle—down from the bed.
Then, careful not to wake any of the other sleeping children, I crept quietly toward the window.
Flap!
At that moment, a raven flew up from the window and flapped its wings.
“…?”
Then, locking eyes with me through its beady black gaze, it flew into the adjacent room as if beckoning me to follow.
Oh? This raven is surprisingly intelligent. You’d qualify for Mensa membership, little raven.
‘At this rate, you might even be smarter than Julian.’
Ah, my apologies! Julian.
Following the raven’s guidance, I soon arrived at the room at the far end of the corridor.
It used to be the Music Room and now served as a storage space, but the door was so thick that even screams wouldn’t be properly heard from within.
Creak—I opened the window to welcome my dark-feathered visitor.
“Hello there, raven?”
Caw!
The handsome raven with lustrous black feathers flapped its wings as if in response.
“Hehe, will you show me the letter quickly?”
I smiled and extended my hand.
I was desperately curious about the letter’s contents.
A secret message important enough to be delivered in this empty room at dawn—it had to be significant.
Just from this alone, I could be certain.
My suspicions about the cigarette case had been correct.
As I reached toward the raven, the clever bird lightly took flight and slightly parted its beak.
Caw!
Then, with a flutter, it unfurled the scroll before me.
“…!”
Even witnessing the astounding spectacle of a carrier bird directly unrolling the scroll, what truly shocked me was something else entirely.
The letter was completely blank.
“…Huh?”
I blinked and examined the letter more carefully.
But it was pristine—utterly empty.
“The prince sent me a blank page?”
Right then.
Clear black letters began to shimmer mysteriously across the empty parchment, gradually revealing their contents.
“…!”
It was undoubtedly Gerard’s handwriting.
「 Anette, how did you know the cigarette case was mine? 」
I swallowed hard.
* * *
I discovered that he had lost the cigarette case that very night, right after the banquet ended.
I had the attendants search every conceivable location where it might have been lost, but even after staying up all night until dawn broke, the cigarette case could not be found.
As if it had simply vanished into thin air.
But I had to find it.
It wasn’t the cigarette case itself that mattered—it was the black object embedded within it.
To describe it as Gerard von Axilpherion’s ‘everything’ would hardly be an exaggeration.
Thus, when the attendant who had ransacked the entire Imperial Palace throughout the night returned empty-handed,
the prince, who had spent the night seated in his wheelchair drinking, spoke thus.
“Find it. If you fail, I will show no mercy.”
His tone carried the dignity befitting imperial blood. Not a trace of anger colored his words.
Yet the attendant trembled violently, his eyes cast downward.
Like livestock genuflecting before the great blade of a slaughterhouse.
For despite his measured voice, the cold, sinister gleam in his eyes was that of a butcher.
The attendants thus scattered throughout every corner of the Imperial Palace, resuming their desperate search with renewed urgency.
Even hunting dogs were deployed, yet results remained frustratingly elusive.
Days and nights of continuous searching yielded nothing. Gerard’s patience was finally reaching its breaking point.
On a morning when the attendants believed their very lives hung by a thread,
a small letter was delivered before Gerard.
“Your Highness, a letter has arrived from the Forest.”
“From the Forest.”
“Yes, sir. A charming card.”
His aide grinned, squinting his eyes as he extended the card.
It was an envelope adorned with a sunflower meticulously drawn in a child’s hand.
In this dire situation, that single gleaming card was like an audacious merchant hawking ice cream beside the gates of perdition, cheerfully calling out, “Isn’t it hot, everyone? Ice cream for just one silver!”
Gerard’s eyebrow twitched.
“….”
He promptly tore open the envelope and withdrew the card.
The sunflower, ripped in half, and the child’s innocence and sincerity plummeted mercilessly to the ground.
「Your Highness, you haven’t lost your cigarette case, have you?」
Gerard’s lips twisted.
So this was why the object couldn’t be found.
It wasn’t difficult to deduce whose hands now held the cigarette case.
But then, why send such a cute card instead of returning it?
He recalled the last time he had seen Anette.
That small frame, flinching and shrinking back as his hand reached toward her.
“My apologies, Your Highness. Anette seems to be quite nervous.”
The child’s small hands trembled, withdrawn like a mouse before a cat. If that wasn’t merely the trauma of an orphan who had been beaten, but rather fear of him,
then the purpose of this card was easily discernible.
That insignificant, fragile little creature—one whose neck could be snapped with a single hand—dared to propose a ‘negotiation’ with him.
“…A cute little mouse, indeed.”
Gerard chuckled flatly.
Then he slowly sipped the whiskey that filled his diamond-cut glass.
That dawn, Gerard sent a reply to the child.
The moment Anette unrolled the scroll,
Whoooosh!
An identical scroll unfurled before him as well.
“….”
Within it, Anette with her large jade-green eyes tilted her head innocently.
This was a kind of ‘video communication device’.
Unfairly, only this side could see through to the other.
Watching Anette tilt her head with curiosity, her jade-green eyes gleaming from within the scroll, Gerard picked up his pen and began writing.
「 Anette, how did you know the cigarette case was mine? 」
[“…!”]
Anette’s eyes widened in an instant.
As if a major problem had just occurred.
[ Oh no, I didn’t bring a pen! ]
The child bounced her cotton-candy-sized body with an innocent expression, wondering “how do I answer this?”
It was quite adorable, but Gerard was not the type of person to feel such emotions.
He merely felt his already taut patience being stretched a fraction further.
So he immediately revised his plan to communicate gracefully through writing.
“There’s no need to use a pen specifically, Anette.”
[ …Your Highness? ]
Anette asked in surprise before quickly composing herself respectfully toward him.
[ Hello, I am Anette. I imagine you were puzzled by my sudden letter. However, there is something I absolutely must tell you! ]
“Yes, I received your card well. Tell me what you desire.”
Gerard’s voice was extraordinarily gentle and affectionate.
Just as it had been when he met Anette at the Imperial Palace.
The difference from then was that his gaze was eerie, making his tone and demeanor frighteningly discordant.
Unaware of this, the girl proposed confidently with innocent charm, yet with her characteristic shrewdness.
[ Your Highness, what I desire is to exchange the cigarette case for myself. …Could you withdraw my adoption petition? ]
This audacious little thing.
Daring to negotiate with me.
You, of all people?
Gerard twisted his lips and picked up his glass. Then he began questioning sharply.
“Anette, how did you know the cigarette case was mine?”
He had been curious since receiving the letter, but couldn’t find the precise answer to this part.
Could one deduce the owner simply by looking at a lost item?
He had never heard of such a case. Unless the object had the owner’s name written on it.
The cigarette case didn’t even have his initials engraved on it.
So how?
It would make sense if the child had witnessed the moment he dropped it.
And one of the likely places where it was lost was where he had disposed of Arthur High Priest.
If that small child had witnessed that scene.
And if she had accidentally seen the spectacle of the High Priest being disposed of and now feared him because of it.
All of this felt perfectly natural.
Gerard’s crimson eyes gleamed as he spoke with disarming gentleness.
“Answer me.”
[ …. ]
A tense silence.
Those blood-red eyes fixed upon Anette’s anxious face with relentless intensity.
As if searching through every crack and crevice of the small child’s uncertainty, ferreting out her every weakness.
Answer this question wrong, and you’ll die a miserable death, little one.
Anette carefully opened her mouth.

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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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