The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 56

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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 56
‘…Ah, when he smiles, he looks like such a graceful young deer!’
The very epitome of an innocent, handsome face.
Hidden behind his glasses and shyness, his features were remarkably refined and composed.
When Anette stared intently at that face, the man awkwardly averted his gaze and adjusted his glasses.
Did he perhaps contract some disease where eye contact meant death?
“I… well then, I’ll purchase all the remaining tarts. Could you wrap them for me?”
“My, you’re buying everything? Of course, sir.”
Anette chuckled softly as she picked up the tart tray and walked toward the register.
Then, carefully wrapping the beautiful tarts topped with plump, crimson dates, she called out toward the kitchen.
“All the bread has sold out today! The Little Bakery is now closed!”
A red-haired head suddenly popped out from the kitchen.
“What? You actually sold all those tasteless dates―”
“…!”
When Anette quickly gestured with her eyes toward the gullible customer, the red wolf shut his mouth with a click and tactfully retreated inside.
‘Oh no, did he hear that?’
She glanced nervously, but he was simply admiring the interior decoration.
‘Phew, thank goodness.’
“Your wrapping is ready, sir!”
The man strode up to the counter with long legs and took the bag.
Since he might have heard, I should sacrifice the bread I’d set aside for myself.
‘I can’t afford to lose such a valued customer!’
Anette rustled around below the counter and casually produced another bread bag.
“This one’s on the house!”
The Little Bakery’s most popular menu item, number one.
A long, crispy baguette, perfectly baked.
“I noticed last time that you seemed to enjoy it, so I set this aside for you in advance! …as a gift for you.”
Anette delivered her sales pitch with a bright, beaming smile.
Hehe, regular customers always fall for this kind of service.
“…Ah….”
Sure enough, the innocent young man wore an expression of genuine emotion.
He accepted the bread bag with the reverence of one receiving an ancient artifact from an emperor—carefully and respectfully.
With his large frame and broad shoulders, the baguette draped across them looked rather endearing.
He fingered the bread with his thick yet long, pale fingers.
‘Hmm? What’s he hesitating about?’
As the question arose―
The young man’s prominent Adam’s apple bobbed noticeably along his neck.
Then, as if having made a decision, he withdrew something from his breast pocket and offered it to her.
“…?”
Anette’s gaze shifted toward it.
Chocolate and white flowers.
The chocolate had an adorable pink ribbon hanging from it, and the white flowers were as pristine and beautiful as the delicate snowflakes of the first snow.
“…Please, accept this.”
The man’s large hands trembled slightly.
“Yes, thank you?”
Anette accepted them without thinking.
“Then.”
He smiled somewhat endearingly, with the expression of someone who had accomplished something.
Then he strode out of the Bakery with his long legs.
Anette stared blankly at his retreating figure.
“That person….”
She murmured to herself.
“Why did he just leave without paying…?”
* * *
“Glutinous rice! What did that spectacled fellow give you?”
Um immediately came over to me and checked what the customer had given me.
I held up the chocolate and flowers.
“Chocolate and white flowers, Um.”
Um’s thick eyebrows shot up. His expression was one of exasperation.
“Ha, that spectacled bastard. He’s really transparent.”
“Right, this is really transparent….”
I rubbed my nose and smiled contentedly.
“He must be truly devoted to bread.”
“…?!”
I raised my index finger like a keen detective and spoke.
“Since I secretly saved him a baguette and gave it to him, he’s repaying me like this, right? Next time he’ll definitely be asking for more, won’t he? He comes in late, so he always misses our Bakery’s number one popular menu item, the ‘baguette’!”
How much must he have regretted it every day?
“So he’s so devoted to bread that he’d even bribe the Bakery owner. Well, I’m delighted to meet a fellow enthusiast―”
“Glutinous rice. You really….”
Um stared at me in shock for a moment, then shook his head slowly.
“Poor, pitiful spectacled fellow… to have fallen for such a bread fanatic.”
Hmm, why would he say that’s pitiful?
Isn’t it good for a regular customer when the Bakery owner is a bread fanatic too?
I was tilting my head in confusion.
“Heh.”
Sordi, who had been elegantly enjoying black tea and freshly baked madeleines at a nearby table, laughed.
“What did I do wrong, Sordi?”
The lily-like handsome man, as always, gave me a bright smile and spoke.
“Nothing at all. I was just thinking our little one is cute today too.”
‘…I suppose that’s how it seems to someone so smitten.’
Even though I’d become an adult, he still called me “little one”—enough said about how he viewed me.
When I protested once, he responded with remarkable logic: “I’m thousands of years old, so compared to me, aren’t you still a little one?” I was instantly convinced.
Having lived so long, he’d apparently lost count of his own age and simply rounded it to “thousands”—which was rather impressive in its own way.
“Then let’s turn off the lights and call it a day.”
I hummed softly as I tidied the empty display shelves.
‘I’m so satisfied.’
When every loaf sells out, a baker’s heart finds peace—as comforting and nourishing as a bowl of warm, hearty stew.
I grabbed a small watering can and stepped outside.
There, beside the wooden sign with its crooked lettering reading “Little Bakery,” I watered the flower bed where colorful blooms clustered together in cheerful abundance.
The delicate, charming flowers drank deeply of the water and sunlight.
“Ah, today is wonderful too—”
Life on Bayonere Island had proven far more satisfying than I’d anticipated.
‘Choosing this island was a masterstroke.’
Bayonere Island appeared in the original work, mentioned repeatedly in an episode where some swindler embezzled Imperial Court funds and fled.
“Head to Bayonere Island without fail. No one can find you there,” they’d said.
Moreover, the original occasionally described the island’s pristine natural beauty—its dazzling sunlight and gorgeous sea—so vividly that I’d found myself captivated while reading.
‘It’s even more magnificent than I imagined.’
Just as the original had suggested, coming here meant truly no one could find me.
Gerard must have dispatched hundreds of trackers.
Of course, Kirke’s Phantom Thief Boy deserved much of the credit for meticulously erasing my traces and cutting off pursuit.
‘I thought he’d just help lightly.’
Yet he’d come to the island several times to look after me. I was truly grateful.
It had been the same when I first settled here.
“Just keep using the name Anette.”
“…Wouldn’t changing my name make it easier to evade pursuit?”
“Living under an assumed name is like living as a criminal. Every time someone calls you by a different name, you’d remember you’re in hiding, and your heart would grow unhappy.”
“…I see.”
The thoughtful Phantom Boy cupped my cheek and spoke.
“I’ll cut off your pursuit completely. So start a happy new life here. Understood?”
“Yes!”
“The name Anette is extremely common here, so don’t worry.”
It was true. On the Western Continent, “Anette” had been trendy for about twenty years and consistently ranked in the top ten most common names.
I’d read about it several times in newspapers and magazines.
‘Just an extra’s debuff, really.’
The author had clearly just picked it at random.
“And I want to…keep calling you by your name….”
The Phantom Boy said something slightly cryptic.
In any case, it was rather touching.
It seemed he genuinely wished for my happiness, not viewing me merely as a transaction.
‘Of course, since he’s an information broker, I can’t trust him completely.’
Typically, people who are terrifyingly powerful negotiate contracts precisely because they demand equally substantial compensation.
The Phantom Boy was undoubtedly an extraordinarily frightening person as well.
‘He might demand something tremendous as payment later.’
Of course, he hadn’t asked for anything from me yet.
‘What could he possibly want from me?’
It was becoming unsettling how genuinely he seemed to want nothing at all.
Aside from that concern, my days were peaceful and blissful, untouched by any other worries.
Hmm…
“…Still, that customer who left on credit is bothering me a little.”
I recalled the tall man who had given me chocolate and flowers—without even paying, mind you—and departed with a casual whistle.
The Bakery’s very first customer to leave on credit in its entire history!
I set the watering can beside me and settled onto the bench beneath the porch.
Then I brought the white flowers he’d given me close and inhaled their delicate fragrance.
‘These flowers feel strangely familiar.’
I felt certain I’d received them before, but when?
Since I didn’t retain all of my older memories, I quickly abandoned the attempt to recall and untied the pink ribbon.
Inside, glossy chocolate emerged, releasing a rich cocoa aroma.
Crack—
I bit into a piece and let it melt on my tongue.
“…!”
I covered my mouth in pleasant surprise.
‘This is incredibly delicious.’
The chocolate from the mysterious Nerd Young Man was smooth, sweet, and rich.
I instantly became happy and broke into a radiant smile.

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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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