The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 64

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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 64
* * *
Crash!
“Damn bastard. I should have killed him long ago!”
Gerard brought his fist down on the table as though to shatter it. Veins bulged prominently across his forehead.
I should have disposed of him sooner.
Sooner—!
I should have strangled that cursed Sisrain the moment he first arrived at the Imperial Palace.
No, I should have eliminated him in the Forest.
I should have recognized him not as merely another boy with black hair and red eyes—a common enough trait—but as a member of the Imperial Family. My own younger brother, no less.
Emperor Axilperion was born with red eyes, but truthfully, red eyes existed everywhere.
They were not a trait exclusive to the Imperial Family.
Moreover, there was a significant reason why Gerard had never anticipated his existence.
‘I believed him dead. Already.’
“Lord Gerard, I have processed him as a stillbirth, as you commanded.”
“The infant’s corpse?”
“I confirmed he had already ceased breathing.”
Long ago, when my younger brother was born, I myself had ordered him killed and processed as a stillbirth.
That damned maidservant must have lied.
Nine years ago, the child I believed dead had returned.
And he possessed the Empress’s distinctive ability—the power of Mephistopheles.
The boy proved his bloodline by mixing his blood with Emperor Axilperion’s chalice, which verified the Imperial lineage.
And thus became one of nine imperial princes.
Those eternally hollow eyes.
A face that never smiled.
Gerard despised that boy’s unsettlingly vacant expression, so unbecoming of a child.
He yearned to strangle that boy’s neck—the one who possessed their mother’s ability, something Gerard himself lacked.
That was why.
―He had pushed the boy into the Crevasse, the rift of hell.
The Crevasse was a form of dimensional gateway, used as an instrument to execute those guilty of crimes too heinous for mere execution.
Those sucked into the rift are surrounded by malevolent spirits, their flesh gnawed and bones scraped while conscious, experiencing the ultimate agony and terror.
One hour in reality equals years within the Crevasse.
Should one fall into the rift even once and emerge, they must writhe in torment every single second for decades thereafter.
Thus, those who return from that place—
Their minds completely shattered, they become madmen consumed by fear.
Yet Sisrain was different.
Perfectly intact.
The same hollow expression as always, the same face incapable of feeling anything.
“―Brother, my ability has grown stronger after visiting the Crevasse.”
Only this time, he said it with a smile.
And with his strengthened abilities, he began systematically hunting down his brothers one by one.
In truth, the Emperor’s children were characterized by possessing formidable innate powers through their bloodline, making each a formidable opponent in their own right.
But after that, Sisrain deliberately ventured into Crevasse repeatedly, and each time he emerged, his abilities had grown monstrously stronger.
As if receiving compensation for his prolonged suffering, he murdered his brothers in the dead of night upon each return.
A madman drunk on blood, they called him.
His sanity had been shredded in Crevasse, they whispered.
His eyes grew increasingly unhinged, and without medication to suppress the hypersensitivity caused by his enhanced abilities, he couldn’t sleep properly for even a single night.
Those withered crimson eyes were terror incarnate.
“…In the end, they pushed him onto the battlefield to pacify him.”
That monster-like creature conquered a bizarre nation and returned alive from the battlefield.
―A nation completely unrelated to Eldorado!
Was it the Micaela Empire?
He’d stubbornly fought against the powers that be to conquer it.
When Sisrain returned safely from the battlefield, the Fourth Prince, consumed by terror, took his own life.
He couldn’t bear a man who slaughtered his brothers in their sleep like a butcher slaughtering pigs.
And less than a month later―
Today’s tragedy.
Gerard gripped his hair tightly.
“If Father had still been sound, he would have opposed that lunatic becoming Crown Prince…!”
Crash!
A glass tumbler fell from Gerard’s grasp and shattered. He spoke as if despair itself.
“That monster simply cannot be controlled anymore.”
Abilos Teje, the adjutant observing this crisis, responded.
“Yet he does not treat you violently, at least—you who share the same mother. He regards you as his elder brother, after all―”
“Foolish talk.”
Gerard cut him off sharply.
“That creature has long been an object of terror to the people of the Eldorado Empire. That’s precisely why he deliberately kept me alive—I have a good reputation.”
“…!”
“To neutralize Emperor Axilperion’s image, stained with dread.”
A cunning choice.
Which made it all the more threatening.
“Once my reputation becomes worthless, he’ll discard me like a dog’s meal without hesitation.”
“….”
“Now there is only one way to draw out the Crown Prince.”
A familiar name escaped Gerard’s lips.
“Anette.”
His red eyes flickered with intensity.
“That woman has become our only hope.”
If only he could obtain Anette. If she truly awakened the soul of the ‘First Sorcerer’.
Then Gerard would have a chance to stand against those monstrous abilities.
Of course, she was a girl he’d already searched for over ten years without finding—
But now the circumstances had shifted somewhat from before.
“Avilos, there’s no reason to search for that woman in secret anymore. Do it openly.”
“…!”
“It’s been ages since both the Crown Prince and I were exposed as searching for her anyway.”
Sisrain—that obsessive madman—had been searching for Anette for the past ten years, just like me.
Now that he’d become Crown Prince, it was obvious he’d pursue her far more openly, readily wielding his newfound power and authority to do so.
Until now, I’d faced considerable obstacles conducting my own “covert pursuit,” but there was no longer any need for such restraint.
Now came the time to grow even more relentless and desperate.
“Increase the tracking unit’s forces tenfold and deploy them all to find Anette.”
“Understood.”
“And monitor the Crown Prince’s every move. Where he goes, who he meets, what he does… report everything without omission! Bring me the information even if it costs your lives!”
“Yes!”
Crrraaack—
Gerard’s voice dripped with obsession as he gripped the sofa’s leather so hard it warped beneath his fingers.
“We find her first. No matter what.”
* * *
“Have you confirmed the bodies?”
The tall, sprawling figure lounging across the sofa was immense. His eyes were crimson and hollow.
Sisrain, freshly crowned Crown Prince, asked his aide first about the corpses.
Not about his own coronation ceremony,
nor the Emperor’s seal he’d newly acquired. Only—
about the bodies of those who’d been pursuing Anette.
“Yes, as expected, many were scattered across the Western Continent this time.”
A man with deep green hair and crimson eyes bowed his head as he reported.
Owen Harbert, Marquis. Once the prince’s aide, now the Crown Prince’s aide.
His mouth was heavy, his loyalty deep. He spoke again.
“It appears Anette is indeed on the Western Continent.”
“….”
At the name ‘Anette,’ Sisrain’s eyes slowly closed.
Within those deep eye sockets, his gaze shifted.
As if savoring her face behind his shuttered eyes.
“I’ll find her soon. Two wars should suffice.”
It had been a long road to reach this point.
The path had been arduous.
Even after proving I was the legitimate Empress’s son, the young prince had possessed no power within the Imperial Palace.
I had no forces to deploy even if I wanted to find Anette.
So to gain power, to reclaim her, I had to grow stronger quickly.
Even if it meant subjecting myself to terrible suffering.
That was why I ventured into Crevasse.
My mind gradually crumbled, and with senses honed to an unbearable edge, even dressing became an ordeal. Only after I became a body that couldn’t survive without medication….
After eliminating the competing princes and rising to become a contender for the position of Crown Prince, Sisrain finally acquired the power and military forces necessary to search for Anette in earnest.
That was three years ago.
“There’s an organization backing Anette. The ‘Kirke’ members who aided her escape.”
The point where Gerard’s tracking teams had consistently failed.
And judging from the fact that corpses bearing wounds from magic bullets were being discovered across various regions, that was the case.
“We don’t pursue Anette.”
Sisrain changed the paradigm of pursuit.
“―We follow the corpses instead.”
The organization would surely be positioned near whoever they sought to protect.
Bodies were discovered across multiple continents, but there were specific locations where they appeared with particular frequency.
Sisrain and his subordinates began tracking those corpses three years ago.
―Like Hansel and Gretel following breadcrumbs.
Except the trail consisted of meat chunks rather than bread.
The locations where the most bodies were discovered were the Northern Continent and the Western Continent.
He couldn’t narrow the scope further than that.
Whether due to Kirke’s superior defenses or the limitations of Gerard’s intelligence network, the corpses were inevitably scattered across a wide area.
Fortunately, however, there was only one nation on the Northern Continent.
‘Micaela Empire’.
Since searching for Anette blindly would be inefficient, Sisrain first made a covert request for cooperation to the Emperor of Micaela.
And the Emperor rejected the proposal from a mere prince of a distant nation.
That was how a distant northern nation far from Eldorado came to face ‘annihilation’.
“According to Micaela’s personnel records, there is no one matching the presumed identity of Anette.”
“Search the entire continent regardless.”
Unfortunately, she was not on the Northern Continent.
Now only the Western Continent remained.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Owen opened his mouth with proper deference.
“As you know, there are two nations on the Western Continent. The ‘Fris Empire’ and the ‘Guillotine Kingdom’.”
This was why Sisrain had conquered the Northern Continent first. There had been only one nation there.
Now only a choice between two remained.
“One of the two, then.”
“Yes.”
Sisrain gazed into empty space with eyes drowning in exhaustion, then shook medicine into his mouth.
Then he seized a bottle of liquor and drank from it slowly.
His Adam’s apple bobbed precariously before a low breath escaped from deep within his throat.
“Would you care to see the map?”
Owen respectfully extended the map.
His master, sprawled across the sofa, felt his heightened senses gradually settle as he slowly opened his eyes.
His crimson eyes, dulled to match his numbed senses, were clouded and unfocused.
With persistent lips, he whispered low.
“Looking at the map makes me want to taste it.”
“….”
“Where does Anette’s flavor come from?”
In the next moment, Sisrain’s index finger tapped precisely on a single nation.
A vivid image seized his turbid eyes.
―The Fris Empire.

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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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