The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 75

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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 75
Anette fell silent for a long moment.
A single flower that a ten-year-old boy had trembled to offer her had now transformed into a dazzling diamond ring.
The man before her wore an expression as though he might bare his very heart.
Yet.
From her perspective, it was rather sudden.
Kyle observed the subtle shift in her expression with keen awareness.
Anette lowered her eyes and parted her lips.
“Kyle, I—”
“I understand. That this proposal must seem abrupt to you.”
He smiled, so tenderly that she would feel no burden.
“That I mean nothing whatsoever to you. So then.”
The melancholy smile faded, leaving only eyes alight with longing.
“Will you grant me a chance?”
“….”
“A chance to become some ‘meaning’ to you.”
Kyle did not slip the ring onto her finger. Instead, he placed the ring case gently into her two hands.
Then, cradling her small hand in his warm palm, he pressed his forehead against it and whispered.
“Then, I wish to become your man.”
“….”
Sunset light danced softly across his autumn-hued hair, and the lake lay serene and beautiful.
―Still, the lilac fragrance hung suffocatingly thick in that afternoon.
A man had made a ‘proposal’ to her.
An unexpectedly sweet predicament.
* * *
The thought occupied my mind for quite some time.
Until the next day’s business concluded and the late afternoon when I would take my meal.
Chop, chop, chop.
I sliced onions into the stew, then lifted a spoonful from the cast iron pot bubbling away and tasted it.
‘Hmm, perfect.’
“Noah, let’s eat!”
“Thank you, Anette.”
After closing the Bakery today, Noah had come here, worried that the gas lamp still hadn’t been repaired.
This time, he’d brought quite a convincing club.
I decided to share a meal with Noah.
There’s nothing quite like baking and cooking to help organize one’s thoughts.
As I ate the warm bread and stew, I pondered.
‘…A proposal, out of nowhere.’
I’ve heard the whole situation, but honestly, I’m a bit flustered.
Truth be told, I’m not even sure who proposed to me.
Was it from that shy bread boy at the 【Bakery】?
Or from the son of that “aspiring virtuous father-in-law” who trembled while offering flowers from behind the sofa?
Or perhaps from Kine, the ruthless murderer and leader of Larva?
And the last man even laid out red roses and beat people romantically like a pervert… oh wait, that’s not it (he blushed furiously and insisted it wasn’t. He said it was Delphi’s remnants).
‘The shock that they’re all the same person.’
Ah, what a varied life indeed.
“It’s really delicious, Anette.”
Noah’s aquamarine eyes gleamed as he devoured the bread.
‘Aww, what a cute little thing.’
Just watching him was healing.
“Does it taste good? Eat plenty, Noah. I’m so relieved you came to protect me again today!”
When I smiled brightly, Noah’s cheeks flushed red.
Seeing Noah reminded me of that shy little Bamtoli Kyle.
That little boy was truly, truly adorable.
“May I propose to you formally once I come of age, my lady?”
He was like a baby bulldozer.
So I answered to preserve his innocence, but….
“That sounds wonderful, sir!”
I pressed my forehead and gripped my spoon.
“Sigh. I shouldn’t have made such a careless promise!”
Some children treasure promises made a decade ago as they grow up!
Foolish Anette, how could you not have known.
Noah tilted his head and asked.
“What promise are you talking about, Anette?”
“…It’s nothing, dear.”
I mechanically tore into my bread and pondered.
―I’ve never really thought about marriage.
In truth, running the small bakery meant many men courted me, so this affection wasn’t unfamiliar, but a proposal was my first.
Of course, I had always harbored the desire to have a family of my own someday.
My dream of becoming a bakery owner had already been realized.
Now I just needed to have a family (I was quite goal-oriented).
Yet if he had demanded an answer to his proposal right then and there, it would naturally have been ‘no’.
I still don’t know him well.
But.
“Will you give me a chance?”
“….”
“A chance to become something of ‘meaning’ to you.”
All he wanted was a simple chance.
‘…Refusing even that would be cruel.’
I quickly tore into my rye bread, then brought pen and paper to the table where he was still eating.
Regardless, I need to deliver the message I thought about yesterday. To Kyle.
Following Kirke, having Larva escort me so closely felt somewhat burdensome.
So first, I asked him to hand over the escort duties around the Bakery.
More than ten years had passed now, and Gerard’s pursuit no longer seemed like a serious threat.
Given his respectful nature, he would likely withdraw immediately upon receiving this message.
“And this is….”
I withdrew the ring case from my pocket and placed it lightly on the table.
“…!”
At that moment, Noah dropped his spoon upon seeing the ring.
“Noah, here’s a fresh one.”
“….”
I retrieved a new spoon for him and carried the letter to the window.
Then, from the window, I whistled—
A clear, bright whistle.
It was the method Kyle had taught me yesterday.
Soon, a cute squirrel with gleaming black eyes scurried toward me eagerly.
“Hello there?”
I first handed over a walnut, stroked its head, and then gave the letter I’d written to the squirrel, whose cheeks had grown pleasantly plump.
“I’m counting on you.”
The squirrel took the letter and quickly disappeared up a tree.
I exhaled softly and turned back.
Then Noah spoke.
His expression was quite dark.
“…Anette, it seems you’ve received a proposal. From that ‘gentleman’ last time.”
His aquamarine eyes grew clouded as if he’d suffered heartbreak.
“Yes.”
I answered bluntly.
“Will you… accept it?”
“No. It’s still ‘pending’ for now. The truth is, I don’t know him well yet.”
Though he seems to know me quite well.
“…!”
Noah’s eyes sparkled again.
Hmm, what is this? This ominous feeling.
“Then I swear to you. When I grow up to be a fine man, I’ll definitely propose to Anette too—mmmph.”
A baguette I’d swiftly shoved into Noah’s mouth now occupied his lips.
I smiled brightly and winked with one eye.
“How about we just eat some bread instead?”
Sorry, little one, but I’m declining any further marriage proposals.
Sigh, it seemed proposals were spreading through the neighborhood like a plague.
* * *
That night.
The moon hanging in the sky burned crimson.
‘When are they going to fix the gas lamps?’
I gazed out the window at the thick fog shrouding the faint moonlight, then stepped inside.
“They just bleed us dry with taxes….”
A conscientious taxpayer’s heart ached.
My cheeks puffed out as I muttered to myself.
“Let the Fris Empire crumble.”
Once again, I had no choice but to rely on the lamp’s flame.
I sighed and brought the World Daily News to the table.
Finally, I had time to read this.
What a tumultuous few days it had been….
All thanks to a murderous beast and an innocent doe—or rather, a carnivorous deer—that came and went like the Asura Count for several days.
‘Still, I’m glad I went out to Talis Lake yesterday.’
If I hadn’t gone—
‘I would’ve kept thinking he was a madman.’
He was actually a grateful deer.
I opened the World Daily News from the back page, where it typically carried “small and charming local news” about Bayonere Island, where it was published.
I had a habit of always reading from there first.
My little source of healing, you might say.
「 Information Broker of Death, Larva, Declares War on Delphi
“For touching the Bakery, I will annihilate three bloodlines”
」
“…Insane.”
Annihilate three bloodlines just for touching one bakery?
Just for touching one bakery…?
As the owner of that ‘bakery,’ I really want to stop you, Kyle.
I shook my head in disbelief.
“He’s definitely insane to some degree.”
A grateful but slightly unhinged (?) deer, I’d say.
Let’s forget about healing.
Thinking I should read from the very first page with ‘world news,’ I peeled off the paper the newspaper vendor had attached.
That was precisely when it happened.
A gust of wind swept in from nowhere and extinguished the lamp’s flame.
“Huh?”
Darkness swallowed everything in an instant.
Simultaneously, the headline revealed itself in the faint moonlight.
「 The Crown Prince of Eldorado—Crushes the Fris Empire and seizes victory.
Who is this ‘Anette’ he seeks? 」
“…?!”
Anette’s eyes widened as she read the article.
The fate she had believed would end happily, the destiny she thought had concluded—betrayed her in that very moment.
The door burst open with a heavy, violent crash.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
My heart began to race.
A stranger stood in the doorway.
Nearly six feet tall, with shoulders so broad they filled the entire frame of the door.
The silhouette visible through the mist and moonlight resembled a ‘beast’ come to devour her.
Anette shrank back in terror.
“….”
Step, step.
He approached her like an elegant predator.
The man wore the crown prince’s formal coat, but the shirt beneath had not a single button properly fastened.
A chest like armor, and an abdomen carved sharply with defined musculature.
Scars marked his body as though torn by a beast.
As he drew closer, the moonlight revealed his face.
“There you are, Anette.”
Beneath hair as black as a moonless night, eyes burned with a startling crimson hue.
‘Sisrain…!’
Anette stifled a scream as she stared at him, instinctively stumbling backward.
In that instant, he closed the distance with predatory speed, seizing her slender waist with his massive hand.
He whispered, his voice thick with desperate hunger.
“…I’ve caught you.”
My heart shattered.

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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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