The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 81

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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 81
“This amount rivals the national budget of a massive empire, you obsessive chihuahua.”
When someone prone to obsession gains wealth, do they become obsessed with money itself?
I stared at the newspaper in disbelief, reading the article carefully.
The article stated: “Seeking an older sister lost in the Forest during childhood. Her name is Anette. The Grand Duke revealed she was the sister who cruelly abandoned him.”
That’s what it said.
The name Anette appeared twice in world newspapers?
One empire fell because of Anette, and that same Anette cruelly abandoned the Grand Duke, resulting in a bounty equal to a nation’s entire budget!
I laughed hollowly, my eyes vacant with complete resignation.
‘At this point… aren’t I the villain?’
I’ve become infamous across the entire world.
This is insane.
I muttered in a daze.
“You two were so happy and content. Sisrain, Heinrich.”
In my imagination, it was all laughter and joy.
“Why did Heinrich become obsessed too…”
Placing a bounty of 5.8 trillion gold—anyone could see that’s what obsessed madmen do.
That’s when it happened.
Suddenly, the lamp’s flame extinguished with a whoosh.
“…!”
What is this ominous development?
Cold sweat dripped down my face as I stared at the door.
Last time the light went out like this, a madman appeared through that door.
Could heaven be so cruel?
Three madmen in one week is excessive.
Even by any standard, it’s too much.
I tensed and approached the door to peer outside.
Then I carefully opened it and looked out.
I was checking in case there was some ‘Grand Duke’s carriage’ waiting to collect me.
Fortunately, no one was there.
Thanks to the bright moonlight tonight, the street remained illuminated despite the gas lamps being broken.
I exhaled in relief and closed the door.
“Phew…”
Heinrich, with cruel timing, appeared precisely when I had completely let my guard down.
Whoosh—
A sudden breeze swept past, and when I glanced at the window, a man was already perched on the sill.
A beautiful man bathed in cascading moonlight, his brilliant silver hair gleaming with radiance.
“…!”
My heart plummeted.
For the first time in over a decade, I faced Heinrich, now fully grown into a man.
His eyes, holding that violet hue of Zian, seemed somehow mature, and his nose was sculpted with perfect precision,
but especially those sensual crimson lips—
they bore a nobility as if God himself had nourished them with only the most precious things, and they were pressed together with arrogant composure.
He was beautiful. Perfect.
Heinrich had grown into this. Exactly as he was when he was young.
“…Heinrich.”
I barely managed to call out to him.
Then, those crimson lips curved upward as he whispered softly.
“Sister. I’m here.”
“…!”
Why did you come here!
I swallowed the scream I couldn’t bring myself to voice.
For reasons I couldn’t explain, even though I had cherished and adored Heinrich so dearly, my first instinct was to flee.
If I were caught, something truly catastrophic would unfold.
I had been trying to head upstairs to the second floor with the cake in hand.
“Oh my, tsk. …Where are you going?”
But Heinrich was far faster than that.
Leaping from the window frame, he approached me with fluid grace, and from behind, he pulled my waist firmly against him, looking down at me.
“Ah.”
The cake slipped from my hands and fell.
“My sister still has such an endearing side to her.”
Heinrich spoke, his cheeks flushed.
“Heinrich, hello…?”
I had no choice but to greet him, helplessly caught in his embrace.
Heinrich stared at my face from the side for a moment, then spoke with admiration.
“Sister, you’re so beautiful.”
“….”
“You’ve grown far more beautifully than I ever imagined. …My heart feels like it might burst. Is it just because you’re my sister?”
Heinrich buried his face in the nape of my neck as if collapsing, and inhaled deeply of my scent. Then he whispered with a tremor.
“I missed you.”
His fervent whisper pierced through my heart.
“…Why didn’t you keep your promise? You said you wouldn’t leave me behind, sister.”
Each time he spoke in that pitiful voice, my skin tingled with unease.
“Heinrich….”
Heinrich lifted his head and looked down at my cheek diagonally, whispering near my ear.
“Lies are wicked things.”
His long eyes, holding those violet pupils, curved with an innocence that was cruelly beautiful.
“What sort of punishment should I give to a child who breaks their promise?”
Good heavens.
The boy I had abandoned long ago had grown into an obsessive man, and now he sought to inflict his judgment upon me.
The heat from his back was scorching, and his intertwined fingers held me like a spider’s web.
I couldn’t escape.
“…Ah.”
I simply trembled and closed my eyes.
* * *
Could a person wither away from obsession alone?
At this rate, only bones and a parched heart would remain.
“You’re telling me that all the soldiers searching for Anette failed to return? Even after I doubled the forces?”
Abilos Teje, Gerard’s adjutant, found himself questioning the state of Gerard lately.
He wondered if his master might simply combust from rage.
Gerard had always been searching for Anette, but ever since Sisrain became crown prince, he’d been consumed nearly every waking hour with finding that woman.
A woman named Anette—one he’d nearly seized ten years ago, only to have her slip away at the very moment she was within his grasp.
Or was she no longer a girl now?
She would have become a full-fledged lady by now.
Girl or lady, he still hadn’t managed to seize even the hem of her skirt—a fact that remained bitterly frustrating.
―Unbelievably so.
“Those who returned from pursuit were already corpses. It appears someone is still protecting her from behind.”
The Commander Administrator overseeing the pursuit teams reported.
Crash—!
A glass shattered in Gerard’s hand.
“Unbelievable. My subordinates are this incompetent.”
“…I am ashamed, Your Highness. Please take my life.”
The man knelt on one knee before him, ready to offer his neck without resistance.
But Gerard knew better.
The problem wasn’t the Commander Administrator.
Though he’d claimed the lives of countless administrators over the years, one as loyal and capable as this one was rare.
The real problem lay elsewhere.
‘Those Kirke bastards are still protecting that woman.’
Or could they even be called Kirke anymore?
That name had vanished ten years ago.
Regardless of what ‘they’ were called, it was clear they were still protecting her.
Because whenever pursuit teams were sent, they returned as corpses riddled with bullet holes.
“Don’t you dare evade responsibility through death.”
“….”
“Stand and finish your report.”
The Commander Administrator clenched his fists and rose. Then he spoke.
“Your Highness, the Crown Prince’s personal forces have been consistently investigating the corpses from our pursuit teams.”
“So he’s stopped even trying to hide it now.”
That monster.
Gerard had known that Sisrain was extracting information about Anette from his pursuit teams, but in the past, he’d at least attempted to conceal the fact.
Like a hyena stealthily tearing into a corpse.
But after becoming crown prince and seizing power, he had been waging wars while calling out Anette’s name.
He was also rummaging through corpses without hesitation.
He knew that no human existed who could stop him, even if he did such things.
Gerard dismissed the Commander Administrator and pondered.
‘The reason that monster destroyed the Fris Empire.’
According to the rumors, he had stolen the personnel registry?
‘The information from our tracking squad’s corpses was definitely pointing to the Fris Empire.’
Until now, both Sisrain and I had limited personal forces, and I lacked the manpower to investigate even the traces of my subordinates’ bodies.
I had been using my forces to pursue Anette, while Sisrain used his to pursue corpses.
But now the board had flipped.
When the one walking ahead changes, the strategy of the one following must also change.
‘Now it’s time for me to extract information about that monster from this side.’
It was time to change methods and become more cunning.
“Avilos.”
“Yes.”
The man standing in the shadows stepped forward.
“Has the crown prince not yet returned to the Imperial Palace?”
“Correct. Only the soldiers have returned; the crown prince and his adjutant have not yet come back. On the surface, it is said to be for establishing a governing foundation over the Fris Empire.”
Avilos had already completed his investigation.
“He has not shown his face at the Fris Empire’s Imperial Palace. An administrator is acting in his stead.”
“He must be searching for the woman. What is his exact location?”
“Still unknown.”
The spies I had planted to monitor Sisrain’s every move had all been discovered and killed without mercy.
He had memorized every face.
―Sisrain had.
The faces of the thousands of soldiers under my command.
He killed those he had never seen before immediately. Selecting only my spies.
As a result, I could not determine his current location.
“Find out where the crown prince went immediately. As long as that bastard is human, he will leave traces. You must find him without fail.”
“Yes.”
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, over the past decade of repeated failures, my ‘tracking techniques’ had developed to an unparalleled degree.
I could find him. The crown prince.
Gerard was not monitoring only Sisrain.
“Have we located Grand Duke Heinrich?”
“He is not in the Capital.”
Gerard slowly stroked his chin.
That ‘Abilos Teje’ bastard had lost his mind, placing an enormous bounty on Anette’s head.
As a result, bounty hunters across the entire Continent were capturing anyone with the name ‘Anette’, to the point where operations were nearly paralyzed.
‘It cannot be a coincidence.’
The two who desired Anette had vanished simultaneously from the Capital of Eldorado.
A crystalline intuition seized me—if I pursued their trail, I would find the woman I so desperately craved.
Gerard lifted the cigarette to his lips with eyes ablaze, chewing on it like a man possessed.
Then he lit it, drew deeply, and issued his command.
“Follow the two of them like a hound on a scent.”
….
“Until the woman appears.”
What he sought now was no longer Anette herself.
To catch the rabbit,
one must follow the sharp-fanged hunting dogs.

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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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