The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 87

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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 87
“Heinrich, are you alright?”
“I was really… scared. I was trying to apologize, but…”
I couldn’t help but give Kyle a rather sharp look.
What on earth did you do to upset him like this, Kyle?
He’s a gentle soul—a bit tactless perhaps (or perhaps more than a bit)—but even Thunder would beat him in a fight.
“It’s alright, Heinrich. I’m here now.”
Of course, Heinrich is a Grand Mage, but he must have stopped crafting magical artifacts long ago.
Unlike Kyle, who roams battlefields and lawless territories, Heinrich is confined to the house. One look at him makes it clear he’s far too delicate.
Even as a Grand Duke, he’s the kind of gentle child who accepts it when his adoptive father’s friend treats him casually.
‘A carnivorous deer’s one-sided hunt is unacceptable.’
I held Heinrich close.
“Sister…”
Heinrich buried his head as if deeply moved.
At that moment, Kyle placed his hand respectfully over his chest and apologized from across the room.
“…Miss Anette. I apologize for showing you such a rough side of myself.”
“That’s right. You were rough.”
“―Heinrich.”
I spoke sharply to stop Heinrich from his relentless attacks on Kyle.
The man is apologizing, isn’t he, Heinrich?
It’s perfectly fine to show a bit of generosity in moments like these.
Despite appearances, he’s a kind and good person.
“A rough man doesn’t make a good husband. You understand, don’t you, sister?”
“It’s alright, Kyle.”
I accepted Kyle’s apology while restraining Heinrich, who nestled against me and continued dealing blows to the carnivorous deer.
And with clouded eyes, I reflected.
‘Our boy must have done something to irritate him.’
Right now, he’s wearing the expression of a jealous concubine favored by the emperor, all while in my arms.
After all, the man had sold a rag instead of bread, yet the customer paid without complaint. That spoke to considerable patience.
‘Even with that patience… there must have been something he couldn’t endure.’
There were quite a few such people in this world.
No matter how much I was blinded by affection, I hadn’t forgotten how to read my favorite character.
Then Heinrich narrowed his eyes and asked.
“Sister, what were you thinking while looking at me?”
Caught.
“You were thinking something bad, weren’t you?”
His perception was sharp, after all.
“No? I wasn’t thinking anything at all.”
Heinrich regarded me suspiciously, but I simply shrugged nonchalantly.
Then I turned to Kyle and asked.
“But you’re still here. Do you have business in the area?”
“I waited because I had something to tell you.”
“Ah.”
Kyle’s gaze lingered briefly on Heinrich before returning to me.
“Would it be alright if we spoke alone?”
“That won’t do.”
“―Heinrich.”
He asked me, not you, Heinrich.
I finally peeled Heinrich away from me—though he clung like gum—and grasped his shoulder as I spoke.
“I’ll just talk with Kyle for a moment and come back.”
Heinrich’s expression shifted to a pitiful pout, but this time it wouldn’t work on me.
I raised my index finger and spoke sternly.
“Go inside and wait, Heinrich.”
Perceptive as always, Heinrich knew when to back down.
“…Understood, Sister.”
* * *
“What could they possibly have to discuss… Tsk, I really don’t like this.”
After leaving Anette and Kyle alone, Heinrich returned with his brow furrowed in displeasure.
There was much he disliked about the situation. That brown-haired fellow with the glasses.
‘He seemed to be using a magic gun.’
He hadn’t drawn it, but I clearly saw his hand move toward the holster.
“Using a vulgar weapon like common street thugs carry, yet speaking with the accent and manner of nobility.”
Where did this wretch crawl out from?
“Duncan.”
At Heinrich’s call, Duncan, who had been waiting near the carriage by the Bakery, stepped forward.
He bowed respectfully.
“Yes.”
“Investigate this fellow named Kyle who uses a magic gun. Brown curly hair, green eyes, wears glasses.”
Heinrich rattled off the description with arms crossed, then raised his eyebrows as he continued.
“I sensed considerable magical power from him. ‘Presumptuous,’ even.”
But it wasn’t the kind of fluid mana that mages possessed.
It was explosive mana coalesced roughly within a core.
―What is his true nature?
Though I had no desire to know out of sheer irritation, I had no choice but to investigate.
“…And he gave Sister a proposal ring. How utterly repugnant.”
Is this about Anette?
Duncan wondered what kind of information he should gather and asked.
“May I inquire the purpose of this investigation, Your Grace?”
Heinrich spoke with eyes devoid of all humanity, his tone glacial.
“Why ask? The more we know, the more effectively we can kill him.”
“….”
He gave a curt nod.
“Go.”
Duncan thought anew how perfectly the master’s nickname suited him, then bowed respectfully and vanished like a shadow.
* * *
“I’m sorry, Kyle. Please take this bread. I heard you left with something strange instead of bread last time….”
Something that vaguely resembled a rag.
Or perhaps it actually was a rag (as a professional entrepreneur, I truly did not wish to acknowledge this).
“Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Master.”
The angelic Kyle accepted it warmly, his gentle eyes behind his spectacles crinkling with kindness.
“Not at all. But what did you wish to discuss with me?”
There was clearly something important he needed to say. He had come early today to talk with me, but it seemed he had waited because I was too busy.
Until my business closed for the day.
‘He’s truly considerate.’
“Master, has the Crown Prince of Eldorado not visited you?”
“…!”
How on earth did he know that?
I was startled for a moment, but soon understood. Larva had been protecting me all this time.
There was no way he could be unaware of the obsessive madman who had started a war and plastered the newspapers searching for Anette.
But Larva’s role from the beginning was simply to hide me from Gerard.
For over a decade, he had done that job brilliantly, more than abundantly.
―I was so grateful for it.
‘Even if I had tried to stop him, Sisrain could not have been stopped.’
With that obsession, Sisrain would have found me no matter who tried to block him or how.
Kyle bore no fault in this situation whatsoever.
I smiled as I spoke.
“Yes, he found me not long ago.”
“…!”
Kyle’s expression wavered for a moment, and concern and worry filled his deep green eyes.
“Are you well, Master?”
“Of course I am. I simply reunited with an old friend after all this time.”
I offered a reassuring smile.
So he wouldn’t worry.
“As you likely already know, His Highness the Crown Prince hails from the Forest, just as we do. He was particularly fond of me since childhood.”
“….”
“I regretted parting ways greatly… and I was truly delighted to see him again.”
I embellished the truth somewhat. Though it wasn’t entirely a lie, I made no hint of the panic and bewilderment I had actually felt at his unexpected arrival.
Because―
‘Please, let the two of them never become entangled.’
A combination of a crazed carnivorous deer and a beast was simply wrong.
These dangerous maniacs need to be kept apart!
―Otherwise, we’ll get another spark like before.
‘I’m the one who ends up as the shrimp again.’
I don’t want to get caught between them, have my back broken, and cause a scene, thank you very much.
I’d appreciate it if you’d each go mad separately.
“….”
Kyle seemed to read my thoughts as he gazed at me quietly, then opened his mouth.
“Are you injured anywhere?”
“Nope~ not at all.”
Well, something strange did get inscribed on my wrist, though.
‘But nobody knows about this.’
They say it’s an artifact, and Heinrich doesn’t seem to know about it, and neither does Kyle.
I thought maybe they’d notice since they both have mana.
“That man is dangerous. He’s cruel and ruthless. You mustn’t think of him as he was when he followed Anette before.”
‘I know that better than anyone.’
I’ve experienced it firsthand.
How he grew up and came to stand before me.
“Yes, I’ll be careful.”
I simply answered that way to reassure Kyle and smiled.
“My lord.”
Kyle tilted his broad shoulders before me and clasped my hand in his.
As he lowered his head, his hair, like autumn wheat fields, flowed down softly.
He kissed the back of my hand and whispered tenderly.
“You mustn’t be hurt.”
His jade-like eyes held me within them.
“I would die. …My heart, that is.”
“….”
I felt that heart.
The sincere heart that had been contained in that letter, the one where he spoke of hearing the cry of snow wolves from afar while thinking of me.
I smiled readily and answered.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
* * *
“That man is dangerous. He’s cruel and ruthless.”
I was walking with Heinrich, absently turning over Kyle’s words in my mind.
The distance from the conversation place to the 【Bakery】 was barely five minutes, yet Heinrich insisted on coming to pick me up (he said he wanted to escort me all that short distance).
‘Cruel and ruthless… and he’s still the crown prince, yet he’s already earned such a dark reputation?’
Sisrain isn’t really the kind of person to be so frightening.
Then a deep, harsh voice reached my ears.
“Where did you go? Anette.”
That voice seized my ankles with a crushing grip.
I froze in place, unable to move.
“….”
A massive shadow fell across my vision, gradually consuming me within its darkness.
A man of overwhelming stature, his broad back blocking out the entire sun.
His haggard crimson eyes were nothing short of cruel and savage.
I called out his name like a whisper of anguish.
“―Sisrain.”

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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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