The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 97

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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 97
Winter had descended upon the hill where Heinrich stood.
The grass had transformed into a white snowfield, and delicate snow accumulated softly upon the verdant trees.
Fluff, fluff—beautiful snowflakes drifted down.
The breeze was gentle, yet the falling snow was unmistakably real.
It was a wondrous landscape that defied nature itself.
—I couldn’t believe it.
‘…Wow, it’s so beautiful and amazing.’
Witnessing such a magnificent spell that altered the very seasons, my heart surged with profound emotion.
Heinrich stood luminous against that surreal landscape.
Silver hair gleaming coldly against the white snow, beneath it eyes as mysterious as amethyst.
His sealed crimson lips were beautiful as an arrogant nobleman who had never once faltered.
‘Truly, he’s remarkably handsome.’
Like delicate glass flowers blooming within the snow.
“You came, sister?”
Heinrich smiled without restraint—a pure, beautiful smile shown only to me.
“Yeah… what is all this?”
“Come here.”
Heinrich grasped my hand firmly.
We walked across the plush snowfield to beneath the great tree, where quite a unique winter picnic setup awaited us.
A lace rattan basket adorned with flowers, delicate cups upon a wooden tray, a cozy blanket with charming patterns—sized for two, so rather small.
Upon a small chair that doubled as a table sat a vibrant flower crown crafted from beautiful blooms.
This was genuinely touching.
“Heinrich… when did you prepare all of this?”
“I wanted to have a party with just you and me, sister. There are far too many nuisances over there, it’s annoying.”
He shook his head with feigned exasperation, and I let out a small laugh at his petulance.
A winter picnic—I’d never even imagined such a thing.
“Thank you, Heinrich!”
Moved by his thoughtfulness, I quickly settled onto the mat beside him. The ground was warm, and beside us a portable heater crackled like a small campfire.
“Here, sister.”
Heinrich poured hot cocoa into a mug, complete with floating marshmallows.
“Thank you.”
As I took a sip of the cocoa, sweetness and drowsiness washed over me simultaneously.
‘Ah, this is truly wonderful.’
We shared a single warm blanket, peacefully watching the snow fall around us.
‘I feel like I can finally breathe. Those three lunatics exhausted me all evening.’
At last, something resembling true rest.
Heinrich had deliberately arranged this.
He knew I was exhausted.
‘He’s truly considerate.’
Heinrich seemed utterly indifferent to others, yet the consideration he occasionally showed me was remarkably apt.
When I smiled at Heinrich, he drew the blanket closer and moved toward me.
Then he whispered softly in my ear.
“No one can see us doing anything improper here.”
“…Heinrich!”
As I tried to escape the blanket, Heinrich chuckled and wrapped me up completely in it.
Thanks to him, I became like a dumpling—my face exposed but the rest of me trapped in the blanket.
“I’ll give you all my marshmallows.”
“Honestly.”
Just moments ago he’d acted like a wolf (or perhaps a fox), but now Heinrich had suddenly shifted into his “our baby” mode, placing marshmallows in my cup.
I savored the fluffy marshmallows as they melted on my tongue.
Snow continued to fall beautifully around us, drifting gently through the air.
As if we’d carved out a single block of winter and transplanted it to this exact spot.
“Heinrich, do you remember?”
“Remember what?”
“Back then. Before I left the Forest… We promised to go to the Winter Forest together on your birthday.”
“…”
Days before I left the Forest, Heinrich and I had made a promise.
“Sister.”
“On my birthday, let’s go to the Winter Forest and play. We’ll build a warm bonfire and drink hot cocoa.”
“We’ll share one blanket and spend the whole day watching the snow fall.”
That promise had always been like a thorn lodged in my heart, pricking softly.
Whenever winter came, whenever his birthday approached.
Year after year, I found myself remembering that promise.
Worried that Heinrich might feel hurt on his birthday.
“Still, I’m glad I came, even if it’s now. Right?”
I asked suddenly, glancing beside me.
“…”
His eyes trembled as he looked down, and his face had taken on the expression of someone about to cry.
“You remembered.”
He spoke, barely able to breathe.
“You didn’t forget… Sister, you remembered too…”
His voice sounded somehow pained.
…So very much.
* * *
After Anette left.
Heinrich reverted completely to his former self. No—he became even more angular, sharper, a solitary boy who built walls against everyone.
It was far worse than before.
Because previously, at least he hadn’t engaged in self-destructive behavior.
The boy deteriorated through days where he couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, could barely breathe.
“Why did you make me love you?”
I felt as though I had returned to that time when my father abandoned me, and my mother left him as well.
That one law—that whoever I came to care for would inevitably abandon me—had only grown more certain.
Anette left me like an unbelievable lie.
“If you were going to leave, why did you treat me so kindly in the first place….”
You made it so I could not live without you.
You showed me what warmth was.
She taught me what love meant, and then left me like this—I resented her for it.
―Light was fleeting, and for that reason, all the more brilliant,
and darkness was devastatingly profound.
“Anette….”
My light, my world, my soul.
The fact that I had lost you felt like such an absurd mistake that
even breathing itself felt like a sin.
“It would be best to send him to Marquis Hyacinth for adoption soon. If he stays like this any longer, Heinrich will be ruined beyond repair.”
That was why the adoption procedures were completed swiftly with the Marquis, who had expressed his willingness to adopt.
Even after becoming Heinrich Hyacinth, the boy did not improve much.
The symptoms worsened in winter, and on his birthday, he would go to the Winter Forest where he had made a promise with Anette from dawn and stand there blankly all day long.
In case she might come.
But the promise was never kept.
―I knew the truth all along.
That you would not come.
But if I did not do this, I felt as though I would lose you forever….
If I did not keep the promise we made together, even by myself,
it felt as though “us” would disappear.
“Heinrich! In this cold, dressed so thinly, standing all day…!”
By the time Duncan rushed over belatedly to care for Heinrich, his body had already grown as cold as a corpse.
And so the days passed, one after another, the same.
Longing deepened like an illness.
With each breath he took, day after day, he descended into madness.
Eventually, after meticulous research, Heinrich devised a way to create Anette.
From that point on, he devoted himself entirely to research and came this far.
Solely,
with the single resolve to reclaim her.
* * *
“…Of course I remember. Every winter on your birthday, I thought of you.”
I was sorry for not keeping the promise.
I gently stroked Heinrich’s hair. Do not make such a sad expression, Heinrich. If you suffer, my heart aches all the more.
Heinrich then smiled as he looked at me.
“Sister, I had something I really wanted to tell you before I came to Bayonere.”
“What is that?”
Heinrich smiled with his delicate, handsome features, then placed a beautiful crown that had been resting on the chair atop my head.
Then he seated me in the chair.
Heinrich sat before me with tenderness, tilted his head gently, and spoke.
“Sister, you always used to read me nothing but happy ending fairy tales.”
“That’s right. I wanted you to be happy.”
Hearing stories where the protagonists found happiness, I wished that you would become just like them someday.
Back then, I lived only for your happiness.
That was my life.
Heinrich’s eyes flickered with countless emotions for a moment before he answered softly.
“My happiness has always been you, Anette.”
“….”
His violet eyes, which held her image, deepened like the moon tilting as it set.
“My world is only complete when you’re in it.”
Heinrich slowly knelt on one knee before Anette.
Snow fell gently on the mysterious Hill.
A magical moment that defied nature itself.
Before her, crowned with that beautiful circlet, the man slowly drew something out.
It was a ring box.
Click—
The ring Heinrich had prepared gleamed with a deep, serene violet hue.
As if carved from the quiet corner of a winter’s dawn.
“Anette.”
Her heart, sensing something, began to race.
“Will you marry me?”
Her heart plummeted.
Anette was momentarily stunned and could not answer.
―She had never imagined such a thing.
Of course, Heinrich had been hinting at this day since childhood.
“When I grow up, I’m going to marry Sister!”
He had even told Sisrain.
He had even declared during class that his future aspiration was—
“To marry Sister.”
―That was the boy he had been.
“Sister, you have to marry me later.”
But she had thought it was merely childish prattle. Had it truly not changed in the ten years since?
She struggled to find her voice.
“…Heinrich, why have you wanted to marry me since you were young? You’ve always been like this.”
We were too young to understand love back then.
Heinrich lowered his deep violet gaze and buried his face against the back of her hand.
Warm breath scattered tenderly into the air.
“Only then can we be together forever.”
“…!”
Anette—her name, whispered like a sigh, ran as deep as his despair.
“If the only way to be with you forever was death….”
He swallowed hard, his voice dropping to a whisper.
“Then death would be my only dream.”

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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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