The Obsessive Male Leads Want to Eat Me Alive - Chapter 99

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

Chapter 99
* * *
I sipped my wine while reading the newspaper.
「 Crown Prince of Eldorado―Conquered the Fris Empire and seized victory. Who is this ‘Anette’ he seeks? 」
Hmm? Isn’t this an article I read before?
「 Next Mage Tower Master ‘Grand Duke Heinrich’ places bounty of 5.8 trillion gold on long-lost sister from childhood. 」
Seriously, no matter how many times I read it, that price tag is absolutely insane.
「 Information Broker of Death, Larva, declares war on Delphi
“For touching the Bakery, I will annihilate three bloodlines”
」
Threatening to wipe out three entire bloodlines just for touching one bakery seems a bit excessive, don’t you think… carnivorous deer.
That’s when it happened. BANG!
The door was blown clean off its hinges, and a man appeared.
Mist swirled thickly, obscuring his face, but somehow I knew exactly who it was.
“There you are, Anette.”
That chillingly low voice, laden with obsessive determination.
The moment my spine tingled, he spoke.
“…I thought I’d actually go mad if I didn’t see you.”
Forgive me, but Your Highness, it seems you’ve already gone quite mad(?), if I may say so.
Sisrain then moved toward me slowly, yet with long, deliberate strides.
“…!”
His sharp eyes fixed directly on me as he slowly began undoing the buttons of his shirt.
What on earth―why are you taking that off?!
‘This is a dream. Wake up now.’
I tried desperately, aware that this was a lucid dream, but I couldn’t seem to escape from this nightmare.
Soon, Sisrain carelessly tossed aside his thin shirt with one large hand.
The way his jaw muscles rippled as he clenched his teeth
made it clear he was at the absolute limit of his restraint.
“…”
‘Cancel hell. This is a spicy …’
Beneath the moonlight, his bare form was revealed breathtakingly.
Broad shoulders and chest with muscles sculpted as perfectly as a fine statue.
Thick forearms with blue veins spreading like streams of water, and an abdomen that looked as powerful as a beast’s.
His iliac crest, sharply defined in dark lines, had his uniform trousers precariously draped across it.
‘Insane.’
It matched exactly what I’d seen at the party.
“Anette.”
His low voice fell like a hammer.
Click―
Sisrain, who had closed the distance in an instant, fastened something around my wrist.
“…!”
Impossibly, it was shackles.
“If you wish to escape now….”
Broad shoulders tilted toward me. As I instinctively drew breath, a scent so intoxicatingly rich washed over me, nearly making the room spin.
“Then sever my wrist and flee.”
The cruel crimson eyes of the one bound to me by these shackles gleamed with terrible intensity.
Thump, thump. My heart was racing wildly.
“Sister.”
Heinrich appeared at the window, leaping down and approaching me.
‘Heinrich’s condition….’
His violet eyes had darkened to an inky black like poison. As though madness itself had seized him.
He narrowed his gaze and whispered.
“You promised you wouldn’t leave me.”
“Ah.”
In my panic, I hastily reached out, and the wine bottle struck hard, tumbling to the floor.
―Splash—
The wine sprayed across his face like blood.
Deep wine, crimson as tears, streamed past his brow and down his cheek.
“What punishment should I inflict upon a child who breaks her promise….”
From Heinrich’s gaze and voice emanated an obsession so suffocating it was nearly tangible.
With a strangled cry, the arms embracing me from behind felt like a prison that would bind me eternally, never to release.
‘Heinrich, …I’m terrified.’
It was then that I trembled.
“Master.”
“…!”
Startled, I glanced downward and saw a man kneeling before me.
A black cloth covered his eyes, and his soft, wheat-like hair hung damp against the dark fabric.
…Kyle Winston.
Deprived of sight, he parted his full lips beneath his sharp nose.
“Master, please.”
His throat moved with pitiful desperation.
He grasped my ankle with his large, beautiful hands and pressed his lips hotly against my foot.
“Please remain by my side forever. I beg you, please.”
Gulp—
I swallowed hard and slowly unwound the black silk cloth.
The gentle, verdant eyes that usually gazed upon me with submission vanished, replaced by eyes burning with obsession beneath long lashes—eyes of madness.
“…!!!”
Why has even the deer gone mad.
‘I need to wake up. This isn’t right.’
This dream was dangerous. Far too dangerous.
What made it even more dangerous was that it felt like a premonition dream of sorts.
“Anette, I can never remove this shackle until death. No… not even in death.”
“Sister, you know? I love you. …Forever…”
“Please, I beg you to spend your entire life with me, Master.”
I was surrounded by madmen, feeling the black hands grasping my ankles and dragging me into the deep swamp, and I slowly stopped breathing.
Right then, I screamed at myself.
―Wake up, Anette!
* * *
“Gasp!”
When I opened my eyes, I saw the familiar ceiling.
‘What was that ominous dream?’
It was just a bad dream.
I groaned and sat up in bed.
“Sigh, I must have been worn out these past few days.”
Judging by how corrupted my dream state had become, it seemed the fatigue had accumulated over time.
I poured cold water from the pitcher on the nightstand and drank it, taking a moment to catch my breath.
Then it happened.
Sparkle!
An unbelievable sight was unfolding before my eyes.
The locket was shining all by itself, glimmering and gleaming.
‘This can’t be real.’
I lowered both my legs from the bed and slowly walked toward the locket.
Then, with both hands, I carefully picked up the necklace (so delicately—as if it would extinguish with a single breath) so the light wouldn’t go out.
“…It’s really shining.”
It wasn’t an ordinary locket.
‘Why now?
Actually, since I started running the Bakery in earnest, I haven’t taken out this locket very often,
―but it was different before.
I thought of it as a locket my parents left me, and there were times I wore it around my neck constantly… When I was young, I would take it out and examine it whenever I had a chance.
Nothing helped me endure loneliness like this locket.
Even though there wasn’t a single photograph inside, I thought of it as the only trace of my family.
Perhaps, even in this possessed novel, I could be happy with my family unlike in my past life—I held onto that hope.
But it had never shone like this before!
‘…My heart is racing so fast.’
Maybe, just maybe, I could find my parents with this.
I quickly put the locket away safely and picked up paper and pen.
I know the only person who can track this locket.
Eldorado’s greatest information broker.
―Kyle Winston.
「 Kyle.
I would like to formally request information from Larva’s informant network.
Could you investigate a special rocket that emits light on its own?
It’s something my parents left behind for me.
If you take on this task, I will compensate you generously.
I would prefer to discuss the details in person.”
I whistled to call Squirrel and carefully handed over the letter.
“Please, Squirrel. Deliver it well!”
Nod, nod.
Squirrel bowed, puffed out its chubby cheeks with a “chirp,” looked at me, then swished its plump tail and departed through the window.
Just as I turned around after seeing Squirrel off.
“…!!!”
I was startled out of my skin by the man standing there without a sound.
‘When did he appear?’
Beneath his jet-black hair, crimson eyes gazed at me indifferently.
With just Sisrain’s presence alone, the room felt cramped.
“…Your Highness, knocking is basic courtesy!”
“Is it?”
He narrowed his eyes playfully.
“Since Squirrel comes and goes freely, I thought I could too.”
Sisrain, Squirrel is only the size of my fist, and you’re larger than a hundred squirrels combined….
Appearing suddenly like that startles me.
“….”
Sisrain’s head tilted slowly. His shameless gaze fixed on my bare shoulders and defenseless arms.
Without thinking, I flinched and pulled my clothes closer.
Why was that?
―Why did I suddenly remember the dream’s contents at this moment?
Sisrain stared at me directly with a subtly parched expression.
“I wanted to see you.”
“….”
“I felt like I would die if I didn’t see you right away, so I couldn’t even knock before entering… I’ll be careful next time.”
His lips curved upward smoothly.
It was strange how such mad words sounded sincere.
But it couldn’t possibly be sincere. It was just a typical ‘obsessive fanatic’s’ way of amusing himself.
I deliberately teased him back.
“Then you should feel like you’ll live now.”
He approached quietly. Warm fingers wrapped around my wrist.
That wrist where the artifact he had planted still glowed red.
The sensation of his fingertips slowly stroking the inside of my wrist felt so intensely hot that my chest tingled and my breath caught.
My pulse, detectable at my wrist, quickened involuntarily.
Sisrain didn’t miss a single subtle shift in my expression, observing everything meticulously as he spoke.
“Mm.”
A voice so deeply resonant and gravelly wrapped around my ears like silk.
“Now I feel alive.”
“….”
‘Good heavens, this is getting dangerous again.’
I opened my eyes sharply and slowly brushed his hand away.
Then I asked Sisrain calmly.
“What brings you here, Your Highness?”
“You don’t remember?”
He answered with a smile.
“We made a promise. To go somewhere together today.”
Now that he mentioned it, we had made that promise yesterday.
…With Sisrain.
“Did you come to Bayonere simply to find me?”
“Not simply to find you. And not merely to pick you up.”
“…Then what?”
“Well. After the party ends today, if you come with me tomorrow, I’ll tell you.”
Sisrain whispered temptingly.
“Let’s go.”
“….”
―Should I really follow him?
The dream content—where madmen descended into even greater madness—weighed too heavily on my mind to simply comply.
The sensation of shackles clicking shut around my wrist felt so vivid, so real, that I touched my own wrist to check.
‘Surely I won’t actually end up trapped this time.’
An unease settled over me, yet
a promise was a promise.
I ultimately left the room with Sisrain.
―And.
The ominous premonition proved accurate without fail.

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————