For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 73
The cherry pie in the silver-haired priest’s hand. Declan couldn’t take his eyes off it.
Just that small dessert stirred a whirlwind of emotions within him.
The overwhelming joy of finding out that she liked cherry pies. But also, the sadness of having to hear it from someone else. And the hostility toward the man who knew Estira’s preferences.
…Complex, tangled feelings.
In the end, the only emotion left was ‘jealousy’.
Declan clenched his teeth.
Every time the priest’s silver hair swayed, it reminded him of the silver-scarfed training dummy he’d relentlessly struck in the training grounds.
Part of him wanted to break the priest like that training dummy and get him out of his sight, but the fact that he couldn’t do as he pleased frustrated him.
“You’re not listening to me, are you?”
Suddenly, a flash of orange hair appeared in front of the cherry pie that filled Declan’s view.
Light, unimpressive hair like dandelion fluff.
Declan, thinking of it as a gaudy color and annoying hair, roughly turned his head to erase Clovin from his sight.
“Are you really going to keep following that priest?”
“……”
Clovin, afraid of being noticed, hissed quietly, barely containing his anger.
“I knew you wanted me to bring you to the duchy for this, but you’re not going to see that Estira woman. If you keep being uncooperative, I’ll have to call a mage.”
Like a tragic female lead trying to stop the male lead from leaving, Clovin stretched out both arms to block Declan’s path.
Declan’s brow furrowed in irritation.
“Honestly, what do you plan on saying when you see that woman?”
“……”
“You’re just going there without a plan, aren’t you? You haven’t even thought about what you’ll say, have you?”
“No.”
“Huh? Then what are you going to say?”
Declan stubbornly kept his mouth shut, unwilling to answer.
It was true that he was going without a plan, but there was so much he wanted to say to her. In fact, he had so much to say that he worried whether he could express it all.
Did she think of him during the past month? Why did she save those two slaves? Couldn’t he take her place? Was she really planning never to see him again? If he inherited the duchy, would she treat him as kindly as before? Why was she going to the Eastern Continent? Couldn’t he join her on that journey?
There were so many questions he wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to hear.
So Clovin was wrong. Declan thought of the things he wanted to say to Estira every day, every minute, every second, anticipating the day he’d meet her, just like today.
“Move, Clovin.”
How could you possibly understand my feelings?
Declan brushed Clovin’s tearful face aside. It was an indifferent gesture.
“Shall I be honest with you? That Estira woman will probably be terrified if she sees you. She went to all the trouble of running far away, only to get caught by her pursuer after a mere month. Ugh.”
Declan, who had been striding forward, stopped abruptly, like a broken doll.
“How do you know she ran away?”
“It’s obvious. Did you really think she left because she wanted to travel?”
“…What do you think the reason is?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Look at the difference in social status. An illegitimate daughter from a fallen noble family and the sole heir of a ducal house. There’s nothing good about them being entangled together. Of course, that’s the surface reason. The real reason is something else.”
“…The real reason?”
“Just look at how you’re acting now. You followed her all the way here, about to beg her to take you along, checking her movements every day for a month! With how obsessively you’re clinging, how could she not run? Any normal girl would be scared out of her wits.”
It doesn’t look like this is the first time you’ve been obsessed.
Clovin smirked inwardly, watching Declan’s face harden.
It amused him to see Declan, who never paid any attention to anything he said, become deadly serious whenever the topic was Estira.
Of course, every word Clovin said was true and close to the mark. Blood didn’t lie—Declan’s father, Dezereth, had also obsessively pursued his wife for five years, begging her to marry him.
To think such traits would show up here.
Clovin stifled a laugh, thinking how funny it was that Declan had inherited that trait.
Then again, what advice could he give to a young lad who didn’t realize that mere obsession wouldn’t win a woman’s heart?
Clovin concluded that it would be better if Declan faced rejection from Estira again and returned with a broken heart.
“That priest is going to disappear. Lead the way.”
Maybe a shock was exactly what this young, foolish lad needed.
Leading the way, Clovin thought to himself that he hoped Estira, with her keen eye, wouldn’t disappoint him this time.
‘After all, I even got the news published in the gossip paper in advance.’
