The Male Lead Is Obsessed With Proposing to Me - Chapter 55

 

49. 49. The flowering of desire

With one word from Senelia, the gloomy atmosphere surrounding Benelucia changed surprisingly. 

The man who was so harsh, making the very air around him difficult to even breathe was no longer there. 

Lady Isia knew right away. 

This is not for her sake, but for Senelia Daphnen, who might be scared.

He didn’t retract his murderous intent on her behalf. Senelia Daphnen couldn’t bear his swordsman aura, so the Grand Duke reined it in. 

“I will always remember what His Highness did to me today.” 

At that moment, the Marquis daughter’s eyebrows rose. 

She wasn’t oblivious either, so she noticed the fact that Benelucia used herself to attract Senelia’s attention. 

Her pride was hurt by the sudden exposure to harsh reality, she couldn’t stay there any longer. 

And so, Lady Isia immediately left the lounge, abandoning the two behind.

Senelia stared at the back of the Marquis’ daughter as she fled in humiliation. 

She was so jealous of her confidence.

That she could say such things and act as she desired even when she stood before the second most powerful man of their Empire, the Grand Duke. 

Somehow, she thought that her proud back was awfully similar to Lucalina. 

Senelia’s mood sank infinitely.

“Why are you just standing there waiting to get hit!” 

In that state, when Benelucia screamed out in a fury, disrupting her thoughts, Senelia’s stomach twisted again. 

A crooked smile appeared on her face. 

“Isn’t this too contradictory to be coming from His Highness, who created this situation?”

The ladies who Benelucia chose as partners during the victory banquet were all women from noble families who were said to be quite wealthy. 

Of course, she didn’t really care about that. 

In the first place, the lowest status of Benelucia’s lovers so far was Senelia. 

This meant that unless there were special circumstances, Benelucia was naturally a person who would hang out with high-ranking nobles instead of people of her kind. 

Benelucia seemed to want Senelia to be jealous of his partners, but how dare she? 

Except for the fact that she was once Benelucia’s lover, she was nothing. 

How dare I get angry? 

Why did you put me in this situation if you didn’t expect me to get beaten up?

Senelia was dumbfounded. 

“If only you had done as much as you did when you faced me.” 

Benelucia scolded as if he was frustrated. 

There was a hint of regret in his voice, but Senelia cut it off with one sharp stroke. 

“Are you saying that I, a mere daughter of a viscount, would dare to confront the daughter of a marquis?”

“Why are you worried when I’m here?”

When Benelucia suggested that he would take care of everything, Senelia had a hard time suppressing a laugh. 

He put her in this predicament just because she had upset him.

Although she was the one who pushed Benelucia’s heart into a corner, it was his choice to bring in the woman to cause their current predicament. 

How can you violate class in a class-based society by relying on the mercy of someone like that? Ha!

To put it bluntly, Senelia did not trust Benelucia. 

Senelia was not Lucalina and could not become Lucalina. 

The male protagonist’s eternal love was something that only the female protagonist had.

He’d proven that plentifully before. 

“What do I have to do with His Highness the Grand Duke?” 

What Senelia believed in was Benelucia’s desire for her. 

So she stirred up his desire again to make him thirsty. A thirst that would fight against the world’s eye, fight against the aura of the female lead. 

“Sally.” 

Benelucia’s beautiful face distorted. 

From that, Senelia was able to confirm once again that he wanted her, even if it wasn’t as much as he wanted Lucalina in the original. 

Well, it couldn’t be that I’d expect any different. This is, after all, a crooked relationship. 

Because they try to confirm each other’s feelings by hurting each other every time.

“I am grateful for the favor of being friendly to me, but I do not dare to call you by your name, so I would be grateful if you could take it away.” 

Feeling reassured by Benelucia’s reaction, Senelia added a sentence that she was sure would upset him. 

And finally, Benelucia, who had run out of patience, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. 

“No matter how much you speak of leaving me, this rude behavior is getting out of hand.”

“…”

“I think you forgot my name, Sally.” 

“How could I forget the name of a great royal family member such as yourself, His Highness Grand Duke Benelucia Afron?” 

Senelia did not give up, she stood toe to toe with Benelucia and matched his angry energy with a stubbornness of her own. 

She completely placed him and herself on the same level as strangers.

As she intended, Benelucia’s expression gradually became strangled as she continued.

“Please let me go. I don’t dare touch the body of the royal family.” 

“Is this the first time we’ve touched each other, Sally?” 

As the war of words continued, Senelia suddenly felt tired. 

She wanted to be in Benelucia’s arms, not continue this war of words. 

The emperor’s edict.

The only way to secure her marriage proposal.

It would only take one word from Benelucia.  

“…It will never happen in the future.” 

Senelia promised and jerked her body back. 

Benelucia, shocked by her sudden outburst, grabbed her tightly and shouted. 

“Senelia Daphnen!”

“Let me go, Your Highness.” 

However, Senelia was resolute even though she felt Benelucia’s heart beating fast as if his heart was pounding against her declaration. 

I need to let you know that you can no longer hold me in this way. 

“…Why can’t I do what I want with you?” 

Senelia thought that was funny.

Though Benelucia had been courting her since the end of their final break up, he must have been confident that in the end, he would get his way. 

Really, it was beyond arrogant. 

“That’s because I don’t love you!” 

Thus, Senelia finally put an end to his arrogance, so that Benelucia could no longer feel safe in regards to anything about her. 

“…You don’t love me?”

Benelucia’s eyes and voice trembled. 

He wanted to deny Senelia’s words right away. 

“It’s what Your Highness wanted, yes? I don’t love you.” 

However, it was Senelia who brought back his words from the past. 

His harsh words from the past were now used as Senelia’s weapons of choice.

When Benelucia had been waiting for Lucalina, he found Senelia’s love for him to be an inconvenience. 

So one day, Senelia cut off the love that had bloomed in an inconspicuous corner without a name. 

Because I had to stay by his side. The love that had blossomed for him was cut before it could develop deep roots. 

“I know, Sally, you love me.” 

“Have you forgotten, Your Highness? You made me promise that I won’t love you. That was the promise between you and me.”

At that time, Senelia decided not to tell Benelucia about her love for the rest of her life. 

That meant not to love again. 

Or, even if she did, it meant she should never show it.

So Senelia did just that.

But now Benelucia wanted her love.

…But only after all these years have passed.

“That damn promise…!”

Benelucia looked at Senelia with hurt eyes.

Ha!

Senelia suffered from a strange sense of satisfaction whenever he was hurt by her.

At this moment, she realized something.

She had been waiting for a long time to tell Benelucia that she did not love him.

That was the biggest reason why I rejected Benelucia’s marriage proposal, making all kinds of excuses.

Because I wanted him to get hurt more. I wanted him to feel helpless as his love was trampled without a care. 

“…Since we broke up, isn’t that promise already broken?”

“Yes, but isn’t it weirder to say love to a man you just broke up with?”

Their conversation went around in circles.

Senelia did not hold back to protect Benelucia’s last bit of pride.

“What’s the problem, Sally?”

“There is no problem. Is there any problem between this lowly one and Your Highness?”

A one-sided marriage without love.

Are you prepared for that future possibility, Ben? 

The more it destroys Benelucia’s pride, the more he will cling to Senelia in order to have what he does not have.

“Never! Sally, don’t you know what happens if you promise to marry a member of the royal family and then renege on it?”

Senelia had already accepted Benelucia’s marriage proposal once.

As he said, maybe it was a sin that would result in her death.

Of course, what Benelucia wanted was not for Senelia to be punished.

“It was just a verbal promise. Or I could say it was an order, not a proposal?”

However, Senelia pretended not to notice this time.

Just as Benelucia had pretended not to know many things until now, she too could play the idiot.

The moment she made eye contact with him, Senelia realized that what she wanted had finally come true.

“Okay, then this is an order.”

Benelucia gritted his teeth and presented the emperor’s edict.

“A gift from His Majesty.”

Without warning, Benelucia smiled crookedly.

He seemed to have no more hesitation.

Because he gave up the last thing he wanted to protect, the morality of the Afron Line.

“So you should marry me, Sally.”

Finally, Benelucia ended up with Senelia in the worst way he could.

Just refusing the Grand Duke’s marriage proposal was like insulting the royal family, but it might have ended with death.

However, if the Daphnen family was to reject the emperor’s edict, it would be of no use even if Daphnen had immunity.

In the end, immunity only saved the Daphnen family from one thing.

“…I said I didn’t love His Highness the Grand Duke.”

She couldn’t accept it right away. His decision right now might be a result of impulse. 

Senelia deliberately kept talking.

“You will accept as I told you so, Sally.”

Benelucia approached Senelia without a single moment of hesitation.

He lifted her left hand and placed a very extravagant and heavy ring with a large diamond at the center onto her finger.

Tiny diamonds sparkled around the gem like they were shackles keeping the diamond from escaping.

Because of its weight, they became shackles that cannot be forgotten.

“It’s okay if you don’t love me, just endure me, my Sally.”

Benelucia declared his standing.

A long time ago, when he first said these words, he was arrogant and thought that Senelia would eventually have no choice but to love him.

But this time it was sincere.

There was only one answer left for Senelia.

She had to endure Benelucia, endure his love. 

For now, until the end. 

Because, of course, I got caught by this man all by myself. Heh.