For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 154

It was the name I knew, and everyone knew.

Even though I knew very well that the reason an unprecedented number of people had gathered for this April baptism ceremony, and the reason it was grander and more orderly than usual, was all because Declan was coming and thanks to the donation Declan had made.

Moreover, even though I had run into Declan on the street just moments ago, when his name was called, my eyes widened in surprise for a moment. Was it because of the unfamiliar title attached before it, or because his name had been called in such an official setting?

For some reason, I turned that awkward name over in my mouth as I looked around. Because I was curious where Declan might be sitting.

But what was this.

The noble sitting beside me was slowly rising from his seat.

The fact that I, who had been deliberately looking elsewhere, naturally looked at his face was a reflexive action that had nothing to do with my own will.

Since he had suddenly done something conspicuous by standing up, it was only natural that my eyes would turn toward this person.

As the man stood, my eyes slowly followed him upward, and when they reached the man’s face, they shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck.

My mouth slowly fell open without resistance.

‘Declan…?’

At the same time, Declan’s red eyes lowered toward me. A gaze looking directly at me.

With a smile, his eyes curved into an attractive crescent-eyed smile, and he opened his mouth.

“Can you move aside? I’m Declan.”

“A-Ah? Yes. Yes!”

I hurriedly rose from my seat and moved aside. While he walked forward and I sat back down, my mind remained confused the entire time.

First… the first reason was that he had acted as if he didn’t know me at all.

Wasn’t the Declan I remembered a budding obsession who had tearfully begged me not to leave him behind and to at least let him be my friend? I felt relieved by Declan’s cold treatment of me, but at the same time, I felt puzzled.

But I soon shook off that thought. Because it had been my long-held wish for Declan to treat me as a complete stranger.

‘Well, maybe he really didn’t recognize me… or maybe he forgot me.’

Because I’d begged him to do that.

And second was his way of speaking.

His informal speech, which I had never heard even once.

It was unfamiliar and fascinating. Should I say it made me realize even more that he was no longer the young slave I remembered.

And lastly… it was his fluttering crescent-eyed smile. The only smile he had ever shown me was that broad grin, the crystallization of innocence, from when he had eaten a chicken skewer for the first time, yet the smile he had just shown was a bewitching and charming smile, enough to set the hearts of countless women aflame.

That smile, with his long eyes curving roundly, was so pretty.

With that fraudulent face smiling too, it was a moment when I realized once again that he was the protagonist of this world.

“Declan Ragnar. Are you the person in question?”

“Yes.”

The baptism proceeded smoothly. I blankly watched the ceremony while thinking of Declan from a moment ago.

On the street too, and just now too.

‘Does he really not recognize me?’

A pure question came to mind. I had recognized him as Declan from the moment I saw him from very far away.

Ah, of course, it might have been because I had occasionally seen his face through Kerina magazines.

Declan had only seen me once several years ago and hadn’t seen me since then, so I thought he might not recognize me.

Because I had grown much taller, flesh had filled out my once scrawny face and body, and my hair, which had been medium-length, now fell to my waist and was tied up in one bundle.

‘He might not know.’

Just as I came to that brief conclusion by myself, Declan leisurely walked toward me.

Step. Step.

Now that even the hymns filling the temple had stopped.

Inside the spacious temple, only Declan’s footsteps were echoing.

Because of the priest’s baptism, Declan’s wet bangs swayed from side to side.

Drip, a small droplet fell onto the bridge of his high nose, rolled down, and dropped onto his full lips. It was nothing much, but when applied to Declan, it felt as if some strange red-tinted filter had been placed over it for no reason.

For some reason, I felt as if the tips of my ears had turned red, and I wanted to escape this place, but because Declan’s gaze had been fixed on me from the moment he came down from the dais until now, it wasn’t easy to avert my eyes.

And from his persistent gaze, I suddenly gained an out-of-nowhere certainty.

When Declan saw me in front of the temple, he had been looking at me, not that child. He was only pretending not to know me.

Those red eyes were telling me so.

Declan came closer to where I sat.

Around the time I keenly sensed the unfamiliar scent coming from him, Declan smiled differently than before, lifting only the corners of his mouth slightly.

“Congratulations on becoming an adult,” he said.

“……”

His eyes, catching the light of the stained glass, still held me in them and shone vividly. Soon, he lowered his head, brought his lips close to my ear, and whispered in a voice so quiet no one else could hear.

“You don’t know… how long I’ve waited for this day, do you.”

At the low breath touching my ear, goosebumps rose all over me.