Imprinted with the Obsessive Male Lead - Chapter 4

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Enduring verbal abuse and kicks while eating dry, crumbly bread with no moisture, I was abruptly dragged outside a few days later. The man who grabbed the back of my neck opened a magic circle without offering any proper explanation, then used teleportation to leave the estate.

“Nita Grace. From this moment on, you are no longer a member of the great Grace family.”

With those malicious, razor-sharp words, a powerful force shoved my shoulder. It was a harsh gesture with not a shred of consideration.

“Ugh…”

Letting out a small groan, I collapsed helplessly onto the dirt ground. Frowning deeply, I looked up at the person in front of me. A man whose impression was bad enough to make his flowing long blond hair seem wasted. My eldest brother, Felix, was looking down at me.

“Never return to the family. Even if you die, die in Heinrich. If you do come back, I’ll make you think it would’ve been better to die.”

Felix spat beside me with a mocking expression, then turned away coldly. A red magic circle was drawn beneath his feet, and in an instant, his figure vanished.

“What a heartless bastard.”

Even to the very end, that was too much.

Ptew!

I spat in the same direction where Felix had disappeared. Then I even flipped my middle finger.

Don’t worry about that. I have no intention of going back either!

“I’m finally free.”

Though, it would be more accurate to say I was abandoned. The reason I hadn’t said a single word despite the barrage of verbal abuse while locked in that back room was because that made things easier to proceed.

Right now, every second mattered to me.

Clutching the loose dress that didn’t fit my body, I got up and looked around. Centered on where I stood, to the left was a flat expanse filled with dust. To the right stood a massive mountain with its peak covered in snow.

“Haah…”

A deep sigh escaped me. It’s true that I had waited to be abandoned, but in truth, I wasn’t supposed to be left here. Originally, I should have been taken to the Grand Duke’s castle in the North. Felix had dumped me here on his own whim instead. Knowing full well the sorry state my body was in, it was probably his way of saying that i should go suffer a bit.

“If it were the original Nita, she would’ve gone down the left road, but…”

I turned to the right instead. The next few hours were my only chance to survive.

Anyway, I need to run, quickly, before Michael, the mastermind, finds me. If I get caught, it’s over.

When I took off the shoes I was wearing, dry dirt touched the soles of my feet. The unfamiliar sensation was uncomfortable, but going barefoot would let me move far faster than continuing to wear oversized shoes that didn’t fit. I started walking as quickly as I could, heading toward the Grand Duke’s castle where Chase von Heinrich lived.

The North was located closest to the World Tree, and because of that, it was the first to be affected by mana. This was where mana storms first occurred, and where horrific massacres took place as countless human monsters were born.

After that, the contamination of the northern region only grew worse. The Grace family, who managed the Mage Tower, had failed to properly exercise their purification abilities out of wariness toward their rival, Heinrich. In the end, Chase requested that the Emperor send one of the Grace family mages to the North, and Grace, unwilling to send a proper mage, sent me instead.

The family’s disgrace who had already come of age, that is, me, was a troublesome existence. At just the right timing, Chase’s request served as the perfect excuse. Whether I lived or died didn’t matter. And if I died this way, it would conveniently erase the family’s disgrace.

That was why the original Nita had also been abandoned here, just like me. However, Nita fled in the opposite direction. Because of the abuse, she didn’t properly understand the value of her own power, and she was afraid that even in Heinrich, which was on bad terms with her family, she would suffer terribly. So she ran away.

As a result, she was captured by Michael and met an even more horrific end.

That said, it wouldn’t be right to blame Chase for Nita being taken by Michael. Even if he hadn’t requested a mage from the Imperial family, Grace would have found some way to abandon Nita anyway. And Michael, who knew the value of Nita’s power, would have tried to use her no matter what. Chase only wanted to properly purify the contaminated land of the North.