A prince from a sleeping fairy tale.
What better phrase could describe the man lying before me right now, Lionel von Altehyde?
This pink bed overflowing with delicate lace was extravagant enough to overwhelm even me, its owner, at times…
Wow. How does he suit it this perfectly?
Bathed in the morning sunlight like a halo, his beautiful face was proof that elegance and splendor could coexist.
Among the exquisite features that looked as if a master craftsman had sculpted them into a porcelain doll, the most eye-catching were his long eyelashes spread softly over his cheeks.
With his eyes closed, they look even longer…
It wasn’t even the first or second time I’d seen his face, yet somehow I found myself admiring it every single time.
A male lead in a romance fantasy really wasn’t just anybody.
It would’ve been nice if the keyword “obsessive” wasn’t attached to this male lead, though…
That was right.
No one would ever guess from the peaceful way he slept now, but this man wasn’t just a male lead—he was an obsessive male lead.
And not the kind where you could say, “Well, if he’s a novel’s male lead, this level of obsession is understandable.”
No, he was more the kind that made people go, “Uh… this is a bit…” while awkwardly adding sweat drops afterward—the male lead of a dark, emotionally destructive story.
And that wasn’t all. He was also the kind of mature-rated male lead who kidnapped and imprisoned the heroine in a secret room only he could enter.
If I had to summarize him, maybe: a dark obsessive overpowered male lead.
So then, who was the poor heroine destined to be kidnapped and imprisoned by this man?
Sadly enough.
Unbelievably enough.
It was me!
When I first realized I’d reincarnated into this world, I seriously wanted to escape…
Fortunately, up until now, I’d managed to prevent Lionel from descending into darkness while acting as his fiancée.
Honestly, it hadn’t even been that difficult. Despite the “obsessive male lead” label, Lionel before his corruption was gentle and almost overly obedient.
The problem was that he wasn’t gentle only toward me.
He obediently listened even to the people who could barely be called his family. Even when their demands were unfair and unreasonable. Completely unaware that the end of that road was his own downfall.
And so, before Lionel crossed the point of no return, I promptly kidnapped him and locked him inside my bedroom.
Exactly.
Strike first to win!
Before I could be kidnapped and imprisoned by a corrupted male lead, I kidnapped and imprisoned him first.
I even put sturdy handcuffs on him!
At this point, it practically counted as self-defense.
Anyone disagree?
Then come say that after getting kidnapped and imprisoned yourself.
But when exactly did he start sleeping while hugging me?
I’d been so distracted admiring his handsome face the moment I woke up that I only realized it now—his cuffed hands had somehow ended up wrapped behind my back.
Because of that, our bodies were pressed closely together.
Maybe it was because he’d spent so long on battlefields, but even through the thin fabric of his sleepwear, his body felt solid as stone.
I’m pretty sure we fell asleep properly positioned…
Was he the type who hugged people in his sleep if someone was beside him?
How am I supposed to get out of this?
I could unlock the handcuffs, but unfortunately the key was sitting on the table.
Left with no choice, I pushed him down and climbed on top of him to slip out of his arms.
And the moment I tried to crawl away—
“Mmm…”
A low murmur escaped him, and his long eyelashes trembled before he slowly opened his eyes like a prince awakening from a spell.
The violet eyes revealed beneath them looked like flowers—or perhaps jewels.
For a moment I was mesmerized by that beautiful color, and then Lionel, blinking sleepily with unfocused eyes, discovered me.
Me, straddling him with both hands pressed against his chest, our faces dangerously close together.
…No matter how you look at it, this looks like I’m about to pounce on him!
Startled, I jerked upright, but the arms wrapped behind my back prevented me from moving properly. The recoil sent me collapsing onto him again.
And in the process, our lips nearly touched—like some cliché heroine in a web novel crashing into the delinquent male lead while vaulting over a wall.
Thankfully, they didn’t actually touch.
Th-that scared me…!
Frozen in shock, I noticed Lionel’s gaze fix on my lips.
The way he stared—intently, almost obsessively—made it feel like he was silently asking what exactly I thought I was doing to someone who had been asleep.
I cleared my throat awkwardly.
“Ahem. Did you sleep well?”
At my shameless morning greeting, as if nothing strange had happened, Lionel finally lifted his gaze from my lips to look at me.
“Yes. I slept well.”
“That’s good to hear. Even if you’re uncomfortable, I have no intention of letting you go.”
Because if I let you go, you’ll head straight toward your original corruption route!
“……”
“I’ll uncuff you when you need to wash up or change clothes. But if you try anything cute like escaping this house while I’ve removed the cuffs…”
“What happens then?”
Lionel blinked at me, looking less like someone planning an escape and more like someone genuinely curious what I would do.
It was hard to believe this obedient-looking man was the same obsessive male lead who had committed every imaginable act in the original novel.
And because of that, I felt an even stronger determination to stop this face from ever being consumed by madness.
“I’ll lock you in a room that only I can enter. A room with nothing but a tiny window barely large enough for ventilation. I’ll make sure you can’t know what’s happening outside and can do nothing except wait for me to return.”
If I failed to stop Lionel’s corruption, that future would become mine.
So for my sake… no, for all our sakes, I absolutely had to prevent his downfall.
“You don’t want that, right?”
Well? Terrifying, isn’t it? Horrible, right?
So just listen to me and behave—
“I don’t mind.”
“…Huh?”
What did this man just say?
“You don’t mind being kidnapped and imprisoned?”
“Yes. If all I have to do is wait for you to return to me.”
Lionel looked at me with genuine confusion, as if he couldn’t understand why anyone would dislike that.
“As long as I can stay by your side, the place or the circumstances don’t matter.”
“Y-you mean that?”
“Yes. Just as you said, there’s no one looking for me anyway.”
W-wait a second! The entire empire already knows your family never loved you, so if you agree with that, what does that make me?!
“What do you mean no one? I’m here! If you disappeared, I’d search for you to the ends of the continent—no, I’d even cross the sea beyond it to find you…!”
“Yes. I know. You can watch me anytime, anywhere. You even possess a tracking magic tool capable of locating me no matter where I am.”
“Uh…”
“A narrow room, a room without sunlight… if it’s a place you’ll someday return to, then I’m fine anywhere.”
Lionel took my hand and pressed a kiss first to the back of it, then to my palm. Resting his cheek against my hand, he smiled softly.
“Please imprison me wherever you desire.”
Staring blankly at the beautiful curve of his lips, my gaze drifted to the earring glimmering on his ear.
That was the tracking magic tool I had given him.
And on top of that… I also had methods for monitoring his daily life.
Wait a minute.
I’d spent all this time desperately trying to stop this man from turning into an obsessive male lead, but now that I thought about it…
Wasn’t I the one naturally evolving into an obsessive heroine instead?
…Huh?
That’s strange.
Where exactly did things start going wrong?
Yesterday, when I handcuffed him and dragged him straight into my bedroom?
Or the day I gifted him the tracking earring?
No…
Maybe it started four years ago, when I realized I had reincarnated into the world of a novel.
Back when I was sixteen, the day my engagement to Lionel had first been decided.