Raise Me, So That I Can Eat You Up - Chapter 1

‘This game must have been created by a pervert.’

I pondered this thought once again, as I always did while observing the man before me.

“Let’s break off our engagement.”

I set down my teacup with a thud as I delivered the farewell announcement. The man’s pale eyes were filled with bewilderment

‘Ah, was my expression too pleased?’

How unprofessional of me to let my true feelings show. I lowered my eyelashes as if nothing had happened.

Pale, trembling lips.

Slightly flushed eyes

Anyone who saw me now would surely think I was a tragic heroine.

No, that’s how it had to be.

After all, I was currently dumping ‘Henry Grant’, the first male protagonist of the reverse harem game <Dragon Heart>.

“What are you suddenly saying?”

“Thank you for everything until now.”

Thanks to you, a member of the royal family, being my fiancé, I’ve had fewer pests buzzing around me.

It’s been peaceful for a while, but if I stay like this, I’ll end up seeing the ending. So I have no choice but to say goodbye.

“Is there any particular reason?”

“There isn’t. I just thought it was time.”

 We’ll soon be holding the official engagement ceremony. I need to end this before more troublesome things happen.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding. Listen to me first.”

Henry, growing desperate, grasped my hand.

‘Not a chance.’

I casually brushed off his hand.

Yes, it must be hard to let go. Even more so when giving to someone else.

But what can I do? I was never his, to begin with.

“No. It’s not your fault, it’s mine.”

“How can you say that?”

“I don’t deserve the love of a kind man like you.”

How gentle you were.

Like the ideology of benefiting all people, you were kind to everyone indiscriminately.

I was actually grateful that I didn’t feel sorry at all for using and discarding you.

“Breaking up because I’m kind? What does that even mean?”

Damn noble speech. It was troublesome that the other party couldn’t understand at once.

I felt a headache coming on from the annoyance, but since he was my first fiancé, I had to explain it to him personally.

I smiled gently while looking at his face that seemed about to cry.

 “I heard about how you personally carried Lady Floris home in your arms.”

“T-That was… Lady Floris had twisted her ankle. I had no choice but to…

“I’m not reproaching you, so don’t misunderstand.”

As I raised my eyebrows calmly, Henry became dumbstruck.

“……”

“It’s not easy to be so considerate even to one’s own family. I was impressed by your kindness.”

I smiled as beautifully as a flower.

The man before me, Henry Grant, was notorious for being a playboy even in the empire.

To think such a frivolous person is the male lead. Who could I blame?

It was my fault for occasionally enjoying this trashy game as a guilty pleasure.

There was a certain catharsis in seeing him writhe in regret and turn over a new leaf at the end.

I rolled Henry’s famous line around in my mouth

“Now I am your slave. If you wish, I’ll even wear a collar.”

That line, delivered with pitiful tears, was the highlight.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say people played the game just to see that.

‘Well. A male lead who repents and atones for his karma is quite the treat.’

Taming a flower boy trash, making him grovel, and cry his eyes out because of me. Isn’t that an amazing spectacle?

Sadly, I didn’t have the energy to keep a badly behaved puppy as a pet.

As someone who had possessed this body, I wasn’t curious about the scene where he wallows in the mud.

I had already played it to death and seen it all.

Above all, the atrocities Henry had committed weren’t the kind that could be rewritten.

What unavoidable circumstances could there be for polyamorous dating?

If that level of emptiness was the issue, what Henry needed wasn’t a woman, but therapy.

Everyone makes mistakes and repeats them, and in the end, a leopard can’t change its spots.

If it was just for amus*ment, that would be one thing. But was there any need to personally pick up trash?

Now that I had possessed this body, it wasn’t just a game to be enjoyed and forgotten.

I let out a small laugh between my lips and continued speaking.

“I also know about the night you spent in a cabin with Princess Charlotte.”

Henry inhaled sharply, his eyes widening like someone whose weakness had been exposed.

“Ariella. Did you perhaps have someone following me?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not that interested in you.”

 How do I know? I’ve already completed both Lady Floris’s route and Princess Charlotte’s route, so of course I know.

“You are a special person.”

Our Henry was a bastard who recited the same line to two people while having me, his fiancée, right in front of him.

‘Henry. This noona is above your head.’

I smirked as I watched Henry rolling his eyes, scheming to survive.

“T-That was. Because of the heavy rain. We were just trying to take shelter for a moment.”

“I see.”

“Wild animals come out in the forest when night falls, you know.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Really, nothing happened.

“Whatever happened. It’s not important.”

“Ariella.”

“You belong to everyone. It was all my greed.”

“What?”

Henry asked back with a dumbfounded face.

“I found out I’m more of a clean freak than I thought. I guess I’m not suitable for a society that practices sharing.”

“……”

“So it’s my problem. Not yours.”

It was a clear answer.

Henry belongs to everyone. And I have no intention of practicing sharing.

 So let’s wrap this up and go our separate ways.

“Let’s just end this cleanly. That’s what I want.”

I added with emotionless eyes.

Henry’s pupils dilated. He seemed shocked by a situation he had never experienced before.

“…You know you’re the only one for me.”

Henry’s eyes grew heavy and soon began to moisten.

His long eyelashes trembled as he slightly raised his reddened, wet eyes, looking utterly pitiful.

A tear fell from his large, doe-like eyes that were brimming with tears.

It was truly a spectacular sight to see his reddened nose bridge and milky white cheeks become a mess with tear tracks.

It’s dangerous just to look at.

So those tears are extremely harmful.

It felt like an alarm was going off in my ears because of it.

‘Ah- s**t, I shouldn’t make him cry.’

It was annoying, but I had to admit it. The creator of <Dragon Heart> was an educated pervert.

‘Henry Grant’ was the younger regretful man and the beautifully sorrowful pretty boy in this game.

Light golden hair and eyes.

Pale white skin to match.

And a cute, bunny-like face.

 He had a strange way of stimulating maternal instincts just by standing still

‘Especially those damn tears!’

His crying face was his ultimate move.

Really. He was unbelievably pretty.

I shouldn’t see the ending with such a pretty piece of trash

I should steel my heart.

“Ariella……”

[System: ‘Henry Grant’ sheds tears.]

[System: ‘Henry Grant’s charm has greatly increased.]

The male lead buff was truly terrible.

[System: Your empathy temporarily increases.

Could there be circumstances unique to Henry that I don’t know about?

I want to hug him out of pity.

I want to give him some hot cocoa right away and pat him on the back.

I felt dizzy from the rising sympathy.

‘I’m crazy. I haven’t come to my senses yet.’

First, I had to remove that pretty thing from my sight. I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut.

‘Right. That’s just a pretty poisonous mushroom.’

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes again.

“Who’s Ariella?”

“…Huh?”

 Henry seemed taken aback by my sharp response and held his breath.

“Call me Lady Hayworth. We just broke off our engagement, after all.”

“No. I can’t call you by such a cold title.”

“Then, call me ‘Noona’ affectionately. Henry Grant.”

Henry’s eyes widened as informal speech came out of my mouth, which had always been polite.

“……”

Now, the target is frozen, so I should drive the nail in.

“It was filthy being with you. Let’s never see each other again.”

[System: Your relationship with ‘Henry Grant’ has changed from ‘Fiancé’ to ‘Stranger’.]

Whether he stood there bewildered or not, I calmly left the drawing room while watching the system window.

***

Finally, I succeeded in dumping the first male lead.

Henry Grant

Benedict O’Neil

Ian Clanton

I drew a clean line through Henry’s name with a quill pen.

• • H̶e̶n̶r̶y̶ ̶G̶r̶a̶n̶t̶

In Ariella Hayworth’s route, there are three male leads.

The younger prince ‘Henry Grant’.

The older archmage ‘Benedict O’Neil’.

The childhood friend holy knight, ‘Ian Clanton’.

This is like…

‘We prepared everything because we didn’t know what you’d like.’

Maybe it’s because the genre is romance fantasy. <Dragon Heart> boasted a very unrealistic lineup.

There was one reason why I, who was possessing someone in a reverse harem game, had to risk my life to dump the male leads.

The moment you see the ending, the dragon goes berserk, leading to a bad ending, and then a reset.

In other words, because I was possessing  Ariella Hayworth, a pufferfish character with only a ‘life is over’ ending.

‘No, what about plausibility? Did she receive a dragon’s curse or something?’

They say being possessed by a useless character is the norm. But of all the decent female leads, it had to be Ariella Hayworth.

To explain briefly, there are three female leads in <Dragon Heart>.

The sunshine female lead who could melt glaciers, ‘Magnolia Floris’.

The perfect girl crush princess female lead, ‘Riena Charlotte’.

And then there’s me.

The pretty but trashy flower female lead ‘Ariella Hayworth’.

You can choose one of these three when starting the game.

 ‘Why did it have to be this character of all things.’

This wasn’t a matter of difficulty.

To be possessing a character who can’t even see a proper ending due to a bug. Isn’t this too much even for this?

Then can’t I just not see the ending? The reality of being possessed wasn’t as easy as one might think.

I stood in front of the mirror out of habit and stared as if entranced.

“Ha……”

It’s not a situation to laugh at. But I couldn’t help but smile as I looked in the mirror.

In other words, this face is so pretty that it makes you smile just by looking at it.

True to the nickname ‘Human Peach’, with pink hair and a rosy face, moist green eyes, and plump lips.

I had a face that was overflowing with charm.

‘Even I, a woman, would fall for this. Men wouldn’t leave it alone.’

Living up to the setting of peerless beauty, Ariella was engaged to Henry from the start of the game

If I could see a happy ending, that would be a blessed special privilege.

But for someone possessed by a pufferfish character, it was the opposite.

It was like waking up inside an alligator’s mouth from the beginning.

So my goal was extremely modest.

 To cleanly dump all three male leads.

Then the dragon wouldn’t go berserk, and I could live a peaceful life.

The problem was that <Dragon Heart> was known for its delicious artwork, and it was a game made by an educated pervert.

The beauty of the male leads and the charm they exuded… The sweetness was close to a lethal dose.

‘That was dangerous earlier. To think he would cry at that timing.’

I thought I had maintained a dry relationship, giving as little attention as possible. But Henry’s sensitivity was more abundant than I thought.

‘His skill at crying prettily is top-notch. Should I ask for lessons?’

Seeing such an enviable talent, my occupational disease started to act up.

Right. My occupation before possessing someone was ‘actress’.

This is a secret, but the reason I chose that profession was simple.

I wanted to see the handsome men I fangirled over in real life

Maybe that’s why.

For me, who was seriously face-obsessed, the game <Dragon Heart> was the perfect bad condition.

‘Let’s not get entangled unnecessarily. Our Mr.Dragon might get angry.’

Safely today. Peacefully tomorrow.

So, wherever you are, please don’t get angry.

I offered a prayer to the ‘Dragon Scale Necklace’, my survival charm, and went to bed.