Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 103

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 103

Idikels, one pillar of Albrecht’s Five Great Duchy Houses—the master of diplomacy and mediation.
Even the Marquis of Idikels, who had always received nothing but goodwill thanks to his polished manner and amiable disposition, found this type of person difficult.
“Marquis Idikels.”
A born ruler, the kind for whom standing above all others was second nature.
Regent Loche interrogated him coolly, his eyes like emeralds set into white stone.
“I hear the Grand Duke of Halbern has come to the Capital. Did you know of this?”
“No, I was unaware as well. I’m afraid I’ve been away in the Southern Empire so long that I’m rather out of touch with affairs back home.”
The Marquis of Idikels replied without batting an eye, his composure unshaken.
A man like Idikels, with eyes and ears everywhere, could hardly have missed such rumors.
“How unexpected. That he should return to the Capital…”
Regent Loche examined him with cold eyes after reviewing the intelligence his agents had sent.
“Has the punishment your Emperor imposed come to an end?”
The Marquis of Idikels concealed his tension.
His past transgressions were catching up with him.
When Regent Loche had grown so furious at whatever the Grand Duke of Halbern had done that he nearly started a war, the hastily dispatched Marquis of Idikels had no choice but to soothe him.
Though the Southern Empire’s military could never lose to the Empire in open conflict, internal troubles and the northern front meant that their armed forces were steadily depleted, making the southern flank all the more valuable to keep stable.
At that time, the Marquis of Idikels had bent the truth somewhat for his purpose.
He had claimed that the Grand Duke of Halbern’s demotion to the Northern Fortress was itself a punishment for recklessly provoking you, the Southern Empire’s Regent.
“Well, if His Majesty did not summon him, then the Grand Duke of Halbern must have returned of his own volition.”
……
In the chilling silence that followed, the Marquis of Idikels swallowed and forced a smile.
“Regent, who in Albrecht would dare defy Halbern? His Majesty himself would find that difficult. I beg you, please remember the goodwill His Majesty has shown over these past six years.”
Regent Loche looked at the Marquis of Idikels with only his eyes, and that gaze was sharp as a blade—searching, keen to unearth the truth.
“You speak well.”
“Haha.”
“I suspect you live because of that silver tongue of yours.”
“Hahaha. Thank you for the compliment.”
He had navigated another treacherous moment.
Without letting it show, the Marquis of Idikels wiped his chest and checked the favorability he could see in his eyes.
[♥ 25 Neutral]
A number that neither rose nor fell.
‘Thank goodness.’
This was the secret behind the Favorability Perception Ability of House Idikels, which had allowed him to maintain this precarious tightrope walk with the Regent over the past six years.
Those of the House of Idikels were born with an intuitive grasp of how to win others’ favor, and they possessed the ability to confirm it in numerical form.
Tap, tap.
Regent Loche’s fingers drummed against the desk again.
He recalled the young, unguarded Grand Duke of Halbern—the only time they had met face to face.
Before he had even inherited the title of Grand Duke of Halbern.
“How well does the Marquis of Idikels know Halbern?”
“Well, our houses have virtually no dealings with one another, I’m afraid.”
The most secretive of Halbern and the most open of Idikels had little reason to overlap.
“Surely you know him far better than I do, do you not, Grand Duke?”
After all, the Grand Duchess was Halbern’s beloved daughter.
At that single remark, the light in Regent Loche’s eyes shifted so abruptly that the Marquis of Idikels nearly bit through his tongue.
‘I almost died.’
He knew that any mention of Grand Duchess Sione was forbidden, but he hadn’t realized that even a comment like that would cross the line.
“There’s probably no other house within Albrecht that knows Halbern well. Haha.”
The Marquis of Idikels, having successfully slipped the topic across like a snake crossing a wall, exhaled a quiet breath of relief and glanced deeper into the fortress.
He thought of Sione, the Regent’s wife, whom he had not laid eyes on once in six years at this place.

* * *

“Wow, how strange. There’s an island in the sky!”
Arelin’s voice rang out clearly.
Beyond the office window, Mehren watched her standing outside, gazing upward at the sky and exclaiming in wonder, and a warm smile played at the corner of his mouth.
“I didn’t know you could smile like that.”
At Valere’s words, Mehren’s expression immediately hardened.
“How is your condition now? Any better?”
“Tolerable, more or less.”
“The aftereffects are lingering.”
“They are.”
“Arelin mentioned that you’ve been saying strange things.”
“Ah, that.”
Valere closed his eyes.
“I had a dream.”
“A dream?”
No answer came. Mehren sighed.
“Master, we still have an unfinished conversation, don’t we?”
“You want to talk about the wedding?”
“Do you actually want to die?”
“I’m scared, darling.”
“Do you actually want to get sued?”
Mehren turned several colors. Valere laughed softly.
“Is there something you want? I’ll grant it.”
“Diligent parenting.”
“Denied.”
“Diligent administrative work.”
“Haha. Denied.”
“Permission to retire.”
“Denied.”
Mehren threw his fountain pen. Valere dodged it deftly and clicked his tongue.
“Then why do you only wish for things I can’t grant?”
“I can’t think of anything else I want.”
“Money, perhaps?”
“I have enough.”
“Power, then?”
“Not particularly.”
“A woman, maybe?”
“……?”
“You’re not going to get married?”
Mehren’s expression crumpled. He’d clearly never given it a thought, and Valere laughed.
“You should build a family. Like everyone else—ordinary, peaceful.”
“Me?”
“I could grant you a Marquis’s title if you wished.”
“I don’t need it.”
“Cold-hearted.”
“And you, master—won’t you marry?”
“Me?”
Valere tilted his head.
“Me? To whom?”
“To anyone.”
“You know, Mehren.”
His pale violet eyes fell upon Mehren.
“I will never become family with anyone again.”
What followed was a bleak declaration.
“Halbern will end with me.”
Or perhaps.
“It will end with Arelin’s generation.”
Mehren, listening, felt an unexpected lump in his throat.
“Then again, you might fall in love.”
“Love.”
Valere laughed. His thin smile betrayed no emotion.
“Mehren.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think I……”
His long eyelashes blinked slowly.
“…could be capable of loving someone?”
“You already love someone.”
Mehren looked out the window. Outside, Arelin continued to marvel at the Sky Tower.
“That’s not love.”
“How is it different?”
Mehren pressed on.
“Cherishing them, tending to them, holding them dear—and then putting everything on the line to protect them so as not to lose them.”
“Then answer me this.”
Valere let out a hollow laugh and swept back his hair.
“What I’m trying not to lose…”
His violet eyes grew cold and distant.
“Is it the last thread of connection to my sister I lost, or is it my daughter Arelin?”
A naked, unvarnished question.
Mehren faltered.
“You see? You don’t know either.”
……
This was not something easily answered. And least of all…
“She’s not even your true daughter, after all.”
“If her name is on my family register, she is my daughter.”
“Ha, you certainly have words.”
Mehren glared at Valere’s brazenly unashamed face.
“So what will you do now?”
“About what?”
“When the truth comes out, we’re entirely at a disadvantage. Legally as well. No matter what anyone says, Grand Duchess Sione is still Regent Loche’s wife, and parental rights belong to him.”
Mehren understood that Valere was aware of this, which is why he had committed the insane act of registering Arelin as his own daughter in the House of Halbern.
“Regent Loche won’t simply stand by.”
“No, I won’t sit idle either.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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