Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 114

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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 114

The sudden chest pain, which had been so severe I could barely breathe, turned out to be nothing serious after all.
‘Besides, it got better quickly anyway.’
Was it thanks to the mage who’d helped me during the episode? She certainly didn’t seem like an ordinary mage…
Now I glanced at the back of my hand, which bore no marking. I’d carried it for so long that its absence left me feeling oddly hollow.
“You’re saying there’s nothing wrong?”
Mehren openly doubted this diagnosis.
Not only my personal physician but also the healers from the Magic Tower and the priests from the Temple had all reached the same conclusion, yet she still couldn’t let go of her suspicion.
“You say it hurt, but there are no abnormal findings? How does that make sense?”
“Well, the chest pain is something you’ve been reporting periodically anyway, and with regular meals and adequate exercise, your stamina has improved, so it’s actually better than it was before…”
“Better? This?”
“Yes? Yes, well…”
Mehren’s displeased gaze bore down on the physician.
The physician, Warren, seemed to tense up with an expression that read ‘What’s gotten into her now?’
The doctor seemed more concerned about Father, who was standing beside Mehren with a subtle smile.
Father looked at me, then fell silent for a moment, as if lost in thought.
“If the heart was aching, was feeding her the Dragon Heart the problem?”
“Dragon… Yes? You’re joking, right?”
What exactly did you feed me?
Father broke into a grin, but given who was speaking, I couldn’t just brush it off as a joke.
“Valere.”
“What?”
“Do you have a death wish? Who told you to feed her something like that without the physician’s permission?”
“I did.”
“You really…”
Oh no, they’re about to fight again!
“Mother!”
I rushed in desperately and clung to Mehren. She froze immediately, as if the fact that I’d been ill had made her unusually sharp and sensitive today.
“I’m fine, Mehren.”
When I tugged at her collar, Mehren let out a short sigh.
“I see I’ve become far too sensitive.”
Mehren admitted it readily.
“The thought that I might lose Arelin…”
Meeting her gaze, which laid bare guilt and urgency, affection and anxiety all mixed together, I simply laughed.
It seemed Mehren’s real anxiety was less about my health than about her own past.
The look in her eyes—regretting those years when she hadn’t cared for me tenderly even as I was beside her—pierced my heart.
“Here.”
“…?”
<Well done!>
The sticker that had become my essential accessory because of the Childcare Unit’s rivalry over affection.
I picked out the prettiest one and stuck it on Mehren’s cheek.
Mehren watched my action with a blank expression, tilting her head. It was only when I showed her a hand mirror that she smiled.
“Mehren doesn’t have a praise sticker chart.”
“Haha.”
I couldn’t tell whether Mehren was pleased or embarrassed by the way she laughed.
Father, watching us, naturally chimed in right on cue.
“How about me, young lady?”
His playful eyes made it seem like he’d be just fine getting one—or not getting one.
‘He keeps looking at Mehren’s cheek.’
I swallowed the sigh that threatened to escape at his childish deliberation over whether to take the sticker or not.
This man, really…
“You too.”
Father made his request.
“Are you jealous of Mehren?”
“Mm-hmm.”
At his brazen demand, I glared at him before pulling out a different sticker from my pocket.
<Try harder!>
There was absolutely no way I was giving him the <Well done!> sticker.
When Mehren saw the sticker on Father’s cheek, she let out a quiet laugh. Father took the hand mirror from Mehren, and his expression became slightly subtle.
“Am I not there yet, Father?”
“You need more effort.”
At my stern evaluation, Father twisted his handsome face before bursting into laughter.
Where on earth is the punchline in this?
“Alright, I’ll try harder.”
Father rubbed his cheek against my small hand, his eyes softening with warmth.
“Yes, try much harder!”
I didn’t know it then.
The ripples those stickers on these two cheeks would create.

* * *

Mehren finished the regular meeting without minding the gazes directed at her.
The Childcare Unit watched Mehren with expressions that suggested they each had something to say.
“Um, Mehren…”
“That sticker on your cheek…?”
“Could it be… that the young lady put it on you?”
The trembling gazes converged into one, and Mehren’s lips curved softly upward.
In this moment, Mehren alone was composed, smiling without even a word of confirmation.
The way she carried herself—as if to say ‘this is the difference between you and me’—made all the members of the Childcare Unit’s hearts clench at once.
And so, after the regular meeting, the Childcare Unit stampeded toward Arelin.
“Young lady, please put one on my cheek next time! A big one!”
“I’d like mine on my forehead!”
“For me, it has to be the lips! No exceptions!”
“I want mine on my eyes!”
At this unexpected barrage of requests, Arelin blinked, bewildered.
“But… you all have sticker charts of your own…”

* * *

Duke Sperom thought he might be seeing things and rubbed his eyes.
He’d come on urgent business, but what on earth was he witnessing in this sacred Imperial Palace?
“Simon.”
“No, Quayen.”
At the appearance of a familiar face, Duke Sperom hastily grabbed Duke Mubisk.
“Look over there.”
“Hm? What is it…?”
Duke Mubisk turned in the direction Sperom was pointing and momentarily lost the ability to speak.
There stood the Grand Duke of Halbern, Valere, walking about with some sort of strange sticker stuck on his cheek.
“What madness is this? Do you have any idea what he’s up to?”
Duke Sperom pestered Duke Mubisk, and while Sperom was anxious and couldn’t predict what that man was doing, Mubisk was equally at a loss for words.
“What’s he got stuck on his cheek…?”
“How should I know!”
Duke Sperom was utterly disgusted. Duke Mubisk deliberated for a moment, then approached Valere directly.
“Valere, what are you doing walking around with that on?”
At the blunt, greeting-skipping question, Valere laughed softly.
“A Praise Sticker the young lady gave me.”
“Huh…?”
“She said I need to try harder.”
He toyed with his cheek and laughed again, his mood obviously good.
“Isn’t it cute?”
That alone made for a perfect picture. With a face like that, even with something strange stuck on his cheek, he could enchant anyone.
Is it because it’s him…? Or does it actually look fine somehow?
Duke Mubisk nodded blankly. Duke Sperom, worried it might be some sort of curse, kept his distance and simply observed the two.
“Have you been like this all day?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“To show it off?”
Without much thought, simply wanting to let as many people as possible see him like this, Valere laughed softly.
“Did you even show His Majesty like this?”
“Yeah. He said he was jealous.”
“……”
His Majesty? Surely not.
While Duke Mubisk thought Valere must have forced that answer out of the Emperor, he couldn’t be certain.
Or could it be…?
“I should show it off more.”
As Valere stood up briskly, Duke Mubisk couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
Valere went about the city’s hottest spots with the <Try harder!> sticker still on his cheek.

* * *

And the next day.

「Leading the New Trend!」

Valere’s face, sticker and all, appeared on the front page of the Albrecht Times.
Mehren, who had woken peacefully and opened the morning paper as usual, immediately spat out her morning coffee.
「The Grand Duke of Halbern (26) visited Gien House wearing a sticker decoration that seems poised to become this summer’s new social trend. People are already anticipating the new fashion…」
What did I just see?
Mehren read the article with trembling eyes before closing the newspaper. She didn’t want to know more.
“Really, the whole world has gone mad.”
Muttering to herself a thought she’d entertained often before, she calmly unfolded another paper.
“Spit—!”
Mehren sprayed coffee once more.

「Is the Grand Duke of Halbern’s true love ‘this man’?!」

The article contained a blurry photograph of Mehren and Valere, attending together on the first day of the Imperial Ball.

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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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