Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 140

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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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Episode 140

Valere was never part of Sione’s plan.
All children of the high nobility were raised by nursemaids anyway, and affection between siblings ran shallow.
Sione had never imagined she would be charmed or delighted by a younger sibling’s arrival.
But when this brother was born at the worst possible moment, unable to receive their mother’s touch, she could not deny her own share of responsibility.
So she came to look, to peer at him, to care for him—that was all.

“Sister!”

The infant who had appeared was far too beautiful.
Sione met the baby’s pure, radiant smile and fell into an unexpected love.
It was a different kind of love from what she felt for her mother. With her mother, she had craved endless coddling and affection; but Valere made her want to provide for him, to care for him, to give him everything.

“Sister Sione!”

From the wriggling infant stage, Valere had never whined at the sight of her—only beamed. Once he could walk and speak, he sought her out constantly, followed her everywhere, clung only to her.
‘How could he treasure me so much?’

“Do you love your sister that much?”
“Mm-hmm!”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my sister!”

Perhaps that was when it began.
Her fierce resolve to flee this wretched household the moment she came of age, the instant she had the means—that determination shook, wavered, and finally collapsed entirely.

“Sister loves Valere too.”

Whether Valere pursued her relentlessly all day, broke her things, destroyed her belongings—Sione felt no irritation, no annoyance. Only joy.

“I must raise him well.”

Though she herself was barely more than a child, Sione looked at Valere and made this silent vow.

“Sister will protect you, Valere.”
“Okay!”

She would raise Valere beautifully, shape him into a fine man utterly unlike their worthless father.
Sione made a new oath to herself.
She would do whatever it took so that this gentle, soft-hearted little brother—raised wholly by her hand, untouched by Halbern’s cruelty—would never witness such ugliness.

“You must never become like that man. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sister.”

The younger brother, nourished only by pure love, grew into a child who understood how to give love in return.
Pleased by this, when Valere brought home Mehren, Sione took care of him too with deliberate kindness.

“Mehren, it seems you, too, will find ordinary life difficult.”
“Pardon?”

How he had ended up in Halbern, she didn’t know.
Rolling in the streets might have been kinder to him than this.
Sione pitied Mehren, yet she was also relieved—now there was someone who could be with Valere even when she was absent.
With Valere’s birth, Sione ceased to provoke Morden’s displeasure.
Already fallen from his favor, she moved like the tongue within a mouth, biding her time. She took care never to draw his attention in any way.
Morden’s every thought was fixed on their mother anyway; he paid no heed to whatever his children were doing.
Sione reasoned thus:
For her own wish, for vengeance on her mother’s behalf, for Valere’s future—their father was something that needed to be unmade.

“Then I should do it with my own hands.”

Not entrusted to her mother, paralyzed, or to young Valere’s hands.
Sione wanted to give Valere nothing but good things.
She wanted to teach him only happiness and love.
They were the finest things she had ever known.

“My precious little brother.”

She swore it: for his sake, she would transform this wretched household.
Just a little longer.
Once she reached adulthood, once she could claim her rights as a member of Halbern.
Then she would sort everything, extract only what was finest, and give it all to Valere.
That day was drawing near—

“Sione, a marriage proposal has arrived for you.”

Her cunning father had moved first.

“Marriage?”

Everything Sione had been preparing crumbled under a single decision from Morden.
A perfectly calculated move.

“So he knew all along.”
“He was aware of every plan I had to push him aside and kill him.”

There was nothing to help Sione now—she stood at the edge of a cliff.

“Should I run?”

Her oldest friend had reached out a hand, but she could not take it.

“If I flee…”
“…”
“He will kill Valere.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because he has already tried.”

The fact that Valere was Morden’s son made little difference. He was a monster terrifying enough to wield his own child’s death like a weapon against a daughter foolish enough to rise above her station—a man who would not hesitate for an instant.

“Azeni, my one true friend. I beg you—care for my brother.”
“Sione…”
“Promise me you’ll marry someone you truly love. Promise me.”

Sione could have died willingly for Valere, but she could not bear for Valere to die because of her.
And so she came to Phytale in the Southern Empire.
And so she was given Ludwig as a husband.

“Love?”

She had lost everything—everything she had prepared at the cost of her own life—and now he dared speak to her of love?
Sione laughed bitterly.
Love.
How could she feel love for a man identical to her father?
She had asked him to send her back. He refused. His claims that he was acting for her sake were nothing but mockery.
If he truly cared for her, shouldn’t he have sent her back even at the cost of his own life?

“Valere…”

Fallen into their father’s hands, uncertain how he would be broken—the thought kept her from sleep, hour after hour.
Rage churned inside her.

“This is my life.”

She had never asked to be born into Halbern. All this time, crushed beneath her father’s weight, she had lived no life of her own choosing.
Not even this marriage was hers to choose.
The helplessness, the fury, the anguish, the pain—of never choosing anything with her own hands.
But worse than all of that was this: the loss of the brother she loved.

“And now he speaks of love?”

He wanted her love?

“You love all you want. I won’t.”

Sione understood perfectly: as long as she lived, she would be a leash around Valere’s neck.
Valere loved her as deeply as she loved him.
So Sione decided to die.
She had spent her entire life in another’s grip, buffeted by another’s choices. But death—death could be hers. And that was beautiful, was it not?

“I cannot simply die.”

She had to die alone, unseen by watching eyes.
How could she do it well?
Sione’s gaze turned toward the south of Phytale, toward the land of death that no one approached.
Toward the Forbidden Land of Phytale, where a forgotten god had died.

* * *

Static crackled through the memory I was witnessing like a film.
The landscape that had seemed so real suddenly vanished beneath a veil of fog.
“They say there’s a monster here that kills humans. Are you… that monster?”
Sione’s figure remained sharp, but whom she was meeting was obscured by the haze—I could not see.
“I’m sorry to ask on our first meeting. But you really don’t kill people, do you?”
“This is rather troublesome.”
“Because I must die.”
Even as I had begun reading her memory, I’d thought: this was no ordinary woman.
Who speaks of their own death with laughter in their voice?
The voices faded. The static swallowed their conversation—I could not hear what passed between them.
‘Why is the signal like this.’
I was frowning when—
“So then…”
Sione smiled, looking past the fog.
“Hold me.”
‘…?’
I tilted my head, uncertain if I’d truly heard what I thought I heard.
“I want to make a certain fool—who thinks my body is his possession—regret it. Will you help me?”
Wait. Mom?
I went rigid, unsure where to begin my shock, when I saw Sione’s mouth move again.
The static made it impossible to hear clearly, but unmistakably, she was smiling.
And then, in an instant, I could see her hand resting on her belly.
The signal was too corrupted for me to read her thoughts any further, but I was not fool enough to miss the truth written plainly in this scene.
‘The Regent Duke wasn’t my real father?!’
“I was planning to die…”
Sione deferred her death.
“My child.”
“Forgive your mother.”
At the sound of her voice, I looked up. She could not see me, surely did not know I was there, yet as she cradled her swollen belly, her manner was so calm, so serene, that I found myself grieving instead.
“For your sake, it would have been right not to give you life. I’m sorry for bringing you into such a world. But you came to me. I wanted to bear you.”
“You’ll miss out on seeing you grow. On watching you mature. On watching you age. All of it.”
“And yet I won’t regret it. You are everything I have chosen for myself.”
“I’m sorry we cannot be together.”
“Mother…”
Across the fracturing memory, Sione’s smile made me ache.
Mother truly did love me.
“I love you.”
“This is all the love I have to give.”

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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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