Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 147

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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 147

The warm, comfortable atmosphere that had filled the room shattered in an instant.
Father’s expression turned cold at the sight of the uninvited guest.
The unwelcome visitor, Regent Duke Ludwig, had a simple request.
“I’d like to speak with Arelin alone.”
Father let out a scoff immediately.
“What nonsense is that?”
His eyes, folded gracefully at the corners, smiled in a way that enchanted all who saw him, yet there was no warmth in his gaze.
The air sharpened like a veil drawn taut.
“Ah…….”
Mehren pressed his forehead at the sight of impending disaster.
Father’s firm arms held me tight enough that breathing was difficult, but the atmosphere permitted no complaint.
The Regent Duke and Father faced off sharply.
‘……I thought it would be…’
Wait?
Father, bristling with hostility, glared at the Regent Duke, yet the air didn’t feel like something would explode at any moment.
Finding the reason wasn’t difficult. The Regent Duke was ignoring Father and looking only at me.
“…….”
“…….”
Our eyes met.
I was startled for a moment.
The Regent Duke’s eyes gazing at me held no light—as if his soul had departed, those hollow eyes stared at me endlessly, and the sensation was deeply unsettling.
“If you have something to say, say it here, in my presence.”
“I have nothing to say to you. I request a private audience with Arelin.”
“My daughter has even less to say to you. Do you still think you hold the advantage? You seem to have forgotten where you are.”
“I haven’t forgotten. This is Halbern.”
It was strange, after all.
The Regent Duke, who always sneered and carried himself with insufferable arrogance, spoke in a manner strangely deferential—truly odd.
It struck my eyes as far too strange.
A man who used to shudder at even the first syllable of Valere’s name was being so meek in front of Father?
“What are you plotting?”
That Father was on guard was hardly surprising. His opponent warranted it.
But why did I……
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Arelin.”
I smiled brightly toward Father, who grabbed at me urgently.
“It’s fine, Father.”
“…….”
His violet eyes fixed on me were filled entirely with worry.
“If anything happens……”
“Nothing will. You’ll protect me anyway, right?”
“Still……”
“I want to hear what he has to say too.”
Father still seemed reluctant, furrowing his brow, but he hesitated, unable to refuse my words.
“Nothing will happen, my lord. Arelin’s room is secure.”
Only after Mehren stepped in did Valere withdraw.
Valere glared threateningly at Regent Duke Ludwig.
“Take your shadows with you.”
“Leave.”
At the Regent Duke’s command, the shadows departed, and Father and Mehren left the room with reluctant expressions.
Bang.
The door closed, leaving only me and the Regent Duke in the room.
‘What on earth does he want to say?’
I had come forward demanding a private audience, but now that we faced each other alone, my heart thudded anxiously.
Should I ask first?
As such thoughts occupied me,
the Regent Duke suddenly knelt.
“……?”
In bewilderment at the incomprehensible situation, I could only blink, but the Regent Duke opened his mouth with a devastated expression.
“I’m sorry.”
What did I just witness?
Is he……crying?!
* * *
Outside Arelin’s door.
Mehren pressed his forehead as he watched Valere pacing before the firmly closed door like a madman.
“Will pacing let you hear what’s inside?”
“No. The soundproofing is excellent.”
“It’s the latest Magical Architecture work. Arelin seems to lose sleep often, so we had it newly installed this time.”
“…….”
Under normal circumstances, it would be the right moment for a quip, but there was no response.
“My lord.”
“…….”
“Valere.”
“…….”
Mehren let out a quiet sigh. On the surface, things seemed peaceful enough, but Valere was clearly at his limit.
Just watching him linger before the door, unable to leave for fear of it being torn away from him again, made his anxiety and sense of crisis plain.
‘But.’
Mehren didn’t think the Regent Duke would be crazy enough to kidnap Arelin again.
As the person who had spoken with the Regent Duke the most over the past week, through no choice of his own, he could judge objectively.
Information only Mehren, forced to maintain the most rational stance because of those two powder kegs keeping vigil through the night waiting for Arelin to awaken, could know.
‘It was the Regent Duke’s side that provided the information about the Magic Tower having infiltrated Rock Castle to kidnap Arelin.’
He wondered briefly why the Magic Tower at all, but regardless, the unusual information had prompted Mehren to express his gratitude to the Regent Duke.
If Mehren was surprised by anything about the Regent Duke, it was that the man wasn’t quite the villain he’d expected. Surprisingly, conversation flowed with him, and he was oddly manageable.
He seemed somewhat deflated. A Regent Duke without his spirit—it sounded absurd, yet that’s how Mehren perceived it.
Furthermore……
Watching Valere’s profile as he stared at the door as if willing it to open, Mehren thought,
‘The two of them do seem alike, somehow.’
Halbern’s secret history—shocking as it was.
He should have noticed it from the moment Valere candidly confessed something he’d thought he’d never hear in his lifetime.
‘What am I supposed to do with this fellow?’
Within the startling truths laid out so plainly, what truly captured Mehren’s attention was the complicated web of hatred and resentment Valere had accumulated over time.
Did this man understand why Sione entrusted Arelin to him? Did he grasp the meaning behind it?
‘Probably not.’
Even the overt hostility he displayed toward the Regent Duke stemmed from the trauma of failing to protect his sister.
Mehren understood what it meant that Valere, usually adept at hiding his feelings, was revealing them so openly.
What Valere truly hated, wanted to erase, wanted to kill—was himself.
“Ha.”
Mehren pressed his forehead.
‘Sione, why did you raise this man to be so complicated?’
The face of Sione came to mind, wearing a troubled smile from long ago as she said, “You’re not made for a normal life either.”
……Back then, he hadn’t known that’s what she meant.
Watching Valere, who looked ready to break down the door at any moment, with complicated eyes, Mehren exhaled a sigh mixed with countless emotions.
“Valere.”
Valere still stared at the unopened door.
“You saved me, at least.”
The figure, standing stone-like, hesitated.
Mehren opened his mouth with a rather complex sentiment.
Whatever self-reproach Valere harbored, whatever anguish he carried,
“If it weren’t for you, I’d have died starving on the streets. Or been sold into slavery.”
For Mehren, he had been a savior.
“It was you who made me whole and useful, Valere—me, destined to end my life as street filth.”
“…….”
“That much hasn’t changed.”
Mehren smiled, watching Valere’s crumbling expression as he turned inward.
Now, finally, Mehren felt he had truly become Valere’s friend.
* * *
I hadn’t been mistaken.
Regent Duke Ludwig was crying.
“Um……”
Stunned and frozen, unable to think of what to say, I closed my mouth, but the Regent Duke, tears streaming down his expressionless face, spoke with heavy weight.
“I know you’ll never forgive me, no matter what I say.”
As though this had happened before, he spoke with an expression that dared not even hope for forgiveness.
“I’m sorry.”
“…….”
“I’m sorry.”
I simply sat there, rigid.
It was my first time seeing a grown man cry……
“Um……”
Honestly, I didn’t know what to say. That this man, who never cried even while clinging to Sione, was crying before me—I couldn’t even guess what it meant.
Everything felt bewildering.
“I was wrong.”
Of course, he had been wrong.
“Everything. All of it was wrong.”
So it was a relief, in a way.
Yet the man I’d thought unbreakable by death itself was kneeling before me like this, and it was so unfamiliar that……
“I won’t ask for anything.”
As though daring not to presume, the Regent Duke pleaded with me.
“You don’t have to call me Father. I’ll do anything you want. You can ignore me. Just let me stay by your side.”
“…….”
“Let me watch you grow.”

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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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