Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 160
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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 160
Whether fortunately or unfortunately (?), my Affinity Score toward strangers remained consistently the same.
[♡ -50 Complete Distrust]
“…….”
Was there something wrong with my heart?
According to the Duke’s interpretation, I had a psychological wall, and I showed this common reaction toward people outside of it.
“Ha-ha. It’s a characteristic of deeply wounded children.”
“Wounds? I don’t know about that, but I do dislike humans quite a bit.”
“Dislike humans…….”
The Duke looked at me with the expression of someone observing the world’s most pitiable thing.
Pat, pat. This hand patting me gently, as if soothing — it irritates me.
But he’s an adult and brought me the Affinity Scanner, so I’ll let it slide.
The human heart is strange; knowing that someone likes me is completely different from having that confirmed in numbers.
[Target → Me]
[♥91 Loyalty/Doting Affection]
I never expected anyone to like me this enthusiastically.
“Hee-hee. Hee-hee-hee. Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!”
The person displaying this high number was none other than Uni.
“Uni, you liked me that much?”
“Hee-hee. Hee-hee-hee. Of course!”
“You’re scaring me with that laugh. Please stop.”
When I quietly put some distance between us, Uni smiled beautifully and spread both arms wide.
“Do you see, miss? This pure heart of mine!”
“Yeah, I can see it clearly.”
Beside Uni, another member of the Nursing Corps wore the expression of someone watching the sky collapse.
“This is impossible. I’m at 89!”
“How could I only be at 90? I love the young lady this much!”
“Hee-hee, all of you, fall in line behind me!”
Eighty-nine is already extremely high…….
Seeing their heated reaction, it seemed they’d been competing amongst themselves without my knowledge.
“I object! I lost by a mere three points? Young lady, please give me just one more chance!”
“I’ll prove the purity of my devotion!”
“That’s right, give us another shot! There’s no way I could like you less than Uni does!”
I gazed down at the Affinity Scanner with unease, watching the Nursing Corps clamor for a retry.
Is this thing broken?
Or is this actually real?
I couldn’t believe that the entire Nursing Corps liked me with scores in the eighties or higher.
Especially when my Affinity Score toward them was only [♥50~60 Trust/Quiet Affection].
‘Thirty and above is goodwill, forty and above is friendly, fifty and above is affection.’
And seventy or above means ‘love’, apparently.
Eighty means liking someone enough to give them all your wealth, and ninety means valuing someone so dearly you’d give your life or stake your name for them.
Me? The Nursing Corps?!
My unease deepened.
“Miss, why are you looking at us like that?”
“Did we do something wrong?”
Uni and Rena, quick as ever, caught onto my subtle expression and approached to speak with me.
A familiar sight.
Having always received such attentive care, I realized that their noticing the slightest change in my expression and immediately speaking to me carried a depth of affection I’d been taking for granted.
……The Nursing Corps really does like me.
I must have grown accustomed to them without realizing it because they were so consistent. Familiarity had made me forget to be grateful.
“No, it’s just…….”
Should I say this?
“……Thank you.”
At my hesitant reply, the Nursing Corps members I’d been looking at suddenly clenched their fists or gripped their heads, visibly suffering.
“Adorable.”
“She’s so adorable.”
“It would be worth dying for.”
……?
I think I heard something about it being worth dying for, but that must have been my imagination.
“Young lady…….”
Seeing the adults looking at me with such affection felt strange.
When I tried to look impressive, they were nowhere to be found, yet now they were fighting over her favor like fools — and yes, that was strange too, but I realized I must like these people as well.
“But don’t stake your names for me. Don’t put your lives on the line either.”
“Young lady…….”
Rena suddenly pulled me into an embrace.
“Would you be my daughter?”
“You heretic!”
“Ah, I wish I had been the one to give birth to you.”
A brief tumult passed. My caretakers, unchanged in their care and affection for me.
“I’ll try to like you all more.”
“No!”
“We’ll be the ones to try!”
“We’ll always be by your side so you can like us even more, miss.”
Looking at their shining eyes, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Okay. I’m counting on you going forward.”
* * *
The arrival of the Affinity Scanner brought new developments.
Among them, the person with the highest Affinity Score toward me was naturally…….
[Me → Target]
[♥99 Absolute Trust/Tight Family Bond]
My mother.
Mehren.
“Wow…….”
“Mm. Yes.”
Such a shockingly high number that even Mehren was taken aback!
I was amazed myself to see this number displayed from me.
“A 99? That’s the first time I’ve seen it.”
Everyone gasped at the appearance of such an overwhelming figure.
Seeing this, Father immediately clung to me.
“Me too!”
[Me → Target]
[♥45 Slight Trust/Faint Family Bond]
“……?”
Father checked the number the scanner displayed several times over, then tilted his head with a radiant smile.
“Daughter, I think this item might be broken.”
“Broken?”
“Mehren is at 99, and I’m only at 45?”
Father insisted firmly that the item must be malfunctioning.
I assessed my own Affinity Score toward Father coldly.
“You rank below the Nursing Corps.”
“……?”
Valere tilted his head as if hearing something he shouldn’t have.
“You like the Nursing Corps more than me?”
“Your charm doesn’t work on me.”
“I even lose to the Nursing Corps.”
At Father’s sigh, Ern, one of the Nursing Corps members and a butler, clenched his fists happily.
“Let’s measure again.”
“Why?”
“I still think it’s broken.”
“Father, you’re pathetic.”
“Pathetic indeed, my lord.”
Father seemed unable to accept that he ranked below the Nursing Corps.
Regardless, I scanned what Affinity Score Mehren had toward me.
[Target → Me]
[♥ 92 Trust/Affection/Devotion]
Wow, 92!
Though Mehren didn’t seem satisfied, my eyes widened at a number even higher than Uni’s.
“Why is there no modifier attached to my trust, while Arelin’s shows ‘Absolute Trust’?”
“Oh, that? The Duke explained it — the words displayed there only show the primary emotion. The modifier just indicates whether that feeling is hot or cold, nothing more.”
“That doesn’t quite make sense to me.”
“Well, the Duke has an Ability, so they can’t explain it further! Family secrets, they said!”
Mehren still seemed dissatisfied about the missing modifier.
Just then, Father inserted himself between us.
“Have you checked the Saren Knights as well?”
Father asked me with eyes that seemed desperate to find someone ranking below him.
“I have.”
“What did it say?”
The Saren Knights averaged around 30, showing slight familiarity.
Even though we’d met frequently — like a ghost clinging to the outside of a two-story window — and despite giving them dragon treats or something, they apparently rated at that level.
At my evaluation, the knights…….
“Oh! If you give them items, does the Affinity Score go up?!”
“No way. What else is there?”
“Buy some right now!”
I really wish they’d stop giving me gifts. The misunderstanding that gifts raise Affinity Scores had put me in a very difficult position.
‘Is this a Visual Novel Simulation?’
Oh, actually, isn’t it?
Unintended
Situation
Continuous
Occurrence
Simulation
System.
“Ha-ha-ha.”
Finally finding someone with a lower Affinity Score than himself, Father laughed with delight.
Logically speaking, given the time they spent around me, there was no way I’d like the Saren Knights more than Father.
“Let him be — that thoughtless fellow.”
“Is that so?”
Still, I was curious about what Affinity Score Father had toward me.
“Father, come here.”
Father approached willingly and looked at the Affinity Scanner I was holding out with an odd expression.
“Mm.”
Whirrrr—
The light flickered and numbers appeared…….
“Huh?”
[Target → Me]
[? ?? ??? ???]
The screen glitched, and the display filled with nothing but question marks.
“What’s happening? Is it an error?”
“Ah, so it can’t read it after all.”
Father laughed as if he’d expected this.
Whirrrr—
I scanned again, but the result was the same. Mehren, watching, sighed.
“Yes, Arelin. Most Abilities don’t work on my lord.”
“Huh? Why? The Duke said if an Ability user gives permission, you can see it.”
Father laughed, fiddling with the scanner.
“Mere ‘permission’ isn’t enough to read it.”
“Why?”
“The caliber of my Ability is different.”
“……?”
The smile faded from Father’s face as he playfully tossed the scanner into the air and caught it. His pale purple eyes gleamed with a sharp, chilling light.
‘Ah.’
I’d forgotten lately in my thoughtlessness, but our Father was the Grand Duke of Halbern.
The greatest villain in the story — the one from that tale of “The Male Lead’s Childhood Friend and the Grand Duke’s Obsession.”
The collapse of Halbern, which had been the novel’s greatest crisis, and the Grand Duke’s fall into villainy — the chaos of the latter half came back to me.
‘Whenever he appeared, he swept through like a natural disaster and vanished. His motives were unknowable, leaving readers themselves bewildered.’
Suddenly it felt new again.
‘So has Father escaped his villain’s fate?’
I grew curious whether Father had freed himself from the villain’s destiny.
At that moment, our eyes met.
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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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