Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 173

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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 173

What do I think of Chloe?
‘The original heroine…?’
But I couldn’t answer that way.
When I stayed silent for too long, the girls grew impatient and began to pile on their words.
“Isn’t Chloe Lady so arrogant? Eyes wide open, talking back to everyone.”
“And her personality seems off too. Honestly, I don’t understand why everyone else likes her so much.”
“She’s not even pretty! Arelin Lady is way prettier!”
“Right, right.”
Jealousy, envy, wariness—or simply drawing a line: you and us are not the same class.
The things I’d once endured being directed at someone else stirred something strange in me.
Everyone lives the same, I suppose.
‘Thoughts, huh….’
There was a time I yearned for Chloe like a distant star in the sky.
Her uninhibited nature, her bright smile, her warm and gentle tone.
The very embodiment of “loveliness”—something I believed I could never become, no matter how many times I was reborn.
‘I remember readers who hated it, saying she was too fixated on the heroine, that the novel had no realism or sense of crisis.’
I was different.
I simply admired her. That was all.
If she were like that, wouldn’t Mother have loved her? If I had been like that, wouldn’t Mother have loved me too?
Such petty, sordid feelings—now long past and gone.
It’s fine.
I don’t care anymore.
“Hmm, hmm.”
It felt strange that I could now recall memories that had shattered me just a few months ago without any reaction.
I smiled with quiet satisfaction, and the girls looked at me with confusion in their eyes.
“Chloe? I have no thoughts on her.”
Meeting her in person was quite a shock.
She seemed to shine so brightly that it would be strange not to recognize her.
An overwhelming presence—as if she’d been blessed with all the world’s favor and love.
‘So that’s the main character.’
It was the same feeling I’d had when I first saw Fession—the sense that here was someone living in a different world than I was.
“Ah, you really have no thoughts on her?”
The confused girls’ eyes turned toward me.
“Right, no thoughts at all. Is there something you’d like me to say?”
If this were a novel, these girls would be supporting characters or extras like me.
‘Ah, could they be…?’
The villainess Noble Ladies who pick fights with the heroine only to be educated in return?
The thought suddenly made me feel lighthearted.
How pitiful—going about like this without knowing their own futures.
“Chloe is pretty, that’s true, and she’s kind, isn’t she? Nobody dislikes kind people. If they do, there’s something wrong with them.”
It was like I was roasting my past self, who’d hated Fession, but—well, humans are complicated. Let’s move on.
‘That feels like such a distant past now.’
I’d been reincarnated as a Terminal Extra in this novel, but now I no longer thought of this world as merely a story.
As long as I lived, breathed, and possessed free will, this world was a place where anything could happen—uncertain, unpredictable.
I’d already confirmed that everything I thought was a fixed fate could change, because I had changed.
‘Things can be different.’
Compared to my past self—who’d built walls, convinced that nothing could change, that I would never be loved by anyone, that I’d simply live quietly until my time came and then fade away—this was a transformation as vast as heaven and earth.
“Uh, um…?”
“Um…”
Faced with my sudden rebuttal, the Noble Ladies stood shocked, eyes widened, at a loss for words.
They could change too, perhaps.
Though that wasn’t really my responsibility.
“You’re all pretty too.”
I had too little time left to spend it hating anyone.

* * *

The girls were stunned.
“Did we just hear that…?”
“Arelin Lady said we’re pretty.”
“Was she being serious…?”
“But Arelin Lady doesn’t usually say things like that!”
The Noble Ladies murmured, their cheeks flushed crimson, their expressions shy.
‘She called us pretty!’
If anyone else had said it, it would’ve felt like mere politeness, hollow flattery—but the way Arelin had spoken those words with a soft smile and such sincerity carried an entirely different weight.
“Honestly, I thought that since His Highness has been talking to Chloe Lady so often lately, you’d naturally dislike her like we do.”
“Me too.”
All the girls who came to these gatherings had long since noticed that the relationship between Arelin and Fession was not ordinary.
Those who once harbored dreams of catching Fession’s eye and becoming Crown Princess had no choice but to face reality now.
That Fession was utterly captivated by Arelin.
Whether his eyes were open or closed, he only looked for her.
Whether she appeared or not, he spoke only of her.
When she arrived, he’d cleave to her side, his very presence radiating such oppressive intensity that anyone who dared approach would surely be killed, the two of them withdrawing into their own world.
If she so much as gave her attention elsewhere, he’d grow displeased yet trail after her like a puppy.
To everyone else, he showed indifference, as though they didn’t exist—yet somehow, no matter how much those girls loved him, no matter how badly they’d wanted to be Crown Princess, none of them could come to their senses.
“I think I finally understand why His Highness likes Arelin Lady.”
“Yeah…me too.”
She’d seemed like a well-crafted doll—emotionless and detached—until one saw her smile, and then the whole world looked different.
It wasn’t the bright, sunny smile that Fession or Chloe showed, dazzling and resplendent—but a smile from such a beautiful girl was rarer than anything, and it had a bewitching quality all its own.
There was no other word for it but enchantment.
While the girls, their cheeks flushed unknowingly, stood entranced by the memory of that smile, a certain figure who’d been hiding nearby turned to leave.
Chloe, who’d happened to overhear her own gossip, wore an expression of unexpected surprise at the turn of events.
‘…Did Arelin Lady just defend me?’
She’d thought Arelin was incredibly beautiful when they first met by chance in the Imperial Palace.
Though Chloe had heard herself called pretty many times, she’d never truly seen someone who wore the word “pretty” as perfectly as Arelin did.
So perhaps that was why she’d been kind to her when they’d met at the Magic Tower event.
‘I didn’t know she was a Halbern Noble Lady, though.’
Chloe shrugged her shoulders as she recalled the few weeks her Master had been away.
Since only Star-rank Mages were permitted to enter the Sky Tower, Chloe spent most of her time there.
Yet even she had heard the news coming from the Sky Tower—that Star-rank Mages were frequenting Halbern daily.
It made no sense when one considered the relationship between Ability Users and Mages.
‘Until I heard the Music Box, that is.’
The beautiful melody that flowed from the Music Box her Master had brought.
How many times had she listened to music she’d never heard in her whole life, only to learn it was the handiwork of the Halbern Noble Lady?
And then, when she’d joined this circle.
She’d learned that the Halbern Noble Lady was “Arelin”.
Her curiosity only grew, but when she saw how taciturn Arelin was, unwilling to connect with anyone, Chloe was disappointed.
She’d thought: so even high-born Noble Ladies are selective about people……
“Arelin, do you know where she went?”
A boy suddenly approached, fixing his gaze on Fession, and he asked Chloe too about the whereabouts of the person he was looking for.
“Where is Harun?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
It was a fair point—Harun was almost always attached to Fession’s side.
After all, Harun had been the real reason Chloe had joined this circle in the first place.
“Get away. Arelin will misunderstand.”
“We’re not even standing that close.”
“No, step back further. Do you know what kind of look Arelin gives me every time you’re near me like that?”
Fession complained as though deeply wronged.
Chloe couldn’t understand him.
‘Why does Arelin Lady like such a strange person?’
Because he’s the Crown Prince?
“I have no interest in Your Highness anyway.”
“Good. Do you know where Arelin is?”
“She went that way.”
Before she could finish speaking, Fession had vanished.
“I wanted to ask him where Harun is, but he just left.”
Then someone caught Chloe’s eye.
“Oh?”
I thought he’d gone in that direction.
Chloe ran toward the figure without thinking, calling out their name.
“Arelin Lady!”
“…?”
Arelin looked at Chloe.
Chloe gazed into those rose quartz eyes, luminous and gentle—so different from her own bright pink hair—and smiled.
“What do you think of me?”
She already knew the answer.
‘Nothing at all.’
And yet, standing face to face like this, she wanted to hear it directly.
“Well, um……”
Arelin wore a flustered expression, then after a brief silence, she answered.
“Lovely?”
At the unexpected reply, Chloe burst out laughing. With her clear laughter ringing out, Arelin bewildered before her, Chloe found herself thinking as she laughed—ha, ha.
That she wanted to be friends.

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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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