Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 178

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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 178

I looked at the Name Plate again.
《Valere Sirun Halbern》
It was indeed Father’s study.
But what was with this overwhelming size?
A vast space greeted me as though I’d stepped into an entirely different building, and countless books packed every corner of it. I stood speechless, turning in circles.
As I gazed around in a daze, a thought occurred to me.
Was it possible for this much history to come from a single human being?
“Is this a bug?”
“I have no idea!”
“Is it normal to have this many books?”
“Of course it’s not! It’s completely abnormal!”
“Right, it definitely looks that way.”
What on earth had Father done to accumulate so many books? And what was with this ruin of a place?
I understood perfectly why Mac’s heart was racing.
“The strangest thing here is the books themselves.”
“The books? Why?”
Mac handed me one of the books containing Father’s life, as if to show me directly.
“I… see.”
Pages painted completely black, as though someone had deliberately drawn lines through them to blot them out.
“Why is it like this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Father doesn’t know either?”
“The current family head shows no interest in the study.”
According to Mac, Father rarely visited, but whenever he did, he would find only the information he sought and leave.
“The moment I try to talk to him, he throws me right out!”
The baby elephant, apparently having built up quite the store of grievances, suddenly began weeping openly.
“That guy — what on earth is he doing out there?! Now his Ability Rank has grown higher than mine, and I can’t even throw him out as I please! Wahhh!”
“Father’s Ability Rank is higher than yours?”
“I thought I’d starve to death, and now you’re the same! Sob sob sob.”
“Don’t cry, little elephant.”
“I’m not a little elephant!”
“Right, don’t cry. Dream spirit. Want more chocolate?”
“Sniff… okay…”
Mac only stopped crying after accepting the chocolate.
That Father possessed a higher Ability Rank than this creature, who was born an Immortal—was that even possible…?
“But what information was Father looking for?”
“I don’t know. Last time he came in, he was searching for something about a Singularity or something.”
“A Singularity?”
Suddenly, the [Point of Divergence ■■ (?)] notation in my status window came to mind. Was there a connection?
‘Surely not.’
In any case, with so many books around, there was nothing I could actually read.
Somehow I felt that among all these books lay the reason Father had descended into darkness in the novel…
“Tantalizing fruit out of reach.”
I’d thought coming here would help me understand Father better, but I was disappointed.
“Hm?”
Just then, a book gleaming with unusual light caught my eye at the corner of my vision.
“What’s this?”
Father’s books fell into two categories: pristine volumes and books with charred covers scattered across the floor. The glowing book was unlike anything I’d seen before. The moment I pulled it out and opened it—
Whoosh.
Something poured from the book and was absorbed into my body.

* * *

Valere had newly come to realize
just how much public attention he received as a celebrity.
“It has been a long while, Grand Duke of Halbern.”
“I never expected to encounter the Royal Guard here.”
Being watched whenever he moved was an exhausting affair.
“Does His Majesty also have business at the Magic Tower?”
The Royal Guard members flinched under Valere’s gaze.
“His Majesty requested that we bring you with proper courtesy.”
“With proper courtesy…”
Valere let out a soft laugh.
“So there are improper methods available?”
A sharp tension suddenly filled the space between them. Watching the Royal Guard members swallow nervously and prepare for “contingencies,” Valere swept his bangs upward.
To Arelin and Mehren, he was a thoughtless man who went about smiling foolishly, but the gravity and pressure Valere possessed had always made him a difficult figure for others to approach.
Valere felt a renewed sense of irritation toward the surname “Halbern” that clung to him.
The urge to tear the name away and hurl it down right now was bubbling up inside him.
Left to his own devices, he’d ignore the imperial knights, ignore the emperor himself, and hound the mages of the Sky Tower relentlessly…
But that wouldn’t do.
‘I can’t make things difficult for her.’
Valere was a man who did as he pleased regardless of what anyone said, yet strangely, he wanted to be a decent father before Arelin.
A more worthy father, respectable and kind.
The more he basked in the peace and happiness Arelin gave him, the more he harbored these incongruous thoughts.
If he acted out, it would ruin that.
“Fine, lead the way.”
The lethal aura that had been suffocating enough to stop breath vanished without a trace. The pale Royal Guard members stared at Valere as though he were a monster.

* * *

In the inner chambers of the Imperial Palace.
Emperor Edward clicked his tongue at the sight of the one brought before him.
“You should have come quietly when summoned.”
“I submitted all required reports in writing.”
“I commanded you to report in person.”
“There was nothing of sufficient importance to warrant a personal audience.”
At such unabashed insolence, Emperor Edward finally wiped away his smile.
“Do you have any idea how much the Capital has been turned upside down by what you’ve done?!”
There was unexpected military action, and with the Southern front’s tensions escalating for nearly a month, the price of grain—a crucial import for the Southern Empire—had suddenly skyrocketed. Edward had been beside himself with worry, preparing stockpiles in case war broke out.
Yet the very person responsible for this upheaval had created such enormous chaos and simply reported “situation concluded” in a peaceful manner, without even showing his face!
“War definitely won’t break out, yes?”
Valere answered by shrugging his shoulders.
Only then, as if reassured, did Emperor Edward clutch his chest.
“Phew. Please, for the love of all that is holy, let there be no more incidents. No disturbances. That’s my lifelong dream, Duke—to live peacefully with our Empress, sweetly and harmoniously! If possible, I’d even like to abdicate.”
“And would a wise empress really stand by and let you laze about?”
“…Damn it.”
Emperor Edward, well aware that he’d reformed because he’d found a good wife, could offer no rebuttal and closed his mouth.
“Why do I have to love such a perfect woman…”
Emperor Edward employed a roundabout way of declaring that he wanted the world to recognize what era of love he’d fallen into, how harmoniously we lived together, and how these good feelings—though troublesome—deserved acknowledgment.
Valere ignored Edward’s attempt at a serious expression while his lips twitched with amusement, and firmly cut off the beginning of a story that, once started, he’d hear rambled on for a full week.
“To the point.”
“Ugh, would it hurt to listen a bit?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to end the audience quickly and go see your ’empress’ instead?”
Emperor Edward nodded somewhat reluctantly, conceding that while it was galling, the point was valid.
“The Regent Duke.”
So that was the real topic.
Emperor Edward fixed Valere with a keen stare.
“You looked like you’d kill him on sight, yet I hear he’s settled into Halbern Manor as a permanent guest. Have things improved between you?”
“Improved? I still want to kill him.”
“Then why haven’t you?”
Valere tilted his head.
“Why indeed. Why haven’t I?”
Perhaps simply killing him wouldn’t satisfy him after all.
Even now, with the Regent Duke having found a measure of peace, Valere harbored no actual plan to end his life, separate from the murderous intent he felt.
“Is it because of your daughter…?”
“What?”
“Our daughter is rather kind, you see.”
Emperor Edward furrowed his brow as though such an explanation made no sense.
“So you’re building her a city out of the goodness of her heart?”
Valere shrugged at the mention of El Sionel, which was already beginning to take on a credible appearance thanks to the mages’ full mobilization.
“El Sionel is its name.”
Emperor Edward closed and opened his eyes.
So the intelligence was fact.
Arelin truly was Sione’s…
“I really don’t like my sister Sione.”
“Are you bad-mouthing your sister in front of me?”
“I know who made you the way you are, so would I praise her instead of speaking ill?”
“My sister bears no fault.”
“Hmph.”
Emperor Edward could never like someone who wielded powerful influence over the two people he cherished, Valere and Empress Azeni, and who had pushed him to the periphery.
Especially not if that person were someone who, each time they met, would gaze at him with pity as if to say, “Don’t live like that.”
‘You said I should inherit but half of my dear brother’s virtue, yet look at this now—who should be inheriting from whom?!’
He’d even suppressed the unspoken curses he’d muttered during those days of floundering and regret, but back when he was infatuated with Azeni and chasing after her…
‘And then she had the audacity to tell my sister to marry someone she loved!’
How much had he resented Sione then.
Now it was fine, but recalling those harrowing days of old, Emperor Edward shuddered.
If he came to know that Arelin was Sione’s daughter…
He had no sense of how Empress Azeni would react.
‘Though I think I may have already sensed it.’
In the end, the reason he’d forced Valere to come today was precisely this.
“What will you do?”
Emperor Edward’s and Valere’s eyes met.
“Will you reveal it? That Arelin is your sister Sione’s daughter?”

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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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