Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 182

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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 182

My body ached with a bone-deep chill. Strength had drained from me entirely, leaving me limp and useless.
Groaning like a sickly bird, I found myself grateful when Mehren brought warm porridge and fed me with patient hands.
“Are you all right?”
I hadn’t the energy to answer, managing only a weak shake of my head. Everyone watched me with worried eyes.
“It’s strange. The physicians say there’s nothing physically wrong.”
The attending physician, the healer from the Mage Tower, and even a priest from the Temple—all threw up their hands in bewilderment.
But I thought I knew the reason.

[!Warning! Blessing affecting the body has grown stronger]
[Status abnormality ‘Debility’ has intensified]
-Vital energy is being consumed rapidly.
-Natural recovery is greatly weakened.
-Dizziness and abdominal pain occur.

New warnings had appeared in my Status Window, which I kept open constantly. It felt like my body was telling me it had reached its limit.
A small whimper escaped me.
“Rest now, if you please.”
“Mm.”
“Shall I stay beside you?”
I nodded.
Despite knowing how busy Mehren was, I couldn’t help myself from being childish, my body aching only making it worse.
“I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay right here, so sleep well.”

* * *

When I opened my eyes, Fession was the first thing I saw.
Was it a dream?
“You okay?”
It wasn’t a dream.
“Why are you mumbling?”
“You were worried…”
Speaking quietly had made my words slur.
A small hand pressed against my forehead, then withdrew.
“You didn’t show up at gatherings and you skipped lessons. I was worried.”
“I’m fine.”
Just weak, just cold. That was all.
“What about the Demon Twins?”
“I left them behind.”
“And Harun?”
“They said too many visitors coming and going isn’t good when you’re ill.”
“Then what about you?”
When I stared at him blankly, Fession broke into a boyish grin—the kind that made me smile without thinking.
“Oh, you smiled.”
I was glad to see it, even though I thought I wouldn’t.
I had Fession open the drawer beside my bed. He pulled out a carefully wrapped box.
“Take this.”
Fession blinked at me, utterly bewildered.
“What is this?”
“A gift.”
“Uh…”
“You saw me buy it.”
Fession’s body tensed slightly.
“There was one for me too?”
“Yes.”
I’d bought for everyone while I was at it.
I had Chloe to thank for that. Without her, I’d never have made it to the department store, and I wouldn’t have thought to give gifts at all.
“Give the rest of the boxes to the Demon Twins and Harun.”
Fession nodded quietly, handling the package with such care, still not quite believing what he held.
“Do you like it?”
“…I like it.”
How could something so simple make him so happy?
Watching him smile shyly, not even unwrapping it yet, I felt my head tilt with affection.
“I gave you a birthday gift too.”
I’d spent so much thought trying to figure out what to give to someone who already had everything.
In the end, I’d selected a precious artifact from among the gifts the Regent Duke had showered upon me—gifts that seemed to pour from the Southern Kingdom’s very coffers.
“But that’s something you’re just giving away.”
What was he saying? I’d chosen it carefully, something rare!
“This one is different. Arelin bought it because she was thinking of me. That makes it special.”
“…”
The sharp gleam in his eyes softened.
He had a point, though I didn’t want to admit it.
“It’s a mass-produced item.”
You could find them everywhere at Sperom Department Store.
“It’s different.”
I would have insisted that the artifact was more valuable, but Fession shook his head stubbornly.
“I’ll treasure it.”
He said it without even opening the box. It was a pocket watch, and seeing how much it meant to him, I suddenly wished I’d bought something fancier.
“Use it freely. I’ll buy you another one anyway.”
“Another?”
“Yeah. I’ll give you my entire fortune.”
“Then I’ll give you my entire fortune too.”
Wait—didn’t that mean I came out ahead?
I was contemplating this unexpected and accidental exchange of entire fortunes with the Crown Prince when Fession’s concern pulled me back to the present.
“Get better soon. So we can eat together, play together, study together.”
“I hope so too.”
I really did.

* * *

After Fession left, I must have slept again. When I woke, someone different stood before me.
Cheiyen? Why was he here?
Was this another dream?
In my fog, I closed my eyes to ignore what I saw, only to snap them open again at the sharp intensity of his stare on my cheek.
I turned my head and found Cheiyen watching me intently, his expression unreadable.
Sigh.
“How did you get in?”
“You think I couldn’t?”
Right. He’d probably slipped in invisible.
“I came as a visitor paying respects to the sick.”
“…”
The look in his eyes was sharp enough to cut, and seeing my skepticism, Cheiyen leaned in toward me.
“Why do you keep struggling? There’s such an easy, fast way.”
His eyes held genuine incomprehension.
“You won’t even take the hand I’m offering. Why does that bother you so much?”
As if he were the only salvation cast over my hopeless life, as if I were stubbornly refusing something obvious, Cheiyen spoke in a low murmur.
“You don’t have much time left.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I still have a year.”
“You know that too?”
I felt death approaching with each passing moment more acutely than anyone.
“Aren’t you afraid? Dying a little more each day?”
“Of course I’m afraid.”
A dry cough wracked me.
My body remained heavy, so heavy it felt as though I were trapped inside it.
“But I don’t want to run away because of that fear.”
Cheiyen’s gold eyes locked onto mine.
“If I became your subordinate…”
“…”
“…would I be able to live entirely by my own will?”
Cheiyen reached out and played with my hair, as if he’d seen through to the truth I’d been hiding beneath a pleasant surface.
“No?”
“No. You’d belong to me.”
I’d expected as much.
“That’s why I refuse.”
Some would tell me that survival itself was reason enough, that nothing mattered more than living.
But I’d already wasted one life and learned its lesson.
That my life had to be lived for me.
“I need to be able to live entirely by my own will.”
How I lived my life had to be my choice.
The me of my past life never had that choice.
I’d lived like a puppet, like a doll, all for love of my mother, doing only as she wished. That version of me was wrong.
If I’d truly loved her, I could have told her what I wanted, even if it meant a result she didn’t prefer.
But I’d known how it would end, so I’d pretended it wouldn’t and run away instead—and the consequence was tragedy.
So now I would play for myself.
“So you’d rather die?”
For such a reason?
Cheiyen laughed bitterly, unable to fathom how someone could refuse his outstretched hand for something so trivial.
“I can live.”
My stubborn answer made Cheiyen scoff.
“You know your own life is nearly finished. Do you really think you can hold out?”
“I can.”
This time, I wouldn’t give up until my very last breath. I was different from the me who’d surrendered so easily before.
Now I had my father, fighting to save my life. I had my true mother, bewildered by her own love for me. I had Mehren, gentle Mehren, who’d do anything I asked. And I had—
Fession, who wanted me to be happy.
“I don’t like it.”
Annoyed by my stubborn persistence, Cheiyen looked at me as if to dissect me, his expression twisted with frustration.
“Hm.”
How amusing. Did he think I’d cower at that?
Perhaps because death felt so close, my courage had swelled. I could hear the mockery in my own laugh.
“You want something from me too. That’s why you’re so obsessed.”
Interest, fascination, and beyond that—I’d glimpsed purpose reflected in his golden eyes.
Did he think I couldn’t see that?
Cheiyen’s gold eyes clouded over. Even diminished as he was, his long, elegant fingers brushed my cheek.
“That was…”
Confusion glimmered in his eyes as he looked away.
“…true at first.”
And then, in a low voice, he admitted that I was infuriating—too stubborn to take his hand, so fragile he might break at a touch, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to leave me be.
Before I could ask what he meant,
“Just this once.”
A cool current flowed from where his hand rested on my forehead.
The next day.
I rose from bed, completely restored.

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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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