Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 192

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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 192

The world spun on just fine with one person unable to open her eyes.
Fession couldn’t adjust to that fact.
The twins—stubbornly sent away by Arelin, then softhearted once they learned she was ill—came back quietly, and Harun returned without complaint though he wondered at the reason. Even the children from the Playmates’ Gathering and Cloe sent gifts wishing for her swift recovery and worried over her, yet apart from that, they all laughed well, chattered well, and played well.
Fession found that strange.
How could they laugh?
Even now he wanted to rush over, and he was troubled by Arelin being alone.
How could they all adapt to Arelin’s absence and live so ordinarily? The empty space feels so vast to me.
How at all.
He couldn’t laugh.
He had no desire to chatter with anyone, and though he pushed through somehow, his studies wouldn’t stick in his mind either.
Just one thing filled his head, leaving room for nothing else.
The feeling of liking someone for the first time.
For Fession, who had only known how to like with his whole heart, clumsy and fumbling as it was, the emotional gulf that had arrived was excruciating to bear.
It was only liking, yet the more his fondness grew, the more it hurt.
Because you don’t like me as much.
Because what you like isn’t as vast as what I feel.
Because you’re happy without me.
Because you don’t lean on me.
Because you don’t need me.
His ugly, petty feelings only grew more varied and colored by the day, and he could only press them down, having never learned what to do with them.
“Arelin…….”
But now you make it so I can’t even resent you.
Is liking someone always this painful?
People say it’s happy, something good, but why is it for me…….
Why is it only difficult and hard for me.
“It’s strange.”
Am I doing something wrong.
Even though everyone discourages it, I want to see you, want to be beside you.
All I wish for
is just to be with you.
I simply want to be together.
Just as you once said, I only wanted to be with you for a long time, to grow together.
When even a small hope that you’d like me just a little felt like greed, I remember the small palm you held out to me like a miracle.
“And now you’ve finally told me you like me.”
Fession thought about what he could do.
There was nothing.
When Arelin was awake, he could bring her an Elixir, prepare medicine, make her exercise—but lying there like this, there was nothing he could do.
Nothing at all.
“Is she dying?”
Will she actually die?
Everyone said Arelin would probably die, that it was better not to see her anymore, and he couldn’t understand.
What does dying mean?
Disappearing?
To somewhere we can never meet again?
If so, I don’t want it. I hope she doesn’t die. I hope she doesn’t hurt. Arelin is prettier when she smiles…….
Chirp-chirp!
Somehow the baby divine beast On had slipped in, squeaking as it fluttered above Fession and Arelin’s heads.
“Can’t you do something like heal her?”
Chirp!
“Useless.”
Chirp-chirp-chirp!
His arm was pecked at with the bird’s beak, but Fession’s attention was wholly fixed on the sleeping Arelin.
Even if I had to reduce how much I want to see you every day to once a month, or even once a year, I’d be glad if you could stay with me for a long, long time.

“You keep making me want to live.”

He remembered Arelin’s smile from some time ago, spoken quietly and bittersweet.
What had been on her mind then.
“Your Highness, it’s time you left.”
At Griam’s quiet suggestion, Fession hesitated.
He wanted to take in a bit more of Arelin with his eyes.
“Just a moment longer.”
“…….”
“Just a little longer.”
By protocol he should have urged him on, but moved by the shadow in Fession’s face, Griam waited quietly.
Fession simply watched sleeping Arelin.
And just as he couldn’t delay any further and Griam was about to call to Fession,
A flutter.
Her lashes trembled, and Arelin opened the eyes she’d been keeping so gently closed.
“……What?”
At the dazed sound, Arelin turned her head and blinked several times.
Then,
“Wow.”
A voice heavy with sleep spoke his name.
“It’s Fession.”

* * *

Fession couldn’t accept reality for a moment.
Focus sharpened in those hazy rose-quartz eyes as Arelin tilted her head.
“Am I dreaming?”
That’s when Fession came to his senses.
“You’re not dreaming.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Fession helped by clasping her hand as she reached out to verify that what she was seeing was real.
“……It’s real.”
Was there ever such a coincidence.
“Why… are you… here.”
“I wanted to see you.”
“I see…….”
Arelin nodded weakly.
Fession studied her complexion. Gone was that rosy glow and vitality from before; her face remained as pale as when he’d first seen her.
“Does it hurt?”
“No… well…….”
Arelin blinked slowly.
“Just… really sleepy.”
There was no strength in her voice.
She’d probably fall asleep again soon.
Fession’s mood, which had lifted briefly when Arelin woke, crashed at once.
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
He wished there was something, anything.
Or rather, he wanted to do something, anything.
But Arelin only shook her head, asking for nothing.
“Arelin, is there anything you want from me?”
Her slowly-turning head fixed her gaze on him, and a small, thin hand reached out with effort.
“That you…….”
“…….”
“Don’t cry, I hope.”
Oh.
Was he crying.
Fession was frightened by how thin and delicate Arelin’s hand felt against his cheek—as if the slightest wrong pressure would shatter her.
“I’m just so powerless.”
Tears pooled in Fession’s large eyes.
“But… my pain isn’t… your fault.”
“Even so.”
“I… said I’d regret it, didn’t I.”
“I don’t regret it.”
“I see…….”
At Fession’s stubborn words, Arelin smiled sadly.
After being awake for such a short time, Arelin’s eyes were already falling shut again.
“Sleepy again?”
He knew he should let her sleep, but after so long without talking, he couldn’t bear to let her go.
Arelin smiled faintly even as she closed her eyes, her voice dripping with reluctance.
“I like you.”
“Yeah.”
“I like you.”
Fession froze. Watching Fession go still for a moment, Arelin smiled gently.
“So… I hope you’re happy too.”
Fession thought Arelin was cruel.
Why say such things at a moment like this.
Why, of all times, now.
Arelin opened her eyes slightly and looked at him.
“Are you happy?”
He should have answered that he was, but the word wouldn’t come.
“……I don’t know.”
Everything feels suffocating.
Everything surrounding me.
“I just want to grow up faster.”
If I were grown, would there be no more of this helplessness and suffocation?
Because adults can do anything.
If I were already grown.
Arelin smiled faintly and nodded. Then she drifted back to sleep with even breathing.
In disappointment, Fession waved his hand in front of her eyes and touched her hand again, but the sleeping Arelin didn’t wake.

* * *

“Ah.”
Having learned the news from Griam, Mehren arrived late and his expression shifted to one of disappointment upon seeing Fession emerge from the room.
“Has the young lady fallen back asleep?”
Fession nodded and passed Mehren.
“I should get going now.”
Mehren followed him out naturally, offering a suggestion with a somber expression.
“Your Highness, perhaps it would be best if you stopped coming to Halbern from now on.”
“Why?”
“You know well enough.”
Fession’s gaze lingered on Arelin’s door before falling away.
“No. I don’t want to.”
Watching Fession shake his head stubbornly, Mehren smiled bitterly.

* * *

[The status abnormality ‘Debilitation’ grows stronger]
Seeing the Status Window that had now penetrated even into her dreams, she scowled.
Whether you tell me or not, I know, you wretched thing.
Though she had fallen asleep, her consciousness stayed awake. For the most part she was dreaming, but occasionally she heard the voices of those keeping vigil at her side.
Mehren, the maids, or Fession.
At those times she desperately tried to wake up, but the status abnormality was far more powerful than she’d reckoned.
‘Still, if I keep sleeping, they said I’d live another year or so…….’
She clicked her tongue, recalling the information she’d gleaned by asking the Laplace Demon in her dreams.
Those wizard fellows, I trusted them.
Suddenly her body felt like it was floating.
Her eyes opened quietly.
What’s this? Did I wake from sleep?
The familiar ceiling greeted her.
A cool breeze sounded from somewhere.
The wind tickled her cheek, so she turned her head and through the moonlight pouring in brightly, a familiar silhouette entered her field of vision.
Cheiyen smiled faintly.
“Still alive, I see.”

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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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