Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 200

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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 200

Mehren gazed at the girl sitting before him.
By age alone she was a full-fledged adult, but in his memory she was frozen at seven years old. She still looked like a small child to him.
‘I should be happy about this…….’
Joy and happiness mingled with a bittersweet ache at how much Arelin had grown while he wasn’t there.
Where had his cute little daughter gone?
He understood that time had passed, but Mehren had always wanted to keep her close, feeding her only good things, dressing her carefully, teaching her with his own hands—and this knowledge made his heart heavy with complicated feelings.
‘Is it longing? No, get a grip. I should be grateful she came back alive, not dwelling on what I missed…….’
And yet, the regret of not being there beside her as she grew from child to woman remained like sediment at the bottom of his heart, leaving him dispirited.
“Why?”
Perhaps sensing his mood, Arelin was the first to meet his eyes.
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? What’s wrong? You always make that face when something bothers you, Mehren.”
So she’d noticed that too.
Arelin laughed, pressing her fingers repeatedly between his furrowed brows. Mehren let out a hollow chuckle at her antics.
“Oh? You laughed.”
The way her eyes curved when she smiled, the brilliant blooming of that grin—it so resembled her father that Mehren couldn’t help the thought that crossed his mind, even knowing the truth.
‘Was Valere her biological father?’
She’d been pretty and adorable as a child, but never quite like this.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I was thinking how remarkable the mystery of bloodline can be.”
“Bloodline?”
Arelin tilted her head, confused.
Hair like platinum waves flowing in endless ripples, eyes the soft rosy pink of polished rose quartz, a round forehead and a straight nose.
Cheeks flushed with the bloom of health, lips forever drawing that pretty curve.
‘She really does look like her.’
Studying every feature, he couldn’t help but think of Sione.
Looking at her appearance alone, one could believe she wasn’t Sione’s daughter but Sione herself reborn.
Mehren shivered slightly, recalling Sione—the woman who had always smiled kindly but was never easy to handle.
“?”
He looked at the puzzled expression on Arelin’s face and thought:
Thank heavens our Arelin didn’t inherit her mother’s temperament.
* * *
With news of my return, familiar faces began arriving one by one.
Dilun and Rena came first.
“Rena became Mehren’s aide?”
Rena, who had once been one of my head maids in the Childcare Unit, threw her arms around me and wept for a long time.
Everyone who saw me, starting with Mehren, wore expressions as though seeing a ghost. Their disbelief was so comical that I laughed.
Then I heard something that made me doubt my own ears.
“So everyone’s gone to El Sinonel and abandoned the Capital? What’s that about?”
“That’s how it came to be.”
Mehren spoke of how, in just fifteen years, he’d transformed a barren wasteland into the finest city in the realm.
I’d always known Mehren was remarkable, but hearing it put like that, I finally understood why Duke Sperom had been so obsessed with him.
Meanwhile, Dilun, looking dazed and bewildered, asked carefully:
“Is it really…… you, Miss Arelin?”
“Still don’t believe it?”
“To be honest, no…….”
“Dilun! How dare you doubt our young lady!”
Pressed down by an indignant Rena, Dilun was branded as an ingrate who couldn’t even recognize his own mistress and summarily banished to the corner.
“No, Rena. There’ve been many things happening, you understand…….”
“Shut it, you ungrateful wretch!”
“Many things?”
“Nothing the young lady should concern herself with.”
Rena, who had been scolding Dilun, answered smoothly with a bright smile.
Right. I’ll never talk back to Rena again.
“But how did you get here, Miss? The top floor of this hotel should have incredible security.”
“Oh. Pretty much with Magic?”
“Pretty much…… Magic……?”
I laughed watching Rena grapple with how “pretty much” and “Magic” could coexist in a single sentence.
“Teleportation can bypass security like it’s nothing.”
Ordinary mages would be caught, of course, but I was the personal disciple of a Grand Mage born once every 2,251 years.
And not a disciple in name only, taught just one or two tricks—I’d learned the foundations properly from the ground up!
“You seem to have learned Magic quite thoroughly.”
“Yep. I’m good at it.”
“I see.”
“Don’t believe me? I’m serious. My master said I was a genius!”
“You’re always a genius, young lady!”
These people really don’t believe me, do they?
“I was praised as a genius who appears at the Magic Tower maybe once every ten thousand years!”
On the day I first came to the Magic Tower, all the stars themselves blessed me!
But my grievance fell on deaf ears—to all of them, it was just an endearing tantrum, and they all smiled with knowing warmth.
“Young lady, does that mean you’ll stay with us from now on? You won’t have to go back to the Tower?”
“Probably?”
If something felt wrong with my body or I had some kind of overload, I’d need to return, but at this point it was basically like being discharged.
The moment Rena heard my answer, she called out to Mehren as if she’d been waiting for this.
“Master Mehren!”
“Yes, Rena?”
“I’m submitting my resignation!”
Just like that?
I faltered in surprise while Rena placed a hand over her heart, laughing softly.
“Starting today, I’ve decided to live as the young lady’s exclusive handmaiden.”
“So you were scheming to become his aide for this all along, weren’t you?”
“Already caught! Yes. If the young lady returns, the first place she’d visit would be Master Mehren’s side, wouldn’t it? This is why people must study.”
While Dilun held his head in his hands and I just blinked in confusion, Mehren, who had been tapping the armrest with his fingertips, nodded slowly.
“I can’t entrust the young lady to just anyone. Please take good care of her, Rena.”
“Of course, leave it to me!”
Rena, who had swiftly managed Mehren, patted her chest with absolute confidence.
“Young lady, it’s been fifteen years, so much must feel unfamiliar and difficult. Trust only me!”
“Okay, I’ll trust you.”
“Ask me anything if you’re curious!”
Rena smiled with utter self-assurance, as though she could answer absolutely anything.
“Really? Perfect timing then. Do you know where Fession is? I wanted to go see him.”
Thud.
All three mouths snapped shut.
“……?”
What’s with this atmosphere?
* * *
Mehren’s party, who’d originally planned to stay just three days before returning to El Sinonel, had rescheduled everything because of my arrival.
They even came out to enjoy the eve of the Foundation Festival, which they hadn’t intended to celebrate.
“It’s been so long since I’ve done something like this.”
The Foundation Festival felt even more precious precisely because it had been so long.
“Looking at it this way, it doesn’t seem much has changed.”
“Ha ha.”
“Dilun looks a bit older, but Rena’s still as pretty as ever.”
“Ho ho, you’re too kind, young lady.”
Had they been so traumatized when I gave them a brief explanation of what treatment I’d undergone while trapped in a Grand Mage’s domain for fifteen years?
Everyone seemed to glow watching me enjoy myself so much.
“But why are we staying at the hotel instead of at Halbern Manor?”
“…….”
Another miraculous silence descended once more.
“Well, you see…….”
“It’s under repairs.”
Mehren said it.
‘The manor’s under repairs?’
‘Let’s just go with that.’
I could see Rena and Dilun whispering something behind me, but I couldn’t hear it.
I’d heard the gist of what happened in Halbern while I was gone: Mehren had stepped down from his duties and gone to El Sinonel to focus on developing the city, and most of the Childcare Unit had relocated to El Sinonel and was doing well there.
“Since things have come to this, what if Miss Arelin were to go to the manor in El Sinonel?”
“El Sinonel, you say?”
The city Father had built for me, which I had named in honor of Mother Sione—a very meaningful place indeed.
I’d certainly planned to visit, but rushing off there immediately didn’t feel quite right for some reason.
After all, I’d only spent seven years in the Capital. I have more memories left here.
And.
“Shouldn’t I see the children first?”
The Twins, Harun. And Fession.
Oh, Fession was supposedly at the Northern Fortress.
At my murmur, all three of them froze as if broken again.
“Ha ha. Young lady. Fifteen years have passed already.”
“I know, a lot of time has gone by.”
“So truly, many, many things have changed.”
“I know that. They’d all be adults by now, right? The Twins built that hotel, didn’t they? I thought they’d spend their whole lives tormenting people, but they must have grown up and gained some sense.”
“Ho ho.”
Rena murmured something like “Whether that’s really gaining sense……” but said it so quietly I couldn’t hear.
“What?”
“Nothing at all.”
By this point, I couldn’t help but catch on to something.
“Sigh, how do I even explain this?”
The three of them exchanged whispers among themselves again.
“Shall we head inside now?”
Rena’s sudden suggestion to leave felt suspicious, but since I’d enjoyed the festival enough and for some reason more people were gathering than usual, I nodded—
“Look, there! Look! The Crown Prince is here!”
“Kyaa, Your Highness—!”
I stopped in my tracks at the sudden roar from the crowd filling the street.
Mehren and Rena’s faces showed signs of dismay.
“Was his return today?”
“I thought it was supposed to be tomorrow.”
The two of them hurried me along, their expressions troubled.
Why did it feel like they were trying to keep Fession and me from meeting?
That’s when the thought struck me.
“?”
Among the throng of people, one figure stood out overwhelmingly.
“Fession……?”
But the Fession I had known was nowhere to be found.

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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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