Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 201

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

201
Episode

When I was young, I’d imagined what Fession would look like as an adult.
Born to parents counted among the most beautiful of their generation, Fession inherited only the finest traits and had displayed remarkable beauty from childhood.
No matter how handsome someone might be, there’s usually the matter of personal taste—but his face had already transcended that, capable of enchanting men and women, old and young alike, without exception.
Still, when I think of Fession, what comes to mind first is that smile—pure and luminous like summer sunlight flooding through a window, a brightness that seemed to illuminate everything around him.
“…Who…is that?”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Even from this distance, he was unmistakable, and that peculiar presence remained—as if the entire world still existed solely for him.
But his eyes were hollow, his mouth set in a rigid line, and his bearing radiated such a cold, grim atmosphere that one feared a careless move might provoke violence.
This wasn’t the Fession who used to smile so openly whenever our eyes met.
“What is…this?”
Was I dreaming? Or had I simply misread what I was seeing?
When I glanced sideways in confusion, both Mehren and Rena were already shaking their heads, pressing their temples as if to say it was all wrong.
So this wasn’t a dream after all.
“Your Highness! Please look this way!”
“Your Highness! Crown Prince!”
From the Warp Gate to the Imperial Palace, crowds surged like swarms of insects along the royal procession—knights and citizens desperate for a glimpse of the Crown Prince.
I was standing dazed among them, watching Fession, when it happened. For a moment, our eyes seemed to meet.
“…?”
Must be my imagination. It seemed like he was looking at me.
“Eek! He looked at me!”
“That wasn’t you—he was looking at me!”
“You’re wrong! He was definitely looking at me!”
Though the glance was brief, I understood in that instant. Even if Fession had been looking at me, he didn’t recognize me.
“Ha. No.”
Where was our dear, sweet Fession? Where was he hiding?
Suddenly I felt an overwhelming sense of injustice.
How hard I’d fought to come back alive! What suffering I’d endured!
Give me back my bright, golden-hearted hero!

* * *

I pushed through the crowds and made my way back to the hotel.
“…….”
“…….”
A painfully tense silence suddenly descended.
Watching Mehren and Rena, who avoided my gaze as if aware of their guilt and couldn’t speak, I realized something.
In these fifteen years, many things had happened differently than I’d imagined.
“Stop hiding it and tell me everything.”
Mehren and Rena, no longer able to resist, finally sighed and confessed all.
“I’m recorded as dead?”
Mehren immediately objected.
“Not officially dead. It’s simply that everyone came to believe it that way.”
“Why? Mehren, you knew I was receiving treatment from my teacher.”
There was a hint of resentment in my voice at the thought of being turned into a ghost while very much alive.
As Mehren hesitated, Rena quickly moved to defend him.
“At the time of your disappearance, Mehren could only guess—based on the Crown Prince’s testimony—that you’d gone for treatment. He couldn’t be certain. Then ten months passed before the Sky Tower made first contact, and only then did he know for sure.”
“Ten months? It took that long?”
True enough—when I first opened my eyes, three years had already passed. And before that, my teacher thought I might die.
“The Halbern estate fell into disarray after you vanished.”
I was taken aback to hear that Mehren had neglected his duties and done nothing but drink.
Our Mehren?
The embodiment of reason, armored in logic and rationality—I couldn’t believe it, staring at him in shock. Mehren cleared his throat awkwardly under my gaze.
“…I simply couldn’t trust myself to remain in my right mind.”
My father never returned, Mehren alone remained to guard Halbern, and the servants—especially those in the Childcare Unit who’d grown deeply attached to me—were discharged and forcibly removed, yet stubbornly refused to leave.
Hearing of what Halbern Manor had been through during my absence, guilt crept up my chest.
“I’m sorry. What have I done to you, Mother? I’m an ungrateful daughter!”
“Not at all. Your safe return alone is filial enough. And you underwent no easy treatment to come back to us.”
“I’ll do better from now on.”
So that’s why they’d all abandoned Halbern Manor. I’d thought something was off from the first talk of repairs.
That they’d moved to El Sionel was unsettling.
“What exactly changed?”
“That’s your city, isn’t it?”
“But I had nothing to do with it.”
“That’s what made it better. Working for you, remembering our happy times together didn’t weigh so heavily as it would have otherwise—at least not constantly.”
“…….”
His answer carried a strange solemnity.
In any case, since Mehren wasn’t in his right mind, Halbern had effectively ceased to function. And so my death became accepted fact.
Since someone missing for seven years is legally declared dead, there was nothing strange about my being treated as deceased after fifteen years.
“Still, the Grand Duke never officially acknowledged your disappearance or death—so technically, you remain alive in the records.”
Mehren, who had nearly abandoned his post as the Grand Duke’s proxy, had at least maintained that much, he stated matter-of-factly.
“The problem is…….”
“…The Crown Prince.”
As if on cue, both their expressions darkened simultaneously.
“Fession? What’s the issue?”
How could there be a problem?
Seeing my confusion, Mehren and Rena seemed reluctant to speak.
Mehren pressed his temples. The tea Dylan had brought had already gone cold. He drained the cold cup in one gulp and spoke with a troubled expression.
“For the first year or two, it seemed manageable.”
Mehren fell silent. He paused, reconsidering his words, then immediately corrected himself.
“No, we thought it was.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Mehren lowered his gaze, as if searching his memories.
“Apart from occasionally visiting Halbern Manor, spending time in your room, or insisting you were alive—he seemed fine.”
“Without laughter, his words few, throwing himself into Swordsmanship, withdrawing from others—we thought it was simply the settling of age, or a shift in temperament.”
That assumption was overturned when Fession turned eleven.
“At that time? Why?”
“The Crown Prince collapsed.”
“What?”
“He couldn’t sleep.”
The Imperial Court was thrown into chaos. High priests, healers, and court physicians swarmed to conduct thorough examinations of the Crown Prince.
The results were dire—outwardly perfectly healthy, yet rotting from within.
His natural constitution and excellent health had masked any obvious symptoms.
“What was the diagnosis?”
“Lovesickness, they called it…….”
“What?”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
“You don’t mean…because he missed me?”
Though I’d thought it impossible, Rena nodded, confirming my worst suspicion.
Good heavens.
“That’s when the Imperial Court began treating the Crown Prince like a Mana Bomb—as if one wrong touch might trigger catastrophe.”
Though the Court enforced strict silence about the Crown Prince’s condition and symptoms, rumors spread nonetheless.
Mehren had learned through other means.
“The Empress herself asked me directly to convince you were dead, so the Crown Prince could find peace.”
Mehren naturally refused.
“I told her plainly that you weren’t dead and were undergoing treatment.”
Mehren shrugged.
Faced with this knowledge, the Imperial Court stood at a crossroads.
Should they tell the Crown Prince, or keep it hidden?
The Court didn’t want to gamble. They feared that false hope, if you should fail to recover and never return, would break Fession beyond repair.
“It’s not an unreasonable concern. After all, the Crown Prince comes first for the Imperial Court.”
The problem arose from that very choice.
“So my name has become forbidden now, is that what you’re saying?”
Ha. What absolute nonsense.
“Can’t I just tell everyone I really came back? Couldn’t I just reestablish my Halbern bloodline?”
“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid…….”
“I’m me. What could be so complicated about that?”
I was so frustrated I thought I might lose my mind, but the troubled expressions on Mehren and Rena’s faces made it clear that raging at them would be pointless.
Well. There had to be some way forward.
“I need to meet with Fession.”
“That doesn’t sound like a good idea.”
“Either way, I have to see him. I can’t just back down now!”
“But there’s no way to arrange a meeting right now…….”
Even the capable Mehren said it was impossible,
yet nothing in this world was truly absolute.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————