Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 236
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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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236
Episode
“I was wrong.”
Fession was desperate.
He was terrified that Arelin might push him away and leave right now, that she might vanish from his life forever. His voice trembled finely as he repeated his apology like an echo, pleading over and over.
“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I….”
Fession clutched Arelin’s small frame—the only lifeline he’d managed to grasp—and murmured his regrets again and again.
She’d been right there in front of him, had come all the way to find him, and yet he’d been too foolish, too blind to recognize her, pushing her away instead.
At that vertiginous thought, his hands tightened around her with desperate force.
If he loosened his grip even slightly, he feared she’d vanish like a phantom. He couldn’t bear to lose her again.
Just when he’d thought all chances were gone, when he’d accepted abandonment and fallen into despair—she’d come. This last miracle.
How could he not be desperate?
Tears streamed down Fession’s face, though he didn’t seem to notice. He held her so tightly he could barely breathe, begging forgiveness for his wrongs. He didn’t dare ask for pardon outright, only kept pleading with her not to leave him. That’s when—
Arelin patted his back lightly.
“Alright, I get it. Let go now. I can’t breathe. How have I survived this long only for you to suffocate me?”
At the hint of laughter in her voice, Fession’s mind snapped into focus.
He released her in a panic, but even so, he kept her arm firmly in his grasp, never letting her body move far from his.
‘How can she cry so beautifully?’
Arelin was suppressing her laughter.
Each time Fession blinked his eyes wet with tears, the pooled tears spilled down his cheeks. His soaked lashes trembled delicately.
With each of his tears, all the sorrow she’d carried seemed to wash away.
“That’s why I told you—you’d regret it.”
Though, of course, the “regret” she’d meant back then was nothing like this.
Arelin reached out and wiped his tears; Fession fell silent, simply gazing at her.
The face she’d thought looked too much like hers—a face that had annoyed her—now seemed completely different.
The firm brows, the small nose extending straight and true, the soft eyes.
Remembering the young Arelin of years past—pretty enough but lifeless, doll-like—he could scarcely believe this was the same person. She’d transformed into a bright, radiant beauty.
“Have I changed that much?”
“No. You’re the same.”
“You said I was different.”
“…You just didn’t smile like this back then.”
At his petulant answer, Arelin smiled again, and Fession’s eyes narrowed.
“So you’ve forgiven me?”
“No, you were wrong.”
The quick answer seemed to satisfy her, and Arelin nodded.
“Yes, you were quite wrong.”
I’m a woman who always speaks the truth.
At her swift admission, Fession’s expression clouded with anxiety.
He was suddenly terrified that she might abandon him because of that fact.
He’d thought he’d never see her again. Yet here she still was. He couldn’t quite believe it was real.
Had he not known she was alive, that might have been different. But now that he did—if she were to abandon him, if he had to live without her again—Fession couldn’t begin to imagine what he might do.
“…I was wrong. I was wrong, and I’ll do better going forward. I swear I will.”
Arelin burst out laughing at the desperation fracturing his voice.
Honestly.
“Are you an idiot?”
If I actually hated you, would I be standing here doing this?
“I’m an idiot without you.”
His quick reply was impudent.
“If that’s how it is, why did you give me such grief all this time? Seriously.”
She pinched his soft cheeks, and they flushed a deep red. Fession frowned but made no move to stop her.
“Because I’m an idiot?”
“You can’t be a complete idiot. You’re the Crown Prince. An idiot Crown Prince is unacceptable.”
“Then you teach me, one through ten. I’m an idiot, after all.”
Watching him seize the opportunity to keep his hold on her, Arelin laughed once more.
Where did he learn such tricks?
* * *
It wasn’t until we’d stepped out of our little world and left the Magic Tower that I suddenly realized what kind of scene we’d caused there. A belated wave of self-awareness crashed over me.
“We didn’t see anything, miss.”
“Really.”
Right. You watched very carefully.
I laughed at the mages who were hastily protesting with bright, eager eyes, and dragged Fession out with me.
‘I’ll have to bring Master some bread later.’
At least the mages in Sky Tower probably didn’t see it—they don’t pay much attention to what happens on the ground floor.
Though Master probably saw it.
That’s fine though. Master is like… my second parent, I suppose.
‘Though come to think of it, I seem to have rather a lot of parents.’
Mehren, Father, my birth mother, Father’s partner, and possibly my biological father too.
I shook my head at this thoroughly tangled family tree.
Anyway, where do we go from here?
“Let’s head back to the Imperial Palace for now.”
“Okay.”
It was odd to see the Crown Prince wandering about so freely like this. Normally he should have attendants with him.
“But where’s Griam? Why are you alone?”
“…….”
Fession glanced around, then shrugged. He didn’t know. My eyes narrowed involuntarily.
“He got separated? Lost you on the way?”
“Lost me? How?”
“Because I was running around like a madwoman looking for you.”
Fession answered matter-of-factly.
And with that, I had nothing more to say.
If I hadn’t decided to bring Master some bread, we surely would have missed each other.
‘Now that I think about it, how am I supposed to get to Gaiiren?’
Looking at Fession right now, it seemed I wouldn’t be able to separate from him easily.
But at the same time, I didn’t want to just leave him here either.
Perhaps sensing my hesitation, Fession suddenly met my eyes.
“Arelin.”
“Hmm?”
“Are you going to drop me off at the Imperial Palace and then leave again?”
“Huh?”
Fession suddenly looked down at my arm, which he still held firmly.
It didn’t hurt, so I’d been ignoring it. But was this grip of his like shackles meant to keep me from running away?
“Are you going to leave me again?”
That’s not fair.
“When did I ever leave you?”
“You promised never to leave again, and then you did. Are you going to do it again?”
I laughed at the sheer determination flooding through his grip, the refusal to let go.
“If I leave you alone, that means I’ve abandoned you?”
“Yes.”
Where do I even begin to teach him about this?
“Are you afraid I’ll abandon you?”
“…….”
Fession bit his lip. I noticed the scab formed on his pale lip. Seeing him nod with such a pallid face softened my earlier sharpness.
“It was always one-sided.”
“What was?”
“I was the only one curious about you, the only one going to see you, the only one who loved you. But you….”
His voice had grown heavy, as if his throat were closing.
“You didn’t love me as much as I loved you.”
That’s not fair at all.
I’d told him I loved him so many times, and yet he’d been sitting here with these pathetic thoughts?
Looking back, even when we were children, whenever I was involved, he was always uncertain.
I remembered him stammering, hesitating around me.
“If I didn’t love you, wouldn’t I have left the moment you didn’t recognize me?”
I never would have endured such pain or sought treatment in the first place. I wouldn’t have had any will to live.
With Father, we’d have just existed side by side, aware of each other but nothing more.
“Don’t you understand? Everything is because of you.”
You came to me like a natural disaster, a miracle, when all I was doing was waiting for each day to end.
“If I’ve changed, if I can feel the difference in myself, it’s all because of you. You taught me. You taught me how to smile, how to fit in with others, how to want to live, how to rise again even after falling.”
I learned it all from you.
“Arelin…….”
I liked the way his eyes widened, holding only me in them. The expression he showed only me, the way he looked only at me.
“Now I can’t explain myself without explaining you.”
My habits, my preferences, my speech, my manner, my values, my actions—if I removed you from them, nothing would remain.
“Me too.”
Fession pulled me close again, speaking into my hair.
“I’m the same.”
His voice, thick with emotion, whispered that he’d given everything to me and had nothing left. His breathing, which had trembled finely before, steadied as my heartfelt words reached him.
He only loved me. Why was he so anxious?
“Arelin.”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask you just one thing?”
“What is it?”
Fession tightened his arms around me as he asked.
“Who is your First Love?”
Ah.
“That’s fine, I have a First Love too.”
Remembering the drunken words I’d carelessly blurted days ago, I couldn’t help but laugh.
That’s you, I’m telling you.
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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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