Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 26

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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 26

Empress Palace.
Azeni, the Empress, turned her head away from the window, where the landscape beyond lay beautiful as a painting, which she had been admiring.
“Has the Crown Prince gone to Halbern again today?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Azeni’s fingers traced the Blue Porcelain Tea Cup, its glazing rippled like subtle waves, as her mind sank into contemplation.
Whoooosh—
In the moment when the deep fragrance of spring blossoms, carried on the wind, filled the room.
A peculiar premonition seized Azeni. That Crown Prince Fession would soon fall gravely ill with a high fever.
“……There shouldn’t be.”
Any trouble at all.
Her blue eyes, stained with worry, fixed upon the empty air.

* * *

I was not always an outcast.
No matter how obsessively I threw myself into training like some practice-addicted insect, there were always a few who might have become my friends.

“You think you’re so special!”

But it always ended badly.
I still don’t know what I did wrong. I only know that every connection with them soured in the end.

“Am I worse than you, is that it? Do I look foolish to you?”
“Does being a genius mean everything?”

They always called me a genius. It made no sense to me.
Doesn’t everyone reach this level?
Isn’t this the bare minimum?

“A genius? I train like a madman and rise through the ranks—do modern people call that genius?”

But that was purely my own thought.
Apparently, it wasn’t what others saw.
In the end, I became alone.
‘Is this what friendship is?’
So shallow, so trivial, so ridiculous and worthless.
But how could I have time to play when I had to train? How could I have time to fit in with them?
There was something I had to accomplish.
As they watched me skip meals and devote myself entirely to practice, everyone clucked their tongues.

“Ruthless, absolutely ruthless. How can a genius even bother trying?”
“It’s unfair. If you work that hard, how are mediocre people like us supposed to keep up?”

They denied again and again that my skill came from effort, not talent.
It was bitter. It was only the fruit of relentless training from early childhood.
‘In truth,
if I had to be a ‘genius,’ if I had to be some creature of a different order than them, then they could avoid the shame of their own inadequacy.
I couldn’t empathize, but I understood their desire to settle and blame me.
Though I had no wish to be like them.

“It’s all tedious.”

After that, I built a wall myself.
So naturally, only the strange people who had never wanted to be close to me came clustering around.

“We seem well-matched, don’t we? We’re both geniuses.”
“Of course we should stick together. Right?”

Strange ones who knew only slightly more than others yet carried themselves as though they’d seized the whole world.
Or else.

“I heard your mother is that famous…….”

Those who approached to use me.
Kindness from strangers is strange.
Kindness from the close is corrupt.
That is the world I lived in.
Friendship, love, trust, faith.
I had seen and endured too much to speak of such things and believe them earnestly.
Accustomed to malice over kindness, I developed the habit of suspicion at every gesture of warmth—a habit born, no doubt, from that soil.
In the end, I never learned what normal human connection looked like, and I forgot.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Everything would only wound me. Better not to know.
I need only one person.
From the beginning, my life had only ever held one.
The reason I became this way.
The purpose of how I live…….

“Mother.”

—But in the end, she abandoned you too, didn’t she?
Another voice, a voice that wore my own tones, whispered.
—Who will love you like this?
—You don’t even love yourself.
Voices whispering like nightmare.
—You’ll end up alone in the end.
—So.
—Don’t expect anything.
I opened my eyes amid that mocking whisper, as though waking from a long, terrible dream.
“It would have been better if I hadn’t remembered.”
I looked back on my ruined past, that exhausted life with no desire to return. My yesterdays.
I didn’t want to agree, but that voice was right.
“If it’ll all fall apart anyway, it’s better never to begin.”
At least then I could spare myself the wasteful drain of feeling.
Let them mock me for not starting out of fear of loss. ‘Beginning’ was theft of my time and strength.
Even without such things, my life was eventful enough, heavy enough to choke on.
So.
Today too I chose to build walls and keep distance, to be alone within them.
“Loneliness is easier.”

* * *

“Something’s wrong.”
I’d been troubled by one human being lately.
“By this point, they usually get the message and leave.”
Even if a person laughs and carries on, humans have an uncanny sense for someone pushing them away.
It’s instinct. The instinct to tell ally from enemy is born in us.
“And I’ve made it obvious.”
Cold treatment, ignoring what he says, refusing to answer—yet still, the Crown Prince’s manner toward me remained consistently gentle.
I even locked myself in my room, never went to greet him, never even acknowledged him—
And yet he came every day.
“I’m here—!”
Fession’s clear voice rang out through the half-open window.
“Welcome, Your Highness!”
“Hello, everyone!”
The voices of the Childcare Unit, greeting him warmly.
Hearing this, you’d think Fession was a prince of Halbern.
“Where’s Arelin?”
“The young lady is again…….”
“That’s fine! I’ll come say hello!”
“Oh my, Your Highness, how thoughtful you are.”
Warm chatter and laughter drifted past the closed door.
The moment I shut myself away, the Crown Prince couldn’t play with us—so he allied with the Childcare Unit instead, and it was extraordinary.
‘How does he befriend people so quickly?’
An incident? He didn’t need one.
A connection? He didn’t require it.
Fession was loved by everyone in the estate as naturally as breathing.
“Wow…….”
His affinity was truly remarkable.
Having grown in universal adoration, he walked through the world dispensing love in all directions—a legend made flesh. And standing beside such a being, you can’t help but see what you’re missing.
‘To be loved, one must reach at least that level.’
If lovableness could be embodied, it was in the Crown Prince.
My confinement strategy had failed.
Click.
I heard footsteps and opened the door, finding the Crown Prince standing before it wearing a foolish, radiant smile.
“Arelin, you finally came out!”
That brilliant smile shone on me again, the kind that could exorcise demons.
Facing him this close, I felt keenly how different we were—how we might have been different species.
‘As expected…….’
The end of this relationship was painfully clear.
“Did you decide to stop staying alone in your room?”
Yes, I had lost.
I’d thought that if I didn’t show my face, he wouldn’t bother checking in.
“It’s even better seeing you after so long!”
His smile remained pure, his kindness was turned wholly toward me.
What was I supposed to do with him?
“Are you eating properly? Did you sleep well? And also…….”
No matter how I treated him or what I said, Fession showed no sign of pulling away.
This fervent concern showed no sign of cooling.
‘This is troublesome.’
Really troublesome.
‘If I get attached like this, it’s a loss for me.’
It would be easier if he were a bad, terrible person, someone I could keep at arm’s length with ease—irritating enough to maintain my guard.
But Fession was a good person.
That was the problem.
That was the trouble.
“Arelin, have you seen the sky? The weather today is amazing!”
My heart felt like it might waver.
‘It’s still alright.’
Still.
The solid, sturdy wall still surrounded me.
Had my companions been only the Childcare Unit and Mechen, I wouldn’t have been so vigilant. They were my guardians.
‘Guardians’—to them I could entrust a measure of affection and dependence.
But Fession was different.
‘I don’t want to hurt him.’
Yet the longer time went on, the more inevitable it was that I would.
Unlike you, I don’t know how to give my heart, how to trust someone, how to be together—none of it. And it all feels foreign.
It had to become this way to protect myself.
“Arelin? Arelin? Are you alright? Why have you been zoning out without a word? Are you hurt somewhere?”
Raised gently as he was, he shouldn’t have been accustomed to this kind of neglect and coldness from me, yet Fession never grew angry or displeased. Naturally, he showed no sign of leaving.
“Arelin, why are you staring at me like that without saying a thing? You’re embarrassing me.”
“…….”
Examining the situation from every angle, one conclusion emerged.
‘As long as I’m with this person, I’ll never have peace.’
It was true now, and it would be true when I returned to the Water Gathering Assembly later.
How many were eager to capture his attention, to speak with him?
To them, I was merely an obstacle.
‘This approach won’t work either.’
Passive waiting—endlessly hoping he’d tire and leave—couldn’t save me from the crisis at hand.
Life had to be lived actively.
“Why? Do you have something to tell me?”
A somewhat extreme remedy was necessary.
I made my decision.
I would leave.
“Hey.”
“……?!”
Starting today, I would spend the night hours with the Crown Prince.

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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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