Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 268

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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 268

Where had the real Arelin gone?
And why, of all places, had he been cast down here?
Fession drifted aimlessly through this world, which seemed to be a perfect snapshot of the past—minus Arelin—unable to determine what he was meant to do.
If this truly was the past, it felt like he should touch nothing.
Yet something strange happened: people who saw Fession would acknowledge him during conversation, but the moment they turned away, he vanished from their memory entirely. As though no such person had ever existed in this place.
‘The world is erasing my very existence,’ he thought.
At least he didn’t have to explain his hair and eye color—small mercy in that.
But he couldn’t shake the feeling of being a perfect outsider, severed from everything.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
Should he head to the Gairen Ruins, the source of all this?
But something in Fession’s instinct insisted he remain at young Arelin’s side.
He’d been lingering nearby, meaning to stay just a little longer, just a moment more—and that was when he noticed it.
‘Arelin is different.’
A difference no one else would detect.
Unlike the Arelin who had always sought solitude, this version desperately wanted to be with others—even those who mocked her.
‘Because she’s lonely.’
Better to endure mockery than to be alone.
‘Did this version of Arelin become who she is because of her need to belong?’
He didn’t know.
‘Is it right for me to interfere here?’
He hesitated—whether it was proper for an outsider like himself to appear before her again. But that doubt evaporated the moment he saw her.
Arelin wasn’t crying. She was simply left behind, forsaken and forlorn.
She looked composed, unbothered on the surface, yet her unsteady gait revealed the wound she carried. That sight was enough. Fession stopped deliberating.
Then as now.
He could never leave Arelin alone.
“I came to play with you, Arelin.”
Even if he would come to regret this moment, Fession’s choice would remain unchanged.
How could he choose differently when those wide eyes were fixed on him?
Posing as Arelin’s guardian from Halbern, Fession spirited her away to the Plaza.
“You’ve never been here before?”
Uncertain of the unfamiliar place, Arelin gripped his hand tightly and pressed close to his side.
Fession found her little dumpling-soft hand endearing and had to suppress the smile constantly trying to break across his face.
“I’d want to come out, but everyone’s against it. Still, I know everything that matters!”
Arelin, mistaking his expression for something disparaging, lifted her chin stubbornly. Fession, who had no intention of wounding her pride, simply nodded and asked gently.
“Is there anything you’d like to do?”
He’d expected her to say no.
“…Yes.”
But her answer surprised him.

* * *

What Arelin wanted was simple enough.
“They say the ice cream here is delicious.”
“Ice cream.”
“Ice cream!”
“Fine, if you say it’s ice cream, then it’s ice cream.”
She wanted to eat the ice cream and desserts the other children raved about. To visit the places everyone else had seen.
“I’ve never been to this plaza before. I heard they do free theatrical performances on weekends.”
“I know. I’ve seen one.”
“Was it fun?”
“I suppose.”
“I want to see one too.”
Watching Arelin’s eyes sparkle, Fession smiled bitterly.
Street performances were often sensationalized to grab attention. He’d caught a glimpse once in passing, but they weren’t to his taste.
‘She wants to see something like that.’
“Novels are fun too, but how much more fun could a play be?”
As he watched her imagination take flight, Fession found himself at a loss for words.
“Don’t the adults take you?”
His casual question made Arelin flinch.
“No. Because my health isn’t good…”
“I know.”
“See, if I run, I collapse?”
“I know that too.”
A memory surfaced unbidden—when he’d once challenged her to run and she’d actually collapsed, leaving him in considerable trouble.
That incident was how he’d first become entangled with her.
‘Why didn’t that event happen in this world?’
Arelin’s fidgeting feet stilled as she looked up at him.
“When will you go home, sir?”
“Home? Why the sudden question? What do you want to know?”
“…Will I see you again?”
The unexpected question made Fession’s throat tighten.
See him again, she asked.
“I’m looking for someone, you see. If I don’t find that person, perhaps I’ll be able to visit again.”
“Who are you looking for?”
“Someone I care for very much.”
Did his expression soften at the mere thought? Arelin gasped softly in admiration.
“Sir, you really do like that person a lot.”
“How can you tell?”
“I can. Your expression gave it away completely.”
“Completely? What does that mean?”
“What’s she like?”
Arelin asked with curious eyes. Why did he feel a petty irritation rise?
“She’s difficult, always running off somewhere without me, and I can never tell what she’s thinking.”
“Then why do you like her?”
“Because she’s beautiful.”
“Sir…”
Arelin looked at him with obvious disapproval.
“She resembles you.”
“What? So she must be incredibly beautiful then! No wonder you like her!”
Fession laughed at how swiftly Arelin’s attitude reversed.
The sun was already setting.
“Don’t you want to go home?”
Perhaps they’d grown closer, because Arelin nodded reluctantly.
“Why don’t you want to?”
“….”
Arelin bit her lip and gazed toward something in the distance.
The direction of Halbern Manor.
“No one welcomes me when I return.”
“What?”
“Everyone dislikes me.”
Words failed him.
In the face of this conversation, unsure what to say, Arelin turned the question to him.
“Do you pity me, sir?”
“…Why would you ask that suddenly?”
“I was just wondering if you’re being kind to me because you pity me.”
Fession realized that even in changed circumstances, Arelin’s fundamental nature hadn’t gone anywhere.
‘She’s still Arelin.’
Simply a version less cynical, less guarded.
“People are kind to those they pity, but only for a moment. Not for life.”
Her trembling small hand, her firmly pressed lips, the sharpness of her gaze softening into dejection—all revealed without filter the emotions churning within this small child.
Fession wished desperately that he had the gift of words. There must be a way to express his feelings more eloquently.
All he could manage was to hold her small hand.
Still, this one thing he wanted to say with absolute certainty.
“I don’t dislike you. Never.”
Arelin’s eyes widened.
“Yes.”
Her smile bloomed then, radiant as a flower in full blossom, and Fession found himself wishing she would always smile like this.
‘Even so, I’m worried.’
What if she’d throw herself at anyone who showed her a little kindness?
“Won’t you go home then?”
“No, I should.”
Fession bought another ice cream that Arelin had said she liked, pressed it into her hand, and accompanied her back toward Halbern Manor.
“Everyone will be looking for you.”
“I doubt it.”
Arelin shook her head, but she was wrong. He still vividly remembered how closely Halbern’s people had watched over her.
‘What started as playing with her for a while stretched until now.’
Yet he had no regrets.
When the two of them reached the entrance of Halbern Manor, situated unusually high and in a sparse, desolate area—
“Sir.”
“Yes?”
Arelin’s form abruptly vanished.
“Arelin?”
With no warning, no sign, she had simply ceased to be. Fession’s mind reeled.
Creak.
A slightly open door caught his attention.
“Did she go inside?”
Fession entered the manor, wanting only to confirm that Arelin had made it safely.
But in that brief span, something had changed. The manor, always full of people, now radiated a desolate silence.
‘Something’s different.’
Fession moved more cautiously deeper into the manor.
What had seemed pristine on the surface bore the marks of decay—walls stained and crumbling as if battered by years.
When he reached the Garden—
He found it.
A grand pavilion and a stone coffin.

『 Arelin Sigria of Halbern, rests here 』

The stone coffin of Arelin, dead at the age of six.
‘Just moments ago, she was with me.’
Something seized his throat. It felt like a nightmare from which he couldn’t wake.
‘Arelin is dead?’
Even as he read the dates inscribed on the coffin and stone, he couldn’t believe this impossible reality.
Fession reached out. The chill of the dust-covered stone was vivid beneath his palm. Why had she died? How could this be?
“Why…?”
A single question, barely formed.
An unanswerable riddle, and he lowered his head.
“Because that is her destiny.”
An unfamiliar voice came from behind him.

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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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