Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 27

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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 27

How many times had Feshion heard someone say “hey” to him as Crown Prince?
I could bet my hand that it had never happened once.
“Hey.”
“Huh? Me? Me??”
Years of being an outcast had taught me a few tricks for brushing off annoying people.
First: build a wall.
But that doesn’t work on him?
Then, second option: be rude.
“Yeah, you.”
“……!”
Feshion’s eyes went wide.
A chill silence settled over the room.
Everyone—from the nursemaids who’d rushed over when they heard I’d emerged, to Griham, the chamberlain who clung to Feshion like gum—was staring at me in shock.
All of them equally astonished.
‘Yes, perfect. This is it! This is the atmosphere I wanted!’
That cold, suffocating tension.
All the Crown Prince had to do now was get angry.
“W-wait, what? Arelin?”
“I said you.”
“……!!”
A cold, final response—driving the nail home.
‘There. Everyone heard it.’
My Informal Speech.
I had dared to use Informal Speech without permission. How dare I, of all people!
No matter how comfortable the Crown Prince made himself with me, there was an unmistakable Difference in Status between us.
What I’d just done was undeniably rude. Presuming to equal a Crown Prince!
‘Come on, get angry!’
Go ahead, Feshion! Get furious and return to the Imperial Palace!
I was standing there calmly, waiting for his reprimand.
“Whoa!”
“……?”
The reaction was not quite what I’d expected.
“Arelin!”
The moment I tilted my head in confusion, Feshion suddenly broke into a brilliant smile.
“……??”
Why is he smiling?
What? Was there some joke I was missing?
“Arelin, does this mean I finally make you comfortable?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Wow, you’re using Informal Speech with me! Finally! Unbelievable!”
That wasn’t supposed to be how this went.
Excuse me, wasn’t he supposed to be angry right now? He looks happy to me. Maybe I’m imagining things?
“Keep talking to me like that from now on!”
“……Huh?”
No,
no, this isn’t what was supposed to happen.
“Wait, Your Highness. I’m using Informal Speech. Aren’t you upset?”
“Upset? Why would I be upset?”
“Because I’m being presumptuous? Or annoying? Or maybe you want to make me kneel to show the Difference in Status? Don’t you feel any of that?”
“Huh?”
Feshion tilted his head.
“I like it because it’s you.”
What on earth makes you trust me like this?
“Why?”
“Do I need a reason?”
“…….”
A devastating disarmament. Every wall I’d carefully built, every bit of hostility I’d forced into myself—melted away in an instant.
No, snap out of it! This won’t do! If I keep going like this, I’ll just get swept up in the Crown Prince’s pace!
“I don’t want to. I’ll use Formal Speech.”
“What? Why are you going back to Formal Speech? I told you to use Informal Speech.”
“I don’t want to. Go away.”
“No way! If Arelin doesn’t want to, then I don’t want to either!”
……This brat.
“Go away already!”
“Nope~!”
“Ugh, really.”
Someone, anyone, get this kid off me.
“Arelin, let’s go for a walk! Come on, let’s go outside!”
“No. Go alone.”
“Yeah, I got some advice—apparently you need exercise to get healthy! Arelin, let’s work out! You’re always cooped up like this, that’s why your body hurts! Come on―!”
I never thought I’d hear the exercise-cure theory even in another world.
“That’s nonsense. Someone with no muscle like me would only get worse from overexertion.”
“What? That can’t be right! You just don’t want to move, so you’re making excuses!”
“No, really. Brilliant scholars have even written papers on it.”
“Who wrote them?”
“That’s…….”
“See? You got nothing to say. So let’s go for a walk! The weather’s amazing today!”
Feshion grabbed my hand and started pulling.
“Don’t grab me! Go alone!”
“Nope~! I don’t want to! Let’s go together!”
Even as I complained and picked fights, Feshion just kept laughing it off.
This is ridiculous.
Why isn’t any of this working?!

* * *

“Huff, huff.”
The Crown Prince was formidable.
“Arelin, wasn’t the walk nice?”
This guy…….
Is he doing this on purpose?
Could he have figured out that dragging me around is more effective payback than getting angry?
Feshion flashed a serene smile, whether he’d noticed my suspicious gaze or not.
“Let’s do it again tomorrow!”
“I don’t want to.”
“Huh? Why are you using Formal Speech again?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
Feshion drooped his eyes dramatically.
“We’re close now. Talk to me in Informal Speech again! I even gave you permission, but now you’re keeping your distance.”
“Yes. That’s the point.”
“Haha! Arelin, you’re pretty funny!”
Why are you treating that like a joke?!
“But you know what?”
The Crown Prince Feshion was laughing, but then he suddenly went serious, his eyes narrowing.
“How come you won’t call me by my name? I told you to call me Feshion.”
“…….”
“Arelin, you keep calling me ‘Your Highness.'”
The Crown Prince puffed out his cheeks, looking at me like a pouty seven-year-old.
‘How cute.’
“I’ve been waiting for you to keep calling me Feshion.”
As if he’d been anticipating exactly this moment, the Crown Prince Feshion threw a fit.
“Are you not going to call me Feshion?”
The Crown Prince issued an ultimatum with the air of someone who’d follow me for the rest of my life if I refused.
“Feshion.”
“There we go!”
The Crown Prince laughed.
“Keep calling me that from now on!”
If the walk hadn’t completely drained my energy, I might have put up more of a fight.
Dragging my trembling legs—shaky as a newborn fawn—back to my room, I felt the urgent need for a new strategy.
“I need something stronger.”
I couldn’t believe that Night Study Time didn’t work on him!
This brat—doesn’t he have any sense as a Crown Prince? The moment I used Informal Speech, he should’ve knelt and shown me the Difference in Status.
“Something stronger…….”
But what could be stronger than that?
“Ugh…….”
Usually, when someone was rude, people just grumbled and left. I’d never had to plan for anything beyond that.
As I was groaning over it, I noticed the nursemaids watching us warmly from a distance.
“What a good time this is.”
“Really is wonderful~”
“Sure is.”
All of you, why aren’t you helping?!
“That’s it—all of you, your Praise Stickers are confiscated!”
At my sudden declaration, the nursemaids went wild.
“What?! No, you can’t do that!”
“Why all of a sudden?!”
“Young miss―!”
I’m satisfied.

* * *

As Feshion began frequenting Halber Estate, his schedule grew increasingly packed and hectic.
“So busy, so busy!”
Training, study, cultivation, and one responsibility that could never be skipped.
“Oh my, mother!”
Tea time with Empress Azeni.
“My, Feshion. How many times must I tell you not to run around like that?”
“Oh, I just missed you so much, Mother!”
“Hehe. Well, if that’s the case, I suppose it can’t be helped.”
It was customary for the imperial family and nobility to employ professional nursemaids and avoid raising children directly, but Empress Azeni was the type to actively participate in her children’s upbringing.
The Empress wrapped Feshion in her arms. Once nestled there, he sat down in his seat with ostentatious dignity after fussing like a child.
“Did you visit Halber Estate again today?”
“Yes! I trained, studied, and cultivated!”
“How is Arelin?”
“He’s not well enough to go out yet, but he’s recovering. Though, Arelin always has such a distant expression, it’s hard to tell.”
“Distant?”
That expression, as though he might vanish at any moment, always gazing at some far-off place.
Perhaps that was why.
Why, even after checking on Arelin countless times, I still felt the need to confirm he was all right again and again.
Why I found myself unable to leave him alone, choosing to sit beside him and spend time with him over and over.
“I wish Arelin would smile sometimes.”
“…….”
The Empress’s smile faded.
It was then that her firmly pressed lips parted, as she gently stroked her dejected son’s hair.
“Feshion.”
The Empress spoke in a voice tinged with concern.
“Only like him as much as you can afford to lose.”
A sudden admonition.
Feshion tilted his head in confusion.
“Mother?”
The Empress smiled.
“Only care for him to the extent you could let go.”
“Um. Well…….”
“It would be better for you both that way.”
A glimmer of compassion passed through the Empress’s blue eyes.
“I wish that child could simply be healthy. Don’t you?”
An enigmatic statement layered with riddles. Feshion looked to her for answers, but the Empress simply smiled softly and sipped her tea.
All she could offer was counsel.
“Don’t be too kind to him.”
“Why?”
Why would Mother say such a thing? Unease crept in. As she looked down at his red eyes brimming with questions, the Empress answered.
“So that it will be easier for you later.”
Her gaze was so calm and her eyes so blue that Feshion found himself with no response at all.

* * *

“Arelin!”
“……?”
“Let’s make sure we both get healthy.”
The Crown Prince seemed healthy enough already.
Watching him clench both fists and make a silent vow all on his own, I was bewildered.
Had something happened?
‘But I don’t want to ask.’
If I ask, I feel like some weird flag will get planted.
“I’ll do my best!”
Why are you the one trying hard when I’m the one getting healthy? This kid’s strange.
But I should have realized then. This was a harbinger of my peace coming to an end.

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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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