Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 280

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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 280

Valere’s consciousness had sunk to a great depth. It was a defense mechanism conjured by a mind worn down from wandering for so long in a place that was not reality.
Valere usually saw illusions in that state. Fragments of the past he no longer remembered, or moments he longed to return to.
Were there truly no moments he wanted to rest in?
Even between stretches of hell, there were some. Very rarely, only occasionally, fleeting instants when he thought that if only this moment could last forever, he might give up everything.
And in this life especially…….

“Father.”
“You should call me Dad.”
“Don’t be silly.”

How much would he miss this?
Now, for a moment only he would remember forever, Valere’s throat was already tight.
Valere believed he was dead now. He had always remembered “everything” only before death or after it.
‘Where did it go wrong?’
In the countless stretches of time, he retraced several branching points that came to mind. This work was his own will left for the self who would begin again in the next cycle.
Don’t make “mistakes like this” next time.
By now it was a self-prophecy that had been revised far too many times.
‘What is the meaning of all this?’
Was Arelin dead?
Yes, she must be.
He had failed to save her again.
Regression only took effect when Arelin died and he himself died as well.
While he wandered foolishly through the Other Side World, how much time had passed in the outside world?
Valere could not fathom it.
‘In the end, I couldn’t return in time.’
He had found the artifact well enough, but lost the way home. Since he had never returned to that house before, had he forgotten the path?
Another failure.
And the most painful one yet.
His emotions churned. Memories from countless worlds flooded through him without restraint.
All these innumerable regressions had been only to save Arelin.
The goal had not changed.
Yes, he still wanted to save Arelin.
…It was he who had changed.
‘Arelin.’
For the first time since his regression, Valere called her by her name rather than as his sister—his eyes and thoughts and heart, which had always chased after his sister, now turned toward the Arelin who must have been waiting for him.
It hurt.
What was this pain?
As if his chest had been hollowed out.
Where did this emptiness come from?
This feeling, as if he had lost something so precious forever, was…….
‘No, I already know the reason.’
The source of this pain and emptiness stemmed entirely from “that moment” which he could never return to.

“What about Dad?”
“You’re only calling me that now?”

It was the pain of losing forever the moment when Valere had truly become a father.
Valere looked back on the past.
Among the countless regressions, it was not as if he had never spent time with Arelin. But this was the first life where he had built something between parent and child like this.
It was the first time he had been properly called Dad.
To Valere, Arelin had always been an impossible task, a goal he must achieve at all costs.
She was also an accomplishment that could not be built even with an investment of nearly eternal time, and part of it was an atonement born from the guilt he had carried.
Valere had no confidence he could face the child with such feelings. For this reason, ever since he had begun to regress, his complex emotions toward her only deepened, and the distance between them only grew, never shrinking.
In the first place, saving Arelin had always been the purpose of Valere’s life, but there had never been an illusion that he would become a true family with her.
A family.
Yes, I never had the option of becoming a true family with you. Such a thing was too indulgent for me, already overwhelmed by merely keeping you alive.
Was that where things went wrong?
From the moment I tried to be your father?

“…Dad.”

When that child, who had been so wary and distant, too busy guarding against him like a kitten with its fur all on end, called him Dad for the first time—it was quite a piercing moment for Valere as well.
The cautious eyes meeting his, the small body that clung and leaned against him as if it were natural.
Had he grown fond of you?
No, this was an emotion that could not be called mere fondness.
For I had long since grown sick of this repeated life of saving you.
Even the thought of saving you and dying was because I, already broken beyond repair, no longer wished to live.
There was no one to understand a life so twisted from the ordinary, nor did I seek to be understood.
Was that fact achingly lonely?
No, perhaps so much time had passed that even loneliness itself had weathered away.
Simply…….
I wanted to return.
To the place where Mehren and Arelin waited for me. To the ‘intact Halbern Manor’.
I longed for the moments I had thought meaningless.
Times when I was not fixated on saving you, but merely spoke nonsense and laughed, and stayed together even as Mehren scolded me.
Ah, did I truly love those times?
Perhaps because his consciousness had sunk so deep, when Valere came to, he was a child again.
The familiar view of Halbern Manor spread before him.
His body moved naturally toward somewhere. The room that had once been his sister’s and was now Arelin’s—’that room’.
“Valere.”
“…Sister.”
As he opened the door, a familiar figure greeted him. As he drew near, she embraced him as if it were the most natural thing.
“Remember, Valere. I am always on your side.”
“I know.”
“Your sister will always love you.”
At her gentle voice, as if to reassure him, his eyes grew moist despite himself.
“…Even if I’m no longer lovable?”
“Yes, even if you tried to destroy this world.”
A soft, clear laugh.
“You are the greatest treasure I leave in this world.”
Sione smiled and stroked Valere’s hair.
“So if one of us two must die, it is better that I do.”
Had his sister ever said such a thing?
“…Sister?”
As Valere froze in confusion, the expression on Sione’s face, looking back at him, filled with apology.
“Poor brother of mine. I’m sorry, Valere. I’m sorry for burdening you.”
Sione spoke words he had no memory of.
“But I sincerely wished only for your happiness.”
Valere forced his voice, which would not come.
“I want you to be happy, Sister.”
“If you are happy, your sister is happy.”
That could not be true.
Even as the rebuttal flowed out naturally, he felt a deep satisfaction. The fact that he mattered to her so much filled the damp void that remained in one corner of his heart.
“I will always watch over you. As the gods of old watched over their faithful in this land, as the Immortals and stars do now.”
Before he could even ask what that meant, his sister smiled and gave a warning.
“And always be wary of our house’s cur.”
Valere’s eyebrow twitched.
If there was anyone his sister would call “our house’s cur,” it could only be Morden, their shared biological father.
‘But did Sister ever say such a thing?’
The memory was too old to be called “a long time ago,” and unable to be certain, Valere hesitated at the strange sense of wrongness when Sione smiled gently once more.
“My dear brother, now it is time to wake.”
Before Valere could ask what she meant, his eyes opened.
“Dad!”
There was Arelin, now grown.

* * *

Halbern’s medical staff tasted the terror of a life balanced on a knife’s edge.
Not long after the Grand Duke of Halbern suddenly opened his eyes and everyone rejoiced, spreading word of his awakening far and wide, his condition had rapidly deteriorated the moment he closed them again.
“What in heaven’s name is happening?”
Mehren, who had abandoned all other urgent matters and rushed solely to seize Valere by the collar, was baffled by the unexpected turn of events and demanded an explanation from the medical staff.
The medical staff had no answer either. It had simply taken a sudden turn for the worse!
“No, Your Highness. Please, regain consciousness. You cannot leave us like this!”
“Ahhhhh, Priest! More Blessing—!”
“His condition continues to worsen. Healer, hold on!”
“You don’t see me holding on?! I’ve already consumed ten Mana Potions! If I trigger a Mana Shock at this rate, I’m billing Halbern for the hospital!”
The chaos did not change even after Arelin arrived.
“Dad’s awake, though……?”
So why was she seeing this scene?
In confusion, Arelin approached the bedside and carefully grasped his hand.
At that moment.
“Dad!”
All vital signs returned to normal and Valere’s eyes opened.
His eyes were still unfocused and hazy. Slowly, focus gathered in those eyes that had been staring blankly into empty space.
And then.
“…Arelin?”
His violet eyes found their focus clearly on her.

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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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