Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 294

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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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294
Episode

Arelin weeping for her master’s approval, the morning when all of Albrecht bustled with talk of the Halbern party.
Here stood one unhappy soul.
“I could have… enjoyed the party too…….”
That person was none other than Albrecht’s supreme sun, Emperor Edward.
Empress Azeni, along with all three of his children, had agreed to attend the Halbern party, and Edward wished to go as well.

“Your Majesty wishes to attend? Ah, but that would make the scale far too grand…….”
“I shall pay my respects there, so please maintain propriety, Your Majesty.”

Due to Mehren’s evident reluctance and Empress Azeni’s swift refusal, Emperor Edward was left with no choice but to miss the party.
While others reveled together, he drank alone in melancholy solitude, and when the entire world buzzed with talk of the Halbern party the next morning, he found himself gripped by a bitter sense of exclusion from conversations he knew nothing of.
“You see, Chamberlain, the throne is a sorrowful seat. How lonely and desolate it is to have no one with whom to share one’s heart.”
“Yes…….”
“I asked my trusted friend Valere if I might slip away unnoticed, but do you know what he said? ‘Stay in your place.’ Can you imagine? No matter that he’s the Grand Duke of Halbern—sometimes I want to thrash him soundly.”
“Ah, yes…….”
“Bah. What good is holding the entire realm in the palm of one’s hand, if one must endure such loneliness?”
“Indeed…….”
The chamberlain sighed quietly to himself as he watched his boss whine over nothing more than his beloved wife declining to bring him to the party.
But Edward was not finished; he clicked his tongue in displeasure as he beheld the face of Valere plastered across the front pages of every major newspaper.
“Tsk, these endless paeans to that man’s visage.”
The newspaper coverage had ebbed somewhat during the Grand Duke’s absence from public life, but with the party as a catalyst, it had erupted anew. Some papers had devoted entire editions to images of the Grand Duke of Halbern.
It seemed they had originally wished to publish a photograph collection, but fearing Halbern’s displeasure at such a venture, they had resorted to this circuitous method of distribution instead.
“The end of all things, truly.”
Edward was adamant in his refusal to acknowledge this, though the chamberlain could see that such resistance was entirely without meaning.
In fact, both men understood perfectly well why Valere’s popularity soared ever higher.
‘He truly is uncommonly handsome.’
A face that struck even men as beautiful. A subtle, boyish allure that came through even in photographs. And most importantly, he remained officially unmarried.
Should the Grand Duke of Halbern be fortunate enough to take a wife, her minimum station would be duchess. In Albrecht, this was the second-highest rank a woman could acquire through marriage.
Unlike the lesser kingdoms, the empire had no prohibition against marriages between ranks, making such a union capable of overturning one’s station in a single stroke.
That alone would be cause for joy, but the Grand Duke of Halbern was moreover one of the empire’s wealthiest men.
One need only consider how he had sustained the Knight Order—that gold-devouring beast—for centuries.
‘Yet the ladies’ frenzy over him…….’
Surely it was his face.
The chamberlain was absorbed in examining a newspaper when Emperor Edward turned his head.
“How are things between the Empress and Fession? Still cold, it seems?”
The chamberlain hesitated before answering quietly.
“According to what I have heard from Lord Griam… yes, it appears to remain unchanged.”
Edward clicked his tongue, content to sit and observe since the Empress had counseled restraint.
“Tsk, I find it most displeasing.”

* * *

The Imperial Palace of Albrecht now lay under a peculiar shadow.
Those in the outer palace, where hundreds of outsiders and officials passed daily, remained oblivious to this atmosphere, but the palace servants who attended the imperial family in the inner palace all sensed it keenly.
‘It’s suffocating…….’
The subtle distance between the Empress and Crown Prince was the source of this tension. The palace mood had briefly improved with news of the Halbern party, but had since returned to a mysterious cold war for reasons unclear.
“Has the Crown Prince skipped his greeting again?”
“…Yes.”
“Ah, well then…….”
The lower servants, ignorant of the circumstances, moved with hushed breath, as though treading on thin ice, but the ladies and chief attendants who served the imperial family closely understood the truth.
Which meant that this…….
“The Crown Prince truly seems to be furious.”
Indeed. The current cold war was Crown Prince Fession’s resentment toward Empress Azeni born from the matter of Arelin.
“…I had no idea the Crown Prince could be this way.”
“Neither did I. To think he could be angry to this extent.”
Concealing the possibility that Arelin might yet live. Discovering that Arelin had returned alive, yet keeping silent.
These two deceptions had turned the warm bond between mother and son to ice.
Outwardly, Crown Prince Fession remained respectful toward Empress Azeni.
Only the affection that once defined them had withered away like a barren desert.
His actions went beyond what those who believed he would gracefully overlook things out of respect for her station had anticipated.
“When the Empress requests conversation, the Crown Prince refuses, claiming to be busy.”
“His attendants tried to deceive him, arranging for him to receive word after the work was complete, but the Crown Prince drew his sword and rose, claiming it was training time, and refused,” they said.
“It was an unscheduled training session…….”
“I myself heard groaning from the Training Ground as I passed by that day.”
Though the Empress and Crown Prince were the ones engaged in this cold war, it was everyone in the palace who suffered. Even Emperor Edward and Lord Sirua and Prince Terion moved cautiously, watching their mood.
Yet one could not entirely blame Fession, for the Crown Prince truly was busy.
In fact, he was managing more State Affairs than Emperor Edward himself.
The fault, if any, lay in his competence.
As a result, the palace divided into two factions, each defending either the Empress or the Crown Prince.
“No matter how devoted one is, surely the Empress did not act with deliberate cruelty? She simply wished to protect the Crown Prince and chose not to reveal the truth, did she not?”
“Quite right!”
“And now she even sends Betrothal Letters and actively supports the match. Why must the Crown Prince remain so cold? I confess I cannot fathom it.”
“How can you say this is the Crown Prince’s fault alone? Do you not all remember his brighter days? What was it that took his smile? If the Empress had truly thought of him, she would not have merely hidden the truth as an elder, but would have guided him to discover it himself!”
“Exactly, exactly!”
“Pah, the Empress has reflected and now shows such humility. Yet the Crown Prince remains stiff and cold—is this truly his failing?”
“The mind understands what the heart cannot follow. Rather, is it not precisely because the Crown Prince realizes that the Empress acted from love that he restrains himself to this degree?”
“True. Nothing has actually occurred, and yet you accuse the Crown Prince of Filial Impiety!”
Such spirited debates could be found without difficulty throughout the palace.
Yet not a soul here could discern the Crown Prince’s true intention.

* * *

The Crown Prince Palace.
There was one brave soul who had come here seeking the truth.
“What on earth are you thinking?”
Sirua, looking as though he was pressed for time and annoyed that his brother had come to bother him, fixed Fession with an exasperated stare.
“Won’t you tell me?”
Fession sighed irritably and set down the Documents he had been holding.
“What am I thinking?”
“I know what you’re getting at. So tell me—what exactly are you thinking?”
“I miss Arelin.”
“…….”
Sirua froze at the unexpected answer. Seemingly oblivious to Sirua’s bewildered expression, Fession spoke with genuine gravity.
“I wonder what she’s doing now.”
“You already know everything about her—I’m sure you’ve placed people to watch Arelin.”
“She went to the Sky Tower, but I can’t get inside there.”
“…….”
Sirua found himself thinking.
What in the world is this man doing?

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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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