Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 39

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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 39

The Crown Prince’s Palace.
For more than four days now, with the master absent, a peculiar tension had settled over the Crown Prince’s Palace.
“So.”
Every morning, a single man visited the Crown Prince’s Palace.
“His Highness still hasn’t arrived?”
It was all because of this man.
The director of the Imperial Education Institute, the Crown Prince’s tutor.
Pasello Gratathe Haflangen.
The head of the esteemed Haflangen Family, a house renowned for producing educators, and Professor of Etiquette to Crown Prince Pesion.
“Yes, His Highness is still…….”
Behind his spectacles, his eyes gleamed with such intensity that the palace attendants couldn’t meet his gaze and looked away.
“Hm-hm. Five days of absences already.”
An aura of darkness seemed to emanate from Pasello, the man known in a certain academy as the Professor from Hell.
The attendants flinched and desperately pretended not to notice.
“I must see the Empress.”
The request for an audience had continued for days now.
It was the Crown Prince’s uncharacteristic stubbornness, and they’d let it slide for the sake of peace, but surely there had to be some limit?
Today would be the day to settle this once and for all.
Pasello rose to his feet, steeling himself to march directly to wherever Haldern was, or whoever, and drag the Crown Prince back by force if necessary.
“Master Pasello, the Empress has summoned you.”
“Me?”
“Princess Arelin has awakened, so Your Highness says you need not hold back any longer.”
“……!”
“She has instructed you to take charge of all further matters.”
Pasello’s fists clenched, and his pupils flickered with intensity.
“I shall obey the Empress’s command.”

* * *

Pesion was dragged away.
“I’ll come back! Wait for me, Arelin!”
It happened just as morning broke.
A terrifying gentleman from the Imperial Palace gave no explanation and simply spirited Pesion away.
After managing to hold out for five whole days at Haldern Estate, the moment he saw that man, Pesion’s face had gone pale—an image I couldn’t forget.
‘I was scared…….’
“Who was that person?”
“The director of the Imperial Education Institute and the man responsible for the Crown Prince’s education. You’d normally have no reason to cross paths with him, Miss.”
“I see.”
I silently offered a prayer for Pesion’s future trials.
“His Highness should be fine. Despite appearances, he is a true educator.”
“Really?”
“Though he will have a difficult time, certainly.”
“…….”
Was that really supposed to be reassuring?
While I sat there in silent foreboding about Pesion’s future, I felt Mechen’s gaze studying me intently.
The priest, the healer, even the doctor had all said I was fine—why was he still so worried?
I smiled brightly, and only then did Mechen’s expression soften.
“I was very concerned.”
His words carried a sincerity that was blunt yet deeply felt.
Unaccustomed to showing emotion, his expression remained somewhat stiff, yet his eyes were infinitely tender.
“Mechen.”
The feeling I read in that gaze was unfamiliar and strange, yet something I had longed for all along—and suddenly my chest tightened.
“Hold me.”
“You’re being clingy.”
“You’re my mother, Mechen.”
With others, such a thing would be unthinkable, but with Mechen, my heart kept opening.
Surely I could ask for more than this? I was still a child, after all.
Surely this much was acceptable? This much he could give me? Such unreasonable desires.

“Don’t act like a spoiled child.”

Perhaps it was because I’d spent so long suppressing myself as I grew. Mother had been strict with me.
“How have you endured such childishness all this time?”
“Well…….”
“Well what?”
“Everyone liked how mature I was being.”
I buried my face in Mechen’s chest and rubbed against it. The scent of aged dry wood felt comforting.
“I was afraid that if I cried or threw fits or was stubborn, they’d think me bothersome.”
“…….”
“I was afraid you’d never look at me again.”
Mechen went silent, his jaw tightening as he wiped his face with his free hand. The tension in his clenched jaw was visible to me.
“……Miss.”
“Don’t.”
“Arelin.”
“Yes.”
Mechen’s expression grew somber. A gaunt beauty gazing at me with pained eyes had its own peculiar charm.
His long lashes trembled slightly.
“I apologize.”
“For what?”
“For everything.”
His chartreuse eyes, which caught the morning light and gleamed like gold, held me with tender anguish.
“For leaving you lonely, for abandoning you, for failing to understand, for disappointing you—for all of it.”
His thin, prominent-boned white fingers hesitated before gently grasping mine.
“I apologize.”
“It’s all right.”
Watching Mechen drown in guilt made my own feelings strange.
“Don’t make that face. I really do mean it.”
I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, but now I truly meant it.
“You won’t do that anymore, will you? Right?”
“No.”
Mechen bit his lip and added softly,
“Because I’m……your mother now.”
Wow.
My mouth fell open without thinking.
Was this really the Mechen I knew?
This caustic, sensitive man, embarrassed now and unable to meet my eyes, still said “mother” to me with unwavering determination—and I felt a surge of inexplicable emotion.
Wow, what do I do with this?
“Mom―!”
“Oof.”
I threw myself at Mechen, and though he seemed burdened, he pulled me tightly into his arms. His ears remained bright red, though he couldn’t hide them.
“But about that earlier.”
“Hm?”
“When His Highness was here, he said you were like a mother to me…….”
“Oh, that? I said it because I thought it might be awkward for Mechen.”
“Awkward, you say.”
“You have your social reputation to think about.”
Mechen raised his eyebrows.
“Where did you learn to speak like that?”
“Here and there?”
Mechen gave me a disbelieving look, but having nothing to say against it, he laughed.
“It was my first time going out with you, and it had a pretty disappointing ending, didn’t it?”
“Mm.”
“But it was still fun.”
At those words, Mechen’s tense expression relaxed. I thought he was such a frightening person to read.
“You’ll take me again, won’t you?”
“Whenever you wish, Miss.”
It’s become so easy now.
“Were you not afraid when you were trapped alone?”
“I was too distracted to be scared.”
“Did nothing else happen?”
“Hm?”
“You didn’t see anything strange? Nothing unusual occurred?”
Mechen’s manner of questioning was cautious. His discomfort was evident, yet he was probing at something he felt he absolutely had to address.
‘Did someone tell him to ask?’
For a moment, the face of that man whose identity I couldn’t determine flashed through my mind.
That man, whose presence felt even more dangerous than the perilous aura that surrounded him on all sides.
‘Right.’
I shouldn’t speak of this.
“I don’t remember anything.”
Mechen’s eyes narrowed as he watched me smile blithely.
“Really, I don’t remember anything at all.”
“I see.”
His expression was unconvinced, but Mechen didn’t press further.
“That’s a relief.”
“It’s a relief?”
“You should have breakfast.”
“Okay!”
While Mechen went to fetch breakfast, I looked down at the back of my hand.
‘Wait, where did the emblem go? Why is this glowing on my hand?’
The Falling Star Emblem shimmered softly.
“It doesn’t seem like other people can see this…….”
If they could, they would have asked what it was.
I scratched at it. Far from disappearing, only my hand turned red. It felt like I’d stumbled onto something strange and troublesome.
“It must be that weird man’s doing.”
Those golden eyes I’d stared at intently came back to me, and I shuddered.
“What on earth was that thing?”
Pondering it wouldn’t reveal his identity.
After all, there’d never been such a person in the novel.
But what worried me more now was——
“Will Pesion be all right?”

* * *

Pesion was thoroughly scolded.
“But Master Pasello, the Empress said it was all right…….”
“While Her Majesty the Empress may show clemency, it is not within my capacity to do so when my charge is to instruct His Highness the Crown Prince in etiquette and discipline.”
The “mother card” didn’t work at all.
Pesion felt aggrieved.
He hadn’t even managed a few words with Arelin after she woke up.
He’d wanted to stay by her side longer!
“Master Pasello, perhaps the lecture could end here…….”
Griam attempted to intervene, seeing Pesion’s expression growing darker.
“Duke Griam, it is sometimes the duty of a noble to correct His Highness’s indulgence.”
“…….”
He was defeated outright.
‘My apologies, Your Highness. I seem to have reached the extent of my usefulness.’
‘Griam! Come back!’
Though both Griam and the Crown Prince vastly outranked him in rank, position, and status, before the title “Crown Prince’s Tutor,” they both wilted.
“Where are you going? Duke Griam, you must hear this as well.”
“……Ah, yes.”
The lecture commenced.
“I believe you both understand by now, so I shall end the lecture here.”
The two figures, their very souls extracted, nodded blankly.
‘Surely that’s the end of it?’
Pasello made his pronouncement.
“Now then, to account for five days’ worth of missed instruction, I shall extend classes for the next week, doubling the session duration.”
“……?!”
This heartless Pasello!
Did this man possess no human compassion?

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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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