Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 40

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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 40

The Northern Fortress’s frontmost line.
Hundreds die every day, replaced by fresh soldiers, while humanity pushes back yet more monsters—the last bastion of mankind.
“What?! What happened to Arelin?!”
A loud voice thundered through the Northern Fortress at its center—something rare these days.
In a place where soldiers could become pudding, pudding could mimic human shapes in mockery, and pudding could suddenly explode without much fanfare, the Northern Fortress was a place where abnormality had become routine.
The voices of the Saren Knights stationed here trembled with agitation.
“No, that young, adorable, beloved lady—why would she collapse?!”
“Who did this?! Who’s the bastard?! I’ll drag them out and bury them here in the north!”
“Wait, what? But she really did collapse? Why?”
“Did she wake up? What’s going on?”
They’d just finished tearing through a mob of monsters when this unexpected news hit them like a club to the skull.
The knights’ minds were dissolving into mush.
“Yeah. She collapsed, but I don’t know the details myself.”
Jaren scratched his head.
Meehen had thrown out the report in an emergency call and hung up.
The sudden revelation set the other knights on edge.
“Hey, Jaren! You should’ve gotten the full story!”
“Right, Jaren, no tact. You want to die? Is this your grand scheme—making us curious until we drop dead?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Jaren, understand the situation and apologize.”
Jaren, suddenly beset upon, protested his innocence.
“It’s not my fault! Meehen reported and cut the line on his own! I’ve been trying to reach him, but he won’t pick up! How is that my fault?!”
“You must’ve done something awful to Meehen to make him ignore you like that.”
“Right, it’s all Jaren’s karma.”
“Anyway, it’s Jaren’s fault!”
“Why don’t you know what happened? Why are you so useless, Jaren? Our sweet lady collapsed, and you’re just sitting here calm?!”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, Jaren, you deserve death. Apologize through self-sacrifice!”
“Hey, you lot—”
The moment Jaren, incensed, and the knights were about to clash.
A shadow fell silently before them.
The knights reflexively stilled their breath and froze, staring at the source of the shadow.
“M-my lord?”
Hallbern appeared without a sound, peeling off bloodstained gloves. The gloves, drenched in blood not his own, fell to the floor with a wet thud.
His expressionless violet eyes gleamed with an uncanny light as he regarded both Jaren and his knights.
“Explain.”
The knights who met his gaze went rigid and all at once shoved the burden sideways.
“Uh, we don’t really know either. I mean, Jaren’s the one who handles contact with the capital, right?”
“That’s not me!”
“Anyway, it sort of fell to him because of chronic manpower shortages on the front lines?”
“You all dumped it on me on purpose, didn’t you?!”
“Well, you’re the vice-commander, so…”
“What good does being vice-commander do me?!”
Jaren, unaware, had been harboring resentment at having been saddled with the role of liaison.
Just as the <Saren Knights Second Grand Clash> was about to reignite.
“Enough.”
A cold voice cut through like a warning.
A single word that snuffed out the ember of rising discord.
“Do you all have nothing else to do?”
Jaren flinched.
Though his tone was low, beneath it lay a clear will—’if you do, I’ll make some for you’—and feeling this, the knights each made some excuse and slipped away one by one.
“Ah, my sword must be lonely. It’s calling to me.”
“I hear monsters barking somewhere—better go beat them.”
“Man, nice weather today.”
“It’s night. How can you see the weather?”
With the knights gone, Jaren found himself alone under Hallbern’s gaze.
He flinched.
“What?”
“Explain.”
“Well… it’s not that simple. Meehen went out to play with the lady, and apparently she collapsed there.”
A chill pierced his skin. Jaren wanted to cry.
“She’s been unconscious for days now, or so I hear.”
The moment Hallbern’s gaze turned toward the few knights who hadn’t managed to escape, they frantically denied everything with their whole bodies.
“…We’ve only heard that much, honestly?”
No follow-up questions came.
Hallbern vanished as suddenly as he’d appeared—his movements too swift even to track.
“Is he gone?”
“He’s gone.”
“Phew. Thought I was about to get hit.”
The knights exchanged bewildered glances.
“Why did he seem so upset?”
“Yeah…”
“He was especially bloodthirsty today.”
While the murmuring knights exchanged theories, Jaren too felt a vague unease, frowning to himself.
By then, a Communication Crystal had appeared in Hallbern’s hand as he’d made his way back into the fortress.
The Crystal that connected directly to Meehen at the Capital Mansion.
The dormant Crystal blazed to life as it was activated.
“Explain yourself, Meehen.”

The call ended, and Meehen fell into thought.
The contact had come from the Northern Fortress.
And it was his lord—an audience he hadn’t had in quite some time.
Tap, tap.
Meehen brushed his fingers across the desk, then swept his hair back.
“I thought he had no interest at all…”
Such thoughts were unavoidable.
No matter what question or news he’d sent, the replies that came back were always like that.
Could he really know whether his one and only daughter mattered to him at all, whether there was any affection there?
— Next time, if she collapses again, report directly to me.
The moment Hallbern learned that Arelin had safely regained consciousness, he’d withdrawn his interest.
Simply issuing an instruction to contact him if it happened again.
‘Is that just a whim? Or does he actually care?’
Meehen, who prided himself on knowing Hallbern better than anyone else in the world, exhaled a long sigh.
“Ugh.”
A bitter unease lodged in his throat, tainting his mood.
“God. To be cursed with such a lord…”
His fate was twisted—twisted beyond redemption.
“Though I suppose it’s been like that since the day I entered this mansion.”
Even now, occasionally, the faint shadow of those old days would surface.
A small hand extended without hesitation to a boy who’d wandered the streets with no place to go.

“‘Come with me,’ you said—and then you shut yourself away in the Northern Fortress. What am I supposed to do, my lord?”

the first thing Meehen did was file suit against both the Magic Tower and the Parallutree Family.
“Meehen’s eyes have gone mad.”
“Didn’t he always throw caution to the wind when it came to the lady?”
“His eyes are smiling but it’s terrifying.”
The intensity of his pressure was so fierce it chilled the very hearts of the nursemaids who’d been watching him closely.
As if he were venting stress accumulated over time, before the trial even began in earnest, letters and gifts from both the Magic Tower and the Parallutree Family piled up in the Hallbern Mansion, each desperately seeking to settle matters.
「Please, have mercy.」
Arelin herself even received a letter of supplication.
The trial’s outcome was, naturally, Hallbern’s victory.
The Magic Tower and the Parallutree Family each paid out three million Gold in Damages, for a total of six million Gold—an enormous sum.
“Thank you, thank you so much.”
“We’ll transfer the compensation immediately.”
Both parties were relieved and even grateful that the matter had ended at this level.
“Yes. Originally, we were prepared to squeeze them much more thoroughly…”
Six million Gold was already substantial—and yet there was more?
“We had follow-up litigation prepared as well.”
Meehen smiled, but they all trembled with dread.
“However, since the lady says she’s satisfied, we’ll wrap things up here.”
“…Y-yes.”
Arelin, reluctant, ate the cookie Meehen had given her.
Munch, munch—her small mouth worked steadily through it. Seeing her eat so earnestly, Meehen smiled gently.
“Would you like more?”
“Hm? After I finish this one.”
Arelin held up the cookie in both hands and shook her head. Meehen wiped away the crumbs clinging to her cheeks and nodded.
“I’ve deposited all the compensation into your account, minus taxes.”
“Eh? Why?”
“Because it was all obtained for you.”
“Oh, um…”
“Think of it as pocket money.”
What, exactly, constituted pocket money for a duchess’s daughter?
Her murmured response didn’t quite reach Meehen’s ears.
“Is there anything you’d like to do? You have quite a lot of spending money now.”
“Um.”
Arelin chewed on her cookie, lost in thought.
Her eating was so adorable that Meehen, the nursemaids, and everyone began piling desserts of every kind onto her plate—until there was no more room.
“Something I want to do…”
“If nothing comes to mind, you can tell me later when it does.”
“No, I do.”
Arelin turned to look at Meehen and the nursemaids with clearer eyes.
“Meehen… bonus.”
“Pardon?”
“I want to give Meehen a bonus.”
Meehen froze at the unexpected response.
“Because you couldn’t take time off, so… here. Take this too.”
“Oh…”
“So like… financial healing?”
He’d been healed by her cuteness.

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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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