Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 53

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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 53

Fession, who had been restless like a dog waiting for its master and had done nothing but anticipate Arelin’s return, suddenly sprang to his feet.
“Arelin!”
Fession bounded toward her with a beaming smile, then tilted his head in confusion.
“Why does your expression look like that?”
“Hm? No, nothing.”
Arelin touched her face. Her complexion was paler than usual—so washed out that the veins seemed ready to show through—and her vacant eyes held a distant, glazed quality.
“Did the tea party go well?”
Arelin stared at Fession intently.
“?”
Fession tilted his head.
“Do I have something on my face?”
“Fession.”
“Hmm?”
“We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Hm? Yeah, we’re friends.”
“Then that’s settled.”
“Did something happen?”
Arelin made a spiteful expression at the tilting Fession.
“People say you’re like my nanny.”
“Huh?”
“Apparently how you stick to me is like having a nanny around.”
Fession’s brow furrowed.
“What are you talking about? I want to be your father!”
“Rejected. I already have a father.”
Arelin casually shook Fession off.
“But you said you’d never even seen him!”
“A father’s still a father regardless.”
“I could take better care of you!”
“A father isn’t something you can earn through care alone.”
“I don’t like it.”
Fession grumbled and clung to her again, but once more Arelin peeled him off without hesitation.
“A lady of honor doesn’t cling to men like that. Back away.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“Clinging to men is common and base. Back away.”
“No, seriously, what are you saying?”
Fession jumped back as if burned.
Arelin had abruptly become strange.
Sure enough, without explanation, Arelin spouted more nonsense.
“Fession, how much longer do you think your interest in me will last?”
“What interest?”
“Your interest in me.”
At Arelin’s blunt words, Fession felt as though he were going mad.
“What on earth are you talking about?!”
“If your interest starts to fade, give me advance notice. I need to make a big announcement that I’m going to be abandoned.”
“Arelin!”
The twins looked at each other’s faces, watching the strangely cold Arelin and Fession, who was stammering and losing his mind.
“Did they fight? Ciel, do you know?”
“I have no idea. Noel, does anything come to mind?”
The moment the twins whispered to each other, their eyes locked with Arelin’s.
They’d done nothing wrong, yet they felt inexplicably guilty. The twins experienced this curious phenomenon.
“Why, why what?”
“Arelin. Do you have something to say to us?”
“Hmm.”
Arelin stroked her chin.
For a brief moment, the twins tried to think of what crime they’d committed against Arelin.
There were too many possibilities.
What is it? What’s the matter?!
“You two must be having such a hard time taking care of me because of Fession.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“So you don’t need to struggle to follow me around and look after me anymore.”
That’s not it.
They should object.
But the statement was so absurd, so ridiculous, that they could only blink—and by then they’d missed their chance to protest.
What kind of outrageous nonsense was this?
“Arelin, what did we do wrong?”
“Arelin, did we make you uncomfortable somehow? Is that why you’re doing this to us?”
“Arelin, twisting our hearts like that is too much!”
“Arelin, we’re different from the Crown Prince! We’re genuinely interested in you!”
Fession exploded.
“I’m genuinely interested too, you know?!”
Watching the stammering twins and Fession babble, Arelin’s mood seemed to lighten. Her expression improved noticeably.
“Wait!”
Ciel suddenly protested.
“Arelin, but why don’t you say anything to Harun?”
“That’s right, this is discrimination!”
Arelin’s gaze pinned Harun. Harun, who had been standing quietly in the corner, flinched.
“…….”
“…….”
A brief silence.
Arelin gave Harun’s shoulder a casual tap and walked past.
“What was that? Ciel, I feel like I lost without doing anything.”
“Yeah, Noel. Same here.”
“Count me in too.”
Fession found himself wedged between the twins as they embraced each other. Harun quietly edged over but was just as quietly pushed away.
“…….”
Harun felt wronged all over again.

* * *

Faint rustling.
Mehren watched the paper dissolve in his palm via Magic, then sighed.
Information delivered via First-Class Confidential Letter.
“The Sky Tower is coming, then…….”
The mecca of sorcerers, the grand headquarters of the Magic Tower, the homeland of all mages.
News arrived that the Sky Tower—that enigma shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, existing perhaps in the heavens or perhaps not at all, its location unknowable to any non-mage—had formally sent a letter to the Albrecht Empire expressing its intention to visit.
‘Is it because of the Sharit incident?’
For now, a letter requesting an audience with the Tower Master under Halbern’s name had been sent from the Sky Tower’s address. Mehren’s attention turned to other documents.
《Support Request for Monster Subjugation in the Western Mountains》
“The subjugations never seem to end these days.”
“Spring’s here, so the monsters must be on an outing too.”
“It’s summer now.”
“Late spring, then.”
“What’s this special commission from the Crown Prince?”
“It’s a covert request the 1st Knight Order has been handling primarily. I hear the knights are eager because the compensation is generous.”
Mehren’s expression grew peculiar. It seemed strange that Fession was doing something so unbecoming of a crown prince.
‘But it doesn’t matter much.’
More than that.
“Reinforcements for the Northern Fortress, then…….”
Every time communications connected, Jaren would chant about how difficult things were, and it truly seemed the situation had become grave.
‘Valere.’
A shadow fell across those golden-touched, pale-green eyes.
The Duke of Halbern, who feared nothing in this world.
Power, wealth, personal martial prowess, looks, intelligence—he had it all.
Whether he’d monopolized divine grace itself, the man possessed everything one could possess, and yet Mehren always felt him to be on the edge of a precipice.
As if he lived each moment in preparation for death.

“Come with me.”
“If you come with me, I’ll give you a place to belong.”
“You’ll never be alone again.”

A boy of nearly the same age, speaking with such confident confidence, and when he’d smiled that smile—that had been the mistake. Without knowing why, Mehren had taken his hand.
Valere had kept every promise he’d made, yet Mehren would never see that smile again.
“That damned bastard.”
He’d thought it was a golden thread binding them together.
In truth, it was a chain that wouldn’t even let him leave work.
“I shouldn’t have believed.”
Faint regret washed in, then faded, leaving only a trace.
Along with a light sigh, Mehren shed even that trace and gazed down at his seat with slightly dimmed eyes.
Regent of the Duke of Halbern.
The sole, unique position that granted him absolute authority in Halbern’s name during the Duke’s absence.
‘And he just handed it to me.’
What’s more, he’d entrusted it to Mehren over the hereditary retainers who had served the House of Halbern since its founding.
Resistance was natural, public trust collapsed, yet as always, Valere had smiled and dismissed it all.
‘I can’t fathom what he’s thinking.’
The burden and tension of first taking this seat came flooding back anew.
“That damned bastard.”
He’d entrusted the house, entrusted his child, entrusted everything and then buried himself in the north—what was he even doing there?
“You could at least explain yourself.”
It was as Mehren pressed his temples in suppressed frustration.
“A message has come from the Imperial Household. There was apparently a small incident today involving the young lady.”
“An incident, you say?”
Mehren raised his head. Dillen briefly relayed the contents sent from the Imperial Household. A light disturbance, if that—yet.
‘This is the first time something like this has happened.’
Mehren felt genuinely surprised.
“So the young lady does quarrel with people.”
“Well, she’s a child. Better she does the hitting than takes the blows!”
“That may be, but……”
Mehren’s response was lukewarm. Perhaps because he’d just been thinking of Valere—no pleasant memories came to mind.
“Dillen doesn’t know Valere. If Arelin takes after him……should we discipline her preemptively as prevention?”
Dillen delivered the brutal truth cheerfully.
“Wouldn’t discipline be pointless if she resembles the Duke?”
“…….”
“Wouldn’t it be fine as long as things are fine?”
“No, I should still discipline her……”
“Mother!”
Arelin entered through the office door—when had she returned?
“Arelin.”
Watching Mehren immediately greet her when he’d just been asking whether she should be disciplined, Dillen swallowed his laughter.

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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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