Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 55

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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 55

For just a moment, I felt a genuine threat to my life.
Is this how my life ends? If you’re going to kill me, do it quick—let me not feel the pain.
That’s what I was thinking when it happened.
“Pfft.”
Suddenly the man burst into laughter.
I was speechless.
Was that funny? Was it? Really?
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you just yet.”
“Oh. Yes.”
“Are you mad?”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re definitely mad.”
Dappled sunlight poured through the leaves overhead. In that light, the man’s face was unmistakably otherworldly.
The hair black as ebony that seemed to have swallowed all the world’s light, and those golden eyes that gleamed white even in bright daylight.
‘He’s younger than I thought.’
In the sunlight, he appeared to be only seventeen or eighteen—a mere boy. At the Manor, I’d taken him for a robust young man in his mid-twenties.
Even looking at those finely sculpted features, my heart remained unmoved, perhaps because of the overwhelming aura of danger hanging over him like a guillotine.
“Done looking?”
The moment our eyes met, I flinched without meaning to.
‘Was I staring that hard?’
As I shuffled backward, the man grinned with clear amusement, his unnecessarily flamboyant exterior gleaming in the light.
“So why did you come looking for me?”
“Hmm.”
The man stepped down in front of me.
I’d asked in hopes of speeding things along, but maybe I shouldn’t have.
“Thanks to you, I was able to catch that bastard easily. I thought I’d repay you for handling what could’ve been tedious—”
The man’s eyes went wide and round.
“Because I saved your life, after all.”
“Y-yes, you did.”
“So I figured we’d call it even.”
“Ah, yes.”
So then what?!
What’s the actual point?!
“But I still have a lingering question.”
“W-what is it?”
Those vertically-slit golden eyes fixed on me intently.
“How exactly can you see me?”
My world’s weakest Sensor began screaming an alarm. Flee if you want to live, it said.
‘This isn’t something I can just avoid!’
Even disasters come in different grades.
This was beyond my control.
“I… I don’t know why myself.”
“I know. Obviously.”
But why are you being rough with me then?
I was trying to figure out how to escape the grip of this demon when—
“Arelin, what are you doing over there?”
Fession’s voice rang out from not far away, and my entire body went rigid.
“Oh…”
Fession appeared, holding a water bucket, and tilted his head curiously at the sight of me.
I glanced between the man and Fession.
Hm.
The man folded his arms and studied Fession with interest.
‘…Isn’t this about to go very, very wrong?’
A sinister premonition raced through my entire being.
Fession, blissfully unaware of the misfortune bearing down on him, simply kept tilting his head.
“Arelin, why are you hiding over here? Are you trying to get out of exercising again?”
“Huh?”
‘What is he talking about?’
I glanced back at the man.
He couldn’t hold back anymore and burst out laughing.
Why was he finding this so funny?
“You should exercise to stay healthy.”
“No, that’s not—”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to exercise; well, I did, but—
‘Can’t you see the man standing right there?!’
I wanted desperately to blurt this out, but—
“Shh.”
The sight of the man smiling and pressing a finger to his lips made my urgent need to speak vanish entirely.
How could I ask anything when the person in question was standing right in front of me?
All I could do was try to convey my silent panic through eye contact.
Apparently my wordless anguish seemed strange, because Fession tilted his head further.
“Arelin, does your eye hurt?”
“Ugh.”
This was so frustrating.
“No, that’s not it!”
I was just about to point at the man beside me—
“Huh?”
In the time it took me to blink, the man vanished without a trace.
“What…”
I stared numbly at where the man had been standing when Fession approached.
“Arelin, what’s wrong? Are you feeling dizzy?”
I looked at the empty space with a disoriented expression. I felt like I’d been possessed by a ghost.
“Fession.”
“Hmm?”
Even in this situation, Fession’s expression remained completely befuddled.
“You really didn’t see anything?”
Fession tilted his head again, still utterly lost.

* * *

My life had gained some extra baggage.
How is it that everywhere I step, there’s another trap?
Is this some kind of talent?
A talent for stepping on landmines?
“Sigh. Life is exhausting.”
“You shouldn’t say things like that at six years old.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
While half-listening to the Childcare Unit’s comment, I reflected on the current situation.
It didn’t seem to be my fault after all.
“Have a fun time playing today.”
“Mm.”
With Ern as my escort, I arrived at the Imperial Palace. Today was the day of the tea gathering meeting.
‘I’d considered skipping it.’

“You’re not coming to the meetings anymore?”

Remembering Fession’s dejected face, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
After ruining the mood at the last tea party, skipping out felt like admitting defeat.
‘Anyway, today will probably just be Fession and the twins clinging to me.’
I’d pretty much given up on making new friends.
But then—
“Today, do whatever you want.”
“Huh?”
“I won’t get in your way.”
With a stern expression, as if making a grave resolution, Fession clenched both fists tightly and dragged Harun away.
While I was still blinking in confusion, he took the twins with him too, preventing them from clinging to me.
‘What’s going on?’
I’d gotten what I wanted, but it felt hollow.
He couldn’t possibly know about my Friend Shield strategy. Was it because of our earlier conversation?
Did he think I didn’t trust him, and was he trying to raise his approval rating?
“Wow, damn.”
A conscience I didn’t know I had begun pricking my chest painfully.
“What is this?”
I’d lost the mood to do anything. Crumpled like wrinkled paper, I wanted to hide away in some corner.
“Um, over here.”
A girl with a gentle expression approached me, as if she’d been waiting for me.
“Please be careful of Leslie.”
“…?”
I was left staring blankly after the young lady, who’d left me with this ominous warning and disappeared. I was about to chase after her to ask what she meant—
“Whoa.”
A quiet voice and a hand supporting my body kept me from falling.
“Be more careful.”
Those golden eyes curved warmly.
It was the man again.
“You nearly fell.”
“…Thank you.”
I was surprised to feel actual warmth. So he wasn’t an illusion—he was a real person of flesh and blood.
At least I wasn’t losing my mind.
“But how did you get into the Imperial Palace?”
The man let me go and smiled.
“There’s nowhere I can’t enter.”
Should I report him?
“Where would you report me to?”
“Oh my god. Can you read minds too?”
“It’s written all over your face.”
“?”
I’d only ever heard that my face was impossibly hard to read.
Yet here he was, radiating his presence so openly, and not a single passerby spared him a glance.
How was this even possible?
‘Am I really the only one who can see him?’
But this is the Imperial Palace, after all.
A place overflowing with the Extraordinary Individuals of the continent.
“You seem very curious about me.”
“I’m not going to ask though.”
“Why not?”
Staring into those quiet golden eyes, my mouth clamped shut like a clam of its own accord.
‘How could I ask?’
Behind that peaceful façade lurked a violence that pricked my skin like needles.
A ferocity that could flash its fangs and sever my lifeline at the slightest opening.
“I’m fine with it.”
“?”
“If you keep talking here, people will think you’re insane.”
A timely piece of advice, much as I hated to admit it.
Once I closed my mouth and moved to a place away from prying eyes, the man grinned and followed me.
“What about my hand? If it keeps glowing like this, it’ll be a problem.”
“Only I can see it, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Really?”
“There are others who might sense it, but there are only a handful in this world.”
That was either reassuring or not, I couldn’t tell—and as I furrowed my brow at his ambiguous answer, the man glanced around.
“But, are you alone?”
“What?”
“Do you have any friends?”
“I do have friends!”
Where’s Fession when you need him?
“It’s fine, I don’t have friends either.”
“You really don’t seem like you would.”
“I had plenty once.”
“Where did all those friends suddenly go?”
“They all died.”
“…”
Did I just step on a landmine?
“Are you curious why they died?”
For a moment, the curiosity-filled golden eyes observing me seemed ominous—or maybe it was just my imagination.
‘Oh no. I can feel it, I really can. Whatever I answer, it’s a death flag. I’m certain of it.’
I was trying to figure out how to escape this when—
“Have you heard? At that mini tea party recently, Arelin made Nadeli cry.”
At the passing voice, both he and I turned our heads at the same time.

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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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