Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 71

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 71

I’m ruined.
That was the only thought that filled my mind—that my life was ruined.
I knew, in some rational corner of my head, that I shouldn’t be thinking this way, that I needed to calm Fession down. But in this moment, my entire mind was consumed by the single, inescapable fact that everything had fallen apart.
Completely. Utterly. Entirely. Absolutely. Devastatingly. Thoroughly ruined.
To think nothing but “I’m ruined” at a time like this—I wanted to shake myself and demand I get a grip, but no matter what I did, that thought and that feeling alone flooded my consciousness.
“Arelin?”
I wanted to cry.
No, I wanted to run.
No, I just wanted to disappear.
My mind drifted through space, untethered, but my body remained rooted in the present moment. Fession still stood before me.
That was the most maddening part of it all.
My breathing grew ragged, threatening hyperventilation. Heat crept up my neck, and my cheeks flushed crimson.
“Arelin, what’s wrong?”
Everything I’d taken for granted, everything that had passed unexamined, now struck me as strange and electrifying.
Those delicate, trembling eyelashes. Those transparent eyes that looked only at me. Even that subtle fragrance.
I couldn’t deny it, no matter how much I wanted to. The stark realization left me in despair.
I like Fession, I like….
Damn it. This can’t be real.
No, of course I like him. I do like him, but that’s only because he likes me—human affection, compassion born from being cherished in return.
Yes, that must be it.
No one had ever cared for me like this. I’d never experienced such devotion before. So surely that means….
No. Stop it.
It’s all just excuse-making. Self-deception.
Despair wrapped around me, urging me to collapse, to bury my face in my hands. The only saving grace was Fession’s grip—it kept me from sinking to the floor in humiliation.
My mind felt knocked senseless, my ears ringing as if I’d taken a blow. My feet seemed to hover above the ground, reality slipping further away.
This is insane.
There are all these people around, and yet I can only see Fession. How is that possible?
“Arelin, are you hurt? Does something ache?”
“No, I’m fine. Just… let me be still for a moment.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“I’ll be fine if you just stay calm.”
When did this start? When?
The feeling of caring for someone is so foreign to me that even dwelling on it yields no answers.
My entire life has been dominated by my mother. There was no room for anyone else. Not even when she abandoned me and left.
Even now, reborn with memories of my past life restored, I remain trapped in her shadow.
I’m still frozen in that moment, unable to grow even an inch, longing for her, loving her, wanting to see her, wanting to be loved by her.
Perhaps I’ll never escape it.
But this…
This is completely different.
Like him? Impossible. It’s a lie, isn’t it? Really? Me, liking Fession, li… li… For God’s sake, is this even possible?
This strange turmoil was confusing, and my inability to regain control of myself felt absurd.
Why can’t I stay composed? Why can’t I settle down? Why? How?
The irregular pounding of my heart felt unfamiliar.
It doesn’t feel like me.
Despair—as if I’d suddenly become a helpless child—threatened to spill over into tears.
“Ah.”
Fession seemed just as confused. The expression on his face as he looked at me grew increasingly grave.
“Arelin. Look at me.”
Look at you? Are you serious right now?

* * *

Fession could tell something was wrong with Arelin.
Was it because of what had just happened?
He recalled the nobles who had cast covert insults at Arelin, bit at his lip in anger, then forced his attention back to her.
“Hmm? Arelin. Look at me.”
This wasn’t like her. Her eyes trembled as they met his.
Arelin, who normally had no inflection in her voice—flat as water diluted with water, or wine mixed with wine, except when training—had never shown such agitation before.
‘Is it because of Duke Halbern?’
He reasoned that since the Duke was her biological father, her reaction was perhaps inevitable. Yet it soured his mood, and his brows drew tight.
Meanwhile, her eyes began to shimmer with tears, and their transparency and beauty momentarily entranced him.
His gaze settled on her rose-quartz eyes as complex, unreadable emotions flickered across them and faded.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine at all.”
“No, I really am.”
Arelin mumbled the words, her reddened face turned away. Fession’s expression hardened.
It felt as though she were pushing him away, and the displeasure twisted inside him.
‘This isn’t right.’
He had to be kind. If he wasn’t, he might lose her affection.
Fession had long understood that he was utterly powerless before Arelin. So he forced himself to be as harmless and measured as possible.
The more he wanted her, the less patience remained, until he felt he might shatter. There were moments he thought he’d lose his mind entirely. But he held on. He still held on.
“Ah.”
As she wavered, growing pale as if about to collapse, Fession felt his dwindling patience dissolve further.
Should he summon the Imperial Palace physician? Or should he just take her back?
Even as his mind churned with such practical concerns, one emotion crystallized above all others: he didn’t want to let go of her hand.
He wanted to stay with her.
He’d barely managed to wait a week to see her again, and now he couldn’t bear to let her go like this.
Not in these circumstances. Not like this.
“Why do you look like that?”
“What does my expression look like?”
Arelin’s face was poised between tears and withdrawal, yet she couldn’t bring herself to release her grip on him. She didn’t even realize how it was driving him mad.
‘What is this?’
Fession regretted his decision.
Today, with so many outsiders present, attention was drawn his way more than usual. He’d deliberately kept his distance—but if he’d known this would happen, he’d have stayed at her side the entire time.
He hated the way everyone’s gaze fell on her.
It displeased him.
He wanted her eyes only on him.
He wanted to be the only one she knew, the only one she belonged to.
Such a thought—where once he would have gladly shared what he had, believing that good things prospered when divided—was something the kind-hearted Crown Prince he’d been before would never have entertained.
Ever since Arelin had returned to the String Instrument Gathering, Fession’s mood had been unsettled.
He’d been happy to spend more time with her, but he hated when others intruded. It was a foreign feeling he’d never experienced before. This irritation.
It bothered him how their private, intimate moments were shrinking. And when Harun and the twins became her new friends, that too filled him with resentment.
Arelin, blissfully unaware, was captivated by them, wandering from person to person….
‘And they’re all boys!’
Fear of losing her favor kept him silent, but resentment and anxiety accumulated day by day.
And today, when Sirua made that gesture, it ignited Fession’s possessiveness.
Arelin had innocently thought Halbern’s table was quiet because she had no friends. But that wasn’t the case at all.
Nobles seeking Mehren’s favor had sent their children forward, only to retreat when they caught the lethal glint in Fession’s eyes.
Many had learned to be cautious, lest they fall out of the Crown Prince’s favor.
“Your Highness, you are being watched.”
Griam offered the quiet reminder that befitted his rank as Crown Prince.
“Fession, I’m fine now.”
Arelin forced herself to smile, trying to reassure him.
For the first time, Fession wished he were not the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness.”
He regretted that he hadn’t stepped forward sooner when Arelin was maligned for something beyond her control. He hadn’t overturned the situation as he should have.
And toward Duke Halbern, who by merely appearing had upended everything, Fession burned with fierce animosity.
“Your Highness, you must remain at your post.”
He sensed Sirua’s curious gaze. It seemed he’d failed to keep Arelin safe from him.
He felt the Duke Sperom’s interested stare as well. And though none of them spoke, he detected all the subtle eyes that followed their exchange.
Yet Fession’s attention remained fixed on only one pair of eyes.
How he wished these eyes would look only at him, forever.
“I’ll come find you.”
Fession finally loosened his grip, forcing his reluctant feet to move away from her.
Truly, he didn’t want to leave.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————