The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 101
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 101
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
At that moment, Sister asked Lionel with a serious expression. If he had answered that he wasn’t alright, she looked ready to break off his handcuffs immediately with such loyalty.
However, Lionel’s response exceeded everyone’s imagination.
“Please don’t address me that way. Since I’ve received orders to relinquish the imperial surname, my status is no longer that of a prince.”
“What…?”
“Just call me Lionel.”
His face was calm without a trace of regret or bitterness, but our family members were so shocked they froze and couldn’t say anything.
Actually, I was the same way.
Even so, to suddenly speak so formally even to subordinates he usually treated casually. And without any awkwardness at that.
“No, well, um… Even so, how could we possibly address someone born and raised as royalty…”
“Since my elder brother has ascended to the throne as Emperor, wouldn’t it be strange for me to continue being called a prince?”
It was truly a clash of spear and shield.
To break the increasingly awkward atmosphere, I spoke up.
“That’s right! This person is no longer a prince! Please accept him as a prospective son-in-law!”
“Prospective son-in-law…?”
“Yes! Since we’ll be family from now on, please feel free to call him by his name. You’re comfortable with that too, right Lionel?”
“Yes.”
Lionel nodded.
It wasn’t like he was the type to say ‘You’re really going to call me by name just because I said to? How undisciplined,’ but the family members awkwardly exchanged glances with each other.
Then Brother cleared his throat lightly as a representative.
“Well, we need an adjustment period… We’ll take it slowly.”
The other family members also nodded, and Mother naturally changed the subject as if Lionel’s name didn’t come easily to her tongue.
“More importantly, since someone new has joined the household, we should call the merchants first.”
“Ah! That’s right. Lionel doesn’t have any clothes or daily necessities right now.”
We had borrowed Brother’s clothes for now, but there was no way the clothing sizes would match between a scholar-type man who sits at a desk all day and a knight-type man who never skips dawn training. Our father also didn’t have much muscle.
“And we need to decorate his room too. What we need for now is a dressing room and a study, right? Since you won’t be working here, you don’t need an office, do you?”
“No.”
“A dressing room and study? What about the bedroom?”
Brother asked with a puzzled expression. I answered without hesitation, wondering why he was asking such an obvious question.
“He’s going to share my bedroom.”
“What, what?”
“Did you forget? This man is officially kidnapped and confined by me, remember?”
…That was actually an excuse though.
More precisely, it was to monitor whether this man would secretly run away while I was sleeping.
‘He’s someone who tried to abandon me and devote himself to the temple. I absolutely can’t trust him.’
Unaware of my true intentions, the family members exchanged glances and voiced their concerns.
“No matter how engaged you are, sharing a bed before marriage…”
“Still, since His Highness has handcuffs on, it should be fine…”
“Actually, it’s more Cecil than His Highness who’s…”
“Excuse me. We can all hear you, so instead of pretending to whisper, just speak openly.”
Are they telling us to listen or not to listen?
Still, they didn’t seem to be strongly opposed, so I was feeding meat to Lionel whose hands were inconvenienced, when Father and Mother exchanged meaningful looks and then looked at me.
“Cecil, premarital pregnancy is not allowed.”
“Of course not. Don’t you trust me too little?”
“No, that’s not what I mean… Even if you get married, you can’t for the time being.”
“What?”
I could understand before marriage, but I can’t get pregnant even after marriage?
I couldn’t understand what they meant and just tilted my head in confusion, when Mother told me something truly shocking.
“The oracle that Bishop Nicole is said to have received – the real owner is actually you.”
“…What?”
“The person who will bear a wise ruler who will remain in history – that’s you.”
“…Huh?”
What on earth is this about?
‘That oracle is mine?’
The oracle that made Nicole a bishop and the First Prince an emperor – the real owner is actually me?
My mind became a completely blank white page. I couldn’t quite understand what I had just heard.
“So… that oracle came down to me when I was born, not to Bishop Nicole?”
“That’s right.”
That’s right? That’s riiiight?
Am I the only one surprised right now? Am I the only one surprised? Why is everyone else so calm!
“I had no idea!”
“Of course, since we didn’t tell you. How would you know about something that happened when you were just born?”
That’s true, but! So why didn’t you tell only me!
‘Wow, wait. I’m getting dizzy.’
My vision was actually spinning. Even in the midst of this, something came to mind.
“Wait, then the story about how you almost died from difficult labor when giving birth to me and had to bring the Archbishop…”
“Right. It was actually to make the oracle into a stone tablet.”
Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness!
Then Archbishop Seiji’s request to secretly smuggle Bishop Nicole out of exile was in exchange for hiding the existence of the stone tablet?
‘…I see! The dream!’
What they said in the dream about fate not being completed must have been about this.
‘Because my oracle about bearing a wise ruler couldn’t be fulfilled…! That’s why the me in the dream said I would stay in the Imperial Palace!’
They say reality is stranger than fiction, and those words were right. None of the plot twists in any movie or book I’d ever seen gave me goosebumps like this.
I rubbed my arms where goosebumps had actually risen and asked Mother.
“But how did that oracle end up being announced as Bishop Nicole’s?”
“According to Archbishop Seiji, Bishop Nicole almost died after being accused by the Former Empress. It seems she lied without realizing it in the face of death.”
“But still… wouldn’t she eventually be found out…?”
The stone tablet breaks the moment the oracle’s contents are realized.
But if the tablet with the content ‘you will bear a wise ruler who will remain in history’ is really mine, then no matter how many times Nicole gets pregnant and gives birth, that tablet will never break.
She could make excuses once or twice that these children aren’t the future wise ruler.
But as time passes, people will eventually start doubting whether Nicole is really the true owner of the tablet.
‘Ah, that’s why I can’t get pregnant.’
“If I have a child and the tablet breaks…”
“Unless you go to remote mountains with no people at all to give birth, you’ll definitely be discovered. You can probably guess what would happen after that, right?”
“Yes…”
It was obvious.
The child I bear would be the god-guaranteed ‘future wise ruler.’ In other words, the next emperor.
But my husband is not the emperor. No, not just not the emperor, but a prince who was called the prospective crown prince but had the throne stolen from him just before ascending.
Even if Lionel doesn’t want it, a bloody succession struggle would break out led by nobles seeking power.
As a result, Lionel would end up on the throne ‘regardless of his will,’ but imagining what would happen in that process made my body tremble involuntarily.
“But this isn’t something that can be hidden forever.”
“Of course not. However…”
Father tapped the table with his index finger with a thoughtful expression, then shook his head.
“The current Emperor also has his oracle, and you’re still only twenty years old… Let’s observe the Imperial Family’s movements for the time being.”
Bringing up the Emperor’s oracle meant exactly that.
[He will take his own life by his own will]
‘So even if we don’t do anything, they might come floating down the river first, so let’s just fish and wait for now?’
Given how severely ill the Emperor was, it wasn’t a bad strategy.
Anyway, since it’s known that someone else is the owner of the Oracle now, they won’t be targeting me either.
‘Right. For now, I just need to prevent the Imperial Palace’s schemes to make Lionel submit to the Temple.’
As I was steeling my resolve like that, I suddenly noticed Lionel sitting next to me. He was so quiet that I had momentarily forgotten he was sitting beside me.
‘Wait, but how can he be so calm even while such bombshell statements are being exchanged?’
This wasn’t someone else’s business. In some ways, it was more his own affair than mine.
Yet seeing him show no sign of surprise at all, just pushing his steak plate toward me as if asking me to feed him…
Wait. Could it be?
“Don’t tell me you knew about this too, Lionel?”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————