The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 179

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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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Side Story 10
Side Story 4. A Dream One Day
“It is an honor to meet you, Second Prince.”
It was their first meeting since the engagement had been arranged. Yet his fiancée sat with a sullen expression, as though she had no intention of managing her face.
Likely because the engagement had proceeded against her will.
In truth, for one of the Prince’s and a Duchess’s standing, it was nearly impossible to choose a betrothed by one’s own desire. Still, Lionel had heard that Cecilia had even gone on a hunger strike to refuse this engagement.
But since the engagement had been finalized, it was hardly his concern.
“Behold. These are the concessions we extracted from Roheim through this betrothal.”
“It seems the Duke’s affection for his youngest daughter was no mere rumor. You too shall treat your fiancée well. See that you give Roheim no unnecessary grievance.”
He was told to become engaged, so he became engaged. He was told to treat her well, so he would treat her well.
That was the sum of Lionel’s thoughts. He harbored no worries about whether they might become a harmonious couple in the future.
“One day, someone will appear to become your true family.”
His grandmother had spoken those words ten years ago, if he recalled rightly.
At the time, it seemed he had possessed some hope—wondering if such a day would ever come, what manner of person might become his family.
But now Lionel harbored no expectations at all. He had come to understand that without expectation, one need not bear wounds. Peace of mind came from indifference.
After all, this was a political marriage. Surely his fiancée harbored no great hopes for him either.
Or so he had thought.
“Well, since it’s come to this, let’s make the best of it, shall we?”
Cecilia, who had seemed disinclined toward him at first, began to seek him out frequently from some point onward.
One day she came bearing cookies of her own baking; another day, claiming his office was too austere, she brought flowers; yet another day, saying they ought to know each other better, she brought a questionnaire of her own making.
When he asked why she devoted so much of her time to him, she wore that same pouting expression she had shown when they first met.
“Why? Because once we marry, we’ll be husband and wife, have children, become a family, and live together peacefully until we’re old. We can’t remain distant forever, can we?”
He understood the part about having children. But become a family and live peacefully together? That seemed far-fetched.
Thinking of his own parents and brother, he could not fathom whether such a thing were truly possible. And besides, this was a political marriage.
Still, Lionel did not tell his fiancée to cease her futile efforts, nor did he caution her against expecting such intimacy from him.
There was one reason: he had been ordered to treat his fiancée well.
Believing it was solely for that reason, Lionel began to indulge Cecilia’s every wish and gradually increased the time they spent together.
“I heard your birthday is next week. But Your Highness doesn’t hold a birthday banquet or anything? Why not?”
“I have a birthday party at home every year. I’ll invite you to the next one. You absolutely must bring a gift.”
He had meant not to harbor expectations.
“Ta-da! A birthday gift! How is it? Do you like it? You must like it, mustn’t you? Say so! I agonized so much choosing this for you!”
“Flowers? You’re giving these to me? What for? No, no—I do like them! Very much, in fact! Hehe.”
“Ahem, we’ve been engaged for quite some time now. What do you say we start using pet names for each other?”
Yet somewhere along the way, he had begun to harbor expectations.
“Lionel!”
He came to realize this fact when a monster wave erupted in the Northern Region and he was called to depart for it.
“Is it true you’re going to the north? When will you return?”
“Come back quickly—please come back quickly. You understand? No, it’s all right if you’re a little late, just—come back safely! You mustn’t be hurt.”
“I’ll write to you, so please write back. When you have time, anyway! Don’t strain yourself!”
“I’ll wait. I’ll wait for you.”
He wanted to honor her plea to return quickly, to return safely.
But the situation in the north deteriorated the longer he remained. Tracking the monsters scattered across the region proved difficult, making it impossible to push the defensive line northward effectively.
Cecilia’s letters, which had come frequently at first, gradually became sparse, and by the third year had almost ceased entirely.
Likely after public opinion had formed that Lionel’s poor performance was preventing proper restoration of the north, and rumors began to spread that he was idling away his time exchanging letters with his fiancée.
Only after Cecilia’s letters stopped coming did Lionel realize he had been waiting for them.
And in the end, though he slew the Monster King, he returned to the capital having failed to completely eradicate the monsters, receiving an assessment of failure regarding the monster wave.
“After all, the people of the north lost their homeland, and the Empire lost its territory. As commander-in-chief, you must bear that responsibility.”
“Cayen shall ascend to crown prince. You are to go to the Temple. Renounce your place in the Imperial Family and sever all worldly ties. Devote yourself to the Temple.”
While he had been away in the north, the sickly Cayen had regained his health entirely and solidified his position as the next emperor.
That much did not concern him. But what followed was somewhat shocking.
“The Duchess of Roheim need not worry. She shall become crown princess as planned, and thereafter empress.”
For the first time, Lionel went to meet Cecilia.
When he saw her after so long, she had grown more mature and beautiful than when they last parted—and she greeted him with eyes swollen from weeping.
“Why did you come so late?”
“It’s been so… far too long.”
Having uttered only those words, Cecilia wept for a long while more.
Lionel could not wipe away her tears. He could not speak a single word. As if her words—”too late”—had built a wall between them, he could not draw near her.
In the end, Lionel simply watched her cry before turning away.
As he walked away from Cecilia, his grandmother’s parting words echoed in his ear.
Obey on the surface, he sighed—bend as if you will break, and then, when the moment comes that you truly will snap, draw the blade you’ve hidden and strike your enemy.
Was this that moment? Even now, was he simply meant to endure? And if so, would there come a moment in the future even more unbearable than this?
Lionel looked up at the sky. The clear, pale blue was nowhere to be found; the night sky was simply black and empty.
A thought struck him then.
If he never saw Cecilia again, his sky would forever remain this dark.
Though no voice called him back, Lionel retraced his steps. His pace quickened, one foot before the other, until he was running at full speed toward Cecilia.
He wanted to see Cecilia again. There was something he wished to ask her.
But Cecilia would not meet him.
Had he asked her when he had the chance, might something have been different? Had he asked what those tears meant, whether things might have changed if he’d arrived even slightly earlier—had he posed such questions then.
But now he could not ask, and he would never hear her answer.
Thus Lionel made his way to the Temple, carrying in a corner of his heart something he could not name—regret, perhaps, or lingering attachment.
And a month later, he heard that Cayen had ascended to crown prince and that Cecilia had become crown princess. It had come to pass as it was meant to.
In truth, it was hardly an extraordinary thing. For him, theft was routine.
Just as he had lost his friend, his cherished maid, his nurse, and Liri—just as he always had, he had simply been robbed by Cayen of something he held dear. Nothing more.
Yet Lionel often found himself remembering her. The way she wept so pitifully, as if she yearned to be comforted.
But now he could no longer see her tears—and moreover, it was no longer his place to wipe them away.
“Do you not despise them? Your family who abandoned you? Your fiancée who abandoned you?”
Thus when the Bishop posed his question, Lionel could answer with composure.
“I have severed my worldly ties. I have neither family nor fiancée.”

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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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