The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 180

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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 11
“Second Prince……!”
“Don’t call me that. I am no longer a prince.”
In truth, he was speaking to himself.
It was all in the past now. There was no use in clinging to what could not be undone.
Perhaps Cecilia had already forgotten him and found happiness at Cayen’s side. Crown Princess and Empress—the highest station a woman not of the Imperial Family could reach in this empire.
If this was the destiny God had arranged for her, then he had to accept it.
That is what Lionel told himself, and so he passed each day merely breathing, merely existing.
But then…….
As if waking from a deep sleep, consciousness suddenly returned to him.
And there before him was Cecilia, crying softly.
‘Why are you weeping?’
I thought you’d be smiling. I told myself that if you were happy, that would be enough for me.
Then came a desperate, gnawing hunger—an impulse he could not name.
Tears fell from Cecilia’s eyes as she closed them before him. Lionel reached out to her.
Immediately after, breaths intertwined that were not his own.
The suffocated breath found freedom. Only then did he feel truly alive.
Like a drowning man grasping at rope, Lionel pulled her tighter into his embrace. Yet the warmth in his arms dispersed like mist and faded away.
From some point on, consciousness would flicker awake and sink again, like the opening and closing of eyes.
Each time, Cecilia was at his side. Always with a face on the verge of tears. The laughter and vitality from before had vanished without a trace.
It must have been me who made you this way.
Gradually, the world around him came into focus. He, who had been in the Temple, now found himself in the Imperial Palace, hearing the title “Emperor.”
Countless people looked upon him with fearful eyes, with contempt.
Only the Roheim Family regarded Lionel differently.
“Your Majesty, surely there is no trace of our daughter anywhere in the Imperial Palace……?”
Whether he could not answer or would not, he did not speak.
Without thinking, whenever he blinked, he would find himself at Cecilia’s side again.
“……Lionel.”
His heart raced at that name, called in a voice as small and delicate as a bird’s song.
Each time consciousness returned, Lionel would embrace Cecilia’s shoulders and press his lips to hers. Of his own will.
Merely holding their lips together, sharing only warmth, and yet a smile blossomed at the corners of her mouth—a smile as radiant as tears.
“Lionel.”
That smile, mingled with tears, brought him a terrible understanding.
Ah, I have imprisoned you here.
I locked you away to keep your smile all to myself.
The faces of Duke Roheim and his wife, searching for their daughter, came to mind. The voice speaking of lavish birthday parties held every year, the image of Cecilia smiling happily among her family at those gatherings—it appeared vivid, then scattered like morning fog.
Then, suddenly, Liri came to mind.
He had wished her to be his friend alone, yet her free spirit seemed so joyful that he could not bring himself to place her in a cage. In the end, he had failed to keep her.
Unlike Liri then, Cecilia was confined within his cage.
But would keeping her locked away here truly allow him to protect her?
“Your Majesty, we must find Cecilia Roheim without fail. Please, expand the search parties.”
“……Why?”
“We have received an Oracle that she will bear a virtuous ruler. Whomever her child’s father may be, the Temple’s blessing will make him the next Emperor.”
Lionel understood then. Releasing her from his cage would not return her freedom.
If her fate was to bear a child for someone, no matter who…….
For the first time, Lionel allowed himself to be selfish.
That day, Lionel embraced Cecilia.
Cecilia did not resist. Perhaps she had accepted the destiny God had arranged for her.
So Lionel held her, and held her, and held her again……. And in the end, she conceived his child.
Lionel kept it secret—that Cecilia was hidden in a secret room behind his bedchamber, and that she was with child—until she reached full term.
And only when Cecilia gave birth did he summon the Roheim Family and the Pope.
And all witnessed the Oracle that descended upon the child she had borne.
[Shall be beloved by all.]
It was the greatest Oracle a child born without love could receive.
Lionel asked the Pope, who had carved the Oracle into the Stone Tablet: “Your Holiness, please verify that the Stone Tablet has shattered.”
“……Yes. Without doubt. The Stone Tablet of Lady Cecilia has shattered.”
At last, Cecilia regained her freedom.
Lionel spoke to the Roheim Family: “Once she has recovered, I will return her to you.”
“Your Majesty……. You have no intention of making our daughter Empress?”
“None.”
For in this palace, at my side, Cecilia never once smiled without tears.
“She has no reason to be bound here, nor any need to be. I will return her to you.”
A month later, Cecilia returned to the Roheim household.
She went back to the family that cherished and loved her. Now, surely, she could smile.
“Waaaaah!”
Only the infant, motherless after a mere month of life, remained at his side, crying pitifully.
Lionel held the child—who bore such a striking resemblance to Cecilia—and always thought the same thing.
Thank goodness you’re here.
This was his own child, borne by the woman he loved. Perhaps this child would become his true family.
Whenever he had a moment, he would hold the child, rock her to sleep, soothe her. And in searching for traces of Cecilia in that small face, he soothed his own longing and regret…….
Until his mind cleared.
“I apologize for the delay. The Antidote has finally been completed.”
“The Antidote…….”
“Now, Your Majesty, you are completely free from my brainwashing. ……I accept the punishment for the crime I committed against you, born of my personal grudge.”
With his mind now lucid, merely hearing the full account from Nicole allowed the past memories to resurface with stunning clarity.
When she explained that the brainwashing drug had caused his emotions to become unnaturally heightened, he finally understood why he had done such things.
Or rather—had the cause of those actions truly been the drug’s side effects?
“Lionel.”
That voice mingled with tears, that smile, came back to him more vividly than ever. Lionel found himself thinking that it might have been better never to drink the Antidote.
Everything felt like a dream.
……No. It could not have been a dream. Not when the child remained at his side.
Yes. I must go see the child.
Lionel immediately headed for the Princess’s Palace.
Yet the place, which had always been quiet save for the child’s cries, was now in great commotion.
“What is this about?”
When he asked the guard at the Princess’s Palace, the man answered with a troubled expression, perspiration beading on his brow.
“Well, that is to say……. The Duchess…….”
“The Duchess? Do you mean Lord Belrose?”
“No, Your Majesty. That is…….”
Then, from within the building, came a voice breaking with anguish, crying out in despair.
“I gave birth to her! I’m her mother! So why can’t I see my child!”
It was Cecilia’s voice.
Lionel rushed into the Palace.
When he entered the bedchamber of the Princess’s Palace, he found Cecilia weeping, cradling the wailing child in her arms.
“……Cecil.”
“……Lionel.”
Upon seeing him, Cecilia burst into louder tears, as if in protest.
Lionel moved toward her at once. He reached out his hand without thinking, but stopped before it could touch her cheek. Quietly, he closed his extended hand and asked:
“Why are you crying?”
“I’m her mother, and she doesn’t even know me……. She just cries…….”
Lionel took the child from Cecilia’s arms and skillfully soothed the wailing infant with gentle rocking.
The child’s frown gradually eased and her cries began to subside. But Cecilia’s despair only deepened.
“Father knows her!”
“I……. held this child every night to help her sleep.”
“Every night?”
Thick tears rolled down Cecilia’s cheeks as she blinked in bewilderment.
“……And I? I slept alone every night……?”
Lionel did not know what to say. He could only stroke the child’s small back with his hand.
Watching the tender scene between father and daughter, Cecilia wept once more.

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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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