The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health – Chapter 180

Author: Asternkm

Morning at Halbern.

Uni, who had come in to wake Arelin, froze in surprise. Lena, who had followed behind her, looked at her as if to ask what was wrong.

Uni quietly jerked her chin, as if to say see for yourself. And when Lena looked toward the bed…

“……?”

Why is the Grand Duke there…?

Seeing the father and daughter sleeping together, Valer with his arm under Arelin’s head, the maids hesitated, unsure what to do.

In the end, the two chose a strategic retreat.

“Let’s call Lord Mehen.”

“Right. In times like this, it has to be Lord Mehen.”

Thus, Mehen was summoned early in the morning—and promptly found himself at a loss for words at the sight before him.

“…….”

Last night, Valer had said he would watch over Arelin a little longer before returning. It seemed he had ended up falling asleep with her instead.

I knew this would happen.

He’d even nagged him to leave the sleeping child alone and go rest, and Valer had said he’d handle it himself.

Is this what ‘handling it’ means?

Mehen’s gaze sharpened in an instant. And yet, as he watched the two of them sleeping so peacefully, his heart softened despite himself.

Valer, who usually slept like the dead, and Arelin, who often slept as if in pain—today, both wore calm expressions as they slept facing one another.

The curtains had already been fully drawn back in an attempt to wake Arelin, and bright morning sunlight poured in through the large window. Even so, neither of them showed any sign of waking.

Seeing them like this…

“They look alike.”

When awake, their expressions were so different that it was hard to tell, but their sleeping faces were similar enough that no one would question them being real father and daughter.

Is it because Arelin takes after Lady Shione so much…?

Perhaps because he was asleep, Valer’s face looked unusually boyish today, which only made the resemblance stronger.

They seemed nothing alike at first glance, yet somehow they were.

Neither of them ever spoke their true feelings first—something that drove Mehen up the wall—and both were innocent yet strangely fragile, impossible to look away from.

As a result, Mehen, who still hadn’t escaped the role of caretaker, let out a thin sigh.

It is time to wake them, but…

“Well, one day won’t hurt.”

He considered drawing the curtains again, but the sight of the two wrapped in the streaming light was too pleasant, so he left them as they were.

For a fleeting moment, beyond the warm morning sunlight, he thought he saw the illusion of Shione.

“……It would’ve been nice if you were here too, Lady Shione.”

Then perhaps the most harmonious family in Halbern’s history might have been born.

Imagining the three of them, so alike, Mehen gave a bitter smile.

It was all a meaningless what-if.

As Mehen left the room alone, Lena and Uni looked at each other.

“Why did you just come back out?”

Mehen smiled.

“Let them sleep a little longer.”

****

Valer had a dream.

A dream that always began with the same scene.

The moment he received the newborn baby, Arellin, from his older sister.

He hadn’t known she would refuse to go with him.
He hadn’t known he would end up holding the baby in his arms.
And he hadn’t known what he should do, what he could do, or how he was supposed to do anything—

So he could only stare at his sister in shock.

“That child’s name is Arellin.”

The instant those final words—destined to bind him for the rest of his life—reached his ears, everything split.

Faint, blurry fragments of previous dreams, shattered memories, crashed over him.

“Please raise her well.”

In that moment of confusion, there was only one answer Valer could give.

“…Okay.”

Trust me.

And then, through tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands—of attempts to save Arellin, the result Valer faced was always the same.

A body with no warmth left,
or a cold coffin.

And himself, standing there in a daze.

…

Failed again.

Mehen leaving, and himself unable to stop him.
Or Mehen disappearing, and himself unable to find him.

Or worse—Mehen already dead, so there was no one left to stop or search for.

When left alone, Valer’s choice was always the same.

The destruction of Halbern.

Because Halbern without his sister, without Arellin, without Mehen, had no value to him at all.

In fact, Valer had always wished for Halbern’s fall.

Ever since childhood, when he watched his sister suffer—
for a very, very long time.

To Valer, inheriting Halbern meant nothing.
He only kept it because it was something his sister had wanted to give him.

“Sister.”

To him, Shione was his entire world.

He was a child who only did what she taught him, what she showed him—nothing more.

From the moment Shione vanished from his life, the boy who had stopped growing forever could no longer even figure out what he was supposed to do.

And then, smoothly, he went mad……

“Normally, it ends here.”

So why didn’t the dream end?

Valer, staring blankly up at the gloomy dream-sky, turned around without thinking.

And then—amazingly—the dream began again.

From a different point in time.

“This has never happened before.”

Valer, who had always woken up at the moment Arellin died, frowned at this strange phenomenon.

In the distance, he saw another version of himself, and another version of his sister.

That other self received Arellin from his sister.

She was smiling.

Looking at the helpless, stunned version of him, she smiled with eyes full of love.

It was an expression he had missed back then, because he’d been too focused on Arellin.

This must really be the last time.

So this was also the first time he had seen her smile so sadly as she watched him leave.

Had she died too?

He’d guessed it deep down, but the truth he never wanted to know stabbed straight into Valer’s chest.

She was gone now.

He wasn’t sad.
His hatred still burned coldly, but it didn’t want to grow bigger or devour anything anymore.

It was just… strange.

As if he himself were already dead.

Like an empty doll, moving only by duty and purpose.

No—maybe that was exactly right.

The only belief and purpose driving him was to keep Arellin alive and raise her well.

Just as his sister wanted.

“…Sister.”

Could I have stopped you?

If I had begged you—crying, clinging to you, asking you to reconsider leaving Arellin with me and choosing to die—
would you have given in and lived?

No. Of course not.

Valer knew Shione better than anyone.

Even in a suffocating life where she’d never once been able to live as she wished, she was a woman who carried out her will to the end.

She mocked Ludwig, defied her own father, and would rather break than ever bend.

There was no way she would have changed her mind just because he cried.

That was who she was.

She was someone who decided, with absolute certainty, what she would protect and what she would leave behind—and followed through.

Because he knew that so well, he couldn’t stop her.
He couldn’t beg.
He couldn’t cling to her desperately.

That was why Valer returned that day with only Arellin.

Because it was his sister’s will.

And Valer could never go against her will.

Sister.

Why me?

Why did it have to be me?

There must have been so many people who could raise her more safely, more lovingly—
so why did you entrust Arellin to me?

If you wanted to, you could have made it impossible for anyone to know whose blood Arellin carried.
That would have been safer.

So why me?

Because you were afraid I’d die?

Afraid that once you were gone, I would die too?

“You really did know me so well.”

Did you see the future or something?

Just how much did you love me?

After giving me love like this, how am I supposed to live?
You’re cruel.

“Sister… did you know?”

That I planned to save you—and then die.

That the reason you couldn’t escape and ended up marrying was because of me,
and that I wanted to die before I became another shackle around your neck.

Did you know?

Is that why you chose to die first?

“You’re saving me by saving her.”

His sister’s voice—he didn’t even know from when—invaded his mind.

He couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ha……”

But there was something even she hadn’t known.

That her daughter had a fatal problem with her health.

Because she didn’t know, she could hand her over to him without a word of worry, without fear, without a shadow.

The dreamscape flickered.

As the scenery blurred and twisted in resonance with his chaotic emotions, only Shione’s figure remained clear.

Sister.