The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 197

Contrary to Graham’s expectation that the tightly closed doors of the Halbern estate would refuse the crown prince’s visit, they opened almost emptily easily.

The moment the door opened, Pession headed straight for the second floor as if he had been waiting for this.

For half a year, the place he had always visited,

the room that had always belonged to Arellin,

the room where Arellin had always been lying.

‘Was the Halbern estate always this bleak?’

Following behind Pession, who was almost running, Graham keenly felt how different the impression of the Halbern estate was, even though it had only been a few days since his last visit.

It had always been large and quiet, but it had never felt this lonely.

Pession, who sensed this change even more sharply than Graham, flung open the door that had always been guarded by the caregivers.

“…….”

Beside the open window, the curtains fluttered softly. A cool breeze brushed against his cheek. Bathed in bright sunlight, the bed in the room lay empty, without a trace of its owner.

Why is it empty?

She should be here.

Why isn’t she here?

Even while looking straight at it, Pession couldn’t believe what he was seeing and rubbed his eyes, his face twisting sharply.

“Your Highness.”

He could hear Graham calling him as he stood there blankly, like part of a painting, but Pession couldn’t move.

“No.”

This can’t be happening.

Once again denying reality, Pession pressed down on the empty bed and shook his head.

They’re all in on it, making fun of me.

They’re lying.

Because I keep looking for Arellin.

Because I keep chasing only Arellin.

So…….

“You’re all lying together. Right?”

“……Your Highness.”

“Right, Graham?”

“Your Highness…….”

“Tell me that’s true.”

Pession struggled to understand the situation.

“This doesn’t make sense. This can’t be right. She disappeared right in front of me, didn’t she? All of a sudden. That was clearly a kidnapping. But now they’re saying she’s dead. Do you really think those rumors make sense?”

Graham couldn’t easily agree or deny it. Pession, who had been looking at Graham desperately, twisted his face in pain.

It was suffocating.

Even though he took a deep breath and his chest swelled, the tightness wouldn’t go away.

“……Arellin.”

Every time he closed his eyes, the image of Arellin coughing up blood replayed across his vision. Even then, Arellin hadn’t looked like she was in pain. She had just seemed confused.

Who was the man who took Arellin away? He was sure he had seen him, yet he couldn’t remember. The palace physician said that part of his memory might have been lost due to the shock.

Pession wondered if he might have seen a hallucination.

To Pession like that, Empress Ageni told him it would be better not to ask about Arellin anymore. That it would be better not to look for her.

“Why?”

When Pession asked for the reason, what had Empress Ageni answered?

His memories were tangled, and he couldn’t recall it right away. Even in all this, the image of Arellin smiling brightly kept coming back to him…… Pession felt like he was truly going crazy.

I miss Arellin.

I want to make sure she’s safe.

I want to know who that man was.

No—more than that, I want to know what happened to Arellin.

Arellin…….

“Your Highness, Your Highness…….”

“…Graham.”

“Are you all right?”

Pession bit down hard on his lip and weakly shook his head. Graham’s heart was no better as he looked at Pession’s pale face.

Thinking that he couldn’t leave Pession at the Halbern estate any longer, Graham took him and headed back.

Pession, who Graham had expected to stubbornly resist, surprisingly followed along without protest.

Until they found Mehen.

“…….”

Mehen looked at Pession with indifferent eyes, as if he hadn’t expected to meet him here.

Seeing Mehen, Graham was inwardly startled. He had always looked tired and prickly, but now his eyes were completely dead, as if he had given up on life itself.

“Mehen.”

“…….”

“Mehen, say something.”

Pession grabbed the hem of Mehen’s clothes.

“Is she really dead?”

“…….”

“Is Arellin really dead?”

Mehen’s expression grew heavy. His own heart was in turmoil, but seeing a child who was suffering even more than himself made it even more painful.

“Please, just say something…….”

Everyone in the Halbern estate knew that Pession liked Arellin. They were all drowning in sorrow, but they pitied the young crown prince the most.

Mehen’s tightly closed mouth finally opened.

“There is nothing I can tell you.”

He wanted to say something.

But Mehen didn’t know anything either.

“Truly, there is nothing I can say.”

Empress Ageni had hinted that it would be better to treat Arellin as dead, but even that was a cruel thing to do.

Mehen couldn’t bring himself to be that heartless to this crown prince.

A tired smile flickered faintly and then disappeared. Despair filled Pession’s eyes. More than any words, Mehen’s expression and gaze told him everything.

“Please return safely.”

And so, Pession couldn’t bring himself to grab Mehen as he weakly turned away, leaving him behind.

 

 

****

 

 

 

When Pession returned to the imperial palace, the sun was setting.

As the crimson-stained evening sky blended with the mysterious architecture of the palace to create a breathtaking view, Pession felt strangely detached, as if he alone were drifting in a different world.

The one who welcomed Pession back was Empress Ageni.

“Pession.”

“Mother.”

Without asking anything, Empress Ageni simply pulled Pession tightly into her arms.

“It’s okay.”

His breath felt crushed.

“I… can’t breathe.”

“It’s okay, my son.”

The hands soothing the suffering Pession were painfully gentle.

“Everything will be okay.”

It will only hurt for now.

It’s a good thing you’re still young.

You’ll be able to forget.

It was just a first love from childhood, so in a few years it would fade.

With time, you’ll be able to smile again like before.

You’ll forget completely.

Surrounded by endlessly pouring words of comfort, Pession closed his eyes in Empress Ageni’s embrace.

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

The rumor that Arellin was dead became an accepted fact after half a year had passed.

At the end of autumn, when Arellin had fallen into a deep sleep, and as the season shifted into early winter, Harun and the twins denied Arellin’s death for a long time before finally accepting it.

The twins cried until Albrecht told them to stop.

Harun pretended not to cry, but Pession noticed his red nose and eyes and realized that Harun had cried too.

“Aren’t you crying, Pession?”

Because the twins cried so much that they even showed signs of dehydration, the attendants and maids watched Pession nervously.

If the twins are like this, then what about our crown prince?

That thought was so obvious that even Pession could see it in their eyes.

“I don’t have any tears.”

Everyone looked at Pession and praised him. They called him mature, composed, an amazing child who knew how to hold back his tears.

Pession felt confused.

He wasn’t not crying because he was holding it in.

The tears just wouldn’t come out.

When Arellin was around, tears had fallen so often, but now, strangely, it felt as if his tear ducts had completely dried up.

And that wasn’t the only strange thing.

As if his emotions themselves had withered away, Pession neither laughed, nor cried, nor got angry, nor felt joy.

He simply did what he had to do and lived because he was alive.

At first, the people around him were full of praise, but their reactions began to change after Pession overtrained and fell seriously ill.

“Why did you train so harshly?!” the horrified instructors asked.

Pession’s answer was unforgettable.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“…….”

He had nightmares.

No—he couldn’t sleep at all to begin with.

Every time he closed his eyes, fragmented moments suddenly came to him.

Pession couldn’t understand the people who said Arellin was dead. There was no body, and no funeral—how could she be dead?

No matter how much everyone said Arellin was dead, he couldn’t believe it until he saw it with his own eyes.

He thought she had simply gone somewhere.

That she had left, leaving him behind.

As the time without Arellin piled up, the emptiness she left behind only became clearer, digging deeper into his hollow heart.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t live his daily life. Pession was still an excellent, flawless crown prince.

He would simply, whenever the emptiness and anxiety swallowed him, go to the Halbern estate and spend sleepless nights in the room that had lost its owner.

Time passed.

Pession didn’t get better.

More time passed.

Pession still didn’t get better.

You’ll be able to forget?

It was just a fleeting first love?

You’ll be fine once you grow up?

You’ll find a new love?

It’ll be different when you’re an adult?

Time flowed past both the pain that tore at his heart and the heavy sorrow, avoiding them all.

Amid the words meant to comfort him, Pession remained trapped in memories of Arellin that grew clearer and brighter with each passing day.

How am I supposed to forget this?

Every moment, he heard the sound of something being eaten away.

The sound of Pession’s solid world—his flawless, perfect world—collapsing.

Pession closed his eyes as pain squeezed his heart.

He still couldn’t breathe.

In Pession’s world, spring no longer came.

And so, fifteen years passed.