The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health – Chapter 267

Author: Asternkm

For a moment, he had forgotten about Arellin’s towering iron wall.

A strong iron wall that even his younger self had barely managed to overcome after countless straight-on attempts.

Back then, no matter what Arellin said, he could push forward even more boldly.

“Uncle isn’t a muscle-headed idiot.”

Now that he knew so many things, that was hard to do. Because he knew better than anyone that Arellin was more delicate than she looked, he didn’t want to hurt her in any way.

“I’m just…….”

I just like you.

No matter how he said it, it would sound strange to a young Arellin, so Pession swallowed the words he wanted to say.

He really wanted to see the real Arellin.

‘Did Arellin also fall back into the past like I did?’

If so, had Arellin met her younger self?

He could only hope that his younger self hadn’t done anything strange after seeing Arellin.

‘There’s no way I wouldn’t fall in love with Arellin at first sight.’

Arellin, who had been hiding behind the bushes while keeping her distance, peeked her head out.

Her big eyes with long fluttering eyelashes, her small dumpling-like hands resting on the tree, her little nose, and even her chubby cheeks—everything about her was unbearably adorable.

‘Cute.’

She was far too cute.

How could a creature like that even be alive?

If he could, Pession wanted to pull the adorable Arellin into a tight hug.

“You’re really cute.”

When Pession finally couldn’t hold back and said it, Arellin’s eyes widened.

“I’ve never heard that before.”

Pession couldn’t believe her words.

How had she never heard it before?

How was that even possible?

When she was this insanely cute?

Thanks to the memory of being treated with suspicion earlier when he asked why she was alone, he didn’t ask again, but Pession observed Arellin, who was a little different from the one he remembered.

“You’re really cute.”

Arellin blinked.

“Me? Really?”

“Yeah. You’re cuter than any child I’ve ever seen.”

“Uncle, did you come to kidnap me?”

Maybe he had praised her too much. Arellin, who had taken a step closer, glared at him and moved away again.

“You’re planning to shower me with compliments to build closeness, then kidnap me and squeeze money out of Mehen?!”

She was truly a child who was hard to get close to.

‘This is ridiculous. She’s not even a kitten.’

“No, I’m just someone who came to tell you that you’re cute.”

“You’re a strange person.”

Still, perhaps because of all the praise, Arellin came closer again with a softer attitude than before.

‘Would it be okay to pat her head just once?’

Would she dash away again if he did?

Just as Pession was conflicted while looking at Arellin’s head—

“Miss~? Are you there?”

With the maid’s voice, Arellin quickly whispered to Pession.

“Uncle, hide.”

The maid, who had already come close, tilted her head.

“Oh? Miss, is something wrong?”

“Mm, no? Nothing happened.”

“Hm.”

Sensing something odd in her unusual attitude, the maid looked around, but Pession had already hidden.

‘Was it Lena?’

The maid with the familiar face he had often seen took Arellin away with a polite and kind manner.

“You’ve been outside for too long. It’s time to study now.”

“Mm.”

Clearly gentle and warm in attitude, yet somehow distant.

Remembering the caretakers who always followed Arellin everywhere, never leaving her side for even a moment and constantly showing excessive affection, Pession felt a sense of unease.

Now that he thought about it, not only the maid’s attitude, but this place itself was slightly different from what he remembered.

‘Did I really just come back to the past?’

Since this was the first time he had experienced such a strange phenomenon, Pession couldn’t be sure what situation he was in.

“Looks like I should check other places too.”

****

‘Is it really possible to change time with magic?’

Magic, which had succeeded in expanding space to the level of celestial bodies and the universe, even tried to conquer time.

To mages who burned with ambition to realize even immortality and resurrection and reach into the realm of gods, handling time felt easier than those two.

‘If it’s time travel, wouldn’t it ultimately follow concepts similar to spatial movement magic and the deployment of magic circles? The key would be a time coordinate to replace a spatial coordinate.’

The problem started from there.

How should the concept of a time coordinate be set? Where should the reference timeline be placed?

Just as spatial movement is possible even to places one has never been to as long as the spatial coordinates are known, if time coordinates could be figured out, time travel magic could be mastered.

To the past, or to the future!

The mages were excited.

On top of that, if one kept going back into the past and entered a ‘loop’ state that satisfied certain conditions, couldn’t that person be called ‘immortal’?

With the added possibility of pseudo-immortality, the mages began mad research and experiments, which led to horrific failures.

No matter what kind of research or experiments they tried, they couldn’t even succeed in sending something back a mere two seconds. No matter how much they fixed the magic circles, nothing ever reappeared.

Countless experiments only produced countless missing persons. And so, no time travel magic existed, and even conducting related research became taboo.

Pession recalled information he had once learned during a time when he wasn’t in his right mind because he missed Arellin so much—so desperate that he wanted to go back to the past just to see her.

Even so, the reason Pession came to think he might be in the past was because that was the only possibility he could imagine that would allow him to see a young Arellin.

‘And this place is inside ruins.’

If it was inside ruins where laws different from reality were applied, maybe it wasn’t impossible for him to have come to the past.

That line of thought was completely shattered on Wednesdays and Fridays, when Arellin went to the Imperial Palace.

This world was exactly the same as Pession’s past in every way, except for one thing.

That one thing was Arellin.

‘She was an Arellin who chose to be a loner.’

The Arellin here mingled with other children. But the other children’s reactions were strange.

“Miss Arellin, do you want to play with us too?”

“But Arellin isn’t very good at playing. She collapsed last time too.”

“Do you really want to play with us that badly?”

High-ranking young ladies, including the Marquis Belfart’s daughter, spoke while subtly looking down on Arellin.

When Arellin nodded cautiously at the question that clearly meant, ‘Do you still want to play with us even while being treated like this?’ they suddenly burst into laughter together.

“Wow, you really wanted to play with us that much!”

“Then let’s let her join.”

“Miss Arellin, do you know how to brew tea? Will you brew some for us?”

“Mm, I’ll try.”

Of course, Arellin didn’t know how to brew tea. There were even palace maids assigned specifically to brew tea in the Crown Prince’s palace, so there was no need for Arellin to do it at all.

“Miss Arellin is amazing, she even knows how to brew tea. We can’t do that.”

“But we know how to drink it! I can only drink fruit tea, though.”

“Fruit juice is tastier anyway. Why does Mother drink stuff like this?”

“Obviously because tea is elegant, right?”

The way they openly treated her like a maid and bullied her made even Pession frown.

‘Why is no one helping Arellin?’

A few palace maids were keeping watch, but most of the children treated Arellin as if she wasn’t there—as if she didn’t exist. The disregard and isolation were enough to make even Pession, who was just watching, shudder with anger.

‘This isn’t like Arellin.’

The Arellin he knew would have splashed water on their faces the moment they asked her to brew tea, saying her hand slipped or something like that.

But the Arellin now—

“I brewed it carefully. Enjoy!”

Even after being treated like this, she smiled and tried her best to stay with the other children.

Pession felt frustrated, wondering what his younger self was doing at a time like this, but the Pession of this era didn’t even know that Arellin was here. That, too, was hard for him to understand.

Ever since the day he found Arellin crouched among the bushes, his life had completely changed.

“Ahhh. Thanks for brewing it.”

Leslie and the other children didn’t drink the tea Arellin had worked so hard to brew and poured it all onto the floor.

It was obvious they had done it on purpose.

“Oh, my hand slipped.”

“You worked so hard brewing it, sorry~.”

“We didn’t do this on purpose.”

They said things like that, deceiving Arellin. Even in that situation, Arellin forced her stiff expression into a smile.

“Everyone! His Highness is having a sword spar! Gather up!”

“Wow! Really? Let’s go watch!”

The children rushed off in a group. Leslie and the others were no exception. Without saying a word about going together, they disappeared, leaving Arellin standing there alone, blankly.

Unable to bear it, a palace maid gently said,

“Miss Arellin, why don’t you go take a look too?”

—but Arellin’s hardened expression showed no sign of softening.

“I’ll go too.”

“Yes, we’ll clean up here. Go and have fun.”

Leaving behind the maids’ thoughtful care, Arellin started walking, but she looked painfully small.

‘Was Arellin like this as a child?’

No. Not at all.

‘It’s different.’

Everything surrounding Arellin was different.

But at this moment, what was hardest for Pession to endure was that Arellin looked used to all of this.

“Arell.”