The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health – Chapter 288

Author: Asternkm

The party held at Halbern was a buffet party held late in the evening. There was a certain reason behind this.

‘A garden party is a no. I have to work during the day.’

An unfortunate worker who had met the wrong boss wanted to avoid any more overtime at all costs.

‘A formal banquet is a no as well.’

At banquets, it was proper etiquette for the host to decide the guests’ seats in advance and place name cards beforehand.

In high society, seating arrangements were extremely important, and since Mehen had stayed far away from social circles for the past fifteen years, a small mistake could easily cause trouble.

Because of all these ‘certain reasons,’ the party ended up taking this form.

‘Quite a lot have come.’

Even though the main party hadn’t started yet, many guests had already arrived at Halbern early.

Mehen knew they had come ahead of time just to look around this estate, which was not easy to visit.

‘How annoying.’

Even so, he didn’t feel particularly pleased about it.

“Lord Mehen! It’s been so long since I last saw you, hahaha.”

“It has been a while, Count Guinness.”

“Haha. Thank you for inviting me. Thanks to you, I finally get to see the Halbern estate that everyone only talked about in rumors.”

With no other choice, Mehen stepped in to greet the guests. The father and daughter who were supposed to welcome them were still busy preparing for the party.

‘If I knew it’d be like this, should I have told those two earlier?’

He was only filling in briefly until the real stars of the party appeared, but surprisingly, the guests took it for granted that Mehen was the one greeting them.

“Lord Mehen. Perhaps we could exchange opinions on promising future business ventures…”

“What does Halbern think about intercontinental transportation projects…”

People spoke to him as if Mehen were the host of the party.

Did they know?

That while he smiled and responded politely, this was all he was thinking about inside.

‘I’ll be billing every bit of this overtime, including emotional labor.’

Mehen kept smiling as he calculated today’s labor costs in his head.

****

There’s an old saying that famous banquets have nothing to eat.

But!

‘Today is different.’

Instead, people were troubled because there was too much food.

“Look over there, it’s Her Majesty the Empress.”

“His Highness the Crown Prince is here too.”

“The ruler of Sirua, and even Prince Therion!”

“Gasp! Isn’t that every member of the imperial family except His Majesty the Emperor?”

As imperial family members—rarely seen even one at other houses’ parties—kept appearing one after another, everyone who had come out of curiosity thought the same thing.

‘So this is Halbern.’

But the surprises didn’t end there.

“Aren’t those the young lords of Mubisk?”

“Gasp, Lord Harun!”

“And Johan Niem!”

Seeing Johan and Harun, the Mubisk brothers who were said to be recuperating after their last mission, the young ladies felt it was worth attending this party.

But that still wasn’t all.

“Those two people…”

“Aren’t they the twin young lords of Sperom?”

When Duke Simon Sperom and his twins—figures no citizen of the Empire could fail to recognize—appeared, the hall buzzed.

“Duke Idikels is here too.”

Duke Idikels, who entered alongside Duke Sperom, already looked to be in a very good mood.

On top of that, the much-talked-about Gremwatt brothers, who had recently drawn all the attention of Agrigent’s social scene, made their appearance as well.

Even this alone was more than enough to make headlines, but…

“What’s going on over there?”

Even at a party like this, a group of proud mages who stubbornly wore their mage robes had gathered in one place.

Whenever people, curious, tried to step closer—

“Gasp!”

They instinctively backed away upon seeing a man standing alone, leaning against the wall in the emptiest area of the hall.

That was because Ludwig, once the Regent Duke of the Southern Empire, was guarding the spot with an overwhelming presence.

“What kind of party is this…?”

Faced with such a lineup of unique and important guests, people fell into confusion.

And finally.

“So this is Halbern.”

The reaction Mehen had been hoping for when he decided to hold this party began popping up everywhere.

“Even if it stays quiet for over a decade, Halbern is still Halbern.”

“Just look at the magic applied to this hall. Who uses this much magic for a single party?”

“All the gems used in the decorations are real. I went close and appraised them earlier—selling just one of those could easily build a castle.”

In truth, Mehen had only done this because it was difficult to gather enough flowers to decorate such a massive hall in a short time, but to the guests, it meant something entirely different.

They saw it as confidence—that even decorating with jewels, there would be no concern about theft.

‘Is this Halbern?’

But what truly stole the spotlight wasn’t the extraordinary guests or the overwhelmingly lavish hall—it was the father and daughter of Halbern themselves.

Dressed in a tailcoat and a gown embroidered with delicate gold thread, the two captured everyone’s gaze. Because the Grand Duke looked so young, they appeared more like siblings than father and daughter.

“Thank you all for attending this party.”

Valer Sirun Halbern. Though most people knew him simply as the Grand Duke of Halbern, and though he had never really hosted a proper party before, he was remarkably skilled at entertaining guests.

“Today’s gathering is…”

A playful smile curved on Valer’s lips.

“A celebration of my one and only daughter growing up safely.”

“?!”

Caught off guard by the unscripted remark, Arelin looked flustered. The people around assumed she was just embarrassed.

Valer smiled, took Arelin’s hand, and kissed the back of it.

“Thank you for growing up safely, my daughter.”

“…You’re too kind.”

The affection in his eyes as he looked at his daughter was so overflowing that everyone—whether they knew the Grand Duke of Halbern or not—was astonished.

“We have prepared this with all our hearts for those gathered here today, so please enjoy yourselves.”

With the host’s greeting finished, the music that had briefly stopped began again.

As the party atmosphere, which had settled for a moment, quickly rose once more, the noisiest area was where the young ladies were gathered.

“I… I think I’ve fallen in love.”

There was no need to ask with whom. All of the young ladies’ gazes were fixed on the same place.

****

“Dad.”

“My daughter, why do you look like that? You should smile. This party is for you.”

“Do you want to die?”

When I clenched my fist and showed it to him, Dad burst out laughing.

Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this childish father?

Seeing him smile like I was cute no matter how hard I glared just made my anger boil even more.

“Mehen, scold Dad for me!”

I looked straight at Mehen, but—

“Hmm. It wasn’t part of the plan, but it wasn’t bad. I see. Arel, I’m grateful as well that you grew up safely.”

“…….”

Instead, Mehen started rambling nonsense about how he hadn’t paid attention to that part and how he wanted to congratulate me too.

“Damn it. Of course—aren’t you two a couple? You’re totally on the same side.”

“……?”

“Pfft.”

Mehen looked at me like I was unbelievable, and Dad burst out laughing again.

“Arel, just now… what did you say…?”

Mehen looked shocked. Dad looked smug.

“Dear.”

“Shut up.”

“I don’t care, you two play by yourselves!”

I was about to leave these two—who clearly didn’t understand a delicate daughter’s feelings—and just get on with what I had to do, but—

“Young lady. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

That wasn’t easy either, because people kept blocking my way.

Men I had clearly never met before smiled at me.

“Why are you in such a hurry? Ah, my introduction is late. I am—”

“As for me, Lady—”

I don’t care who you are!

My completely drained social skills were screaming at me to shove these guys away, but the bit of conscience I still had told me to at least listen to what these young gentlemen were saying.

“You are truly beautiful.”

Yeah, I know I’m pretty.

“Eyes that sparkle like stars in the night sky—”

My eyes are pink, though. What are you talking about?

“Shining as if blessed by the stars—”

Do these guys know that I was actually blessed by the stars of the night sky?

Ah, whatever. I’ve listened long enough.

“Is that all you wanted to say?”

“…Pardon?”

“Then enjoy the party.”

What kind of dumb expression those young men made as I walked off didn’t matter to me at all.

I was very busy right now.