The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 190

An unknown forbidden zone.

An ownerless hidden world.

Valer barely finished the unending battle, stabbed his sword into the ground, leaned on it, and caught his ragged breath.

“…Have I really gotten this rusty?”

No—only now, having regained the memories of his past loops, did he realize that back then he’d had no reason to conserve his body or rest. He had simply charged forward recklessly, and that was why he’d been able to break through.

This vast hidden world, constantly tangled and rearranging itself into new locations and unfamiliar environments, was clearly rejecting and antagonizing intruders.

A place he would never have come near if he’d been in his right mind.

“Hah.”

Valer pulled out his sword, searching for a path again, and let out a bitter chuckle.

“I’m doing this because I’m not sane.”

Valer of the timeline where he had lost both Arellin and Mehen was, by his own reckoning, a strange monster.

With his own hands he had destroyed Halbern, wandering around hoping someone would kill him. Yet he couldn’t die, thanks to an unnamed power he’d gained from the lord’s experiments in his childhood, and an ability said to be the strongest among all successive heads of the family.

And on top of that, new abilities had piled up one by one through repeated regressions.

Memories surged back.

Just like this hidden world—long, complex, twisted together into a single mass—Valer’s memories of hundreds, thousands of regressions all came rushing back at once, tangled together.

When he’d thought it was a dream, it had been so clear. But now that he knew the truth, there was too much information mixed together to even sort through.

And yet.

“Do you want to die?”

A memory still vividly clear.

“You’re the first human I’ve seen come all the way here wanting to die. How are you even alive?”

“Oh? This is… rather interesting.”

The one and only anomalous being he’d met after wandering endlessly, realizing he couldn’t die even in the hidden world, and lying there defenseless.

“Me? Does it matter who I am?”

The being smiled kindly—but it wasn’t a human smile.

No… was it even a man?

Its gender was unclear, its appearance vague, yet its presence was unforgettable.

“How fascinating. Survival is the most basic instinct of all living beings, yet you want to die.”

“Hm, perhaps you want it even more because you can’t die easily. Yes, that feeling I might be able to understand.”

“But in your case, it doesn’t seem like you truly want to die.”

“There’s something better than death, isn’t there?”

“I’ll give you a chance.”

Because he was the one who had caused Valer to regress.

“A chance… again?”

A god? No—the gods of this world were all dead. Then an immortal?

A man whose stature was beyond comprehension extended his hand to Valer.

“Yes. I’ll give you a chance to turn back time. To return to the moment you regret the most.”

“The moment I regret… the most?”

“When you obtain what you want, the regressions will end. Sounds good, doesn’t it?”

“What do I want?”

“That’s something I should be asking. What is it that you want?”

What did I answer back then?

Arellin’s survival?

When he answered, the other laughed.

“You can only obtain one thing you want. Even after turning back time, there are many cases where nothing changes at all. And if you manage to change everything… that would be luck. It means you were chosen.”

Valer didn’t understand his words.

“You mean even if I turn back time, I might not be able to change anything?”

“A single result doesn’t come from a single cause. Countless causes influence each other to determine it. Well, that’s probably not something that feels real to you yet.”

He made his proposal.

“The choice is yours.”

There was never an option to refuse. He had wanted to die in the first place—if he could gain a chance, any chance at all.

Still, one question remained.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Goodwill.”

“What do you gain from this?”

“Hope?”

There was no need to ask what that meant. The other explained kindly.

“I’m planting a hope—that you might become a new singularity in a world that always moves toward the same ending.”

“I like happy endings.”

The words were incomprehensible, yet at the same time didn’t need to be understood.

If the other was a demon, would Valer have refused this chance?

Of course not.

If he could just turn back time, if he could just have another chance, if he could save Arellin—Valer would gladly endure anything.

“Then what price do I have to pay?”

“Well……”

What did that man say back then?

“Someday in the future, just once, move for my sake.”

Thus, the contract was formed.

Even as reality blurred and time reversed, Valer remembered the words spoken as if the man knew the future.

“If you fail, come here anytime. I’ll be here.”

Countless moments of failure surrounded Valer. The immense malice of the hidden world, trying to break his mind, shatter his sanity, and turn him into a living corpse, pressed against his skin.

An ordinary human would have broken.

They would have despaired.

It wasn’t because Valer was strong or exceptional that he endured. It was because he had been broken so many times, despaired so many times, that he could refuse to kneel before such false illusions.

“I’ve already regretted things more times than I can count.”

Valer reminded himself of why he’d come here.

‘It’s here.’

A relic that sealed any powerful ability.

An artifact the contractor had tossed here as if offering alms, as though to say Valer could give up on regression whenever he wanted.

‘I have to find it… before it’s too late.’

Now that he remembered regressing, and knew that Arellin’s “rare disease” wasn’t a disease at all—

As far as Valer knew, there was only one way to save Arellin.

‘Seal Arellin’s ability.’

If the problem was that an overwhelming power was breaking the vessel, then seal the power.

“Wait for me, my lady.”

Please—let me not be too late.

 

 

 

****

 

 

Time flew by.

Autumn passed, winter came, and spring returned once more.

While snow piled up in the garden of the Halbern estate and then melted under the sunlight, many changes took place in Albrecht as well.

All the buildings of El Sionel were completed, and people began moving in. The long-rumored automobile finally made its official debut and completely shook the social world.

A logistics revolution began with the use of trucks, and as prices of previously expensive goods dropped significantly, the capital was swept up in a wave of heavy consumption for a while.

Then, in the following spring, the Symphony Hall of the Grand Theater of Arts reopened after finishing repairs and remodeling, and a premiere was held featuring works by lesser-known composers.

As the performance received glowing praise from music lovers, Spherom’s reputation rose even higher.

“Such… fresh music!”

「A performance that opened a brand-new horizon never seen before!」

While people marveled at the fresh shock, only the mages and the people of Halbern reacted coolly.

“It’s good, but… something’s missing.”

“Yeah. It’s good, but still.”

“That’s strange. Even with more instruments, it feels a bit empty.”

“Miss’s music had real emotion in it……”

Naturally, their thoughts turned to the small master of Halbern, who could move hearts with just a violin.

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

As much as time had passed, many changes also came to the Halbern estate.

When Mehen returned with Arellin, who had fallen asleep at the tail end of autumn, the first thing she did was turn Arellin’s room into a hospital room.

As Arellin’s unexplained excessive sleeping continued, the Sky Tower tried various treatments, but none had much effect.

Arellin woke up only once during the winter.

“…Home.”

“We couldn’t stay in Sagret forever.”

“The sea… there… was nice… to look at……”

Was the sea really that good?

Wanting to do at least something for her, Mehen requested the Mage Tower that very day to cast an illusion spell on Arellin’s window.

So that whenever the window was opened, the late-summer sea view from Sagret would appear.

“I’m… okay, Mom.”

Even as blood stained her lips whenever she coughed dryly, Arellin kept smiling.

Mehen knew she shouldn’t frown, but she couldn’t bring herself to smile in front of Arellin like that.

“Dad… still… not back…?”

“Exactly. That idiot. I wonder where he is and what he’s doing.”

Back when they were at the Northern Castle, she could at least use communication devices whenever worry ate at her, but now that he had vanished entirely, Mehen’s frustration only grew.

Fearing that outside visitors might have a negative effect on Arellin, the already-closed Halbern estate shut its doors completely.

Because of that, there was even a ridiculous incident where the Regent, who had been in the Southern Empire, couldn’t return to the estate—but Mehen showed him no mercy either.

“Winter… already?”

“Yes. It’s snowing.”

Though it was the year-end season when everyone should have been cheerful and excited, the Halbern estate lay submerged in deep silence.

Gifts praying for Arellin’s recovery were stacked neatly on both sides of her bed, but Arellin couldn’t even open them and soon fell back asleep.

The medical team, who had done everything they could to maintain her condition and restore her health, finally delivered the verdict.

“I believe it’s time to prepare yourselves……”

“Ah.”

The moment that Mehen and the caregiving group had thought might someday come—but desperately hoped would never arrive—had finally come.