The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 199

The first time I opened my eyes in the Archmage’s domain was three years after I collapsed.

“What… is this? The afterlife?”

“…….”

“Please… I don’t want to reincarnate anymore…….”

I muttered that with a rusty voice I hadn’t used in a long time, then was swallowed by drowsiness and fell asleep again.

My master said later that I talked so much nonsense back then that he thought I was still unconscious.

The next time I truly opened my eyes was five years later, when I was around twelve.

“…What is this?”

Only then could I clearly understand my condition.

I was submerged in a milky-white liquid, inside a strange capsule where countless magic circles spun endlessly in the air.

Where am I, and who am I?

As I wandered in search of my lost sense of self, my master appeared.

To me—who had thought I was unquestionably dead—he explained everything that had happened.

The reason I suddenly collapsed was that my already-strong special ability had grown even stronger for unknown reasons, completely shattering the fragile balance that had barely been holding my power in check. So he brought me here and had been treating me.

Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered seeing some kind of “update” notification right before I collapsed.

Anyway, after listening to his long explanation, my reaction was roughly this.

“Did you get consent from my guardian?”

“That was the most important part. Yes, I did.”

“Hmm. Then you pass.”

I was worried about Pession, who had seen me collapse, but for now, surviving had to come first.

“The treatment isn’t finished yet.”

I was in a state where my body—unable to withstand my ability—was on the verge of shattering.

It wasn’t enough to just regenerate my body; its very grade had to be raised.

“Is that even possible?”

“…Countless humans desire eternal life, and the essence of magic is to imitate immortality.”

“So basically, because people have long been interested in immortality, it’s something you’ve researched for a long time, and that’s why it’s possible?”

“…You’re good at summarizing.”

“Isn’t it just that you explain things in an overly complicated way, Mage?”

After that, my master launched into another long explanation. I listened with one ear and let it flow out the other.

The treatment itself was simple. Infuse elixir, completely regenerate my shattered organs, then strengthen them.

Simple—no, downright crude.

Isn’t this that saying?

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

The problem was that the pain during treatment was unbelievable.

What kind of treatment makes you endure everything fully conscious, without anesthesia or even sleep?!

I tried a “sample run” bravely once, tasted hell, and immediately became a skeptic.

Calling this treatment? The world really is ending.

Sometimes I even had the very reasonable suspicion that my master was lying to me.

“Am I really getting better?”

“Yes. At least you’re better than you were three months ago.”

He said I was improving, so I believed him—but I still doubted it constantly.

“Can I seriously ask you just one thing?”

“Ask anything.”

“Are there other people besides me who got this treatment?!”

“…Yes.”

The brief hesitation bothered me, so I pressed harder.

“Is that person alive?!”

“…Yes.”

His subtle expression worried me, but still—if they were alive, that meant the treatment worked as long as I endured the pain.

Of course, the pain was bad enough to make you wonder if it was really worth living through this…….

It was intimidating, but my resolve didn’t break.

I have to live. I decided to live. If there’s a way, I can’t give up.

Still, sometimes it hurt so much—and I resented my master so badly—that I pretended to be unconscious and hit him.

Well, it felt like he just let me do it.

“I searched everywhere for elixir, and to find it here…….”

“All elixir recipes spread in the mortal world are fake.”

“I know that already.”

I also learned truths about elixirs that I really didn’t want to know. Like the fact that the philosopher’s stone, the main ingredient, is made from… an immortal’s blood.

“This is knowledge I can’t handle.”

As a bonus, I learned another truth I didn’t want to know—that the Archmage himself was also an immortal.

“Then when mages reach greatness and become Archmages…….”

“It means they become immortals.”

“…….”

Does that make sense? Is that even possible?

I asked if high-ranking mages knew this, but my master dismissed it, saying that if they were told, they’d never become Archmages in the first place.

Time passed mercilessly.

Every day was pain, endurance, collapse, waking up to check if I’d improved, then pain again.

The hardest part was removing the blessing that had taken root in my body after feeding for too long on the blood of Sloth, which forced me into deep sleep.

“Even the favor of immortals inevitably brings misfortune to mortals. It’s best not to get involved with them at all.”

So mortals who get involved with immortals become unhappy, was it?

“But you’re an immortal too, Mage.”

“Yes. For you, that rule already doesn’t apply.”

That was around the time I started learning magic.

“Your power is far too great. It might be better to vent some of it. Using your ability directly is dangerous—would you like to learn magic?”

I had nothing else to do, so I said yes. That was also when I started calling the Archmage “Master” instead of “Mage.”

“It’s kind of funny to ask this now, but Master. I’m curious.”

“What is it?”

“Why did you treat me?”

“Pity.”

The answer came instantly.

“Or compassion, atonement, substitution… perhaps hypocrisy.”

Those golden eyes—always too deep to measure—looked at me gently.

“And because there must be a reason you appeared before me.”

I blinked slowly.

My master always had a habit of speaking in difficult ways.

There was a reason a mage always accompanied him like an interpreter whenever he went outside.

When I stared at him with a blank expression, he did try to explain more simply……

“You don’t need to think deeply about it. I had a way to save you. You appeared before me. And I made a decision. That’s all.”

I still don’t really get it.

“So basically… I was lucky?”

“You could interpret it that way.”

Looking up at my master as he smiled faintly, I burst out laughing.

“Well, sure. Either way, thank you, Master. No matter the reason, you’re the one who saved me, right?”

After surviving a war-like treatment process alone with him in this domain, by the time I could walk again and finally escape this place, I had already grown deeply attached.

To someone nearly expressionless, quiet, hard to read, emotionally restrained, older than me, and of a different race—who knew I’d grow this close?

“…Always be careful.”

It seemed the attachment wasn’t only on my side.

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Ah, really… so much has happened. I’ve had such a hard time.”

The moment I saw Mehen—unchanged in the slightest despite it being so long—something surged up from deep in my chest. My eyes stung, turning slightly red.

I lunged straight into Mehen’s arms, which I’d missed for so long, indulging myself in the woody scent as much as I liked. Then, suddenly, Mehen pulled me back and examined me with a dazed expression.

“Arel?”

“Yeah.”

“…Is it really you, Arel?”

A full fifteen years.

The cute seven-year-old me had turned into a twenty-two-year-old woman over that brutal stretch of time, yet somehow Mehen hadn’t aged at all.

That made it even stranger—he looked exactly the same as in my memories.

Well… maybe his overall air had changed a little.

“How are you here… no, are you all right?”

“My master said I could finally leave, so I did. I’m much better now. Not completely healed, though.”

From the start, the root of my illness had been my overly powerful ability. I’d been told that a full recovery would only be possible if the ability were erased, sealed, or if I learned to control it properly.

“Have you been well, Mehen? You’ve been eating properly, right? You look a bit worn out. Oh! What about Dad? The caretaking unit? Hmm, I wonder if they all found new jobs. The twins and Harun are doing well too, right? And Pession also—”

Mehen’s expression darkened sharply. What…?

“His Highness is… doing well. Probably.”

“…?”

As I tilted my head at the sudden heaviness in the air, Mehen took my hand and smiled.

“I’ve been waiting. …My lady.”

At the title I’d only ever occasionally heard from my father, my eyes widened without me realizing it. Mehen, his face flushed red as if it might burst, cleared his throat awkwardly.

“A-anyway, welcome ho—”

“I’m back, Mom!”

Yeah.

It really was a good thing I survived.