The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 225

The auction hall of the black market was instantly thrown into chaos as a sudden explosion filled the space with panicked screams.

“Haha. It seems there’s quite a disturbance outside.”

The auctioneer on stage hurriedly babbled anything he could to draw attention back, but—

KWA—AAAANG!

His efforts were utterly drowned out by a massive crash that followed.

“Is it collapsing?!”

“What the hell is going on?!”

“A terrorist attack in the capital?!”

“No way—did the security forces come?!”

Everyone gathered here was someone of note in one way or another, but at the same time, they were also people who valued their own safety above all else.

As hell broke loose with people tangled together, all trying to be the first to escape, the one who noticed the abnormality inside the black market before anyone else was Shirua.

Squeak!

“What? Something’s happening underground?”

Though not publicly known, Shirua possessed one more ability besides being loved by animals.

Squeak squeak!

“Underground—huh? Something serious is going on down there?”

That ability was the power to communicate with animals.

“You think I should go check it out? Huh? No! Wait—hold on!”

The field mouse suddenly vanished. Thanks to that, Shirua—who had been outside before the explosion—was able to avoid the pandemonium in the hall where everyone was scrambling to escape.

“Damn it, what the hell is going on?”

The reason Shirua had come to the black market today was because a field mouse had desperately begged her to rescue its friends.

There was no way Shirua, who loved animals, could refuse the earnest plea of a small, harmless, fairy-like field mouse.

And when she heard that not only animals but even a divine beast were being held captive, she had dragged Pession along with her—yet now the situation was taking a very strange turn.

“Shiru, wake up. Something’s wrong.”

Mrrp?!

Despite an explosion loud enough to shake the ground, this laid-back cat had been sleeping soundly in the carriage all by himself.

“The field mouse went on ahead. We have to follow it—help me, Shiru!”

Yawn.

Shiru, freshly awakened, groomed his front paw and let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, figures. You’ve got no one but me, huh?”

Shaking his head, Shiru gracefully leapt out of the carriage.

At the same time, his body—engulfed in a brilliant light—grew larger and larger, until a gigantic white tiger the size of a house revealed itself.

KROAAANG.

“A monster!”

“Aaaah! A monster appeared!”

The sudden appearance of the white tiger sent the fleeing crowd into utter panic.

“A monster?! To call our Shiru that?!”

Have you ever seen such a handsome monster, huh?!

The white tiger, known as a long-time fixture of the Albrecht Imperial Palace and the imperial family’s longtime companion cat, was in fact a divine beast gifted long ago by the Beastfolk Kingdom—before the Yuyo Union existed—as a token of friendship.

This cat, who had lived as long as Albrecht’s history itself, regarded royalty as less than the dirt on his paws, yet was gentle only with Sirua.

“Shirua!”

At that moment, Pession, who had barely managed to escape the hall, called out to her.

Shirua, now atop the white tiger’s back, waved at Pession.

“I’ll be back~.”

What kind of trouble was she about to cause this time?

Honestly, Pession wanted to ignore whatever mess Shirua got herself into—but as her older brother, he couldn’t.

And beyond that, there was also an inexplicable feeling tugging at him, telling him that he had to go.

Then—

VROOOOM—!

PARA-BARABARABAM!

Out of nowhere, as if it had torn through the ground itself, a car burst forth and smoothly weaved through the crowd.

“…What the hell is that now?”

 

 

****

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the trail of the field mouse quickly vanished. Shiru ran while following the faint traces, then wandered briefly where the trail ended.

But before long, Shiru sensed another presence calling out to him.

Something very familiar.

A presence carrying the scent of his own kind…

“Underground.”

She tried digging into the ground, but something solid blocked the way. Even the divine beast’s sharp claws couldn’t pierce it easily.

In the meantime, the divine beast and Shirua—who had been caught up to by Pession—flinched under his openly demanding what are you doing? stare.

“Shiru says there’s something under here!”

“Under?”

Pession scanned the surroundings. Not far from the commercial district where the black market auctions were secretly held, this place—reeking with a stench that made anyone want to pinch their nose—was the slums.

“There’s a sealed underground waterway beneath this area.”

“You seriously have all that memorized?”

Shirua’s eyes widened.

“Isn’t that just common knowledge?”

Shirua pouted, having suddenly been branded a person without common sense.

“Then you guide us! Take us to the underground waterway!”

Pession looked reluctant, but under the combined pressure of Siru and Sirua, he eventually found the path leading to the underground channel.

The problem was the mysterious attackers that began appearing the closer they got—but even so, none of them were a match for Pession, who had fought life-and-death battles against powerful monsters in the Northern Fortress as if it were routine.

And so they reached the entrance to the underground waterway.

After easily defeating the criminal group blocking the entrance, the sight that greeted them inside was Arellin, holding a young beastfolk child tightly while standing her ground.

The moment Shirua saw the silver-white fur and distinctive markings, she immediately understood the child’s identity.

No wonder Grinia was begging me, saying she absolutely had to be found.

If this was the granddaughter of the Beast King, one of the pillars of the Yuyo Union, that reaction made perfect sense.

Shiru, on the other hand, seemed to have come simply because he was drawn by the presence of the young white tiger.

“Good thing we hurried.”

If they’d arrived even a little later, they might have found a corpse—or no trace at all. Letting out a sigh of relief, Sirua quickly took the young girl from Arellin’s arms.

Arellin looked injured; light cuts and scrapes were scattered all over her body.

Did that bastard do this to her?

Sirua glared at the man who was being utterly overwhelmed by the two divine beasts.

“Ghk—y-you damn beasts…!”

Grrrrrr.

KROANG!

The young white tiger couldn’t land a decisive blow, but Shiru was different. The man’s telekinesis couldn’t penetrate Siru’s thick hide.

Just as Shirua was about to explode in anger, she shivered at a quiet, eerie presence she felt from somewhere.

“……”

And then, the source of that freezing chill reached out and grabbed Arellin’s wrist.

“Who did this?”

Pession felt his blood run cold.

The moment he arrived, the sight that struck him was Arellin’s body, covered in blood.

The emotions that had been surging the instant he recognized that familiar figure froze solid the moment he saw her wounds.

If not for superhuman restraint, he might have blown everything around them apart.

“…?”

Arellin blinked blankly. Perhaps because of her pale cheeks, her long eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings—looking pitifully fragile today.

Pession didn’t understand why he felt this way, or why he was reacting like this.

Where was this overwhelming urge to destroy everything coming from?

“You’re hurt.”

“Oh.”

“You’re hurt, so why do you look so unconcerned?”

“I’m used to seeing blood.”

Instead, Arellin looked genuinely puzzled by Pession’s reaction to her injuries.

Pession frowned.

“You said I was a fake—so why do you care that I’m hurt?”

Right.

Pession couldn’t understand himself either. What was this unpleasant, stinging sensation he was feeling?

Was it simply because someone who looked like Arellin was hurt? Because she resembled her on the outside? Because it felt as though the real Arellin herself had been injured?

Swept up in emotions he felt he almost understood—but didn’t want to—the only thing that sank was his mood.

“Wait.”

Leaving behind that short warning, Pession turned and slashed his blade at the suspicious man Shiru was fighting.

KWAANG—!

Yowl!

Startled, Shiru withdrew from the fight with the young white tiger, and the enraged Pession needed only a few swings of his sword before the enemy collapsed with fatal wounds.

“Wait—don’t kill him!”

They needed to capture him and find out who was behind this! What the hell was this lunatic doing?!

Shirua stomped her feet in shock—

Sssss—

—and only Arellin noticed the strange phenomenon unfolding around them.

“Huh?”