The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 245

“Grand Duke Halvern?”

“Oh! The one who’s insanely handsome?!”

“I’ve never seen him.”

“But is he really that handsome? Someone once got their hands on a newspaper with the duke in it. Apparently, it resells for a crazy price!”

I went around the city seriously asking people, but while many knew of Grand Duke Halvern, there were countless who said they’d never actually seen him.

Newspapers reselling for high prices…

Is he some kind of limited-edition merch?

If I ever wanted to start a business, maybe I could just sell pictures of Dad’s face.

Since people didn’t recognize my father’s face, I had no choice but to change the question to “a man who looks like me.” Every single person tilted their head in confusion.

“If a man who looks like you really exists, I’d love to see him in person!”

There were even reactions like that.

“Is there really a man who looks like you, miss? You’re so pretty he wouldn’t even look fit to be a man.”

“He’s my dad.”

“…Well, if he’s handsome, that’s good too. Easy on the eyes. These days, good-looking men work better anyway!”

I went through government offices, noble estates’ servants, taverns, inns—and even asked adventurers I ran into on the street—but got nothing useful.

Instead, I just felt more and more unsettled by the city’s perfectly ordinary appearance.

“Didn’t they say the population was 1.5 million? Why does it feel like there’s hardly anyone around? Are they all at home?”

“Right? There were lots of people in the adventurer district, but the other districts are strangely empty.”

Luka, the mage assigned to investigate mana flow, shook his head.

“If magic had worked, we wouldn’t be going through all this trouble…”

Naturally, I’d tried to find Dad using detection magic. Strangely, the spell cast just fine, but after that, it refused to activate and simply dissipated—as if something were blocking it.

“Could it be because the barrier is active?”

“That might be it.”

“But the artifact Luka’s holding works perfectly fine.”

“Hm… maybe because it’s just for investigation? Still, the mana density throughout the city is extremely high. At this level, ordinary people shouldn’t even be able to breathe comfortably.”

“But everyone looked perfectly fine walking around.”

“Yeah… that’s true…”

Come to think of it, that wasn’t the only strange thing.

“Luka, did you notice the numbers written on people’s wrists?”

“Huh? Were there numbers like that?”

“Some people don’t have them. But at the very least, I saw the number 1. What is that? A tattoo? Some local trend I don’t know about?”

I groaned at the inexplicable sense of wrongness.

That feeling that I was missing something important.

“Didn’t you notice anything weird, Luka?”

“I’ve felt heavy for a while now. Are you okay, Lady Arellin?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Lucky you, talent monster.”

“…?”

As evening approached, people’s behavior changed, and the sense of unease grew stronger.

Not only had the commercial district closed early, but even the inns in the adventurer district were shutting their doors one after another.

“Why are they closing so early?”

Before I knew it, twilight fell and full night arrived. Streets that should have been bustling with nighttime business fell completely silent, leaving only us standing there in confusion.

Then, suddenly, a sinister premonition crawled straight up my spine.

“L-Lady Arellin…”

That familiar, weakest-in-the-world sensor—also known as survival instinct—was screaming at me to leave now.

The moment I grabbed Luka’s arm to head back to the Mage Tower—

“Ghk.”

Out of the settled darkness, I locked eyes with a face burning with blue ghostly energy—eyes without pupils.

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Huff—huff—I can’t—huff—go on anymore.”

Luka, who’d been clinging to me as we ran, collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

“How do you have less stamina than me?!”

Of all times, the adventurer district and the Southern Mage Tower couldn’t be crossed directly because of the city’s inner walls, so the distance was long enough to drive me insane.

And seriously—what was that thing?

“What is that?”

“I—I’ve never—huff—seen—huff—one of th—those…”

“Me neither.”

Some monstrous entity wreathed entirely in blue ghostly energy.

Is that even a living creature?

It wasn’t just one either—several appeared at once, which made it even more terrifying. At least their numbers seemed to thin as we got closer to the Mage Tower area, which was the only reason we were barely holding on.

A reaper?

If I had to compare it to something, it was probably closest to a reaper.

It had no legs, its body made of smoke, gliding along the ground in an eerie way.

“Aaaah—!”

Looks like someone else had been hiding nearby.

[ H A R V E S T B E G I N S ]

“P-please, save me! P-please—!”

The moment the creature grabbed the man, blue ghostly flames surged up, wrapping him tightly.

My thoughts spun at full speed. The fire magic I’d used right after encountering them hadn’t worked, and neither had the magic traps I’d set while running.

Light-attribute magic?

Is this when I need our brightest star’s flashbang?

If I were alone, I could try something.

The problem was Luka.

Even after resting briefly, he was still gasping for air, barely conscious.

“Can you run?”

At a glance, it was obvious we couldn’t afford to get caught.

When I looked at him worriedly, Luca nodded his head vigorously.

Just in case, I cast a stealth spell and we began to move carefully.

“Huff, huff… Arellin, are you—huff—o-okay?”

“Yeah. I’m healthy now.”

“…….”

Why are you looking at me like that?

Those eyes—like I’d betrayed him—made me snort.

Have you ever lived in a garbage body that collapsed just from running, that got dizzy just from walking? If anyone lived like that and then recovered, they’d be so amazed they’d walk everywhere and try running at least once a day.

Honestly, I still felt a sense of disbelief.

I’d run this much and I hadn’t collapsed.

Long live healing magic. Long live Master!

Humanity’s future lies in magic.

“Just hang in there a bit longer. Once we get into the Mage Tower, we’ll be fine.”

“Huff, huff… y-yes….”

That was when it happened.

[ F O U N D Y O U ]

Startled by the voice behind us, I reflexively cast a light spell—but the reaper only flinched slightly.

“Run!”

We had no choice but to escape as fast as possible, but neither of us could avoid the hands reaching for us.

“Luca!”

“Aaagh!”

Luca was grabbed. The moment he was caught, it was like he couldn’t resist at all—his whole body trembling violently. For just a second, I hesitated, torn between running away or casting another spell.

That hesitation was my mistake.

Another reaper had already appeared, reaching out to grab me.

Is this it? Am I going to die here?

As I stared at the massive hand reaching toward me—

Clang!

A sharp metallic sound rang out. A blade flew in from behind me, colliding with the reaper’s hand and sending up a small shower of sparks.

At the same time, I felt my body jolt. For a moment, I couldn’t gather my thoughts.

When I finally looked up, I froze again.

“…Harun?”

Why is Harun here?

Harun seemed to be thinking the same thing. He frowned and asked me,

“Why are you here, Arellin?”

 

 

****

 

 

“The Mage Tower’s too far. It’s better to spend the night here.”

That’s how Harun and I ended up staying the night in an abandoned house.

“If we’re inside a building, those things can’t come in?”

“Seems like they can’t, as long as the door isn’t open.”

Harun explained that he was part of the knight order that had entered ahead of us. He’d come with Johan to investigate what was happening in the city.

On their very first night of investigation, many knights had lost their lives to those unidentified reaper monsters.

“Right now, about half the knights—including my brother—are investigating inside the ruins. I’m out here at night with a few others, looking into this phenomenon.”

And that’s how I caught his eye.

It was practically a stroke of luck.

“Thank you for saving us.”

“It’s just what I should do.”

Watching Harun answer awkwardly, I had a thought that didn’t quite fit the situation.

Maybe because he was always so quiet—but this was the first time I’d ever heard Harun talk this much. He felt like a different person.

“Did you come here to investigate too, Arellin?”

“No. I came to find my dad.”

Luka —being dragged away—kept flashing before my eyes.

“Luka is….”

Harun shook his head.

My chest tightened at the thought that if I’d reacted faster, I might have been able to save him.

“This place is dangerous. You should leave immediately.”

“I want to, but the barrier’s blocking the way out.”

Harun frowned seriously, clearly unaware of that.

“More importantly… how did the city end up like this?”

“When the ruins erupted, the entire city seems to have become identical to the ruins themselves. The rules of the ruins are being applied here too.”

“The rules of the ruins?”

Harun tried to explain, then gave up.

“You’ll understand once morning comes.”

His words were ominous enough that I didn’t ask further.

The deep night passed, and as the sun began to rise, the reapers that had filled the night with terror vanished as if they’d never existed.

And then—

“Arellin, I found you.”

Luka—whom I’d thought dead—returned.