The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 249

The reapers slowly began closing in on me and Luka.

Still, we can’t just die like this, right?

I raised an earthen wall to block the path the reapers were coming from, then cast a movement speed–boosting spell on Luka and myself.

Luka kept trying to head toward the reapers, but I forcibly held him back.

“I’m doing this to keep you alive, so stay still!”

“Ugh.”

Luka resisted, but when I lost my temper and smacked his head hard, he finally calmed down.

‘As soon as night falls, the city really turns into a ghost town.’

That also helped me figure out why my magic hadn’t worked properly earlier.

“Damn it, the Mage Tower was absorbing even my magic.”

On the way back to the Mage Tower, another reaper showed up, so we ended up running in the opposite direction instead. Because of that, my magic worked more smoothly than before.

‘Still harder than usual, though.’

How should I put it—compared to yesterday, it felt like the overall mana density in the city had gone up.

“We need to get inside a building.”

Judging by Luka’s behavior, going inside didn’t seem to solve everything, but it looked better than staying outside.

As I moved while dragging along Luka, who wore a blank expression, we ran into reapers from time to time.

Each time, I threw out every spell I could use, but—

“This is mage discrimination!”

Why doesn’t magic work on them?!

“Do you guys have some kind of grudge against mages or what?!”

I shouted in frustration, but of course, the monsters had no intention of answering.

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

Come to think of it, those words only sounded like actual speech to me. To other people, it probably just sounded like creepy breathing.

My language patch was faithfully translating even in moments like this.

‘What are you, exactly?’

I was calling them “reapers” for now, but they were clearly different from any monsters I’d encountered before.

For starters, I didn’t even know if they were living beings. I had no idea how they disappeared during the day and only appeared at night, what they did after capturing people, or how they were connected to the numbers on people’s wrists.

‘I want to catch one and dissect it.’

But since magic didn’t work, that was a no-go.

That just made me feel even more annoyed.

‘Why on earth is Dad in a place like this?!’

On top of that, there hadn’t been a single clue about my dad so far.

I knew rescuing him wouldn’t be easy, but I never imagined it would turn into a citywide chase.

“Ugh….”

Luka clutched his head and groaned in pain.

“The sound… I have to go……!”

“Go where? Don’t you know we’re running away right now?!”

“Ugh… ngh… guh…….”

Even while running with me holding onto him, Luka shook his head, clearly in agony.

‘It’s a mental wave.’

[ …T…H…I…S…W…A…Y ]

Faint voices could be heard within the mental waves sweeping through the city. That was probably the voice Luka was hearing.

“Wow, I can hear it too.”

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

This mental wave wasn’t something only Luka and I could hear.

I was fine because I had a mental barrier, but Luka—and everyone else—wasn’t.

“He is calling….”

“…I have to go.”

People who, just yesterday, had their doors shut so tightly you wouldn’t see even an ant outside, were now opening them one by one and walking straight toward the reapers.

‘What is that?’

When the reapers grabbed the heads of people who kept repeating that they had to go, a green light appeared—then vanished.

Like farmers harvesting crops, the reapers gathered those green lights one by one, then lifted the limp bodies of the people, dangling like marionettes with their strings cut, and headed somewhere.

‘Toward the ruins.’

Just as I thought, it seemed like all my questions would be answered if I went to the ruins.

‘Including where my dad is.’

Even if it was a city of 1.5 million people, with chaos like this, my dad should’ve shown up by now. The fact that no one had seen him greatly increased the chance that he was inside the ruins.

“Can’t you guys go that way instead?!”

Shing—

But now wasn’t the time to be thinking about the ruins.

I could say this for sure: I was the person being chased by the most monsters in the entire city.

“No, seriously, why does it feel like they’re all coming after me?!”

It was like all the aggro had focused on me. Every monster that had room to spare was rushing my way, and at this rate, I’d get caught soon.

‘I need to tie Luka down somewhere, at least.’

Since so many people had gone outside, there were plenty of empty houses.

Luka got lucky.

There was an empty house, and on top of that, one of the people inside could use mental defense magic!

I tossed Luka inside at lightning speed, locked the door tight, confirmed that a group of monsters was closing in, and ran.

Slash!

In the process, my arm got cut by a long scythe.

“Ah.”

A sharp, stinging pain rushed in. Anyone else would’ve stopped from the pain, but not me. Compared to when my master used to heal me, this was nothing.

“I don’t see any building that can hold out with the doors locked against this many. What do I do…?”

About thirty of them? I glanced back at the swarm of monsters crawling after me and frowned.

“Seriously, what am I supposed to do in this situation?”

Just in case, I tried every type of magic I had, but all I learned—something I really didn’t want to know—was that their magic resistance was insanely high.

“How is a mage supposed to live like this?!”

This was the first time since learning magic that I’d ever felt truly stuck.

And on top of that—

“Ugh.”

Every time the reapers got closer, I got sliced again, adding more wounds. And it didn’t seem like those scythes only dealt physical damage—my mana kept draining too. They were stealing my mana.

“What kind of ridiculous monsters are these?”

Now I understood why black adventurers were treated almost like sword masters. If monsters like this were crawling all over the ruins, it made sense.

‘Ah, I’m reaching my limit.’

Both my stamina and mana were almost empty. With blood flowing from the growing number of wounds, I even felt a bit lightheaded.

I couldn’t last until morning.

My clear mind quickly reached a conclusion.

Yesterday Luka died, and today it’s my turn, huh. Still, if you die, you revive in the morning.

“You guys should feel lucky. If magic worked, I wouldn’t have let this slide, okay?”

No matter how high their magic defense was, my master’s magic would probably crush them. And thinking about how they got crushed by Harun’s sword… Pession would probably crush them too.

‘I miss Pession.’

Even knowing I’d revive in the morning, the pressure of dying didn’t go away.

Was it because I was born with a time-limited life and had struggled so hard not to die?

Part of me thought that dying once to understand what was really going on might not be a bad idea—but another part of me still hated the idea of dying.

‘I came all this way to find my dad, and this is what happens?’

Caught up in something so bizarre, I couldn’t hide my scowl.

Just as I saw a hand reaching right in front of my face and reflexively squeezed my eyes shut—

KWAANG—!

A massive roar shook the surroundings, and I opened my eyes without thinking.

“Huh…?”

Am I dreaming?

“Arell, you left me behind just to die to something like this?”

“…Pession?”

Why is Pession here?

Pession, his eyes reddened like he was about to cry, froze the moment he saw me.

“Uh… so, um, what happened is—”

Pession’s gaze locked onto the wounds covering my body. Even when he didn’t know it was me, he’d always gone crazy over my injuries. This was bad.

A chill ran down my spine as I saw his eyes darken, gleaming ominously. I quietly pulled back the hand I’d been reaching out.

This wasn’t something I could stop.

KWAANG—!

At the same time, the monsters surrounding us started getting completely smashed by Pession’s hands.

‘I couldn’t even kill one!’

This unfair world!

Half bitter, half thrilled, I watched Pession’s destruction show from the front row, center seat, with my mind in total chaos.

It wasn’t just the monsters getting destroyed. The ground cracked, walls collapsed—

‘Does it make any sense for one human to have that much power?’

I was a mage, so maybe I was an exception, but Pession was doing all this with pure physical strength. The pressure was on a whole different level.

As I stood there, secretly amazed by the scorched surroundings, Pession—who’d been rampaging like it was the end of the world—walked over to me.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Arellin.”

With trembling hands, Pession couldn’t even bring himself to touch me, his eyes filled with tears.

“I’m sorry… I’m really sorry. You were really scared, weren’t you?”