The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 266

The Deepest Layer of the Ruins

Mages cloaked in black robes struggled to maintain the magic circle, cold sweat pouring down their faces—then, all at once, they vomited blood and collapsed.

Wiiiuuung—.

The energy of the ruins wavered unstably, surging with an ominous air.

For a brief moment, the ruins ceased functioning.

The man controlling it all—Cheyen—wrapped the depths in even denser mist and let out a hollow laugh.

“…Ha.”

Perhaps because a plan he’d expected no one to interfere with had gone awry.

With a feeling that was fresh, novel—and deeply unpleasant—Cheyen murmured the name he’d been rolling over in his mind.

“Arellin.”

The anomaly he had discovered.

At the same time, the stubborn child who had rejected his offer.

A fragile life-form that possessed the potential to change this world’s fate, yet was too delicate to ever fully awaken that power.

Cheyen’s expression hardened as he recalled the child who had even regressed into a younger form, indulging in childish make-believe with such care—only to refuse to take his hand until the very end.

“She should be dead.”

Cheyen had seen a fixed destiny of death upon Arellin.

A conclusion branded by the world itself.

That inevitable death was not something a mere human could escape.

“She’s alive?”

Impossible.

Cheyen knew well the coercive force of fate exerted by this world.

‘In truth, there were only two ways for Arellin to escape death.’

To become an immortal who does not die even when killed—like himself.

Or else…

“To become someone’s vassal.”

The former was practically impossible.

Which meant she had become someone’s vassal.

‘Sloth?’

Cheyen recalled the most human-friendly of the known immortals.

‘No… Sloth has no leeway to create vassals.’

Why was her epithet Sloth?

It was a name that mocked the karma she had accumulated by failing to bring things to an end.

‘The karma of sparing those she should have killed. Bearing that burden herself, she chose sealing instead.’

The reason Sloth made the Central Continent her base and never took a single step outside her domain within the imperial palace was because, with her rank, she was suppressing the “something” lurking beneath it.

Then the candidates narrowed.

‘Did she, by sheer luck, encounter the Wandering Hope?’

An immortal whose epithet came from the legend that they would grant one wish to anyone they met.

But they were also an immortal almost impossible to encounter.

‘And it’s unlikely that the last god of Remren—who can barely maintain their own rank—would have helped her… no.’

More than anything, if she had become a god’s vassal, she would have already been abducted to Remren.

One of the remaining immortals despised humanity, and the other’s whereabouts were entirely unknown.

That left only his master.

“No. It can’t be Master.”

Cheyen prided himself on knowing the Archmage Mercedes better than anyone.

After all, wasn’t she the great figure who had turned him into this—and then regretted it?

He was certain she would never break the vow she had made afterward: never again to interfere in the mortal world.

Wiiiuung, wiung—.

The energy of the ruins trembled precariously. It seemed something was happening in an abyss even deeper than the ruins’ core.

“Cough… our Black Star.”

The mages, collapsed and convulsing yet still maintaining the magic circle, reached out toward Cheyen.

“W-what should we do…?”

Cheyen looked down at them with an utterly indifferent expression.

“Maintain it as is.”

“B-but at this rate, we’ll all die!”

Cheyen gazed coolly at the mage who barely managed to voice his objection, his face deathly pale.

At the utterly emotionless eyes—like those cast upon a roadside pebble—the mage swallowed dryly without realizing it.

“And what’s the problem with that?”

“Y-yes?”

“If you die, I’ll revive you.”

What these ruins produced was not mere “resurrection.”

“When a god is born, resurrection will be nothing at all.”

Why else would they open gates connected to parallel dimensions to gather the souls of the living and sacrifices to offer at the altar?

It was to pay the price required to create a god in a world where none existed.

Wiiiuuuuuiiing.

As the pulsing energy grew stronger than before, Cheyen’s attention shifted. It seemed a problem had arisen in the deepest abyss of the ruins.

That was a place no ordinary human could ever reach.

“…I’ll have to go myself.”

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

Pession thought that the world beyond the gate would be a barren, desolate place where no one could live. So even if something he couldn’t endure lay on the other side, he had been prepared to accept it and jumped in anyway.

“This place is……”

The scenery spread out before his eyes was completely different from what he had expected.

The chirping of birds, the refreshing sound of water bursting from a fountain, trees and grass neatly trimmed and giving off a fresh scent.
Even the warm golden sunlight pouring down and the crisp touch of the breeze.

How could he not know this place?

‘The garden of the Halbern estate.’

He couldn’t understand how he could encounter such a scene after leaping into a gate to find Arellin, but this world didn’t even allow Pession the leisure to sink into his thoughts.

“Who’s there?”

A small figure hiding in the bushes peeked its head out.

A body so thin it was hard to tell whether she’d been eating properly. And yet, with chubby cheeks that were undeniably cute……

“…Arellin?”

A young Arellin, who looked barely six years old, stared at Pession with wide eyes.

 

 

 

****

 

 

For some reason, Pession thought he had fallen into the past.

Otherwise, it made no sense for him to be meeting a six-year-old Arellin right now.

“……”

So cute.

Watching young Arellin from a distance as she pretended not to look at him while sneaking glances his way, Pession’s clenched fist trembled.

She was so unbearably cute that he felt like he might accidentally damage the walls of the Halbern estate.

‘Was Arellin always this cute?’

He had thought she was beautiful, but never cute.

Maybe that was because he himself had been young back then.

“Arellin.”

Arellin, who had been peeking at him, immediately hid. Maybe because she was a child, she seemed to think that hiding her face alone meant she was completely hidden—and even that clumsy logic was adorable enough to nearly push Pession into breaking something again.

‘Calm down.’

Pession tightly clenched his fist and took a deep breath to steady himself.

Even though Arellin possessed enough cuteness to shatter the universe, and even though his heart felt like it had long since collapsed and been conquered……

He had to survive this crisis somehow.

She was already wary of him like a kitten with its fur standing on end—he couldn’t do anything to make her even more suspicious.

“Hi. I’m not a suspicious person.”

“…People who say that are always suspicious.”

“Hmm.”

Young Arellin spoke well. She wasn’t wrong, so Pession couldn’t refute her. He had to be careful not to say anything wrong and give her strange ideas that might cause serious trouble later.

So Pession naturally changed the subject.

“But are you here all alone?”

In Pession’s memory, Arellin was always surrounded by caretakers.

He’d seen countless times the gentle yet firm smiles of the maids and butlers who were constantly by her side.

‘Then why is no one here?’

Arellin fidgeted with her lips as if trying to say something.

Perhaps because he remembered the calm and detached Arellin of the future, this 모습 felt strangely unfamiliar to Pession.

“Well……”

Arellin fiddled with her fingers, then bit her lip tightly again.

Unlike Pession, who grew serious out of worry she might hurt her lip, young Arellin seemed serious about something else.

“…I’m always alone.”

“What? Why are you alone?”

Arellin glared at Pession as if asking why he’d even ask something so obvious.

“What are you curious about? I’m always alone. Who are you anyway, being here? Did you get permission from Mehen?”

“Uncle……”

Her sharp, clear questions toward a stranger were admirable and cute—but hearing the word uncle from young Arellin hit far too hard for Pession to recover from.

The saddest part was that he couldn’t even deny it.

‘At Arellin’s age, I am an uncle.’

Maybe because his shock was written all over his face, Arellin softened her attitude slightly as she warned him.

“You can’t stay here. There’s magic on our house, and outsiders die—huh? Then how are you alive?”

Her eyes widened as if she’d realized something. Pession already knew he wasn’t affected by Halbern’s outsider-detection magic because he was of imperial blood, but to Arellin, who knew nothing of that, it must have been shocking.

“Want to know why?”

Arellin nodded.

“Then promise me you’ll do cardio, strength training, eat protein-heavy meals, and have three proper meals a day from now on, and I’ll tell you.”

Though said half-jokingly, his words were serious enough that Arellin’s expression instantly changed.

“Uncle, are you a muscle idiot?”

Arellin quickly backed away, widening the distance between them, and Pession’s expression turned bleak.

“Go away.”

…He’d been rejected.