The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 274

The moment I thought that no matter what power I had to use, I wanted to save everyone, the world stopped as if it were a lie.

In that single instant, even the fragments of stone falling from the ceiling froze in place. All sound vanished, and the world fell into silence.

‘This isn’t magic.’

Nor was it an ability.

Standing as the only living, breathing being in a world where everything had stopped, I couldn’t believe this reality that felt like a sacred miracle wrought by a god.

Something that should never have happened, happened.

Because I had learned magic, because I understood abilities better than anyone, I knew all too well just how absurd this situation was.

Time was a domain that even highly advanced magitech had never dared to touch.

So what was this power?

Just what kind of power was sleeping inside me?

If merely a faint manifestation could create a phenomenon like this, it finally made sense why I had kept dying just for possessing this power.

‘What am I, exactly?’

The question lingered only briefly before my forcibly expanded senses and consciousness spread outward into the world.

‘Right now, it feels like I could do anything.’

For a short while, my existence seemed larger than this space itself. Everything inside the ruin felt smaller than ants.

I see.

Knowing everything—omniscience.

Being able to do anything—omnipotence.

Perhaps, for a fleeting moment, I had become a god.

Maybe because I had grown too vast an existence, things I had never noticed when I was small now came into view. The world beyond the ruin looked completely different.

‘Were the stars always that close?’

It was a phenomenon my astronomical knowledge couldn’t explain. If the stars were this close, why had they looked so small from the ground?

Not only the sky, but the continents looked different too. Beneath the land, I could see ominous black power writhing as if it might devour everything, and lights anchoring the continents in place, maintaining order.

And then—

Several presences, each emitting an existence as immense as my own.

Two in the north, one in the west, two in the east, one in the south.

‘And one in the sky.’

Because they were so enormous, ordinary life forms were bound by the world’s rules in such a way that they couldn’t even perceive their existence—something I could now see clearly.

‘……?’

That was when it happened.

As if it had noticed my gaze, my eyes met another’s.

The instant I locked eyes with those crimson pupils, the world shook.

Boom.

At the same time, all sensation of the outside of the ruin vanished, as if it had been severed by something.

Kukukukoom.

As if urging me on, time within the ruin began to flow again.

‘Ah, right. Now’s not the time to be looking outside.’

I had to save people.

The pitiful souls trapped within the ruin, the people still alive inside it, my dad, and Pession.

You could call it an outrageous greed if you wanted. I just didn’t want to watch anyone die in front of me anymore.

‘A way to save everyone.’

It seemed impossible—but there was exactly one way.

A place that was this place, and yet not this place.

Send everything to the reverse world.

‘Once the ruin collapses, it’s impossible to retrieve anything from it, but in the reverse world, it’s possible to bring them back outside.’

Immediately, I sent the knights and adventurers wandering the ruins, the people who had been dragged inside and were on the verge of being sacrificed, and even the souls already harvested by the ruin—all of them—to the reverse world.

Now only two people remained.

By coincidence, they were my dad and Pession.

“I’ll have to find them myself.”

My life really isn’t easy.

Tick, tock.

I slipped between the worlds that were on the verge of breaking apart, beyond the collapsing ruin.

“Whew…….”

The power that had helped me retreated deep inside me again after sending everyone else to the reverse world, leaving me with nothing left to rely on.

It meant that I had to find Pession and my dad on my own, somewhere in this vast, ocean-like expanse.

‘I can do this.’

I didn’t know why, but I had an unfounded certainty that even if finding my dad would be hard, I could at least find Pession.

Because—

Pession would definitely be looking for me too.

‘I can do it.’

Picking out only the sound I wanted from among countless others.

It was something I’d done often even in everyday life.

A mass of mixed sounds—noise would be a better word—washed over me.

It was nearly impossible to perfectly distinguish natural sounds without a defined scale…

But I could.

Because I had absolute pitch, able to distinguish not just pitch, but even timbre itself.

“…Found you.”

 

 

*****

 

 

I believed I would be able to find him, but when I actually found Pession, an indescribable joy and relief came rushing over me.

“Pession—!”

It really was Pession.

I believed I could do it, but to actually succeed… even though I was the one who did it, I still felt a little dazed.

“I came to save you.”

For a moment I wondered if it was an illusion, but the warmth I felt from the hand I was holding couldn’t possibly be fake.

“Arellin?”

I looked carefully at Pession’s face as he spoke my name so cautiously, then broke into a bright smile.

Seeing me nod, Pession’s lips parted slightly.

“Is this a hallucination?”

“It’s real.”

“If this is a dream, then let me die in your arms.”

What is he even saying?

Pession pulled me into a hug and muttered nonsense.

“Pession, get a grip. I went through so much trouble to save you—why are you talking about dying?”

“So it’s really you……”

Pession reached out and touched my face. I laughed because it tickled, and I heard a soft sigh of relief.

“…It’s really Arellin.”

“Yeah. The real Arellin.”

Pession pressed his lips together tightly. His beautiful eyes shimmered with moisture, as if his emotions were overflowing.

Even in a situation like this, seeing Pession still showing off his undying good looks made me laugh for no reason.

“Pession, like this, it really feels like the opposite of that time.”

“That time?”

“You know, when I was trapped in the reverse world at the imperial palace.”

The day my world completely changed.

The day I stepped out of the shadow of my previous life and finally let go of my lingering feelings about my mom.

“Ah.”

As if the memory had surfaced, Pession’s gaze changed.

“Back then, Arellin was pretty.”

“What are you saying? You were pretty too.”

How bright and cute young Pession had been. Even if I forgot everything else, that was something I remembered clearly.

Now it felt like a story from a very distant past, but……

“What were you thinking, going into such a dangerous place? Of course I was happy you came, but still……”

His pleasant voice murmured low.

“Yeah. What was I thinking?”

“You’re asking me that?”

Pession stared straight at my face.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

He tilted his head, really looking like he couldn’t remember.

“…You’re really something else.”

As I said that in amazement, Pession gave a small laugh and said,

“The only thing I remember is that you cried.”

Pession’s gaze sank slightly.

“You said I was bad.”

Hearing him say that made the memories from back then come flooding back.

Along with the image of Pession saying he just wanted me to be happy.

Same moment, but we remembered completely different things.

“You’re still bad, you know.”

“What?”

“Do you have any idea how worried I was because of you? I left you behind so you wouldn’t suffer, and then you followed me anyway and made me go through all this trouble. Huh? This is all your fault.”

Pession’s expression stiffened. Seeing him turn serious, I thought I should stop teasing him and let it go—

“Should I kneel or something?”

At Pession’s earnest words, I burst out laughing.

Ah, seriously……

And then, seeing him actually drop to his knees the moment he said it, I laughed again.

Ah, this is way too easy. I shouldn’t forgive him so easily.

“But, Arellin.”

“Yeah?”

“What are we going to do now?”

Pession pulled me closer as he looked at the increasingly ominous scenery around us.

The ruin hadn’t completely collapsed yet.

“We have to find my dad.”

Ironically, the reason the ruin hadn’t fully collapsed was because it was still connected to my dad.

“How are you going to find him?”

“…Good question.”

If my dad were in his right mind, I could find him the same way I found Pession, but—

“I guess there’s only one way.”

“……?”

I thought of the corruption filling my dad’s body, along with the other corrupted energy surrounding this ruin.

“Today I’m really doing everything my master told me not to do.”

But I have to save my dad, don’t I?

The problem is that I don’t have my violin.

If I’d known this would happen, maybe I shouldn’t have left Ether behind.

‘No. There is a way.’

I really didn’t want to use this method if I could help it, but……

The situation was urgent. I didn’t have a choice.

“Uh……?”

Pession frowned slightly.

Since this was also the “reverse world,” I believed this would work.

I would guide the reverse world into transforming into a nightmare—
a nightmare capable of swallowing me whole.

When I turned around, a familiar scene greeted me.

The very first scene of a long-standing nightmare.

‘It’s not a nightmare or despair anymore, though……’

Because I’d overcome it, I could now face it this clearly.

“Pession, do you remember?”

The sparkling stage lights, the empty audience seats, and the stage where only one blurry figure could be seen.

The beginning of my despair.

And there was always an old friend waiting for me there.

“Arell……”

Even in my grown body, holding a bow and violin again after so long felt completely natural.

‘I really hope Dad remembers this music.’

Ziiing—.

A hopeful melody beginning with a syncopated note in 2/4 time.

Elgar’s Salut d’Amour echoed far and wide.