The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health – Chapter 276

Author: Asternkm

Kukukukung.

From the moment the inside of the ruins began to shake, the black mages realized that something had gone wrong.

All of them had once been “Star-class mages” before becoming black mages.

Because of that, they were quicker than anyone else to grasp the current situation.

‘The Nightmare of the Star has abandoned us.’

“Th-then what are we supposed to do now?”

Realizing that they had been discarded, the black mages stopped the ritual and froze in place. An uncomfortable silence fell among them.

Boom!

All that could be heard was the sound of the ruins collapsing.

Suddenly, someone burst out laughing.

“Hahaha.”

The other black mages snapped out of it when they saw their leader laughing as if he’d lost his mind.

“We have to get out of here, now!”

“Does anyone know the way out?!”

“Damn it, which way is the exit?!”

As the black mages scattered in desperation, trying to survive somehow, the leader—who had been laughing hollowly—stopped.

“So we were abandoned in the end.”

His eyes turned empty.

“So… was this what we broke our beliefs for?”

Rotten or not, a tuna is still a tuna—
as the most skilled among them, he already knew that escaping the ruins was impossible. The others were just wasting their strength.

At this moment, when all he could do was sit still and prepare for the approaching death, he had never felt so small.

*****

While the black mages were in turmoil, desperately seeking their own way out, Duke Gremwatt was lost in thought in one corner of the altar.

“Zylo…….”

On top of the altar lay his firstborn son, eyes gently closed. At a glance, he looked as though he were merely sleeping—but the man’s heart had stopped.

The duke knew something was wrong with the situation. Even so, he did not try to save himself. From the moment he entered this place, he had had no intention of surviving, no matter how things turned out.

“Zylo.”

In truth, Duke Gremwatt—Gregory—had not been particularly fond of his eldest son.

Zylo was diligent, but lacked ambition. He was meticulous, but not bold.

For a man born into a family of adventurers who had explored the unknown for generations, having neither ambition nor boldness was a serious flaw.

The duke had always favored his second son, who was indulgent but ambitious, or his youngest, who was clumsy yet bold, acting decisively on sharp intuition.

He believed the second or third would accomplish greater things than the narrow-vesselled firstborn.

“Your Grace! It’s terrible—the young duke…!”

So when he heard the news of his eldest son’s death, the duke couldn’t even understand his own stunned reaction.

The funeral of his first son, whose body was far too intact for someone said to have died in an accident at the ruins. Even then, the duke couldn’t truly accept his death.

No matter how inadequate or disappointing he might have seemed, his eldest son had always been the heir meant to succeed him.

The second, whose ambition outweighed his ability to shoulder a household, and the third, bold but too scatterbrained to sit still and handle paperwork, were both sorely lacking compared to the deceased firstborn.

Only then did the duke realize how perfectly suited his eldest son had been to becoming a duke.

It wasn’t until he sorted through his son’s belongings—seeing shelves filled and overflowing with handwritten adventure journals and records of study—that he truly understood what a remarkable heir he had lost.

Seeing the traces of a son who had worked day and night to resemble the father he respected, Duke Gremwatt broke down in sobs.

He had never once spoken kindly to him. Never once praised him.

By the time he realized what a terrible father he had been, everything was already too late.

“Don’t you wonder if there’s a secret behind your first son’s death?”

That was why he couldn’t resist the temptation whispered meaningfully by Archduke Halvern, even knowing it would lead to further discord.

The secret hidden behind his eldest son’s death was something the duke himself had once suspected.

That his second and third sons were involved……

Duke Gremwatt felt nothing but sorrow at the tragedy that had become reality.

The fact that he had praised his second son’s ambition instead of scolding him for openly coveting the position of heir,
that he had praised profits before ever warning his third son to value human lives, even as companions were injured and killed on their expeditions—

It all felt as though he himself was the root cause of everything.

“Your Grace, you must decide on a successor.”

And so Duke Gremwatt resolved to pass the dukedom to his eldest grandson.

At the same time, he sought out what he himself could do.

“They say there are ruins somewhere in this world that can bring people back to life.”

Even knowing he was being played in the palm of Archduke Halvern—Morden—he had no way to resist.

Because what Halvern proposed was exactly what he himself desired.

The reason Duke Gremwatt, who had shut himself away like a husk of a man, began seeking out ruins once more was entirely because of the hope of reviving his eldest son.

After Morden died for reasons unknown, and as the duke wandered without direction, an immortal appeared before him, introducing himself as the “Nightmare of the Star.”

Even knowing that this immortal was using him as well, Duke Gremwatt didn’t care.

“Zylo, my son…….”

His already aged body was nearing death.

The man who was one of the Empire’s Five Great Dukes, the head of the Adventurers’ Guild, and a legendary adventurer who had conquered ruins and taboos across the world, was now about to make the final gamble of his life.

Woo—woong—.

He already knew how to call forth a miracle. After all, he was the one who had excavated this ruin.

Now that the immortal who could have stopped him was gone, it was finally time to do what he had long put off.

The blood-soaked altar glowed ominously. As the duke offered up his own life, he prayed to the god hidden somewhere within these ruins.

To save his son.

*****

I found Dad.

It was a truly hair-breadth moment.

Just when I was agonizing over whether I could no longer keep playing and would have to return with only Pession, Dad appeared like a miracle.

“Dad—!”

I’d done it while thinking it might be possible since this place wasn’t reality but a kind of Reverse World, yet even after succeeding, I felt dazed.

I had no way to go find him myself, so I chose to play and hope that he would come to me.

This moment must have been the result of coincidence upon coincidence—perhaps it even required extraordinary luck. Still, no matter what, I was relieved that I’d found Dad.

“Arellin….”

Dad, who hadn’t recognized me before, looked at me with different eyes now.

It was such a small thing, yet it made my chest tighten all the same.

“Dad, are you okay?”

He looked worse than the last time I’d seen him. The corruption that had once filled his body was gone, but his physical condition was terrible.

If Dad hadn’t been so strong, it wouldn’t have been strange if he’d already died.

“We need to get Dad out of here, fast.”

“Arellin, do you have a way?”
Pession looked at me anxiously.

“A way? Of course I do.”

In fact, this was one of the escape methods I’d considered ever since I was first trapped in the ruins. The risk had been too great to actually try it—but somehow, things had come to this.

“Pession, all Halberns share a common innate ability.”

Who am I? The eldest daughter of Halbern.

The bloodline of Halbern inherited certain abilities from generation to generation.

Those were the Secret Guardian (S) and the Key Successor (S).

‘And this Key Successor ability isn’t just about opening the doors to the secret archives.’

The ultimate reason Dad had been able to wander the Reverse World safely.

Yes—exactly. Halbern’s ability could open a door from the Reverse World back to reality.

“……!”

I’d planned to ask Dad to do it himself if he were in decent shape.

‘But that’s clearly not an option.’

The moment he recognized me, Dad lost consciousness and slumped against Pession. I let out a long sigh.

Really—nothing in my life ever comes easy.