The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health – Chapter 292

Author: Asternkm

The Great Mage stood quietly in a corner, calmly observing the party hall.

In Mercedes’s long life, it wasn’t that she had never attended a party before, but this was the first time she had seen one where people were this completely separated into their own groups.

Originally, the Great Mage had no intention of attending the party.

“This is the first party since Arellin returned, so I was hoping the Great Mage would join us as well. Please.”

Mehen had bowed his head politely as he begged, so she had no choice but to attend, but……

‘It’s not as bad as I expected.’

Watching her youngest disciple chatting away with a much more relaxed expression than when playing with mages was surprisingly entertaining.

The Great Mage, who neither enjoyed alcohol nor parties, was busily eating her way through the buffet dishes when—

“…….”

Their eyes suddenly met.

That was when the Great Mage, who had not moved from the corner since the party began, finally moved.

“Uh? Where did Master go?”

****

Even excluding the main hall where the largest crowd had gathered, there were many prepared spaces—like a piano room and a chess room—where people could gather separately to enjoy different activities.

However, the room the Great Mage entered was far removed from such places, a room where only silence lingered.

“You’ve come.”

“Did you not call for me?”

“I did.”

A brief silence followed.

Laughter and conversation drifting in from outside naturally covered the voices of the two inside.

“I heard that you saved our daughter, Great Mage.”

The Great Mage nodded.

She looked at Valer with complicated eyes.

A soul more tattered than any other was shining brightly, like a star in the sky.

“So the Great Mage knew the treatment…? To think the solution was so close. Ha…….”

As Valer clicked his tongue, the Great Mage calmly corrected his misunderstanding.

“No, it wasn’t a treatment. I merely delayed the worsening of her condition with a method better than neglect. To begin with, Arellin wasn’t suffering from a ‘disease.’”

If Arellin had possessed authority at a manageable level, it would have been a blessing rather than a calamity.

But authority so destructive that a mortal body could not endure it was, in itself, a disaster.

“That child……”

The Great Mage chose her words very carefully.

She knew that, unlike those of mere mortals, her words affected this world.

“She can change a predetermined fate.”

The authority to rewrite a fate that had already been decided—no immortal possessed such power.

“The world itself responds to that child’s will.”

Because she held such power, the will of the world, which desired a fixed ending, would never leave her alone.

That was likely why, in all of Valer’s regressions so far, Arellin had only ever died.

As for why this life was different, the Great Mage thought this:

“And the fact that your daughter became a singularity is largely due to your influence.”

A life that should have ended in death had instead overlapped with a single person’s will through a clever twist of chance, and while regressing together with Valer, it had affected the intricate rules that upheld this world—that was the Great Mage’s opinion.

Hearing this, Valer let out a cold, mocking laugh.

“Ridiculous.”

Yet he couldn’t completely dismiss it as nonsense.

“An ordinary mortal cannot maintain their sanity through that many regressions. The human mind has limits.”

“…….”

“Even if the authority of wandering hope protected your mind, a thousand regressions would have been the limit. Going beyond ten thousand……”

Even without the Great Mage saying more, Valer was already suffering from various side effects.

“Have all your memories returned?”

“Of course not. Most of them were lost, and what remains are… yes, only the memories from before I was consumed by madness.”

There were simply too many memories; even trying to recall them one by one was exhausting.

Many had sunk entirely into the depths of his subconscious.

“And in your memories, what was I doing?”

“In most of them, you were stuck in the Sky Tower. Even when we did cross paths, I remember you still being shut away in the Sky Tower.”

“As expected.”

The Great Mage had once tried to rewrite fate and failed. She had brought ruin to mortals connected to her, and after losing many things then, she abandoned her own arrogance.

If not for the coincidental encounters unique to this life, even she might not have been able to save Arellin now.

Saving Arellin required her to stake many things as well.

“But this time is the only one.”

A bitter voice rang sharply in the air.

“This is the only life where Arellin acknowledged me as her father.”

Valer smiled wryly as he recalled the past lives, where he had been so desperate just to save Arellin that he had failed to truly become her family.

“Then why are you telling me all this, Great Mage?”

“Because I believe you must stay alive.”

“Me? Why? Arellin has Mehen. That’s enough.”

“No. You must be there as well.”

The Great Mage thought of her youngest disciple. She didn’t open her heart easily, but once she did, she cherished someone to the very end—her youngest disciple…….

“Right now, Arellin exists because of your love.”

At that moment, Valer realized something and laughed weakly.

So that was it.

“Did my cute, lovely daughter put you up to this?”

“…….”

“I didn’t think she’d even drag her own master into this just to persuade me.”

Valer took out a pendant from his chest. It was the “relic of sealing,” the reason he had crawled into that hell with his own feet.

But when Arellin saw that relic, she said this:

“I don’t think it’ll help even if I use it. Dad, you use it.”

Valer couldn’t easily follow those words. What if Arellin died because of it? What if something went wrong?

Then he would have to regress again, to save Arellin.

Perhaps sensing Valer’s inner thoughts, the Great Mage spoke.

“Even if you move on to the next cycle, it won’t turn out like this one.”

“How can you be so sure, Great Mage?”

“Well……”

The Great Mage smiled.

“Because this is the first and last time we speak face to face like this. Isn’t that so?”

****

The place the Great Mage left behind.

Valer fiddled with the pendant clenched tightly in his hand.

“And your soul cannot endure any more regressions.”

That was the warning the Great Mage had left him with.

In truth, Valer vaguely understood his own condition. He had simply not wanted to face it out of anxiety.

“…….”

He had lost Arellin countless times for truly absurd reasons. It would have been stranger if he weren’t plagued by such fear.

“Dad?”

Arellin peeked in through the door, which had been opened slightly, and looked for Valer.

“Dad, why are you in a place like this?”

As soon as she spotted him, Arellin ran over and grabbed his arm.

“Did your master send you?”

“No? I asked where you were first.”

“That’s basically the same thing.”

Resting his chin on his hand, Valer looked at Arellin. The grown-up Arellin he had only ever imagined…….

His daughter, who resembled her aunt yet was so completely different.

“I don’t regret the time I spent living as your father.”

That his love had shaped the Arellin she was now.

The Great Mage’s words were sweet, but Valer was clear-headed. He didn’t think he had done that much for her.

He only thought that he had finally, barely managed to give her what he should have given long ago.

“For someone who calls himself a dad, I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do for you.”

Even if he was a pathetic father saying this in front of his daughter.

“You’re doing great, Dad.”

Arellin smiled brightly, as if it didn’t matter.

“Dad.”

“What is it?”

Arellin took Valer’s hand. When she was little, her hand hadn’t even covered half his palm, but now that she had grown into a proper lady, she could hold his hand with both of hers.

“I want you to stay by my side for a very, very long time. Until I grow old and become a grandma.”

“I feel like I won’t age even by then.”

“That’s fine too. You look good just the way you are.”

Looking at her beaming smile, Valer remembered the young Arellin who used to glare at him with a sulky face.

“What if I can’t save you again?”

His fragile heart was laid bare. The fear that had tormented him for so long finally took shape.

Even so, Arellin smiled brightly.

“You’ve raised me this far, so what comes next is something I should handle myself.”

“I wanted to do everything for you.”

“That won’t do. You have to help me so I can do things on my own.”

“Yeah. How could I ever win against you?”

He tightened his grip on the pendant.