The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 299

Mercedes was one of the few fairies who still remembered the old world.

An era when the gods still lingered in the world, watching over it with their own divine authority.

As the record keeper of the World Tree, Mercedes knew how dearly this world had been loved by the gods.

Driven by an unquenchable thirst for knowledge—one that could never be erased—he left his homeland forest, and by now even his identity as a fairy had worn away. Yet Mercedes still remembered the history of this world.

“All discord in this world began with the prophecy of destruction.”

The gods wished to leave, and the living beings—humans among them—tried to stop them.

“This is a story from after a single hero achieved the calamity known as deicide.”

The countless laws and orders that sustained this world—

Rain falling from the sky and gathering into seas, plants sprouting and growing, life being born and dying, the sun rising and setting—laws everyone took for granted did not simply persist on their own.

They were all upheld by divinity.

But when the one who was meant to become a god refused that fate, the absolute laws of the world were twisted.

“That is why the chosen ones became immortals.”

Not gods, yet beings infinitely close to them.

To those who could see the other side, this world was running on fragile laws that could collapse at any moment.

“That’s why, even though countless religions were eradicated, the last god of Remuren still has temples and an order.”

The traces of the gods still remained in this world.

“And that is precisely why magic was born.”

The first mage to awaken magic ascended and became the first star.

Fragments of divinity that had once been scattered meaninglessly throughout the universe gathered around that first star. Thus were born the stars that now adorn the sky of this world and guard its laws.

The origin of the names attached to the stars comes from here.

However, unlike true gods, the stars could not fully exercise their divinity. So they constantly sought substitutes who could wield their power on their behalf.

And that is how mages came into existence.

“…I thought people only said mages were born with the power of the stars to flatter them.”

Arellin muttered awkwardly.

Now that she knew the truth, she understood why mages were so vulnerable to those with supernatural abilities—and why they never went anywhere near the otherworld.

‘So it was a fundamental problem.’

The reason contamination accumulated in a mage’s body the more magic they used was because a mage’s body couldn’t fully withstand the power of the stars.

And the reason mages admired the stars so fervently was because the stars were the source of their power.

“In a way, that really was a revolution.”

“…?”

Distributing power monopolized by the few (gods) to the many (mages).

Wasn’t that the truest form of revolution?

After pondering for a moment, Arellin looked back at her master.

“Then why are you telling me all this?”

“Because it’s necessary.”

Sensing his youngest disciple’s fading interest, the archmage merely smiled.

“I know you don’t care much for stories like this.”

She flinched.

Feeling called out, Arellin gave an awkward smile.

“…It’s not that bad.”

Watching her scratch her head, Mercedes gathered his thoughts.

“You don’t like vague, lofty stories.”

“No, that’s not it either…”

Arellin tried to object, but she couldn’t escape Mercedes’s insight.

‘A singularity.’

A living singularity, still capable of further awakening.

This world did not want any more singularities. It was too fragile to wish for change.

‘Perhaps this child, too, was meant to disappear that way.’

A twisted fate had brought her here.

Bound by the laws of the world even as an immortal, Mercedes could not do what only a singularity like Arellin could.

‘Why did you only appear before me now?’

“Huh?”

Arellin tilted her head.

“Master, didn’t you just say something to me?”

Mercedes shook his head.

After tilting her head a few more times, Arellin rubbed her chin and looked back at him.

“But Master, this isn’t the story you said you’d tell me.”

What about Cheyen?

You’re not going to dodge it now, are you?

Looking at his blatantly dissatisfied and impertinent disciple, Mercedes smiled faintly.

“I was just about to.”

 

 

****

 

 

 

From deicide to Cheyen—it was all one continuous story.

Mercedes, who had ascended and become the first star, descended to the ground once more.

For a single reason.

He had to rebuild the shattered laws of the world using the divinity of the stars.

“Finding mages, protecting them, teaching them proper ‘magic,’ and shielding them from persecution for wielding dangerous power—that, too, was my duty.”

The Sky Tower, the holy land of mages, was created in the heavens not only to be closer to the stars, but also to escape the persecution of those who saw mages as aberrations.

At the time, Mercedes was called this:

The First Archmage.

The Mage God.

Endless mana—power far too immense for a mere living being to possess.

That reverence earned him the title of “Mage God,” and it wasn’t wrong. After all, magic itself originated from Mercedes.

The very concept of “magic” in this world became synonymous with him.

“The more magic flourished, the greater and stronger my power became.”

At the time, Mercedes did not know—

The weight of immortality.

Everything he loved aged, lost vitality, and faded before time, while he alone remained unchanged.

As the disciples he had raised one by one passed away and became stars, something gnawed away at Mercedes.

And by the time no one remained in the Mage Tower who knew his true identity, Mercedes had fallen ill.

A disease that did not show outwardly, slowly consuming the mind.

“I wanted to die.”

There was no longer any purpose to life, no sense of duty left.

From that time on, Mercedes struggled under waves of emptiness and helplessness.

For the first time, he thought it might have been better when he knew nothing.

The postponed end of the world was too distant, and his mental strength had long since been exhausted. Time itself was a weight even a fairy by birth could not endure.

Mercedes yearned for death.

He no longer wished to live.

But as long as magic flourished, no matter how he died, Mercedes revived endlessly. Forced to resurrect again and again, he had to helplessly accept a fate where death was impossible.

He thought he was speaking calmly, but Mercedes realized he was trembling.

Still, he did not stop telling Arellin the truth.

“One archmage who wanted to die eventually found a way to circumvent the laws and achieve death.”

If magic was what kept resurrecting him, then if the very concept of magic were passed on to another—might he finally be able to die?

That was when Cheyen willingly offered himself as the sacrifice.

“Master, I’ll do it. Please let me do it.”

“I’ll save you, Master.”

“Please let me be of help.”

An orphan, Cheyen was born with extraordinary magical talent and was loved by countless stars.

He followed Mercedes, who had taken him in as an infant, like a parent—and to Cheyen, Mercedes was his entire world.

Mercedes often felt guilty, wondering if he was using his disciple.

What am I doing to this kind child?

Each time, Cheyen endured everything and said:

“It’s okay… because I chose this.”

Mercedes knew it was foolish. His reason screamed at him to stop at every moment, but he himself did not realize how great his desire truly was.

“Even knowing it was foolish, even tormented by guilt for using my disciple’s heart, I was blinded by my desire to die.”

How long had it taken him to finally confess this sin?

“What happened to Cheyen was entirely my fault.”

If he had not longed for death.

If he had not committed such foolishness.

“Master… what did you even turn me into?”

The experiment failed halfway, and Mercedes did not die. But Cheyen—who inherited half of Mercedes’s power and became an incomplete immortal—lost control.

“I will kill all mages and all the stars.”

—Then you’ll be able to die too, Master.

Those were the last words Cheyen left behind.