The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 349

“Could someone please explain this situation to me? Anyone will do.”

Mehen pressed a hand to his forehead and asked in a voice that sounded half-dead.

Whenever Valer rambled on about the apocalypse, this extremely realistic man had always thought, ‘There he goes spouting nonsense again,’ listening with one ear and letting it pass out the other. But for the first time in his life, he found himself genuinely contemplating the end of the world.

Because if a dead man coming back to life wasn’t the end of days, then what was?

“Uh, so what happened is—”

“I will explain.”

Zilo stopped the tower mage—who clearly didn’t fully understand the situation—from stepping in, and instead came forward himself as the person directly involved.

From the ruins up to the present moment.

A story that was long if you considered it long, short if you considered it short was shared. After hearing everything, Mehen went pale and shut his eyes tightly.

‘Arellin!’

If something like this had happened, she should have told him beforehand!

“This is not Lady Arellin’s fault. I asked her not to tell anyone. As someone who has already died, I believed it would be inappropriate for a being like me to wander about in the open.”

“In other words, there must be a reason you changed your mind.”

“……”

Zilo responded to Mehen’s words with silence. Mehen felt like he could already guess why Zilo had changed his mind.

“Is it because of Madam Olivia’s disappearance?”

Zilo’s expression darkened.

“You still haven’t found her?”

“No. We haven’t learned who took her, what method they used, or what their objective was. However… everyone has a vague idea of why Madam Olivia disappeared.”

Zilo wasn’t a fool. Even beggars on the street knew what a complete mess the Gremwat family was—how could he not?

“I want to help find my wife as well.”

“Has that been agreed upon with the Mage Tower?”

At Mehen’s sharp question, Zilo quietly turned his head away. Luka, who had been sitting there with a vacant expression, snapped back to attention when he noticed the gaze directed at him.

“Ah, well, Lord Zilo is extremely well-mannered, and they said his very existence doesn’t break the rules or anything. He’s practically no different from an ordinary person, so yes. Helping quietly without revealing his identity was deemed acceptable.”

And so Luka ended up taking on the role of monitoring him.

Purely because all the other senior mages were busy with outside affairs and had been pulled away, leaving him as the only surplus manpower.

Zilo looked at Mehen as if asking for his opinion. Mehen, however, did not give his approval easily.

“The imperial palace is also taking this disappearance very seriously, so please trust them and return.”

“You still haven’t found her.”

“Are you saying the situation would change dramatically if Lord Zilo stepped in?”

“That’s… not what I mean, but……”

With a deep sigh, Zilo covered his face with both hands.

“Please… let me help……”

At the plea that was almost a beg, Mehen’s brows drew together.

If I were in the same situation as this man…

He tried imagining it as Valer. That didn’t work—Valer was practically missing all the time anyway, and it broke his immersion.

Then he imagined Arellin.

Only then did his chest start to ache.

In the end, Mehen gave his permission.

“Very well. I will allow it, on the condition that you conceal your identity and do not step forward.”

Zilo nodded vigorously, as if that were only natural.

And one more thing.

“There is Sir Derick at the estate. Under no circumstances are you to appear before him—”

“Duke Mehen!”

They said even dragons appeared when summoned.

By some cruel coincidence, Derick burst through the door at that very moment, causing Mehen to press his hand to his forehead.

“Damn it…….”

Of all times—now?

Didn’t that completely negate the warning he had just given Zilo?

Derick had never appeared this rudely before, which was why Mehen had let his guard down.

Seeing Derick rush in, pale-faced, Mehen asked as calmly as he could manage.

“Derick, what is the matter?”

Derick shouted anxiously.

“Have you heard? All of the imperial investigators who were looking into my mother’s disappearance have gone missing!”

What now?

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

This was a dream.

I was dreaming.

As my consciousness drifted somewhere far away, the thought suddenly occurred to me.

I’ve done this so many times, I’m starting to get used to it.

‘But where am I?’

Was I about to dream of Sion’s mother again, like last time? If so, that would be a good omen.

I looked around with excitement, but all I could see was a breathtaking scene.

A shattered moon floating in the sky, fragments of stars falling down, and a landscape that looked like a paradise—or what used to be one—making it impossible to tell whether it was day or night……

Where was this place?

Don’t tell me this was my inner world?

“No way. My inner world couldn’t possibly be this ruined.”

This was practically a world after its end.

And yet, it was beautiful.

Beautiful enough to remind me of Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel.

A world where everything had already ended, where time seemed to repeat endlessly, accompanied by faint, soft, elegant arpeggios.

Seriously… what was this place?

It didn’t feel unfamiliar. If anything, it felt oddly familiar—nostalgic, even. As I sat there blankly, staring up at the sky…

Boing.

A cute, sudden sound.

When I looked down, my eyes met those of an unidentified life-form.

A Ditto…?

I rubbed my eyes and looked again. It was another creature that looked like a Ditto.

No—could I even call it a life-form? A formless creature that defied definition. It kind of looked like… a slime.

Hmm. I’ll just call it a slime.

But why was a slime here?

“Ah! Don’t tell me… I’ve been transported to another dimension!”

Boing?

If not for the slime’s movement clearly saying what nonsense, I might actually have believed that.

The slime wriggled and poked me.

“Yeah, hi. Huh? What am I? I’m Arellin. What? You weren’t asking my name? Haha. You cheeky little thing.”

It looked cute, but it sure had attitude.

I wanted to grab it and punish it, but the slime deftly avoided my hand.

“Why am I here? I don’t know either. This place is dangerous? It doesn’t really look dangerous… Hey, don’t get mad. I didn’t come here on purpose. What? How did I get here? I don’t know that either. When I came to, I was already here.”

The slime wriggled cutely as it hovered around me.

“You’re telling me to hurry up and go back because it’s dangerous? Slime, I want to go back too. I just don’t know how.”

The slime stared at me as if studying me.

“Aren’t you scared? I don’t know… you look kind of cute.”

Was my answer shocking? The slime wriggled violently. Was being called cute that shocking?

I examined the slime more closely.

Inside its body, something was glittering.

‘What’s that?’

When I focused harder, I saw a miniature universe inside the slime.

…What the hell? Was this slime actually some kind of cosmic monster? It looked small, but maybe it was secretly the final boss or something… No, probably not.

Boing.

It looked way too harmless to be scary.

At some point, the slime started worrying about me.

Watching it fret over my lifespan, saying that being this carefree was a good way to die young, made me feel strangely unsettled.

“It’s fine. I’m strong.”

The slime sighed and said I looked like I’d die if it so much as flicked a finger.

“No, really. I’m strong. I can use magic.”

The slime said that wasn’t enough to call myself strong.

Wow. The nerve.

“I can even use special abilities, you know.”

The slime dismissed that, saying such fragments couldn’t be called ‘power.’

Oh, really? You little punk. I didn’t want to stoop to this level, but—

“Hey. I can use divine power too.”

That was when I landed my finishing blow.

The slime froze.

The slime that had been constantly wriggling stopped completely, as if time itself had halted. Combined with the ruined-world scenery, it was an incredibly eerie sight.

Uh… did I… hit a nerve?

Boom!

In that instant, the slime grew larger.

“Aaaah!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Ugh, my head.”

I woke up with a throbbing headache. My entire body felt heavy, like I’d been beaten up.

I forced my stone-heavy eyes open and was greeted by the familiar sight of my bedroom.

“Oh. I’m back.”

Only then did the memories of the dream begin returning, one by one.

I had woken up in a ruined world and met a slime.

It was a kind slime.

I was shocked when it suddenly swallowed me after hearing that I had divine power—and terrified when it scolded me mercilessly afterward.

What did it say again…? That I didn’t know how I’d obtained it, but I was storing divine power in an incredibly crude way, barely containing a time bomb that could explode at any moment… something like that.

‘I think it said it was a miracle I was still alive.’

When I said I was basically living on borrowed time because of it, the slime clicked its tongue and taught me how to handle divine power properly.

Just as I remembered that much, another wave of pain hit my head, and I grabbed it again.

That was when—

“Miss!”

Having noticed that I’d woken up, Uni and Rena burst through the door in a panic.

“You’re finally awake!”

“We were worried you might never wake up……!”

Normally I would’ve humored them, but my head was pounding too much right now.

And there was something else that was urgent.

“What? What did you say?”

“…B.”

“What?”

“Food.”

I was starving to death.