The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health – Chapter 353

Author: Asternkm

Mehen could still vividly remember the events of “that day.”

The unusually chilly air, the sharp scent spreading through it, the silence where no trace of human presence could be heard.

And in the middle of it all, the memory of Valer, still a boy who hadn’t even come of age, walking toward him step by step with a cold, expressionless face.

“Father is gone now.”

There was no sense of freedom or accomplishment in the declaration of liberation spoken by the oppressed boy.
Only deep, biting cynicism.

Morden Halbern, who had ruled like an absolute being over the Empire and Halbern, was dead.

That was all Mehen knew about Morden’s death.

To begin with, the head of House Halbern hadn’t even spared a glance for the young boy his son had picked up, so Mehen had remained outside Morden’s field of vision.

Because of that, he had been able to stay safe in his childhood, but……

“Oh? I see a familiar face.”

The moment the low voice assaulted his eardrums, Mehen froze in place, unable to move, like a mouse caught in a trap.

His lips stuck together, unable to form even a single word.

“It’s been a while, Mehen.”

Platinum-blond hair identical to Valer’s—no, rather, Valer resembled him—and strange violet eyes.
A man whose presence alone made it impossible for anyone to defy his will.

A youthful-looking Morden Halbern stood before Mehen, smiling as if he had been painted there.

****

Since encountering Morden Halbern, Mehen could no longer think properly.

Morden received Zilo from the black mages and took him to his own “laboratory.”
Along with Mehen.

“Perhaps it’s because I’ve been stuck here for so long that I rarely see familiar faces. It’s quite nice to see you.”

Watching Morden skillfully draw Zilo’s blood with a sharp syringe, Mehen felt as if his own throat were being strangled.

His thoughts were in chaos. Barely suppressing it, the only words he could force out were—

“Weren’t you… deceased?”

Morden’s funeral had been held without a body.
Hadn’t Valer said he burned it first?

At Mehen’s strained voice, Morden smiled dangerously, his face resembling Valer’s yet far colder.

“I died. No—more precisely, I had died.”

“Then how… are you here now…”

“I made a contract.”

Mehen felt his throat tighten.

Whether he was in a good mood, or simply thought Mehen posed no threat at all, Morden readily revealed his secret.

“I underestimated my son. No—perhaps I should say I underestimated Shione. I thought maybe, but he really did die just like that. Still, my consciousness didn’t perish, and I awakened in a ‘body’ I had prepared beforehand.”

The young-looking Morden smiled, explaining that the body he now used was a homunculus obtained through human experimentation.

“I am confined to ‘this place,’ but isn’t it remarkable? This is the power of the ‘Immortals.’
The true authority of quasi-gods—something most humans will never know.”

Morden spoke as if Mehen should be grateful for learning this truth.

A passing remark Valer once made—‘Father was a madman’—flashed through Mehen’s mind.

Morden peeled away a portion of Zilo’s skin.

Only then did Mehen grasp the true purpose of this massive prison built in the reverse world.

A gigantic human experiment. The goal is likely resurrection… or eternal life.

There were far too many clues scattered about to pretend ignorance. Mehen swallowed hard.

Whose resurrection is the real goal?

Suddenly, he recalled how obsessively Morden had clung to the Duchess.
And the Duchess had… committed suicide.

We’re screwed.

Since arriving here, too many irrational events had piled up. His mind was overloaded.

“What do you plan to do… to me, and to Lord Zilo?”

At Mehen’s hard-won question, Morden tilted his head as if hearing something strange—then burst into laughter.

“Are you afraid I’ll kill you?”

“Well, that is—”

“A resurrected one is far too valuable an experiment subject for that. And you, Mehen…”

Mehen trembled slightly under Morden’s gaze as Morden gracefully took hold of his cane.

“You’re too precious to kill. There aren’t many left who recognize my face anymore.”

Should he be relieved? Or horrified?

As Mehen struggled to hide his turmoil, Morden calmly poured an unidentified reagent onto Zilo’s tissue and blood, then asked in a casual voice—

“My failed product hasn’t broken yet, has it?”

The tone was so mild that Mehen didn’t understand at first.

“Failed… product?”

“My son.”

Morden chuckled coldly, his voice utterly devoid of affection.

“How strange. It should be about time for him to ‘break.’”

****

“Dad, what’s wrong?”

Dad suddenly turned back, then lowered his gaze.

“I thought I heard an unpleasant voice.”

“?”

As I tilted my head, Dad’s eyes went back to Pession’s hand gripping my shoulder. He growled.

“Let go.”

“……”

“I said, let go.”

Dad threatening him to let go, and Pession stubbornly refusing.
Watching the clash between two proud geniuses made my chest feel tight.

“What are you two doing?”

Is this really the time?

“My mom’s been kidnapped, and you’re making a big deal out of Pession holding my shoulder?!”

“Yeah.”

“…Dad, you’re really something.”

After finally prying Pession’s hand off me, Dad asked—

“So where were you planning to go with no evidence and no leads?”

“I figured if I poked around randomly, someone might kidnap me too.”

“…….”

Valer barely held back the urge to say she really is my daughter.

“There is a lead.”

Pressing down on his creasing brow, Dad continued.

“What lead?”

“Black mages, a kidnapping with no mana traces, and that ‘strange potion’ the attackers used on the Mage Towers. Put it all together, and you get a rough idea of where to dig.”

Dad smiled coldly.

The ‘strange potion’ Dad showed us—something he’d picked up while helping defend a Mage Tower—really did look strange.

And somehow… familiar.

“Pession, doesn’t that look kind of similar to the ability potion Harun collected before?”

Pession looked completely unsure, but with my heightened mana sensitivity, it felt similar.

And also… what is this?
Why does this presence feel so familiar?

Maybe it’s because I’ve become Arellin mk2, but I could sense something I couldn’t before.
The problem was, even I couldn’t quite explain what it was.

Anyway, Dad’s conclusion was simple.

“We’re raiding the black mages’ base.”

“……”

***

Have you ever thought that you’re living a completely reckless life?

Shockingly enough, I was thinking exactly that right now.

Black mages.

What are they, if not villains who kidnap people for experiments and commit all sorts of evil deeds—so dangerous that the mages of the Mage Towers and Sky Tower stay on constant alert?

“Run!”

“Why is that lunatic here?!”

“Who was it?! Who leaked our hideout info?!”

Those black mages were being utterly steamrolled.

By a single person.

My dad.

“Wow.”

Clap clap clap clap.

Watching Dad wipe out black mages alone, all I could do was applaud.

To be fair, the black mages hadn’t leaked their hideout locations. Their precautions were perfect, and their bases were hidden in places no one would ever suspect.

Their only mistake was not knowing that a regressor—someone who’d lived countless loops—existed in this world.

Regression really is a broken ability…

Even without remembering everything, poking around based on accumulated experience was enough to find their bases.

“If you know this well, why didn’t you wipe them out earlier?”

“They’re cockroaches. Even if you exterminate them, they crawl back out.”

“The black-mage-as-cockroach theory.”

I’d heard of holy cockroaches, but this was my first time hearing about dark ones.
Still, an impressive answer.

Even Pession commented dryly—

“The imperial family regularly purges black mages, yet they keep appearing.”

“That’s because the real base is elsewhere.”

Smiling cynically, Dad gathered the loot and stood up.

“Let’s go to the next hideout.”