The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health – Chapter 356

Author: Asternkm

“Now talk. Where exactly is our mother—the one you kidnapped?”

At my question, the black mages fell silent for a moment, then whispered among themselves.

“Mother? Who are they talking about? Everyone we kidnapped was male except Madam Olivia…?”

“But did that Madam Olivia even have a daughter?”

“Didn’t she only have a son?”

“What? What’s going on?”

Only then did I realize my mistake.

“Ah. That’s on me.”

I gave the outdated black mages a proper explanation.

“Where is our Mehen?!”

“?!”

Only then did the black mages’ eyes widen as they finally understood who I meant by “mother.”

Was it really that shocking?

“My goodness…”

“What in the world…”

“Then the Grand Duke of Halbern is…?”

The black mages muttered among themselves in confusion, then looked at me with shaken eyes.

They were probably questioning my father’s sexual orientation…

Hm. Let them misunderstand.

I didn’t feel like explaining.

Some of the black mages seemed to completely lose it.

“Calling a perfectly healthy man ‘mother’… as expected, there isn’t a single normal mage…”

Hey, you bastards!

“You’re the ones doing human experimentation, and you think you’re normal?! I’m perfectly sane, okay?!”

I almost burst out with
‘The Long Story of Why I Call Mehen “Mom.txt”
Special note: two volumes worth of content.

…but rescuing Mehen was more important, so I held back.

Mom, I really do love you this much. Can you see my filial devotion?

“Anyway! Where is Mehen, you assholes?!”

“You think we’d tell you?!”

As if finally realizing the situation they were in, the black mages suddenly drew a line and refused to cooperate.

“We will not assist someone who cannot understand our beautiful ideology!”

“Beautiful ideology? Don’t make me laugh. You can’t just slap ‘beautiful’ onto anything. Apologize to beauty right now!”

At my shout, the black mages trembled as if deeply insulted.

“Young and hasty mage. Your talent shines, but in the end you are merely being used by a great mage. You know nothing of the truth!”

“What nonsense. You talk like you are in some perfectly pure relationship.”

Snorting, I turned my back on the black mages.

If they were going to be this uncooperative, then there was no choice. I’d search myself.

“Arel, done talking? Then I’ll tie them up.”

Pession, saying he’d picked up something useful, brought a long rope and tied the black mages together like dried fish.

“Wow, you tied them really well! But wouldn’t it be more efficient to just leave them tied here and take one or two with us?”

“Arel, this is their base. If we leave them behind, who knows what they’ll do.”

That was a fair point.

“You’re right. Suspicion until the end. Then Pession, you drag them.”

No matter how strong I was, I wasn’t strong enough to drag them around.

Suddenly, I felt a nostalgic pang for the path of the swordmaster I’d given up as a child.

If I hadn’t quit back then… I could’ve dragged these guys along and bullied them with physical force.

****

Dragging the black mages around, we discovered something: all the magical devices densely installed throughout the prison automatically deactivated as long as the black mages were with us.

Well, it would’ve been inconvenient for them to deactivate everything manually every time.

Confirming that “the prison was an open door,” we began a prison tour—to find Mehen, to find Zilo and Olivia, and, while we were at it, to find the Imperial Investigation Team.

“Hah. You really made full use of people.”

It seemed all the missing persons were here. The age range was wide.

From infants to the elderly.

Worse, there were people whose minds had been completely destroyed by mental-type magic—magic whose use was strictly forbidden by the Mage Tower.

I couldn’t take it anymore and had Pession administer some [physical therapy].

“Pession, give them some [physical therapy].”

Thud—!

“Arel, want me to go harder?”

Our Pession really does listen well.

“Gah! How is this therapy?!”

“It’s a miracle treatment to fix your rotten ideology. You’re definitely going to hell when you die.”

“Hell? That’s a new concept. What is hell?”

“Hah. A primitive worldview without even hell. No wonder you live like this.”

Then again, heaven and hell usually exist as places where an absolute being judges good and evil.

And in this world, the god was dead.

Understanding complete.

As I let out a deep sigh, Pession—who had gone ahead while dragging the black mages—returned.

“Arel, I found the Imperial Investigation Team.”

“Oh, really?”

“Looks like they’d only undergone light experimentation. Their ID tags and uniforms were nearby, so they were easy to identify. I recognized some faces.”

It was like a ray of light amid my anger at seeing so many irreversibly ruined test subjects.

“Besides the Investigation Team, I also found civilians who were just recently kidnapped and classified as test subjects. They’re fine.”

Following Pession, I saw the Investigation Team split in half—one group calming the victims, the other worshipping Pession.

“O light and salt of the Empire! The true future of this nation! Sob…”

“We have received a debt of gratitude far beyond what our humble selves can repay!”

“Our eternal loyalty—!”

“Please remain calm. Our noble and virtuous Crown Prince will resolve everything. Hey! Don’t just pledge loyalty by yourselves! I want to do it too!”

What is this touching yet utterly chaotic scene?

While I was momentarily stunned, Pession—who had been seized by the Investigation Team—looked at me pitifully.

His lips moved silently.

Save me.

Save what, you bastard?

When Pession looked at me, the Investigation Team looked at me. When they looked at me, the kidnapped civilians looked at me.

“……?”

Even the black mages, who had been tossed into a corner still tied up, got swept up in the mood and stared at me. Why are you looking?

What is this?

Why is everyone looking at me?

If everyone’s staring, it feels like I have to do something!

Ghk.

I really didn’t want to step forward, but Pession’s pathetic gaze overpowered everyone else’s.

“Should we let all the victims out first? I’ve never made a door by myself before, but… I’ll try.”

Compared to handling divinity, handling abilities felt like clicking a mouse button. And creating a door from the other world back to reality wasn’t difficult.

“Ooooooh!”

“Oooooh!”

The door that appeared looked like a pitch-black hole that could drop you straight into hell—but ‘trust in the Crown Prince’ and ‘Halbern’s mysterious abilities’ took care of the explanation.

Even the black mages were shocked by my ability.

“How can she use abilities even within a claimed domain…?”

“…Is this the ability we were trying to reproduce?”

Holding the reins of the dried-fish black mages, Pession waited until all the victims had escaped, then spoke to me with a lighter expression.

“Arell, I found a path leading underground. Let’s go down there.”

****

The basement of the old mansion was like a maze. The black mages resisted, saying they’d rather die than go underground.

“Then die!”

We easily subdued the resistance and dragged them down.

“What’s even down there that scares you so much?”

“Y-you don’t know. There are monsters living underground.”

The black mages whimpered.

They claimed their experiments were for magical advancement, but warned us that the ones conducting truly dangerous experiments were underground.

“…?”

But aren’t they on the same side as those people? Why are they warning me?

As I tilted my head in confusion, I felt something.

My magic was working!

“Wow, the tracking spell finally works! Looks like each floor is considered a separate space. Pession, Mehen, Zilo, and Olivia are all underground!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! That way! Olivia’s the closest. Let’s hurry and rescue her.”

I wonder if Dad’s searching properly. Why haven’t we run into him?

The thought barely lasted—once I found Olivia, Dad disappeared from my mind entirely.

“Lady Arellin!”

Perhaps because it had been so long since she’d seen a familiar face, Madam Olivia abandoned all noble composure and clung to the bars as she greeted me.

“Madam Olivia, you’ve suffered. We’re here to rescue you. Are you feeling all right?”

As I comforted Olivia and disabled the prison bars—

“Arel.”

“Hm?”

Sensing something, Pession glared to the side, on guard.

Then—

Grrrrr—!

Amid the ferocious roars of monsters, a man appeared.

“Oh? I thought this was an uninvited intrusion… but it seems some unexpected guests have arrived.”

We should have been on high alert.

Anyone appearing out of nowhere in the black mages’ base deserved extreme caution.

And yet, when I saw the man’s face, my eyes widened without thinking.