The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 379

Sssaaaah—.

The temperature dropped.

Goosebumps rose.

But I still had to say what I needed to say.

“Send me back.”

“Where to?”

“Over there.”

“The Northern Castle?”

“Yeah!”

“Why?”

“Because that’s where I’m supposed to be.”

“Do you dare oppose me?”

Karjien released an unpleasant aura. It felt like that pressure alone could physically injure me.

My body trembled instinctively under the threatening presence, but I didn’t back down.

I slowly shook my head and spoke clearly.

“If that’s what you want, then maybe.”

“Then why?”

When I showed no intent to oppose him, Karjien restrained his threatening aura and looked at me with a confused expression.

“Why insist on going there? Do you dislike this place? Is someone mistreating you?”

You. You are.

I swallowed those words and shook my head.

“No. There are people there I have to protect.”

“…Just for that reason?”

This guy?

Without thinking, I smacked his small head—tap.

“Don’t talk like that, you jerk.”

Karjien’s face instantly turned red as he glared at me.

“You… how dare you… to me….”

“No matter how great a Dragon Lord you are, you don’t have the right to insult the people I care about.”

I stared straight at Karjien, speaking as clearly as I could. Karjien stared back.

After learning the truth—that monsters are reborn and this war has no end—I gained a responsibility to return and tell everyone.

‘I can’t let everyone keep fighting a pointless battle.’

Even if, after learning the truth, they still decided the Northern Castle had to be held, knowing about the infinite monster waves and not knowing were completely different things.

Karjien’s expression twisted.

“Why do you try to resist a future that’s already decided? It’s foolish.”

“So you’re saying we should just sit and wait because the ending is fixed?”

“No matter how much you struggle, nothing will change. You won’t change anything.”

The Dragon Lord’s words became a curse that wrapped around me. Thick emptiness and defeatism seeped into my bones, pressing me down.

What was shocking was that Karjien didn’t even mean it maliciously.

‘He really believes that.’

“Destruction is already decided. What can we possibly do?”

“There has to be something we can do!”

“—Nothing.”

Karjien cut me off instantly. His gaze was icy.

“There truly is nothing.”

I was about to argue back.

Then our eyes met—Karjien’s faded pale-violet eyes.

For a brief moment, beneath that arrogant, cold gaze, I glimpsed something sunken deep like an abyss.

The feeling everyone calls despair.

I clenched my teeth against Karjien’s despair as it tried to gnaw at and swallow me too.

“So you’re saying we should just die? Since everything’s going to end anyway, we should hurry up and die? Destroy the world? Kill everyone else too?!”

A flicker of surprise crossed Karjien’s eyes.

Does this guy think he’s the only one with issues?

My master has depression too, but he’s still trying to live somehow, okay?

When was the last time I’d been this angry? I couldn’t remember.

Anyway, I was furious. I didn’t even know exactly why.

Was it because Karjien’s give-up-on-everything attitude reminded me too much of my past self? Or because of how crooked his thinking was?

So this is what it feels like when your blood boils.

I was just thinking about how to nicely crack this guy’s skull—

Jjeong— jjaaaang—

“!”

The problem was the power I’d unknowingly drawn up in my anger. At the same time as I felt something twisted deep inside me snap—

Zing— ziiiiiing—

The mana field spread throughout the Abyss resonated all at once.

“!!”

The vast mana field that felt like an entire world suddenly shrank, leaving only Karjien and me inside it.

Shooong—!

Sensing my danger, Ether burst out to protect me immediately—

Crunch.

Ether was instantly grabbed by Karjien. Poor Ether.

What was strange was that Karjien’s expression didn’t look good either.

[!Warning! Overload detected in the user’s body!]
[!Warning! Overload detected in the user’s body!]

Energy surged from Karjien into me, and something was drained from me into Karjien.

[!Warning! Overload detected in the user’s body!]

I couldn’t take it anymore.

My strength drained away like a marionette with its strings cut.

I fainted again.

‘Ugh, this trash body…….’

 

 

****

 

 

 

Sss—

The mana field that had covered only Karjien and Arellin disappeared, and Karjien naturally caught Arellin as she collapsed like a doll.

“……?”

But this was not Karjien’s will. Nor was it because he was polite or well-mannered.

It was purely instinctive.

Like—like……

…a dog toward its owner.

With a sense of disbelief, Karjien pushed aside his clothes and checked his chest.

A clearly glowing purple symbol (♫).

When Karjien saw the same symbol glowing on the back of Arellin’s hand, his eyes shook violently.

Bang! Crash, rumble! Boom boom!

With a huge noise outside, the ancient dragons serving Karjien rushed in.

“Dragon Emperor! Are you unharmed?!”

“Just now, that enormous energy—”

“……?”

And then they saw it too.

The musical note glowing on Karjien’s chest.

“T-taming?”

While the ancient dragons stood there in shock, unsure what they were seeing—

“Haha… hahaha. Hahahaha.”

Karjien burst out laughing like he’d lost his mind.

“This is insane. Seriously.”

 

 

****

 

 

 

The Dragon Lord, Karjien, was fundamentally different from other mortal beings.

He was born immortal.

Why are dragons dragons?

The strongest race on the ground.

Beings who soar the skies with vast wings, looking down on insignificant mortals beneath their feet, ruling the world.

The Dragon Lord, the balancer of the world, who lived while ignoring even gods.

…That was supposed to be him.

Unable to believe it, Karjien checked his chest again. The purple note still glowed clearly, mocking him as proof that he had been tamed.

Taming!

The Dragon Lord—tamed?!

With thousands of years of draconic pride shattered in an instant, Karjien’s already-fragile mental state fell even further.

‘This can’t be real.’

Stage one: denial.

‘Why me?!’

Stage two: anger.

‘When that human woman wakes up, should I ask to undo it? Something feels wrong.’

Stage three: bargaining.

‘Ah… I want to die…….’

Stage four: depression.

‘Well, everything’s going to end anyway. What’s the big deal about being tamed?’

Stage five: acceptance.

After going through all five stages properly, Karjien held his head. Still, one thing didn’t make sense.

‘…But how did the taming even work?’

A Dragon Emperor as great and glorious as himself, with countless achievements and merits—there shouldn’t be anything that applied.

…There was.

One thing, in particular, stuck out.

‘Don’t tell me…….’

When the prophecy of destruction first arose and the gods decided to abandon the world, many humans came to Karjien—not just Apostles of the End.

But there was one thing humans didn’t know.

The dragons had already rebelled against the gods.

And they were crushed.

Paradoxically, because they were closest to gods, they suffered the most from divine power.

【How dare you, mere divine pet lizards, not know your place.】
【You have no divinity, yet your arrogance reaches the heavens.】
【You will never bare your fangs at us.】

Who could understand that helplessness and sorrow?

The claim that dragons never stepped forward was a lie told to preserve their pride.

Back then, Karjien couldn’t stand on humanity’s side. His kin were being held hostage.

—So despite those strong claws and that beautiful body, you’ll do nothing?

—Mortal, do you dare mock a dragon?

—I’m just stating the truth.

With his pride already deeply wounded, Karjien didn’t find the human hero’s words about slaying gods particularly offensive.

—Destruction is already decided. If an unavoidable end is coming, what do we gain by killing gods? At best, it’s just delaying a death that will come eventually.

—I don’t know. Maybe we’ll gain hope.

—What would change just by gaining hope?

—No idea. Guess we’ll have to get it first and see.

Such a casual tone from a mere hero!

Was it because of that infuriating way of speaking that Karjien made that fatal slip?

—Foolish human hero! If you actually achieve the feat of slaying gods, I’ll submit myself under you!

In other words, he had sworn on his own name that such a mythical feat was impossible.

And yet……

‘That madman actually did it.’

But Karjien never submitted under the human hero.

After god-slaying succeeded and multiple immortals were born, chaos followed. Disputes arose over whether humans and the Apostles of the End should be killed or sealed, and various circumstances overlapped, leading the dragons to enter the Abyss. Still, the original sin of the Dragon Emperor failing to uphold his vow remained, leaving all dragons as beings that “could be hunted by humans.”

‘I thought that was the end of it.’

Karjien’s expression grew complicated.

Don’t tell me—

Staring at Arellin, Karjien lamented,

“Don’t tell me… you really are the direct descendant of the disaster that saves the world!”