The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 383

I met eyes with the man. His red pupils—always seeming to pierce straight through one’s soul—glimmered like an abyss.

“……?”

Without a word, the man wiped my cheek.

“Huh?”

I was crying. When did I even start crying?

The man spoke firmly, as if warning me.

“Don’t be swayed.”

The beginning of the sentence was cut off, but I knew what he meant. He was talking about the torrent of emotions that had almost swept me away.

Because the man had a presence as solid as an ancient, deeply rooted tree, I was able to calm down quickly too.

But then…

Thump.

Thump.

Why is my heart beating like this?

At first, I wondered if I was just dazzled by his looks—but it felt like something more… like something inside me was reacting.

How should I put it? Almost like an instinctive pull.

I stopped thinking right there.

Isn’t this description starting to sound like someone falling in love for the first time?
That’s absolutely not it, okay?

Thump.

Thump.

…Hey, heart? Calm down.

This body already belongs to someone.

I only have Pession!

I placed a hand over my chest and took a deep breath. Ignoring my overexcited heart, I looked around—and saw the familiar scenery of the space I’d been flying into every time I fell asleep.

Well… it was a bit wrecked.

No, correction.
It was very, very wrecked.

‘What on earth happened here?’

Setting aside my rising questions for now, I looked back at the man—who I assumed had saved me from being swept away by that emotional flood.

“Thank you for saving me…?”

“Yeah.”

“…….”

“…….”

That was the end of the conversation.

The man kept staring at me, frowning like something bothered him, while I focused on ignoring my noisy heart and calmly admiring how handsome he still was—even with his face all scrunched up.

‘That’s… kind of strange.’

For some reason, I feel close to him. Familiar? Comfortable?

‘Why?’

Could he be my real father…?

‘…No, probably not?’

This man and Mom Shione, having a romance?

I can’t imagine it at all.

I briefly tried placing a semi-transparent Mom Shione next to him in my head, then immediately stamped down a baseless but firm conclusion: yeah, definitely not my dad.

“What have you been running around doing, anyway?”

“Huh?”

The man asked in a voice that sounded like a mix of concern and irritation.

What had I been doing again?

“Saving my dad, saving some people, beating up a dragon, saving people again…”

What am I, an emergency responder?

I almost started having a deep identity crisis—but this didn’t feel like the time to worry about my job title.

“But… why is this place like this?”

It had already been ruins before, with that post-apocalyptic ‘everything is over’ vibe. But now it looked like total destruction was actively in progress.

“A lot happened.”

“I’m sure a lot happened.”

Yes, but what exactly?

That was when—

Boom—!

The world suddenly lurched violently.

 

 

***

 

 

 

The world was folding in on itself. As if reassembling the land, everything around us folded, tore, and folded again with us at the center. I screamed internally.

I didn’t want to experience “a lot happened” like this!

“Is— is this okay?!”

“For now…”

The man’s calm reply cut off as he suddenly frowned.

Seeing his brows knit tightly, like he was enduring pain, I found myself looking closely at his face.

“Are you okay?”

“…….”

No answer.
Did he die?

…Of course not. He probably just hurt too much to answer.

With the world falling apart around us, seeing someone in pain reminded me of my past. I suddenly felt sorry for him.

“Do you have some kind of chronic illness?”

The man let out a short laugh.

“…I’m just rarely sane.”

“I see.”

Is he crazy?

Even so, he was fairly quiet for a crazy person. And the dark energy tightly wrapped around his body didn’t affect me much.

‘If anything, it looks like the dark energy is tormenting him… Wait, is all of that curses?’

I froze for a moment at the sight of it—far too malicious to be something one person should bear. It felt like the world’s misfortune had been piled onto him all at once.

I hadn’t noticed before, but as the scenery changed, it seemed I could now see things more clearly.

‘…Who is he, really?’

Watching the man silently endure his pain made my chest feel heavy for some reason.

Times like this, it’s better to stay quiet. I’ll just hold his hand—like moral support.

I thought he might pull away, since I already belong to someone—but instead, the man tightly grabbed my hand.

He must have been hurting alone for a long time.

‘Being sick alone is the worst kind of lonely.’

“…Ne.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

It sounded like he muttered someone’s name, but I couldn’t hear it clearly.

Sssss—

The wildly shifting world slowly began to stabilize, returning to a scenery I recognized.

As the pain seemed to ease, the man loosened his grip.

“…Thank you.”

He looked a bit embarrassed. Would it be rude to think that was kind of cute?

The man looked at me with clear eyes.

“I feel an unfamiliar sense of closeness from you.”

“Oh, same here.”

“Why…?”

Even if you ask me that… I don’t know either?

As I looked at the man—his expression much more relaxed now—I felt something strange.

‘The world stopped shaking too.’

Was it because I’d been moving between hidden worlds too much lately? Or because I’d used so much divinity that I wasn’t really human anymore?

There were things I could tell, even without wanting to.

Like how this world almost felt subordinate to him.

Or maybe… imprisoned by him.

‘Oh right, I still need to go save the Northern Castle.’

That random thought popped up—

—and then something reacted from beneath the ground. Black ripples surged, and something flew straight at the man.

“Watch out—!”

Just as the black energy, thick with malice, tried to swallow him—

The man turned around.

Sssss—.

“?”

Before it could even touch him, the incoming force scattered like grains of sand.

“Uh….”

That was weird. It looked really dangerous.

As I stared at the dust-like remnants, the man tilted his head.

“Oh.”

That’s it? That’s your reaction?

“What was that?”

“Hmm.”

“You don’t know?”

“No, I do. …A nameless wraith?”

It didn’t really look like a wraith, though.

‘It’s only targeting him.’

I was standing right next to him, ignored completely. No matter how fiercely the black energies attacked, the man erased them without taking a single scratch.

Well… he is a native of this world.

There must be something going on… but they’re attacking way too much.

“They’re trying to take my body…”

“Oh, I see.”

……?

Brushing dust off his shoulder where the energy had vanished, the man said calmly,

“It happens all the time.”

That is not something you say casually!

No wonder the slime always made such a fuss about going back whenever it came here.

Would our slime be okay in a place like this?
Well, it is a native creature…

Come to think of it—what is that slime, anyway?

Is it the man’s pet?

‘Living alone in a place like this… yeah, I’d want a pet slime too.’

Alone—right?

“Um… where is your partner?”

“They left.”

…So he really was alone.

Looks like I poked a sore spot. The man’s expression darkened again.

At the same time, the surroundings—which had just stabilized—began to wobble once more.

No—!

“Hey! You can see my face, right? Calm down!”

“I can’t see your face.”

“What?”

“I’m cursed…”

Why didn’t you say that sooner?!

No wonder he kept looking at me like ‘What is this?’

“Just how many curses are on you?!”

“The ones I killed.”

“…….”

Oh my god.

Karma?
Well… I guess I can’t argue with that.

—The moment that thought crossed my mind, the world flickered dark and then returned, as if reacting to his words.

Cold sweat ran down my back.

Wow. That was terrifying.

I watched carefully, thinking we might all vanish along with the world—but then the man looked at me with dull, pain-filled eyes.

Eyes that seemed to be looking at someone else, not me.

“…Saving what you can’t bear isn’t salvation.”

“What?!”

I didn’t have time to ask what he meant. The man pushed me away, lightly but firmly.

—Go back.

With that resolute voice, like he never wanted me to return, the world flipped over.

‘…This is a first.’

As my consciousness kept falling through some endless gap, I heard voices wailing.

—O calamity, calamity. The calamity that saved them.

—Even at the end of destruction, you shall find no rest.

In that moment, I finally realized who the man I met was.

A forgotten hero. A man who delayed this world’s destruction with his own hands, cast aside by an abandoned god.

The calamity that saves.