The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 384

「■■■.」

In a world sunk into darkness after the God of the Sun withdrew His light, a single small glow illuminated one man’s face.

His refined looks—worthy of being painted into a holy mural—and his unfathomable red eyes captivated anyone who looked at him at once.

The voice of light continued.

「You know how dangerous and irrational the feat we are attempting is, don’t you?」

「This is not merely about creating a path where none exists. It is like piercing a hole in the wall of the world and stepping outside.」

「Even so, do you still intend to move forward?」

The holy knight’s uniform the man wore still bore the marks of a divine seal that had been torn away—the exact moment his god abandoned him, and he tore it off with his own hands.

The man said nothing.

The gentle light kept shining as it asked again.

「Are you prepared to live without regret?」

At that kindly concern, the man suddenly laughed.

「Oh, my dear last god.」

「Life isn’t lived to avoid regret. Regret is always there. But if regret remains whether you act or not… wouldn’t it be better to act first, and regret it later?」

The light flickered sadly.

「There will be no such thing as salvation for us, ■■■.」

「That’s fine. I’m not doing this to be saved.」

The man’s expression turned bitter.

「You, and I as well.」

His voice dropped lower and lower.

「We simply cannot accept ‘an ending like this.’」

He looked up at the sky—the sky that had turned pitch-black after the light vanished.

「Because we can’t endure it unless we do something.」

The light rippled soundlessly as it illuminated his face.

「Esther.」

「I pray for your safe passage.」

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

As my consciousness fell somewhere, countless memories flowed in.

The calamity that saves.

How did I not recognize him?

‘The World Tree even showed his face.’

Was this also connected to the curse placed upon him?

“Calamity that saves?”

“He is confined at the center of the world, so you and I will never meet him.”

“Why is he confined?”

“He was punished…….”

“Because he killed the gods of this world.”

A conversation I once had with my master suddenly came back to me.

‘But how long am I supposed to just keep falling?’

Being aware that my mind was endlessly falling somewhere, like into a bottomless abyss, was far more terrifying than I expected. This wasn’t a roller coaster with safety bars—there was no end in sight.

I always woke up without any warning, so I never knew… was regaining consciousness always this hard?

Then, suddenly, my master’s voice crossed my mind.

“The center of the world is not a place that truly exists. It is a conceptual space—one formed by the unconscious belief and recognition that such a place must exist…….”

“To put it simply, think of it as ‘a place that does not exist, neither here nor there.’”

I remembered how the slime and the calamity that saves had both scolded me for coming here.

In an instant, I felt a real sense of danger.

‘Save me! Anyone! Help!’

 

 

****

 

 

 

At that moment, the Northern Castle.

From afar, Valer watched as the fourth wall of the Northern Castle collapsed.

‘The remaining three won’t hold much longer.’

Even though Karjien had grown quiet, the monster horde pouring endlessly from the Abyss was still overwhelming.

That was only because the Lemuren Holy Knights had weakened the undead presence. Otherwise, the Northern Castle would have already been trampled into ruins.

‘…About fourteen hours of fighting, maybe.’

The battle that began in the afternoon had passed through the night and into dawn.

Despite holding the frontline the entire time, Valer wasn’t particularly exhausted. In fact, he felt like he could fight for another two days.

The problem was that no more monsters were approaching the mountain of corpses he had piled up.

And Valer thought he knew why.

An unpleasant gaze had been lingering on him for a while now.

“Come out.”

“It’s been a long time, my son.”

A man appeared, as if he’d been waiting.

Valer let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

‘Even when Mehen warned me, I thought it couldn’t be…….’

To confirm Morren’s survival like this—after Mehen had cautiously told him in Lemuren—made nausea rise in Valer’s throat.

Seriously… how could everything about him be so disgusting?

All the hatred and revulsion toward his father—whom he thought dead and buried—reared their heads again.

Morren smiled as he looked at Valer glaring at him. If this were the past, Valer would’ve already lost control and charged at him. Seeing his son show restraint was almost amusing.

“I’m glad to see you doing so well. It feels like just yesterday you were crying and shaking because you couldn’t even kill an ant.”

Morren’s leisurely tone grated on Valer’s nerves. No matter how much time passed, Morren still treated him like the trembling boy he once was. Valer’s expression hardened.

“Is that why you came here? To say something so trivial?”

Morren laughed at his irritated son.

He was confident he could toy with him whenever he wanted.

“Don’t you want to bring your sister back to life?”

Valer froze.

“Come under me.”

“…….”

“Then I’ll revive your sister.”

Morren was confident. He was sure Valer could never refuse an offer tied to Shione’s resurrection.

He didn’t know how Valer had removed the immortal blood and returned to normal—but if his son was no longer a failed product, he would be quite useful.

‘I needed a new body anyway. Perfect timing.’

Morren hid his ambition behind greedy eyes as he stared at Valer.

Valer’s expression wavered.

As always, the son would take his hand.

Just as Morren began thinking about how to use Valer’s body—

Valer suddenly burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha.”

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because it’s funny.”

“What’s so funny?”

“It looks like you finally found a way to revive Mother.”

“Do you think I only found it? I’ve already prepared everything.”

He didn’t bother mentioning how part of the monster forces had been sent outward to occupy the Northern villages—but Valer seemed to guess anyway, twisting his lips in mockery.

“Just a little more time, and your mother will awaken.”

Morren’s eyes shone with ecstasy. He was finally within reach of what he had desired.

How long had he waited in silence for this moment?

Watching Morren arrogantly whisper as if this were a merciful offer to share his achievement, Valer chuckled.

“How is it that you haven’t changed at all?”

What was strange was that Valer’s feelings now were completely different from the past.

He was no longer afraid of Morren. If anything, he pitied him.

“Father, you seem to think you’re in some tragic, once-in-a-century romance… but no matter how I look at it, you lost to my sister.”

Reviving the one you love, making her eternally immortal and your possession so she can never escape into death again?

It was violent, arrogant, and possessive love.

But even that paled compared to the love that had once saved him.

“You don’t even know why Mom committed suicide in the first place.”

Valer looked at the man who alone didn’t know the truth—something both son and daughter knew—and who still couldn’t forgive the wife who left him of her own will.

Morren’s face hardened as if insulted, and he growled lowly.

“You cannot defy me, my son.”

“Haha.”

A month ago, that might’ve been true.

“Not anymore.”

Valer finally understood why his sister had worked so hard to give his life meaning.

Even after she placed this life into his hands, there were still so many who wanted to take it away.

The time he’d wandered, bound by guilt and blind duty.

At the end of a life spent merely existing, Valer had finally found a reason he had to live.

He simply wanted to live.

“My real dad died a long time ago. I killed him.”

The son who once cowered before his father was gone.

“……!”

Morren burned with cold fury at his son’s words—then widened his eyes at what Valer took out.

“That is—!”

Clink—.

A clear bell rang out across the land filled with deathly energy.

“Ugh!”

Morren dropped to his knees, unable to endure the sound. Valer looked down at him indifferently.

“The Bell of the Dead. You’re not going to say you don’t know it. It’s one of Lemuren’s holy relics, meant to guide the dead to rest.”

“Why—why do you have that?!”

“I borrowed it. Just in case. I’ve been saving it until now.”

That Morren had lived in the hidden world.
That only his soul had moved when he died.

With just the clues Mehen gave him, it wasn’t hard to guess Morren’s condition.

His arrogant father would never have signed a soul-binding contract, even in death.

“All dead must return to death.”

As the Bell of the Dead—revealed to cleanse this land overflowing with the dead after the god of death was slain—rang clearly, not only Morren’s soul, but the souls of fallen soldiers followed the sound, scattering into light.

“No—! Stop!”

“Please leave quietly.”

“No! You can’t! Naeli!”

“Nope, nope. Mother is not for you.”

Valer laughed as he watched Morren’s soul being torn away by the bell.

“I’m sure Mother would prefer it that way too.”

Showing off his fiery filial piety, Valer brushed back his hair as he looked at the place where Morren had vanished without leaving even a corpse.

“Our family mess… my daughter shouldn’t see this.”

Hmm.

Valer reflected for a moment.

“I should do better first.”