Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 190

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 190

An unknown, forbidden realm.
A masterless Other Side World.
Valere, who had barely ended the relentless battle, planted his sword in the ground and leaned against it, breathing heavily.
“Have I grown that rusty?”
No—in the memories of past cycles he’d only just recovered, there had been no reason to spare his body, no reason to rest. He’d simply pushed through without hesitation.
This vast Other Side World, tangled and remade at every turn into new places and alien landscapes, was plainly rejecting him, hostile to any intruder.
A place he would never have approached in his right mind.
“Ha.”
Valere drew his blade and found the path ahead, a bitter laugh escaping him.
“I’m not in my right mind, so here I am.”
The Valere from the lost timeline—the one without Arelin or Mehren—was a stranger even to himself.
With his own hands he’d destroyed Halbern, wandering in hope that someone might kill him. Yet the nameless power granted by his childhood patriarch’s experiments, and the Ability that earned him renown as the mightiest head of house across generations, had made death impossible.
On top of that, with each regression came new Abilities, layer upon layer.
Memory flows backward.
Like this Other Side World, complicated and tangled into a single mass, Valere’s memory too had collapsed inward—hundreds, thousands of cycles entangled together, all crashing back at once.
When he’d taken it for dream, it was clear enough. But now that he knew the truth, too much information churned together, too much even to sort through.
And yet.

“Do you wish to die?”

A memory still vivid.

“I’ve never seen a human come this far wanting to die. How are you still alive?”
“Hmm? That’s… rather interesting.”

After wandering in this Other Side World until even death became impossible, lying defenseless on the ground—that’s when he’d met that single anomalous presence.

“Me? Does it matter who I am?”

The figure smiled with apparent kindness, yet it was not a human smile.
Was it even male?
The gender remained unclear, the appearance ambiguous, but that presence—that he could never forget.

“Fascinating. Survival is the most fundamental desire of all living things, yet you wish to die.”
“Hmm, you can’t die easily, so perhaps that makes you want it more. Yes, I might understand that feeling.”
“But in your case, I don’t think you truly wish to die.”
“There’s something better than death.”
“I’ll give you the chance.”

This being was the one who had made the regression possible.

“You’re saying you’ll give me another chance?”

A god? No—the gods of this world were all dead. Then an immortal?
The man, burdened with unfathomable power, extended his hand to Valere.

“Yes, I’ll give you a chance to turn back time, to return to the moment you regret most.”
“The moment I regret most……?”
“When you obtain what you desire, the regression will end. How is that? Not bad?”
“What do I desire?”
“I should ask you that. What is it you want?”

What did I answer then?
Arelin’s survival?
As soon as he’d spoken, the other had laughed.

“You can only gain one desire. Even when time itself is turned back, nothing often changes. But if everything were to change—that would be fortune. You’d have been chosen.”
Valere could not grasp what he meant.

“You turn back time, yet nothing might change?”
“A single result doesn’t arise from a single cause. Countless causes influence each other to determine it. Well, perhaps that makes no sense to you yet.”

The figure made a proposal.

“The choice is yours.”

There could be no choice to refuse. A man who had sought death—if he could only seize the chance—
Still, doubt remained.

“Why do you help me?”
“Goodness.”
“What do you gain?”
“Hope?”

There was no need to ask what that meant. The other explained kindly enough.

“A world that always moves toward the same end—I merely plant hope, wondering if you might become a new Singularity. That’s all.”
“I do like happy endings.”

It was incomprehensible, yet there was no need to comprehend it either.
Would he reject the chance if the other told him he was a demon?
Of course not.
If he could only turn back time, if he could only gain another chance, if he could only save Arelin—Valere would bear any cost willingly.

“What price must I pay?”
“Well…….”

What had the man said then?

“Someday, far in the future, if you’ll move for me just once—that’s enough.”

Thus the contract was made.
Through the fading landscape of reality, through the sound of time turning backward, Valere remembered what the man had said, as though he knew the future.

“If you fail, come here anytime. I’ll be waiting.”

Countless moments of failure surrounded Valere. The massive malevolence of the Other Side World, intent on shattering his spirit and collapsing his reason to make him a living corpse, pressed against his skin.
An ordinary human would have broken.
He would have despaired and surrendered to despair.
It wasn’t that Valere was strong or exceptional. Rather, because he had been broken countless times and despaired countless times, he could refuse to kneel before these false illusions.
“I’ve regretted bitterly enough already.”
Valere reminded himself why he had come here.
‘It’s here.’
A Relic that seals any powerful Ability.
A Relic the contractor had placed here like charity, as though to say he could abandon the regression whenever he wished.
‘I have to find it before it’s too late…….’
Now that he recalled the regression, now that he knew Arelin’s rare disease was no disease at all.
As far as Valere knew, there was only one way to save her.
‘To seal Arelin’s Ability.’
If the problem was her vessel breaking under such overwhelming power, then seal the power.
“Wait for me, my daughter.”
Please, let me not be too late.

* * *

Time flowed like an arrow.
Autumn passed, winter came, and spring returned once more.
Snow accumulated in the gardens of Halbern Manor, and while that snow melted in the sun, Albrecht underwent many changes.
The El Sionel buildings were all completed and residents began moving in. The automobile, which had only been rumor, made its grand debut and upended society.
A logistics revolution brought about by the truck lowered prices on goods that had commanded premium rates, and the Capital surrendered to a fever of consumption.
Furthermore, the art center’s symphony hall, which had undergone repairs and remodeling by the following spring, premiered a concert of pieces by little-known composers.
The performance received such praise from music enthusiasts that Sperom’s renown rose further still.
“This is… such fresh music!”
「A performance that opened new horizons never seen before!」
Amid people marveling at the fresh impact, only the mages and Halbern’s staff remained unmoved.
“It’s good, but… something feels lacking?”
“Right. It’s good, good, but… sigh.”
“It’s strange. Even with more instruments, it feels somehow plain.”
“The young lady’s music had true emotion…….”
It was natural that their thoughts drifted to the little mistress of Halbern, whose violin alone had moved their hearts.

* * *

The Halbern Manor too had changed much over the passing time.
When Mehren returned with Arelin, who had fallen asleep at the end of autumn, he first converted her room into a sickroom.
While Arelin’s unexplained hypersomnia persisted, the Sky Tower attempted various treatments, but they bore little fruit.
Arelin opened her eyes just once during winter.
“Home……”
“We couldn’t stay in Sagret indefinitely.”
“There…… the sea view was…… so nice…….”
Was the sea truly so appealing?
Wanting to do anything at all for her, Mehren that very day requested the Magic Tower place an Illusion Magic on Arelin’s window.
So that when she opened it, she could see the late-summer seascape she’d seen in Sagret.
“I’m…… fine, Mother.”
Even as blood traced her lips with each dry cough, Arelin continued to smile.
She knew she mustn’t frown, yet Mehren could not smile in return.
“Father…… still hasn’t come……?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Where is he, and what’s he doing?”
When he’d been in the Northern Fortress, at least he could use the communication orb when his heart burned with worry. But now that Valere had vanished without trace, Mehren’s frustration only deepened.
Halbern Manor had sealed its gates entirely, fearing even a visitor might harm Arelin’s condition.
This unfortunate circumstance prevented the Regent Duke, who was away in the Southern Empire, from returning home, though Mehren showed him no mercy.
“Winter…… is here……?”
“Yes. Snow is falling.”
Though all should have rejoiced and been merry for the year’s end, Halbern Manor lay shrouded in quiet stillness.
Gifts wishing for Arelin’s recovery piled up on either side of her bed, yet she could not unwrap them before sleep claimed her once more.
The medical staff, who had devoted themselves to maintaining Arelin’s condition and her recovery, finally issued their verdict.
“I fear you must prepare yourselves…….”
“Ah.”
Mehren and the Childcare Unit had long wondered when it would come—the moment they’d dreaded but hoped would never arrive.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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