Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 193
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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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Chapter 193
Deep in the night, where darkness pressed thick and even the sound of insects had vanished without a trace.
Cheiyen loved the night.
Stars that hid away in daylight became visible to the eye—all of them at once.
Stars, mages, master.
Through memories worn smooth by time, vivid emotion still bled through.
Perhaps the one good thing about becoming an Immortal was that unbounded by the flow of time, one could surrender to the emotions of the present moment.
He recalled the time he had been sealed away in the depths of some nameless Other Side World.
It was a group of humans who had broken his seal.
They had poured human after human into that prison until, at last, they awakened him.
“Guide us, please.”
Children of the Star’s bastards—those who called themselves Dark Mages.
Though chosen by the Star, unsatisfied with that power alone, fearing a future tainted and death, they desired to become Stars themselves instead…
And so they were the traitors of the Magic Tower who had awakened him.
‘Amusing.’
Humans with power wished to become gods.
If they could not become gods, they wished to become Immortals.
For ordinary humans, such dreams would end as delusion, but mages possessed knowledge and ability.
And they had found him—the one who could help them—with remarkable precision.
Cheiyen was an Immortal made by their hands, and the Magic Tower had named him thus:
‘Incomplete God Mage.’
Perhaps they had known this truth and sought him out for that reason.
Either way, Cheiyen did not care.
Better to be awake as anything than to sleep sealed away, and awake, someday he might see—
His master.
Ah, what name did she use now?
Grand Mage, Mercedes.
[A yearning star watches over you from above]
Gazing at that primordial star somewhere in the night sky that kept watch over him, Cheiyen smiled beautifully.
“Master, hello?”
Cheiyen was a nameless star.
At once a dark star that had lost its light, a fallen star.
As it fell, fractured into fragments, it became dust—and transformed into mist that remained at his side.
The epithet came after that.
After he had devoured so very many stars.
With name and record erased, only the epithet “Star’s Nightmare” remained barely intact—and how he had mocked it then.
[The brightest burning star insults you]
[The darkly burning star curses you, vowing to burn you away completely]
Listening to the curses of stars whose power was being drained away, Cheiyen smiled.
“Do your best. If you can.”
* * *
Halbern Manor had always been suffused with an unpleasant aura.
The magic meant to repel unauthorized visitors, the spells designed to kill intruders—none of it affected Cheiyen.
After all, he had once stood at the pinnacle of magic.
‘There was a time.’
He had abandoned the brief pretense of being a child long ago. There was no reason for it anymore.
As he entered, moonlight poured through the wide-open window.
He channeled his essence into the sleeping figure, and slowly—so slowly—those eyes opened.
“Still not dead.”
The heart that usually beat with vigorous vitality fluttered weakly today.
A state where death would be no surprise at any moment.
“Did you come to watch me die?”
Having slept for so long without speaking, the rough, low voice came out sharply. Yet the obvious pain in her throat forced each word to emerge slowly, making her seem merely a sensitive person in discomfort rather than fierce.
This Arelin could not sharpen her tone, no matter how she tried.
Tilting his head to listen to her words, Cheiyen let out a quiet laugh.
“Need to?”
Human death was far too common to seek out and watch deliberately.
Whether Arelin knew what he was thinking or not, she frowned. Long, delicate fingers traced across the fragile skin of a child.
“Humans truly are weak.”
So weak that a breath of mist could scatter them like ash.
“The way you speak, one wouldn’t think you were human.”
“Because I’m not.”
“Right.”
“Doesn’t that surprise you?”
“Is there reason to be surprised?”
Cheiyen traced through his own past and nodded.
“Once, I too was human.”
“I see.”
“Though that’s a very old story.”
“Yes.”
He saw the pallid cheeks. The vitality was fading. Cheiyen noticed his own heart growing clouded. His thoughts grew dizzy.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It does.”
“You can feel the pain?”
“What do you think—that I wouldn’t feel it? Don’t be absurd.”
Arelin, bristling with irritation, suddenly erupted into a coughing fit.
Cough-cough.
Unable to steady herself, she coughed—and blood stained her sleeve.
Cheiyen simply watched.
“Blood…”
Her eyes glistened with something like sorrow, and she gripped her throat, letting out a harsh, metallic sound.
“Why hasn’t anyone come?”
“I’ve prevented them.”
“Do you mean to kill me?”
“Why would I?”
He had merely put them all to sleep because other presences annoyed him.
He had been considering wiping them out, but chose to put them to sleep instead, unwilling to be hated by Arelin—so what had he done wrong?
Looking quietly into her reddened eyes, Cheiyen felt a sudden urge to dissect that small head and see what lay within.
What had she expected?
Did she hope he would beg for mercy? Did she want him to fall to his knees, promising to do anything?
He had never imagined this kind of calm composure—asking whether he had come merely to watch her die.
Was she truly unafraid of death?
“You still feel the same way?”
He had thought she would be frightened.
Still a child, still untested in pain, so her stubbornness endured—but once she truly suffered, that willfulness would break, and then he could soothe and coax her into compliance.
So he had believed…
“About what?”
Even in the darkness, those eyes—tinged faintly with rose-pink—held no vitality, yet they burned with an unbroken will.
A will so powerful it stirred the heart of a bored, weary Immortal.
‘Ah.’
Seeing his own reflection in those blazing eyes, Cheiyen understood at last why he was so obsessed with Arelin.
Simply because she was an anomaly?
He had thought so.
Until he saw her eyes like this.
There was a time when you held the same light in your gaze as I do—when did you change?
Cheiyen remembered the peculiar weariness that had emanated from Arelin when they first met—like burnt-out ash.
That tired gaze: everything was troublesome, hateful, and she wished it all would burn away.
Yet somehow, that gaze had come to shine so radiantly.
It was strange.
Could a person change like this?
Or could a person change precisely because she was human?
“You still intend to simply die?”
Yes, he coveted it.
That mysterious power Arelin possessed—if he had it, perhaps even he could be saved.
“Isn’t it painful? You endure like this, but you gain nothing in the end. You’ll simply die soon anyway.
Cheiyen, once human, knew very well what those facing death feared most.
“Death is the end. There is nothing. You can achieve nothing, and everything you have will vanish. Isn’t it better to survive, by any means?”
At the soft whisper, those eyes watching him wavered for the first time.
Yes, that’s right. That’s how it should be.
Eyes wavering at sweet temptation—Cheiyen knew this look well.
Just a little more pressure, just a touch more, and she would yield.
“You don’t want to sadden the people who love you? It’s better to live by any means. I’m the only one who thinks of you. Just take my hand. I’ll do everything for you. Yes?”
Confusion flickered in those trembling eyes. Cheiyen’s smile deepened.
“This is my final offer. What do you say?”
……
“Don’t you want to live?”
You know as well as I do—there’s no other way for you.
A small hand rose with effort. Watching that hand reach toward him, Cheiyen held back the urge to laugh until he split.
Just a little more, just a touch more—then it’s done. Yes, that’s right.
But just as their hands were about to meet—
Click.
Arelin knocked his hand away.
“I refuse.”
* * *
Halbern’s dawn descended into chaos. A maid on duty checking on Arelin’s condition had urgently called for the medical staff.
Mehren and Uni, along with Rena and the rest of the Childcare Unit who had been dozing over paperwork, came rushing.
“Her body is burning up!”
“Fever reducers!”
“This has never happened—what on earth is going on?!”
The commotion of that night finally subsided as Arelin’s fever broke near dawn.
No one understood what had happened, but it was because the brief conversation with Cheiyen had overloaded Arelin’s body.
As Mehren, exhausted, draped himself across a chair while watching Arelin sleep fitfully at last—
A long shadow fell across him.
“Who…”
Mehren’s head jerked up in alarm and froze. Golden eyes gazed down at him without emotion.
“Are you this child’s guardian?”
White robes, countless stars, pointed ears, golden eyes.
The visitor’s identity was unmistakable.
“How did you… What business…”
Before Mehren could even express the turmoil in his mind, Grand Mage Mercedes dropped a bomb.
“I can save her.”
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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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