Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 199

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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 199

I first opened my eyes in the Arch Mage’s Domain three years after I collapsed.
“What is this? The afterlife?”
…….
“Enough. I don’t want to be reincarnated again…….”
With a voice that sounded like rusted metal from disuse, I mumbled those words before succumbing to an overwhelming drowsiness and falling back asleep.
My master thought I was unconscious at the time, given all the nonsense I was spouting.
I truly opened my eyes again five years later, when I was around twelve years old.
“…What is this?”
Only then could I clearly take in my situation.
I was suspended in a milky-white liquid, enclosed within a strange capsule where countless Magic Circles spun ceaselessly through the air.
Where am I? Who am I?
As I wandered in search of my lost identity, my master appeared.
He explained everything that had happened to me, someone he’d thought was certainly dead.
My sudden collapse had been caused by my already-formidable Innate Power growing inexplicably stronger, shattering the careful balance of strength I’d barely maintained, and he had brought me here to treat me.
Now that he mentioned it, I did seem to recall seeing some kind of update notification before I collapsed.
In any case, my reaction after hearing his lengthy explanation was roughly this:
“Did you get consent from my guardian?”
“An important detail. Yes, I did.”
“Understood. You pass.”
I was concerned about Fession, who had witnessed my collapse, but for now I needed to focus on surviving.
“The treatment isn’t finished yet.”
My vessel was on the verge of shattering, unable to contain my Innate Power.
It wasn’t just about regenerating my body—I had to elevate the very grade of my physical form.
“Is that even possible?”
“…Countless humans have desired immortality, and mimicking eternity is the very essence of Magic.”
“So because there’s been so much interest in immortality, it’s a field you’ve been researching all along, and that’s why it’s possible?”
“Yes. You summarize well.”
“Isn’t it just that you explain things too complicatedly?”
After that, my master launched into another lengthy explanation. Though I let most of it go in one ear and out the other.
The treatment itself was simple: transfuse Elixir to regenerate and strengthen all of my ruined organs. Simple to the point of being crude.
Wait. Isn’t this that thing?
Pain that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
The only problem was that the treatment would cause me immense suffering.
What kind of treatment requires you to stay conscious without anesthesia or sleep?!
After I boldly volunteered to experience it once as a trial and tasted hell itself, I became a skeptic.
Calling that treatment? The end times. The world’s definitely falling apart.
Sometimes I even had the reasonable suspicion that my master had lied to me.
“Am I really getting better?”
“Yes. At least better than you were three months ago.”
I believed I was improving, but it was so hard not to doubt.
“I want to ask you something seriously.”
“Ask anything you wish.”
“Has anyone else ever received this treatment?!”
“…Yes.”
I pressed further, bothered by my master’s brief hesitation.
“Are they still alive?!”
“…Yes.”
The subtle expression troubled me, but in any case, hearing that they were alive meant that as long as I endured the pain, the treatment would work.
Though that pain was the kind that naturally made you wonder whether it was really worth going through all this just to stay alive…….
My spirits flagged a bit, but my resolve didn’t break.
I have to survive. I decided to live. I can’t give up when there’s a way.
Still, there were times the pain was so unbearable that I’d pretend to be unconscious and hit my master out of sheer spite.
Though it seemed my master just accepted the blows.
“So you found the Elixir here, after searching for it all this time…….”
“All the Elixir formulas circulating in the world are counterfeits.”
“I already knew that.”
I also learned truths about the Elixir I hadn’t wanted to know—that the Sage’s Stone, the primary ingredient of Elixir, was made from Immortal’s Blood.
“That’s knowledge I can’t bear.”
I also learned another unwanted truth: that the Arch Mage himself was an Immortal.
“So when mages undergo Ascension to Arch Mage, that means…….”
“They become an Immortal.”
…….
Did that even make sense? Or was it even possible in the first place? When I pressed him about whether Star-rank Mages knew this fact, my master dismissed the question, saying that if he told them, they wouldn’t be able to undergo Ascension to Arch Mage.
Time slipped away relentlessly.
Each day I was drenched in agony and endured until I lost consciousness, then woke to check if I’d improved, only to be drenched in agony again.
The hardest part was erasing the Protection that had settled into my body because I’d absorbed the Blood of Sloth for so long while sleeping.
“Immortals bring misfortune to mortals simply by their favor, so it’s best not to become entangled with them.”
Mortals who become entangled with Immortals fall into misfortune, wasn’t that it?
“But you’re an Immortal too, master.”
“Yes. That’s already a false statement for you.”
It was around then that I began learning Magic.
“Your power is too immense. I think it’s better to have you release it to some degree. Since using your Innate Power directly is dangerous, would you like to learn Magic?”
Since I had nothing else to do anyway, I agreed. It was also around that time I started calling him my master instead of “mage.”
“It’s funny to ask this now, but master—I’m still curious.”
“What is it?”
“Why did you save me?”
“Pity.”
The answer came quickly.
“Or compassion, atonement, redemption—perhaps hypocrisy.”
Those golden eyes, always difficult to fathom, gazed at me with an aching tenderness.
“And there was surely a reason you appeared before me.”
I blinked slowly.
My master had a habit of speaking in riddles.
It wasn’t for nothing that whenever he went outside, a mage would accompany him as if they were his interpreter.
When I stared back blankly, he would make an effort to explain more simply…….
“You don’t need to think deeply about it. I had a way to save you, you appeared before me, and I made my decision. That’s all.”
I still don’t understand what he means.
“So I was lucky?”
“You could interpret it that way.”
Looking up at my master’s gentle smile, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Well, in any case. Thank you, master. Regardless of the reason, it was you who saved me.”
By the time I could walk and finally escaped the Domain after that war-like treatment process alongside him, I’d already grown far too attached.
To have grown so close to someone nearly expressionless, of few words, inscrutable, emotionally reserved, older than me, and of a different race.
“…Always be careful.”
It seemed the attachment wasn’t only on my side.

* * *

“Ah, so much has happened. I suffered so much.”
The moment I saw Mehren, unchanged despite all this time, something deep in my chest surged. My eyes began to redden.
I threw myself into Mehren’s arms, indulging in the woody scent I’d longed for, but he suddenly pulled me back and looked me over with bewilderment.
“Arelin?”
“Yes.”
“Is it really you?”
Fifteen years.
Mehren hadn’t aged a day, which was strange considering I’d gone from an adorable seven-year-old to twenty-two.
He looked exactly as he did in my memory, which made it even more remarkable.
Though his demeanor did seem a little different…….
“How did you get here… or rather, are you alright?”
“My master said I could leave now. My body has improved a lot. Not completely healed, but much better.”
My condition had stemmed from my powerful Innate Power in the first place, so full recovery would only come through eliminating, sealing, or learning to properly control it.
“How have you been, Mehren? You’ve been eating well, right? Your face looks a bit worn. Oh! And Father? The Childcare Unit? I wonder if they all found new work there. Are the Demon Twins and Harun doing well? And Fession…….”
Mehren’s expression suddenly darkened. What’s wrong?
“His Highness is… doing well. Probably.”
“……?”
Just as I tilted my head in confusion at whatever dark aura he was giving off, Mehren took my hand and smiled.
“I’ve been waiting for you. …Young lady.”
At a title I’d only rarely heard from Father, my eyes widened involuntarily. Mehren’s face flushed scarlet and he coughed awkwardly.
“Anyway, welcome…….”
“I’m home, Mother!”
I was definitely right to survive.

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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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