Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 208

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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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208
Episode

My master regarded me in silence.
His gaze spoke volumes—as if to say, why on earth are you asking me to find your father?
“Well, you see, Master, you said I could leave, so I went home for the first time in ages. And I have to say—fifteen years is a long time. Everything’s changed.”
My master half-listened as he gripped my arm, channeling his essence through me to examine whether my body had undergone any significant changes over the past week.
With his other hand, he was still stuffing the bread I’d given him into his mouth. He seemed to be enjoying it.
“I barely managed to see Mehren, everyone else who looked after me has scattered to find their own way, and the one person I wanted to see most didn’t even recognize me! I mean, come on. It’s absurd.”
“Mortals can be forgetful.”
“Are you really taking Fession’s side right now, Master?”
I fixed him with a cold stare, and my master fell silent for a moment before returning to his bread.
His plump, puffed-out cheeks were endearing.
“Anyway, in the midst of all that chaos, the most absurd fact of all was that my father—who left home all those years ago—still hasn’t come back. Can you believe that, Master?”
…….
My master swallowed and made an odd expression.
He looked like a man at a loss for words—unable to fathom how to give an answer that would sit well with a disciple so much younger and of a different race.
“My father hasn’t come home in fifteen years. Fifteen years.”
“I see.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
When I fixed him with a pointed stare, my master’s face twisted uncomfortably and he fell silent.
“Don’t you even pity me for being without a father, Master?”
“The way you talk, one would think you were orphaned.”
“I might as well be.”
“…Yet you’ve shown no interest in your own father whatsoever, have you?”
“Why should I be curious about someone I’ve never met?”
My outright unfilial remark left my master speechless once more. He looked flabbergasted.
“Sigh.”
My master, surrounded as he always was by deferential admirers, was weak when it came to this sort of quarrel.
“Please? Would you find my father for me, Master?”
And he was even weaker against his youngest disciple’s shameless persistence.
I looked up at him with the most pitiful expression I could muster, and my master’s face registered pure bewilderment.
It was the same look he’d worn when I once struck him in the throes of agony.
That look of—what has this little creature done to me?
“What makes you think I’d grant your request?”
“Because you like me, Master.”
“Hah.”
“Don’t you?”
…….
My master had been on the verge of a dismissive laugh, but my utter confidence froze his expression. It was as though I’d dealt him a physical blow.
Anyone watching would’ve thought I’d actually struck him.
Fifteen years—long for me, a mere blink for him.
During all that inseparable time, I had learned far more about this Grand Mage than I’d ever expected.
That he was more sentimental than appearances suggested, and that he truly treasured his mages.
That he had taken no Formal Disciples all this time because every one he’d ever taken had met with misfortune.
That the healing technique he’d used to save me came from an experiment meant to resurrect his most beloved disciple.
That he had been able to save me only by sharing a portion of his own power with me.
Even as it weakened him.
So if I threw a tantrum, it would work. It had to work. It absolutely had to.
“Come on, Master. Please?”
I clung to him shamelessly, and my master looked at me as if he no longer knew what to do with me.
“What do you take me for?”
“Master?”
I tilted my head quizzically, and my master let out a silent groan.
“A Grand Mage? An Immortal?”
…….
My master’s expression grew heavier.
“Are you not afraid of me at all?”
“Would you prefer if I were?”
…….
My master hesitated.
My confident gaze—which knew full well that no such thing was possible—left him without words.
Unless he truly wished for me to cower in fear and awe, or to spend the rest of my days mute and worshipful before him.
“Master?”
…….
Uncertain of what he wanted, my master gazed at me for a long while before finally releasing a sigh.
Why did he keep looking at me like I was a troublemaker?
“But Master, you forbade me from casting large-scale Magic!”
“Yes, because such Magic would strain your body. Your current condition—”
“I know. The rotted parts were excised and regenerated, and the wound barely sewn shut. If I used Magic like that, the entire thing would rupture and fall apart.”
Which is precisely why I’d come to him.
Faced with my confident gaze, my master pressed his fingers to his temple.
“……Very well. I will help.”
And so, at last, I extracted his surrender.

* * *

“This is strange. I could have sworn I heard Master say he would help, so why am I in this situation?”
I stood in an auction house—specifically, Sperom’s Auction House, where the Domel Auction, the largest event commemorating the Foundation Festival, was being held.
Dressed to the nines, I drew every eye in the room, yet my comfort level was painfully low.
How had it come to this?
My master had certainly promised to find my father.
But there was a condition attached.

“To cast Magic of such broad scope, I require the Sky Tower’s assistance. However, someone saw fit to damage a portion of the Sky Tower and the Infinite Library. Bring me an Artifact suitable for repairs, and I shall help you.”
“Who damaged it?”
“Your father.”
…….

Of all things, my father.
I couldn’t very well disown him as a filial duty demanded otherwise.
Fortunately, my master did have some conscience—he’d at least told me where to find such an Artifact.
The problem was that it came from the Black Market.
Even Mehren had balked at the mention of the Black Market.

“I have a Domel ticket, but there is no separate Black Market ticket.”
“Why not? Mehren, is that all you can manage?”
“The Black Market’s primary inventory consists of, well, illicit goods.”

He explained that everything from stolen merchandise to human trafficking was transacted there—particularly the slave trade, which Albrecht strictly prohibited.
‘Why would Master send me to such a place?’
Then again, what would he know? He’d probably just been aware it existed.
Given that mages were already grumbling about venturing outside, everyone had eagerly supported my cause with both hands raised.

“I developed that Magic over fifty-three years!”
“I’ve been researching mine for one hundred and two years…….”
“I’ve only been working on mine for thirty years, but its essence…….”

The mages of the Sky Tower were still not thinking straight.
Regardless, there was now only one path to accessing the Black Market.

“There are rumors that the Black Market approaches the highest bidder at the Domel Auction. Let us verify this opportunity.”

And so, presently.
I was attending the Domel Auction under the ambiguous title of representative for El Sionel, the market—neither a mage nor bearing the name Halbern.
“The attendees are quite the luminaries.”
“It’s the Domel Auction, after all. I hear another masterwork from the legendary Lord Grander—one that was stolen and has only now resurfaced after four hundred thirty-two years—is going on the block.”
“…What is that exactly?”
Rena laughed and shouldered me playfully, remarking that I clearly needed to brush up on my art history. It hurt.
“They’re also auctioning the Devil’s Violin, which the legendary violinist Lord Nicolo once owned. Are you perhaps interested?”
“No.”
Any violin I bought would only be met with jealousy from our household’s violin, making it useless—rejected on principle.
Hum—
Ether insisted it was absolutely not jealousy but rather a natural assertion of superior quality, spouting nonsense I chose to ignore.
My plan for today was simple: buy whatever caught my eye, budget permitting.
“By the way, was this auction sponsored by Sperom?”
“Yes.”
“I wonder if I’ll see the Demon Twins…….”
With that thought, I turned toward the auction venue as the time drew near—and that was when it happened.
…….
…….
I collided directly with a man.
Fession’s face contorted the moment he saw me.
“Tch.”line>
If one could curse with one’s eyes alone, I might have just endured an absolutely torrent of profanity.

A sharp, cutting gaze—what are you doing here?—sliced through the air toward me.
This was truly unfair.
“Miss…….”
Rena, cowed by Fession’s lethal aura, tugged at my sleeve.
Given my circumstances, I ought to have been tactful, understanding him generously, and simply moving past.
After all, with the distance between us, I could ignore him entirely and nothing would happen—
But why should I?

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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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