Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 221

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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 221

My mother in my past life was a meticulous planner. Mehren, whom I’d taken as my mother now, was also meticulous. From what I’d seen of the past through the Laplace Demon, my mother Sione was meticulous too.
‘Then whose traits did I inherit?’
An unexpected abduction, and an even more unexpected connection to the Black Market.
Dazzled by the name Black Market, I’d rushed in headlong, but the situation that unfolded was nothing like what I’d imagined.
Originally, my plan had been simple.
If I could steal the Artifact before the Black Market opened, fine. If not, so be it.
Honestly, I’d have been happy getting the Artifact a day sooner by any means.
With that mindset, I’d thrown myself in recklessly.
After all, I was confident I could slip away no matter what happened.
But then.
“Ugh….”
This place held not just human slaves, but vast numbers of demihumans and fairies too. And there were many children among them.
‘If I just leave, I know I’ll think about this before I fall asleep.’
I have no obligation to save these people.
No reason, either.
Yet why did I hesitate?
The education I’d received in my past life, the morality instilled in me—they kept shackling my feet.
I couldn’t forget their faces.
“Damn. Who was it that grew up in such a comfortable world?”
Was this the karmic payback for running my mouth carelessly to Fession as a child?
Fortunately, someone came to help with my dilemma—Silby, the young noble I’d happened to rescue.
“The auction will open within a week, even if it’s delayed?”
“Yes. I’d estimate it will open within three or four days.”
“How do you know that?”
“A journalist’s intuition, and information I already had…?”
“Hmm.”
True to form for the owner of the Albrecht Times.
The quality of her information was different.
So maybe there was a way to save these people, secure the Artifact, and escape ourselves?
“How will you escape?”
“Well, I’m a mage, you see.”
“Stop joking around.”
At first, Silby absolutely refused to believe I was a mage.
“You don’t have a Mage’s Robe, you’re not carrying a Wand or Staff, and you don’t have any distinctive Magical Tools either. How can you possibly claim to be a mage? Please stop saying such ridiculous things.”
With that machine-gun barrage of words and the extraordinary deductive powers of a grim reaper who brought death wherever she went, Silby had steadfastly refused to believe me….
“Ugh, there’s a barrier here so I can’t even demonstrate my magic!”
“But you can identify the types of Magic that are bound to things, right?”
“That much I can do.”
Fortunately, I barely proved myself a mage by correctly identifying the types of Magic in the Magical Tools Silby possessed.
Being a mage is exhausting.
“You got them all…!”
“Don’t expect other mages to do this, so don’t try testing them, all right?”
“Why?”
“How should I know?”
But I could do it just fine.
Other mages had to read Spell Formulas or find distinctive Mana traces to figure things out. Only my mentor could perceive them instantly like I did.
Anyway.
If the auction would open soon, it seemed worth waiting.
‘Mehren will worry… I’m sorry!’
In three or four days, we’d definitely be moved to the venue where the auction would be held.
‘I need to secure the Artifact too.’
So maybe it was better to move after the auction started?
Even as I formed various plans, something didn’t sit right with me.
‘How can the Security Forces not know what even Silby knows?’
The Security Forces weren’t idiots, and the fact that a criminal organization like this could operate openly bothered me.
My suspicion was answered by Silby herself.
“Well, I can’t be sure, but… there was a rumor circulating underground.”
“What kind of rumor?”
“That the Black Market employs Ability Users and mages as sentries.”
“Ability… Users?”
If that were true.
“Then this is an auction involving one of the Five Great Duchy Houses?”
“Probably, yes.”
“Hmm. That’s….”
“Everyone suspects it’s Halbern, I think.”
“…?”
Suddenly it’s Halbern?
Even if our family has plenty of secrets, we’re rich enough without resorting to this nonsense!
“No, it really is suspicious! Think about it. The Black Market started expanding exactly fifteen years ago. And by sheer coincidence, that’s when Halbern suddenly reduced its public activities….”
I let Silby’s preposterous reasoning go in one ear and out the other.
For the sake of my family’s honor, I’d have to expose these bastards.
“…And the Grand Duke of Halbern hasn’t appeared in public for fifteen years now, either….”
That was just because my father disappeared somewhere.
“Actually, Silby, I’ve been wondering about something.”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Why does the Albrecht Times love the Grand Duke of Halbern so much? You put him on the front page constantly, even though he doesn’t do anything.”
“Oh, sales increase tenfold when we feature the Grand Duke of Halbern on the front page.”
So it was purely capitalist logic.
“And the Grand Duke’s beauty is something that must be recorded and passed down through the ages! You know how it is, Arelin?!”
“I suppose.”
Is that all it amounts to?
Doesn’t Fession look better regardless, anyway?
“Oh, and now that I think about it, Arelin’s also quite beautiful, like the Grand Duke in some ways…?”
Silby gazed at my face as if entranced.
“Arelin, if you make it out of here safely, would you consider becoming a model for the Albrecht Times—?”
“I’ll have to decline.”

* * *

Silby gazed at Arelin’s face as she sat in quiet meditation, utterly transfixed.
‘What a curious person.’
Though she’d met many different people, she’d never encountered one quite like this.
When she’d first awakened in that dank, humid iron cage, she’d been paralyzed with fear. But Arelin, who’d somehow gotten swept up in the abduction alongside her, was so composed and calm that Silby had become composed too.
And after she’d come to believe that Arelin really was a mage, her trust had only deepened.
‘I really didn’t know what to do.’
The sudden death of her parents in a carriage accident, the funeral, her uncle’s betrayal, and….
Silby gazed down at her Pendant with a melancholy expression.
It had been her fiancé-to-be who’d led her to this place of captivity.
‘The fact that he didn’t show up means he’s betrayed me, doesn’t it?’
Betrayal even by the fiancé she’d trusted.
She’d nearly been abducted and sold into slavery—life seemed to be deliberately piling misery upon her in ways both bleak and cruel. And yet, strangely, she wasn’t afraid.
It was all because of Arelin.
‘What kind of mage walks around without a Staff or Magical Tools?’
Arelin said something was jealous, so she couldn’t help it, but Silby couldn’t make sense of it.
Arelin didn’t seem to expect her to understand, either—her expression fell somewhere between resignation and surrender.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you no matter what happens, Silby.”

It was strange. These were mere words, a simple promise, yet with that one phrase, all her anxiety, terror, and dread melted away like snow.
Silby found herself believing that Arelin’s words would come true.
And finally, that day arrived.

* * *

Just as expected, two days after being captured, the slaves were moved.
During the transfer, I avoided the barrier and cast Detection Magic to confirm that the level above us was the Auction House.
‘They’re managing things pretty thoroughly.’
Given my Daily Magic Usage Limit, I gathered information as efficiently as I could.
“Too bad you’re Premium Goods, or I’d show you paradise.”
You deserve nothing but hell from me, you bastard.
With superhuman patience, I endured the urge to beat the guard who kept leering at me and licking his lips, and I confirmed the location of the Artifact and the positions of all the enslaved.
‘The auction order is goods first, then slaves.’
Thanks to the information Silby had provided, I was able to form a detailed plan.
And so D-day arrived.
I patiently waited and waited through the commotion from above that announced the auction had begun.
The moment I was aiming for came when the guards watching the slaves stepped away briefly.
“Finally.”
Speed is everything in an escape.
There were forty-two doors I needed to open from here on.
Even a prodigy like me had two weaknesses as a mage.
First, my Daily Magic Usage Limit prevented me from launching a war of attrition.
Second, I couldn’t cast overly powerful high-level Magic.
Both stemmed from my fragile glass-like body, or more precisely, the fact that I couldn’t stimulate my Special Ability that was so carefully sealed within that vessel.
‘That’s why Violin Performance is banned too.’
But who am I?
A supreme genius, acknowledged by my mentor himself.
A low hum.
A single gesture, and the Spell Formula I’d calculated swept through the Underground Cavern.
And click, click. All around us, the sound of iron cages unlocking echoed.
“Have a productive day!”
I can only cast one spell?
Then I’ll open every door with that one spell!

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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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