Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 243

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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 243

The mages entered the city in a state of high alert.
Though they couldn’t know for certain how dangerous it truly was, the sheer oppressive weight of what lay before them was enough to set them on edge even before crossing the threshold.
They’d summoned massive shields with Defense Magic, equipped themselves with Status Abnormality Immunity, Mental Defense Magic.
And that still wasn’t enough—they’d brought Artifacts for emergencies and even precious Relics.
“Well, why not? A person’s life matters to everyone!”
“No one said otherwise.”
They looked armored enough to walk straight into a dragon’s lair and survive, yet even Jemelo insisted it wasn’t enough.
“At least three of us could fall behind.”
Every knight who’d gone in before had failed to return, he said. And now the sons of Mubisk were in there too—who knew what impossible horrors might unfold within those walls?
Jemelo warned the others that the city itself might be dead, or worse—a landscape no human mind could endure.
“Well then, let’s go in!”
And so they all steeled themselves and moved to breach the barrier—
“Huh?”
Contrary to Jemelo’s dire predictions, the barrier let us through without resistance.
And more than that—
“Is it just me, or does something look wrong?”
“No, I see it too. Something’s definitely off.”
“Looks fine to me?”
“Right? Fine.”
“How is this possible?”
Even by conservative estimates, the city should have been half-destroyed. Yet our expectations crumbled.
“A Ruins Eruption and it’s still standing like this? It makes no sense.”
The mages began murmuring among themselves.
“Then why hasn’t anyone come out asking for help?”
“And what happened to the knights who went in first?”
“Could it be the barrier?”
Everyone turned at once to look back.
The mist that had let us pass so easily on the way in now solidified into an impenetrable wall. Some of the mages gasped.
“It’ll be difficult to leave right away, won’t it?”
“We weren’t planning to leave immediately anyway.”
“Let’s see—mana flow is stable, and the mana concentration is… oh? Quite high. About ten times the standard baseline.”
Watching the survey team continue with their work, Jemelo nodded in agreement.
“Can’t rest until the job’s done. Let’s head into the city.”

* * *

“It just looks like a normal city.”
The streets were no different from anywhere else. That’s what made it so confusing.
How was I supposed to find Father in a place like this?
‘Wasn’t the population something like 1.5 million?’
Gairien had been built up around the scattered Ruins nearby, and adventurers endlessly streaming in for a chance at sudden wealth had made it flourish. That’s why the entire city was divided into five districts.
At the center was the Mage District—home only to Imperial Ruins Management Bureau officials and mages from the Southern Mage Tower.
Next came the Noble District, where the city’s influential figures and wealthy commoners lived.
Beyond the Merchant District and the Common Citizen District—both with relatively small populations—came the Adventurer District, the largest of them all.
“It really is enormous.”
Even we from the Imperial Capital, the largest city of all, were overwhelmed by the Adventurer District’s dynamic vigor.
Naturally. We were sheltered tower residents, after all.
We barely ever left the Mage Tower to begin with.
“Ugh… there are too many people.”
“I feel like I’ve seen a lifetime’s worth of faces today.”
“I’m dizzy, everything’s spinning.”
I clicked my tongue watching the mages complain about their case of agoraphobia.
Were these people really in any position to carry out an investigation?
“Jemelo? Say something to them. How are mages supposed to conduct a proper survey when they’re this useless…?”
I turned to find Jemelo himself pale-faced and retching.
“…Ugh.”
“…….”
You too?
The more you got to know mages, the faster your illusions about them shattered.
“A… Arelin…….”
“What is it?”
“I… Music… please.”
“I can’t do that. Master forbade it, didn’t you know?”
“Tch, I thought you’d give in this time.”
“This person…”
These mages lacked even a shred of artistic sensibility, yet they seemed to favor my Music Performance from all those times they came for Purification.
They’d even started making Music Boxes before, and lately some of them had taken up playing Instruments—they were all quite serious about music.
Among ordinary mages, rumors had spread that becoming a Star-rank Mage required musical literacy as a basic skill.
Anyway, since all these people who’d come here to investigate were useless, I took matters into my own hands.
“Where are all these people going?”
“Where else? To the Ruins!”
My muttering prompted a sharp reply. Startled, I glanced aside to see an innkeeper woman looking at me from her open doorway.
“First time in this city, dear?”
“Oh? Yes, yes it is.”
“Best to cover your face when you walk around. You’ll bring trouble on yourself.”
“Trouble?”
The woman gave me a look that said I should’ve understood without being told, and I quickly grasped her meaning. “Ah.”
“Not all adventurers are bad, but there’s a lot who’ve clawed their way up from the bottom with no shame. You’ve got to be careful. If you’ve nowhere to stay, rest at our inn!”
“Fortunately, I have companions.”
“Ah, you have companions?”
The woman clicked her tongue regretfully, and I smiled at her.
“Innkeeper, have you ever seen a man who looks like me?”
“What? There’s another person who looks like that?”
“Possibly, yes.”
“Well, well, I’d like to see that sometime.”
Newspapers were a luxury of the Imperial Capital, so it seemed the people of Gairien had never seen Father’s face.
‘This is going to be a problem.’
With that appearance, there’s no way he could avoid attention.
“Arelin, Arelin… please… save me…….”
I pushed away Jemelo, who was clinging to me, and sighed.
“I need to drop off these dead weights at the Southern Mage Tower and get back.”

* * *

Just as Arelin was entering Gairien.
The Imperial Palace had fallen into fresh chaos.
Fession, waking refreshed from a long, deep sleep, moved about with renewed energy and vitality, harassing everyone around him.
Griam, as a result, felt he might die.
‘Arelin…!’
We were doing fine, weren’t we? So why this ordeal? Hm?!
He wanted to know how Arelin had escaped the Crown Prince Palace, by what method, and who had aided her.
Wild-eyed, Fession had stormed into the Lord’s Palace and tormented Sirua until the entire Imperial Palace learned of Arelin’s escape.
“How on earth did she manage it?”
The Imperial Palace was not a place one simply left.
Even magic, though universally powerful, was nearly useless against the barriers here.
So by what method had she gotten out?
After conducting an intensive investigation of the Crown Prince Palace and every court official who had any contact with Arelin, Fession received an unexpected result.
“A Magical Trace?”
“Yes, a Magical Trace was discovered in the Crown Prince Palace. It appears she left by magic.”
“Is that possible?”
“Only a mage of sufficient mastery could accomplish it.”
This was what the Imperial Family’s barrier stone administrator—the Imperial mage—had uncovered.
Fession, who had known Arelin was a mage but thought little of it, felt as though he’d been struck from behind.
He wasn’t the only one shocked.
“Arelin is a mage?”
Sirua was equally shaken.
“Is that even possible?”
“What do you mean?”
“Those with Innate Abilities can’t become mages.”
Due to the fundamental difference in how Innate Abilities and Magic manifested, only those without Innate Abilities could become mages.
Innate Ability was the exclusive domain of the Five Great Duchy Houses and other high families, which is why no high-born noble had ever become a mage.
This distance had allowed the Mage Tower to remain separate from worldly power.
“You must be mistaken.”
“It must have been possible because it’s Arelin.”
Though Sirua had been shocked at this unprecedented occurrence, Fession’s casual acceptance made it seem somehow plausible.
Right—she was the person who had survived a fatal, incurable disease.
‘If you think about it that way, does it really surprise you that someone with an Innate Ability became a mage?’
As Sirua was being persuaded by such reasoning, Fession investigated the Mage Tower, which seemed to be Arelin’s destination.
The Mage Tower, having no intention to hide anything in the first place, readily revealed everything.
“She went to Gairien.”
He’d been meaning to follow up since entrusting matters to Mubisk, and this had been nagging at him.
“I must see the Empress.”
“Your Majesty?”
“I want to investigate Gairien myself. I’ll need to follow proper procedure.”
Fession recalled how Emperor Edward had said at the party, “Things happening in Gairien seem unusual; you should investigate it yourself,” attempting to pass the work to him.
The Emperor’s intent was likely “Go, assess the situation, and handle the resolution yourself”—
“But once I’m commanding operations in person, entering the Ruins becomes inevitable.”
Griam, listening quietly, had a different opinion but lacked the courage to object to someone whose eyes had gone mad.
‘Wait, Arelin.’
To think she’d tried to push me away just because it was dangerous—I had to follow and show her exactly how determined I was.
That I would rather die than be separated from her.
‘I’ll die by your side if I must.’

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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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