Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 244

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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 244

Rena, who had accompanied Arelin when she went to the Imperial Palace with the Crown Prince, had already slipped out before Arelin herself departed.

“There’s something I need you to do, Rena.”

She had come out alone because of Arelin, who smiled so brightly while making a request that was impossible to refuse. But when she later learned what had transpired in the Imperial Palace, her blood ran cold.
‘She had a plan all along, didn’t she.’
She had followed along because she’d sensed some kind of danger, watching how readily Arelin had let Fession lead her away.
“Just as I thought—the Crown Prince can never win against our lady.”
Even when they were children, and even now when it seemed Arelin was being pulled along, at the crucial moment it was always Fession who bent to her will.
Perhaps that was why everyone in the Childcare Unit preferred seeing them together.
‘Though I can no longer see the brightness that once lit his face.’
Rena had watched the two of them since they were young, and she held an unshakeable conviction that Fession could never truly overcome Arelin.
The problem was our lady herself.
“Sigh. When she was young, she was too mature and I worried. Now I never know what trouble she’ll stir up.”
The task Arelin had given Rena was simple: find Mehren and keep him there.
“Is something the matter, Rena?”
“The lady sent me.”
“Arelin…?”
Perhaps because of the years spent supporting him, Rena found herself naturally helping Mehren organize documents before asking him abruptly.
“What was the thing that disappointed you most about the Grand Duke?”
At the sudden question, Mehren glanced at Rena before answering.
“Being left in the Northern Fortress, shut away, with poor communication, while the responsibility of raising Arelin fell to me.”
“Ah.”
“Did Arelin ask you to inquire about that?”
Rena smiled awkwardly.
“So, what else does our princess wish to know?”
Mehren set down the documents and looked at Rena. She smiled brightly and spoke.
“She asked whether you still wish to leave Halbern. But I know the answer to that already. Don’t you want to leave, don’t you?”
“…That’s right. It’s far too late to leave now.”
Mehren smiled bitterly. From the day he made that hasty promise with Arelin, he had become a phantom of Halbern.
“But why exactly does our Arelin care about such things?”
“She said it’s an important matter for finding the Grand Duke.”
“…?”
“Let me see… She said something like ‘Saving Father is my duty, but the place I must return to in the end is Mehren.'”
Mehren’s expression became inexplicably strange.
“So she asked me to hold you fast and not let you go.”
Mehren stared at her as if hearing nonsense, then pressed his forehead with his hand.
“Arelin…”
What on earth is she talking about.

* * *

The Southern Mage Tower in Gairen was smaller than the one in the Capital.
“This is about the standard size.”
“I see.”
“It’s not for nothing that the Capital’s tower is called the ‘Central Mage Tower.'”
“Ah, how learned.”
“Ahem.”
Jemelo preened about common knowledge that everyone already knew, and I applauded him, while the other mages in the Investigation Team cast cold eyes our way.
In any case, the Southern Mage Tower, situated at the very heart of Gairen, welcomed our arrival in a manner that seemed almost suspicious.
“Finally, finally—reinforcements from the outside?”
“Oh, we’re saved!”
It was the complete opposite of the mood we’d sensed in the city before reaching the tower.
“Why are they so happy?”
“Right. We’re not here as reinforcements.”
“Shh, let’s just go with it for now.”
The Southern Mage Tower mages, who gleamed like they were seeing saviors, all bore expressions of dire exhaustion.
Deep dark circles, skull-like faces, robes wrinkled beyond measure, and the disheveled state of the tower interior itself.
“What on earth happened?”
Jemelo, who’d come to his senses upon entering the tower, stepped forward and asked. The mages’ explanation, once sorted, amounted to this:
“Suddenly, strange phenomena began occurring near the Ruins, and the tower automatically deployed its embedded Barrier Magic?”
But there was a problem: the Southern Mage Tower had very few Mana Stones in reserve.
“Since we could purchase Mana Stones directly from the Ruins, we never stockpiled them. But then this happened…”
To maintain a Barrier of this scale, ordinary Mana Stones weren’t enough. The ones they had were exhausted in a week, and now the mages were taking turns in groups of thirty to provide magical power themselves.
“So that’s why they all looked like beggars.”
Evidently exhausted beyond measure, most of the Southern Mage Tower’s mages had already fallen asleep.
“At first we took shifts, one day each, but it got harder and harder to maintain, so now…”
Watching a mage with tears in her eyes, the Investigation Team mages grimaced.
“Do you have Mana Stones?”
“We only brought some for Investigation Artifacts—about ten…”
“I only have three emergency ones.”
Compared to the staggering amount of Mana Stones the Barrier demanded, our reserves were mere dust.
“Ah…”
The face of the hopeful mage from the Southern Mage Tower darkened again into despair when—
“It’s fine. I’m here.”
Jemelo, Mage Staff in hand—when had he drawn it?—struck the ground with a resonant boom.
In that moment, silvery magical power spread across the tower’s floor.
The power rippled up the tower’s walls, racing toward the topmost spire, then erupted into the sky.
Whooooom—
The vast magical force shook not only the tower but the very earth beneath the city.
Yet the people were less startled by the sudden tremor than by the five brilliant lights that manifested in the hazy sky.
“Stars… stars…!”
“Stars…!”
Stars incarnate in the daytime sky.
Even the sleeping mages, unable to remain ignorant of the tremendous aura, jolted awake, their bodies trembling.

* * *

The Southern Mage Tower had been turned to chaos as if a tempest had swept through it.
The mages, who had been unconscious from draining their power into the Barrier, felt Jemelo’s presence and snapped awake all at once, immediately surrounding him.
“I thought some kind of celebrity had appeared…”
Though they dispersed soon after, exhausted as they were, the mages surrounding Jemelo with gleaming eyes of admiration left me with quite the impression.
So a Star-rank Mage is this remarkable.
“Remarkable indeed.”
“We at the Central Mage Tower see them relatively often.”
“But at branch towers or other locations, it’s hard to see one even once in a hundred years, isn’t it?”
That much of a rarity?
“Because a Star-rank Mage is the dream of every mage.”
The Investigation Team mages who stayed behind to clean up told me about the efforts ordinary mages undertake to receive Star’s Selection, and the lengths they’ll go to.
“I knew someone who prayed every day deep in the mountains, yet never received Star’s Selection.”
“There’s also a mage who volunteered, hoping that a thousand good deeds might earn them Star’s Selection—and simply passed away in the attempt.”
“Even the person who first developed Mage Engineering never received Star’s Selection, after all.”
Everyone sighed, saying that receiving Star’s Selection was possible only when one possessed true talent.
Listening to this, I felt considerably conflicted.
“The stars don’t choose—the mages have to find the stars first.”
“Pardon?”
The mages, who had been reciting their catalogue of failure stories, looked at me.
“My teacher told me that. The stars don’t choose—the mages choose the stars first.”
She had said the stars too are desperately searching for mages who will fulfill their desires.
True enough, from the stars’ perspective, we who live rooted to this continent are so small we’d be invisible.
Of course, that explanation didn’t really answer all my questions.

“Then why did they bless me?”

When I suddenly asked this—I who had received Star’s Blessing from every star—my teacher simply looked at me without a word.
Her expression made clear she knew the answer but couldn’t tell me.
‘I’ll have to ask her about this later.’
Now that I’m healthy, I just want to live my own life. Why does something always come up?
“So wait, you’re saying we choose…?”
“The stars don’t choose us…?”
After hearing my words, the confused mages were left behind as I went to Jemelo.
Jemelo, who had accomplished effortlessly what all the Southern Mage Tower mages together had struggled to do, looked at me with a desperate face.
“I can’t move now. Can’t leave the tower. I’m asking you instead.”
You’re dumping a job on me now?!
At the unexpected request, my eyes went wide, and Jemelo pleaded.
“Please. The city’s fate rests in your hands.”
“I don’t want that kind of fate.”
“Please!”
“How did I end up like this…”
“You were going to search for your father anyway, right? Just investigate while you’re at it.”
“Fine. I’ll help.”
I thought he’d just ask, but to be cornered like this…
“Did you ask the mages? Did they say they didn’t know either?”
“Yes, I asked them earlier, but none of them had ever seen anyone who looked like me.”
Then a thought flashed through my mind.
Could it be… Father is inside the Ruins?

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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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