Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 255

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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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255
Episode
Special: The Grand Mage and Her Young Disciple

“Grand Mage” was a title given to a select few who stood at the apex of the magical arts, but within the Sky Tower, it referred to only one person.
Mercedes, Tower Master of the Sky Tower and mentor to all mages.
This great being, who ordinarily secluded herself within the Sky Tower and rarely revealed herself even to Star-rank Mages, had been shrouded in mystery from birth to the present—a subject of inquiry even to those of Star Rank.
Yet not one of them had ever uncovered the Grand Mage’s true identity. Save for one person, who had learned it by accident.
“…No, this wasn’t something I wanted to know.”
Arelin, receiving treatment for her incurable disease within Mercedes’s domain, was tormented by unwanted knowledge.
“Are you not surprised?”
“I’m surprised enough, believe me.”
“How can you tell?”
Mercedes’s worry that the child—so small she barely reached her waist—might be too shocked or frightened proved needless.
Arelin simply shook her head, insisting this truth was more than she could bear.
For Mercedes, born as one of the long-lived Elf Race and living alone through vast epochs, even such a child was a first.
“Somehow, I had a feeling this place wasn’t ordinary, but so it is…”
“Are you afraid?”
“No?”
Mercedes watched Arelin with curious eyes—the girl was surprised, but not frightened.
“Actually, I kind of guessed. I mean, it’s suspicious no matter how you look at it. This place, and you too.”
“Suspicious? Of me?”
Arelin nodded calmly at Mercedes’s bewildered protest.
“You’ve obviously got secrets.”
She stated it as fact.
“I’m staking my reputation as a viewer of dramas and a devoted reader of webtoons and web novels on it—you’re exactly the type with something hidden in the background.”
Mercedes found herself unable to understand what Arelin was saying.
It wasn’t high-level magical theory or anything. What was she even talking about?
“Though you’re not planning to, like, rebuild me into some villain’s tool to destroy the world, or turn me into an instrument of apocalypse without me knowing, right?”
“I don’t understand what ‘rebuild’ means, but no, that’s not it. Your imagination is far too rich.”
Arelin laughed at Mercedes’s dumbfounded expression.
“Then why would I be afraid?”
“Really…?”
“What does it matter what you are? What matters is that you’re saving my life.”
The child was far too mature. However much Mercedes divided her strength to ease the burden, it was Arelin herself who endured the pain of treatment.
‘I should have known from the moment she woke up and asked if guardian consent had been obtained.’
“Does the treatment process cause you pain?”
“Of course it does. It hurts so much sometimes I want to hit you.”
When Arelin said this, Mercedes briefly wondered if the child’s tendency to strike her during treatment might not be coincidental.
“……?”
But seeing Arelin grin innocently, Mercedes let the suspicion go.
What would such a small child know?
‘It couldn’t be.’

* * *

Mercedes had decided to treat Arelin’s condition on pure impulse.
It was an attempt to escape, even slightly, from the wrongdoing and yoke that had bound her for so long and which she could not set right—Arelin’s treatment was born of that impulse.
On the very first day she broke her own vow never to involve herself in human affairs again.
In truth, Mercedes had felt regret.
She thought it had been a mistake to involve herself at all.
“M…mom……”
But watching the feverish child call for her mother, Mercedes found she could not simply sit with regret.
‘I have to save her.’
If the child were already dead, it would be different, but to have brought her here with promises of salvation and then not give her best was to commit another wrong.
In fact, Mercedes had known from the moment she first saw Arelin what her problem was.
‘An imperfect vessel unable to bear the power she possesses.’
It would be strange not to recognize such a force.
‘A Singularity.’
She understood why her first disciple had taken an interest in such power. Properly awakened, it could overturn the very world.
But…
‘She is too fragile.’
Mercedes had reinforced her by dividing her own strength and shattering the vessel before enlarging it—but this was only a temporary measure.
For Arelin to be fully healed, she had to understand the source of her power.
“Would you like to learn Magic?”
The decision to teach Magic sprang from the same reasoning. If the girl could dissipate some of her power through Magic, they might delay the periods when her body weakened anew.
The power latent within Arelin could not be fully contained even by the reinforced vessel and the strength Mercedes had shared with her.
“Have you no desire to find your biological father?”
That was why Mercedes asked this periodically.
Her young disciple, whether aware of her mentor’s intent or not, only ever said it was unnecessary.
“By the way, Master, why did you buy this ugly doll?”
“Does a young child not need a toy?”
“…That was my gift?”
“Is there a problem with it?”
Arelin looked between the ugly Rabbit Doll and her mentor, then smacked her own forehead.
“This is bad.”
“What’s bad?”
“Your aesthetic sense. It’s ruined.”
“……”
Arelin offered her counsel seriously.
“Master, never go around saying what you think is pretty. Understood?”
Mercedes regarded her young disciple with displeasure.
Wasn’t that cute? Why was she making such a fuss about it? She couldn’t understand the sensibilities of modern children at all.
“But I’m grateful for the gift.”
After jabbering on for a while, Arelin thanked her and held the doll tightly. She felt a strange contentment and fell silent.
As Arelin’s treatment progressed and she spent more waking hours, the time the two spent together increased as well.
Arelin occasionally ventured down into the Sky Tower to play with other Star-rank Mages, but most of the time they remained together in the domain.
“By the way, Master, you really can’t cook.”
“……?”
“Since you don’t eat much anyway, is that why?”
“So it’s not tasty, then?”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t tasty, but… I’d have to say it’s on that side.”
Mercedes felt a wound to her pride. She had thought herself, if not exceptional, at least reasonably competent.
Her previous disciple had always eaten well, always saying Master’s cooking was the best.
Perhaps sensing Mercedes’s expression, Arelin shrugged and spoke.
“If you’re so offended, why not just cook better?”
“……”
From that day on, meals were taken from the Sky Tower’s food attendant instead.
“What? Cooking for you too, Master? It’s not difficult, though… Did you not eat separately before?”
“Just prepare it.”
“Yes, of course. It’s no great hardship.”
Because of this incident, the food attendant mage gained confidence that her cooking was recognized, though it mattered little to Mercedes either way.
“Why don’t you cook for me anymore?”
“Did you not say it was not tasty?”
“Come on, Master. You’re not actually sulking, are you?”
“……”
“You’re actually sulking.”
Arelin laughed, holding her belly.
And then she said,
“It’s okay, Master! I cook even worse than you do!”
“…Of course you do.”
It would have been more surprising if young, delicately-reared Arelin could cook at all.
“Sometimes, even if it’s not tasty, I like your cooking better, so please just make it.”
“You said it wasn’t tasty.”
“I eat it with the non-tasty flavor.”
Mercedes found it absurd, but when Arelin pressed her like this, she had no choice but to relent.
“You eat too. Eating alone makes it taste worse.”
“All right.”
“When I go out and find something delicious, I’ll bring it back for you. You’re stuck in here eating whatever, which is why you make such mediocre food.”
“……”
Mercedes wanted to protest, but her disciple’s assertiveness left her simply holding her tongue.
Yet even steadfast Arelin had difficult moments.
“I miss my mom.”
This was a problem Mercedes could not solve. Searching for words that wouldn’t hurt her young disciple’s heart, she felt the child reach out and take her hand.
“Master, hold my hand.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Mercedes took Arelin’s hand. The small, warm hand seemed far too fragile in her own.
“Master, don’t you ever feel lonely?”
“Not particularly.”
“That must be nice.”
Was it nice?
“Master, is there no one you miss? Maybe not, since you’re an Immortal.”
“No, there is.”
“Oh, who?”
“It’s a secret.”
“Wow, how mean!”
Arelin grumbled, but Mercedes kept her silence. And she remembered: the one disciple who had once thought the world was hers alone.
‘I shouldn’t grow attached.’
She knew she should keep this only as a brief connection.
But foreseeing how she would long for this moment someday, the Grand Mage could not bring herself to let go of the hand she held.

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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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