Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 258

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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 258

Meanwhile, at that same moment.
Fession awoke, separated from Arelin by the machinations of Gremwart.
“Where am I…?”
The moment his eyes opened, an entirely unfamiliar landscape greeted him. Fession quickly gathered his thoughts, assessing his situation.
He had recovered Arelin in Gairen, entered the Ruin, and then…
“…Gremwart.”
Had he grown careless because he recognized the name? Or was it arrogance—the belief that he could handle something of this magnitude on his own?
‘Arelin’s gone.’
Fession’s expression vanished, replaced by a cold, bitter edge.
Panic surged through him like wildfire.
He knew he should hold fast to reason, but the fact that Arelin was nowhere in his sight filled him with emotions he couldn’t possibly contain.
Crash—!
Fession tore through the rope that had bound him and burst from the room.
‘I have to find Arelin first.’
The mysterious Mana that had neutralized him, the secrets the Ruin seemed to harbor, Gremwart himself—none of it mattered to Fession now.
‘I’m still inside the Ruin.’
The oppressive weight he’d felt upon entering the Ruin persisted. If anything, it had grown worse.
“This place… what is this?”
He had to find Arelin.
Even Fession, who had mastered every known script, found the characters covering the floor, walls, and ceiling utterly unreadable. Some kind of force made the characters glow, and though no light source existed, the space blazed as bright as day.
As if drawn by something, Fession’s feet followed the path of those characters. Soon, a vast cavern opened before him.
“…This can’t be.”
From the cracks in the walls all around flowed an incomprehensible force, gathering in the center of the cavern upon a stele and an altar.
A low thrumming filled the air.
Immense energy churned in the empty space—more than he could possibly fathom.
The overwhelming power chilled him to the bone. Fession couldn’t even imagine what would happen if that energy were unleashed.
But of one thing he was certain: the catastrophe that might unfold would dwarf what had happened in Gairen.
‘What in the world is happening in this place?’
Then—
An unfamiliar voice reached his ears.
“A little mouse has scurried in.”

* * *

In Gairen, where every visible thing lay in ruins, I gasped in astonishment.
I saw one unmistakable figure even from a distance.
“Father?!”
His hair was disheveled, his eyes wild and unfocused. The lazy smile that usually played about his lips had vanished, replaced by a grim, pressed line.
At a glance, something was desperately wrong. An aura of menace so thick and suffocating clung to him that it was visible.
‘What could have happened to him?’
Even from a distance, the air itself buckled beneath a crushing weight. The pressure was almost unbearable.
Watching him destroy everything indiscriminately as he advanced, radiating a killing intent so potent I could scarcely breathe, filled my head with vertigo.
“Of all things, even now his face is pulling overtime.”
I retreated instinctively, though I couldn’t help the thought. I found it absurd even as I thought it…
“Really, it’s all a con.”
That face could make even such a state somehow beautiful—add words like “decadent charm” or “haunted exhaustion” or “gaunt elegance” to it, and suddenly it all seems refined.
That’s when Father drew his sword again, and the building directly ahead of him—directly in front of me—collapsed with a thunderous crash.
‘Wait, Master! You meant to say “I’m not even sure that’s the father I’m looking for,” didn’t you?!’
That state of his resembled…
Wasn’t it like the Grand Duke of Halbern from the later chapters of the original story?
‘Why? I’m not even dead, Mehren never left Halbern, so why is Father acting like some corrupted villain?!’
Something was wrong. But I couldn’t pinpoint what.
As my thoughts tangled tighter and tighter—
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”
Suddenly, someone seized me and dragged me to safety.
Wait, I had business with Father.
My protest died before it formed.
“If you go near where the Demon of the Ruin is headed, what then?! Are you a death-seeker yourself?!”
I blinked blankly up at the angry man’s face.
“Luca?”
“What—how do you know my name?”
What was Luca doing here?
Hadn’t he been dead?
“You don’t remember me?”
“You suddenly don’t remember? Who are you, anyway?”
He was holding a small wand, so he was a mage, certainly—
“A mage?”
“Why are you asking when you already know? It’s obvious just by looking.”
“So Luca’s a man. Your hair’s short.”
“What’s with this lunatic…”
“Luca curses quite a bit.”
Luca was looking at me as if he’d picked up a broken item by mistake—
Crash—!
A deafening roar echoed from far off. I flinched involuntarily. When I turned my head, I could see dust clouds even at this distance.
“Don’t be afraid. The Demon of the Ruin doesn’t care about killing people, so it won’t chase us here. Though plenty have died caught in its rampage…”
“Then what does it care about?”
Luca shrugged.
“How should I know?”

* * *

The destruction finally ceased after having completely leveled what remained of Gairen’s commercial district.
After that, I lost track of where Father went.
Still—
“The Demon of the Ruin.”
So this absurdly cringey epithet was what they actually called Father.
I was torn between the urge to pin him down and mock him relentlessly and the unease I felt watching people tremble at even the slightest mention of “Demon.”
“But why do they call him the Demon of the Ruin?”
“How would I know?”
“What do you know, Luca?”
Luca bristled, about to snap back—then I blinked at him with such guileless innocence that he let out a deflated sigh instead.
“Maybe… because he just shows up wherever there’s a Ruin?”
“I see.”
Luca’s eyes said he regretted saving me. When I smiled brightly at that, he sighed again.
When he used to follow Arelin, I hadn’t realized he had this kind of personality.
‘But it’s not unpleasant.’
If anything, it felt like we’d grown closer.
The comfort of a familiar face, perhaps?
If he’d been a stranger, I would have thanked him and left, wary and distant. But with Luca, I found myself clinging to his side.
“But why is Gairen such a ruin? Wasn’t it a metropolis with 1.5 million people?”
“Because of the Demon of the Ruin, obviously. Even the prince abandoned Gairen.”
Something odd struck me about what I’d just heard.
“Wait—whose Highness? Fession?”
“Heh. Didn’t you know you’ll lose your head if you’re caught carelessly using the Emperor’s name?”
“This isn’t Albrecht? What about Emperor Edward?”
While sighing at my hopelessness, Luca answered my question faithfully.
“That tyrant died when Empress Azeni was assassinated by an assassin sent by the Beast King’s people, and afterward he spiraled into tyranny until he killed himself five years ago.”
“The Beast King’s people? They sent an assassin? Why?”
“Why? Did you forget about when the Beast King’s granddaughter was dishonored and died in Albrecht, and the Beast King publicly denounced Emperor Edward as incompetent? It was revenge for his granddaughter.”
Something felt off. The Beast King’s granddaughter—wasn’t that Luri?
‘But I saved Luri.’
Even so, I hadn’t felt reassured until I had a private audience with Empress Azeni, where I urged her to be careful, over and over.
“Because of that incident, war broke out with the Yuyo Alliance, and now the Eastern Front is in chaos. You didn’t know this? Did you come from another world or something?”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“What? Are you insane?”
Was this a parallel dimension?
‘Jemello, rejoice. Your research was correct.’
I’d dismissed the research report by Jemello and ten others suggesting the existence of parallel dimensions as a typical web novel trope. What a fool I’d been.
“Then what about the Magic Tower? Where’s the Sky Tower?”
“The Sky Tower fell.”
“???”
At my blank response, Luca looked exasperated and thumped his own chest.
“Don’t you remember the incident in the Northern Region from a few years back? The dragon and the Magic Tower had a massive war. Everyone thought the world would end, and all sorts of doomsday cultists were running rampant. The World Tree burned, and the Elves erected a Mana barrier in the Sugra Empire…”
What on earth?
I don’t know about any of that.
“Halbern… obviously collapsed too?”
“How do you know that but not the rest?!”
I shut my eyes tight as I listened to Luca’s exasperated voice.
This cursed misfortune.
‘The world has it out for me.’
I really had been transported into the novel.
And into the world of the version I’d actually read.

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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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