Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 262

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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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262
Episode

I reached for a nearby book as if entranced.
*Regression: First Cycle, Year 5321*
The book was a patchwork of entries written by many hands, at first glance resembling a worn, tattered thing.
As I turned the pages, I found different languages, each recounting Father’s life from a different perspective.
The section explaining how Regression itself worked had been cleanly excised, but the scene of Father, regressing for the first time and seeing me, breaking down with amazed gratitude—even for someone like me, merely reading words on a page, it was enough to make me pause.
“I will protect you, no matter what.”
His first promise to me. His first oath.
“What am I supposed to do with this foolish man.”
Suddenly thrust into the role of a reader who already knew the ending, I couldn’t hide my conflicted feelings as I turned the pages.
Contrary to my desperate hopes for a happy ending, the story always unfolded the same way.
When I died and Mehren left, Father’s suppressed Madness consumed him, and he met a terrible end.
This part matched what I already knew, but there was something else that shocked me.
“Father was already suffering from Madness?”
Worse—until now, he had apparently been keeping it in check by sheer force of will.
Was that even possible?
Just from the book’s descriptions, I could tell how horrifying his affliction was.
His senses magnified to an extreme—even distant, faint sounds roared in his ears; visions and voices scrambled his perception so badly he couldn’t sleep properly…
“And yet.”
In that condition, he never showed it.
Was he insane?
No, wait—had I just not noticed? Fragments surfaced: times Father had seemed unstable, his usual listlessness. Why had he always locked himself away alone in that portrait room?
I’d always wondered about that.
‘Because there was no one else there.’
Reading this, I wanted to see him even more.
“I need to calm down.”
My vision kept blurring at random moments—it was becoming a problem.
Second cycle, third cycle… with each Regression, he fought a lonely battle no one acknowledged.
Reading this was starting to hurt me more than him.
Wouldn’t anyone give up by this point? Wouldn’t giving up be acceptable? No one would blame Father for it. Not even me. So why did he never give up?
The book said it was only guilt and duty toward his sister, but there were parts that simple explanation couldn’t account for.
So much time. So much pain.
Enough time for guilt and duty to fade, crumble, and leave no trace—and yet Father kept trying to save me.
My eyes burned. I could barely read through the tears.
“Am I worthy of such love?”
I was suffocating under the weight of his devotion, happy and weeping all at once.
“He became a father and made his daughter cry.”
I’d have to tell Mehren everything later.
I was reading diligently through my tears when I suddenly realized that books from certain cycles were missing.
“What? That’s strange.”
There were so many I didn’t notice at first. Cross-checking the numbers, I found another anomalous volume.
*Regression: 572nd Cycle, Year 5329*
“Why are there so many blank pages in this one?”
Out of curiosity, I searched for the same cycle in a different year’s book and found text there—though it was actively being erased even as I read.
“What on earth…?”
“The Valere left alone in the Manor shattered Halbern’s oldest Contract. In the aftermath, he lost the Key, but…”
Key. Contract.
“Did Father break his Contract with Mac?”
That was when I understood why the Secret Library had become this way.
In this world, Father must have been the last Halbern to hold a Contract with Mac. If he severed it, Mac must have taken damage too.
I was reaching for more books to find out exactly what had happened between them when—
Rumble.
The entire Secret Library shook with a tremendous tremor.
“What—?”
The unnatural quaking sent books tumbling from the shelves. I tried to stand and move, thinking I needed to get out of here, but—
Crash!
An enormous roar, and my vision went black.

* * *

“Gasp!”
Everything had happened so suddenly that I got caught up in it without thinking, but the fact that I regained consciousness meant I was still alive.
“Am I still in one piece? Yes, I’m alive.”
I checked myself for any missing organs, but everything was still attached where it belonged.
“What on earth was that?”
I’ve gotten tangled up in various incidents in my life, but this time I truly thought I was going to die.
Why had the Secret Library suddenly gone wrong? Was it connected to the text being erased from Father’s book?
“Ow. But where am I now?”
Now that my head had cleared, I looked around—and found myself in completely unfamiliar surroundings. I’d expected to be thrown back to Halbern Manor, but instead…
I was lying on top of a heap of rubble.
I thought regretfully of Father’s books, which I hadn’t finished reading, but I could always return to the Secret Library later to find them again.
“But seriously, where is this place?”
I could see a ruined building ahead.
It looked familiar somehow.
Since I don’t usually wander around much, my list of places I might recognize isn’t very long…
“Don’t tell me this is Gairen?”
I was muttering to myself with an ominous premonition when someone approached and spoke to me.
“This city is closed. Identify yourself. Who are you?”
“Luca?”
A man in Mage robes—Luca—frowned upon seeing me.
“How do you know my name? Are you from the Mage Association?”
“The Mage Association? Luca, don’t you know me?”
“…?”
Luca’s expression turned strange.
“Is this person mad?”
Hey, I can hear you!
Luca’s face became serious. I matched his gravity.
He pointed his staff at me and asked.
“I’ll ask once more. Identify yourself. If you’re not from the Mage Association or the Alliance, explain why you’re in a closed city—”
“Luca.”
“Don’t use people’s names so carelessly.”
“Stop joking around. I’m serious. You really don’t know me?”
“Who are you?”
Luca scowled with irritation. It was the exact same reaction from the first time he’d seen me.
I was at a loss for words.
Who could explain what was happening?
“It can’t be.”
Had I been transported to another Dimension?
It was an absurd thought, but under these circumstances, it was the most likely explanation.
“Your identity—”
“Arelin.”
“Yes, Arelin. Why were you here?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca’s brows rose sharply.
“I really don’t know. I’m confused too, aren’t I? Why is Gairen closed again anyway?”
“You don’t know that? Are you playing games with me?”
“No, I’m asking because I genuinely don’t know.”
Seeing that my expression was sincere, Luca looked suspicious but answered honestly.
“The Ruins had an eruption, so it was designated a danger zone. No one can live here anymore.”
So the Gairen Ruins erupt the same way in every Dimension.
“Can you tell me who the current emperor is?”
“It’s His Majesty Fession.”
Luca gave me a look questioning why I would ask such a thing, but answered directly nonetheless.
“So Fession is the emperor in this world too.”
My head was spinning.
I couldn’t even figure out what to ask next, and I let out a light sigh.
Whoooosh.
The Sacred Relic Necklace suddenly gleamed, and a tremendous roar echoed from a distance.
“What’s this!”
Even from far away, the shock wave reached us. The ground trembled, and I turned to Luca in alarm, but he was shouting urgently at me.
“Run! Now!”
Luca’s warning didn’t reach my ears. My eyes were fixed on the source of this disturbance.
Father.
Disheveled. Eyes without reason.
The air pressed down, and even I struggled to breathe.
A palpable, razor-sharp bloodlust, even from a distance.
At the sight of Father consumed by Madness, I lost myself in watching.
I knew I should run, but Father was there.
In that moment, Father saw me.
“Run, I said!”
I heard Luca’s desperate voice, but it was already too late.
“No—!”
I felt Luca casting Magic, but Father’s sword was already upon me.
I was going to die.
A sharp blade glinted in the sunlight. When I felt the cold steel kiss my neck, the sword suddenly stopped.
“…….”
“…….”
Hairline cracks appeared in Father’s expression as he looked at me.

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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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