Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 272
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 272
Fire flashed in Cheiyen’s eyes at my question.
Golden eyes, their pupils narrowed to slits like a predator’s, fixed upon me.
‘So this is what it means to live long enough to see such a day.’
Who would have thought that a day would come when I could stand as an equal to the one who once made me afraid to speak a single word?
I was standing tall and proud—declaring that I was Master’s one and only true disciple—when Cheiyen suddenly burst out laughing.
‘Why is he laughing?’
He laughed and laughed, then spoke.
“You almost had me fooled.”
Cheiyen pressed his forehead, pushing his hair back, his eyes warming as he looked at me.
“You’ve gotten funnier, Arelin.”
“What joke? It’s not a joke.”
Cheiyen smiled, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
“Master wouldn’t take on a new disciple. I’m Master’s only disciple.”
He was in denial.
“You were expelled, so how can you say ‘Master’? And every mage in the Mage Tower trained under Master—what do you mean by your only disciple nonsense?”
“Training under someone is different from what I’ve done. I learned everything from Master.”
“And after learning everything, you’ve been killing his other disciples?”
Cheiyen smiled serenely. His expression was so gentle it made my skin crawl.
“Only I can understand Master.”
Was he saying there was something more between the two of them?
‘I’m going to grill Master about this when I get back.’
What I’d meant to brush off lightly was no longer something I could overlook.
“So Master spared you… does that mean you’ve become Master’s servant? Yet you still rejected my offer.”
Well, a part of my soul had become entangled with Master’s, but it was ambiguous whether that qualified as being a servant.
‘I’m not subordinate to Master, after all.’
But did I need to spell that out for him?
I shrugged, and Cheiyen’s expression hardened.
Tss-tss-tss—
Mist began to coalesce faintly.
I didn’t understand what it was before, but now, as the mist crept upward, I could hear something unpleasant emanating from it.
The sound of something eager to swallow, licking its lips.
‘The mist is alive.’
As the mist rose, Cheiyen’s eyes grew more and more feverish.
“If I swallow you here, Master’s standing will come down with you.”
“As if it would be that easy.”
“Master’s standing is fine. I can swallow it.”
Cheiyen exhaled slowly.
“Arelin, this is your last chance. I don’t want to hurt you, having survived against the odds.”
Tss-tss-tss-tss-tss—
The mist surrounding us grew steadily thicker.
‘I can feel something pulsing.’
The mist that enveloped me threateningly writhed as though it would devour me at any moment. I felt genuine fear that I might be consumed.
Then.
Flash—!
The moment Divine Power from the Ruins flared, the mist vanished without a trace, and I let out a silent cheer.
The Ruins are divine. I am invincible.
Boom—
A vast sound reverberated from the Ruins themselves, and Cheiyen’s expression crumpled in response.
“Cheiyen, can you do anything about this? Right now, this entire Ruins is my domain.”
I felt it just then.
With the Ruins’ Divine Power, nothing in this place could defeat me.
‘Now I understand why Immortals don’t venture beyond their own territories.’
Even a mongrel dog calls the shots in its own yard. Right now, I was that dog.
“Hah…”
Cheiyen laughed hoarsely before suddenly bursting into wild, manic laughter.
“Kekeke.”
What’s wrong with him? Has he truly lost his mind?
I was quietly edging away, trying not to get entangled with him, when—
“This is interesting.”
Cheiyen, whose expression betrayed no amusement whatsoever, spoke to me.
“Very interesting indeed.”
His face completely expressionless, Cheiyen flicked his finger.
“I expected that the one standing before me would be another Immortal, operating by different rules. I never imagined it would be you, Arelin.”
His gentle tone only made me shudder all the more.
“Don’t use that nickname for me. You don’t have permission.”
Cheiyen’s lips curled upward in a smile.
His eyes crinkled pleasantly, almost bewitching.
What was his true purpose?
“What were you doing in this Ruins?”
“I was creating a god.”
Cheiyen answered casually, as if there was nothing to hide. The content of his answer was anything but casual.
“Or rather, I was summoning a god.”
“And what do you plan to do by summoning a god?”
I’d hoped that feigning ignorance might get him to blab carelessly, but he wasn’t that naive.
“Arelin, have you ever thought that this world is strange?”
I narrowed my eyes at his sudden question.
“This world is strange?”
“A world where there are no gods, yet eternal, immortal beings exist. A world where mismatched things sprawl about everywhere in disorder. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”
Cheiyen’s eyes gleamed oddly.
“Gods are said to be dead, yet traces of them remain everywhere, still being maintained. Where did the Divine Power of the slain gods go? Have you never noticed that the stars in the night sky are far too numerous? Never wondered why each star contains power beyond what ordinary humans can fathom? Never thought that Star-rank Mages and their stars are like worshippers and their gods?”
When he put it that way, it sounded odd—but these were things I’d passed by without thinking before.
‘I just assumed it was part of the world’s setting.’
Who scrutinizes fantasy world-building like that? I just cared about when the male lead would finally get with the female lead.
“So you activated this Ruins.”
“I merely added a tiny spoon to the pot.”
I let out a laugh of disbelief.
“By sacrificing an entire city?”
“A god requires an offering to descend. That’s only natural, isn’t it?”
“Do you understand what you’ve just done?”
“Arelin, there are no perfectly innocent victims in this world.”
Cheiyen’s smile deepened.
“It was humans who found this Ruins and dug into it in the first place.”
The way he was shrewdly twisting it into self-inflicted karma was almost amusing. Did he think I was an idiot?
“Fine, let’s say people brought this on themselves through their own mistakes.”
But the eruption of the Ruins and this catastrophe bore Cheiyen’s unmistakable fingerprints.
Where did he get off playing these games?
If it had merely been excavated, a simple number of adventurers would have been drained to feed it before it resealed itself.
“A tiny spoon? This Ruins is draining entire parallel worlds of their blood. Was that a power the Ruins possessed all along?”
He should at least make sense when he lies.
The one who exploited Valere to connect all the parallel worlds was someone else—and my money was on the person standing right in front of me.
“I have no idea who did that. What a shame.”
“If you’re going to dodge responsibility, do it properly! What happens now because of you? You think passing blame onto the people will solve anything? How do you plan to take responsibility for this situation?”
“Must I take responsibility?”
“What?”
“Why should I be responsible for their choices?”
……
A brief silence fell between us.
Cheiyen whispered to me at his leisure.
“Since time immemorial, killing and being killed, consuming and being consumed—this is the rule of the world that humans revere most. That the highest tier monopolizes everything is also an unquestionable truth.”
In other words, he was saying that since the world’s rules worked that way, his own arbitrary exploitation of others’ lives was blameless.
I’d never seen such monumental sophistry.
“Then why did you want to resurrect a god? When a god appears, you’d have a being above you.”
Cheiyen smiled.
His warm, gentle smile nearly made me yield for a moment.
“I’m going to kill Master.”
…Of course he is.
His declaration to kill an Immortal made me frown without thinking.
“Have you forgotten? Master is an Immortal.”
“I know. But I can kill him.”
“How?!”
“If I kill every mage and devour all their stars, then…”
His golden eyes shone with madness.
I couldn’t comprehend it. His ultimate goal in resurrecting a god was to kill Master?
‘But you were so obsessed with him before.’
He’d just said Master’s only disciple was himself. The contradictions didn’t add up, and I frowned.
“Why do you want to kill Master?”
“Ah, you don’t know?”
Cheiyen’s expression shifted subtly.
What am I supposed to know?
It was then that Cheiyen, having been so forthcoming, suddenly fell silent.
“Never mind then.”
“What do you mean, never mind?”
“This plan has failed. Can’t be helped. I’ll withdraw from here.”
“What?”
Cheiyen took a step back.
On the verge of vanishing, I desperately reached out to grab him.
“Hey! Tell me before you go!”
The bastard was cutting me off here!
“But first.”
Tss-tss-tss-tss—
Mist erupted from Cheiyen’s body again. I instinctively flinched and stepped back, but unlike before, the mist didn’t attack me—it simply dispersed.
‘No, it didn’t disperse…’
The moment I realized the mist had seeped into this space itself—
Crunch—
Something shattered in the distance beyond.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle—
And simultaneously, the entire space shook violently.
The instant my instinct screamed that something had gone terribly wrong, I locked eyes with Cheiyen, who smiled brilliantly.
“I’m going to make it so you can’t save anyone.”
I had to grab him.
I reached out on impulse, but Cheiyen’s form dissolved like mist.
– Do your best trying.
At the echoing voice and its mocking laughter, my hands clenched into fists without my consent.
“You crazy troll bastard…!”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————