Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 65

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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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Episode 65

The Northern Fortress.
Humanity’s final line of defense, composed of nine walls and thirteen strongholds.
At the fortress’s vanguard, they were puzzling over a direct communication that had just come through from Halbern.
Beep—beep!
“Hey, what are we supposed to do about this?”
“The Saren Knights Order isn’t here…”
“We’ve been on high alert for days now. Something serious must have happened, right?”
The Northern Fortress Garrison 47th Division fretted endlessly, worried the trouble might splash back on them.
They’d considered picking up and transferring the call, but—
“Never mind. It’s Halbern. Unless you want to ruin your life, don’t get involved.”
And so it remained on hold.
Knowing Halbern’s vicious reputation well, the soldiers lacked the nerve to answer. Their eyes clouded over as they turned away from the communication device.
“The Saren Knights Order really needs to come back soon.”
“Where did the Saren Knights Order even go, anyway?”
“Who knows?”
A soldier who had some connection to the Saren Knights casually offered, “They said they were going to see a dragon.”

“…?”

* * *

Jaren Berg Myvisk.
As the second son of the Military Duke of the Myvisk Family, he couldn’t inherit the dukedom, but he was content with the marquessate, vast lands, and considerable wealth that had passed to him.
Had he wished, he could have spent his whole life in the thriving Capital attending parties and living a glittering existence. But Jaren had chosen to become a knight.
For one reason alone.
‘I want to see a dragon.’
Jaren’s dream was humble.
In this age, where the ancient gods had lost their sanctity and fallen, where even immortality had become a jest, there existed a mythical creature that was said to have existed since time immemorial—the dragon.
Jaren wanted to make a pilgrimage.
“How magnificent must be the mountain where dragons dwell? How sacred would the legendary being be, should I ever encounter one?”
Even if they’d lost the sanctity of antiquity, the mightiest life form on earth, still reigning at the apex of all creatures—what beauty might it possess?
His desire to see a dragon was pure, and Jaren’s will burned bright.
The only minor problem was that his pure determination looked like ‘madness’ in everyone else’s eyes.
“Are you suicidal?”
“If you’re going to die, die beautifully. Just don’t drag us down with you!”
Dragon territory was strictly off-limits to humanity.
Even the black-market adventurers, judged as insane, shook their heads at the danger.
“No, why! I just want to see a dragon—!”
Even if I’m oxidized by the flames it breathes! I want to see it!
But making that long journey alone was far too perilous. Just as his cherished dream seemed about to crumble, salvation came.
A person appeared who, whether as a joke or in earnest, indulged his impossible wish.
Halbern, Grand Duke Valere.

“Dragons? Fine.”

That was why Jaren had joined the Saren Knights Order.
Though he didn’t particularly care for the order itself, he was satisfied enough.
One day, he and these fools would go see a dragon together.
Except—
That was definitely supposed to be the plan!
“Wait, you said we’d go to see a dragon!”
“We did see one.”
Grand Duke Halbern countered as if the issue were obvious. Jaren beat his chest frantically.
“That wasn’t supposed to mean catching it!”
It was true.
Jaren had seen the dragon, all right.
He’d witnessed the legendary creature soar and unleash its Breath.
But still—
“This isn’t what I wanted—!”
As Jaren writhed in anguish, the Saren Knights erupted in celebration.
“Congratulations. You’ve become a Dragon Slayer.”
“Congratulations, Jaren! You’re a historical hero now!”
“I’m not happy at all!”
Jaren grabbed his head in despair.
“Wow, a Dragon Slayer!”
“How magnificent!”
“To the birth of the great Dragon Slayer!”
Poor dragon.
“I just wanted to see it! Sightseeing! Tourism! An audience!”
He’d wanted to have an audience with the dragon!
He hadn’t wanted to hunt it down and kill it!
But when consciousness returned, the dragon was already dead.
“Sob… I should build it a grave.”
Jaren picked up a shovel beside the corpse, which was twice the size of a castle—he had no idea how many centuries the beast had lived.
His appearance was quite grotesque; the Saren Knights took notice.
“What are you doing?”
“Building a grave.”
“Why build a grave? We’re going to use all of it.”
“…”
Not a single bone fragment of the dragon would go to waste.
When Jaren turned back, he found the dragon’s massive corpse already being stripped and dismantled.
‘Poor dragon!’
Watching the dragon corpse be methodically dissected, Jaren swore he would never again wish to see a dragon.
“I need to found the Dragon Protection Association. I have to protect dragons from these barbarians!”
“Yeah, and you’re the barbarian in question.”
“I’m not!”
“Yeah, you are.”
The knights teased him in perfect unison.
“I’m not!”
Killing the dragon had never been his intention. The dragon attacked first; he fought to survive; and when he came to his senses, it was already dead.
Jaren fell into despair.
My dragon… what has become of you?
“Why did the dragon lose its intelligence?”
“What are you talking about? It decided not to speak with humans anymore. It’s not that it lost intelligence.”
“Then why won’t it speak with us?”
“Maybe it doesn’t want to be hunted?”
“…”
Jaren was wounded.
“Barbarians.”
How did I end up stranded among these savages? Whether Jaren suffered or not, the Saren Knights were thrilled.
“So are we eating dragon meat for dinner?”
“Isn’t dragon meat poisonous? Humans can’t eat it, right?”
“Man, I wanted to try dragon steak.”
“Barbarians!”
Jaren turned away, sobbing, as the dragon was disassembled into spoils of war.
The only one who paid no attention to the Dragon Corpse was Grand Duke Halbern.
His dark violet eyes gazed upward at the murky, strange sky unique to the Bottomless Abyss.
“But Your Highness, why did you suddenly enter the Bottomless Abyss to see a dragon in the first place?”
Since it was Jaren’s own wish, he understood better than anyone how impossibly difficult it would be to achieve in reality.
He’d hastily joined the Saren Knights Order when offered a chance to see a dragon, but practically speaking, the odds of him ever actually seeing one were so slim as to be negligible even over a lifetime.
The Bottomless Abyss, a domain of monsters, had a survival rate of 0.7%, making it so hazardous that the Northern Fortress Garrison defended it passively while enduring countless monster waves.
‘And yet he came. Into the Bottomless Abyss.’
To see a dragon.
Having committed an act that would be remembered in history, Grand Duke Halbern’s expression remained calm as he gazed at the sky. As always.
“Who knows?”
“?”
“A souvenir, perhaps?”
Jaren gave up trying to converse with the chieftain of barbarians.
“Who can know what’s in that head?”
“Just enjoy it.”
He’d forgotten: even among the Saren Knights Order—that bizarre assembly united by different motives—the most dangerous, willful, and unfathomable was their lord, Grand Duke Halbern.
‘A sane man wouldn’t suddenly ask to see a dragon after casually discussing his daughter.’
Jaren had given up trying to understand.
To comprehend that man would require sacrificing something precious about one’s own humanity.
Ting-ting.
“Hm?”
Jaren, who had preserved his humanity, was startled by the light blinking into his personal communication device.
“It’s Mehren. What’s the matter?”
Though signals died in the Bottomless Abyss’s unique mana fluctuations, the fact that such persistent messages had accumulated meant something urgent indeed.
“I should head back to the Northern Fortress right away?”
The seasoned monster experts’ dismantling work on the dragon was nearly complete.
“Gathering all this and taking it with us will be quite the job.”
“But seriously, dragon meat really isn’t edible?”
Among the still-prattling Saren Knights, Jaren searched and tilted his head in confusion.
“Your Highness?”
He’d been here just a moment ago.
“Anyone seen our lord?”
At Jaren’s words, the knights stopped their work and looked around.
“Huh? He was over there a second ago.”
“I saw him too.”
And gradually, all eyes converged.
“…”
“…”
A strange silence descended.

* * *

Mehren stared at the communication device that still wouldn’t connect, biting silent curses in his mind.
‘That damn fool.’
If it weren’t for old affection, he’d quit on the spot and retire.
From the moment the tea party was decided until now, the barrage of communications toward the Northern Fortress continued right up to that very day, yet not a single call went through.
By now, it had to be intentional.
“Relax, Mehren. Stay calm.”
Today, it was Rena, not Dilan, who stopped him.
“Haa.”
“We can get our revenge anytime.”
At the sight of Rena’s tightly clenched fists, Mehren released another deep sigh, drawn from the depths of his being.
“It’s our turn. We should go greet the young lady with a smile.”
Smile and my ass.
Suppressing the urge to grab someone by the collar, Mehren forced a smile.
Yes. There was a child waiting inside.
“The guests of Halbern are now entering.”

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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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