Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 107
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 107
Adam couldn’t help but smile as he saw her face turning back to look at him.
“I’ll borrow your hand for a moment.”
She seemed unaware that she was trembling, so he did it to help her relax.
However, he couldn’t guarantee there wasn’t a bit of selfish desire involved.
‘As expected, she doesn’t know this either.’
As he grasped Iberis’s small hand, warm warmth approached him. How long had he waited for this moment? Through dozens, hundreds of times of suffering, the only reason he started over again was to see her once more.
Only for Iberis.
Adam slowly captured her image in his eyes.
She too seemed to see something through Adam, as her round eyes grew even rounder. Clear glass marble-like pupils that made him want to take them out and treasure them were directed toward Adam.
No, did they look slightly away?
Iberis was frozen like a mouse facing a predator, unable to move forward or backward.
Seeing her posture as if she was about to run away from him again, he quietly applied pressure to her hand.
He had let her slip away at the Demon King’s Castle, but he had no intention of letting her escape twice.
“Eve, are you trying to run away again?”
Adam smiled beautifully.
He hid his ugly heart even more thoroughly with beautiful wrapping so she wouldn’t hear it.
‘You can’t run away anymore.’
After all, you’ve been caught like this.
Adam held her hand as if he would never let go again.
* * *
“Maid, are you alright?”
Coming outside, he fussed over me, examining me from head to toe.
Then he glanced toward Adam, who was alone inside comforting Erwin.
After confirming that nothing too serious had happened, he relaxed his tense body.
Thanks to that, I was also able to relax a bit and calm down.
I pressed my still pounding chest and took a deep breath.
‘I was more startled than I thought.’
Even though the Sacred Relic delivered messages, it deliberately didn’t tell me the detailed contents.
The five minutes waiting for the next message felt like an eternity.
“Of course. Something like this can’t surprise me anymore.”
I smiled deliberately to lighten the mood, but a forced expression couldn’t match the real thing.
Kyrillos, who keenly noticed my state, laughed teasingly.
“Oh my, if I hadn’t followed the Hero’s trail, it really would have been a disaster, wouldn’t it?”
As Kyrillos casually confessed to his criminal activities as if it were nothing, I stared at him with wide eyes.
‘He followed his trail?’
When I looked at him with a gaze mixed with bewilderment, Kyrillos said with his purple eyes sparkling.
“I cast that tracking magic I used before on the Hero and followed him, thinking I might discover the real culprit who’s been tormenting the Hero.”
I nodded.
Indeed, he was completely different from the rumors that called him a scoundrel.
I recalled him quietly seething with anger upon seeing the children who were unjustly captured.
Since Kyrillos liked children so much, he probably became increasingly concerned.
He hadn’t taken lightly what he and Adam had discussed before.
“And I really did discover it.”
Kyrillos shuddered as if he’d rather not have known, as if he had personally experienced why they say ignorance is bliss.
Then he looked at the Imperial Palace emblem on his shoulder, took off his robe, and folded it neatly so the emblem wouldn’t show.
“Haha, anyway, seeing this must have made his blood boil to the limit, right? Our Hero should be careful. Don’t you think?”
Kyrillos made his usual joke, but this time no one would be able to take it as just a joke.
Having witnessed firsthand that it was indeed the Emperor’s doing, Kyrillos’s face was rigidly hardened.
‘Did he see something else besides that?’
He seemed to have no faith in the Emperor from the beginning. Though he had no faith, unless it was pure loss of faith in humanity from the fact that a person would actually do such things.
“As expected, Uncle’s disappearance is…”
Kyrillos stared blankly at one spot as if lost in deep thought.
“To think he’d actually do such filthy things…”
Kyrillos muttered as if he couldn’t believe it.
Having confirmed with his own eyes that the Emperor he served had attempted kidnapping, he looked disturbed.
‘The Imperial Guard we saw today was also someone whose face was well-known.’
Having confronted such a person, he could no longer turn a blind eye.
Kyrillos asked me with a half-dazed expression.
“More importantly, what happened with the Mercenary Queen? I heard you two were close. Don’t tell me she’s also…”
Kyrillos’s eyes narrowed as he seemed to suspect Iselda.
I hurriedly defended Iselda.
Like Adam, Iselda was Kyrillos’s comrade.
“The note was switched.”
“Ah. It must have been intercepted along the way. But how did you know that?”
I had naturally mentioned information obtained through messages, but was startled by Kyrillos’s question.
“The, the handwriting was different. I didn’t suspect it at first, but when I was about to enter the village and saw the face of someone I’d seen at the Hunting Tournament, I became suspicious.”
“Aha.”
Kyrillos nodded as if he understood.
“You must have been very surprised too, Maid.”
“I was fine because I knew Adam would come.”
At my words, Kyrillos’s gaze turned to Adam inside.
He was having a quiet conversation with Erwin about something.
Given Adam’s personality, I’d never seen him talk to someone for so long like that.
Kyrillos quickly looked away from him and said.
“The Hero was very surprised.”
“…”
“He just rushed in prepared to get hurt. It looked like he could win easily enough, so I don’t know why he was in such a hurry… If I hadn’t quickly joined in, he wouldn’t have come out looking so unharmed, would he?”
Kyrillos continued with a worried expression.
“The Hero really seems to cherish you, Maid. To the point where he wants nothing in return. Including his life.”
However, there was a barb hidden in it.
“Do you think so too, Kyrillos?”
“Mm, it shows. Anyone standing nearby would know. You can see that the Hero only cherishes what he holds in his hands. He’s struggling desperately, afraid that if he reaches for other things, he won’t be able to protect what’s in his hands.”
Kyrillos’s eyes were accurate.
Hearing from a third party what I had been thinking all along made me even more anxious.
“He could be a little more greedy…”
I muttered quietly.
The title he earned but didn’t accept, the rumors that slandered him.
There was nothing Adam had actively pursued.
He just held his breath quietly, hoping no greater harm would come.
If I hadn’t stepped forward, Adam would have just stayed in the Demon King’s Castle, waiting for those rumors to die down.
Seeing my gloomy face, Kyrillos brought up various topics to lighten the mood.
“If she noticed the note was intercepted because no reply came, isn’t it possible the Mercenary Queen is somewhere in this area?”
I nodded.
If she really knew Erwin as he said, she would become the safest and most reliable shelter.
“Just in case, we should look for her.”
The wind that had grown cold cut sharply across my cheek.
Kyrillos saw my nose tip quickly reddening and went inside the cabin.
As soon as I entered, Adam immediately approached me.
“Eve, are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine. How is Erwin?”
“Erwin must have relaxed because he fell asleep right away.”
It seemed Erwin had quickly fallen asleep after feeling relieved upon seeing Adam and Kyrillos who had come to rescue him.
I let out a sigh of relief.
‘But what kind of conversation did they have with Erwin?’
Adam didn’t seem like he would tell me, so I had planned to ask the gentle Erwin, but things didn’t go as I thought.
Unable to wake the child who must have been tense, I carefully lifted Erwin’s head and placed it on my lap as he slept soundly.
“Isn’t he heavy?”
“He’s light, probably because he hasn’t been eating much.”
I waved off Adam who was hovering nearby with concern and urged him to follow Kyrillos who had gone to look for Iselda.
“…I understand.”
Adam seemed to have a lot he wanted to say as his mouth moved, but he obediently nodded and went out to follow Kyrillos who was waiting outside.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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