Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 18

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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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Episode 18

“Human.”

As she fell deep into other thoughts for a while, Abracxas lowered his voice threateningly.

As if all the comfortable treatment he had shown so far was a lie, an oppressive aura spread thickly throughout the interior of the Demon King’s Castle.

It felt like if she made even the slightest wrong move, his terrible demonic energy would wrap around her throat.

“It seems like you keep ignoring me.”

His heavy voice pressed down on Iberis’s shoulders. Abracxas’s red eyes that held her reflection flickered ominously.

Iberis, who had been staring at herself reflected in his pupils, opened her mouth without hesitation.

“You’re mistaken.”

“I see.”

But Abracxas was a fool.

He looked down on humans and thought he was playing with them in the palm of his hand.

That’s why even when she recited lies with a shameless face, he couldn’t notice.

It was a misjudgment created by his lofty arrogance that prevented him from thinking that a mere human would dare try to deceive him.

Abracxas, who immediately withdrew his demonic energy, stared at her blankly.

‘He’s a fool, but he’s still a demon after all.’

Nevertheless, Abracxas’s red eyes scanned her expression.

It was an act to not miss the subtle trembling when lying.

However, she inwardly let out a small snort.

‘I’m not scared at all.’

Either way, he was just a combat measuring device.

Anyway, there was a Hero who would come running if she just called, and Abracxas was a demon who couldn’t even use his proper power.

One who was too afraid of the Hero to lift a finger against her, a mere human.

Iberis left Abracxas alone and opened the book she had brought from the library in the morning.

Potato, who had approached at some point, settled down and sat beside her.

Iberis, who had been stroking his soft brown fur, leaned against Potato and began reading the book.

Then Abracxas, who had been standing there blankly like a borrowed barley sack, poked at her.

“Hey.”

“…”

“I said hey.”

“…”

“Human?”

“Ugh, stop bothering me! Go ask Potato to play with you!”

“Kying!”

Potato blatantly turned his head away as if refusing.

Right, you think I’m better than that dark guy over there too, don’t you?

When Iberis turned away from Abracxas and stretched Potato’s chubby cheeks, he shouted.

“Human! Keep ignoring me and you’ll be in big trouble!”

“Herooo!”

Does he think he’s the only one who can shout?

When she raised her voice to call Adam, Abracxas rushed over and covered her mouth.

“Wait a minuteee!”

“That’s right.”

Iberis, who immediately composed her expression, nonchalantly read her book as if nothing had happened.

She hadn’t been able to read much because Abracxas had been chattering beside her.

Abracxas, who belatedly realized he had been toyed with, trembled beside her.

Then he suddenly disappeared somewhere.

‘Finally I can read comfortably.’

However, this time Potato was the troublemaker.

“Kying. Kyiing.”

“Yes yes, I’ll play ball with you later.”

As if that wasn’t what he meant, Potato kept tugging at her clothes. He seemed to want to go out, but this was the best place to read books.

How nice that the bothersome Abracxas was gone too.

While stroking the whining Potato’s brown fur, Iberis became absorbed in her book.

The book titled ‘Untitled’ from the first page described the battles between past Heroes and Demon Kings.

‘But why did they write so much praise about the Demon King?’

Since Adam was the 7th Hero, it contained content from the 1st to 6th generations.

All past Heroes had entered the Demon King’s Castle with two or more companions.

Seeing that every single one brought companions made her feel sorry for Adam.

‘Maybe I should have made him some friends after all…’

But that was the condition for the hidden route. Even now that she was inside the game, she still didn’t know the reason why.

The condition not to kill monsters was…

“Kying?”

Iberis looked at Potato.

Unlike their first meeting, his red eyes were so gentle they could be called round.

He showed no intention of attacking people at all.

It had been a long time since he was made to submit with the submission stone, so the Hero’s will who possessed the submission stone wasn’t involved – it was purely Potato’s own will.

‘If you can befriend monsters, it’s better not to kill them.’

Among countless playthroughs, when monsters attacked Heroes who entered the Demon King’s Castle, it was only to protect their territory.

If you respect their territory and don’t invade it, monsters won’t attack.

Since they weren’t intentionally created by the Demon King, but were just naturally born from being influenced by the Demon King’s demonic energy, they didn’t unconditionally obey him either.

This would be unknown content since they had killed all monsters on sight until now.

“Huh?”

The book quickly showed its end.

Except for the beginning part, it was all blank paper. She irritably flipped through the pages.

However, even when quickly turning from the back pages, not a single letter was visible.

“What is this?”

Only information about past Heroes was written. How old he was, what kind of companions he brought.

Also, when he died.

Except for the last 6th Hero before Adam, their years were written down.

‘Almost all of them died young.’

She traced with her finger the years where their birth and death were written. Somehow it felt pitiful.

They all died before reaching thirty.

Probably because they overworked their bodies to become Heroes from a young age, they died early.

‘Is that why the Quest was given to Adam not to die like that?’

The last 6th Hero, Lawrence Evant.

He too, whose death year was left blank, probably ended his life early like the other Heroes.

The content ending with ‘And the Hero entered the Demon King’s Castle’ felt somehow empty.

Because there was no story after that.

Of course, it would also be strange to have a book in the Demon King’s Castle that ended with ‘The Demon King was finally defeated by the Hero.’

‘Maybe he was such a narcissist that he collected everything related to the Demon King.’

Or it could have been a trace of his effort not to follow the procedures of the previous Demon King.

Anyway, she had just wasted time.

The moment she closed the book, Abracxas’s face, who had disappeared, came into view.

In his hands was an object that was familiar yet something she was seeing for the first time in this place.

Iberis, who was about to act like she knew what it was, quickly changed her words.

“What is that?”

“It’s a very, very old wine that has been here since the Demon King’s Castle was built.”

“…!”

“You know that wine gets richer in flavor the older it gets, right? Will you still keep ignoring me? I know where there’s a lot of this stuff.”

“Great noble lord!”

Oh my, how could lowly me fail to recognize a noble sir!

Iberis quickly changed her expression and shouted.

* * *

Abracxas, who had brought wine from the basement, filled both his and her glasses with alcohol.

Unlike his usual snickering tone, his voice was so rigid that she would have felt a sense of incongruity if she were in her right mind.

However, Iberis was in no state to make proper judgments.

“Tell me everything you know about the Hero.”

When had it started?

Probably from when she entered the room. It must have been from when Abracxas whispered something in her ear.

Even though she hadn’t drunk any alcohol, her head felt dizzy. It felt like someone was grabbing her head and forcibly shaking it.

Frowning at the nauseating sensation, Iberis began rambling incoherently.

“The Hero…”

“Yes, you must know something about the Hero, right? Something he told you separately.”

Abracxas sipped his wine. He drank repeatedly, using the information that would soon spill from Iberis as his appetizer. Iberis tried to come to her senses, but her mouth moved without her knowing.

“Adam, no, the Hero… said he didn’t want to be the Hero… He said he wanted to grow up as an ordinary farmer, but he’s the protagonist, so what could be done. To see the ending, he had to receive the oracle, and I merely gave him choices…”

Contrary to her will, the words came out on their own. It wasn’t the effect of alcohol. Abracxas transferred the wine he had poured into Iberis’s glass to his own and continued drinking.

“Oracle? Choices? Those are words as if you were some kind of god.”

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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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