Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 186

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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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Part 2, Chapter 53

‘I hope the Hero can be happy.’

Is it truly right to sacrifice a few people for the sake of many?

No.

The First Saintess could say with certainty.

But should one stand by and watch the suffering of many for the sake of a few?

…No.

The First Saintess answered painfully.

‘If I die, what will happen to the Demon King who will be resurrected later?’

The lingering attachment that remained, and remained, until the moment of death dwelled in the First Saintess’s will.

The Saintess’s will, having become part of the world, chose Heroes as always.

Heroes selected to protect the world.

However, there was no one anywhere to protect such Heroes.

Though she could feel no emotions with only her will remaining, she loved the Heroes.

Pitiful, and so very pitiful children.

She sympathized with them, loved them, and cherished them. But she could not help them.

Without those children, even more people would bleed and fall.

So she hoped someone would finally end it.

A Hero who would kill the Demon King who repeated life endlessly.

With such wishes, she selected the 5th Hero, and then the 6th Hero.

And the Heroes fell one by one.

After piercing the Demon King’s belly and leaving great wounds on his neck.

But whether Heroes survived or met death together with the Demon King, the end was the same.

When the Demon King finally cursed them to torment them, the First Saintess shed tears despite having no face.

She could only watch Lawrence, who screamed unable to forget the reality of killing his lover with his own hands.

There was nothing one with only will remaining and no body could do.

Still, the world would be safe for a century.

But it wasn’t.

One human made a mistake.

They summoned the Demon King, and the Saintess had to choose another sacrifice.

‘No, stop…’

Like when I saw the book containing the Hero’s life in the Demon King’s Castle.

When Adam’s face appeared, I screamed. At least he’s living well in this cycle. Maybe he’ll be different from the previous Heroes.

But the Saintess did not grant my wish.

Adam died.

He kept dying and repeating life again…

He killed the Demon King and kept dying strangely.

Outside the game, it ended the moment the Hero killed the Demon King.

After the ending credits rolled, there was no way to know what happened to the Hero.

But Adam’s life after the ending was miserable.

Consumed by the curse, he sometimes killed his own companions, and sometimes lost his life and his companions’ lives to the Emperor’s schemes.

And I suddenly remembered.

‘Why is it only Adam who doesn’t just do it once?’

Other Heroes don’t regress, so why only Adam.

After dozens of Adam’s lifetimes passed, I belatedly recalled part of my memory.

It was a memory I had forgotten because it was too familiar and trivial.

The Hero who was about to enter the Demon King’s Castle suddenly stopped and spoke to me in the air.

“God… Will I ever truly be able to be happy? In a quiet place where no one calls for me, mingling with ordinary people and living truly ordinary lives.”

When Adam asked, I naturally answered yes.

Adam in my memory smiled gently.

Ah, he had been remembering since then.

Starting with my words, he had been remembering the regressions.

And he enters the Demon King’s Castle and dies again and regresses.

I couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

I wanted to stop watching, so I sat down and clutched my head.

I hoped I wouldn’t hear or see anything.

How much time had passed?

When I heard nothing, I slowly raised my head.

What I saw was an entirely white space.

It wasn’t the endless curse of regression or memories of the past.

‘Where is this…?’

I saw a woman sitting in the middle of the entirely white space.

Black hair with a pure white veil and black eyes. She wore priest robes, but with more elaborate embroidery than even the Elderly High Priest.

And she had the face of an unfamiliar Asian person.

On the ring finger of her hands clasped together as if in prayer was a sacred ring.

It was the face I had seen in the first memory of the past.

‘The Saintess…’

It was her, who had smiled innocently like a child toward the Hero.

Though she no longer smiled and sat with her eyes closed and mouth tightly shut, I could recognize her.

The Saintess kneeling alone seemed not to notice my presence.

Though she was surely a noble Saintess, she strangely knelt and prayed earnestly to someone.

“It’s true that I shared power with Heroes throughout generations to kill the Demon King I ultimately failed to kill completely. Though it was greed born from wanting to save people, I never intended to make individual lives unhappy, so please make them happy. Even one, even just one person…”

I didn’t know to whom she was making this wish.

But the wish was not granted.

Eventually, the Saintess stopped choosing Heroes with her own hands.

She decided to leave it to someone else since they would die anyway.

The Saintess, fused with the world, turned her head to look at the other world where she originally lived.

And what lingered in her gaze was.

‘That’s…’

It was me.

Me from when I was playing 【Dragon’s Horn】.

I was challenging countless cycles, I don’t know how many times.

The Saintess asked in a self-deprecating voice.

It was more like talking to herself, not expecting an answer.

“When will those children ever be able to be happy?”

But what was visible beside such a Saintess was yet another death of Adam.

The Saintess muttered as if expressing frustration.

“In the end, I won’t be able to save him this time either…”

At that moment, my past self spoke.

“I’ll do it for you, stop giving up!”

“…!”

The Saintess slowly looked at my past ‘self’.

“I don’t know the meaning of giving up. I will definitely see the hidden ending.”

【”You were the only one.”】

A small voice was heard from below.

It was so small and faint that you’d miss it if you didn’t listen carefully.

【”You were the only one who didn’t give up.”】

But gradually her voice grew louder.

The Saintess smiled as she looked back at me.

【”So become part of the world with me!”】

That appearance was not like a living person but like a doll.

I realized that even in dreams, one could get goosebumps.

“You want me to become like you?”

【”Yes, so let’s protect the Heroes. Even if we fail this time, for the next generation. If we join forces, we can succeed next time!”】

The Saint spoke while waving her arms excitedly, as if she was thrilled to have met me.

Every time she moved, her large white High Priest robes fluttered.

It was the same outfit she wore when she died.

But her face was as youthful as when she was Nermia’s lover.

How eerie that she seemed so alive when she was actually already dead.

I looked at her with a strange sentiment.

Having witnessed her collapse, her current heightened emotions only seemed grotesque to me.

【”How was it being separated for 3 years? Did you come to understand my heart as I waited for him?”】

“Don’t tell me you sent that strange Quest for me to become like you?”

【”Mm, and you also couldn’t die. You mustn’t be killed by the Hero before we become one!”】

The Saint, bright as an innocent young girl, grabbed my hand firmly as she spoke.

【”You also want the Hero to be happy, don’t you?”】

“….”

【”This child of mine failed, but if it’s the two of us, the next child can survive as a splendid Hero!”】

I violently swatted the Saint’s hand away.

Then the Saint, who had the appearance of a young girl, froze with her eyes wide open.

“Adam is not your Hero!”

She manipulated him as if Adam belonged to her.

Adam was one person, not something that could be used as a replacement among countless Heroes.

“…He’s my Hero!”

I shouted as if choking up.

“There’s no need to go to the next—I’ll end it here myself!”

At my words, the Saint’s eyes widened in surprise.

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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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