Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 188

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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 55

Judith walked through the hallway that exuded an ominous atmosphere.

As if he had finally uncovered all the sins of his father, the Emperor.

Judith never knew how to turn back.

That’s why Judith didn’t avoid it this time either.

However, his righteousness didn’t always lead to good results.

Judith stood in front of the ballroom where he could sense a small presence.

Judith seemed to hesitate for a moment before finally placing his hand on the handle.

As soon as he opened the door, a flash blazed before him.

“…!”

Boom!

A tremendous roar enveloped the inside of the hall.

* * *

“…Hah.”

He thought he was going to die for sure.

Judith raised his hand to check his unharmed body.

And he looked at the reason why.

“A-Adam?”

Judith stared blankly at his cousin who had blocked his path.

It hadn’t been long since he sent the telegram.

He must have rushed over as soon as he saw the telegram he sent. And if he hadn’t, he surely would have died crushed under the debris of that building.

Judith looked at the collapsed pillar with a horrified expression.

If things had gone wrong, it might have been himself that was broken, not the pillar.

Judith looked at Adam’s back, who had saved him.

However, Adam, who had rescued Judith, was staring ahead without moving a muscle.

‘I expected as much.’

Adam quietly gazed at the owner of the demonic energy he had always witnessed in the Demon King’s Castle.

Though it was a castle with the same majesty, his feelings were strangely different.

Was the reason for deliberately choosing the Imperial Palace, his birthplace, as a base to summon him also part of the Demon King’s twisted taste?

“Demon King….”

Adam muttered quietly.

Judith flinched upon hearing his murmur.

“Demon King, you said?”

He had sent word that the Imperial Palace’s situation was strange, but he apparently hadn’t expected the Demon King to appear at the Imperial Palace in person.

Judith’s choice was excellent.

If he had been just a little later, this Empire’s Emperor might have changed again.

No, since Adam couldn’t wait until the end and moved, should it be called half-excellent?

Anyway, now that he could see with his own eyes, he could no longer deny it.

The Demon King had been revived.

The killing intent approaching Adam was piercing, as if all the actions he had shown so far were mere pranks.

It felt like facing the Demon King for the first time in the Demon King’s Castle.

No, since he had been revived by sacrificing countless people, should it be said that he had become closer to evil?

Adam stared at the other side of the ballroom, clouded with dust and debris.

Even while doing so, he looked after Judith.

“Your Majesty, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Judith declined Adam’s support and gritted his teeth.

He was fine. Because Adam had stood in front of him to block the attack coming his way.

“You are….”

“I’m fine.”

Fortunately, Adam appeared no different from usual.

However, Adam’s eyes were fixed on one spot. His eyebrows were subtly narrowed more than before.

As if he had seen something that shouldn’t exist.

Judith’s gaze naturally turned in that direction as well.

And Judith doubted his own eyes.

“…!”

How.

Judith swallowed the question that followed.

It wasn’t something he was doing out of consideration for Adam.

He simply couldn’t get the words out of his throat.

He had definitely died.

Hadn’t he definitely seen it himself?

His miserable and foolish end.

“Ju, dith….”

But how was the Emperor alive before his eyes, calling his name?

Judith widened his eyes as if he couldn’t believe what had happened before him.

Though he was an Emperor he had hoped would not find peace even in death, suffocating from his sins, he hadn’t wished to meet him again like this.

‘Was he actually not dead? Was what I met then fake? A double?’

For an Emperor who thrived on schemes and plots, that was possible.

Finding someone who resembled him even if it meant searching the entire Empire….

Judith froze in place before the Emperor.

“Father….”

“Pull yourself together. Does that look like Your Majesty’s father to you?”

“…!”

Judith, who had been breaking out in cold sweat from guilt, was able to look at him closely thanks to Adam’s words.

It was definitely his father.

However, the Emperor he properly examined was not in good condition.

He looked as if a corpse had been brought back to life as is. Where Adam had severed his neck, there was a long thread-like line connecting it.

When the dust that had obscured his vision and memories of the past disappeared, only the hideous appearance of the Emperor remained.

Judith, flustered by the Emperor’s appearance as if he were cursed, couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Grrrr….”

As if calling his name had been an auditory hallucination, the Emperor made a strange sound.

Though there had never been paternal love to begin with, he couldn’t even recognize his own son Judith and was making beast-like sounds.

‘I mistook my dead father for calling my name.’

Judith turned pale, forgetting even to react.

“Is this really what used to be my father?”

Judith’s gaze turned to Adam as if demanding an answer.

“Hmm.”

Adam said, shrugging his shoulders.

Though he seemed surprised at first, now he was looking at it with eyes as if viewing an inanimate object.

“Well. Even if it is, it seems like it can’t properly see or hear anymore.”

Adam answered matter-of-factly.

Thanks to his calm attitude, Judith was barely able to relax his shoulders.

The one before his eyes was not his father.

‘It’s just a corpse that’s already dead.’

Judith was able to organize his thoughts once more. The face was the same as when he was alive. But Judith no longer overlapped that thing with his father from when he was alive.

There had been no affection between father and son to begin with.

“Uh, uhhhhh….”

Judith now looked at this ambiguous thing that was neither human nor demon.

Adam too, watching the Emperor’s end, thought he was a person who was disgusting to the very end.

And even the Demon King, who was watching this entire situation with boredom, beyond the Emperor.

“….”

It was the moment when the Emperor’s hand, whose fingertips had turned black, approached as if it would crush Judith’s face.

Thud-!

The Emperor collapsed to the floor just like that.

Then a clicking tongue could be heard.

“Ah, this aged body is utterly useless. As expected, only a body at the level of a Hero would be of any use.”

The Emperor who had collapsed in front of Judith remained completely still without any movement.

Aphene spoke in a flat tone as if he had expected this.

From the body of the Emperor who had died without even being able to close his eyes, demonic energy flowed out like with Lawrence before, crumbling and disappearing from his body.

“What is this….”

Judith rubbed his face with his hands and stammered at the incomprehensible situation.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

However, what was certain was that person who was watching them with a calm face despite the Emperor’s death.

Judith bit his lips and spoke.

Clearly, the one before him was not an ordinary person unlike himself.

Nevertheless, his mouth moved on its own.

“Is this your doing?”

“I didn’t know you were such a stupid child that you’d need to ask about such obvious things. Or is it like father, like son?”

Aphene said while looking down with his legs crossed.

Aphene, who had been wearing a bored expression, let out a sneer.

Clear condescension and mockery.

Yet Judith couldn’t move at all. He felt deep in his body the difference between himself and the Demon King.

The one before him was not an ordinary person.

He was the pinnacle of evil who ruled over monsters and demons.

Showing fighting spirit before such a Demon King would only result in a dog’s death.

“You’re being toyed with.”

Then Adam spoke quietly as if it was nothing.

Only then did Judith suddenly snap out of his thoughts.

Adam was relaxed as if he couldn’t feel the Demon King’s ominous aura.

No, he looked somewhat pleased.

“Anyway, that one’s target isn’t His Majesty. Even if we escape, he won’t do anything.”

Adam whispered quietly to him.

He didn’t know if the Demon King, who was said to have developed senses, heard this, but seeing no particular reaction, it was certainly outside his interest.

“So please leave, Your Majesty.”

The Demon King would have other interesting toys.

“You’re going to face that thing alone?”

Judith said with a pale face.

Even he, who didn’t have particularly outstanding senses, felt goosebumps all over his body when facing him.

Adam, who grasped the situation better than him, couldn’t have failed to recognize his abilities.

However, Adam spoke nonchalantly.

“Well, I am the Hero after all.”

Judith hesitated.

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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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