Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 21

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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 21

“Why are you eating grass there?”

“Hero!”

I jumped up as if startled. I brushed off the dirt from my clothes and smiled awkwardly. Adam was dressed neatly as if he was about to go out. The scene I had witnessed earlier was about to overlay itself, so I quickly brought up a different topic.

“Would you like some too, Hero? It’s an herb that’s good for hangovers.”

“I’m fine. I didn’t even have the mental capacity to touch alcohol since someone was drinking and making a fuss.”

“…”

I was so embarrassed I wanted to dig into the ground.

Wasn’t there a shovel somewhere? If there was, I’d dig into the ground right away and go inside. And I’d ask them to carve a tombstone.

[Iberis, sleeps here from death by shame.]

While I was mentally digging tunnels for a while, I heard the sound of someone holding back laughter beside me.

“…?”

When I glanced over, Adam, who had been covering his mouth with his hand, finally burst into laughter.

“Hahaha.”

Just now… did Adam laugh?

“Ah, Eve. You’re really an interesting person.”

I stared at him with my mouth agape in bewilderment.

Had Adam ever laughed since I came here?

No, I had seen countless smiles appear on Adam’s face, but this was the first time I saw him laugh like this.

Perhaps realizing this himself, he rubbed his chin sheepishly.

“It’s been a long time since I laughed like this.”

After confirming my stupid expression, Adam continued speaking calmly.

“By the way, I don’t care what kind of person Eve is.”

Upon hearing what sounded like gentle words saying he’d overlook everything, I was able to escape from my reverie.

“Anyway…”

Before Adam could finish his sentence, I struck first.

“Because you’re someone who’ll leave soon anyway, right? Just wait and see! I’ll stick right by the Hero’s side forever!”

“Haha…”

Forever. Adam muttered quietly.

As if responding to a child’s tantrum, Adam smiled with his eyes crinkling.

“I’ll look forward to it.”

He was smiling, but somehow I felt like he was about to cry.

Adam poked my reddened nape with his finger and said.

“But it seems like if I tease Eve just a little more, you’ll go home right away?”

“No way!”

I take back what I said about him looking like he’d cry!

He’s completely planning to tease me, and I was totally wrong about that!

As I shouted back at Adam, I noticed his outfit was different from usual. Unlike other times when he only wore a shirt, he was properly dressed.

“But Hero, are you going somewhere?”

“Yes. I’m thinking of going to the village nearby for a moment.”

The village nearby means…

“Dainil Village?”

“No.”

He shook his head readily.

“If you go northeast from the Demon King’s Castle, there’s a village slightly larger than Dainil Village. Someone came there, so… I think I need to go meet them.”

“They don’t seem to be someone you’re particularly close with?”

Adam’s face was dark as if he was meeting someone unpleasant.

He scratched his cheek as if embarrassed and said.

“If we’re talking about friendship, they’re someone I don’t know.”

Well, Adam doesn’t have friends.

I unconsciously understood and nodded my head.

“Do you know them, Eve?”

“…No? I wouldn’t know.”

“Aha.”

…Somehow his reaction seems strange.

Did I really say something strange yesterday? It seemed like Adam was probing something due to yesterday’s mistake, but I couldn’t get a grasp on it at all.

‘No matter how smart Adam is, he couldn’t know that I possessed this body.’

I hadn’t understood Adam’s behavior until now, but today was even stranger.

I thought about it until my head hurt, but came to the conclusion that I absolutely couldn’t figure out his intentions.

I quietly watched Adam’s figure growing more distant.

Then Ben suddenly appeared from behind.

“Hero! Lunch is ready! Where are you! Huh? Eve. Haven’t you seen the Hero? I’ve been looking for him but he’s nowhere to be found.”

“The Hero went down to the village earlier.”

“No! This needs to be eaten while it’s warm to taste good!”

After Adam praised his food several times, even giving thumbs up, Ben developed a taste for cooking.

Now whenever Adam skipped meals due to work or reading, he would carry food around looking for him to make sure he ate properly.

“All muscles come from food! If you don’t want muscle loss, please eat quickly.”

I don’t know where he picked up those words, but they’re correct.

So Adam’s muscles are… Gasp.

I shook my head vigorously and erased the image of Adam that was floating up again. Then I snatched the plate from Ben’s hands.

“That’s for the Hero!”

“Since he even changed clothes, it didn’t seem like someone he was meeting casually. He’ll probably come back late.”

And I tried eating the sliced fish. Whether Ben’s cooking skills had improved again, it was salty and delicious without any fishy smell.

“But how did you know the Hero changed clothes before going out?”

“…”

I deliberately changed the subject.

“More importantly, Ben, do you know about the village to the northeast from here?”

“Hmm? Ah, I know! Come to think of it, you wouldn’t know since you’ve been at the Demon King’s Castle, but that place isn’t far from our village either. There was a bit of commotion because a priest came to the village to bestow divine grace. Such a golden opportunity doesn’t come to our village.”

“Aha.”

The person Adam mentioned – someone he had no friendship with but needed to meet – was probably the priest.

“But they’re still there? It’s already been two weeks.”

“They must have been waiting for someone.”

“Who?”

I shrugged my shoulders silently.

Who else would it be.

It would be the Hero that the temple wants to see.

‘He definitely went to meet the priest Ben mentioned… But why did he make such an unpleasant expression?’

However, there was nothing I could know right now.

Adam returned earlier than expected, and only after Ben’s eyes widened at hearing he hadn’t eaten lunch and force-fed him twice the amount of food was Adam finally released.

* * *

It was a morning when the early bird woke up but didn’t catch any worms and just chirped loudly.

“Why are the bird sounds so loud today!”

Having my sleep disturbed, I roughly threw open the window.

It must be somewhere around here!

‘Huh?’

Adam was outside from early morning.

Unlike usual, there was a bird perched on his arm. Adam sat on a large rock, feeding the bird seeds while lost in thought.

I quickly changed clothes and went down to the garden.

“Good morning, Hero!”

“Good morning, Eve.”

After greeting him familiarly, I scurried over to him. It wasn’t a mistake earlier—Adam was indeed there with a bird.

The bird’s belly was plump, having apparently finished all its feed.

A snow-white man and a snow-white bird.

It was a well-matched combination.

The bird perched on Adam’s arm, preening its snow-white feathers with its beak, was a bird I knew.

“Oh, this bird!”

Adam looked slightly surprised, seeming to find it curious that I knew the bird’s identity.

“Do you know it?”

“Of course I do.”

It was the bird that helped me inquire about my village when I first came here.

If it weren’t for this bird, I would have never made it to the village after getting hit on the back of the neck by the Hero!

While I was having a staring contest with the bird, Adam somehow interpreted this and placed the bird on my arm.

Caught off guard, I held the bird and looked into its jet-black eyes.

‘Now that I look at it this way, it seems kind of cute.’

Then the bird suddenly turned its head away.

Something felt off.

It couldn’t be, but it felt like the bird was ignoring me.

“Eve.”

“Yes, Hero!”

Adam, who had been choosing his words, soon brought up his business.

“Um, I think I’ll need to be away from the Demon King’s Castle for a few days.”

“Really?”

Adam had never left the Demon King’s Castle for several days before.

For him to need to be away like this, it seemed like a more important matter than expected.

“Yes. In the meantime, with Abracxas and…”

As soon as Adam thought of him, his eyebrows furrowed as if our previous misdeeds came flooding back to mind.

Ah, he shouldn’t scrunch up that handsome face.

“Come to think of it, I’m afraid of the aftermath if I leave two troublemakers in the Demon King’s Castle. Eve, do you happen to have any thoughts of going to the Temple?”

Could one of those troublemakers possibly be me?

I was pouting with an aggrieved heart, but immediately forgot my hurt feelings at his next words.

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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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