Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 4

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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 4

Iberis was entrusted to Violet, who had been his mother’s close friend, after his herbalist parents died from a fall while gathering herbs.

Thanks to the herbalism he learned by watching his parents, he played an important role in a village that had only one physician.

‘But even as an herbalist, if the villagers don’t get hurt, there’s no need for him.’

This village had no hunters except for a few elderly ones, and was filled only with simple people who farmed or raised sheep and cattle.

Since there was rarely any cause for injury, Iberis’s job wasn’t handling herbs but being an all-purpose errand boy.

“Eve!”

It felt like my ears would get calluses. I covered my ears and repeated the same words mechanically.

“Today’s quota for being called by name is finished.”

“No, come eat. Mother is calling you.”

“Yes!”

The name of that man who looked exactly like Violet was Ben. But despite it being late evening, his hair was disheveled as if a magpie had nested in it.

‘Don’t tell me he just woke up from sleeping until now?’

I’d never seen him work, so I wondered if he was unemployed. He seemed to cook well at least, but there was no proper opportunity for him to show his skills.

After eating, I helped with the work beside Violet who was sewing, and found myself thinking about the Quest again.

Take responsibility for the Hero’s welfare.

And eliminating the Hero’s stress means making him happy, right?

Well, the Hero’s mission is ‘to kill the Demon King and bring peace to the world.’

The Hero’s personal happiness was never a consideration. Personal judgment isn’t guaranteed in the life of someone who received divine oracles and awakened from childhood. There’s nothing but following the exact same path that previous Heroes have walked.

Just like Adam did.

‘But at this point when the Demon King is already dead, how do I make him happy?’

As I groaned and fell into worry, Violet beside me asked with concern.

“Eve, if you have worries, speak freely about them. You never know, a solution might come up while talking to people.”

“Well…”

I hesitated before opening my mouth.

“What should someone do to become happy?”

It was an abstract question, but I couldn’t think of anything better to say.

You’d have to have been happy before to know.

I think I was happy when playing the game…

Violet looked a bit surprised, then soon wore a warm smile.

“Feed them delicious food!”

“Food?”

“Yes, food. It’s such an obvious and basic desire that everyone overlooks it, but watching people when they eat delicious food sometimes makes even me happy.”

“…That’s simple.”

There was no need to think about it difficultly.

I was inwardly surprised.

Taking care of welfare wasn’t something grand, but simply letting someone live enjoying an ordinary happy life.

I felt like my cloudy mind was clearing up.

* * *

The Forest to the Demon King’s Castle was a place where people’s footsteps had completely stopped after the Demon King appeared, saying it was dangerous.

Even after the Demon King died, perhaps because of the Demonic Beasts, not many people came and went, giving it quite an eerie atmosphere.

I urged my slowed steps forward to shake off the dawn drowsiness and continued moving ahead.

I had barely slept, wrestling with cooking alongside Ben who was openly showing his annoyance from yesterday evening until dawn.

On top of that, getting up at the crack of dawn made me keep yawning.

But thinking that I would soon be able to meet the Hero made my mind clear.

How is Adam living?

I thought he would immediately run out of the Demon King’s Castle and return to the Capital after I disappeared. How wonderful would it be to go to the imperial palace and receive recognition for his achievements, living a life of being revered as a Hero, as the villagers chattered about.

It would be better than living alone in the Demon King’s Castle where no one comes.

However, the Hero was silently enduring.

I had only told him to stay in the Demon King’s Castle for fun.

I continued forward while looking at the castle’s peak that had suddenly grown much closer.

And when I stood in front of the castle’s main gate.

“Ah…”

I unconsciously let out a small exclamation. Even in the early morning, there was someone outside.

Silver hair that stood out even in the dawn darkness without a single point of light, and golden eyes. It wasn’t a striking color combination, but it was beautiful as if from a painting that a craftsman had poured their heart into.

The man with several top buttons of his shirt undone exuded an intimidating presence despite his ordinary clothes.

Though I had never seen him in person, I could immediately recognize who he was.

The only person who would be in the Demon King’s Castle now was the Hero.

‘He’s still staying in the Demon King’s Castle.’

I had expected it, but seeing the Hero actually there was fascinating.

‘Of all times to possess someone, it had to be after the ending.’

It was the moment when all the expertise I had built up through dozens and hundreds of playthroughs instantly turned to waste paper. Well, shouldn’t there be some benefit of being able to use future knowledge when you possess someone somewhere?

‘Still, I guess it’s fortunate that the Quest looks relatively easy.’

So I just need to reduce the Hero’s stress. It was much easier than a Quest to save the world from destruction.

The target to conquer was one Hero.

And I had made full preparations.

“The way to make people happy is probably a diligent worker, right?”

This was what I realized through conversations with the villagers.

Being called around here and there and listening to their requests, I experienced this fact firsthand. I was confident that anyone would have half their worries resolved if they just had one competent worker with them.

‘And…’

I rubbed my aching arm and looked at the bundle.

When I asked people what to do to make someone happy, Isaac who raised cattle gave me freshly squeezed milk, and Yurina who ran a general store gave me a bear doll.

Adam wasn’t an eight-year-old child who played with dolls, but I couldn’t ignore Yurina’s sincerity so I brought it.

The Hero probably wouldn’t like dolls, but if he hugged it while sleeping, it might at least help with good sleep.

The villagers, who knew nothing about the Hero welfare project, seemed to find it amusing that I was consulting them about various things, and gave me various items.

In the end, I headed to the Demon King’s Castle carrying enormous luggage.

I put strength into the hand holding the bundle behind me.

While thinking such thoughts, I felt a gaze from somewhere.

‘Huh?’

I unconsciously turned my head toward where I felt the gaze. And there I discovered large red eyes, vertically slit, staring at me.

An animal-type Demonic Beast had somehow come beside me and was baring its teeth at me.

“Hik!”

My legs gave out without me realizing and I fell backward. Looking up from below, the Demonic Beast’s intimidating presence doubled.

‘The Hero definitely killed them all… Ah, in this playthrough he deliberately left them all alive.’

I didn’t know the reason, but they said it was one of the strategy methods to enter the hidden route.

Even after entering the hidden route, since the Demonic Beasts showed no particular reaction despite killing the Demon King, it felt awkward to kill them, so I left them alive along with Abraxas.

Adam had also made the Demonic Beasts submit one by one with the Subjugation Stone.

‘But could this be a Demonic Beast that wasn’t subjugated?’

Am I going to die like this? As my life briefly flashed before my eyes.

The voice of the being I had forgotten in my fear echoed low in the garden.

“I should have told you I’d kill you if you harmed humans.”

Then the Demonic Beast made a whining sound and hurriedly fled into the bushes.

He who had been looking at the sky in front of a large rock in the Demon King’s Castle looked at me with slow movements.

The Hero seemed to have known I had come here all along.

He erased the detached expression he had been wearing and drew a smile.

It was a smile like drawing an arc with a brush on a painting. Beautiful, but too artificial to be human.

“Are you lost? It’s dangerous here because Demonic Beasts live here, so if you tell me your village name, I’ll take you there.”

Oh right. My mind, which had been dazed as if enchanted by his words, awakened.

I cleared my throat and approached the Hero.

And I smiled brightly, mimicking the Hero.

“Hello, Hero! I came to apply to be a maid at the Demon King’s Castle!”

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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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