Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 50

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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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Chapter 50

“….”

I held my breath.

Who was he talking to?

Either way, there was only one target, but I unconsciously stopped walking and listened to Adam’s faint, barely audible breathing.

Then, I heard the sound of something large pushing through the thicket.

Neigh!

Then I heard the sound of a horse very close by.

Could it be the person who shot the arrow at Adam?

In my bewilderment, I pushed Adam into the thicket.

‘And if I go to the opposite side and lure them away….’

As I hesitated and tried to back away, I was startled by a horse that suddenly appeared.

It had come closer than I thought.

However, the face riding the horse was one I knew.

It seemed the same for him, as he showed a surprised expression.

“You…!”

“Your Highness the Prince?”

Seeing a face I never expected to see here, my tension released and strength drained from my legs.

‘No, no….’

The person who came chasing to kill Adam was said to be an Imperial Guard following the Emperor’s orders.

Then the Prince, who was that person’s son, was also not someone I could let my guard down around.

I slowly backed away, trying to distance myself from him.

“This is maddening. I told you to stay quietly in the barracks, so why are you here? Come along quickly.”

However, despite my efforts, Judith grabbed my arm and pulled me.

He jumped down from his horse and helped me onto it.

Because it was slippery from the rainwater, he fumbled several times before simply grabbing my waist and lifting me up.

Strangely, even at times like this, Adam came to mind.

“Do you know where the Hero is?”

When Judith mentioned Adam, my shoulders flinched.

As I pondered briefly, the moment of decision finally came.

‘Can I trust this person?’

His words about coming to find Adam didn’t seem to be a lie.

But why would such a small number of people bother?

It seemed to overlap with the Imperial Guard’s actions of trying to kill Adam alone.

“I know where the Hero is.”

“Then….”

“But Your Highness the Prince, are you someone I can trust? No, are you someone the Hero can trust?”

“….”

After I helped him, I suddenly returned a wary attitude out of nowhere.

Anyone would see it as ungrateful behavior, but I had to confirm.

Though he growled at Adam, when the Prince mentioned him, he showed not hostility but rather a bit of loneliness.

Which should I trust?

His position as Prince who inherited the Emperor’s blood? Or the gentle attitude he had shown so far?

At my words, Judith looked at me with a somewhat sunken expression.

Again. Those eyes.

I had seen them often in Adam too.

“Can’t you tell from the fact that a prince of a nation came with just one knight? I’m trying to help him escape secretly.”

Among countless lies, those were the eyes he showed when telling the truth.

“A ridiculous sense of guilt, I suppose.”

Judith chuckled lowly as he murmured.

It wasn’t the face of someone telling lies.

If not, there would be no reason to show such a pained expression.

There wasn’t much time to think.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I told him where Adam was.

“Your Highness! I found him.”

One of the Prince’s subordinates found Adam.

He carried him on his shoulder, but his condition didn’t look worse than before.

“How does he look?”

One subordinate laid him down on the ground.

Another person who appeared to be a healer approached closely and checked Adam’s wounds and face.

“Fortunately, the first aid seems to have been done properly. It should be fine if we change to clean bandages and give him fever-reducing medicine.”

At her words, Judith brightened.

When our eyes met, he composed his expression, but the emotion I clearly saw was relief.

‘The Emperor is trying to kill Adam, and the Prince feels guilty about Adam.’

And probably Adam knew that too.

That’s why he disliked Judith.

He found Judith’s guilt unpleasant and deliberately mocked him to push him away.

There seemed to be something between them that I didn’t know about.

Why the Emperor was so intent on killing Adam, and the magnitude of Judith’s goodwill was too great to be just guilt over his father trying to kill Adam.

Even though the Emperor tried to kill him and attempted it several times, Adam was fine.

I knew Adam’s time before killing the Demon King better, and the Emperor had never intervened during that time.

This incident also ended in failure since Adam survived.

Coldly speaking, this incident wasn’t something Judith should feel guilty about either.

There must have been other incidents that ended in failure like this one.

But there was no time to ask now.

“Put the Hero on! We’re getting out of the forest quickly. It’s not far to where the carriage is, so at full speed!”

“Yes!”

Judith mounted his horse.

Since it was the horse I had been riding, I was a bit surprised by how skillfully he mounted, but before I could say anything, he started the horse.

‘Ah, he connected a string.’

Since he entered Mia’s Forest so boldly, I thought we were all going to die together.

He had a bright yellow thread that was clearly visible even in the darkness.

It was probably a thread connected to the outer area.

One subordinate wound up the thread and cleared the path first, followed closely by the one carrying Adam and Judith’s horse.

The path out of Mia’s Forest appeared quickly.

The muddy ground slowed the horses’ speed, but we were able to get out before the horses became exhausted.

When the trees that were two or three times larger than adults and blocked our view disappeared and the blue sky became visible, I felt relieved.

Judith’s subordinate found an empty hut and moved Adam inside.

But what came after was the problem.

“His body is burning like a fireball… I think it would be better to get medicine and give it to him first.”

The healer the Prince brought entered the makeshift hut, checked Adam’s condition, and shook her head.

His condition had visibly worsened.

“He lost a lot of blood and got soaked in the rain, so his body can’t be in good condition. Let’s delay for a moment. It would also be better for the Hero’s safety if he regains consciousness before we depart.”

“I have medicinal herbs!”

“…! Will you show me?”

The healer examined the herbs and nodded.

It must have been the most necessary herb for the current situation.

She made eye contact with Judith as if asking for his understanding.

“Alright. A moment should be fine. They won’t think we’re on the opposite side of Mia’s Forest anyway.”

Judith readily nodded.

The Healer and I went outside to make medicine for Adam.

* * *

Judith sat in a chair and pressed his throbbing forehead.

‘That was lucky. The Hero didn’t die.’

Perhaps because he was chosen by the gods, the Hero had good luck too.

Though it would be truly lucky if he hadn’t needed to be chased in the first place.

Tap, tap tap.

Lost in thought, Judith tapped the table with his fingers.

If the rain hadn’t washed everything away, they would find traces of Adam’s injuries near Mia’s Forest, and the Emperor would be relieved for now.

Very few people had ever emerged from Mia’s Forest.

In Mia’s Forest, you wander and wander, only to go deeper inside.

It creates optical illusions that make you walk in circles even when walking straight ahead, causing people to become lost, which is how it earned its notorious name “Mia’s Forest.”

‘But wasn’t that Village Girl also heading properly toward the exit?’

The few survivors were usually rescued by people from outside who came in with thread or other guides to barely manage their rescue.

Thanks to this, Judith also knew how to navigate Mia’s Forest.

When Judith heard from Iberis that the Hero had entered the forest, he first checked on his father.

Confirming that the Imperial Guard who was always by the Emperor’s side had disappeared, Judith entered the forest with his trusted subordinates.

He secretly entered from the opposite side of where the Hunting Competition was taking place and began searching for Adam…

When it started raining and the sky darkened, he thought they would never find him.

The more they moved, the deeper into the forest’s center they went, delaying the search, and he eventually thought they couldn’t find the Hero in the vast interior of the forest.

‘He was at the entrance of Mia’s Forest.’

As if he knew that path was the way out.

Or it could have been an incredible coincidence.

But Judith didn’t believe in such coincidences and became somewhat interested in Iberis.

Why was he by the Hero’s side in the first place, and why did the Hero treat only that child so gently?

‘He cares for him so specially that even the Emperor notices, yet he himself seems oblivious.’

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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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