Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 52

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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 52

“I don’t want to be a bother any longer, so I’ll take my leave now. Thank you, Your Highness the great Prince.”

“….”

Seeing him recite praise with such an indifferent expression, Judith didn’t want to believe this was the Adam he knew, even though it clearly was.

‘His name was Iberis.’

When the Hero was lying there as if dead, he had been so restless that Judith quickly sent him away to make medicine with his healer.

Fortunately, his face brightened as soon as Adam woke up.

If he would just quietly go along with the Hero like this, that alone would be a relief.

However, Iberis’s eyes were sharper than he thought.

“Hero, what happened to your hand again!”

He thought the smell of blood from the hand wound would be undetectable, mixed with the smell of blood from the abdominal wound.

Iberis grabbed Adam’s wrist and scolded him.

During the earlier standoff, Adam had been gripping tightly with the intention of stabbing Nain’s carotid artery if necessary, and shards of glass were embedded in his hand.

It was a sight that made onlookers frown even more, but he himself remained calm.

Or was he pretending to be calm?

When Iberis reproached him, he slowly averted his gaze.

‘That Hero?’

Judith doubted his own eyes.

Perhaps he was actually on the verge of death after catching the Emperor’s attention while trying to rescue the Hero.

No matter what, the Emperor wouldn’t kill his only child, so maybe he was beaten half to death and seeing something like a panorama of his life…

“The Prince told me to.”

“…?”

Suddenly pointed out, Judith opened and closed his mouth like he was wronged.

However, before he could make excuses, Iberis’s eyes sharpened as he believed Adam’s words without a hint of doubt.

His look clearly said, ‘I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him…’

“No! His Highness the Prince isn’t that kind of person! Well, hmm… it might be true…”

The healer who had boldly started defending him recalled Judith’s misdeeds and quickly found it plausible.

When Judith glared at her sharply, she hastily added,

“But probably not. His Highness the Prince is surprisingly tender-hearted despite appearances and can’t bring himself to harm people.”

Come to think of it, it seemed that way at the temple too.

Iberis nodded slowly as if convinced.

“So even when he says not to demand salary increases, he still gives them? Working under this person is really comfortable.”

Judith pounded his chest in frustration watching his subordinate whisper loud enough for everyone to hear.

Am I the only sane person here?

None of my damn subordinates are proper!

* * *

“Not all the barracks have been withdrawn, so let’s go back and see.”

“Understood.”

After brief farewells with Judith’s party, Iberis and Adam rode their horses toward where the barracks were located.

Iberis, who couldn’t ride horses, naturally rode the same horse as Adam.

Our Hero is truly amazing.

He even knows how to ride horses.

While it had been pouring rain inside Mia’s Forest, the situation outside was different, and the barracks remained mostly intact except for a few.

However, nobles were returning one by one.

Some were boasting about their game, though small in quantity, laid out on the ground.

Among them was Youngsik Cort, who had caught two flower deer and was shrugging his shoulders proudly.

Watching this scene, Adam suddenly spoke.

“Returning like this doesn’t befit the purpose of a hunting competition.”

With that, Adam went back into the forest.

He emerged again in less than half an hour.

* * *

“Baron Aylon has caught two red foxes.”

“Look at this roe deer. It’s definitely top quality.”

Nobles who had hastily finished hunting due to the sudden downpour were gathered in small groups.

A servant moved between the animals they had laid down, taking notes to determine the winner of the hunting competition.

“Hehe.”

Some already knew they had lost, but others were already filled with the elation of believing they had won.

‘That Hero’s servant will surely be dying to have my game when she sees it, right?’

If she reflected on what she had done under him, he was prepared to show great magnanimity and bestow one animal upon her.

Cort Youngsik smiled with satisfaction as he looked at his game.

‘But where did the servant go? I don’t see the Hero either. Don’t tell me they haven’t returned yet?’

He couldn’t care less about the Hero’s situation.

But when his servant was nowhere to be seen either, the Count’s son looked around.

“Have you seen the servant… no, the Hero?”

“Ah… come to think of it, I haven’t seen the Hero.”

“He must have caught one rabbit and run away in shame!”

Count Cort’s son snorted and cackled.

What expression would she make when she heard that the Hero she had been so proud of, acting all high and mighty, had fled with his tail between his legs?

Wouldn’t she abandon the Hero even now and say she wanted to become his servant?

Just as the Count’s son was chuckling while indulging in pleasant fantasies,

“I hope I’m not too late.”

“Huh?”

At the voice from behind, the nobles unconsciously parted left and right, opening a path.

Adam walked leisurely forward.

On his shoulders lay the carcass of a bear several times larger than a grown man.

When he set it down on the ground with a thud, the nobles who had been holding their breath gasped in admiration.

“Such an enormous bear…!”

The servant who had been organizing the list of game exclaimed in amazement.

Even if you combined all the animals the nobles had hunted so far, there wouldn’t be game larger than this.

“Hero…!”

The people who had been mesmerized by the bear before them finally fixed their gazes on the one who had brought it.

It was the Hero.

The one no one had expected to win.

Everyone had unknowingly regarded the Hero as a greenhorn who only knew how to kill the Demon King with a sword.

The hunting competition was a nominal contest for nobles, especially those who had earned knightly titles.

Those who had been wearing dumbfounded expressions finally smiled and welcomed him when someone called out to the Hero.

And on the dais, a little distance away,

The Emperor was staring wide-eyed as if seeing a ghost.

His expression changed from surprise to anger in an instant.

‘How’s that, our Hero?’

The Emperor’s rage reached even here.

Iberis smiled with satisfaction like a child who had received sweet candy.

Adam probably felt the same way.

It was sweet revenge.

* * *

Adam had brought enormous game.

It was so overwhelmingly large that there was no need to determine the winner of the hunting competition.

The nobles were so focused on this fact that they noticed Adam’s injuries at a late timing.

When a noblewoman approached Adam and discovered them, letting out a small scream, only then did people focus on Adam’s appearance.

“This is… blood?”

He had changed into the clothes Judith prepared, but due to his vigorous movements, blood seeped out a little from his wounds.

Several nobles also noticed Adam’s condition and approached him to speak.

“Hero, are you alright?”

“Yes.”

Seeing Adam answer calmly with an expressionless face, the noblewoman patted her chest in relief.

Since it was such a large bear, even one hit from its claws could cause a serious wound.

The noblewoman tried hard to calm her startled heart.

The young ladies who didn’t know much about wounds thought he was injured by the bear, but the knight-born nobles thought differently.

Judging by the size of the wound, it seemed to have been pierced by something sharp and narrow.

It wasn’t something that could be done by a beast’s claws.

A small seed of distrust began to grow in their minds.

They recalled the events before the hunting competition.

‘Didn’t His Majesty particularly dislike the Hero?’

It was a small sprout of suspicion that the Emperor had tried to kill the Hero.

No one said a word, but everyone was thinking the same thing.

They just exchanged glances among themselves, reading each other’s expressions.

Such is the nature of imperial power.

Iberis felt uncomfortable, but still smiled as he thought of the scene that would soon unfold.

He would eliminate everyone who caused trouble for Adam.

Iberis’s gaze turned to one side.

Count Cort.

He was the nobleman who had been picking various fights with Adam since the hunting competition began.

Especially his son, hadn’t he been annoyingly badmouthing Adam to her as well?

Like father, like son, they say.

Iberis clicked his tongue inwardly.

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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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