Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 58

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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 58

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I was sitting peacefully in the Demon King’s Castle garden with Potato, pathetically gazing up at the stars.

Potato, who had no idea what was going on in my mind, perked up one ear and kept tugging at my clothes with his mouth, seemingly wanting to go inside.

But no matter what Potato did, I just stared blankly at the stars.

I had wondered why Adam was looking up at the night sky when I first met him, but just gazing endlessly at the pitch-black sky made my head feel refreshed.

It also helped lighten my complicated thoughts.

“It’s not helping at all though…”

Actually, that wasn’t true.

I had finally stopped denying reality.

Maybe it was because Ben had disappeared.

Now the Demon King’s Castle with just the two of us felt awkward and uncomfortable.

Oh, I made an exception for Abracxas.

I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him anywhere in the Demon King’s Castle lately, whatever he was up to.

Aside from trivial things, these were ordinary days.

Adam greeting me warmly, always watching me eat, and listening attentively to what I said – it was all truly ordinary.

But each of those situations was different when Adam was smiling.

Finding something amusing, Adam would burst into laughter watching my constantly changing expressions.

Every time that happened, I would turn bright red and run away to avoid Adam.

Today was the same.

I found some pretty wildflowers blooming near the forest, so I picked a few and wove them together to put on Potato.

Then I made a flower bracelet like I used to make as a child and put it on his wrist.

The pink flower bracelet woven around his white, pretty wrist suited him perfectly without any sense of discord.

Then when I suddenly looked up, I met Adam’s beautifully curved eyes.

After that, I spent the whole day running away because Adam persistently followed me as I fled stiffly.

Even now I was sitting in the Demon King’s Castle garden after running away from Adam.

It was definitely because Adam smiled so particularly prettily that I was so flustered.

Even though I was surely the one who had asked him to treat me warmly, seeing him smile at me and treat me well made my heart feel uncomfortable.

Even though Adam was surely treating me with pure goodwill without any ulterior motives.

‘Or maybe he’s teasing me.’

…It was probably closer to the latter, wasn’t it?

My heart was already troubled, but today especially Potato was pacing around me, making my mind restless.

Potato, who had been glancing around cautiously, suddenly dashed out of the Demon King’s Castle like an arrow.

Watching Potato’s retreating figure as he hid himself in the dense forest, I slowly got up from my seat.

‘Right, this kind of self-pity doesn’t suit me.’

I’d rather just ask Adam directly.

The moment I made a decision I’d regret in the morning, borrowing courage from the night air, a small commotion arose not far away.

Clang!

A clear, crisp sound echoed through the Demon King’s Castle.

A little while ago, Potato had been growling while looking toward the back of the Demon King’s Castle, so I had held him.

Now Potato had vanished without leaving a single hair behind.

I moved my steps toward the garden behind the Demon King’s Castle, which I thought would be empty.

Could it be Ben? This was the evening of the third day since he said he’d come.

Feeling puzzled by his later-than-expected return, I moved my legs to look for traces of Ben.

Tonight the moon decorating the sky was shining brilliantly.

The large moon illuminated my vision with silver light.

And beneath it, I witnessed Ben trembling while holding a frying pan like a weapon, his face pale as a sheet.

“Kyaaah! E-E-Eve… What should I do about this?”

I was momentarily speechless.

Ben couldn’t bear to look down.

In Ben’s place, I slowly lowered my gaze downward.

“…”

I looked back and forth between the fallen corpse(?) and Ben.

The corpse’s back looked familiar.

Wait, is it okay for a demon to collapse so easily? Even a power level measuring device?

Several months had passed since Ben came to the Demon King’s Castle.

But he didn’t know the face or identity of the other person living with us.

It was hard to properly explain to ordinary Ben, who knew nothing about the fact that demons coexisted with the Hero, let alone about monsters.

So I had told Abracxas to avoid showing himself as much as possible…

This was the result.

Ben, who had been excitedly returning with newly acquired cooking utensils, mistook Abracxas for an intruder who had snuck into the Demon King’s Castle and struck him with the frying pan he was carrying.

‘…Is Ben actually incredibly strong? The world’s strongest being?’

It wasn’t wrong to say so, since he was handling with cooking the Hero who had defeated the strongest Demon King on the continent.

But to defeat a demon?

Shouldn’t Ben have been the Hero instead of Adam?

Witnessing this incomprehensible situation, my blocked words finally began to flow slowly after a long while.

“…Why is Abracxas like that?”

“A-Abracxas?”

Ben asked back in bewilderment.

I picked up a tree branch and poked the seemingly dead Abracxas.

Hmm, is he really dead?

I quietly prayed for his fate.

May you be born as a good demon in your next life.

But Abracxas immediately sprang up.

Since he had been wriggling his body after collapsing, I knew he wasn’t dead.

As he said, he was a demon after all, so there was no way he’d actually die.

“Ow ow ow, I got a bump on my head.”

Abracxas got up whining and touched his head.

I could see a small bump rising in real-time on the back of his head.

When Abracxas glared at the human who had hit his head, I quietly slipped between them and blocked weak-hearted Ben’s view.

“…?”

Seeing that Abracxas and I seemed to know each other, I met Ben’s eyes, which seemed to demand an explanation.

Since he’d seen it with his own eyes, I couldn’t hide it anymore.

After thinking for a moment, I began explaining to a degree he could understand.

“Um, Abracxas is… like an attendant serving the Hero. He made a vow and pledged loyalty to forget his past mistakes and be reborn as a new person.”

I spoke while deliberately ignoring Abracxas’s bright red eyes.

Would Ben know the characteristics of demons well?

Considering he was from Dainil Village, he might know…

I decided to trust in Ben’s obliviousness.

But fortunately, Ben also seemed to have some things that made sense to him.

“Ah. I think I’ve seen him sometimes. I thought he was a ghost… Last time I thought I saw a person’s silhouette in some room, but it disappeared in the blink of an eye, and when I went to check the next day, the room that had been messy was sparkling clean.”

So Abracxas had been faithfully following my instruction not to appear in front of Ben all this time.

Ben finally clapped his hands as if he understood.

“So he was a room fairy?”

“Something like that…”

…Not a fairy, but a demon though.

After reading Tommy’s fairy tale books with great interest, he seriously believed in the existence of fairies.

Well, in a world with talking monsters, Demon Kings, Heroes, and gods, why wouldn’t there be fairies?

Realizing that Abracxas wasn’t a target to attack, Ben loosely held the frying pan he had been gripping tightly.

“But Abracxas is…”

At that moment, a sound that tickled their ears was clearly heard by all three of them.

Rustle—

A sound too loud to be the wind blowing.

I narrowed my eyebrows and looked behind Ben.

And then.

In the dark night, something suddenly popped out from below.

It happened to be right behind the castle wall where Ben was standing.

It was definitely a wall that should have been blocked on all sides.

Ben knew this fact well too.

Before I could even grasp the situation, it was inevitable that Ben, who had turned pale, would scream and swing his arms.

“Uwaaaah!”

Clang!!

A clear and crisp sound once again echoed from the back of the Demon King’s Castle.

Ben, who had been holding the frying pan while extremely tense, had struck someone again.

I understood in one second why Abracxas was sprawled on the ground before my eyes.

Without realizing it, I felt my intact head with my hand.

Fortunately, it was fine…

Then, Abracxas, who had been blocking me from approaching Ben, belatedly shouted.

“De…! No, it looks like an innocent citizen over there got hit by a frying pan and fainted?”

More than that, for a person to pop out from the wall surrounding the Demon King’s Castle.

Could it really be a ghost?

Abracxas ran like lightning toward where Ben was, accompanied by a small scream.

I, who ran over belatedly, looked down at the result of Ben’s atrocity.

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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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