Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 59

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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 59

‘This person is….’

I lifted my head as if entranced. My gaze turned toward the castle walls that I thought were blocked on all sides.

I approached Ben, who was trembling with his eyes closed.

Looking at him collapsed on the ground like Abracxas earlier, I muttered so only he could hear.

“Let’s deal with him secretly.”

“No, he’s not dead! Besides, if someone looks dead, shouldn’t you naturally worry about them?”

“Haha. What a shame.”

I said with a face that showed no regret whatsoever.

I simply looked down quietly at the fallen intruder, Aphene.

Indeed, there was a handsome face lying obediently enough to be confident in his own appearance.

Aphene, who would probably be even more popular if he stayed still, had his mouth clamped shut like a clam, whether he had lost consciousness or not.

However, my eyes looking down at him were cold.

‘Why?’

The first question that came to mind was simple.

Why is Aphene here?

He was definitely drinking heavily in the village and getting into trouble, so why is he here?

Into the Demon King’s Castle, where ordinary people don’t even enter the forest because evil beings live there?

My wariness toward Aphene hadn’t disappeared in the first place.

Asking for his help was just a coincidence that worked out like backing into something blindly.

Seeing Aphene crawling into the Demon King’s Castle only deepened my suspicions.

‘…Would it be better to show him to Adam?’

But considering the possibility that Adam might be completely won over by Aphene’s smooth tongue, it didn’t seem like a good method.

More than that, it was strange that Aphene would try to enter through such a secret passage.

‘I only found out after dozens of attempts, so how did Aphene know?’

I crouched down while looking at Aphene lying silently on the ground.

His long eyelashes remained still without the slightest tremor. Looking at his eyes that were tightly shut and seemed unlikely to open anytime soon, I whispered in his ear.

“Aphene, how long are you going to pretend to sleep?”

“And how did you know about this hole?”

Speaking of this secret passage, it could be said that it played a crucial role in conquering the Demon King’s Castle in this cycle.

Through the secret passage, they infiltrated inside the Demon King’s Castle before the monsters and Abracxas guarding the gates could notice.

Even the Demon King didn’t know about the existence of the secret passage until now, and would only have realized it after dying to Adam’s sword.

To think Aphene knew about that entrance.

I kindly called his name.

And I spoke in a small voice so only the unconscious him could hear.

As if telling him that I knew he was pretending to be unconscious.

Only then did Aphene get up weakly.

Murky gray eyes came into view.

“You’re not even worried about me getting hit out of nowhere, how disappointing.”

“Hmm, well. There’s no reason to be kind to a suspicious intruder.”

I smiled brightly as I explained to the intruder.

“I’m not suspicious. I just…. Right, I came to sell things but somehow ended up entering here.”

“Hmm.”

I snorted derisively at Aphene making excuses.

Ben, who had been staring wide-eyed, seemed to think this was another person I knew, so he stuck close to me and examined him.

“Don’t you think it’s suspicious that you tried to sneak into the Demon King’s Castle in the first place?”

“Isn’t it because there’s Potato outside?”

Ben said quietly.

Is that so? It seemed like rumors had spread that there were monsters guarding the gates of the Demon King’s Castle.

Because of that, the Emperor had even asked directly if the Hero was controlling the monsters.

“That’s also true, but….”

I looked at Aphene nodding desperately with suspicious eyes.

‘It’s not just Abracxas who disappeared.’

I hadn’t seen Aphene for the past few days.

Even when I went down to the village, I heard he had suddenly disappeared and thought he had returned to where he originally lived.

But then Aphene suddenly popped up at the Demon King’s Castle.

Something didn’t add up.

And what was even more unsettling was someone else’s behavior.

I had been trying to ask since earlier, but the circumstances hadn’t allowed it.

First, I asked the most suspicious person.

No, the demon.

“But why are you here, Abracxas?”

“…Huh?”

Abracxas answered with a start.

Abracxas, who was about to snap asking what business it was of his wherever he went, clamped his mouth shut like a clam at my following words.

“Abracxas can’t leave the territory of the Demon King’s Castle, right?”

Unlike the other two demons, Abracxas could only stay in the Demon King’s Castle.

The farthest he could go was to the castle gates, including the Demon King’s Castle gardens.

That’s why he always faced the Hero’s companions at the gates.

He couldn’t go outside the Demon King’s Castle because of the pact he made with the Demon King.

It was a death pact that could only be broken when one side died.

Perhaps because the other party was the Demon King, the pact’s power was strong, so Abracxas still couldn’t leave the Demon King’s Castle even now that the Demon King was dead.

“So what brings you here?”

Usually, Abracxas didn’t try to leave his room.

He just hid his body by moving between various unused rooms in the Demon King’s Castle.

Knowing his situation of being unable to leave the Demon King’s Castle, I didn’t particularly worry even when I couldn’t see him.

I just casually assumed he was holed up in some room again and wouldn’t come out.

But Abracxas, who came to the Demon King’s Castle gardens where he usually never went, and Aphene, who came through the secret passage in the garden wall with such good timing….

The timing was too good to be a coincidence.

‘Could the two of them have some kind of relationship….’

A human having some kind of relationship with a demon who serves the Demon King?

I let out a hollow laugh.

It was excessive speculation.

Then, Abracxas muttered something to Ben.

Was he threatening him for hitting his head with a frying pan?

Just as I was about to step in to separate them, unable to watch any longer.

Ben, who had been standing there blankly, spoke first.

“Abracxas aside, it does seem true that he came to sell things, doesn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“Look over there. There are lots of gems he brought to sell.”

He slowly extended his arm and pointed at Aphene.

With strangely unfocused eyes blinking, Ben opened and closed his mouth like a marionette tied to strings.

“Since that Hero is living so poorly, he might have come to sell things cheaply.”

Following Ben’s finger with my gaze, I could see gems glittering inside Aphene’s open sleeve.

“Right?”

“That could be….”

“Right?”

Ben smiled as he drove the point home.

Just as I was puzzled by Ben’s strangely unsettling behavior.

“Then isn’t that settled? It’s late at night, I didn’t know it was human courtesy to keep someone standing like this.”

“…Just come in for now.”

Even if Aphene didn’t know about me entering the Demon King’s Castle at night, at least he knew that the Hero lived here.

He probably wouldn’t dare to fearlessly steal in front of the Hero who had even killed the Demon King.

I led him forward while keeping a watchful eye on him to make sure he didn’t go anywhere strange.

I guided him to the reception room that had never been used before.

Since it was unimaginable for even that Demon King to receive guests in the reception room, it was a place that hadn’t been used for hundreds of years.

However, since Abracxas had cleaned it thoroughly, the mishap of dust pouring out when the door was opened didn’t occur.

Strangely, Abracxas’s shoulders tensed up with strength.

“So what do you have to sell that’s worth coming at this hour of the night?”

Aphene, who had been sprawled on the sofa as if he were in his own home, straightened his back at the stern voice.

Aphene pulled out a string of jewels from his sleeve.

The sparkling gems looked quite valuable, but his behavior was suspicious.

Rather than handling precious jewels, he treated them carelessly as if they were someone else’s belongings.

Don’t ordinary merchants usually treasure their goods more than their own lives?

“Look at this. Jeweled bracelets, necklaces, and… there’s even a dreamcatcher. Since we have our friendship, I’ll give you a good price.”

Aphene smiled greasily.

For a moment, goosebumps rose on my arms.

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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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