Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 6

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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 6

“This isn’t it either… Why did I even pack this?”

I pulled out a bulky stuffed doll and tossed it behind me. This wasn’t what I was looking for right now. Adam caught the doll reflexively and started fidgeting with it.

“…A bear doll?”

I pulled out medicinal herbs from among the countless miscellaneous items. While I was pondering what kind of medicine would be good for this situation, Adam, who had been quietly watching me, spoke up.

“What are you doing?”

“Treating it!”

I was stating the obvious, but he continued hovering around beside me.

Adam replied as if it were natural.

“Why are you treating a monster?”

“Because it’s dying! I have to take responsibility.”

“…”

I had to save it.

With my head filled with this single thought, fear had already disappeared far beyond. If something were to happen, the Hero standing there blankly as if it had nothing to do with him would handle it.

Besides, a monster that had already lost its fighting spirit was just like an ordinary animal.

‘Yesterday too, it didn’t seem to have any intention of attacking me specifically.’

The monster had tried to bite and take my bag as if curious about its contents. It was probably drawn by the smell of the food I had brought yesterday.

I opened the monster’s mouth and stuffed the mixed herbs into it. It tried to spit them out because they were very bitter, but when I forcibly closed its mouth and tapped its throat, it obediently swallowed.

Adam, who had been quietly watching the situation, spoke up.

“It seems that in Miss Iberis’s mind, this doll and that monster appear to be the same kind of existence.”

The only similarity between the jaguar-like monster and the bear doll was that they were both brown in color.

Considering that even their colors barely resembled each other, Adam’s words seemed like grasping at clouds.

However, I knew that the monster obeyed Adam’s commands because of the subjugation stone.

I also knew that a monster following the Hero’s orders wouldn’t harm people.

But Adam, who thought I knew nothing, seemed to be watching my actions with puzzlement.

“Is it because I’m treating the monster? Still, it might be occupational hazard, but I just can’t stand by and watch something die right in front of me.”

“It’s just a monster though. Is the treatment finished?”

“For now, we’ll have to wait and see…”

“Kying.”

At that moment, the monster I thought had fainted licked my hand with its large tongue. At first, both I and the Hero flinched in surprise, thinking it was going to bite my hand.

Wasn’t it acting almost like it was being affectionate? I had always known monsters as beings that only harmed or devoured people. That’s why the Empire classified them as evil.

Adam was more surprised than I was by the monster’s unexpected behavior.

With a dazed expression as if someone had hit the back of his head with a hammer, he muttered.

“…Maybe there really was no need to kill it.”

It seems the treatment was successful.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I immediately shifted my gaze to my original goal.

“So what do you think about the proposal I made yesterday!”

Adam smiled brightly.

‘Maybe he’s thinking about it more positively than I thought?’

After all, he smiled.

If he recited words of rejection with that kind of smile, he’d be guilty.

I pulled out various items I had prepared yesterday but hadn’t been able to show him and handed them to him.

When I gave him an armful, he accepted everything despite his confusion.

“So… you’re going to help me with milk, biscuits, and a bear doll? Let me say this again, I don’t need a maid…”

“No! Those are bribes. I’ve been thinking about it again, and if you don’t like a maid, how about a friend? Like a companion!”

“A companion?”

Adam spoke the single word as if it were an unfamiliar term.

I nodded and thought.

Unlike other playthroughs, this Hero had succeeded in conquering the Demon King’s Castle alone without any companions.

Currently, he didn’t have any relationships with whom he shared the strong bonds formed while overcoming countless life-and-death situations.

“Yes, I want to become a companion like a friend to the Hero. You must have been lonely and tired living alone in the Demon King’s Castle, so I want to become the Hero’s friend and make you feel a little more at ease! Oh, of course I’ll also work hard as a maid…”

Suddenly, all expression disappeared from Adam’s face.

Just the disappearance of his smile somehow made him look angry.

He muttered in a small voice as if reciting.

“I had companions. They’re gone now.”

“Pardon?”

“…It’s nothing. Anyway, I don’t need companions either.”

And he smiled carelessly. However, it was somehow a sad smile that made me unconsciously hesitate for a moment.

But Adam, who quickly hid his expression, returned to normal.

“Miss Iberis, what did you say when you entered here earlier?”

“Uh… Hero, good morning?”

“Yes, thank you. Iberis, have a good evening.”

And darkness again.

Just moments ago I was in the Demon King’s Castle, but when I opened my eyes, I was on a soft bed. Moreover, outside the window it was already getting dark and an owl was hooting.

‘Oh, so this is how you’re going to play it, is that it?’

No one could stop me.

The Hero in the game, whether due to the system or his personality, would refuse when pressed three times but then sigh and agree.

This time too, I’d have to make three visits, and if three times wasn’t enough, then five times, and then ten times!

But it seemed I wasn’t the only one who was prepared.

“Goo…”

“At least accept my greeting…”

“Wait a moment…”

After the fifth attempt, I ended up in a private meeting with Violet.

Of course,

After several days of the Hero carrying me back like luggage, even the most oblivious person would notice.

Violet sat me down and after a long period of contemplation, spoke up.

“Eve, do you perhaps like the Hero… No.”

Violet, who had barely managed to speak, ultimately couldn’t finish her sentence and held her forehead. She seemed to think that a young child had developed childish feelings for the Hero after hearing tales of his heroic deeds.

‘Strictly speaking, wouldn’t it be maternal love? Me, toward that little pixel fragment…’

But I stopped thinking when I quickly recalled the Hero’s face. He may have been pixels in the game, but now he seemed like a completely real person. Statuesque and handsome, but with such refined features that the word “beautiful” would also suit him.

If Iberis were an ordinary adolescent girl, she might have really fallen for him at first sight.

Violet ultimately couldn’t say anything and left the room.

I confirmed she had completely gone downstairs, then hurriedly sat at the desk and pulled out a notebook and fountain pen. Then I tapped my cheek with the feather part of the fountain pen and fell into thought.

I needed to modify my plan a little.

‘He waited for me once or twice, but now he knocks me out before I can even say anything and brings me home, so I can’t do anything.’

What should I do?

I lay face down on the desk and banged my head while lost in thought.

At that moment, a good idea worthy of shouting “Eureka!” came to mind.

I got up and pulled out a sheet of paper. Then I began writing as if possessed. Just like the Hero in that game once did.

‘Hmm, perfect.’

I had perfect insurance in place, so now I just needed to go out.

‘With this, even you can’t refuse, Hero.’

Smiling with satisfaction inwardly, I packed my things again. I also put the paper I had just written into my bag.

Just as I was about to charge back to the Demon King’s Castle!

Click.

“Hm?”

The door wouldn’t open. I tried turning it the other way and lifting it up, but the door remained as it was.

Knock knock knock.

Finally, I knocked on the door with my fist and called out pitifully.

“Violet? Auntieee-“

After calling out like that for a while, it wasn’t Violet who came up, but Tommy.

“Sister Eve.”

“Huh? Tommy?”

I lay flat on my stomach and pressed my face against the gap between the wooden door and the floor. A large bowl appeared in front of my face.

“Yeah. This is food.”

“Food isn’t important right now, Tommy. Please open the door. Something seems to be stuck from outside so it won’t open?”

“Geez, it’s not that it won’t open, it’s locked.”

Somehow a bad feeling flashed through my mind. Thud, I heard the sound of Tommy sitting down outside the door.

“Mom told me to watch so you can’t go out.”

“…”

“She said we can’t repay our village’s benefactor with enmity. I don’t know what she means though.”

Oh no, I had overlooked that all the people in this village were huge fans of the Hero.

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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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