Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 69

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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 69

“…”

I had grown tired of pointing out the maid’s mistakes.

I shouldn’t have come to the Imperial Palace in the first place.

I was dragged here because of an attendant who stubbornly acted as if he wouldn’t move a single step unless I got in the carriage immediately.

I grumbled at him so much that Potato, who was beside me, looked ready to pounce on him at any moment, so I eventually gave in and followed along…

‘I should have known earlier that it’s like emperor, like attendant. Wasn’t it also the Emperor’s scheme that Potato couldn’t find peace and caused a commotion?’

The attendant who brought me here earlier was also grinning while closely observing me.

I didn’t like his appearance, but I couldn’t tell him to leave when I had no allies in this place.

My back stung from where the maid had accidentally pricked me.

It was a minor wound that only drew a drop of blood before stopping, but it was enough to make one’s nerves sensitive.

“It’s fine, so please hurry up.”

“If you go looking sloppy, it will only harm the Hero’s dignity.”

Do all the people living in the Imperial Palace talk like this?

She was giving warnings while pretending to be concerned.

“Why do you keep dragging out the time?”

“That’s not the case at all.”

The maid replied while still dawdling.

She wasted time wondering whether to put on this accessory or that accessory.

I swallowed a sigh and looked at the message that appeared.

Your Hero feels annoyed.

Fortunately, aside from annoyance and irritation, no other particular messages about Adam came up.

It seemed like nothing was happening to target Adam in public places.

Even so, I was worried about Adam being alone in enemy territory.

Your sole God is concerned about you.

“…”

That didn’t mean to send me right away!

* * *

Currently, Adam had been dragged to a ball at the Imperial Palace.

He came on his own feet, but saying he was dragged would be more appropriate.

He absolutely did not want to come.

If it weren’t for the letter that arrived from the Imperial Palace, he wouldn’t have set foot in such a place.

The invitation to the Imperial Palace ball wasn’t only for Adam.

‘Why is the Emperor taking interest in Iberis?’

When they asked him to bring her along, he refused and had to endure the Emperor’s annoying persistence with his whole body.

Despite his expression showing he wanted to draw his sword and cut Adam to pieces at any moment, he couldn’t directly harm him.

He couldn’t dirty his own hands.

Even a three-year-old child would know who would be pointed out as the culprit if the Hero died in the Imperial Palace.

Before that, Adam had no intention of being taken down so easily.

How could an Emperor who had barely held a sword a few times in his life kill him?

Remembering how one of the Imperial Guards he had carefully raised entered Mia’s Forest and never came out, the Emperor probably couldn’t cause direct harm.

‘So did he change his target to Iberis?’

This was not good.

If he ignored it, the threat toward her would likely intensify, so Adam eventually came to the Imperial Palace ball alone.

The time written on the invitation was noon, but no one came.

Only an attendant approached him belatedly.

“The ball preparations aren’t finished yet, so please wait here.”

“…Ha.”

Adam let out a snicker.

He laughed at the Emperor’s increasingly petty misdeeds.

When Adam suddenly burst into hollow laughter, the attendant’s face twitched.

At the expression that showed he didn’t expect to be mocked to his face about his master, Adam suppressed the laughter that was trying to escape.

“Tell him I understand.”

“Yes.”

After standing for a while, people began entering one by one.

The nobles looked at Adam and initially tried to talk to him. However, the high-ranking nobles gradually avoided him.

This was because they knew he was a Hero who had fallen out of the Emperor’s favor.

They had keenly noticed that he was a Hero who had incurred the Emperor’s wrath without even receiving a proper title.

Whether they did that or not, Adam waited for time to pass quickly.

He had indeed done well not to bring Iberis.

He could endure the insults directed at himself, but if they were directed at her…

‘Emperor. What should I do with you…’

Then, his eyes widened.

He saw someone who shouldn’t be here.

Like keeping a precious object carefully tucked away in a drawer without even taking it out for fear someone might steal it, he had told her to stay quietly in the Demon King’s Castle.

“Eve? Why are you here?”

His eyes met with Iberis.

She also looked quite surprised when she encountered him.

No, it would be more accurate to say she was surprised by his reaction.

“…What? They said you called for me. Since you even sent a carriage, I thought you urgently summoned me.”

At his questioning words, Iberis muttered, “Ah, I knew this would happen.”

Adam composed his increasingly anxious expression and asked.

“Who came looking for Eve?”

Iberis wasn’t the type to voluntarily come to an Imperial Palace ball in the first place.

She also knew from previous experience that his relationship with the Emperor wasn’t good.

Iberis had harbored mild hostility toward the Emperor from the beginning, so he hadn’t deliberately emphasized it, but…

‘Come to think of it, why does Iberis…?’

The fact that the Emperor had tormented him was something only Adam knew.

No, it was now a fragment of a vanished past that even he shouldn’t know about.

How many times was it? There was a time when he barely managed to kill the Demon King while his companions were still alive.

What was aimed at the Hero and his companions, who had used all their strength to kill the Demon King, were the Emperor’s arrows.

Hidden in the forest where all the monsters had died, they shot merciless arrows at them who had exhausted their strength.

Adam ultimately survived even after being hit by the rain of arrows, but his companions had already become cold corpses.

“Why on earth are you doing this?”

“Because that person wishes it.”

He could feel God’s presence, but there was no response.

Adam stood blankly in the Demon King’s Castle and thought.

‘If I die here, will I go back?’

So Adam stabbed himself in the stomach.

And Adam opened his eyes on some morning.

And that process repeated several times.

As if some Emperor wanted to destroy Adam even if he had to restart dozens of times.

But this time is different.

So he thought it was an emotion he could cool down by himself.

It was just a vanished past that no one would understand even if he talked about it anyway.

However, Iberis acted as if she understood his emotions.

It was just one of the vanished past timelines that only God would know about.

‘Or someone related to the Elderly High Priest who knows about my birth…’

In his mind, he had long known that Iberis was suspicious.

Her actions were always slightly unnatural in some way.

However, he had been deliberately turning away from each action directed at her, not wanting to dig into her truth and harbor suspicions.

This time too, Adam’s eyes scrutinized Iberis’s appearance more carefully than the truth.

Rather than suspicion, he was first filled with worry that the Emperor might have done something to her due to any connection with him.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“No, I’m fine. Hero.”

He knew the Emperor’s malice.

His cruelty in using and abusing even children without hesitation for his own benefit.

That’s why he had deliberately tried to hide Iberis from him as much as possible…

Today’s events had ruined that.

The reason the Emperor invited Iberis was that he too knew of her existence.

Now that he could no longer hide her, he had to protect her.

‘Or else completely separate her from my side.’

To prevent her from meeting the same fate as his ‘comrades’ who had met unjust deaths for being by his side.

However, he had reserved the safest method for Iberis as a last resort.

Because of his selfishness in not wanting to send her away.

Even though he knew it painfully well himself, he couldn’t let go first.

Adam unconsciously gripped her hand tightly.

Yet when Iberis made a small “ah” sound, he startled and loosened his grip.

“I’m sorry, Eve.”

Knowing he hadn’t intended it, Iberis shook her head to indicate she was fine.

However, Adam still seemed worried about her, showing signs of constant anxiety.

“…By the way, how did you get here? Don’t tell me the Imperial Guard we met at the Hunting Competition came looking for Eve?”

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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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