I Became the Hero While Paving a Flower Path for My Niece - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Heroine Paved a Flower Path and Became a Hero – Episode 017
[So it looks like future me sent you back to the past!]
“…Explain it to me properly.”
Alex, who hadn’t understood a thing, pressed his temples firmly and demanded an explanation.
[First, let me explain how you became a Ghost.]
“That first?”
Alex looked puzzled.
[It’s important.]
[Before you regressed, do you remember what you were thinking when you died?]
“Thinking?”
Alex, who had been blinking slowly, opened his mouth at a measured pace.
“…I thought I couldn’t leave Leo alone.”
Yes.
As Alex lay dying from the wolf’s attack, he had worried for Leo, who would be left alone after losing his only family—his uncle.
[Magic is Will, right?]
[Your thoughts, your Will—that’s what turned you into a Ghost.]
“But Will alone isn’t enough. You need Mana, don’t you?”
Otherwise, everyone who died leaving behind family would have become a Ghost.
[Of course.]
[But when you died, I was there beside you with my Life Vessel. And you had magical talent.]
Ah.
Alex’s eyes widened.
[Your magical talent drew in my Mana, and your Will activated the Magic!]
“I… used Magic?”
[Yes! But since it wasn’t proper Magic, you ended up in a ‘Ghost’ form.]
For twelve years he’d wondered why he’d become a Ghost, never suspecting it was actually Magic he’d accidentally cast.
Alex couldn’t help but be astonished.
[It’s no wonder the Patron God and the Demon King didn’t recognize you. My Magic comes from another world.]
[You became a being from an entirely different dimension.]
A being from another dimension.
That was a possibility he’d never once considered.
“I once thought you were just pretending not to see me because I felt bad about troubling Leo.”
But it seemed the Patron God Solenius wasn’t shameless enough for that.
[Though if things had gone wrong, you might have been revived as a Ghoul or a Zombie?]
That would have been a real disaster.
The hero’s uncle as a Ghoul or Zombie.
‘He’d definitely have been exterminated by the Church. Then I wouldn’t have been able to watch over Leo at all.’
Being a Ghost that no one could see had its advantages, Alex reflected.
Ibaek, chuckling softly, continued his explanation step by step.
[That also explains why you could use my Magic so skillfully. You said you ‘tried’ to protect Leo all that time.]
Alex blinked.
[Magic is Will.]
[Though you would have failed because your Mana was insufficient and you had no Circle, you were continuously ‘using’ Magic all along.]
[For twelve years!]
“…Even though I only failed?”
Never once had I succeeded.
[Doesn’t it say failure is the mother of success?]
[Those failures accumulated as your experience. Twelve years of it! Of course you’d be skilled at Magic!]
[It’s like being a mid-career novice, if you will!]
Alex simply listened to Ibaek’s words.
The twelve years he’d thought useless, spent believing he couldn’t save Leo and feeling nothing but helpless, seemed to take on new meaning somehow.
[Besides, it wasn’t all failures. You blocked that final attack, didn’t you?]
“But… I couldn’t protect Leo.”
Alex, gripping his clasped hands tightly, spoke in an anguished voice. The sight of Leo dying remained vivid and horrifying before his eyes.
[That’s only natural. Did you think a Circle 1 Shield could block a Circle 9 attack? That gap was simply insurmountable.]
Ibaek spoke as if to console him.
[But the success of that Magic seems to have connected future me and you.]
“Connected? Me and you?”
[Yes. Back then, I probably spent those twelve years trapped in that Glass Orb, watching only trees and grass and the sky.]
A groan of dismay escaped from Ibaek’s voice.
So you must have tried to find some way to escape. And in doing that, you discovered me—the one who’d succeeded at Magic.
“Me? How?”
Because you became a Ghost due to my Mana, Alex.
Well, how should I put it? A Familiar? A servant? A subordinate? I suspect that’s what you became.
It was certainly a strange, in-between sort of existence. No wonder we remained ignorant of each other for twelve years.
Anyway.
The success of your Magic must have acted as a signal. That’s how I detected you.
And I would have investigated you. Why you possessed even the tiniest fraction of my Mana. For a Lich, searching souls is child’s play!
That’s when I must have learned that in the past, you and I were very close together on that mountain. Close enough that I could have reached out and touched you.
Alex’s hand, which had unconsciously grasped Ibaek’s Life Vessel, clenched and unclenched.
The future me must have realized there was only one way to escape the Life Vessel.
“…Regression Magic.”
Exactly! The only way was to go back to the past and have you seize me—seize my Life Vessel.
But that couldn’t have been easy. The future me and you would have been connected only tenuously.
Alex listened to Ibaek’s account without blinking.
Moreover, Regression Magic is impossible Magic.
If it were easy, every Grand Mage would’ve simply traveled back to the past.
Ibaek chuckled before continuing.
Still, I would have attempted it.
But my Will alone wouldn’t have been enough. Because it was you who needed to go back, Alex.
And that’s when you must have “thought,” Alex.
That you wanted to go back.
Alex recalled the thought he’d had just before regressing.
Leo.
“I wanted to make him happy….”

* * *
Yes! That’s it!
Go back and seize my Life Vessel!

* * *
And so you came back to the past and seized my Life Vessel.
Ibaek released a breath of relief.
Wow, trapped for twelve years straight. Just thinking about it gives me the chills.
It’s all thanks to you, Alex. Of course, I poured out all my Mana too!
“Thanks to me…?”
Alex murmured, his expression dazed now that he understood the secret of the Regression.
That’s right!
What do you think would have happened if you’d given up halfway through, if you’d failed during those twelve years and just quit?
Ibaek spoke as though the very thought made him dizzy.
I probably would have failed my Magic in that final battle, and then the future me wouldn’t have noticed you at all.
Then I wouldn’t have even dared attempt Regression Magic. I’d still be trapped in the Glass Orb. For a hundred years. A thousand years.
It’s all because you persevered!
…The Regression happened because of my efforts?
…Those twelve years of work weren’t wasted? They weren’t useless?
And besides, the reason you’re good at Magic now is because of those twelve years of training.
Like an experienced recruit starting their first day!
Alex thought back to his Magic that had reduced the Goblin Shaman to ash in a single blow. That power came from twelve years of effort, apparently.
“Ha….”
Alex buried his face in his hands.
Why are you doing that?
Ibaek, suddenly plunged into darkness, asked in surprise.
Alex felt something hot flowing from his eyes—a sensation that reached him even in his current state.
Are you… crying?
“…Just… a bit….”
His chest heaved in a way he couldn’t quite put into words, and his heart felt impossibly heavy.
“I was never able to help Leo. Not once in twelve years.”
Alex poured out the helplessness, self-loathing, and wretchedness that had accumulated in his heart. Twelve years’ worth of that weight was immense.
“I really thought I was useless. But… I wasn’t.”
Those twelve years of effort had sent Alex back to the past. And they had become the strength that allowed him to erase the Goblin Shaman and would allow him to erase the Demon King.
“…You weren’t useless at all, Uncle.”
That was what reassured him most.
[Useless?!]
[I’m the uncle who even turned back time for my nephew!]
At Ibaek’s words, Alex found himself laughing—a deflated sort of laugh, as if the air had gone out of him. Somehow his chest felt tight with emotion.
“Fine. I’ll cut you some slack.”
Alex leaned back in his chair and spoke.
[Yes!]
[Of course, from now on I’ll do my very best to defeat the Demon King!]
[And pave the way for Leo!]
[I never killed any good people back on Earth either. Sigh. I had no idea I’d cause this much trouble.]
“That’s enough. It hasn’t happened yet.”
[That’s right!]
He seemed to be recovering awfully fast, though.
But despair wouldn’t solve anything anyway.
[So what should we do first?]
“Travel the Continent and grow stronger. Everything requires power.”
Alex’s eyes gleamed.
“Along the way, if we find any Corruption dungeons, we’ll clear them. Collect your bones, gather intelligence on my sister and brother-in-law, and kill the demons and the Demon King.”
Alex clenched his fist as if making a vow.
“We have to work that hard. For Leo.”
Twelve years of failure hadn’t ended in defeat—it had circled back as the success of Regression Magic.
‘If we simply don’t give up, even if we fail….’
How that ending would turn out, no one could know.
Alex looked at the bone fragment he held in his clenched fist.
“Come to think of it, the Mana in this bone—can’t I use it?”
It was the power that had evolved a low-tier goblin into a mid-tier goblin shaman. If he could use it, it seemed it would be quite useful going forward.
[I’m not sure about that.]
[Since I’m a Lich, it would be harmful to humans, you see?]
[There’s Demon Qi mixed in here, right?]
Demon Qi.
The potent force wielded by the demon race.
Whenever any living being—human, animal, or monster—became tainted with Demon Qi, they would transform into Demon Beasts, lose their reason, rampage, or die from the corruption they couldn’t bear.
“Mm.”
Remembering this, Alex pushed the bone fragment to the far end of the table, as though distancing himself from poison mushrooms.
[Don’t treat it like a germ colony! That’s my pinky toe bone!]
“Is it really safe for me to keep this?”
Holy Power could purify Demon Qi, but there was no one here who could wield Holy Power.
Besides, this was the bone of an otherworldly Lich—Holy Power didn’t work well against it anyway.
[It’s slightly corrupted, but it should be fine to just keep it.]
[My soul is already inside your body anyway.]
Ah.
Right—I had something far more dangerous than a bone inside me, didn’t I?
“Leo….”
[Leo’s got no problem with it!]
[It’s totally fine! Totally!]
[As long as you don’t use it!]
Ahem.
Alex let out a light, theatrical cough at Ibaek’s vehement response before asking his question.
“But what exactly is this Corruption you keep mentioning?”
[My Mana is normally green, you see. But this is dark green.]
“…Now that you mention it, the Demon King’s skull also used dark green Mana.”
Alex clicked his tongue in distaste at the mere thought.
[Probably it got corrupted because someone else used it, not me.]
[Like those red stains left behind when you use a tomato sauce spoon for cream sauce!]
It was a characteristically simple analogy from Ibaek, and it made perfect sense.
“So we can’t use this bone until we’ve collected all of it?”
[I need to think about that.]
[Using it directly yourself seems like it’ll be difficult… and to keep the priests here from finding out, we’ll need to prepare carefully….]
As Ibaek trailed off into thought, murmuring to himself,
Alex picked up the bone fragment and placed it carefully in a small pouch. He’d have to keep it safe—couldn’t afford to lose it.
“Quite a bit of time has passed.”
Now that he understood the facts he’d been wondering about, he noticed the moon had already risen considerably in the sky.
He wasn’t sure how many hours of sleep he could manage, but he decided to try anyway.
‘I should write down the future events in my notebook when I get the chance. So I don’t forget.’
He hadn’t been able to write anything until now because Ibaek shared his field of vision, but at least now he could record things freely.
Alex rose from the chair and lay down beside Leo. The child’s steady, gentle breathing calmed his restless mind.
Just as sleep was about to take him—
Alex’s eyes snapped open as something occurred to him.
“Wait, I never asked you this. You said you became a Lich from being human, right?”
[Yeah, that’s right.]
“Then your bones should still be in human form. How many pieces do I need to find?”
Unfamiliar with human anatomy or medicine, Alex asked how many of Ibaek’s bones he would need to search for.
Ibaek hesitated for a moment before answering.
[…Two hundred and six.]
“…What? How many?”
Alex’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected such an answer, and his voice wavered slightly.
[Two hundred and six…well, that’s the number.]
“Are you insane?! Two hundred and six?!”
Mindful of Leo sleeping beside him, Alex gasped in a hushed voice.
[But! I found one already, so now you only need to find two hundred and five!]
As if that made it any better.
At Ibaek’s words, everything went dark in Alex’s vision.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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