I Became the Hero While Paving a Flower Path for My Niece - Chapter 19

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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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Cousin’s Flower Path Laid Out—The Hero Is Born Episode 019
After washing up and coming downstairs, the first floor of the inn was bustling with people eating breakfast.
“Leo!”
Sophia was there too, having come to the inn early in the morning since her mother had gone to the Temple to see her father, Kane, for treatment.
“Sophia!”
Leo, beaming with a wide smile, hurried toward the stairs to descend.
“Leo, be careful!”
“Okay!”
Alex was deeply moved watching Leo grip the railing tightly and come down slowly.
A Leo who could hear his words—it brought tears of joy.
‘Probably….’
The dream seemed to have come because he’d talked about the Future with Eback last night. That frightening and sorrowful dream had steeled his resolve once more.
“Uncle, where are we going today?”
Leo asked, sitting at the table with a fork in hand.
“We’re heading west today. Remember Uncle went to the Mercenary Guild yesterday? I picked up a contract there.”
“Medicinal Herb gathering?”
Alex, placing ham on Leo’s plate, nodded with a smile.
“That’s right. Our Leo is smart too.”
“Hehe.”
[But didn’t we clear that lowest-tier Dungeon yesterday?]
[Couldn’t that count as the test instead?]
“Couldn’t clearing that Dungeon yesterday count as the test instead?”
Matthew, the waiter carrying food, asked the exact same question as Eback.
“Strictly speaking, that was personal business rather than a contract. I thought it might be too ambiguous to count as a test.”
“I see.”
[Got it.]
“The contract isn’t difficult either, so I’m planning to go with Leo.”
“Do you need a lunch box?”
Haron, the innkeeper, asked, listening attentively to Alex, the benefactor who had saved his son.
Alex shook his head with a smile.
“That’s all right. We’ll eat lunch outside.”
“Then try the restaurant over there. The food is quite decent.”
“Yes, we will.”
After eating a hearty breakfast, Alex and Leo mounted Max, the brown horse, and headed toward the West Gate.
[Oh, we can ride a horse too?]
Unlike Eback, who marveled, Leo was simply excited.
It was because Alex had often let him ride back when they lived in the village.
“It’s been a month!”
“Has it.”
Though for Alex, it had been twelve years and a month.
Listening to the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves, Alex recalled memories.
He’d learned to ride at the same time he learned Swordsmanship. His sister had taught him, saying it would be useful.
‘Though just a little, of course.’
Just as he’d practiced Swordsmanship to find his sister and brother-in-law, he’d borrowed horses whenever he had time to practice riding.
Thanks to that, he could ride like this.
Not that he rode like a knight with tremendous skill—he simply knew how to gallop adequately.
He’d sometimes let little Leo and his friends, who stared at him with sparkling eyes so earnestly, ride up front too.
“Teach me to ride a horse too, Uncle.”
“When Leo grows a bit more.”
Though he’d always heard the same response, Leo pouted at first, but then, delighted to be sitting high on a horse, broke into a wide grin and hummed cheerfully.
[Oh! So this is what riding a horse feels like!]
[It seems like it would be really fun if we galloped!]
Eback too was excited like a child.
But they couldn’t gallop where there were people about.
As they entered the central district, they could see crowds of people gathered here and there, chattering.
[How come it’s so noisy?]
As Eback said, there were more people bustling about than yesterday or the day before when they’d visited the Market.
“Did you hear? A Dungeon appeared south yesterday?”
“I did! They say a Mage appeared and swept them all away clean!”
“I heard fire the size of a human head rained down from the sky like rain!”
Not quite that impressive.
Still, for a 1st Circle mage, it was remarkable.
Leo must have overheard the townspeople talking—he giggled and shrugged his shoulders with admiration. His uncle was so cool, so worthy of pride.
“Uncle really is the best!”
“Ha ha ha!”
Alex burst out laughing at Leo, whose eyes sparkled as he spoke.
Walking along while listening to people’s chatter, they soon passed through the West Gate without noticing.
“Time to move faster now. Hold on tight, Leo.”
As the crowds thinned, Alex spoke. Leo nodded eagerly, gripping the front of the saddle with practiced ease.
“Okay!”
It wasn’t a gallop that would make the wind howl, just a bit faster than before, but that was enough.
“Wheeee!!”
Go, go!
Leo and Eback cheered as Max ran with enthusiasm. Leo’s face broke into a radiant smile.
Running like that, they soon arrived at their destination.
It was a field some distance from Lord’s Castle, overgrown with weeds where no one had tended it.
“Whoa!”
After helping Leo down from the horse, Alex showed him the quest contract.
“You just need to find medicinal herbs that look like this. It’s good for colds—you’ve eaten it before, haven’t you?”
“Yeah! It tastes really bitter.”
Leo grimaced at the mere thought of the flavor, and Alex laughed aloud.
“Still, it’s medicine we really need. Let’s find some together, Leo.”
“Okay!”
Is it okay to put a six-year-old to work?
Don’t they have child labor laws here or something?
Since Leo was crouching down, concentrating on finding the medicinal herbs, Alex could answer quietly.
“I’m not sure what that is, but this is just play.”
Seeing Leo with a rather serious expression comparing the grass to the picture on the contract, Eback was convinced.
Ah, so it was like experiential learning.
“What’s that?”
Alex, crouching in a different patch of grass and beginning to search for medicinal herbs, asked.
It’s when children experience all sorts of different things when they’re young.
It makes for good memories.
Though that had been his intention, Alex felt reassured that people in this other world did such things too.
I wish we could take photographs.
“Photographs?”
Pictures that get drawn in an instant.
You draw lots of pictures of how you looked when you were young, and then later when you’re grown up, you look back on them.
And you remember, “This is what happened back then,” that sort of thing.
“…That sounds nice.”
Alex’s expression turned wistful.
But unfortunately, Alex couldn’t draw.
“Can’t you do it with magic?”
You could probably make it as an item.
I’ve never tried it myself, though.
On my world, you can buy a camera with one click. Plus, there’s smartphones and all that.
He didn’t know what Eback was talking about, but apparently making something called a “camera” was difficult even for him.
I know the principle uses light, but…
Ah. Actually, there is a similar magic.
It’s originally a Mental Magic used to extract information from enemies, so maybe with some adjustment it could work?
Truly a Lich.
Mental Magic used to extract information—just hearing about it made his head spin.
He felt dizzy just thinking about what Eback had described.
“What happens if it goes wrong?”
You turn into an idiot.
“Never mind.”
Alex, having no desire to become an idiot, declined instantly.
“Light, huh… Should I request it from an Alchemist then?”
Oh, you have Alchemists here too?
It’d definitely be better for research with them. Or maybe a mage.
[Ah! Over there, to the right.]
Alex, who had been thinking of the clever Alchemists of the Future, turned to look where Eback had called out upon spotting the Medicinal Herb.
“You’ve got a good eye.”
[Considering how much material I’ve handled all this time!]
Though they shared the same field of view, Eback’s eye for detail was sharper than Alex’s, and he had found it quite well.
“Leo, come over here. There’s a Medicinal Herb—want to try harvesting it?”
“I want to!”
Leo, who had been pulling up the wrong plants, came running over with a bright grin. Then, listening to Alex’s instructions, he dug up the root of the herb with great care.
“Got it!”
“Well done, Leo!”
[Well done!]
Alex and Eback clapped in unison. Of course, Eback’s applause made no sound.
And so the herb gathering continued.
“Leo, tell me if you get thirsty.”
“Okay!”
“If you get tired, we can stop.”
“I got it!”
With Eback’s help, Alex had gathered the needed amount quickly and straightened his cramped knees.
A crisp autumn breeze blew through, cooling the sweat that had beaded on his skin.
He could see Max, the brown horse, grazing on fresh grass beneath a tree, and Leo, who had settled onto his haunches on the ground, plucking at grass.
A smile rose unbidden at the peaceful scene.
“Uncle, look at this!”
Leo sprang to his feet and held out what he’d been clutching in both hands—a wild Flower Bouquet.
[So he’d been picking flowers, not herbs.]
[Just like a child, after all.]
Eback let out a soft chuckle at Leo’s short attention span, so typical of a young boy. Alex laughed as well.
“It’s a beautiful bouquet. You made it well.”
“Right? Hehe!”
Leo beamed, clutching the flowers. Around him, large and small blooms were visible, scattered about.
It was a veritable pathway of flowers laid before them.
The scene looked so peaceful, so happy, so beautiful that Alex felt tears rising unbidden to his eyes.
“Here, I’ll give this to you, Uncle.”
“You’re giving it to me?”
Alex accepted the small bouquet with a radiant smile.
[What about mine?]
“This one’s for Sophia. This one’s for Grandfather Haron, this one’s for Matthew, this one’s for Kane, this one’s for Aunt Jena, and this one’s for the baby!”
[Mine?!]
Alex burst out laughing at Leo’s overflowing affection—he’d even made a bouquet for the baby still in the womb. He found himself wondering if this was why Leo had become a Hero.
[Leo, make one for me too….]
Noting Eback’s dejected tone, Alex was reminded of his friend’s phantom nature and spoke up.
“Leo. Would you make a bouquet for Uncle’s friend? He’s the friend who taught Uncle magic.”
[Alex! You…!]
“Yay! Okay!”
[Leo…!]
As he heard Eback’s voice touched with emotion, Alex arranged the gathered herbs. Leo was happily making a new bouquet.
Then, suddenly—
Alex’s gaze fell upon a road leading westward.
[Why?]
[Ah, is that where our next destination is?]
“No. There’s a kingdom that way, so we can’t go there.”
Because Eback was a Lich from another world, they had to keep their distance from the Sollenium Kingdom and the Religious Order.
“It’s just….”
Alex spoke with a note of longing in his voice.
“I think my sister and brother-in-law must have gone that way.”
[Really?]
“Yeah. Their last Quest Contract was in the western region.”
The only way to travel from east to west was to pass through the Sollenium Kingdom at the continent’s center.
“So my sister and brother-in-law must have followed this road and passed through the kingdom on their way west.”
Alex tried to recall what his sister and brother-in-law looked like. But after five years plus twelve more years had passed, their faces had grown hazy in his memory.
And that made him sad.
“Uncle! I finished it!”
At Leo’s voice, Alex wiped the sorrow from his face.
“You finished already?”
“Yeah! Look at this.”
[My flower bouquet!]
[You really did a great job, Leo!]
Alex couldn’t help but smile at the proud Leo and the delighted Eback.
With the medicinal herb gathering complete, Alex prepared for the journey home.
First he brushed the dirt from Leo’s clothes, then washed the boy’s small hands—caked with soil from play rather than labor—with the water he’d brought along.
He was glad it was dirt from playing, not from farmwork.
[Next time I’ll teach you Water Magic.]
Oh.
That seemed like it would be quite convenient.
“Watch your step.”
“Okay!”
Alex lifted Leo onto the saddle and then mounted behind him. For a moment, he turned his head back to gaze westward, toward the path that led to the kingdom.
Somehow, the image of his sister walking with a radiant smile, her husband beside her with tender eyes, seemed like a vision from a dream.
‘I’ll come find you. Sister. Brother-in-law.’
Alex turned his head forward again and rode with Leo eastward, toward Caldis Lord’s Castle.

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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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