I Became the Hero While Paving a Flower Path for My Niece - Chapter 29

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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 Hero Who Laid Flowers on a Maiden’s Path – Episode 29
“Well done. Uncle will make a fire for you.”
Alex stacked the kindling Leo had gathered and cast Fire.
Without magic, he would have spent considerable effort striking flint together, but magic made it far easier to kindle a proper campfire.
“Wow!”
Leo gazed at the magically summoned flames with wonder.
He saw campfires every day in the village, but creating one in such an unfamiliar place felt special somehow.
“Come on, let’s eat dinner.”
Alex decided to make stew using the provisions the House by the Lake had provided.
He set up the iron pot he’d bought at the market, filled it with water created using Water, and brought it to a boil. Then he cut vegetables into small pieces Leo could manage.
[We’re using ingredients from this world, but it’s coming together pretty much like stew back home.]
[Good. Let me check the seasoning.]
As Alex tasted a spoonful, Ibeck savored the flavor with a quiet hum.
[Add a bit more salt.]
[I wish there were pepper, but we don’t have any, so it can’t be helped.]
[I wish we had chili too!]
Even though they shared Alex’s sense of taste, Ibeck seemed to perceive the flavors with finer sensitivity.
[I feel like a cooking mouse—this is fun!]
Alex was inwardly astonished at Ibeck’s giggling words. It seemed that in the different world where Ibeck had lived, mice did cook.

* * *
A short time later.
Steam rose from the stew, now perfected by Ibeck’s advice, and a delicious aroma began to drift through the air.
Alex arranged the food on a small table he’d retrieved from the cart.
“This looks delicious! Let’s dig in!”
[Let’s dig in!]
Leo took a spoonful of the warm stew and tasted it first.
“Wow! It’s delicious, Uncle!”
Somehow, Uncle’s cooking tasted even better than it had back in the village.
“That’s good to hear. Chew it well.”
[You should know it’s all thanks to me.]
Ibeck puffed up with pride now that he’d regained his sense of taste and food had become his top priority.
[Still, it falls short of my standards.]
[Let’s go to a bigger market and buy spices!]
As if he knew the price of spices.
But even Alex, who’d been a ghost for twelve years, wanted to eat good food whenever possible.
[When we reach the sea, let’s look for kelp. I’m not sure if it grows here, though.]
[Or we could grind small fish into powder and make seasoning. Oh! Mushrooms! I think dried mushroom powder would work too.]
[What other natural seasonings were there?]
[Monosodium glutamate. We need monosodium glutamate.]
Alex didn’t understand what he meant, but since Ibeck was always like this, he simply let it pass.
After finishing dinner.
Having neatly cleaned the dishes with Water magic, Alex prepared for bed.
Though he’d built a fire, the night would be cold, so he intended to make Leo’s sleeping place inside the cart. He planned to sleep outside himself.
“I want to sleep here too. Right next to Uncle!”
Leo spoke up as he watched Alex lay out blankets in the cart, his eyes bright with excitement. Seeing his nephew’s eager expression, Alex gave a reluctant nod.
[He’s acting like he doesn’t want to, but he’s happy about it.]
Be quiet.
Ignoring the softly giggling Ibeck, Alex pitched the tent he’d purchased beforehand and laid out a comfortable blanket.
And, mimicking what Ibeck had called a campfire, he made the flames larger.
[This is too small.]
[We should burn logs!]
Dismissing Ibeck’s disappointed remarks, Alex gazed at the night sky with Leo as they’d planned.
“Leo, look at the sky.”
At Alex’s words, Leo looked up. Three moons and glittering stars filled the entire expanse above them.
“Ooooh!”
The night sky, which he rarely saw due to his early bedtimes, spread out before him in all its beauty.
“It’s really so pretty, Uncle. It looks like the stars are pouring down!”
[There’s even a Milky Way here.]
A river made of stars stretched across the night sky.
Alex and Leo sipped warm milk while gazing at the night sky. Ibeck, borrowing Alex’s senses, savored the view as well.
“The mood is perfect—shall I tell you an old fairy tale?”
“A fairy tale?”
The confusion was brief. Ibeck launched into the story with enthusiasm.
“It’s called ‘The Sun and the Moon’!”
It was a tale of a brother and sister who, fleeing from a tiger while living with their mother, were transformed into the sun and moon.
Finding it rather charming, Alex decided to share it with Leo.
“Leo, would you like to hear an interesting story?”
“A story? But Uncle, I’ve already heard all the ones you know.”
He wasn’t wrong.
By now, Leo had heard all the fairy tales and stories in Alex’s repertoire countless times as he’d grown up.
“This one’s from a friend of mine, Uncle. You haven’t heard it before, have you?”
“Really? Please tell me, Uncle!”
At the promise of something new, Leo’s eyes sparkled.
“Once upon a time, there lived a mother and a child.”
With that, Alex began to recount “The Sun and the Moon,” adapted to suit this world.
The siblings became an only child, the mother sold bread instead of rice cakes, a Monster appeared in place of the tiger, and the mother didn’t die—she escaped.
‘If I’d said she died, Leo probably would have been sad.’
The Monster’s mimicry of the mother remained the same.
“…!”
Hearing the story for the first time, Leo was utterly absorbed. He was so focused that he didn’t even blink, his mouth hanging open without him realizing.
“Then the mother appeared and fled with the child up into the trees.”
“They need to run farther!”
Leo clenched his small fists, cheering on the mother and child.
“Once they reached the branches, the mother and child prayed to Sollenius for help. And then—a great white bird descended from the heavens! The mother and child climbed onto its back and soared into the sky.”
Alex smiled at Leo’s adorable expression of concentration and continued.
“And so, rising into the sky, the mother and child became stars.”
Alex said that the two of them became stars instead of the sun and moon.
The sun was Sollenius itself, and since the story of the three moons was already well-known and Leo knew it, he adjusted the tale accordingly.
Humans becoming the sun and moon?
‘If I accidentally told this to the wrong person, there’d be serious trouble.’
The Religious Order would come chasing after him immediately.
“Do you see those twinkling stars over there?”
At Alex’s words, Leo suddenly lifted his head to gaze at the night sky. He saw countless stars.
“Are they there, Uncle?”
“That’s right. Right now they’re living happily together, the mother and child.”
“Wonderful! How lovely!”
Leo genuinely rejoiced that the child in the story had become happy with his mother, breaking into a bright smile. Then he asked Alex.
“Uncle! Then where are Father and you? If you’re far apart, wouldn’t that be sad?”
‘Oh.’
‘Right. Father and I weren’t in it.’
Should I thank him for thinking of Father and me?
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Alex quickly regained his composure and smiled gently.
“Later, Father and I defeated the Monster and rode Sollenius’s great bird up into the sky as well. And we reunited with Mother and the child!”
“Oh, I see! Thank goodness. Everyone—Mother, Father, and you—all became happy together.”
‘How kind. Even thinking of the family in the story.’
Though it was merely a fairy tale, Alex was moved by the child’s warm heart, wishing for the whole family to be happy together, and pulled Leo into a tight embrace. Leo laughed brightly and wrapped his arms around his uncle in return.
“Did you enjoy the story?”
“I did! It was so much fun!”
“Leo, what do you think the lesson of this story is?”
“A lesson?”
‘There was a lesson?’
Leo and Ibeck blinked.
Alex spoke in a grave voice.
“The child didn’t open the door to the Monster pretending to be his mother, and that’s how they escaped, right? Even if someone says they’re Uncle, you mustn’t follow them until you’re absolutely certain. Don’t open the door for them either.”
Some Monsters could mimic real people, so it was wise to give him a heads-up beforehand.
“Okay! I understand! I’ll never follow anyone! And I won’t open the door!”
‘So that was his real purpose.’
‘Now that I think about it, this story is like voice phishing.’
Ibeck chuckled quietly, but the oblivious Alex let the remark pass.
After sharing stories of the Different World’s distant past with Leo and teaching him such vital lessons, Alex laid the boy down inside the Tent.
“Sleep well, Leo.”
“You sleep well too, Uncle.”
Leo, who had spent quite an exhilarating day, fell asleep in moments.
Alex patted Leo for a while, then stepped out of the Tent. His day’s work was far from finished.
[I need to make a 2nd Circle Ring!]
Alex sat in a cross-legged position and drew in a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.
[Making a new Circle isn’t difficult.]
The way he said nothing was difficult confirmed he was indeed a Rich.
[You create a new Ring above the existing one. Keep a proper distance so they don’t collide.]
Following Ibeck’s explanation, Alex drew in Mana and sent it toward his heart.
Then, wrapping around the perfectly formed 1st Circle Ring, he began to create a new Ring.
But he couldn’t make it all at once.
The Mana wanted to move toward the 1st Circle Ring as if drawn by gravity.
“….”
Alex concentrated intently to prevent the Mana from being pulled away, while simultaneously forming the Ring’s shape.
But whenever he formed one side of the Ring, the opposite side would scatter, and when he fixed that side, the other part of the Ring would collapse.
[You have to make it all at once.]
[All at once.]
[And you need a bit more Mana. Absorb more.]
Following Ibeck’s instruction, Alex drew in a larger quantity of Mana into his body and sent it through his Mana Circuit to his heart.
His heart brimming with Mana.
Alex tried to shape it into a Ring. Even if he had four hands, it would feel insufficient, but he focused as hard as he could.
[It’s fine if it’s thin. Just make the Ring for now.]
While struggling to keep the Mana from scattering, Alex worked to form the Ring, so absorbed that he couldn’t even feel the sweat rolling down his face.
His heart, his Mana Circuit, his entire body seemed to be overflowing with Mana.
In that moment.
!!
A sensation of connection surged through him.
A very thin line of light appeared outside the 1st Circle Ring.
It was the 2nd Circle Ring.
[Well done!]
Still thin, yet undeniably present, the 2nd Circle Ring vibrated softly in resonance with the 1st Circle Ring.
“Phew.”
Alex exhaled deeply.
From concentrating so hard, his body felt heavy.
But at the same time, he could feel more Mana than before filling his heart.
[Now you just accumulate Mana here.]
[Just like with the 1st Circle.]
As Ibeck spoke, Alex opened his eyes.
[Now let’s try using magic!]
At Ibeck’s words, the newly minted 2nd Circle mage named Alex cast Fire, and seeing small flames crackle and blaze, nothing seemed particularly different.
[That’s because your magical efficiency is at a high-Circle mage’s level already.]
[What’s good about becoming 2nd Circle is that the amount of Mana you can use has increased.]
[Even if the Ring is the same size, the Mana in a 2nd Circle is four times that of a 1st Circle.]
[It’s compressed.]
Following Ibeck’s explanation, Alex moved his 2nd Circle Ring and created far more Fire.
The night was dark and still.
About forty fireballs erupted in the empty air, illuminating the surroundings as bright as morning.
[This is insane, I’m telling you.]
[What 2nd Circle mage creates Fire like this?]
Ibeck spoke as if exasperated, yet laughed with genuine amusement.
Alex too was satisfied with his increased strength and grinned widely, then quickly dispelled the Fire for fear Leo might wake.
The night was dark once more.
The crackling of the dying campfire and Leo’s soft, sleeping breaths could be heard.
[Now let’s get some rest!]
“It’s too early to sleep yet.”
Gauging the hour by the moon in the night sky, Alex rose with a smile and drew his sword, beginning his Swordsmanship training.
[Oh, this body of yours.]
[Learning both—you’re having quite the time of it.]
Learning even one skill was challenging as Ibeck had said, and mastering two would be grueling—but for Leo’s sake, this was nothing at all.

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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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