I Became the Hero While Paving a Flower Path for My Niece - Chapter 40

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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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Joker Flowers Bloom—A Hero Is Born 040
Yesterday.
After parting ways with Alex and Leo.
Jake made his way to Todd’s General Store, the meeting place his brother had told him about—where the Wandering Merchant had said he would come.
Todd’s General Store sat in a quiet alley where few people seemed to venture, and Jake, unable to read, had to ask directions several times before he finally found it.
“Is he here?”
Jake peered inside Todd’s General Store, looking for his brother.
But unfortunately, there was only one clerk, and it wasn’t his brother.
Jake felt a flash of disappointment, then rallied himself and walked in with renewed determination.
“Welcome.”
The clerk greeted him in a neutral tone, but upon seeing the young boy in tattered clothes, his brow furrowed slightly before smoothing again.
“They’re even taking children now?”
he muttered under his breath, too quietly for Jake to hear.
“Hello! I’m Milo’s brother, and I came because I was worried—he hasn’t contacted me in a month. Do you know when he comes in to work?”
“Who, Milo?”
“Yes!”
The clerk’s brow furrowed briefly, then his expression hardened, and he began waving his hand dismissively.
“Get out! There’s no one by that name here. I’m the only one who works in this shop.”
“What? No, wait—”
The clerk even began pushing Jake toward the door.
“No, this is the right place! My brother said he was coming to work at Todd’s General Store!”
Panicked, Jake tried to resist, but his small frame—malnourished and undersized even for his age—was practically hurled out onto the street.
“There’s no such person here, I said! Stop making a fuss—you’re bad for business!”
The clerk spat on the ground and grabbed the wooden club leaning against the counter.
“!”
Terrified that the blow would come down at any moment, Jake bolted.
The commotion drew the attention of passersby, who glanced toward the shop. But seeing Jake in his worn clothes, they assumed the clerk was simply driving away a beggar, and they went about their business.
Jake didn’t run far. He hid himself in a corner of the alley where he could still see the general store clearly.
“Where are you, brother?”
His brother had said he was coming to Todd’s General Store, but the clerk claimed no such person worked there. Something had definitely happened.
“Milo…”
Only then did his parents’ words come back to him—that if he wandered outside the village alone, people would catch him and sell him into slavery.
Sniff… sniff…
Tears began to flow without his consent, worried for his missing brother, but he couldn’t afford to just sit here crying.
Jake huddled in the corner, staying hidden, and continued to watch Todd’s General Store carefully, hoping to find some clue to his brother’s whereabouts.
The general store looked ordinary enough.
It was in a remote spot and didn’t get many customers, but the clerk sold goods and the few customers who came bought them.
While eating the dried meat that Alex and Leo had given him, Jake kept his eyes fixed on the store.
The delicious dried meat reminded him of his kind uncle and cousin, and his worry for his missing brother only deepened.
“I can’t keep crying.”
Jake wiped away the overflowing tears with his sleeve and watched the store even more intently.
Before long, the sun set and night fell.
The store’s door closed.
Jake moved carefully, examining the storefront. He peered through the crack in the door and stood on his toes to look through the window, but both were firmly shut and revealed nothing of what lay inside.
Jake circled the building slowly, looking for any opening or gap he could squeeze through.
Then.
Jake’s eyes widened as he spotted something on a corner of the wall.
There, drawn in a place he knew, was a familiar mark.

* * *
“Our village has certain marks that mean specific things.”
Because we lived in the forest, we never knew where we might encounter wild animals or monsters.
So the villagers would mark tree trunks and stones to warn others of ‘dangerous places.’
“That mark was drawn on a corner of the wall at Todd’s General Store. It was made of dried blood, hardened and dark… and…”
As Jake spoke, the tears that had stopped now began to flow again. Leo handed him his handkerchief.
“Th-thank you, Leo. Sniff. That mark means danger… so my brother Milo must be in trouble. But I didn’t know what to do… I…”
It never even occurred to him to ask the soldiers for help. To a child from the Slash-and-Burn Farming Village, soldiers were far too frightening and distant.
So he had come here, to the Mercenary Guild.
“This is all I have, but…”
Jake carefully held out the cloth bundle he had been clutching to Alex.
“Can you find Milo for me?”
To entrust a task to the mercenary uncle who had kindly escorted him all the way to the lord’s castle.
Inside the bundle were not only the food he’d received from Alex and Leo, but also the copper coins that Jake and his brother had worked hard to save.
It was everything they owned.
Alex studied Jake for a moment.
The dirt-smudged face from crying all night, the reddened eyes, and tears still streaming down his cheeks reminded him of the six-year-old Leo he’d once known—grieving his dead uncle, a version long since erased.
“Uncle…”
Seeing Leo’s earnest expression, Alex felt a small joy stir in his chest.
Unlike in that other future where he’d borne everything alone, the Leo before him now had an adult to turn to, someone to rely on—and that adult was Alex himself.
“All right. I’ll take the job.”
“! Th-thank you so much!”
“Uncle’s the best!”
At Alex’s consent, Jake bowed low, his face bright with tears and hope, while Leo laughed wide and threw his arms around Alex.
[Sniff, sniff.]
[I’ll help too!]
Alex let Ibek’s uncharacteristically emotional words pass in one ear and out the other as he led Leo and Jake toward the inn.
“Here’s the blanket! Thank you so much!”
He returned the blanket to the receptionist and offered his gratitude without forgetting manners.
“Go wash up first.”
“Y-yes!”
While Jake scrubbed away the dust and grime, Alex bought warm food and prepared a change of clothes for him.
“Thank you…”
Once clean, Jake donned the clothes with embarrassed gratitude.
“Brother, I can’t see your hands or feet!”
“It’s because Uncle Alex’s shirt is too big.”
With sleeves and pant legs drooping comically, Jake’s appearance drew laughter from both children.
[Laughing is better than crying.]
Perhaps having a reliable adult to lean on had lightened the weight that pressed on the boy’s heart.
“Brother Jake, try some of this!”
“Leo, you eat too.”
“It’s all right. I already had breakfast with Uncle.”
[Leo’s taking good care of himself.]
Watching the affectionate pair, Alex smiled quietly and gathered his sword to prepare for departure.
At that, Jake and Leo sprang to their feet from their chairs.
“Jake, I need you to watch over Leo while I’m away.”
“! Yes! Don’t worry. I’ll protect him with my life!”
“You don’t need to risk your life.”
Alex ruffled Jake’s hair the same way he did with Leo.
“Leo, you stay here with Jake while I’m gone. Don’t leave the inn. I’ll tell the staff—if you get hungry, order some food. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Okay! Got it, Uncle!”
After patting Leo’s head as well, Alex entrusted the boys to the inn attendant on the first floor and set off toward Todd’s General Store.
[Why not use the Alarm spell?]
[I thought you’d cast it on the door.]
“Even with toys, they’ll get restless cooped up in a room too long.”
It seemed better to investigate quickly and return.
[Sounds like they took him as a slave.]
“Probably. If Jake were just a little older, they might have abducted him too.”
Being so young, it made more sense they’d simply cast him out rather than drag him away as a slave.
[It’s definitely employment fraud.]
[They promise big money on our end, then just snatch people and work them to death.]
[Wait—now that you mention it, I think I’ve heard of something like this before?]
Alex recalled it too.
Back in the first village of Brodelle Territory, when he’d eaten with a farmer, he’d overheard a peddler mention something like this.
Talk of earning great wealth if you went to Brodelle Lord’s Castle.
[It sounds like a lot of people might’ve been kidnapped.]
[What would they need them for?]
“For something illegal and dangerous, surely.”
In the meantime.
Alex had arrived at Todd’s General Store.
Just as Jake had said, it was tucked in a corner, but it looked like an ordinary shop.
[But something about this place feels off.]
Alex scanned the general store unobtrusively.
“The back space is pretty wide. Almost like a storage room….”
[They must have locked people in there before taking them away.]
He tried using Mana Sensing to see if anyone was in the storage. But aside from the clerk, he felt no other mana signatures.
[No trace of mana at all.]
“They probably drugged them before moving them.”
Alex found the mark Jake’s brother had left behind.
A small mark traced in blood.
[Judging by how close it is to the back door, he must have tried to escape and failed.]
“In that brief moment, he left it hoping his younger brother might come looking for him.”
Hoping his brother would at least stay out of danger.
[What an admirable pair of brothers.]
[The younger one who came alone all the way to the Lord’s Castle searching for his brother. The older one who worried about a brother who might never even arrive.]
[I’ll find him for sure. I swear it.]
Alex felt the same way.
At minimum, he wanted to find something—anything—to give to the younger brother.
‘It’s been over a month now….’
The odds of Jake’s brother still being alive were slim. Dead was far more likely.
Alex examined Todd’s General Store thoroughly, but found nothing of consequence and had to leave empty-handed.
“I need to dig up more information.”
[How?]
“The Information Guild. I’ll head there.”
[Ooh! The Information Guild!]
[Yeah, the Information Guild is unbeatable in situations like this!]
Ibek’s voice rose with excitement.
[What’s this kingdom’s Information Guild like? Do you have to give a password to get in?]
[Do you know the password?]
[How could I not? I’m a Regressor!]
Alex emerged onto a crowded street and scanned the building walls as he answered.
“I know the password, but it won’t do me any good.”
[Why?]
“It’s the password from ten years from now.”
[…Ah, I see!]
[Right, they must have changed it several times for security.]
[So what are you going to do?]
“Just walk in normally, I suppose.”
Alex’s eyes darted purposefully across the facades. Ibek, sharing his senses, saw exactly what he saw.
[But what are you looking for? In a marketplace like this?]
[Shouldn’t the Information Guild be down some deserted alley where no one goes?]
[Like Todd’s General Store?]
“That’s exactly why it can’t be. Too many people coming and going to a remote place stands out. It needs to be somewhere with decent foot traffic to blend in.”
Alex stopped walking abruptly.
“And a tavern would be perfect for that.”
A closed tavern came into view.
It appeared to be a place that only opened at night.
“That’s the Information Guild’s emblem.”
Alex spotted a black raven symbol drawn in the corner of the tavern’s wall. Ibek could see it too, through Alex’s eyes.
[Oh. A raven!]
[Fitting for the Information Guild.]
[But it’s closed?]
“They’re probably sleeping soundly right now. The Information Guild’s work typically doesn’t start until evening.”
[That makes sense.]
An Information Guild that worked diligently during the day.
Ibek found that almost amusing.
“There’s probably a member standing guard, though.”
Alex casually glanced around the area, trying to appear inconspicuous.
[This is different from Todd’s General Store.]
[Are they amateurs?]
“Either they haven’t been doing this long, or they have enough influence to make problems disappear.”
[Oh….]
[But how did you find out about something like this? Do you have a contact at the Information Guild or something?]
“I do.”
Alex answered in a tone that seemed somewhat displeased.
“Leo’s teacher was the future Information Guild Master of the Muhiti Kingdom.”
[…What?!]

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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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