I Became the Hero While Paving a Flower Path for My Niece - Chapter 44

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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 Became One by Laying a Flower Path for a Joke — Episode 44
“I don’t think I’m quite at the age to be called ‘sir’ yet….”
But watching Alex regard him with such a sharp, appraising gaze, Dain felt he had little choice but to accept it.
“Hello! Dain!”
Dain ruffled Leo’s spirited hair, then turned his attention to Jake standing beside the boy.
“Hi there. So you’re Jake?”
“Oh, hello?”
Seeing the uncertainty in both children’s eyes, Alex stepped in with an introduction.
“This is the friend your uncle asked to help find your brother.”
!!
Leo and Jake’s eyes sparkled with hope. Jake especially found himself drawn closer to Dain without quite meaning to.
Dain regarded the boy carefully.
Though he hadn’t meant to notice.
The contrast was stark — Leo, well-fed and healthy, beside Jake, so thin he seemed half-starved.
Yet their eyes held the same light.
Both children gazed at Dain with eyes that gleamed with hope and longing.
Looking at Jake, memories surfaced unbidden.
Dain himself, his sister, everyone in Dasha Village — they had all been poor, all worn thin by poverty.
No one ever ate their fill.
Dain had done nothing but wait to grow older, to gain strength, to build endurance.
And then, only days before Dasha Village vanished.
‘I’m going to work, brother! I’ll be back!’
‘Yes! Don’t forget to buy millet and barley when you come home.’
‘I’ll buy meat too!’
‘No! We have to save! If we get millet and barley, we can eat longer. Just get whatever’s cheap and filling, even if it’s not the best quality!’
His sister’s insistent voice, her gaunt arms and legs, her hollow cheeks — Jake reminded him of her. How he’d wished to fill out those cheeks, strengthen those limbs.
But now, at last, he had a thread to follow.
A little longer, and he might find his sister — or at least, some trace of her.
Dain smiled and gently stroked Jake’s dull hair.
[But how did Leo and Jake know each other?]
[Did you investigate? Overnight? The Information Guild is fast!]
As Ibek marveled aloud,
Jake hesitated before asking Dain, who was distributing the sweets he’d brought.
“Have you… found our brother?”
“I’ve picked up a lead, but I think I’ll need Alex’s help to follow it.”
Alex nodded in agreement.
“We’ll need someone to look after the children while we’re gone.”
“Of course I brought people!”
Two figures stepped forward from behind Dain — both wearing warm, friendly smiles.
Compared to the rough-looking guild members Dain had seen at the tavern yesterday, these two struck him as the kindest and most approachable of the lot.
“Hello, Leo. Jake.”
“Hello!”
Leo greeted them brightly, while Jake offered a polite bow.
Alex studied the pair with sharp eyes, then glanced at Dain, who was grinning to himself.
[They seem trustworthy enough.]
Alex concurred silently, and began gathering his sword for the journey ahead.
“Oh, you use a sword too?”
“Not particularly well, I’m afraid.”
Dain nodded modestly, judging his own skill as merely adequate for self-defense.
[If I mentioned I could use Body Enhancement, he’d probably be shocked.]
Ibek chuckled to himself.
Alex knelt to meet Leo and Jake at eye level.
“While your uncle is away, you stay at the inn, understand? If you need anything to eat or if you want something, ask these two here.”
“Why is he a brother and I’m a sir?”
Alex ignored Dain’s protest and continued smoothly.
“Listen to them both. Jake, look after Leo for me. Leo, you look after Jake too, all right? Leo understands, yes?”
Leo, remembering the tracking Magic Stone and the pouch of Paralysis Powder, nodded enthusiastically at Alex’s wink.
“Got it! Uncle, be careful!”
“Leave it to us!”
With the children’s farewells ringing in their ears, Alex and Dain stepped out of the inn.
“But why keep the kids cooped up in the inn? Don’t they get to see Lord’s Castle? There are plenty of interesting places here.”
[He still hasn’t gotten over his separation anxiety that much.]
Ibek answered Dain’s question.
Not that Dain could hear him.
[Leaving them with someone else is already a huge deal!]
[And I didn’t even set up an Alarm!]
That was true enough.
Even now, Alex felt a lingering unease.
“It’s an unfamiliar place.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s fair.”
Entrusting them to someone he’d only just met did seem rather bold, now that he thought about it.
But then again, Alex was placing his faith in the Dain he knew from the future.
“Hey, how about you just talk normally? We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Dain said this with a grin.
He was making good use of the word “friends” he’d offered as a casual excuse to the children.
“Sure.”
Alex agreed without hesitation.
There was no reason to refuse. The Alex from the “future” had grown tired of the stiffness anyway, speaking freely (to himself) back then.
Caught off guard by Alex’s swift acceptance, Dain burst into delighted laughter. Ibek chuckled along with him.
“Did you find Milo?”
“Not yet. But I have a pretty good hunch about where he might be. Can’t seem to pin it down though, so I came looking for you.”
[Thinking about the ‘future,’ his instinct is probably spot on, isn’t it?]
Alex agreed silently.
He knew Dain had abilities, but he hadn’t expected him to track Milo down overnight.
“How did you figure it out?”
“I found cargo wagons heading somewhere unusual. They were going southwest, and normally carts don’t take that route much because the roads are too narrow.”
Dain led Alex toward the city gates as he explained.
“So there must have been people in those wagons.”
“Exactly. So I tracked where they went.”
As they passed through the gates, Alex spotted Ben waiting with the horses. After greeting Ben, Alex mounted one of them.
“The problem is, the area is huge.”
As they rode west following Dain, a dense forest came into view.
“You can’t be serious…”
“I’m afraid so. That forest.”
[This is going to take forever to search.]
That was putting it mildly.
Dain spoke as he rode ahead.
“The guild members and I did a rough sweep of it, but we didn’t find anything. That’s why I thought if a Mage like you took a look, you might have better luck.”
Alex nodded.
“All right. Let’s get started.”
Alex, Dain, and several guild members headed into the forest.
Alex used his Mana Detection to search for people. All he could sense for now were the Information Guild members.
“Here’s something worth noting—it looks like some of the beggars in Lord’s Castle have gone missing too. I suspect it might be the same culprit behind all this.”
[Hmm…]
[So quite a few people have been abducted.]
[This is turning into something serious, isn’t it?]
Alex paused at Dain’s words and asked a question.
“Who do you think the culprit is?”
Their main goal was to find Milo, Jake’s older brother, but they could easily get tangled up with whoever was responsible.
Dain took a moment to consider Alex’s question.
The situation seemed bigger than he’d initially thought, so he’d been speculating about the culprit’s identity as he investigated.
“I’m not sure. There are a few people who might have the means to do something like this,”
There were always greedy people around.
Dain, the branch chief of Crow, recalled the faces and recent activities of those candidates.
“But I can’t figure out the motive.”
If it were about raising soldiers, the number of people abducted seemed too small. If someone were secretly mining ore, they’d be caught quickly, given how close this was to Lord’s Castle.
“Even if it’s about construction, why would it be out here in the middle of nowhere?”
While Dain remained at a loss,
[Oh. I have a hunch about what it might be!]
[Something this suspicious can only mean one thing!]
Ibek, well-versed in all manner of fantasy novels, caught onto something. Alex, who had regressed, felt it too.
[A Dark Mage!]
‘A Dark Mage.’
The demon-folk wouldn’t reveal themselves for years yet, but temporally speaking, it wasn’t impossible for a Dark Mage to exist now.
‘I wish it weren’t so.’
Alex’s pale green eyes darkened as he peered deeper into the forest.
Alex and the Information Guild ventured further inward, but nothing registered in the guild members’ sight—nor in Alex’s omnipotent Mana Detection.
“Wait!”
No.
Something caught.
Alex’s head snapped around with a snap.
At the edge of his Mana Detection range.
He felt mana clustering together.
[This looks like a Magical Circle…]
Alex’s expression hardened as he turned to Dain.
“Let’s head over there. It looks like someone’s drawn a Magical Circle. Tell the guild members not to touch anything carelessly.”
Approaching recklessly could tip off the perpetrator.
“A Magical Circle?”
Dain’s brow furrowed slightly as well.
In the meantime, Ben signaled and called the guild members over.
“So a Mage is involved in this?”
“Yes.”
Mages are rare beings.
The fact that the perpetrator could employ such a person meant they possessed far more power than initially assumed.
“How many Mages are there in Brodel?”
Dain answered Alex’s question immediately.
“First, there’s Domeric Brodel, the lord’s son and a 3-Circle Mage. One 3-Circle Mage affiliated with the Earl’s House. Below him, one 1-Circle apprentice. Two 2-Circle clerks at the magic tool shops. And in the mid-tier Dungeon area, three of 1st and 2nd Circle. Eight total.”
[Wow. He remembers all of that?]
[And how does he know about the Dungeon-area Mages?]
“Oh, and if we count you, Alex, that makes nine.”
As Alex nodded, Dain continued his explanation.
“The Earl’s House-affiliated Mage is a sickly old man, so it’s probably not him. Domeric Brodel and Adela from Cheong Tower Magic Tool Shop are too busy with their own research to come all the way out here.”
Dain went through them one by one.
“And I haven’t heard of the Dungeon-area Mages coming near this place. Right, Ben?”
“That’s right.”
Ben nodded in agreement.
[Then there’s only one left.]
[I knew something was off about him!]
Earlier he’d even said he felt suspicious.
“It has to be the Mage from Zerno Tower Magic Tool Shop.”
Dain agreed with Alex’s conclusion.
“Seeing how he frequently leaves the shop unmanned, he’d have plenty of time to come out here. And given that he dislikes the Brodel territory, he’s got the perfect motive for shady business.”
A brief silence fell.
“But it all fits too neatly.”
Alex furrowed his brow as he spoke.
“Usually, when people are up to something suspicious, they don’t leave such obvious traces.”
Dain nodded in agreement.
“I concur. Besides, that Mage doesn’t have enough money to employ Todd or hire people like that.”
With that kind of money, he would’ve returned to Zerno Tower after paying bribes.
“We need more information.”
For now, they set aside the search for the perpetrator.
Alex and his companions headed toward where the Magical Circle lay.
[Oh, wait.]
!
Without thinking, Alex turned his head toward where he sensed the Magical Circle.
As they drew closer to the Magical Circle, his Mana Detection range expanded beyond it, and there—he felt new mana.
Multiple presences, not just one or two.
[They seem to be the kidnapped people.]
[And they’re underground.]
Thud-thud, thud-thud—
As Alex and his companions drew closer to the Magical Circle, the mana emanating from the ground beneath grew increasingly distinct.
“What is it?”
“…There are people underground, near the circle.”
At those words, Dain and the guild members fixed Alex with startled eyes.
“About twenty of them, I’d say. And they don’t seem to be in very good condition.”
“…You can sense that? How?”
[With my Mana Detection!]
[The best?]
Ibek answered Dain’s question—though of course, Dain couldn’t hear him.
“It’s my magic.”
“Impressive. I’ve never seen magic like that before. You’re a 2-Circle Mage, right?”
“Yeah.”
A 2-Circle Mage with magic like that.
Dain asked, finding this stranger genuinely unusual.
“Are there guards?”
“Three swordsmen.”
He could sense their Auras.
As they talked, they arrived at the location of the Magical Circle.
“Here it is. The circle’s set into that boulder over there, so be careful.”
Alex pointed to a large rock.
It was the sort of stone that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the forest, and the guild members had simply walked past it without a second glance.
[They’ve hidden the circle with Illusion Magic.]
It was invisible to ordinary eyes, but Alex’s Mana Detection picked it up clearly.
Just as when he’d seen the Magic Scroll last night, blue magical characters and equations made of mana twisted together in chaotic profusion.
“Alex, can you tell what it is? Usually touching something like this causes real trouble.”
[Right. First of all, there’s an Alarm spell, and there also seems to be magic to lighten the boulder and magic to let it move sideways.]
In other words, the Magical Circle was designed to turn the boulder into a door.
Alex relayed Ibek’s words to the others.
“If you touch it, it’ll alert them immediately. The boulder’s set up as a door.”
At Alex’s explanation, Dain’s gaze swept across the boulder and the ground beneath it.
“So the people are underneath here?”
“That’s right.”
Alex could sense it with absolute certainty.
People with weak, drained mana—as if their very life force had been sapped away.

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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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