I Became the Hero While Paving a Flower Path for My Niece - Chapter 56

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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 Paved the Way for a Cousin’s Happiness — Episode 56
After Alex and Leo had departed.
The Healer arrived.
Summoned by the butler’s urgency, the Healer sweated profusely as he entered, and upon seeing the dining hall reduced to chaos, his expression shifted to shock—then to outright alarm when he heard he was to test for poison.
“Ah, which… which dishes should I examine?”
At that, everyone turned to look at the table.
Between the two halves of the shattered table lay food scattered and destroyed beyond recognition.
Klaus Brodell exhaled lightly and pointed to the dish Alex had tasted, but a sudden thought made him correct himself.
“No—test all of it.”
If Alex had spoken truth, if the symptoms afflicting the Count’s household were indeed from poison, then it wouldn’t have been placed in just one dish.
At Klaus Brodell’s command, servants transferred the dishes into fresh containers, and the Healer began preparing various reagents to analyze them.
“How long will it take?”
The Healer, who had already heard Klaus Brodell’s account of the poison, hesitated before answering.
“I’ve never encountered a poison like this before. I’m not certain.”
At that, Klaus Brodell decided Alex’s departure had been fortunate. One couldn’t stay for days in a household where poisoned food appeared, after all.
“Work as quickly as you can. Call for more people if you need them.”
“Yes! Understood!”
The Healer answered promptly.
Beside him, Maelin Brodell let out a sigh. What in the world was all this?
She’d expected a pleasant evening meal, yet poison had surfaced. And worse—it seemed the family had been consuming it all along.
Nothing was confirmed yet, but considering her grandfather’s similar illness, her own ailments, and her elder brother’s condition, Alex’s words rang true.
As for her younger brother, he was naturally weak and often ate alone, so it was unclear whether he’d been poisoned at all.
“Elder brother, who could the culprit be?”
“Who knows.”
A cadet branch eyeing the Count’s position? A rival faction of nobles? An aristocrat from a neighboring lordship?
Klaus Brodell and Maelin Brodell, stepping out of the disordered dining hall, swallowed their sighs against so many suspects.
“I should see Grandfather.”
There was no need to identify the poison first.
If a priest examined him, they could determine whether his organs had truly dissolved, just as Alex had said.
“You rest now, Maelin.”
“No. I should go to the kitchen and look around. I need to check if there’s anything suspicious—anyone or anything.”
Maelin Brodell spoke with determination.
“And poison might not just be on the food. It could be on clothing, bedding, anything. It needs to be checked.”
“All right. Very well.”
Klaus Brodell pressed his palm to his forehead, sensing the chaos about to erupt in the manor.
“By the way, Mister Alex is quite a remarkable mage. Breaking the table in half and moving so quickly—I didn’t even see him move. That must have been magic, yes?”
Even her younger brother couldn’t use magic like that—could Alex be a stronger mage than him?
At Maelin Brodell’s words, Klaus Brodell’s brow furrowed slightly.
“That wasn’t magic.”
“It wasn’t magic?”
“No. He brought his fist down and broke the table. The movement was similar to Body Enhancement.”
Maelin Brodell’s eyes widened.
“But Mister Alex is a mage.”
Yet he could use Body Enhancement, which only those with an Aura could wield?
That was logically impossible.
“What’s certain is that he’s no ordinary mage.”
Klaus Brodell recalled the killing intent he’d felt for that brief moment—the overwhelming murderous aura that had made even someone like himself, who’d faced countless monsters, step back.
“We need to find the culprit quickly and settle this.”
“Yes, we should.”
A sigh escaped both the Brodell siblings’ lips.

* * *
Domerik Brodell exited the dining hall with quick strides toward his chambers, wiping cream sauce from his clothes with the towel a servant had handed him.
Bang!
The door shut behind him.
“Damn it!”
Once inside his room, Domerik Brodell lowered his voice, though his face remained deeply furrowed.
He’d merely gone for a brief look at the mercenary mage who’d discovered the Underground Space, yet this was the treatment he received.
“It was going so well!”
It had been only months since he’d first given the poison to his family.
“But it’s already been discovered….”
They’d said it was a poison that could never be detected.
He never expected them to identify the Slime Acid and Mushrat Paralysis Powder that went into making it.
Domerik Brodell clenched his teeth.
Just a little longer, and everything of this Brodell house would fall into his hands.
According to plan, soon the Count would never rise from his bed again, and he’d send Klaus Brodell—weakened by the poison under the pretext of making medicine for the Count—somewhere dangerous to be disposed of.
And finally, by becoming the Count’s proxy, he’d send Maelin Brodell to the Marquess as contracted.
But he never expected things to fall apart because of some mercenary mage.
When he first heard that the Underground Space had been discovered, he was shocked beyond measure.
The entrance deep in the forest, far from the Lordship Castle, was sealed with rocks so no one would notice—but he couldn’t figure out how that mercenary mage had found it.
“It must be coincidence.”
There was no way a mere mercenary mage could detect the Magic Circle that had been concealed even with Illusion Magic.
Only high-circle mages sensitive to mana could have uncovered it.
Suddenly the incident at the Dining Hall came to mind.
“…Silent Incantation.”
The Fireball that appeared beside the mercenary mage as he retreated with the common child.
He couldn’t quite remember whether the incantation had been spoken aloud or not.
“…Just how many circles does he have?”
The possibility that a mere mercenary might be stronger than himself sent a chill through Domerik Brodell.
No, he was always anxious and uneasy about something.
It had been years since he became a 3-circle mage.
No matter how much he studied and trained and researched, no new circle formed.
At this rate, he might grow old confined to 3-circle just like Atin, the Brodell house mage.
‘And I’ll probably end up receiving a minor title from Klaus and live out my days in some lordship without even a dungeon, then die!’
Or perhaps he wouldn’t even be granted a lordship, and would spend his entire life serving Klaus Brodell as a Brodell house mage.
Domerik Brodell’s fists clenched tight.
Just imagining it was horrifying.
“If only I could break through the 3-circle wall…!”
Then he wouldn’t have to worry about some mercenary mage or that fool Klaus!
Everything in this Brodell house would be his!
Domerik Brodell’s gaze turned toward the lowest-grade and low-grade Mana Stones piling up in the corner of the room.
“Hah! What am I supposed to do with just these!”
Bitter resentment filled Domerik Brodell as he thought about that wretched household—they wouldn’t give him even the mid-grade Mana Stones from mid-grade dungeons, and only gave him sixty percent of the lowest-grade ones.
If they’d invested more in him, if they’d poured the entire fortune of the lordship into his cultivation, he surely would have transcended 4-circle and become a great mage.
He had such talent!
If the Lich Ibek from another world had heard him, he’d have said “No, you don’t”—but Domerik Brodell, who believed himself to be a genius, would never know.
“Still….”
The most important thing was that it hadn’t been discovered.
If that came to light, everything would be over….
“There’s no way they could find out.”
Domerik Brodell sneered at these foolish people.
He’d heard they wanted to research the incomplete Magic Circle, but there was no way the low-level mages of the Lordship Castle could figure out what that circle was.
Still, the disruption to his plan nagged at him.
“…Should I move up my timeline?”
Domerik Brodell sank into thought.

* * *
The next morning.
Though Alex had spent the night at Dein’s Tavern, he didn’t skip his morning training.
[Alex. I’m suddenly curious about something.]
[How does the Brodell Territory fall?]
At Ibek’s question, Alex paused in his sword swings and searched his memory.
Unfortunately, at that time Alex had been elsewhere with the hero Leo, so he only learned what happened on this side after everything was already over.
“Overnight, all the people in the Brodell Territory became Undead.”
[Undead?]
“Yes, Undead. With no warning—they just changed one day.”
Because the Brodell Territory had vast land with plenty of room, and because a capable mage Count protected it, many people came seeking news of it.
And to protect those people, the Rescue Army sent strong knights and soldiers, and many mercenaries settled there as well.
“But all those people became Undead.”
And those many Undead pushed westward and attacked the Caldis Lordship.
[Then Belo Village too?]
“That’s right.”
A tidal wave of Undead swept through not just the Caldis Lordship, but Belo Village as well, consuming everything in its path.
Everyone who’d been defending Belo Village, every member of the Rescue Army—all of them gone.
[Undead Transformation is terrifying, I’ll admit.]
[The stronger the human corpse, the stronger the Undead it becomes.]
Exactly as that stated.
People who’d been powerful allies just yesterday now attacking as Undead was inevitably a shock.
[But if it was magic on that scale, it would’ve taken an enormous amount of time to prepare, wouldn’t it?]
Moreover, considering the size of Brodell Territory, one or two Magic Circles wouldn’t have been enough.
[They must have been preparing for a very long time.]
Both of them suddenly recalled the Underground Space and the incomplete Magic Circle.
“…Could it be that?”
[…Is that it?]
[They were preparing from way back?]
“Even if I’m not certain, there’s definitely a connection.”
Ibek agreed.
[Maybe they built it as a test.]
[Now that I think about it, that ‘safe Lordship’ thing is pretty suspicious too.]
Alex was troubled by that aspect as well.
In the Future, he’d assumed a strong Demon had simply transformed everyone into Undead overnight, but if they’d been preparing all along, then the ‘safe Lordship’ situation had definitely been staged deliberately.
Alex’s brow furrowed.
“Could it be… they were gathering people on purpose?”
[That must be it!]
[The more Undead you have, the better!]
“And there were knights and soldiers protecting those people too.”
[They’d become strong Undead.]
Spread rumors of a safe Lordship and gather the people.
Then turn them into Undead.
Alex closed his eyes without realizing it.
He recalled the people from the Future who’d said they were evacuating to Brodell Territory, and the members of the Rescue Army who’d gone to defend it.
But it had all been a trap set by the Demons.
He couldn’t find words to express this devastation.
[We have to get revenge!]
[We just wreck everything, that’s all!]
That’s right.
The Future—that one is already gone.
Preventing such a thing from happening again was the greatest revenge. And dealing with that dark mage too.
Though he was already suspecting it would be Domerik Brodell.
“When the mages gather to examine the incomplete Magic Circle, that’ll be our chance to look closely.”
[But how do we do it?]
[They won’t just admit to creating the Magic Circle.]
“We provoke them.”
Alex recalled the mages from the Future. And he thought about when mages would jump up and down angriest.
“Ibek, is there anything about the incomplete Magic Circle we can nitpick?”
[Nitpick?]
[Oh.]
[I’ve got it!]
Ibek, who’d once been a mage, let out a delighted laugh.
[Right. A mage wouldn’t just stand by if their Magic Circle got criticized!]
[I’d be furious and cause a scene too!]
Alex’s light green eyes gleamed.
“Really grind it in for me.”
[Will do!]
[This is going to be fun!]
[Operation “That’s Not How You Do It,” if you will!]

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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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