I Became the Hero While Paving a Flower Path for My Niece - Chapter 8

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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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My Cousin Made Me a Hero with Her Flowery Path — Episode 8
With the help of Mark the carpenter, Alex constructed a canopy on the cart to shield against rain and made small furnishings for their travels.
“Uncle! Can I bring this with us?”
“Which one?”
Leo came running over, occupied with organizing his own belongings. His cheeks flushed with excitement looked endearing.
“This is a gift for Mom, and this one’s for Dad.”
In the small hand Leo held out lay a smooth gray stone and a gleaming black feather.
They were the most precious things in Leo’s treasure box.
“Of course you can take them.”
At Alex’s ready answer, Leo laughed with delight.
Seeing that, Alex renewed his resolve.
‘I have to find them.’
He was willing to fight the Demon King itself for Leo’s happiness — surely he could find his sister and brother-in-law.

* * *
That evening, dinner became a village celebration.
“Come on, eat up!”
“You need to travel on a full stomach!”
Leo wanted to serve his grilled meat to the villagers and his friends, and after Alex demonstrated the technique a few times, the village women prepared it even more deliciously.
“Is this how you make it, Alex?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“The recipe is simple, but it’s definitely tastier this way!”
“It’s really good! Mom!”
“Uncle made this!”
As Leo boasted with a shrug, the adults and Alex burst into laughter.
[Mmm, delicious!]
[This is tasty, and that’s tasty too.]
[Is this heaven?!]
Though Alex wondered if even spirits could reach heaven, he — in his twelfth year as a ghost — ate the food with genuine enthusiasm.
“Once you leave, things will get quite rough.”
Mark, sitting beside Alex, spoke quietly.
“Yes, I’m prepared for it.”
“Good, that’s all that matters. Here, have a drink.”
Mark poured alcohol into Alex’s cup.
[Nooooo!!!]
Yi Baek’s cry made Alex’s head ring sharply, but he hid his reaction as best he could.
“First time drinking?”
“Yes.”
Most adults first drank at eighteen, but because young Leo was present, Alex had never brought the cup to his lips.
Across both his ‘future’ and his present life, this was his first taste of alcohol.
“You should really be learning to drink from Serena and Glick, but I suppose I’ll teach you instead.”
Mark spoke with a bitter smile as he thought of Serena and Glick.
“Don’t drink too much at once, and don’t drink so much you lose control of your body. Don’t consume anything suspicious.”
Alex chuckled and nodded. Then he took a small sip from the cup.
“Ugh…!”
[Argh!]
The first drink was bitter.
His brow furrowed of its own accord.
Mark burst out laughing. Then he refilled Alex’s cup.
“Let’s check your tolerance today. You need to know these things beforehand — in a safe place, mind you.”
Alex agreed with Mark’s reasoning.
There was no place safer or more peaceful to him than this village.
“Have some food with it.”
Mark offered a plate with ham, and Alex took a piece and ate it.
Somehow, he was beginning to understand why people drank with food.
[Ahhhh! I’m happy!]
[Is this really heaven?!]
Ignoring Yi Baek’s repeated search for paradise, Alex continued talking with Mark.
“You’re going to do well, Alex.”
Mark recalled the grimy nine-year-old who had appeared in the village holding his sixteen-year-old sister’s hand.
He hadn’t realized the little boy had grown so tall, or that he’d be traveling alongside his nephew like this. It filled Mark with quiet pride.
“I raised Leo well enough without Serena and Glick around. And the crops turned out fine too.”
Mark’s sincerity reached Alex. Embarrassed, Alex let out a small laugh.
“But you don’t have to do everything perfectly.”
Alex looked at Mark.
“When things get hard, when the burden feels heavy, accept help from those around you. Don’t try to carry it all alone.”
The words sounded like advice meant for Alex himself—setting out to face the Demon King.
Alex felt the weight that had pressed on his shoulders lift slightly.
“Yes. I will.”
Alex smiled quietly.
He was already receiving help, of course, but he couldn’t very well mention that.
[Grrr! One more cup!]
He certainly didn’t want to talk about this sort of spirit.

* * *
The next day.
The day of departure had arrived.
Alex and Leo, with the cart loaded full of supplies, took one last look around their empty home.
The walls decorated with drawings they’d made together, the patch where a repair had gone wrong and left a hole, the charming little decorations on the curtains they’d sewn, the doorframe where Leo’s growing height had been marked year after year.
Every corner held a memory.
He would miss it, without a doubt.
But the world had to be at peace, and Leo had to live, for nostalgia to be something worth feeling.
“Let’s go, Leo.”
“Okay!”
[Let’s head out!]
As they stepped outside, the Village Chief and the villagers were waiting. Just as they’d looked after Alex and Leo yesterday, they all stood there with something in their hands today.
“You’re really going far away, Leo?”
“For such a long time too….”
The children, who had just learned from their parents that Leo wouldn’t be coming back for a very long time, looked up at him with tears in their eyes.
Leo, experiencing such a parting for the first time, soon found his own eyes full of tears.
“This is a gift. Don’t forget me.”
“I brought something too!”
The children gave Leo their most precious things. In turn, Leo distributed the gifts he’d prepared the night before.
They were simple—stones, wooden toys—but the children’s friendship was unmistakably there.
“Alex, if things become too hard, come back anytime. We’ll be waiting for you.”
At the Village Chief’s words, Alex smiled and nodded.
“Yes. I’ll definitely come back.”
After defeating the Demon King and the Demons.
Once the world becomes peaceful.
“Ah, Village Chief.”
“Yes?”
“I have a feeling we’ll get an awful lot of snow this winter.”
“Hmm?”
“If it really does snow that heavily, it could be disastrous, so it might be good to check things over beforehand.”
“Well, yes. All right, I understand.”
The Village Chief and Mark nodded in agreement, though they seemed puzzled by Alex’s words.
At that, Alex smiled brightly.
This coming winter.
Caldis Territory and the surrounding areas would be buried under tremendous snow—enough to collapse houses and freeze people to death.
‘Better to take precautions early.’
The next ten years.
Alex knew of the accidents and disasters that would occur while Leo was still in the village, and planned to send letters ahead during his travels to warn them.
Alex lifted Leo onto the cart and took hold of the horse’s reins.
“Then we’ll be on our way. Take care of yourselves!”
“Goodbye! All of you, stay well!”
At Alex and Leo’s parting words, the adults and children called out in response.
“Stay safe, Alex! Leo!”
“Don’t get hurt!”
“Leo! Travel well!”
“Bring back something good to eat when you come back!”
Everyone burst out laughing at his last words.
“Yes! I’ll bring back the tastiest things!”
Leo answered excitedly, and Alex called out loudly as well.
“We’ll be back soon!”
“See you later!”
Alex and Leo, seated in the cart, waved their hands enthusiastically.
[See you soon!]
Yi Baek, who had grown somewhat attached to this village,
and the villagers and children waved as they watched the cart disappear completely from sight.
‘The Future’
Just like that day when sixteen-year-old Leo and the ghost Alex had departed.

* * *
“I can’t see it anymore now….”
Leo stretched forward to gaze at the village growing steadily more distant, his voice tinged with longing.
“I know.”
To keep Leo from falling off the driver’s seat, Alex extended one arm across him.
“Let’s come back loaded with delicious things later, Leo.”
“Yes! And toys too!”
Leo, excited at the thought of snacks, counted on his fingers one by one.
“Pin dreams of being a knight and wants a sword. And Nora loves flowers, so she wants seeds of flowers she’s never seen before! And Tom wants a magic staff!”
[…ah.]
[Tom and a magic staff, eh.]
[That sounds like it might be quite the undertaking?]
Though he wasn’t sure what the difficulty was, the giggling suggested it wasn’t terribly serious.
“Uncle, when will we arrive at the Lord’s Castle?”
“Hmm. We should get there in the afternoon.”
As Leo swung his legs idly and asked, Alex answered him.
“Uncle, are we going to take care of Max now?”
[Who’s Max?]
“Yes. Max pulls our cart for us, so we need to take good care of him. But you’re still too small and might get hurt, so I’ll handle it.”
“Okay! But I can still feed him!”
[Ah, so that’s the horse’s name, Max?]
It was difficult to have a real conversation with Yi Baek when Leo was around. But since Yi Baek understood without explanation, it was manageable.
Alex drove the cart slowly to prevent Leo from getting carsick.
For lunch, they ate food the village women had prepared for them by the riverside nearby.
“It feels just like we’re on an outing!”
Thanks to the wide, open field with its cool breeze and the delicious sandwiches, Leo and Alex were in wonderful spirits.
[The weather’s nice too.]
Yi Baek seemed to appreciate the scenery of this perfect first day of travel.
A little while later.
As Leo, full from lunch, napped in the canopy of the cart,
Alex and Yi Baek began a magic lesson.
[This time we’re going to learn Fireball.]
[I thought about teaching you a different element, but since we’re traveling, it seems better to focus on attack magic first.]
[Safety comes first, after all.]
“That sounds good. Thank you.”
[Don’t mention it!]
Yi Baek chuckled and then explained Fireball.
[Fire and Fireball aren’t that different. You just compress it and change the shape.]
[Though that’s the difficult part—I think you’ll manage it well.]
[First, recall the feel of fire.]
At that, Alex brought to mind the Fire he’d created in the backyard not long ago.
[Then you compress it. Think of gathering all the fire’s power into one spot.]
[Make the shape round. About the size of your fist.]
Compress, gather, round.
[If the image doesn’t come to mind easily, it helps to think of it as a stone made of fire. Pour all your intent to attack into it.]
That part was easy.
In the ‘Future,’ the ghost Alex had always wanted to fight.
[Got it?]
“Right.”
Alex took a light breath and rotated the 1st Circle ring within his heart.
“Fireball.”
A Fireball the size of his fist materialized before his eyes. He’d controlled the Mana well—it was exactly the size he’d envisioned.
[Oh! You’re a natural!]
[Now try moving it. Once it picks up speed, it’ll be far more destructive.]
At Yi Baek’s suggestion, Alex attempted to move the Fireball.
It wasn’t difficult at all.
The moment Alex thought to move it, the spherical Fireball obeyed—drifting up, down, left, right with perfect ease.
[There’s no way this should be this simple.]
[You must have been born for this.]
[Is this what a true prodigy looks like—someone who topped the entire nation just from classroom lessons?]
Alex didn’t understand what exactly Yi Baek was referencing, but he could feel the spirit’s genuine amazement clearly enough.
[Want to try throwing it now?]
[We should test just how destructive it can be!]
“No, let’s not. Leo’s sleeping.”
[Ah.]
[You really are a doting uncle.]
Taking Yi Baek’s praise in stride, Alex dispelled the Fireball and settled onto the driver’s bench of the cart.
Clop-clop, clop-clop.
Alex tilted his head as he guided the cart forward.
[Something wrong?]
“The road feels different from how I remember it.”
[Did you take a wrong turn?]
“Not exactly… it’s just the feeling that something’s slightly off.”
Alex hummed softly and surveyed the surroundings.
[Can’t you check a map?]
“A minor road like this won’t be on a map. A civilian map just shows where the territory is located—it’s not made for detailed navigation.”
[I see.]
As Alex was considering whether to ask someone for directions, uncertain as he was,
the sound of a horse’s neigh drifted from a distance—louder and more resonant than that of Max, the brown mare.
[Oh!! Other-world knights and soldiers!!]
[It’s just like the medieval era!]
True to Yi Baek’s exclamation, a knight astride a horse and soldiers bearing spears were approaching from the end of the road.
“Looks like they’re heading to the Village because of the wolves.”
Muttering to himself, Alex steered Max and the cart to the roadside. Then he quickly shook Leo awake.
“Leo, Leo. Wake up. A knight is coming.”
Though he’d likely encounter more knights during their travels, Alex still wanted to show them to Leo, who was fond of them.
At his uncle’s voice, Leo stirred with a sleepy sound before his sky-blue eyes gleamed as he caught sight of the magnificent knight and the soldiers marching in step beside him.
“Wow! That’s amazing!”
For some reason, a faint chuckle seemed to ripple through the knight and soldiers at Leo’s exclamation.

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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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