Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 110

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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 Successor Doesn’t Matter; I Just Want to Heal — Chapter 110

The situation was deteriorating.
Rickson gripped his shattered blade and swung it with all his strength.

Screech!

The broken sword managed to push back the claws for a moment, but that was all. A fractured weapon could not hold back Barg.
But behind him stood the Young Master.
Rickson’s eyes grew calm and clear. What must a knight do in such a moment?
There was only one answer.

‘Give flesh; take bone.’

Retreat was not an option.
He was a knight.
A being who would never yield before any threat, who would protect what lay behind him at all costs.
The Young Master and the Barg before him—both were his charge.
Rickson’s vision filled with eyes stripped of reason, and then with blood-slicked claws bearing down upon him.
Rickson raised his arm and took the full force of the blow.

Squelch!

A sickening sound of something tearing through flesh.
The iron scent of blood rose thick and heavy, closer than his own arm.

“Rickson! Stay sharp!”

Ricshel’s voice cracked like a whip from behind.

“……!”

Rickson realized his arm felt no pain.
Instead, a different set of claws—the ones blocked by Shield Magic—had reached nearly to his eyes.

‘One hand was a feint!’

Terrifying battle instinct.
If the Young Master had not cast Shield Magic, those claws would not have carved away flesh—they would have become the sickle of death itself, reaping his last breath.

“…….”

Ricshel stared with cold eyes at the claws that had pierced through his Shield Magic.
Even trying to assess the situation with clear logic, he felt his blood run cold.
Those claws reminded him of the ice storm that had ravaged the Training Ground.
No—each strike was even more severe.
A breached shield meant either they were evenly matched or this Beastkin was exerting far greater force.
In other words, a single misstep and a life would be snuffed out.
Yet Ricshel did not waver.

‘Fighting someone without reason is more troublesome than I thought.’

At least, in his training, he had never faced anything untested.
Sparring in House Asteri operated under one absolute premise: rank and power held no sway.
Therefore, matches were brutal, and it was common to suffer from injuries for months afterward, regardless of victory or defeat.
So young as he was, he was no untried novice.
And so Ricshel felt it now, acutely.
The narrowest margin of resolve. A single error in distributing Mana. Concentration.
Lose even one, and the scales would tip.
That’s why you must stay composed.

‘Keep your head.’

The Shield Magic pierced by Barg’s claws was steadily losing its efficacy.
Before long the spell would shatter, and the barrier would tear like paper.
But if he recklessly attacked to stop it, he’d only hasten the boy’s death.
Think.
Rickson had lost his weapon.
No matter how skilled a knight he was, he couldn’t match a creature whose entire body was a lethal instrument.
Which meant he had to dodge and circle through this narrow space.
Until his brother arrived.
Though whether his brother could bring a cure was still uncertain.
What method could temporarily halt that creature’s movements?
If the Patriarch had faced this situation, what would he have done?
Ricshel’s mind raced, yet the only strategy that surfaced was buying himself time to breathe.

‘As a last resort, I could use Light Magic to blind it temporarily….’

The instant that thought crossed his mind.
Barg’s gaze, which had been fixed on him, suddenly turned away.
It withdrew its claws from the Shield Magic, abandoning the assault.

‘It gave up?’

That meant it had found a weaker target than the mage.
In this vicinity, who could that be? Surely not—

“Brother!”

Before Ricshel could cry out a warning, Lion descended rapidly through the air.

“Roooaaahhh!”

Then—crash!—a sound as loud as a tree toppling.
A massive cloud of dust erupted, thicker than before.
Earth and debris billowed upward a second time.

“…….”
“…….”

The two of them, watching in stunned bewilderment, cried out moments later.

“B-brother!”
“Master Lion!”

Lion, absorbing all their concern at once, was…….

“Ugh…….”

Caked in dust, but fortunately still breathing.

‘Thank goodness I asked Elvia to wrap me in Shock Absorption Magic.’

With Nature’s aid, he’d ridden the wind to arrive quickly—that much had worked.
He’d adapted his grandfather’s Acceleration Magic technique, though it seemed he still couldn’t control it to that degree.
As Lion calmly brushed the dust from his body, a voice called out from some distance away.

“Careful!”
“I’m fine.”

Of course, he hadn’t arrived unprepared.
Lion smirked as he watched Barg charge headlong into the dust.

“It’s no ordinary dust.”

Lion withdrew a shimmering powder from his pouch and scattered it once more into the air.
Moonlight Ring Powder—precisely what he needed.

—When used by Beastkin, it permanently raises vitality. (However, it has the opposite effect if Eclipse Symptom is present.)

To a creature afflicted with Eclipse Symptom, powder saturated with lunar essence would be nothing short of poison.

‘It’ll hurt, no question about that.’

If the Rampage had already begun, this was the only method Lion had to get close.
Even moonlight alone caused agony; if it entered the body through heightened senses and open wounds…

“Shriek!”

Barg collapsed face-first into the dust with a cry of pain.

‘My body……’

It burned as if consumed by fire itself.
Yet paradoxically, that overwhelming agony jolted his mind back to clarity, draining the frenzy from his limbs.
The direct pain surpassed even the torment of moonlight.

“……!”

The two figures who had been rushing toward them halted mid-stride.
For reasons they couldn’t quite grasp, it seemed their older brother had subdued Barg.

‘Come to think of it……’

The dust they’d taken for simple dirt had gleamed strangely.

Step. Step.

Lion approached slowly and positioned himself before Barg.
Covered entirely in Moonlight Ring Powder from head to toe, Lion’s very presence made Barg’s body writhe and curl inward with agony.

“It hurts. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry……”
“Barg. You’re all right.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t……”

I’d rather die. I was wrong. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.…
Barg spilled the words without thought, a stream of pure panic.
Utterly overwhelmed.
It was precisely like pouring salt into an open wound.

‘But there was no other way to bring him back quickly.’

Still, it was hard not to feel sorry.
Lion examined Barg’s body carefully.
His clothes hung in tatters, and he bore wounds everywhere—no part of him untouched.
And this was just what was visible; the rest of him must be no better.

‘At least the surface damage is more manageable than……’

Lion took out a Honey Potion and poured it over Barg’s hunched form.
The thick liquid that had clung to the bottle’s interior now flowed like an ordinary potion once he uncorked it, trickling down smoothly.
And the drops seeped directly into the wounds.
At the same moment.

“……!”

Barg’s eyes snapped open at the strange new sensation coursing through his body.
It was impossible.
The wounds that had throbbed with nothing but pain, the mind that had been shrouded in fog—both returned swiftly to clarity.
Instead of the metallic stench of blood, he caught the sweet scent of honey.
The powder that had made even breathing agony now restored his body as if infused with moonlight itself.
The agony faded.
The fear that he might harm someone else settled into stillness.
He knew it by instinct.
I’m alive.
I…… didn’t kill anyone.
A single tear fell from Barg’s eye, mingling with the luminous powder clinging to his face before dropping to the ground.

“You’ll feel better soon.”

Get some rest.
He heard the kind young master’s voice.

‘I should thank him.’

But sleep crashed over him like a wave.
His leaden body refused to obey his will.
The only thing he could manage in the end was.

A gentle flutter.

Moving the tail he’d held so rigidly aloft a few slow times.

* * *

[You have saved a life through exceptional talent.]
[You have achieved an Achievement that surpasses the cost!]
[You gain 50,000 Shillings.]
[Alchemy proficiency has reached Skilled Lv.4.]

“Phew!”

As the notification marking the end of the ordeal appeared, Lion let out a breath of relief.

‘Alchemy had never budged, even when I created that Hot Spring.’

And now this—fifty thousand Shillings, a princely sum.
It might be the highest reward he’d ever earned from an Achievement.
Saving a life clearly carried weight in the system’s eyes.

‘Saving someone with a lifestyle skill is no simple feat, after all.’

Combat classes saved lives regularly enough, but for a lifestyle class to save someone in such a dramatic way—that was rare.

“……Though I wasn’t chasing the reward.”

Lion glanced at the sleeping Barg with a soft smile, then turned to watch the two who had rushed toward him.

“Commander Rickson, you held up well.”
“No, sir. But are you well?”
“As you can see.”

Lion swung his arms about to demonstrate his soundness, and only then did Rickson sink into a seat, visibly relieved.

“A blessing. A true blessing.”
“You were quite frightened, it seems.”

Frightened? That was putting it mildly. When the Young Master had fallen from the sky, Rickson had thought all was truly lost.
No healer alive could resurrect the dead.
If the battle with Barg had merely left him cold with dread, watching the Young Master plummet had felt like his very heart dropping from his chest.

“Ah. I’m the one who treasures this body more than anyone else.”

Making excuses for his haste, Lion patted the sleeping Barg’s shoulder.

“The treatment is complete. He’s sleeping now, so you can take him with you.”

Rickson, whose expression had been taut with concern for Barg’s condition, let out a deep sigh of relief at Lion’s words.

“I cannot thank you enough, Young Master.”
“You should thank Ricshel instead. Ricshel! This is all thanks to you. I made the remedy from your moonflower.”
“…….”
“Hmm?”

As an unexpected silence fell, Lion turned to look at Ricshel.
And then—

‘Oh.’

Lion caught his breath at the sight of Ricshel’s sullen expression—the first he’d ever seen on his brother’s face.
He’d really done it this time, hadn’t he?
Though he’d had his reasons, of course.
Falling from the air was the only way to disperse the powder evenly, and Elvia had used Shock Absorption Magic to—
He’d tried to excuse himself along those lines, but looking at that face, the words simply wouldn’t come out right.

“Listen, little brother?”
“…….”
“I’ll explain everything on the way back to the estate! Why I had to appear like that.”
“……I shall report this matter plainly to the Patriarch.”
“Wait.”

Lion couldn’t begin to imagine how much lecturing he’d receive if Grandfather found out.

“Ahem. I shall depart with Barg first.”

Rickson, true to his nature as the captain of House Asteri’s knights, had assessed the situation completely. He hoisted the unconscious Barg onto his shoulders, offered a bow, and vanished with remarkable speed and silence, doing everything possible to avoid drawing further attention.

“…….”

In the ruins, only Lion and a thoroughly sullen Ricshel remained.

A hollow wind swept across.

For some reason, a chill breeze blew through the air.
……Or rather, it had been warm, but Ricshel’s mood had made it feel cold.

“…….”

Ricshel even spun sharply on his heel and departed alone, ahead of Lion.

A deep sigh escaped him.

This wasn’t going to be easy.
He’d only meant to check whether the honey had dried properly after returning, truth be told.
But somehow he’d sensed that opening that door would trigger a hearing.
That evening.
Just as he’d feared, Lion found himself spinning out excuse after excuse before his assembled family.

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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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