Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 237

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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 Unknown, Let’s Do Some Healing – Episode 237

[‘Expert’s Eye’ skill is being strengthened over a short period.]

The Mana Stones piled throughout the Lair rose into the air, swirling around Lion in a dance-like spiral.
Moving in sync with Lion’s Mana.

‘Wait—why is it doing this?’

Lion flinched, doing his best to hide it.
This was absolutely not what he’d intended.
He’d simply strengthened his Expert’s Eye in the usual way.
It was supposed to help him spot even the smallest clues buried in the Lair.
And yes, the dragon fossil lying intact had caught his attention too.
That was all.
Lion kept his composure despite the cold sweat trickling down his spine.
It looked quite dramatic, certainly, but that was all it was.
No hidden guardian had burst forth, and no other Magic Circle had triggered in a chain reaction.
And…

‘Since the targets are Mana Stones, that explains it…’

This pattern felt oddly familiar, didn’t it?
Yes. It resembled the flower pattern he’d witnessed when first pulled into the Labyrinth.
The difference was that then he’d been alone, whereas now the Second Imperial Prince stood beside him.
And this display was decidedly more elaborate…

A glance.

Lion looked toward the Second Imperial Prince.
He was clearly making an effort to remain composed, yet his pupils trembled.
Clearly, he’d drawn a firm conclusion—the wrong one.
Lion wanted to defend himself immediately, but he decided to brazen through it instead.
After all, they’d agreed not to ask questions, hadn’t they?

‘Right. No point worrying about his gaze now.’

Lion steadied himself and exhaled deeply.
The spectacle had unsettled him, true, but he’d gleaned substantial information from it.
First, this place itself.
For reasons unknown, it responded to his Mana.
Perhaps it was the influence of the previous Hero, or his grandfather’s legacy.
And the Mana Stones.

‘There’s definitely a pattern here somewhere…’

But he couldn’t see it.
At his current level, extracting that information seemed beyond reach.

‘Should I use the staff?’

If he wielded Asteri’s Staff—currently dormant in his inventory—his Expert’s Eye would undoubtedly be amplified to overwhelming levels.
But.

‘The risk is too great.’

When he’d examined that old bottle, hadn’t he felt it then?
The backlash from viewing information he shouldn’t have seen was considerable.
At that time, Nature had released her power to somehow nullify it—but now, regrettably, he was without her aid.
The journey to the Imperial Capital was ordinarily brief, and besides, dragging Nature all the way there felt awkward.

‘Sigh…….’

And yet something gnawed at him.
In the World, the mechanics of this place weren’t simply about overwhelming force.
One had to identify the monsters’ attributes, discern their weaknesses, dismantle them—and sometimes even crash the gargoyle and golem into each other until they shattered.

‘Let me do what I can for now.’

Instead of reaching for the staff, Lion drew deeply on the Mana that remained in his Mana Circle.

[Through enhancement of the Expert’s Eye technique, you pierce through partial information.]

Fortunately—it had been a sound choice. What had been invisible began to reveal itself in faint outline.
Lion squinted at his eyes, which now shimmered faintly with light, and swiftly read through the newly exposed information.

[Worn Mana Stone]
-A Mana Stone already used once; scarcely any Mana remains.
-Restoring it will likely require a substantial infusion of Mana.

[Broken Gargoyle Wing]
-Where did the body go? It appears to have shattered.

[Broken Golem Fragment]
-Dear me. The core is completely destroyed.

[Lair’s Gold and Jewels]
-It seems anything that glitters could be here. Why didn’t the intruder take these?

And…….

[Dragon Remains]
-Bones of a dragon long dead, long ago departed from this world.
-Strange though. Normally when a dragon dies, it should return entirely to nature along with its Mana…….

Whoosh!

Just as Lion finished reading the final line, the Expert’s Eye technique ended.
His eyes, which had gleamed bright as a dragon’s, dimmed in an instant and returned to normal.
At the same moment, the Mana Stone hovering in the air dropped limply to the ground.
As though nothing had happened at all.

‘Ugh, exhausted.’

Mana still remained, but the fatigue in his eyes was considerable.
It felt as though he’d gone sleepless for days and nights without pause.
Lion blinked his tired eyes several times.
The sensation was one of his corneas being scraped raw by his eyelids for lack of moisture.
Mercifully, his blurred vision cleared quickly enough.

“…….”

And the Second Imperial Prince, watching all this, had to devote all his effort to controlling his expression.
As Lion had predicted, the Second Imperial Prince was now in a state of considerable shock.
It was already astonishing that he’d arrived at the Dragon Lair through a painting, but the Lion Asteri before his eyes had been groaning one moment and then suddenly transformed, deploying some strange technique. The result: the Mana Stone in the Dragon Lair resonated with him.
And that was merely the beginning. Clearly Mana was being used, yet he’d sensed no flow whatsoever in the surrounding environment.

After all, the Second Imperial Prince had confirmed it with his own eyes.
In Lion Asteri’s blood flowed unmistakably the Mana unique to House Asteri.

‘……Is he not human?’

And yet he seemed far too human for that.
It didn’t take the Second Imperial Prince long to arrive at this conclusion.
Of course, if Lion heard it, he’d find it absurd beyond measure—but then, the strength Kyle had gleaned from his observations and information should have numbered only one or two abilities at most.

“Your Highness! That’s it. I believe we’ll be able to escape far sooner than expected.”

As Kyle regarded Lion with studied composure, Lion Asteri—who had been muttering to himself moments before—suddenly approached and declared with confidence.

“……By what method?”
“Haha. I’m not entirely certain, but would you care to hear my theory?”

It sounded more like certainty than theory, but Kyle merely nodded without pressing the point.
What did his true nature matter? His fundamental character had remained unchanged from the moment they first met until now.

“Listen carefully, then.”

Lion began to explain his hypothesis—something bordering on absolute conviction—while doing his best to ignore Kyle’s doubts and expression.

“First, regarding this Lair. There appears to have been intruders here before we arrived.”
“Indeed.”

Kyle nodded in agreement and looked around.
There were far too many oddities to attribute to weathering alone over the ages.
Golems with bodies severed in clean lines, gargoyles whose torsos had vanished entirely save for their wings—things like that.

“Surely the dragon’s familiars would have remained to guard the Lair even after their master’s death.”

Lion rapped his knuckles against the dragon’s skull behind him—knock, knock.
Kyle’s hand flinched.
The dragon had been extinct for ages, true enough, but no one—no one at all—would treat it with such casual irreverence.
It was an object of fear and reverence.

“But those intruders defeated every last one of them, and they likely left immediately after the battle ended.”

Lion felt a twinge of conscience.
He’d just called them “intruders,” but those intruders had been none other than himself playing In the World—and among them was his grandfather, Patrick.
I’m sorry, Grandfather!

“…….”

Kyle nodded slowly.
There was merit to the argument.
If they hadn’t departed immediately, the treasures in this Lair would never have remained intact.
And besides…….

‘They couldn’t have simply fled.’

The Dragon Lair was encased in Protective Magic so formidable that no outside view could pierce it.
If that were the case, the key to entering this place would be that very symbol they’d encountered, and the means to depart…….

“My conclusion is that they proved themselves. They demonstrated their power, I suspect.”
“Then…….”
“Yes. If we prove our excellence by another method, wouldn’t they allow us to leave?”

Until just a moment ago, Lion’s reasoning had held a certain logic, but his conclusion was riddled with gaps.
He hadn’t explained where such a conclusion had come from in the first place.
Had he examined this Lair with some special ability just now?
It was certainly remarkable, but that alone didn’t answer the question.
And yet.

‘The conclusion is probably right.’

Besides, this wasn’t something he was saying to convince Kyle in the first place.
From the moment he first used that ability, Lion Asteri had already made his decision.
To trust himself.
Kyle fought back the smile threatening to tug at his lips.

‘An unexpected turn, but not entirely unwelcome.’

It felt like erasing a line that Lion Asteri had quietly drawn between them.
Others might not have noticed, but Lion Asteri’s boundaries were far more rigid than they appeared.
He was kind to everyone, yet he never truly let anyone inside.
Especially not to someone like Kyle, whose first impression had been less than favorable.
It seemed he disliked revealing his true nature.
And that was probably accurate, to some degree.
So Kyle had benefited considerably from this fortuitous opportunity.
Well then, there was nothing for it but to cooperate with genuine enthusiasm.

“So you’re saying we should agree to keep this between us.”
“Yes.”

Lion answered without hesitation.
The Second Imperial Prince had already told him he wouldn’t ask.
So there was no need for Lion to explain further.

“Understood.”

Fortunately, the Second Imperial Prince grasped Lion’s meaning at once and agreed readily.

“Excellent. Now I’ll explain the real escape method.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“Thank you. Your Highness, your strength is exactly what we need.”

Lion clapped his hands once and grinned wickedly.

“Please gather all the remains of the Familiars here.”
…….

Now he would begin the real “creation” using these remains.

* * *

……A long, weary sigh.

Ricshel Asteri unfolded the Paper Crane his lord had sent and let out a deep, long exhale.
His older brother and the Second Imperial Prince had been missing since late into the night—they’d apparently gotten caught up in something.
The fact that his lord had sent a Letter personally suggested the cause was likely his brother.

‘It would be my brother.’

At least the silver lining was that it didn’t seem particularly dangerous…….

“Though that’s assuming I can even trust that.”

Ricshel, who had watched Lion more closely even than the head of House Asteri, understood this well.
His brother could perform the most dangerous actions even in the safest of places.

‘But what choice is there, really.’

Ricshel tucked the head of the house’s letter into his breast and exhaled deeply once more before turning to address Bydentis, who stood vacantly before him.

“It appears that the Second Imperial Prince and my brother will be away for several days.”
“I see.”
“Therefore, we shall need to arrange their movements in their absence. Will you cooperate with us?”

Bydentis understood roughly what had transpired, though he had not read the letter.
Lion Asteri had clearly set something in motion.

“We’ll need to deceive the Empress’s eyes.”
“That would be the cleanest approach.”
“As it happens, I hear there have been quite a number of disappearances in the Imperial Capital.”

The two exchanged glances and nodded curtly.
Their aim was simple: to keep attention from turning toward his brother.
The Second Prince?
Of no concern. He would manage himself.
In any case, to accomplish that, it would be better to redirect attention with a larger incident.
And so the Successor of House Asteri and the Marquis Bydentis found themselves unexpectedly unraveling the full scope of the disappearances occurring within the Imperial household.
Did they know?
That this disappearance was in fact connected to something far more serious.

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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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