Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 260

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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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Successor Unknown, Just Need to Heal — Chapter 260

—So this is free time, then?

“That’s right.”

Of course, without a body, there’s no actual experience to be had.
Lion pretended to ponder for a moment, then held up a single finger.

“An hour should be enough to see everything worth seeing, don’t you think?”

—G-got it! I’m heading out!

Having settled her business, Tieramatrak shot off like an arrow toward somewhere unknown.
And just before the hour ran out.

—I’m back!

Sniff… sniff…

She returned dangling what appeared to be a small ghost—the former Grand Duke of Dragnas—from one hand.
The Grand Duke of Dragnas was crying without pause.
Transparent tears fell to the ground with soft taps, then scattered and vanished.
Lion gestured, and Tieramatrak set the Grand Duke down gently on the floor.

—…!

The moment his feet touched solid ground, the boy quickly fled Tieramatrak’s side and hid behind Lion, clutching at his pant leg.
The small hand grasping the fabric was cold and weightless.

“Did you perhaps…?”

—No! I didn’t do anything this time!
—Last time I only scared him!

Tieramatrak, feeling somewhat aggrieved, reenacted the exact way she’d threatened him before.
Hands raised, mouth opened wide in an exaggerated yawn—it honestly wasn’t that frightening at all.
There was no dragon’s dignity about it whatsoever.

—But he just kept crying anyway?

“Alright. Why don’t you wait over there for a bit.”

Having sent her off, Lion carefully bent down to meet the Grand Duke’s gaze.

‘…He really is a ghost, isn’t he.’

Unlike Tieramatrak, who despite being an earth-bound dragon looked far too pristine, the boy’s form was unmistakably that of a dead person.
It made sense: the part where he’d suffered the fatal wound was hollowed clean through, and blood stained the cloth around it heavily.
The sight of a truly dead person left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Are you indeed the Grand Duke of Dragnas?”

Lion asked calmly, and the Grand Duke nodded.
He still sniffled and wept, but at least it seemed he could understand words.

“I am Lion Asteri, grandson of Patrick Asteri. Is it possible you know my grandfather?”

Grandfather and the Grand Duke must have crossed paths before.
The Hero’s party did receive considerable help from this place, after all.
And I suspect it was Grandfather who introduced the Grand Duke and the Hero to each other in the first place.
Otherwise, an adventurer-turned-hero would never have had a direct audience with the Grand Duke.

Nod, nod.

Fortunately, the answer comes back in the affirmative.
Upon hearing the name “Patrick,” the Grand Duke’s son seemed to relax, and he began to say something.
The problem was……

‘Hmm…… I can’t hear him.’

In stark contrast to Tieramatrak’s will, which came through as clear as a voice, the Grand Duke’s son’s words were entirely inaudible.
It was strange.
His cries came through just fine.

-By the way, I can’t hear his voice either!
-Not hearing it is usually normal. Truth is, the fact that he remains as a spirit at all is already extraordinary.
-You need to be at my level to persist as a spirit.

I see.

‘Well, there’s no helping it.’

Still, the saving grace was that I could hear Lion’s voice clearly.
Lion pondered for a moment, then began writing letters on paper laid out in the room.

[Yes.] [No.] [Don’t know.]

Having spread the paper with these three options across the floor, Lion immediately asked a question.

“You can hear my voice clearly, yes? Would it be all right if I asked you a few questions?”

The Grand Duke’s son, catching on to what the paper was for, pointed to “Yes.”

“Is there another person like you in this place?”

This time he pointed to “No.”
After that, Lion posed several lighter questions.
Whether Demons appearing would be dangerous, whether the soul of a dragon was frightening.
And whether he had been close to the Grand Duke in life, and so on.
Each time, the Grand Duke’s son answered, and his tears gradually ceased.

“You’re quite perceptive.”

At Lion’s praise, the Grand Duke’s son dried his tears and smiled faintly.
Perhaps decades of loneliness had at least begun to lift.
Tieramatrak, far in the distance, chimed in that he understood the feeling too.
Lion seized the moment when the mood had eased to ask a careful question.

“Are you perhaps searching for the Grand Duke?”

The Grand Duke’s son hesitated briefly before answering “Yes.”

“But you said there’s no one like you in this place—do you know where he might be?”

This time the answer was “Don’t know.”
He seemed to have much to say in response, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly.
Even he seemed to know this, and he heaved a deep sigh.
From his expression, it appeared that when he first became a spirit, that had truly been the case—but now he had half given up hope.

‘Hmm…….’

Separate from his sympathy for the Grand Duke of Dragnas’s plight, Lion had come to realize something else.
The Grand Duke, who had become a Demon and led everyone down the path to ruin, might exist somewhere in a spirit form.
Moreover, that location was likely to be quite dangerous.

‘He couldn’t possibly be in any condition to help……’

Mere knowledge of his possible existence wasn’t enough for Lion to take action.
Then.

“Ah.”

The Grand Duke of Dragnas pointed at ‘no’ and nodded his head.
There was no need for help.
Their eyes met.
As if to say he was fine with other questions.
After enduring decades in a spirit state, the Grand Duke of Dragnas carried himself with considerable composure.

‘No, wait. When I think about it…….’

His father, the Grand Duke, had been quite righteous himself, so perhaps he’d inherited that from him.

‘This is…….’

He’d have to ask his grandfather about this later, carefully.

‘No. Would Kyle be better?’

Lion recalled what had happened at the Ester Hotel.
Wouldn’t the Second Imperial Prince be more helpful when it came to matters of the soul?

“Forgive me. Would that be all right?”

Having obtained the Grand Duke of Dragnas’s consent, Lion posed a different question.

“It was quite some time ago, but did the Hero ever come to this place after the Great Barrier was erected?”

In truth, it would not be a pleasant memory for the Grand Duke of Dragnas.
Based on the timeline, the Grand Duke of Dragnas must have died first at his father’s hands and become a spirit.
If that were the case, he might have witnessed as a spirit the moment the Hero defeated his father.

‘And this man loves his father.’

More than just loving him—he’s searching for his father even as a spirit, is he not?
In that case, he likely harbored no warm feelings toward the Hero.
As expected, the Grand Duke of Dragnas’s pupils wavered.
Was he angry after all?
In the moment he was thinking this.
The Grand Duke of Dragnas’s expression brightened with remarkable clarity.
Then he immediately moved his finger toward ‘yes’!

‘……He brightened?’

Could such a thing even be possible, no matter how magnanimous a person was?

‘No. Wait.’

A sudden suspicion arose in his mind.
From what Lion had observed through Story Mode, the Hero was quite a virtuous being.
Which meant that while he’d walked the path of a Hero, he carried considerable anguish within him.
That such a person would come near the Great Barrier…

‘It doesn’t seem to be just about the Barrier.’

There still wasn’t enough information to confirm this theory.
But there was one thing he could ask.

“Do you know where he went?”

The Grand Duke of Dragnas’s fingers moved from Yes.
To I don’t know.

‘Hmm.’

Perhaps the Grand Duke’s location and the place the Hero had visited were the same.

“Thank you for sparing your precious time, Your Highness. Night is getting late, and would you be able to visit again tomorrow evening?”

Part of him wanted to immediately lead the Grand Duke around the castle and search, but the circumstances weren’t favorable.
First, he couldn’t communicate directly with a spirit.
Of course, it might be possible through Tieramatrak, but…

‘He still seems afraid.’

No matter that this spirit had been dead for decades, it felt unsettling to trouble a child like this.
Once daylight came, he decided he’d make a set of word cards.
And…

‘First, I need to see for myself.’

The Grand Duke had spent far longer as a spirit than as a living person.
So he was thinking it would be better to wait until the night grew deeper before venturing out.

“Chirp.”

Nature let out a troubled peep.

“Hmm? Nature, what’s wrong—”

Lion’s words caught in his throat as cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.
He’d overlooked something.
Most children liked animals.
And a child who’d spent decades in loneliness would be especially drawn to them.
Nature was a Spirit King, but her form resembled a yellow chick.
And… spirits and ghosts seemed to be separated by only the thinnest of lines.
The Grand Duke, who’d vanished before his eyes, had suddenly surfaced from the ground and was now staring at Nature with blatant, undisguised interest.

“Chirp, chirp…”

Nature found the child’s gaze burdensome and kept turning her head away, avoiding his eyes.
It wasn’t that she disliked the boy—more likely, she wanted to help her master maintain his peaceful investigation.

‘…Wait. Is that also why I can see spirits?’

Perhaps because they shared a similar fundamental nature?
That would make sense.
And if he used Nature, perhaps he could resolve this somehow…

“Nature. I’m fine.”
“Chirp? Chirp!”

Nature tilted her head in confusion at Lion’s resolve, but soon seemed to understand, nodding gravely.
Then she flew down and gave the Grand Duke’s finger a light peck with her beak.

“Oh? No, the peck wasn’t meant to chase you away…….”

The Grand Duke’s finger flinched, startled by the sensation of the peck.
And then, remarkably—

A silent laugh.

No sound came, but the Grand Duke was surely laughing.

-This is far better than weeping!
-Even a sting feels pleasant.
-He couldn’t even grasp objects before.

Tieramatrak, who had been standing at a distance, drifted over and whispered at my ear.

“True enough…….”

I’d never been a spirit myself, but even Lion would have found this welcome. Being ignored once or twice stings, but the Grand Duke—he hadn’t had even the barest interaction with another soul for decades.

“Chirp. Chirp!”

After playing with the Grand Duke for a while, Nature fluttered over to me, flapping her wings and kicking her feet.

-She wants to take a quick look around.
-Says she can’t go anywhere too dangerous anyway.

The Grand Duke’s spirit does seem to have limits on where he can wander.
And Nature—she’s a Spirit King first, bound to me by Mana as well.
If need be, I can simply resummon her to where I am.
It does consume an enormous amount of Mana, so I’d never done it in normal circumstances, but with Tieramatrak’s Circle now at hand, it’s no longer impossible.

‘Not a bad idea.’

The two of them scout outside, and meanwhile Lion watches the interior.

“Nature.”
“Chirp.”

Nature spread her wings wide, radiating courage as if to say there was nothing to worry about.
Lion stroked her head gently and spoke.

“If anything seems dangerous, just come back to me right away. You understand? And if worse comes to worst, feel free to use all my Mana.”

Nature’s expression grew strange.

“What? No, I’m just worried. What if you got hurt while I wasn’t there?”
“……Chir.”

Nature took a long moment after Lion finished speaking before answering reluctantly.

-Don’t you understand walking in another’s shoes?

Hmm…….
It’s not really possible.

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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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