Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 293

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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 Know About This, But I’ll Just Focus on Healing | Episode 293

“To think you would seek me out on such a busy day…….”

The Archbishop regarded Patrick, who had arrived unannounced, with a genial smile.
The fact that Patrick Asteri himself had come here directly—and no one else—meant his gambit had succeeded.

‘In any sense of the word.’

It was worth having given up his most treasured possession.
He had judged that without this, the situation would not advance.

“Please, do sit.”
“Very well.”

Patrick expertly suppressed the rage boiling up from his core.
In his heart, he wanted nothing more than to strike down the Archbishop before him and ensure he never played another underhanded trick—but that, ultimately, was his grandson’s prerogative.
His purpose in coming here today was merely one thing.

‘An errand. Nothing more.’

To reduce Patrick Asteri himself to the role of messenger boy.
And stranger still, it had seemed perfectly natural at the time—he hadn’t even found it odd.

“Nothing to drink for me. I’ll have to be on my way soon.”
“Ah, of course. You must be quite busy today.”

Patrick gave a dry chuckle and settled into his seat.

“It’s a tiresome business, but it should prove good experience for my Successor. Speaking of which, how does your own Successor fare these days?”
“Licht, as a priest, is currently assigned to maintain liaison between the House Asteri and ourselves. Still.”
“I was asking whether you’ve given him anything beyond that.”

The Archbishop could hardly have missed the implication.
He was deliberately evading it.

“You yourself must have your reasons.”
“Indeed. Much like Lion, I imagine.”
“I’ve counseled you several times now that excessive fixation narrows one’s vision. You learn slowly.”
…….

The Archbishop regarded Patrick—unusually composed today—in quiet contemplation.

“You seem quite angry, Your Grace.”

Patrick, the Marquis himself, standing before him now, was one of those rare men who need not bother concealing emotion when in the presence of others.
He was a comrade of the previous Archbishop, a living Hero.
Should he will it, he could bring every single thing happening now to a halt in an instant.
Moreover.

‘I would lose as well.’

That is the nature of pure, brute power.
Of course, having ascended to the highest station, he would not fall so ignominiously as the common man—but he would fall nonetheless.
The Archbishop’s design required Patrick Asteri, and so he could not afford to act rashly.

‘Yet now I see…….’

Patrick Asteri, too—the man before him—was laboring under the same constraint.
He was definitely angry.
And it was likely true that Lion had been shaken by his gift.
If his deduction—bordering on certainty—held water.

‘Lion is undoubtedly affected by something connected to the Hero.’

The precise nature of that influence remained unknown.
Yet the circumstances thus far, combined with the information House Asteri had gone to such lengths to conceal, had paradoxically revealed the answer.
And besides…….

‘There were things she told me.’

The previous Archbishop, she who had been called the Saintess.
The only family he’d ever known—cherished like a child, like a younger sibling.
The Archbishop drifted back into that memory.
These days, her voice surfaced only when he descended into a past so distant it seemed unreachable.
Her gentle tone. Her voice like gentle waves.
The touch of her hand, cool against his forehead as he whined for sleep, wanting nothing more than to remain at her side.
Stories of the Hero, spoken as if to pass down to future generations, offered in whispers from time to time.
The Archbishop.
Or rather, to the nameless child he had been then, such stories were doctrine itself.
And a priest never forgets doctrine.

—Whining for sleep again?
—But I can’t fall asleep.
—Mmm. You’ll have trouble waking in the morning, then, won’t you?

The former Archbishop had smiled warmly and settled into her chair.
Her pale hand, which she drew across his forehead lest some fever should strike his small frame in the night, was always cool to the touch.

—Then I suppose I should tell you something amusing.
—…….

He couldn’t remember what he’d said in reply.
But he’d likely smiled then.
That must be why she had left those stories with him.

—You know what? The Hero sometimes receives the ability to see past and future.
—The way we have special dreams?
—Mmm, that’s right. And with that power, she protects us all.
—……So that’s why she has to leave again. Hmph.
—Still, you must behave well while your sister is away, yes?

Just as he was sinking deeper into that bittersweet past, a cold voice cut through reality.

“Archbishop. Did I not say earlier? This is no grave matter—merely a tedious one. And I judged it would prove rather good experience for my Successor.”
“It seems you regard Lion as your Successor as well. He must have shown considerable aptitude without even realizing it.”
“The boy has a large vessel.”
“If such a large vessel could hold someone like me, that would be ideal.”
“Fortunately, it’s not quite large enough for that.”

The Archbishop’s lips, which had been curving into a smile, stiffened unnaturally.

“What did Lion say that draws such a response from you?”
“I merely stated my thoughts. As for the boy’s answer…….”

Patrick withdrew a vial from his robe that he’d been asked to deliver, and set it upon the table.

“……!!”

The Archbishop’s expression hardened as he stared at the vial.
His face had gone ashen, and the whites of his eyes were streaked with burst capillaries.

“What… is this.”
“Lion’s answer.”
“That’s not what I’m asking about!”

The Archbishop could not bring himself to touch the vial.
He didn’t need to. He could see it without touching.
The magnitude of the Seal itself—and whose hands had wrought it.

‘Fourth tier. No… fifth tier level….’

It would be possible for him.
For that man—who had become the vessel of a god and made himself the god’s proxy in flesh.

‘…If that’s true.’

Then what sacrifice must have been made to complete this Seal?
And if so, the final fate of the family he’d been so desperately searching for…
Why they returned as corpses without a word of explanation—that needed no clarification.
Yet the Archbishop’s shock and fury were not born from that.
He had anticipated his family would die as a Vessel of Divinity.
But the ‘why.’
Why it had to be. That was what he needed to know.
Was that Hero and the world truly so important?
And those left behind?
The dam he’d carefully built to hold back his heart gave way, and resentment flooded through.
Not toward him.
No, this was different.

‘Why did I not.’

Find it myself.
And then, a conversation from a dream long ago surfaced in his mind.

“Might I inquire what became of the Saintess?”

The Archbishop contorted his face with his hands.
Blood vessels burst under the pressure, but he paid it no mind.
Only by doing this could he think of what came next without drowning in the swamp of his emotions.

‘Focus. Focus. Focus.’

The Archbishop drove the words into himself again and again, and with effort, forced his mind to work.
His dilated pupils trembled unsteadily as thought resumed its course.

‘Lion Asteri already possesses the power. The means.’

He had been preparing the method to unseal it all along.
And perhaps, he would soon gain the strength to unseal it.
If he is the Hero, it’s merely a matter of time.
It would be beyond what a mere Archbishop could follow.
Just as I could never find that vial no matter how I obsessed over it my whole life.

‘And I.’

Provoked him.
It was foolish thinking.
Now, looking back, it was profoundly stupid.
What should have unfolded smoothly, he’d twisted into a knot.

“Did you truly believe that if you triggered an Age of Chaos, clues about the Saintess’s death would surface?”

Patrick posed the question as though he’d read the Archbishop’s every thought with perfect clarity.

“If this generation possessed no Hero, then force an Age of Chaos into being and exalt whoever proved most worthy of the title—that was your thinking, wasn’t it?”
“…….”

Not a word out of place.
Not in Patrick Asteri’s deduction alone.

‘In the end, I found my clue after all.’

The role of delivering trials to the Hero’s journey.
By taking the villain’s part, answers did emerge.
But cleaning up the aftermath would fall to me alone.

“Haha…… hahaha.”

The Archbishop laughed.
His face, scored with fingernail marks, had taken on something almost grotesque, yet Patrick’s expression turned almost pitying.
There was good reason he’d called him a “madman.”
This was the Archbishop’s true face.
Since the day the Saintess died, he’d never once been in his right mind.

“I concede, it seems.”
“A statement of the obvious.”
“I find myself longing to kneel before Lion himself. Ah—that you could strike me down so completely. I never saw it coming.”
“…….”

Patrick fixed the Archbishop with a look that said: go on, try me further.
A pitiful creature, yes, but one who’d welcome a beating all the way to death’s door without satisfaction.
Before the man could ramble further, Patrick pushed himself to his feet.
Whatever he spilled from his lips would only sour the mood—it wouldn’t change a thing.

“That vessel will be retrieved again soon enough.”
“……Yes. And I shall remain silent as the grave.”
“A servant of God who lies as easily as he breathes.”

The Archbishop’s days ahead would be consumed with urgency.
He’d witnessed a Level Five Seal firsthand.
Desperate to curry favor with his grandson however he could, the Archbishop had but one card left to play in this situation.
Learning how to safely undo that Seal.
And taking every measure to avoid ruffling Lion’s feathers.
And finally, at the end…….

“Archbishop.”
“Yes, Patrick.”
“……Think carefully on what you do.”

He could offer no counsel beyond that.
Patrick uttered those few words and rose to leave.
Lion’s matter was settled; now he had to oversee how his youngest grandson was managing his own affairs.

“……Carefully, then.”

Left alone, the Archbishop smiled—a smile born of genuine understanding.
One thing was certain: from this moment forward, he would never again lift a hand against Lion.
There was no longer any need.

* * *

‘Ah, he’s back.’

Lion glanced briefly at the worn bottle that had been retrieved into his inventory.
Apparently things had gone well on the Archbishop’s end.

‘Let’s break his spirit a little.’

He didn’t usually feel much schadenfreude watching someone get crushed.
His nature leaned more toward compassion, if anything…… but.
Honestly, thinking about how rattled the Archbishop’s mind must be felt a little satisfying.
Not that Lion had done anything wrong—the Archbishop just kept needling him, didn’t he.
And there was only one reason for it.
Something to do with the Hero!

‘He needs to learn moderation.’

Lion shook his head slowly.
In any case, things would genuinely get quieter from here on out.

‘And if he keeps this up any further…….’

Grandfather might actually fire a Meteor Strike at the Temple himself, not Lion.
Or before that, Ricshel would probably grab Licht at the Asteri Family Estate and shake the truth out of him.

“Are you not satisfied with the merchandise?”
“Hmm?”
“You were shaking your head. Shall we head over there?”
“This place isn’t bad either, though. Why not?”

Lion was sweeping up medicinal herbs from the black market wherever his eyes fell.
The Underworld’s market was exactly as Jack had described—rare items were scattered everywhere!

‘The scam ratio is pretty high, though.’

But that was something Lion could handle with his eyes, so he was literally enjoying some shrewd shopping.

“…….”

Of course, on Jack’s dime.
Jack maintained a smile while obliging Lion’s whims.
Money being the easiest problem to solve…… he muttered to himself alone.

“Ah. Speaking of which, what happened to that Stationery Shop owner back then?”
“…….”
“He sold such fine merchandise.”

And as if reading his thoughts perfectly, Lion was now asking for something money couldn’t solve.

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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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