Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 309

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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 or Not, I Just Want to Heal — Episode 309

The tranquil atmosphere shattered in an instant.
Lion felt a sharp, stinging pain at the back of his head.

‘Damn, how hard did he push?’

If not for the impact-absorbing enchantment on his clothes, he might have blacked out on the spot.
He’d braced himself instinctively, expecting a barrage of harsh questions and rising tension, but then—

“…….”

All strength drained from Boaresia’s grip.
His tall frame and long hair obscured his features, but what Lion could glimpse between them was……

“Did I ask something I shouldn’t have?”

It wasn’t good.
Not at all.

“……But it was a question you needed to hear.”

Boaresia drew several breaths to steady himself, then spoke in a voice gone slightly hoarse.

“Before that, might I ask what led you to think such a thing?”
“When I was afflicted with Corruption, I had various thoughts. Then I happened to remember the cases of the Druid and the Hero. That’s why I asked, but……looking at your expression, it seems I guessed right.”

There was more to it than that, but this was all Lion could share with Boaresia.

“Yes. Your suspicion is correct. But that is all.”

I know nothing more than that.
Boaresia spoke in an oddly measured cadence, his words sparse and deliberate, yet Lion did not rush him.

‘Fifty years of silent suffering.’

That he maintained any composure at all was remarkable.

“I nearly never learned this truth either. I only discovered it because my closest friend, at the end, in his own anguish, whispered it to me.”

Boaresia squeezed his eyes shut against the warmth seeping into his fingertips.
It had been so very long since another’s warmth touched his hand.
And so the memory surfaced—
So brief.
Just a few words.

—I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise.
—I wanted to go out and play together……

By the time Boaresia realized his friend had absorbed the Corruption into himself, it was already too late.
They’d been granted only the briefest span—fleeting as a summer night’s dream.
So he simply lived in the present.
Boaresia held no regrets about that choice.
Being the selfish elf that he was, it was only natural he claimed every remaining moment for himself.
And on that final day.
He was the one who had to hear those last words—almost a will.
His friend had asked him to look after the Hero.
Boaresia had refused.
And so his friend had said this:

—Well then, I’ll ask you to look after me for the time I have left.
—……Is that all right?

I never even managed a proper reply.
A conversation cruelly brief.
The next day, the Druid vanished.
Even an elf like myself couldn’t find him.

“Likely he was settling the last matters that body needed to attend to.”

Had it been otherwise, the Young Demon Beast would never have fallen into Lion’s hands—though the Spirit King might have eluded him.

“It was that remark that made me understand. That there was something between the Hero and the Druid. So when the Hero crossed over to the other side, I began searching.”
“……Did you know where the Hero was?”
“I didn’t know his exact location. But I knew where his journey would end.”

Boaresia had formed many hypotheses.
If a single soul could possess any body that met certain conditions—
Then wasn’t it possible the Hero had transferred to another form after disappearing?
But.

‘There was nothing.’

No matter how thoroughly I searched, nothing appeared.
I glimpsed a few remarkable individuals, but nothing astonishing enough.
All I learned was that the Red Wolf clan had perished.
The reason for it mattered little to me.
I had no interest in that clan itself.
I only wanted to find the Druid’s soul.
Lion tilted his head slightly as he listened to Boaresia’s words.
There was something he couldn’t quite understand.
Perhaps noticing this, Boaresia continued, speaking a touch more quickly this time.

“Patrick’s grandson. I cannot speak for humans, but elves believe in the Cycle of Life.”

When a given life ends, the soul is cleansed of its sins in the river of death and begins anew as a fresh existence.
And someday—

“it will return. The pace would be faster if one were not long-lived.”

The strength drained completely from Boaresia’s hand that had pinned him.
Had Lion wished, he could have broken free that very instant.
But he did not.

“At first, you thought that was me.”
“Yes. The resemblance was far too striking.”

When he first heard during his years of seclusion that Patrick’s grandson had summoned the Spirit King, he’d honestly believed his old friend had returned.
But he realized that if he, who had once fought alongside the Hero, drew near to this peaceful world, it would surely entangle him in great trouble.
So he waited.

“Until you needed me.”

Since you called yourself an Alchemist, he could send good materials, and since you mastered Spirit Summoning as well, he could dispatch skilled instructors from his realm.
If they became connected that way, they might meet in person someday.
That was what he thought.
A long span for humans, but merely a moment for an elf.

“Then Patrick reached out to me.”

You’ve resolved to walk a certain path.
And it’s a path I know all too well—and despise.
A path that sickens me.
So I came to see you face to face.

“I meant to oppose it.”

To tell you not to walk that road.
Even if you don’t share the same soul, the path of becoming a hero in this Chaos Era is far too cruel for a child.
And to Boaresia’s eyes, Lion Asteri was impossibly young.
Even having undergone the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, he remained nothing but a babe in his sight.
……Yes.
And truthfully, I wanted to see your face in all of this.
Boaresia laughed, hollow and spent.

“Yet it strikes me as strange. Elves are incomparably swift compared to other races, and yet in moments like this, you’re always the slowest.”

You’ve already learned so much.
Even that your close friend wasn’t born anew.

“The Hero is alive. There.”
“I cannot say with certainty, but that is my working theory.”

Whether alive or simply unable to die, I cannot say.
But the Hero’s body—and likely his soul as well—rests there.

‘Most likely there’s no other usable vessel left.’

There was one reason for thinking this way.

‘A Compatibility Judgment must pass before the transfer is possible, it seems.’

If any body could be inhabited, then surely the Hero’s companions or other alternate characters from the Story Mode would have appeared.
Archers, assassins, priests, and so on.
Lion had cultivated plenty of alternate characters.
But they didn’t appear.
The reason, most likely…….

‘There must be some connection to the spiritual for it to work.’

Hadn’t Lion experienced this before through Spirit Summoning?
Ghosts, souls—things like that.
Then archers and assassins would naturally be excluded.
And priests, serving the divine as they do, likely wouldn’t even reach a Compatibility Judgment.

‘They’d probably count as undead, at least?’

Well, the rest would require checking the Story Mode for paths to open, so I’ll refrain from speculating further for now.
Just as that thought settled into place.

“Lion Asteri.”
“Yes, Boaresia.”
“……You must be hungry by now. Let’s have something to eat first.”
“Pardon?”

He seemed about to say something important.
Lion’s eyes narrowed with unease, but Boaresia had already returned to his usual languid expression.
The slight dampness at the corners of his eyes had already dried to nothing.

“…….”

What was this unease?

“……Shall we go, then?”

Right.
Once he was full, anyone would grow tractable. Let me have Alex prepare a feast, then we can continue the conversation.

-That elf looks like he’ll demand something excessive.

Tieramatrak, who had been listening intently to their exchange, whispered as much under his breath.

‘I’m thinking the same thing…….’

Still, Grandfather’s here, so somehow we’ll manage to help.

* * *

There was one thing Lion had overlooked.
Boaresia, the Elder and de facto king of the Elf Kingdom, despite his burnout, maintained his body with meticulous discipline.
Which meant he consumed only modest portions of nutritious fare.

“…….”

As a result, even after eating, Boaresia felt neither sated into goodwill nor did his temperament soften at all.
Only Lion’s belly was full.

‘……Of course it was delicious.’

Alex seemed to have crafted the meal around a concept of healthful simplicity, yet the mushrooms—juicy and flavorful in a way Lion hadn’t experienced since his encounter with stone mushrooms—were extraordinary.
And there was a moment that made Boaresia’s kinship with his grandfather unmistakably apparent.

“You must have dessert as well.”
“And you, Boaresia?”
“At my age, one must be cautious with sweets.”

He kept feeding Lion nonetheless.

“Pardon me.”
“Go on.”
“You’re not treating me as you would your old friend, are you?”
“Hardly.”

Then why are you peeling fruit for me with your own hands?

“When young, even a morsel more gives strength.”
“He’s right about that.”

Patrick, who had remained silent until now, lent his quiet agreement.
Crunch.
In the end, Lion had no choice but to consume the generous heap of fruit before him.

‘Wow. I’m stuffed.’

How could healthful food leave him so completely full?
As Lion patted his distended belly, contrary to his expectations, Boaresia suddenly broke the silence.
He had finished his tea—a warm, crystalline cup—and now he spoke.

“Lion of Asteri. There’s something I’d like to ask of you.”
“I’d prefer to hear what it is first, as your guardian.”
“The decision must fall to Lion of Asteri, as is only right. But there’s no harm in you hearing it as well.”

Boaresia smoothly granted Patrick a sort of participant’s standing and continued.

“You surely know far more than I do.”
“…….”
“Even if not now, you’ll learn it soon enough.”
“……Yes, that’s true.”

Lion felt a peculiar unease creeping in.
It was the sensation that this old elf was about to ask for something excessive.

“I would be grateful if you’d take me with you when you go to meet the Hero.”
“I beg your pardon?”

Lion exhaled a deep sigh inwardly.
He’d suspected an outlandish request was coming, and here it was.

“And as for titles—I’d prefer we settle that as well. Call me Boaresia, plainly. Feel free to speak without formality.”
“Well, that is…….”
“In exchange, I will offer you every support within my power. Rare materials from my homeland, certainly, but also whatever my station can procure for you.”

It sounded like a genuine cheat code, and honestly quite tempting.

-Lion. That elf’s lost his mind, I’m telling you.
-Completely unhinged! Nobody’s even noticed! He’s totally gone crazy!

Yeah.

‘And while a man who buys you pork can be trusted, one who buys you beef—well, you’d better start questioning his motives.’

It was one of life’s fundamental truths.
Besides, accepting Boaresia’s help would certainly make things easier going forward.

‘But refusing wouldn’t create any real problems either.’

He should decline, then. Lion drew a light breath and opened his mouth to speak—

[Condition: Accept the Elder Elf ‘Boaresia’ as a companion.]
[Further details will be revealed upon accepting the quest.]
[Do you accept this ‘Hidden Quest’?]

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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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