Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 84

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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 Heir Is Clueless; I Just Want to Heal — Episode 84

“The Necklace?”

Clarentia repeated the question with a puzzled expression, but she took the necklace as Lion requested.
Then…….

A low hum.

The sword spirit trembled faintly, as if resonating with the necklace.

“……!”

If Lion had heard it, there was no way Clarentia could have missed it.

“I think it would be best to bring it closer to the blade.”

There was clearly some sort of mechanism embedded in the necklace.

‘It has to be there. It can’t have just vanished.’

Undoubtedly, the previous Family Head.
In other words, Clarentia’s grandfather had deliberately spirited it away to safety.
Ironically, that safe place turned out to be nowhere within the Bydentis Estate.
Otherwise, there was no way a meaningless necklace would become a family heirloom of the Duchy.
If it only responded to the Holy Sword, hiding it would have been easy.
Clarentia listened to Lion and slowly brought the necklace toward the blade.
The vibration intensified, and eventually even the ornaments hanging on the wall trembled helplessly from the resonance.
And then…….

A brilliant flash erupted.

Light burst forth from Clarentia’s hand.

‘Not from her hand…….’

Looking closer, it was a sword.
Blinding light poured from the transparent blade, flowing into and being absorbed by Clarentia’s hand.
As if it were regurgitating something it had been storing all this time.

‘I had a feeling, but it’s really true.’

What else could a sword that granted power by taking something precious from a person be, if not a Cursed Sword?
Yet in Lion’s eyes, the Bydentis Holy Sword was classified not as a Cursed Sword but as a Holy Sword.
What was particularly notable was that it took emotions as collateral.
It meant that if certain conditions were met, those emotions could be returned.
And.
That was the role of the necklace.
Clarentia’s mother must have worn that necklace because…….

‘It was the place where Clarentia’s father would return.’

Only then did Lion grasp the true meaning of the place.
Not the room of the Bydentis Family Head.
Clarentia Bydentis.
The “place of the necklace” that her mother had in mind was none other than the bosom of the daughter she had raised with utmost care and devotion.
Though late, it was fortunate that it found its way back now.
Lion offered a faint smile.
He had never felt his parents’ love growing up, but this warmth—this much, he could understand.
Here. Because I’ve met so many people who cared about me in this place.

[The Lost Necklace’s true power is now unleashed.]
[The Bydentis Holy Sword returns what it took as collateral to its rightful owner.]

Soon the light and tremor gradually subsided, and the room fell silent once more.

“…….”

Clarentia seemed quite shocked.
Her eyes had widened considerably, and the lost gleam had returned to her gaze.
And not long after.
Moisture gathered along her firm brows, then slowly faded.
Yet Clarentia did not weep, even as that whirlwind of emotion swept through her.

‘She’ll need time.’

Those years of bloodstained suffering would not simply vanish.
She couldn’t yet allow herself to cry freely.
Years would have to pass—perhaps more—before the emotional wounds could fully flesh over and scar, before she might truly heal.
Though the scars would remain.
And she would have to live bearing them.
This was a burden she alone had to carry forward.
The price of slaying her enemy.

‘Harsh, perhaps.’

Yet what was done could not be undone. It was simply a mercy that recovery had come at all.
So, in any case.

“My congratulations, Duchess.”

Though the years had been cruel, today was a day for raising a glass.
Lion offered his sincere felicitations on the recovery of Duchess Bydentis.

[You have returned the ‘Lost Necklace’ to its proper place!]
-Restore emotion to the scarred one (Complete)

[The necklace’s original owner thanks you.]
[Congratulations! You have guided one life toward the light.]
[You have cleared the ‘Lost Necklace’ quest!]

Several notifications bloomed before his eyes.
Most striking among them was the gratitude of the necklace’s true master.

‘Think nothing of it.’

Lion offered a silent prayer in his heart to Clarentia’s mother.
If she had been watching all this unfold from beyond, unable even to close her eyes in peace, how her heart must have ached.

‘Guided one life toward the light, they say.’

It wasn’t anything so grand—was the phrasing really necessary?

[You receive a reward.]
[You have obtained a Gift Box.]
[We recommend checking your reward in a safe location.]

A carefully wrapped gift box appeared in his inventory.

‘A safe place, then?’

It was becoming clear that this Hidden Quest must be offering something important.
Lion closed his inventory and notifications entirely.
He’d open that Gift Box once he was back home.

* * *

……

Clarentia had composed herself somewhat—the lost emotions that had been swirling through her mind were beginning to settle—and she opened her eyes slowly.
Much of the exhilaration had faded, but in its place rose an abundance of thought.
The first was a reflection on herself.

‘I never thought myself capable of such calculation.’

Since becoming Family Head.
No—since she had struck down her brother with her own hands, Clarentia’s heart had begun to harden, turning cold as stone.
From that moment onward, she had employed any means necessary to protect the family and those under her care.
Whether those means were calculated, cruel.
Or whether they consumed her from within—it didn’t matter.
Her attendance at Lion Asteri’s Coming of Age ceremony had been motivated by the same calculus.
The House Asteri now wielded wealth and power that rivaled even the imperial court.
And that was not all—there was the renown of having defeated the Demons alongside the Hero.
No one dared lay a hand on House Asteri.
So she had gone.
Rather than be seduced by the hollow prestige of a swordsmanship house, it was better to forge an alliance with House Asteri, a house of Magic renown.
And so she had fixed her attention on the one who seemed most vulnerable.
Conveniently, she had a plausible pretext—clothing.
Through new garments as a bridge, she had cultivated a shallow connection.
But then—by chance, he was sucked into the Labyrinth.
She had felt a twinge of regret.
Seeing Ricshel Asteri, her brother, turn ashen with grief made her think that sibling love must run deep between them.
How different they were from the brothers of her own house, who had waged bloody struggles for the position of Family Head.
She had helped, of course. It wasn’t difficult.
But.
‘I must save the person in crisis!’
That was not the feeling she had carried.

‘I followed pure calculation.’

If she planted a debt this way, might it not prove useful someday?
At the same time, she wanted to observe and learn how this Magic house handled adversity.

‘But he—’

Pure goodwill. That was all there was to it.
In truth, she had not believed it—not until they reached the Dwarf Village.
There were people with warm hearts, certainly.
But a noble.
A high-ranking noble at that, moving only because it was the right thing to do—she had never believed such a thing possible, and still did not.
She had been the same, after all.
In her careless youth, had she not felt it keenly?
That trusting another person’s only reward was betrayal.

‘But.’

Lion Asteri was not that way.
He thought of his friend first.
For Mudu—merely a blacksmith, merely a dwarf—he had melted the heart of the Dwarf Village chieftain, and had returned the passion of their family and kin.
Even if done with awareness, it was an achievement that could not have been realized without sincerity.
Besides, there was no need to be aware of it at all.
After all, the debt had been paid in full and then some by Patrick, the Family Head of House Asteri.
It didn’t seem as though Lion was unaware of this.
Rather, it seemed he’d come with an even lighter heart because of it.
He had moved according to his own desires, that much was certain.
Because that’s the kind of person he was.
Now she understood.
If he’d intended to use the necklace, he would have come straight to the castle without stopping anywhere else.
And besides, hadn’t he discovered the necklace’s true value first, without her telling him?
He could have said nothing.
If he’d tried to extract something using the necklace, he could have obtained a great deal.
Even now—if he hadn’t revealed the truth, she would have spent the rest of her life forever forgetting and losing something precious as the price for using the Holy Sword.
Either way, the House of Magic and the House of Swordsmanship were positioned as rivals on the surface.
So it would have been permissible to exploit that weakness.
It didn’t seem as though he didn’t know such methods.

‘He didn’t need to make that sweet yet bitter chocolate and offer it to me…….’

The bittersweet taste of chocolate lingered on her tongue.
It awakened her slowly, piece by piece.
Clarentia gripped the necklace so tightly she could feel its texture vividly.
He had.
Lion truly wanted to comfort her.
A single calculated kindness, and he returned it a hundredfold. No—a thousandfold.
Out of nothing but compassion.

“How shameful.”

She was ashamed that she had approached Lion Asteri, who had helped her, with calculation.
She didn’t know how to repay this debt of gratitude.
At the same time, she wanted him to stay here.
It was selfish, but if he remained in the Bydentis Estate, wouldn’t it become a little warmer?

“Lion Asteri.”

And she called him by name, her voice composed as always.

“Yes?”
“How much longer do you intend to stay at Bydentis Castle?”
“Ah, well, I’ve delivered the necklace, so I suppose I should return soon.”

Lion answered honestly, then paused for a moment.

“……I see?”

There was something about Clarentia’s expression that……

‘Wait. Don’t tell me…….’

Lion had seen that expression before.
Wasn’t that the look a university professor gave when suggesting he stay put? The look of a military sergeant major recommending the same?
An alarm bell started ringing in Lion’s head.
If he answered wrong here, he might end up in trouble.
Besides, Lion had plenty of things to do once he returned.
He had to collect his rewards, plant Moonlight Flowers in the Labyrinth, and create a walking path…… among other things!

“Are you perhaps interested in my staying longer…….”

Just as Lion was wondering how to politely decline the Marquis of Bydentis’s words.

“My lord!”

The door burst open, and a savior appeared.
It was Jesper, the head butler.

“Oh my lord! Are you all right? Your body—did you fall, or bump into something?”

Ordinarily a timid butler who barely dared speak, treading cautiously around Clarentia’s strength, he now came running faster than anyone else, fussing over her.
His eyes were full of worry.

……

Clarentia realized it then, forgot whatever she meant to say, and closed her mouth.

“Duke, I understand what you mean to say, but I believe you’ve overlooked something.”

Lion smiled at the sight and stepped back, speaking as though moving out of the way.
The storm of emotion he’d barely suppressed began to stir again.
His grip tightened on the necklace.

‘I was foolish.’

To Clarentia, her servants were beings she alone had to protect.
So she had lived thinking she must never break, never indulge in weakness.
She had refused to rely on them, almost obsessively.
But now…
Looking at it now.
Clarentia gazed toward the open door.
Other attendants and maids peered through the gap, watching her with concern.

‘They were protecting me too.’

Each in their own place.
She had thought her family was gone.
……it seemed that was not the case.

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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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