The Dutiful Kid Who Saved the Villainous Family - Chapter 185

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 185

* * *

“Berry is definitely strange.”

Airi declared with certainty when she was alone with Cookie.

Well, Berry was also nearby, sleeping like the dead with his eyes closed.

This was something Cookie, Airi, and even Declan all agreed on.

Declan was so worried about Berry and Airi that he had prepared various devices throughout the castle to protect them.

‘But Berry doesn’t know he’s strange.’

Airi carefully stroked Berry’s hair as he slept soundly.

‘He looks like such an angel…’

The first evidence of his strangeness was that he couldn’t remember what happened just yesterday.

So Airi took the extraordinary measure of ‘diary writing.’

Perhaps because of that.

It became easier to understand Berry’s emotions and the situation he was in.

Strangely enough, Berry’s emotional flow kept breaking off abruptly.

[I was tired.

I ate a meal.

I was in pain.]

Words written haphazardly in the diary.

And when asked about it the next day…

“I was never in pain though…”

…even his voice denying it, as if he truly didn’t know.

Even while looking at such a diary, Airi shook her head.

At first, it was a stage of denial.

“Berry might not be in danger.”

“Airi.”

Cookie gripped Airi’s hand tightly.

“You mustn’t think that way. You know Berry is in danger too.”

Countless people depended on her hands.

It was a heavy burden.

Airi bit her lips tightly.

Airi nodded at Cookie’s wise words.

Airi flipped through Berry’s diary, turning the pages one by one.

“We need to find a way to save Berry.”

If, just if.

If fragments of the Pope, that is, the evil spirit, remained inside Berry’s body…

What method could possibly extract the evil spirit’s fragments?

Airi held Cookie’s hand tightly.

Then Cookie said resolutely.

“I have served many heroes throughout my time. Don’t worry, Airi! I’ll find a way soon!”

Cookie stamped her foot on the floor with a thud and jumped down.

* * *

Even after Cookie left, Berry and Airi continued to stay together.

Despite the presence of beings like Declan and Serafin who frowned upon their hand-holding, Berry held Airi’s hand tightly.

And while experiencing small moments of happiness, Berry realized like a bolt of lightning.

That when his memory was often blank, he would let go of Airi’s hand.

And…

‘This is strange. I keep trying to hurt Lady Airi…’

When Airi, who had been staying by his side under the pretext of ‘protecting him,’ had fallen asleep like an angel beside him, exhausted.

Berry’s hand was somehow directed toward Airi’s neck area.

As if he had been trying to strangle her.

‘I think I’m going crazy.’

…How could he have dared to try such a thing?

He felt like he wasn’t himself.

Berry hastily pulled his hand away and tried to regain his senses.

And quickly took out a note from his pocket and wrote.

[Lady Airi. I think I’m not myself.

If I stay like this, I feel like I’ll threaten Lady Airi.

…I’ll move to another place.

Somewhere deserted, where people rarely go.

I think I’ll go toward the plains of the Jakvel Marquess’ domain.

I’ll resolve this myself and come back.]

There was no time.

Even at this moment, his fingers were writhing as if they wanted to strangle Airi’s neck.

Berry placed the note by Airi’s bedside.

And after hesitating for a moment, he briefly kissed Airi’s forehead.

It wasn’t a romantic kiss, but a kiss of reverence.

The Airi he had encountered earlier…

“Berry! Aren’t you going to brush your teeth?”

The memory of Airi grinning with her mouth full of mouthwash.

Her adorable appearance like a squirrel with its mouth full of acorns.

Berry tried to remember that image and carefully tried to slip outside, but stopped.

Suddenly, his head felt dizzy and his mind seemed to spin around once more.

‘Since when has this been here?’

Berry quietly stared at the hourglass-shaped magical device and picked it up to flip it over.

Soon, sand began falling to the bottom drop by drop…

The moment his body shook violently.

Berry was in the place he wanted to be.

No, at the same time he was in a place he never wanted to be.

* * *

Berry had disappeared.

Leaving only a single note by the bedside.

‘Where did you go, Berry!’

Acting like a hero’s friend and female protagonist from a novel…!

“How dare he run away!”

But Airi thought again.

‘Still, I’ll understand, Berry.’

Even if it were Airi, if the Pope’s evil spirit had possessed her body, she would have tried to distance herself from Berry immediately.

And she would have tried to confine herself.

And she would have suffered and ached alone.

‘Berry is like me…’

Therefore, what’s most important right now is…

“We need to find a way to save Berry and find Berry himself.”

“Finding Berry should be possible. But how do we save him? We haven’t found a method yet.”

Cookie’s trembling voice.

This meant that even this small summoned being didn’t know how to completely save Berry.

But Airi wasn’t disappointed.

Instead, she spoke up.

“I’ll save him! Using my brain and my body! In my own way!”

Until now.

From baby to child, from child to adolescent.

Airi had consistently maintained the same approach throughout.

Airi firmly strapped on her bag.

Then she opened the door.

“I’m going with the hero’s friends!”

Good children don’t fall into danger alone.

They don’t act selfishly and cause trouble for others either.

Because the hero has countless friends.

She solves problems by putting heads together with those friends.

This was Airi’s unwavering rule even as she became a wonderful adolescent.

And when Airi opened the door, people appeared as if they had been waiting.

Serafin, Declan, and behind them countless knights and people who had been test subjects…

“Airi.”

“Father!”

Airi smiled brightly and waved her hand.

Then Declan asked in a grave tone.

“Berry has disappeared.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“We’re going to find Berry from now on. What about you?”

Airi swallowed nervously with a tense expression.

And she murmured quietly.

“So, I also…”

At that moment when everyone had gathered, a status window appeared before Airi’s eyes as if it had been waiting.

[Status Window of the Strongest Hero Airi and the ‘Guardians’!]

4-Star: ‘Sacred’ Light

■■■■■

(…)

5-Star: ‘Salvation’ Light

(※ Achievement Condition: Save the test subjects! Save the suffering ones of the world!)

[List of World ‘Guardians’ (∞/10)]

It was exactly that status window nine-year-old Airi had seen before becoming a ghost and departing for the Papal States, now filled with ‘Guardians’.

‘Does that ∞ mean that the people who want to protect the world, their will is infinite?’

And the very next moment she had that thought.

The status window vibrated, and the text in the ‘Achievement Condition’ section flickered and was erased.

(Save the test subjects! Save the suffering ones of the world!)

Airi’s eyes instantly grew wide.

And the achievement condition began to be rewritten.

(Save the suffering one!)

Looking at the new achievement condition, Airi murmured in a trembling voice.

“As expected, Father is always right.”

“…Really? Why?”

“You told me to always read the manual!”

Recalling Declan’s advice to read the ‘manual’ carefully, Airi clenched her fist tightly.

Right now, if there’s someone who is the most ‘suffering’.

“We have to save Berry.”

If she saves Berry, she will become a 5-star Purification Mage.

‘If that happens…’

Dealing with the Pope.

Saving Berry.

Becoming a 5-star Purification Mage.

Saving the world.

And…

Even finding Mother.

Everything was perfectly connected.

At that moment, they looked at each other.

Hero Airi.

It was the beginning of the final journey, befitting the world’s savior and a true ‘Guardian’.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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