The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 40

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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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The Eldest Daughter Walks the Path of Flowers Episode 40

This was because there were bricks with ancient characters carved sporadically throughout the passage.

They weren’t well-maintained like the Gate, nor did the letters glow, so Gors and Luke seemed completely oblivious to them.

No, if Radis hadn’t seen the Gates in Ralings and Duras, she wouldn’t have noticed either.

‘Perhaps this passage is also ancient magical ruins like the Gate.’

While taking occasional breaks and taking turns carrying the crate as they walked, Gors and Luke chatted to ease the uncomfortable long silence.

“When we first came here knowing nothing, we turned back so many times after walking and walking. It was pitch black and we couldn’t see the end at all.”

“Cough cough, just like our future!”

“…”

Silence again.

“But we were brave, weren’t we? We prepared properly and finally made it to the end!”

“That’s right. When we opened the stone door, a vast empty clearing appeared, and we looked around in amazement. The surroundings were densely packed with white trees…”

Watching the chattering Gors, Radis dropped her suspicions.

The scenery Gors described matched her memories of the Forbidden Zone.

This passage really seemed to be connected to the Forbidden Zone.

“…At the edge of the clearing we reached, there were some eggs. Just by looking at them, I knew instinctively. These were monster eggs!”

“Kee hee hee hee!”

That was quite profitable!

Radis shook her head and said.

“Someone actually paid money to buy those?”

Gors said excitedly.

“I heard they boiled and ate them!”

“They’re not in their right mind.”

Well, there are more people with twisted hobbies than you’d think.

The Extermination Corps often received such requests too.

Things like black unicorn horns or saber tiger fangs were traded among collectors for higher prices than mana crystals.

Sometimes the monsters themselves were expensive, like specimens of night mist butterflies, and there were even people who occasionally wanted to buy monster meat or blood, though who knows what they used it for.

“Actually, when we broke the eggs, ghouls, imps, and harpies came swarming out. What a mess!”

“Ghouls, imps, and even harpies appeared, and we were absolutely terrified.”

Radis was incredulous.

“You were so terrified, yet you pulled the same trick on the pioneers? Are you bragging? Do you want another beating?”

“No, miss!”

Gors grumbled.

“We were hungry! After rumors spread that the guy who ate those boiled eggs suffered terribly from mana poisoning, the eggs stopped selling at all. You probably can’t imagine, miss, but without pulling tricks like that, mercenary nobodies like us can’t survive.”

“That’s no excuse for such cowardly methods! That kind of thing always gets exposed eventually. Just like how I caught you.”

“Ah, yes! How could a noble young lady obsessed with playing the righteous crusader understand the feelings of scum like us.”

Seeing Gors respond so indifferently, Luke’s feet went numb with fear and he cried out.

“We’re sorry! Miss, please don’t be angry! We’ll become new people…!”

Radis glared at them with cold eyes before turning her gaze away.

Righteous crusader, what nonsense.

She wasn’t doing this because she was overly meddlesome.

She had no desire whatsoever to become some righteous crusader.

It was the same in her first life, and that thought remained unchanged now.

She was someone who had her hands full just protecting herself.

Though she occasionally left the Russel Estate to hunt monsters, that wasn’t for some grand purpose either.

The biggest reason was wanting to collect mana crystals with good exchange value as preparation for emergencies, and also because the most efficient training she knew was real combat.

Incidentally, she also hoped to help the Russel Estate that had shown her kindness.

In any case, it wasn’t playing at being a righteous crusader.

‘Because you were hungry?’

It was simply absurd.

Rationalization should have limits – using hunger as an excuse to repeatedly do forbidden things with monster eggs, Gors would end up harming countless people and eventually become a wanted criminal facing execution.

‘No matter who finds out, this must be stopped.’

Radis reached that conclusion.

She wasn’t doing this because of some grand purpose, as Gors had sarcastically suggested.

Knowing what tragedy would unfold, she couldn’t just leave it alone.

That was all.

Taking breaks intermittently, how long had they walked?

Finally, a dead end appeared.

At the end of the round clearing, a massive stone door was visible.

When Luke wedged a torch between the stone cracks, the clearing became more visible.

“This is…!”

Radis could be certain.

This passage was indeed ancient magical ruins.

The bricks laid on the clearing’s floor were carved with ancient character formulas similar to what she had seen at the Gate in Ralings.

While the amazed Radis looked around the clearing, Gors and Luke, who had set down the crate, collapsed heavily on the ground.

“Oh my, we finally made it!”

“I thought I’d die from all that walking!”

“So tired!”

Though she looked at them with a pitying expression, Radis was actually quite tired herself.

More mentally than physically.

Walking through endless darkness was more difficult than expected.

However, she couldn’t afford to relax.

‘How much time has passed by now?’

Quite a long time must have passed since leaving Lord Russel’s Estate.

Though she couldn’t know the exact time since they’d been in darkness the whole time, it seemed like a full day had passed.

Perhaps the people at the estate were looking for her.

When she returned this time, she might no longer be able to get away with the flimsy lie of taking night walks.

Radis smiled bitterly.

‘It’s not really something to hide… why did I hide it?’

The answer came quickly.

Because she didn’t want them to know.

Though monster hunting was the only thing Radis was good at, she had never once felt proud of it.

In the extraordinary space of the Extermination Corps, it became the power that allowed her to survive, but when she returned to House of Tilrod, Radis was treated like a stray dog that had been rolling around in filthy mud.

‘You’d better not come out of your room unless necessary. Good heavens, how horrible!’

Seeing her skin discolored purple from mana influence, Margaret backed away holding her nose as if Radis had transformed into a poisonous mushroom spewing toxic spores.

‘That’s not contagious or anything, is it? It would be terrible if David caught it, so don’t go near David!’

Though she probably wouldn’t be hurt by such words from Margaret now, Radis couldn’t do that in her previous life.

Wondering if the purple color would disappear if she washed with water, how many tears had she shed while scrubbing her body until her skin cracked…

“…”

Radis shook her head vigorously.

‘That won’t happen either.’

Now Gors and Luke wouldn’t be able to do foolish things with the eggs.

With Radis now far from House of Tilrod, her family could no longer torment her.

Radis shouldered the crate and spoke to Gors and Luke, who were whispering about something.

“Let’s go.”

“What?”

Luke shook his head with a desperate expression.

“I can’t move. Not one more step!”

Even Luke, who had obediently followed Radis’s words until now, had a stubborn expression this time.

And rightfully so – having been thoroughly beaten by Radis and walked for a full day, Luke was truly in a miserable state.

‘Did I beat him up too much?’

Radis reflected.

Just a little.

Then Gors groaned as he got up from his seat.

“I’ll go. Luke, you stay here.”

Gors approached the pulley handle connected to the massive Stone Gate and iron chains.

He turned the handle with such force that his face turned bright red.

Soon there was a rumbling sound as the rusty chains moved and the Stone Gate began to open little by little.

When a gap wide enough for one person to pass through appeared, Gors hooked the handle onto a latch and wiped his sweat.

“Here it is!”

Radis slowly passed between the Stone Gate.

Once she got through the gate, thick water mist covered everything around her, making it impossible to see anything.

It wasn’t just humid—it felt like being underwater.

The mist was heavily saturated with the fishy smell emanating from the monsters’ bodies, making it difficult to breathe.

The acrid air inside the Stone Gate seemed better by comparison.

Not even wind blows in the Forbidden Zone.

Yet within this colorless backdrop, strange howls resembling wind sounds could often be heard.

Carrying the crate with the eggs on her back, Radis stood there blankly looking around in all directions.

This sound.

This smell.

They brought up memories from her first life.

‘Captain, we can’t find any traces of the investigation team.’

‘Something’s strange.’

‘Captain…!’

Radis, who had been staring blankly at the Forest, startled and shook her head.

“No, no!”

The life of Radis who had disguised herself as David, captain of the Imperial Monster Hunting Corps, was already over.

She was already dead.

What was here was sixteen-year-old Radis.

Radis who had decided to live for herself.

“It’s something that didn’t happen. There’s no need to fear something that didn’t happen!”

Radis covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve.

The Forbidden Zone was a place where all kinds of poisonous mushrooms and toxic plants formed colonies.

The stagnant air of the Forbidden Zone, where not even wind blew, was dangerous in itself.

Perhaps that influence had also played a part in recalling those despairing memories just now.

Radis turned around and said.

“You, cover your nose and mouth…”

But Gors wasn’t there.

The sound of chains turning—creak, creak—came from between the Stone Gate.

Through the gap of the nearly closed Stone Gate, Gors’s shouting voice could be heard.

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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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