Chapter 70
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Return - 1
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“Sian!”
After sharing intimacy with Irina and hearing the gist of the story, I stepped outside.
The moment I did, several women came running toward me.
It was Sylvia, Clara, and Vivian.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No.”
“I told you not to push yourself!”
“Clara, stop clinging and hitting me.”
Sylvia fretted over my condition, Clara grumbled through her tears as she stuck close, and Vivian simply stared at me in silence.
I responded to their endearing concern with kisses, then headed straight for Helen. She gazed at me with eyes brimming with affection, but I couldn't return the sentiment just yet.
“Can I get mad first?”
“I'm sorry. But that was unavoidable to tell—Hyaaah!!!”
I grabbed her small, cute cheeks and yanked.
“You could've handled this without me!”
From what Irina had told me—the rough outline of events, the arrival of the First Holy Knight Order for support, and even their handling of the shadowy figure behind the god's legacy that summoned the disaster—considering all those factors, the Holy Kingdom had more than enough power to resolve this on their own. Entrusting a world-threatening calamity to a mere hunter from some rural village was bizarre to begin with.
That oracle from Hestia she'd mentioned?
It was probably a flat-out lie.
“Hyeet! Misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding!”
“What misunderstanding?”
I gestured toward the undeniably formidable Holy Knight Order standing there for all to see.
“I could've at least stopped at being a guide!”
“If you had, the damage would've been uncontrollable—Hyaat! O-owww!”
“That's why I pinched you. Hard. You could've at least given me a heads-up about the plan?”
This was my real gripe with Helen.
Dragging me into it by force? Honestly, that didn't bother me much.
I figured I was suffering to protect my family, after all.
But needlessly scaring us with hints of sacrifice, while secretly devising a plan where no one died—and forcing us to go through hell unnecessarily? We were lucky everyone made it out safe. Otherwise, a pinch wouldn't have been the end of it.
“Hero.”
“Camilla, don't stop me. I'm furious right now.”
“Not that—pull on the other cheek, too.”
From the way she said it, Camilla apparently hadn't been briefed on the plan either.
“Hyeet? Camilla, are you betraying your mama?”
“The apostle brought this on herself. So take it sweetly.”
“Hweee... I did it all for everyone's sake.”
Helen protested, but no one listened. In the end, she suffered the punishment of having both cheeks stretched like sticky rice cakes. Her beautiful face began to swell, making her look adorably childlike, but that didn't douse my anger so easily.
Should I flick her forehead, too?
“I understand the hero's anger. But please, show restraint.”
A man in pure white approached as I toyed with Helen.
He was about Helen's height, with an ethereal beauty all his own.
Atop his head floated a platinum disc—the telltale antenna of a nymph.
I immediately guessed who he was.
“An apostle?”
“Yes. I am Clark, the First Apostle serving Sunna, goddess of the sun and justice.”
First Apostle Clark.
Unlike Helen, who brimmed with emotion and human warmth, this pristine white man felt like an entirely different being.
If angels existed, he'd be one.
“So, why'd you seek me out?”
“First, please accept this.”
Clark offered me a turquoise necklace.
It drew me in less for its beauty and more for its strangely sweet scent.
“What's this?”
“Anemoi, the legacy of one of the forgotten gods—the goddess of wind.”
A god's legacy.
The same kind that got us into this mess in the first place, now handed to me.
“What's your angle in giving me this?”
“Its previous owner was the masked man behind this disaster.”
“Hold on—what happened to that guy?”
“He's dead. To be precise, he took his own life.”
“Damn it.”
I'd wanted to finish him off myself, but suicide? The bastard screwed me over till the bitter end.
“You handing me this creepy thing just to prove he's gone?”
“No. Among the legacies he possessed, I thought this one might actually help you, hero.”
“Help?”
“Yes. Anemoi was the goddess of bards and adventurers. Her legacy protects the wearer from calamities.”
“So that's why he walked away unscathed from my attacks.”
“Precisely. By the remaining divinity, it should shield the wearer from at least nine calamities.”
Clark's explanation made it clear: this was a solid legacy.
Even better if I used it to protect my family instead of myself.
“Still doesn't cool my anger, though. Honestly, I was the bait that let you catch him.”
“We know. Which is why we'll offer quadruple—no, exponentially more—than what Helen promised.”
“Hmm...”
Exponential multiples meant at least fourfold.
Considering Helen's original promise, it was an outrageous offer.
Which made me suspicious of Clark's words.
I couldn't fathom why they'd humble themselves like this to me.
So I asked straight up.
“Why? Why go this far? To you people, I'm just a rural hunter with potent essence.”
“If I may, hero—you're far greater than you realize. We have no desire to make an enemy of you, and Helen's silence was a choice made for your sake.”
“For my sake...”
I glanced at Helen.
She was still teary-eyed from the pain in her cheeks, but the gaze she fixed on me overflowed with affection.
Hmm... a bit burdensome.
“If you put it that way, what choice do I have?”
“Thank you for your mercy.”
“Thank you.”
“And Helen—you're coming home with me.”
“Yes, as promised.”
I still had questions, things I couldn't quite grasp, but for now, the matter was settled.
...
Outside the central region, the Astilen Empire was governed by dukes who ruled the cardinal directions from the capital.
Starr Duke in the north.
Peperoan Duke in the south.
Morgan Duke in the east.
And Sahad Duke in the west.
The empire called them the Four Dukes, and they reigned over their domains like kings.
But the west was a different story.
Magical calamities from the magic-infused Titan Mountains spawned hordes of monsters—brutal, powerful ones at that.
Naturally, Sahad Duke couldn't control the entire west, and hostile factions sprang up in the power vacuums.
One such was the Anitul Earl's forces.
Thus, the west formed a confrontational dynamic between Sahad Duke and Anitul Earl, unlike other regions.
They'd been evenly matched until the previous generation, but now the scales had tipped.
Anitul Earl had suffered a crushing defeat against Starr Duke last year and was spiraling into decline.
“Hmm... the Holy Kingdom?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Showing up in the west out of nowhere. If they were coming, they should've done it last year... tsk tsk.”
Anitul Earl clicked his tongue in regret because last year's circumstances had been dire. He'd lost to Starr Duke, failed to pay the mercenaries hired for the war, and vengeful bands had ravaged his lands and those of his vassals. A brutal winter had piled on top.
Put bluntly, Anitul Earl and his vassals' domains were dying.
If the Holy Kingdom had visited the west last year?
The war would've halted, no plundering by mercenaries, and they'd have weathered the winter safely.
But reality hadn't panned out that way, and their visit now only irked him.
“That matter—is it proceeding smoothly?”
“No need for concern.”
Satisfied with his administrator's confident reply, Anitul Earl shuddered at the waist before hurling the woman cradled in his arms to the floor. Her limbs had been severed, and drugged into stupor, she convulsed. Treating her not as human but as a tool, he issued a cold order to the guard standing by.
“This one's broken too. Dispose of it.”
“Understood.”
The soldier yanked her head by the hair and dragged her off somewhere.
“Oh, and administrator—tell Gregory to ready the knights for deployment.”
“To greet the Holy Kingdom's people, my lord?”
“Exactly. They've come to my territory; as its lord, I should extend greetings.”
It was technically Hippo Baron's land, but Anitul Earl didn't care.
He could seize it anytime he wanted.
“I need to rebuild my foundation through the Holy Kingdom this time.”
The Holy Kingdom was seen continent-wide as a force devoted to peace, handling threats like wraiths that ordinary folk couldn't. Public sentiment toward them could only improve by the day. Anitul Earl believed that even a scrap of their aid or cooperation would let him rally his fractured forces anew.