The Cradle of Heroes (7)
The moment the Hero Candidates began mercilessly slaughtering the skeletons, the village chief who had been watching from behind quietly called for two people.
“Hanna. Eli. Come here for a moment.”
The two women who had been standing at a distance, observing the Hero Candidates’ feats, approached with reluctant expressions at the sudden summons.
“What is it, Chief?”
The chief looked the two women standing before him up and down.
“Hmm. This should do. Starting today, you two will attend to the Hero Candidate.”
“What? Us? Suddenly?”
“That’s right. We can’t just let someone like him sleep anywhere. Your house happens to have an empty room, so you can serve him there.”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
Hanna was at a loss, unsure how to react to the chief’s abrupt order to host Yoon Iseo in her own home.
“Sister…”
Eli, who had been watching from behind, quietly shook her head while glancing at the chief. She didn’t like the idea of letting a stranger into a house where only two women lived, and more than that, the chief’s intentions seemed far from pure.
“Then we…”
Seeing Eli express her opposition, Hanna opened her mouth to refuse as well—
“Your husband just died, didn’t he? You have no way to make a living. If you do me this favor, I’ll help you.”
“……”
The quick-witted Chief Hans had struck first. Hanna’s husband, Malcolm, had overexerted himself trying to stop a wave of approaching skeletons just days ago and never returned. Malcolm had been so devoted to her that he had agreed to delay their marriage until Eli became an adult at Hanna’s request, after her parents had suddenly passed away. Hanna had respected him deeply, and they had shared a strong bond as husband and wife—only for it to end in such a horrific tragedy just months after their wedding. Though the grief had not yet fully faded, reality kept moving forward.
Malcolm had not been a serf, but he had farmed borrowed land without owning any himself. Naturally, he had left nothing behind. To survive from now on, Hanna would have to start sewing at the very least.
“…What exactly do I need to do?”
She would have refused under normal circumstances, but she asked anyway, thinking she should at least hear him out.
“It’s for the village. Receive his seed.”
“Excuse me? What do you…”
“As you know, all the young men in the village have died. Even Max and Heman, who aren’t even adults yet, have to stand guard.”
The absence of men in the village was a serious problem. Especially in times like these, when monsters could appear at any moment, having no adult males essentially meant the village’s fate was sealed. But they couldn’t simply do nothing. If there were no men, they just had to make more. And right now, wasn’t there an exceptionally fine seed in the village?
“Think carefully. It’s a knight’s seed. They say the descendants of knights have a high chance of becoming knights themselves. If you give birth, I’ll support you until the child grows up.”
It was all wrapped up nicely as thinking of the village and acting for the greater good, but in the end, this was Chief Hans’s true intention: to get a foot in the door for raising a knight’s child. Hanna and Eli had no parents and no husband. In that situation, if he supported them in raising the child, Chief Hans would naturally assume the position of grandfather. Or perhaps he even planned to adopt the two sisters outright and raise the child together. That was how valuable a knight’s seed was. If the chief had a daughter, he wouldn’t have made this suggestion—he would have simply offered her instead.
Seeing the chief’s eyes burning with greed, Hanna let out a deep sigh. Though he called it a suggestion, it was practically coercion. As long as they continued living in this village, there was nothing to gain from defying the chief. So Hanna played her last card.
“Answer quickly. There’s no time.”
“…But my time of the month is still far away.”
“That’s fine. I have a potion prepared that makes pregnancy possible.”
The endless wars had killed off so many men that it had become a social problem here. To solve it, priests of the Goddess Church and mages had collaborated to create a safe potion that forced women into their fertile period. Of course, it only induced fertility and didn’t shorten the pregnancy itself, so its usefulness was limited and it didn’t sell well. Still, Chief Hans had managed to obtain a few doses.
“Then please exclude Eli. I can receive the seed by myself.”
Having accepted that she had no choice, Hanna gritted her teeth and stepped forward, determined to at least protect her sister. But the chief brushed aside her efforts.
“Just because you’re fertile doesn’t mean you’ll get pregnant. Both of you will go.”
“…Why does it have to be us…”
Eli, who had stayed silent until now, asked while barely suppressing her anger.
“Because you two are the most presentable in the village, of course. The Hero Candidate has eyes too. We can’t just send anyone.”
Among the young women still left in the village, the Hanna and Eli sisters were the most beautiful. That was the only reason they had been chosen. There was no other motive.
“Then I’ll take that as agreement. It looks like they’re just about finished, so you two go wait at my house.”
With those final words, the chief hurried off toward the Hero Candidates. Watching his retreating back, the sisters tightly clasped each other’s hands and fought back the tears threatening to spill. As always, Hanna spoke to Eli in a composed voice.
“It’ll be okay. Let’s go.”
“Hmm…”
What the hell is this about?
I sat soaking in hot water inside Hanna’s house, pondering what the chief was thinking by arranging something like this.
“…No matter how I think about it, nothing comes to mind.”
It seemed too extreme to assassinate me over just five extra silver. There had to be some reason he suddenly became so friendly, but I couldn’t figure it out.
“Forget it. No point thinking about it.”
If it really felt that suspicious, I could just stay awake tonight. I had accumulated some fatigue from standing night watch and walking nonstop on the way here, but once I awakened my aura, I could shake off that much exhaustion easily.
Bubble bubble.
Splash.
To clear my head, I submerged myself completely in the hot water, then emerged and dried myself with the towel I had been given beforehand. The chilly night air raised goosebumps all over my body the moment I stepped out, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Hanna and Eli’s house wasn’t particularly wealthy, so they didn’t have a proper bathtub. I had to wash using a large oak barrel filled with hot water outside. Still, it wasn’t bad. It felt a bit like an open-air bath, and since it was outdoors, I could see the moon clearly. Kind of romantic, in a way?
Anyway, once I finished washing, I put on the clothes Hanna had prepared and went back inside the house. Maybe because only two people lived there, it wasn’t very big. It was a modest single-story house with just two rooms. Both sisters seemed to have tidy personalities—the house was spotless. Well, as someone just staying for one night, it wasn’t my place to judge, but it was nice that it was clean.
Thud.
The bed, however, was the worst one I had used since arriving in this world. It was barely a bed—just some straw-like material stuffed underneath with a cloth thrown on top. Still, I needed to sleep, so I rested my head on the pillow and was about to close my eyes when—
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Sir Yoon Iseo, are you asleep?”
“No, not yet.”
“Please excuse me for a moment.”
“Just a second.”
Startled by Hanna’s sudden visit, I set my sword beside the bed just in case before answering.
“You may come in now.”
Creak.
The poorly oiled door opened with a loud groan, revealing the two sisters. For a moment, my mouth fell open.
“Wait… what the…”
The two sisters entered the room wearing short dresses so thin that their bodies were practically visible through the fabric. I was so stunned I could barely speak.
“The chief told us to attend to the Hero today.”
Clearly embarrassed by her own appearance, Hanna covered her half-exposed breasts with one hand while nervously tugging down the hem of her dress with the other, as if worried her underwear might show. Eli remained hidden behind her sister as she had been earlier, but from what I could see, her outfit wasn’t much different from Hanna’s.
“When you say ‘attend to me’… you mean what I think you mean, right?”
At my question, Hanna’s face flushed bright red. She hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Huh. So that’s what they were planning.
I recalled hearing something in passing. In this world, there was a widespread rumor that a knight’s children had a high chance of awakening aura, so women were sometimes offered to knights in hopes of receiving their seed. There were even research results showing that sons of knights had a significantly higher probability of aura awakening. Even though they hadn’t received any special training from their fathers, the numbers were high enough that it couldn’t be dismissed as mere coincidence.
At first I thought it would make sense for knights to have as many children as possible, but nobles never liked the idea of commoners gaining power. So the research was kept hidden. Ordinary commoners didn’t even know such studies existed. They simply believed the old folktales and, if they ever had the chance to meet a knight, would desperately try to obtain his seed.
Especially toward Hero Candidates who had become knights—people who didn’t know much about this world yet. Knights from this land would execute anyone who dared interfere with their planting, but Hero Candidates rarely did such things.
‘If it was something like this, they should have just said so.’
I misunderstood for nothing.
I rose from the bed and slowly approached the two sisters. They clung tightly to each other, trembling as if a villain were approaching. Yet the way their large breasts pressed together only created an even more stimulating sight.
Unable to hold back my desire to touch those massive breasts as soon as possible, I reached out toward Hanna’s chest without hesitation.