Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 267
What had been dripping down to the floor was now a splendid cloak, and the hands cradling the Grand Duke’s Son had become warm skin.
The viscous fluid that had barely managed to imitate a human form was being absorbed.
A face emerged.
It was still half-buried, but it was distinct enough for the Grand Duke’s Son to recognize.
And the moment he did, the Grand Duke’s Son’s face, which he had held composed with such effort, crumbled away.
Then—
A sniffle—
It turned into the crying I had heard at the very beginning.
“…My son.”
“Ugh, hck… Father.”
“I truly…”
The Grand Duke could not even bring himself to say he was sorry.
This feeling could never be belittled by a mere apology.
The delicate skin his own sword had cleaved was still so vivid.
The yawning decades his son had spent searching for him were staggering.
“I couldn’t even wait three days…”
The closer their bond, the more his son had hated to be apart from him.
He had made a habit of asking, if you leave today, how many nights until you come back?
And he had always, without fail, made him promise that upon his return, they would play together for at least two nights.
And so, even when he was away.
Even during perilous battles against the demons, he had always been thinking about what new games he would play with his son when he returned.
Because his child was his light, his hope, the conviction that kept him from crumbling to the pollution.
“This time, I was the one who found you.”
“…Yes. You have done so wonderfully.”
“I did cry, but I still didn’t give up.”
“You’ve grown so much. Truly.”
Rather than break down in tears while holding his child, the Grand Duke scooped him straight up into his arms.
Tears welled up until his eyes were red-rimmed, but he held them back.
This reunion with the son who had searched for him all these long years…
‘I cannot fill our final meeting with tears.’
That was not what his son would want.
It might be a bit shameless.
He would probably have to cross the Underworld River and pay for his sins.
But for now…
He hugged him tight.
His son had been alone for so long. Now there were places his warmth could no longer reach—
and he had to fill them.
And furthermore.
Slowly.
The Grand Duke lifted his face from where it had been buried against his child’s small shoulder and fixed his gaze on the person standing in the doorway.
“You are… a scion of House Asteri.”
“That is correct. I am Lion Asteri, eldest grandson of Lord Petrick Asteri.”
“…”
For someone who had made it all the way here, that was surely not all he was.
The Grand Duke recalled the final task he was meant to carry out, then shook his head.
No matter how pressing time was, he had to do things in order.
The very first thing was… this.
With his son still in his arms, the Grand Duke offered a formal bow.
“…Thank you. Truly.”
It was gratitude of a depth he had likely never even shown the Emperor.
“Lion. Had it not been for you, my son and I might never have met again in this lifetime.”
“So your remaining time was very short after all.”
“I did not realize I would be unable to endure even a mere half-century.”
An ordinary human, in an environment with nothing, would not have kept their sanity for a month, let alone fifty years.
And yet the Grand Duke…
“I don’t want to intrude on your reunion, but I have a few things I must ask.”
“I will answer anything.”
“Why were you absorbing the pollution from the Great Barrier with your soul?”
“You are direct right from the start.”
The Grand Duke stroked his son’s head continuously with one hand and smiled bitterly.
“It was to atone for my original sin.”
“Did you make a deal with the Hero?”
“It began at my request.”
He requested it?
“Could you tell me what that request was?”
“That is…”
Unlike the calm way he had answered everything else, the Grand Duke hesitated slightly. Then the Grand Duke’s Son climbed down from his arms and clasped his father’s hand tightly with one hand.
“It’s all right, Father.”
It seemed he knew exactly why his father was hesitating.
“Leon… Yes.”
Over decades, he would have come to know the information one way or another.
The Grand Duke nodded and began to explain the terms of the deal.
“Look over here.”
As the Grand Duke stared at one side of the room, a new vision appeared, just as they had been doing.
It was the very moment the Grand Duke died at the Hero’s hand.
The Grand Duke, his heart pierced by the Hero’s sword, only then came to his senses.
Regretting what he had done, he clutched the Hero’s shoulders and warned him that the path ahead would be truly harsh and brutal.
And finally, he told him to press on regardless.
Along with the hope that he would not meet the same end as himself,
he breathed his last, leaving a final will that he had no face to see his family, his son.
‘This much, I know as well.’
Though the weight of seeing it in reality was different from in the game.
“It seems the story is known up to this point, as I expected.”
It couldn’t be called a history that had been perfectly buried, due to various circumstances, so Lion simply nodded.
“Indeed. As in this history, my body was burned and my soul was sealed within the Hero’s sword. Of course, the Hero could have destroyed it, but the demons’ power was mighty at the time, so the risk was too great.”
This was the first I had heard of it.
Sealed within the sword?
“Fortunately, thanks to the cooperation between the Hero and the priest who accompanied him, my soul, which slept within the seal, slowly began to be purified.”
“…”
Lion held his tongue and listened carefully to the Grand Duke’s words.
“Around the time the purification of my soul was nearly finished, I awoke, and then I remembered what I had let slip away.”
“You mean what is inside that frame.”
“Did you know?”
“Father. Young Lord Lion has the soul of a dragon, who is our ancestor, accompanying him. She is an extremely terrifying being, but she is also kind.”
“Ho-oh…”
At his son Leon’s explanation, the Grand Duke stared at Lion with great interest.
“That will make the story quicker, then. Yes. I suspected that my child’s soul might remain within that frame I had greedily created.”
Unfortunately, however, the Grand Duke had awoken right after the Great Barrier was erected.
“I became worried about my son, who might still be there.”
He said he hadn’t even been able to confirm whether his son was there or not.
“Could you not have simply asked the Hero?”
“…”
The Grand Duke looked at Lion, his brow furrowing in a peculiar way.
“He was also busy.”
Those words implied many things, but he seemed unwilling to say more on the matter.
‘Well, this part.’
If I ever came to possess the Hero’s belongings, I would probably find out through Story Mode.
“And so, I said I would remain and process the pollution in his stead. I pleaded, saying that in the meantime, couldn’t someone possibly discover the location.”
Was it truly a choice he made solely for his son?
“And while you remained, you also managed the Hero’s belongings.”
“You are sharp. Are you, by chance, the next Hero?”
“I am not.”
“Is that so? You have made a good choice.”
The Grand Duke waved his hand dismissively, saying being the Hero was not a role one should take.
“In any case, that is all there is to my story. I saw the Hero off and went to sleep beneath this land. Furthermore, as I recall, by my reckoning, nothing happened for about forty years.”
So that was why the investigation team had found no trace.
But…
“When you say you saw him off, that means the Hero departed. Do you know where he went?”
“You do not know? …Well, I suppose you wouldn’t.”
That man would not have gone around boasting about it to everyone.
The Grand Duke nodded as he murmured to himself.
“I can tell you, but did you not say you do not wish to become the Hero?”
“That is correct.”
“And yet you still wish to know?”
Well, I believed it was something I had to know, naturally.
There was certainly some enormous secret hidden in the Hero’s whereabouts.
And the one who was closest to that truth was Lion himself.
It would take a very long time for others to come to know this truth.
‘Even if I don’t pose as the Hero…’
If I obtained the information first and passed it on, wouldn’t that keep my family safe from future danger?
‘…Actually, I do know.’
That if I came to understand and grasp all these problems, I would have to act like the ‘Hero,’ even if from a step removed.
Until just recently, I had absolutely no intention of doing so.
I had even thought that if things got bad, I could just push it off onto the people around me.
The people around me were stronger than I was, and in truth, didn’t they want to protect Lion?
But…
‘This is really something.’
Living closely with them, it wasn’t so easy to just feign ignorance the whole time.
Lion let out a light sigh and answered.
“I have no intention of becoming the Hero, but I do want to protect my family.”
Human bonds are truly frightening things.
When I hadn’t known them at all and had only admired them, I’d never realized they could be this tenacious and sticky.
But once I experienced it, I found myself ready to give them my liver, my gallbladder, everything.
Just as they were toward me, I became the same way.
It didn’t feel like a waste to give, and being together was good.
I didn’t know if it would be like this forever, but for now, that was how I felt.
And ever since the day I was possessed, Lion had made one resolution.
To live, by any means, doing what I wanted, according to my own nature.
Without looking back, without thinking too far ahead.
“So please, tell me.”
“Lord Petrick has raised a truly fine grandson.”
“He’s a wonderful person, isn’t he?”
Leon agreed with his father’s words, smiling bashfully.
“Very well. It seems your time is also running short, so I shall tell you. But before that.”
“…?”
“You do remember the way out well, I trust?”
The Grand Duke asked, examining Lion’s condition.
“…Right?”
“Hmm! You will make it just barely in time.”
Having finished his assessment, the Grand Duke lifted Leon up into his arms again and answered plainly.
“The Hero entered the Great Barrier. He likely turned himself into ■■… Hm. How unfortunate.”
“It seems that’s all I’m allowed to tell you.”
Before I could even react to the shock of his words—
Rumble.
The castle shook as if a massive earthquake had struck.
“It will collapse soon. Hurry back.”
“Excuse me??”
As if his words were true, the floor heaved violently, and the objects of the illusion-made castle fell and scattered across the floor.
At the same time, multiple alerts appeared before Lion’s eyes.
[You have safely delivered the Ghost Grand Duke’s son, ‘Leonhardt’.]
-Find the missing child for his guardian (Complete)
[You have cleared the ‘Find the Missing Child’ quest!]
[You have acquired 100,000 Shillings.]
[You have currently completed a total of four hidden quests.]
[Completing one more hidden quest will add a new mission.]
A significant notice and reward appeared, stating I had completed four hidden quests.
[Spirit Art has reached Proficiency Lv. 3.]
[Gathering Proficiency has reached Proficiency Lv. 3.]
‘Seriously, so this thing counts as a plant too?!’
And a notification appeared that all the experience I’d accumulated during this quest was being tallied at once!
Normally, it would have been the sweetest reward.
“Eeeek!”
Lion immediately kicked the door open and ran.
The chandelier shattered, and the floor became uneven and slick.
I rolled and slipped across the floor in soul state, but I couldn’t stop my feet!
[Your connection to your body will be severed soon. Hurry!]
Because a positively terrifying alert was flashing!
Lion ran until the soles of his feet were sweating.
To come back to life!
Important explanations and everything else could wait—I had to survive first!
Watching him go, the Grand Duke smiled a deeply satisfied smile and petted his son.
“It seems we, too, must prepare to depart on a long journey now.”
“Even so, I’m not scared. I’ve grown a lot, you know!”
“Oh my, is that so? Then shall we measure your height again, since it’s been so long?”
The two of them laughed together amicably in the crumbling castle and walked toward the wall.
So the one who had to live ran, and the ones who had finally found their release enjoyed their remaining time.
And Lion…
“Huaack!”
Barely, I came to my senses!
“I-I’m back!!”