A Hero Saves With Her Body - Chapter 85

But it was only for a moment. Elion, who had removed his lips from her, suddenly moved his fingers in the air.

A system window, invisible to Rosé. What Elion was currently looking at was a game system for the player.

〈SYSTEM〉 The nurturing system for the fosterling target, ‘Rosé Mora’ will be terminated automatically.

The free will of the foster parent will be adjusted to 90%.

As a result, the foster parent control system will be opened.

〈SYSTEM〉 Would you like to summon the ‘Asker’s Sword’ to the current location?

Yes

No

Rosé’s eyes lost focus and stared blindly at Elion, her foster parent. He reached out to the screen and pressed ‘Yes.’

With his pickaxe broken and his abilities sealed, he needed something urgently.

Asker’s Sword (S-Class)

A divine sword crafted by Asker, the High Priest and blacksmith of the sacred Moir Kingdom. Only those chosen by the gods can wield the sword, and if the chosen one dies, the sword will automatically be embedded in Asker’s tomb.

Effect: Attack ++++++

Durability: 345/1000000

Elion immediately caught the fallen sword in the air. The blade was wrapped in pure white heat. The sword recognized its owner and responded.

“Miss, please stay here for a moment.”

Elion, leaning Rosé against the wall in a daze, stood in front of her and gripped the sword.

It had been about 20 years since he last used it within the boundaries. Perhaps because he had kept it in his bag all this time, touching the sword handle felt awkward and uncomfortable.

Hiss…

Smoke approached. Elion, who took a deep breath for the last time, held his breath and dove into the smoke.

No matter what form the demons took, they had cores where magic condensed within their bodies. It was usually located in places called vital points, but if the form was smoke, it was difficult to find.

If he couldn’t summon Asker’s Sword, it would have been equally difficult to find it.

“Good. It’s responding.”

Before long, Asker’s Sword turned black in the smoke. Looking up, clustered droplets of water on the sword were visible.

Stepping back a few paces, Elion ran at full speed and leaped high. Water droplets scattered in the air along the white trajectory created by the sword.

Hiss…

The bluish smoke dissipated like flowing water. The Quamad was sucked back into the lamp once again.

“I-I will fulfill your wish…”

 A lingering scream filled the cave at that moment.

“Tell me Elion’s hidden f*tish…”

Elion, who was returning the sword and walking towards Rosé, suddenly stopped in his tracks. Did he mishear?

“Tell me… Ugh, Elion’s hidden f*tish…”

…Never mind.

Elion covered his face with his hand. Could it be that after her wish for return, her most earnest desire was his hidden s*xual preference?

“Ha… Miss…”

Elion, looking at Rosé with an unknowable gaze as she fainted, slowly shook his head. Despite his curiosity, he couldn’t help it.

He would never reveal his s*xual preference to Rosé.

* * *

Sergi gazed at the collapsing boundary and propped his boots on the back of the man lying in front of him.

The first-class boundary was crumbling in just one day. If he hadn’t rushed over as soon as dawn broke, he would have missed a rare sight.

“S-Sergi… Please forgive me this once. I-I didn’t know. I didn’t even know I shouldn’t report to the Blue Knights… Ugh!”

Sergi kicked the man fiercely with both hands rubbing his face. The man’s ashen face was instantly buried in the dirt.

“If you still think the boundary belongs to those bastards, you should die. Got it?”

“Ugh… Ugh.”

Sergi sneered as he pressed down on the man’s head. Occasionally, there were rookies like this. Those who still believed that the boundary was under imperial control.

The boundary is a natural phenomenon. It’s like thinking that the rain that falls under the empire is also the emperor’s.

“Please… Sergi…”

Clicking his tongue, Sergi shot the man in the head with a pistol he always carried. The man’s face, now with a hole, spewed blood as he fell back.

Leaving the clean-up to his subordinates, who had just arrived, Sergi wiped off the blood splatter with a handkerchief. Glancing ahead, he saw Podrick drinking rum recklessly outside the boundary.

“The bottle is moving on its own!”

“It’s a ghost! A ghost!”

Some of the newcomers who didn’t know Podrick trembled and drew their swords in panic. Sergi glared at Podrick, looking tired.

Even when he joined the Blue Knights, he was known as a troublemaker. He occasionally wasted hexes unnecessarily outside the boundary.

“Podrick, stop fooling around.”

The formula Podrick creates makes the humans who come into contact with it invisible for a period of time. He wasn’t exempt from this himself; thus, he could perform such tricks like a ghost.

After emptying a bottle of rum, Podrick finally released the formula. A mischievous smile hung on his face.

“It gives me chills because it’s serious, brother.”

He mimicked Sergi’s wrinkled expression. Sergi’s gaze became even colder.

“So what’s the result?”

What an impatient leader. Podrick shook his head as if giving up and sat down on a chair.

“You were right.”

From his pocket, Podrick took out a portrait of Lian Mora that he had received from Sergi before.

The former leader and substantial creditor Ernst, who had lent money to Lian Mora, had made up his mind to issue a warrant for Lian someday.

Rumors had it that Ernst had drawn quite well for the wealthy in the past, and his drawing exceeded excellence and almost reached perfection.

The placement of the dimple, the height of the nose, the angle of the eyebrows, the slightly drooping corners of the mouth, and the elongated eye shape. A small dot next to the right eye.

The drawing of 26-year-old Lian Mora before entering the tower seemed vivid as if looking at a living person in front of the eyes. But that was the problem.

Assuming Lian Mora was alive, Podrick knew his age this year was 52. No, he heard he was born in April, so he must be 53 now.

“That magic stone miner looks just like this drawing.”

Podrick chuckled at his own words, finding it absurd. It was incomprehensible that a 53-year-old man without a single wrinkle looked exactly like a 26-year-old young man.

Of course, his hairstyle had changed like a butler serving a noble, but even with that, his noble appearance was unmistakable.

Most importantly, the location and number of dots on the face were identical. And Lian’s remarkable combat skills were witnessed firsthand at the boundary.

Even if it had been a regular sword instead of the worn-out pickaxe in his hand, even a mere ant would have recognized it as Lian Mora’s sword that once caused a sensation.

Weren’t the knights even secretly learning his swordsmanship while disparaging Lian?

During his time in the knights, Podrick used to pass around books depicting Lian Mora’s swordsmanship among his peers.

As a descendant of the famous Moir royal family who took a tiger as a master, even his unrusted skills were evident in his stance wielding a pickaxe.

“Why did he hide his whereabouts for so long.”

Podrick asked casually as sunlight illuminated the portrait.

If that magic stone miner was really Lian Mora, it doesn’t make sense that he was making a living by just mining magic stones.

With his swordsmanship skills, he could not only establish a knight order in a prestigious noble family but also gather followers to establish a guild.

Presumably, if he had founded a guild, he would have been more famous than Pumong. Podrick himself would have applied to join the guild where Lian Mora was, rather than Pumong, out of curiosity.

“Is it because of a woman after all?”

“A woman?”

At Podrick’s sarcastic remark, Sergi raised an eyebrow.

Handing the portrait to Sergi, Podrick rummaged through his pockets cheerfully.

What he pulled out was a piece of black cloth. A piece of cloth with frayed edges as if barely cut with a dull blade.

“There was a black cloak next to Lian Mora. They seemed quite close?”

Waving the piece of cloth around, Podrick soon puckered his lips and made a kissing gesture.

A black cloak. A name that had now become a proper noun in Bistiman. A figure who became famous in her own right, like Emmet Bovir, the next hero. Sergi’s expression narrowed.

“Are they lovers?”

“Well… I’m not sure…”

Rubbing his chin, Podrick gazed meaningfully at Sergi.

“You kidnapped Lian Mora’s daughter last time, didn’t you?”

Rosé Mora. Suddenly recalling the woman’s appearance, Sergi avoided Podrick’s gaze as if he were stung by something.

Come to think of it, there was that woman too. The woman who they kept nearby in case she found some information about Lian Mora’s whereabouts and exploit her.

But now that they found Lian Mora, she was just a useless woman. Since she still couldn’t repay her debts, she could be killed at any moment.

“That woman doesn’t really matter…”

“That woman is wearing a black cloak. Brother.”

“What?”

Now Sergi’s expression… yes. It was like a rabbit who had lost its hidden spring in an instant landslide.

Podrick shrugged. The woman known as Lian Mora’s hidden daughter.

And the Black Cloak was known as Bistiman’s miracle. Lastly, the woman he was kissing that Podrick saw at the boundary.

They all pointed to one woman.

“Rosé Mora. That woman known as Lian Mora’s daughter was wearing a black cloak and was Lian Mora’s woman.”

It sounded like some crazy talk you’d expect to hear about in some incestuous third-rate novel, but it was all true.

Of course, there was a high possibility it wasn’t incestuous. If Lian pretended she was his daughter to leave her lover with an inheritance, everything made sense.

The Kithlode Empire did not recognize relationships based on common-law marriage like other kingdoms did.

In an empire where property could only be passed down through marriage and blood ties, it would make sense that Lian would pass her off as his daughter in order to leave something to his lover.

“Brother?”

Podrick looked uneasily at Sergi, who was lost in thought. Whenever he was like that, people tended to drop dead one by one.

“…It seems useful.”

Although he lost the hidden spring, Sergi’s eyes became sharp, like a rabbit discovering an even bigger river instead.

“Bro, brother?”

Suddenly snatching the black cloth away, Sergi looked at Podrick with eyes that seemed to ask if he really had to go that far.

Signaling with his eyes for a carriage, Sergi said,

“I have to go find the guy who hasn’t paid me back.”

How annoying. Podrick grumbled and followed him towards the carriage.

* * *