I Am the Hero's Immature Younger Brother

When night settled, at least it became easier to breathe, but that did not mean the hot air disappeared.

The soldiers moved in perfect order, pitching tents, lighting fires, and preparing meals. Soon after, a fairly appetizing smell spread thickly through the air.

“Not eating?”

Geloman, who had already finished his meal, approached Luman. Luman, who had been quietly listening to the cries of night birds, frowned.

“I have absolutely no appetite. My belly hurts too.”

Luman glanced down at his own abdomen. Geloman looked at him with a rather grave expression.

“We should hurry, then. How about returning alone?”

Luman gave a small laugh and shook his head.

Telling him to return alone meant telling him to use the light that was his authority, cut through space, and go ahead first.

“I’ll take responsibility if needed.”

“When have I ever been afraid of responsibility?”

Geloman narrowed his eyes.

“You cannot do it?”

“That’s right. Right now, I am terribly powerless.”

Luman exhaled exaggeratedly. The power of light would not gather easily. Normally, his strength should have been restored by now, but it was not going as he wished. When it came to recovery, there was never anything they themselves could do. They had to wait for Giselle to step in and help, or hope their sturdy bodies recovered on their own, or if not that, hope for the “Hero’s miracle.”

Luman had already experienced the “Hero’s miracle” several times. He did not think such fortune would always follow him. Each time, he reminded himself that it would someday disappear and tried not to rely on it, but......

As expected, humans seemed to have a habit of thinking that such things would happen “next time,” and Luman, too, had thought that in this war, fortune would not leave him.

Why had he thought that?

Perhaps it was because Ren, who had felt like an enormous fortune, had left him.

So surely he had conveniently thought that other small fortunes would remain at his side.

But if he thought back on the memories of how he had abused his body until now and driven his unrecovered body to its limits several times, it would not be strange for him to die at any time.

Yes, perhaps this ending had been waiting for him from the moment he withdrew his retirement and broke off his marriage with Lady Loroe.

“You have a face that doesn’t suit you. Once we reach the royal castle, Giselle will treat you.”

“Are you worried about me?”

Even at Luman’s playful question, Geloman did not smile. He merely looked at him with those usual blunt, sharp eyes.

“Even someone as tactless as you must know.”

“Know what?”

“That the lifespan of something called a Hero is not very long.”

Cold sweat beaded on Luman’s forehead. He wiped it away as though it were nothing and leaned his back against a tree. The soldiers who had gone on patrol and finished distributing food came looking for Luman, who still had not touched his meal. Luman waved them away with a calm smiling face and took out the strong liquor from inside his coat to drink it. Though the soldiers looked disgusted as they watched him, they returned with somewhat relieved faces.

For an army returning after victory, the army’s atmosphere was not very good. It was because Luman, who had already been injured once, had suffered quite a serious injury this time as well. Unlike during the first battle, when the “Hero’s miracle” had occurred, Luman did not seem to be recovering. However, because he did not complain of pain and was calmly carrying out the schedule, the soldiers’ anxiety was gradually settling down.

The reason the atmosphere was not very good was partly because they had seen with their own eyes the danger of the anti-Hero weapons, but also because, as was usually the case, they had been overwhelmed by the enormous power of the Heroes, who had shown monstrous forms. They were beings who could not be called the same kind of human, which was why the honorable name of “Hero” had been given to them. But the soldiers who had seen humans crushed like bugs beneath their authority felt a faint sense of rejection toward the Heroes.

Among the soldiers, there was no one who properly understood this war enough to overcome the sense of separation from those humans outside the standard and become intoxicated with the joy of victory. Perhaps the kingdom’s people, swept up in the heat of King Ragniel’s speech, might be different, but the soldiers could not know any proper justification in a battle against an enemy nation that had not attacked first, a battle that concealed political intentions and secrets tangled with the Sorse prophecy. It was difficult to erase the feeling that, on that blood-reeking land, they had been made to stand there merely as shields without any role at all.

The Heroes, who should have rejoiced over a battle that had won a great victory, also seemed not to place much meaning in that victory. The Hero Verdi, who had recovered from his injury and joined the second campaign, had also left first once the war seemed to be wrapping up, and that affected the atmosphere as well.

And then there was Temar, seeming as though one screw had come loose.

After what happened in the middle of the day, the mood seemed to sink even further.

Ahh. My concentration is slipping because of the pain.

“Why do you think this will be the last time?”

Geloman’s question slowly dug in. Luman slowly blinked his blurry vision.

“Who knows.”

It was truly a vague answer. He thought it would not be bad for things to end like this. For Luman, who had given up marriage and a decent life, the reason that had made him do so had left forever, so he had nothing else he wanted.

Because among the enemy nation, which had acted as though it possessed dozens of anti-Hero weapons, the only one available was the single unit that had appeared in this battle. The kingdom would probably be fine for years, or even decades. Luman almost felt wronged that he had been fooled by such bluffing and worried.

Even if the prophecy that a treasure capable of ruling the world had appeared had spread to each nation, the ones who could solve that secret fastest would still be the Sorse. Whether that treasure was something that could easily produce anti-Hero weapons, or another weapon altogether, the kingdom would not be put in danger.

Of course, thinking this way was merely Luman’s optimism. It was not difficult to guess that the situation was not one that could be resolved so simply, and that spies and illegal entrants from each nation had already dug into every corner of the kingdom.

“You’re saying weak things.”

“Worried?”

In any case, would there be any more missions that required several Heroes? Luman truly thought so.

“I should look into whether I can release Lante.”

Even so, he did not wish for Lante, who was bound to him, to disappear as well. Because if the white fox disappeared, Ren would be sad. Perhaps even more than if Luman himself died. And if Ren saw Lante, perhaps he might believe the lie that Luman was living somewhere well enough. Then Ren would think of him while looking at Lante, and that, too, was something happy for Luman.

Luman would no longer be able to meet Ren, but could one freed fox, neither Hero nor anything else, not at least meet Ren?

Crackle, crackle......

The campfire quietly burned down. Once, he had sat before that fire and talked softly with Ren.

He missed the way Ren had been unfamiliar with goodwill, and the way he had shouted shrilly. If Ren snapped at him and asked what he was doing right now, Luman thought he might be able to come back to his senses.

“To be remembered by death is a hollow thing.”

Geloman said that, then turned his back. After leaving the words that he would go find Temar.

Listening to the sound of his heavy footsteps growing distant, Luman pressed a hand to his forehead.

The tactless Geloman sometimes said things that struck right at the heart.

Like now.

Luman realized that the thoughts he had been having so fiercely were truly absurd.

“Ahh.”

A stifling breath scattered into the air.

Of all things to be jealous of, he had been jealous of someone else’s death.

Rather than mourning the death of the priest Kirky, Luman had wanted the heart of Ren, who would grieve that death. He had wanted to reach Ren, whom he could not meet while alive, even if only through the news of his death.

However, Luman thought it could not be helped.

While the Hero’s light and authority scattered, Luman, too, was becoming an ordinary human.

And so there was no way to gather up his weakening heart.

Even if it was hollow, what was he supposed to do when he wanted to reach him even like that?

Luman was not afraid of the approaching death.

If he could take even one piece of that child’s heart.

***

Whoooooosh.

A gust of wind swept through every plant in the forest. Tree branches bent so far they seemed about to snap, and the grasses, flexibly bending their bodies this way and that, gave themselves over to the rough wind. Animals with perked ears froze with a start, their pupils widening as if to observe the situation, and the insects hid themselves with all their might.

Cawww. Cawww.

A huge crow, as large as a young boy’s body, crossed back and forth through the forest.

The people who had just entered the Forest of Aked held their breath and watched the forest’s movements.

“Aked,” the mysterious forest that, if one stayed there for only one month, would erase the traces of the life of whoever entered it.

Very few knew that forest’s secret.

“Captain......”

The man who seemed to be the leader of the group raised his hand without even looking at the one who had spoken to him. At that gesture, the person who had opened his mouth closed it and waited quietly.

The fifteen or so people wearing robes calmly waited for the wind to die down.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!