Ch.73Raising a Hero – 7

The butterfly effect of my plan was tremendous.

The Baron, enraged that the Hero had nearly been endangered in his territory, reported the incident to the Imperial Palace without missing a single detail.

“I heard what happened. Are you alright?”

“Sword Saint, how did you get here…?”

“When I heard there was an unsavory incident involving the future Hero, naturally I had to come. For the child as well.”

Upon hearing news of the Hero and me being involved, the Sword Saint himself rushed over like the wind to lead the investigation. Judging by his personal appearance despite the Demon Lord being mentioned, he must have been extremely angry.

“There must be some mistake! High Priest! Where is the High Priest?!”

“That person is already dead. Consider it the fate of one who dared to harm the Hero.”

The priests gathered at the temple were captured one after another by the Sword Saint before they could destroy evidence of their corruption. It was quite a sight to see them desperately calling for the already deceased High Priest.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Royal Guard arrived to search the temple thoroughly, and the evidence I had fabricated began to be discovered one after another.

Things like succubus pheromones hidden in secret bedrooms used for orgies, or notebooks marked with dates of meetings with certain entities.

“I checked the letter. I could sense demonic energy from it. This truly means they were in collusion with demon-kind.”

The letter in question was judged 100% authentic because demonic energy could be sensed from it. The reason for the demonic energy was obviously because Elysier had written it personally, but that was something no one else knew.

After grasping the full situation, the Sword Saint, in his great anger, went directly to the Papal Office to demand answers, and before long, he obtained an official statement from the Pope.

—We express regret regarding the confirmed misconduct of certain temples. We will ensure the doctrine of the Stars is taught more thoroughly.

It was essentially cutting off the tail. Admitting something wrong had happened, but claiming those people had acted on their own, and it had nothing to do with them, so handle it yourself.

“I tried to hold the higher-ups accountable, but they skillfully avoided responsibility.”

“They never intended to take responsibility from the beginning.”

It wasn’t surprising as I had expected this outcome. Those fools would never admit that even the Pope himself had been enchanted by a succubus.

Anyway, that’s how the situation was resolved. After everything was settled, we returned with the Baron’s profuse apologies—his head nearly touching the ground—and carriage-loads of local specialty desserts.

“……”

“……”

It was awkward.

To be precise, I wasn’t thinking much about it, but once we were alone, Brunhild became so awkward she couldn’t even make eye contact with me, which made me feel awkward too.

“Um, Brunhil—”

“W-what, what, what, what?! I wasn’t thinking anything! I’m not a pervert, why would I be dwelling on the sensation of your lips?!”

“……”

She’d been like this the whole time.

Whenever I tried to say something to break the tension, she would spectacularly self-destruct like that. To prevent her from accumulating more embarrassing memories, I had no choice but to remain silent.

‘I don’t know what to do either.’

I gave up and leaned back against the carriage wall, closing my eyes. Later, I could ask Aria to help smooth things over somehow.

“……”

Glancing sideways, Brunhild observed Mira. He was leaning his head against the carriage wall with his eyes closed. She thought she could hear the faint sound of steady breathing.

Without realizing it, Brunhild’s gaze shifted to his lips, then she startled herself and straightened her posture. But her pounding heart refused to calm down.

‘I must be going crazy, seriously!’

The air inside the carriage felt unusually hot today. Despite the magic device maintaining a constant temperature working perfectly fine.

After fidgeting restlessly for a while, Brunhild’s gaze eventually returned to Mira. His closed eyes visible through slightly lowered hair, his straight nose, and his slightly parted lips.

Objectively and subjectively, it was an extremely handsome face. Newly conscious of this fact, Brunhild’s face turned bright red.

Mira’s lips moved slightly.

‘Ah…’

Brunhild let out a wistful sigh. Suddenly, the taste she had experienced then began to resurface. Not the subtle taste unique to elixir, but a warm, sticky, and somewhat sweet liquid.

And the soft, intertwining sensation she felt each time she pressed her tongue against his to feed him the elixir—

‘Aaaah! Aah!’

Brunhild struggled silently, careful not to wake Mira.

Why had she had such a misunderstanding? Mira had clearly been conversing normally and had said he was fine several times.

‘I’m an idiot… before being a Hero, before being Leona, I’m an idiot…’

After burying her head against the carriage wall and lamenting to herself for a while, Brunhild, driven by some unknown force, looked at Mira again. He was still sleeping with his eyes closed.

Brunhild stared at his gently swaying bangs and unconsciously rose to her feet. She didn’t know why she stood up, but she didn’t feel the need to sit back down.

Very slowly, with extremely careful footsteps, she approached Mira. She bent down, bringing her face close to his. Her lips stopped just in front of his.

They were close enough that she could feel his breath escaping through the slightly open gap.

Brunhild unconsciously inhaled the breath Mira exhaled, and felt something spark in her mind.

“…Mira, are you asleep?”

She asked, clutching her about-to-burst chest. There was no answer.

If he were to respond that he was awake or not yet asleep, what excuse would she make? Having come this far on what was almost instinct, she hadn’t prepared any explanation.

“…Are you really asleep? You’re not pretending to be asleep while actually being awake, are you?”

She asked again. This time the sentence was a bit longer.

Though she knew rationally that speaking like this would only increase the chances of waking him, she couldn’t stop due to her anxiety.

“……”

Confirming that no answer came, the distance between their lips narrowed further. But she couldn’t proceed beyond that.

Her head spun as she thought about the reason, and soon she reached a conclusion.

‘Right. This is just an action to find the cause.’

It was merely an attempt to discover the source of that sticky, sweet taste she had felt when transferring the elixir from mouth to mouth. So acting like this was unavoidable.

Because she was curious.

Having completed this rather plausible self-justification, Brunhild began to close the distance again.

Despite being an excuse that made no sense, her mind, already incapable of normal thought, didn’t question it. Rather, she felt pressured that this was absolutely necessary.

Just a little more. Just a little more. Just a little more and—

“Lady Hero? We’ve arrived at the dimensional gate.”

“Hyeek—?!”

—BANG!

Startled by the polite announcement from outside, Brunhild jumped back in shock, hitting the back of her head against the carriage wall and slumping down.

“…What are you doing?”

“N-nothing…”

Mira, who had opened his eyes at some point, asked with a bewildered look. Brunhild, clutching the back of her throbbing head as she slumped down, was secretly relieved.

Relieved both that she had briefly felt the soft sensation and that Mira hadn’t caught her in the act.

‘…I didn’t think I’d actually do it. Maybe I should have just told him I was awake?’

Of course, her belief that she hadn’t been caught was merely her own delusion.

Rumors always spread in exaggerated forms.

After a day, our dessert-shopping trip had somehow transformed into an achievement of Hero Brunhild.

The fact that we went there for desserts was completely omitted, replaced by a tale of how some priests in league with demons had set a trap to kill the Hero, but she had awakened the true power of the holy sword and broken through.

I didn’t exist in that narrative. I was satisfied with that, but Brunhild seemed quite displeased about receiving all the spotlight alone.

“Hello, true Hero of this generation?”

“Aaah! Are you crazy?! I told you not to call me that!”

Part of the reason Brunhild attracted attention was that the holy sword’s appearance had become much more magnificent.

The holy sword already drew people’s eyes and interest, but when its appearance suddenly became more splendid, it was natural for people to be curious about what had happened.

Brunhild, clearly dissatisfied with the current situation, grumbled as she spoke.

“I have to go see the Sword Saint again soon…”

“Why?”

“He says now that the holy sword has properly awakened, my physical abilities must have increased tremendously, so it’s time to move on to advanced techniques. He said until now, even if he had taught me, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”

“That’s good. Just go and learn diligently.”

At my words, Brunhild gave a meaningful smile.

“He said to bring you along too.”

“…Why me?”

“I told him how you saved me with elixir when I was severely injured, and he said he’ll give you a few more to take.”

“Wait, does that person think all the imperial elixirs belong to him? Why does he keep giving them away?”

I asked incredulously. Unlike me, Brunhild remained composed.

“He’s certainly qualified, isn’t he? Even though he failed to kill the Demon Lord, he’s still the empire’s strongest force. Still, after meeting the Demon Lord myself, I understand why the Sword Saint failed. That one is strong. Incredibly strong.”

That was true. The Sword Saint had only failed to kill the Demon Lord, but he was definitely skilled. He had roamed battlefields for decades, accomplishing feats ordinary humans couldn’t even imagine.

Without his abilities backing him up, he wouldn’t have dared to challenge the Demon Lord. Even three demon generals had lost their lives at his hands, which said it all.

“Um… so I was thinking, Mira. You know that time doesn’t count, right?”

Brunhild asked, looking embarrassed as she clasped her hands together and her cheeks turned slightly red.

“What doesn’t count?”

“You know, when I fed you the elixir… from mouth to mouth… that was emergency aid, so it doesn’t count… right…?”

For emergency aid, I had repeatedly asked her to just bring me the bottle so I could drink it myself. She ignored my requests and fed me with her mouth because she was panicking.

“It was the first kiss for both of us… and I don’t want us to waste our first kisses so meaninglessly. Right? A first kiss should happen in a more romantic situation…?”

When I averted my gaze slightly, Brunhild narrowed her eyes and asked in a chilly voice.

“…Why are you looking away?”