episode_0135

Argantir Gardaric Herbor.

As the Seindels say, a fortunate one who lucked into the throne.

That short phrase was the most vivid description of Argantir’s status and reputation.

Argantir is the second son of the Herbor royal family. Originally, it would have been an impossible position for him to become crown prince, considering he was passed over as the eldest son.

Even if the mark of a hero had not been bestowed upon Heid, the king’s eldest son and future monarch, he would not have become a prince as the second son.

However, Heid, who was once a prince, suddenly awakened to the mark of a hero one day and was soon stripped of his right to the throne.

This was due to the customary law that a hero of royal descent cannot ascend to the throne.

The duty of a king is to rule the country from the throne, while the duty of a hero is to go out onto the battlefield and confront external threats.

Juggling these two vastly different roles is no easy task, so the idea was to pass on the throne to someone else and focus solely on being a hero, perhaps?

While in today’s world where the meaning of a hero has greatly diminished, such customs may seem unnecessary, they were deemed essential in the past.

At that time, heroes often perished while breaking through deep dungeons.

A hero can die like that. In the short term, one may have to bear significant loss of national power, but eventually, a new hero will emerge.

But what if that hero was also the king of the country?

Then the story would change a bit. If a young king were to enter a dungeon and die suddenly, who would take care of the affairs of the country?

In a situation where the vacuum created by the absence of a hero must be quickly rectified, the leader who should oversee and direct this is the very hero who died.

In such a scenario, the country cannot function properly. It wouldn’t be surprising if the royal family or even the nation itself collapsed if things went awry.

For these reasons, the four human kingdoms strictly separate the throne and the hero’s position through customary law.

So, that is why Argantir is considered a lucky guy.

Thanks to the goddess bestowing the mark of a hero upon his brother, he was able to obtain the throne that was originally beyond his wildest dreams.

“Prince Argantir… I’ve heard of him too. Although I’ve never actually met him.”

“Oh? What have you heard?”

“Well…”

Freide placed her index finger on her cheek, recalling old memories, and spoke with a smile.

“He’s not incompetent, but he doesn’t particularly excel at anything either. People say he’s just an ordinary guy.”

He’s unlikely to become a tyrant or a great general, but he also doesn’t seem like he’ll become a distinguished leader compared to the versatile Heid.

It was a response that matched his widely known reputation.

“However, they say he has some immaturity and weakness in character… I’m not sure if that’s a disadvantage.”

Freide recounted various anecdotes about Argantir.

From his childhood when he visited an orphanage during a national tour, hugged the orphans, and cried profusely, to incidents in his youth where he lost a substantial fortune to a con artist who approached him with a good investment opportunity.

Even recently, he has been emptying his personal assets to provide extensive support to orphanages across the country?

In short, it meant he was a kind-hearted and naive person who didn’t know how to doubt others.

They say he was so kind that even after being blatantly scammed, he continued to believe until the end that those people couldn’t possibly do such a thing.

Of course, they were caught as frauds and, daringly, were all executed by the kingdom’s knights for their scam against the prince.

Nevertheless, it was too late to recover the personal property that Argantir had devoured.

“If he were a priest, it wouldn’t be a flaw. However, he is not a priest but someone who may one day have to take responsibility for ruling a country.”

“Is that so…?”

An endlessly pure and virtuous character.

If he were a priest, he would have been praised as a model clergyman, but the problem was that he was not a priest but a prince.

Those who ascend to the throne often find themselves in moments where they must make ruthless and cruel decisions for the nation’s interests.

A human ruler of a country, weak and optimistic, could never properly govern the state.

That’s why Argantir’s reputation for character was not so good.

He seemed like he would make a kind king, but there was a vast difference between a kind king and a competent one.

“Still, if he is such a kind person, he could be a great help to us. Right?”

“Hmm… Well, probably not…”

I turned my gaze with a troubled expression, running my fingers through my tangled hair.

Fride seemed to have high expectations based on Argantir’s reputation, but I couldn’t empathize with those expectations.

If Argantir truly was as virtuous as rumored, he might actively help us as Fride hoped, but…

“That’s unlikely.”

The Argantir I knew from the novel was not such a naive character.

Should I tell her the truth or not?

It was a bit of a dilemma. If I explained what I knew, I might dampen Fride’s inflated hopes and expectations.

No, I should still tell her. As she is helping me, Fride has the right to know the truth.

Lying to her was only justified if revealing the truth would lead to unbearable consequences.

I didn’t want to hide the truth or lie unnecessarily, after all, I still had some conscience left. It might be as worn out as an old man’s joints, but it was still there.

“Um, Fride. The thing is, in fact, Argantir…”

In the end, after much deliberation, I laid out everything to Fride without hiding any information about Argantir.

I added that I accidentally learned about his secret mission during his time as a kingdom knight.

I couldn’t answer how I found out about the truth from the novel; that would be too risky.

Despite deciding to reveal the truth despite the twinges of guilt, I found myself mixing lies within it. It was an ironic situation.

Time passed by.

It took five minutes to explain about Argantir’s truth. It took forty minutes to convince Fride, who wanted to turn back upon hearing it.

Perhaps I should have kept quiet.

It was a long and arduous time, almost regretting revealing the truth.

◆◆

After that day, we headed to Herbor by land.

It was a bit of a detour, but it was safer. Retracing our steps could lead pursuers or abyssal priests to us.

Of course, I now had the helmet of a former maiden, so even if we encountered them, the chances of revealing our identities were low.

But still, why invite unnecessary risks?

Just like the master blacksmith in a game with a 90% repair success rate who actually fails six out of ten repairs, nothing is ever absolute.

As long as the abyssal priests’ appearance remains uncertain, choosing a risky route was nothing more than reckless confidence.

Therefore, instead of retracing our steps, we moved by land through the road, testing the performance of the helmet I obtained along the way.

The verification results completely satisfied my expectations for the helmet’s performance.

How good was its performance to warrant such praise?

Well, even wearing armor that exposed my sternum, passersby failed to recognize me properly.

In fact, there were people worried about Freida walking alone on the road, to the extent that they didn’t even notice me standing right next to her.

I had practically become an invisible being. No one recognized my existence until I spoke to someone or touched them. It wasn’t quite like that in the original work.

Perhaps it was because I acquired the helmet much earlier than in the original work?

The exact reason was unknown, but it turned out well anyway. Thanks to that, I could move through the cities along the path without any hindrance.

I had escaped from the savage life of hunting and satisfying hunger with construction materials, returning to the civilized life of soft beds and delicious food awaiting me.

“Ah……”

Lying on a decent mattress in a good inn after sleeping on a cave floor, I found myself involuntarily sighing with satisfaction.

Hail Einstein, hail the ancestors of Brunhilde!

What was once a cruel magical organization conducting human experiments is now nothing. Einstein is a god, a savior, a hero. A hero on par with Dr. Carrier who invented the air conditioner.

If you want to argue against this, go live in the wild for months away from civilization and then come back. If you still have objections after that, I’ll acknowledge them.

A roof over your head. Relaxing hot baths. Clean clothes. Soft beds. Steaming stew and juicy roast pork overflowing with flavor.

The helmet of the former maiden bestowed all these benefits upon me. Or should I say, it restored the civilization I had lost?

The performance was so satisfying that I couldn’t help but feel deeply sorry for teasing the grandmother trapped in amethyst once again.