152 – Return (4)
Surprisingly, the check (?) was over quickly.
“W, well… that’s right.”
As he watched Lynn’s face turn beet red, almost scarlet, and her speech become halting, Kim Hyun-woo coughed in vain and spoke.
“I told you…”
Although he seemed to be trying to remain as calm as possible, it was an incredibly stimulating(?) event for the loner who had never spent any time with women before, so Kim Hyun-woo remained silent for a while.
“Ahem-“
From Noble mtl dot com
Fortunately, after a little while, he was able to regain his composure and speak.
“First of all, I’ve said everything I wanted to say first, so now I’d like to talk about the main topic. Can I talk about it?”
“O-of course!”
Kim Hyun-woo nodded his head twice as he watched Lynn and wondered where to start.
“…First of all, I think I need to explain the situation in order to talk about this part.”
Starting with that, he began to explain the current situation to Lynn one by one.
Starting with the fact that Kim Hyun-woo was currently banned, to the story of how he met the former hero of Lartania and how he was prevented from being recruited because of his ridiculous notoriety whenever the recruitment window popped up.
As he began to tell his story one by one, Lynn, who had been looking tense at first, also began to listen to Kim Hyun-woo’s story with a serious expression at some point.
“…So, I called you because I wanted to experiment with whether or not there would be a penalty now that Roria is gone.”
“Indeed, I understand how things are.”
Soon, after some time had passed, Kim Hyun-woo finished his story about Roria and explained why he had called Lynn, and Lynn nodded as if she understood. Along with her nod, the following message appeared before Kim Hyun-woo’s eyes.
[★★★★★☆Would you like to make a recruitment offer to the hero ‘Absolute Darkness’? Y/N]
[※Caution: Accepting this hero into your territory will result in the creation of hostile territories, guilds, and nations.]
[Relationship with the Kingdom of Norba -12]
[Relationship with the Eastern Union Clan -23]
[Relationship with the Ma Tap -17]
[Relationship with the Tes Noka Territory – 18]
[Relationship with the Malan Territory – 22]
[Relationship with the Hyran Territory -28]
[Relationship with the Rolan Territory -15]
[Relationship with the Bloa Territory – 31]
[Relationship with the Shulatia Territory – 13]
[Relationship with the Mandea Territory -22]
[Relationship with the Mihalan Territory -14]
….
…
..
.
[Relationship with the Mura Union -11]
—-
A notification window floated up before him.
However, what appeared was literally just a territory relationship notification window. Unlike before, there was no mention of Lynn’s identity being revealed and the territory’s inflow rate dropping, or other heroes becoming hostile towards Lynn.
The notification window that appeared before Kim Hyun-woo’s eyes showed only the territory’s relationship status, blandly.
He tried to scroll down or up the notification window, but it didn’t budge at all. Looking at the notification window, Kim Hyun-woo could tell for sure that Roria had manipulated the notification window.
“Thank you for confirming it…?”
As soon as Kim Hyun-woo, who had just finished confirming it, spoke while laughing.
He could see it.
The sight of Rin looking at him with an expression of great anticipation.
Kim Hyun-woo looked at her with a somewhat burdensome gaze of anticipation and was briefly confused, but soon he was able to easily grasp what she wanted.
“…Do you want to come back to Lartania?”
Kim Hyun-woo’s one word.
At that, Rin spoke with eyes like a six-year-old child receiving a Christmas present.
“C-Can I?”
A voice that sounded both overjoyed and terribly pitiful.
Kim Hyun-woo answered with a smile to her words, as if she couldn’t believe this situation.
“Of course.”
In fact, from Kim Hyun-woo’s point of view, there was no reason not to accept Rin’s return to Lartania.
Right now, Roria showed too openly that she was plotting something and disappeared, and Kim Hyun-woo needed strength, including Roria’s plot.
In such a situation, Rin’s return was very welcome to Kim Hyun-woo.
In addition, Kim Hyun-woo knew that when he refused her recruitment offer last time, Rin, like the Hero King, had suffered a great deal.
In other words, from Kim Hyun-woo’s point of view, he was willing to accept her even if there was some damage.
That’s why Kim Hyun-woo answered that way.
“Oh, but…come to think of it, Rin is currently affiliated with the Kingdom of Calan?”
As he suddenly recalled that she had come with Shasha, Rin shook her hands with a startled expression.
“I, I’m not! The Kingdom of Calan is just a place where I was helping out temporarily to collect presents, but I’m not affiliated with the Kingdom of Calan!”
“Ah, I see.”
Unknowingly flustered by her appearance, as if she was truly resentful and even shedding tears, Kim Hyun-woo pressed the Y button.
[★★★★★☆Hero ‘Dark Monarch’ has been recruited to the Lartania territory!]
As the second hero of the Round Table returned.
A smile bloomed again on Rin’s face, who had been sniffling just a moment ago.
####
Kim Hyun-woo, who had recruited Rin to Lartania, sent her back to her room soon after and began to ponder alone.
‘What is Roria after?’
Kim Hyun-woo recalled Roria’s face.
Then, the words she had said naturally came to mind, and the first thing that came to mind was that.
She said she had already stalled enough time.
‘I don’t know what that means.’
In fact, he knew very well what Roria was after based on the circumstances.
If you think about the words she said initially, in the end, what Roria was trying to do was to prevent the heroes of the Round Table from being recruited again.
However, what he didn’t understand was why she said she had stalled enough time.
‘…Anyway, the heroes will be finished once they are recruited. Or is there something else besides that?’
Kim Hyun-woo wondered.
‘Or is she saying that she doesn’t have enough time to gather the other heroes properly?…That’s certainly understandable, but all the heroes I’ve met so far have a favorable impression of me.’
Hmm… Kim Hyun-woo, who had been pondering, came to his own conclusion after much deliberation.
‘…Well, I’m satisfied that I’ve stalled enough… I guess the next thing I have to do is gather the heroes. And if possible, all of the Round Table heroes.’
It had already been done…
‘…I wonder where those guys are.’
Kim Hyun-woo pondered.
He hadn’t seen the Red Wyrm even once since he had fallen here, and in the case of Merilda, he had only met her a few times in the Lord’s Castle(?), and he had never had a proper conversation with her.
‘I can’t do anything about the Red Wyrm since I can’t see it, so I guess I’ll have to ask her about it the next time I visit the Lord’s Castle.’
As he was pondering, Kim Hyun-woo suddenly thought, Hmm?
‘…Come to think of it, didn’t Adria say that she was under the protection of a dragon?… Of course, the Wyrm was half-human, half-dragon.’
After thinking for a moment, Kim Hyun-woo called for a guard to summon Adria without hesitation.
He thought that it wouldn’t hurt to ask her about it.
####
Honestly speaking, Loriel didn’t particularly have any hope that things would go well just because Lynn had entered the Lord’s Castle.
She couldn’t think of a single thing that had gone well so far, and nothing had ever gone well when it came to the Lord of Lartania.
That was why Loriel, who had met Lynn without much expectation this time, couldn’t help but open her eyes wide.
That was because the conversation hadn’t been that long, but Lynn had succeeded in returning to Lartania.
That was why Loriel, who had initially looked at her with disbelief,
“Congratulations, Master…!”
Smiled at Lynn with a truly overjoyed expression as she said those words.
“…Master?”
“Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah, that’s right-”
Lynn, who should have been happier than anyone else, muttered those words without much reaction to Loriel’s fuss.
“…?”
As Loriel made a strange expression at that, Lynn, who had been looking dazed as if she were possessed by something the whole time, suddenly looked at her own hands several times with a very subtle expression, with her thumb and little finger extended.
“…??”
Lynn seemed to have no regard for Loriel’s expression, which showed that she didn’t understand what she was doing all of a sudden. She tilted her head as she looked at her hands.
“T, this is how it was…”
She muttered as she fumbled around for something, and soon brought her extended fingers to her lower abdomen.
Her hand pressed against the clothes that clung to her.
And
Lynn, who realized that her thumb and little finger were connecting her lower abdomen and her crotch at the same time, muttered with an expression that was noticeably red to anyone who saw it.
“Oh, I don’t think it’ll go in…”
“…”
Loriel stared at Lynn with a speechless expression as she realized what she was talking about.
Ummm… anyways yeah super strong demon bads and heroes will create an inverse effect.
One, you’ll lose everything for a while and then two the people will come to realize it’s actually pretty safe and the houses are like 1 copper a year and the prices are cheap, the climate good and the terrain beautiful. What’s not to love about that territory! That it’s being protected by monsters? Man who cares, I’d worship a dragon if it unknowingly protected me and made my life 1000x easier z