Chapter 148: Lifting The Curse (4)
Before entering Arteil, Kim Hyunwoo was single all his life.
It wasn't that there was something wrong with him, but rather that the field he worked in had very few women.
...In any case, the point is that Kim Hyunwoo had very little experience with the opposite sex, and as a result, he had been struggling every day since consuming the Potion.
To the point where he wondered if maybe it would have been better not to have drunk the Potion at all.
And in that situation, after drinking the Potion, Kim Hyunwoo realized something else - his perception of the former heroes.
'...It definitely feels different before and after drinking the Potion.'
When Kim Hyunwoo first entered Arteil and met Merilda, the hero he raised, he didn't feel any special emotions.
If he felt anything, it was gratitude that Merilda defeated monsters and a bit of awe, but that was it; he didn't feel anything else, even afterward.
In other words, he wasn't particularly interested in what his former heroes were doing.
But what about now?
'...I'd like to meet them again.'
Kim Hyunwoo found himself curious about the former heroes of Lartania.
Unlike before, when he felt nothing even when a hero appeared before him, now he was interested in the heroes he had raised.
And there was also curiosity.
'...What exactly did Merilda and Rin do to gain such a notorious reputation?'
He realized that the limit in his mind wasn't just about affection as he found himself curious about things that he hadn't been interested in or wanted to know about before.
Simply thinking of it as a limit on affection didn't make sense, because the emotions he felt when thinking about Lartania's former heroes had changed.
'Which hero put such a restriction on me...'
So Kim Hyunwoo pondered why someone would place such a restriction on him.
No, he thought even further - about which hero had summoned him to this world.
Although the Potion had lifted the limit, the question of the fifth hero remained as unclear as before.
However, it wasn't completely erased; instead, his memory created a strange contradiction. Kim Hyunwoo tried to think about the fifth hero as much as possible, but nothing came to mind.
As if his mind was refusing to remember.
"Hmm..."
So, after pondering for a while,
A ★★★★★☆ Hero, 'Hero King,' has entered the territory.
"...???"
Seeing the notification suddenly appear, he couldn't help but make a puzzled expression.
For about three days after Kim Hyunwoo drank the Potion of Removal, Merilda, Rin, and Adria, who visited him whenever they had the chance, observed his reactions carefully.
And today, on the third day, they came to a stark conclusion.
The conclusion was that Kim Hyunwoo wasn't just reacting to Elena in that way - he was reacting that way to all women.
And as soon as they reached that conclusion, Merilda, Rin, and Adria began to eye each other.
But amusingly, what they were eyeing each other for wasn't about who would be the first to approach Kim Hyunwoo.
Rather, Merilda, Rin, and Adria were trying to push the opportunity onto each other.
Instead of thinking about who could successfully approach him without interference,
"Hmm - so it seems the Master was really under a restriction. How about you go first?"
"No, I have something to prepare. How about you go first?"
"I also have something to prepare. Hey, gloomy dragon. Why don't you go? You always sing about wanting to see the Master. Now's your chance."
"I still can't leave this lair."
"Couldn't you just use that Teleportation scroll from last time?"
"I can't make those anymore. Do you know how hard it is to make those scrolls that you guys destroyed?"
-They were all trying to push the task of approaching Kim Hyunwoo onto someone else.
Of course, their affection for Kim Hyunwoo hasn't faded. If anything, it had only grown stronger over the past ten years.
Yet the reason they were subtly trying to push the responsibility onto each other was because of their fear.
They had clearly recognized, over the course of three days of observation, that Kim Hyunwoo had been under a restriction.
But Rin had already had a bad experience a few weeks ago.
Merilda knew that she could easily have been in that same position.
And the Crimson Dragon also knew, through Rin and Merilda's petty squabbles over the past few days, what had happened to Rin a few weeks ago.
"......"
"......"
"......"
The three heroes were all eyeing each other cautiously.
It was at that moment.
"...Huh?"
As they were eyeing each other, Merilda turned her head towards the Lartania territory.
And then,
"...Why now, of all times?"
Shortly after that, they realized that the Hero King had entered Lartania and looked towards the territory in surprise.
"......"
The three of them, now watching the territory with serious expressions, couldn't help but be puzzled.
And that was because the Hero King they saw from afar looked very different from the one they knew.
"...Dark energy?"
"I can't tell if it's emanating from her or seeping out, but it's definitely there..."
"It doesn't seem like she's become a demon, though..."
Although the dark energy was subtle, it was strong enough to be clearly detected by the three of them, causing them to feel both curious and a bit tense.
The dark energy emanating from the Hero King was faint, but the fact that it was inside her at all suggested it might be related to the demons who had targeted Kim Hyunwoo's life.
However.
Soon, the three heroes watching the Hero King began to relax.
The reason was that they all saw the Hero King's expression.
An expression filled with desperation and hope more than anything else.
So instead of feeling tense around the Hero King, they decided to watch how Kim Hyunwoo would react to her.
When they thought about it, the Hero King was a great candidate to gauge Kim Hyunwoo's reaction without risk.
Although the three were too afraid to approach Kim Hyunwoo for fear of being rejected, they knew that if one of them made a move, the others would feel anxious.
But the Hero King heading to the Lord's castle?
If the Hero King were in a normal condition, they might have been nervous too.
No, they probably would have even tried to interfere.
They had no idea where the Hero King had been or what she had been doing, and if she had just been hiding somewhere and then reappeared, they thought she might have been immediately accepted by Kim Hyunwoo.
But the Hero King now?
Dark energy was emanating from her body.
Of course, they didn't know if the dark energy was just a lingering effect from being in the demon realm, or if she had actually become a demon.
But the point was that the Hero King had dark energy within her, and that it would definitely negatively affect Lartania.
In other words, there was a clear reason not to accept her into Lartania.
In that brief moment, the three heroes realized they could observe Kim Hyunwoo's reaction without any real threat, so they naturally fell silent and focused on the Hero King.
Soon they saw it.
The Hero King arriving in front of the Lord's castle, and Kim Hyunwoo standing outside, looking at her.
"......"
At that moment, the heroes held their breath.
And they heightened their hearing to catch the conversation happening in front of the castle.
And then,
"Charyll...?"
Kim Hyunwoo called out the Hero King's name.
"...Lord?"
She looked at him with an expression of disbelief, then her face went blank for a moment.
"You've really...come back...truly."
With that one sentence, as if she were truly relieved...
She collapsed.
"...?"
The three heroes were confused by the Hero King's sudden collapse, but then they realized that her physical condition wasn't great.
And as soon as she collapsed, Kim Hyunwoo rushed to check her condition, then carried her into the castle.
They watched as the Hero King was carried inside without even having a proper conversation.
"Honestly, her condition wasn't great, but it wasn't bad enough for her to collapse as soon as she confirmed the Master's presence..."
They all shared the same suspicion as Merilda's muttered question.
"Wait, could it be on purpose?"
And then, as if realizing something, their jaws dropped in shock.