The Hero Becomes the Duke’s Eldest Son

Translator: Marctempest
Editor: Rynfinity

Chapter 65

He came to this Forest of Death to find an Ent.

But he didn’t expect to meet one like this.

Nor did he expect to find his opponent wounded and dying.

A villager said, “We found it collapsed near the village. Not long after, bandits appeared and attacked the village.”

Aden examined the condition of the young Ent.

Despite pouring a potion on it, the wound showed no signs of healing.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that another energy was blocking the potion’s effect and preventing regeneration.

A dark and sinister energy hovered around the wound.

It was a familiar energy to Aden.

‘Dark magic?’

Judging from the circumstances, this wound must have been inflicted by the bandits.

But it was puzzling why dark magic appeared suddenly.

Such a phenomenon only occurred when injured by black magic.

‘Let’s think about this later and focus on treatment first.’

Wounds inflicted by black magic were difficult to heal with ordinary treatments.

He needed to use holy power, which was almost the opposite of dark magic.

Pop.

Aden took out a Holy Potion from his Subspace Pouch and poured it over the young Ent’s wound.

He then dribbled the remaining half into its mouth.

The holy power of the potion purified the dark magic and the energy was quickly absorbed into the young Ent’s body.

The pale expression of the child became noticeably more relaxed.

Seeing the young Ent, Aden’s eyes darkened.

‘The only ones who can use dark magic are Warlocks and monsters from the Underworld.’

The bandits captured villagers instead of killing them.

The Forest of Death’s environment made it difficult to know what was happening inside due to its isolation from the outside.

And now there were traces of black magic on the Ent.

As the keywords came together, a rough picture began to form.

‘This situation has become complicated.’

* * *

Aden and his group were served dinner at the village chief’s house.

They all sat around a simple meal of bread and vegetable stew.

Priestess Lunia started eating the stew without hesitation as soon as it was served.

Her eyes sparkled.

“Wow! This stew is really delicious! It’s much better than the troll intestine soup or roasted orc eyeballs we had at the Slaughter Tower!”

“Innards?”

“What, what eyeballs?”

The village chief sitting next to her asked in shock, and the others had similar expressions.

Only Aden looked at Lunia with a sad, cold gaze as she happily ate.

‘Well, of course.’

According to Aden, the food at the Slaughter Tower was simply grilled or boiled monster meat hunted that day.

It was difficult to obtain other food as the tower was far from the city.

And the food would often spoil during transportation due to monster attacks or the heat of the wasteland.

Eating things like monster eyeballs and innards regularly, any normal food would taste amazing.

After finishing their meals, everyone reintroduced themselves properly.

“Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Taion Sedus. I am the eldest son of the Sedus family and the son of Lord Tiried Sedus.”

“I’m Lunia! Nice to meet you!”

“Aden Remes. I am cooperating with Taion because of matters in the forest.”

“I am Lowe, Aden’s escort knight.”

Finally, the village chief spoke.

“My name is Marcus. I am the chief of this village. Before settling here, about ten years ago, I served as a lower-ranking knight in the territory.”

“Hmm? You were a knight in our territory?”

Taion was surprised by his words, and the chief smiled bitterly.

“Well, I am retired now, but yes, Lord Taion.”

About ten years ago, he retired after being severely injured in a beast subjugation battle.

With no family, he ended up drifting to this village where a friend lived.

After the introductions, they got to the main topic.

“Now, can you explain what happened in detail?”

At Taion’s question, the chief organized his thoughts for a moment before speaking.

“As you saw earlier, our village was attacked by bandits.”

The attack occurred late last night.

The bandits, nearly forty in number, were more skilled and powerful than ordinary people.

However, the Slash-and-Burn Village’s forces were no pushovers either.

The villagers had grown strong living in the harsh environment of the Forest of Death.

Even young girls had the strength to smash goblin skulls.

Moreover, the village’s militia trained in mana martial arts by the chief, Marcus, had at least entry-level enhancement skills.

Marcus himself and some village veterans were adept at advanced enhancement.

Having experience commanding soldiers, Marcus led the militia and villagers in fierce resistance against the bandits.

Compared to other villages, they had more people and their militia’s skills were top-notch.

Thus, the bandits were confused and would have suffered a major defeat if things had continued that way.

“But then a significant variable appeared.”

A man in a black robe showed up, turning the tide of the battle.

When he chanted a spell, skeletons and corpses crawled out from the ground, attacking along with the bandits.

“Manipulating corpses… a Warlock.”

Taion’s complexion hardened, and Aden fell into thought.

As expected, a Warlock was involved in this incident.

‘Those bandits, or rather mercenaries, were hired by the Warlock.’

Warlocks needed human lives for sacrifices or experiments.

Initially, they probably used the bandits to capture people, but the resistance was tougher than expected, so the Warlock stepped in.

“The one manipulating the corpses demanded our surrender.”

But surrendering to someone who could control corpses was unthinkable.

As a former lower-ranking knight, Marcus had some knowledge about Warlocks, so he decided to fight to the end.

The Warlock wanted fresh, living humans, not tattered corpses, so his attacks were half-hearted.

More than half of the militia died.

Eventually, the Warlock seemed to run out of dark magic and retreated with the bandits.

“Damn it!”

Hearing the full story, Taion was furious.

“All of this was the work of a Warlock! I will never forgive them!”

Hatred towards the Warlock poured out from Taion’s eyes.

‘Niketa must be having a hard time.’

Aden felt sorry for her, struggling to change the world’s perception of black magic while such evil Warlocks existed.

As long as they roamed the world, her goal would never be achieved.

Aden spoke calmly.

“In that case, they will surely attack again.”

The chief was alarmed.

“Pardon? What do you mean? Are you saying they will attack again?”

The chief seemed to hope the bandits would give up and not return.

Given the village’s current situation, if the bandits returned, it would be a disaster, so he didn’t want to even think about it.

“Warlocks are neither merciful nor foolish enough to leave witnesses alive.”

Anyone who witnessed a Warlock using black magic had only two choices.

Either die at the hands of the Warlock, or kill the Warlock and survive.

They would surely come again tonight.

* * *

We informed the villagers of the high likelihood that the bandits would return.

“The bandits will come again?”

“If that’s true, we’re all doomed…”

Naturally, the villagers were agitated.

After all the suffering and sacrifices of their neighbors and families, barely surviving, now they faced another attack.

Despair was inevitable.

However, the agitation soon subsided.

They were not alone now.

Taion stepped forward and addressed the villagers.

“Do not worry! As long as the knights of Sedus are here, we will not bow to such scum!”

Taion and five knights drew their swords and infused them with mana.

With a vibrating sound, six Sword Auras glowed brightly.

“Follow me! We are the proud descendants of Sedus! We will not lose!”

The brilliant glow of the six lights became a beacon of hope for the despairing villagers.

“Oh!”

“Is that the fabled Sword Aura!”

Taion pointed to Priestess Lunia standing aside.

“And we have a follower of the God of Slaughter and Death with us! In the name of the god, our enemies will tremble and regret their sins before divine punishment!”

“Kyaah! Leave it to me!”

The legends of the Slaughter Cult’s followers’ deeds across the continent were nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The villagers’ eyes started to light up with fervor.

“Yes, what else can we do but fight and die?”

“We already won once! Let’s protect our village with our strength again!”

“Long live Sedus!”

The strength of the individual captivated people and made them forget fear.

The villagers’ agitation subsided, and their morale soared.

‘More capable than I thought.’

Aden was impressed by Taion’s ability to rally the villagers and boost morale.

He was curious about Taion’s unexpected side.

‘In the future, I didn’t even know Tiried had a son.’

Aden wouldn’t have missed knowing such a unique and capable person.

‘It probably means he died before making a name for himself.’

Aden suspected this bandit subjugation might have been the cause.

It could be speculation, but Warlocks often brought many variables.

‘Tiried, the Border Count, hated Warlocks as much as mercenaries.’

If this was true, it would explain his intense hatred for Warlocks.

‘Well, we’ll find out the truth soon enough.’

Aden decided to wait for the upcoming battle.

At that moment, Lowe approached Aden.

“Aden, he has woken up.”

Aden understood immediately who Lowe was referring to.

He had tasked Lowe with watching over the young Ent.

“Good. Let’s go.”

There were many questions for the young tree spirit.

* * *

When Aden entered the room,

Flinch!

The young Ent was startled, and its leaves bristled up and then settled down.

Hmm, those leaves could move.

The young Ent’s emerald eyes trembled as it closed them tightly and shouted.

“I, I’m not tasty! Don’t eat me! I’m poisonous, and you’ll get a stomachache if you eat me!”

Aden looked at him with a bewildered expression.

“…I won’t eat you.”

“R-Really? You’re not lying? The adults said humans go crazy wanting to eat us because we’re good and tasty…”

“…”

Are you a snake?

It was clear they saw humans as cannibals.

Given what humans had done to tree spirits, it was understandable.

The young Ent, wrapped in a blanket, watched Aden warily, full of fear.

Aden sighed and rummaged in his pocket.

“Here, take this and calm down.”

Aden took out a pouch containing Lich’s bone powder, loosened the top, and showed the contents.

“Gasp…!”

The Ent sniffed the scent, its eyes sparkling with delight, and drool began to flow.

No, it was not just drooling, it was salivating profusely.

It looked like a child who found a delicious candy.

“R-Really, you’re giving this to me?”

“Yes, take it if you want.”

As soon as Aden finished speaking, the Ent quickly took the pouch and hugged it like a precious teddy bear.

Then it glanced at Aden, gauging his reaction.

“…You can eat it.”

Upon Aden’s permission, the Ent took a pinch of the bone powder and put it in its mouth, chewing with a crunch.

Its leaves trembled as its face softened with pleasure.

It was clearly enjoying the taste.

Aden was astonished by the sight.

‘Wow, it really likes it.’

-What did I say? It’s going to love it.

This time, he had to acknowledge Curse’s insight.