I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

148. Afterword (2)

The dawn came quietly.

When the night passes and dawn comes and I open my eyes to the sound of birds singing, Arcel’s daily routine begins then.

Get up from bed, make your bed, sit in front of the window, close your eyes and pray about the day you will have today.

I hope today will be a warm and peaceful day.

Knock knock.

“Oh, I’ll leave soon.”

After that, his maids come to the room.

Originally, it was a skeleton with only bones, but it was given a human skin because it was not good for emotional education.

The maids bring Arcel clothes to change into, and although he is not yet used to it, he dresses up for the morning with the maids’ hands and leaves the room.

“Then let’s go.”

Arsel walks through the forest with a wooden sword at dawn before morning comes.

In the past, it was a forest where heavy rain fell all day long, but at some point, this forest had a mild and peaceful climate, making it a good forest for life.

However, as a side effect, the number of monsters living in the forest has increased considerably compared to before.

To be exact, the monsters that the Demon King had tamed in the past came to this forest again and settled down.

Boom!

For this reason, when Arcel walks through the forest like this, a monster like a huge fierce dog will appear in the forest.

A monster with sharp fangs and a huge growl.

“That’s right, did you wake up too?”

The monster lay down in front of Arcel with its belly exposed and began to gently wag its tail.

Originally, she appeared like that and pointed her fangs right at Arcel, but after she had all of her teeth pulled out with her bare hands, she became a well-behaved puppy.

It was an unbelievable result that it was a hunting dog trained by the Demon King in the past to hunt warriors.

‘It should be okay around here.’

And the place where Arcel arrived was a large clearing in the forest.

There she takes the wooden sword she brought with her and begins to follow the path of the sword as if dancing alone.

After that day, Arcel’s warrior power disappeared.

Anyway, there was no longer a need for heroes, and the holy sword was returned, so there was no place for its power to remain.

Kwajik-!

Then the wooden sword accidentally gets stuck in the ground.

Cracks appear in the ground around the place where the wooden sword was inserted.

‘I’m going to get scolded for destroying the land again.’

Just because the hero’s power disappeared, it did not mean he became weaker.

On the contrary, as the warrior’s power disappeared, it became more difficult to control his power than before, so he had to go to a quiet place every morning and practice controlling his power.

Otherwise, I sometimes break dishes or door handles, and I’ve been trying to fix them for several years, but it’s not easy because I’ve lived as a warrior for so long.

Arsel whistled and roughly pushed dirt into the cracked ground with his feet.

“I wonder if it’s okay to see that the wooden sword isn’t broken. It’s been 5 years, so this should be fine.”

It has already been five years since the queen fell.

Arsel lived with him as before for five years, and on the outside, quite a lot had changed over the five years.

First, the elf.

Thanks to the return of the Root Elder, the elves began to slowly restore their homeland, and new sprouts were sprouting from the stump of the World Tree, and a bright light was shining down on the path to the future.

This is probably thanks to cooperation with the nymphs to restore the land, and also to the Dark Elves, who were enemies in the past.

“Today is the day Stella comes to visit. “I have to go back now.”

Stella may be busy restoring her hometown with her people, but she visits her castle at least once a month to deliver Zion’s letters and show her face.

So, let’s go back and prepare to welcome his guests. Arcel puts his wooden sword on his waist again and returns to the castle.

Controlling her powers was important, but she honestly loved them so much as not to the point where she broke her spine when she hugged her teeth.

‘Now that I think about it, next week is Clen’s birthday. I’m going to be busy starting today. ‘What should I prepare for this gift?’

As Arcel returned to the castle, he thought about what gift to prepare for Clen’s birthday.

The demons are not much different from before.

However, humans became wary as Clen declared his territory as a distinct nation, but since Clen’s domain was located deep in the territory of his demons, no separate conflict has yet occurred.

In the first place, to get to Clen’s territory from the outside, you had to go through a forest teeming with dangerous monsters.

Rather, humans are too busy looking out for each other due to what happened in Hermod’s kingdom and do not engage in any major activities.

But it won’t stay quiet forever.

Unfortunately, what the queen said was true, and 10 years after her demon lord disappeared, she could feel the seeds of conflict growing little by little.

But this is also a natural trend.

It is the path they choose and move forward.

It was the queen and the kingdom of Hermod who tried to control this fate and ended up becoming monsters.

So Arcel decided to just watch.

I quietly watch whatever path they take.

I pledged not to interfere in particular, but to lend a helping hand if humanity was on the verge of complete extinction.

The legend of the hero and the demon king is now a thing of the past, and since he is also a part of that past, he thought that he should not intervene more than necessary in the present.

Furthermore, the Kingdom of Hermod began to see hope.

Although the capital city was completely destroyed and to the point where recovery was impossible, fortunately, Hermod’s new leader, Karkal, established a new kingdom by bringing only the strengths of the previous queen and boldly excluding her weaknesses.

The name of that kingdom is Elpis Kingdom.

It was a kingdom of hope that was created to restore dreams to those who lost their lives due to war.

With this hope, there is no need to intervene.

There was no need to sacrifice one’s life for others.

For now, I just have to live for myself.

With your loved ones who will be waiting for you at the castle.

“Are you done with your morning walk?”

“Okay, I’m just finishing up and on my way back.”

When I arrived at the castle, I heard the voice of my lover.

“Were the children quiet and well?”

Alfred was waiting for Arcel with a white-haired girl about five years old and a blonde-haired boy sitting on her shoulders.

The girl’s appearance resembles Alfred, and the boy’s appearance resembles Arcel.

“Of course, it’s someone’s child. “Nothing happened, other than her daughter breaking my neck twice and her son crying because his head was pulled out by his sister.”

The girl had a slight scratch on her face, and the boy looked fine but was struggling to hold back his tears.

“…You were very quiet.”

Arcel sighed and handed over her two children.

“You should listen carefully to what Dad says. What if we start fighting again in the morning?”

“I stayed quiet, Mom. “I was just disappointed because my dad was so protective of my younger brother.”

“My older sister said she wanted to play with dolls in the morning and pulled out my hair! So I ran away from my dad, but my sister even broke my dad’s neck!”

“I am the biggest victim. I was reading a book when my head suddenly turned 180 degrees to the left.”

“So you gave it back to me.”

“Daughter, if you turned it to the left, you have to turn it to the right again. “What if I turn to the left one more time?”

The two children are the fruit of the love between Arcel and Alfred.

“I don’t know who they both resemble.”

“You’re not asking because you honestly don’t know that, are you?”

Even though I had a hard time getting pregnant with twins, I thought it was worth the trouble to be born with such lovely children.

Instead, her problem is that her daughter is so powerful that she treats not only Alfred but also her younger brother harshly.

But the bigger problem was that her younger brother inherited Alfred’s body and regenerated just fine even when his head was cut off, and because of that, her daughter had a tendency to treat people too harshly.

In particular, the biggest victims were the castle’s maids. While bathing her daughter, she lost dozens of ribs as she struggled, to the point that Alfred had to repair them every day.

Although Alfred and his younger brother’s bodies regenerate quickly, there is no problem even if their heads are pulled out a few times, but I was very worried about what would happen if they met an ordinary human like that.

I shook her hand saying I was making a new friend, but I thought I might end up breaking her hand.

“Anyway, both of you are waiting for Aunt Stella to come pick you up today. It’s been a while since you’ll see your grandmother’s face.”

“Really? Dad, then please bring out the stake! “Let’s tie her grandmother and her brother together and burn them at the stake!”

“Help me, Mom! “My sister is going to make me a charcoal grill!”

“…Alfred?”

“I didn’t teach like that. “I learned who I resembled by stealing my diary on my own.”

“Didn’t they say that behaving like old times is bad for children’s emotions? “If you become a father, act like a father.”

As Arcel glared, Alfred whistled and looked away.

“I’ll try my best…”

But it didn’t work, so Alfred had no choice but to take a deep breath, hold her daughter’s shoulders, and speak firmly.

“Daughter, you must not burn her grandmother and younger brother at the stake. If you keep doing that, I think you’ll jump off the cliff with me like last time.”

“Yes…?! But that cliff falls for too long… I get it. “It’s boring to stay there for a few days.”

“Of course it should be so. “When I grow up, I don’t want to go there often.”

Surprisingly, the daughter easily agreed to Alfred’s words.

I was thinking about what it means to fall off a cliff.

“If it’s a cliff, no way-“

“Yes, the cliff where my mother fell me. “If I stay there for a few days, it’s good because I can reflect on what I did wrong.”

No matter how you think about it, it seems that Alfred’s education method played a role in his daughter’s extreme personality, but since Arcel himself was her first parent, he did not know the normal education method.

The two children were not ordinary children in the first place, so there would be little point in educating them in an ordinary way.

Stella taught her the most standard education.

“Hmm, this makes my head hurt more than when I was dealing with the demon lord… First of all, hurry up and get ready to go out, both of you. “It’s almost time for Aunt Stella to come.”

Arsel somehow felt that dealing with his children was more difficult than dealing with the Demon King.

“Yes, I understand!”

The children were happy to hear that Stella was coming and returned to the castle.

It seems that Stella is very fond of children and always likes to buy them gifts.

‘I’m sorry Stella, but I have to take care of the kids for the time being.’

I had no choice but to leave the children’s education to Stella.

If you leave it to Alfred, it’s like that, and even if you try to take charge of it yourself, there’s no other way than to subdue the children by force, so you have no choice but to get help from others.

“Whew, I guess I’ll finally spend my time quietly. Even if that earl doesn’t know anything else, he takes good care of children.”

“That’s right, Stella studied raising a child even more than we did after hearing the news that I was pregnant.”

“I couldn’t help it, they were so disobedient from the time they were on your ship, right? You should have time to study. Plus, I still can’t take care of myself properly. “I was worried what would happen if you crushed the baby while hugging it.”

“…No matter what, I’m not that good.”

Anyway, thanks to you, I can breathe a little easier.

Arsel naturally held Alfred’s hand, and Alfred smiled and hugged Arcel.

“So, Alfred, the kids will be away from home for a while. “Now that my body has recovered to some extent, why don’t we spend the night together for the first time in a while?”

Arsel pressed his body closer to Alfred, feeling a sense of freedom for the first time in a long time.

“?”

“Sorry, I remembered something urgent.”

Boom!

However, after Alfred gently placed Arcel on the floor, she ran away with all her might.

“I like this because it reminds me of the old days…”

Of course, Arcel smiled as the memory of chasing Alfred who ran away when the princess was kidnapped came to mind.

Even though I couldn’t catch it then, I can catch it now.

“…It would be better to run away with all your might. “If I catch you, I will never let you go.”

With an eerie smile, he glares at the place where Alfred fled.

Kwaang-!

Arcel chases after it at such a speed that the castle wall collapses in the aftermath.

“Oh my God, ancestor-“

Alfred thought as he watched the gust of wind chasing him with terrifying force.

If you are caught, you will die.

That was the only thought.

That was impossible even for Alfred.