Ch-73: Kingdom of Prona (5)

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"…and that's how I ended up marrying everyone and living happily ever after."

"You cheated outright, and you are even proud of it, hah."

"Hey, not again, everytime I tell my story you jump up to counter me. I didn't break any law, I legally married to several woman. What's wrong with that?"

"Think with that poor brain of yours. Had your wives supported polygamy? But, they got a playboy for a husband, they had no choice but to accept it. Hey, Cloud, don't become like him."

"No matter how much you preach, no guy will not learn in my support. Harem is a man's romance!"

"Shitty romance it is then!"

Eredna, a beautiful-looking female spirit, yelled at the handsome male spirit, Drake. She nagged some more and then turned her gaze to Cloud.

"Forget his bullshit and listen carefully to what I have to say. That would be more helpful in the future."

"Hey, Cloud, don't listen. You will only get a packed bundle of boasting weaved in a heart-warming story about a woman preserving her chastity only to get obsessed with it and die a virgin."

"Boasting? When did I ever boast about it?"

Drake clicked his tongue at Eredna's growl.

"Did I listen to you once or twice? When you talk, you explain in detail the origins and abilities of the men you have been secretly courting."

"I was just telling the story objectively…"

"You mean being objective sounds like that? See me, I'm a woman who was courted by so many great men, but rejected them all, because virginity is my motto! You keep going on and on about that. Anyway, I'm saying Cloud, there's definitely something shady about this woman."

"Shady?! What do you mean shady!?"

Emotionally, Eredna grabbed Drake by the neck who released a tired sigh with a look of disinterest as her hands phased past him.

To which, Eredna face darkened further.

"Guys, stop fighting. It's not everyday that we see the present generation's hero."

Seeing the atmosphere worsen, the spirit of a hero who looked naive intervened, with the motive to stop them…

"Shut up, you idiot who doesn't even understands how a woman feels!"

"Sit down, you fool who lost his woman to the Demon King."

Wounded by Eredna and Drake's verbal chide, he squatted down in a corner, drawing imaginary circles in self-pity.

The other hero spirits smiled slovenly as if it was a matter happened on daily basis.

Cloud took a deep breath.

'Where did it go wrong?'

Seven spirits suddenly appeared when he was talking to the king.

They were the souls of the heroes had assimilated with the soul stone.

Among them, Sylas, who claimed to be the first hero, admitted that the recount about the soul stone was true and beseeched to release the king.

Cloud was slightly stunned at their appearance.

It's the first time he had ever seen a soul absorbed in a soulstone move freely outside.

Even Cloud was like that, no need to say about the King.

More than bewildered, he was astonished, and after all the fuss, he left to give them some personal space, but before greeting all of them politely.

After that, the heroes decided to move on to the self-introduction.

'Then this happened.'

Cloud's facial muscles twitched as Eredna and Drake shot innovative insults at each other.

"You can ignore them, they can be a little embarrassing, even as heroes."

The first hero, Sylas, approached and sat down next to Cloud.

"Are you disappointed?"

"No. Unique personality they have and it looks good."

A hero who created the harem.

A hero who believed in pure love.

A hero whose woman was wooed by the Demon King.

A hero who suffered alone in a dark worldview, etc.

All heroes with different personalities of their own.

Rather, Sylas, the first hero, was the most uncharacteristic among them. His adventures seemed like something you would rather see in a fairy tale.

"Haha, that's true. They have been alone in the soulstone for hundred of years, isolated form the outside world."

"Is there anyone who could not hold it and collapsed?"

It was a rather rude question, but Sylas smiled and shook his head.

"I know what you are worried about. But that never happened. In the first place, I didn't even give an offer to a hero who had such a possibility."

He had said before that all the heroes gathered here were voluntarily absorbed into the Soul Stone after receiving a offer from Sylas in some way.

Except for Sylas, there were six, so he had thought that that was all, but it was only those who met the criteria.

"You said it before, it was you who made the Soul Stone."

"Yes."

"Is there really a reason you had to do this? Sacrificing yourself, sacrificing others as well."

Sylas went silent for a moment at Cloud's question, before opening his mouth.

"How long do you think this peace will last? How long do you think that the routine of heroes defeating the Demon King will last?"

It was a bad way, answering a question with a question, but it made it easier for Cloud to guess what he meant.

"You are preparing in case the heroes are defeated."

Sylas nodded his head.

"I killed the Demon King along with the other heroes. But strangely, the alien feeling that the Demon King remains lingered in my mind. Obviously, the Demon King was dead, but our instinct told us otherwise. It meant that that was not the end of the confrontation between humans and demons. We decided to go back home and prepare for the future in our own way."

"The soul stone was your way?"

"At that time, the Kingdom of Prona was a much poorer kingdom than it is today. So what if you are a hero, you cannot create something out of nothing. Maybe there was a better way. But it was the best I could think of."

The day the heroes are defeated by the Demon King.

An unprecedented great chaos will unfold when a large army of demons invade the continent.

There was no way that the previously small Kingdom of Prona would be able to handle the chaos. Therefore, the strong soul energy of the heroes was used as a medium to create a measure to protect the kingdom.

Sylas recounted everything.

"But it all turned out to be pointless. This old secret has been exposed to the demons."

Secret weapons are valuable because their existence is a mystery. Otherwise, a secret weapon is of no great value.

"As you said, the Four Heavenly Kings are trying to come down intact through the power of Soul Stone… It has all turned pointless."

He lived his entire life to protect the kingdom from demons. He maintained his ego in the soulstone for hundreds of years for the kingdom.

But now, his presence will threaten the kingdom on the contrary.

There was a bitter look on Sylas' face.

"It may not be completely meaningless."

At that time, the hero who had experienced the darkness of the world, the one who had been quiet until now looked at Cloud and said. Noticing the meaning in his eyes, Sylas opened his eyes wide, bobbing his head.

"Yeah, it could be."

"What do you two mean? You two are cooking something, tell me too."

Sylas turned his body completely towards Cloud.

"You. Would you want to learn swordsmanship from me?"

"…swordsmanship?"

Cloud tilted his head at the rather ludicrous statement.

"There are many things I can teach you other than swords. Even though we can't show you magic in our current state, we can give you a theory."

"I can teach you bed techniques if you want!"

"You bastard, read the mood!"

Eredna slapped Drake on the back.

Drake, who was laughing, changed his gaze to dead seriousness in an instant. Not only his, but also the eyes of all the other heroes looking at Cloud changed.

Even the hero who was drawing circles in the corner after being chided by Eredna and Drake.

Cloud also erased his smile.

"What do you want from me?"

"Nothing great. We just hope that you will learn what we will teach and pass it on to the next generation in some way."

"It's not a difficult request, but… Wasn't that something you could have done yourself, even if it wasn't through me? Like nurturing a successor."

"Ummm… shamefully, I didn't think of it when I was still alive. I don't know why, but everyone here also didn't. I also left a few pieces of my used equipment…"

"Hah…"

Does it make sense to not remember something like that?

There must have been third party intervention.

And it goes without saying who the third party was.

Cloud smiled and nodded his head.

It was a good thing for him to increase the number of skills that he could use in this world.

To be honest, using only basic skills such as [Strike], [Parring], and [Bash] was a bit tedious.

"How long will it take to learn?"

"One year, more or less."

"One week."

Cloud stood up and declared.

"If it gets late, let's finish it within a month."

Drake smirked at that.

"This hero is pretty cocky. Good, good. Only someone of such mindset is qualified to inherit my swordsmanship!"

* * *

"…do I really have to teach my bed techniques too?"

Drake muttered gibberish as usual, but his voice was weak. He couldn't put finesse in his words, so was for Eredna and other heroes.

"I really couldn't have fathom you would learn it all in a week."

Sylas chuckled and shook his head. Cloud learned their skills in a week, as he initially declared.

It was a happy mistake.

The hero of this generation was far more capable than them.

However, someone was able to imitate the skills he had honed throughout his life in just a similar way, if not the same, at once, so he couldn't help but feel somewhat frustrated as a swordsman.

"I didn't know that the time for parting would come so quickly, but I'm glad that we part with fewer regrets."

"…as I said before, you don't have to do it like this. The coaching is enough."

"Now that this secret has been revealed to the demons, the soul stone must be destroyed anyway. You stopped it this time, but no one knows whether future heroes will be able to do the same."

"I mean, come'on, you guys can free yourself from your duties as heroes."

"The past hundreds of years have become meaningless. Please make our sacrifices meaningful."

"Yeah, Cloud. Don't try to hog all the cool experiences to yourself, let's share some."

"Been locked up in this little jewel for hundreds of years. Gotta make it worth it."

Cloud sighed at the generosity of the heroes. It's even more rude to say no now.

'Anyway, old people are always stubborn.'

How did they even know about glyphs?

"Don't complain later."

Cloud held the soul stone and used the glyph.

Next moment, the spirits of the heroes were sucked into the Soul Stone. A strong sense of resistance was felt on the hand holding the soul stone.

It wasn't because the souls of the heroes refused to.

This was because Cloud's vessel was too small for all the souls to enter. No, it was wrong to blame Cloud's vessel in the first place.

'The presence of each one is no joke.'

The heroes compressed their souls as much as possible to make it easier for Cloud to accept.

However, each of them was a hero who had represented the Kingdom of Prona for an era. Both the quality and size of the soul could not be compared to a mere Ogre or Behemoth.

'It's like holding the ocean with a funnel.'

The arm that was connecting the souls of the heroes and Cloud's vessel was in pain as if torn asunder. The veins sprung up and the muscles wriggled like worms.

The souls, that had barely crossed over by overusing the arm, tried to take a seat in Cloud's vessel.

The vessel reaction was justified.

The tiny veins in his eyes bursted, tears of blood flowing down.

Blood was dripping from his ears as well as from his nose as he began to hear his tinnitus beeping.

– Grrp!

One fistful of blood ran up his throat.

'I can't. If I just accepted it, the body would collapse.'

He was suppressing his instincts from pressuring the souls, but the situation wasn't allowing.

Cloud compressed the souls of the heroes.

However, unlike when he compressed the soul of the Ogre or the Behemoth, he used his imaginary hands very carefully so as not to affect the originality of the souls.

Because of which, it was only after two full days that Cloud was able to stabilize the souls of the heroes.

Cloud took a deep breath and sat down. His blood vessels were twisted, his organs were injured, and his muscles were torn. In that state, he stayed up for two days straight.

He was literally a walking miracle to be still alive.

"…that's why I said I didn't want to receive it."

Next time they met, he was surely going to jab them on this one.

Cloud spit the blood from his mouth on the floor and stood up, leaning against the wall as he pushed his body up.

He staggered and took a step forward.

* * *

[Passive]

– Damage from demons is reduced by 20%.

– Damage to demons is increased by 20%.

– Damage from black magic is reduced by 20%.

– Damage from undead is reduced by 20%.

– Damage to undead increases by 20%.

[Active]

(Blooming)

– Unleash the full potential within a short period of time. At the end of 'blooming', the user will lose consciousness.

(Abloom)

– Can be used in the 'blooming' state.

Unleash more than what your inherent potential allows. When 'blooming' ends, all stats are permanently reduced by 10%.

You can read fully translated chapters, including the last chapter, for $20.

p(a)treon.com/Daoist02