Chapter 1094 – Privileges

000

George, William’s older brother and Darwin’s eldest son, received his mother’s request and was walking back with a light and excited heart.

After several years of following her mother and acting as her assistant, he finally heard from her that he could use the combination of medicine.

As for knowledge, he had already acquired it years ago, but Darwin was just worried that he, who was still young, might make a ‘mistake’ while combining medicine.

So, the first thing to do was to gain her mother’s trust, and it would be safe to think that she barely passed that requirement.

In order to get home as quickly as possible, George took the shortcut he had found with William and climbed over the wall.

My mother is a doctor respected by the village people.

A quiet and peaceful village where you can do what you want in a quiet place without any noise.

A cute younger brother who follows suit well.

Certainly, she will be able to follow in her mother’s footsteps and grow into a person who can do something that will earn people’s respect.

Inflated with anticipation about taking that first step, he quickly returned to the mansion and inserted the key into the doorknob.

If you hear a ‘click’ sound, the front door should return with a ‘click’ sensation.

‘… Is it open?’

However, George senses that the door to the mansion is not locked.

He felt strange at first, but then he remembered what time it was and nodded.

‘Now that I think about it, is it time for William to come home? He told me to make sure to lock the front door.’

George sighed softly in his heart at the mistake of his younger brother, who was a bit clumsy compared to himself.

Well, if you’re inside, it would be better to talk lightly and show caution.

No matter how peaceful the village is, it should not become too complacent about peace.

When George opened the door while saying that, what he felt inside was an unexpected ‘silence’.

Normally, when William noticed that he was back, he would have popped out from inside and stuck his head out.

There is no sign of popularity that should normally be felt in the living room, nor are there any ‘shoes’ that should be present if a younger sibling is in the house.

‘… George isn’t home?’

Then, did he forget to lock the door of the house and go outside?

This may be a place where I can give a sermon when I come back in the evening.

Thinking like that, William enters the house without any caution and heads down the hallway to the living room.

This is because it was a place you had to pass through in order to go into your mother’s study, take the medicine, and prepare it according to the prescription.

That was the moment when he stepped into the living room and was about to go up the stairs.

If you turned your body casually, your eyes would move accordingly.

Accordingly, it was a natural process for objects that were normally visible to come into view.

And there, he had no choice but to stop.

“… Huh?”

What caught his eye was the ‘three plates’ hanging above the fireplace.

There were no special features, and the plate, each with a different pattern on it, was a kind of family ‘treasure’ that he, his mother, and his younger brother each made and decorated.

His mother’s red plate on the far left, his yellow plate in the middle, and William’s blue plate on the far right.

Displayed like this, it was an object that was always brushed off dust and polished to a shiny shine even when cleaning the house every day.

Therefore, you couldn’t help but be concerned about the fact that the order was changed.

George walked closer to the fireplace and looked at the dishes.

Since it was on top of a rather large fireplace, William, who was still short, couldn’t touch the plate unless he placed a step underneath.

No, even if he could touch the plate, he wouldn’t do anything like change the order on purpose.

Then, your mother?

No. She wouldn’t change the arrangement of her furniture like that without her mother saying anything.

Because she also has a bit of OCD.

“Who on earth…”

It was the very moment when George felt a sense of discomfort in the house and gradually increased his alertness.

A squeaking sound was heard from the stairs.

George felt goosebumps rising on his back and turned towards him.

Then, she saw a man she had never seen coming down the stairs as if her house was his own.

From all appearances, he wasn’t from the village, and he was probably a little older than him, but what made George nervous more than anything was that he was wearing a ‘sword’ on his waist.

In a village like this, the only weapons are the crude spears held by the village’s vigilantes.

At the appearance of a being with a quality that could not be compared to anything else, George felt his thoughts and body stop.

“Ah.”

And, while the man was coming down the stairs, he made eye contact with George.

Seeing him with that ‘I made a mistake’ look on his face, George could be sure that he had never broken into this house for a good purpose.

“Who are you? Why are you at my house?”

“Oh, sorry. No one was there…”

Mumbling something inexcusable, he came down the stairs and stood in the living room, smiling as if he had no choice.

And seeing the man slowly approaching him, George raised his hand to stop him.

“… Please don’t come any closer. I don’t want to be close to an armed robber.”

“He’s a warrior, not a robber…”

The man stopped in place as George requested, but shrugged his shoulders and showed the sword hanging at his waist.

Very slightly.

That alone was enough to make it difficult for George to let down his guard, but once he pulled the sword out of its scabbard.

It was clear that the brilliant brilliance seen there was a ‘holy sword’.

‘Holy sword…! Then, is the hero really…?’

In his mind, George couldn’t help but be shocked once more by the fact that the man in front of him was not a simple robber, but a being traveling under an oracle to save the world.

As for the story about the warrior, he had heard it many times from his mother.

Darwin didn’t seem to have a very positive view of the warrior, but George is also a boy of the right age.

For a person traveling with such a mission, it was an inevitable fate to harbor a longing, even if it was not great.

But soon, he shakes his head and thinks calmly.

“No matter how much he is a hero, there is no reason for him to come into other people’s homes at will.”

“Ah, well. I feel sorry for coming in when no one was there…”

The man will talk while scratching his head as if he is annoyed.

“In particular, it is not against the law for a hero to search a private house.”

“Ha, ha…?”

George couldn’t help but let out a bewildered voice at the incomprehensible, nonsense-like sound.

That’s right, this village is managed by a lord who lives in a city some distance away, and that lord also belongs to the country.

Naturally, there are laws in the country to prevent big and small crimes, and the punishment for breaking those laws is also clearly stated.

Illegal trespassing and theft were serious crimes.

“How old are you?”

While George was thinking rationally, the man asked him a question.

“… Suddenly what.”

“It’s okay. From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like there’s that much of an age difference between you and me.”

George responded while feeling annoyed at the man who kept laughing as if he was somehow laughing at himself.

“…17.”

“17!? After all, you’re only two years older than me!”

When George answered like that, the man nodded his head as if he had expected it.

“What is that?”

George says that and tries to argue.

But the next moment, the man pulls out the holy sword, points it at him, and speaks.

“If you’re 17, it’s good to know that this is how the world works.”

The holy sword was pulled out in an instant.

His swordsmanship that he couldn’t even check his preliminary moves.

It is without a doubt a strong one.

“Tsk…”

“For heroes, there is something called a privilege. Hero special rights guaranteed directly by the Church of Holy Protection.”

The man would raise the corners of his mouth and talk to George, who couldn’t move.

“T-what a privilege. What on earth…”

“Should we call it a kind of ‘remuneration’ for the warriors serving to save the world? Or should we call it necessary ‘support’?”

The way he twirled his horse and the tip of his sword at the same time made George unable to help but clench his fists.

“For our Hero group, there is no punishment for entering a private house where ordinary people like you live without warning, and there is no problem taking any of the items in the house that can be taken with you.”

“─Such a stupid clause…”

“Yes, unfortunately. No matter what we take from here, you have no choice but to remain silent. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you ask the lord? Oh, of course, we have already met the lord.”

While interrupting George, the man says so.

And when George reacted as if he no longer had the energy to resist, he smiled and returned his sword to its sheath.

“Well, that’s it. Don’t worry. We are not a band of thieves or a band of robbers. I heard that the owner of this house is a very skilled doctor. Of course, there will be a lot of gold coins in the house, and useful ‘medicines’. There may be some ‘medicine ingredients’, I’m just trying to get ‘a little’ of it.”

“Tsk…!”

George was understandably angry at his words.

He could understand by looking at the speed with which he had pulled out the sword just a moment ago.

If this man puts his mind to it, it wouldn’t be an easy task for him to overpower him in an instant.

Probably, the same goes for others.

In your head and in your heart.

Although they know that the atrocities of these warriors cannot be forgiven, if they rebel against them, they will be overpowered by their skills.

Moreover, heroes are, so to speak, beings who travel to save the world.

Most of these warriors are friendly with nobles and receive support for their actions.

As long as one person is injured in the process, there is no adverse effect on them.

Rather, it will end with a reckless civilian who does not know the topic – in other words, only his own recklessness will be highlighted.

Here, I have no choice but to be patient.

George thinks so, and he can’t help but lower his head, feeling like he’s swallowing a bitter pill.

“Well, then I’ll leave after I’ve found it properly. Just stay there—”

“Ark! That’s awesome!”

Before the man finished speaking, another person appeared from the second floor.

It is a woman wearing a fancy dress and holding a cane.

Wizard… I guess.

As she came down the stairs, her expression hardened for a moment when she saw George confronting the young man called Arc.

Arc doesn’t seem to even notice her, and looks behind her and speaks to her.

“What’s going on?”

Then, she will no longer care about George and will answer to Ark.

“I found something interesting on the second floor. It’s the research diary of the owner of this mansion.”

‘Mother’s?’

Naturally, George flinched and reacted to the wizard’s words.

Darwin’s research diary was so carefully stored that even George never read it.

Of course, George was just biding his time, hoping that Darwin would one day reveal its contents to him.

I never would have thought that thieves like this would check the contents of my mother’s diary before I did.

… At the same time, he was growing curious about what she had checked in her journal.

However, Ark looked at her as if he was tired of her colleague’s words.

“Hey… Rosalyn. What I asked you to find was ‘items that might be worth money,’ ‘valuable materials,’ and ‘items that could be used as equipment.’ Who told you to look for research logs like that? Would something like that be worth money? “

“…!”

What are you talking about…!

What on earth is this man talking about in front of something that can be said to be the essence of a mother with one of the greatest brains on the continent?

George is angry to the end of his head, but Rosalyn doesn’t care and answers.

“You idiot, Arc. There are people who want something like this so much that it comes out of their necks. The academy or something… Rather than that, wouldn’t it be better to take it to the ‘lord’?”

Rosalind smiled as she tapped the cover of the old, thick notebook she was holding in her hands.

“This journal… Contains all the experiments and results related to ‘biology’ that the owner of this mansion studied. It’s a study that has been going on for nearly 50 years. He must be quite old.”

“50 years…? From what I heard, the owner of this mansion is a beautiful female doctor.”

“You fool. She is a woman who has studied all sorts of things about living things. It is not difficult for her to keep her appearance as it was when she was young.”

When Rosaline shook her head as if she was tired of Ark’s answer, George was also a little embarrassed.

Although she did not know exactly how old her mother was, she could not agree that her studies were over 50 years old.

Certainly, her knowledge was superior to that of her young age…

No, maybe, just as she said, there was a possibility that she was maintaining her youth in some way.

Even so, it wouldn’t have been a problem.

─However, even George could not ignore the next words that came out of her mouth.

“Anyway, the owner of this mansion is. It seems like he used a number of humans as test subjects for his research. Furthermore, it was a human experiment. In the process, he didn’t even care about the lives of the test subjects…”

“Hey, hey… That’s…”

Even Ark couldn’t help but sound as if he was embarrassed by Rosalin’s somewhat excited words.

“Lies!”

And when George raised his voice in excitement, Ark could only look at him, shaking his shoulders in surprise.

There, there was George shaking with his pupils dilated in shock and embarrassment.

“What is this guy…”

“It’s a lie! My mother… Can’t be that kind of person!”

It can’t be.

A caring mother.

A mother who works hard for the village people.

She is a researcher who has used many people like tools.

So it’s like─.

Isn’t this the heinous ‘evil’ itself that the warriors must defeat?

“Are you the son of the owner of this mansion?”

As if intervening in George’s thoughts, Rosalyn speaks.

“At least what is written in this research log. It matches what I said. Unfortunately… Your mother is a person who has committed countless sins. If not… The research written here is ‘false.’ That would be the story.”

“…!!!!”

George took a deep breath at Rosaline’s words.

If you deny what is written in the research journal – that would be denying your mother.

But if you affirm it.

I also had no choice but to accept that my mother was a criminal.

“…”

Arc looked at George’s condition, was silent for a moment, and then looked back at Rosalyn.

“How many victims are there?”

“I don’t know. At least 3 digits? I haven’t read it all yet…”

Rosalind also shook her head with a dark look.

In the living room, a heavy silence settled.

Then, Ark was the first to open his mouth again.

“Take your research log. Leave here immediately and return to the lord. This… I think it’s too big a task for us to handle alone. Before leaving the castle, you set up a magic circle for return, right?”

Rosalyn nods her head at Ark’s words.

“Yeah… Well… That would be good.”

As if to comply with her leader’s decision, Rosalyn attempted to put her journal in her own bag.

“W-wait! If you do something like that…! Uh, mother…!”

When George, who was in a state of cognitive dissonance and panic, stretched out his arms and tried to run away, Arc grabbed his arms.

All he could think about was that he had to protect his ‘mother’ at all costs.

Otherwise, everything in your life up until now will fall apart.

I will have to be separated from my mother, and I will no longer be able to stay in this village.

There was even a possibility that she and her younger brother would be torn apart – or that guilt by association would be imposed.

However, Ark, who is holding on to George, says.

“No. I am not a person worthy of moral praise, but even if I am rotten, I am still a warrior. I cannot ignore what your mother did.”

As Ark speaks, he will send his signal to Rosalyn.

Then Rosalyn will nod her head and try to leave her living room.

“Pfft! Stop!”

Then, George swung his arm to shake off the arc.

Pop! A sound is heard, and Ark is unable to respond to George’s sudden display of strength and loses his grip.

“Ugh!? This guy?!”

But in the meantime, Rosalind tried to run through the living room.

The actions taken by George, who thought that catching her even when she ran wasn’t enough –

Hold onto the table in the living room and the candleholder in the center.

It was just thrown towards Rosaline.

Whick! The candlestick flew away and hit Rosaline’s leg.

Deep!

“Ugh!!”

When the point of her candlestick pierced Rosaleen’s shin, she fell on the spot, bleeding.

“Ugh! This bastard…! Brun! Rosaline is hurt! Protect her!”

At Ark’s angry shout, another man, a dwarf who was searching another room, appeared and helped Rosalind.

“Profit…!”

And first of all, he tried to head toward Rosaline’s hallway, as if trying to hide her in another room.

George would have tried to shake off Ark and move forward to capture Brun.

But the next moment.

Suddenly!

The sound of flesh being cut mercilessly was heard, and George suddenly felt the strength draining from his body.

My back is hot.

If you somehow manage to raise your head with the feeling of your mind becoming blurred in an instant.

There, I could see Arc, holding a brilliantly shining sword, looking down at George with a puzzled face.

“Oh my…”

He even broke into a cold sweat as if he hadn’t planned on doing this.

Eventually, George stopped moving.

With empty eyes, I was lying face down on the ground and my life was slowly fading away.

Brundo and Rosalind must have looked surprised when they saw that scene.

“Ah, Ark… What are you going to do…?”

“… What should I do? First, treat the wound. Use potions or healing magic…”

As Ark said this, he motioned for Brun to move her to her safe place.

First… If they don’t erase the traces of their entry before someone comes back.

Arc rolled her head as she quietly watched Brun lay her down on the sofa in her living room.

Head towards her research journal that Rosalyn dropped.

Whatever it is, we must find this evidence.

No matter how brave a person is, killing civilians is a problem.

To resolve things as amicably as possible, he must first prove that he hurt Rosaline, and then prove that his mother was a criminal and that he is also a criminal.

Squeak.

At that time.

A sound was heard from the hallway leading to the entrance.

Ark’s gaze slowly turned towards that direction.

There, a woman was standing there, looking in this direction, but the end of her gaze was not directed at the Ark.

The sword Ark held in his hand dripping with blood.

‘George’ fell under that sword.

It was towards his own son.

And the next moment.

Arc saw the woman take something out of her pocket and drink it.

At the same time, there was a strong shock, and he saw something grabbing his body.

It was a huge, red arm.

“Ugh…!”

Feeling unable to move his body at all, Ark was embarrassed and had no choice but to let go of the holy sword he was holding in his hand.

“You guys…! What did you do to my son!!!!”

The mother’s cry was so loud that it rang out of the mansion and into the village.

William cringed as he had never heard his mother so angry.

Thinking something was wrong, he went back to the village and tried to call in the vigilantes.

But.

‘Chin’

And he had no choice but to stop at the ‘familiar feeling’ of his black-gloved hand grabbing his shoulder