The Hero Becomes the Duke’s Eldest Son

Chapter 150

“The gates of hell will open again.”

The goddess of slaughter and death spoke.

“This is an event born from accumulated karma and causality, so it will inevitably happen.”

The voice of the goddess of slaughter, echoing from beneath the mask, was strangely cold.

“The western continent will face the reopening of Tartarus, and the Underlord and his army will ravage the continent once more. Yes! It will be stained with blood just like my sanctuary!”

“What are you trying to say?”

“If you deal with all of them, your comrades, how do you plan to stop the Underlord?”

“……”

Aden remained silent at that question.

The goddess of slaughter continued speaking.

“The Underlord and his army were not stopped by you alone.”

It was as the goddess of slaughter said.

The Hero King, the Iron-Blooded Saint, the Archmage, the Great Alchemist, and the Dragon Slayer.

Humanity could unite around these five heroes, forming the Allied Forces of the Surface World, fighting solely to defeat the Underlord.

If even one of them had been absent, they wouldn’t have been able to defeat not just the Underlord, but even his generals.

“Regardless of their true nature, sins, or personalities, they were heroes who saved the western continent. Yet you intend to judge them. One is already dead. If the remaining four heroes die, will you be able to defeat the Underlord and his generals like in the future?”

“So, are you telling me to give up on my revenge now?”

“If possible, yes. But I know well that it won’t happen.”

Craaaak.

Kyaaaak!

Red flowers, as if wanting to devour Aden, bared their sharp teeth and howled.

“Thus, I may need to kill you here to stop you. As fertilizer for the anthropomorphic flowers that bloomed from the souls of those evil ones.”

A menacing threat that couldn’t be ignored, she released the godly aura she had tightly restrained to intimidate Aden.

Even that was enough to make Aden feel like he would be crushed to death on the spot.

This was the aura of a god, far beyond that of a human.

A presence that made Aden’s existence feel like a speck of dust.

“Stop talking nonsense.”

Despite feeling the overwhelming aura of the goddess of slaughter, Aden furrowed his brow and spoke confidently.

“I know you don’t intend to do that.”

He was the one who had advanced against the overwhelming fear of the Dragon King, breaking through the dragon’s scales.

A spirit that did not yield to overwhelming strength; that was Aden’s innate talent.

“Because, as you said, I am one of those five. If I die, the future of the western continent will be even more bleak.”

This was not self-praise, but a cold, analytical conclusion.

Even in the future, Aden had been the strongest among his comrades, almost a symbolic leader.

“And I have knowledge of the future.”

He had already experienced the war against the Talos and knew what would happen in the future.

The value of this knowledge was enough to overturn the continent’s power dynamics.

If the goddess of slaughter was truly concerned about the safety of the western continent and the Surface World, she would understand how significant the loss of Aden would be.

Facing a god’s aura without yielding, Aden spoke logically and confidently…

“Hahahahahaha!”

The goddess of slaughter laughed brightly, almost childishly.

Then she retracted her godly aura, removing the oppressive pressure.

“That’s right! You’re absolutely right! I can’t harm you, Aden! I have no intention of doing so, and I apologize for testing you like this!”

At her words, the red flowers around them drooped as if disappointed, murmuring incomprehensibly.

“But I am curious about how you plan to handle the future after dealing with them! What will you do?”

“There’s no need to fix anything, goddess of slaughter.”

Aden shrugged and spoke to her.

“In the original timeline, the Sacred Fire Order fell.”

As a result, many patients and wounded died without receiving treatment.

Among them were countless promising talents and soldiers.

“In the original timeline, Syres fought against the Winter Queen’s army of frost.”

As a result, the Grand Duchy’s forces were nearly halved.

Even after the creation of the Hero King Sylbeta’s Blood Knights, the aftermath wasn’t fully resolved.

“And your cult fell to the Undying Lord.”

Many people and priests of the Slaughter Cult fought to stop the gray army of the mad Undying Lord, losing their lives in the process.

“Besides that, the western continent was plagued by disaster-level monster waves, various calamities, civil wars, and above all, the war with the Warlocks.”

Chaos and Florence’s fire.

The two, whose ideologies were as incompatible as water and oil, were ultimately defeated individually by the empire’s punitive forces.

However, if these two forces had united and attacked the empire, the empire and the western continent would have collapsed in an instant.

That was how powerful the Warlocks were, and to eliminate their power, the western continent had to shed a lot of blood.

“But I prevented the imperial banquet incident and the subsequent warlock purge.”

Thanks to that, the empire and the warlock forces had not yet clashed.

Both sides still had strong individuals and talents intact.

“It wasn’t because my comrades and I were strong that we defeated the Underlord. We weren’t special heroes.”

It was simply that all the people who could have fought in their place had died.

After endless deaths, only a handful of strong ones remained—Aden and his four comrades.

“People are strong enough without us, goddess of slaughter.”

“……So you’re saying that you’ll prevent all future disasters and wars? Are you sure it will work?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

He had already suppressed two disaster-level monster waves and prevented the decline of both the Sacred Fire Order and the Slaughter Cult.

“Moreover, the Silver Witch is still alive.”

Her terrifying power to raise thousands of the dead at once and subjugate all undead absolutely.

As long as she and her forces remained, there was nothing to fear, even if Tartarus opened immediately.

Aden declared firmly.

“The world is not so weak that it will collapse without me or those traitors. And I won’t let it happen.”

The world had to remain intact for him to live well too.

Although he hadn’t thought about life after achieving his revenge, he had no intention of dying with the world.

Seeing Aden’s determination, the goddess of slaughter…

“Hahahahahaha!”

She burst into bright laughter again.

“Oh, I like you more and more, Aden! How about you leave the Sacred Fire and become my apostle?”

“I refuse. Even being the Sacred Fire’s apostle gives me headaches.”

Being an apostle meant being bound to a certain existence.

That didn’t suit Aden’s nature, who had wandered the world freely.

“I was just kidding. If I don’t pluck out your eyes, the powers of the apostles will clash and your body will explode. But do you have any thoughts about plucking out those pretty eyes and becoming my apostle…?”

“I refuse even more.”

Indeed, nothing good came from getting involved with this crazy god.

With Aden’s firm refusal, the goddess of slaughter, looking somewhat disappointed, brought up another topic.

“Then I’ll give you another gift instead.”

“I’ll gratefully accept.”

There was no such thing as refusing a gift without strings attached in Aden’s book.

“When you wake up, the gift I sent will be beside you. Think about how to use it! Now, there isn’t much time left. I’ll tell you one good thing before we part!”

“What is it?”

“Do you know, Aden? In the original world, there was no such person as Aden Remes!”

“…What?”

“Have you ever heard anything about the original owner of that body before you died?”

“What do you mean by that… hmm.”

At the goddess of slaughter’s question, Aden thought for a moment before shaking his head.

‘No, I haven’t.’

In his previous life, Aden had never heard of the wastrel prince Aden Remes.

He just assumed that the owner of this body had lived quietly in the remote southern border, and thus, he had never heard about him.

But thinking about it now, something felt off.

No matter how remote and declining the ducal family was, a duke was still a member of the imperial ‘great house’.

It wouldn’t have been strange for Aden to have heard rumors about a wastrel heir of such a prominent family.

The goddess of slaughter explained the reason.

“In the original world, the Duchess of the Remes family had a child 20 years ago. However, unfortunately, the child was stillborn.”

The reason the wastrel prince was stillborn in the original world was due to the absence of a soul.

Although a fetus was formed, it lacked a soul, and the baby died within five minutes of birth.

This was an extremely rare occurrence.

‘I see.’

With that explanation, Aden understood why the existence of Aden Remes had never been mentioned before.

The original owner of this body was stillborn and had never seen the light of day.

This raised a question.

“Then why was this body alive in the current world?”

In the present world, the owner of this body had been alive even before Aden entered it.

If what the goddess of slaughter said was true, what could explain this?

“Before I explain that, let me ask you one more thing. When do you think you returned to the past?”

“When, you ask? That would be last year…”

From the perspective of Aden Albireo, it would be 15 years in the past, and from the perspective of his return, it had been about a year.

When Aden answered this obvious fact, the goddess of slaughter burst into laughter.

“Haha! You’re wrong! You returned much earlier! ‘20 years ago’! 20 years ago! Which would be 34 years ago for you now!”

“…What?”

“Your soul did not travel back to last year, but to the time 20 years ago! To when Aden ‘Remes’ was conceived!”

“……”

“And now you reside in that body, Aden. Do you understand what I mean, smart Aden?”

Aden Albireo’s soul had returned to 20 years ago.

At the same time, a soulless baby was born 20 years ago.

And Aden was in ‘that body’.

“So, you mean to say…”

Realizing the implication, Aden’s face hardened.

His voice trembled.

It was a conclusion he didn’t want to acknowledge, a truth he wanted to deny.

But if her words were all true, there was only one answer.

Finally, the goddess of slaughter, with a tone filled with irritating amusement, spoke the words Aden didn’t want to hear.

“Yes! That’s right! You didn’t possess the wastrel prince last year. You ‘reincarnated’ as Aden Remes 20 years ago and only now, due to the fever, have you ‘awakened to your past life’! Tada!”

“……”

Hearing this forbidden truth, Aden was at a loss for words.

***

When the limited time for the vision ended, the goddess of slaughter was left alone in her sanctuary.

But not long after, another guest visited her.

He was a handsome man with black hair and golden eyes that flickered like flames.

Seeing him, the goddess of slaughter waved happily.

“Oh! Hello, Flame! Has it been 100 years?”

“Yes, about that long. Crazy one.”

He was the Lord of the Sacred Fire Order.

He frowned at the scenery around him and the red flowers moaning on the ground.

“Can you stop growing these weird flowers? They make my eyes feel rotten.”

“Oh, why! They’re so pretty!”

“You haven’t changed at all in hundreds of years.”

“Thanks for the compliment!”

“It wasn’t a compliment, you damned lunatic.”

He sighed deeply, showing a trace of regret.

Then, glaring at her with his golden, flame-flickering eyes, he asked.

“I know you’re mad, but have you truly gone insane? Sending ‘divine items’ to meddle in the mortal world? You know well that we are bound by the world’s restrictions.”

“Haha! Are you worried about me, Flame? Thanks!”

“Just answer my question…!”

“You yourself intervened heavily not long ago by blessing that boy, didn’t you? Even sharing your power with a dog!”

“Th-that was within the bounds of the restrictions…”

As if his weak point had been poked, he averted his gaze. Finding this amusing, the goddess of slaughter laughed and removed the mask she was wearing.

“But it was necessary. You know that well, Flame. That’s why I had to do it too.”

Shaaah.

With that, beautiful red feathered wings sprouted and spread out from her back.

Three pairs of wings of different sizes.

Seeing these wings, the Lord of the Sacred Fire flinched.

“Crazy one, you…!”

One of the three pairs of wings began to fade, shedding ruby-like feathers as if it would disappear at any moment.

She laughed brightly.

“I know you’ve been using tricks! So I used some tricks too!”

“Damn lunatic…”

The Lord of the Sacred Fire eventually shook his head.