HRB 150

Ketron had a tense look on his face. Eddie was probably the only person in the world who could make this man nervous now, wasn’t he?

Eddie, who had been silent for a long time, making Ketron anxious, spoke with a melted face after a while.

“I was going to propose.”

On the day he heard Ketron’s proposal, Eddie thought to himself that he probably wouldn’t get a fancy proposal from Ketron, so he thought he could do it again in a cool way.

Of course, Eddie never imagined that Ketron would prepare such a wonderful ring and proposal while returning from his journey.

“Rather, I want to say it. Ket, will you live with me in the house I made? You might want to live peacefully in a bigger and better house, but I’m a strange person who’s just cut out for self-employment.”

Ketron, who didn’t seem to expect to receive a proposal in reverse, stared at Eddie for a moment, then smiled brightly and replied.

“No, Eddie. I don’t mind if the roof is the sky, as long as I’m by your side.”

…But wouldn’t it be hard to sleep outside no matter what?

A thought far from romantic popped into his head, but considering how he felt right now, Eddie nodded because he really felt like he could sleep outside with Ketron.

Ketron reached out and hugged Eddie. Eddie, who was nestled in his arms, closed his eyes, leaning on the cozy embrace of the person who would never leave his side for the rest of his life.

“Eddie, is there anything else you want to do?”

“I wanted to ask you that. Is there anything you want to do?”

“What you want to do is what I want to do.”

It would be nice if Ketron had other hobbies, but it would be difficult to suddenly tell someone who only knew how to hold a sword and fight to create a hobby.

Ketron could find out what he wanted to do little by little during their time together, so Eddie pondered for a moment when asked what he wanted to do.

But the conclusion came quickly.

The original ending of 〈Hero Doesn’t Hide His Power Too Much Part 2〉 was about Eddie’s friends going on an adventure as the Hero’s party to eliminate the remnants of the Demon race.

Of course, Eddie wasn’t in that story.

When Eddie saw that ending, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be alive until the end, and at the same time, he was disappointed.

Why wasn’t I included in it?

Eddie voiced the wish he had secretly held in his heart for the first time.

“I want to… go on a trip.”

“A trip?”

“Whether the inn is stable and we leave, or right now, anytime. I want to travel this world.”

When Eddie first visited Sandern for the Tournament, he saw a part of this world for the first time and liked it like a child.

He secretly cherished the wish to travel this world. Of course, after learning the secrets of this world, he realized that he couldn’t afford to do so and was secretly giving up.

But now there was no reason to give up.

“Okay.”

Because he had a lover by his side who could make anything happen if Eddie wanted to.

The ending of Part 2, which disappeared and was not completed, will not be an adventure that Ketron leaves on without Eddie, but an ending where he goes on an adventure with Eddie. And it will definitely be a happy one.

“A trip. Shall we go tomorrow?”

Ketron asked enthusiastically, as if he was trying to strike while the iron was hot. Eddie’s eyes widened.

“Can we do that? I think my brother will be in a frenzy trying to get an escort somehow.”

“Is that a problem when I’m with you? I also have a ring. And you’re going to take your henchmen with you even if I don’t want you to.”

It was certainly better to have as many members as possible on the trip. The way Eddie wanted it was for everyone to travel together, so if Gerold or Ebon were with them, it would be much more efficient than hundreds of escorts protecting Eddie. Of course, it was also reassuring.

“What about the inn?”

“You haven’t even opened it yet anyway, have you? And Eddie’s not the boss anymore. This time, we can go to that country, come back and take care of the inn, and then go to another country next time. Whatever you want.”

Ketron was unusually eloquent for once. And those words sounded quite plausible. Eddie hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he was completely seduced by the idea of going on a trip and quickly nodded.

“Yeah, okay. Then tomorrow.”

“Okay, tomorrow.”

They were two people who casually said things that would make Gerold, Danny, and even the Emperor grab their necks and scold them for talking nonsense.

The two people, who would make the people around them grab their necks in the not-too-distant future, enjoyed a quiet time under the cherry blossom tree for a while. Eddie looked at the engagement ring on his hand with a satisfied look, then buried his head in Ketron’s solid chest.

Ketron, who was looking at the round back of his head rubbing against his chest, lowered his head and kissed Eddie’s hair.

He, who had thought that he would never be able to do such ticklish things in his life, had now become a man who was quite used to holding his lover in his arms.

“You know, in the world I was in, books usually ended with a happy story. Whether they were for kids or adults.”

“Is that so.”

“Of course, there are some that aren’t, but most of them were. People want happy endings. They want the stories that follow to be happy, and they want the characters they care about to be happy.”

Eddie wanted that too. That’s why he was angry when he saw 〈Hero Doesn’t Hide His Power Too Much〉. Because the main character didn’t become happy.

“Ket, have you become happy?”

At those words, Ketron couldn’t hold back any longer and grabbed Eddie’s cheeks and kissed him.

There was no more perfect affirmation than that.

That night, the two people, who had made a lot of people grab their necks by making a bombshell announcement that they would go on a trip right away, fell asleep in their new nest.

Of course, they didn’t just sleep, so Eddie was almost passed out. Ketron quietly closed his eyes, holding Eddie tightly in his arms.

There, a red mist slowly began to form.

When the room was filled with red mist, a man with a white face peeked out from above the ceiling.

It was Lilzhir, the Demon King’s strategist.

His movements did not contain any threat or Magical power, so the Hero could not notice him unless he directly interfered with his dreams.

Of course, if he approached the human he was holding with malice, the Hero or his Holy Sword would react immediately… but today Lilzhir did not visit with malice.

No, far from malice, rather.

‘I have an order for you.’

In order to keep the Demon King’s last order, he could be said to have come with pure goodwill.

Lilzhir blew a dream into the human in front of him. Of course, this dream was not a simple dream, so even he, a powerful Demon race, would have to suffer a lot…

But he couldn’t neglect the last request of the Demon King he had served all his life.

Lilzhir sighed softly, and his figure slowly blurred, and soon his consciousness was sucked into the unconsciousness of the human in front of him.

Eddie was wandering in a dream.

Oh, it’s a dream.

It was a lucid dream where he could know it was a dream the moment he dreamed it. Eddie, who had often had lucid dreams, but didn’t remember having any particularly great dreams just because they were lucid dreams, felt a strange feeling and went forward, forward.

It was a pitch-black, empty space, but it kept shining light forward as if it were showing Eddie the way, so Eddie walked and walked without hesitation. It was as if there was a fairy in the game telling a beginner, “It’s here!”

I think I’ve walked quite a bit.

When he had walked for quite a while, enough to think that, Eddie heard a cry from somewhere.

Who is it?

The direction was the same as the direction the light was pointing, so Eddie quickened his pace with a somehow anxious feeling. The crying in the darkness was eerie, but the moment he heard the crying, an unknown anxiety filled Eddie’s heart rather than eeriness.

And when Eddie finally arrived at the end of the light, he saw a woman sitting down and crying.

The back of her head was so familiar that Eddie gasped for a moment.

Since when she had been doing that, what was so sad and unfair, the woman was crying so sadly that it broke the hearts of those who heard her.

And Eddie knew who that woman was. There was no way he couldn’t recognize her.

Eddie called out to her without hesitation.

“Mom?”