Chapter 144 – Perhaps This is the Hero

“That was indeed the case… All of the Heroes before me had indeed honed their skills through fighting off the assassins the demons sent after them, and only my case was a little special,” Abel said, expressing her understanding.
“What about now?”

“Now, the demons have realized that they need to take even the undeveloped Hero seriously.
So, two days after I drew the Hero's sword, the demon realm was already prepared to send the Four Heavenly Kings after me,” Alice said.
Then, after seeing the look of confusion on Abel's face changing into one of realization, she continued, “Get it now? Before I develop my mana pool and repertoire of taboos sufficiently, I cannot recklessly expose my identity as the Hero.”

“I see.
If that's the case, I can understand why you would take such covert actions,” Abel said in realization.
As someone who got selected to be the Hero at a critical moment, she had to fight the demons before she had time to develop herself fully.
Thus, she was well aware that should the demons' Four Heavenly Kings target an undeveloped Hero, there was a high chance that they would succeed.

Had the Demon King she faced back then not been a coward and kept missing out on excellent opportunities, the demon army might have killed her before she managed to grow.

“Since that is the case, let me help you learn these taboos, then,” Abel said, patting herself on the chest and volunteering herself to help after learning of Alice's situation.
“I might have lost some of my memories after becoming a remnant soul, but I still remember the seven taboos unique to my race.”

Seven? Alice was momentarily stunned.
Then, she looked at the magic books scattered across the floor and asked, “But there are eleven here?”

“Eleven?” Abel was also stunned.
Then, after looking at the books on the floor, she quickly came to a realization and said, “I see.
They must've developed four more after I died… It doesn't matter.
I can still help you learn seven of them at the very least.”

“But I can't stay here all the time.
I am here on a school trip with others from my magic academy,” Alice said.
“So, if you want to help me learn these taboos, you might have to follow me.”

“That naturally won't be a problem,” Abel said without hesitation.
However, as soon as she finished speaking, she quickly realized a problem.
She was a remnant soul attached to Filia's panties.
Currently, the pair of panties she was attached to had just been removed from Filia's body, so it still retained the concept of “the underwear Filia is wearing.” However, if Alice took this pair of panties away, it would quickly detach itself from that concept.
When that happened, her remnant soul would no longer be able to remain attached to the panties.

“Get it now? You can't leave Filia's underwear,” Alice said as she put the pair of white panties back on Filia's bottom.
Then, she looked at Abel's remnant soul hovering above Filia's bottom and continued, “But it's fine.
I'll be spending most of my time studying taboos here the next few days, so you just need to teach me during these times.”

“I guess that's our only choice.”

Abel couldn't help but get the feeling that Alice sounded like she was gloating when she said the words: “You can't leave Filia's underwear.” However, as she didn't have any evidence, she could do nothing about it.

“By the way, I get the feeling that you don't feel particularly surprised to see a former Hero's remnant soul,” Abel said, voicing one of the questions that had been plaguing her for some time now.

“That's because I met another Hero's soul some time ago.
I even brought her with me,” Alice said, chuckling when she saw Abel's confused look.
Honestly, though, she wasn't surprised even when she saw Kristine's soul.
The only time she was truly surprised to see a soul was when she came across Grant's soul.
“I'll bring her here tomorrow so you two can have a chat.”

“You sure know a lot of Heroes,” Abel commented.
“You might be the only human to have met so many Heroes before.
The average human lifespan isn't enough to let a human meet two consecutive generations' of Heroes.
The likelihood of meeting a Hero's soul is also close to zero.”

“My case is a little special.”

In reality, Alice wanted to tell Abel that she had also met with two Demon Kings.
Moreover, she had even defeated one and turned the other into her maid.
However, it would only cause misunderstandings and raise questions unnecessarily, so she decided to keep her mouth shut on this matter.

…

“You finally decided to come back?” Zauna said in a huff when she saw Alice returning to their room.
It was one in the afternoon already, which was one hour past the time they agreed to have lunch together.
“The food's all cold already.”

“Sorry, sorry.
I came across an unexpected situation,” Alice said as she put her hands together and made an apologetic action.
Then, she quickly took a seat at the dining table and began stuffing herself with the food Luna made, her behavior making her look nothing like a dignified princess.

“What happened?” Lalu asked in a surprised tone when she heard Alice's words.
At the same time, an inexplicable feeling of excitement and regret appeared within her.
She was excited that something unexpected had happened and regretful that she wasn't present when this unexpected situation happened.
“Did Filia wake up?”

“No.
I said she would sleep for a week, so she won't wake up before that time is up.”

Alice was incredibly confident in the effects of the taboo she cast.
Even Abel's remnant soul wouldn't be able to remove those effects for Filia.
After all, a remnant soul didn't have a source of mana.
Moreover, a remnant soul's abilities were much more limited than a complete soul.
So, even if Abel had a mana source, she would probably be helpless against the Curse of Delusion.

Meanwhile, after hearing Lalu's question, Alice wondered whether she should tell Zauna and Lalu about Abel's matter.
However, after thinking it over, she felt that there wasn't any specific need to hide the existence of Abel's remnant soul.
Thus, she said, “But I did find the Seventh Hero's remnant soul on Filia's body and talked with her for a while.”

Zauna spat out some of the soup she had just drunk when she heard Alice's words.
Then, after hurriedly wiping her mouth and swallowing the rest of the soup in her mouth, she looked at Alice and asked, “What did you say?! The Seventh Hero's remnant soul? Are you talking about the Elven Hero Abel?”

“Yes, it's her.” Alice nodded.
“She's a surprisingly nice person.
She even agreed to teach me the elves' taboos.
Anyway, with her help, I should be able to learn the elves' taboos much more quickly.”

“You really have an interesting life,” Zauna said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
Staying by Alice's side felt like being inside a story.
She could always hear unbelievable things when she was with Alice.

Perhaps this was what it meant to be a Hero.

In the past, whenever Zauna heard stories about the Hero, she would always find that the Heroes lived unrealistic lives.
However, after befriending an actual Hero, she realized that these unrealistic situations might be nothing more than a daily occurrence for the Hero.