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「Raphael. Listen carefully, what you possess is a Special-Grade Rune. A rune only granted to the chosen ones. You are destined to one day become a beacon of hope for everyone in the world. That’s why, no matter what happens, you’re the only one we can’t stand to lose. You can join the battles only when you have matured and reached your full potential. Am I understood?」
Aunt Irina strongly admonished Raphael.
Now that she knew the rune Raphael had was special – the mark of a chosen hero – Inglis knew well just how constrained it was to be in the position of a hero, to be placed on a pedestal above everyone else, as the previous Hero King of Sylvair.
Also, taking into account his standing as the heir to the Marquis, she could understand just how precarious his future path would be. Really, what troubles.「Y-, yes, mother…」
Raphael was shocked to receive such a sharp retort from his mother.
From his point of view, his words came purely from his sense of justice.
He had not expected his mother to respond as strongly as this.
「Since this is a good chance to bring it up. Remember this, if something was to happen, even at the cost of everyone here, you alone must survive. Know that you’re in a substantial position now.」 1
「N-, no way! Mother……!」
Even though that was for a hypothetical situation, for this boy with a strong sense of justice, it was nothing short of painful.However, words oftentimes, when spoken, could lead to jinxes. Situations such as ‘truths borne from lies’, ‘speak of the devil’, and other things along those lines.
KERCHLAANK!!!
All of sudden, the window was blasted off, along with its frame and all.
One of the magic stone beasts had strayed from the knights and plunged headfirst into the room.
「KYAAAaaaAAAHH!!!」 2
Right after it got inside the room, the winged lizard rammed into Aunt Irina. 3 Irina had just enough time to protect the baby with her own body so that Rafinha wouldn’t get injured. However, that left her with nothing to protect herself – she lost consciousness upon a sharp hit on her head. Shocked by the impact, Rafinha burst into a wail.
「MOTHER!!」
「NO! You should escape!」
Selena stopped Raphael from unsheathing his sword, went to scoop Rafinha into her arms and then entrusted her and Inglis to Raphael.
She did that while pulling out a rapier that was hanging on the wall.
「I’m holding it back! You bring Inglis and Rafinha to safety!」
「But, aunt! That kind of sword can do nothing against it!」
The magic stone beast leapt towards Selena.
Being a former knight, her mother managed to evade the onslaught even though it had been a while since her last active duty.
However, her chosen weapon was a fragile rapier.
It could only endure so much attack – it was nearly snapped from that single exchange.
「Go already! What are you doing!?」
Selena reprimanded frantically. However——
「Rani! Glis! I’m sorry, wait here a bit!」
After Raphael placed Inglis and Rafinha on the floor behind the pillar, he unsheathed his sword and went to assist Selena in her fight.
「Let me back you up! If we manage to stall it, a knight with an Artifact might come to our aid!」
Inglis was beginning to understand that the so-called Artifact thing was a weapon that was effective against the magic stone beasts, used by knights in the current era.
「I’m telling you it’s pointless! Get the infants and yourself to safety!」
「No! How can I save other people if I can’t even protect the people I cherish in front of me!?」
What a young, passionate warcry.
However, that’s good! That’s the spirit! Inglis thought proudly.
One could only gain the right to be called a hero if they could eclipse such situations and come out triumphant.
A hero was not someone the people chose to do their biddings.
A hero was someone the people looked up to for the things you’d done due to your own heart’s desires.
「Ugh… kuh——! UWaah!?」
「Kyaaah!?」 4
However, their effort was in vain. A single shove from the lizard had both of them thrown into the wall.
「A, aunt……! Are you okay……!?」
「Uuh……」
Both Raphael and Selena were already on the edge of their consciousness.
If things were left as they were, both of them would be in grave danger.
And then after that, Irina and the pair of babies – Rafinha and Inglis – would also peril.
Then, let me give them a hand so that they’d survive – I can’t possibly let my mother die and also, in honor of that young man’s spirit.
In her current life, Inglis had decided to live only for herself.
For that reason, she had no interest in heroism. However, in saying that, she still wouldn’t hesitate to lend a hand to a hero in the making.
The kid deserved better than dying in this place.
Though she was trapped in her infant body, she could still find out whether there’s anything she could do.
Even in her current condition, her basic level of ether manipulation that she had learned in the previous life should allow her to strike her opponent.
Inglis wondered briefly if it would be fit to call it ‘Ether Strike’.
Since ‘Ether Strike’ held the potential of demolishing the entire mansion, she had never used it in her cradle before.
Fortunately for her, it seemed like everyone present was unconscious, save for the wailing baby. Thus, Inglis faced no risk of exposure to use it now.
「Daaaah——! Abububuuuuu!!」 5
Baby Inglis’ eyes shone brilliantly.
Then, a blinding flash of light rippled through the room and formed a large concentrated ball of light that flew towards the magic stone lizard.
BooOOOooooOOOooomm!!!! 6
The light swallowed the beast whole, while also destroying the wall behind it with a tremendous force. The force had the magic stone beast launched into the air and out of the room, with its body scorched and disintegrated into white ashes.
Hmm… Quite the power it packed for something a baby made!
It seemed like her routine training was not for naught.
「G-, Glis……? Wh-, what was……?」 7
Raphael who was leaning heavily against the wall muttered in a daze.
Is he awake? Inglis clicked her tongue.
「Th-, thank god——」
Raphael then lost his consciousness immediately after.
Phew, good thing he fainted, his memory would be hazy and he would think of it as nothing more than a dream. Inglis attempted to convince herself.
It was then when she was hit with a strong spell of drowsiness from overextending the limit of her infant body. This was what usually happened to her.
「Lady Irina! Young master Raphael! Are you two okay!?」
A flustered voice called out from the ground outside.
Aid is finally here, huh. It should be fine now then. Or so Inglis wanted to believe.
She wanted to watch over the situation until the end but with her fatigued body, she could no longer fight the sleep.
By the time she woke up, Inglis was laying in her cradle back at home.
From what she could eavesdrop from her parents, everything had ended well.
After that incident, for a while, Raphael was the only one who suspected that there was something off with Inglis.
However, nobody would buy that an infant such as Inglis could have done something like that. Plus, since Inglis never showed her true colours again after that, Raphael began to believe that it was just his brain playing a trick on him.
Considering that the existence of a being such as the Magic Stone Beast had been absent in Inglis’ past life, she did not know much about them.
However, what she learned from her parents’ conversations were that the Magic Stone Beasts that attacked Ymir that day were on the weakest end of the spectrum, and there were other stronger, more atrocious kinds of Magic Stone Beasts out there.
The strongest Magic Stone Beast could even bring a whole country into ruins, or so her father said.
It was quite an interesting piece of information.
For her first goal, she decided that she would find the so-called strongest Magic Stone Beast and crush it under her feet!
That was the resolution Inglis made as a 0-year-old baby.
