Kays Translations

Chapter One Epilogue, Part One: Before the Happy Ending

When Ren opened his eyes, his thoughts were slow and unfocused.

He noticed the softness of the bed next, followed by a dull ache throughout his body.

“Ah…”

“You should remain still. Your wounds have not healed.”

A man stood beside the window. Ren had never met him, yet his refined appearance made his identity obvious.

“Are you Baron Clausel?”

The man smiled and sat beside the bed.

“Lessard Clausel. You may call me Lessard if you wish. I do not know how many times I must thank you.”

“There is no need, my lord. Where am I?”

“In my mansion. You have been asleep for a month.”

“A month?”

“A full month since you and Licia returned to Clausel.”

Questions crowded Ren’s mind, but one came before all others.

Lessard understood at once.

“My daughter is safe, thanks to you. In fact, she is asleep at the foot of your bed.”

Ren turned his head carefully. Licia sat on a round chair, her upper body resting against the mattress. Warm sunlight had restored the color to her face and the luster to her hair.

“She comes every day to care for you,” Lessard said.

“I’m sorry to cause trouble.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Licia is doing what she wants, and my family owes you more than we can repay.”

Lessard explained everything Ren had missed. Roy and Mireille were safe and would soon visit Clausel. Many villagers had been injured, but none had died. The damaged village was being rebuilt with the Clausel family’s full support.

The absence of deaths seemed almost miraculous after the scale of the attack.

“There is another debt I owe you,” Lessard continued. “Defeating the Thief Wolfen allowed me to secure the help of a powerful noble.”

Ren frowned. “How?”

“Thief Wolfen organs are valuable medicinal ingredients, but every required organ must be intact. The specimen you killed was in extraordinary condition. Your sword entered through its mouth and destroyed the head from within, leaving the organs unblemished.”

Ren remembered the possible original timeline he had seen during captivity. In that version, the Clausel knights had defeated the Thief Wolfen only after a brutal battle, and its body had been badly damaged. Roy had also been forced to bear the consequences of the fight.

That difference had changed everything.

“A noble needed the medicine for his daughter,” Lessard said. “I sold him the materials. In addition to the payment, he promised conditional assistance should House Clausel ever face a crisis.”

“He must be a very powerful man.”

“A marquis. Viscount Given could not compare with him.”

Lessard removed a black card from his pocket and placed it on the bedside table. An ornate crest decorated its surface.

“His butler, Edgar, left this for you. It is an invitation to the marquis’s residence. The marquis wishes to thank the person whose actions saved his daughter.”

Ren recognized the crest but could not immediately remember where he had seen it.

“He belongs to the Imperial Faction,” Lessard added. “A request from a man of his rank is difficult to refuse.”

Ren wondered why such a powerful man had waited to intervene until the last possible moment.

Lessard explained that gratitude alone was not enough. Openly interfering in a conflict involving the Hero Faction could have created a broader factional dispute. House Clausel belonged to the Neutral Faction, which made intervention even more delicate. The marquis needed a defensible reason to act.

Licia and Ren’s return, the injured knight, and the evidence they brought supplied that reason. The promised support had always been conditional on such an opportunity appearing.

“Do not worry excessively about formal speech when you meet him,” Lessard said. “Neither he nor I will fault the benefactor of our families for being a country knight’s son.”

He seemed to notice Ren’s attempt to make his speech more formal and waved it away.

Then Lessard’s expression darkened.

“Viscount Given is dead.”

Ren stared.

“A retrial was ordered that same day. I was acquitted, while multiple charges were brought against Given. The first hearing in his territory was being prepared when he died from poison he had concealed.”

“Was it truly suicide?”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps his patron lords and allies pressured him to silence himself. He may also have chosen death rather than expose everything under examination. We may never know.”

The result resembled cutting off a lizard’s tail. One man was dead, while the people behind him remained hidden.

Given’s manor had burned soon afterward, destroying most records that might have explained his scheme. The surviving knights testified that House Ashton was important to him, but none knew why. His remarks about a decade-old connection between Clausel and Ashton could no longer be investigated properly.

The mystery remained.

Ren tried to think through the possibilities, but a month of unconsciousness and his recent awakening left his mind sluggish.

“For the moment, however, Clausel is safe,” Lessard said. “The Hero Faction is under pressure from the marquis, and no one will move carelessly against us. That does not mean I can become complacent, but it gives us time.”

He rose.

“That is enough serious talk for someone who has just awakened. Shall I have food brought?”

“Yes, please.”

“And stop speaking as though you are a guest who must leave tomorrow. Until your wounds heal, this mansion is your home.”

Lessard departed before Ren could protest.

Ren looked around the luxurious room and sighed.

“I never imagined I would enter the Clausel mansion like this.”

Only weeks earlier he had lived in a small frontier house full of drafts. This mansion was the complete opposite, magnificent and carefully maintained. Becoming accustomed to such comfort might be dangerous in its own way.

He pushed the thought aside and sat up as far as his injuries allowed. Sleeping again immediately would be unbearably dull.

Licia’s peaceful face at the foot of the bed reassured him.

The black invitation card still bothered him. He picked it up and studied the crest.

(I know this from Legend of the Seven Heroes.)

Before he could remember where, Licia stirred.

“Ren…?”

Her eyes opened. For a moment, she simply stared.

Then tears welled up.

“I told you to run away.”

At the end of the battle with Yelquq, she had given him her remaining power and begged him to save himself.

“I’m sorry,” Ren said. “I couldn’t leave you behind.”

“Are you an idiot? I caused you so much trouble, and you still risked your life.”

“I’m not an idiot. I was completely serious.”

“That is exactly why you’re an idiot.”

They were hardly the words one normally offered to the person who saved one’s life, but Licia could not stop herself.

She leaned carefully against his chest, mindful of his injuries, and began to cry.

“I’m sorry. This was all my fault.”

“It was terrible luck, nothing more. We saved each other, so let’s call it even.”

Ren hesitated before placing a hand gently on her back. Licia pressed closer, reassuring herself that he was truly awake.

After several quiet minutes, she sat beside him and wiped her face. For once, she looked entirely like a child her age rather than the composed daughter of a baron.

“Are you feeling well now?” Ren asked.

“Yes. Much better.”

“I’m relieved. I was more worried about you than anything else.”

The battle returned to his thoughts—and with it, the unknown magic sword.

His bracelet was gone. The temporary bracelet created from the Thief Wolfen reward appeared to have vanished when his body reached its limit.

Licia noticed him looking at his empty wrist and misunderstood.

“I’ll give you a bracelet!”

“That isn’t necessary.”

“I insist.”

An ordinary replacement would serve no purpose, and Ren could always summon another interface bracelet later. He changed the request.

“Then could I have a dagger instead? Something that can start a fire, like Weiss’s dagger.”

The old dagger had been lost during the battle, and the escape had taught Ren never to underestimate the value of fire.

“Of course. I’ll find one that suits you.”

As she spoke, Ren’s attention drifted to the place where the mysterious light had appeared. His bracelet had reacted when his wrist rested against Licia’s chest—almost as if it had touched a magic stone.

Licia crossed her arms protectively when she noticed his stare.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Ren looked away, embarrassed.

“This may sound absurd, but… do you have a magic stone inside your body?”

Her face turned bright red.

“How did you know? Did Father tell you?”

“No. I was almost joking.”

“Father would never reveal a secret about a saint’s body!”

She held her upper body more tightly, guarded and flustered.

Ren blinked. “So it is true?”

“Yes! It is! Now tell me who told you.”

“No one. It was only a guess based on what happened during the battle.”

Licia gradually relaxed.

“You surprised me.”

“This sounds like an important secret. Should you tell me so readily?”

“You won’t repeat it.”

Her confidence was absolute. After entrusting her life to Ren, she no longer doubted him.

“Only saints with particularly great power develop a magic stone,” she explained. “My family and the temple’s high priests are the only people who know. You must keep it secret.”

Magic stones were normally associated only with monsters. If the truth became widely known, some might treat saints as unnatural or evil. The secrecy protected them.

Ren understood one piece of the mystery.

(The unknown sword drew power from Licia’s magic stone.)

Why the bracelet could access a stone inside a human body, why the sword had no name, and why it was so overwhelmingly strong remained unanswered.

“I promise I will never tell anyone.”

Satisfied, Licia stood.

“Then I’m going to the storehouse to find your dagger.”

“One more question. Do you recognize this crest?”

She glanced at the black invitation card and sighed. After being caught in the conflict between factions, even the crest of an ally carried unpleasant associations.

“It belongs to Marquis Ignat—the pride of the Imperial Faction.”

Licia left the room.

Ren remained frozen.

“Ignat… of course.”

Marquis Ignat was the final enemy of Legend of the Seven Heroes I.

A brilliant soldier and statesman, he later rebelled against the emperor, joined the plot to resurrect the Demon King, and spent years undermining the Leomel Empire. He assassinated nobles from every faction, including the gifted Third Prince, and eventually fought the heroes in the Baldor Mountains.

Yet his rebellion began with personal grief.

His sick daughter had required medicine containing Thief Wolfen material. The imperial family possessed a reserve but refused to release it, keeping the stock for a possible emergency within the imperial family. The emperor’s decision was defensible as policy, but Ignat’s daughter died.

Before his own death in the game, Ignat revealed the reason for his hatred: the emperor had refused to save his daughter.

His grief became resentment, and that resentment drove him toward the Demon King’s followers.

Players had searched for a way to save her. Some had expected a hidden quest to appear on a second playthrough. None existed. She died before the main cast grew old enough to intervene.

Now she was alive.

Ren’s pristine Thief Wolfen materials had saved her.

The route that created Legend of the Seven Heroes I’s final boss had already changed.

“Even as his benefactor, I’d rather not become too involved with that man.”

Ren sank back onto the pillow, overwhelmed by the scale of the consequences. When he summoned the bracelet again, the unknown magic sword was no longer listed.

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter