Edea: Hero Summoning Conspiracy

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With the arrival of Zwei and his men at Waise village, Kazuya and Julia spent their time at the Valentine residence until the skies have already gone dark. Apparently, the duke Eberbach's men had set up camp near the village so the healers they brought with them would be able to do for their injured comrade what Gale wasn't able to with her current prowess.

To Kazuya, it really didn't matter much as he was both satisfied and currently occupied with the discovery that shocked him today. It had taken them a few hours of work, but they were finally able to categorize the books with the help of the innocent children who usually stayed at the house.

"Kazu onii-chan, I helped the most!"

"No! I carried more books!"Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.readwn.comfor visiting.

"Wasn't it me that helped more Kazu-nii?"

The children gathered themselves around Kazuya who had promised to reward them with his personal cooking tonight. The kids grew relatively attached to Kazuya in the past few days because not only did he seem to be sought out a lot by Gain and their big sister Gale, he had also let them taste food that was not only delicious, but tickled their interests visually.

"I want a bunny dumpling!"

"I want one that looks like a boat!"

"C-can I have a flower?"

"Hey! Don't bother Kazu-san too much. He's already making you guys dinner so everyone should be satisfied with that!" Gale stepped in and tried to stop them from bothering Kazuya too much. She was worried that the children would annoy him.

She had been more cautious about how she acted in front of Kazuya ever since she learned of her father's suspicions. She only thought that he would have been a noble at best but who would have thought that he could actually be the hero that their whole kingdom had been anticipating.

There were only a few exceptions, but in Edea, the stories of the summoned heroes were heard at least once by children as they were growing up. She didn't want the kids to offend him since Kazuya was not like any hero she had heard of. He seemed to have held resentments over the people who summoned him to their world.

"It's alright, Gale-san. I've intruded at your home so making a simple meal is the least I could do. These kids have been helpful and I'm happy to grant their requests." He smiled at the children and crafted their requests."

"Yay! Kazu-nii-san is the best!"

"Whoooaa! A bunny!"

"You should just stay here with us onii-san! That way we can eat delicious things every day!"

"Hehe. Though I really don't hate that thought. Unfortunately, I have a lot of things to do before I can consider staying in one place." He wiped his hands and patted their heads.

"""Hehehe~"""

Seeing that there were no problems, Gale backed down and sat across Julia. Their help had been rejected as Kazuya had wanted the kids to help him make the food instead so they were left with the books that were taken from the basement.

"Is there something you need?" Julia noticed the hesitating look that Gale had been giving her.

"Does Kazu-san usually interact with a lot of children?" She curiously asked. He looked to have been used to dealing with kids that it would have been unusual if he had never had experience with them before.

"I… have no idea. This is the first time I've seen him interacting with them." She was a little surprised by the question and hesitated.

Thinking about it, she knew nothing about this person's personal life. From how she got to know him, it was too shocking for him to be seen kindly treating children to the point of spoiling them. Julia had never seen Kazuya in a positive light when it came to his personality because of what happened between them but, after suddenly being asked about him, she had a realization.

"(We know nothing about each other…)" Julia pondered.

She had no idea what made Kazuya do the things he did after he arrived in Edea nor why Julia had risked herself to be put in this state for the princess. The order of their relationship had been an absolute mess. Her absolute obedience came before knowing the person she was now serving.

"Where do you plan to go after leaving the village?" Gale asked yet another question which Julia wanted to know herself.

"No idea. Probably back to the capital. It would be faster to get there if we cut through the forest, but I don't know what he plans on doing. Our trip wasn't supposed to have lasted a day yet, due to the circumstances we are here now."

"Did you two have a fight? It has been a little awkward between the two of you from my point of view…" Gale wanted to help the two in some way since it wasn't just her that noticed this. A few adventurer parties have intensified their efforts to recruit her.

"A fight? No. I don't think we are close enough to even have one of those. What I am is just someone he needs to give orders to." She emotionlessly spoke. Though she admits that Kazuya was not wrong when he said that Julia hadn't been treated like her current status, one will still find a bitter pill, bitter and hard to swallow.

"That…" Gale flinched. She didn't think that Julia would frankly admit it.

"You don't have to worry about me." Julia faintly smiled towards Gale. She found this girl to be quite likable even though she was a commoner. Unlike the uncouth people she had met, this girl was very mindful of others which satisfied Julia.

"I think that the two of you will eventually be able to work it out. My grandfather always said that as long as is not fatal, time will heal most wounds." She encouraged.

"Time heals wounds huh…" Julia murmured. "Thanks… I guess." Though she didn't hate this girl, there was no reason to dislike her. with her current situation, she was even lower than commoners after all.

The two girls watched the harmonious interactions between Kazuya and the children. After what she had experienced in the past few days, Julia thought that this just might be the hero's most natural state. Thinking about it, she was probably the person who has spent the most time with him ever since his arrival.

"I'm back!" Gain triumphantly declared as he entered the house. "Huh?"

He wanted to brag about completing his mission of not letting Zwei and his men know that Kazuya and Julia were still in the village but after seeing the books scattered around the house, he could only turn to look at his daughter for an explanation.

"Oh! Welcome back Gain-san. Dinner would be ready soon so please wash up. We can talk about what happened with the soldiers later." Kazuya sent the children to drag Gain to wash himself as he finished up with the cooking.

Though Gain was the head of the village, other than having a larger than normal residence to accommodate the orphans, he relatively lived like all the other villagers. There wasn't anything extravagant as they had lived humbly so everything was relatively normal.

Nobles like Julia might not think much about it but to Kazuya, he had respected this humble village leader. To him, most of the nobles lording over their territories were trash compared to the simple man in front of him.

He lived humbly despite being in charge of the village and even gave out his own earnings to take care of abandoned children. He chose to give back instead to keep for the better of everyone. These were the kinds of humans that were, even on earth, looked down upon and preyed on. Which was sad.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Gain came back with the children and sat down as soon as everyone had finished setting up the table.

"Well…" Gale glanced over at Kazuya who was currently serving the children with their requested dumplings. "Kazu-san can apparently read the books…"

"Oh, so that's— wait what did you just say!? He can read these books!?"

"I can. That is why I have a proposal I want to talk to you about, Gain-san." Kazuya confirmed it as he sat down to join them.

"A proposal? Do you want to buy these books?"

"If you want to sell them I'll be honest and say that I can't afford to pay for them right now but, I was thinking more like renting them out." He said with a smile.

"Rent?" Gain grew confused. He turned to look at his daughter for answers but from the way she was tilting her head, he noticed that she was probably as confused as he was.

"I categorized the books depending on what they are about and I thought about something…" Kazuya glanced at the kids. "What about letting these children learn about many things that would help them as they grow older?"

"What do you mean?" Gain didn't know what he meant.

"The village is currently serving as a host to various adventurers, right? The way I see it, many adventurers help around town while some of the current members were former adventurers themselves. Why not let these experienced people help the children out by having them teach them various skills that they could use when they grow up?" Kazuya started discussing what he had in mind.

There were currently 17 orphans in Gale and Gain's care. Seven of them were already close to the age where they would be able to care for themselves while the rest were still growing up.

Kazuya suggested that with the mutual relationship between the villagers and adventurers he was able to witness these past few days, asking them to teach the children when the orphanage was completed was not a farfetched idea.

Of the orphans that were currently in their care, he was familiar with the youngest ones from his previous experience in Edea. With what happened to Gain, it wasn't too hard to guess what had happened. Those who had been capable to help Gain support the duke had gone with him while Gale had been left in charge of the orphanage.

Now that Kazuya had taken out the fuse that started the tragedy that was supposed to happen, he wanted to help the children who were once a victim of the blind trust he had given people. With what he had in mind; they would be able to protect themselves in the future.

"The situation would be able to last a little while with the current people staying here regularly. Once these adventurers move on, if the same deal can't be made with the future adventurers, you can hire them instead."

"Hire?" Gain frowned. Though he liked the idea that Kazuya presented to him, he did not have much to be able to hire adventurers with.

"No need to worry about the money. Like I've said. I am very much interested in renting the books out. I'll work on translating them once I return to the capital so it might take some time, but I will give 300 gold as a deposit and give an additional 200 gold once I return them." Kazuya suggested.

""!!!"" the father and daughter looked at each other at the same time. A 300 gold deposit to rent a few books and an additional 200 after he returns it!? They would have been satisfied to sell a book for 1 gold or so a piece and the books that were taken out of the basement didn't even exceed 50.

"Also, I will be giving you a copy of the translated books that would be good for the children to learn. I just hope that you will keep these books to yourselves because it is both a gift and a curse." Kazuya gave them a serious look.

What he had taken out were essentially skill and spell books that were supposedly from the lost kingdom of Bathara. This was the kingdom that had fallen and had been replaced by the Heilig Kingdom. This kingdom was where the headquarters of the church of light was and the country was governed by church officials or devout believers.  

Though Kazuya hadn't studied much of Edea's history, he was sure that the shady church had played a big part in the lost kingdom's fall from grace. The fact that the Batharan skills and spells he found were shamelessly renamed as their church's was enough to make him think that something was definitely fishy.

"With these skills, the children would be able to protect themselves and the village from danger as well as earn a living for themselves if they choose to pursue a future outside the village." Kazuya smiled as he patted the children who had been oblivious to the topic while enjoying their meals.

Gain was overwhelmed by Kazuya's offer. He wasn't the only one as Gain also noticed the shock that Julia had tried to hide. This was an offer that was more than generous so he couldn't understand what Kazuya had to gain from all of this. Even more, he was even willing to share his discoveries with them.

"(Why…? Is he…)" Gain suddenly came up with a thought. "(Could it be…?)" he secretly glanced at his daughter.

"(Did he fall for my little girl?)"

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