The Tale of Hero Alice's Social Death - Chapter 91

Chapter 91 – Maybe This Is the Hero

The reason why the female warrior named Catherine could become the captain of the Gryffin Kingdom’s Royal Guard naturally wasn’t because she relied on her connections. Instead, she had relied on her extraordinary strength.

Since childhood, she had shown outstanding talent, combining magic and swordplay to create her own way of fighting. Even in her teens, she had already become the strongest combatant in the entire Gryffin Kingdom. The kingdom’s citizens even labeled her the strongest human after the Hero.

Of course, Catherine knew that this reference was unlikely to be true. The other human kingdoms must have their respective powerhouses in their armies. But even so, her desire to grow stronger and her failure to find a worthy opponent had always made her wonder how strong the Hero of legends was.

According to the information in history books, nobody could intervene in a battle between the Hero and the Demon King. In other words, even with the extraordinary strength she possessed now, she might be nothing but an insignificant ant in front of the Hero.

Today, though, Catherine’s view of the Hero was destined to crumble.

“What did you say, Your Majesty?!”

Standing outside the hospital ward housing Alice, Catherine subconsciously shouted at the phone in astonishment. Then, after noticing a few royal guards casting questioning gazes at her, she hastily lowered her voice and asked in an incredulous voice, “That Miss Alice is the Hero???”

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the whole of humanity had placed their attention on the Hero’s existence. In only a matter of days, the Hero’s LINK account had already become the most followed LINK account in the world, far surpassing even the follower count of celebrities.

Catherine was naturally one of those many followers. Moreover, she had innocently believed that the content posted on the Hero’s LINK account and thought that the Hero was a tall and muscular man—which would fit Catherine’s impression of a powerhouse.

Yet, now, the king was telling her that the unassuming little girl she protected was none other than the legendary Hero?

“Are you joking with me, Your Majesty…” Catherine’s mouth twitched subconsciously, her reaction indicating how unsettled she felt right now. “Miss Alice looks completely different from the description posted on the Hero’s LINK account.”

“That is a camouflage used to protect the Hero from the demons’ assassination attempts. As you can see, Alice has yet to grow up, so it is necessary for her to use a fake identity to protect herself,” Chris said, his answer sounding so reasonable that Catherine couldn’t find any faults with it. “The reason why past Heroes did not hide their identity is because the demons have always sent small fries to assassinate them. However, I’m sure you know what kind of reaction the demon realm had after the Hero appeared this time, right?”

“…”

Catherine was momentarily rendered speechless. Indeed, there were rumors circulating in the demon realm that even the Four Heavenly Kings were planning to take action personally. The Hero had only appeared for a few days, so there was no way the Hero could’ve developed any significant strength in such a short time. If the demon realm’s Four Heavenly Kings conducted the assassination, the probability of success would be relatively high.

“If it was before, I wouldn’t have been able to produce any evidence that she is the Hero. Now, though, the evidence should be readily available,” Chris said. “You should know that I’ve been suffering from mental problems recently, right? This problem has now been resolved by the Hero.”

“How could that prove that she is the Hero?” Catherine asked as she scratched her light-blonde ponytail.

“Since the problem is already resolved, I’ll just give it to you straight. The thing affecting my mind before was actually the Demon King’s Power,” Chris said, not intending on keeping the matter about the Demon King’s Power a secret from his Royal Guard Captain. “I don’t know when it happened, but someone planted a portion of the Demon King’s Power within my body and used it to twist my mind. However, just now, the Demon King’s Power had left my body and flew to the Hero’s side… Since you were at the scene, you should have an idea of what happened, right?”

Catherine fell silent. She naturally wasn’t a fool since she could rise to the position of Captain of the Royal Guards. After connecting Chris’s words with the scene of destruction surrounding Alice, Catherine quickly imagined the scene of the Hero and the Demon King clashing in her mind.

“Although the Hero seems to have a way of unleashing the power of a full-fledged Hero temporarily, it is ultimately impossible for her to maintain that power for long periods. So, before she grows up, we need to keep her identity a secret as much as possible, understand?” Chris warned. “I am on my way to the hospital right now. You must make sure to look after the Hero properly. Do not act rashly with her.”

After saying so, Chris hung up the phone before Catherine could say the words stuck in her through. In reality, Catherine had wanted to report to Chris regarding the bizarre scene involving Alice and Luna she saw previously. However, since the king was already on his way here, she decided to wait until then to make her report.

“Lady Catherine.”

After seeing Catherine lowering her phone, the male warrior clad in black armor, who had arrived sometime during Catherine’s phone call and patiently waited for the call to end, handed two bottles to Catherine and said, “This is all of the mana we collected from the scene using the mana detector.”

“Is that so…”

Catherine put her phone into a pocket in her armor and received the two bottles. Then, upon inspecting the two bottles, her expression immediately turned serious. Although she had already more or less expected this situation after her call with the king, after she inspected the contents of the two bottles, she couldn’t help but grow a little nervous.

The two glass bottles were roughly the size of a 500ml water bottle. Of the two transparent bottles, one of them held enough residue light mana to use as a flashbang, while the other held dark mana so thick that she couldn’t see through the bottle.

A layman might not know the implication of these bottles, but Catherine knew exactly what they represented.

Catherine was aware that Chris would sometimes ask a dozen or so light magic researchers to engrave strange seals on his body, and those researchers would almost always exhaust all of their light mana by the time they were done. Meanwhile, if she were to use a mana detector in the office after these researchers completed their work, the amount of residue light mana she could collect wouldn’t exceed the size of a fingernail.

It should be known that that was the residue light mana produced through exhausting the mana of a dozen light magicians. Yet, the residue mana they collected at the scene where they found Alice and Luna was already enough to fill two entire bottles. One would probably need to release several light and dark taboos to achieve such a result.

At this point, Catherine was almost certain that Alice was the Hero. Moreover, there was a high chance that Alice’s opponent was the Demon King. That would explain why an entire mansion had been brought to ruins and why there was such an exaggerated amount of residue light and dark mana at the scene.

Only, this revelation further confused Catherine. How could a battle between the Hero and the Demon King result in Luna becoming naked and Alice taking off her panties?