This Kind of Hero Chapter 65

The Demon King Has Yet to Marry

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The path that Xu Jun walked passed through the forest bordering the Sacred Highlands, the grasslands to the west of the Golden Flag Empire, and a great desert. Cities, towns, and villages were scattered about along with plenty of spots for hunting monsters. Furthermore, there was a wide variety of races and species of monsters. Xu Jun enjoyed grinding levels in this area.

When he had just started playing as a Brave, he had yet to get used to its aggressive fighting style. Furthermore, the hit registration system was a lot more stringent than in lower difficulties. He had searched for many levelling areas and had found this one to be the best.

Xu Jun recalled that a few griffins still lived in this forest, all of which were Matted Griffins. Matted Griffins were much less popular than Snowy Griffins, which could serve as high-level mounts for the human empires’ knight orders. Normally, Matted Griffins just hunted within the forest while occasionally looting nearby human and half-elf villages when they wanted a change of palate. Here, they were a local tyrant.

Back then, a few nearby villages had joined hands to post a subjugation request for the griffin. After Xu Jun accepted it, and managed to kill an old griffin with great difficulty, he earned himself five gold coins as a reward.

However, in order to level up his respect, he returned those five coins back to the villagers.

Looking back now, he was, unexpectedly, somewhat reminiscent of those times.

He walked into the forest; light, scattered by the forked branches above, shone upon the earthen ground. The air smelled faintly of blood.

Xu Jun stopped in his tracks.

When adventuring in the wild, it wasn’t just equipment and strength that were important. One also had to have the ability to assess their situation and act at the correct moment as well as possess an awareness for when to hide and protect oneself. Xu Jun had played this game for a few years now and had already internalized the need to be extra careful in the wild. Although, he had not been at his best condition in the past few days, battle and survival were already firmly carved into his bones.

He stopped behind a large tree, a giant mountain stone to his back. This way he guaranteed that no enemy could attack him from behind. He had yet to pull out his sword: the heavy sword he was carrying was liable to brushing against branches, leaves, and grass, which would create unnecessary noise. He simply pulled out a short dagger from by his waist. This short blade was poisonous and had a vibrant green luster.

. . .It really resembled jam.

His sudden caution was not without reason. Xu Jun could tell that just after he had entered this forest, he had entered someone’s domain. He had not noticed it at first, since those who could deploy domains were all powerful figures of the Grand Magister level and such people would normally never come to such a place which was in the middle of nowhere. The second was that a domain would manifest its owner’s mental world, and so they would generally be quite individualized, while this forest appeared to be just an ordinary forest.

A light breeze blew gently, the sun shone brightly, and the air was fresh and clean; all seemed to be at peace. Xu Jun walked across the moist earth and, with each footstep he took, he could feel the air rippling.

Only now did he realize that such as silence was unnatural.

Furthermore, a formless magic power was surging within this forest. However, it was condensed and unable to move about freely. One could perhaps claim that this domain’s owner was someone who disliked acting ostentatiously and making trouble, but what was certain was that it was hard to see through this person’s intentions.

That was not a good thing.

Like a fish swimming in water, Xu Jun noiselessly slid out from his hiding place. The giant mountain stone that had been to his back suddenly collapsed into sizzling pile of mud. It bubbled and corroded away at the land around it. Had Xu Jun not acted, he would have faced a similar fate.

He rapidly applied Flame Frog Oil to his dagger, an oil which could invade and destroy a living being’s spirit and sentence them to a quick death.

He fiercely stabbed his blade at a point behind him.

Xu Jun’s eyes widened. Exerting force on his right leg he leapt to his right. His dagger was sharp yet had been unable to pierce the other’s body. Rather, it had been deflected by a layer of armor–a Grand Magister wearing armor? Was that possible?

And then he heard a youthful voice, whining and acting spoiled. “. . .Meat. . .”

Xu Jun leapt away. The two were now face to face. The youth who had snuck around behind Xu Jun was completely nude with a head of medium length silver hair. His expression seemed a bit foolish and his fingernails were quite long.

Of course, he had not a scrap of armor on his body, which meant that this fellow, who resembled white cut chicken, had resisted Xu Jun’s full-powered strike with just his physical body. It was almost certain what race this fellow belonged to. . . if possible, Xu Jun really had no wish to fight against people from this race. . .

However, Xu Jun had no path of retreat as there was also someone behind him. This other fellow had also pressured him greatly once. Their aura was exceedingly familiar. It belonged to a certain perverted male unicorn who had previously harmed Mantou’s self-esteem.

The current magic domain should have been deployed by this fellow.

One dragon youth, likely an Icefrost Dragon that boasted the strongest defense, and one Unicorn Beastman, who possessed power equal to or greater than that of a human Grand Magister.

At this moment, the Brave felt truly fucked _(:зゝ∠)_

Had there only been one of them, Xu Jun felt that even if he couldn’t beat them, at least he could run away. However, now that there were two of them, coming in for a damn pincer attack from the front and behind. . . . Unfortunately, dragons and humans had signed an “Agreement of Goodwill.” The two sides were not allowed to harm each other–this agreement mainly restricted humans. In other words, if a human hit a dragon once, that would count as harm, while as long as a dragon doesn’t kill a human, then anything goes.

Xu Jun could certainly go all out and put his life on the line, but that would mean certain death for the small dragon before him and whenever a dragon died, they would broadcast a message to others of the same race: Yours Truly has died, come help me get revenge.

Xu Jun had only one path he could take.

Xu Jun breathed deeply and prepared himself.

“I admit defeat! Here are my weapons, please don’t kill me!”

The youth who was likely a dragon: “. . .”

The male unicorn: “. . .”

A while of silence later, the male unicorn stomped his foot, breaking off a shadow that had been sneakily extending outwards from beneath Xu Jun’s feet. “Since you want to surrender in exchange for your life, then don’t bother sending a message outside.”

Tch. Xu Jun slightly frowned while thinking, you’re truly damn unreasonable. He was trying to send a message to Mantou, but not because he hoped Mantou could help him turn the tables around or anything of the sort. What could that little Moonlight Colt, who only knew how to munch grass, do? He simply hoped that Mantou could quickly escape and not get caught by this unicorn again.

Fortunately, although the other prevented his actions, he had made no mention of Mantou.

Meanwhile, the young dragon stared foolishly at Xu Jun, his icy-blue eyes reflecting the Brave’s visage. One could clearly see the changes in his emotions through his limpid eyes. When paired with his nearly expressionless face, however, it made him seem even more foolish.

While looking at Xu Jun, his eyes suddenly teared up and his mouth pursed together slightly. Then, under Xu Jun’s stupefied gaze, this young dragon walked up and hugged him, the mud on his body rubbing off onto Xu Jun.

“. . . Wuwu, papa.”

Perhaps because he was too foolish, even the way this idiot called out dad seemed a bit silly.

Xu Jun stood with his eyes wide and mouth agape. The two terms “cuckolded father”¹ and “insurance fraud” bounced back and forth in his head. He then stared at this young dragon’s face: silvery-white hair and eyebrows, icy-blue eyes, and his immature and somewhat tender face. Suddenly, a frightening thought hit him.

He remembered a certain quest from a year ago. . .

While passing through the wilderness north of the Golden Flag Empire, he had received a quest from a nearby City Lord: in the Black Forest not far from the city, a Black Dragonhawk had arrived and occupied the entire Black Forest. Furthermore, it had been slaughtering any village hunters who entered the forest to hunt or gather. After accepting the quest, Xu Jun went to battle the Black Dragonhawk. Originally, this was an ordinary adventure quest, but then a dog blood² development unfolded. This Black Dragonhawk was female, and was actually the Black Dragonhawks’ queen. She had been having an affair with an Icefrost Dragon. However, that Icefrost Dragon was a slag man. After a fling with the girl, he dumped her. Thus, the Black Dragonhawk Queen and that Icefrost Dragon had a huge falling out. However, since the dragonhawk race was dependent on the dragon race, she was removed from her throne. The Black Dragonhawk Queen was full of hatred. In her heart she thought, if this lady is misfortunate then don’t think you can get off any better, and so she stole an egg, which was about to hatch, from the other.

It was well known that dragons found it difficult to reproduce. A dragon might only produce two to three offspring in their entire life. Furthermore, after hatching, there was still the possibility of a premature death. Therefore, like the beastmen, they placed great importance on their young.

Originally, after taking away the dragon egg, the Black Dragonhawk Queen had planned on cooking and eating it. However, with the egg in her embrace, she couldn’t bear to. Furthermore, with her inborn respect for dragons, she was unable to go through with it. Therefore, she actually used her own body heat to incubate this dragon egg instead.

To her, being defeated by Xu Jun, and subsequently killed, was a form of release. She could finally escape from her hopeless emotions, leaving Xu Jun behind to brood over this melodramatic³ and heartbreaking story.

He wanted to send the dragon egg back to the Icefrost Dragons, but just at that moment, the small life within the dragon egg finally hatched.

Who the hell knew how this child’s vitality was so tenacious.

An extraordinarily small silver dragon, the size of a lizard, crawled out from the dragon egg. It possessed not even a trace of the majesty or power a fully grown Icefrost Dragon had. After hatching, the small lizard-like dragon saw the first moving fellow, which was Xu Jun, and blinked its eyes. In a very obedient manner, it called out tenderly in Dragon Tongue, “. . . Mama?”

That’s right, dragons received their race’s inheritance while still in egg, which meant they were able to speak simple words in Dragon Tongue right after hatching.

Xu Jun, for the sake of making quests easier, had learned quite a few languages, one of which was Dragon Tongue.

And then, in a momentary slip of the tongue, he spoke a sentence that he would later regret for a lifetime.

“Yours Truly here is not your mother, Yours Truly here is your father.”

However, the him back then truly didn’t understand how much an honest boy would trust in his his “mama’s” words! Fuck! You lousy little dragon, why did you actually believe me!

By the time Xu Jun discovered the situation wasn’t right, this little dragon had already started calling him papa.

He reckoned that with each calling of ‘papa,’ the child’s actual father would beat him to death. . .

However, Xu Jun could not just abandon a recently hatched dragon. Therefore, he snuck the child to a point just outside the Icefrost Dragons’ territory and gave him a protection rune to ensure the child’s safety.

Please, refer to him as a Red Scarf.⁴

Back to now, the young Icefrost Dragon was clinging desperately onto Xu Jun, unwilling to leave. His large eyes were full of accusation, “. . . Papa, I missed you.”

Xu Jun furrowed his brow, “No, I’m not your dad. . .”

The youth tilted his head endearingly, “. . . Mama?”

It’s even more impossible for Yours Truly to be your mother, alright?!

The poor Brave had originally wanted to surrender and then make a strategic retreat. However, he had now suddenly gained a “son,” not to mention that a certain perverted male unicorn was constantly asking him “How could you have the heart to abandon your son for so many years?”, “Were you happy past few years?”, and other such phrases commonly heard in dog blood dramas. Currently, Xu Jun just wanted to leave, but when he tried to take even a single step, this bratty child clung onto his thigh, making it difficult for him to walk.

And this was what Mantou saw, the silhouette of a salted fish⁵, Xu Jun, unable to walk and deeply mired within a drama on family ethics.

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Author Has Something to Say:

Demon King Zeze: I saw many people in the commented who were also unable to remember my name. Write it down a hundred times each, don’t even try to avoid this, a hundred times each!

Brave Xu Jun: . . .you have the time to say all these things, but you don’t have the time to save me?! 

Translator’s Niche:

[1] Chinese is “喜当爹” (xǐ dāng diē) which is a term to describe a man who finally gets together with the woman of his dreams, only to discover that the woman is pregnant with someone else’s child and the man has no choice but to accept the child as their own. ⏎

[2] Dog blood refers to plots that are melodramatic and cliche. ⏎

[3] Technically the word used here was ‘dog blood,’ but it seemed a bit difficult to fit that in so I changed it to be less literal. ⏎

[4] Red Scarf is another term for someone who is a part of the Young Pioneers of China. You can think of it as Chinese boy/girl scouts. ⏎

[5] Salted fish is a term for someone who is lazy and unmotivated. It can also be for someone who is behaving like a corpse. ⏎

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