Harem-Powered Kingdom Building: Empire of Carnal Sin-Chapter 53: Hero’s Tale

'Hihi, the enemies of Heroes often refer to Heroes as cockroaches. It isn't easy for them to die since most of them are blessed with great luck,' Carnalia explained to Hiro.

Listening to Starius' story, Hiro had no choice but to admit that he indeed was a man of great luck. Just purely probabilistically speaking, there should have been no way for Starius to survive those situations he was put through. The odds were overwhelmingly stacked against him back then.

But time after time, he used his wit and luck to turn misfortune into fortune. Encountering favorable terrain, monsters randomly fighting against each other, favorable weather, even Blessed Manawells showed up at some point as if their sole purpose was to make sure Starius survived.

It was totally reasonable for Hiro to listen to that story and just go 'What the actual fuck!?', since that's how outrageous it was.

'There's too much plot armor in this story but at least the crowd seems to be enjoying it, so that's good.' Hiro thought. Almost everyone was listening to Starius with rapt attention, much like addicted children who were glued to the screens of their electronic tablets.

'Plot Armor?' Carnalia confusedly muttered. Hiro blatantly ignored her confusion.

Despite the predictable storyline, Hiro couldn't help but appreciate Starius' honest delivery. The impression he got was that the events of that day were even crazier than Starius made them out to be. He actually seemed to be toning down the story down a bit, at times.

This was probably done in consideration of Rhonia's child, who was quite young and wouldn't handle an excess of gore very well. Indeed, among the listeners, the young boy practically had stars twinkling in his eyes. Starius had quickly acquired a diehard fanboy for himself.

The story continued and soon approached its climax.

"...My teacher who saved me was strict, but he was also fair," Starius said. "He taught me everything I know about swordsmanship. Now that I think about it, he was quite rich too. But he never really told me who he really was."

Hiro raised an eyebrow at that. That explained why Starius was basically unknown among Selune's Heroes.

'Seems like he was trained in seclusion and not allowed to interact with the outside world too much until he got stronger.'

"He provided me with the necessary funds to get a high quality Class Awakening ritual," Starius continued. "It was during this ceremony that I became a Hero for Goddess Selune. Originally, it was planned for my existence to be revealed in a few months. But then the Goddess gave me a Quest to help establish this new territory."

He shifted uncomfortably, conflicted about whether or not he could share certain details. "Well... then I came here. As you know, it is possible to pay a hefty amount of gold to the World to choose the destination for transfer while taking refuge."

That last part caught Hiro's interest. This was the first time he was hearing about this.

"Oops, my bad. I forgot to tell you about this," Carnalia casually remarked. "By the way, this kind of transfer is only possible if the source and destination Realms belong to the same Divine Domain."

Hiro wanted to facepalm but the situation did not permit it. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how heavy the implications of such a mechanism were.

Meanwhile, Starius spread his hands. "And that's pretty much it. I'm here to help however I can. My sword is yours, My Lord, and I'll protect this settlement with everything I've got."

His simple pledge followed by that outrageous story seemed to resonate with the citizens more than Hiro's carefully crafted speech had. Several of the Selune worshippers broke out in heartfelt applause. Even a few of the Shuvlok tribesmen looked somewhat impressed.

Hiro nodded towards Starius and waited for the atmosphere to calm down.

"Thank you, Starius," Hiro said as he patted him on the shoulder. "I believe I speak for everyone when I say we're grateful to have you with us."

Starius nodded with a serious expression. He bowed and was about to step down from the platform, but it looked like Rhonia wanted to cause some mischief.

The plump faced Rhonia called out from where she was standing, "Well, I don't know about all of you, but I personally think it's high time our young hero and his childhood friend got some alone time," she winked broadly at Tara, whose cheeks immediately flushed crimson.

A ripple of laughter spread through the crowd. Several men whistled, and someone shouted, "I agree! He's waited years for this moment!"

Starius' face also turned an impressive shade of red, almost as if it was illuminated by a fire.

After looking at this interaction, Hiro grinned and raised his voice. "An excellent suggestion, Rhonia! Starius, Tara—consider yourselves relieved of duties for the evening. I'm sure you have much to catch up on."

He did not miss the betrayed look that Tara cast towards him for the briefest of moments. How could he not know about the internal struggle she was going through right now?

The truth was, he was fully aware and was planning on thoroughly enjoying himself.

Any attempt that Tara made to even try and clear this 'misunderstanding' was drowned out by more good-natured laughter and a few encouraging cheers.

Starius, still blushing furiously, stepped down from the platform and made his way back to Tara like a robot. He managed a smile despite his embarrassment.

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

"Just ignore them," he muttered to her. "We could take a walk if you want? Just to talk?"

Helpless, Tara nodded stiffly, pointedly avoiding looking at Hiro or the grinning cook. To be fair, it was true that Tara wanted to talk to Starius. As his childhood friend, she had much to discuss with him. Whether that discussion would have a romantic angle to it or not was a completely different matter altogether.

Slowly, the two of them began moving farther away from the settlement and closer to the woods. Someone from the crown teasingly called out, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, you two!"

This prompted another round of laughter among Hiro and his citizens. Even a few of the Shuvlok tribesmen were chuckling.

A while later, Hiro's face masterfully hid any and all amusement he felt as he watched the shrinking figures of Tara and Starius. Tara always maintained a careful distance between them—a side effect of Ensnaring Touch that Starius clearly didn't understand, given his confused glances at the gap she kept creating.

'This is going to be interesting,' Hiro thought with a mental chuckle.

He refocused his attention towards his citizens. Hiro had splendidly achieved his objective for the evening. The happy atmosphere of the settlement was in stark contrast to the doom and gloom that was prevalent in the afternoon. It was almost as if this was some regular village and not a Barony located in the Desolate Lands.

While Starius' presence was the major contributor to this mental shift, his own speech also had a subtle but profound effect. It had them thinking optimistically about the future.

'With this, the seeds of hope have been planted in the hearts of the people.'