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Chapter 99: Cross (2)

Second chapter for the day. And frankly, I still don’t understand why the chapter title is about a cross when there’s no mention of one here. Or perhaps it was just symbolic since the chapters have a lot of ‘suffering’ or ‘hardships’ for the characters.

Ga?l Bayer and Adelia Chase.

The two did not have any large roles in the second episode of Legend of Heroes.

‘Because both Ga?l and Adelia were killed in battle.’

The fate of the two did not change much whether it was on the Jude route or the Cordelia route.

Ga?l was killed during the Northern Barbarians’ Great Invasion event while Adelia was caught and lost her life in the ‘S?len Kingdom’s Capital Destruction event’ that would happen a little more later.

Such were the fate of those two.

‘So I actually don’t know much about them.’

Because he didn’t have many chances to meet them in the game.

All he knew about Ga?l was that he was good-natured, talented, and an older brother who had a huge age gap with Jude – that was all that he knew. As for Adelia, all he knew was that she was a mother-like older sister who cared for her younger sister Cordelia.

‘Of course, I was able to build a rough profile of the two by compiling various pieces of information that came out in the game.’

Even so, he had very little absolute information about the two.

‘But it’s different now.’

They suddenly became Jude and Cordelia one day – no, Outboxer009 and Yellow Storm did not take over the bodies of the two.

They were reincarnated as Jude and Cordelia and spent seventeen years before they awakened the memories of their previous lives.

Therefore, Jude knew well about Ga?l, and Cordelia knew well about Adelia.

‘My older brother.’

He was his genuine sibling and no longer a simple NPC.

‘He’s kind, sincere, and reliable, but in fact, he has a delicate side too.’

Despite being the eldest son of a famous family from the very beginning, there was one reason why he was still not married.

That one reason.

An incident that Ga?l went through when he was 20 years old.

Jude stopped thinking about it and shifted his gaze a little to the side.

He could see a brave woman proudly walking in precise steps from afar towards them.

‘Adelia Chase.’

A genius wizard who held the title of the youngest head in the history of the Royal Guard Magic Corps.

He had spent 17 years as Jude, but he knew little about her.

In the first place, Jude wasn’t even close with Cordelia in the past before they awakened their previous lives.

He had never met Cordelia’s older sister who was in the royal capital.

‘But something…there has to be a reason, right?’

For Cordelia to be so cautious and nervous.

“Huu…huu… I can do it. I can do it. Protect. Protect.”

Cordelia repeated the same words in a small voice, as if she was reciting a spell.

She seemed to be strengthening her resolve in her own way.

‘Cute.’

How could she be not cute when he could see that she was trying to protect him and not anyone else?

“Okay, okay, okay.”

Cordelia took several deep breaths again before she stepped forward and stood as if to hide Jude. It was a position that Jude often did to protect Cordelia, but it was the exact opposite this time.

There was naturally a difference.

Cordelia was taller than Jude before they had awakened their memories, but not now. That had been completely reversed in just a few months, and there was now quite a large difference between Jude and Cordelia.

It was impossible to completely hide Jude with Cordelia’s small and slender body, but she still puffed out her chest, stretched out her arms, and hid Jude as she took a deep breath for the last time.

She kept her composure and looked straight ahead.

And upon looking at the back of Cordelia’s head, Jude happily smiled and then raised his head as he suddenly recoiled.

‘Adelia.’

Their distance had been narrowed quite a bit, so they could now see the other side’s faces.

Unlike Cordelia who had red hair like Count Chase, Adelia inherited their mother’s blond hair.

She had a white complexion and bright golden hair that seemed to be made by melting the sun. She was beautiful like Cordelia, but her eyes…her fierce eyes were no joke.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump-

It felt like he was under heavy pressure.

As he continued hearing the sound of his heartbeat as if it was an auditory hallucination, Jude gulped his saliva. Drops of sweat trickled down his tightly clenched fists.

He was tense.

She was someone who could make the person facing her feel fear.

Was this how he felt when he fought against the named demon Bandaizel at Endymion?

He could now understand why Cordelia was very nervous.

“Finally.”

Adelia spoke.

A beautiful yet terrifying smile spread out on her white face.

Jude Bayer.

The crystallization of evil who sweet talked, deceived, committed acts of brutality, and even lured the kind, cute, adorable, lovely, and innocent Cordelia into making wrong choices!

‘Finally!’

They faced each other.

The moment where she could let out her anger finally came.

“You!”

Adelia raised her voice first. She raised up her hand to point at Jude before she tried to spill out her words.

“You kidnapped by deceiving my kind, cute, adorable, lovely, and innocent Cordelia…”

That was it.

Adelia’s words trailed off in the end. Because she had felt Ga?l’s gaze behind her back.

It was just a gaze.

He didn’t exactly glare. He just gazed at her.

But Adelia unknowingly faltered. She couldn’t say what she was originally going to say.

“No, your elopement…”

Elopement.

That was not it. That was not what she originally wanted to say.

Adelia frowned as she was distressed for a while before she changed her words again.

“Honeymoon trip! Anyway, about your honeymoon trip!”

Her words were already a huge mess.

‘Eueueu, why am I doing this?’

Why can’t I say what I wanted to say?

After all, Jude and Cordelia were already engaged and the Bayer family was a famous family that stood in equal rank with the Chase family, so she couldn’t just thoughtlessly say rude words to him.

But Ga?l’s presence was greater than that.

Ga?l might be bothered so she couldn’t say anything that was too harsh.

‘No, it’s not. That’s not it.’

When Adelia groaned in her confusion and distress, Jude and Cordelia stared at Adelia in suspicion.

‘What’s wrong with her?’

‘Something, there’s something different from my usual sister.’

Why?

Why is she doing that?

“Ack! Anyway! Jude Bayer! You know what you’ve done, right?!”

After her compromise, the words she spoke out were not as harsh as she thought.

Moreover, her terrifying aura and energy that resembled a demon from hell also disappeared, and her angry voice felt a little more like she was begging.

But it looked a little different to Cordelia.

She knew best about Adelia one way or another, so she flinched at her sister’s words and then shouted with her arms stretched out widely to the side.

“I-It’s not Jude’s fault!”

“Cordelia?!”

“It’s true! I definitely wasn’t deceived… We-we discussed it together!”

What?

You discussed the honeymoon trip together!

Adelia flinched at Cordelia’s argument, but she soon took another step and shouted.

“Then the letter! You wrote that you love Jude sooo much that you’re head over heels with him! Are you saying that you purposely wrote down all that? It wasn’t Jude’s order?”

“Uwuwuwu…”

If Cordelia had a little more reason left, she could have refuted that she had never written anything like that, but she had already been cornered from the start.

She groaned in distress and then shouted with a face that seemed to say ‘whatever.’

“That’s right! I wrote that! I wrote all that! That’s what I wrote!”

It was correct that Jude had originally ordered her to do so.

Jude was the one who gave her all those lines!

Cordelia’s face turned red, and her neck and ears were burning red too.

It was a result of her embarrassment and shame, but Adelia’s filter interpreted her reaction as shyness and her blushing as embarrassment.

“Co-Cordelia!”

But it wasn’t over yet.

It had already happened.

So to perfectly defend him, Cordelia dealt the final blow.

“I-I…c-can’t live without J-Jude! I belong to Jude and Jude is mine!”

It was the lines that were written in the script which she had thrown last time.

Cordelia was so embarrassed that her eyes were slightly reddened with tears, but in the eyes of Adelia, she looked like she was pleading while crying.

“Co-Cordelia…”

She seriously turned pale in surprise.

Adelia staggered for a moment, but she was still one of the seven heads of the Royal Guard Magic Corps.

She somehow corrected her posture, and then said after taking a deep breath.

“No, no, he’s weak and only has a handsome face…”

That was it.

Adelia was trying to speak about what she usually thought about Jude, but her words trailed off in the end.

It wasn’t because of Ga?l this time.

It was just because of the visible reality.

‘W-what?’

Jude Bayer.

A child born with Gueumjulmaek.

A sick but handsome boy who was stuck in his room and couldn’t learn swordsmanship because he had a weak constitution.

But it was not what she saw.

The Jude in front of her was definitely a handsome boy, but he did not look weak and frail.

‘When and how did he get so well?’

Adelia had also heard of him obtaining Solari’s Necklace and using it to heal his Gueumjulmaek.

But how can that make his body so well all of a sudden?

First and foremost, he was tall.

According to the information Adelia herself gathered, Jude was about the same or a little shorter than Cordelia. But Jude was now much taller. There seemed to be a difference of at least ten centimeters.

And he was bulky.

He didn’t exactly have bulging muscles, but he had broad shoulders and firm muscles too.

Although Jude was dressed up quite a bit because of the snowy weather, Adelia had met numerous knights in the royal capital for business purposes.

Just by looking at his fit, she could roughly tell the shape and thickness of the muscles.

‘It’s firm.’

His muscles were well-honed and firm, and not the bulging kind.

It was almost at the level of Lord Ga?l – No, his was less than Ga?l’s, but anyway, his bulky body couldn’t make her speak or even joke about him being nothing but skin and bones.

‘Something, I need to say something, but I can’t.’

In the first place, it was difficult for her to say anything because Ga?l’s gaze was on her.

Adelia couldn’t say anything because there was nothing bad she could say about Jude.

And Jude did not miss the current situation.

While Adelia was struggling in embarrassment and Cordelia was out of breath from her own struggle, Jude dug into that gap.

He grabbed her.

Jude took a step forward and held the shoulder of Cordelia who was standing as if to protect him.

He pulled her towards himself, and Cordelia who found herself in Jude’s arms was suddenly embarrassed in a different sense than before.

‘Ju-Jude?’

Cordelia had already been accustomed to being hugged or carried by Jude.

But it was strange.

She didn’t care until now whether he hugged or carried her, but she was feeling strange now.

Ba-thump, ba-thump.

Her heart suddenly began to beat faster.

As she looked up at Jude, her cheeks burned red in a different sense than before.

‘W-what is this. It’s strange.’

Cordelia unknowingly became calm as she kept her head down, while Jude tightly hugged Cordelia and then opened his mouth.

“Lady Adelia.”

Adelia reacted to her name being called.

Jude faced her blue eyes that stared straight at him before he said without any hesitation.

“Cordelia and I are in love with each other.”

There was a twitch.

It was Cordelia.

She had flinched before she reflexively raised her head to look at Jude and tried to shout with her gaze.

‘W-who! You and me?’

‘You and I. Just accept it for now. Adelia is watching, so act natural, okay? It would be easier if you give up.’

‘Uwuwuwu…’

Cordelia quieted down as she bowed her head again, but in Adelia and Ga?l’s eyes, Cordelia’s appearance seemed to be her shy affirmation.

“It was definitely wrong for us to go on a honeymoon trip. Yes, it was my fault too. Cordelia did nothing wrong. She was just following my unreasonable desire to spend a little more time alone with her.”

Adelia looked slightly dispirited at Jude’s desperate-sounding words, and Cordelia raised her head again.

Because his words had taken a strange turn.

“N-no! It’s not Jude’s fault! I’m the one who said that we should go! Yes, yes! It’s because I’ve been begging him that I wanted some time alone with him. I even left a letter, right?”

She had decided to protect Jude from Adelia, but she couldn’t let it all be Jude’s fault.

In fact, there was no need for Cordelia to do this due to the current atmosphere, but as her face became heated because of the series of events, it became difficult for her to think normally.

Either way, Cordelia’s declaration was effective.

A boy and girl who were begging that they should be punished instead of the other and insisting that that it was their own fault and not the other.

Anyone could obviously tell that they were in love with each other to the point that they would resort to lies.

“Uuugh…”

Adelia groaned before she deeply sighed in the end.

She had really wanted to crush Jude, but now that she had come this far, she couldn’t do it.

What could she do when Cordelia said that she really loved him?

And in fact, Adelia understood it.

The fact that she couldn’t do much when they actually meet each other.

“Ahem, ahem.”

Just then.

Ga?l who had been silent until now, cleared his throat and drew everyone’s attention. He then stepped forward and stood next to Adelia.

He didn’t use his hand like how Jude hugged Cordelia in his arms, but he simply stood next to Adelia.

Adelia looked captivated and felt reassured at his support, but in the eyes of Jude and Cordelia who were watching the two, the thought that ‘maybe’ came into their minds.

“Jude, and Lady Cordelia.”

“Yes, brother.”

“Yes, brother-in-law.”

Jude and Cordelia quickly responded.

Ga?l smiled at being called ‘brother-in-law’ before he said.

“I’ve learned in many ways about the activities of you two while on the way here. I could also see with my own eyes how much the two of you care and love each other.”

At Ga?l’s words, Jude nodded but Cordelia was mentally shaking her head to the sides.

‘No, it’s not like that.’

Her reason had somewhat returned, so her reaction was a subconscious opposition.

But anyway, she was just mentally shaking her head in denial.

Ga?l warmly exchanged glances with Jude before he took a deep breath. He then spoke with a rather stern face unlike before.

“But the actions of you two were clearly wrong. The disrespect you inflicted on Count Hr?svelgr was so great that it might be hard to be forgiven. You should know well that it also greatly hurt Lord Lucas who considered you two as his friends, right?”

When Lucas was mentioned, both Jude and Cordelia had apologetic faces.

And Ga?l was pleased with their reaction.

“That’s not all. Because of your actions, our Bayer family and even the Chase family were struck with bad rumors.”

Because there were groups of people who criticized and ridiculed the families on how they educated their children.

Shame and guilt spread on Jude and Cordelia’s faces after they felt sorry, and Ga?l’s expression became even more strict.

“Of course, we should listen to your circumstances, but apart from that, there are many things that have happened because of what you two have done. And the responsibility for all that lies on you two.”

Ga?l wasn’t angry.

He didn’t even raise his voice.

But Ga?l’s words had some weight.

“Let’s assume responsibility when we return. Instead of running away or avoiding it, you two should fix what you have done. Do you understand?”

“Yes, brother.”

“Yes, brother-in-law.”

When Jude and Cordelia obediently replied, a smile spread on the strict Ga?l’s face again.

Having reverted to his usual expression, he affectionately looked at Jude and Cordelia who stood side by side before he spoke.

“I am relieved though. Both of you are safe. I was very worried.”

It was a carrot after a stick.

No, he wasn’t such a calculative person.

Ga?l’s pure heart deeply moved the two, especially Cordelia.

And one more person.

‘As expected, he’s nice. He’s the right person.’

A smile spread over Adelia’s face as she gazed at Ga?l’s profile.

Her face loosened and she smiled as if she was looking at Cordelia.

“Lady Adelia.”

“Yes?”

“Erm… Lady Adelia?”

“Yes? Ah, yes!”

Adelia flinched in surprise and she straightened her posture, making Ga?l smile before he said to Jude and Cordelia again.

“Lady Adelia was very worried about the safety of you two. To the point where her emotions became intense. So how about thanking her properly?”

Adelia and the two had been at odds as soon as they met each other.

At Ga?l’s words, Cordelia opened her mouth first.

“U-unnie. Thank you. And I’m sorry.”

“Sorry and thank you.”

Adelia felt awkward when Cordelia and Jude bowed to her, but she was happy at the same time.

She would have never heard of this if only she herself had come.

“Because you were very worried.”

As Ga?l smiled and said in a low voice, Adelia’s lips curled up and she slightly nodded.

And upon seeing her cheeks evidently changing color though it was light, Jude and Cordelia reacted.

‘Wait a minute, is this perhaps that?’

‘Perhaps?’

Jude and Cordelia’s eyes narrowed, and Cordelia opened her mouth again this time.

“Unnie.”

Just one word.

But because of her guilty conscience, Adelia flinched at that word and said in a fluster.

“I-it’s nothing! There’s nothing between Lord Ga?l and me! I-isn’t that right, Lord Ga?l?”

Her actions only made their suspicions deepen rather than stopping it. At the same time, her reaction proved that Adelia had the blood of Count Chase like Cordelia.

And at this moment, Ga?l also proved that he was a man of Count Bayer, who had the same blood as Jude.

“Is there…nothing between us?”

Adelia flinched at his unexpected remark.

No, why is he suddenly saying that?

I don’t hate it, uh, I certainly don’t hate it.

“N-no, that…”

Adelia’s face turned red, and her heart was pounding so hard that she stuttered and couldn’t speak properly. And upon seeing that, the warmth in Jude and Cordelia’s eyes subsided.

‘I see, so it was like that.’

‘Hehehe.’

Their eyes had cooled down in the same way, but their reactions were a little different.

Jude felt like he was really like his brother, while Cordelia was still going ‘hehehe.’

“Anyway, instead of standing and talking like this, let’s go inside and talk. I’m sure we have a lot to talk about.”

Ga?l didn’t push ahead. He stealthily retreated and smoothly resolved the situation.

“Let’s go, Lady Adelia.”

“Yes, Lord Ga?l.”

With her shyness being twice than usual, Adelia answered and cleared her throat before she walked with Ga?l, while Jude watched the two and struggled in holding back his laughter before he stepped forward. Or more like, he tried to step forward.

‘Jude.’

‘Yes?’

‘Can you let me go now that it’s over?’

‘No, not yet. Adelia can still see us.’

Adelia could obviously see them, but she was so embarrassed, shy, and so on, that it was questionable if she could see them properly.

‘Hehehe.’

‘Anyway, let’s go. You’ll get used to it.’

Jude walked while holding Cordelia on her shoulder, and Cordelia moved along with him.

Thus, the two couples left the place.

Even though they were together from the beginning to the end, the fifth party felt like an outcast as it got up from its seat and brushed its butt.

“If they’re going to be like this, why did they have to call me? Right?”

The fifth party was Violent Avalanche.

Complaining as it vented its thoughts to no one, the wild god looked in the direction Jude and Cordelia were heading.

After it shrugged its shoulders, the bear cub began walking like a toddler.