Chapter 221: Scoundrel Lekks

{Current truth reached 49%.

What must come will come, but some people always hide their heads like turtles.

He had already gathered new intelligence, yet the Hero Soul Card remained on the verge of activation. Was this coincidence?

"You really don't want to be awakened, do you?"

Li En was numb. He had tried hard enough—yet the number refused to rise. If he still didn't realize this was the Hero Soul's resistance, he'd be truly foolish.

Perhaps the "truth of the event" required the party's own acknowledgment. Perhaps it was the Hero's overwhelmingly fierce will. The truth's progress remained stuck at the edge of unlocking.

"Do you think I want to meddle in your affairs? The thunder's about to strike—can you just cooperate?!"

But no matter how Li En shouted, complained, or pleaded, the Hero Soul Card refused to unlock.

Li En grew more helpless. Maryanne would arrive soon, and the Queen's sister would surely do something. When gods clashed, it would be him who died!

"Avoidance won't solve anything. At least lend me your power—let us survive."

But Li En's words were meaningless, as if the Hero Soul Card were truly lifeless. Yet after the snake's precedent, to believe it was purely inert would make him truly foolish.

Li En felt like needles were pricking his back, but he was frantic—while the Hero Soul Card remained utterly unmoved, continuing its self-imposed isolation.

"Tomorrow morning, the Queen enters the city. How much longer do you think you can hide?"

In the end, Li En could only sigh and go to sleep, conserving his strength.

When he finally fell asleep, the Hero Soul Compendium on the table stirred without wind—the faint golden light emanated from the single Hero Soul Card.

"Ugh! Where the hell did you send me?!"

When the spring breeze brushed over the lakeside and the scent of soil hit his face, Li En Sudar was utterly stunned.

"Tsk tsk tsk—just didn't pay the fare? You dump someone like this? So stingy! Aaah, it hurts, it hurts, my leg's broken! Pay me medical fees!"

"Lekks" punched the air toward the departing carriage and clutched his leg, feigning injury—but once the carriage was far away, he leapt lightly to his feet.

He brushed the dust off his body and glared at the onlookers.

Broken leg? Lekks, strong and robust, climbed carriages barehanded every day.

Getting tossed off and rolling around wasn't new—he hadn't even broken skin!

Few knew—well, besides himself, no one knew—the Hero had entered the capital for the first time without paying entry tax or even the carriage fare.

He'd even tried faking injury to extort the driver, but the man had seen too many street thugs and ignored him entirely.

"Man, the capital's got so many pretty girls." The kingdom's capital—tall buildings, beautiful artificial lakes—but Lekks never looked at the architecture.

Lekks, stung, glanced around and grinned again.

He brushed dust off his hands and whistled at passing girls—but no one responded. A dusty country boy squatting near the city gate? Every day there were dozens—how many ever stayed?

"Hehe, I came to the right place. Every girl here is one I'd never meet in the countryside. I'll marry a beautiful capital girl—no matter what."

History is always full of dark records. The Continent's Hero might as well be the embodiment of those records. The underage Lekks suddenly ran from the countryside into the city. Books offered countless explanations: ambition, foreseen fate, divine revelation, and so on.

But reality was too ironic—the true reason was often absurd.

His extraordinary drive? It stemmed from nothing more than wanting to marry a beautiful capital girl—and the origin of that desire was even more...

"... ore beautiful than the tax official's daughter!"

A bored country boy happened to meet a junior noblewoman visiting for summer. Sounds like the start of a love story. Reality? A street thug harassed a noblewoman, got beaten by guards.

Which tax official's daughter was Lekks looking for? He'd forgotten her face. He remembered only her skirt fluttering beautifully, her hair silky, her scent sweet when he leaned close. Yes—from start to finish, he was driven purely by lust.

Beauty demands a price. Natural grace requires money, time, patience to maintain. Country girls might be youthful and radiant early on—but they aged fast.

Seeing the tax official's daughter and her young-looking noblewoman mother, Lekks suddenly found the girls back home who called him "brother" unappealing.

So he came to the capital.

In every way, he was very "male lion."

By the way, he later ran into that noblewoman again. But he remembered her only through her father, the tax official. She and her mother clung to him—but he felt nothing at all.

"Eat first. Then look for girls."

In every way, Lekks Sudar was peculiar—at least in his early stages, he thought with his lower body and acted on instinct. Like many aimless country boys, he first survived by labor—but soon discovered he had total talent for swordsmanship... and for cheating, stealing, and conning.

He'd been a pickpocket, a guard, a bard, a gang enforcer. His last job ended when he discovered the gang was trafficking people—he quit immediately.

He saved girls. Many of them.

Too bad the girls still looked down on him. Unlike later versions of himself, this Lekks was still innocent—if a good girl had chosen him, perhaps none of what followed would have happened.

Or perhaps the entire kingdom would have vanished.

In fact, he chose to become a royal knight because he heard a good status made noble girls take notice.

But he didn't even last long as a knight apprentice?

Reason? Flirting with the royal family count?

"Lovely lady, may I buy you a drink?" The polite knight approached the beautiful woman behind the bar.

After all, we're all lionfolk—give me some face, won't you?

"Get lost." The blonde girl didn't even lift her eyelids.

"Uh, refusal should at least come with a reason." The big boy clutched his chest, pretending to be wounded.

"I've sat here half an hour. You've asked four others. The ones you rejected—did they give you reasons? If they did, I'll give you the same. If they didn't—is 'I hate players' enough?"

The bar erupted in laughter. The player shrugged, unconcerned.

The lighting was too dim—he hadn't even seen the woman's face.

Then he moved on to the fifth, sixth—who knew how many? He succeeded. At any rate, amid onlookers' whistles and cheers, he went upstairs to a private room and spent a pleasant night.

At this time, he was still underage—but already a well-known scoundrel.

But the next day, he saw clearly.

"This is Mary. She'll be interning here for a while and leading a small team to investigate a minor case... Lekks, you must be free, right?"

"I'm free, always free—if it's a beautiful lady."

Still flirty, Lekks finally saw "Mary" clearly. But this meeting was unpleasant.

Gentle Maryanne? That was the adult Maryanne. The young Maryanne was very much like Dennya—prone to trouble, quick-tempered.

Lekks disliked her. From their first meeting, she looked down on him.

Even though she looked beautiful, refined, and wore dwarf glasses, the sharpness and impatience in her big eyes couldn't be hidden.

Lekks's instinct was sharp. One glance revealed the contempt beneath her seemingly gentle gaze.

A love-hate beginning? The start of some dull, boring parental romance? Only if Lekks were normal.

"Tsk tsk tsk—you look down on me, yet expect me to help you investigate?"

The investigation ended unpleasantly. Funds vanished for no reason. Informants became uncooperative. Lekks spent a pleasant time in the pleasure quarter.

In the end, "Mary" had no choice but to leave, defeated—she received a failing grade on the assignment. From certain channels, she learned everything—and remembered the scoundrel Lekks.

Then Lekks was kicked out of the knight apprentice ranks. Don't misunderstand—he was kicked out legally and properly. This scoundrel made finding fault too easy.

Lekks remembered the noble girl who reported him.

Their next meeting came during the Hero selection.

"Father, that man has serious character flaws. Remove him from the selection list." And so Lekks lost his eligibility to become Hero.

But she said it to his face—right in front of him.

"Slap!" Before countless nobles and commoners, Lekks slapped her—and instantly earned himself a jail sentence.

Yet when his cellmate asked, "How'd you end up here?" he remained cheerful.

"Charge? Slapping the Princess in front of the King, knocking out one of her front teeth?" In prison, realizing what he'd done, Lekks cheerfully composed a tavern ballad.

"Ah, the toothless Princess, pitiful Princess, stumbled into a bar and lost a tooth."

Then he happily saw the Princess glaring at him from outside the cage.

"Ha! She really lost her teeth—no front teeth!" A foolish prisoner pointed it out on the spot.

(End of chapter)