Chapter 251: Awakening

Heroine Laina's origins were no secret.

She and Lex were "villagers." More accurately, within that wasteland village, they could be regarded as kin in a certain sense.

"I... I don't want to spend my life as a farm wife."

Even as a child, Laina was very smart; from those around her, she saw through her future.

If she stayed in these mountains, the best outcome would likely be marrying some farmer or landlord, bearing a few children, and being confined to the land for a lifetime.

This was originally nothing major; most people spent their lives this way.

But someone, some "country bumpkin" who had already made a name for himself in the world when she was still young, lit up another path.

"If a bumpkin can truly become a great figure, then can I?"

And Laina's luck was quite good; because that country bumpkin had done so well, many townsfolk flocked to him, and he, having almost no ambition or extra thoughts, was quite generous to his own kind.

He not only gave his own courtyard to his fellow villagers to live in but also funded many of them to start small businesses or serve as minor officials, even recruiting those willing to become soldiers to serve as his personal guards.

Among them was one of Laina's uncles.

Thus, she, still a child, also went to the capital.

Heroine Lex himself could not remember; in fact, the two generations of heroines had actually met once.

That time, the child lay on the second-floor windowsill, watching the triumphant army return.

The child saw the man at the very front, that distant relative with a thin blood tie, looking spirited and high-spirited.

He laughed happily and recklessly, completely ignoring the nobles and officials who came to welcome him; he waved happily to the common people and scattered large amounts of gold coins from the spoils of war.

The entire city was surrounded by music and laughter; countless spoils were thrown into the sky, and even young Laina back then managed to pick up a copper coin as a souvenir.

To this day, it remains in her small treasure hoard.

Laina easily remembered the joy on everyone's faces at that time; what else could better describe victory than this scene?

And all of this seemed to have been brought by that man.

He did not remember her, but she remembered him, remembering him for many years.

"Can I become him too?"

Ambition, or rather, admiration, took root in her young heart.

What followed was nothing worth mentioning; unlike Lex, who fished for three days and dried his nets for two, Laina walked step by step.

"... I know that even if I become a heroine, I cannot compare to Lord Lex; even if I only become more shadows in the minds of the people, I am willing... I will follow Lord Lex's path and continue forward."

Laina's strength was excellent, but she was merely a "hardworking genius," not the "monster who broke common sense" that Lex was.

She was not even the strongest among the candidates, but her shared origin with Lex, and the similarity in the "fur" and "tail" hues brought by a slight bloodline, led to her final selection.

After all, no one expected another Lex to appear; it was better to choose someone similar as a mascot.

But unfortunately, after she became a heroine, everything was already completely inferior to the era of Lex; her efforts seemed more like meaningless chaos.

This was not solely due to combat power; many equated the kingdom's rise and fall with the death of the heroine.

But in reality, the core internal driving force behind the kingdom's rise could not be simply attributed to one person.

The technological revolution brought by the Whisperer, and the kingdom's entire ambition to change, were the root of everything.

Lex was the standard-bearer of the great tide, but also a beneficiary; in his process of becoming powerful, there were countless pieces of "intelligence" and "information" regarding knowledge evolution and growth from the Whisperers, which could also be obtained through the Whisperers.

Of course, his outrageous power and his undefeated performance on the battlefield meant the kingdom's rise encountered no obstacles.

But if there were no upward trend for the entire kingdom, an invincible heroine would merely be a widower on a single battlefield.

"I... I can't do it."

Laina had a very strong sense of responsibility; her life was always chasing Lex. Although she was not as illiterate as Lex, her strength was actually quite limited.

And because she received the kingdom's knight education, her personality had unknowingly drifted extremely far from the person she was chasing.

The greatest advantage of knight education, and also its greatest problem, was actually the excessive sense of responsibility brought by knightly virtues.

Since Lex could do it, in the era of the previous heroine, the kingdom was constantly rising...

"At the very least, I cannot let the nation weaken further."

She had tried very hard, but she was still just a sword, and not even the strongest sword of the kingdom.

And at that point in time, a rumor spread out:

"Heroine Lex did not die; he was merely captured by an evil dragon."

This should have been just a rumor; such things happened every so often. The kingdom longed to return to the past, and countless common people yearned for the glorious Lord Heroine to return.

Where there is desire, there are rumors to satisfy that desire; there were at least a few hundred versions of such stories among the people.

But this time, it was a bit different.

"My soul ability has been triggered; my intuition..."

A heroine is actually a profession that relies extremely heavily on intuition and instinct, yet the girl holding the Heroine's Sword actually felt that "someone" might truly be alive.

Any search magic was ineffective, but if this rumor were true, perhaps it would be possible to retrieve the legendary Lord Heroine.

Or, perhaps the kingdom truly had the possibility of being revived right then and there.

A fairy tale turned into reality, but the end of hope was only despair.

She found him, yet she wished she had not found him.

"Why, why, why..."