The Hero Becomes the Duke’s Eldest Son

Chapter 174

In the future, the great alchemist Kalsis would develop an elixir known as Gehenna’s Breath.

This elixir, which was referred to as poison, had the potential to bring the human body to a near state of ‘evolution’ after consuming it over a hundred times.

It had also been the primary contributor to Aden’s growth, allowing him to progress from his weak and frail body to his current state.

‘But to be precise, that’s not the real Gehenna’s Breath.’

The one he had was a counterfeit potion, a knockoff.

Only Kalsis knew the precise ratio of ingredients required for the real Gehenna’s Breath.

Therefore, when Aden drank Gehenna’s Breath, he had to keep a top-grade potion by his side as a safety measure.

However, the potions Aden distributed to others were different.

‘It’s fortunate that Cassie and the members of the Sacred Fire Order worked hard.’

What he distributed to the captains of the guard was the ‘real Gehenna’s Breath,’ crafted through countless trials and errors by hundreds of the Sacred Fire Order’s expert alchemists and Cassie, who was instrumental in perfecting the formula.

“This awful potion… who the hell came up with this?!”

“This is a potion that should never have existed!”

Although the alchemists ranted and raved, the truth was that the real Gehenna’s Breath potion had a significant feature: it didn’t require a Holy Potion.

It was said that the multitude of toxic components would naturally neutralize each other through the body’s metabolic processes.

‘Thanks to that, you won’t die from drinking it without a Holy Potion.’

Yes, you wouldn’t die… but just barely.

“Aaaaah!”

“Oooh! Aaaargh!”

“Ugh… Father? Why are you there, deceased Father…?”

“Please… just kill me…!”

The captains who drank Gehenna’s Breath rolled around on the ground in agony.

Aden looked down at them and spoke.

“The elixir is dissolving and regenerating the weak parts of your body. It may feel like you’re about to die, but you won’t actually die, so don’t worry.”

Indeed, in most cases, you wouldn’t die.

“As long as I’m here, there’s no problem!”

-Bark bark!

“Yes, if anyone looks like they’re about to pass out, I’ll leave it to you, Elise.”

“Leave it to me!”

And so, Aden had the young saintess Elise stand by to prepare for any emergencies.

Gerden, Captain No. 1, was the first to grovel before Aden, looking as if he was about to die.

“Ugh… Y-Young Master, I think I’m going to die!”

“Have you actually died before?”

“…Excuse me?”

“If you haven’t died, don’t talk nonsense, idiot.”

“Ugh, what do you mean by that… Aaaargh!”

Gerden couldn’t finish his sentence due to the pain, and he rolled on the ground again.

What a fuss he was making.

“This is ten times less painful than when I was gnawing on raw poisonous herbs. Stop whining.”

-O King of Dragon Slayers, I have shared your senses before, and I can tell you that this is truly the breath of hell itself.

‘That Kalsis, that bastard, sure had a knack for naming things.’

In any case, since Aden considered this level of pain to be bearable, he clicked his tongue as he watched them writhing on the ground like bugs dying from drinking the potion.

While the others screamed and cried out, Captain No. 5, Banner, was the only one silently enduring the pain.

“Hey, do you men have no guts? Look at Captain No. 5 as an example. Isn’t that right? Hm?”

Aden placed his hand on Banner’s left shoulder, but he noticed that Banner remained completely still, and he found it strange.

Elise approached, poked Banner’s leg, and then looked at his face, her eyes widening in surprise like a startled rabbit.

“This man… he fainted while standing!”

“……”

“…Impressive.”

In many ways, it was remarkable.

And after that day, rumors began to spread quietly that Aden Remes was conducting live human experiments.

* * *

Meanwhile, while the captains were undergoing their harrowing live experiment(?), their subordinates were not having an easy time either.

No, there was another kind of hell unfolding there.

-Roaaaar!

The massive steel giants, standing over three meters tall, known as ‘Magical Circuit Golems,’ let out deafening roars.

Boom!

Each time they slammed their fists into the ground, the force was so immense that craters formed, and the earth shook violently.

-Roaaaaar!

“Dodge, everyone!”

“Please, save me!”

“Aaaaah!”

The guards in their Frozen Guard uniforms frantically moved to avoid the golems’ fists and legs.

“If you just keep dodging, it will never end! Find the core!”

“But where is that core?!”

“Aaah! Don’t come this way!”

“Everyone, attack! The attack team keeps attacking while the lure team distracts it!”

The 300 members of the Frozen Autonomous Corps.

They were divided into groups of thirty, each fighting against a ‘training golem’ assigned to them.

“Aaaaah!”

Although the scene was more akin to a massacre or torture than training.

Aden’s mentor, the Mercenary King Balkan, was a man with a ‘practical’ approach to things.

“And because I learned from such a man, I can’t help but have a practical mindset as well. So, all of this tragedy is entirely my teacher’s fault.”

-Cut the nonsense and stop trying to justify yourself, Dragon Slayer.

Gustav’s successful creation, the ten Magical Circuit Golems.

Although they wielded their massive steel fists as if they would crush people, they never actually struck them directly.

Boom!

“Gaaah!”

However, the terrifying power of the golems’ fists was deadly even with just a glancing blow.

One guard, hit by the shockwave of a golem’s fist striking the ground, was sent flying.

He did not rise again; it seemed he had fainted.

-Bark.

Choco, who had grown enormous, picked up the unconscious guards in his mouth and moved them out of the field.

“Lord, heal their pain! Hiyah!”

And those moved out were healed by Elise’s Holy Power.

The place was filled with screams, shouts, despair, and stubborn determination, a scene of utter chaos. But amidst this, one man was laughing wildly.

“Hahahahaha! Do you think moving like that will even scratch my creations?! You maggots, hahaha!”

“Oh, someone, please get rid of that lunatic!”

The mad magical engineer, Gustav, laughed wickedly like a demon king from a fairy tale as he watched his creations ruthlessly torment the guards.

“Oh, this is truly impressive.”

Hermit, munching on some popcorn she had gotten from who-knows-where, expressed her admiration as she watched the training.

“A fusion of machinery and magic, magical engineering… I’ve seen a few who tried something similar, but this is the first time I’ve seen something crafted with such precision and stability. It’s incredibly fresh, a sophisticated technique.”

To her, a dragon who had lived for thousands of years, magical engineering was a newly discovered toy, a fascinating study.

Curiosity glimmered in her eyes.

She looked at Viscount Gustav with sparkling eyes and asked.

“Would you teach me this magical engineering?”

“Oho! For a beautiful sorceress to recognize the brilliance of magical engineering, you must be quite extraordinary! Haha! Of course, I’d be delighted to teach you! The door to magical engineering is always open!”

“I look forward to it.”

As a former wizard, Gustav couldn’t even imagine that she was a dragon, the origin of all magic.

This would later cause an absurd butterfly effect, but for now, no one was aware.

“But I have a question, Aden.”

“What is it?”

“While this is amusing to watch, is there really a need to train them in such a simplistic and brutish way?”

Making them fight golems, then healing them only to make them fight again, repeating the process endlessly.

And it didn’t even end with the golems.

After the golem training, they would have to fight ogres, frost orcs, and gnolls commanded by Ogre Lord Ukulak until they were half-dead.

As Hermit mentioned, it was a training method that was simple, brutish, and nothing else.

“How do we know what’s best for them? This is the only way to make them usable.”

You couldn’t expect these men to have the talent for swordsmanship.

Nor could you expect them to have the ability to manipulate mana.

If they had such talents, they would have risen to prominence long ago.

“Teaching them swordsmanship is useless, and they’re too old to learn it anyway. The only thing they’re good at is using their bodies and moving as a group, skills they learned from banditry.”

They had the typical traits of bandits, and mercenary groups were not much different from bandit groups.

Moreover, Aden knew well how mercenaries became stronger.

“The only answer is to push them hard.”

For such men, it was faster to train them with their bodies than with theoretical lessons on swordsmanship or spear techniques.

If you pushed them hard enough, they would grow stronger and survive.

“Or they’ll die.”

“I see. I understand.”

“Hermit, I’ve been curious for a while now. What’s that in your hand?”

“Oh, this? It’s popcorn. It’s good to eat while watching something.”

“Let me try some.”

“Here.”

-Roaaaar!

“Aaaah!”

“Aar

gh! Just die!”

“Damn it! When is this going to end?!”

“Damn it! Why do we have to go through this?!”

“I’d rather undergo the Wasteland King’s hellish training!”

Crunch, crunch.

As the cries of despair and curses from the guards filled the air, the sound of Aden and Hermit leisurely munching on popcorn echoed around them.

‘This is too much…’

‘Those damned demons…’

From the perspective of the guards fighting for their lives, tears of blood streamed down their faces.

* * *

One sunny afternoon.

Aden, as usual, was tending to the flourishing flowers.

“Face-Eater, here’s your meal.”

-Uwaaaah!

-Wait a moment! I’m quite capable! I’ll do anything you ask! Aden Remes, no, Lord Remes! Please reconsider, aaaargh!

“Good, eat well.”

Crunch, crunch, munch.

The corrupted soul of Chaos’s officer, Arch Lich Somora, was devoured with gusto by the Face-Eater.

Aden had already read its memories through the Wraith Lantern, so there was no need to interrogate and exhaust his mental energy.

‘Of course, it’s a bit wasteful to use an Arch Lich, a rather rare being, like this…’

But Aden simply didn’t like the idea of keeping such an entity around.

He didn’t want to deal with a being that he found distasteful, even if it had value as a subordinate.

So, he decided it was better to use it as food for the Face-Eater.

Burp, the Face-Eater belched contentedly after consuming Somora’s entire soul.

Aden smirked.

“Since it was the soul of an Arch Lich, it should yield a high-grade fruit, right?”

As soon as Aden finished speaking, the Face-Eater’s leaves began to tremble.

It was the signal that it was about to produce a fruit.

“Oh? Is it coming out immediately because it’s a high-grade soul? I wonder what will come out this time?”

-It feels like pulling the lever on a slot machine, this is rather fun.

-Indeed, Lord of the Underworld.

At first, Curse and Andromalius were horrified at the sight of the Face-Eater devouring wraiths, but now they were starting to enjoy it.

Thump, roll.

Finally, the Face-Eater produced a fruit.

Golden.

The color alone was different from any of the fruits that had come out before; it was golden.

The moment Aden saw it, he knew.

‘This is it.’

This was the item that would awaken Aden’s potential.

He immediately picked up the fruit from the Face-Eater.

-‘You have acquired the “Highest-Grade Face-Eater Fruit.”’

It was the highest-grade fruit, a very precious one that would awaken the latent attributes in Aden’s body.

“I have no idea what this potential is supposed to be.”

Lowe had obtained the attribute ‘Knight’s Soul,’ and Gustav had acquired ‘Sage’s Madness.’

It seemed that the potential attribute that was awakened was something that matched the individual best, but Aden couldn’t even guess what attribute would appear for him.

“My potential… what could it be…?”

-What could it be? Something like ‘The Greatest Con Artist,’ ‘The One with a Rotten Soul,’ or ‘Foul-Mouthed Demon,’ I bet.

“Do you want to die?”

Aden was growling at Curse’s nonsense when it happened.

Pop!

-Que, kyuuu!

Suddenly, Leo materialized from within Aden’s body.

“Hm? Leo, what’s going on…?”

As Aden was about to ask, he suddenly paused, feeling a sense of déjà vu.

Leo rarely emerged on his own. And when he did, it was usually when…

‘Only when there’s something he wants to eat right in front of him. But there are no snacks or spirit stones here… No, wait?’

Just as Aden’s thoughts reached a foreboding conclusion, the spirit dragon Leo made his move.

Snap!

Leo snatched the fruit from Aden’s hand and gulped it down in one swift motion. The sound of Leo swallowing the fruit was eerily clear.

For a moment, Aden, Curse, and Andromalius all fell silent.

-……

“……”

-……Kyuu?

Leo tilted his head innocently, as if to ask, ‘Why are you all staring at me?’

Snap, Aden’s composure snapped.

“Why did you eat that…?!”

-Kyuuuuu…!

“Wait, calm down, Dragon Slayer! That’s animal abuse!”

“Shut up!”

And so, the day when Aden would awaken his potential was postponed a little further.