“Lartania what?”
At the quiet mumbling of the Hero King, the noisy conference room fell silent like a dead mouse.
It was because all the commanders there knew that the Hero King must never hear anything about Lartania.
No, it was strange not to know in the first place.
All the commanders here had heard the story from the Demon King they worshiped.
Therefore, the commanders here fully realized how bad this situation was.
“......”
Beor also sighed briefly, seeing the Hero King standing at the conference room door.
It was because Beor had never imagined this scene in the first place.
As far as he could remember, the Hero King had never attended a meeting since being specially appointed by the Demon King and becoming the First Legion Commander.
Therefore, he wondered why the Hero King, who had never shown up to a meeting before, was here now.
“Sigh-”
He soon erased his doubt.
At this point, questions were no longer important.
What mattered was how to handle this situation.
‘The First Legion Commander shouldn’t have known about this. No- even if they knew, it shouldn’t have been now.’
Looking around at the commanders who were all frowning, Beor sighed and spoke.
“It’s your first time attending a meeting.”
“Forget that. Explain about Lartania.”
Seeing the Hero King ask without any trace of emotion, Beor thought about what to do next.
As far as he could tell, things had already gone awry from the moment she found out the truth.
With the Hero King, the key to resurrecting the Demon King, there were two options.
Persuasion, or suppression.
But Beor coldly excluded the possibility of the former.
Once she heard the word ‘Lartania’ and understood the context of the meeting, persuading her was meaningless.
Then there was only one option left.
“...It is as it sounds. We were talking about the Lartania territory.”
“So why suddenly bring it up in this conference room-”
“Because the Lord of Lartania, the ‘outsider’, has returned.”
“...!”
Emotion appeared in the Hero King’s eyes, which had shown no trace of it just moments before.
A torrent of emotions anyone could easily sense.
And then-
Boom-!
At that moment, when the Hero King’s judgment faltered, the commanders instantly unleashed their magic and rushed to subdue her.
The Third and Eighth Legion Commanders grabbed her arms.
The Fourth and Fifth Legion Commanders grabbed her legs.
The Fourth and Seventh Legion Commanders sealed her powers with their magic.
The Hero King, wrapped in intense joy, laughing with her mouth wide open.
“Yes, you are limited from thinking that way in the first place.”
“...Limit?”
At Kim Hyunwoo’s question, the Red Merchant nodded and then seemed to realize something.
“Oh, just to clarify, we have no connection to your limit.”
“No connection... Does that mean no relation at all?”
“That’s right. The reason I can check your condition in detail is because of my extraordinary eyes, not because I’m related to the limit placed on you.”
After saying that, the Red Merchant asked Kim Hyunwoo.
“...Then what exactly is the limit placed on me?”
“Hmm, strictly speaking, it’s not really a limit. I’m just explaining it this way to make it easier to understand.”
“Then...?”
At Kim Hyunwoo’s question, the Red Merchant thought for a moment and then spoke.
“...Well... honestly, I’m not sure if this is the right way to put it, but it feels like a restriction on certain emotions.”
“A restriction on certain emotions...?”
“Yes. To be more precise, it seems like a restriction on ‘affection’, as if trying to prevent you from feeling that way from the beginning...”
As the Red Merchant tilted her head in curiosity, Kim Hyunwoo spoke.
“So, you mean there’s a limit on my ability to feel affection?”
“More precisely, it’s not so much a restriction as a redirection...it might seem like a restriction, but technically, it’s a bit different.”
“...Then who on earth?”
“Of course, I don’t know that. I can only guess that the hero who brought you here might have taken such measures.”
“...The hero who brought me here...”
At that moment, Kim Hyunwoo recalled the fifth thing the Blue Merchant had mentioned but then shook his head slightly and spoke.
“Then is there any way to remove this limit?”
Of course, this limit hadn’t caused Kim Hyunwoo any significant harm so far, but it was still somewhat unpleasant, so he asked the question.
The Red Merchant immediately replied.
“There isn’t a way right now. If it were something simpler, maybe, but this limit seems sturdier than expected. Messing with it carelessly might subject you to danger.”
“...Is that so?”
Kim Hyunwoo looked slightly disappointed.
But the Red Merchant spoke with a faint smile.
“Well, even so, there’s no need to worry too much. The item I brought this time will help with your current condition.”
“The item you brought this time...?”
At Kim Hyunwoo’s words, the Red Merchant nodded and placed a box in front of his office.
“You purchased an item to meet me, did you not?”
“Ah.”
As the Red Merchant continued, Kim Hyunwoo recalled purchasing the ‘unknown item’ and let out a low exclamation.
“That item will likely help a lot in removing the limit placed on you.”
The Red Merchant smiled and spoke.