Chapter 178: Viktor’s Feelings

The room fell completely silent.

Qiu Nuoya had no idea how he was supposed to respond. Viktor was right. He had no obligation to help them. Still, he could not help feeling that Viktor had gone a little too far.

After all, this was an issue that could affect the survival of this peaceful country. If the peace of the country were lost, Qiu Nuoya would no longer be able to live a peaceful life either.

At the same time, Qiu Nuoya knew that Viktor had said those things because he genuinely cared about him, which made it difficult to simply criticize him.

"...Don’t get so worked up, Viktor. This isn’t like you." Igor spoke in a deliberately lighthearted tone, trying to ease the tension with an awkward smile. However, the frozen atmosphere did not change, and Kinana bowed her head.

"The mage is right. I apologize."

"You don’t need to apologize, Kinana! But I’m sorry. I want to live a quiet life, and I don’t really want to do anything that would draw attention to me."

"I see." She lowered her eyes slightly before apologizing once more. "I shouldn’t have brought this up when you were simply coming to say goodbye before your journey."

They had only come to say goodbye, yet somehow the atmosphere had become unbearably awkward. Unable to find a way to lighten the mood, Qiu Nuoya and the others left the Tamer’s Guild as they were.

From that point on, Viktor fell completely silent and did not say another word.

"He’s always overprotective of you, but wasn’t he acting a little strange back there?" Igor quietly whispered this to Qiu Nuoya.

Viktor acting strangely was nothing unusual, but Qiu Nuoya had to admit that his words earlier had seemed a little harsher than usual.

Qiu Nuoya nodded in agreement.

At the very least, Viktor was not the kind of person who casually threw around words that sounded like curses against others. Yet just moments ago, he had said, "Any country that can only survive through the sacrifice of others may as well be destroyed," practically cursing the entire country.

What exactly had struck a nerve with him?

Saintesses, Heroes, the Demon King, massive monster stampedes. All of those were certainly ominous topics, but fundamentally, none of them had anything to do with Qiu Nuoya and the others.

Still, perhaps there had been something among those topics that particularly bothered Viktor.

"Come to think of it, is Hero Summoning really something that can be performed so easily?"

"Of course not. But now that you mention it, I remember hearing a story a long time ago that even the First King was summoned through Hero Summoning."

"Really?"

"Well, it’s basically just a fairy tale, so I don’t know whether it’s actually true."

Wait... If that’s true, then could the First King have been from another world too?

"I’ve also heard that the First King was originally an adventurer, so I think there’s a good chance that story was simply something made up later. After all, it happened three hundred years ago. There’s probably no one left who actually knows..."

Igor suddenly tilted his head.

"Hm?"

He looked toward Viktor. "Hey, you don’t happen to know something about it, do you?"

"Why would you think that?"

"No particular reason. I just remembered that elves tend to live a long time."

"Even I don’t know anything about that. I wasn’t even born during that era."

"Huh? But you said you’d met Qiu Tailang before..."

"I have. However, that was many years after the First King had already ascended the throne. By the time I was old enough to remember things, that man was already the king. So I don’t know anything about what happened before that."

I see. So that means Viktor is probably just a little under three hundred years old.

"Besides, if someone was summoned through Hero Summoning, I believe Qiu Tailang is actually more likely to have been the summoned Hero than the First King."

That’s true. There is almost no doubt that Qiu Tailang was from the same world as Qiu Nuoya. After all, they have the same surname.

"Viktor certainly seems rather attached to this Qiu Tailang fellow. I’ve heard that he was a Saint, but what exactly was he to you?"

"..."

At Igor’s question, Viktor turned his face away.

Is that his way of saying he doesn’t want to talk about it?

"Hey, Viktor. I’m talking to you. Answer me."

"...It was nothing."

"That’s your idea of ’nothing’? You’re obviously acting like you’re hiding something. Since we’re on the subject anyway, why don’t you just spill the whole story? You’ll feel better afterward." Igor put an arm around Viktor’s shoulders and leaned in to peer at his face.

What kind of interrogation is this?

Igor’s tone was light and joking, but he sounded almost like someone interrogating a criminal.

No, wait. Is it the other way around?

It sounded more like the kind of line a villain would use to corner the protagonist who was hiding some important secret. Qiu Nuoya felt like this sort of interrogation would probably make it onto a ranking of lines everyone wanted to say at least once.

"That’s why! I said it was nothing! There was nothing between me and that person. I was simply the one watching him from afar! Are you satisfied now!?"

"Huh? Hey, Viktor!"

Viktor shook off Igor’s arm and turned away. "I hate how thoughtless you can be sometimes!"

But is Igor really that thoughtless?

Even when Igor notices something, he rarely lets it show in his words or expression. If anything, Qiu Nuoya considered him a considerate person. It was true that Igor had once forced Viktor to drink alcohol despite his protests, but there had been a reason for that too.

"I don’t want to talk about this anymore. We need to hurry to the Adventurer’s Guild, return the key, and leave the city before it gets dark!"

With that, Viktor left them behind and walked on ahead.