Book 1 Chapter 10

【10】9

"Conquer the world? That's ridiculous, isn't it?"

Chelsea shook her head as she walked behind Leo.

"Conquering a hero's world is difficult even for Lumerne students, but they'd make admission candidates do it?"

She was right.

Even for hero candidates who received the best education at Lumerne, conquering a hero's world was no easy feat.

But to make examinees do such a difficult thing.

It was an absurd idea.

However, Leo's thoughts were different.

"We're being tested for the qualifications of a hero, aren't we?"

"Yes."

"Then shouldn't we naturally be able to do what a hero must do? Besides, if it's an exam, the trials will be given within a conquerable range."

At those words, Chelsea paused.

'He certainly wasn't wrong.'

"Hmm! Then what are the conquest conditions? If it's a trial level that examinees can conquer, it would still be Albi's early exploits. But almost nothing is known about the actions of the Mage of the Demon Eye."

Leo chuckled as he watched Chelsea cross her arms and rack her brain.

'She's an excellent kid.'

She was a girl with outstanding skill and strong pride as a noble family member.

Usually, such children tend not to listen to their peers.

But Chelsea listened to Leo's words, found them plausible, and immediately started thinking about the method of conquest.

'Her thinking is flexible. That's a good quality for a mage.'

Leo said, thinking she was a girl fit to be a hero candidate, though still inexperienced.

"It's highly likely to be a subjugation."

"That's certainly true."

Chelsea nodded.

If it was an achievement made in a place where monsters appeared, then it was highly probable that something was defeated.

And Leo had a guess about the target to be defeated.

'It might be a different one, given the time.'

Leo, who had been clenching and unclenching his fist while looking at the monster corpses earlier, grabbed Chelsea's wrist.

"What are you doing?"

It was at that moment Chelsea's face turned prickly at Leo's sudden action.

Whoosh-!

Leo pulled Chelsea towards him.

Fwip-fwip-fwip-!

Two arrows flew and embedded themselves in the spot where Chelsea had been.

Seeing that, Chelsea's eyes widened.

And…

"Huh? Huh?"

Sway-! Thump!

"Ouch!"

She lost her balance and landed on her bottom.

Chelsea, who had been rubbing her bottom with tears welling up, got furious.

"If you pull me, you should hold me so I don't fall!"

"Oh, sorry. I thought you'd get angry if I hugged you carelessly."

"Making me fall like this makes me even angrier!"

"So, no 'thank you'?"

"Hmph! Even if it wasn't for you, arrows like that couldn't harm me at all, you know?"

"They were imbued with Aura."

At Leo's remark, Chelsea paused.

"M-my shield magic, which I had memorized beforehand, would have blocked it!"

Chelsea said that, but soon spoke in a sulky voice.

"W-well, thanks anyway."

At her reaction, Leo burst out laughing.

"Tsk!"

"We could have defeated Chelsea LeWalyn first!"

Other examinees, pushing through the bushes, glared at Leo and Chelsea.

"You guys."

As Chelsea stepped forward, the group of five examinees looked tense.

"Let's not fight, let's cooperate with us."

"What?"

They looked flustered at Chelsea's sudden words.

"Your party is only made up of knights, right? It wouldn't be bad if I, a mage, joined the party, would it? Then it makes sense to cooperate, doesn't it?"

Even though she had just been attacked, Chelsea offered cooperation without any particular unpleasantness.

Since it was an exam anyway, it was natural to eliminate others.

'If it were an exam to eliminate others, I would have attacked without mercy, but now we have to conquer a hero's world.'

As Chelsea looked back at him as if asking for his opinion, Leo also nodded.

"By cooperating…"

"We're just knights, but we can do long-range attacks, so our party balance is fine?"

"Huh?"

At that moment, the examinee who seemed to be the leader scoffed.

"You're only two people, aren't you? If we fight now, we have a much greater advantage."

"That's right, no matter how much you boast about being from a hero's noble family, you're the same age as us!"

"Who do you think doesn't know you offered cooperation because you're scared?"

Thinking Chelsea had caved in, their spirits soared.

"If we defeat you, one powerful admission candidate disappears! So why should we cooperate with you?"

"Right! Right!"

Seeing them take a battle stance, Chelsea was about to say something.

"Stop, there's no point talking anymore."

"But."

Chelsea showed a frustrated expression.

This excellent girl was vexed by the other examinees who wouldn't even listen to her words.

Leo drew his sword and said,

"If they want to fight, we should fight."

"Can't be helped."

Chelsea sighed and picked up her staff.

Looking at Chelsea, Leo said,

"You support from behind."

"What?"

"Wasting magic power on those nobodies is a waste."

"Are you serious? They're using Aura?"

"Leave it to me."

"Hmph. Don't say I didn't warn you if you get hurt?"

Even as she spoke coldly, Chelsea intended to help Leo if he was in danger.

'I have to repay the debt from earlier, after all.'

Chelsea fiddled with her staff.

Meanwhile, the other examinees looked at Leo with distorted faces.

"Who are you?"

"You're going to face us alone?"

"Yes. Please take care of me."

"This bastard!"

The examinee holding the bow, thinking Leo was ignoring him, immediately drew the bowstring.

Whoosh-!

An arrow not imbued with Aura flew towards Leo.

Aura arrows were being saved for the fight with Chelsea, as they consumed Aura.

'If he dodges, there'll be an opening! Then we can surround him and finish him off…'

Grab-!

"…!"

"This isn't the time to conserve strength, is it?"

Leo, who had caught the arrow, indifferently broke it and said.

"N-no way! My arrow with bare hands…!"

Whoosh-!

Before the examinee could finish his sentence, Leo charged in.

"B-block him!"

"Surround him!"

He quickly rolled his eyes, seeing swords flying from all directions.

But the examinees couldn't fully focus on Leo.

'Even without participating in the battle, her mere presence is a deterrent.'

Unlike the unknown Leo, there was Chelsea, a named examinee, so their attention was bound to be drawn to her.

'I'm grateful for that.'

Clang- Thump!

"Gasp?"

Leo parried a sword and then punched the opponent directly in the solar plexus.

"This bastard! There was no sign of him using Aura?!"

"Of course not, I'm bare-bodied."

Leo said calmly, looking at his mistaken opponent, then spun his body.

The opponent, who was aiming for Leo's back, was flustered to see Leo dodge as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

Thump-!

"Ugh!"

Leo, who had kicked his opponent in the side, aimed at the only two remaining examinees.

"Use Aura!"

"Damn it!"

Leo alone overwhelmed the five.

Meanwhile, Chelsea, watching from behind, widened her eyes.

'Wow, how can he move like that without even using Aura?'

Although a mage, Chelsea also trained hard in martial arts, aspiring to be a battle mage.

That's why she vaguely understood how divine Leo's movements were.

'He's cool!'

Chelsea, feeling her heart pound, was startled.

'No! He's the guy who hung out with Celia Jerdinger! Get a grip! Chelsea!'

Shaking her head vigorously, Chelsea couldn't take her eyes off Leo.

***

Applicants were quickly eliminated.

It was the result of moving excessively to eliminate competitors.

'They seem to think they were actively moving.'

Albi watched several students.

He saw those proudly boasting about how many they had eliminated.

Of course, it had nothing to do with the exam.

About an hour into the exam.

Out of 569 applicants, only about fifty remained.

"Lord Albi. All those applicants are…"

"Eliminated."

The aide dispatched from Lumerne looked flustered, seeing Albi speak coldly.

"B-but, Lord Albi. They are all sufficiently excellent talents. Moreover, the average number of students selected from one exam is about a hundred…"

Albi's cold gaze turned towards the aide.

The aide gasped at his look.

"When the principal appointed me as an examiner, I said the same thing as you. That if I were appointed an examiner, anyone who didn't meet my standards would be eliminated. Yet, he entrusted me with the position of examiner."

"Hmm!"

"As an examiner, it is within the examiner's authority which students to pass. So, let's not discuss this any further."

Albi, who spoke decisively, turned his gaze to the magic mirror.

What entered his sight was none other than Leo.

'It seems he noticed the anomaly in the forest.'

Albi fiddled with his left eye.

'Will he really be able to conquer that world?'

***

"Chelsea, you're safe."

"Of course, brother."

About two hours after the exam began.

Leo was able to safely join Celia and Avard's party.

"You were safe, as expected. But were you with Chelsea LeWalyn?"

"We met early in the exam and cooperated."

"Huh? She has considerable pride and stubbornness, yet she readily cooperated with you?"

"I persuaded her well."

Celia muttered inwardly, looking at Leo's meaningful smile.

'You must have done something.'

After a week of living together, Celia had a good grasp of her cousin's viciousness.

"You also said things like 'butter' and 'annoying,' but it seems you still traveled together."

"We couldn't just fight blindly without knowing the exam's passing criteria."

Celia answered, sweeping her hair back.

"Anyway, you have a lot of companions."

"Avard and I can move quickly. So, we roamed the forest and gathered people to cooperate with. Mostly people from the Lodren Empire, though."

The two great families of the Lodren Empire.

There was no one from the Empire who would refuse when Jerdinger and LeWalyn offered cooperation.

"Well done."

"Huh? Why?"

"I think I know how to pass this exam task."

"Oh? You figured it out?"

Celia's eyes sparkled.

"It's world conquest."

"World conquest?"

Celia tilted her head.

Then she nodded.

"Indeed, this exam is too unusual. It wouldn't be strange if it was world conquest."

"Right?"

"Then one problem arises here. What exactly are the conquest conditions?"

A hero's world has conquest conditions.

That's why the study of heroism is important.

Investigating and researching a hero's exploits directly leads to methods of conquering a hero's world.

However, if there are heroes with epic tales, there are also heroes without them.

Especially, a living hero's world is rarely conquered.

Even if it is conquered, there is no reward, and only the hero themselves can open the world.

Heroic worlds that others can open by fulfilling conditions are only those of past heroes.

"Albi has high renown, but almost none of his past actions are revealed as a hero. There's no clue for conquest."

"I have a guess about that part too."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Leo sighed.

"The Monster Forest is currently experiencing an anomaly."

"Anomaly?"

"Yes. Don't you think too few monsters are appearing for a monster forest?"

"Certainly…"

Normally, monster attacks should be relentless.

But in Albi's world, the frequency of monster appearances is too low.

'As if something has scared them?'

Celia's face became serious at that thought.

"Perhaps a higher-ranked monster appeared that scared the forest monsters."

"So Albi achieved an exploit by subjugating that?"

"Right."

"What kind of higher-ranked monster could scare the entire Monster Forest? I've never seen any record of such an anomaly."

"That is…"

Just as Leo was about to answer Celia's question.

"Aaaaaaaah-!"

A scream echoed in the distance.

"It seems it has appeared."