Book 1 Chapter 1038

1038.

Lena's body trembled.

"Uh, um…"

"Yes? Ah! Shall I massage your legs this time?"

"N-no! This is too much!"

Lena exclaimed, horrified, as she watched Rian meticulously massage her shoulders.

As the princess of the Arch Kingdom, Lena had met countless people who fawned over her.

Among them were countless sycophants.

But she could say with certainty!

'This person… No! This god-like person, I've never met anyone like them!'

Her attitude was completely different from the arrogance she had shown moments ago.

If there were such a thing as a born slave, would they be like this?

"That's right! I'm a slave! I'm a slave to the bone! Haaak! Your soles are so soft!"

"Kiiiiiiiaaaaaak?!"

Rian, having already removed Lena's shoes and socks, rubbed his cheek against her soles. Lena, horrified by this action, kicked him.

Thwack!

"Oof?!"

Rian, his face kicked, rolled on the floor.

"Are, are you okay?"

Lena, who had been forcibly seated on a luxurious chair, hurried over to Rian.

'No matter how surprised I was, kicking him with my shoe!'

She was blaming herself for her actions.

"Heeeeeeng. A noble being made of the blood and flesh inherited from Lord Kyle has left footprints on my faceeee~ I'm never washing this face!"

Lena felt a chill as she looked at Rian, who was blissfully happy with a deranged look on his face.

Lena, shuddering with biological repulsion, looked at Luna with a tearful face.

"Gr, Grandmother…!"

Seeing Lena asking for help, young Luna sighed deeply and looked at herself, the departed spirit.

"What?! Grandmother?! The progenitor of the constellation is your grandmother?!"

Rian's eyes flashed open.

"The progenitor of the constellation, who was so foul-tempered and had an unnecessarily strong pride that they couldn't even properly confess, actually confessed their feelings to Lord Kyle?"

At that, young Luna pulled a book from a nearby bookshelf.

Although she felt dizzy from lack of energy, she strangely felt she had the strength to punish the damn god in front of her.

Thwack-!

"Gasp!"

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Young Luna repeatedly jabbed Rian with the corner of the book and asked the spirit Luna,

'Can I beat this guy up?'

It was a case of acting first and reporting later, but the spirit Luna didn't care.

-Kill him.

Thwack-!

"Hiiik?! Lu, Lady Luna, you'll kill him at this rate!"

"You don't know gods well."

"Huh?"

Young Luna looked down at Rian, who was a bloody mess, with cold eyes.

Rian, wriggling pathetically, looked pitiable at first glance.

Lena even felt pity for him, forgetting what had just happened.

However, Luna, who had lived in the age of gods, knew well.

Especially, she knew more about gods than people from other eras.

Even in her childhood, gods had approached Luna because of her talent.

And these gods never backed down from this level of violence.

"Lord Kyle was also hit like this, right? Lord Kyle's experience! The best!"

"Yes. These are the kind of beings who shouldn't exist on this earth."

With a chilling face, Luna brought the book down again.

CRUNCH-!

Lena squeezed her eyes shut.

A moment later.

Lena, hiding behind Luna, peeked over her shoulder.

In front of Luna, Rian was kneeling with his eyes wide open.

"Um… is it okay to treat a god like this…"

"When you draw a line, you have to draw it clearly. Otherwise, he would have licked your soles too."

"Hiiik?!"

Lena recoiled as if she had the creeps.

Luna sighed and scratched her head.

Rian wouldn't harm Lena.

His desire to serve Lena was genuine.

'That's why it's more of a problem.'

He was reacting fanatically simply because Lena was a descendant of Kyle, who had been reincarnated.

Young Luna, who had met gods several times, knew how to deal with them.

Luna, glaring at Rian, suddenly felt dizzy and swayed.

"Are, are you okay?"

"There's no good in staying here for long."

Rian said calmly.

"As I said before, if you are a person from the Hero's world, your very existence will become faint just by being in this space."

"…"

At his words, young Luna sighed.

'I knew it. That I wasn't real.'

She had vaguely realized this when she first heard about the Hero's world.

'There's nothing new about it, is there?'

Young Luna smiled faintly and looked at her future self, who wore a pained expression.

She had been told that she would forget everything when she returned to her original time.

Thinking like that, it was no different.

'Perhaps it's fortunate.'

She was able to experience a future that was unimaginably difficult, and beyond that, happiness.

And…

'I met someone I'd give my heart to in the future.'

She could tell just by watching beside him.

Why her future self… no, why she fell in love with that man.

Rian, who had been silently watching the young Luna, who smiled confidently without feeling any fear, spoke.

"As expected… it wasn't a coincidence that you saved the world."

Young and immature, but their mindset was like a giant tree.

Inevitable.

That's what he thought.

Rian, who had been smiling, soon put on a serious expression.

"The fact that beings from the future have come to the past… means that Erebus will completely disappear in the future, doesn't it?"

Lena, surprised by Rian's words, asked,

"How do you know…?"

"I can tell by seeing a fragment of future Erebus."

"Even if she looks like that, she's a god."

"A being who was once a god. Now, she's just the guardian of the Hero Records."

Rian smiled brightly.

"If future Erebus had won, there would be no need to come to the past. Since Lord Kyle has reincarnated… he must have put an end to what he couldn't finish during the age of disaster."

"…That's right."

Rian nodded at Lena's answer.

"The Hero Records will also disappear, right?"

"Huh?"

Seeing Lena look slightly bewildered, Rian said,

"There is no way to defeat the fragment of Erebus resurrected in the current era. In the end, the heroes of creation will have no choice but to entrust it to future generations, and that choice will be to trap Erebus within the Hero's world."

Rian smiled and looked at the infinitely unfolding records.

All of this was the story of heroes that Rian had recorded and contained.

"Even if the Hero Records are an artifact created by all the gods working together. If it's used as a vessel to seal the primordial evil for a long time… it will eventually break down and disappear."

"…"

"The age of gods comes to a complete end."

"Aren't you and the Hero Records in a co-dependent relationship? If the Hero Records disappear, you will disappear too?"

Luna's words made Rian smile.

"That's nice."

"What?"

Luna looked a little surprised.

"Luna, the progenitor of the constellation, I understand why you distrust gods. No, it's a very reasonable stance for someone who has met gods."

Rian looked up at the ceiling silently.

"Gods have watched over the world for eons. At first, all gods wanted to lead the world correctly. The growing world bloomed with countless possibilities. At that time, the gods were happy. But… as time passed, they became bored."

"…"

"So, they began to crave the unknown that they had not experienced. Some of them did not abandon their beliefs, but… in the end, all gods realized."

"What did they realize?"

"That the world led by gods would eventually perish."

Rian said with a somber expression, and Lena was taken aback.

"Does that mean the gods will destroy the world?"

"No. We all came to know that our existence would awaken the disaster."

"Even if it doesn't look like it, the world is in harmony. Where there is strong light, there is also strong darkness. The world during the age of gods was brilliant. The glory of the age of heroes was also a glory built on the foundation of the age of gods. However, as it was bright, the power of the approaching disaster also grew stronger. The gods knew this."

Young Luna said, and Lena's gaze turned to her.

"Another me explained it like this."

"Yes. It's as the progenitor of the constellation said."

"…"

"So, when the age of disaster arrived, we gave up on the world."

"…"

"Of course, we didn't give up easily. We tried to stop it somehow. Even if we went mad with boredom, this world… was a precious world where all of us were embodied."

However, the gods could not save a world rushing towards destruction.

All the gods eventually accepted it.

That the world's fate had reached its end.

That the flames of disaster could not be stopped.

Even the gods who desperately fought against the primordial evil did not think they could save the world.

It was just a matter of survival.

A desperate struggle to watch over this world they cherished, even for a little longer.

When even omniscient gods accepted the world's demise.

"The great heroes appeared."

Rian smiled brightly.

"You showed us the unknown possibilities that all gods had been searching and longing for. We were excited. At the same time, everyone realized."

"What?"

"That the moment we gave up on the world, the world left our hands."

Rian said calmly.

"That the world we thought was ours was no longer ours."

Rian looked down at his hands.

"The masters of the world are no longer gods."

Rian looked at Lena with proud eyes.

"However… the reason we couldn't completely let go of this world was because of the 'disaster' that would remain because of us."

There was also the greed of the gods.

An extremely selfish greed to watch over the world that was beginning to bloom with new possibilities a little longer.

"That's why we left the Hero Records on Earth."

An era that was not the age of gods but still had the influence of gods.

"I am not the only one in a co-dependent relationship with the Hero Records."

"What?"

"The moment the Hero Records are destroyed, all the gods will also be destroyed."