Book 1 Chapter 133
133.
For a moment, Elena had a blank expression.
Seeing Elena, Leo smiled.
“I’m just kidding.”
‘Is he messing with me?’
Seeing the impudent first-year student casually tease her, who was called the queen of the school, Elena let out a wry laugh.
“So, are you joining the party?”
“No. I’ve already decided where I’ll do my mission practical.”
“Did another raiding party invite you?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then why aren’t you joining the raiding party? It’s to your advantage.”
“Why is joining a raiding party to my advantage?”
Seeing Leo ask back with a bewildered expression, Elena was genuinely flustered.
She thought it was an offer a first-year student could never refuse.
That’s because it was akin to declaring that she would spoon-feed them the rewards of a Hero Dungeon raid.
‘But why is he refusing? Could it be that he doesn’t know the value of the Hero’s World?’
That couldn’t be.
Leo was an excellent student, good enough to be the class representative.
Such a student couldn’t possibly be unaware of the meaning and value of raiding the Hero’s World.
‘Or is it simply because of pride?’
But from Elena’s perspective, Leo wasn’t the type to assert such emotions.
“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll be going.”
Leo bowed his head and left.
Elena narrowed her eyes, watching his departing back.
“Hmm.”
Elena gently twirled the ends of her hair with her fingers, as if displeased.
The Blue Moon party members stared wide-eyed, alternating their gaze between Leo and Elena.
How dare he refuse the invitation of Elena, who was called the Queen of Lumern!
Other students also looked at Leo with incredulous faces.
Angry voices erupted among the Blue Moon party members.
“That insolent brat! How dare he refuse Elena’s invitation?”
“Does he think he’s all that just because he’s the class representative?”
“Senior Elena! Shall I teach him a harsh lesson?”
Seizing the opportunity, the Blue Moon party members spoke up, vying with each other.
It was because of the anticipation that if they made a good impression on Elena now, they might be able to join this raid.
Elena, who was twirling her hair, smiled sweetly at them.
“Who told you to talk to me so casually?”
At her words, the Blue Moon party members flinched.
There were fourth-year students in the Blue Moon party who were older than Elena.
Yet, they couldn’t say a word.
Elena smiled at them once, then click-clacked her heels as she left the first-year dormitory.
‘It’s a humiliation.’
She had her party invitation refused in front of many people.
Tomorrow, it would be plastered all over the school newspaper.
Of course, Elena didn’t care in the slightest even if such a thing happened.
This was because she wasn’t the type to pay attention to the chatter of worthless people.
‘My ability isn’t working at all.’
Elena’s pink eyes emitted an eerie light.
She was born with a charm that led people.
That didn’t just mean her natural background, talent, and appearance.
She was born with a devilish charm, like a curse, that thoroughly drove herself and her surroundings to misfortune.
But that curse, combined with her overwhelming heroic talent, became her powerful weapon.
With just her gaze, she could make ordinary people obey.
Even those with strong wills felt a strong attraction to her.
Those who knew her ability either feared or opposed her.
But Leo was completely unaffected by Elena’s demonic charm.
“Orve.”
“Yes, young lady.”
“Please find out which region Leo Flobe is going to for his mission practical.”
Elena’s attendant, Orve, paused upon hearing her words.
“Finding out a student’s personal information is against school rules, but…”
“You know I’m not someone who cares about such things, don’t you?”
Elena said, gently twirling the ends of her hair.
“Understood.”
Orve bowed his head and disappeared back into the darkness.
Walking alone through the night school, Elena murmured.
“Leo Flobe…”
Elena curled the corners of her lips.
“Interesting.”
***
The next morning.
The rumor that Leo had refused Elena’s invitation to join her party spread throughout the entire school.
“Hahahahahaha!”
Hark, the fourth-year representative, burst into laughter while reading the newspaper with his eye patch raised.
Lil, the second-year representative, dropped her fork and gaped while eating breakfast and reading the newspaper.
“Don’t you think our school newspaper club writes articles a little too sensationally?”
As Chelsea muttered, looking at the school newspaper distributed to each class every morning, Kal shrugged his shoulders.
“What can we do? The newspaper club has to make a living, too.”
The headline of the newspaper read [Queen’s Humiliation] in large letters.
“Anyway, the newspaper club is quite brave, I must say.”
“They do crazy things sometimes.”
Kal chuckled and then asked Leo,
“How does it feel to humiliate the Queen?”
“Not really.”
“But since she’s been publicly shamed like this, won’t she try to get revenge?”
“That won’t happen.”
‘She’s not the type to tarnish her reputation by seeking revenge. In the first place, she’s the type who wouldn’t care what others say.’
The problem was Elena’s followers.
‘The Queen’s followers are very jealous.’
Lil’s words from earlier came to mind.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter if those kinds of guys run wild anyway. Even if it is a bit troublesome.’
The riff-raff were out of Leo’s interest anyway.
‘I do need Elena’s permission to enter the restricted library.’
To investigate the Hero Records, he needed permission from Elena, the acting chairperson.
Previously, she wouldn’t even hear him out, but now, for some whim, she said she would grant his request.
‘That doesn’t mean I can enter the restricted library though.’
She could listen to the content and still refuse.
‘Besides, I refuse to have my school life tied down just to enter the restricted library.’
Elena was a strong candidate for the next chairperson.
If he joined a dungeon raiding party with her as the leader, he would surely be burdened with troublesome tasks.
‘I’m busy enough as it is.’
While it was important to enter the restricted library and find out why the Hero Records were divided, the current priority was to find the traitor within Lumern.
‘I can talk about the restricted library slowly later.’
Thud-
The classroom door opened and Halrind entered.
As the students hastily sat down, Halrind, standing at the lectern, said,
“Did everyone confirm the details of the mission requests for the practical yesterday?”
“Yes!”
“Then, please write and submit a simple mission plan explaining the reason for choosing the request you selected yesterday.”
“Understood!”
Class 5 quickly drafted their mission plans.
Afterward, Halrind meticulously checked whether the requests students chose were not too excessive.
And whether they had sufficient ability to carry them out.
During this, he paused upon seeing Leo’s mission plan.
Typically, first-year students undertaking mission practicals for the first time carefully choose requests that match their abilities.
Occasionally, they might choose requests that are too difficult due to excessive enthusiasm, but they rarely choose requests with a difficulty level excessively lower than their skill.
Choosing an easy request compared to one’s skill usually happens with upperclassmen who have already accumulated enough mission practical points but still have a mandatory number of requests to complete.
“Are you sure about the bandit subjugation mission in the Garan region, Leo Flobe?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. You surprise me in many ways.”
Halrind stroked his chin.
A professor should guide students who try to take on excessive requests that don’t match their skills, but in this case, he was pondering what to do.
‘Well, he must have a plan.’
He felt that if it was Leo, he would have a plan.
Halrind, thinking so, let out a hollow laugh.
‘To think I’d come to trust a mere first-year student like this.’
Shaking his head, Halrind stamped the mission practical plan.
After a brief interview, Halrind said,
“The mission practical begins two days from now. Everyone prepare well.”
“Yes!”
***
Whoooooosh!
A cold wind howled.
A land of cold winter all year round.
Seyrun, where beautiful elf students studied to become heroes.
“Hachoo!”
Walking through the corridors of Seyrun, the red-haired girl, Lunia, sneezed.
“Ugh-!”
Seeing Lunia rub her nose and make a nasal sound, Eiran said worriedly,
“Miss Lunia. Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Sniff-!”
As they live in a cold region, elves are strong against winter.
Especially Lunia, the successor to the Runda family, who uses the power of the Phoenix, was bound to be even stronger against the cold.
But being strong against the cold and having a constitution that dislikes the cold were different stories.
Lunia, in particular, intensely disliked the cold.
“By the way, Teacher Herdium said that Leo might come as an exchange student, so what happened?”
When Eiran asked with a slightly excited voice, Lunia shook her head.
“It won’t happen. They offered to send him here for almost half a semester, but there’s no way Lumern would send a student like Leo for that long.”
The name Leo Flobe was already so famous within Seyrun that no one was unaware of it.
‘That guy. He’s already far ahead. And it’s not like Leo is the only first-year student in Lumern.’
Thinking of the first-year students from Lumern she would have to compete with throughout her school life, Lunia curled the corners of her lips.
Lunia had a personality that burned even brighter the more worthy an opponent was to defeat.
‘It’ll be interesting.’
It was when she was looking at them with a belligerent smile, her eyes sparkling.
“That’s not an expression befitting a class representative.”
A stern voice was heard.
Lunia found the male student who appeared before her and made an annoyed expression.
Eiran hastily bowed her head.
“Senior Hardin, hello.”
“Hmph. Eiran. I hear you’ve gotten your act together recently.”
Hardin fixed his glasses, looking at Eiran with a cold smile.
“You know well that you brought shame to Seyrun’s name as a class representative, don’t you?”
At Hardin’s words, Eiran flinched.
“I hope you don’t do anything more that damages the school’s dignity as a class representative.”
Eiran couldn’t respond to that.
Lunia glared at Hardin with a sullen expression.
“And, Lunia. How many times have I told you not to make that face?”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
“It’s like a street thug’s face.”
Pointing that out, Hardin glanced at Lunia’s attire.
Lunia, who had unbuttoned a few buttons of her school uniform top and pulled the top out from her skirt, was dressed very comfortably.
“And you’re wearing that unruly attire again.
Hardin Dertian.
Top student of Seyrun’s third year.
In other words, he was the male student who was the third-year class representative.
He, who had a strong sense of pride as a Seyrun student, was a senior who frequently pointed things out to Lunia.
“How many times have I told you that as a class representative, your conduct must be proper?”
“Yes~ Yes~ Understood.”
Lunia answered crookedly, buttoning her top and tidying her uniform.
“Satisfied?”
“Hmph.”
Hardin, fixing his glasses, snorted.
“But what brings you to the first-year classroom?”
“You and I are going together on this mission.”
“…”
Lunia made a tired expression.
“You don’t have to be so happy about it.”
“Does this look like happiness to you?”
“While we’re at it, as your senior, I will teach you the proper conduct befitting a class representative.”
‘Ugh, he’s so annoying. Should I just tackle him?’
Lunia gnashed her teeth inwardly.
“So? Where do we go for the mission practical?”
“It’s a region called Garan, at the southwestern tip of the continent.”
“Garan?”
‘At least it’ll be warm, that’s good.’
“Isn’t that human and beastkin territory? Why are we going all the way there?”
Eiran asked with a puzzled face.
“The vice principal said there might be an ‘undiscovered Hero Dungeon’ there. Anyway, Lunia. Departure is in two days. Prepare thoroughly.”
Leaving those words, Hardin departed.
Then, he suddenly said,
“Eiran. Keep doing as you have been.”
“Yes.”
“Hmph.”
He walked away, coldly snorting at Eiran’s reply.
Lunia, who had been contemplating for a moment, watching his retreating back, began to gather snow.
Not forgetting to put a small stone inside the snowball, Lunia meticulously began to make a snowball.
And then she immediately tried to throw it at Hardin’s head.
Eiran gasped and clung to Lunia’s arm.
“Lu-Lunia! You’ll get into a fight with your senior!”
“It’s fine. That annoying guy won’t get hurt by just that.”
“No, you can’t!”