Book 1 Chapter 135

135.

“It’s an escape!”

Lunia, who had come out of the city, stretched and shouted.

“I thought I was going to die from how stifling it was!”

“Weren’t you supposed to drop the pretense when you’re with students?”

“Pretense? Isn’t your choice of words strange?”

“Then what is it?”

Lunia smiled gracefully.

“Consideration not to shatter people’s illusions.”

Leo shook his head.

“Anyway, you. You teased me earlier, didn’t you? Hmm?”

Lunia’s eyes shot up, but Leo asked without batting an eyelid.

“Are you supposed to act like a good honor student in front of your seniors?”

At that question, Lunia made a sulky face.

“The upperclassmen barely know my true personality.”

“Barely?”

“Yeah. Some seniors do know. Remember the senior with glasses who was the leader of the group earlier? He knows my personality.”

Lunia scratched her head vigorously.

“So I thought I was just coming with that senior and came comfortably. But then other sophomores and juniors came along, so I was incredibly tired.”

“If pretense is your daily life, then there’s nothing to be tired about, is there?”

“If you just leave me alone, there’s nothing to be tired about!”

Lunia crossed her arms and scrunched up her face.

“But they kept trying to make a move.”

“A move?”

“Yeah. That sophomore kept subtly asking me out on a date!”

“You can just refuse.”

“It’s because they kept talking in circles so I couldn’t refuse outright! It’s annoying!”

Lunia kicked the nearby trees hysterically.

It seemed a considerable amount of stress had built up during the journey.

“Moreover, they’re all really steeped in elitism, truly! Argh! Their talk was really unpleasant!”

Lunia, the first-year representative of Seirun, was a famous girl since her admission.

A prestigious family and beautiful looks.

And although her personality is like this, outwardly she thoroughly acted like an honor student, so she received all the expectations and attention of Seirun’s teachers and seniors.

There were indeed people like Lauta, the traitor, but they were literally a minority.

Usually, upper-class students view their lower-class juniors very favorably.

“What’s bothering you so much?”

“They kept talking about you! Saying you were lucky to interpret the ancestor’s magic! Saying your interpretation was wrong! If they think that, they should come up with a new interpretation themselves! If they can’t do that, they should just shut up and think it in their own heads! Why do they come in front of me and badmouth you?! Argh! I’m so angry!”

Wham-! Wham-! Wham-!

Thinking about it made her angry again, and Lunia kicked the tree.

Leo laughed at her fierce appearance.

“Are you angry on my behalf because they badmouthed me?”

Stop-!

Lunia’s kicking stopped.

Then she glanced at Leo and snorted.

“Hmph! It’s just that I didn’t like them disparaging you, my rival, without knowing anything!”

“Right, right.”

Leo nodded, watching Lunia speak haughtily with her chin tilted up.

“How’s Airan doing?”

“Good! She’s completely adjusted to school now! And no one ignores her!”

Lunia laughed happily and talked with Leo about what had happened after the school trip.

Although they exchanged letters, talking in person was still the best.

‘I communicate surprisingly well with him,’ Lunia thought to herself as she talked with Leo.

Even though their species were different, she felt a strangely familiar side to Leo.

Amidst their conversation, Leo casually asked.

“So, you came to investigate a Hero Dungeon, but you’re allowed to go bandit hunting with me?”

“Yeah. It’s just an investigation anyway. And I wasn’t going to enter the Hero Dungeon without… oops!”

Lunia, who had been answering thoughtlessly, gasped and covered her mouth.

“Really?”

“Wh-What could that mean? A Hero Dungeon. Ahahaha.”

Leo spoke, watching Lunia belatedly trying to change the subject.

“Is it nothing special? Then I can contact Lumerne right now, can’t I? That there are Seirun students here.”

Leo took out the communication orb given for practical missions and shook it, asking.

Lunia, who had been rolling her eyes this way and that while looking at Leo, let out a deep sigh.

“Fine! Our vice-principal said there might be a Hero Dungeon in this region! Satisfied?!”

The existence of a Hero Dungeon could be fully predicted from the moment Seirun students appeared in this area anyway.

Lunia, deciding she couldn’t hide it, confessed obediently, and Leo nodded.

Lunia made a slightly sulky face looking at Leo.

“Let’s go.”

Leo didn’t ask any more about the Hero Dungeon, pulling out a map from his pocket and saying.

“It seems the bandits have made a hideout in the ruins at the eastern end of the Garan region.”

Lunia nodded at his words.

“Good. Then let’s go and wipe them out quickly.”

Crack-!

Lunia cracked her finger joints and smiled fiercely.

“Villains who harm innocent people, I can never forgive them.”

As a Hero Candidate, Lunia was fundamentally a girl with a strong sense of justice.

“Then.”

In front of Lunia, Leo knelt down with his back to her.

“…? What?”

“Get on my back.”

“What? Why should I?!”

As Lunia asked with a slightly reddened face, Leo said calmly.

“We need to get to the bandit hideout quickly, don’t we?”

“I can just fly there with magic!”

“Even so, me carrying you and running would be much faster.”

Even though she was boisterous, as a young lady from a prestigious family, she hesitated when a boy her age told her to get on his back.

But she soon sighed and got on.

“If you think anything weird, you’re dead, okay?”

“What’s there to think weirdly about?”

“You… Never mind. I’ll stop talking. Ugh.”

Lunia sighed deeply and wrapped her arms around Leo’s neck, carried on his back.

Leo stood up and bent his knees.

And then he leaped with incredible speed.

Lunia momentarily closed her eyes as she felt the immense headwind.

But she soon got used to the wind, and when she opened her eyes, she saw them moving at an astonishing speed.

‘He really is fast.’

Lunia pouted her lips.

Then she rested her chin on Leo’s left shoulder and thought.

‘Come to think of it, has he grown taller in the meantime?’

Feeling a strange sensation that the younger boy who used to be similar in height to her had grown so much, Lunia tightened her arms around Leo’s neck.

***

“So, we plan to explore this surrounding area for ecological surveys for a while.”

“Yes! Yes! Please stay as long as you wish! We will ensure you have no discomfort during your stay!”

Hardin spoke in a polite voice.

Watching Hardin, the lord of Garan rubbed his hands together profusely.

A second-year female student from Seirun, observing from a distance, scoffed.

“He’s incredibly servile. Well, humans are all like that.”

Elves were a species particularly proud of their culture among all races.

Moreover, there was a widespread perception that Seirun students were chosen, so they were generally arrogant.

Of course, not all students were like that.

However, upper-class students, being highly revered, often had ethnocentric values.

And the three students here were all in the upper-class of their respective grades.

This dungeon exploration consisted of two third-years, two second-years, and one first-year.

Hardin, the third-year leader, was active as a dungeon raider of Seirun, and the other students were all dungeon raider candidates.

This practical mission was also a kind of test to assess their capabilities as dungeon explorers.

“By the way, Miss Lunia neglected her mission and went off to hunt bandits. Even if she’s excellent, does she still have a childish side?”

She asked, looking at her peer and a senior male student.

At her question, a second-year male student from Seirun said.

“She must be overflowing with a sense of justice.”

He was a student who had shown explicit interest in Lunia from the beginning of the practical mission.

“But she could have hunted bandits with us, why did she go with a Lumerne student?”

As the second-year male student from Seirun grumbled with a puzzled expression, a third-year male student said.

“I heard Lunia considers Leo Flobe her rival?”

It was a famous story that Lumerne and Seirun first-years had joint classes for a short period during the first semester.

It was also well-known within Seirun that Herdium, the homeroom teacher of Lumerne’s first-year advanced class, had highly praised Lumerne’s first-years there.

As Herdium was renowned as an elite teacher, Seirun students couldn’t easily dismiss his remarks.

“Well, looking at this Gigantes incident, he’s pretty good. But even so, I think our first-years could perfectly handle that too?”

The second-year female student said curtly.

“That’s right, senior. There’s no way a Seirun student can’t do what a Lumerne student accomplished.”

He disliked Leo, who had left alone with Lunia, and distorted his face, showing explicit hostility.

“Isn’t it obvious that Seirun will win this year’s Seilu Tournament anyway? The second-years, our generation, were terrible. And didn’t the third-years also stand no chance against our seniors?”

At the words of the junior male student, the third-year Seirun student’s face hardened.

“Not necessarily. There’s a monster in Lumerne’s third year.”

“Monster?”

“Are you referring to Elena Zereon?”

The second-years asked, tilting their heads, and the third-year nodded.

At their senior’s reaction, the Seirun second-years laughed.

“Even so, it’s just one person, isn’t it? Aren’t the other Lumerne third-years terrible?”

“That’s right. This year we’ll easily win. The Lumerne second-years right now are really nothing special.”

For the past three years in the first-year duels, last year’s first-years… in other words, the current Lumerne second-years, had been particularly severely defeated by Seirun’s first-years.

“Still, last year’s Lumerne first-year representative had considerable skill. Don’t get complacent just because we won easily last year.”

“Ah, you mean that girl Lil with the strange way of speaking? Even so, she’s only remarkable among other students.”

“Exactly. For someone like that to be a class representative. Lumerne has really hit rock bottom.”

“Oh my. What’s wrong with our cute Lil?”

At the sudden voice, the Seirun students flinched and turned their heads.

There, a beautiful girl stood smiling.

The Seirun third-year student’s face stiffened slightly.

“Elena Zereon? Why are you here?!”

“Hello, Seirun students.”

Elena said, gently twirling the end of her hair with her finger.

“You see, I like people who work hard.”

At her sudden words, the Seirun students were flustered.

“Our cute Lil is always a hard-working child. And she’s kind. Last year, she couldn’t show her true abilities because she was taking care of her other classmates. After that, she worked really hard, saying she would restore Lumerne’s honor.”

Elena smiled sweetly, remembering the only junior she doted on.

“It doesn’t matter if you badmouth other schools where I can’t hear, it’s your freedom.”

Smiling sweetly-

“But I happened to overhear your badmouthing, and it upset me. So I’ll give you a chance to apologize. If you politely kneel and bow your head, I’ll forgive you.”

The second-year male student from Seirun, who had been flustered by Elena’s words, spoke somewhat defiantly.

“We only spoke the truth, didn’t we? I don’t think it’s something to kneel for.”

“That’s right! If you don’t like this evaluation, prove it with your skills!”

“I’ve given you the reason I’m upset and a chance to apologize.”

A ferocious look entered the eyes of Elena, known as the Queen of Lumerne.

“You’re the ones who kicked away the opportunity, aren’t you?”

As soon as she finished speaking, a bright light burst forth.

Boom-!

The lord’s mansion was instantly devastated.

At the sudden explosion, Hardin and the lord, who had been talking, rushed over.

And Hardin’s face hardened as he saw a familiar face stomping on the head of the junior female student.

“Oh my, you don’t seem to be in a position to confidently ridicule our school, are you?”

Press-!

Elena usually looked down on those around her, but she could not tolerate anyone looking down on Lumerne.

She was the daughter of Lumerne Academy’s director.

And the next director of Lumerne.

She could not tolerate anyone who insulted her alma mater.

“Elena… Zereon.”

“Hello, Hardin.”

Elena smiled brightly at Seirun’s third-year representative, whom she had been competing with for three years.

“It seems I need to educate your juniors a bit, don’t you think?”

***

“Ru-Run away! It’s a witch!”

“Do you want to die? Have you ever seen a witch who looks this innocent and delicate?!”

“She’s not innocent and delicate, is she?”

“What? Do you want to die first?!”

Lunia glared at Leo.

Even so, Lunia’s magic faithfully targeted the bandits.

The bandits caught in the surging wave of flames screamed.

Lunia laughed and chased after the screaming, fleeing bandits.

“Villains who torment innocent people! I’ll send you to hell!”

‘Looking at her expression, she really is a witch.’

Leo chuckled and shook his head.

‘That side of her resembles Luna.’

Thinking thoughts that would have pleased Lunia if she heard them and angered Luna, Leo looked at the entrance of the castle ruins visible in the distance.

‘It’s a complete ruin.’

The castle entrance had completely lost its former sturdiness.

Leo followed Lunia into the castle ruins.

There, Lunia was using magic to subjugate the bandits.

The skill of Seirun Academy’s first-year representative was literally overwhelming.

Although the bandits were said to be a considerable force, they were no match for her.

“Ho-Hostage! Grab a hostage!”

The bandits spotted Leo and swarmed him.

“Shouldn’t it usually be the other way around?”

Leo let out a wry laugh, but lightly raised his hand.

Flash-!

Leo, who had instantly completed a magic spell, sent a fiery whirlwind towards the bandits.

“Aaaargh!”

The bandits screamed and scattered in all directions.

The bandit group was annihilated in an instant.

“Hmph! Such trivial things, acting so cocky.”

Lunia dusted off her hands and looked at Leo.

‘What is he doing?’

Lunia approached Leo with a puzzled expression.

Meanwhile, Leo was kneeling and sweeping the ground.

‘…It seems… Gardeslon itself is buried underground.’

Even if thousands of years had passed, it was the final fortress, the world’s last line of defense.

It seemed strange that such a fortress only remained in literature, having vanished without a trace.

But Leo, upon entering the castle ruins where faint old remnants remained, understood.

‘This is the upper part of Gardeslon’s walls.’

Gardeslon’s walls, which had a height and thickness unimaginable now.

Gardeslon was a city so massive that it couldn’t be compared to the refugee city of Leysar.

Leo, sweeping the ground, realized that a faint aura flowed beneath the earth.

‘Dark magic… I see.’

Leo narrowed his eyes.

‘Did Tartarus bury Gardeslon?’