Book 1 Chapter 197
197
“How arrogant!”
“Do you think you’re hot stuff just because you deciphered Lady Luna’s magic, which hadn’t been deciphered until now?”
The Seirun students frowned and glared at Leo.
The Rumerun students wore expressions of satisfaction.
Amidst that, Idin grinned.
“What incredible confidence! Leo Plov. But Seirun has been Rumerun's wall for a long time, are you confident?”
“Things will be very different starting this year.”
“So confident, aren’t we? The next student council president of Rumerun.”
Lienia approached Leo, her heels clicking-clicking.
“Does that mean Rumerun will be different this year because of you?”
“Yes.”
Lienia licked her upper lip with her tongue.
“Defeating such a confident opponent is far more rewarding.”
At the sight of Lienia’s scoffing laugh, the Rumerun third and fourth-year students trembled.
Lienia.
As Seirun's student council president, she was a student who had been evaluated as the top hero candidate for the past five years.
Her skill and actions were comparable to Lis of Rumerun.
But simply for that, there was no reason for the third and fourth-year students to tremble.
The reason the third and fourth-year students shivered when they saw her was because of her characteristics.
Her nickname was “Hunter.”
She possessed a tenacious persistence that would absolutely defeat any opponent she marked as her target.
And beneath her innocent appearance, she even concealed a sadistic tendency to thoroughly crush her opponents.
To the third and fourth-year students who had experienced such aspects of her numerous times through the Ruse Games, Lienia was literally a terror.
When she showed such a reaction, it wasn't just the Rumerun students who shivered.
The Seirun students also flinched.
She possessed a charisma that could rein in even the arrogant and haughty Seirun students.
Since she became student council president, there were many students who had foolishly rebelled and were thoroughly crushed.
Lienia, standing before Leo, her golden eyes sparkling, reached out and lightly grasped Leo’s chin.
“You, who restored the Founder’s magic and conquered the Founder’s world, are worth defeating. Hehehe, don’t cry your eyes out after being beaten by your older sister. Oh, you could even come to Seirun to study. Since you’ve restored the Founder’s magic, you’ll surely be qualified to enter Seirun. How about coming to Seirun this time? Then you can have the trophy you want so badly, can’t you?”
“That woman. We shouldn’t just leave her be.”
Elena, who was twirling her hair with her finger as if uninterested, muttered in a chilling voice from one side of the party hall.
“E-Elena?”
Elena’s pink eyes were emitting a chilling light.
“How dare she try such dirty tricks on Sir Leo.”
“C-Calm down! Elena! If you get involved there, it’ll cause a huge scene!”
“The Seirun student council president is just joking, isn’t she?”
The startled third-year students tried to calm Elena down somehow, but there were few students who could stop her, who was known as Rumerun’s Queen.
Elena, ignoring her classmates, wore a stern expression and tried to approach the two.
Just then, someone put an arm around Elena’s shoulder.
“Why is our junior feeling uneasy again?”
“Senior Torua.”
“Watch how Sir Leo handles it. He’s the student council president you chose, isn't he?”
At Torua’s words, Elena glanced at Leo.
Meanwhile, a similar incident was happening among the teachers.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Hey, you crazy bastard! Why are you trying to get involved in student affairs!”
Yura, with wide eyes, tried her best to stop the raving Len.
Ain sighed and wrapped his arm around Len’s neck from behind to restrain him, while using his other hand to cover Len’s mouth.
Just then, Halind approached.
“More commotion, I see.”
“P-Professor Halind!”
Yura stood at attention.
Normally, Len would have calmed down at Halind’s appearance, but there was no sign of it.
Halind looked at such a Len and gestured with his chin at Ain.
“Deal with him.”
Snap-
Ain, without hesitation, put force into his arm and knocked Len unconscious.
Watching that, the surrounding Rumerun professors wore expressions of exasperation.
“What should we do?”
When Yura asked nonchalantly, Halind replied indifferently.
“Throw him outside. A little snow in the cold will surely snap him out of it.”
Ain and Yura, without hesitation, went to throw Len outside.
While the three professors thus displayed a truly touching bond of friendship between senior and junior.
Leo removed Lienia’s hand from his chin and smiled.
“Thank you for the offer, but I find taking things more enjoyable.”
“Oh my. We have similar tastes.”
Lienia smiled faintly.
“Then you’ll never get to touch the Seru Battle championship trophy, will you?”
“I’ll just take it and display it somewhere, so there won’t be a chance for me to touch it.”
Watching Leo speak as if it were nothing, Lienia made a slightly displeased expression.
She had worked hard to protect the Ruse Battle trophy throughout her school life, but this Rumerun first-year was treating the trophy like a pebble on the roadside.
Moreover, no matter what provocation she made, he would parry it without losing a single word, which felt quite vexing.
‘He’s quite composed,’ she thought.
A slightly annoyed Lienia approached the trophy, picked it up, and provocatively shook it.
“Hmph. You’ll never be able to take this trophy to Rumerun in your life, will you?”
‘President!’
‘Why are you being so childish!’
At the childish provocation, the Seirun students covered their faces.
Leo, who had been staring blankly at such a Lienia, infused magic into the Folium on his left wrist and then transformed it back to its original form.
And shaking it, he asked,
“Seirun doesn’t have something like this, does it?”
Watching Leo respond just as childishly, Lienia flinched.
“Ahem! W-Well then, since we’ve heard the resolves of the student council presidents, we’ll move on to the next event!”
Idin, judging that if he left them any longer, both sides of the school would become seriously childish, hastily changed the subject.
Runia shook her head as she watched Leo calmly turn the Folium into a bracelet.
“Our president is childish, but you really take the cake. You’re not a child, why are you acting like this?”
“Both you and I are children.”
“I’m not, you know? Do you think I’d get upset by such a childish act of provoking with something others don’t have?”
Leo, looking at Runia scoffing, opened his palm.
Pop-!
Fiora was summoned onto it.
Leo lightly swayed Fiora and said,
“You don’t have something like this, do you?”
At those words, Runia’s shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
Perhaps, if it weren’t for the party hall, she might have grabbed Leo by the collar right then and there.
Watching Runia clench her fists and grind her teeth, Leo chuckled.
“The effect is quite excellent.”
“You! Just wait until the Seru Battle! I’ll turn you into a pulp!”
An enraged Runia stormed off.
And she grabbed the wrist of Eiran, who was approaching Leo, and left.
“L-Lady Runia?!”
“Eiran! That guy is an enemy! An enemy! Don’t go near him!”
“How could this be…! Sir Leo!”
Eiran, wearing a tearful expression, desperately called out to Leo.
Leo waved to the two of them.
“Oh! Leo! You provoked them perfectly!”
“Exactly! You won the psychological battle!”
Kal and Teide approached, laughing.
“It would be best if you stayed as far away from me as possible during the first-year matches.”
“Huh?”
“Why?”
“Because Runia will probably charge at me, regardless of anything else.”
At those words, Kal and Teide shivered, remembering Runia, who had grabbed Leo by the collar and fumed during the school trip.
***
“Kallian. It seems all of Rumerun’s first-years this year are quite extraordinary. Impressive.”
Late at night.
At the highest point of Seirun.
In the Plaza of Stars, Seirun’s principal, Benit, spoke calmly.
At Benit’s words, Kallian chuckled heartily.
“What’s so great about me? It’s simply that the students and professors worked hard.”
Sword Saint Kallian.
Benit, the Founder’s First Star.
The two were heroes who lived in the same era.
They were great figures, considered among the greatest heroes of the current era.
And the two were comrades who had fought through battlefields together.
“So, what did you think when you saw him yourself?”
Kallian sipped his tea and looked up at the sky.
At the highest point of Seirun.
This place, floating above Seirun by magic, was literally a location created purely for star observation.
Of course, it was not a space permitted to just anyone.
As it has existed since Seirun’s early days, it is mainly used during important meetings.
And on clear nights, this place offered a view of infinitely sprawling stars.
Kallian, too, always marveled whenever he came here.
At Kallian’s words, Benit said calmly,
“I understood why you and Sir Liben chose him.”
Benit recalled Leo, whom he had briefly glanced at earlier.
“He’s a talent capable of bearing the weight of an era. An individual that Nerjia would covet.”
Nerjia.
He is Seirun’s vice-principal, dispatched from Dragonia.
And he was more actively interested in hero cultivation than anyone else.
He was a dragon with the ambition to create a great hero with his own hands.
“Nerjia coveting him, you say.”
Kallian let out a small laugh.
But he wasn’t overly worried.
‘Whether it’s Rumerun or Seirun, it doesn’t matter where Leo Plov grows,’ he thought.
While it might not be the correct attitude for a principal, Kallian and Benit had lived too long to be concerned solely with a school.
They merely wished for a talent capable of taking on the era to emerge as a true hero.
“So. What was the reason you wanted to see me like this before the Ruse Games?”
“Recently, the movements of the ‘Hero Hunters’ in the northern regions have been unusual.”
Kallian’s eyes twitched.
Hero Hunters.
Those who betrayed the surface world and sided with Tartarus.
Among them, there are quite a few who have inherited the power of the Hero’s Record.
Literally, a group created by Tartarus to kill heroes.
“Of course, they wouldn’t dare invade the elves’ territory, but they are certainly a threat.”
“Wasn’t there no mention of such things in the letter?”
As Kallian asked, his brows furrowed, Benit let out a deep sigh.
“Just in case, I wanted to meet you in person and talk. Letters or magic communications going between Seirun and Rumerun could easily be intercepted.”
“Indeed. So that’s why you requested a hero assembly in Rumerun and called our heroes.”
Naturally, there are also elf heroes on Seirun’s side.
Despite that, a hero assembly was also requested in Rumerun.
The stated reason was a request to counter any potential movements from Tartarus, but I thought mobilizing even Rumerun’s heroes might be a bit excessive, didn't I?
But there was such a reason.
“Pass this on to Rumerun’s professors and heroes. There probably won’t be any trouble, but there’s always a slim chance, so tell them.”
The Ruse Games could not be canceled.
Because discontinuing the Ruse Games, held annually, due to concerns about Tartarus or the Hero Hunters, could cause greater confusion and unrest.
Benit believed it was better to concentrate their forces to such an extent that no one would dare attack.
Kallian nodded and looked up at the night sky.
Looking at the sky, as if countless stars were about to pour down, Kallian let out a deep sigh.
‘I hope nothing happens,’ he thought.