Book 1 Chapter 290
“What is this… We get to visit the great hero’s house!”
Kal said in a tense voice.
“Sh-shouldn’t we buy some kind of gift?”
“We should, right? Is there anything worth buying?”
“But we’re broke.”
Eiran, Ar, and Runia also wore tense expressions.
Watching the excited group, Dryana said,
“Isn’t Kyle-nim not here anyway?”
As she said that, Dryana took out a sketchbook from her pocket.
Leo squinted his eyes.
“What are you going to use that for?”
“If there are portraits or something in Kyle-nim’s house, I plan to draw them.”
“Wouldn’t Kyle dislike you drawing something with your despair-inducing skills?”
“Leo, unlike you, who has a dry sensibility, Kyle-nim will understand my artistic sensibility.”
“That’s impossible.”
Leo replied, making a face.
Dephazer smiled faintly at the group.
“You seem to admire Kyle-nim very much.”
“I admire Luna-nim the most, though.”
“Hmph. As expected, Arion-nim is the best.”
“No matter what anyone says, Deweno-nim is the greatest hero.”
Runia, Ar, and Dryana said in turn.
And then they glared at each other.
Dephazer chuckled at their words.
“Many children admire them like you do. It’s only natural. They showed the world that there is hope in this desperate age.”
After hearing Dephazer’s words, Eiran asked cautiously,
“Could you tell us about Kyle-nim’s heroic tales?”
Eiran recalled Dephazer’s frightening appearance from a moment ago, but she gathered her courage.
Eiran, who loved heroic tales, had her eyes twinkling.
For her, just being able to hear the story of Kyle, who could be called an unknown great hero in her era, was a great pleasure.
“Kyle-nim’s heroic tales…”
Dephazer smiled faintly.
“My favorite is the story of him fighting the Legion of Death led by the Necromancer King Hell Kaiser alone. But it’s too famous a story.”
“The story of fighting the Necromancer King’s army alone…? You don’t mean the Battle of Deriolana, do you?”
Eiran asked with her eyes wide open, and Dephazer nodded.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What? The Battle of Deriolana was Luna-nim’s… Hic?!”
Eiran, who had a confused expression, suddenly looked sideways in surprise.
Leo, who had approached her side unnoticed, had poked Eiran in the ribs.
Eiran, making eye contact with Leo, realized her mistake.
In the current era, the Battle of Deriolana is known as a battle in which Luna was active, but in reality, it was a battle that Kyle fought alone.
It is one of Kyle’s most famous feats in the Age of Calamity.
In such a situation, mentioning Luna’s story would surely arouse suspicion.
“What is it?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. I also like that heroic tale and want to hear it again.”
“Hmph. Then I will tell you.”
In this era, dragons also played a role in conveying the great deeds of the heroes they witnessed to people.
As Dephazer’s story began, the party members, excluding Leo, focused on it.
Runia, listening to the story and comparing it to the differences from the Battle of Deriolana that she knew, asked cautiously,
“You speak as if you saw it yourself… Did Dephazer-nim also witness this battle?”
“Yes.”
At Dephazer’s words, everyone held their breath.
‘It was a more incredible battle than what’s in the storybooks.’
“Kyle-nim, who annihilated the Skeleton King’s army with a single blow, shouted like this: ‘This is your grave, Necromancer King!’”
At Dephazer’s words, Leo let out a hollow laugh.
‘I didn’t say that.’
It seemed that when telling heroic tales to children, he had embellished himself and his friends with a white lie.
As Leo felt gratitude towards Dephazer anew and chuckled,
“No, he said, ‘Today I’ll kill you completely, you bone-bag bastard.’”
A slightly disgruntled voice was heard from somewhere.
Everyone who was focused on Dephazer’s story turned their heads in surprise.
The group had arrived in front of a house made of logs.
And in front of a barren clearing that was too shabby to be called a garden, an elf girl stood on a chair.
“Oh dear, I got so absorbed in the story that we’ve arrived already.”
At Dephazer’s words, Kal scratched his cheek.
“This is Kyle-nim’s house? It’s a little different from what I imagined.”
Kal, looking at the ordinary-looking house, asked the elf girl,
“Who is that?”
“She is Kyle-nim’s disciple, Berchia.”
“Kuhuhu!”
“Gasp!”
Everyone’s eyes widened as they looked at the elf girl.
After the end of the Age of Calamity.
The great leader of the elves.
Everyone was surprised by the appearance of such an unimaginable figure.
“Dephazer-nim. What are they? Are they the ones who invaded the Spirit Realm this time?”
“Yes, Berchia-young lady. And they will be staying at Kyle-nim’s house for a while.”
At those words, Berchia’s eyes twitched.
“Why are they staying at Kyle-teacher’s house? There must be plenty of places for them to stay.”
“I don’t know the reason myself. However, it is by Deweno-nim’s order.”
“Deweno-nim’s?”
Berchia couldn’t defy Deweno’s words, so despite her disgruntled expression, she didn’t object further.
“Well, it’s late, so please rest comfortably. I will come to pick you up tomorrow.”
Dephazer bowed his head and left.
Then, only Leo and his group, and Berchia were left.
“Don’t you have your own place to stay? You should go.”
At Leo’s words, Berchia said,
“I need to tidy up my teacher’s house.”
“Tidy up?”
‘What is there to tidy up in a house?’
Leo felt puzzled by Berchia’s sudden remark but headed towards the entrance.
‘Home…’
Leo entered his home, which had vanished in the distant past, and felt a strange emotion.
*Creeak-*
Leo opened the door and entered the entrance hall. After looking at the messy interior, which resembled a pigsty, for a moment, he turned his gaze towards Berchia.
“Wow… this is a bit much.”
“It seems Kyle-nim wasn’t someone who tidied up.”
“Still, it’s strange, in a way, that he has a human side to him.”
Kal shook his head, and Eiran gave an awkward smile.
Runia smiled faintly.
“Oh dear, Kyle-teacher is also a problem. To use his house like this.”
Berchia, with her arms crossed, entered the house as if she couldn’t be bothered.
“Since we have guests, there’s no helping it.”
Berchia said, placing her hands on her hips.
“You guys are going to be indebted to this house too, right? Why don’t you clean it together?”
“Yes, alright. Berchia-nim.”
Eiran bowed politely.
Eiran glanced at Berchia’s face, her expression tense.
The great ancestor she admired was right in front of her.
Eiran, who had admired Berchia since childhood after hearing her heroic tales, was more nervous than ever.
Just as Eiran was about to start cleaning,
Leo raised his hand and stopped Eiran.
Then, he stared at Berchia and said,
“Hey.”
At Leo’s words, the entire party was horrified.
“Hey! Leo!”
“How rude!”
“She’s Berchia-nim! The Black Rabbit!”
“Refrain from crude remarks.”
Kal urgently stopped Leo, and Runia glared.
While Ar and Dryana were also flustered, Leo said,
“Clean up what you messed up.”
“Th-this is all Kyle-teacher’s mess!”
“Kyle?”
Leo squinted his eyes and picked up something from among the scattered clothes on the floor.
“There’s an item of clothing that doesn’t match Kyle’s gender when he wears it?”
“G-give that here!”
Berchia lunged at Leo.
Berchia’s face turned bright red as she reached out to grab the item Leo was holding, which seemed embarrassing.
Leo threw it with a *whoosh*, and Berchia quickly ran to hide it behind her back.
“And that’s clearly not a book Kyle would read, is it? A secret intimate encounter in the forest…”
“Argh! Argh! Argh!”
Berchia screamed with her face flushed red.
“Should I call Deweno and Arion? I wonder how they’ll react when they see this house?”
At Leo’s words, Berchia’s ears drooped.
“I’ll clean it.”
Berchia’s grand plan to use the guests to clean the room she had thoroughly messed up was ruined.
The group, except for Kyle, stared blankly at Berchia, who started cleaning with her ears drooping.
The three most respected heroes in elven history.
Luna, the progenitor of constellations, and Seirun, the mage of comets.
And Berchia, the Fairy Knight.
Runia, seeing the disgrace of one of them, covered her face with both hands and muttered as if sobbing,
“My imagined Berchia-nim has been defiled.”
“Wipe it.”
Leo said without mercy.
Then he glanced at Eiran.
Eiran seemed a little surprised.
But she looked at Berchia with surprisingly warm eyes.
“She doesn’t seem too shocked.”
Ar asked, wagging his tail, and Eiran gave an awkward smile.
“Yes. Although it’s different from how I imagined her… still, you know? I think I like her more. She feels somehow familiar.”
“Familiar?”
“Yes.”
“She does resemble someone a lot.”
Leo chuckled and crossed his arms.
“Really? In what way?”
Eiran asked with a bright smile, and Leo said,
“Messing up the room to the level of a pigsty, or having strange delusions.”
Eiran, with a crying face, rushed at Leo to cover his mouth.
Leo blocked Eiran and looked at Berchia.
‘Right. She used to come home and mess things up quite a bit.’
Leo let out a hollow laugh as he recalled past memories.
“By the way… it’s excessively bleak. To the point where there’s no human touch.”
Dryana said as she looked around the room, and Kal said,
“Looking at this mess, it doesn’t seem that way.”
“Isn’t that Berchia-nim’s doing?”
Dryana glanced at the furniture in the room.
“There’s only the bare minimum of necessary furniture. Other than that, it’s empty, and everything is dry and uninspired.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true. It seems a bit different from just being neat.”
Ar tilted his head, and Dryana stroked his chin.
“Perhaps she hasn’t attached her heart to this space.”
“Why? It’s her own house.”
“……Perhaps she always kept everything neatly organized because she didn’t know when she might lose her life.”
At Dryana’s mumbling, Leo made a grim expression.
‘Do even the kids feel that?’
When Leo left Gardsron, he always cleaned everything up thoroughly.
He always thought that he might never be able to return.
‘I had nothing to leave behind for someone.’
Leo looked at the bleak room.
These people, who had so much to leave behind and so much they wanted to do, had forced everything onto him and left first.
‘Thinking about it, I’m still the only one left.’
Leo let out a bitter smile.
“Um… Berchia-nim. Shall I help a little?”
“Really?”
Runia said cautiously.
Although Runia declared she would be a delinquent student in Seirun, she was, after all, the top honors student.
No matter what, she couldn’t just watch a great hero of a race cleaning up pitifully alone.
“I-I’ll help too!”
“Will you really help?”
Berchia asked, her ears perking up, and Eiran smiled brightly.
“Yes!”
As Eiran smiled innocently, Berchia smiled mischievously.
“Don’t help, you’ll spoil her.”
Leo said without mercy, and Berchia glared fiercely.
“Who are you! Are you Kyle-teacher?”
Leo responded with a tap on Berchia’s head instead of an answer.
“I’m telling Teacher Arion about this tomorrow!”
“Go ahead.”
Leo, not batting an eye, tapped Berchia’s head again.
Watching this, Kal shook his head.
“He’s truly amazing sometimes. How can he treat a historical figure like that?”