Book 1 Chapter 382

Leo's words caused Ar to cover his face, and the faces of the four beastmen changed drastically.

"Now… you're saying… we… Lord Arion is a coward?"

Dion's voice deepened.

The beastmen were a race with a strong belief that Arion's courage had changed the fate of the world.

The beastmen had respected Arion for 5,000 years and took pride in being the same race as him.

And they had strived for thousands of years to inherit his courage.

Courage was, for the beastmen, truly their pride and a virtue to pursue.

To such beastmen, the word 'coward' was the greatest insult in the world.

"…I don't agree that we look like cowards."

Dion growled fiercely.

"We are currently wriggling with fear because our flaws haven't been exposed. It's also true that we backed down to Ar. You must feel like we're perfectly cowardly."

Killing intent emanated from Dion's body.

"But take back what you said about Lord Arion being a coward, Leo Froble."

"I'm sorry, but Arion was a coward."

Hwak-!

Dion's fist flew towards Leo.

A punch filled with sincerity.

But Ar reacted faster than the punch.

Seeing his childhood friend protecting Leo, Dion's face contorted with rage.

"What are you doing! Ar!"

"Calm down, Dion."

"How can I calm down! He insulted Lord Arion!"

At those words, Ar sighed.

"What the black rabbit said isn't wrong."

"What?"

"The Arion I saw in the hero's world was very timid."

The four beastmen's faces hardened at the shocking words.

"I can't accept it! That Lord Arion was timid!"

Bormann shouted urgently.

Seeing Bormann like that, Leo said,

"Have you ever seen a hero directly?"

"…"

At Leo's words, Bormann's mouth shut without him realizing it.

Since the great warrior Azonia, one of the heroes of creation 3,000 years ago, no one had successfully conquered Arion's complete hero record.

Most people who conquered the world of heroes had conquered a damaged hero record.

The remaining records of Arion were all records of leading battles with overwhelming power.

Only that image was passed down and known to people.

Thanks to that, how Arion was in daily life was hardly known.

"How can that be."

"The hero… was a coward?"

"How is that possible…"

"This is a dream… it's a dream."

Ar looked at Leo with accusatory eyes as his comrades, lost in shock, denied reality.

"Why would you say that?"

"Just like the kids in our school, and kids in other schools. You tend to worship great heroes too much."

Leo said indifferently.

"As you've seen, great heroes are cowards, perverts, and tomboys."

"…I know who the cowards and perverts are, but who is the tomboy?"

"The progenitor of the star."

Upon hearing that, Ar, recalling that Leo was the conqueror of Luna's world, muttered.

"That's a shocking truth."

"Reality is just like that. Realize that the world isn't beautiful and grow up quickly."

"No! The Hero of Beginning and the King of Wisdom remain!"

Ar put his hands on his head, covered his ears, and shook his head back and forth.

It seemed he no longer wanted to shatter the illusions of great heroes.

'If I had conquered Lisinas' world, I would have told them he was a wicked swindler.'

Leo clicked his tongue.

Lisinas was a master of tricking people with words and backstabbing them.

'Looking at it this way, am I the only decent one?'

Of course, if his colleagues had seen it, they would have cursed Kyle, saying he was no less problematic.

Leo looked at the students of Azonia, still lost in shock, and said,

"How long are you going to stay shocked? Is the fact that Arion was a coward such a big problem?"

"What?"

"Arion was definitely a coward. But that fact doesn't negate the fact that Arion was a hero."

The four Azonia students looked at Leo.

"He was always scared and dejected, but when a battle broke out, he overcame all of that and rushed forward first."

"That's right! That's why Lord Arion is the true hero!"

Ar chimed in, puffing out his chest at Leo's words.

Dion smiled bitterly at that.

"Lord Arion is special."

"That's interesting."

"What?"

"That Arion told me the same thing. That he wasn't special."

"What? Lord Arion said that? When!"

"When you weren't around."

"Wooooh! To have had such a heartfelt conversation with Lord Arion! Black Rabbit! You envious bastard!"

Ar, with a genuinely envious expression, shook Leo vigorously.

Leo recalled an event from the past.

'I'm not special. I can't give people hope like Lisinas… nor am I a shining being like Luna. I can't forge weapons like Dwenor, nor am I the natural enemy of Erebus like Kyle. I feel like I'm just a burden to you.'

'What kind of nonsense is this?'

Hearing that, Kyle kicked Arion.

'It's because you're fighting on the front lines that we don't give up!'

"The courage of a hero who said he wasn't special saved the world."

Leo looked at the representatives of Azonia.

"You said the reason Azonia students are protesting is to inform people who are anxious."

Azonia protests from the entrance ceremony.

They inform many people of that protest.

The entrance ceremony ritual says only one thing.

"We've arrived."

Beings who give courage.

Beings who overcome fear.

The symbol of courage.

"Perhaps that's what the hero wanted to be most."

Just by thinking of Arion, many people gain the courage to face their fears.

The coward who said he wasn't special became courage itself.

"Does it matter if he's special or not. It's okay to be scared. It's okay to be discouraged and despair about yourself. But if you want to follow the true hero."

Leo smiled, thinking of his friend.

"Don't break. I think being able to move forward at the most difficult time is truly special."

In the moment everyone despaired.

He recalled the back of his friend who ran forward resolutely.

Hearing Leo's words, Dion looked up at the night sky.

"I never thought I'd receive a lesson about heroes and courage from a student of Lumern."

"It wasn't like an Azonia student at all."

"Yeah! It was too foolish! Getting scared and discouraged for no reason!"

"You're the fool, you foolish tiger."

Seeing Dion, Taban, and Bormann regain their spirits, Lewen sighed.

Then she glanced at Leo.

"Your speaking skills are excellent. Truly worthy of being Lumern's student council president."

"I learned from a certain wicked swindler."

Seeing Leo, who chuckled, Ar raised his hand.

"Yes! What's important now is to catch those damn beasts who are tarnishing Lord Arion's name and tear them apart! Leaving them alone out of fear of exposing our flaws is a desecration of Lord Arion!"

"That's right! Ar is right!"

Bormann chimed in.

Dion nodded, watching them.

"Indeed, cooperating with Lumern would be the right thing to do."

Leo rested his chin on his hand, watching them.

'I also have an overwhelming desire to catch and tear those scoundrels apart.'

Hero Hunters.

The fact that traitors who turned their backs on the world were using Arion's power made Leo's blood boil, as much as, no, even more than the beastmen.

But he wanted to leave correcting that to the students of Azonia, who claimed to be Arion's descendants.

'Arion would have been happier that way.'

Leo smiled, watching the Azonia students ignite their fighting spirit.

'The back you showed still gives people courage, even after 5,000 years.'

He recalled his friend who had spoken nonsense to him.

'What do you mean you're not special? You're more special than anyone, Arion.'

***

Leo arrived at the Lord's Castle with the Azonia students.

And in front of the conference room, he found first-year students with glum expressions.

"What are you guys doing here?"

In response to Leo's question, Shasha said,

"We wanted to attend the meeting too, but Duran-senpai kicked us out."

'Do you think you have the right to participate and speak in this meeting? You're presumptuous.'

'Hey. Even the first-year kids are great. I'm attending the meeting, so the kids should too…'

'Know your place, Cal Thomas. Do you think you and the first-year brats are on the same level?'

"That's so like Duran."

"Do you think so too, Leo-senpai?"

Shasha asked, pouting.

In a way, it could be said to be just one year, but in a hero academy, one year in the lower grades is truly an insurmountable wall.

Especially in the first semester of the first year, the first-years are, from the perspective of the second-years, at a level where they can't even walk properly.

"If it were the second semester of the first year, Duran's opinion would have changed."

Shasha sighed at Leo's words.

"Lumern's first-years?"

"They're cute. We want to get juniors soon too."

The Azonia students who followed Leo exclaimed as they looked at Lumern's first-years.

"Where's Luke?"

"Luke is training in the training grounds, young master."

Martina replied politely.

"He's working hard."

Leo chuckled and entered the conference room.

Watching him, Juwen said,

"Damn it! I'm definitely going to show my skills in this mission practice!"

Shasha nodded with a resentful expression at Juwen's words.

"I agree."

Thump- thump-

"Where are you going, Aina?"

Habiden asked as Aina, who had been standing still, suddenly moved.

"To train."

Leaving a short remark, Aina left.

At those words, the first-years also exchanged glances and then moved to their respective training spots.

Although Duran's words had hurt their pride, they thought they weren't wrong.

That fact made their pride hurt even more.

'I'll definitely show our skills to the mentors.'

***

The next morning.

Leo headed towards the monster forest.

Luke followed behind Leo.

"So, we decided to solve the problem of the suspected hero dungeon in the monster forest together with Azonia, and then jointly pursue the Hero Hunters in this country?"

"Yes."

"Leo-senpai is going deep in alone."

"That's right."

Yesterday, at the meeting, Lumern and Azonia decided to cooperate.

In the meantime, Leo said he would explore the deepest part of the monster forest alone.

At first, some students offered to go with him, but Leo said,

'I'm enough on my own.'

It might have sounded like reckless bravery, but no student vehemently opposed it.

No matter what anyone said, Leo was overwhelmingly strong among the second-years.

They had no choice but to agree to Leo's plan to explore for reconnaissance purposes for just one day.

"Is that kid the black rabbit's mentee?"

Leo joined Ar, who was waiting at the entrance of the forest.

"Hello, I'm Luke Elda."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ar Tune."

Ar smiled brightly and waved.

"I'll ask you for a little bit for just one day."

"Leave it to me!"

Ar said, hitting his chest with a 'tak!'

Entrusting Luke to Ar, Leo immediately entered the forest.

After walking for a long time, Leo looked at the dense forest.

The stage of the entrance exam.

But coming here in person felt different.

'The place where I first met Luna.'

This was Luna's homeland.

When Leo and Lisinas came to recruit Luna for the subjugation party, Luna was fighting with the elves to reclaim her homeland forest from the monster queen.

Besides the entrance exam, there were other memories in this forest.

After looking at the forest for a moment, Leo drew his sword and began to walk.

As he went deeper into the forest, numerous monsters blocked his path.

But they were not the monsters that existed in the monster forest.

'Even if the monster queen was subjugated, the curse of this land should have disappeared by now?'

Yet new monsters kept appearing.

This meant that there was something else that was creating monsters.

'It's highly likely to be a hero dungeon that has begun to encroach on reality.'

This was the conclusion easily reached by his comrades who had come to the monster forest beforehand.

However, it was also possible that the curse had gone berserk in this forest due to the death of the monster queen.

Leo, cutting down many monsters as he moved, stopped walking.

The deepest part of the forest.

Leo narrowed his eyes and reached out his hand.

Woong-!

A powerful dark magic was felt.

Even though its owner had disappeared, the dark magic that secretly maintained its existence was none other than the residual magic left by the monster queen.

Hwak-!

Leo instantly dispelled the magic.

As the magic was dispelled, a hideous tower revealed itself.

Residual dark magic was felt.

But the power that had been cast on this tower had already disappeared.

'As expected, the curse is lifted.'

He checked for the existence of the curse just in case.

But the curse did not exist.

As Leo, convinced of the existence of a hero dungeon in the monster forest, was about to retreat, he paused.

A 'piece of paper' was visible in the middle of the hideous tower.

The faint power felt from there was something Leo knew.

'Divine power?'

Leo, surprised, floated himself with magic.

'Fragment of a Hero Record.'

Seeing the torn fragment of the hero record, Leo reached out with a surprised expression.

[Do you wish to open the world of Rodia, the Dragon of Creation?]

Leo's eyes widened at the suddenly appearing message.

'The world of Rodia?'

He was momentarily flustered.

He thought this torn fragment was the cause of the hero dungeon, but it wasn't.

'It hasn't gone berserk.'

It was a stabilized fragment of a hero record, not a hero dungeonification.

The message appeared because it was Leo.

As the owner of the hero record, Leo could freely open and close the hero record without a key.

After looking at the message for a moment, Leo said,

"Open it."

[Hero Record Open. World of Rodia. Chapter: Prologue - Creation.]

Hwak-!

A familiar sensation enveloped Leo.

The moment the bright light disappeared from his vision.

"…Who?"

A bewildered voice was heard.

Leo looked at the dragon-like girl before him.

He knew who she was.

"…Rodia, the Dragon of Creation?"