Book 1 Chapter 55
【55】54.
Leo felt cold sweat stream down him.
Demon Queen Silatuna.
A legion commander of the demon race who had existed since before the Age of Catastrophe.
And 5000 years ago.
She was one of the three legion commanders whom the Great Heroes failed to finish off.
‘She had cast a perception-dulling spell on me.’
The moment Leo became aware of the magic, it broke.
‘I had expected a high-ranking demon to be orchestrating things from behind, given its connection to the demon artifacts, but I never imagined it would be this bastard.’
Crunch! Crackle!
[Student? You’re a sensitive little brat, aren’t you? To have noticed my magic.]
Leo tensed his body.
Seven of the ten legion commanders who existed during the actual Age of Catastrophe were vanquished by Kyle and his comrades.
‘But in the end, they couldn’t vanquish the other three.’
The reason was simple.
The remaining three legion commanders were monsters on a different level from the others.
Beneath their chilling power lay cunning as well.
When he was Kyle, he had never directly clashed with Silatuna.
Kyle was in charge of other legion commanders.
He specifically handled the battles against the Lich King and the Giant King.
Luna and Arion were assigned to Silatuna.
‘When I went to provide support, she retreated.’
Ultimately, they never faced each other until the end of the Age of Catastrophe.
Now, he was facing that formidable opponent.
[You can blame your unnecessarily sensitive senses.]
Silatuna scoffed and swung her hand towards Leo.
Kwagagagak-!
An elongated arm shot out, flying towards Leo to pierce him.
Hwaak-!
At that moment, a flame of aura flared up.
Hwarereuk! Kwaaaang-!
Silatuna’s eyes twitched as she watched her hand turn to ash and crumble away.
[I thought you had lost your will to fight.]
The legion commander was armed with a curse of fear.
Anyone exposed to that curse would be gripped by terror and lose their will to fight.
But such mental curses had no effect on Leo.
‘This is a clone made of a mass of flesh. If it were the main body, I wouldn’t have been able to hide it!’
Leo, without a moment’s hesitation, broke the shop window and went outside.
Even as a clone, it was a dangerously powerful being, incomparable to Chubarn.
‘There’s nothing I can do right now. I have to get out of here somehow…!’
[Didn’t your professors teach you to watch your back?]
“Kuk!”
With a mocking scoff and a surge of killing intent from behind, Leo quickly twisted his body.
Chwaak-!
In an instant, a whip of flesh lightly grazed Leo’s back.
Feeling a sting from behind, Leo spun his body.
Hwarereuk!
Kwaang-!
A flame of aura, incomparable to before, reduced Silatuna’s arm to ashes.
Silatuna’s eyes twitched.
The whip of flesh moved like a living snake, trying to pierce Leo.
Leo’s red eyes quickly tracked the trajectory of the attack.
‘I’m falling behind in speed.’
Leo’s body was still that of a boy.
It was not yet a fully developed body.
‘I need to predict and move in advance!’
Afterimages stretched out from Leo’s body.
But the more he did, the more Leo slowly, yet surely, distanced himself from Silatuna.
Silatuna narrowed her eyes.
‘Just a mere student.’
Leo’s movements, which seemed about to be caught but barely evaded, were very annoying.
In terms of strength and speed, Silatuna clearly had the upper hand.
Noticing that Leo’s skill was bridging that gap, Silatuna smiled faintly.
[It seems you’re a brat that absolutely must be killed right now.]
Kwaaaaaa-!
The mass of flesh covered Leo like a giant net.
[I’ll crush you as you are.]
Seeing that, Leo urgently raised his aura’s firepower to the maximum.
Hwarereureuk-! Kwaaaaaaa!
The furiously burning flames incinerated the flesh.
The unpleasant stench of burning flesh filled the air.
[Phoenix’s flame?]
Silatuna was surprised.
Chiiik-!
Smoke rose from Leo’s body, which had unleashed maximum firepower all at once.
He had sustained burns on his body as a consequence of producing firepower that his body could barely endure.
[That’s impressive, but how many times can you unleash that much firepower?]
It was when Silatuna chuckled with a smile.
Leo subtly looked up.
At Leo’s gaze, Silatuna also flinched and looked at the sky.
Paching-! Kwagagagagagagak!
Along with the sound of something breaking, fragments of light poured down towards Silatuna.
Peobeobeobeobeobuk-!
The fragments of light crushed Silatuna’s body.
[You’ve arrived.]
Silatuna brushed off the fragments of light clinging to her body and smiled deeply.
[The Mage of the Demonic Eye.]
In the sky was Albi, who had unleashed her golden demonic eye on the left.
“A mere fleshy remnant.”
[Remnant, you say? That’s disrespectful language to refer to this noble body.]
“I have no interest in remnants.”
Albi’s demonic eye glowed.
Then, a rectangular golden light barrier was created.
Chaenggeurang-!
Cracks appeared in the light barrier, and it transformed into sharp fragments.
Leo’s eyes widened.
‘Fairy magic.’
Magic that only fairies could use.
A human was using it.
‘This is Hero Record… the power to cultivate heroes.’
While Leo was marveling.
Watching the fragments of light pour down on her, Silatuna smiled with killing intent and flicked her tongue.
[Someday, I’ll gouge out that left eye of yours.]
Kwak-!
No sooner had she finished speaking than one of the fragments of light embedded itself in the clone’s face.
Silatuna, directly hit by countless fragments of light, became a mass of flesh and disappeared.
The aura flames burning on Leo’s body died down.
“Leo Flobe, is it?”
Albi, her eyes returned to normal, adjusted her glasses.
“How did you end up being chased by this monstrous thing?”
“It suddenly appeared while I was investigating Rutek.”
“Rutek?”
Albi’s cold gaze turned to Leo.
“That place has already been investigated by Lumerne, and that monstrous thing was found there?”
“A cognitive dissonance spell was cast.”
“Cognitive dissonance, huh… I see.”
Albi, wearing an understanding expression, did not inquire further.
Leo looked at Albi with a puzzled expression.
‘I heard he’s very persistent when it comes to things related to Tartaros?’
Albi Zeron.
He was a Lumerne professor but didn’t teach classes.
He became a professor at Lumerne purely to enjoy the benefits that came with it.
The authority to cross borders freely and intervene in any Tartaros-related incidents at any time.
Professors at Lumerne possessed such authority.
He, who had chased Tartaros his entire life, showed an indifferent reaction to Silatuna, who was particularly related to his sworn enemy.
“Weren’t you out preparing for the school trip?”
“Yes.”
“Then, you may go.”
“Excuse me?”
“Why are you surprised?”
“No… won’t there be any punishment related to this incident?”
When Leo saw Albi, he was prepared for punishment.
Leo was involved in the incident during the midterm exams, but delving into the incident was not allowed.
It was entirely a solo action.
Even if it were another professor instead of Albi, he would have been punished.
Yet, Albi said nothing special to Leo.
Instead, he told him to go.
Albi spoke indifferently, watching Leo’s bewildered expression.
“It would be laughable for me, who doesn’t even do a proper job as a professor, to hand out punishment. And…”
A gentle aura emanated from Albi’s usually cold face.
“I am grateful to you, Leo Flobe.”
“Excuse me?”
“Thank you for saving that child.”
At those words, Leo remembered Alia.
“From now on, if there’s anything I can help you with, I will.”
Leaving those words, Albi headed towards the Rutek general store.
It was a major incident that would have made any student or professor who knew him doubt their eyes.
But to Albi, Leo was nothing short of a benefactor.
‘He would have had to hear countless times that he couldn’t save his sister.’
He had opened his hero’s world for future generations, but each time, Albi must have been reminded of his sister’s death.
Leo had, in a way, resolved Albi’s pent-up emotions.
Leo, who had been smiling as he watched Albi’s retreating back, suddenly remembered a fact.
‘Was the Zeron family one of the three great families of Lumerne?’
The Lumerne board, composed of three prestigious hero families who managed the great city of Lumeria, which belonged to no country, and the Hero Academy Lumerne.
The Zeron family was one of the most prestigious among them, forming one of its pillars.
‘If I ask Professor Albi, I might be able to access the Forbidden Archives? I should ask him next time.’
Promising himself for next time, Leo looked at the spot where Silatuna’s clone had disappeared.
‘This confirms it. Both the Chedmaders incident and this incident, it was Silatuna who was actually moving behind the scenes.’
Currently, Silatuna, one of the de facto rulers of Tartaros, had made a move.
‘Did she move simply to nip the budding hero candidates in the bud?’
He couldn’t shake off the uneasiness.
‘What exactly is she aiming for?’
***
Hwiiiiii-!
Deep in the northern part of the continent.
The wind swirled in the coldest place in the world.
This place, covered in snow and ice all year round, had been a sanctuary for elves since before the Age of Catastrophe.
In this sanctuary stood an ancient elven castle boasting a long history.
It was now known as the Elven Hero Academy, Seirune.
Students were moving about on the campus of Seirune.
Among them, an elf girl with red hair and red eyes, wrapped in a scarf, walked through the snow.
“Such attire in this weather. Are you flaunting your powerful magic?”
“As expected of someone from a family without a lineage, you don’t know the virtue of humility. Well, you’re not even a pure elf, are you?”
“For an elf like you to be one of the class representatives of the great Seirune! It’s truly lamentable.”
Hearing voices from afar, the elf girl made an annoyed expression and walked towards them.
“You guys are making a fuss, a fuss! If it’s not cold, you can wear comfortable clothes. Are you ganging up and picking on someone for such a trivial thing? Aren’t you ashamed? Don’t you have any pride as a noble family?”
At the elf girl’s words, the group of elves who had been speaking to a boy in the middle in front of a frozen fountain flinched.
“Lu, Lundia! Isn’t that too harsh!”
“That’s right! And for you, a scion of a noble family, to utter such abusive words! Be ashamed!”
“The teachers won’t stand by!”
“What nonsense. You who are ganging up on one person are worse and more shameful, and the teachers won’t stand by.”
The girl smiled aggressively, unlike an elf.
“If you don’t like what I said, why don’t you duel me?”
The faces of the three elves turned pale.
Lunia El Lundia.
The heir of the elven hero noble family, Lundia, and a first-year student at Seirune, this girl was an overwhelming powerhouse who held the position of class representative.
In particular, she had achieved a remarkable record of 29 consecutive victories in dueling evaluations among first-year students.
The other first-year students, knowing this fact, flinched and scattered as if fleeing.
Lunia scoffed and approached the boy, who was dressed lightly despite the weather.
“Luca. I told you that if you go around looking like that, other kids will pick on you for no reason.”
“That’s true. But someone stole all my clothes.”
“What?! These guys really!”
It was clearly the work of those guys from earlier.
Lunia sighed, untied her scarf, and wrapped it around Luca’s neck.
“Lu, Lunia! If you do that, Lunia will be cold!”
“I’m dressed warmly enough. And you just feel the cold less, you’re not not cold, are you?”
Lunia smiled sweetly and entered the campus with Luca.
“Achhoo!”
As soon as they entered the campus, Lunia immediately sneezed.
“It’s because of me, after all.”
“Kuh-eung! Don’t worry about it! Don’t worry about it.”
Lunia rubbed her nose and waved her hand, indicating that she was fine.
“You seem in a good mood today?”
“Yeah! Dad… no, Teacher Allan called me.”
Lunia puffed out her chest.
“It seems my contractor has finally hatched!”
“Ah! Congratulations, Lunia!”
Luca smiled brightly.
“Yeah. So I’ll go first! Luca. If any other kids bother you again, tell me!”
Lunia ran down the hallway.
Soon, Lunia entered a teacher’s lab and asked.
“Dad! My contractor has been born, right? Right?”
“I told you to call me teacher at school.”
“No one’s looking! More importantly, my contractor has hatched, right?”
The Lundia family had historically formed contracts with phoenixes.
And Lunia was scheduled to contract with the offspring of Pirina, the current head Allan Lundia’s contractor.
Allan read the letter sent by his sworn partner.
And let out a deep sigh.
“Pirina’s offspring has hatched.”
“As expected!”
Clap-! Lunia clapped her hands and cheered three times.
“So! When can I meet them? Now?”
‘How should I explain this?’
“Lunia. Sit down first.”
Lunia sat in front of Allan.
Allan took a deep breath, looking at his daughter, and began to speak.
“Lunia. Your contractor, you see.”
“Yes!”
“…has already made a contract.”
Crack-!
Lunia’s body stiffened.