Book 1 Chapter 600

600.

Late dawn.

"Reina? Are you really okay?"

"Yes, Dayd. I'm fine, so don't worry. I'll feel better soon if I take a hot bath."

As Reina's bright voice was heard from beyond the bathroom door attached to the room, Dayd looked at Leo with a worried expression.

"It's because you used mana with your aura gone. You'll be alright if you relax your body with hot water."

Leo smiled bitterly.

"I'm sorry for calling you in the middle of the night."

"I'm sorry too, I was there at the time but couldn't pay attention."

Reina, who had been listening to their conversation inside the bathroom, submerged her mouth in the water.

'I need to be more careful from now on.'

The aftermath of raising her aura in the Elder's corridor earlier had sent a chill throughout her body.

Dayd had urgently woken Leo in a panic.

Reina suddenly touched her right chest.

The scar from where she was pierced when she lost her aura long ago still remained clearly.

Bubble, bubble-

As she let out a small sigh, air bubbles formed.

***

Click.

"I knew you were pushing yourself."

Returning to the room, Leo let out a small sigh.

As Leo was about to get into bed, he suddenly looked towards the entrance of the terrace attached to the room.

WHOOSH-!

Though hidden by the curtains, a blizzard was raging outside.

After gazing towards the terrace for a moment, Leo approached it and pulled back the curtains.

Swoosh-!

Due to the snow that had started falling since night, the terrace was covered in a thick layer of snow.

Right in front of the terrace door, someone was kneeling.

As if unaffected by the cold, the woman with blue hair sat motionless, her eyes closed and hands clasped in a reverent posture.

Her appearance reminded Leo of the clerics from the Age of Gods.

Looking at her devout and pious appearance, Leo couldn't suppress a sigh.

'She's doing this again.'

Her identity was none other than Anyas, a half-elf, the daughter of the Northern Archmage and the successor to the Elf Shadow Lord.

Leo opened the terrace door.

WHOOSH-!

The blizzard poured in.

"What are you doing?"

"I was offering prayers to the great god."

"I thought I told you not to create any religion?"

"I never created a religion."

"Then why are you praying to me?"

"Because I've already joined an existing sect."

"What?"

Anyas handed Leo a neatly folded piece of paper from her pocket.

As Leo unfolded it, his head began to ache.

The paper was a club recruitment poster for Lumine Academy.

Club Name: Cult of Kyle.

Club Activities: Researching the deeds of Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning.

President: Iliana Laden.

Vice-President: Chen Xia.

Treasurer: Karl Thomas.

'These guys are really…'

During the Hero's Festival incident, he had saved Iliana by appearing as Kyle.

He knew that Iliana had become greatly interested in the Hero of the Beginning since then.

'Well, even if Iliana is a bit eccentric, what are these guys thinking?'

To form a club at Lumine, at least three people are required.

Chen Xia must have cooperated, thinking it was a good idea, and Karl probably joined thinking it might make money.

Whatever the case, they likely didn't think about it deeply.

How did the name get approved?

Leo, pondering, quickly thought of the culprit.

'It must have been Elenor who approved it, saying it looked interesting.'

While the activity is researching Kyle's deeds, since Iliana is the president, it's essentially a fan club.

"Indeed, the students of Lumine are wonderful. To think of creating such a splendid organization. Princess Xia just told me that something like this exists!"

Anyas was busy praising Lumine to the skies.

"If this were a splendid thing, the world would have been destroyed long ago. And I am not Kyle. So why are you praying to me?"

"Leo-nim is the successor of the Hero of the Beginning, recognized by the gods! Therefore, Leo-nim is included as an object of worship for the Cult of Kyle!"

"You're not even a student of Lumine in the first place."

"What need is there for status in faith?"

'This is pointless.'

Seeing Anyas whose eyes were already gone, Leo clicked his tongue.

Since enrolling in Lumine,

Leo had seen many people who gained strength by chanting the names of great heroes.

'Among us, only Luna would like something so embarrassing.'

Except for Luna, who boasted that she would be worshipped for generations, none of the great heroes liked being revered like that.

Perhaps Arion would have screamed in embarrassment if he had seen it.

'I'd rather not see such a humiliating sight.'

Leo said with a sigh.

'I already have enough trouble with that Rian.'

Thinking of the fanatic who was busy praising him, Leo shook his head and said,

"Come in for now."

"Ah! How could I enter the same space as Leo-nim!"

"Then do you want me to stand here in the blizzard like this?"

"Gasp! I… I was committing such disrespect! I didn't know!"

Seeing Anyas bowing to him, Leo said, letting things take their course.

"It's okay, come in."

"Ah, I am overwhelmed by Leo-nim's benevolent forgiveness. However, I have received too easy forgiveness for the sin I have committed! I cannot accept it! Therefore, I will punish myself in place of Leo-nim!"

Anyas, whose eyes were glazed over, took off her robe.

Under the thick robe, there was a thin, white one-piece dress.

Anyas pulled out a short whip from her robe, took a stance, and was about to strike her own back.

Leo snatched the whip and thought,

'As soon as the academy opens, I must immediately disband that damned club.'

***

-I don't know what all this commotion is about at dawn.

Click- Click-

Elsi, who brought the tea, said with a troubled smile.

"Haa… Haa… Look at this whip. Doesn't it look magnificent? If I get hit with this by my master…"

In the corner, Arti was rubbing his cheek against the whip that Leo had confiscated.

Seeing that, Leo wore a serious expression.

-Why are you looking so serious?

Kieran asked with a puzzled look, and Leo replied,

"I wonder why there are always strange things around me."

Whether in his past life or this one.

It seems like only strange things gather around him.

-It's because Leo is strange.

Peep. Peep.

At Kieran's words, Fiora, in the form of a phoenix, flapped her wings in agreement.

They seemed to be getting along well.

Seeing the two phantom beasts, Leo gave them a look of disdain.

'They don't seem to realize they are included in those strange things.'

A fairy princess who had her powers sealed and was cast out after playing around.

Fiora, who sometimes became a phoenix that chirped like a chick.

Needless to say, these two are definitely not normal either.

'Even in my past life, my companions were a con artist lizard, a foul-tempered elf, a perverted dwarf, and a cowardly beastman.'

Thinking of his companions, Leo clicked his tongue.

'I guess it's my fate.'

Shaking his head, Leo said,

"So, what brings you here?"

Anyas had not been formally invited as a guest of Schrödinger, but had come to see Leo secretly.

And this place, the center of Schrödinger, is where countless outstanding knights reside.

Even for a successor of the Shadow Lord, infiltrating secretly is difficult.

Taking such a risk meant that she had important business with Leo.

Anyas, who raised her teacup and moistened her lips at Leo's question, said,

"I have come to report to Leo-nim what I have learned about the hero dungeon rampage incident during the recent Hero's Festival."

"You're fast."

"Because I received the culprit immediately."

The incident during the Hero's Festival where Lumine's Hero Record went berserk in the middle of Lumine Academy.

As a result, the immense disaster of Erebus's flames appearing in the heart of Lumine occurred.

'Didn't Lian say back then that the berserked Lumine page couldn't be used by Erebus as an exit?'

A page that Erebus could not encroach upon and use as an entrance.

Unless someone secretly brought it in, it's impossible for Lumine's page to be inside Lumine Academy.

'Who else but someone who would aim for the Hero's Festival, where the entry of outsiders is frequent?'

Tartarus.

And Leo suspected that there were people associated with Tartarus among those invited to the Hero's Festival, and ordered Mel to pursue whoever brought Lumine's page.

No matter how skilled the culprit was, if the pursuer was the Dragon Lord, there was no escape.

And Mel caught the culprit and brought him before Leo.

He was a royal from a small kingdom located in the northern part of the continent.

'What should I do?'

'Send him to the Northern Archmage. The culprit is likely not directly connected to Tartarus.'

Just as the Pureblood Elf Society had a connection to Tartarus.

It was obvious that humans, especially those of high status, were connected to Tartarus.

For Leo, who had stepped into darkness since the Age of Calamity, interrogating people was not difficult.

'But the information that can be obtained from interrogating one person is limited.'

It would be much more efficient to pursue the forces connected to the Elf Shadow Lord, who ruled the underworld of the northern continent.

"So? Did you find out the connected forces?"

"I could not find out the connected forces. However, I succeeded in finding out who gave the Lumine page to the culprit."

"Who?"

"The Hero Slayer."

Leo flinched at Anyas's words.

Hero Slayer.

A traitor who killed countless heroes 500 years ago.

He was like an embodiment of evil that plunged the world into terror.

"Speaking of which, didn't you say before that you found traces of the Hero Slayer contacting the Pureblood Elf Society and that you were chasing him?"

At the time, he was puzzled by the appearance of a person who had disappeared 500 years ago, but now the doubt was resolved.

In an era where even heroes are resurrected as the undead by the power of the Necromancer King,

It wasn't surprising that a traitor who plunged the world into terror 500 years ago would be resurrected as an undead.

"How did you find out he was connected to that kingdom?"

"In the underground of the royal palace, the corpses of heroes who had been missing for decades were discovered."

Anyas's eyes grew cold.

"All of them were victims of the Hero Slayer."

"Does that mean the Hero Slayer has been active not recently, but for decades?"

"It seems so."

Hearing Anyas's answer, Leo stroked his chin.

"But how did you know they were killed by the Hero Slayer?"

He suddenly felt a sense of doubt.

It's not easy to determine from just the corpses that they were the actions of the villain from 500 years ago.

To Leo's question, Anyas pointed to her right chest with her finger.

"The Hero Slayer thrusts his finger into the right chest of the heroes he kills."

"A strange, madman with peculiar tastes."

"He's not just a madman. There's a reason for it."

"Reason?"

"Yes. The power to steal the abilities of others. That is the Hero Slayer's ability."