Book 1 Chapter 618

618.

Raina opened her eyes.

She quickly scanned her surroundings.

In the familiar building, Raina quickly assessed the situation.

'My room in the Flobe estate mansion.'

Checking the clock while lying down, Raina realized it was morning.

Her whole body was in pain.

During the attack.

It was the recoil from moving her body excessively.

'Considering my body hasn't recovered yet… less than a day has passed.'

Realizing no one was in the room after checking her physical condition, Raina got up.

Just then.

Knock-knock-

The door carefully opened with a knock.

"My, My Lady."

The one who opened the door and entered was Anna, the head maid of the Flobe family's main household.

Seeing Anna, who looked terrified and almost on the verge of tears upon seeing her awake, Raina spoke.

"Anna. Where is the uninvited guest?"

"In, in Young Master's room…"

At her words, Raina got up and headed to Leo's room.

Upon arriving at Leo's room, she saw the Hero Slayer leisurely reading a book in the room.

"You've come? Raina Zerdinger. Or, should I call you Raina Flobe now?"

Looking at the Hero Slayer, who had a relaxed expression without taking his eyes off the book, Raina said.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm finding out. What kind of person Leo Flobe is."

The Hero Slayer raised his head, looked at Raina, and smiled faintly.

"Before that, shall we introduce ourselves? My name is Zorua Iner. I am the being you call the Hero Slayer."

"Iner?"

Raina's eyes twitched.

It was a powerful lineage of heroes that had settled in the center of the continent long ago.

Countless heroes gathered under the name of Iner.

It was, literally, the greatest heroic lineage.

But at some point, it was a family that vanished without a trace.

"Yes. I am the master of the family that vanished by the Shadows."

Zorua, wearing his hood, spoke in a nostalgic tone.

"Though I am lacking, I am a hero who also bore the alias 'All Master'. Of course, that is just past glory."

"All Master?"

It was an alias she had never heard of.

A name that would be impossible not to know if it had been left in history.

Raina, who had a perplexed expression, soon recalled certain individuals.

"The Shadow Lords."

"Indeed, you are clever. Fitting for a once promising hero candidate."

Zorua whistled.

"Those abominable Shadow Lords thoroughly concealed my existence beyond history. If I had known I wouldn't even leave my name in history, I would have rampaged a bit more violently."

While alive.

Zorua only achieved feats grand enough to become a hero.

And he acted more heroically than anyone else.

To avoid pursuit as much as possible.

No one could have imagined that a noble hero would slaughter other heroes in the darkness merely for coveting power.

After being caught by the Shadows and subjugated, the records themselves were eradicated.

Therefore, being hidden from history was instantaneous.

"If you regret it that much, why didn't you live properly?"

"It's fine. Now the world will not forget my name again."

"Your name? Only infamy will remain."

"Hahahaha. It seems you've misunderstood. I wasn't coveting achievements as a hero."

Zorua burst out laughing.

"It's enough to let this world know that I existed. Whether it's infamy or a great name. The form doesn't matter. I just need to let the world know that the Hero Slayer was none other than me."

"For someone who says that, it seems you've been living like a rat, hiding despite gaining a new life?"

"Of course. I want to leave my name in history in a perfect form. Getting a new opportunity was good, but…"

Zorua let out a hearty laugh and took off his hood.

"Because I ended up with such an ugly appearance."

Clack- clack- clack-

White bones clattered against each other.

Despite the comical sight, Raina merely maintained a cold expression.

* * *

Looking at Raina, Zorua spoke.

"What a pity. A true pity. If you had grown up to become a hero, you would have gained immense power. More so than the current head of the Zerdinger family, Seld Zerdinger."

"You're the one who made me like this, aren't you? Why are you suddenly feeling regret?"

"I can't help but regret it."

Whoosh-

Zorua's body was engulfed in flames.

Raina realized it was her own flame and gritted her teeth.

After the flames enveloped him, Raina's face hardened at the sight of a woman who had just begun to shed her girlish appearance.

"The best thing about losing my physical body is this. With it, I can become anyone I desire."

Zorua gracefully spun in place.

Seeing that sight, veins popped up on Raina's hands.

It was her lost appearance.

Zorua, standing still, spoke.

"You see, I target the moment when my prey shines brightest. Because I want to keep that era forever."

Zorua's gaze turned to Raina.

"At that time, you truly shone. More than any hero I had ever seen. Despite sacrificing yourself, despite being in a situation where you would die, you burned yourself without hesitation. It seemed you didn't have a single regret about risking your life for others. You were truly dazzling. That's why I harvested you but didn't bother to finish you off. I thought you would die if left alone, but I believed if you survived, you could become an incredibly noble human."

Zorua, in Raina's past form, narrowed his eyes.

"But you weren't. You regret it. Sacrificing yourself back then."

Zorua clicked his tongue.

"If I had known that, I would have left you alone instead of hunting you early. For you to grow into a more noble being."

"Then why don't you kill me now?"

"Do you have the worth for that?"

Zorua burst out laughing.

"You're only good enough to be bait to lure Leo Flobe."

Raina's tightly clenched hand trembled.

"So. What exactly is Leo Flobe?"

Zorua looked around the room.

"It's rare to see such a dry, uninteresting person."

People inevitably leave traces where they stay.

Personality, likes, dislikes.

They leave more things than one might think in the place they reside.

At first glance, they might seem trivial.

But these trivial things gather to become the prey's weaknesses.

That's why Zorua came to the room, to learn about the human named Leo.

But nothing could be sensed in Leo's room.

Zorua looked at Raina, who was silent with her head bowed, and then spoke indifferently.

"Aside from being bait, you're truly useless."

Leaving those words, Zorua went outside.

"Shall I go greet the guest then?"

Raina, left alone in Leo's room, looked down at her hands.

Gritting her teeth, Raina recalled the past.

The distant past.

Before she had lost her flame.

She heard news that Ellen Lundah, a Seirune honor student in the same year she had competed with since freshman year, was in danger.

She felt a kinship with him, as he used the same Phoenix flame.

Although they were from different schools, thanks to that, they became friends for whom risking one's life wouldn't be a waste.

When she heard that Ellen Lundah had failed after entering a hero dungeon raid.

Raina didn't hesitate and plunged into the hero dungeon to find Ellen.

Entry into a hero's world was originally impossible after the initial entry.

However, when a hero dungeon went berserk, one could get caught in its rampage and enter.

That was also why she knew Ellen's party had failed the raid.

If the raid had succeeded, the rampage would have stopped.

But the rampage didn't stop, and the dungeon's scale grew even larger.

A phenomenon signifying failure.

Even with his life or death uncertain, Raina entered the hero dungeon without hesitation for her best friend.

And she saw.

'Ashen sky.'

Seeing that, Raina understood.

That unknown hero's world was the world of heroes who lived during the Age of Calamity.

To find Ellen, Raina searched the surrounding area and eventually found Ellen, who had survived alone.

Taking Ellen with her, Raina desperately poured all her strength into finding the raid conditions.

She endlessly fought against monstrous beings.

And not long after, she reached her limit and sensed death.

And…

'When I came to… the world had already been cleared, and I had lost my flame.'

Her very survival was, literally, a miracle.

Because her injuries were severe.

She had thought she lost her flame then due to excessive use of her flame.

'I thought so… but to think it was taken by the Hero Slayer.'

Raina gritted her teeth.

It was as the Hero Slayer said.

She regretted what happened then.

Sacrificing her future for others.

Even now, she regretted that choice.

It was as Zorua said.

She was not a noble human.

Raina, who had been gritting her teeth, suddenly wore a puzzled expression.

The ashen sky came to mind.

'…Now that I think about it, back then. Why didn't I give up?'

Her last memory in the hero's world was hazy.

She recalled the memory of that time, which she had deliberately ignored until now.

The memory of when she had given up everything and then pulled herself together again.

'Yes… I'm sure the dawn broke back then.'

In her faint memory, the dawn that broke during the Age of Calamity came to mind.

And there was one more thing that came to mind in that memory, which she had dismissed as an illusion.

'A person.'

A person falling from the sky towards her, with the sun behind them.

She had steeled her resolve, thinking that person would save her.

Something she had dismissed as an illusion back then.

But…

'Could that have been… the scene of the end of the Age of Calamity?'

Having thought that far, Raina looked around the room.

It was the room of her son, who succeeded Kyle, the Hero of Beginnings.

Raina took a deep breath.

'Yes. Because I didn't give up back then, the present exists.'

Raina left the room.

'Leo will win.'

But she couldn't leave everything to Leo.

Raina, who had returned to her room, looked at the sword hanging on the wall.

It might not be of any help.

Because she was no longer a Zerdinger knight.

'But that doesn't mean I'm not a knight.'

Not a Zerdinger knight.

Raina had never not thought of herself as a knight.

'A knight is someone who protects others.'

And this was the land of the Flobe family, and she was the lady of the Flobe family.

'I still have something to protect.'

When she first grasped a sword.

Raina admired the knights from fairy tales.

She dreamed of becoming like those knights.

It might be a foolish dream.

Chasing that dream, everything she had turned to ashes.

She definitely regretted that moment when she saved her friend and sacrificed everything she had.

But…

Even if that moment came again.

Even if she lived in regret once more.

Raina would make the same choice again.

'Because that's who I am?'

That's why Raina picked up the sword.

'So that no danger befalls the people living on this land. I must protect them.'