Book 1 Chapter 618

Rayna opened her eyes.

She quickly scanned her surroundings.

Seeing familiar buildings, Rayna quickly assessed the situation.

'My room in the Plov estate mansion.'

Still lying down, Rayna checked the clock and realized it was morning.

Her entire body ached.

The attack.

It was the backlash from moving her body recklessly.

'If I consider my body hasn't recovered yet… a day hasn't passed.'

Checking her physical condition, Rayna realized no one was in the room and sat up.

Just then.

*Knock-knock-*

A knock sounded, and the door creaked open.

"M-madam."

Entering the room was Anna, the head housekeeper of the Plov family's main house.

Seeing Rayna, who had regained consciousness, Anna looked terrified and on the verge of tears. Rayna spoke.

"Anna. Where are the uninvited guests?"

"In the young master's room…"

At that, Rayna got up and headed to Leo's room.

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

"You're awake? Rayna Zerdinger. Or should I call you Rayna Plov now?"

Rayna spoke to the Hero Slayer, who, without looking up from his book, had a relaxed expression.

"What are you doing?"

"Investigating. What kind of person Leo Plov is."

The Hero Slayer looked up from his book, met Rayna's gaze, and smiled faintly.

"Shall we introduce ourselves first? My name is Jorua Iner. The being you call the Hero Slayer."

"Iner?"

Rayna's eyes twitched.

It was a powerful heroic family that had established itself in the center of the continent long ago.

Countless heroes gathered under the name of Iner.

A place that was, quite literally, the greatest heroic family.

But at some point, the family vanished.

"Yes. The master of a family that disappeared by the shadows."

Jorua, his hood pulled up, spoke with a tone of longing.

"Though I was lacking, I was also a hero with the epithet 'All Master.' Of course, that's just past glory."

"All Master?"

It was an epithet she had never heard before.

A name that couldn't be unknown if it had been recorded in history.

Rayna, who had worn a perplexed expression, soon recalled certain individuals.

"The Shadow Lords."

"As expected, you are wise. A worthy candidate for a promising hero."

Jorua whistled.

"Those detestable Shadow Lords thoroughly erased my existence from history. If I had known I would even be erased from history, I should have acted a bit more wildly."

During his lifetime.

Jorua had achieved feats worthy of becoming 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 dark for seeking power.

After his tail was caught by the shadows and he was purged, his records were completely annihilated.

That's why his erasure from history was instantaneous.

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

"It's okay. The world will remember my name again now."

"Your name will only remain as infamy."

"Hoo hoo hoo. You seem to be mistaken. I wasn't seeking achievements as a hero."

Jorua burst into laughter.

"It's enough for the world to know that I existed. Whether it's infamy or renown. The form doesn't matter. I just need the world to know that the Hero Slayer was me."

"For someone who gained a new life, you seem to have been hiding like a rat?"

"Of course. I want to be remembered in history in my perfect form. It was good to get a new opportunity, but…"

Jorua burst into hearty laughter and removed his hood.

"I ended up in such a wretched state."

*Click-* *click-* *click-*

White bone clashed against bone.

Despite his comically grotesque appearance, Rayna maintained a cold expression.

* * *

Jorua looked at Rayna and spoke.

"It's a shame. Truly a shame. If you had grown as you were and become a hero, you would have obtained immense power. Even more so than Selth Zerdinger, the current head of the Zerdinger family."

"You're the one who made me like this, aren't you? What are you regretting all of a sudden?"

"I can't help but regret it."

*Fwoosh-*

Jorua's body was engulfed in flames.

Rayna realized they were her flames and gritted her teeth.

After being covered in flames, Rayna's face hardened as she saw the woman before her, who had just begun to shed her girlish appearance.

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

Jorua cheerfully spun in place.

Watching him, veins bulged on Rayna's hands.

That was her lost form.

Jorua, standing in place, spoke.

"I aim for the moment when the prey shines the brightest. Because I want to cherish that time forever."

Jorua's gaze turned to Rayna.

"You were truly radiant at this time. More than any hero I have ever seen. Even though you sacrificed yourself, even though you were on the verge of death, you burned yourself without hesitation. You didn't seem to have a single regret about risking your life for others. Truly dazzling. That's why I didn't kill you after harvesting you. I thought you would die on your own, but if you survived, I thought you could become an exceptionally noble human."

Jorua's eyes, in Rayna's past form, narrowed.

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

Jorua clicked his tongue.

"If I had known, I would have let you go without hunting you early. For you to grow into a more noble being."

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

"Is there any value in that for you?"

Jorua burst into laughter.

"You are sufficient as bait to lure Leo Plov."

Rayna's tightly clenched fist trembled.

"So. What exactly is Leo Plov?"

Jorua looked around the room.

"It's rare to see such a bland person."

People leave traces in the places they stay.

Personality, likes, dislikes.

They leave more than one might think in the places they inhabit.

They might seem trivial at first glance.

But those trivial things gather to become the prey's weakness.

That's why Jorua came to the room to learn about Leo.

But from Leo's room, he felt nothing.

Jorua looked at the silent Rayna with her head bowed and spoke listlessly.

"You're truly useless except as bait."

With that, Jorua went outside.

"Well then, shall I go to greet our guest?"

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

Gritting her teeth, Rayna recalled the past.

A long time ago.

Before she lost her flames.

She heard that Ellan Lundaga, a top student in her year and a rival since the first grade, was in danger.

She felt a sense of kinship with him, who used the same phoenix flames.

Even though they were from different schools, they became such close friends that she wouldn't hesitate to give her life for him.

When she heard that Ellan Lundaga had entered a Hero Dungeon and failed.

Rayna didn't hesitate and rushed into the Hero Dungeon to find Ellan.

Entry into the world of heroes was normally impossible.

However, one could be caught up in the rampage of a Hero Dungeon when it went out of control.

That was also why she knew Ellan's party had failed.

If the conquest 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 in a state where their life or death was uncertain, Rayna entered the Hero Dungeon without hesitation for her best friend.

And she saw.

'A gray sky.'

Seeing that, Rayna knew.

That nameless heroic world was a world from the era of catastrophe, inhabited by heroes from that time.

To find Ellan, Rayna searched the surrounding area and found Ellan, the sole survivor.

With Ellan in tow, Rayna desperately poured all her strength into finding the conquest conditions.

She fought endless battles against monstrous beings.

And soon, she reached her limit, sensing death.

And…

'When I came to my senses… the world had already been conquered, and I had lost my flames.'

Surviving itself was literally a miracle.

Her injuries were severe.

She thought she lost her flames due to the reckless use of flames at that time.

'I thought so… but to think they were stolen by the Hero Slayer.'

Rayna gritted her teeth.

It was as the Hero Slayer said.

She regretted what happened then.

Sacrificing herself for another, throwing away her own future.

Even now, she regretted that choice.

It was as Jorua said.

She was not a noble human.

As Rayna gritted her teeth, she suddenly wore a puzzled expression.

The gray sky came to mind.

'…Come to think of it, back then. Why didn't I give up?'

Her last memory from the heroic world was hazy.

The memory she had deliberately ignored until now came back.

The memory of when she had given up everything and then regained her resolve.

'Right… I remember the dawn breaking then.'

In her faint memory, the dawn breaking in the era of catastrophe came to mind.

And something else surfaced in the memory she had dismissed as an illusion.

'A person.'

A person falling from the sky towards her, with the sun at their back.

She had regained her will with the thought that person would save her.

Back then, she had dismissed it as an illusion.

But…

'Could that be… the scene of the era of catastrophe ending?'

Thinking that far, Rayna looked around the room.

It was the room of her son, who followed the Hero Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning.

Rayna took a deep breath.

'Yes. Because I didn't give up then, I am here now.'

Rayna left the room.

'Leo will win.'

But she couldn't leave everything to Leo.

Returning to her room, Rayna looked at the sword hanging on the wall.

It might not be of any help.

She was no longer a knight of Zerdinger.

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

Even if she wasn't a knight of Zerdinger.

Rayna had never stopped thinking of herself as a knight.

'A knight is someone who protects others.'

And this was the land of the Plov family, and she was the mistress of the Plov family.

'I still have something to protect.'

When she first held a sword.

Rayna admired the knights from fairy tales.

She dreamed of becoming like those knights.

It might have been a foolish dream.

Chasing that dream, everything she had turned to ashes.

She definitely regretted the moment she sacrificed everything to save her friend.

But…

Even if that moment came again.

Even if she had to live in regret again.

Rayna would make the same choice again.

'That's me?'

That's why Rayna picked up her sword.

'So that the people living in this land are not in danger. I must protect them.'