Book 1 Chapter 769
“I’m so flabbergasted, don’t you people have anything better to do?”
Celia, arms crossed, looked at her friends who were avoiding her gaze with an incredulous expression.
Among them, Chen Xia, the only one who met her eyes with a bright, steady gaze, replied.
“But it looked fun?”
Celia, raising her eyebrows, pinched Chen Xia’s cheeks.
“Aren’t you revealing your twisted personality a bit too much lately?”
“It hurts.”
“That’s the point!”
After scolding her, Celia sighed and let go.
Chen Xia cupped her reddened cheeks and blinked her large eyes.
“So? What’s the reason you followed me?”
“I had a feeling Garin might confess to you today.”
“Huh? What? What are you talking about?”
“Well, I think we should be leaving now, don’t you?”
Chen Xia grinned and pushed the others away.
“I want to see that idiot get rejected… *cough cough*?”
“Yes, yes. Let’s go, you’re in the way.”
Chen Xia covered Aris’s mouth and dragged her away.
While Celia was bewildered, Garin covered his face.
As soon as the two were alone, Celia looked at Garin.
“What was that all about?”
“Well… *cough*!”
Garin cleared his throat a few times and put on a serious expression.
“Celia Schrödinger.”
“Yes?”
“I think I’ve fallen for your beautiful appearance.”
At his words, Celia’s red eyes widened.
“I want to be more than friends with you. If it’s difficult right now, I want to get to know you gradually.”
Celia was flustered by the completely unexpected situation.
But she quickly regained her composure.
Then, with a serious expression, she began to ponder.
Garin watched Celia’s reaction silently.
Finally, Celia spoke.
“I’m sorry, Garin. I’ve thought about it deeply, but it seems I already have someone in my heart. So I don’t think I can answer your feelings.”
Celia, speaking with utmost sincerity and a serious expression, bowed her head.
Garin smiled bitterly as he watched her.
“Thank you for answering sincerely. But I hope we can remain good friends.”
“Yes. Me too.”
Celia extended her hand.
Garin looked at her hand, then took it and shook it.
“What?! I expected you to cry!”
At that moment, Aris’s indignant voice was heard from behind.
Celia’s forehead vein bulged.
“You guys…! You think this is a joke…!”
“I’ll handle my foolish younger sibling.”
Garin lunged at Aris.
“Aaaagh! O-Oh brother! No! Older brother! Let go! I was wrong! Aaaaagh!”
Aris’s desperate screams, with her arm twisted, echoed.
***
Darkness fell, and lights flickered on one by one on the streets.
In the midst of it all, a humble tavern.
It was a tavern frequented by many patrons who enjoyed drinking after a day’s work.
Leo and Lisinas sat in a corner of the tavern, drinking.
“There are so many nicer places than this.”
“So what? I find places like this familiar and nice.”
Lisinas smiled brightly at Leo’s words and drank her beer.
After taking a refreshing gulp of beer, Lisinas wiped her mouth and picked up a snack, putting it in her mouth.
Normally, a beauty like Lisinas would have drawn everyone’s attention, but thanks to her magic, which masked her presence, she could drink comfortably.
Clinking glasses with Leo once more, Lisinas downed all the beer in her glass.
“Landlord, another one.”
“Yes!”
The landlord cheerfully replied and approached, placing down the beer glass.
“Miss, you seem to be in a good mood?”
“I’m feeling pretty good today.”
Lisinas propped her chin and grinned, lifting her beer glass.
She then surveyed the noisy tavern and muttered.
“It’s like a hero’s haven.”
“It’s called a hero’s haven, but if you think about it, it was just a common tavern.”
“A tavern that accepted you and me, who are symbols of misfortune, was common?”
“I guess so.”
Leo recalled his regular tavern in Gardsron.
A humble tavern run by an elf.
Kail joined Lisinas’s party.
It was the only tavern that accepted the surviving hero and the foolish one, who were symbols of misfortune at the time.
Afterward, Archy’s party became active, and Luna and Arion… even after Dwenno joined and the two were no longer symbols of misfortune, they continued to use it.
And it was also where Archy’s party had their last supper.
“I wonder how Mr. Enean is doing.”
“Given his personality, wouldn’t he still be running the tavern there?”
“Ah. That seems likely.”
Lisinas nodded.
Then, sipping her beer, she murmured bitterly.
“Maybe he’s still waiting for us.”
“……”
The reason Enean accepted Kail and Lisinas at the hero’s haven was simple.
It was based on Enean’s philosophy that any hero fighting on a battlefield where they could die at any moment needed a place to rest.
The store was operated with the belief that even if it was a humble tavern, it would be a place for heroes to rest for a while.
In a way, it was also a sanctuary for the great heroes.
“He said the drinks were free if we came back in the end.”
“That elf never gave us anything for free.”
“Right, right. He even shouted that he’d go bankrupt if Luna and Dwenno came back.”
They laughed and chatted freely as they reminisced about the old days.
After emptying countless glasses of beer.
“……It feels like a blink of an eye to me, but 5000 years……”
Lisinas swayed her beer glass, which was almost empty, and muttered.
The golden beer sloshed.
“Kail, how did you feel when you found out you were resurrected?”
“Awful.”
“Why?”
“Because I had to finish that damned Erebus this time for good. The thought of having to do it again made me feel disgusted.”
“Ahahahaha.”
Lisinas burst into laughter and downed her drink.
“Liar.”
“……”
“Weren’t you expecting it?”
Lisinas met Leo’s eyes.
“Wondering if other friends might have been resurrected too?”
Lisinas put down her glass.
“I think I would have. Not just me.”
The miracle of reincarnation with memories intact.
If so, perhaps they harbored a secret hope.
That others had also reincarnated.
Even if they died without enjoying peace.
They would be reborn and enjoy peace.
“Or… perhaps trying to find traces of others who might have been born earlier in history.”
Not just anyone, but great heroes.
If they were reincarnated, they would have left traces that anyone looking at history would recognize as great heroes.
“And when you realized that your other friends hadn’t reincarnated, you must have felt intense loneliness and sadness.”
Leo just silently sipped his alcohol.
‘He won’t tell me honestly because he doesn’t want me to worry.’
He just kept it buried deep inside.
“I miss everyone.”
The faces of comrades who had died before came to mind.
They must have seen this peaceful world once through the Hero Records, miraculously.
But…
‘It will be difficult to have such times again.’
The times when they laughed and chatted, forgetting about the difficult tomorrow for a moment.
Times that could never be enjoyed now that the difficult tomorrow had disappeared.
“Let’s stop the gloomy talk.”
“Yes. You’re right. Okay, then, Kail. Tell me about your first love.”
Lisinas smiled sweetly.
Leo looked at Lisinas and said.
“I don’t have one.”
“Oh? You won’t tell me easily, huh? Then I’ll go first.”
Lisinas put on a serious expression and straightened her posture.
“My first love is you, Kail.”
“……”
“Surprising, right? Isn’t it?”
“Are you drunk?”
“Yes.”
Watching Lisinas laugh hysterically, Leo sighed.
“There’s me, a pitiful person who died without even achieving first love, so tell me about your first love.”
Under the table, Lisinas nudged Leo’s foot with her toe.
Looking at Lisinas, Leo said.
“I don’t have one.”
“Aww.”
“I really don’t.”
Leo downed his drink and said.
“Everyone I could have loved died before I could love them.”
“……”
At his words, Lisinas closed her mouth, let out a deep sigh, and lay down on the table.
“Who is more unfortunate? Kail, the hero of beginnings, whose first love died before it could even start, or the king of wisdom, whose first love died without even having their feelings recognized?”
“I was reincarnated, so strictly speaking, you’re probably more unfortunate?”
At Leo’s words, Lisinas pouted.
“No. You have to exclude your life as Leo Froob. It should be evaluated purely as Kail’s life.”
“……That’s difficult.”
“Damn difficult. Both of us were too unfortunate!”
*Bang-*!
Lisinas slammed her fist on the table and sat up abruptly.
“Owner! Another one here!”
“Yes!”
“So? Who is it that died before becoming a first love? Me? Luna?”
“Do you think you two are the only ones who liked me?”
Lisinas scowled.
“How did you know they liked you?”
“Unlike you, that guy didn’t bother to hide his feelings.”
“No way, you rejected them after they confessed? Boo hoo! Trash!”
Leo scoffed at Lisinas’s jeers.
“Do you know if someone has feelings unless they confess?”
“So? When did you meet them?”
“My first comrade.”
At his words, Lisinas propped her chin.
“Was it a duo party?”
“There were five of us.”
“Just like us?”
“It was a bit different. It was a party made up purely of humans.”
Leo looked out the window.
“Come to think of it, I met them around this time when I was 17.”
It was summer then too.
An unbearably hot summer… from a time when the world was ending.
“Kail at 17, full of youthful vigor. I can’t imagine it.”
Lisinas shook her head, lifting her new glass of beer.
“Did you have a goal back then?”
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“I won’t tell you because I think you’ll laugh.”
“I won’t laugh.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I swear on my dragon heart.”
Lisinas placed her hand on her right chest, her expression serious.
Watching Lisinas, Leo said.
“A hero who saves the world.”
“Pfft! Pfffff! Hahahaha! That’s it! A hero who saves the world! Hahahaha! But it really doesn’t suit you!”
Lisinas, completely drunk, clutched her stomach and guffawed, finding it immensely amusing.
“You damn lizard! What about your dragon heart oath…!”
“I don’t have a dragon heart anymore, because I gave it to you!”
“You damn swindler!”
As they reminisced about the past, the night deepened.
Leo and Lisinas, who ended up being the last customers, rented a room on the second floor of the tavern.
Leo slung Lisinas over his shoulder and went up to the second floor.
“Kail’s dream was to be a hero who saves the world. Ah~ how embarrassing~”
Lisinas, finding it endlessly amusing, kept teasing Leo.
Exhausted from dealing with the drunk Lisinas, Leo, with a look of resignation, opened Lisinas’s room and entered.
He then tossed Lisinas onto the bed like a sack and was about to leave.
*Grasp-*!
At that moment, Lisinas reached out and grabbed Leo’s clothes.
With rough force, she pulled Leo, making him sit on the bed.
“Kail.”
“Why.”
Lisinas sat next to Leo and immediately pulled Leo into her embrace.
Leo, suddenly embraced by Lisinas, widened his eyes.
“……It was hard, wasn’t it?”
Lisinas, hugging Leo, gently stroked his white hair.
“Fighting Erebus alone in the end……”
“……”
“Preparing to fight again after reincarnating alone……”
“……”
“It must have been very difficult.”
“You’re drunk.”
“Yes. I’m drunk.”
Lisinas released Leo from her embrace.
Then, she touched her forehead to Leo’s.
Their breaths mingled.
Soon, their lips met.
Lisinas’s arms wrapped around Leo’s neck.
Just as the two were about to get closer.
*Boom-!*
Suddenly, with a loud explosion, a vibration shook through the air.
Leo and Lisinas froze.
Lisinas laughed.
“It’s okay, it’s just a small…”
*Boom! Krrrrrr!*
“Small…”
*Krrrrrr! Kagagagaga!*
They felt a colossal shockwave hit the building.
Leo, covering his face, got up from the bed.
Lisinas silently stood up and adjusted her disheveled clothes.
Leo burned off the alcohol with mana.
His urges were suppressed, and he regained his composure.
Along with that, his senses, which had been blocked by the alcohol, were activated.
“Let’s check the situation…”
“……I……”
“Lisinas?”
“……do.”
As his senses returned, he began to hear Lisinas’s muttering.
“I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them no matter what.”
Seeing Lisinas grinding her teeth with a voice full of resentment, Leo involuntarily stepped back.
Lisinas, having perfectly restored her disheveled attire to its usual impeccable state, then kicked the window open.
“I’ll tear them to shreds!”
A roar mixed with dragon’s blood echoed through the night sky of Deang as she burst through the window.
The surrounding air cowered under the wrath of the king at the pinnacle of the world.
It was a roar comparable to a hero’s howling.
*Roar-!*
Leo urgently followed as Lisinas leaped out the window.
“Let’s go together!”