Book 1 Chapter 937

Azonia's eyes narrowed as he walked the night streets.

'The scent has completely vanished.'

This was because the scent of Kal had completely disappeared.

'What happened?'

It was clear nothing bad had happened, as there was no sign of Tartarus's scent.

Sniffing, Azonia followed Kal's trail.

'It seems there was a group with him…'

With his keen sense of smell, Azonia quickly traced Kal's path.

A characteristic of extinct canine beastmen.

It was a pursuit possible only for Azonia, who had honed his extrasensory perception to its limit as Arion's successor.

'Is it because he's Arion's successor? His extrasensory perception is superior to mine.'

Azonia recalled Leo, who had been admiring his own extrasensory perception, and chuckled.

'Successor, my foot. The successor is that brat.'

Azonia thought of Ar.

The white cat who did as he was told without question.

Ar was different from him.

Of course, that didn't mean Ar resembled Arion.

But unlike Azonia, who denied and doubted Arion, Ar had not a single doubt about the hero.

He was different from Azonia, who remained stuck in the distant past and couldn't move forward.

His courage to overcome fear and move forward somehow reminded Azonia of the hero.

'Damn it.'

He felt pathetic, stuck in a past where he couldn't save anyone.

"Hoo."

Azonia took a deep breath and silently pursued Kal's scent.

He soon reached the outskirts of Leisart.

"This place is…"

Leisart, buried beneath the desert for 5,000 years.

It had been restored by shadows.

Because of this, Azonia, who had visited Leisart numerous times, knew where he was.

'…An orphanage.'

Azonia's grip tightened.

His mood sank even further.

Just as Azonia clicked his tongue.

"Wow… Mr. Leo, you don't like sweets, do you? I… I didn't know…!"

A familiar voice was heard from a corner.

Azonia approached with a puzzled expression.

There, Eiran, holding a notebook, was quickly transcribing its contents into a book.

"This will make the novel's content richer!"

Seeing Eiran aflame with the passion of creation, a mischievous smile appeared on Azonia's face.

"What are you so happily writing?"

"Eeeek?!"

Startled by Azonia's voice from behind, Eiran threw the notebook and book he was holding into the air.

"Got it. This seems to be that kid Kal's notebook… And this?"

Azonia caught the notebook and book Eiran had thrown and looked at them.

"Th-this is a hobby, I guess. I, my hobby is story creation…"

Azonia pushed away Eiran, who was lunging to snatch the book back with a bright red face, and smiled wickedly.

"Oh my? I like stories too. May I read it?"

"N-no!"

"I knew you'd say that."

Smiling sweetly, Azonia opened the book.

The hastily written content, as if still in the planning stages, was visible.

"Let's see. The characters are a beautiful beastman woman and an incredibly beautiful dwarf? What is this? This is me and Demian!"

"Kyaaaaaak?!"

As soon as the characters were revealed, Eiran screamed and tried to snatch the book from Azonia, but it was no use.

Azonia, chuckling and running away from Eiran while reading the book, suddenly froze with a 'crunch-'.

The book was a romance novel.

A story about a dwarf loving a beastman.

The problem was that it was a love triangle.

The beastman woman loved a certain human.

Azonia could easily tell who that human was.

'Lumen…'

Azonia's shoulders trembled.

According to the novel, Demian loved him, and he loved Lumen.

Of course, it wasn't explicitly stated as Demian, Azonia, and Lumen, but just by reading the settings, it was easy to figure out.

His trembling hands turned the pages.

There, a structured story was written.

The problem was that the content was extremely explicit.

"Ack?!"

Azonia covered his nose with his hand without realizing it.

"Wh-what is this obscene novel…! No! First of all!"

"A-Azonia-nim, please give it back… Huh? Azonia-nim, your nose is bleeding…"

"Why am I doing this to Lumen like this! It was me who was toyed with by that damn bastard…"

"Huh?"

Azonia covered his mouth without realizing it, and Eiran let out a stunned exclamation.

Eiran, blinking with his mouth open, perked up his ears and asked, "Are you and Lumen… perhaps intimately involved?"

"No. I'm innocent. Nothing happened between me and Lumen!"

Seeing Azonia shouting with a bright red face, Eiran looked puzzled.

"But you just said you were toyed with by Lumen…"

Azonia scratched his head.

Then, he crouched down and wiped the blood from his nose, saying, "I was just trying to trick that damn Lumen, but ended up being tricked instead."

"What?! You were tricked?"

"…What do you normally think about? I just said I was innocent. I was just played for a fool."

"Ah… But why?"

"What?"

"That… it's written in history that you, Azonia-nim, have loved many talented men…"

"…I'm saying this in case you write a weird story about me."

"No. I, I won't write it. The characters here are not Azonia-nim… Ughhhh."

"How dare you lie without batting an eye? You erotic elf."

Azonia roughly pulled Eiran's cheeks.

Eiran covered his red cheeks and made a sad face.

Seeing Eiran like that, Azonia let out a sigh.

Then, with a bright red face, he lowered his head.

"I… I'm sorry… That's all."

"What?"

"I only have Demian. My relationships with other men are clean."

"…"

Eiran, who had been silent, widened his eyes.

"Were you two lovers?"

"No, we weren't lovers."

"Then why did you act like you liked men a lot?"

Azonia scratched his head.

"That damn dwarf was so indifferent to me, I just wanted to get his attention, but it backfired."

"What? Then why didn't you just tell him the truth…?"

"It's embarrassing. And I don't think he'd believe me now."

Seeing Azonia grumbling with his lips pouted, Eiran looked surprised.

"What are you looking at?"

"Ah, no. I just realized that the heroes of the great opening are not so different from us."

Azonia made a sullen face as Eiran covered his mouth and chuckled.

"But what did you mean by being toyed with by Lumen?"

"He teased me a little, and then he just pushed me over."

"Oh my?"

"I said urgently that I only had Demian out of surprise, and he laughed and told me to be honest and let me go… Ugh, really. That guy is definitely skilled at dealing with women."

"Wow. Wow. Wow…"

"You… really like these kinds of stories, don't you?"

"Ah, no!"

Eiran shook his head vigorously.

"Anyway, don't tell anyone else about this."

Sighing, Azonia stood up.

He handed Kal's notebook to Eiran and said, "By the way, where did you get this notebook?"

"I picked it up over there."

"Picked it up?"

Azonia approached the place Eiran indicated.

"You mean exactly here?"

"Yes."

Azonia looked around with a puzzled expression.

'There's nothing unusual.'

"You go back and report to Leo. I'll look around more."

"Yes."

After sending Eiran away, Azonia examined the surroundings further.

However, he could not find anything particularly unusual.

A moment later.

Azonia, who went to find Leo to report the results of his search, was surprised.

"Eiran didn't come?"

Upon hearing this, Leo's expression turned serious.

"Something must have happened."

As Leo pondered.

"What?!"

Azonia's bewildered voice was heard.

"The World of Heroes…? No. A Dungeon?!"

At Azonia's voice filled with shock, Leo jumped up.

'What is it? I didn't receive any message.'

Azonia was engulfed in light.

Seeing that Leo was not engulfed in light, Azonia said,

"It's Arion's world! The chapter is Leisart's Dest…!"

Before he could finish speaking, Azonia disappeared into the World of Heroes.

Seeing Azonia disappear before he could finish speaking, Leo frowned.

'…I don't know the situation, but it seems hero dungeons are being created sporadically. Kal and Perena… Eiran and Azonia were swept away by the created entrance.'

It was an incomprehensible phenomenon, but hero dungeons were created by the rampage of the Hero Record in the first place.

It was not strange for entrances to appear and disappear randomly like this.

'No, perhaps this entire Leisart is an entrance.'

Thinking that far, Leo recalled Azonia's last words.

'Arion's world, and the destruction of Leisart.'

It wasn't difficult to understand the situation.

Leo closed his eyes and recalled the time of Leisart's destruction.

At that time, he had led all of Gardesron's forces to Leisart, but in the end, they could not prevent Leisart's destruction…

'We weren't prepared then.'

Leo clenched his teeth as he recalled the perpetrator who destroyed Leisart.

It wasn't just some Legion Commander who destroyed Leisart.

'Erebos, summoned by the Legion Commanders.'

***

Azonia, regaining consciousness, calmly surveyed his surroundings.

Azonia had not conquered the Hero's World after Arion's prologue.

However, he had conquered the worlds of other Great Heroes several times, excluding the worlds of the Heroes of the Great Opening and the Heroes' World, so he was familiar with the worlds of Great Heroes.

'I still can't get used to that damn ashen sky.'

Azonia looked up at the sky with fierce eyes.

After gazing at the sky for a moment, Azonia looked around.

'Leisart.'

His eyes darkened with mixed emotions.

It was not the pristine Leisart he had seen just a moment ago.

Leisart, excavated during the peaceful era, had been neatly refined.

But the refugee city of the disaster era was bleak.

Despair filled people's faces.

'If I saw a message when entering the World of Heroes, it would be Leisart just before its destruction.'

If so, it would be even more miserable than the Leisart he knew.

'Was Master… still alive at this time?'

Azonia recalled Agon, the Guardian of the Azure Sky.

His master, who had despaired of the world during the era of disaster.

A broken beastman warrior.

It was unknown how long he had survived.

'After Arion left Leisart, even the Great Heroes didn't know about Master.'

Azonia sighed deeply and looked at the countless people passing by on the street.

Everyone looked weak.

Then Azonia's eyes widened.

"Master?"

For a moment, a familiar wolf beastman passed through the crowd.

"A-Master Agon!"

Azonia hurriedly called out his name and pushed through the crowd.

'The scent…'

As he tried to activate his sense of smell.

Clang-!

Blades were thrust towards Azonia.

"Did you just say the traitor Agon?"

Azonia's cold gaze turned to the beastman with a slimy voice.

'…Should I kill him?'

Azonia also knew.

Who had killed all the children at the orphanage.

As Azonia bared his teeth fiercely.

A message appeared before his eyes.

[Objective: Keep the Hero Arion alive.]

At that message, Azonia's face stiffened.

Even from the message alone, he could tell.

What an absurdly difficult world this was.

'Let's not cause a disturbance for now.'

Thinking that the conquest was the priority, Azonia was docilely bound by the Leisart guards who surrounded him.