Book 1 Chapter 937

938.

Azonia's eyes narrowed as she walked through the night streets.

'The scent has completely vanished.'

This was because Kal's scent had completely disappeared without a trace.

'Did something happen?'

Given that she couldn't detect any scent like Tartaros', it was clear that no misfortune had befallen him.

Sniffing her nose, Azonia pursued Kal's trail.

'It looks like he had companions…'

She swiftly tracked Kal's path with her keen sense of smell.

The characteristic of an extinct canine beastman.

And it was a pursuit possible only for Azonia, who, as Arion's successor, had mastered her supersenses to their extreme.

'Is it because she's Arion's successor after all? Her supersenses are better than mine.'

Azonia chuckled, recalling Leo, who had admired her supersenses.

'Successor, my foot. That brat is the successor.'

Azonia thought of Ar.

A white cat who did whatever she was told without question, exactly as instructed.

Ar was different from herself.

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

But unlike herself, who denied and doubted Arion, Ar held no doubt whatsoever towards the Hero.

Ar was different from her, who remained stuck in the distant past, unable to move forward.

That sight of overcoming fear and moving forward somehow reminded her of the Hero.

'Damn it.'

She felt pathetic, stuck in the past days where she couldn't save anyone.

"Hoo-hup."

Azonia, taking a deep breath, silently pursued Kal's scent.

Soon, she reached the outskirts of Reisar.

"This place is…"

Reisar, which had been buried under the desert for 5000 years.

The Shadows restored it.

Because of this, Azonia, who had visited Reisar many times, knew exactly where she was.

'…The orphanage.'

Azonia's hand clenched.

Her mood sank even further.

Just as Azonia clicked her tongue.

"Wow… L-Lord Leo dislikes sweets. I-I didn't know…!"

A familiar voice was heard from a corner.

Azonia approached the spot with a puzzled expression.

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

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

Seeing Eiran burning with creative zeal, a mischievous smile appeared on Azonia's face.

"What are you writing with such enjoyment?"

"Hieeek?!"

At Azonia's voice from behind, Eiran gasped in fright and threw the notebook and book she was holding into the air.

"Oops. This looks like that kid Kal's notebook… And this?"

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

"T-this is, well, a hobby. M-my hobby is writing stories…"

Azonia smirked wickedly, pushing away Eiran with her foot as Eiran, her face bright red, rushed to snatch the book back.

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

"N-no, you can't!"

"I thought you'd say that."

Smiling brightly, Azonia opened the book.

Scribbled contents, seemingly still in the conceptualization phase, caught her eye.

"Let's see. Characters are a beautiful beastwoman and an incredibly beautiful dwarf? What? Is this me and Demian?"

"Kyaaaaah?!"

As soon as the characters were revealed, Eiran shrieked and tried to snatch the book from Azonia, but it was useless.

Azonia, who was giggling and reading the book while dodging Eiran, suddenly stiffened with a 'crunch'.

The book was a romance novel.

A story about a dwarf loving a beastwoman.

The problem was that the story involved a love triangle.

The beastwoman loved a certain human.

Azonia could easily tell who that human was.

'Lemmern…'

Azonia's shoulders trembled violently.

According to the novel's content, Demian loved her, and she loved Lemmern.

Of course, it wasn't explicitly stated "Demian, Azonia, Lemmern," but even just reading the settings made it easy to figure out.

With trembling hands, she turned the page.

There, a structured story was written.

The problem was that the intensity was extremely violent.

"Kuk?!"

Azonia instinctively covered her nose with her hand.

"W-w-what, this kind of outrageous novel…! N-no! In the first place!"

"A-Azonia, p-please give it back… Huh? There's blood from Azonia's nose…"

"Why am I doing this to Lemmern! On the contrary, *I* was the one exploited by that damn bastard…! Hup!"

"Oh?"

Azonia instinctively covered her mouth, and Eiran let out a dumbfounded gasp.

Eiran, blinking with her mouth agape, twitched her ears wildly and asked,

"S-so, were Lord Azonia and Lord Lemmern actually… *like that*?"

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

Seeing Azonia shouting with a flushed face, Eiran made a puzzled expression.

"But you just said you were exploited by Lord Lemmern…"

Azonia scratched her head vigorously.

Then, squatting down, she wiped the blood from her nose and said,

"I just tried to play a trick on that bastard Lemmern, and it backfired on me."

"What?! It backfired on you?!"

"…What do you usually think about? I just said I was innocent. I just got teased a bit."

"Ah… But why?"

"What?"

"Well… history says that Lord Azonia loved many capable men…"

"…I'm telling you this in case you write some weird novel about me."

"No. N-no, I won't. The characters here aren't Lord Azonia…! Uwaaaah."

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

Azonia vigorously pulled Eiran's cheek.

Eiran covered her reddened cheek, making a tearful face.

Azonia sighed deeply, looking at Eiran.

Then, with a flushed face, she bowed her head deeply.

"For me… only… sorry."

"Huh?"

"Demian is the only one for me. Apart from that, my relationships with men are clean."

"…"

Eiran, who had been silent, widened her eyes.

"Were you two in a relationship?"

"No. Not in a romantic relationship."

"Then why did you act like you were so fond of men?"

Azonia scratched her head vigorously.

"That damn dwarf was so indifferent to me that I tried to get his attention, but it only backfired, that's all."

"What? Then speaking honestly would…"

"It's embarrassing. And now, I don't think that bastard would believe me anyway."

Seeing Azonia pouting and grumbling, Eiran made a curious expression.

"What are you staring at?"

"Oh, no. It's just that I thought the Heroes of Creation aren't really that different from us after all."

Azonia made a sullen face, watching Eiran giggle with her hand over her mouth.

"But what did you mean by being exploited by Lord Lemmern?"

"That bastard teased me a bit and immediately knocked me down."

"Oh, my?"

"When I was startled and desperately said it was only Demian, he just laughed, told me to be honest, and let me go… Ugh. Seriously. That bastard, he's definitely very skilled at handling women."

"Wow. Wow. Wow…"

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

"N-no!"

Eiran shook her head wildly.

"Anyway, don't ever tell anyone else."

Azonia sighed and stood up.

Then, handing Kal's notebook to Eiran, she said,

"By the way, where did you get this notebook?"

"I picked it up over there."

"Picked it up?"

Azonia approached the spot Eiran had indicated.

"Precisely here, you mean?"

"Yes."

Azonia looked around with a puzzled expression.

'There's nothing particularly unusual.'

"You go back and report to Lord Leo. I'll look around a bit more before I leave."

"Yes."

Azonia, having sent Eiran away, examined the surroundings further.

But she couldn't find anything unusual.

A moment later.

Azonia, who went to find Leo to report her findings, was surprised.

"Eiran hasn't arrived?"

At those words, Leo's face grew serious.

"Something has happened."

It was then that Leo fell into thought.

"What?!"

Azonia's bewildered voice was heard.

"Hero's World…? No. A Dungeon?!"

At Azonia's voice, filled with alarm, Leo sprang to his feet.

'What is it? I haven't seen any message.'

Azonia was engulfed in light.

At that moment, Azonia, seeing that Leo was not being swept away by the light, said,

"It's Lord Arion's world! The chapter is Rei■r's Des…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Azonia disappeared into the Hero's World.

Leo frowned, watching Azonia disappear before she could finish speaking.

'I don't know the situation, but it seems like Hero Dungeon entrances are being created sporadically. Kal and Perena… Eiran and Azonia must have been caught up in the generated entrances.'

It was an inexplicable phenomenon, but Hero Dungeons were originally created by the runaway Hero Records.

So, it wouldn't be strange for entrances to appear and disappear randomly like this.

'No, perhaps this entire Reisar itself is an entrance.'

Thinking up to that point, Leo recalled Azonia's words before she disappeared.

'Arion's World, and the destruction of Reisar.'

He could easily understand the situation.

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

At that time, he had led all of Gadstron's forces to Reisar, but ultimately, he couldn't prevent Reisar's destruction…

'Because at that time, we weren't ready yet.'

Leo gritted his teeth, recalling the one responsible for Reisar's destruction.

It wasn't some legion commander who destroyed Reisar.

'Erebos, summoned by the legion commanders.'

***

Azonia, regaining her senses, calmly surveyed her surroundings.

After Arion's Prologue, Azonia had not attempted to conquer the Hero's World.

However, she was familiar with the worlds of other Great Heroes, having conquered them multiple times, excluding the Heroes of Creation and the Hero's World.

'Though I can never get used to that damned ash-gray sky.'

Azonia looked up at the sky with fierce eyes.

Azonia, who had been looking up at the sky for a moment, then surveyed her surroundings.

'Reisar.'

Her eyes sank with a heavy feeling.

It wasn't the clean Reisar she had just been in.

Reisar, excavated during the Age of Peace, had been neatly refined.

But the refugee city of the Age of Calamity was bleak.

Despair filled the faces of the people.

'If I saw a message upon entering the Hero's World, it would be Reisar just before its destruction.'

If so, it would be even more unfortunate than the Reisar she knew.

'My master… would he have been alive until this point?'

Azonia recalled Agon, the Guardian of the Blue Sky.

Her master, who had despaired of the world during the Age of Calamity.

The beastman warrior who had been broken.

She didn't know how long he had survived.

'Because after Lord Arion left Reisar, even the Great Heroes said they didn't know about my master.'

Azonia, letting out a deep sigh, looked at the street where countless people came and went.

Everyone seemed to lack strength.

Then Azonia's eyes widened.

"Master?"

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

"Ah, Master Agon!"

Azonia hurriedly called his name and pushed through the crowd.

'The scent…'

Just as she was about to activate her sense of smell.

Clang-clang-clang-!

Blades were thrust at Azonia.

"Just now. Did you say Agon the traitor?"

At the words of the beastman with a metallic voice, Azonia's chilling gaze turned to him.

'…Should I kill them?'

Azonia knew.

Who it was that killed all the children in the orphanage.

Just as Azonia was about to fiercely bare her fangs.

A message appeared before her eyes.

[Conquest Goal: Ensure the survival of the Hero Arion.]

At that message, Azonia's face hardened.

She could tell just from the message.

How ridiculously difficult this world was.

'For now, let's not cause a commotion.'

Azonia, thinking that conquest was the priority, willingly allowed herself to be apprehended by the Reisar guards who surrounded her.