Book 1 Chapter 988
The weather on the western continent, as winter began to approach, was quite chilly.
Amidst the blowing wind, in one corner of Rwalin’s garden, Elena sat at a tea table, sipping her tea.
“Why can’t I attend the meeting?”
Hark grumbled, rubbing his neck.
Watching Hark, Elena said,
“With the kind of harsh words you spoke, will the meeting proceed smoothly if you attend, Senior Hark?”
“What! Did I say anything wrong? If they did their jobs properly, would there be immigrants? To the point where there are problems, no less.”
Leaving the place where one has lived their whole life to settle in a foreign land is never easy.
Even if Arhi is rumored to be a land of opportunity, leaving behind all the foundations a common person has to go to another country is no different from a gamble with one’s life.
Yet, to leave a familiar land and go to an unknown one means it was that difficult to live in their existing home.
“And I don’t want to hear that from you. You couldn’t attend either, in the first place.”
When the meeting resumed, Elena, like Hark, was unable to attend.
“My role is to monitor Senior Hark.”
“Don’t make flimsy excuses.”
Hark frowned slightly.
Leo, overhearing their conversation, poured tea into Elena’s empty teacup and silently looked towards the meeting hall.
“Are you curious?”
Elena asked with a faint smile.
Hark also glanced at Leo.
It was after they had already heard that the attendant was Leo in disguise.
“Are you disappointed because it’s worse than you expected?”
“Not really. It looks better than I thought?”
“How little expectation do you have for the great families?”
Hark shook his head.
“So? What do you plan to do?”
“Well.”
Leo sighed briefly.
“Politics isn’t my specialty.”
“Even the great Leo Flov has things he can’t do?”
“I’m not a perfect person, so there are many things I can’t do.”
“From what I see, you seem to be good at politics?”
Elena giggled.
“Isn’t it a sign of being quite good when you can order Senior Hark around?”
“Making a lazy bum in his room work isn’t politics.”
“What? What did you just say?”
Hark, eyes wide open, grabbed Leo by the collar and shook him violently.
“Senior, this is insubordination.”
“It’s because you provoked me!”
The word ‘bum’ seemed to have offended him so much that veins stood out on Hark’s neck.
A moment later.
Hark suppressed his anger, took a pill from a medicine bottle, and put it in his mouth.
Seeing this, Elena tilted her head.
“Is it a sleeping pill?”
“It’s for stomach problems! Stomach problems!”
Saying that, Hark stood up abruptly.
“Where are you going?”
“Talking with you two makes me feel like my lifespan is decreasing, so I’m going to my room! I’m going to sleep!”
Elena chuckled, watching Hark’s retreating back as he left in disgust.
Then she glanced at Leo.
“You seem to be deep in thought?”
“I’m thinking about what to do.”
“Hmm?”
“Should I crush them with force, since I have the justification and legitimacy? Or should I try to win them over.”
“Crushing them with force is simple. Well, though there are plenty of potential problems later on.”
Elena shrugged.
The gods of the world and the heavens chose Leo Flov as the king to lead the next generation.
As a result, Leo once again bore the aspirations of countless people on his shoulders.
Expectations of bringing complete peace.
Hope of changing the world.
Of course, this is impossible for Leo alone.
Even if Lissinas were to be reincarnated, it would be impossible for her alone to fulfill those aspirations.
But it was possible to make everyone work together.
Someone who can make humanity move in one direction.
The King of the World is a title bestowed upon a leader who will guide the world into a new era.
“So? What are you going to do, Leo?”
It’s not just the great families at the great families’ meeting who are dissatisfied with the Kingdom of Arhi.
Various factions are checking and pressuring the Kingdom of Arhi.
‘Suppressing them wouldn’t be difficult.’
The Kingdom of Arhi is not just a new kingdom.
It is a powerful force capable of mobilizing Draconia and the Shan Empire.
It is undeniably the greatest force capable of easily shaking the balance of the continent.
“I’m not sure.”
“Huh?”
“I’m thinking. What would Lissinas have done?”
Kail, the hero of the beginning, clearly saved the world as the ultimate great hero.
In recognition of that great deed, he received the title of Hero of the Beginning from the gods.
But Leo knows well.
‘I am not the kind of person who leads others.’
Rather, I am someone who follows others.
Just as I took Lissinas’s outstretched hand and moved in the direction she pointed.
Just as Luna, Aron, and Dwenor pushed me forward to open a new era.
When I was reincarnated and decided to save the world completely this time.
Leo didn’t know what to do.
So he thought of his friends.
Leading people to hope, like Lissinas.
Showing people the light, like Luna, and giving them courage, like Aron.
And advising them, like Dwenor.
I was just imitating my friends.
That’s why I thought of Lissinas this time as well.
To completely subjugate Erebus, I must become a king who can concentrate all power, not just a symbolic king of the world.
Lissinas would have surely tried to persuade them with words, not force.
But that was an extremely difficult task.
“……”
Seeing Leo lost in thought, Elena smiled faintly.
“Leo. I never thought I’d say this, but.”
“Yes?”
“You are you.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“Leo, you might think you’re imitating other great heroes, but it’s you who is nurturing and leading the heroes who will lead the next generation, including me.”
“Thank you for seeing me in a good light, but why are you suddenly saying something like that?”
“Sigh. Honestly, you can be so oblivious sometimes.”
Elena shook her head.
“It means you have more influence than you think.”
“What?”
“It means there are many people who recognize your consistently upright character.”
***
“Then, we shall proceed with the meeting.”
As Chead, the head of the Rwalin family, announced, the head of the Zeltian family began to read out a resolution condemning Arhi once again.
When the story concluded, Chead, who was presiding over the meeting, said,
“Are there any families who wish to speak regarding the opinions of the great families, led by the Zeltian family?”
In response to the question, Selg stood up.
‘Hmph. As expected, he’s stepping forward to defend them.’
Leo is a direct descendant of Zerdinger.
As such, he was the family that would clearly support the Kingdom of Arhi in this great family meeting.
However, the head of the Zeltian family felt confident this time.
Although no hero great families were among those who supported the condemnation of the Kingdom of Arhi, an enormous number of great families had united.
It wasn’t just the great families.
Along with the noble families of each country connected to them, the royal families also lent their support to this resolution.
Even if Zerdinger were one of the two pillars of the Rodren Empire, he couldn’t defend Arhi alone.
As the head of the Zeltian family smiled meaningfully.
“I declare this as the representative of the Thirteen Hero Great Families.”
‘What?’
For a moment, Zeltian’s face hardened.
Thirteen Hero Great Families.
Zerdinger, Rwalin, Zeron, Ligard, and others.
This was the number of all existing human hero great families.
The highest bloodline, excluding the hero royal families who founded kingdoms as heroes.
Being their representative meant that all hero great families had united as one.
As the head of the Zeltian family felt a sense of unease, Selg opened his mouth.
“Before the great family meeting, there was a meeting of the heads of the hero great families.”
A majority of the heads of the hero great families are those defending the front lines of Tartarus.
The fact that they attended the meeting meant it was an important agenda.
“As a result of the meeting, all hero great families have decided to form an alliance to achieve the world’s task of completely eradicating Erebus and Tartarus.”
“T-the hero great families are forming an alliance?!”
“Wait! Then what about the countries that the hero great families belong to?”
There are hero great families who are third forces and do not belong to any country, such as Zeron, Ligard, and Hergin, and there are also hero great families who belong to specific countries, such as Zerdinger and Rwalin.
And it is no exaggeration to say that the will of a country is the will of the hero great families belonging to it.
Therefore, the interests of the hero great families are complex, and there are many families that have formed adversarial relationships.
The fact that such families had all united was, literally, a major event.
Selg said calmly,
“And we have decided to nominate the King of the Beginning, Leo Flov, as the leader of the alliance.”
“What?!”
“How can that be!”
Exclamations of shock erupted from those who were condemning the Kingdom of Arhi.
According to their common sense, it was an incomprehensible decision.
Even if he were a hero to fight against Erebus, how could such immense power be concentrated in the king of a new country?
“Was there intervention from Draconia?”
“Even if it’s Draconia, how could the hero great families succumb to the pressure of an external force!”
Fierce reactions erupted among the great families who had been advocating for sanctions against Arhi until now.
“Hmm?”
At that moment, a woman who had kept her eyes closed throughout the meeting, as if uninterested, opened one eye.
“Those remarks are very bothersome?”
At the words of the woman, whose lips were twisted, the meeting hall fell silent as if cold water had been thrown on it.
She was a young woman of beautiful appearance, but she was older than anyone present.
A knight who was active in the era of the Sword Saint Calian.
A rival of the Sword Saint, who had the terrifying epithet of [The Red Executioner].
Nayan Edwillie.
As she, the head of the Edwillie family, surveyed the assembly, those who were causing a disturbance avoided her gaze.
“There was no external intervention whatsoever. The hero great families simply came to an agreement amongst themselves.”
Impossible.
The head of the Zeltian family thought to himself, scoffing at Selg’s subsequent words.
At that moment, the head of the Tursia family, another of Lumeren’s three great families, who had been observing the situation, spoke.
“The hero great families believe that this is a turning point in the era, and thus they have united. As descendants of the great heroes and the heroes of the great opening who upheld their will. They have judged it to be a golden opportunity to fulfill the world’s aspirations. In that case, it is only natural to uphold the will of Queen Lissinas, the Wise King, who guided the world to salvation.”
The reason why heroes are called heroes.
And why this era is the era of heroes.
People tend to forget.
But the hero families have not forgotten the reason.
The world has not yet achieved complete peace.
The world needs new heroes to succeed the great heroes.
Heroes like the great heroes.
Countless heroes who lived in that era alongside the great heroes and eventually disappeared behind history.
For 5000 years, the world has endlessly needed them.
In other words, it means that for the long period of 5000 years, the world has only desired five heroes of the great opening.
And that was also the beginning of the hero great families.
Only those heroes who lamented and were ashamed of not becoming the heroes the world desired passed on that noble will to their descendants.
And only those families who had endlessly reflected on inheriting that noble will came to be called hero great families and were praised.
The reason why hero great families are hero great families.
It means they are families who are always prepared to uphold the will of the great heroes, in accordance with the will of their predecessors.
All hero great families who forgot that will have fallen.
That was the biggest difference that divided hero great families from other great families.
Selg spoke again.
“We, the hero great families, declare that we will follow the will of the leader until the world regains complete peace.”
A newly formed board.
All families present at the meeting instinctively knew.
That any faction not participating in that alliance would be eliminated.
***
“……”
Leo, having heard about the hero great families from Elena, wore a bewildered expression.
“They’re entrusting such immense power to me?”
“The people of the hero great families have eyes. They know that you will never misuse that power. So, have some confidence.”
“What?”
“Because you are the king chosen by Queen Lissinas, the Wise King, and no one else. And you are no longer alone.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“Don’t try to solve everything alone.”