Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Hero of the Chronos Empire
I pulled out the C-grade item: Scroll Synthesizer and shoved the banana peel and the space transfer scroll into it.
zzzzing—
A flash of light burst out, and a completely new golden scroll popped into existence.
UR grade: Scroll that forcibly makes the target slip without fail and forcibly transfers them through space
“…Is this really possible?”
If it fails, I die.
My life is riding on this one scroll.
And so is the fate of this world.
The day of the duel arrived.
The massive colosseum of the Imperial Academy.
News that the Hero Candidate Leon would be having his first official duel drew a crowd so large it looked like a storm cloud had descended.
In the VIP seats sat the First Princess Eresia, the Second Prince, countless royals, nobles of ducal and marquis houses, and even Iliana, who was watching me and Silvia with strange eyes.
The entire arena was packed.
The capital itself was shaking.
All of it because of Hero Candidate Leon.
I was nobody.
No one even remembered my name.
Leon versus trash noble.
I was called trash noble.
The Empire’s trash noble.
“Wooooaaah!!”
With a roar like thunder, Leon stepped forward wearing armor that shone like the sun.
Show-off bastard.
He raised a massive greatsword that rivaled a holy blade and responded to the crowd’s cheers.
His eyes locked onto my neck.
A look that said he was going to cut my head off today and become a hero.
At the VIP seat, a signal was given.
Then the announcer spoke.
“Then we shall begin the duel. Do either of you have last words?”
“None.”
I turned away.
Timing was everything now.
BEEEEEEP!!
The whistle blew.
I immediately pulled out the scroll from my inventory.
By hiding the UR grade Scroll that forcibly makes the target slip and teleports them inside a D-grade item: Transparent Window, it became invisible to everyone.
Leon, who had been slowly approaching while swinging his sword like he was enjoying a performance, spoke.
“I will cut off your head and display it in the colosseum. Be honored, you died to a hero candidate. Hahaha!”
He laughed while spinning his sword like a maniac.
There was not even 0.00001 percent chance he thought he could lose.
That arrogance will be returned to him.
The moment he entered range, I tore the scroll.
If I leave the arena, I lose by default.
Then I survive.
I imagined the farthest, most hellish place I knew.
Please… somewhere as far as possible. Somewhere he can never return from. Where was it? Damn it I can’t remember. Whatever, just send him to some miserable hellhole like a labor camp and make him suffer forever!!
Flash!
At the exact moment I screamed in my mind, Leon, who was about to leap forward with his sword raised, was suddenly engulfed in blue light.
“…Huh? What?”
A stupid sound came out of his mouth.
And then, the next moment.
DADADADADADAK!!!
Leon dropped his greatsword, spun around, and started sprinting like a madman.
No, it wasn’t even running.
It was like a cartoon character slipping endlessly, kicking up dust, sliding uncontrollably as if he had stepped on a banana peel, and then shooting straight through the arena wall at insane speed.
“…?”
The colosseum filled with tens of thousands of people went completely silent.
“What… just happened?”
“Where did the hero go?”
“He abandoned his sword and ran away?”
“What is this?”
“He ran?”
“He got scared?”
Confusion spread everywhere.
Then the announcer finally regained his senses.
“Hero Candidate Leon has left the duel area!”
“Victory by default! Winner: Evan von Valderk!”
My name echoed through the magical announcement system.
I stood there, blank.
It worked too well.
Too well.
The crowd, expecting a flashy sword fight, erupted into laughter and boos after a moment of silence.
Being seen as a trash noble who scared off a hero candidate was only natural.
And I saw it.
The hero running away like a dog with its tail between its legs.
“Coward hero!”
“Spineless fake hero!”
“Give my money back!”
No one could deny it.
A complete, undeniable victory.
Then the official approached me trembling and handed me a heavy pouch.
“Th-this is your prize money… all betting winnings on Leon Candidate… total 570 gold.”
The weight of gold coins.
Oh.
There was this too.
I casually stuffed it into my pocket.
The colosseum always forgets the losers and remembers only the winner.
The chants of Evan spread through the capital.
“Evan!”
“Evan!”
“The one who defeated the hero!”
“The one who made the chosen hero run!”
“Long live Evan!”
Leon, the Empire’s Hero Candidate, had gained a name more humiliating than death itself.
Coward.
Meanwhile, at the northern exclusion zone near a coal mine in a certain world…
Flash!!
A blue crack opened in the sky and a man was thrown out.
“Wiiiiiiiiing—!!”
Alarms blared across the border outpost.
“Emergency! A madman in shining armor is sprinting at car speed toward the base!”
“What?! Enemy special forces?!”
“No sir! Blond man! Shining armor! He’s running like a lunatic!”
“Shoot him!!”
Rat-tat-tat!!
Rifle fire erupted.
“Why is my body like this!!”
Leon screamed in tears.
He was conscious, but his body was completely out of control, sliding forward endlessly.
Bullets bounced off his divine aura.
“RPG! Bring RPG!!”
BOOOOM!!
A rocket hit him directly.
But when the smoke cleared, he was still running, blackened and crying.
“Stop it!! Please stop!!”
“Tank units! Fire everything!!”
Missiles filled the sky.
“Goddess!! Save me!!”
But no goddess answered.
Only explosions.
BOOOOM!!
A massive explosion erased him from existence.
The hero candidate, once the empire’s hope, disappeared in a single absurd moment.
The next morning.
The Holy Church headquarters was in chaos.
“He’s dead… Leon is dead.”
The oracle had spoken.
“He was struck by over a hundred Hellfire-class attacks. This level of destruction requires more than a hundred 7th-circle archmages simultaneously…”
“That’s impossible!”
The high priest shook his head heavily.
“No. We were wrong. The one who teleported him and annihilated him with over a hundred Hellfire spells… is an existence beyond understanding.”
Silence fell.
A being protected by something beyond transcendence.
Evan von Valderk.
The variable of this world.
“That matches the prophecy… we tried to eliminate him early using Leon… and failed.”
“From now on, monitor him. Do not approach him. If you provoke him, even the transcendent being may intervene.”
Later that day.
Emergency imperial announcement:
Due to disqualification and disappearance of the candidate, a new Hero Candidate will be selected early.
The Empire’s chosen hero had vanished without even fighting.
“…UR grade really is insane. He didn’t even get a chance to resist.”
I exhaled.
I survived.
That was enough.
A death flag that should have guaranteed my death had been erased completely.
And my title changed.
The man who defeated a hero candidate.
Evan.
My infamy was slowly fading… or so it seemed.