Chapter 126
Chapter Title: The Dragon's Test
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126.
The first-years made their way to the academy, each using their own methods.
The Knight Division students used Aura Steps.
The Magic Division students used Fly or Wing magic.
The Summoning Division students used flying summoned beasts and spirits.
At the beginning of the semester, many would have struggled to cross the vast Lake Lumeria, but now, there wasn't a single Lumerne first-year who couldn't make the journey.
‘It just goes to show how much everyone has grown.’
Leo thought as he soared through the sky using Fly magic.
He saw some underwater monsters from Lake Lumeria attacking students, but everyone handled them with ease.
“At this rate, I think we could even take on a kraken.”
“Don’t even joke about that.”
Leo chuckled softly as he overheard his peers’ conversation.
‘But why tell us to go all the way to Lumerne Academy?’
It was clearly a test of the students’ abilities.
But if that was the case, the difficulty was far too low.
Leo, who knew Riven’s true identity as a dragon, predicted that a formidable challenge awaited them.
‘This can’t be all there is to it.’
Just as Leo was certain of this, a thick, hazy fog rolled in before him.
Fog was common over Lake Lumeria, so the other students thought nothing of it.
But the moment he entered the mist, Leo’s expression hardened.
‘This is…!’
Leo’s eyes widened.
‘Dragonic magic?’
*Fwoosh-!*
The moment he recognized the Dragonic magic, his vision shifted.
‘This is a bit much.’
It was a spell Leo knew well.
Magic developed long ago by the King of Wisdom, Lisinas.
‘To be precise, it’s a curse.’
A draconic curse created by Lisinas to counter one of Tartaros’s most potent powers: curses.
‘Nightmare.’
*Fwoosh-!*
The scenery changed completely.
Seeing it, Leo took a deep breath.
He knew the nature of this curse all too well.
‘A curse that forces you to fight the person you least want to fight.’
With that thought, Leo turned his head.
Seeing the woman before him, he muttered, “Of course.”
A beautiful woman stood before him.
It was none other than Lisinas.
***
Inside Lumerne Academy, the first-year professors stared at the magic screen before them with grave expressions.
On the screen, the students heading toward Lumerne were seen losing consciousness and collapsing.
“Ah…”
“Oh, no…”
Sighs of dismay rippled through the professors.
The students who lost consciousness and fell into the water were swallowed by their own shadows.
Once swallowed, they were transported to the infirmary.
Among the professors, Vice Principal Riven was known merely as a master of powerful illusion magic.
Knowing the potency of his magic, the professors had strongly objected when Riven first announced he would be testing the first-years.
‘That’s absurd!’
‘It might be different for the upperclassmen, but it’s impossible for first-years to pass!’
That was how renowned Riven’s magic was, even among the faculty.
Not a single professor wanted to crush the spirits of the current first-years with an impossible test.
‘This isn’t a graded exam. It’s simply a light test for Vice Principal Riven to gauge the students’ capabilities.’
Persuaded by Kalian, the first-year professors had entrusted their students to Riven from the very first day of the new semester.
And this was the result.
The professors sighed deeply as they watched the students fail to endure and lose consciousness.
Even Sedzen, who would normally be cheering on his students with gusto, stood with his arms crossed, watching the screen with a blank expression.
Several students from Class 1 were also visible on the screen.
“This is not elegant.”
Sedzen muttered with a frown, then turned to Halind.
“What are your thoughts?”
“The Vice Principal must have his reasons. He’s been a professor at Lumerne far longer than we have.”
Halind and Sedzen knew Riven’s true identity.
They had also been told of his purpose for being at Lumerne.
“Still, I do not like it.”
While having Riven, a dragon, personally instruct the first-years would be an unparalleled opportunity, he showed no enthusiasm for teaching them.
Lumerne’s goal was to nurture hero candidates capable of overcoming any trial.
That didn’t mean pushing students into impossible ordeals they could never surmount.
Riven had essentially prepared this test as a way to refuse to teach the first-years.
The professors at Lumerne gave their all to the students they taught.
They believed without a doubt that their students would grow into talents who would one day change the world.
Sedzen was a professor who held strongly to that philosophy.
That was why he disliked Riven’s method of ignoring the students’ potential.
Halind, who valued efficiency, felt the same.
“Perhaps it’s a difference in perspective, born from looking at a bigger picture than we can see.”
Halind said, watching the students, and Sedzen let out a deep sigh.
***
“Kyle.”
Lisinas, who had been blocking Leo’s path, smiled and stepped aside.
She then pointed a finger down the path she had been obstructing and said.
“Go on.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
Leo smirked.
If his opponent was Lisinas, she would never fight him.
Their meeting was the very first step toward saving the world.
They shared a trust stronger than any other.
Leo knew better than anyone that an imaginary comrade born from such unwavering trust would never attack him.
That was why this was the outcome.
The same would have been true for any of his other companions.
‘Well, I guess it wouldn’t matter if we fought.’
Leo looked down at his hands.
They were not the hands of a young boy, but the scarred hands of an adult who had traversed countless battlefields.
His vision had changed as well.
Nightmare was a curse that showed illusions.
Ultimately, it was a fake, something that didn't truly exist.
If Leo perceived Lisinas as the opponent he least wanted to face, it meant the illusion also perceived him not as Leo, but as Kyle.
Leo ran a hand through his gray hair and walked past Lisinas.
Looking up at Kyle, Lisinas smiled brightly.
“Do your best.”
With those words, Lisinas vanished.
The scenery changed, and the space was filled with only darkness.
“Do your best… huh…”
Having returned to his original form, Leo smiled wryly and drew his sword.
“I’ll have to.”
*Fwoosh-!*
An aura of flames erupted like an explosion.
Leo’s eyes gleamed.
Unlike magic created by combining runic letters, Dragonic magic was created by combining Draconic, the language of dragons.
Other races found it difficult to even decipher, let alone use.
But Leo, who had inherited Lisinas’s will, understood the magic formula without difficulty.
‘Though I can’t use it in my current state.’
Deciphering it wasn't so hard.
Besides, this particular Dragonic magic was created by Lisinas.
*Crack-!*
He thrust his sword toward the point where the magic formula was concentrated.
*Crackle-!*
Cracks spread across the entire space, and soon the darkness shattered and dissipated.
*Flash-!*
As his Fly magic deactivated and he began to fall, Leo’s eyes shot open.
*Splash-!*
Using Aura Steps to avoid falling into the water, Leo narrowed his eyes.
He could see the students around him being swallowed by their shadows.
‘Looks like there’s no intent to harm.’
Being a curse-type magic created by a dragon, it was impossible for first-years to dispel.
*Grip-!*
Leo tensed his legs.
*BOOM-!*
The aura concentrated in his legs burst forth explosively.
Leo dashed toward Lumerne at an incredible speed.
Riven, who was already standing at the Lumerne dock where the first-years were meant to arrive, muttered to himself.
“Was Nightmare too much, I wonder?”
Just as he was about to turn away, gazing at Lake Lumeria with a listless expression, he heard it.
*Splash-splash-splash-splash-!*
The sound of feet hitting water.
He turned his head just as someone landed in front of him.
Riven’s eyes widened.
Leo looked up at him and said.
“I’m here.”
Hearing Leo’s slightly defiant tone, Riven wore an expression of disbelief.
“How did you break the magic and get out?”
“I just broke it and came out.”
“Hah.”
Riven let out a short, incredulous laugh at Leo’s words.
Looking at him, Leo asked.
“Isn’t it unusual to give a test that’s impossible to pass?”
Riven sighed deeply at the pointed remark.
He trudged over to a bench on the dock and slumped down onto it.
“I have served as Lumerne’s vice principal for a long time. In that time, I have seen many students become heroes.”
Riven smiled bitterly.
“But not one of them ever dreamed of becoming more than a hero.”
In history, the last one to receive a dragon’s choice was the Sword Saint, Kalian.
That was why he was called the greatest hero of the modern era.
“Watching a world that has been stagnant for so long, I lost my motivation. So I chose not to see your potential.”
Riven bowed his head deeply.
“For that, I apologize.”
Dragons, known as the strongest race, do not bow their heads to others easily.
Knowing this, Leo accepted Riven’s sincere apology.
“So. What is your dream?”
Riven was curious about the dream of this student who had accomplished what he had deemed impossible.
It had been a truly long time since a student had piqued his interest.
At Riven’s question, Leo answered as if it were nothing.
“The complete annihilation of Erebos.”
Riven’s eyes shot wide open.
It was an answer he could never have imagined.
It was difficult enough to even dare speak the name Erebos, yet here was a first-year declaring he would annihilate him?
Had it been anyone else, they would have been laughed at for such a foolish, absurd goal, but Riven did not laugh.
Instead, he felt his heart tremble.
“Being disappointed in students… I suppose that could happen after serving as a teacher at Lumerne for so many years.”
Leo said, looking Riven directly in the eye.
“But you know, don’t you?”
“Know what?”
“The King of Wisdom saved the world because he never gave up.”
Riven’s eyes widened at Leo’s words.
“He said that being frustrated a thousand times, being disappointed a thousand times, was never a reason to quit.”
Leo continued, thinking of the leader who had always stood at the forefront, guiding the subjugation team.
“As a descendant of such a King of Wisdom, shouldn’t you be the one who never gives up, no matter the circumstances?”
“You… my identity…?”
Riven instinctively knew that Leo had seen through his true nature.
“I look forward to working with you, Vice Principal.”
Leo bowed to Riven before leaving the dock and heading toward Lumerne’s main gate.
Watching his retreating back, Riven looked up at the sky.
‘Oh, great King of Wisdom… what is the identity of this boy who reminds me of your will?’
Riven thought of Lisinas, the great being whom all dragons revered, and pulled the student roster from his subspace pocket.
He flipped through the pages.
Leo’s picture was on the very first page.
‘I see, so that child was Leo Flove.’
He hadn't even known a fact he could have discovered just by turning the first page.
Realizing how complacent he had become, Riven berated himself.
‘To think I ignored another’s potential because of my own foolishness… but that boy is something else entirely.’
Closing the student roster, Riven looked up at the sky.
This was beyond a golden generation.
‘Perhaps the stagnant tides of the world are about to be shaken.’
Having watched many heroes up close for a long time, Riven had an intuition.
Leo was not simply a boy with the makings of a hero.
Nor was he a hero destined for an even greater position.
A single word surfaced in Riven’s mind.
‘Great Hero.’