Chapter 244
Chapter Title: The Twin Brother
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244
‘Who is this guy?’
Leo narrowed his eyes.
‘Chen Xian? Is he related to Chen Xia?’
A similar name.
Black hair and black eyes.
Even a similar appearance and atmosphere.
The man before him looked undeniably like Chen Xia.
“What’s your relationship with Chen Xia?”
At Leo's question, Chen Xian burst out laughing.
“I'm her twin.”
‘A twin?’
Leo looked Chen Xian up and down, then nodded.
‘I see.’
“Why did you attack me?”
“I thought you were a Shadow of Shan.”
Chen Xian let his sword hang loosely and smiled.
“The way you move in the darkness is so much like a Shadow.”
‘So he didn't attack me to stop me from meeting Chen Xia?’
Leo placed his hand on his sword.
‘He said he was going to become a Great Hero, didn't he?’
This was the age of heroes, and many yearned to become one.
But he had never met anyone who aimed to stand shoulder to shoulder with the five Great Heroes who had saved the world in the past.
3,000 years ago.
The founders of the hero academies who resealed the fragment of Erebos when it was resurrected.
Even they, revered as the greatest heroes after the Great Heroes, had only managed to barely seal a single fragment.
And even now, 3,000 years later, their Hero Records—belonging to those revered as the greatest heroes since the Great Heroes—had yet to be fully conquered.
To declare oneself a Great Hero in such a situation.
It was nothing short of a delusion.
“You attacked me because you thought I was a Shadow? If you're Chen Xia's twin, you must be royalty of Shan. Why would you attack a Shadow of Shan?”
“You even know about Xia's status? I thought you were just a school friend, but you seem to know quite a lot.”
Xian smiled, looking intrigued.
“It's simple. The Shadows are beings that shouldn't exist.”
Leo's eye twitched.
“Don't you think so too?”
Xian smiled faintly.
“They hide in the shadows, doing all sorts of dirty work. And they console themselves by saying it's all for the good of the world.”
He spoke in a soft, gentle tone.
In that way, he resembled Chen Xia.
But what he held inside was completely different.
“Why are people like that necessary?”
Xian shook his head as if he couldn't comprehend it.
“Shadows are worthless beings. That's why they must disappear.”
“But you must have lived as a Shadow yourself, haven't you?”
“I have. That's why I can declare with certainty that Shadows are unnecessary. And that's why I plan to erase them from this world.”
Looking at Xian's gentle smile, Leo nodded as if he understood.
His vast experience told him.
This man before him was…
“A traitor.”
“That hurts. To hear such words from the man called the greatest hero candidate.”
With a bitter smile, Xian raised his sword.
“It doesn't matter what you say. I will become a Great Hero.”
“The gods won't acknowledge you.”
“Then I'll just have to achieve a feat so great that even the gods have no choice but to acknowledge me. If not that, then I'll make everyone in this world acknowledge me.”
‘He's insane.’
*Shing—!*
Leo drew his sword.
The man before him was dangerous.
‘I should deal with him here.’
“But there is one thing I don't understand.”
Xian's eyes narrowed.
“Leo Flove, the greatest hero candidate. How is it that you can act like a Shadow? Are you a Shadow too, when it comes down to it?”
“Well, something like that.”
“So the world has been deceived.”
Xian shook his head.
“To think they've mistaken someone like you for the greatest hero candidate.”
*Fwip—!*
He spun the sword in his palm.
*Clack—!*
Readjusting his grip on the sword, Xian burst out laughing.
“You are a disgrace to all heroes, Leo Flove.”
He believed that he was the one truly worthy of being a hero and denied Leo's existence for being a Shadow.
Xian genuinely believed this.
That he himself was justice.
“Aren't you a Shadow too?”
“What an insult. I abandoned the path of the Shadow long ago.”
“You're insane.”
Exchanging words with this type of person was, quite literally, a waste of time.
A thick killing intent emanated from Leo's body.
Traitors must be eliminated.
It was one of Leo's unchanging values, both in the past and the present.
Seeing this, Xian smiled.
“Shall we see the skills of an All-Class, then?”
***
As Chen Xia fled from Leo, she felt something was wrong.
‘What is it?’
In the darkness that was usually so familiar, she sensed a discord.
‘It's not because Young Master Leo is chasing me.’
Chen Xia, who was intimately familiar with the darkness, could feel it.
‘Something's different.’
The moment she thought this and passed down a corridor.
The acrid smell of blood filled the air.
Chen Xia's face hardened.
The entire corridor was filled with corpses.
All of them were Shadows.
Chen Xia approached one of the nearby bodies.
She reached out and removed its mask.
Chen Xia gritted her teeth.
It was a Shadow candidate she had trained with since childhood.
The others were the same.
‘These are the ones who were deployed to trap Young Master Leo in the darkness.’
And now they were dead.
Moreover, there were signs of sword strikes meant to deliver a decisive end.
The way of the Shadows, literally.
‘Who…!’
It wasn't Leo.
As a fellow student in the Knight Department, she had trained with Leo extensively over the past year.
This wasn't Leo's swordsmanship.
As Chen Xia examined the sword wounds, her face hardened.
As a Shadow trained since childhood to pursue and eliminate traitors, she had seen more than her fair share of corpses and was taught to glean much from them.
The opponent's weapon, skill level, gender, height, and even their habits.
And the marks of the sword wounds on the bodies of the Shadow candidates were all too familiar.
‘The swordsmanship has changed… but there's no doubt.’
Chen Xia's hands trembled finely.
‘He was alive.’
Her twin, whom she had considered a part of herself.
Xian, who had betrayed Shan and fled.
Chen Xia straightened up.
He had hidden himself in the darkness and returned to the imperial palace.
‘But why?’
There was no reason for him to return.
No, in the first place, it would do him no good for anyone to know he was alive.
If that happened, Shan would surely mobilize all its forces to annihilate Xian.
Yet that same Xian had brazenly entered the heart of the Shan Imperial Palace.
Just as Chen Xia gritted her teeth…
“Your Highness?”
A bewildered voice called out.
Chen Xia turned her head.
“Jane, and.”
“I'm Fritz Edgon, a first-year from Lumerne. Senior Chen Xia.”
“I dropped out of Lumerne. I'm no longer a hero candidate. So I'm not your senior…”
“That's not true, Ms. Chen Xia.”
Fritz puffed out his chest.
“You are still a hero candidate and a student of Lumerne.”
“Don't you dare talk back to Her Highness!”
Jane tried to punch Fritz in the side.
But Fritz skillfully dodged the attack.
“You've made a good friend, Jane.”
“This guy is not my friend!”
Jane, flustered, asked urgently.
“Anyway, what's going on here?”
Jane's expression tightened, but as she took in the scene, her face froze when she saw the fallen Shadow candidates.
“Hey, you guys…!”
The Shadow candidates she had trained with since childhood were now cold corpses.
“Chen Xian has returned.”
“What?”
Jane's face turned pale.
Chen Xian.
The man who Jane, and countless other Shadow candidates of Shan, had once thought was the most likely successor to the throne.
He had a gentle personality, much like Chen Xia, and his talent was considered to surpass even that of his twin.
The only problem was his goal of becoming a hero.
But most of the Shadow candidates thought it was nothing more than a childhood dream.
Because he couldn't escape the fate of being born into the royal family of Shan.
Then one day.
Xian slaughtered all the Shadow candidates who followed him, as well as the Shadow instructors, and fled Shan.
And Chen Xia was the one who disposed of him.
The Chen Xian everyone thought was dead was alive, and he had returned to the imperial palace.
“Jane. You tell Father about this.”
“What about you, Your Highness?”
“I'm going to deal with him.”
“It's-it's dangerous! There's no way he came here alone! He must have…!”
“I know. He probably sought refuge with Tartaros.”
Given Tartaros's nature, they would have surely accepted a promising candidate for Shan's throne who betrayed his own nation.
“That's all the more reason why I have to eliminate him.”
*Squeeze—!*
Chen Xia's fists tightened.
“This happened because I failed to kill him. I have to finish it with my own hands.”
Seeing Chen Xia like this, Jane lowered her head deeply.
Then she knelt.
“I will obey your command.”
After paying her respects, Jane vanished into the darkness.
Chen Xia turned to Fritz and said.
“You should get to safety, too. This has nothing to do with you.”
To that, Fritz replied politely.
“As your junior, it is my duty to help you.”
“I told you already. I dropped out.”
“That's not true. You are still a student of Lumerne and a hero candidate.”
At his words, Chen Xia gave a bitter smile and studied Fritz more closely.
‘This person is a Shadow candidate too.’
Then he must know.
That a Shadow can never become a hero.
So why does he still treat me as a hero candidate?
“Why do you call me a hero candidate?”
“Because that's what Senior Leo said. If Senior Leo says it is so, then it is so.”
At Fritz's words, Chen Xia's eyes wavered.
‘So Young Master Leo still thinks of me as a hero candidate.’
She had run from Leo because she was afraid her resolve would waver.
But just hearing his words secondhand made her heart race.
It was only natural, hearing she was a hero candidate from the person she considered the most heroic of all.
“It seems I'll have to tell Young Master Leo myself.”
Steeling her heart, Chen Xia took a deep breath.
“But for now, dealing with him is the priority.”
*Step— Step—*
Chen Xia started walking.
Fritz followed behind her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Chen Xia no longer tried to stop him.
And the moment they rounded a corner.
*Whoosh—!*
The stench of death washed over them.
*Clack— Clack—*
Skeletons gripping swords radiated a viscous killing intent.
‘So he did borrow the power of Tartaros.’
Chen Xia sighed softly.
The imperial palace was surely now filled with the monsters of Tartaros that Chen Xian had brought in.
Monsters that should never have been able to invade had now occupied the palace by Xian's hand.
‘Even so, they'll be suppressed in no time.’
Chen Xia narrowed her eyes.
‘What on earth is he after?’
He wouldn't have returned if he wasn't after something.
But whatever it was, she would eliminate him before he could achieve it.
Just as she resolved herself and was about to step forward.
*Crack— Pop—*
Fritz stepped forward.
“Senior, please conserve your strength.”
Cracking his knuckles, Fritz smiled.
“I will take care of these lowly things.”
Magic swirled from Fritz's body.
‘A battle mage.’
As Chen Xia watched him.
Fritz raised a hand and—*crunch*!—bit his palm.
*Spurt—!*
Blood flowed from his hand.
*Swoosh—!*
For a moment, blood sprayed from his palm before beginning to coagulate through magic.
‘So he has a mana trait related to blood.’
A mana trait that would be ostracized for its unheroic fighting style.
But for a Shadow, it was a perfect trait.
To Fritz, blood itself was a powerful weapon.
“I'll wipe you out, you lowly undead.”
*Kwagagak—!*
A crimson blade flashed in the darkness.
Chen Xia followed behind him, gazing beyond into the darkness.
‘Chen Xian.’
This time, she would kill her twin.
Chen Xia vowed.