Chapter 338
Chapter Title: An Eccentric Fan
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338
Lunchtime at Seirun.
Leo was walking down a corridor in the ‘Castle of Beginnings,’ the first-year building.
*Clomp— Clomp—*
And at the end of the long hallway.
*Peek—*
A girl with gray hair peeked her head out from around a corner.
‘That has to be Leo Flove, right? I’m sure of it. It couldn't be someone who just looks like him, could it?’
After seeing Leo leave the cafeteria, Leah had hurriedly finished her meal and followed him.
Although she was sure it was Leo, she still couldn't quite grasp the situation.
It made no sense for Lumerne's student council president to be posing as a Seirun student.
‘And in a lower-level class for first-years, of all places?’
The situation was so bizarre that she had tailed him just to confirm his identity.
*Thud—*
Just then, Leo stopped walking. Startled, Leah instinctively ducked behind a suit of decorative armor on the wall.
‘Wait, why am I hiding? Couldn't I just ask him?’
She was feeling pathetic for hiding when she hadn't done anything wrong.
“What are you doing?”
“Aah?!”
The voice from behind startled Leah so much that she grabbed onto the decorative armor.
*Whoosh—!*
Unable to support her weight, the suit of armor wobbled.
*Grab—! Swoosh—!*
Leo reached out and caught Leah.
He used wind magic to set the armor upright again.
Seeing Leo's face up close, Leah was now certain.
‘It really is Leo Flove!’
“Are you okay?”
Leo asked, helping the off-balance Leah to her feet.
Leah, who had been staring blankly at Leo, snapped back to her senses with a jolt.
She then distanced herself from Leo and quickly turned away.
‘It's Leo Flove! It's really him!’
Leah hastily straightened her clothes.
Then, she cleared her throat and turned back around.
Looking up at the boy who was taller than her, Leah greeted him politely.
“It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Leah Tingel.”
Leo watched with a puzzled expression as Leah performed a proper curtsy, even lifting the hem of her uniform skirt slightly.
‘The top first-year student?’
The top student of Seirun Professor Tina had mentioned—the one who had successfully communed with Sylord.
‘Well, we’re both first-years, so it’s not strange to run into each other, but why is she being so formal?’
A fellow first-year.
Yet she was treating him, a student from a lower-level class, as if he were an upperclassman. It was puzzling.
Leah soon cleared up Leo's confusion.
“You’re Leo Flove, aren't you? Why were you in the Seirun first-year cafeteria? And in a lower-level class, at that.”
‘So she recognized me.’
“Oh, perhaps! Did Aunt Tina send you to Seirun? Is that it? Is it? Huh? Huh?”
“Why are you making such a fuss?”
“Because I admire you!”
“…”
Leo’s expression turned peculiar as he looked at the girl who had just declared her admiration for someone she’d met for the first time.
Unable to contain her excitement, Leah let the words pour out.
“I’ve loved the storybooks about Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning, since I was a child! His story is so… tragic, you know? I always thought he was a true Great Hero whose story tugs at your heartstrings! And you’re an All-Class, just like Kyle! On top of that, you played a huge role in proving that Kyle was a real person! Ah! You have no idea how my heart fluttered every time I heard one of your heroic tales!”
Leo looked dumbfounded as Leah rattled on at a frightening pace.
In truth, there were quite a few students at Lumerne who fanatically revered the Great Heroes.
That was a characteristic not just of Lumerne students, but of all hero academies.
As much as they admired and dreamed of becoming heroes.
It was not strange for them to hold deep respect for the Great Heroes, who had saved the world and could be called the greatest of all.
In particular, there was no rule that one’s favorite Great Hero had to be of the same race.
Even among elves, one could admire Ar-on, who possessed the greatest courage in the world.
Or they might favor Lisinas, who was said to have wisely led all people.
It was only natural for individuals to revere different Great Heroes based on their personal inclinations.
But…
‘She’s a strange one, saying she admires me the most?’
Now, it had been revealed that Kyle was real, but.
To call Kyle—who had been treated as a fictional character for thousands of years—one’s favorite Great Hero was certainly eccentric.
Among the Great Heroes, Kyle was quite a minor figure.
In fact, the only people who had really liked Kyle’s story were Chelsea, Eiran, and Luke.
Even they didn't consider Kyle their most beloved and respected Great Hero.
But for someone of a different race—
an elf, no less, a race known for its pride—to call Kyle their favorite Great Hero was surprising.
“So, you see! I wanted to enroll in Lumerne and was going to take the entrance exam, but my family was completely against it, you know?”
Leah, who had been chattering away, clasped her hands together.
“But why are you at Seirun?”
“I’m here as an exchange student.”
“An exchange student! Ah! I see! But…”
Leah looked extremely flustered.
“Then… why… in a lower-level first-year class…?”
Seirun didn't have an exchange student program.
However, as a direct descendant of the Tingel family, Leah knew just how powerful her family's influence was.
Although Tina couldn't openly use her family name, if she made a request, it wouldn't be difficult to create a special exception and establish a program that didn't exist.
Leah also thought that having someone like Leo at Seirun as an exchange student would be a tremendous help.
They had never met, and they didn't know each other.
But seeing the great deeds Leo had accomplished as a hero candidate, it was clear he was an extraordinary person.
‘He’s like one of the Heroes.’
For such a person to come here as a first-year, not a second-year.
Thinking positively, it might be to have a good influence on the first-years.
Leah had even considered enrolling in Lumerne because of Leo.
She would have welcomed the chance to study with him.
‘But… a lower-level class?’
She couldn't understand.
Leo glanced at the bewildered Leah and asked.
“Leah Tingel.”
“Ah! Please, just call me Leah! Senior Flove!”
“Senior? I’m not a Seirun student.”
“Even if you're from a different hero academy, you enrolled a year before me as a fellow hero candidate, so of course you're my senior! Senior Flove… Ah! How nice that sounds.”
Leo let out a dry laugh watching Leah get all excited by herself.
“Alright, Leah. What do you think of the lower-level classes?”
“The lower-level classes? The teachers told us that the students in those classes are the ones who don't try.”
Leo clicked his tongue as he looked at Leah, who answered with an innocent face.
‘So that’s how they’re educating them.’
It seemed they were teaching the students that those in the lower classes were ‘lazy stragglers.’
‘It seems Seirun’s current direction is quite clear.’
A school founded by the Comet Mage, who wished to follow in the footsteps of the Nebula's Founder.
The faction currently leading Seirun’s administration seemed to be planning to turn the school itself into an institution for nurturing the Comet Mage’s successor.
A school exclusively for superior star mages.
‘…Would the Comet Mage have truly wanted that?’
The Heroes of Genesis, who were even now fighting against the fragments of Erebos within the Hero Record.
And Seirun, one of them.
‘…If Seirun had conquered Luna’s World of Heroes…’
Leo’s eyes darkened.
‘If he had truly inherited Luna’s will… would he have wanted a school just for star mages?’
What Luna wanted was a world where flowers bloomed in abundance.
She had risked everything and fought Erebos for that single, peaceful scene.
A distant junior, separated by 2,000 years, whom she had never met.
But that heart, willing to sacrifice itself for the world to fight Erebos, was probably not so different from his own 5,000 years ago… and that of his friends.
Such a person would not have wanted to create a school solely for ‘star magic.’
He would not have wished for someone to succeed Luna.
Even less would he have sought a successor for himself.
He would have founded this school simply to pass on to future generations his wish to protect this world—the world that his respected Luna had defended with her life, the world that his predecessors had rebuilt with all their might.
‘If we had been in the same situation as the Heroes of Genesis… we would have done the same.’
The Seirun of today was wrong.
There must be upperclassmen at Seirun who felt the same way.
‘I wasn’t going to care whether this school fell apart or not.’
Leo chuckled, then spoke to the strange elf girl who claimed to admire the Hero of the Beginning the most.
“Leah Tingel.”
“Jeez, I told you to call me Leah…”
“If I give you an assignment, are you confident you can do it?”
“What is it? If it’s about star magic theory, I can have it done by tomorrow…”
“Can you go ask your seniors what they think about the current Seirun?”
“Ask my seniors what they think of the current Seirun? Which seniors?”
“Lunia and Eiran.”
Leah's eyes widened at the mention of the top two second-year students, who were the center of attention at the school right now.
“If they seem reluctant to talk, tell them I told you to ask.”
“Okay! In return! If I do it, will you grant me one request?”
“What’s the request?”
“Treat me as your junior and teach me magic, Senior Flove.”
*Ahem!* Leo chuckled as Leah puffed out her chest proudly.
“Alright.”
“Hooray!”
Watching the genuinely delighted Leah, Leo continued.
“And keep the fact that I’m an exchange student a secret from our classmates.”
“A secret between you and me, Senior Flove! I understand!”
Smiling brightly, Leah ran down the hallway.
It seemed she was going straight to find Lunia and Eiran.
Watching her go, Leo let out another chuckle.
‘I hope I’m not turning a good kid into a delinquent.’
He had that thought for a moment, but then he looked out the corridor window at the ‘Castle of Beginnings’ and muttered.
‘…Maybe I should fix this place up properly?’
***
Spring in the northern continent is harsh.
Perhaps that was only to be expected on this frigid northern continent.
But the faces of the people working were full of life.
The elves' expressions were bright as they looked at the soon-to-be-completed ‘Castle of Beginnings.’
They had no doubt that this place would soon become their new hope and future.
“Your school is almost finished, too.”
“Yes.”
The elf woman smiled and replied to the only human present.
“How is your school, Lumerne?”
Lumerne answered the elf's question.
“The new students are adorable.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Don’t look so glum, Seirun.”
Lumerne said with a smile to her downcast friend.
“I’m sure heroes who will save the world in the future will be born here.”
“Yes. That’s what a hero academy is for.”
Seirun smiled brightly and nodded.
While Lumerne turned her head to look elsewhere.
Seirun looked up.
Just then, it appeared.
A symbol of disaster, visible only to her eyes—the only one here who was ‘real.’
A black flame.
When she founded the hero academy, she had never doubted it.
That a hero who would protect the world would be born.
But…
‘It’s already been 2,900 years… Can I hold out until then?’