Chapter 379
Chapter Title: The Shadow and the Saint
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“Great God of Shadows, may I ask why you have sought me?”
There was no longer any sign of her sizing Leo up.
From the moment she met Leo in person, Kirin’s attitude had changed completely.
Kneeling, Kirin looked up at Leo with her hands clasped together.
It was a pious posture, as if she were offering a prayer to a god.
Leaning back in his chair with his chin resting on his hand, Leo clicked his tongue.
“I’m no god.”
“No, to us, you are as a god. You, who have saved all shadows, are our absolute light.”
Outwardly, Leo was nothing more than a sixteen-year-old boy.
Of course, his accomplishments were astonishing.
Not only had he become the student council president of Lumerne as a first-year, but he had also proven he possessed the strength befitting the position as a second-year.
The Hero Records he had conquered were also extraordinary.
Leo had officially conquered the worlds of Luna and Dweno.
Unofficially, during his first-year summer vacation, he had participated in Azonia’s entrance exam and conquered Ar-on’s world as well.
Even those who had become heroes, their great deeds acknowledged by the gods, were not always granted the opportunity to conquer a Great Hero’s world in their entire lifetime. Yet Leo had already conquered the worlds of three.
And that wasn’t all.
He had even been acknowledged by Seirun, the Comet Mage, one of the Heroes of Genesis.
The people of the world no longer saw Leo as a mere hero-in-training.
They had no doubt that he would soon add his name to the Hero Record and become a true hero.
All of this was what was known ‘publicly.’
Looking deeper, there was another Hero Record, unknown to the world.
The master of the Grimoire of Shadows and the ruler of the Shan Empire.
*Even that alone is incredible, but…*
Kirin smiled as she looked up at Leo.
As a Shadow Lord, she had long slaughtered traitors and demons in the darkness.
Due to the nature of the shadows, her existence was unknown to the world.
But Kirin possessed experience and power that could overwhelm even the heroes whose names were recorded in the Hero Record.
Just from watching Leo’s performance in the arena through a video feed, she had been impressed, thinking him worthy of being the master of Shan.
But meeting him in person like this, she could sense a truth about him that the video could not convey.
What she felt most clearly was the darkness coiled deep within Leo’s red eyes.
A darkness so profound that even she, a Shadow Lord, could not fathom its depths.
And this sixteen-year-old boy held it within him.
An incomprehensible, unknown being who possessed both the brilliant light of a hero and the unfathomable abyss of a shadow.
*If he is not a god, then what should I call him?*
Leo sighed as he saw something in Kirin’s eyes as she looked up at him.
*She’s unhinged, but in a different way than Anyas.*
Anyas, the daughter of the Northern Shadow Lord, had also followed Leo from the moment they first met.
That was the result of Anyas’s conviction.
To become a servant who worships a noble hero, one who does not hesitate to step into filth for the sake of the world.
That was the ideal and creed Anyas had long held as a shadow, and because Leo was the one who embodied it, she had decided to follow him.
Anyas believed Leo to be the great hero who would drive the evil from the world.
But Kirin was looking at Leo purely as a shadow.
Leo could grasp what kind of creed she held as a shadow.
*To thoroughly annihilate everything that threatens the world from within the darkness.*
She would not follow a hero like other shadows.
She was one who lived by her own convictions.
And with the advent of the Grimoire of Shadows, those convictions had been acknowledged.
The shadows had risen to the same level as heroes.
Kirin clearly regarded Leo, who had made that possible and was the ultimate shadow, as a god.
*I can tell just by looking at her eyes.*
Leo knew beings who had such eyes.
An emotion that had all but vanished in the modern era.
A distant past.
An emotion that could only be seen before the Age of Calamity and during the Age of the Gods.
*The Pure-Blood Elves had similar eyes.*
What dwelled in Kirin’s eyes was a fanaticism bordering on madness, going beyond mere faith.
*It doesn’t seem like a conversation will get through to her. Well, it’s not like she’ll be a harm to me, though.*
Knowing that dialogue was impossible with this type of person, Leo decided to let it be.
“We came to explore the underground labyrinth.”
“Granting you permission to enter is not difficult, but what you are looking for is likely not there. There are no Hero Dungeons here.”
“I know. What I seek is the treasure left behind by Rodia, the Dragon of Genesis.”
“The Dragon of Genesis?”
Chen Xia, who had been watching the conversation beside Leo, widened her eyes.
“The treasure of Rodia, the Dragon of Genesis… I sensed a powerful dark energy beyond the seal at the end of this labyrinth, so I thought it was something dangerous and had it specially managed. I never imagined that seal was meant to protect a treasure left by Rodia.”
“You sense a dark energy?”
“Yes.”
At Kirin’s answer, Leo fell into thought.
*Laruel told me that Rodia left an item related to Lisinas in this treasury. And there’s a dark energy coming from it?*
Lisinas, the Dragon of Wisdom.
The leader of the Great Heroes and the great dragon who guided the world to salvation.
All the Great Heroes were special, but Lisinas was even more so.
If asked to name the most noble being in this world, Leo would choose Lisinas without hesitation.
It wasn't because she tried to save the world.
*The Age of Calamity was an era where everything fell.*
It was an age when everyone endlessly fell into corruption.
An age of losing nobility and becoming endlessly vile.
Conscience and humanity were objects of ridicule.
Even in such an era, there were those who shone.
Luna, Ar-on, and Dweno were such people.
They must have joined the subjugation force without any hesitation because they had not lost their light.
But even they could not bring themselves to think of saving the world.
No, the world at that time was so foul that even they turned their backs on it.
Lisinas shouldered it all and tried to save the world.
She didn't hesitate to save even those who were already tainted and corrupt.
She would say with a smile that if they saw light and hope, they would regain their original selves.
If Kyle was the Hero of the Beginning who ended the Age of Calamity and ushered in a new era…
Then Lisinas was the beginning of the salvation that guided the world to the light.
Wiser and more noble than anyone.
Lisinas remained benevolent to the very end, but…
There was one part of herself that she disliked.
A complex of Lisinas’s that only Leo knew.
*Darkness.*
Lisinas was a black dragon.
And black dragons were a dragon clan that fed on darkness.
During the Age of Calamity, the first of the dragon clans to fall were the dragons themselves.
Many dragons, having fallen to the depths of corruption, turned their backs on the world.
They couldn't be blamed.
What they did during the Age of the Gods was what Kyle did, and what the shadows do now.
They were the race most familiar with darkness, aside from the demons.
Black dragons grew in power by devouring the demons and traitors of Tartaros.
For that reason, Lisinas truly hated the darkness she harbored within.
The long journey of defeating Tartaros and subjugating Erebos.
In that journey, Lisinas left behind incredible achievements as both a mage and a summoner.
The people of this era remember Lisinas as the strongest summoner in history.
Indeed, the basic concepts of necromancy, beast summoning, and spirit arts used in the current era were all created by Lisinas.
Lisinas was somewhat underestimated for her achievements related to magic.
Perhaps if Luna had not existed, the one revered as the greatest mage in the history of magic would have been none other than Lisinas.
She reinterpreted the curses of the Tartaros demons to develop draconic magic.
At the same time, she also created the framework for the existing draconic magic.
*Lisinas’s greatest achievement was making the unique magic of each dragon clan usable by all dragons.*
Originally, the unique magic of a fire dragon could only be used by fire dragons, but in the current era, a fire dragon can use the unique magic of a water dragon.
*The fact that the dragon clan is called the strongest race is largely due to that influence.*
They were already a powerful race, but the prestige of the dragon clan has now grown even greater than it was during the Age of the Gods.
However, the only magic Lisinas did not leave behind was the unique magic of the ‘black dragon.’
It was a magic unknown even to Leo, her companion.
Lisinas believed that if she had embraced her identity as a black dragon, she would not have been able to save this world.
*And that was true.*
If Lisinas had unhesitatingly cut down those she deemed worthless, this world could not have been saved.
She was able to save the world because she could embrace its ugly side.
And the one who took on Lisinas’s role in that regard was Kyle.
*I was the most suitable person for the job.*
Even if they were stained with ugliness, those who crossed the line could not be brought along.
It was Kyle who executed them.
*She used to worry about pointless things.*
Leo smiled bitterly as he recalled the past.
Then he seriously pondered.
*If it’s a dark power related to Lisinas… it might be the unique magic of the black dragon that she never told me about.*
Magic she had not even revealed to him.
But it was possible that unique magic had been passed on to Rodia, who had conquered Lisinas’s world.
Given the nature of the Hero Record, it was entirely possible for him to inherit a power of Lisinas’s that he never knew about.
Just as Leo reached that conclusion.
*Shhhk-*
A beastman emerged from the darkness.
Leo, Chen Xia, and Kirin, who had already sensed his presence, watched the man calmly.
“Master.”
“What is it?”
“A report has come in that signs of a Hero Dungeon rampage have been detected in the Forest of Monsters.”
At those words, Leo’s eyes twitched.
***
*Thud. Thud.*
On a dark night in Gardsrone.
Kyle, his entire body drenched in blood, arrived in front of his house to find Lisinas sitting on a chair in the bleak garden.
Lisinas spotted Kyle and stood up.
“Welcome back, Kyle.”
“What are you doing out here? It’s late.”
“I heard from Dweno. That you…”
Lisinas gritted her teeth.
“...went to execute the traitors. I was worried, so I waited.”
“You worry too much. Compared to the monsters of Tartaros, dealing with worthless traitors like them is nothing. So you don’t have to worry.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Lisinas reached out to grab Kyle as he tried to pass her and enter the house.
Kyle avoided her touch.
Lisinas’s hand cut through empty air.
As Lisinas looked on, bewildered, Kyle shook his head.
“I’m too filthy for your hands to touch.”
He didn't want Lisinas to touch his body.
To be precise, he didn't like the thought of the traitors' blood staining Lisinas.
This foolish woman was already carrying the weight of the entire world.
Kyle could never tolerate the blood of trash, unworthy even of pity, soiling her.
At his words, Lisinas’s brow furrowed.
Then, with a sigh, she forcefully took Kyle’s hand.
“You’re not filthy at all. It’s you, isn’t it?”
Holding his scarred and blood-soaked hand, Lisinas smiled benevolently.
“This is the hand of the one who steps into darkness for my sake, for our friends’ sake, for the world’s sake. It’s not filthy at all.”
At her soft yet firm voice, Kyle gave a bitter smile.
“If anything, I’m worried. That if you keep doing this… your power of purity will be tainted.”
“If it was going to be tainted by something like this, it would’ve happened long ago.”
Kyle chuckled.
He unconsciously raised his hand to pat his worried companion’s head.
Lisinas flinched.
“Ah, is your head off-limits?”
“No! It’s fine.”
“Last time I patted Luna’s head with a bloody hand, she threw a fit.”
“That’s because she’s fussy!”
“No, you’d probably feel bad too.”
Kyle opened the door.
“Then I’ll wait. After you wash up…”
“It’s too late. What are you waiting for after I wash up?”
“I mean. It’s not that I’m waiting for anything specific. It’s just, it’s so late, so I was thinking I’d impose on you for the night. That’s what I meant.”
“You’ll just be uncomfortable around me. Besides, you can get to your house instantly with spatial magic. You don’t need to worry so much about me. So just go get some rest today. You must be tired.”
Earlier that day, Lisinas had subjugated the demons that invaded Gardsrone.
Being considerate of his friend, Kyle stepped inside and closed the door.
Watching the door shut so heartlessly, Lisinas clutched her head.
“Idiot! Why did you get all nervous and flinch for no reason…!”
Kyle often patted Luna’s head, but he had never once patted Lisinas’s.
The reason was simple.
Before being Kyle’s friend and companion, Lisinas was their leader.
The strait-laced Kyle, though he would make rude remarks about her being a lizard or what have you whenever they bickered, always respected Lisinas as a leader through his actions.
From Lisinas's perspective, this respect was entirely unnecessary and frustrating.
That was why she was sometimes envious of Kyle and Luna, who seemed as close as siblings.
But when he was about to pat her head for the first time, she got needlessly nervous and blew the chance.
Berating herself, Lisinas gnashed her teeth as she tried the door.
As a noble dragon, she did not like to use vulgar words.
But at times like these, there was one word that would escape her lips on its own.
“You absolute idiot.”