Chapter 480
Chapter Title: The Knight of the Netherworld
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480.
[I see. So that is what's happening in the northeastern part of the continent.]
Mel sighed deeply.
[Regarding the Justice Guild, it is my failing. My inability to manage them has troubled you with this unpleasant news.]
“This isn't something you need to apologize to me for.”
Leo said calmly.
It was early morning.
Leo was communicating with Mel.
The autumn dawn was quite chilly.
Leo sipped the tea he’d brewed with herbs picked from the forest.
[Shall I mobilize the other hero guilds or Lumerne?]
“No. One wrong move could trigger a civil war. Justice is a massive organization, after all. Making an official move wouldn't be wise.”
Leo had more than enough power to bring down the Justice Guild.
Whatever the case, a single word from him would set the world's shadows in motion.
The Dragon Lord, too, was essentially his spokesperson.
But even so, it wouldn't be without consequences.
Especially when dealing with those incapable of rational thought.
'With the Necro King still active, it's best not to do anything that would only harm ourselves.'
“Simply exposing their true colors should be enough to achieve our goal.”
Mel nodded at Leo's words.
“The most urgent matter right now is managing the heroes' tombs scattered across the world.”
[Yes. If word gets out that the Necro King is resurrecting heroes as undead, the world will be thrown into great chaos.]
“I suppose so.”
Leo let out a heavy sigh.
From time immemorial, the undead had been objects of great disgust and contempt for the living.
But what if a hero who had made it into the Hero Record in life became one of them?
'That hero's honor would be dragged through the mud.'
If that hero had left no ties to the world, that would be the end of it.
But if their descendants had formed a powerful house, the problem would escalate.
The honor of their ancestors would be tarnished.
'That alone would cause tremendous division in the world.'
Leo sighed deeply.
'I need to find a way to protect the honor of the heroes who have become the undead.'
Leo’s eyes narrowed.
“In the worst-case scenario, which hero would become our enemy?”
[The worst would be Tamus, the Knight of the Netherworld. Especially considering the land you are on now was once his domain… Perhaps the Necro King's goal is to resurrect him as one of the dead.]
At the gravity in Mel’s voice, Leo looked puzzled.
“Is the Knight of the Netherworld that formidable? I heard he was just some guy who refused to cooperate out of jealousy for the Heroes of the Genesis.”
Leo wore a perplexed expression.
“And there's hardly anything about him left in the Hero Record.”
It wasn't unusual for a hero's records to be lost to time, as had happened with countless heroes of the past.
For Leo, who knew little about who Tamus was, Mel's grave reaction was bound to be confusing.
[Before the Heroes of the Genesis rose to prominence, he was the most powerful hero in the world at that time, as I'm sure you know, Sir Leo.]
“Right.”
[He was a hero so powerful that Lady Rodia actually considered him a candidate for the Heroes of the Genesis. In fact, he was the hero who accompanied Lady Rodia when she conquered Lord Lisinas's world.]
“Rodia did?”
Dragons were beings who chose heroes.
And the Rodia Leo had met was exceptionally intelligent.
She was a wise dragon, befitting the title of Lisinas's successor.
If Rodia had worked with him, it meant his skills were undeniable.
[According to Lady Rodia's memoirs, he was a hero powerful enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Heroes of the Genesis during the Second Coming of Calamity.]
“How did a hero of that caliber end up turning his back on a world in peril?”
[It's said that the Knight of the Netherworld conquered the worlds of Great Heroes, but he never once obtained a completion reward.]
“He stood by and watched the world be threatened for a reason as petty as that?”
[…That wasn't the only reason.]
“Then?”
Mel hesitated for a moment, then opened a small warp gate and sent a book to Leo's location.
It was one of Rodia's memoirs, kept in the archives of Dragonia, accessible only to the Dragon Lord.
'This is different from the memoir I saw before. Is it some kind of diary?'
The previous memoir written by Rodia had felt very formal, like an official record.
'It was full of pretense. That cheeky lizard.'
Leo clicked his tongue, recalling the Rodia he had met, and opened the book.
He quickly read through the contents.
Before long, the story of Tamus, the Emperor of Tarim, began.
'A Spiritmancer? And one who commands countless spirits.'
Before he was a knight, he was a powerful Spiritmancer who led an order of knights composed of spirits, using the weapons of fallen heroes as his medium.
'An ability similar to Lisinas's.'
Leo was impressed.
This seemed to be why Rodia had considered Tamus a candidate to save the world.
But outside of his power, the entries were filled with concern.
[Just as Lord Lisinas first accepted Sir Kyle as a companion, I too, by chance, accepted a human as my first. But he was different from Sir Kyle. Sir Kyle also had a rough personality, but… Tamus possesses an arrogant and cruel nature. Can I guide him down the right path?]
Rodia's biggest worry was the hero Tamus's disposition.
Afterward, the Great Warrior Azonia joined Rodia, followed by the Comet Sorceress Seirun.
Next was the Indomitable Damian.
Despite concerns about the Knight of the Netherworld's character, Rodia's party conquered many worlds of heroes, growing ever stronger.
But unlike the others, who received completion rewards from the Great Heroes' worlds, Tamus never received a single one.
In the midst of this, a pivotal event occurred.
[Today, I met a human named Lumerne. He is a hero who conquered Sir Kyle's world all by himself.]
Rodia's reaction upon first meeting Lumerne was quite excited.
More so than when she had met her other companions.
“Wait a minute.”
Noticing a certain emotion in the writing, Leo looked up from the memoir and faced Mel.
“Wait, that lizard Rodia… was she in love with Lumerne?”
[Yes. It seems it was love at first sight.]
“Really? Did that Lumerne fellow know about it?”
[The memoirs of the Heroes of the Genesis are kept in Dragonia. From what I saw in Lord Lumerne's memoirs, it seemed he was aware of Lady Rodia's feelings. That's why he was in such an awkward position.]
“Why awkward?”
[Lady Seirun also had feelings for Lord Lumerne. Isn't it romantic?]
Leo let out a dry laugh.
“That certainly would have been awkward. Knowing Rodia and Seirun's personalities, they must have pursued him quite aggressively.”
[No, neither of them courted Lord Lumerne.]
“Were they playing coy, unlike them? Then again, our swindling lizard and tomboy elf played pretty coy themselves.”
[Well… Lady Rodia and Lady Seirun. It seems neither of them fully understood their own feelings for Lord Lumerne. Only Lord Lumerne was aware.]
“…”
Leo’s expression turned deadly.
[Sir Leo?]
Mel looked startled.
'Wait, so you're telling me those two, who couldn't even figure out their own feelings, let alone anyone else's, had the gall to call me an idiot and a moron?'
Recalling the two of them glaring at him reproachfully for not recognizing Luna's and Lisinas's feelings, Leo gritted his teeth.
“Those damn girls, I swear! The next time I see them, I'm shaving their heads bald.”
As Leo growled, Mel shrank back.
Calling the Heroes of the Genesis "girls" and threatening to shave their heads.
It was an outrageous statement only a Great Hero could make.
Leo seethed inwardly as he continued to read the memoir.
The rest of the story was as follows.
'So the Knight of the Netherworld had feelings for Rodia. And he was jealous of Lumerne. That's what ultimately caused him to stray from the party and get kicked out… and he refused to help in the final battle against Erebos?'
Leo scoffed in disbelief.
'Isn't this guy completely insane?'
With the fate of the world at stake, he had turned his back, blinded by mere jealousy.
'Just how selfish can one bastard be?'
With a dumbfounded look, Leo closed the memoir.
“Afterward, when the Heroes of the Beginning far surpassed his own fame and people began to mock him, the Knight of the Netherworld was said to have been enraged. He eventually challenged Lord Lumerne to a duel to the death and was beheaded. The Tarim Empire concealed this fact to hide the shame of their founding emperor and requested that Dragonia erase the Hero Record entries related to the Knight of the Netherworld's final moments.”
It seemed the Heroes of the Beginning, for the sake of a former comrade, had hoped the Knight of the Netherworld would be remembered with at least some honor by future generations.
'Well, by now he's become a total object of ridicule anyway.'
Leo thought back on the current image of the Knight of the Netherworld.
He'd heard some Lumerne students mockingly call him the Warped Knight of the Netherworld.
In this era, he was nothing more than a coward who, despite his immense power, had abandoned the world to save his own skin.
In a way, he deserved it.
'But with a personality like that, it's certainly plausible he'd fall and join hands with the Necro King.'
Just as Leo was contemplating the Knight of the Netherworld, his eyes narrowed.
Gooooooooo-!
An ominous energy swirled around them.
Leo tilted his head back and looked up at the sky.
'The Necro King's energy.'
Realizing the source of the energy, Leo's eyes narrowed as he stood up.
[Sir Leo?]
Mel called out to him, alarmed.
“It seems we have a guest.”
“To be precise, he believes that you are the guest.”
Leo turned his head toward the voice that came from his side.
“The Funerary Grand Duke.”
“It has been a while, Lord Leo Flove. No.”
Artkan bowed his head deeply to Leo.
“Hero of the Beginning, Sir Kyle.”
Leo raised his hand.
“Revealing yourself before me means you wish to die, I take it?”
Gooooooooo-!
An extraordinary aura flowed from Leo's body.
Faced with such terrifying killing intent, Artkan's eyes narrowed.
'I came on Lord Hell Kaiser's orders to gauge the Hero of the Beginning's current power.'
The power Leo was currently emanating was of a staggering level.
'The current generation of Legion Commanders would be annihilated with ease.'
Even if the Legion Commanders who had not yet obtained their authorities were merely powerful demons with large armies, they were still beings who struck terror into the heart of the world.
Artkan bowed his head.
“As much as I would love to indulge you, Sir Kyle… today, I am merely a guide.”
“A guide?”
“The one who wishes to meet you is someone else. You could think of him as a distant junior of yours.”
[Hear me, all who dwell in this land!]
At that moment, a tremendous voice echoed over the capital's sky.
[I, Tamus, the master of Tarim and your rightful lord, have returned. Kneel and offer your worship at once!]
The voice, laden with pressure, shook the entire capital.
Leo looked up at it and said.
“I don't recall ever having a junior like that.”