Chapter 537
Chapter Title: Condescending Eyes
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“Will it be alright?”
Eiran asked, her face etched with worry.
At her words, Lunia covered her face with her hands and said.
“What could possibly happen?”
“But… what if Sir Leo and Sir Verchia clash?”
“Things have gotten complicated, but I don’t think this situation is entirely bad.”
When Verchia first said he would teach Leo a lesson, she had been flustered by the sudden turn of events.
But looking at it calmly, Leo and Verchia meeting was an ideal situation.
“Miss Lunia is right. Our goal was to have Leo and Sir Verchia meet, after all.”
Chen Xia also nodded.
“That’s right. And… I wonder if we should even be worried about Leo when those two meet.”
Lunia wore a slightly bitter expression.
“I suppose so.”
Chen Xia nodded as if in agreement.
Verchia had said he would punish Leo.
But was that even possible?
Their concern wasn't simply because Leo was Verchia's master.
“Because Leo surely won’t let Sir Verchia be.”
Lunia knew as well.
She knew what Verchia’s feelings for Kyle were like.
The young Verchia she had met in Dweno’s world had clearly seen the Hero of the Beginning, Kyle, as a father figure.
Leo’s feelings toward Verchia likely weren’t much different.
Calling him impudent.
Calling him rebellious.
He seemed to disapprove of his student.
But Leo trusted Verchia more than anyone.
That was why Leo’s face had been so dark the entire time he was tracking Verchia.
And.
‘What will you do when you meet Sir Verchia?’
‘What do you mean? I’ll have to beat some sense into him.’
When Lunia had cautiously asked, Leo had answered nonchalantly.
‘Shouldn’t we be worried about Sir Verchia instead?’
Lunia sighed.
Just then, Eiran, who had been standing quietly, looked around the room where Verchia had been staying.
Then she murmured.
“Somehow, it feels similar.”
“Huh? What does?”
Lunia asked with a puzzled look at the sudden remark.
“This place… doesn’t it feel similar to Sir Leo’s old house… the one we saw in Sir Dweno’s world?”
At those words, Lunia looked around.
Then she nodded.
“It certainly does.”
The overall atmosphere was stark, with no trace of daily life.
There were only necessary items, and everything else was neatly organized.
It was like the home of someone who would never return.
Seeing this, Lunia crouched on a dining chair, her knees drawn up, and gazed at the scenery of the house.
She recalled what Driana had said after seeing the inside of Kyle’s home.
‘Perhaps he never allowed himself to become attached to this place.’
A desolate scene that made it seem as if the owner would never come back.
At the time, she had thought it was simply the grim resolve of a Great Hero.
But now, she couldn’t begin to imagine what Leo had been thinking.
Lunia glanced over at the table piled high with empty plates.
It was the only place in this house that felt warm.
“Maybe the reason Sir Verchia always made such a mess, even while getting scolded… was because he wanted to create a reason for Leo to come back?”
“Ah…”
Eiran let out a small gasp, recalling how Verchia used to mess up the house.
Listening to their conversation, Chen Xia let out a deep sigh and started clearing the dishes.
“Let’s clean up for now.”
“Yes, let’s.”
“Let’s split the work.”
Just as the three of them were about to tackle the mountain of dishes.
Voom—!
“Hm?”
Chen Xia’s eyes widened at the resonance coming from her pocket.
She put down the dishes and took out the object that was humming.
“Ah?”
Seeing Vihar’s dagger resonating, Chen Xia’s eyes grew wide.
***
‘Something must have happened.’
Even as dawn approached, Lunia and Eiran showed no signs of returning.
Seeing this, Leo realized something was wrong and let out a deep sigh.
‘Things are getting complicated.’
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Lunia, Eiran, and Chen Xia.
The three were his chosen hero candidates.
He had faith that they would overcome any trial that came their way.
‘But the situation is serious right now.’
Leo, who had been perched on the windowsill, looked outside.
‘Verchia is definitely in this city. And this city is twisted.’
Despite the raging blizzard, the people on the streets were all smiles.
He could see them putting on all sorts of airs on this frozen land.
But their eyes writhed with desire.
Eyes unbefitting of elves.
Elves were inherently a noble race.
No matter how terrible her personality was, Luna had always been noble on the battlefield.
Not only that.
When they put their all on the line, Leo had never seen a race as noble as the elves.
‘But not all elves are noble.’
The reason elves were noble was that they had no shame in proving their own worth.
But the ones here were different.
They considered themselves noble, but their nobility was propped up only by their elven bloodline and star magic.
They might think that made them special, but in Leo’s eyes, it did not.
‘This city is strange.’
Its surface might be glamorous, but Leo could see it.
The deep darkness in the city’s underbelly.
He couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but he could smell a stench so foul it felt like his nose would rot off.
Verchia was likely in this city for that very reason.
But the city was surprisingly serene.
The way of thinking that permeated this city was surely the kind Verchia despised the most.
It wouldn’t be strange if Verchia, now a vengeful undead burning with hatred, had already turned this city into a sea of fire.
‘Should I call this fortunate?’
Leo let out a deep sigh.
He wasn’t thinking it was fortunate because he was worried about this city.
‘Because hatred burns oneself.’
The endlessly burning hatred will ultimately consume the self.
Verchia, screaming and struggling, would eventually lose himself.
It must be called a blessing.
That in life, he had died before it came to that.
If he hadn’t, Verchia would have become a literal calamity.
But now that he was an undead?
‘It will only become more and more irreversible.’
That was why Leo was relieved.
The current Verchia had not yet crossed the line.
He wasn’t worried about the inhabitants of this land.
No, if this land of pure-blood supremacists had joined hands with Tartaros…
Leo would not hesitate to burn this Elden to the ground.
And he would wipe every trace of it from the face of the earth.
‘Because I am not Lisinas.’
Leo knew.
Not just Leo.
Lisinas, Luna, Ar-on, and Dweno.
All those who had risked their lives for that era knew that the world they saved was not so ideal.
And yet, they had not hesitated to sacrifice their lives.
Because they knew it wasn't all dark and twisted.
And one more thing.
‘Because everyone followed Lisinas’s will.’
The King of Wisdom.
A title bestowed upon her by the gods in praise.
‘The gods didn’t call her a king simply because she was wise and sagacious.’
In 5,000 years of history, Lisinas was the only one.
The only one to receive the title of king in the Hero Record.
The one called king by the gods.
And to the gods, the title of king was more special than anything else.
The inhabitants of the world call those who possess vast territories and the people living on them kings, and they follow them.
But the king the gods spoke of transcended that concept.
‘It literally means king of the world—that is, its master.’
Later generations thought Lisinas was called the King of Wisdom because she was the wisest in history, but they were wrong.
The King of Wisdom meant she was the wise master of the world, acknowledged by the gods.
‘She’s probably the only one. The only one ever called king by the gods.’
The reason the gods held Lisinas in such high esteem was extremely simple.
‘Because she shouldered everything.’
She hadn’t just fired the first shot in the counterattack that would defeat Erebos.
She had shouldered the world entirely and walked toward the light.
Those who committed evil.
Those who committed sins.
Even those who betrayed the world.
Lisinas forgave and accepted them.
She gave them a chance.
As the Black Dragon, he had a duty to punish the wicked, but Lisinas took them in.
Of course, Leo was the one who judged those who kicked that chance away.
Leo had said.
Traitors could not be tolerated.
But Lisinas had shaken her head.
They, too, are a part of the world we must save.
And the culmination of all that was salvation.
A benevolent, noble master of the world who shone brighter than anyone else.
‘That is why I respect you, Lisinas. And that’s all the more reason I can never be like you.’
Leo’s eyes turned cold.
Lisinas would have been able to unite the countless factions existing on the continent.
But unfortunately, Leo was not Lisinas.
He cuts out the rotten flesh with his own hands.
Efficiently.
‘Just as I did 5,000 years ago.’
That was why Leo knew why Verchia was leaving this city alone for now.
‘I didn’t teach him everything. But…’
In the end, what Verchia saw and learned was him.
Verchia knew.
What Kyle… and Vihar…
Did in the shadows.
Verchia had tried to follow whenever Leo and Vihar went into the darkness.
But Leo and Vihar had always pushed him away.
This is no place for you.
Though he couldn’t step in, Verchia had surely seen.
He had seen how Leo and Vihar operated.
‘He’s discerning.’
Those who are worth saving.
The current Verchia was certainly a monster.
But he was not a mindless one.
That was what weighed so heavily on Leo’s heart.
Verchia would continue to stray further from the path.
Just as he was thinking that.
Creeak—!
The door opened.
Leo’s eyes twitched.
His hyper-senses were still active.
He hadn’t felt a presence.
Which meant.
Click—
Verchia, who had opened the door, closed it behind him.
Then, he looked at Leo with emotionless eyes.
At his gaze, Leo got down from the windowsill.
Leo’s and Verchia’s eyes locked in midair.
Leo squeezed his eyes shut.
A reunion after 5,000 years.
But subjectively, it likely hadn't felt that long.
For Leo, it was a reunion after a few decades.
For Verchia, it would have been a reunion after several decades.
Even so, the Verchia before him was not the Verchia he knew.
His eyes were lifeless.
It wasn't because he was an undead.
Verchia’s eyes, which had never lost their light, were now completely dried up.
The sight of those lightless eyes clutched at Leo’s heart.
He already knew Verchia was an undead.
He had known he would look like this.
But…
Seeing it in person was a different matter.
Leo looked up at the ceiling.
‘This damned world.’
He knew.
He knew it was a filthy world.
He had saved it knowing that.
That was why he had no regrets or resentment.
Even if it was for someone else’s conviction.
He had followed that conviction because it had value.
But in this moment.
He regretted it.
Regretted saving the world.
He resented it.
Resented his weak self, who had closed his eyes in satisfaction back then.
Leo’s red eyes turned to Verchia.
Verchia, who had been staring intently at those eyes, murmured.
“Such condescending eyes.”
Eyes filled with so much pity.
Eyes steeped in profound sadness.
Eyes that seemed to understand everything.
For an instant, Verchia’s face contorted.
He felt an instinctive revulsion toward that gaze, which seemed to see right through him.
‘They’re gone now.’
The people who could look at him with those eyes.
So.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes.”