Chapter 566
Chapter Title: A Test of Qualifications
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566.
“Who are these guys?”
Leo asked, gesturing to the Wisdom students standing behind Luna and Ar.
“So you’re Leo Flove? A pleasure to meet you! I’m Riden! A student of Wisdom!”
“Wisdom?”
“It’s an educational institution in Dragonia that raises dragons to carry on Lord Lisinas’s will,” Chelsea explained from the side to a puzzled Leo.
“Just as the girl said. We are candidates to be guides. Descendants of the great Lord Lisinas.”
“Is that so? And do these descendants of Lisinas have some business with me?”
“We’ve come to judge your qualifications as a hero.”
For a moment, Leo looked utterly confused, and Chelsea’s mouth hung open.
Luna covered her face with her palm and tilted her head back.
“I think I misheard you. Could you say that again?”
“We came to test you.”
‘What is this kid talking about?’
Leo let out a hollow laugh.
“Are you kidding me? Who do you think you are, saying you’ll test Leo!”
Chelsea, who had been standing beside him, suddenly flared up and shouted.
Leo was the Hero of the Beginning.
The Great Hero who defeated Erebos and saved the world 5,000 years ago.
The man who could be called the ancestor of all heroes!
And they were going to test him?
‘That’s ridiculous!’
“And who are you?”
“I’m Chelsea Llewellyn, a second-year from the magic department at Lumerne!”
“The Llewellyn family of the Rodren Empire?”
At Chelsea’s shout, a female student from Wisdom stepped forward from the back.
The tall girl stared intently at Chelsea.
“What are you staring at?”
As Chelsea narrowed her brow and asked, the tall student suddenly swept her into a hug.
“You’re so tiny! Like a doll! So adorable!”
*Throb-!*
A vein popped on the forehead of Chelsea, who hated being called small more than anything else in the world.
Seeing Chelsea’s legs dangling and flailing in the air, Ar let out a *pfft-!* of laughter.
“Seeing her like that, she really is tiny.”
‘You’re dead later! You damn cat!’
Vowing to plant a dropkick right in that face, Chelsea ground her teeth.
“Could you please let me go?”
“Oh, my apologies.”
The female student cleared her throat with a *hmm-hmm-!*
“Siren. Don’t forget your dignity as a student of Wisdom.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
The girl called Siren, who had burst into a hearty laugh, introduced herself to Chelsea.
“A pleasure to meet you, Chelsea Llewellyn. My name is Siren. I’m a Wind Dragon. I’ve been studying your Llewellyn family with great interest since I was young.”
Siren lifted the hem of her skirt in an elegant curtsy and looked at Chelsea with admiration.
“I can tell by the winds swirling around you. You’re incredible for one so young.”
At her words, Chelsea looked up at Siren with a sullen expression.
‘There’s no ill will.’
But it felt strange.
How should she put it?
‘It feels like she’s looking down on me, just a little?’
It was quite different from the elven supremacists steeped in pure-blood ideology she had seen during last year’s Lumerne-Seirun Exhibition Match.
Siren was clearly showing Chelsea respect.
She wasn’t looking down on her.
‘Right. It’s like she thinks she has to be the one to guide me.’
That was strangely irritating.
No matter what anyone said, Chelsea was a representative student of Lumerne.
Of course, until her first year, she had wavered, unable to find the path she wanted to walk.
There was the wind named Abad, who had been with her since childhood.
And the wind named Leo, who had entered Lumerne with her.
There was a time when she was simply swept away whenever she encountered a gale.
But not anymore.
Chelsea was now creating her own strong winds, having clearly found what she wanted to do, who she wanted to become.
To a person like her, Siren’s attitude, which practically radiated an aura of ‘I’m the one who will guide you,’ couldn’t help but be unpleasant.
‘What, does she think I’m some idiot who needs someone else to set my path?’
The others, aside from Chelsea, felt the same way.
It was strange.
When they had enrolled in the hero academy, they had dreamed of being chosen by a dragon.
Since all those chosen by dragons had achieved great deeds, it was only natural for hero candidates to aspire to it.
Yet, now that they were so close to that aspiration, they didn’t feel good at all.
Leo glanced around and smirked.
‘They’ve all grown.’
The path they wanted to take.
What they wanted to become.
Their goals were clear.
To advance toward them without wavering was clear evidence of their growth.
‘Offering to guide those who have a clear path without even asking their opinion is an unpleasant thing to do. It’s like meddling in someone else’s life. Anyway.’
Leo looked at the Wisdom students.
‘They’re so immature.’
Dragons were the strongest of races.
And since this was a gathering of the most outstanding among them, the dragons before him were all wise and possessed exceptional skills.
But…
‘They’re arrogant.’
These dragons were different from the ones Leo had met during the Age of Heroes.
The dragons Leo had met all had their own circumstances, their own ideals.
But despite their differences, they all carried, if only a little, a piece of the legacy Lisinas had left for future generations.
They were dragons, but they were never arrogant.
They always humbled themselves and met the eyes of various other races.
But these students of Wisdom were different from their predecessors.
They were more like the dragons from the Age of Disaster, who, as guardians of the world, had been unable to shed their arrogance, rather than like Lisinas.
An arrogant race that considered themselves noble and refused to cooperate with other races, treating them as inferior even as the world was ending.
That was the perception Kyle had of dragons before meeting Lisinas.
‘How should I punish these impudent lizards?’
As he pondered this, his eyes rolling, Leo noticed someone sitting on the roof.
It was none other than Melina and Enkiinas.
When Enkiinas met Leo’s gaze, he respectfully bowed his head.
Melina offered a troubled smile and made a gesture of clapping her hands together.
‘Is she asking me to go easy on them?’
Just because they reminded him of the dragons of the past didn't mean they were truly the same.
‘They’re just inexperienced kids.’
Leo scratched his head.
‘Still, this is a pain.’
If it had been Luna or Dweno, they would have beaten them to a pulp for their insolence.
Leo was the same way.
‘But Lisinas would have been different.’
He would have made them realize that there was a wider world out there.
Just as he had extended a hand to the Kyle of the past.
Thinking this far, Leo reached out and stroked the head of a scowling Chelsea.
Her expression softened slightly.
“You said you wanted to judge my qualifications as a hero, right?”
“That’s right.”
Riden nodded confidently.
Looking at him, Leo smirked.
“Alright. Test my qualifications.”
“A wise decision!”
“Before that.”
“Yes?”
“May I judge your qualifications?”
“You, us?”
“There’s no rule that says a hero can’t test his guide, is there?”
“That’s certainly true.”
‘Leo Flove has already ascended to the rank of hero. On top of that, he’s the one chosen by a god… the only one who can defeat Erebos.’
Riden was the top student at Wisdom.
He held a strong desire to one day carry on the will of the great King of Wisdom and contribute to the world alongside heroes.
For Riden, there was no better partner among the heroes of this era than Leo.
‘And with a man like this, it wouldn’t be strange for even Lady Melina or Lord Enkiinas to become his guide.’
If so, he needed to show his own worth, one way or another.
Riden nodded.
“Very well. You are a hero whose name is already in the Hero Record. You have the right to test me!”
‘Leo probably just wants to grind your ego into dust.’
Luna clicked her tongue as she looked at Riden.
“So? What kind of test will you give me? I’ll overcome anything you throw at me.”
“The test itself is simple. You just have to escape from the illusion magic I cast.”
“Illusion magic? It doesn’t work well on dragons. And it’s even less effective if we already know it’s coming. You should know that well enough.”
Leo smiled at the puzzled Riden.
“You don’t have to worry about that. Why don’t you all give it a try?”
Leo addressed the other Wisdom students who were watching from behind.
Hearing this, the Wisdom students looked at each other.
“This sounds like it could be fun.”
“I’m curious to see what kind of magic an All-Class hero uses.”
The other Wisdom students also wore expressions of curiosity.
Looking at them, Leo spoke to Chelsea.
“For your information, Chelsea here will be taking the test with you.”
“Me?”
Chelsea’s eyes widened as she pointed a finger at herself.
“Are you planning to adjust the power of the illusion magic to match Chelsea Llewellyn?”
“If I set the standard to Chelsea’s level, there’d be no point in a test.”
“In that case, it could be dangerous, couldn't it?”
Riden wore a worried expression.
Seeing him, Chelsea’s face crumpled into a scowl.
“Don’t worry about me. You should worry about yourself.”
As Chelsea spoke fiercely with a defiant look, Siren cupped her cheeks.
“You’re so cute when you’re tiny and prickly.”
“She’s not just prickly. She’s a brat with a nasty attitude.”
“Leo, can I start after I punch that cat in the gut just once?”
“Catching him won’t be easy.”
At Leo’s words, Chelsea clicked her tongue with a *tsk!*
“There’s no need to worry about Chelsea.”
Overcoming illusion magic requires powerful mental fortitude.
Riden was worried because he thought of Chelsea as an inexperienced hero candidate.
‘Of course, Chelsea is inexperienced.’
It wasn't just Chelsea.
Luna, Ar, and Driana were inexperienced too.
But that was only by Leo’s standards.
For Riden to judge Chelsea so hastily was a mistake; the path she had walked was by no means easy.
‘No matter what anyone says, she’s stood on the battlefield against Erebos.’
When the third fragment of Erebos was revived, Chelsea had gone to the front lines against Erebos to help Ar-on.
‘The presence or absence of that experience makes a huge difference.’
Chelsea was by no means an inexperienced hero candidate.
She was a mage worthy of being called a hero.
‘If it were me, I would have just beaten them up, but you would have given them a chance to learn. Right?’
Remembering his friend, Leo grinned.
“So, are you ready?”
“Of course.”
Riden and the Wisdom students wore confident expressions.
Chelsea also nodded.
“Then.”
Leo stirred his magic.
Watching him, Riden’s expression grew tense.
‘What kind of magic is it?’
The moment he thought that, the gray magic blooming from Leo’s hand transformed into a jet-black darkness.
“What?”
It was different from the foul darkness of Tartaros.
It felt warm, as if it could embrace everything.
But for that very reason, it gave off an eerie feeling of endless depth.
‘This is… a dragon’s magic?’
Riden’s eyes widened as he stared at Leo.
In that instant, he realized that Leo’s eyes had changed from red to a black as deep as obsidian.
Those eyes were identical to those of his own kind.
‘Dragon Tongue Magic!’
Not just Riden, but all the Wisdom students’ eyes shot open.
It was high-level Dragon Tongue Magic, something they couldn’t even dream of using at their current level.
A dragon’s curse, created long ago when the King of Wisdom reinterpreted a curse from Tartaros.
Riden’s face filled with shock as he realized what the magic formula was.
‘Nightmare?’
In that moment, Riden was consumed by the darkness that rose up like a living shadow.