Chapter 600
Chapter Title: The Hero Slayer
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In the dead of night.
"Reina? Are you really all right?"
"Yes, Dade. I'm fine, so there's no need to worry. A hot bath will make me feel better in no time."
Hearing Reina's cheerful voice from behind the bathroom door, Dade looked at Leo with a worried expression.
"It's because she used mana with a body that has lost its aura. A hot bath should help her relax and feel better."
Leo smiled bitterly.
"Sorry for calling you out so late."
"No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I was right there with her and didn't notice."
Inside the bathroom, Reina, who had been listening to their conversation, submerged herself up to her mouth in the water.
*I'll have to hold back from now on.*
The backlash from releasing her presence in the Elder's Corridor had sent a chill through her entire body.
Panicked, Dade had woken Leo up.
Reina subconsciously stroked the right side of her chest.
The scar from where she was pierced when she lost her aura so long ago was still clearly visible.
*Bubble, bubble—*
As she let out a small sigh, air bubbles rose to the surface.
***
*Click.*
"I had a feeling she was overdoing it."
Back in his room, Leo let out a small sigh.
Just as he was about to get into bed, Leo glanced at the entrance to his room's terrace.
*Whoooosh—!*
The curtains were drawn, but he could tell a blizzard was raging outside.
After staring at the terrace for a moment, Leo walked over and pulled back the curtains.
*Swish—!*
The snow that had started falling during the night had piled up thickly on the terrace.
Right in front of the terrace door, someone was kneeling.
Unbothered by the cold, the blue-haired woman remained perfectly still, her hands clasped and her eyes closed in a reverent posture.
She looked just like a cleric from the Age of Gods.
The sight of her, looking like a devout and pious seeker, made it impossible for him to suppress a sigh.
*She's at it again.*
She was none other than the half-elf Anyas, daughter of the Northern Magic Tower's lord and successor to the Elven Shadow Lord.
Leo opened the terrace door.
*Whoooosh—!*
The blizzard swept inside.
"What are you doing?"
"I was offering a prayer to the great god."
"I seem to recall telling you not to create some kind of religion."
"I have not created a religion."
"Then why are you praying to me?"
"Because I have joined a holy order that was already established."
"What?"
Anyas produced a neatly folded piece of paper from her robes and handed it to Leo.
As he unfolded it, Leo felt a headache coming on.
It was a promotional poster for a club at Lumerne Academy.
Club Name: Church of Kyle.
Club Activities: Researching the deeds of the Hero of the Beginning, Kyle.
President: Iliana Raden.
Vice President: Chen Xia.
Treasurer: Karl Thomas.
*Unbelievable.*
He had saved Iliana during the Hero's Festival incident while disguised as Kyle.
He knew she had taken a great interest in the Hero of the Beginning ever since.
*Fine. Iliana has her eccentric side, I get that, but what are these two thinking?*
You needed at least three people to start a club at Lumerne.
Chen Xia probably went along with it thinking it sounded nice, and Karl must have joined in, thinking it might be profitable.
Whatever the reason, they clearly hadn't thought it through.
How did they get a name like that approved?
Leo pondered for a moment before the culprit immediately came to mind.
*No doubt Elena approved it just because it sounded amusing.*
It claimed to be about researching Kyle's deeds, but with Iliana as the president, it was basically a fan club.
"The students of Lumerne are truly remarkable. To think they would create such a wonderful organization. Princess Xia was kind enough to inform me of its existence."
Anyas was busy praising Lumerne to the high heavens.
"If this is what you call remarkable, the world would have ended long ago. Besides, I'm not Kyle. So why are you praying to me?"
"Lord Leo, you are the successor to the Hero of the Beginning, acknowledged by the gods! As such, you are naturally among those the Church of Kyle must worship!"
"You're not even a Lumerne student in the first place."
"What does status have to do with faith?"
*There's no getting through to her.*
Leo clicked his tongue, seeing the crazed look in Anyas's eyes.
Ever since enrolling at Lumerne.
Leo had seen many people who drew strength from shouting the names of the Great Heroes.
*The only one among us who would enjoy such embarrassing praise is Luna.*
Aside from Luna, who used to boast about being worshipped for generations to come, none of the other Great Heroes enjoyed being revered like that.
Ar-on probably would have screamed in embarrassment if he saw it.
*I'd rather not witness such a cringeworthy scene.*
Leo sighed and said.
*Lian is already enough of a headache.*
Shaking his head at the thought of the fanatic who was so busy praising him, Leo spoke.
"Just get inside."
"Ah! How could I possibly share the same space as Lord Leo!"
"So you'd rather I just stand here in this blizzard?"
"Gasp! I-I was committing such a discourtesy! I was unaware!"
Watching Anyas bow deeply to him, Leo said with a sense of resignation.
"It's fine, just come in."
"Oh, Lord Leo's benevolent forgiveness leaves me at a loss for words. But I have been forgiven too easily for the sin I have committed! I cannot accept this! Therefore, I shall inflict punishment upon myself in your stead!"
The crazed Anyas threw off her robe.
Underneath the thick robe, she wore a thin, white dress.
Anyas pulled a short whip from her robe, took a stance, and prepared to strike her own back.
Leo snatched the whip away, thinking.
*The moment school starts, I'm shutting down that damned club.*
***
"I'm not sure what all this commotion is about in the middle of the night."
*Clink. Clink.*
Elsie said with a troubled smile as she served tea.
"Hah... hah... Look at this whip. Isn't it splendid? To be struck by my master with this..."
In the corner, Anyas was rubbing her cheek against the whip Leo had confiscated.
Leo wore a grave expression as he watched her.
*Why do you look so serious?*
Kiruan asked with a puzzled look, and Leo replied.
"I was just wondering why I'm always surrounded by weirdos."
It was like this in my past life, and it's the same in this one.
For some reason, only strange people seem to gather around me.
*It's because you're the weird one, Leo.*
*Chirp. Chirp.*
Piora, in her phoenix form, flapped her wings in agreement with Kiruan's words.
They seemed to be getting along quite well.
Leo looked at the two familiars with a pathetic expression.
*I guess it doesn't occur to them that they're included in that 'weirdo' category.*
A Fairy Princess who was exiled after having her powers sealed for playing a prank.
Piora, who once became an obese phoenix that chirped like a chick.
Needless to say, these two were far from normal themselves.
*In my past life, my so-called companions were a swindler lizard, a foul-tempered elf, a perverted dwarf, and a cowardly beastman.*
Leo clicked his tongue as he recalled his old comrades.
*I guess it's just my fate.*
Shaking his head, Leo spoke.
"So, what brings you all the way here?"
Anyas hadn't come here as an official guest of the Jerdinger family; she had snuck in to meet Leo.
And this place, the heart of the Jerdinger estate, was garrisoned by countless elite knights.
No matter how skilled the successor to the Shadow Lord was, infiltrating it secretly would be difficult.
The fact that she had taken such a risk to come here meant she had important business with Leo.
At Leo's question, Anyas lifted her teacup to wet her lips before speaking.
"I have come to report my findings regarding the Hero Dungeon Rampage incident at the recent Hero's Festival, Lord Leo."
"That was fast."
"Because the culprit was handed over to us immediately."
The incident during the Hero's Festival where Lumerne's Hero Record went berserk in the middle of Lumerne Academy.
In its aftermath, a terrible disaster had occurred: the appearance of Erebos's flame in the heart of Lumerne.
*Lian did say that the Lumerne page that went berserk back then couldn't be used by Erebos as an exit, right?*
A page that Erebos couldn't corrupt and therefore couldn't use as an entrance.
Unless someone smuggled it in, it was impossible for a Lumerne page to be inside Lumerne Academy.
*There's only one group that would pull a stunt like that, targeting the Hero's Festival when many outsiders are present.*
Tartaros.
Leo had suspected that some of the guests invited to the Hero's Festival were connected to Tartaros, so he had ordered Mel to pursue the one who brought the Lumerne page.
No matter how skilled the culprit was, there was no escape if their pursuer was a Dragon Lord.
And Mel had caught the culprit and brought them before Leo.
He was a royal from a small kingdom in the northern part of the continent.
*'What should I do with him?'*
*'Send him to the lord of the Northern Magic Tower. The culprit probably isn't directly connected to Tartaros.'*
Just as the Elven Pureblood Society had ties to Tartaros.
it was as clear as day that high-ranking humans would also be connected to them.
For Leo, who had walked in the shadows since the Age of Calamity, interrogating people was a simple matter.
*But there's a limit to the information you can get from interrogating one person.*
It was far more efficient to have the Elven Shadow Lord, who ruled the northern continent's underworld, pursue the related factions.
"So? Did you identify the organization involved?"
"We were unable to identify the organization. However, we did succeed in identifying who gave the page of Lady Lumerne to the culprit."
"Who was it?"
"The Hero Slayer."
Leo froze at Anyas's words.
The Hero Slayer.
The traitor who killed countless heroes 500 years ago.
A being akin to an incarnation of evil who had plunged the world into terror.
"Come to think of it, you said you were tracking the Hero Slayer after finding traces of contact with the Elven Pureblood Society, right?"
Back then, he had wondered how a figure who disappeared 500 years ago could resurface, but now, that question was answered.
This was an age where even heroes were being resurrected as the undead by the power of the Necro King.
It was hardly surprising that a traitor who once terrorized the world would be revived as one of the undead.
"How did you find out he was connected to that kingdom?"
"The bodies of heroes who had been missing for decades were discovered in the palace's underground."
Anyas's eyes grew cold.
"All of them had been killed by the Hero Slayer."
"Does that mean this Hero Slayer has been active not just recently, but for decades?"
"It would seem so."
Hearing Anyas's answer, Leo stroked his chin.
"But how did you know they were killed by the Hero Slayer?"
A question suddenly occurred to him.
It wouldn't be easy to identify the work of a villain from 500 years ago just by looking at corpses.
In response to Leo's question, Anyas pointed to the right side of her chest.
"The Hero Slayer thrusts his fingers into the right side of the chest of every hero he murders."
"A madman with peculiar tastes."
"He is not simply a madman. There is a reason for his actions."
"A reason?"
"Yes. The power to steal the abilities of others. That is the ability of the Hero Slayer."