Legendary Hero is an Academy Honors Student - Chapter 267

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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267

Clang-! Clang-!

The sound of a hammer striking red-hot metal echoed through the air.

A small giant.

Dweno was pouring his soul into the hammer.

His expression was more serious than ever before.

Whoooosh-!

Bright yellow flames burst forth from Dweno’s hands.

Flames that could also appear golden.

“Sharp enough to cut through black flames.”

Dweno muttered.

Clang! Clang!

“Hard enough not to lose to black flames.”

Dweno, who usually praised beauty, always made his weapons as beautiful as possible.

But the sword he was making now paid no attention to appearance whatsoever.

He didn’t carve beautiful patterns into the blade.

The edge didn’t emit a brilliant light.

What he put into the sword was just one thing.

The wish that the user wouldn’t fall victim to the Calamity Forces.

Whoosh-!

The bright yellow flames that symbolized Dweno blazed brilliantly.

Kail, who was watching from nearby, thought the light looked like gold.

Eventually the flames died down.

Dweno reached out his hand.

The sword was still glowing red-hot, but Dweno didn’t care.

As a dwarf beloved by fire, he had strong resistance to flames.

Thud-!

Dweno pointed the blade downward and held the sword out to Kail.

“Try holding it.”

At those words, Kail hesitated.

Dweno, who had resistance to heat, might not be affected by the red-hot sword’s heat, but Kail was different.

After hesitating briefly, Kail soon reached out his hand.

Grasp-

He felt scorching heat in his hand.

Hissssss-!

But that was only for a moment.

The heat soon changed to warmth.

The red-hot sword immediately turned a transparent silver color.

A crude longsword that was hard to believe Dweno had made.

But the sword was perfect.

The moment he grasped it, it felt like it had become part of his body.

Whooom-!

The sword let out a sword cry.

It was responding to Kail’s touch.

“This is a sword I made after gaining inspiration from you.”

“Didn’t you say there was nothing about me to gain inspiration from?”

Dweno, who worshipped beauty, gained inspiration from all beautiful things.

That’s why Dweno’s works were artistic masterpieces that made viewers gasp in admiration.

He gained the most inspiration from Risinass and Luna in particular.

Though not as much as those two, he also gained inspiration from Arron.

But he had said he had never once gained inspiration from Kail.

“That’s right. I thought I couldn’t gain inspiration from you.”

Dweno let out a low laugh.

“You seemed to have no dreams.”

The beauty that Dweno spoke of wasn’t simply outward appearance.

He was a dwarf who considered the process of people pursuing dreams and achieving their aspirations to be the greatest beauty.

Risinass harbored the grand wish to save the world.

Luna had the goal of creating a world blooming with flowers.

Arron dreamed of a world where many children wouldn’t be unhappy.

Dweno too had the dream of leaving behind beautiful artworks.

But Kail had nothing.

“To my eyes, your inner self looked like burnt ashes.”

“That’s not an incorrect assessment.”

Kail let out a chuckle.

When they heard Risinass’s plan to subjugate Erebos.

Luna treated Risinass like he was insane, but didn’t mock his aspirations.

Arron was terrified, but soon showed faith and trust in Risinass.

Dweno was exasperated, but still lent his strength to that grand purpose.

But Kail was different.

When Risinass first came to him, he mocked him, and even until the moment they began their journey together, he mocked Risinass’s dream.

Now he could understand why he had done that.

‘Because I have no dreams.’

He had lived each day struggling desperately.

That’s how he earned the title of the surviving hero.

The cursed hero whose companions all died.

A person with no ideals or goals to pursue, whose only purpose was living day by day.

That’s what Kail thought he was.

“Actually, I really hated that aspect of you.”

Dweno smiled bitterly.

“That’s probably why I turned my eyes away from you even more. I thought you had no beautiful qualities and ignored you.”

“That’s a bit too harsh.”

“Yes. It was a terrible and ugly thing to do.”

Dweno looked down at his own hands.

“Your gray color… reminded me of my past self.”

“Your past self?”

“Yes.”

Dweno clenched his fist.

“People call me a man beloved by fire. But for me, this ability was a curse.”

After awakening his ability as a child.

Dweno said he burned everything he touched.

Everything around Dweno had been desolate.

“It was unfortunate for a dwarf. My flames melted even anvils and hammers.”

A fire monster who wielded flames that even the great fire spirit and Phoenix feared.

A cursed dwarf who turned everything to ashes.

“If nothing around me survived, how did I become an insane dwarf who can’t help himself around beautiful things?”

“I’d appreciate it if you left out the insane dwarf part.”

“Be grateful I didn’t call you a perverted dwarf like Luna does.”

Dweno looked at Kail with displeasure and said.

“One day, I saw her. A beautiful elf woman.”

“So that’s why you’re particularly obsessed with asking Luna to be your model? Because she reminds you of the elf you saw long ago?”

“Don’t compare her to Luna. That would be an insult to her.”

Dweno rarely showed such a serious expression.

Actually, the reason Dweno frequently asked Luna to model was simple.

Because if she just kept her mouth shut, she was truly a beautiful elf incarnate.

“She was a painter. An artist who captured the world’s beautiful scenery in her paintings.”

“She must have been a famous painter?”

“No, she was just a wandering painter. A woman who left her own kind because she was sick of elven society.”

Dweno smiled faintly.

“But the paintings she created were truly beautiful.”

That was the moment when Dweno became captivated by beauty, he said.

“I tried to control my strength so as not to destroy beautiful things. And I succeeded.”

Dweno looked down at his own hands.

“I despise my past self who couldn’t control his strength. The reason I averted my eyes from you was because of my ugly heart trying to turn away from the past.”

Dweno looked at Kail.

“Only recently have I come to look at you, as a human being, properly.”

“So? How is it? Did you see something dream-like that could be inspiring?”

“No, you’re still full of gray. But I could see what I couldn’t see before.”

“What’s that?”

“That despite having nothing, you don’t stop moving forward.”

Dweno’s eyes curved gently.

“And I also learned that the reason for that is for our sake.”

The Kail reflected in Dweno’s eyes was a human who didn’t carry his own burdens.

But he silently carried his companions’ burdens.

“When I realized that, I understood. You too are a person with irreplaceable beauty.”

Dweno smiled broadly.

“The reason Risinass chose you, the reason Luna relies on you most, the reason Arron wanted to become like you. The reason I, who doesn’t make weapons for those I don’t like, crafted weapons only for you.”

Dweno stared directly at Kail’s face.

“It’s because I, as an aesthete, instinctively saw through your beauty.”

Dweno looked smug.

“So that sword is my greatest masterpiece.”

Kail looked at the sword in his hand with slightly surprised eyes.

Dweno doesn’t call the weapons he makes ‘works of art.’

Because Dweno doesn’t particularly like making weapons.

Yet he called this plain longsword a masterpiece.

“That sword is just like you. It doesn’t contain any mana whatsoever. To others, it’s just a hard and sharp iron rod.”

It was excessively shabby for a sword made by Dweno.

Dweno likes everything flashy.

“But… the moment you grasp it, that sword can become anything.”

It could become a powerful weapon or a mighty magic staff.

Or it could become a catalyst for summoning familiars.

“The world’s only… sword made exclusively for an All-Class.”

Kail looked down at the sword.

He could feel the sword responding according to his abilities.

“What’s the sword’s name?”

“Posteritas.”

At Leo’s question, Dweno smiled meaningfully.

“It means future.”

***

“So this sword belonged to Lord Kail.”

Mel was amazed at Leo’s murmur.

“How do later generations evaluate this sword?”

“The dwarves speculate that it might be a failed work left by Master Dweno.”

Dweno’s weapons possess beauty that wouldn’t be strange to call works of art.

Moreover, they maintain their form even after thousands of years have passed.

Of course, the weapons used during the final expedition, which are considered Dweno’s greatest masterpieces, barely remain.

Even those that do remain are on the verge of breaking from fierce battles, but they maintain their form.

However, this sword had the appearance of a crude longsword and no power could be felt from it.

Additionally, it was a sword that didn’t properly maintain its form.

Since the sword’s history was even more unknown, the dwarves considered this sword a failed work made by Dweno.

“To think it was the sword used by Lord Leo.”

When Mel expressed amazement, Leo spoke matter-of-factly.

“This is also the last sword Dweno made.”

“What?”

‘After completing the sword, in battle… Dweno lost his life.’

Leo’s eyes darkened.

‘Move forward, Kail. For those who will follow… create a path. That sword is meant for that purpose.’

Even as his lower body burned away and his life was fading, Dweno spoke those words with eyes blazing like flames.

And carrying on that will.

This sword succeeded in opening the path to the future.

“To think it was Master Dweno’s final weapon…”

Mel was amazed to learn this unknown fact.

Mel, who had been sparkling with eyes like a girl hearing an old tale, suddenly realized something.

“Wait a moment. That means…”

“That’s right.”

Leo reached for the sword.

Whooom-!

Though it was too damaged to be called a sword anymore, it responded to its master’s call, breaking 5000 years of silence.

“This is the sword that defeated Erebos.”

Swoosh-! Clack-!

The sword hanging on the wall flew to Leo’s hand.

As if delighted to be held by its master’s hand after thousands of years.

The sword continued to resonate.

At the same time…

Whooom-! Whooom-!

Dweno’s legacy stored in the armory began to react.

Mel looked around the armory with a startled expression.

Flicker-!

Yellow flames burst from Leo’s hand.

It was Dweno’s flame awakened by Pibua’s divine power dwelling in Polium.

All the weapons here were born from these flames.

‘Dweno didn’t call the things he made works of art.’

Leo looked around at Dweno’s legacy.

‘But that doesn’t mean he didn’t pour affection into them.’

Dweno put his heart into making weapons too.

The reason Dweno is called the Divine Blacksmith.

It’s because his weapons possess will.

Not artificial will created through magical engineering like ego swords.

Pure will dwelling in the weapons.

That will seemed to be crying out for something.

‘These weapons have probably been displayed like this for thousands of years at most, hundreds of years at least.’

From the dwarves’ perspective, these are legacies left by the great Divine Blacksmith, so it can’t be helped.

But would these weapons want to rust away like this?

Whoooosh-

The weapons spat out bright yellow flames.

And in an instant, they returned to their brilliant appearance from the past.

That sight looked like they were crying out that they still had work to do.

At that spectacle, Mel opened her mouth wide.

“I see.”

At that sight, Leo nodded his head.

Previously, Luna had asked why he didn’t call the weapons he made ‘works of art.’

To that, Dweno had answered like this.

‘The essence of weapons is ultimately tools for battle.’

Dweno would say this like a habit while forging weapons.

‘In the end, they’re things that must fight on the battlefield. That’s why I can’t call them works of art.’

Dweno had smiled bitterly.

‘These children… are destined to disappear on the battlefield someday. That might be their greatest happiness.’

“You can still… fight, can’t you?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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