Legendary Hero is an Academy Honors Student - Chapter 379
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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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379.
“Great God of Shadows, may I ask why you have sought me out?”
There was no longer any sign of him gauging Leo.
From the moment Kirin met Leo directly, his attitude had completely changed.
Kneeling, Kirin looked up at Leo with his hands pressed together.
A reverent attitude as if offering prayers to a god.
Leo, leaning back in his chair with his chin propped up, clicked his tongue.
“I’m not some kind of god, you know?”
“No, you are like a god to us. You who saved all shadows are an absolute light.”
Judging by his outward appearance alone, Leo was still just a sixteen-year-old boy.
Of course, his achievements were remarkable.
Not only had he become Lumern’s student council president as a mere first-year, but he had proven he possessed power befitting a student council president as a second-year.
The Hero Records he had conquered were also extraordinary.
Leo had officially conquered Luna and Dweno’s worlds.
Unofficially, during his first-year summer vacation, he had attended Ajonia’s entrance exam and conquered Arron’s world as well.
Even those who had achieved feats recognized by gods and became heroes might not be given the opportunity to conquer a Great Hero’s world in their entire lifetime, yet Leo had already conquered three Great Heroes’ worlds.
That wasn’t the end of it.
He had even been recognized by Seirun, the Comet Mage, one of the Heroes of Genesis.
People in the world no longer saw Leo as simply a hero candidate.
They believed without doubt that Leo would soon add his name to the Hero Records and become a hero.
All of this was what was known ‘publicly.’
Looking deeper, there was another Hero Record unknown to the world.
The master of the Shadow Book and the master of the Shan Empire.
‘Even that alone is remarkable, but…’
Kirin smiled as he looked up at Leo.
As a Shadow Lord, she had spent a long time slaughtering traitors and demons in the darkness.
Due to the nature of shadows, her existence was unknown to the world.
But Kirin was someone who possessed experience and power that could overwhelm even heroes whose names were recorded in the Hero Records.
Just Leo’s skills in the fighting arena that she had seen in the footage were enough to make her admire that he was worthy of becoming Shan’s master.
But facing him directly like this, she could feel Leo’s true nature that couldn’t be known from footage alone.
What she felt most clearly was the darkness coiled beyond Leo’s red eyes.
A darkness whose end even she, a Shadow Lord, couldn’t fathom.
And a mere sixteen-year-old boy was harboring that.
An incomprehensible, unknown existence who possessed both brilliant light as a hero and unfathomable darkness as a shadow.
‘If such a person isn’t a god, then what should I call him?’
Leo saw something dwelling in Kirin’s eyes as she looked up at him and sighed.
‘She’s crazy in a different way from Anyas.’
Anyas, the daughter of the Northern Shadow Lord, had also followed Leo from the moment she first saw him.
That was the result of Anyas’s beliefs.
To become a servant who serves a noble hero who doesn’t hesitate to step into filthy things for the world.
That was the ideal and belief that Anyas had harbored as a shadow for a long time, and Leo was someone who matched that, so she decided to follow Leo.
Anyas regarded Leo as a great hero who would drive evil from the world.
But Kirin was looking at Leo purely as a shadow.
Leo could understand what kind of beliefs she held as a shadow.
‘Thoroughly annihilate everything that threatens the world from the darkness.’
She wouldn’t follow heroes like other shadows.
Someone who lived by her own beliefs.
And with the creation of the Shadow Book, such beliefs came to be recognized.
Shadows had risen to the same level as heroes.
Kirin clearly regarded Leo, who made this possible and was the ultimate shadow, as a god.
‘I can tell by looking at her eyes.’
Leo knew beings who had such eyes.
An emotion that couldn’t be found in modern times.
The distant past.
An emotion that could only be seen before the Age of Calamity and in the Age of Gods.
‘The Elven purists had similar eyes.’
What dwelt in Kirin’s eyes was fanaticism bordering on madness that went beyond faith.
‘It doesn’t seem like I can reason with her. Well, but it doesn’t seem like she’ll particularly harm me either.’
Knowing that reasoning didn’t work with this type, Leo decided to leave her be.
“We came to explore the underground labyrinth.”
“Granting entry permission isn’t difficult, but you probably won’t find what you’re looking for. There are no Hero Dungeons here.”
“I know. What I want to obtain is a treasure left by Rodia, the Dragon of Genesis.”
“The Dragon of Genesis?”
Chen Xia, who had been watching the conversation from Leo’s side, widened her eyes.
“The Dragon of Genesis. A treasure left by Lord Rodia… We’ve been specially managing it because we thought it was dangerous, as we could feel a powerful dark force beyond the seal at the end of this labyrinth, but I never thought that seal was meant to protect a treasure left by Lord Rodia, the Dragon of Genesis.”
“You can feel a dark force?”
“Yes.”
At Kirin’s answer, Leo fell into thought.
‘Larel said she heard that Rodia left something related to Risinass in this treasure room. And you can feel a dark force from that place?’
Risinass, the Dragon of Wisdom.
The leader of the Great Heroes and the great dragon who led the world to salvation.
All Great Heroes are special, but Risinass is even more special.
If asked to name the most noble person in this world, Leo would choose Risinass without hesitation.
That wasn’t because she tried to save the world.
‘The Age of Calamity was an era when everything fell.’
It was an era when everyone fell endlessly into corruption.
An era when they lost their nobility and became endlessly ugly.
Conscience and humanity were objects of ridicule.
Even in such times, there were those who shone.
Luna, Arron, and Dweno were such people.
Because they didn’t lose their light, they would have joined the subjugation force without any hesitation.
But even they couldn’t think of saving the world.
No, even they turned away from the world of that time because it was so filthy.
Risinass shouldered all of that and tried to save the world.
She didn’t hesitate to save even those who were already corrupted and fallen.
She smiled and said that if they saw light and hope, they would regain their original form.
If Kail was the Hero of the Beginning who ended the Age of Calamity and opened a new era.
Risinass was the beginning of salvation who led the world to light.
More wise and noble than anyone else.
Risinass, who was loving until the end.
But even she had one part of herself that she disliked.
Risinass’s complex that only Leo knew.
‘Darkness.’
Risinass was a black dragon.
And black dragons were a dragon race that fed on darkness.
During the Age of Calamity, the first to fall into corruption were the dragons.
After endless corruption, there were many dragons who turned their backs on the world.
They couldn’t be blamed.
What they did during the Age of Gods was exactly what Kail did, and what shadows do now.
The race most familiar with darkness, excluding demons.
It was a black dragon that had devoured the demons of Tartaros and traitors to grow its power.
That’s why Risinass truly hated the darkness she harbored within herself.
The long journey of defeating Tartaros and subjugating Erebos.
Throughout that journey, Risinass left behind tremendous achievements as both a mage and summoner.
People of the current era remember Risinass as the strongest summoner in history.
Indeed, the basic concepts of necromancy, beast summoning, and spirit magic used in the current era were all created by Risinass.
Risinass was somewhat undervalued in terms of magic-related achievements.
If it weren’t for Luna, the one revered as the greatest mage in magical history would undoubtedly be Risinass.
She reinterpreted the curses of Tartaros demons to develop dragon language magic.
At the same time, she also created the framework for existing dragon language magic.
‘If I had to name Risinass’s greatest achievement, it would be making the unique magic of each dragon clan usable by all dragons.’
Originally, the unique magic of fire dragons could only be used by fire dragons, but in the current era, fire dragons use the unique magic of water dragons.
‘That influence is largely why dragons are called the strongest race.’
They were already a powerful race, but now the status of dragons is even greater than it was during the age of gods.
However, the one magic Risinass never left behind was the unique magic of ‘black dragons.’
It was magic that even Leo, who was her companion, didn’t know.
Risinass believed that if she had embraced her identity as a black dragon, she wouldn’t have been able to save this world.
‘That was also true.’
If Risinass had cut off those she deemed worthless without hesitation, this world couldn’t have been saved.
Because she could embrace the ugly aspects of the world, she was able to save it.
And it was Kail who took on that role for Risinass.
‘I was the most suitable person for it.’
Even if one becomes tainted with ugliness, one cannot carry along those who cross the line.
It was Kail who executed them.
‘I used to worry needlessly.’
Leo smiled bitterly as he recalled the past.
And he pondered seriously.
‘If it’s the power of darkness related to Risinass… it might be the unique magic of black dragons that he never told me about.’
Magic he hadn’t revealed even to himself.
But that unique magic might have been passed down to Rodia, who conquered Risinass’s world.
Given the nature of Hero Record, any of Risinass’s powers that Leo didn’t know about could easily be inherited.
It was when Leo reached that conclusion.
Swish-
A beastman male revealed himself from the darkness.
Leo, Chen Xia, and Kirin, who had sensed that presence, looked at the man calmly.
“Master.”
“What is it?”
“A report came in that signs of a Hero Dungeon rampage have been detected in Monster Forest.”
At those words, Leo’s eyes stirred.
***
Step- Step-
On a dark night in Gardstron.
Kail, who had come home with his entire body stained with blood, discovered Risinass sitting on a chair in the desolate garden.
Risinass noticed Kail and stood up.
“Welcome back, Kail.”
“What are you doing in a place like this? It’s late at night.”
“I heard from Dweno. That you…”
Risinass gritted her teeth.
“Went to execute the traitors. I was waiting because I was worried.”
“You worry too much. Compared to the monsters of Tartaros, dealing with those kinds of traitors is nothing. So you don’t need to worry.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Risinass reached out her hand to stop Kail, who was trying to pass by her and enter the house.
Kail avoided Risinass’s touch.
Risinass’s hand cut through empty air.
Watching the flustered Risinass, Kail shook his head.
“I’m too dirty for your hands to touch.”
He didn’t want Risinass to touch his body.
More precisely, he didn’t like the idea of the traitors’ blood getting on Risinass.
On this foolish one who was already embracing everything in this world.
Kail absolutely couldn’t tolerate the blood of trash not even worth pity getting on her.
At those words, Risinass furrowed her brow.
Then she sighed and forcibly grabbed Kail’s hand.
“You’re absolutely not dirty. It’s you, isn’t it?”
Holding the scarred and bloodstained hand, Risinass smiled with affection.
“For me, for our friends, for the world. These are the hands that step into darkness. They’re absolutely not dirty.”
At her gentle but firm voice, Kail smiled bitterly.
“Rather, I’m worried. If you keep doing things like this… I’m afraid your power of purity might become tainted.”
“If it could be tainted by something like this, it would have been tainted long ago.”
Kail chuckled.
Without realizing it, he reached out his hand to pat the head of his companion who was making a worried expression.
At that, Risinass flinched.
“Ah, is your head off-limits?”
“No! It’s fine.”
“Before, when I patted Luna’s head with bloody hands, she made a huge fuss.”
“That’s because she’s picky!”
“No, you’d feel bad about it too.”
Kail opened the door.
“Then I’ll wait. After you wash…”
“It’s too late. What are you going to wait for after I wash?”
“Well, I mean. It’s not that I’m waiting for anything specific. I mean, since it’s so late, I’ll impose on your house for the night. That’s what I meant.”
“Won’t you be uncomfortable staying with me? With spatial movement magic, you’d arrive at your house right away anyway. You don’t need to worry about me too much. So just get some good rest today. You must be tired, right?”
During the day today, Risinass had subjugated the demons that invaded Gardstron.
Kail considerately went inside the house and closed the door.
Looking at the door that closed coldly, Risinass grabbed her head.
“Idiot! Why did I flinch from being nervous for no reason…!”
While Kail often patted Luna’s head, he had never once patted Risinass’s head.
The reason was simple.
Before being Kail’s friend and companion, Risinass was the leader.
The rigid Kail, even when they bickered and he made rude comments calling her a lizard or whatever, clearly respected Risinass as a leader through his actions.
From Risinass’s perspective, it was completely unnecessary and annoying respect.
That’s why she sometimes envied Kail and Luna, who seemed as close as siblings.
But when he tried to pat her head for the first time, she got nervous for no reason and missed that opportunity.
Risinass, who had been blaming herself, opened the door and gritted her teeth.
As a noble dragon, she didn’t like vulgar language.
But at times like this, there was one word that came out of her mouth without her realizing it.
“What a fucking idiot.”
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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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