Legendary Hero is an Academy Honors Student - Chapter 686

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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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686.

“Oh? Isn’t that Leo? What brings you here? Did you come here while meeting with Dweno?”

Cal made a pleased expression.

In front of Cal, dwarf and beastkin children were lined up.

The children were receiving candy from Cal one by one.

“Wow!”

“Thank you.”

The children who received candy put them in their mouths and made happy expressions.

Ar was pulling a cart with children on it.

Driana was fixing children’s toys in the middle of the wide yard, and Iliana was crawling around on the ground like a horse with a child on her back.

‘An orphanage.’

“Dweno!”

“Wow! It’s Dweno!”

The children spotted Dweno beside Leo and came rushing over.

“You’re back! Dweno!”

“Have you all been well?”

Dweno smiled and patted each child’s head before asking.

“Where’s Ennitha?”

“She’s inside.”

“She must be drawing.”

The orphanage children gathered around Leo and made curious expressions.

“Wow, are you human too, mister?”

At those words, Leo only nodded without answering.

The children flinched at his somehow cold attitude and hid behind Dweno.

“That personality of yours won’t change even in death, it seems. Would it kill you to be kind to children like those friends of yours?”

“Ar, faster! Faster!”

“Sister! Keep it up!”

“Wooooooh!”

Ar, who was pulling the cart, accelerated even more.

“Giddy up! Giddy up!”

“Um, sister is getting tired, so shouldn’t we rest now?”

“No way!”

The dwarf girl riding on Iliana’s back shook her head.

“Ah! Class President!”

Iliana crawled over to Leo and tugged at his pants.

“Switch with me! My back’s going to give out at this rate!”

“Your back isn’t weak enough to get strained by something like that. Playing with children is also part of a hero’s duty, so hang in there. Or would you rather continue training?”

At those words, Iliana’s face turned pale, then she helped the child on her back down and shouted.

“Next!”

Ar and Iliana, who had become popular toys, played happily with the children.

“This is why people need skills.”

“Right. Otherwise your body suffers.”

Driana and Cal giggled watching that scene.

“How disgusting.”

“What now?”

“Since when have you emphasized being heroic like that?”

At Dweno’s words, Leo shrugged his shoulders.

“Even if I don’t know about the inside, shouldn’t I at least look the part on the outside?”

“Tsk. You’ve picked up bad habits. Is there nothing else to copy that you had to copy Risinass’s con artist tendencies?”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“Even Luna’s shamelessness. You learn all the bad things.”

Dweno made an exasperated expression.

“They say married couples grow alike, but you’re not even in that kind of relationship with those two, are you?”

At those words, Leo turned his gaze forward.

What should he say?

Should he say he’d already met Luna and Risinass and knew both their feelings?

And on top of that, that Risinass had even pulled a marriage scam on him?

Even if he said such things, Dweno’s reaction was obvious.

‘As expected, you’re an idiot.’

There was no need to invite insults.

While thinking that, Dweno approached the orphanage children and said.

“You must be tired, so go rest at the manor.”

At those words, Leo nodded and opened the manor door.

Creak-

Just before stepping into the manor.

He looked back one last time at Dweno playing happily with the children.

When they were in Gardstron.

Risinass, Luna, and Arron often took care of the orphanage children.

Risinass, who believed without doubt that those children were the future.

Luna, who simply enjoyed playing with children.

Arron, who just liked children.

Each had different reasons.

But all three genuinely cared for the children.

‘Those kids followed those three well too.’

But he and Dweno always kept their distance from children.

Leo in his previous life didn’t particularly like children.

‘I don’t like them now either, but.’

Leo didn’t get close to children.

The only children who approached him were Berkia and Bihar.

‘Well, I was always making unpleasant expressions.’

It was natural in a way that they wouldn’t approach because they were scared.

But Dweno was different.

He always looked at children with a kind smile.

Dweno himself didn’t dislike children either.

But he always kept his distance from children.

He maintained a certain line with the orphanage children.

He’d never found that particularly strange.

‘The other guys were the same.’

He just thought Dweno didn’t hate children but didn’t like them enough to care for them warmly either.

But seeing him now, that wasn’t the case.

‘I don’t know Dweno’s past.’

They could trust each other more than anyone.

He would entrust his life to Dweno without hesitation.

Even if he betrayed that trust.

There would be no regrets.

The bond between the Great Heroes was like that.

“Dweno! I drew a flower picture!”

“Haha! You drew better than Ennitha.”

“I don’t think that’s true though.”

Dweno laughed heartily while looking at the flower picture the beastkin girl showed him.

The dwarf boy sitting on the opposite side drawing a picture said.

“But how pretty are real flowers?”

“Very pretty.”

“I heard that vast flower fields are as pretty as the stars in the night sky!”

Seeing the children’s sparkling appearance, Dweno smiled warmly.

In the Age of Calamity, flowers were plants that had almost gone extinct.

This place was also within Tartaros Territory, so it was hard to find flowers.

For these children, flowers were something they had only seen in pictures.

‘Even in Gardstron, they were more precious than magic stones.’

Dweno closed his eyes with a bitter expression.

‘Until some fool completed an utterly absurd magic.’

Snap-!

The sound of fingers snapping was heard.

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

“So pretty!”

The excited cheers of children were heard.

When he opened his eyes, what caught his sight were flowers blooming magnificently.

Dweno unconsciously turned around.

There stood Leo with his characteristic emotionless eyes and indifferent expression.

And with a somehow annoyed-looking face, he went into the room.

“Really now.”

Dweno let out a hollow laugh.

‘There are times when I understand why those fools fell for that idiot.’

***

“Aaaaah! This isn’t right!”

Leo, who had entered the manor and was lying on the sofa in the living room, got up from his seat at the scream coming from the second floor.

He scratched his head vigorously and went up to the second floor.

Upon reaching the second floor, he felt a presence from the room at the very end.

Opening the door and entering, he saw Ennitha’s back as she drew with a haggard face in the small room where sunlight was blocked by curtains.

On the canvas in front of Ennitha was a drawing of flowers.

“What are you doing?”

“Hm? When did you come?”

Ennitha turned around and scratched her messy hair as she spoke.

“Just now. I want to show flowers to the children, but it’s not going well. It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen flowers too.”

The picture on the canvas was well-drawn enough.

But it was a flower that didn’t feel alive.

Besides that, the pictures hanging here and there in the room were full of flower paintings and sunrise paintings.

“You must like flowers?”

“Not really.”

“It’s my first time seeing an elf who doesn’t like flowers.”

Elves who pursue harmony with nature like flowers.

Because it’s natural beauty, not artificial beauty.

“Hmph. I just like the sun the most.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s pretty.”

Leo chuckled at Ennitha giving such a simple reason and drew back the curtains.

“Then focus on drawing the sun. The flowers have already bloomed.”

“What?”

Ennitha’s eyes widened as she looked outside the window.

“What? What? What are these flowers?”

A magnificently bloomed flower field.

Seeing the children playing in it, Ennitha was amazed.

“It’s magic.”

“Magic? It’s not illusion magic though?”

“It’s magic that makes flowers bloom.”

“There’s such magic?”

“It’s magic created by some foolish elf.”

It’s magic that was born in the distant past for Leo, and in the not-so-distant future for Ennitha.

“Wow~ If I had known this would happen, should I have tried learning magic?”

Ennitha, who had been admiring, looked at Leo.

“Did you use this magic?”

“That’s right.”

“Amazing.”

Ennitha, who had been admiring, said.

“I’m glad we… more precisely, I could meet you.”

“Suddenly?”

When Leo made a puzzled expression, Ennitha smiled bitterly.

“Yeah. I’m grateful. Thanks to you, I felt that Dweno finally got a companion.”

“A companion.”

Leo crossed his arms and leaned against the window, looking at Dweno visible outside as he spoke.

“So you’re saying you’re not Dweno’s companion?”

“Before being a companion, I’m a burden.”

Ennitha made a self-deprecating smile.

“It’s not just me. Everyone in Isvaldi is nothing but a burden to Dweno.”

Ennitha continued speaking while washing her brush in the water container.

“You know it too. Dweno’s overwhelming strength.”

He knew better than anyone.

Because Dweno was the great hero who saved the world together with him.

A steel-like will that seemed like it would never waver or bend.

Even Risinass, who was initially terrified and said he couldn’t let Dweno into the party, and Luna, who always grumbled.

Even Arron, who was always scared and needed something to rely on.

‘Even I myself.’

When wavering.

Or when bending.

With that steel-like will, he hammered them to instill an even stronger will and straightened out the bent parts.

Dweno wasn’t simply a smith who made the weapons they used.

He was the hammer that made them sharper and harder.

‘The past doesn’t matter.’

Because he didn’t want to reveal it himself.

But.

Facing Dweno’s past like this, he felt pathetic for only relying on him.

Ennitha said.

“He always couldn’t fight properly to protect us. We’ve always held Dweno back.”

“Did Dweno say that?”

“No. He never said such things, but…”

Ennitha shook her head.

“Being with you, who has equal strength, Dweno definitely unleashed all his power.”

Ennitha clenched her fist.

“He says he’s not, but. Dweno definitely has the power to save this world. Everyone in Isvaldi believes that.”

“So you’re glad to have met me?”

“Yeah.”

Leo chuckled softly.

“You’re not Dweno’s burden.”

“What?”

“The people of Isvaldi are the same.”

It didn’t take deep thought to understand how profoundly this elf had influenced the life of that damned self-proclaimed perverted artist.

The driving force behind that steel-like will that had sustained them, that had never wavered, was right before his eyes.

Ennitha’s.

Carrying the hopes of the people of Isvaldi, he had moved forward without wavering.

‘Just as I had done.’

Until the final moment.

Even until the moment they closed their eyes, they would have believed in Dweno.

‘Just as you had done.’

“Just as you believe in Dweno, Dweno believes in you too. So don’t talk about being a burden or anything like that.”

Leo looked at Ennitha.

“Dweno will answer your faith.”

“What do you mean?”

“That guy is going to save the world.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I know the future.”

“What?”

Ennitha’s eyes widened.

Ennitha, who had been looking at Leo with a bewildered face, exclaimed in admiration.

“Wow, I almost really fell for that.”

“It’s true though.”

“Amazing. If this were a peaceful era, you would have become an incredible con artist. Where did you learn something like that?”

Watching the admiring Ennitha, Leo looked out the window at Dweno with a serious expression.

‘Am I really starting to resemble that con artist lizard like he said?’

***

Thud-! Thud-!

The ground shakes just from taking steps.

Living creatures around die just from his existence.

Giant King Gias looked at the runaway world spread before his eyes and smiled.

“I’ll make you regret coming to my world, surviving hero.”

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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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