Legendary Hero is an Academy Honors Student - Chapter 9

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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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9

“We have to conquer a world? That doesn’t make any sense!”

Chelsea shook her head as she walked behind Leo.

“Conquering Heroes’ World is difficult even for Lumern students, and they want admission candidates to do it?”

She was right.

Conquering Heroes’ World was no easy task even for hero candidates who received the finest education at Lumern.

And yet they were asking exam candidates to do something so difficult.

It was an absurd story.

But Leo thought differently.

“We’re being tested for our qualifications as heroes right now, aren’t we?”

“Yeah.”

“Then we should naturally be able to do what heroes are supposed to do, right? Besides, if it’s a test, the trials will be given within a range we can overcome.”

Chelsea hesitated at those words.

‘He’s certainly not wrong.’

“Hmm! Then what would the conquest conditions be? If it’s a trial at a level exam candidates can conquer, it would probably be Albi’s early achievements. But almost nothing is known about the Demon Eye Mage’s activities.”

Leo chuckled as he watched Chelsea cross her arms and rack her brain.

‘She’s excellent.’

Chelsea was a girl with outstanding abilities and strong pride as someone from a renowned family.

Usually, such children tend not to listen to their peers.

But Chelsea listened to Leo’s words, thought they made sense, and immediately began thinking about conquest strategies.

‘Her thinking is flexible. That’s a good trait for a mage.’

Still immature, but thinking she was a girl befitting a hero candidate, Leo spoke.

“The conquest condition is most likely subjugation.”

“That’s definitely true.”

Chelsea nodded.

If it was an achievement made in a place where monsters appeared, it would surely involve defeating something.

And Leo had a guess about what they needed to defeat.

‘Given the timing, it could be something else though.’

Leo, who had been clenching and unclenching his fists while looking at the monster corpses earlier, grabbed Chelsea’s wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

It was when Chelsea made a prickly expression at Leo’s sudden action.

Whoosh—!

Leo pulled Chelsea toward himself.

Thwack thwack thwack—!

Two arrows flew and embedded themselves where Chelsea had been standing.

Chelsea’s eyes widened when she saw this.

And then…

“Huh? Huh?”

Wobble—! Thud!

“Ow!”

She lost her balance and fell on her bottom.

Chelsea wiped away the tears that had welled up as she rubbed her bottom, then glared fiercely.

“If you were going to pull me, you should have caught me so I wouldn’t fall!”

“Oh, sorry. I thought you’d get angry if I hugged you carelessly.”

“Letting me fall like this makes me even angrier!”

“So where’s my thank you?”

“Hmph! Even without you, arrows like that couldn’t have hurt me!”

“They were infused with aura though.”

Chelsea hesitated at Leo’s point.

“M-my pre-memorized shield magic would have blocked them!”

Though Chelsea said that, she soon spoke in a sulky voice.

“A-anyway, thanks.”

Leo burst into laughter at her reaction.

“Tch!”

“We could have taken down Chelsea Rwallin!”

Other exam candidates emerged from the bushes, glaring at Leo and Chelsea.

“You guys.”

When Chelsea stepped forward, the group of five exam candidates showed tense expressions.

“Don’t fight, let’s cooperate with us.”

“What?”

They showed bewildered expressions at Chelsea’s sudden words.

“Your party is made up of only knights, right? Having me, a mage, join the party wouldn’t be bad, would it? Then cooperating would be the right choice, wouldn’t it?”

Despite being attacked just moments ago, Chelsea proposed cooperation without showing any particular signs of displeasure.

Since it was a test anyway, trying to eliminate others was natural.

‘If it were a test about eliminating others, I would have attacked mercilessly, but now we need to conquer Heroes’ World.’

When Chelsea looked back at him as if asking for his opinion, Leo also nodded.

“Cooperating would…”

“We’re only knights, but we can attack from range, so our party balance is fine.”

“Huh?”

Then the exam candidate who seemed to be the leader sneered.

“You’re only two people, aren’t you? If we fight now, we’re much more advantageous.”

“Right, even if you boast about being from Renowned Hero Families, you’re the same age as us!”

“Who doesn’t know you proposed cooperation because you’re scared?”

Mistaking that Chelsea had come crawling to them, their momentum rose.

“If we defeat you, one powerful admission candidate disappears! So why should we cooperate with you?”

“Right! Right!”

Watching them take battle stances, Chelsea was about to say something.

“Stop it, they won’t listen to reason anymore anyway.”

“But still.”

Chelsea felt frustrated with the other exam candidates who wouldn’t even listen to explanations.

Leo drew his sword and said.

“If they want a fight, we should give them one.”

“Can’t be helped.”

Chelsea sighed and raised her staff.

Watching such Chelsea, Leo said.

“You support me from behind.”

“What?”

“Wasting mana on small fry like that is wasteful.”

“Are you sane? They use aura though?”

“Leave it to me.”

“Hmph. I don’t care if you get hurt.”

Though she spoke coldly, Chelsea was thinking of helping Leo if he got into danger.

‘I need to repay the debt from earlier.’

Chelsea fidgeted with her staff.

Meanwhile, the other exam candidates looked at Leo and twisted their faces.

“What are you?”

“You’re going to face us alone?”

“Yeah. Please go easy on me.”

“This bastard!”

The exam candidate with a bow, thinking Leo was looking down on him, immediately drew his bowstring.

Whoosh-!

An arrow without aura flew toward Leo.

He decided to save aura arrows for the fight with Chelsea, as they would waste aura.

‘If he dodges, there’ll be an opening! Then we can surround him and finish it…’

Grab-!

“…!”

“This isn’t the time to conserve your strength.”

Leo, who caught the arrow, spoke indifferently as he snapped it in half.

“Im, impossible! You caught my arrow with your bare hands…!”

Whoosh-!

Before the examinee could finish speaking, Leo charged forward.

“Bl, block him!”

“Surround him!”

Leo’s eyes instantly tracked the trajectories of swords flying at him from all directions.

However, the examinees couldn’t focus entirely on Leo.

‘Even without participating in battle, her mere presence serves as a deterrent.’

Unlike the unknown Leo, Chelsea was a named-level examinee, so their attention was inevitably drawn to her.

‘I’m grateful for that.’

Clang- Thud!

“Guhk?”

Leo deflected a sword and immediately drove his fist into the solar plexus.

“This bastard! There was no sign of him using aura?!”

“Of course not. It’s just my bare body.”

Leo spoke matter-of-factly to his confused opponent as he spun his body.

The opponent targeting Leo’s back was flustered by Leo’s movements, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

Thud-!

“Gwek!”

Leo kicked the examinee targeting his back in the ribs and aimed for the remaining examinees.

“Use aura!”

“Damn it!”

Leo overwhelmed five people by himself.

Meanwhile, Chelsea, who was watching from behind, widened her eyes.

‘Wow, how can he move like that without even using aura?’

Though she was a mage, Chelsea trained hard in martial arts as she aspired to be a battle mage.

That’s why she could vaguely understand how close to miraculous Leo’s movements were.

‘He’s cool!’

Chelsea was startled when she felt her heart racing.

‘No! He’s the guy who was hanging around with Selia Jerdinger! Get it together, Chelsea!’

Even as she shook her head vigorously, Chelsea couldn’t take her eyes off Leo.

***

Many applicants were quickly eliminated.

It was the result of moving recklessly to eliminate competitors.

‘They probably think they moved proactively in their own way.’

In the waiting area for eliminated students, he could see those proudly bragging about how many they had taken down.

Of course, how many they defeated had little to do with the actual test.

An hour had now passed since the test began.

Out of 569 applicants, only about fifty remained.

“Master Albi. Those applicants are all…”

“Eliminated.”

Seeing Albi speak coldly, the aide dispatched from Lumern showed a flustered expression.

“B, but Master Albi. They are also sufficiently excellent talents. Moreover, on average, about a hundred students are selected in one test…”

Albi’s cold gaze turned toward the aide.

The aide gasped at that look.

“When the principal appointed me as examiner, I said the exact same thing as you. That if he appointed me as examiner, all those who didn’t meet my standards would be eliminated. Yet he still entrusted me with the examiner position.”

“Hmm!”

“As an examiner, which students I pass is the examiner’s authority. So let’s not discuss this matter any further.”

Albi, who spoke decisively, turned his gaze to the magic mirror.

What entered his sight was none other than Leo.

‘It seems he’s noticed the anomaly in the forest.’

Albi touched his left eye.

‘I wonder if he can truly conquer that world?’

***

“Chelsea, you’re safe.”

“Of course, brother.”

About two hours after the test began.

Leo was able to safely join Selia and Avad’s party.

“You’re safe as expected. But why are you with Chelsea Rwallin?”

“We met early in the test and cooperated.”

“Huh? She has considerable pride and stubbornness, so she wouldn’t cooperate willingly.”

“I persuaded her well.”

Seeing Leo’s meaningful smile, Selia muttered to herself.

‘What did he do?’

Through a week of living together, Selia had well grasped this cousin’s cunning nature.

“You were calling her butter and annoying, yet you traveled together.”

“I couldn’t fight recklessly without knowing the test passing criteria.”

Selia answered, running her hand through her hair.

“Anyway, we have quite a large group.”

“Avad and I can move quickly. So we roamed the forest gathering people to cooperate with. Well, most are from the Rodren Empire.”

The two great families of the Rodren Empire.

When Jerdinger and Rwallin recommended cooperation, no one from the Empire would refuse.

“Well done.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I think I know how to pass this test.”

“Oh? You figured it out?”

Selia’s eyes lit up.

“World conquest.”

“World conquest?”

Selia tilted her head.

Then she nodded.

“Come to think of it, this test is too unusual. It wouldn’t be strange even if it involved world conquest.”

“Right?”

“Then there’s one problem. What exactly are the conquest conditions?”

Heroes’ Worlds have conquest conditions.

This was also why the study of heroics was important.

The act of investigating and researching heroes’ deeds directly led to methods for conquering Heroes’ Worlds.

However, while there are heroes with heroic tales, there are also heroes without them.

Especially the worlds of living heroes are rarely conquered.

Even if conquered, there are no rewards, and only the hero themselves can open the world.

Heroes’ Worlds that others can open by fulfilling conditions belong only to heroes of the past.

“Albi is a hero with high fame, but his past deeds are hardly revealed. There’s nothing that could serve as a conquest clue.”

“I have a hunch about that part too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Leo sighed.

“Right now, the Monster Forest is in an abnormal state.”

“Abnormal?”

“Yeah. Don’t you think too few monsters are appearing for the Monster Forest?”

“Certainly….”

Originally, monster attacks should continue relentlessly without pause for it to be normal.

But in Albi’s world, the frequency of monster appearances was too low.

‘As if they’re scared of something?’

Selia’s face grew serious as she thought that far.

“Probably a higher-tier monster that could frighten the forest’s monsters has appeared.”

“So Albi accomplished his great feat by subjugating it?”

“That’s right.”

“What could be a higher-tier monster that would frighten the entire Monster Forest? I’ve never seen any records of such an anomaly.”

“That’s….”

Just as Leo was about to answer Selia’s question.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-!”

A scream echoed from the distance.

“It seems like it’s appeared.”

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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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