Chapter 137
“Ah, Sir Akint! So, um, this is—”
Luna stammered as she looked at Leo.
Leo, who had frozen, snapped back to his senses at her words.
‘Akint?’
Leo’s eyes darted as he pondered to get a grasp of the situation.
“It’s true I skipped class, but, um… it was for magic research, I guess? That’s why I skipped!”
Young Luna blurted out her excuse in a rush.
Leo, stroking his chin as he listened to her, suddenly caught sight of his reflection in the large hallway window.
After seeing his faint reflection, he figured out the situation.
‘I see. This is a possession type.’
The Hero’s World comes in many forms.
Right now, Leo had entered a version where he possessed the body of a real person from history.
In other words, Leo’s soul had entered the body of someone named Akint.
Fortunately, Akint was someone Leo knew of.
‘Akint Rubesha. He was one of Luna’s magic teachers.’
He’d never met him during his time as Kyle.
When Kyle met Luna, Akint had already passed away.
He was someone Luna often mentioned when sharing stories from her past.
Remembering how Luna used to talk about him as a savior and father figure, Leo knelt down.
He helped Luna gather the books she had dropped.
Seeing this, Luna’s eyes widened.
“Where are you going?”
“Huh?”
“Where are you headed?”
“You’re not mad?”
“It’s not the first time you’ve snuck out of class, is it?”
“Ugh.”
Luna flinched at Leo’s words.
Leo laughed at her reaction and easily picked up the pile of books Luna could barely carry.
“I’ll help you.”
Luna was flustered by Leo’s unexpected help, but soon, delighted not to be scolded, she started humming.
‘She’s just as simple now as she was when she was older.’
He couldn’t help but laugh at this side of Luna he’d never known.
Now known as the compassionate Founder of the Nebula, Luna—
‘Compassionate? She was just an eccentric troublemaker.’
Her personality was always very simple and had a lot of quirky sides.
‘If today’s elves saw what Luna was really like, they’d be shocked.’
Leo shook his head, thinking about how Luna was depicted in fairy tales and historical texts.
But when something caught her interest, she would chase it without hesitation.
Star Magic was also born from her desire to become a great mage.
Leo smiled wryly as he watched Luna, bouncing along with light steps, full of good spirits.
‘I’d like to talk to her…’
But they couldn’t have a deep conversation.
The Luna of now was from long before she ever met Kyle.
Leo knew Luna, but she didn’t know him.
Even if it was just within the Hero’s World, Leo felt a pang of regret that they couldn’t share memories after finally meeting like this.
Before he knew it, Luna had stopped in front of a room.
It was a shabby storage room.
“Here it is, Sir Akint. Please give me the magic books. I’ll study here.”
At her words, Leo handed the stack of magic books to Luna.
The pile was so high it blocked her view.
Leo opened the storage room door for her.
“Thank you, Sir Akint!”
Luna grinned and stepped inside.
“Kyaa!”
But she tripped and fell flat.
Leo laughed as he closed the door.
He wanted to spend more time with her, but he had things to do.
‘First, I need to understand this Hero Dungeon. And I have to find the other three who came in with me.’
Step, step—
Leo walked down the hallway.
‘I definitely passed through the Warp Gate to Guardslone and then came right into the Hero Dungeon, didn’t I?’
Leo narrowed his eyes, recalling what happened just before entering the Hero Dungeon.
He recalled what he’d learned at Lumene about Hero Dungeons.
‘A Hero Dungeon happens when the Hero Record goes berserk, right?’
At first, the Hero Dungeon only creates an ‘entrance’ by invading a part of reality.
But if the rampage continues, the Hero Dungeon distorts reality itself.
If it’s cleared quickly, it’s fine, but if it’s left alone, the Hero Dungeon turns into a disaster.
‘Monsters from the Hero Dungeon can spill into reality and cause chaos.’
The phenomenon can also overtake the entire surrounding area.
‘This world is Luna’s world right now.’
Even though their names had been erased upon entry, he was sure.
Barharloon.
This was the name of the elven city that existed before the Age of Calamity.
‘To be exact, it was a massive academy.’
Only chosen elves could enter Barharloon.
At this time, graduating from Barharloon meant being recognized as a High Elf.
And like Seiren now, Barharloon was a place that trained certain candidates.
‘Elf King.’
The king of elves wasn’t determined by bloodline but was selected from among the High Elves.
After the Age of Calamity, the title of Elf King disappeared.
Along with it, Barharloon was forgotten by history.
‘Luna was about fifteen years old at this time, I think?’
Luna’s time at Barharloon was before the Age of Calamity.
‘What did Luna accomplish during this period?’
Even Leo didn’t know exactly what feats Luna had achieved in this era.
A prodigy of magic, Luna was, in every sense, a legendary elf.
‘She always bragged about how amazing she was in school.’
Leo tried to recall the feats Luna had boasted about from her school days.
They were all so impressive that it just made his head spin even more.
Leo scratched his head.
‘Anyway, I need to reunite with Lunia, Elena, and Haddin.’
Just as he had possessed Akint’s body, the other three must have possessed someone else’s body.
‘If that’s the case, it’ll be hard to find them since they’ll look different.’
“Sir Akint! What are you doing here?”
“Hm?”
Hearing hurried footsteps, Leo turned around.
He saw an elf man in his early twenties standing there.
“Who are you?”
“This is no time for jokes! You’re late for class! All the students are up in arms and protesting!”
Leo scratched his head at that.
‘Oh right, I’m a teacher.’
His head had been full of thoughts about the Hero Dungeon, so he’d forgotten.
‘To conquer the Hero’s World properly, I have to fulfill the role I’ve been assigned.’
In possession-type Hero Worlds, you had to become the person you possessed.
As a teacher at Barharloon, he couldn’t afford any mistakes.
If anything went wrong, the conquest of the Hero’s World could end right there.
‘This is a lot more complicated than the other worlds I’ve experienced.’
With a sigh, Leo followed the elf who had come to get him to the classroom.
The place he arrived at was a massive training ground.
Elves were lined up in formation.
“Sorry I’m late.”
At Leo’s words, an elf who seemed to be the representative voiced his displeasure.
“Being late is not something you can just apologize for, Sir Akint!”
The other elves nodded at his outburst.
“We are all candidates for Elf King! We are here with the pride of our houses and race! But for our teacher to neglect us like this—how can we trust and follow you?”
At this strong rebuke, Leo asked,
“So, what do you want?”
“We want you replaced, sir!”
“We want you replaced!”
At his shout, the other students echoed.
Leo looked at them in disbelief.
‘They want to replace a teacher just for being a little late? Are these kids insane?’
Besides, according to Luna, Akint was an excellent teacher.
“What’s your name?”
“…? That’s a strange question. Hirkian Bethron.”
‘Hirkian? That guy?’
Leo’s eyes turned cold.
They’d never met.
But he was someone Kyle knew.
During the Age of Calamity, he was a notorious elf.
‘Hirkian Bethron, the Kin-Slayer.’
Bethron was a noble house of elves that existed before the Age of Calamity.
It was a house that produced many Elf Kings and had immense influence over elven society.
‘The Bethron house became the elves’ disaster.’
Barharloon didn’t disappear from elven history just because it was old.
It was because the surviving elves hated Barharloon.
‘During Tartarus’s first invasion, the mighty elven forces crumbled, and eventually Barharloon itself surrendered to Tartarus.’
The High Elves, who always prided themselves on their honor, were the first to betray their race and the surface, turning their blades on their own kin.
‘Not all High Elves betrayed their people, though.’
There were proud High Elves, led by the Fairy Knight, who protected their race to the end.
But the fact that even the proudest of elves turned their backs on their people was a huge shock.
Because of this, the term ‘High Elf’ became an insult among elves during the Age of Calamity.
The title of Elf King became an object of ridicule.
In the end, both Barharloon and the Elf King faded into the shadows of history.
The very one who led that betrayal was standing right before him.
Full of pride, he thought his family’s background gave him the right to sway even the teachers of Barharloon.
“I don’t see how being a little late justifies replacing your teacher.”
Leo spoke coldly.
“What’s the real reason?”
Hirkian flinched at Leo’s frosty tone.
But he quickly raised his chin as if unwilling to back down.
“Because you, sir, lack the qualifications to be a proud teacher of Barharloon.”
“And the reason?”
“Because you show favoritism toward ‘Luna Lubinence,’ who is the shame of our race.”
A murderous intent flickered in Leo’s eyes.
As someone who had saved the world, Leo could never accept anyone calling Luna the shame of their race.
Especially not if those words came from Hirkian.
‘Forget about the Hero Dungeon—I ought to smash him right now…’
As Leo gritted his teeth—
“How dare you call someone the shame of our race?”
A chilling voice rang out.
Everyone’s eyes turned to a male student.
Though he was small and frail, he radiated a deadly aura that didn’t match his appearance.
“How could an elf say such nonsense! Do you even know who she is?”
At the sight of the boy’s instinctive, fierce anger, Leo instantly knew who he was.
This was long before Luna became a hero of the elves.
For him to react this way—
‘Lunia… No, that’s probably that Haddin from Seiren’s third year.’
—
A tower at the outskirts of Barharloon.
At the top, called the Tower of the Gods, a man gazed listlessly up at the sky.
“How curious.”
Life returned to his bored face.
“Spirits blessed by the gods, huh.”