Chapter 151
[Conquest Reward: Polium]
The list of conquest rewards unfolded before my eyes.
Fwoosh-!
Thud! Plop-!
In a flash of bright light, four people appeared in midair.
“W-wait?”
Lunia’s flustered shout rang out.
Unlike the usual Hero’s World, a Hero Dungeon, once cleared, spits out the conquerors randomly around the area.
“Oh my, looks like Miss Lunia is the lucky one.”
Elena smiled as she watched Lunia flail in the air.
Leo, Elena, and Haddin landed safely on the ground, but Lunia fell straight down.
She tried to use magic in her panic but didn’t have time.
Plop-!
Leo caught Lunia in his arms.
Having been princess-carried by Leo against her will, Lunia’s face turned red.
“Th-thank you.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for.”
Leo put Lunia down.
The light of the Hero Record faded away.
Flutter~
But then Luna’s page fluttered down from the air and landed in Leo’s palm.
It was scorched in places and not in perfect condition.
Fortunately, it wasn’t as gruesome as Kyle’s page.
‘Looks like broken things don’t get restored.’
The light faded from Luna’s page.
Then darkness fell.
Seeing this, Haddin raised his hand and used [Light Magic].
Fwoosh-!
Magic brightened the surroundings.
In that light, Lunia asked,
“Did anyone get a conquest reward?”
“I didn’t get anything.”
Haddin shook his head.
Elena replied nonchalantly.
“Just because you conquer a Hero Dungeon doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a reward. Especially since we barely contributed to clearing this world, right?”
Normally, you’d get a reward for conquering a Hero’s World, but if your contribution was too low, you might not receive anything.
Lunia, Elena, and Haddin hadn’t contributed much to this conquest.
So it was only natural that they didn’t receive rewards.
“But we even defeated Erebos…”
Lunia looked disappointed, and Haddin crossed his arms.
“Erebos appearing was an abnormal situation unrelated to conquering that world. So even if we defeated him, it wouldn’t have affected the contribution score.”
Haddin spoke seriously.
“Meeting the Founder and fighting alongside them was already an incredible experience. Even if it was only a fragment, we defeated Erebos. On top of that, we learned that Tartarus is invading the Hero’s World. These achievements are priceless.”
“True.”
Nodding, Lunia looked toward Leo—and her eyes went wide.
“Wait. Leo, isn’t that thing in your hand Polium?”
It was only now that Lunia noticed the magic staff Leo was holding and shouted.
Elena and Haddin were also visibly surprised.
Leo looked at the Polium in his hand and said,
“That’s right. Well, it’s just an empty shell.”
Just as Leo said, Polium no longer gave off any light.
There was no sense of magic, either.
It was nothing but an empty shell.
“Let me see it for a second?”
Lunia, eyes full of curiosity, reached out her hand.
Leo handed over Polium.
“Huh?”
Polium turned into a cloud of light and disappeared.
“Items obtained as conquest rewards can’t be used by anyone else. Only the person who conquered the dungeon can use them.”
With a playful smile, Elena teased Haddin.
“A student from Lumene, not Seiren, is the first in the world to receive Polium as a conquest reward. If this gets out, the folks at Seiren will be beside themselves with jealousy, won’t they?”
“Ugh!”
Lunia looked indignant at Elena’s words.
Haddin stood before Leo with a serious face.
“Leo Plov.”
“Yes.”
“It’s hard for me to accept that the one who deciphered the Founder’s magic and holds the Founder’s symbol is a student of Lumene.”
“W-wait, Haddin!”
Lunia, her pride as a Seiren student wounded by Haddin’s forceful words, tried to stop him in a panic.
Elena stifled a laugh.
‘Elves really are fun. They get so riled up if you provoke them because they’re so inflexible…’
“So?”
“Transfer to our school.”
“……”
Leo looked at Haddin in disbelief.
“Seriously? Where does this elf get off with that kind of attitude?”
Elena scowled deeply at Haddin.
Ignoring the bickering upperclassmen, Leo looked around.
Lunia, now at Leo’s side, had a tense look on her face.
“Where are we?”
It was pitch black.
Lunia also cast [Light Magic] to look around.
She soon noticed something and stopped.
“This is…”
It was a statue.
“Lady Luna.”
The first statue they found was of Luna—not as the young girl she had been a moment ago, but as the famed ‘Founder of the Nebula.’
Lunia looked up at the impressive statue in awe and began searching the area.
Farther away, she spotted another statue.
“This is Master Dweno!”
His mouth was set in a stubborn line, and his wide-open eyes radiated overwhelming presence.
Countless weapons had been born from his hands, guiding great heroes on their path.
“These are statues of the great heroes! Seniors! Look! There are statues of the great heroes here!”
At Lunia’s shout, Elena and Haddin stopped arguing and approached.
They looked at the statues of Luna and Dweno and tilted their heads.
Leo realized where they were.
‘This is the Heroes’ Plaza.’
Before the final expedition, the people of Guardslone had built this plaza to commemorate the deeds of the great heroes.
Leo used [Light Magic].
Fwoosh-!
A large [Light Magic] spell illuminated the area.
The scenery that had been hidden in darkness was revealed.
It was the era of calamity.
The view of the great city that had withstood the assaults of Erebos and Tartarus unfolded before them.
“A city?”
“Where are we…?”
“Look! Over there, that’s the statue of Lysinas and Arron!”
Lunia pointed to the remaining statues of Lysinas and Arron.
“And… huh?”
Lunia’s startled gasp rang out.
Elena and Haddin had the same reaction.
They had spotted another statue.
It was a person they had never seen before.
And yet, somehow, this statue stood shoulder to shoulder with the great heroes, as if it belonged there.
‘Who is this person? Why are they standing with the great heroes?’
With that thought, a single name flashed through all their minds.
Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning.
“L-Leo! Come here!”
Lunia called urgently and turned her head.
But Leo was already standing in front of a monument in the middle of the plaza.
Lunia hurried over to Leo.
Upon reading the inscription on the monument, she gasped.
—In honor of Lysinas, Kyle, Luna, Arron, and Dweno.
Her eyes trembled at the name Kyle.
“No way…”
Lunia swallowed dryly.
“Kyle… is real?”
Rumble—!
At those words, the entire city began to shake.
“What?”
Lunia looked alarmed.
Leo looked up at the sky.
This was Guardslone.
A city that had been buried deep underground after Tartarus’s attack long ago.
‘Why is it collapsing now, after holding out so long?’
He could feel the barrier protecting Guardslone breaking down.
Leo glanced at Luna’s page in his hand.
‘Was the Hero Dungeon inside Guardslone?’
It seemed the power of the Hero Dungeon had been substituting for the city’s protective barrier.
If Leo’s guess was right, Luna’s world had been guarding the only remaining trace of Kyle in this world.
Leo gave a bitter smile.
“There’s the warp gate!”
Pointing at the warp gate they’d arrived through, Leo shouted.
At his words, the four of them raced toward the warp gate.
Rumble—!
Thanks to Leo’s [Light Magic], they could see the dirt falling from above.
They barely made it onto the warp gate.
Leo activated the gate.
Flash—!
Crash—!
With a burst of light, the plaza collapsed.
That was the last scene of Guardslone Leo witnessed.
—
After escaping Guardslone, Leo’s group immediately reported the incident to Lumene and Seiren.
School officials who heard the news arrived in the Garan region.
The discovery of Luna’s Hero Dungeon alone was astonishing.
But on top of that, there was news of Tartarus and the fifth great hero.
Too many tangled mysteries to count.
It was a situation where the world flipping upside down wouldn’t have been surprising.
Normally, Leo would have been busy being summoned everywhere to file reports.
But instead, he was resting in Lumene’s infirmary.
Thanks to Elena’s consideration.
‘What? Are you going to make an injured person work without letting them rest?’
Elena wasn’t just the third-year class representative.
She was also the school chairman’s daughter and currently acting as the school chairman.
At Elena’s word, anyone who tried to bother Leo disappeared.
Thanks to her, Leo could relax in a private room in the infirmary.
But Leo’s condition didn’t improve even after more than a week.
‘Even if it was just a fragment, I got hit by Erebos’s flames.’
Leo clicked his tongue as he looked at his burns.
The wounds from Erebos’s flames were so severe, they might as well have been a curse.
No healing power worked.
The flames even suppressed his natural healing.
Because of that, his recovery was incredibly slow.
He had to stay in the infirmary even after the mission training period ended.
About ten days had passed since he was denied visitors.
Kalian and Elena came to visit.
“Good to see you, Leo. How are you feeling?”
Elena greeted him in her usual lively voice as Leo shrugged his shoulders.
“Same as ever.”
“Tough guy.”
Elena smiled and sat down beside Leo.
“Heh. I brought you a get-well gift, Leo.”
Kalian set a basket of premium fruit in the room.
Leo asked as he watched.
“By the way, is it really okay for me to just stay here in the infirmary? There must be a lot that needs handling.”
He might be resting now, but it wasn’t really the time for that.
“There’s no need to worry about that. Actually, Elena here has been taking care of things in your place. She even finished all the academic reports you needed to submit, so you don’t have any work left.”
Kalian laughed, and Leo looked at Elena.
Elena smiled back at him.
“This big sister’s pretty capable, you know.”
“You didn’t do it halfheartedly just to get it over with, so I have to redo it later, right?”
At that, Elena made a pouty face and tried to punch Leo in the side.
He casually blocked her, and Kalian said,
“We came today to check on your condition. You haven’t fully recovered yet, but it’s probably time you started attending classes again.”
The whole school was already buzzing with the news that Leo had conquered Luna’s world.
Of course, any stories about Erebos or Tartarus being found there were kept quiet.
If that information spread worldwide, it would surely cause chaos.
“Did you keep things about Kyle quiet, too?”
“No. On the contrary, we’re actively telling the world about Kyle.”
Proof had been found that Kyle, previously believed to be fictional, actually existed.
There was no reason to hide it.
“But on that note, there’s something I want to ask you.”
Kalian’s expression turned serious.
“Leo. Are you… connected to the Hero of the Beginning?”