Chapter 547

It was a truly dreamlike time for both Velkia and Vihar.

Their bodies had died long ago.

Velkia had closed her eyes while hating the world, while Vihar had died grieving her failure to stop her.

Five thousand years passed. Velkia became a Corpse, and Vihar became a Spirit.

The final years of their lives had unquestionably been a tragedy.

Yet...

Velkia watched Eiran struggle through her meal.

“Eiran.”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry you had to see me in such a pathetic state. You must be disappointed in me.”

Eiran blinked her large eyes and slightly averted her gaze.

“Rather than disappointed... I was scared.”

“...”

“It felt as though you were no longer the Velkia I knew. And I couldn’t even imagine how much pain you must have been in... so I was scared.”

Velkia had shouldered the weight of the world alone and sacrificed everything to create a better future.

All she had received in return was betrayal.

It was no wonder she had become an Undead filled with hatred.

“Even so...”

Eiran smiled brightly.

“Velkia-nim is still Velkia-nim.”

She was still the hero who had worked harder than anyone else for the world.

She was still the hero Eiran admired and loved most.

That had not changed.

Velkia closed her eyes.

She could feel Eiran’s unwavering trust.

“I want to become like you, Velkia-nim.”

Velkia realized once again that such unchanging faith offered greater comfort than anything else.

'Was Master Luna like this too?'

Even now, what bound Velkia to this land as an Undead was her hatred for the world.

She was still sick of it.

She hated that she had devoted herself to such a world.

She hated that her friend had stepped into the darkness and spent a lifetime struggling for it.

She hated that the Great Heroes had sacrificed everything to save it.

However...

'Maybe I should have held on a little longer.'

Looking at her young descendant left Velkia with a trace of regret.

Vitality seemed to return to her exhausted soul.

Velkia approached Eiran and affectionately rubbed her cheek against hers, just as Luna had done for her when she was young.

Then she repeated the words Luna had once spoken to her.

“You absolutely can.”

Her brilliant smile somehow resembled Luna’s.

“Nothing has changed, even after 5,000 years.”

Velkia looked at Leo.

“The path the Great Heroes walked...”

Then she turned to Vihar, who stood beside her.

“The path we followed...”

Finally, Velkia stepped back and looked at the three girls.

“Now, all of you are following those paths.”

One generation was connected to the next.

The world saved by the Great Heroes had been passed down to her.

The world she had helped flourish was now being entrusted to a new generation.

'It wasn’t a mistake.'

In her despair, she had believed everything they had done was wrong.

But it had not been.

“The world was worth saving after all, Vihar.”

Velkia smiled brightly at her friend.

Seeing the relief on her face, Vihar nodded.

—Yes. Our era was merely the dawn.

A time before the sun had fully risen.

A gray hour when darkness and light overlapped.

An age in which day was slowly breaking.

Velkia nodded at Vihar’s words and looked toward the next generation.

“We couldn’t stand upon the final battlefield.”

The time granted to them had not been enough.

“That was what frustrated me most.”

Velkia’s gaze darkened slightly.

“The battlefield awaiting you will likely be fierce. So, please... don’t let what happened 5,000 years ago happen again.”

Velkia spoke from the depths of her heart.

“Rely on one another as you move forward. When all the fighting is over, make sure you return together. Come back and...”

Velkia looked at the table.

“Sit together like this and enjoy yourselves.”

After the Era of Calamity ended, they had finally found ordinary, peaceful lives.

They had become so accustomed to that peace that the days slipped past without a thought.

Yet whenever Velkia watched the dawn break, she remembered the void left by the Great Heroes.

In those moments, she was reminded of how precious those ordinary days truly were.

And she longed for what could never be.

'If only we could have been together.'

If only they could have welcomed the morning together in a radiant world without any worries.

'That would have been wonderful.'

It had been an impossible dream.

Yet now, that dream had finally come true.

For both Velkia and Vihar.

Their lives might have ended in tragedy.

Even so, they had fulfilled their wish after death.

—Master.

“What?”

—Would you like to go for a walk?

“I can’t be bothered.”

Leo answered indifferently.

Velkia moved behind him and pushed him toward the door.

“Go take a walk, old man.”

“I said I can’t be bothered.”

Leo grumbled but offered no real resistance as Velkia pushed him outside.

The three girls hurriedly followed them.

Creak—!

The door opened.

The world lay white beneath the snow that had begun falling once more.

Crunch, crunch.

They walked through the ruined streets.

Velkia and Vihar stood on either side of Leo.

“Master.”

“What?”

“We worked really hard.”

“So?”

—Don’t you have anything to say to us?

Vihar asked bluntly.

“...”

Leo chuckled and raised both hands.

He placed one on each of his disciples’ heads.

“You both did very well.”

It was a calm statement.

A sincere compliment, neither lacking nor excessive.

“Thank you for making sure our sacrifices weren’t in vain.”

He offered his heartfelt thanks to the disciples who had given everything they had for the sake of the Great Heroes, himself included.

The disciples who had once been children had grown into adults. Like his past self, they had sacrificed their lives for the world before finally meeting their ends.

They might have lost their way along the journey.

But what did that matter?

It did not erase everything they had accomplished.

The sun had fully risen.

Its light scattered across the people and buildings, driving the darkness away completely.

Morning had arrived in full.

This miraculous moment, too, finally came to an end.

Leo removed his hands from his disciples’ heads and gently nudged their backs.

Velkia and Vihar walked toward the sunlight without looking back.

They released the lingering attachments that had bound Velkia as a Corpse and Vihar as a Spirit.

They even let go of the small regrets they had carried from life.

“Ah.”

Velkia suddenly stopped as though she had remembered something.

The ominous death energy surrounding her had completely vanished.

Only a clear energy like Vihar’s now enveloped her.

Velkia whispered something into Vihar’s ear.

Vihar nodded, and the two looked back at Leo together.

Leo watched his two disciples with a puzzled expression, the morning sun shining behind them.

“Hang in there, Dad!”

They called out in unison.

Then they laughed at Leo’s stunned expression and disappeared into the sunlight.

“Sigh...”

Leo sighed in disbelief.

“Just who are those brats calling Dad?”

Muttering under his breath, Leo stared at the place where his two disciples had vanished for a long time.

Even in the end, the three girls watching him couldn’t tell what expression he wore.

===

Crunch, crunch.

They walked through Lumene’s campus, where fallen leaves blanketed the ground.

The leaves crumbled beneath Leo’s feet.

Lunia, Eiran, and Chen Xia silently followed him.

“Lunia-yang, you came all the way to Lumene?”

“After everything that happened, how could I let him return alone?”

Lunia gazed at Leo’s back with concern.

For some reason, his solitary figure looked painfully lonely.

“How do you think he feels?”

“I can’t even begin to imagine.”

Chen Xia shook her head.

None of them could bring themselves to speak to Leo.

They had once again realized just how heavy the burden he carried truly was.

As Lunia and Chen Xia continued watching him in silence...

Tap, tap, tap!

“Ah? Eiran-yang?”

“What are you doing?!”

Lunia and Chen Xia were startled when Eiran suddenly ran toward Leo.

“Leo-nim!”

“...?”

“Please give me special training starting today!”

Eiran raised her voice as she ran beside him.

“I’ll endure any kind of training! I’ll work even harder! Just like Velkia-nim and Vihar-nim—like all the other Great Heroes—I want to be useful to you, Leo-nim!”

Leo looked at Eiran as she clenched her fists, then chuckled and roughly tousled her hair.

“I’ll work even harder than I already do!”

“So will I.”

Lunia and Chen Xia caught up from behind and spoke with determination.

Leo chuckled again at their resolve.

“Oh? Isn’t that Leo?”

“Where? Where? Ah! It really is Leo-oppa!”

“Leo, Xia, Eiran, you’re back?”

“How did the mission go?”

Carr, Chelsea, Chloe, and Abad spotted Leo and waved.

“Xia!”

Eliana ran toward Chen Xia with tears in her eyes.

“The students from the Knights Department and Magic Department have been calling me a bat since yesterday!”

“Well, you certainly do act like one, don’t you, Eliana-yang?”

“Class Reeeep! They’re calling me a bat! You’re the All-Class Representative, so that means they’re calling you a bat too! Scold them!”

After Chen Xia’s cold response, Eliana complained to Leo instead.

“How pathetic.”

“Hasn’t she always been like this?”

Celia snorted while Nella shook her head.

Duran stared coldly at Lunia.

“The Seiren Student Council President is here too. Why?”

“I’m sure she has her reasons.”

Eliza and Walden also showed more interest in Lunia.

It seemed an entire department was on the move.

Not only the second years, either.

It felt as though the entire academy had mobilized.

Leo watched the lively scene with a strange expression.

“Class Rep! Class Rep! Are you listening to me?”

“Stop bothering Leo. He just returned from a mission.”

“Grow up already, you bat.”

Celia and Chloe grabbed Eliana and dragged her away.

Leo chuckled as he watched them.

The noisy scene naturally brought back memories of the past.

His chaotic days at Guardslone, always filled with bickering, overlapped with the present.

'Nothing has changed.'

The aspirations born 5,000 years ago still lived on.

Standing at the origin of every hero in the present age, Leo clenched his fist as he gazed at the Hero Candidates who would shape the future.

What kind of world would they create once they became heroes?

Five thousand years ago, Kyle, the Hero of beginning, had never envisioned the future.

His companions had envisioned it in his stead.

'I only moved forward by relying on the future they imagined.'

Leo looked up at the sky.

Now, there was no future left for him to follow.

'This time, I have no choice but to envision it myself.'

He did not dislike that thought.

'If anything, it excites me.'

Imagining a future in which he might finally lay down all his burdens, the Hero of beginning smiled softly.

===

The entire student body had gathered.

Amid the crowd, everyone’s attention was focused on one person.

“What is the Seiren Student Council President doing here?”

“I don’t know. They say she arrived with our Student Council President today.”

“Isn’t this a special lecture intended for Lumene students? Is it really okay for a Seiren student to participate?”

“If you put it that way, we have exchange students too, don’t we?”

“Hmm... I suppose so. But one thing is certain.”

The Lumene students nodded among themselves.

'She’s certainly thick-skinned.'

Even as hundreds of students whispered while staring at her, Lunia remained completely unruffled.

Instead, she maintained a confident expression.

“Oh, hello, Lunia.”

“Ugh? Elena-ssi?”

Elena Zeron, a fourth-year student at Lumene and the strongest student in the Magic Department, sat beside Lunia.

Lunia looked uncomfortable at Elena’s sudden appearance.

The two had once worked together to conquer Luna’s world.

Elena had proven exceptionally reliable at the time, but Lunia had also found her overwhelming.

When Elena approached and greeted her, Lunia instinctively shrank back.

Elena smiled brightly at her.

“Lunia, why don’t you transfer to Lumene?”

“I’m the Seiren Student Council President, you know?”

“Yes, I know. That’s why I’m asking. If you transfer, I’ll appoint you Vice President. You’d technically be the Vice President, but you would wield as much authority as the Seiren Student Council President.”

“I’ll pass.”

“What a shame.”

Elena shrugged.

Creak—!

The door to the large lecture hall opened.

Every student immediately fell silent.

A child entered with features so beautiful that it was difficult to tell whether they were a boy or a girl.

Melina followed behind the gray-haired, gray-eyed child.

Leo, who was sitting off to one side with Carr, stared at the child with a flickering gaze.

“Pleasure to meet you, Hero Candidates who carry on Lumene’s will and inherit the legacy of Kyle, the Hero of Beginning. My name is Rian.”

The students looked at Rian in confusion.

“Explaining who I am in detail would make things rather complicated, so I’ll keep my introduction simple.”

Rian smiled brightly.

“I am a god.”

(T/N: HOLLLY FKKKKKING WHHHATT?)