Chapter 583

Carr swallowed dryly as he looked at the four people before him.

'Seeing them gathered like this, the pressure is incredible.'

There were five seats before him.

Every seat except one was occupied.

'The Comet Mage, Seiren; the Great Warrior, Azonia; and the Unbreakable, Damienne.'

They were the great heroes who had saved the world once more during Calamity’s Return three thousand years ago.

'They really are intimidating when they keep their mouths shut.'

Carr briefly studied Lunia, Eiran, and Driana before his gaze settled on the empty seat.

It undoubtedly belonged to Lumene.

Finally, Carr looked at the woman seated in the center.

'The Dragon of Genesis, Rodia.'

During the Age of Calamity, the world had the Wise King, Lysinas.

During Calamity’s Return, it had Rodia.

Her achievements extended far beyond gathering the heroes who defeated the fragments of Erebos.

'The first challenger.'

Rodia was the first person to discover and clear a Hero’s World.

'That achievement must be why she came to be called the very embodiment of Genesis.'

Carr drew his neck in beneath Rodia’s gaze, which seemed capable of seeing through everything.

“Clary Jesiang, Student Council President of Lumene.”

“You called for me, Rodia-nim, the Dragon of Genesis?”

Carr bowed his head, and Rodia spoke.

“As you already know, the Twilight Knight, Lumene, is currently missing.”

Rodia narrowed her eyes.

“Do you know anything about his disappearance?”

Carr hesitated over how he should answer.

He could not be certain, but he had an idea where Lumene had gone.

'To the place where a god resides.'

However, he could not simply tell Rodia that.

The existence of the gods would not become known until three thousand years later.

Mentioning them now could distort history.

'The Genesis Heroes might know about them, but this is far too important for a mere Student Council President to know.'

Calling the Student Council President of Lumene Academy a mere Student Council President sounded absurd, but compared to the beings before him, it was not an unreasonable description.

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Really? How disappointing.”

Rodia’s eyes briefly grew unfocused before becoming clear again.

'Perhaps no one in this era knows that the gods exist.'

The Genesis Heroes had left behind countless legends.

However, the heroic tale people loved most was undoubtedly Lumene’s.

Humans were not the only ones who loved it.

Lumene’s story was beloved by every race.

The reason was simple.

After Calamity’s Return ended, Lumene traveled the world more extensively than any other Genesis Hero.

Rodia studied the Hero Record in Dragonia and left the fruits of her research to future generations.

Seiren reinterpreted Star Magic and reestablished it as the Original Magic of the elves, while Damienne devoted himself to gathering and restoring the Divine Armaments left behind by Dweno.

Azonia dedicated herself to acquiring the ability to transform into a beastkin at will, just as Arron could.

The knowledge passed down through that process eventually gave rise to The Hero’s Breath.

Lumene, however, was different.

The others each possessed something they could pass down to future generations.

Lumene had nothing.

'Lumene-nim didn’t inherit any power from Kyle’s World.'

Since he had inherited nothing, he had nothing to leave behind.

'Leo said Lumene-nim wanted to become like him. Perhaps Lumene-nim blamed himself.'

For being unable to become like the Hero of Beginning.

For being unable to take the Hero of Beginning’s place.

He might have blamed himself entirely for their failure to defeat Erebos.

To later generations, Lumene’s adventures appeared to have been journeys undertaken to help people.

In truth, they had most likely been a search for the key that would allow him to enter Kyle’s World.

A desperate struggle to inherit Kyle’s power.

'He must have discovered a god during that search.'

Carr clenched his fist.

'The Lumene-nim I know was certainly capable of that.'

Everyone living in the Age of Heroes had at least one hero they admired.

Carr was no exception.

Ever since childhood, his favorite hero had been Lumene.

A hero who had risen from the very bottom and saved the world through his own strength.

'Because I thought he was like me.'

To a commoner boy, Lumene could only be an inspiring figure of admiration.

There had even been a time when Carr sought out every story about Lumene he could find, whether it was a folktale or a historical record.

Carr smiled bitterly as he remembered those days.

'I had reasonably good talent as a child. The sort of middling talent that was just enough to attract attention.'

'I was so full of myself back then that I used to boast about becoming a hero.'

However, a chance encounter with someone had made him abandon that dream entirely.

'Our insufferable prince.'

Moira was a small kingdom.

Because of that, people were judged by their abilities regardless of their status.

'That’s our kingdom’s greatest virtue.'

Although Carr was a commoner, he came from a family of alchemists and had shown an aptitude for magic from an early age. As a result, he was given the opportunity to attend Moira’s national academy.

While there, he happened to see Duran when the prince visited the school.

'Not that he would remember me.'

Carr briefly recalled his first encounter with Duran before shaking his head.

Seeing Duran had taught him what it truly meant to possess the potential to become a hero.

'After that, I somehow couldn’t admire Lumene-nim as much as before. I was far too mature for my age.'

From then on, Carr stopped saying that he would become a hero.

At some point, he also stopped saying he would become like Lumene.

'But I still foolishly obsessed over enrolling at Lumene.'

He wanted to become someone who stood even a little closer to heroes.

Closer to Lumene.

That was why he chose to become a supporter and entered Lumene Academy.

After briefly losing himself in the past, Carr shook off his thoughts.

'Finding Lumene-nim is what matters now.'

Lumene was undoubtedly somewhere within the academy.

And the god Rian was somewhere here as well.

“Lumene has an unnecessarily strong sense of responsibility, even though none of this is his fault.”

Rodia abruptly released a quiet sigh.

Carr smiled bitterly at her words.

“Yes. That’s why he isn’t someone who would suddenly disappear like this.”

“Right. He isn’t the sort to vanish without warning.”

“I’m certain he’s somewhere within the academy.”

“Yes. That’s why I asked.”

“Pardon?”

“...”

“I thought all of you might know.”

As Rodia spoke, her eyes once again grew unfocused before becoming clear.

Carr sensed that something was strange.

Rodia continued staring at him with eyes that seemed capable of seeing through everything.

'No, this was strange from the beginning.'

The Genesis Heroes shared an immense degree of trust and camaraderie.

In that regard, they were likely no different from the Great Heroes.

Yet when Carr said he knew nothing about Lumene’s disappearance, Rodia had openly expressed her disappointment.

'There’s no reason a Student Council President would know something even the Genesis Heroes don’t.'

Her reaction afterward had been strange as well.

'And just now, she definitely said all of you. She wasn’t referring only to me.'

Rodia might have meant every student at the academy.

Even so, Carr could not shake his unease.

Once his thoughts reached that point, he swallowed dryly.

“Rodia-nim... could it be...?”

Rodia immediately raised an index finger to her lips.

Carr stared at her in shock.

'She knows.'

Rodia knew this was a Hero’s World.

She knew that she was not real.

'She even knows that I and the other Genesis Heroes are challengers! She knows everything! What is going on? How is she still sane?'

If a challenger revealed their identity or was discovered inside a Hero’s World, the attempt to clear it would fail.

'The moment a person inside a Hero’s World realizes they’re fake, they should be unable to accept it and suffer a mental collapse.'

Yet Rodia appeared perfectly fine.

'Is she unaffected by the restrictions? No. If that were true, she wouldn’t have told me to remain silent.'

Carr looked bewildered.

However, he soon took a deep breath.

“Seiren-nim, Azonia-nim, Damienne-nim.”

“...?”

“There is something I need to discuss with Rodia-nim alone.”

The three of them looked at Rodia.

When Rodia nodded, they left the room.

Each of them shot Carr a bewildered look that seemed to ask, 'What are you planning?'

Once only she and Carr remained, Rodia smiled.

“You’re a clever child.”

“I’m rather quick to pick up on things.”

“Yes. Thank you for sending the others away. I’m in a somewhat precarious state right now. Could you quickly tell me only what I need to know?”

Carr answered her question.

“Lumene-nim has gone to find the god somewhere within this academy.”

'He lacks the qualities of a hero, but he’s a clever child.'

An intrigued light appeared in Rodia’s eyes as she studied Carr.

He had deduced her condition from only a handful of minor clues.

'It isn’t that the other challengers are lacking.'

The clues Rodia had given them were truly insignificant.

If she interfered any further, even Rodia could not guarantee that she would retain her sanity.

'Yet he noticed those tiny details and reasoned his way to the truth. He is remarkably observant.'

The moment she reached that conclusion—

[A system error has occurred. Restarting the Record System...]

Shatter—!

The instant the message appeared, Rodia destroyed her own mind.

Her shattered mind immediately returned to its original state.

'So this is what the people inside Hero’s Worlds have always seen.'

Only the key figures within a Hero’s World could recognize the existence of challengers.

The reason the attempt failed the moment one of those figures recognized a challenger was simple.

After suffering a mental collapse, the person inside the Hero’s World indiscriminately attacked everything around them.

Even Rodia did not understand the exact mechanism.

She had merely discovered it through countless experiments.

Naturally, if a key figure within a Hero’s World could no longer continue the sequence of events, the attempt to clear it would fail.

'When an error occurs, the World collapses. But if the person who caused the error is eliminated, the World continues without collapsing.'

That was another fact Rodia had discovered through her long years of researching the Hero Record.

'First, I’m not the owner of this World.'

Lumene, who had been present until yesterday, had abruptly disappeared.

Then Rodia realized that Seiren, Azonia, and Damienne were not themselves but challengers.

The three of them had been searching desperately for Lumene.

'If I were the objective of this World, they wouldn’t need to search for him so desperately.'

The moment she reached that conclusion, the message appeared.

Rodia had destroyed her own consciousness without hesitation.

She had judged that even if she died within this World, it would continue because she was not its owner.

For some unknown reason, however, Rodia had not died.

'The moment the message appears, it feels as though a new consciousness is being overlaid upon mine. The consciousness I destroy is the version of myself that would be created after this World ends—in other words, the self who would appear when the next World is reconstructed.'

Cold sweat ran down Rodia’s face as she tried to understand why she had retained her consciousness.

She had accidentally exploited a gap in the system and was forcibly maintaining the World while preserving her memories, but it was far from easy.

Every time an error occurred, Rodia was effectively killing herself.

'I don’t know how much longer my mind can endure this.'

The shock of destroying her own mind remained with her in full.

'We need to clear this World as quickly as possible, before something happens to me... Hm?'

Rodia looked puzzled.

At some point, the challenger had turned toward the window.

His face had gone deathly pale.

“What is it?”

“Black flames...”

“What?”

“Can’t you see them? The Calamity Flame?!”

“What?”

Rodia’s eyes widened as she looked where Carr was pointing.

[A system error has occurred. Restarting the Record System...]

Shatter—!

The aftermath of destroying her mind left Rodia’s consciousness reeling.

She desperately clung to her fading reason and bit down hard on her lip.

“I don’t see anything.”

Carr’s expression stiffened.

'Are the flames visible only to challengers?'

***