Chapter 537

Book 1 Chapter 537

537.

“Is this going to turn out alright?”

Eiran questioned, anxiety etching his features.

Hearing his concern, Lunia shielded her face with her hands before replying,

“What is the worst that could occur?”

“Well… should Sir Leo and Sir Berkhia end up fighting each other.”

“The circumstances are definitely complicated, but I doubt this outcome is entirely negative.”

When Sir Berkhia initially declared his intention to discipline Leo, she had been caught off guard by the abrupt declaration.

Yet, analyzing it rationally, a confrontation between Leo and Sir Berkhia was actually the perfect scenario.

“Ms. Lunia speaks the truth. Our primary objective from the start was to bring Leo and Sir Berkhia face to face.”

Chen Sia offered a supportive nod.

“Exactly. Furthermore… I highly doubt Leo is the one we should be fretful about when those two finally cross paths.”

Lunia wore a somewhat hesitant look.

“That is true.”

Chen Sia concurred with another nod.

Sir Berkhia claimed he would chastise Leo.

But could he genuinely pull that off?

Her apprehension did not stem merely from the fact that Leo used to be Sir Berkhia’s master.

“Because there is no way Leo will let Sir Berkhia get away with it.”

Lunia understood the reality.

She knew exactly what Sir Berkhia felt regarding Kyle.

The youthful Sir Berkhia she had encountered within Dwenno’s world undeniably viewed Kyle, the Hero of Beginnings, as a paternal figure.

And Leo’s sentiments toward Sir Berkhia were likely mirrored in that bond.

He might have behaved as though Sir Berkhia was disrespectful.

Or defiant.

As if he were constantly annoyed by his pupil.

Nevertheless, Leo placed more faith in Sir Berkhia than in anyone else.

That explained why a heavy gloom had hung over Leo’s face during his entire search for Sir Berkhia.

And.

‘What do you intend to do once you find Sir Berkhia?’

‘What else? I am going to give him a thorough beating.’

When Lunia had previously inquired with great care, Leo had given a perfectly nonchalant reply.

‘Perhaps our concerns should be directed toward Sir Berkhia instead?’

Lunia let out a quiet breath.

In that moment, Eiran, who had remained silent until now, began scanning the quarters where Sir Berkhia had been residing.

He then whispered to himself.

“For some reason, they seem quite identical.”

“Pardon? What do you mean?”

Startled by the sudden observation, Lunia questioned him with a bewildered expression.

“This place… the general aura feels so much like Sir Leo’s old residence that we witnessed back in Sir Dwenno’s world. Don’t you find them similar?”

Following his remark, Lunia surveyed the surroundings.

She slowly nodded her head.

“It truly bears a resemblance.”

On the whole, the space carried a cold, empty sensation, entirely lacking any warmth of daily habitation.

Only the bare essentials were kept out, while every other item remained meticulously packed away.

It mirrored the dwelling of an individual who had no intention of ever coming back.

Observing the environment, Lunia pulled her knees up on a dining chair, curling her legs together as she stared into the heart of the house.

She recalled the statement Driana had made upon seeing the inside of Kyle’s home.

‘It seems he never truly anchored his soul to this place.’

A desolate environment, giving the impression that the owner would never return.

Back then, she had written it off as the austere mindset required of a legendary savior.

But now, she found herself unable to fathom the thoughts weighing on Leo’s mind.

Lunia subtly shifted her gaze toward the dining table, which lay covered in cleared plates.

It stood as the sole corner of the dwelling that retained a flicker of warmth.

“Could it be that the reason Sir Berkhia turned this house upside down while throwing a tantrum… was because he wanted to give Leo an absolute reason to come back?”

“Ah…”

Eiran gasped, suddenly remembering how Sir Berkhia had utterly trashed the residence.

Chen Sia, who had been quietly tracking their dialogue, released a heavy sigh while gathering the cookware.

“Let us focus on tidying up first.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

“We can split up the chores.”

Just as the three companions prepared to tackle the massive pile of stacked dinnerware.

Woong—!

“What was that?”

Chen Sia’s eyes widened instantly at the sudden vibration throbbing against his chest.

Setting down the plates, he reached inside his garment to retrieve the trembling object.

“Oh?”

Chen Sia stared in utter astonishment as Bihal’s dagger radiated a powerful, resonant sound.

‘An incident must have occurred.’

The sky was already approaching the first light of dawn, yet there was still no sign of Lunia or Eiran making their way back.

Observing the delay, Leo concluded that things had gone awry, letting loose a weary sigh.

‘The situation is spiraling out of hand.’

It wasn’t a matter of lacking confidence in Lunia, Eiran, and Chen Sia.

Those three were the explicit savior candidates he had personally selected.

He possessed absolute faith that they could endure and conquer whatever tribulations blocked their path.

‘Nonetheless, the current predicament is incredibly grave.’

Resting upon the window ledge, Leo cast his gaze out into the open air.

‘Sir Berkhia is undeniably within this settlement. And this entire city has become warped.’

Despite the raging blizzard outside, the citizens wandering the paths were grinning widely.

Across this frozen territory, a superficial sense of nobility seemed to vibrate through the air.

Yet, a closer look at their eyes revealed them twitching with underlying greed.

Those were fundamentally not the eyes of true elves.

Elves were meant to be an inherently dignified lineage.

Regardless of how atrocious her temperament could be, Luna always maintained an absolute nobility whenever she stood upon the field of slaughter.

Furthermore.

When everything was pushed to the absolute brink, Leo had never encountered a species as inherently honorable as the elves.

‘Yet, not every elf retains that nobility.’

Elves earned their dignity because they possessed no shame in validating their own existence.

However, the inhabitants of this place were entirely different.

They viewed themselves as exalted, yet the only pillars supporting their pride were their elven lineage and star magic.

They might prize those traits as extraordinary, but through Leo’s eyes, such things held no true value.

‘There is something deeply wrong with this city.’

Its outer facade might appear magnificent, but Leo could perceive the truth.

The profound corruption lurking directly behind the city’s glamour.

He was unable to identify its exact nature, but he could detect a rancid stench so severe it felt as though it would rot his senses away.

That must be the precise reason Sir Berkhia had entrenched himself here.

Strangely, though, the settlement remained entirely peaceful.

The dominant philosophy governing this populace happened to be the exact mindset that Sir Berkhia despised above all else.

It would surprise no one if Sir Berkhia, an undead avenger consumed by absolute malice, decided to reduce this entire metropolis to an ocean of ash this very instant.

‘Should I view this as a stroke of luck?’

Leo breathed out a profound sigh.

He didn’t consider it fortunate out of any genuine pity or concern for the well-being of this city.

‘Vengeance ultimately obliterates the one who harbors it.’

A malice that burns without end will inevitably consume its host from within.

Sir Berkhia, shrieking and flailing against his fate, would eventually lose every shred of his identity.

In truth, it was a mercy.

That he had perished in battle before such a descent could manifest during his mortal life.

Had it been otherwise, Sir Berkhia would have literally transformed into an existential catastrophe.

But now that he existed as a deceased revenant?

‘He will drift further and further past the point of redemption.’

This realization was precisely why Leo felt a sense of relief.

Because the present Sir Berkhia had not yet leaped across that final boundary.

He felt no anxiety for the civilians residing upon this soil.

In fact, if this nation of pure-blood zealots had chosen to align themselves with Tartarus.

Leo would not harbor a single shred of reluctance in burning Elden to the ground.

And completely wiping its memory from the face of the world.

‘For I am not Lysianas.’

Leo understood this truth deeply.

And he wasn’t the only one.

Lysianas, Luna, Arion, and Dwenno.

Every single figure who had laid down their existence for that bygone era recognized that the world they preserved was far from a perfect utopia.

Even so, they never wavered when it came to offering up their lives.

Because they were well aware that existence was not comprised solely of malice and corruption.

And there was another truth.

‘Because everyone chose to align themselves with the final wishes of Lysianas.’

The King of Wisdom.

A honorific granted to her by the divinities themselves as an expression of ultimate reverence.

‘The heavens did not bestow the title of king upon Lysianas merely due to her intellect and foresight.’

Lysianas stood as an unparalleled existence throughout five millennia of recorded time.

The sole individual designated as a King within the Hero Record.

The one explicitly addressed as King by the heavens.

And to the gods, the designation of King carried a weight grander than any other.

The mortals of the world pledge allegiance to monarchs who command vast territories and rule over the populations dwelling there.

Yet, the kingship spoken of by the divinities completely bypassed that mundane definition.

‘It literally signifies the Monarch of the World—its absolute master.’

Future generations mistakenly believe Lysianas was called the King of Wisdom solely because she possessed the greatest intellect in history, but that interpretation misses the mark entirely.

The King of Wisdom defined the enlightened master of creation, formally recognized by the gods themselves.

‘She stands alone. The solitary ruler validated by the heavens.’

The reason the divinities held Lysianas in such unparalleled esteem was remarkably straightforward.

‘Because she bore the weight of everything on her shoulders.’

Her role did not simply conclude with triggering the opening movements of the grand counteroffensive to annihilate Erebus.

She individually shouldered the entire world, forcing her way forward into the radiance.

Those who perpetuated corruption.

Those who drowned in wickedness.

Even those who actively turned their backs on the world.

Lysianas granted them absolution and embraced them.

She offered them a path to redemption.

As the Black Dragon, his bounden duty was the execution of the wicked, yet Lysianas constantly took them under her wing.

Naturally, it fell upon Leo to purge those who utterly wasted the grace they were given.

Leo had made his stance clear.

He could never show leniency to oath-breakers.

Yet, Lysianas would merely shake her head in disagreement.

Those flawed souls were also a piece of the world they had sworn to redeem.

And it was only by binding every single piece together that true redemption could be attained.

The merciful, exalted, and most brilliant sovereign of existence.

‘That is precisely why you command my deepest reverence, Lysianas. And it is the exact reason why I can never mirror your path.’

Leo’s gaze turned frosty.

If Lysianas were present, she would possess the capability to rally the scattered domains of the world into a unified front.

Regrettably, however, Leo did not possess the heart of Lysianas.

He would gladly excise the decaying flesh with his own blades.

With absolute precision.

‘Precisely as I executed things five thousand years ago.’

For that reason, Leo perceived exactly why Sir Berkhia was isolating himself from this city right now.

‘I may not have imparted every single lesson to him. Yet…’

In the grand scheme of things, the principles Sir Berkhia observed and internalized originated from him.

Sir Berkhia recognized the truth.

He knew exactly what Kyle… and Bihal carried out.

Deep within the shadows.

Sir Berkhia had consistently attempted to follow whenever Leo and Bihal ventured into the darker corners of the world.

However, Leo and Bihal had invariably pushed the youth away.

Admonishing him, “This is a threshold you must not cross.”

Though he was forbidden from entering that realm, Sir Berkhia had undoubtedly witnessed it. He had seen the methods Leo and Bihal utilized to operate.

‘He possesses the capacity to differentiate.’

He knows who deserves to go on living.

The Sir Berkhia of the present era was undeniably a terrifying entity.

Yet, he was not a mindless predator that had completely abandoned its sanity.

This realization weighed heavily upon Leo’s spirit.

Sir Berkhia would inevitably continue to drift closer to the edge.

Right at that precise second.

Creak—!

The entrance swung open.

Leo’s eyelids twitched slightly.

His heightened sensory perception remained fully operational.

Yet, he had caught absolutely no trace of an approaching entity.

Which could only signify one thing.

Click—

Sir Berkhia, having pushed his way past the threshold, pulled the door shut behind him.

He locked his hollow, unblinking eyes directly onto Leo.

Meeting that fixed glare, Leo stepped down from his position on the windowsill.

The gazes of Leo and Sir Berkhia locked solidly in the open air.

Leo closed his eyes tightly for a brief moment.

A confrontation after five millennia.

Though from a personal standpoint, it didn’t truly feel as though such a massive expanse of time had slipped away.

For Leo, it felt like a reunion taking place after barely a decade or so.

For Sir Berkhia, it would represent a meeting after a span of several decades.

Even with that truth, the version of Sir Berkhia standing before him now was an entirely different entity from the pupil Leo once knew.

There was a complete absence of vitality within his pupils.

And that emptiness didn’t stem merely from his status as an undead creature.

Sir Berkhia’s eyes, which had previously never surrendered their inner spark, had completely dried up.

Those devoid pupils sent a sharp pang straight through Leo’s chest.

He had long been conscious of the fact that Sir Berkhia existed as an undead.

He had predicted that his former student would bear this exact appearance for a very long time.

Nevertheless…

Confronting the reality face-to-face delivered an entirely different impact.

Leo tilted his head up toward the ceiling.

‘What a wretched existence.’

He was fully aware.

That this reality was a filthy, contaminated place.

Fully conscious of that fact, he had still fought to preserve it.

Consequently, he harbored no traces of remorse or bitterness.

Even if it meant validating someone else’s ultimate beliefs.

He had committed to it because that specific belief held genuine worth.

Yet, in this exact moment.

He felt the sting of regret.

Regret for preserving this world.

He felt bitter resentment.

Resentment toward his own past, fragile self, who had chosen to rest in peace while feeling satisfied with his solo achievements.

Leo’s crimson eyes snapped back to focus entirely on Sir Berkhia.

Sir Berkhia, who had been maintaining an unwavering stare into those exact irises, let out a low rumble.

“Those are remarkably arrogant eyes.”

An incredibly pitying gaze.

Eyes completely saturated with a profound, heavy grief.

A look that gave the impression of understanding absolutely everything.

For a split second, Sir Berkhia’s features contorted in anger.

He experienced an involuntary wave of disgust toward that specific gaze, which felt as though it was boring directly through his entire soul.

‘That person is gone now.’

The singular individual who possessed the right to look upon him with that exact expression.

Therefore.

“Do not gaze at me with that look.”