Editor : Amethyst00



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

‘Seeing them like this… the pressure is no joke.’

There were five seats in front of him.

And all but one of them were occupied.

‘Seiren the Comet Mage, Azonia the Grand Warrior, Damien the Unyielding.’

Great heroes who saved the world once more during the return of the Calamity 3,000 years ago.

‘They’re so silent, the intensity is overwhelming.’

Carl’s gaze briefly lingered on Lunia, Eiran, and Drianna, then stopped at the empty seat.

It was clearly Lumene’s empty seat.

Carl then looked at the woman seated at the center.

‘The Dawn Dragon, Rodia.’

If there had been Wise Queen Lysinas in the Age of Calamity,

then during the Return of the Calamity, there was Rodia.

Her feat wasn’t simply gathering the heroes who could defeat the fragments of Erebos.

‘The first raider.’

She was the first to discover and conquer the World of Heroes.

‘With such an achievement, it makes sense she came to be called Dawn itself.’

Carl shrank slightly under Rodia’s gaze, which felt as though it pierced through everything.

“Claric Jessian, Student Council President of Lumene.”

“You called for me, Lady Rodia, the Dawn Dragon.”

When Carl bowed his head, Rodia spoke.

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

Rodia’s eyes narrowed.

“Do you know anything about it?”

Carl hesitated, unsure how to answer.

He couldn’t be certain, but he had a hunch about where Lumene had gone.

‘Where the gods are.’

But he couldn’t tell Rodia that directly.

The existence of gods would not be known until 3,000 years in the future.

Mentioning it would alter history.

‘Maybe the Heroes of Dawn could know, but a mere student council president shouldn’t.’

Even if he was the president of Lumene Academy, calling himself a mere president seemed fitting compared to the legends before him.

“I don’t know.”

“Really? That’s quite disappointing.”

Rodia’s eyes blurred momentarily before becoming clear again.

‘Come to think of it, maybe no one at this time knows about the gods.’

The Heroes of Dawn left countless legends behind.

But among them, the one people loved most was Lumene’s story.

Not just humans.

Lumene’s tale was beloved across all races.

The reason was simple.

After the Return of the Calamity ended,

Out of all the Dawn Heroes, Lumene was the one who ventured the most throughout the world.

Rodia had studied the Hero Record in Dragonia and left the results to future generations.

Seiren reinterpreted the magic of the stars and reestablished it as the elves' unique magic.

Damien focused on gathering and restoring divine artifacts left by Dwenno.

Azonia dedicated herself to acquiring the ability to transform at will like Aaron.

From that process came the knowledge that gave birth to “Breath of the Brave.”

But Lumene was different.

Each hero left something behind in their own field.

But Lumene had nothing to pass on.

‘Because Lumene inherited no power from Kyle’s world.’

He had inherited nothing and so had nothing to leave behind.

‘Leo said Lumene wanted to be like him. Maybe Lumene blamed himself.’

That he couldn’t be like the Hero of Beginning.

That he couldn’t replace him.

Maybe he thought it was all his fault he hadn’t defeated Erebos.

To the people of the next generation, Lumene’s journey probably seemed like one of service.

But in truth, it was a quest to find the key to enter Kyle’s world.

A desperate search to inherit Kyle’s power.

‘And somewhere along the way, he must have found the god.’

Carl clenched his fist.

‘The Lumene I know is someone capable of that.’

Everyone living in the era of heroes has a favorite hero.

Carl was no exception.

His favorite hero since childhood had been none other than Lumene.

A hero who started from nothing and saved the world by his own strength.

‘I thought he was like me.’

To a commoner boy, Lumene was an inspiring ideal.

There was a time he read every tale, every book—be it a folktale or history—about Lumene.

Thinking of those days, Carl gave a bitter smile.

‘I always had some talent—not great, not terrible. Just enough to be noticed.’

‘Back then, I was so full of myself, dreaming I’d be a hero one day.’

But one day, he met someone by chance who made him drop that idea entirely.

‘Our unlucky little prince.’

Moira was a small kingdom.

Because of that, ability mattered more than status.

‘That’s our country’s greatest strength.’

Thanks to that, Carl, a commoner from a family of alchemists with natural magical talent, was able to attend Moira’s national academy.

There, he happened to see Duran during a visit.

‘Not that he’d remember.’

Recalling his first encounter with Duran, Carl shook his head.

Seeing Duran, he realized—

what it really meant to have the potential to become a hero.

‘From then on, I somehow couldn’t admire Lumene as much anymore. I was too mature for my age.’

He stopped saying he wanted to be a hero.

Stopped saying he wanted to be like Lumene.

‘Still, I stupidly clung to the idea of entering Lumene Academy.’

Just to be a little closer to being a hero.

To being like Lumene.

That’s why he applied to be a supporter and entered the academy.

Carl shook off his nostalgic thoughts.

‘Right now, the priority is finding Lumene.’

He was sure Lumene was somewhere in the academy.

And also somewhere here… was the god, Rian.

“Lumene has this unnecessary sense of responsibility. It’s not even his fault.”

Rodia suddenly sighed softly.

At her words, Carl smiled bitterly.

“Yes. He’s not someone who would disappear without a word.”

“Right. He’s not.”

“He must still be somewhere in the academy.”

“Yes. That’s why I asked.”

“Sorry?”

“…”

“I thought you all might know.”

Rodia’s eyes blurred again, then cleared.

Carl found her words strange.

Rodia kept looking at him with those eyes that seemed to see through everything.

‘No… this is strange.’

The Heroes of Dawn had deep trust and strong bonds between them.

In terms of trust and connection, they were as great as any legendary hero.

When Carl said he didn’t know about Lumene,

Rodia had shown open disappointment.

‘If the Heroes of Dawn don’t know, how could a student council president possibly know?’

And her behavior afterward was odd too.

‘And just now… she said you all—not just me.’

Maybe she was referring to all the academy students.

Still, something felt off.

As Carl followed that train of thought, he swallowed dryly.

“Lady Rodia… no way…?”

For a brief moment, Rodia brought a finger to her lips.

Carl’s eyes widened in shock.

‘She knows.’

That this is the World of Heroes.

That she herself is fake.

‘And she knows that the rest of the Dawn Heroes and I are the raiders! She knows it all! How is she staying sane?!’

In the World of Heroes, if a raider reveals or is exposed, the conquest fails.

‘Any character in the World of Heroes who realizes they’re fake should suffer a mental collapse, shouldn’t they?’

But Rodia was perfectly fine.

‘Is she unaffected by the constraints? No, she told me to stay quiet—so she’s not unaffected.’

Carl’s face was filled with confusion.

But he quickly took a deep breath.

“Lady Seiren, Lady Azonia, Lord Damien.”

“…?”

“I have something to say to Lady Rodia alone.”

At that, the three looked to Rodia.

When she nodded, the three left the room.

All of them shot Carl confused looks, as if asking, What are you planning?

Soon, only Rodia remained.

She smiled gently.

“You’re a clever one, aren’t you?”

“I’m pretty quick on the uptake.”

“Yeah. Thanks for sending them out. I’m in a pretty unstable state, you see. Can you quickly tell me just what I want to know?”

Carl answered.

“Lumene went to find the god that’s somewhere in the academy.”

‘Not heroic enough, but definitely sharp.’

A flicker of intrigue appeared in Rodia’s eyes as she looked at Carl.

He had deduced her condition from the smallest clues.

‘It’s not that the other raiders weren’t capable.’

The clue she dropped had been extremely subtle.

Any further interference and Rodia’s own mental stability couldn’t be guaranteed.

‘To notice that tiny slip and figure this out… impressive perception.’

At that moment—

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

Clink—

As the message appeared,

Rodia destroyed her own mind.

And then, her consciousness returned instantly.

‘So this is what people inside the World of Heroes see.’

Only the key figures in the World of Heroes can perceive raiders.

The reason conquest fails when they realize the truth is simple:

Those figures, when mentally broken, attack indiscriminately.

Even Rodia didn’t fully understand the mechanism.

She only discovered it through countless experiments.

Once a key figure becomes unusable, conquest becomes impossible—and thus, it fails.

‘When an error occurs, the world collapses. But if you eliminate the one who caused the error, the world continues.’

This, too, she learned after years of researching the Hero Record.

‘I’m not the rightful master of this world.’

Lumene, who had been there until yesterday, vanished without a trace.

And when Seiren, Azonia, and Damien realized they weren’t themselves but raiders— they desperately searched for Lumene.

‘If I were the real target, they wouldn’t have gone that far.’

Just as she reached that conclusion, a message appeared.

And without hesitation, Rodia destroyed her ego.

In the worst case, even if she died in this world, she believed the world would continue.

But for some reason, she didn’t die.

‘When the message appears, it feels like a new self is layered over me. The self I destroyed is the me meant for the next world.’

Sweat trickled down Rodia’s face as she tried to reason why she retained her self-awareness.

She had forced the world to persist while keeping her memories—by slipping through a flaw in the system.

But it was no easy feat.

What she was doing was essentially killing herself each time an error occurred.

‘I don’t know how long my mind can endure this.’

The shock from destroying her ego still lingered.

‘Before I break down, they have to finish conquering this world as fast as possible… huh?’

Rodia looked puzzled.

At some point, the raider was staring out the window.

And his face had gone pale.

“What’s wrong?”

“Black flames…”

“What?”

“Don’t you see it? The flames of calamity?!”

“What?”

Rodia widened her eyes, looking where Carl pointed.

[A system error has occurred. Record System…]

Clink—

The aftershock of mental destruction made her vision swim.

Rodia bit her lip, clinging to her fading reason.

“I don’t see anything.”

Carl’s face hardened.

‘Is it visible only to raiders?!’