Reincarnated Hero System

First Class Suite, Commercial Train

Rigburn Region

Desert Country of Tarse

November 30th

Year 1054

Evan was seated at a desk, maps and calendars spread out atop its surface while he wrote down things in some books beside him.

He occasionally opened the System Archive and drew some lines across the maps, before refocusing on jotting down certain details.

Roselia sat not too far from him, a book in her palm as she flipped through the pages silently. Finishing this story, she looked up at Evan who was very engrossed in his work.

She noticed that he was occasionally glancing at a projected screen in front of him, but despite her proximity, she could not see the text on the screen, nor could she see what he was writing.

‘Causality, huh?’

Evan ignored her gaze and continued his work, not reacting until Eliza entered the room.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Nothing serious. Just charting a few dates and locations.”

He replied without raising his gaze, and when Eliza gave him a confused look, he explained further.

“I’m calculating some locations and predicting dates based on the information I have and how anxious the Demonic Hand is.”

Eliza took a seat on a chair beside Evan and glanced at the things he was writing, but all she could see were blank pieces of paper with only some names and locations visible.

“The Demonic Hand is anxious, you say?”

“Yeah.

The Demonic Hand is trying to break open the Dimensional Rift, but even if they don’t succeed with their plans, the rift would break open either way—it’d just take longer.”

From the get-go, it had been established that the seal on the Dimensional Rift was going to break eventually, it’s just that it’d take nearly 20 more years for that to happen (Artemisia’s Evaluation).

But the Demonic Hand was trying to break the Seal on the Rift before its natural expiry date.

This then begged the question of why they couldn’t just wait.

Why were they rushing to break it, even at the cost of sacrificing millions of lives?

“That’s a question that surprisingly no one—

Raising his gaze to you, Evan continued.

“Even you readers.”

His eyes went back to the papers in his hands as he concluded.

“—has asked about.”

When he said it like that, Eliza realised that this was indeed the case. She rested her head on the table and looked at Evan as she asked.

“And I’m assuming you know this reason?”

“Yes, but that wasn’t always the case.”

Evan initially did not know about the reason why the Demonic Hand was in such a rush. He had seen this as a plot hole in the game until the Side Stories that came after the final quest.

Even then, it was only mentioned in passing.

“But coming to Aidos, I finally discovered the full reason.

Though I’d like to punch Arlan Maddox in the face if I ever see him, I’d admit he left me some very valuable information.”

After Evan said this, he raised a gaze and looked at Roselia who was about to pick up a new book and asked.

“Take a guess, Roselia.

Ever wondered what happened to the Transcendents you fought 1000 years ago?”

This was the same question that the Demons on Gozon had asked themselves, and now Evan had posed this to Roselia.

“Didn’t they die?”

When Eliza responded with the answer that the general public knew, Evan shook his head, smiling wryly as he asked her.

“Died, you say? So, tell me, who killed them? You sure as hell can’t say it’s old age.”

“…”

True, age couldn’t possibly be what killed them. Dragon Lord Altrishia had been alive before the war, becoming a Transcendent afterwards, and she was still alive and well now.

Elephon Ralokrana, ‘The Judge’ who presided over the International Court, was a survivor of the war and he was still hale and hearty.

“Transcendents have a base lifespan of 10,000 years, regardless of race. As such, old age cannot be the issue.”

“Huh? But if they didn’t die then why do they have Tombs? Like the ‘Tombs of the Barbaric Morass’ in Tharvoria.”

When Eliza mentioned this famous historical site—one which the Demonic Hand had been searching for decades—Evan nodded to himself and replied.

“Ah, yes. That place Morass dropped his Crown.”

Roselia narrowed her eyes in suspicion at his very specific words.

“You said Morass dropped his ‘Crown’ there?”

Evan nodded in affirmation, his expression completely normal and this only made Roselia’s suspicions grow even more.

‘He didn’t say it’s where Morass was buried but where he dropped his Crown.’

Tombs were places where dead people were buried, and the world believed that was where Morass was laid to rest.

However, Evan’s words and attitude were insinuating that the only thing inside those Tombs was Morass’ Crown.

Evan opened his inventory and retrieved a box of books. Rummaging through it, he selected a journal and passed it to Eliza.

She received it with a raised brow and began looking it over. At first, her expression remained puzzled, but as she perused the book, that confusion vanished.

“…what?”

Eliza sat up and began rapidly flipping through the journal’s pages. Intrigued, Roselia stood and walked over to see what the journal contained.

“The Celestial Enforcer, Shadow Weaver, Storm Sorceress, The Unyielding Guardian…all the famous Transcendents from the war…

There’s no record…of their deaths? But this contradicts our knowledge of history…”

“I’m surprised you Aidosians easily accepted those records. I did some research after being freed from that damnable dungeon, and I already found something off. I’m sure I’m not the first to notice it, but most people simply don’t care to research as deeply as I did.

The consensus of the General Public on Aidos, is that the Transcendents died, but from what? What could possibly kill hundreds of Transcendents, and how did anyone weaker survive such a calamity?”

Roselia calling something that could wipe out hundreds of Transcendents a ‘Calamity’, was an understatement.

Each Transcendent was a walking mass of continent-level destruction, after all.

Many Scholars over the past nine centuries had done deep research like Roselia, but they drew blanks and had no choice but to drop the matter, accepting the public consensus.

“It wasn’t a disease, as a disease capable of wiping them out would kill millions of weaker beings; that’s too many deaths for there to not be a single accurate record.

They were also not stupid enough to fight and kill themselves off. They were wise men and women who knew the Dimensional Rift was not sealed for good, so they wouldn’t diminish Aidos’ chances of fighting back when the seal eventually breaks.”

“…”

Each of Roselia’s points was valid, and she finished it off with a question.

“If I ask a random Aidosian on the street what happened to the Transcendents, I’d be told that ‘They Died’.

Why is this the consensus?”

Faced with Roselia’s question, Eliza didn’t need to think too much to arrive at an answer. This style of erasing records and manipulating history, she was familiar with it.

When she turned to Evan and saw him giving her a knowing smile, she knew the answer she arrived at was correct.

“The Seven Heroes. They’re the ones behind this.

They erased the records of the Demon Race from Aidos’ History, making people unaware of the name of the Race and World the ‘Invaders’ came from.

They also erased all traces of their Unique Skills from history. I didn’t know there was a ‘Mystic Series’ until I met Evan and Laurene.

This too, was them, wasn’t it? They manipulated the information of the fate of the Transcendents after the war.”

Eliza held up the journal notes from Arlan Maddox’s house that Evan gave her as she continued.

“They were trying to hide this…the Transcendent’s Disappearances.”

Arlan Maddox had detailed information on every single Transcendent, so much information that she wondered if the man was a stalker.

However, the records of the Transcendents in his journal abruptly stopped one after the other. She also noticed that the dates some records stopped were the same.

“The Transcendents disappeared in groups. And looking at this, each group was one of Transcendents that were known to be friends.”

Now, Eliza understood that the Aidos’ Transcendents had not died, but disappeared. At Regular Intervals within the century after the War with Gozon.

At one point in time, Aidos was without Transcendents, until Altrishia reached Level 900.

“The question now is ‘Where did they go?”

Roselia shrugged when Eliza asked this, stating that she wouldn’t know since she was sealed before the War ended.

If there was anyone who knew the answer, then it was the boy seated right in front of the two of them.

“You don’t wanna hear this.”

“That only makes me wanna hear it the more. Speak.”

Roselia and Eliza cornered Evan at his desk and demanded answers despite his warnings, so Evan decided to humour them.

“T̸̛͈͜h̵͋̔ͅe̶̥̜̥̟̓ ̸̳̌̒͆̕t̶̞̭̿͂ȓ̸̨̩͝a̶̘͙̠͈̓̆̾n̴̪͙̜͛͗s̷̨̻̫̖̓̚̕c̷͇̮̹̪̄̇ė̴̦̜͙̿̈n̷͉̮̠̓̍̓d̴͔̆́̈ͅȇ̶̪͕̠n̸̞͓͎̈́͑̕ț̶̢͆̊͝…”

“?!”

“The fuck!?”

Roselia winced while Eliza cursed aloud when that strange sound reached their ears. As for Evan, he just burst out laughing while saying that he warned them but they didn’t listen.

[The goddess ‘Artemisia’ questions just what in the seven dimensions are you doing?!]

Even Artemisia turned her gaze in his direction due to the sheer amount of causality that he had triggered at that moment.

“There’s something people have been telling me a lot recently, and it’s that every question has a time when it’s meant to be answered.

Right now, is not the time for that answer. Just know that the Demonic Hand’s reason for hurrying is related to the Disappearance of the Transcendents.

The First Finger is a survivor of the War 1000 years ago, and he knows why they Disappeared.”

Evan just held out his hands and lightly pinched Eliza’s earlobes as he continued.

“Aidos currently has 5 Transcendents. That’s an indisputable truth.

If my plans for Tarse succeed, then that number would begin to increase rapidly.”

As Evan’s hands moved from her ears to her hair, Eliza’s gaze on him changed to one of worry. The girl was worried about whatever scheme was behind the Transcendent’s disappearances, and how Evan was part of said scheme.

Despite sensing her worry, Evan said nothing and simply turned his focus back to the papers on the desk before him.

“Well, time to get back to decoding that bastard Arlan’s records.”

The boy casually cursed his predecessor and this brought to mind another question that Eliza wanted an answer for.

“Why do you hate Arlan Maddox, Evan? Laurene also hates Yvonne Westgard for some unexplainable reason. David also said he couldn’t care less about Ellisar Krisfiel.”

Roselia had returned to her seat after seeing that she wasn’t going to get an answer about the Transcendents from Evan, but when Eliza asked this, her gaze which was about to settle on her book raised once more.

“Ellisar was a chill guy, so I see why David has no problem with him. But if I were to see Yvonne or Arlan right now, I’d burn them with Mesarthim.”

Evan’s expression changed to one of pure disdain when he spoke his predecessor’s name, and this expression was similar to the one Laurene wore when she first talked to Eliza about Yvonne.

“When I first met Laurene, she said something I didn’t really understand or care about then, but seeing your hate for Arlan, I wanna understand it now.

She told me Our History Books have been praising the wrong people.”