Former Hero, Solo Play Oriented-Chapter 172

The sound of footsteps echoed softly as Chris walked down a long, narrow passage.

The corridor was just wide enough to make movement difficult for two or three people walking side-by-side. But since Chris was alone, she moved easily. It seemed this passage was intended for a single person’s use.

Dim magical torches embedded in the walls gave off a faint glow, serving as subtle guides along the path.

“I never expected the palace to have a place like this,” Chris muttered as she walked, unable to hide her amazement.

A world where magic exists—such a narrow hallway showed almost no signs of wear from the thousand years it had likely stood.

Before long, a metal door appeared at the end of the passage.

Click.

With a light touch, Chris opened it.

“Oh wow.”

She looked around the room, impressed.

Chris had arrived in a small library.

A table and chairs were set up for reading and writing, and the room had an old-fashioned charm, with a few decorative items hinting at the tastes of its owner.

Bookshelves lined both side walls, filled with various books, and magic stones embedded throughout. They seemed enchanted to protect the books from moisture and decay.

“Makes sense. Books are so easily damaged.”

Chris nodded to herself.

Even on Earth, many ancient books had been damaged over time. Although there were various ways to preserve them now, this world, with its magic, had its own methods to safeguard ancient knowledge.

In Asteria, the continent filled with magic, there were many things that would seem remarkable even to someone from Earth’s highly advanced age. For instance, the magical lights illuminating the capital at night reminded her of street lamps on Earth.

On the opposite side of the room from where she entered, there was another door. Unlike the metal door she had just come through, this one was a stone door engraved with strange symbols.

“Hm.”

She tried pushing it, but it wouldn’t budge.

Chris nodded, beginning to understand the room’s function.

“It’s like a library and an emergency escape route in one.”

She’d heard that royal palaces in fantasy worlds often had secret passages only accessible to royalty. This one seemed to serve multiple purposes, likely as an escape route in times of crisis.

What was the Emperor of the Alpharion Empire’s motive for showing her this space? It was an immense privilege, even considering her role as the protector of the Great Mother. Or maybe Rain was truly that significant to the Empire, honored with the title of “Great Mother.”

Or was it that the Emperor wanted her to learn as much as possible and take up the duty of defending against the looming threats to this world? Ideally, as an official ally of the Alpharion Empire. If they brought Chris in, Rain would likely follow.

After briefly considering the Emperor’s intentions, Chris began pulling books from the shelves one by one.

“Reflections on Dimensions, The Rise and Fall of the Faith of the Lord, The Thought Patterns of Divine Beings, Another World...”

They were mostly books on theology and otherworldly dimensions.

Were these books really written a thousand years ago?

What had driven the library’s owner to collect such books?

“...The Hero from Another World.”

Her hand paused on a book title.

Drawn by an inexplicable impulse, she pulled it from the shelf and opened it.

>[This book tells the story of a hero summoned from another world. Though our world holds many legends and prophecies, the most puzzling question is why a savior must come from ‘someone other than one of us.’ Despite having countless warriors, mages, and wise sages, why was it necessary to bring in someone from a foreign world to fight?]

The book explored theories on why an outsider was chosen to wield a holy sword and fight.

>[There are ranks in social status, so might there also be ranks in the soul itself? Could the level of one’s soul affect its capacity to receive divine power? If that’s the case, it might suggest that our world is a lower dimension in the grander scheme.]

Chris studied the text for a long while, then shook her head and placed the book back on the shelf.

“This isn’t about Rain.”

It appeared that, even before Rain’s era, heroes had been summoned to face threats to this world.

Since the world still existed, all those threats had been defeated. However—

>[The War of the Angels]

>

>[The Descent of the Demon Heralding the End]

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As she scanned the other titles, Chris gained a clearer understanding of this world’s history.

At some point, there had been a war among the angels.

Then, an unprecedentedly powerful demonic presence descended, signaling the end.

Were these two events related?

The history of Asteria’s continent had flowed through such crises.

And now, Rain, a figure connecting this history to the present, existed on this continent.

Rain’s presence made it impossible to dismiss this world as just a game.

“It’s too perfect.”

This game was oddly intricate.

It was on a completely different level from other clumsy virtual reality MMORPGs.

Had this “Asteria Online” actually used a real dimension as its template? This world felt as if the entire continent and every individual within it had been perfectly replicated.

After spending time with Rain and encountering a mysterious entity named “Han Yeoreum,” Chris had started to accept that this game mirrored a real world.

And now, she was gradually becoming immersed in this world’s history.

---

Chris suddenly snapped out of her thoughts.

Considerable time had likely passed.

In today’s modern society, the significance of printed books had faded. Chris wasn’t used to reading this way, but the intriguing lore had captivated her, making her lose track of time.

There were no windows in this secret room, so there was no way to judge the time by sunlight.

Of course, she could check the time through the game’s interface, but Chris was taking her time today. There was no need to track the passage of time. Still, she’d likely spent half a day here.

“I think I understand.”

The history of Asteria.

Since ancient times, the continent had faced invasions from otherworldly entities known as demons.

Then, about 1,500 years ago, there was a war among the angels who guarded the world. That war might have been the starting point of the world’s decline. It seemed all the angels assisting the gods perished in that conflict.

Perhaps as a result of that war, a thousand years ago, an unprecedented demonic invasion nearly brought the world to the brink of destruction.

Chris had pieced together this flow of history from various books. Clearly, the demon was defeated, which allowed the world to endure to this day.

And the hero who ended that war a thousand years ago was—

“Rain.”

Since these books were written a thousand years ago, they held no records after that period. Though the world likely flowed on without any major incidents.

Chris had uncovered a lot, but she still hadn’t found what she was most curious about.

According to the Emperor, there should be records about Rain and her companions.

Chris stood up from the chair and glanced over the bookshelves one more time.

Although all these books were written in Asteria’s language, this was still a game. The translation hologram hovering over the text made it easy to read.

“Seeing that, it’s hard to think of it as anything but a game.”

Mumbling to herself, Chris’s eyes fell on a book tucked away in a shadowy corner of the shelf.

“Hm?”

It had no title.

In fact, there were many untitled books here. Not only theological texts but also records like unofficial histories written by random people.

It seemed like an ordinary book, like those.

She almost ignored it.

“But... something feels strange.”

Chris’s class was *Yin-Yang Master*.

In Korean terms, she was more like a shaman, which could be considered an Eastern form of a priest.

Of course, her class differed greatly from that of a traditional priest since it involved spirits and local deities rather than serving a single god.

“There isn’t even a priest class in Asteria Online.”

She’d found it strange that a fantasy world lacked priests, but it turned out to be deliberate.

According to the ancient records, priests did exist in the past, much like other fantasy worlds. However, by the time of the game’s setting, holy powers were only seen in sacred relics.

Still, Chris, as a *Yin-Yang Master*, sensed a peculiar aura emanating from that book.

Was it enchanted with sophisticated magic? If Beimerung had been here, she might have quickly discovered it with a mana-scan skill.

That had to be it.

This was the book with the record she was looking for, shrouded in strange magic.

Flipping it open, she saw unfamiliar symbols from the continent of Asteria, accompanied by a translated hologram in Korean.

>[I am Bernhardt von Alpharion, the first Emperor of the Alpharion Empire.]

“This is...!”

Chris knew instinctively.

This was the record she sought.

>[It might be better for this record to remain buried. Not that I feel ashamed of it, but because it would be better if no one had to remember. Still, if any of my descendants find this record, feel free to read it as the secret journal of your foolish first Emperor.]

After a lengthy introduction, the journal began.

>[In this book, I record how humanity, once in utter despair, found the strength to rise again. And I leave behind an account of humanity’s saviors, the hero and her companions.]

The writer, Bernhardt von Alpharion, had fought for humanity alongside Rain.

This was his journal.

And it held the records of Rain’s past.