The Extra Who Stole the Hero's System-Chapter 56: His Disciple

"In the time before Eudenia raised me, before she wrapped me in her chains, I was known as Aradel. Aradel Kein." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The name, spoken aloud, echoed in the quiet of my room, it had the weight of centuries. Aradel Kein. The true name of Herald, the legendary warrior that possessed the mythic dragon’s eye — an S tier artifact, the hero’s master. I had done it. I had outwitted him, extracted the information I needed for Narrative Redaction. The ultimate override was now, theoretically, within my grasp.

Herald regarded me for a long moment, his gaze fixed, as if assessing my reaction to his true name. A faint, almost imperceptible nod. "Now that we are... acquainted, Disciple," he said, his voice gaining a new shift, a subtle change in tone that acknowledged my acceptance, however reluctant. He had finally recognized me as his disciple, his student. The dreaded apprenticeship had begun.

He turned, his movements fluid and silent, and walked towards the open window. The night air, cool and crisp, blew his dark cloak inwards. He perched on the window frame, his back resting casually against the sill, his gaze fixed on the distant, moonlit landscape.

"Pack your belongings," Herald commanded, his voice calm, yet utterly definitive. "In the coming days, you and I will leave Elyndor. We will head to Megmura."

My brow furrowed. Megmura? The outskirts? My mind raced, trying to recall any mention of Megmura in Hero’s Vow. It was a minor province, barely a location in the grand narrative. Why there? And why leave the capital, the seat of power, the very place the Academy was located?

"But Master," I began, trying to keep my voice respectful, "the Academy... the Sword Knight exam is here, in Elyndor. And my training—"

Herald cut me off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You will enter the Ostina Sword Knight Academy. But not through the nobility route. "His eye, still fixed on the distant horizon. "You will enter using the commoner’s route."

My breath hitched. The commoner’s route? My mind reeled. This was a sudden, unexpected announcement, a drastic deviation from my already precarious plan. I knew, from the novel, that there was indeed a commoner’s route to the Academy. In fact, Eren Valtor, the protagonist, had used the commoner’s route to enter the Academy, becoming a ’Prodigy’ through sheer talent and hard work, and some obvious help from the system. But to become a Prodigy and enter the Academy through that route was incredibly difficult. The novel had explicitly stated that it was a brutal, highly competitive process. Only five out of the ninety commoners who attended the exam in Eren’s year had managed to get in. Five out of ninety. The odds were astronomically against me.

I wasn’t sure if a month, or even a few months, under Herald would be enough to make me good enough, skilled enough, to get selected through the commoner’s route. My current swordsmanship, despite will, was still rudimentary. I was stronger and faster due to my earlier upgrade to my stats— yes, but I lacked the finesse, the experience, the sheer mastery required to stand out among a horde of desperate, highly skilled commoners.

My deepest desire was to enter the Academy. It was my path to peace, to survival, to a semblance of normalcy after the chaos that had filled my life in this world. It was a place where I could hide, blend in, and perhaps, eventually ensure my survival in this world. But the commoner’s route... that was a far more public, far more demanding path than I had envisioned. It meant intense scrutiny, fierce competition, and a constant need to prove myself. My plan of going to the Academy to find a sense of peace, to escape any spotlight, was already on hold. This new directive shattered it completely.

"Why?" I asked, my voice filled with a hint of my frustration. "Why the commoner’s route, Master? I am the adopted son of House Sapphire. The nobility route would be far simpler, far less... conspicuous."

Herald finally turned his head, his eye fixed on me, piercing through my carefully constructed facade. "Because Kai," he explained, his voice calm, yet utterly chilling, "the aristocracy of the Kingdom of Ostina has been deeply infiltrated by the cult. Far more than you realize. They are everywhere. In the noble houses, in the court, even within the Academy’s noble faculty. I do not want them to get any hand on you so early on, because when I’m done training you, you’re sword skills will be unmatched. I do not want them to scrutinize such skills, to attempt to know you, or worse, to corrupt you. The commoner’s route offers a degree of anonymity, a shield against their immediate influence. You will be seen as a talented commoner, not a noble with great potential. It is a safer path, for now."

His words sent a fresh wave of dread through me. The cult’s infiltration was far more extensive than even the novel had suggested. It wasn’t just Lord Sapphire; it was the entire aristocracy. The very foundation of this world was rotten. My ’safe’ noble life was an illusion, a gilded cage.

"And Megmura?" I asked, trying to process this new information. "Why there?"

"Megmura is an outskirts province," Herald replied, his gaze returning to the distant horizon. "It is remote, less frequented by the cult’s higher echelons. My hideout is there. A place where I can train you without drawing undue attention. The Baron of those lands is a close friend of a... a friend of mine. It is a good place for a cover-up. For your new identity as my student to remain hidden, for now."

He then slid off the window frame, his movements fluid and silent, landing softly on the floor. He walked towards the door, his dark cloak swirling around him. "Pack your essentials, Kai. We leave at dawn."

And with that, he was gone, vanishing into the silent distance, leaving me alone in my room, the blunt training sword still clutched in my hand.

I knelt down, my hand instinctively going to my chin, my mind a chaotic whirlwind of thoughts. Herald was gone. For now. But his demands, his presence stilled lingered. I was now his disciple. His hand. My plan of going to the Academy to escape any spotlight, to find a sense of peace after all the chaos that had been going on in my life, was utterly and completely on hold.

My initial goal, to simply survive, to blend in, to avoid the main plot points, felt like a distant, naive dream. I was Herald’s disciple, forced onto the commoner’s path, heading to a remote province, all to infiltrate an Academy that was deeply infiltrated by a shadowy cult. The irony was bitter. I had gained immense power as Herald student, yes, but at the cost of my autonomy, my peace, and my very identity.

My life as Alex Miller had always revolved around structure. I clung to logic, to the comfort of rational choices and predictable consequences. Every action had a purpose, every outcome could be calculated, even if life occasionally strayed off course. But that version of life, that sense of control, belonged to a person who no longer existed.

Now I was Kai Lorne, and this life was anything but predictable. It was a storm without a center, where reason had little place and power came attached with fear. I had been dragged into a world where secret Cult played with lives like mine for sport. I wasn’t a player. I wasn’t even a spectator. I was forced to be a piece moved by hands I couldn’t see, pushed toward ends I didn’t understand. And the man who held me in check, Aradel Kein, Herald of Eudenia, saw no humanity in me. To him, I was leverage. A hand. A tool he could wield in a war that had burned him for centuries.

I had clung to the idea of Narrative Redaction like it was my one shot at freedom. But it was nothing more than a far reached override. I didn’t have a single Override Point to spend. Even with Aradel’s true name now in my possession, the system demanded more, it required ten Narrative Influence, an unexpected threshold, as per the novel, stats need override points to upgrade . The override was completely out of reach— for now. My plan, like so many desperate dreams, remained locked behind walls I currently had no means to break.

I was trapped within a story I didn’t choose, and every day it dragged me further from the life I remembered. Bound to a master I feared, pulled by a fate I could rewrite, I found myself standing on the edge of something worse. The Academy was ahead, it was another place, it became darker and more dangerous than the manor. And I would face it unarmed, unscripted, and utterly unsure of who I was becoming.