The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1134

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1134

Chapter 1134
It was a moment of utter shock for Evangeline—she had definitely hidden her face, yet they knew who she was!
Flustered, she couldn’t figure out what to say and was only able to bite her lip in panic. She had been exposed, not as streamer Eva, but as Evangeline O’Rowane.
Recalling the terrified expressions of those who had once looked at her, she thought about closing the livestream she had only recently begun to...
Ding!
[PeppermintCandy has donated 5,000 won.]
-
So, Princess. When are you turning your camera on?
Caught off guard, she asked, “Pardon?”
[Wait, but she’s not a princess, is she?]
[I mean, her dad’s a prince.]
[Nah, dumbass. If her dad were a king, THAT would make her a princess.]
[Since she’s the daughter of a Saint, wouldn’t that make her a Saintess?]
[You morons. He gave up his right of royal succession and became a Grand Duke, so that makes her a Lady.]
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It wasn’t the reaction she’d expected at all.
Everyone had warned that nothing good would come from being exposed as Evangeline. Even she understood that much. However, all the chat was doing was chirping like birds, asking when she was going to turn her camera on. It was business as usual.
‘These people must not be sure yet!! That’s it! They’re asking for video just to confirm it for themselves!’
Which meant she absolutely could not turn her camera on.
“C-Cam, cam, cam...” After struggling with what to say, she blurted out in a rush, “I’ll turn the cam on later, I’m just not feeling it right now! I also don’t know why you keep calling me Evangeline...”
[
Oh,
really?]
[
Wow,
your lying skills are worse than a puppy that just got caught chewing shoes.]
Seeing the mocking chat, Evangeline broke into a cold sweat. “That’s weird. I’m just the streamer Eva. You’re probably mixing us up because our names sound similar. Let’s not do that please. Do better.”
[Sure, sure. If you say so. In your heart, maybe.]
“Oh! Isn’t it strange? If I really were Evangeline O’Rowane, why would the viewer count suddenly go up?!”
Question marks flooded the screen.
[???]
[?? She sure knows how to bait people in.]
“When it comes to that Evangeline O’Rowane, don’t you all find her to be scary?”
[Why would we be scared?]
“B-Because... isn't she a murderer?”
[
Wow.
]
[Did she actually kill someone?]
“That’s—no! I wouldn’t know!”
[Then what does it matter lols]
[LMAO boss is stumbling on her own lies and switching gears fast. Okay, let’s see how long she can keep dodging.]
Evangeline believed they were clearly there just to mess with her, already sure about her identity. Yet without solid proof, she knew she still had plausible deniability.
Evangeline nervously rubbed her neck and let out a few coughs. She then lowered her voice just a bit. “I don’t know why you keep mistaking me for that person, but I’m not her.”
[LOL listen to her trying to deepen her voice.]
Ding!
Suddenly, a video clip came in through a donation. The video showed Evangeline yelling while rescuing someone from the rift. It also included a clip of her humming absentmindedly while drawing just a few days ago.
[Still not the same?]
[Still saying they’re not the same?]
[
Huh?
That’s weird. Now that I hear the two, their voices are exactly the same. Why didn’t I notice it before?]
“
Ughhh!
”
Grinding her teeth, she shouted through clenched teeth, “I. Said. I’m. Not. Her!! I’m not!!”
She shrieked, flinging her stylus across the room.
Crack!!
Her one and only stylus broke on impact.
“
Ah!
It broke!” She let out a small scream, looking like she was about to cry. “This... This is all your fault! You keep pushing me into a corner!”
[Do you seriously think we don’t know? That’s cute. Boss must think we’re stupid!!”
[Time to rain down some justice!]
[Yeah, let’s hit her with our wallets.]
Ding! Ding! Ding!!
Subscriptions and donations came flooding in all at once.
Faced with such a situation, she knew there was only one thing to do.
Ignore everything.
Evangeline made her decision and opened her drawing file. She tapped the broken stylus a few times to see if it still worked.
“
Ugh.
It’s barely working...” She regretted not buying a spare just in case. “Well, guess there’s no choice now. I’ll turn the cam on, just like you wanted.”
As soon as she said that, the chat exploded with question marks.
[For real?????]
[Seriously??]
“Just kidding,” she said in a calm, playful tone as she pulled out the camera and mounted it somewhere out of sight.
Ding!!
[BeenAWhileSince has donated 10,000 won.]
-
Hey!! How dare you trample on a man's pure heart! Prepare yourself!!
Ignoring their outrage, Evangeline calmly finished setting up the camera. Then, just as she had learned, she operated it with practiced hands and switched it on.
Instantly, the stream, which had only shown her computer screen until then, changed completely.
[
Huh?
]
[Wait, weren’t you streaming your screen?]
[Is this indoors? No way, did she actually turn the cam on?]
[What’s that white thing?]
[Looks like a canvas?]
Amidst the confusion in chat, Evangeline said, “I read a post of people suspecting that my drawings were fake, and that I was using a ghost artist or just touching things up on the computer.”
She lightly swept her hand across the blank white canvas. “So, I asked my friends what to do. A lot of people recommended just turning on a handcam when you get accused like that,” she said calmly.
Evangeline made sure only her hands and the canvas were in the frame, with her face and body completely out of view.
She propped up a sign that read Eva's Drawing Session. Using her small, pale hand, she then flashed a peace sign at the camera.
[LOL omg]
[That was so freakin cute]
“Well, there are a lot of people watching, so I won’t drag things out.
Uhm.
Moderation taught me this before...”
When in doubt, run a poll. Any poll’s a goal.
“Let’s poll for results, and I’ll draw whatever comes out on top.”
She operated her smartphone, and a poll window popped up.
“
Huh?
What is this?”
The poll system was simple. First, viewers submitted requests, then others either voted for them or suggested new ones.
Evangeline stared blankly at the results. “What...?”
The runaway winner of the poll was [Evangeline O’Rowane].
It was her.
“You’re all just messing with me, right?”
[Yup, say hello to a self-portrait.]
[This is the price for crushing an uncle’s pure love.]
[Yup, self-portrait time for you.]
“It’s not a self-portrait! It’s a portrait!” she shouted in protest, but the viewers ignored her entirely. “
Haah.
Fine. A poll’s a poll, so I’ll draw her.”
[We’ll wait here faithfully, Lady Evangeline!]
“
Ugh!
Quit it already!” she screamed as she slammed her brush into the paint without any care.
[??? She’s starting without even sketching first??? I mean, don’t you at least need to look at a face in order to start drawing it?]
[It’s her. You think she needs a reference? LOL]
[Fair point.]
“No, no, that's not it. I’m just drawing from memory. I’ve got a good memory,” she said calmly as she quietly turned on the video storage mana stone from out of the video’s frame. From it, she pulled up a past image of herself and activated it.
‘Tch. Of all the images, why does it have to be this one?’
It was a photo of herself in a pure white dress holding the divine dragon sword Twilight, smiling happily in Davey’s arms.
Looking back now, it was definitely something from a childish, youthful moment. Surprisingly, it didn’t upset her at all.
It wasn't long before her hand was moving freely across the canvas. In truth, the trolls on the streamer forum and on her channel had pushed her to that point on purpose. They had claimed her skills were fake, or that she had been using a ghost artist.
Some even claimed there was no way someone so young, who’d only been learning to draw for a short time, could be that good. Others went as far as to say it was humanly impossible to draw like she did without cheating.
As much as she didn’t like all the false accusations and noise coming from them, she had always planned to eventually do a handcam stream and paint directly on canvas.
After all, it was her usual style of drawing. She knew there might be a bit of inconsistency, but the core wouldn't change.
[
Whoa...
she’s drawing with cheating quality in real life too.]
[I thought there was at least a little computer editing involved. Even if there were, this would still be insanely impressive.]
[Damn. Call some art majors right now, they're crying.]
[What’s the Art Department of Korea University even doing, not scouting someone like her?]
Her drawing steadily came to life, perhaps even more beautifully than anything Evangeline had ever drawn before. She then thought perhaps it was because her father was in the photo.
Unknowingly, she gave a smile and began to hum softly.
With nearly twenty thousand viewers tuned in, normally people would be dropping off every now and then. Nonetheless, her stream held steady at twenty thousand viewers for over an hour.
[What is this place?]
[Welcome newbies.]
[Remember, she’s a kid, so watch what you say. No one’s escaping responsibility if something goes wrong.]
[Official Lady of Tionis Drawing Session]
[There were rumors, but is this for real? Did she admit it herself?]
[She keeps denying it, but lies always get exposed eventually
hehe
]
Comments poured in, impossible to tell whether they were coming from a friend or foe. In accordance, her stream’s trending ranking skyrocketed, and new viewers kept pouring in.
More and more chat messages filled the stream.
Evangeline, while never revealing her true identity, still casually chatted with the audience, not once stopping her hand as she painted. Of course, she still nearly got tripped up a few times by viewers trying to bait her with leading questions.
Once she finally finished her painting, a collective gasp flooded through the chat.
[Haaah. Seriously, boss. Even if it's your own face, didn’t you put in too much effort for this?]
Davey’s radiant smile, along with Evangeline’s joyful expression as she held Twilight in her white dress, made for a humble and peaceful moment. It had such grace that it made the viewers feel a strange sense of serenity.
[
Wow.
What the hell have I been saying to a kid like this? I feel like a total jerk.]
[This stream making you all turn over new leaves LOL]
“I didn’t put that much effort into it—I just drew what I remembered.” She tapped the paintbrush clean and stood up from her seat. “There. That should be more than enough proof, right? I’m real.”
[Yup, our Eva draws real good!]
[Yup, our Eva is Evangeline. Not fake at all.]
“
Ugh,
come on!!” Even after her admirable display, she couldn’t escape the chat playfulling teasing her.
“Today’s stream was really just for me to explain myself, as well as get myself back into a rhythm since my suspension was finally lifted. So, I think I’ll be closing up now,” she said calmly as she wrapped things up. “Well then. Byeve.”
[Wait... Hold up!!]
[This is absurd...]
“Honestly, if you all just didn’t keep making accusations, I could keep streaming.”
As soon as she said that, the chat tried to bring things under control.
[Okay. Fine. Eva isn’t Evangeline.]
[Yup. Totally agree.]
[So, now will you keep streaming?]
“Nope, not doing it!”
[???]
[??????]
Just like that, with a trail of question marks flooding the screen, the stream went offline.
* * *
Evangeline looked at Hyun-Ah and Kouna with a puzzled expression when they suddenly showed up. “What’s going on?”
“Eva, is it true you discovered a silence gate?”
“Silence gate?”
“That invisible gate you handled.”
Evangeline slowly nodded. “Oh, that. Yeah, I could see it, so I smashed it.”
“That’s incredible!” Hyun-Ah suddenly pulled Evangeline into a hug. “How did you even see it? There was no mana wave, and it’s invisible to the naked eye...”
“It just... showed up for me,” Evangeline mumbled, suddenly feeling nervous and put on the spot. Hyun-Ah and Kouna exchanged glances for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
“Eva, you’re not streaming tomorrow, right?”
“Nope. If I do, it’ll be in the evening...”
“Then, want to come somewhere with Auntie during the day?”
Evangeline’s head tilted in confusion, but she still nodded.
Up until then, they’d all been relying on Kouna and her foresight to handle silence gates—a method that lacked precision. If they could make proper use of Evangeline’s ability to actually see precursors of gates’ appearances or the gates themselves, things would become much easier to handle.
Naturally, she’d receive credit for her service, and public opinion would only improve. Hyun-Ah was already mapping out a plan in her head.
“
Ummm.
Then, can I go back now?”
“
Hm?
Yeah, sure. Go have fun. Oh, right, Super Ribbon’s probably waiting for you. You should go play with her.”
“Super Ribbon is? Okay!” As Evangeline leapt up and dashed off, her black hair fluttered behind her.
Seeing her, Hyun-Ah smiled widely. “Good. Good. Everything’s going better than expected.”
They had a working theory that the reason Evangeline could see the gates was because she was an ancient dragon, but that was something they would have to confirm in person through experimentation. What truly mattered most was that she could see them at all.
“But, Hyun-Ah,” Kouna said, “what about that guy who recommended Pixabay to Eva at that time...”
The same scumbag who made Evangeline cry on stream, and even got her suspended.
When Kouna brought up that awful person, Hyun-Ah tilted her head. “What about him?”
“What did you do with him?”
“What do you mean?” Hyun-Ah innocently questioned.
“Well, you said you were going to track him down, but then things suddenly went quiet.”
“We’re still searching.”
“
Huh??
”
‘So he really just vanished into thin air?’
Kouna frowned, now seriously thinking about that piece of garbage who had disappeared so suddenly.
“We did identify who he was, but then he completely vanished without a trace before we could get him.”
Kouna’s eyes narrowed with fury. Ever since Davey became her custodian, she had been spending a lot more time in Korea.
To her, Evangeline was like a little sister. She was someone cute and precious, a loved one she felt responsible for. Even though Kouna usually wasn’t the type to show her emotions around others, she had never hid her affection for Evangeline.
Naturally, she had been genuinely furious at that scumbag. Yet suddenly, he was just... gone.
“That’s suspicious.”
Hyun-Ah agreed, “Right? We’re still trying to find him, but it’s not easy.”
“Could someone else have already taken care of it? That Middle Eastern prince guy, maybe?”
“No. He’s found himself stuck in the same position as us.”
It was almost impossible to find someone who’d completely disappeared without a trace. If that were possible, there wouldn't be any missing people in the world.
Even in modern times, people went missing every single day.
“I bet not even ghosts or psychics would know what to do.”
Kouna couldn’t even imagine what had happened.
* * *
Yeon Soo-Ah, daughter of the guild master of the mid-tier guild Evangeline had saved, was deep in thought.
Ever since the incident at the D-class rift, the guild's already-shaky reputation had only gotten worse.
It wasn’t surprising; their members had almost died in a D-class rift, of all places.
Lack of talent; lack of equipment. They were lacking in every possible way, and the weight of it all gave Yeon Soo-Ah a constant headache.
All she could feel was guilt toward her father, who had poured everything he had into building up the guild, working every day without fail. If only nothing had gone wrong in the rift, their quarterly wouldn’t have ended up in such a disastrous state.
However, even so, she had no regrets.
Sure, their flaws had been exposed, but it wasn’t in her nature to stay quiet about the kid who had helped them.
“
Um
. Soo-Ah, there’s someone here to see you.”
“A guest? Who is it?”
“I’m not really sure...”
‘A stranger suddenly showed up? If it’s some random salesman, I should just kick them out right away.’
Just as she was about to wave them off, she felt something strange about the situation. Normally, stuff like that was filtered by the front desk, never reaching her. She couldn’t help but wonder why it had made it all the way up to her.
As she was mulling it over, the door opened before a young man in a black suit stepped inside.
“
Huh?
” The moment she saw his face, her eyes widened. “Y-You, you are—?!”
“Nice to meet you, Yeon Soo-Ah.”
There was no way she wouldn’t recognize him. He was, quite literally, one of the most famous people on Earth.
“I saw the news the other day.”
Hearing that day mentioned, Yeon Soo-Ah froze in place, stiff as a board.
“I came here because of that.”
In a way, it was natural that he had come. As she stayed still in stunned silence, the young man pointed towards a nearby chair and spoke again, “May I?”
“Y-Yes! Of course! W-Would you like some coffee?”
“No need. I’m not here to be served,” he answered calmly as he took a seat.
“So... What brings you here...?” she cautiously probed.
“I came to make you an offer.”
‘An offer?’
Yeon Soo-Ah blinked in confusion as the man continued, “I’m considering giving your guild a supply of Tionis-made artifacts and equipment. I personally imbued them with power, so the effects should be pretty decent.”
With a friendly smile, he placed a glove down on the table. Her eyes flew open wide at the sight.
“It’s not a lifelong trading contract or anything, but I promise to help raise your guild into a top-tier one.”
His claim sounded ridiculous, since they were mid-tier at best. In fact, they’d slipped to borderline low-tier status after so many financial setbacks. Despite that, the man was saying he’d turn the Balhae Guild into a top-tier powerhouse.
She couldn’t help but think that he was babbling nonsense. Not that she could say it out loud, though.
It was because the man in front of her was actually capable of doing exactly that with ease.
“H-How is this even...”
“But,” he said flatly, “there’s one condition.”
Yeon Soo-Ah held her breath.
“Don’t tell anyone I was here. Not a word. If my wives find out, they’ll come for me like bloodhounds.” He gave a casual, mischievous smile, and Yeon Soo-Ah just stared at him blankly. “They still think they’ve managed to hide everything, after all.”

.
!
Chapter 1134