The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1169

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1169

Chapter 1169
Clunk!!
“Hey. Get out here.” A scruffy man in a uniform waved his hand with an exasperated look on his face.
The figure in the crow mask, who had been sitting quietly inside the holding cell, slowly lifted his head.
“Look. You seem like an alright dude... Just don’t do that again, alright? Illegal trespassing is
illegal
for a reason, you get it?” the officer grumbled, his voice laced with annoyance.
The man in the crow mask didn’t say a word. Instead, he walked all the way out of the police station, his posture slack and clodding.
“Why don’t we make that guy take off his mask?” one officer asked.
“
Huh?
Should we?” answered his senior.
“Of course! You didn’t even get his information. What are you—”
“Hey. Look at me. Do we
have
to?”
Facing his senior’s question, the junior stared at him blankly for a moment, then shook his head. “No need, I guess.”
The two went right back to their work as if nothing had happened, appearing to be in some kind of trance.
Thud!!
Once outside in a quiet alleyway, the man in the crow mask slammed his fist against a wall and growled, “Damn it...”
Even through the mask, it was obvious his expression had twisted into a deep scowl.
“Damned humans. If only I still had my strength!”
He had thought Chandra would be killed by that human. Compared to the past, Chandra had become laughably weak.
He had poured every last bit of his power into giving her an extra life. His plan was to slowly tighten the noose each time she died by using the disparity that formed in the process.
However, to his surprise, Chandra hadn’t died at that man’s hands. Left with no other option, he’d scraped together every shred of strength he had left and driven her into a frenzy.
Still, she didn’t die.
“Damn that variable bastard!” he fumed with rage. In the end, he had lost his power and gained absolutely nothing. “Shit! I’ll have to lay low for a while and recover...”
For the moment, he couldn’t do anything except perform basic hypnosis. While he wanted to destroy everything around him, that was impossible in his current state.
It was then that something dropped from the sky and splattered right on top of his mask.
“W-What the hell!! Damn it!!!”
It was bird poop.
* * *
Chandra felt completely drained.
The urge to run had vanished, and she had instead begun questioning what the hell was going on inside the two women’s heads.
“Hey, what exactly are you doing?”
“What do you think? I’m developing a new recipe. Hurry up and finish grinding that stuff up.”
Chandra began mashing the garlic in the makeshift mortar with force, wielding the pestle in her hand like a weapon. Her eyes began to tear up from the sharp, pungent scent.
Anyone could tell that those two were simply throwing together a bunch of unidentifiable ingredients, and doing things no sane person would, yet their expressions remained unnervingly serious and dignified.
“
Oh
. This is actually pretty good.” Yuria licked a bit of the newly made sauce off her finger, looking pleased.
Rinne followed suit, dipping her finger into the sauce. After licking it clean, she muttered, “Rinne detects high sugar content. Rinne analyzes good taste but deems it as likely unhealthy.”
“
Hmm.
Then how about we pour this in?”
The sauce they were creating had the kind of black, murky color that looked like it had crawled up from the depths of hell. Yet for some reason, it gave off a strangely sweet aroma—it made no sense at all!
“Hey, this isn’t exactly the best time to be—”
“Chandra, that’s enough. Hand it over, we’re just about done.”
Chandra slammed the mortar down on the table with a cold, stiff look as she watched the two women go about their business like nothing was wrong.
She shoved the plastic mortar toward them and stood up abruptly. “Fine! It’s my own fault for expecting anything from lunatics like you.”
“Oh my! I’m the President of the Gourmet Research Society, and technically your superior...”
“I don’t care about that scam contract!!” she shouted fiercely before storming off, leaving them behind.
In her hand was the contract she had been tricked into signing. While the contents of the contract were simple, she just couldn't accept them.
“Is your body back to normal?” Davey calmly asked.
“You scam artist...” Chandra turned her head and scowled. “What the hell is this contract supposed to be?”
Davey was lying under a parasol on a sunbed in the garden, sipping juice as if he had nothing to do with her misery. “Right? I debated for a long time about how to deal with you, but I didn’t expect Yuria to handle it that way.”
Davey giggled to himself, thinking that insane plans sometimes actually worked out. Seeing him made Chandra seethe with rage.
There were also two women lounging on sunbeds. One was a beastfolk girl with a flushed face who clearly didn’t know what to do with herself, and the other was a stunning woman with bright blond hair.
While the two of them dozed off in lounging clothes, Davey set down his glass of juice and said, “I’ve suppressed the rampage inside your body for now. You don’t have to worry about it blowing up any time soon.”
As irritating as he seemed, there wasn’t a hint of playfulness in his voice.
“Honestly, I didn’t see that coming either. Still, now that we’re in a contract, you can’t die just yet.”
- The primary party, Davey O’Rowane, agrees to assist the secondary party, Chandra, in fulfilling her specific revenge.
- The secondary party, Chandra, agrees to temporarily postpone her revenge against the primary party, Davey O’Rowane, until a certain situation is met. This situation’s specifics are negotiable between both parties.
She had essentially been banned from destroying humanity.
There were other parts of the contract that didn’t make much sense to her, either. That was the real reason she had gotten so angry in the first place. Her entire purpose had been sealed away.
- The secondary party will provide the primary party with uninhibited access to her memories.
- In return, the primary party shall provide the secondary party with a method to suppress her rampages.
“This ridiculous contract...”
“It’s a fair proposal. Honestly, I didn’t even try this before because I figured it’d raise too much suspicion. Didn’t expect a scam to actually get the job done,” he said while shrugging. “You yourself knew that you hated the rampages, and still couldn’t find a way to deal with them. That’s why the contract was activated.”
“You think that makes sense?”
“The power of the Lord of Geas ensures fair contract magic. Basically, it doesn’t work if one side is forced into an unfair deal.”
Her expression twisted. Sure, there were parts of the contract she didn’t like, but what really got to her was that she didn’t fully understand it either.
“So then what exactly do you gain from this? You ‘get access to’ part of my memories? What’s that about? Fine, I admit that the rampage that day wasn’t under my control. The day I tore apart all those humans, same deal.”
A Special One with immense power but no self-control. That was how she saw herself.
Of course, she didn’t regret what she had done that day. To her, humans were nothing more than objects of betrayal and hatred.
“Let’s be honest, the one you’re really after is that crow mask guy, isn’t it? I don’t know much about him, but I can tell you everything I do. You just have to kill me.”
There had been no real reason to go as far as drawing up a contract. Yet, Davey had not only given himself the right to access her memories, but also provided a way to suppress her rampage.
It felt like a one-sided deal. Still, at the same time, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was actually a loss for her at all.
“I have a gut feeling that the crow mask guy is definitely connected to you.”
“So what?”
“You don’t even remember him?” That made no sense to Davey, so he had no other choice but to see her memories for himself.
Just as Chandra began to frown at his inexplicable behavior, the door suddenly slammed open as Rinne and Yuria burst in.
“Gas! Gas! Gas!!”
They wailed in panic, running out into the garden and dropping flat to the ground. They then swiftly and skillfully pulled gas masks over their faces, displaying a practiced ease.
Chandra stood still, confused for a moment. Thick clouds of smoke began pouring out from inside the house, and before she could react, she had already inhaled a lungful of it.
“
Hmph?!
” Tears streamed down her face as she collapsed, clamping her hands over her nose and mouth.
Normally, she would’ve used her power. However, whether it was because of the rampage or something else, her strength wouldn’t respond to her commands, leaving her fully exposed.
The stench was so strong that it physically affected her body. She wanted to scream at those lunatics and ask what the hell they had done, but she knew that opening her mouth would only mean sucking in more of the horrid smoke.
Meanwhile, Davey was perfectly fine. Not only him, but the others who were on the sunbeds beside him also looked similarly calm and unbothered.
“Y-You!!” Only then did Chandra realize Davey had put up a protective barrier for everyone except her. She retched at the sharp, bitter, and nauseating smell.
Rinne, still lying on the ground with her gas mask on, muttered in disappointment, “Failed mixture. Rinne evaluates Yuria’s bold strategy lowly.”
“No, this definitely happened only because we ran out of ingredients!”
Even after causing such a catastrophic mess, the two lunatics didn’t show the slightest bit of remorse.
Chandra had thought they were unhinged from the moment she met them, and their behavior continued to defy all reason.
“Strange. Earth’s ingredients and Tionis’s ingredients look the same, but maybe there are subtle differences?”
“Rinne analyzes that the onions were overboiled. Rinne evaluates the soggy texture lowly.”
Her voice quivered slightly with emotion, as if recalling the recent incident when Evangeline had dumped sauce all over the sweet and sour pork.
“Alright, let’s try again. Chandra, care to join us?”
“Knock yourself out...” She had joined the Gourmet Research Society, but she was seriously starting to regret it.
It was then that she sensed something subtle and irritating.
A presence.
“You two—if you don’t want me to say this again, get over here.” Davey turned his attention away from Chandra, preparing to scold the two troublemakers.
Chandra didn't hesitate.
She leapt over the wall. Once she arrived in a quiet, secluded area, she saw the man with the pitch-black crow mask slowly emerge from the shadows.
She remembered that humans had a name for that outfit. Something like a plague doctor?
Chandra stared at him for a few tense moments, then asked, “What is it this time?”
The man in the crow mask looked at her in silence, then sighed. “Was your hatred for humans really that weak?”
“
Hah!
That’s none of your business.”
“Why aren’t you wearing the bracelet I gave you?”
“Sorry, I didn’t like it, so I smashed it.”
Her answer made him flinch. “What? Are you insane? That would’ve enhanced your unstable power even further—”
“And why exactly would I wear something from you? What part of you am I supposed to find trustworthy?”
The crow mask trembled. “No... No, this is bad. You have to trust me. I’m your ally! Your supporter. I’ve been helping you for a long time.”
He growled low, then held out another bracelet. “This is a spare. You’ve clearly gotten weaker, and I’m on your side. Don’t stay by that human’s side. That’s not where you belong.”
At that time, Chandra was more interested in finding the real cause behind her rampage than in the man standing before her. She ignored that Davey seemed focused on tracking the guy down.
“To think you’d end up like this even after I gave you the power to go berserk. This makes me furious! Truly furious,” he muttered.
She heard something she couldn’t ignore. “What did you just say?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you just say you gave me the power to go berserk?”
At her question, the crow mask gave a slow nod. “I did. You’re not someone who would break so easily like that, so I gave you that necessary power to make you do it, even if it was forced.”
Her expression twisted grimly.
So that was it. The one who had driven her into a rampage, and the one responsible for the cafe explosion, was both him.
“You’ve got some nerve showing yourself in front of me.”
Her aura turned cold, and the air around them began to subtly vibrate. Even with her power restrained, it hadn’t completely disappeared.
Facing her icy murmur, the man raised both hands in a gesture to calm her. “Settle down. You still don’t have all your memories, but I swear I’m on your side.”
Chandra’s eyes narrowed, glaring at him.
“You’ll understand someday, that I’m with you.”
He spread his arms wide. “Have you already forgotten about the humans who slaughtered your kin and your family right in front of your eyes? Or did you forget how the man you loved tied you up and then killed everyone in front of you, before burning the entire forest to the ground?”
He spoke as if he knew everything about her. She couldn’t help but twist her face subtly, as she knew she had some memory fragments of what he was saying.
- Leon, please stop! Please! You said you loved me! Why are you doing this?! Why are you hurting me?!
She had screamed at him through tears of blood, unable to move as countless humans slaughtered her kin and family before her eyes.
That was when she snapped. She tore apart every human who came near her.
It was a memory she clearly possessed.
She had loved the forest. She had lived in peace with her kin. One day, she rescued a human man who had collapsed in the woods. While nursing him back to health, she fell in love with him.
That memory was real.
Then, like a scene change, another memory surfaced.
That man betrayed her. After forming a soul contract, he used the very power she had entrusted him with to make her powerless.
She had believed in him. Loved him. That trust had become chains that bound her.
After that, he led humans into the forest, where they burned it to ashes and slaughtered everyone.
Some of those killed had been young ones of the forest.
She had been forced to watch it all unfold.
Then she broke, going into a berserk rage.
Filled with a betrayal so deep and hatred so absolute, her entire world turned black.

Chapter 1169