The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1204

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1204

Chapter 1204
“Bottoms up! Down the hatch.”
Yuria and Marky chugged drinks while shouting at the top of their lungs. Rinne sat between them, chewing on fried chicken with her usual blank expression.
Evangeline, sitting off to the side sipping her soft drink, gazed wistfully at a soju glass.
“
Hahahahaha!
”
The one having the most fun was none other than Evangeline’s fellow and senior streamer, Moderation aka Park Seung-Hyun.
Well. To be precise, he looked like he was having fun, though in reality he was in full-on fuck-it mode, balls to the wall and drowning in resignation.
They had invited him to Evangeline’s lair for a party. While Seung-Hyun chugged away, he deeply felt that despite them being lunatics, he felt strangely comfortable with them.
“
Ughh!
”
Wallowing that atmosphere, it was inevitable for things to spiral.
It wasn’t long before Seung-Hyun was completely wasted.
“
Urrgh.
”
“There, there. It’s okay. Half the world is women, you know? You’ll meet someone for you one day.”
“Yeah, human. I mean, I'm no expert either, but... shouldn’t humans be with other humans, anyways?”
They tried to console him in their own way, but it didn’t help much.
After all, it wasn’t like his feelings for Reina were just those for some casual crush.
“Hang in there, Moderation.” Evangeline, sipping her drink and munching on snacks, gave him a bittersweet smile of encouragement.
Seung-Hyun immediately broke into sobs. “Eva, you're the only one who understands me!”
He lunged for her consoling embrace, wailing. She scrunched her face in disgust and pushed him away with a solid kick.
“You smell like booze! Stay back.”
“
Khuhuhh.
”
Marky, who’d been silently observing the situation, hesitantly spoke, “Hey, human.”
“What is it?”
“
Ummm.
What does it mean to like someone?”
“
Huh?
” He hadn’t expected such a question out of nowhere.
“I mean... I’m not human, and I haven’t been alive that long. I kinda know about it from memories, but...”
While she had inherited the memories of the Butterfly Empress Chandra, she wasn’t truly Chandra any longer.
Once she realized those memories weren’t truly hers, they had even started to feel disconnected.
“
Hehe.
I don’t really know either.” Moderation wasn’t in any state to give serious answers, given that his liver was seriously considering whether to revolt.
Still, sometimes words that slipped out when drunk carried an unexpected truth.
“It’s just...” he began.
“Just?”
“It just hurts. Knowing what it’s like just makes it harder,” he muttered bitterly.
Perhaps fascinated by the topic of love, Evangeline, who usually had a soft spot for romance, perked up. “But why? Isn’t love supposed to make you happy?”
“Beats me. I’d like to know why, too.” He laughed hollowly and poured himself another shot of soju. He then rambled on.
“Maybe it’s a matter of dilemma? You like someone, but you can’t do more for them, and that hurts. You love someone, but they don’t love you back, and that hurts too.”
It was all just suffering.
“Then why do people do something so painful?”
“Beats me. I’d like to know why, too.”
”Evangeline puffed out her cheeks in protest. “You keep saying the same thing over and over.
“If I knew, do you think I’d be sitting here like this?”
“
Ahhhh.
”
There was something deeply philosophical in the way the drunk Moderation could drop a line like that.
Bzzzt.
Just then, his phone buzzed.
“
Oh...
it’s my mom.” He let out a wry chuckle and picked up, still drunk as hell. “Hey, Mom. It’s your loving son.
Huh
, what? I’m not drunk! Not even a little.
Hehehehe.
”
Still giggling, he nodded as he listened. “Yeah. Don’t worry. There’s always something going on overseas. Okay, okay. I’m crashing here tonight. What? My stream? I took the day off. No worries, Mom, I got it.”
He was acting affectionate, something he hardly ever let happen.
Once he hung up, everyone stared at him.
“Who was that?”
“Oh, just the woman I love most in the world—my mom.” He laughed drunkenly.
“Sounds like she was worried you’d be home late.”
“Nah, she’s got nerves of steel. I could be sleeping on a bench somewhere and she probably wouldn’t even blink.”
Still chuckling, he fiddled with his phone.
“She just called ‘cause there were s of simultaneous terrorist attacks overseas. She said it’s all over the news.”
“Overseas?”
“Yeah. Word on the street is that some group of Awakened individuals attacked a bunch of government agencies. But hey, what else is new? Global conflict’s been a thing for years. Now, bottoms up!”
Rinne and Yuria glanced at each other. They gave small nods, then silently raised their glasses again.
* * *
The girl following Davey was named Shuneria Recken, the eldest daughter of the ducal house Recken.
“So. Why would the daughter of a duke get attacked?”
“After the Nacha Empire occupied our country, the first thing they did was work to purge the nobility. My parents were among those who resisted to the very end, making them special targets.”
Even at such a young age, she had been forced to watch her parents meet their end on the execution block.
Night had fallen, and Davey needed to spend some time suppressing the unbalanced power running through him. Instead of pushing through forcefully, he chose to rest for the day and gradually regain control.
While they sat by the campfire, he listened to how Reina ended up involved in the whole ordeal.
“I had to bow my head in order to survive back then. I handed over more than half of what the ducal house had to the Empire, forced to cling to life in disgrace.”
Being the acting head of her house, she had likely sacrificed everything she had to save her younger siblings.
“For the first time, I engaged in bribery and sought mercy from the Nacha nobles. I was branded a traitor to the people, but there was no other way.”
She gave a self-deprecating smile. “Do you think I’m filthy too?”
“Filthy? I’m someone who takes bribes all the time, you know,” Davey answered flatly, pulling roasted meat from the fire and handing it to her. “Eat. We’ve got a lot to do starting tomorrow.”
“You really are kind-hearted, aren’t you?”
He chuckled and closed his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have brought me along at all. I can tell you have tremendous power. I can’t grasp how strong you really are, but there’s no way you’re ordinary.”
“So what?”
“You could’ve just threatened me, gotten the information you needed, and left. Yet you didn’t.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” he told her.
“Of course.” Forgetting the manners expected of a duke’s daughter, Shuneria tore into the meat. “You did it for her, didn’t you?”
For Reina? He supposed she wasn’t entirely wrong.
“I just want to thank her. And you... you want to help take me to her so I can say that.”
He didn’t know what to say.
“You want me to be able to thank her. For her sake.”
“Quit the chatter and just finish your story.”
Perhaps because he had no room for emotional leeway, he found his cold tone of dismissal oddly laughable.
“Where was I?”
“You took bribes to save your siblings.”
“I never said I took bribes! I gave them.”
“Same difference.”
“
Pfft.
You really are a good person, unlike those nobles. While the Nacha Empire grew too fast for corruption to reach its core, it was still enough that mercy could be bought for the right price from those scumbags.”
“So why’d the emperor try to have you killed?”
“Because I was in the way.”
The fact that she was a Saintess candidate was also a nuisance, but it seemed some actions of hers had likely been what truly infuriated the emperor.
“There are still resistance forces in the conflict zones, fighting against the empire. I’ve been secretly supporting them with supplies, but eventually the emperor found out. He had no proof, but it bothered him nonetheless.”
So he had sent an elite special operations unit disguised as bandits. Just as they were about to succeed, Reina messed everything up.
“If the emperor knows I’m alive, he’ll try to kill me again.”
“He’s dead.”
With that emperor dead, Davey knew the country would soon collapse.
“Nonsense.”
“I killed him,” Davey insisted.
As if she thought he was joking, she let out a soft, empty laugh. “Don’t joke. That monster isn’t someone who can die that easily.”
“You sound like you know him well.”
“I was almost chosen to be his eighth concubine. I did my research.”
‘Concubine? To that old man?’
It wasn’t all that surprising, though. While the emperor hadn’t struck Davey as particularly lustful, he figured it was probably just a way to take her hostage without scandal.
Still, Shuneria was undeniably pretty. With long hair tinged in light hazelnut and deep emerald eyes, her appearance blended both Eastern and Western features in a way that could only be described as elegant.
She was objectively gorgeous, yet not the kind to stir up any other thoughts in Davey. Being next to Perserque so often, he had naturally developed high standards.
“There was once a resistance fighter who tried to assassinate the emperor during a grand military parade. He actually stabbed a sword right through the emperor’s heart. Guess what happened?”
“Don’t tell me he came back alive. He’s nothing but an old man, with no special powers.”
“He appeared the next day like nothing had happened. That’s how he earned the nickname of Immortal King Blessed by the Divine Beast.”
‘He’s definitely not a lich. But he came back?’
He couldn’t understand.
Seeing him remain silent, she explained what kind of monster the emperor was, “The emperor has seven personal guards. I don’t know much about them, but I heard they were all Master-level fighters.”
That didn’t matter. Davey had already fought them, and they weren’t anything impressive.
“So why haven’t you asked me for help?” At his question, she simply looked at him. He continued, “You said I looked strong, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right. I can’t gauge your full power, but you definitely look like someone who could fight against the executioners.”
“Then go ahead, ask me for help. Maybe I’ll bring down the entire Empire for you.”
“
Haha!
Now that’s a bit much.”
She laughed so hard she teared up, then said with a bitter smile, “The Empire has seven hundred thousand troops, and twenty thousand of them are even armed with special equipment. In this day and age, individual strength can’t defeat an organized force like that. Master-level individuals, once considered strategic weapons, are no longer what they used to be.”
“That’s how it might look.”
“It doesn’t just look that way. But... there was something odd.”
“Odd?”
“Yes. The Emperor, Abzorba Delemanco Prasias Nacha... Just a few years ago, people called him the greatest ruler of his time, a wise and just king. He apparently abhorred war and despised crushing others.”
‘Didn’t seem that way when he gave the order to kill others without even flinching.’
Well, for a normal case, maybe that would’ve been true.
“Then, when you meet Reina, are you going to ask for her help instead?”
“No. Grateful as I am, I only plan to help her escape to another world. She’s probably already on a wanted list for killing the Emperor’s soldiers.”
Even while expressing her gratitude, she still took full responsibility. That made Davey see her in a more favorable light.
It made him want to help.
After a brief moment of thought, Davey pulled out a small item from his Pocket Plane.
It was the summoning stone for Killer Rabbit, the same as he had once given to Evangeline.
“Take this.”
“What is it?” she asked curiously.
“If you ever get into danger, hold it tight and say, ‘Appear and protect me.’ That’s all it’ll take.”
“
Heh.
What, is some legendary divine beast going to pop out?”
“Maybe.”
“Speaking of Divine Beasts, there’s another rumor going around the continent. People say they’ve seen a massive dragon flying around. It’s not exactly a wyvern, instead a true black dragon so huge no one dares compare it. All that is ever left in its wake is scorched earth and destruction.”
‘Okay, that never happened.’
“People are freaking out, saying it’s game over if something that powerful really shows up.
Ah,
but try not to worry too much. Even you’d be scared of something like that, right?”
‘What? Megalodria, that black lizard? That overgrown pigeon?’
Davey let out a small snort. “Yeah. Terrifying.”
Terrifying for what might happen to it if it tried to start something.
“Go to sleep. We set off at first light tomorrow.”
“What about keeping a night watch?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got things to do that will keep me up all night, anyway.”
“But I’d feel bad if I didn’t—”
“Then you shouldn’t have come along in the first place.”
Left speechless, she quietly crawled into her sleeping bag. She was the daughter of a high noble family, yet she moved as if she had already grown so used to such a rough life.
Davey found himself wondering how that came to be.
He spent the rest of the night suppressing his power, rebalancing the unstable force within him as time passed without anything happening.
The next day, as they traveled across the plains on horses her attendants had given them, the air gradually turned thick with the stench of war.
That was when Davey heard a piece of news about Reina that was deeply disturbing.

Chapter 1204