Novel The Max Level Hero has Returned! - Chapter 273

Chapter 273

“Your Majesty, I believe you have to get treatment from us doctors for quite a while.”

“This emperor is not that old yet.”

“No matter how healthy you think your body is, it will still give out on you if you continue to overwork it like this. On top of that, you have already been overworking your body for too long, Your Majesty.”

Emperor Deorte, an old man who had been sitting on the throne for decades, smiled bitterly at the doctor’s words. To be honest, aside from the complications that the imperial doctor had said, his body was truly fine. However, he felt so heavy and languid after sparring with Davey. It was as if he had died hundreds of times.

‘No. I would definitely have died hundreds of times from his hands.’

If he had met Davey on the battlefield or if they were placed on two sides in a hostile relationship, Emperor Deorte was sure that he would have died hundreds of times in the young boy’s hands. Just thinking about the possibility had chills running down his spine.

If only that boy showed up decades or perhaps years earlier, back when Tionis Continent had still been embroiled in a huge continental war. So? What would happen if the boy had shown up back then? Perhaps the one who would hold the hegemony over the Eastern Continent would be the Rowane Kingdom and not the Lyndis Empire.

No, Emperor Deorte was sure that that would have been the outcome. The Lyndis Empire might have the most talented warriors and soldiers. But even if they fought together and combined their strength, once they met that monstrous prince…

Was it simply because the boy had the power of the Saint? There was a possibility. After all, no real Saint or Saintess had appeared for the longest time. However, by all means, this was not a part of that question.

Come to think of it, what kind of madman would dare to treat the emperor of the great empire that had divided the continent into three parts like a dog and drag him around to vent his anger?

Even though they had only been sparring, Emperor Deorte could see madness flashing in the boy’s eyes during each attack. It was as if the young boy had been releasing the stress that had accumulated in him.

The boy had also shown that he could freely handle the weapons that he had with both hands. However, it had to be known that ordinary humans could not do such a feat. And when Emperor Deorte had summoned his mana and created a solid shield around him, the boy had manipulated the longsword at will, an achievement that all swordsmen dreamt of having, to summon it to his hands. Then, the boy had sought out the gaps in the emperor’s defenses to leave cuts and slashes behind.

Did he see how Davey wielded the sword? No. Not at all. The only thing that Emperor Deorte had seen were flashes of light. When he came back to his senses, his thick and solid shield had already broken apart like a rusty hinge of a door. It had failed to withstand the enormous shock from Davey’s attack.

“Ugh… Well, I won’t die even if we do it twice…”

The imperial doctor looked surprised at Emperor Deorte’s groan. However, he did not say a word about it.

“Your Majesty, this is Grand Duchess Kathryn.”

“Enter,” said Emperor Deorte as he raised himself up to a sitting position.

The door quietly opened to reveal the figure of a healthy woman wearing a military uniform. She walked over and bowed her head. “Your Majesty. Grand Duchess Kathryn Carabella greets the empire’s Two-headed Dragon.”

“Right,” Emperor Deorte answered shortly as he looked up at Kathryn and gestured for her to step forward. When the waiting imperial attendant handed a carefully wrapped box over, he continued, “This is the holy item that Prince Davey has made and left behind. This Emperor does not know the exact details, but the prince said that the party’s priest would recognize it.”

There were six strong, sturdy, and simple bracelets placed neatly inside the box.

“It doesn’t look like it would make much of a difference with just a glance.”

“That’s right.”

“However, I can definitely feel something from within those items. But… Prince Davey…”

“He’s gone.”

Kathryn looked at Emperor Deorte in doubt. “He’s gone to…?”

“How would this Emperor know that? That guy is a very elusive person.”

Even if they tried to predict what move Davey would make next, they would still be unable to figure it out. So, it was better to give up early and spare themselves the misery of trying to figure out the impossible.

Not long after, Emperor Deorte showed his majesty and dignity as he declared, “Go. Go and show them the power of the Lyndis Empire’s Grand Duchess. Show it to those fearless bastards who wish to shake the balance of our empire.”

“I understand.”

“Keep this in mind. Your job here is not to ensure the safety and survival of the warrior.”

Emperor Deorte felt sorry for the others. However, he was the Emperor of the Lyndis Empire. And Grand Duchess Kathryn was a very important figure in the empire, the figure who was in charge of the empire’s defenses. She was also one of the few people that Emperor Deorte trusted.

“Make sure to come back alive.”

Grand Duchess Kathryn bowed her head as she received Deorte’s order. She did not raise her head for a long time.

***

Davey needed to exercise more caution from the very beginning to find Surtr’s second legacy. Was it because someone already had it? Or was it because he did not know the exact location? Both were questions that Davey did not know the answers to. However, the biggest problem was the fact that too long a time had gone by.

It had already been close to 3,000 years since this legacy was first left behind. In fact, it was a miracle that Surtr’s legacy had been maintained despite the long passage of time. What that meant was…

—So, you’re saying that this would be different from Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon’s case?

Back then, there had been ruins that specified the location of Surtr’s secret workshop. This time, there were no such hints at all. The only thing that Davey could do was to compare the map of the continent to the map of the continent in his memories, find the difference between them, and comb through those places.

—First Lich Nyx…was definitely a very powerful existence… Although he’s said to be at the 8th Circle, the moment the chains that seal him are broken, he would send out 9th Circle attacks.

The Lich was a master at the 8th Circle. However, Perserque judged that Nyx’s abilities had reached the 9th Circle.

“Then, does that mean that he’s stronger than the Demon Lord?”

—It seems like you’re belittling my powers, huh?

Perserque shrugged her shoulders and raised her nose up high.

—It’s not like I’m hiding anything. It’s true that my powers as the Demon Lord only reached the 7th Circle. My magic skills could reach the 8th to 9th Circle. However, I couldn’t keep up with Nyx when it came to combat capabilities.

Above all, Nyx was a subordinate to the Demon Lord. This meant that he could not rebel against Perserque.

—But he could not use my powers. I’m sure that he will be in trouble once he awakens.

The problem was not Nyx’s combat capabilities. Nyx was a schemer. In fact, the surefire method to deal with him was to quickly acquire the items that could kill him and repeatedly kill him as he resurrected time and time again. That would eventually put an end to him.

—But don’t we just have to stop them from unsealing him?

“The seal would eventually reach its limits. In fact, according to Ares, the seal should have long disappeared around 500 years ago.”

The seal had lasted far longer than Davey had thought, but it was also probably the reason why the sealed bastard could wreak havoc.

“This is the map that’s commonly available outside. And…” The Lyndis Imperial Administrator murmured bitterly, “This is the new map produced by the Lyndis Empire a few years ago.”

“Hmm… There are so many vague places marked here.”

“I’m sorry. Geographical maps used in military operations are strictly kept as state secrets.”

“I’m not even asking for your secrets,” Davey said calmly, prompting the administrator to look down quietly.

“I gave you the map at His Majesty’s orders. Is there something else that you need?”

“No. It’s fine.”

Anyway, Davey was now able to distinguish the difference in the geography from the past and the present. He left the administrator who had handed him the maps behind. Then, he scanned the map that was filled with vague marks.

Since there were no satellites in this world, it was very hard to make a detailed map. On top of that, military maps were usually state secrets. If the emperor hadn’t played dirty to get Aeria engaged to Davey, Davey couldn’t have easily gotten his hands on it.

—Then, what are you going to do next?

“This,” Davey said as he placed his hand over the wide map and slowly pulled his mana up.

[5th Circle]

[Mind Map]

This magic could bring out the information that was stored in one’s head and create a hologram. Magic had originally been a skill that was created for war, so strategizing with magic was as common as attack magic.

Vwooooooong—

Not long after, the map of the past that was clearly imprinted in Davey’s memory turned into light and slowly overlapped with the map that he had spread out on the table in front of him. The general form of the continent had not changed much. However, there were several changes in some large and small places.

“…”

Davey remembered the approximate location of Surtr’s numerous legacies as well as Ares’ and Hermesia’s legacies. That was right. Davey remembered most of the legacies that had been left behind by the Tionis Continent’s heroes.

—Three thousand years… If you add up the long time that I slept, then… It seems like there are more changes than I thought.

In fact, the changes in geography from back then until now were very huge. The place that used to be a lake had now become a city, while the place that used to be a fortress had become a lake, a forest, or even a swamp.

“…” Davey silently looked at the map in front of him. Soon, after comparing the discrepancies between the map of today and the map of the past, he found some possible locations of these legacies. “Around here, here, and here.”

Davey waved his hand and quickly pulled out a light-made formula in front of him.

—I have never seen this magic before.

“We can’t just throw the ball around to decide which place to go only to find out that we went to the wrong place. We have to find it in one go.”

Perserque tapped the rotating numbers that were moving swiftly around Davey with her small fingers in amazement while Davey moved to calculate and substitute the numbers in front of him.

—How can you use magic in such a way? Your magic teacher is truly amazing.

She had truly been great. After all, she had been a noble who had escaped the mage tower to reach a peerless and unrivaled level on her own despite the continent overflowing with great mages. Except for her bean-sized figure and her rough personality…the woman who deserved such great respect, Odin, had been Davey’s magic teacher.

—She’s a hero who had an excessive fascination with magic…

“She was the craziest of the crazies. After all, she was also the one who made a mana heart in one of her eyes.”

Ping…

Finally, the fast-moving numbers lined up for a moment and landed on one part of the map. Then, Davey pulled his mana up and showed the place.

—Here… But there’s nothing showing up on the map?

“There’s still undeveloped forest area near the border. And monsters are also teeming in several places around it.”

The fact that there were many monsters present was proof of the legacy having stayed safe.

—But… No matter how you look at it, our destination is a huge lake. Perhaps…it has sunk…

“We’ll know once we go there.”

So what if it was submerged in water? It was an item that did not lose its efficiency and use just because it had been submerged deep under the water. Besides, there was no other choice but to dive into the water if it was truly submerged.

Then, at that moment…

“That… Pr… Prince Davey!”

An urgent cry rang loudly from behind Davey. When he turned around, he saw a turquoise-haired girl running toward him with a very nervous expression on her face.

“Imperial Princess Aeria?”

“Are you leaving?” Aeria asked with a troubled expression.

Davey nodded. “Yes. There’s something that I need to get.”

She would not stop him, right? Wouldn’t she be too greedy if she was trying to do so?

Aeria looked at Davey anxiously. After some hesitation, she carefully took out the thing that she hid behind her back and held it out to Davey. “That… It’s very cold so… this…”

It was a blue woolen scarf that looked extremely warm and comfortable.

“Please…take care of yourself. Next time, I will give you something that I worked harder on!”

Davey wrapped the scarf around his neck and smiled at Aeria, who sent him off with a smile of her own.

***

After leaving the palace with the scarf that Aeria had given him, Davey immediately created a magic circle and jumped over space using warp magic.

Jumping to a location’s coordinates without any confirmation was very dangerous. If there was a boulder at that exact coordinates, then the teleported person would have the very strange experience of becoming one with a boulder.

Davey was using a long-distance warp and not teleportation. So, if he wanted to go somewhere and something existed there, then the overwhelming mass created by the warp would crush and twist whatever obstruction it was to replace it with his existence.

But what if the obstruction was a person? Davey was sure that a very horrible scene would unfold in that case.

If he was lucky, Davey would arrive in that particular mid-sized forest that was on the border between the Lyndis Empire, the Rowane Kingdom, and the Holy Empire. It was a very dangerous place teeming with monsters that no human could ever reach its depths.

Monsters usually hid and lived in such forests to avoid human aggression. It was not that difficult for Davey to wipe out these monsters. However, being in a border area made such things…rather tough.

Vwoooong…

A giant troll with a gigantic club in its hand was strolling around only to find the space in front of it being warped. Too curious to simply walk away, it wandered closely and reached out to the spatial crack.

Shwaaa!

At that moment, a girl’s thin and white arm stretched out of the spatial crack to grab the troll’s hand. She twisted the hand until it was no longer recognizable. Then, before the giant troll could even react, it was dragged into the spatial crack.

Roar!!!

A wretched and horrible scream rang loudly as a silver-haired girl stepped out of the spatial crack with a black rebar in her hands. And without any hesitation, the girl used the rebar to slam the body of the troll away. The attack was so quick. Only the tip of the rebar touched the troll, who was quickly ripped apart into dozens of pieces.

The subjugation had been done in an instant.

“Rinne’s initial subjugation is successful. Rinne evaluates the subjugation as very efficient.”

—You’d better teach Rinne the concept of mercy and grace.

Davey totally agreed with Perserque’s words.

“The smell is quite pungent.”

The blood of a troll was a very good item, but it did not smell good at all. Since the body of the troll had been ripped apart, the stench of its blood covered the entire area.

Rinne who had caused this entire situation, however, was walking barefoot in the pool of blood. It was as if nothing had happened. She did not care that her bandaged feet were turning red.

“What in the world are you doing, Rinne?” Davey asked.

He felt slightly anxious when Rinne’s eyes started to twinkle when she looked at a torn piece of troll’s skin hanging somewhere.

When Rinne suddenly dipped her finger in the pool of blood and placed it in her mouth, Davey was shocked by her behavior. He said, “Rinne, that’s disgusting. Don’t eat that.”

But then, Rinne licked the blood on her finger as if she was analyzing something. She later said, “Large-scale cytoplasm analysis has been completed. Rinne has filled in the information about a new monster. The monster might look disgusting but the taste is outstanding.”

Rinne jumped at Davey. Without any hesitation, she held out a piece of the troll’s flesh that was still dripping with blood to him. “Davey! Rinne evaluates that this will have a huge impact on Davey’s restaurant business plan. Rinne evaluates this greatly!”

“I won’t do that, you rascal!”

Restaurant business aside, anyone who ate everything that tasted good would definitely get sick eventually.