The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Was there anyone in this world who came out spotless when one dug deep enough?

There could be some, but they would be an incredibly rare individual.

Even so, Davey could tell that the man he saw wasn’t one of them.

The man he was referring to was Duke Neto La Lili. When Davey looked at him, he could clearly see that he was the same type of person as him; that he wasn’t spotless, instead being good at hiding what he’d done.

He was surely a difficult case to deal with. First of all, since he was a renowned noble, even if Davey exposed his true face, there was no way he would receive positive feedback. He also had no reason or place to expose him, especially when he was a noble from a foreign country.

Above all, it was highly unlikely that the clever Neto would have left behind any evidence. Even if Davey investigated him, he knew it’d be unlikely for him to obtain any conclusive information.

Neto was an obstacle to Davey as he promised to marry Illyna, but there were still orders in getting things done. He saw Perserque place the child back in the queen's arms and go out into the outdoor garden, a couple of young men following her. Davey wondered if they were just full of energy and unable to control themselves or if there was another reason. He hoped it was the latter.

Davey stopped swirling his glass to set it down and walked away.

***

Davey couldn’t help but wonder how they could behave so ridiculously. He couldn't tell if they had fallen for her beauty or if they had some other intentions.

“It was love at first sight, from the moment I saw you.”

“Why is it that you’re telling me this?” Perserque answered in a firm tone while smiling softly at the leader of the group.

"I just… wanted to say a little something to the lady who’s as beautiful as the evening primrose blooming in the sky.”

Davey felt sick to his stomach.

"Cheesy…"

But then, before Davey knew it, Illyna came beside him. She squinted and said, "I guess your country’s nobles are still as fearless as ever?" she said with a hint of ridicule.

“Why are you here? What about that duke?”

“I’m here because Perserque called me. Did you want me to go to that person or something?”

“That person? You’re calling him ‘that person?’”

“There’s just something about him that’s…” she complained while putting her arms around his.

“What’s up with this you’re doing?”

"What do you mean?"

When Davey saw her looking up at him with confidence, he could tell that she had made up her mind. Each of the three women definitely had different characteristics.

“What makes you reluctant about him?”

“How should I explain it? It's like... Well, he’s someone I never had in mind, and he just seems to be in the way between you and me.”

“How audacious of you to say such a thing.”

"So what? It’s not like you’re going to abandon me, are you?”

Her eyes were sharp, but full of affection. When Davey laughed at her question, she giggled along.

“Ah, this is so fun. By the way, what are you going to do with those bothering Perserque? She told me she had something to say to me.”

“I’ll have to take care of them somehow.”

Saying that, Davey quietly got down from the tree and approached the crowd.

“Don’t just walk away, let’s just talk for a little…”

“I refuse. I already have a husband. I don’t know why you don’t understand that this interaction in and of itself is problematic.”

He gritted his teeth when Perserque drew a line in such a surprisingly cold manner.

"But… But wasn’t that just a formal marriage? Among nobles, marriage and love are said to be separate! If the person who tied the knot with you threatened you…”

“Threats are what you are doing right now.”

Davey quickly approached and wrapped his arm around the young man's shoulders, instantly causing him to freeze up.

“Did it look like Perserque and I had an arranged marriage?”

“Davey.”

“What are these guys up to?”

The group had one leader and three followers, all still young.

"P-Prince Davey, Your Highness..."

They looked at Davey while trembling their bodies with frightened faces.

“Since you said so, if that’s really the nature of nobles, I’ll let you go this time. Step away now while I’m asking you nicely. Otherwise…”

As Davey spoke calmly, he unwrapped his arm from his shoulders and waved his hand.

Slash!

Suddenly, a nearby tree branch lightly fell down.

“I’ll take it as a sign that you’re trying to challenge me until the end,” he said calmly.

Then the young man trembled even more and quickly bowed.

“Your Highness, please forgive me. I-I just…”

When Davey waved his hands in annoyance, they ran away. He took out a scroll he was seeing for the first time from his pocket and tore it up.

“Rinne.”

Swoosh! Boom!

In an instant, Rinne appeared in front of him, almost as if she had fallen from the sky, and looked up with a bright expression.

“Go show Royal Attendant Bernile that young man’s face and ask him to investigate his personal information.”

“Davey? These kids are just full of energy. I think you’re taking it too…”

“I know. Amongst nobles, having a wife or a husband doesn’t mean you don’t go on dates with others.”

Since they were still inexperienced with life, they managed to save themselves by getting away before things got serious. However…

“But isn’t it a bit strange?”

“What is?”

Illyna, who followed behind, tilted her head.

"Strange? What they did is pretty common.”

It seemed like she didn't notice at all. Davey remained silent as he looked at the enchantment scroll he tore up.

“Go and tell him.”

“Rinne highly evaluates the speedy progress of the mission!”

Flap!

Rinne fluttered her small wings that sprouted on her back, disappearing in an instant.

Davey could tell that the guy's end goal wasn’t Perserque. He had no intention of digging into it right away, but he wondered what was going to happen next. He decided to wait, as it wasn't a good idea to just use the cards in his hand the moment a small opportunity arose.

“So, what were you trying to do by calling Aeria and Illyna over?” Davey asked. Then a pair of blue-green ears perked up in the forest.

“Did… Did you see me?”

He nodded to Aeria, who stuck out her head with an innocent face before carefully walking out.

“I-I was… trying to surprise you.”

Her reason was cute in its own way.

“Should I have pretended not to know?”

“Ah… No. It’s okay.”

She smiled widely with a reddened face.

“So, what is it?”

“Davey, you saw him too, right? The Duke.”

“I did.”

“I wasn’t going to share this with you originally, but I wanted to talk about what we were going to do from now on.”

“From now on?”

“Because Illyna will be marrying you. And there was something I needed to make clear, so I called these two over.”

Davey figured she wasn’t trying to be territorial now. Leaving the two puzzled people behind, Davey decided that this wasn't something that he should get involved in.

“Please don’t stress them out too much.”

“Did I look that vicious?”

She smiled playfully and giggled.

“No. But Perserque, apart from this, you haven't told me yet what you’ve done to my body.”

“What I did? Ah. On how I know that nothing happened between you and Illyna?”

“Yeah.”

“And why should I tell you that?”

Davey frowned at how audacious her tone was.

“I don’t really like people who try to get nosy without reading the room.”

“What are you trying to do this time?”

“It’s because I have something to show you. To someone like you who destroys romance as soon as you open your eyes, bringing destruction as soon as you open your mouth, I’ll have to show you separately later.”

Her cheesy, sly words made Davey partially open his eyes and look at her.

“Oh, what’s this? Are you trying to get in the way?” Ilyna sneered, making Davey feel bitter.

Davey couldn’t detect it—not even with mana. He didn’t feel any waves emitted by electronic equipment either. It seemed like Perserque had no intention of telling him the truth.

“Hey, Per! You have to tell me what it is before you…!”

She turned around as he shouted, then pulled on his tie. She kissed him softly and smiled playfully.

“Se-cret.”

Every time Davey saw her smile like that, his face felt warm.

“Don’t be too upset. Anyways, if you intervene right now it will make you lose face.”

Saying that, she turned around and went into the garden. As Davey looked at her blankly and bursted into a fake laugh, Illyna pounced on him, grabbed both his cheeks, and kissed him. She was aggressive and unstoppable. He wondered if she was thinking that nothing mattered now after she had confessed her feelings.

“Hey. Are you some bulldozer or something?”

“Don’t compare me to some metal carriage, please? Hehe, I’m going too then.”

Even though she was shy, she actively expressed her affection. Davey couldn’t help but think that she wasn’t like this originally. Before he knew it, she turned around and walked toward Perserque.

When Davey turned his head to Aeria, she looked at him blankly and covered her mouth with her hand.

“I…”

“...”

Not knowing what to do, her eyes teared up.

“Scoff.”

Davey couldn't help but laugh. He pulled Aeria by her waist and hugged her. She then made a satisfied face. And of course, he had no intention of stopping there.

“Hmph?!”

Her face was as red as a cherry blossom, but she made a happy smile. As she looked at him with a dazed face, he patted her on the back and guided her toward the two who had already left.

“Go. They’re waiting for you.”

“Yes… Yes!”

She smiled blissfully while nodding her head vigorously. Her ears were perked as she ran away. He noticed something sticking out from under the hem of her skirt that was swaying gently; he assumed it to be her tail.

“How did things end up like this?”

Davey sighed and turned his head, looking closely at the enchantment scroll that the young man had just put in his pocket.

“Alright then, time to go play my role as a clown.”

Since Davey had been fighting monsters like the Abyss and Thanatos, the political cold war in Tionis seemed like child's play. In the meantime, he was gradually gaining the power to stand against Eclipse, giving him a bit more freedom. He then recalled the saying that when humans become too strong, everything else starts to feel insignificant.

“Tsk.”

He realized this too was not a very good phenomenon.

***

As Davey left the garden, he came across Rinne and another figure blocking his path.

“It’s been a while, Reina.”

“You recognized me right away,” she said calmly as she flipped back her hood. She was revealed to be a beautiful woman with uniquely colored hair.

“Your hair color has changed a lot.”

“It’s a trait of the Celestials.”

Her hair had silver tips, and the closer to the root they were, the lighter the color turned.

“You look radiant.”

“You saved me and I’m now living happily thanks to you. I’m also doing what I’ve wanted to do without restraints.”

“No struggles?”

He asked because even though she had a family, she couldn’t say a word to them or do anything as Illyna.

“Illyna de Pallan from beyond the parallel died after the fight with Nyx. The only thing that exists now is Reina, who you saved and was reborn."

“Thank goodness.”

Davey genuinely meant his words; he had felt uneasy about her, a stranger, wandering around without a place to settle down.

“These days, I’ve been forming a party and going exploring. I’ve seen things I had never seen before.”

“Remember when I said that you shouldn’t be near me?”

“I’m aware of what you said, yes.”

“Forget it.”

Reina was a being who deceived the rules of the world and was reconstructed. If she stayed close to Davey, the rules of the world would likely be suspicious of her, so he had tried to avoid meeting her as much as possible.

But now things were different.

“What does that mean?”

“If you want to settle down, you can always stay in the Heins Territory.”

“I am grateful for your offer, but I want to travel around the world for now.”

She giggled and declined his offer.

“Because this is a promise I must keep.”

“Promise?”

“It’s like a fate given to me as someone reborn. And it happens to be why I’m here as well.”

Even though there was no need to hide the existence of Reina, Davey figured there was a reason she appeared to him like a shady intruder.

“I heard that there has been a series of strange disappearances recently. That’s why I came out to investigate.”

“An investigation? It sounds like the magnitude of the case is quite large.”

“I’ve identified hundreds of thousands so far. A vicious crime targeting only females, regardless of whether they are humans, orcs, beastfolks, or dwarves. Usually, disappearance cases are common in each country, but this case is a little different.”

After saying that, she took out a small gem and showed it to Davey. The contents of the gem were quite shocking.

“This is the only clue I have. I’m trying to find out more by asking around.”

“So you’re saying the criminal is among the people here?”

“Yes.”

Unlike Davey, who focused only on the Kingdom of Rowane, she had a title like international police that covered the entire continent. A hero who defeated the Demon King and was then abandoned was a common story, but she was proving her worth in her own way.

Of course, most countries didn’t want their secrets exposed, but the Emperors of the three empires had sealed a deal with her, and since she had already solved a number of difficult problems at the national level, there seemed to be no evident reason to block her actions.

“Actually, there are a lot of people who get in the way. Although my rank is that of a Count according to the United Nations... Well, it’s actually meaningless.”

After a brief silence, she smiled.

“It’s mostly because I have you as my backer that they can’t treat me carelessly.”

“How clever and resourceful of you.”

“Your existence is like a huge explosive magic stone deterrent.”

Davey was a one-man army. A one-man force. A bomb whose impact crater could go beyond the Kingdom of Rowane, erasing a whole country if he wanted to.

Still, the reason they couldn't keep him in check was because Davey constantly solved problems that arose on the continent. The moment he changed his mind, he could turn into something far worse that could annihilate the entire continent.

But whatever it was, it wasn't a good sign.

“So? What were you investigating here?”

“Recently, I heard that there was talk of marriage between Princess Illyna and Duke Neto La Lili in the Pallan Empire.”

“So?”

“I used to be Illyna at one point, so I was worried. I decided to do some research on him and ended up hearing some suspicious rumors.”

No one in this world was spotless when they were dug deep enough.

“Suspicious rumors?”

“Yes. It is said that when the duke visits a foreign country for work, a strange song always starts playing in the places he passes by.”

Davey nodded as he watched her hum and sing a mysterious melody.

“A song? Hmm…”

“They say that after that song rings out, a person goes missing as if they were meant to disappear. Everyone seems to think it’s a crime related to the criminal underground, but...”

“Is there anything else?”

“I sensed a unique smell. A smell that no one else detects but me.”

Davey narrowed his eyes as Reina told her findings to him with a serious expression.

‘A new power…?’

He felt bitter about worrying whether or not he could personally intervene and use force in a crime-related matter. Nevertheless, he felt like he had to find that persuasive strength somehow.

ChubbyCheeks & FriedNook's Thoughts

Orb's thought:

Wow, a series of crimes committed by someone without anyone else knowing or realizing it, AND they have a high social status attending this party? I wonder—who could this mystery criminal with an otherwise clean record possibly be?! Who in a million years could have possibly seen this coming?!?

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