The Max Level Hero Has Returned!
chapter-208

75. The One Trying to Stop War, and The One Trying to Start War.

Davey’s eyes shone for a second.

—Davey?

To be honest, Davey was actually surprised at how exceptional the deal was.

‘You are going to change the laws that govern the world just for one deal?’

The unlocking of the four divine beasts right here… Divine beasts were beings that humans from different continents had created early on in yearning for protection. Of course, daoist magic and the four divine beasts did not exist in the Tionis Continent, but to release them here…

In other words, it was no different than giving Davey supernatural powers from his past life. This wasn’t impossible as it was just the world’s nature and the law, but it probably wasn’t an easy decision to offer the deal, even if divine will was the one offering it.

—Davey?

Perserque called out to Davey. She was puzzled. After returning to her normal size, she approached Davey and tilted her head in confusion.

—What’s the matter?

“...It’s nothing.”

It was good; well, not bad. However, Davey thought he could get more out of this opportunity. As soon as he thought that, he felt his head starting to spin and his consciousness getting thready.

‘I’ve felt this before somewhere.’

—Davey? Davey!!

Davey let go of his consciousness without any resistance. He could hear Perserque’s voice becoming distant.

* * *

Upon waking up, Davey could see an endless twilight sky and several strange beings in white clothes. He had expected this.

These white-clothed beings who also had white wings were probably angels being projected by Davey’s heart. They didn’t actually exist, but a God who did not have a physical appearance would approach someone in their most familiar form when the time came. They were unable to speak to each other, but their will definitely existed.

The being who silently had their hand on Davey’s head began to gather light in their palm before giving Davey a small orange pebble.

Davey knew what the pebble was; he had received it once before.

Beyond his blurry vision, Davey could feel something soft stroking his cheek.

* * *

“Did you hear the rumor about Prince Davey?”

“Ah, I heard, I heard. He’s unconscious, right? What happened?”

“How should I know? But according to the rumor…” Someone whispered even louder than before, “They said that he went to slaughter the enemy who started this war, right? It seems that he overdid it there.”

“Hm… He looked pretty normal to me…”

“You never know. He could have been all injured inside from overworking, but he was just hiding it.”

“Oh my… Why did he do that?”

“He’s the Saint. Who knows? Maybe he did it to not worry anyone, or he could have had another reason.”

“But he is the Saint. He probably did not have any ill intentions, right?”

“You know, my colleague heard some high-ranking people talking, and it seems like he’s pretending to be fine even when he wasn’t because he didn’t want to burden anyone.”

“Oh my…”

Davey could hear the distant voices due to his extraordinarily sensitive hearing. Then, he lost consciousness again. Their voices were like his lullaby.

“This war was incredibly huge, was it not? From what I hear, Prince Davey did not ask for any financial compensation even though he aided in this war, running into the enemy base alone and achieving such a great deal.”

“So amazing…”

After slowly opening his eyes, Davey could see someone gasp in surprise.

‘Perserque.’

—Davey! Are you awake?

‘How long was I asleep for?’

—Four days…

Davey really did overwork himself and had been forced into a deep sleep… It was funny. He had already done it once, so what was stopping him from doing it again? The divine will had given him something through the second encounter. It looked like the [Remaining Spark], the spare life he had been given before, but it had a slightly different feeling this time.

“Groan…”

“Y–You’re awake!”

Davey, who saw the flustered maids, stopped them from running out and getting the doctor. He said, “Stop.”

“But, Your Highness…”

“I am a doctor. I know my own state, so you don’t have to worry about me. You can go,” Davey said calmly.

The maids looked baffled. One of them said, “But…Saintess candidate Lena told us to contact her once you are awake…”

“It’s alright.” Davey smiled.

One of the maids blushed and said, “Y… Yes, Your Highness.”

After the maids bowed and took their leave, there was nothing but silence in the room. Davey then murmured to himself, “I won the politics game.”

—Even while you’re sick…

“Don’t forget that all public opinions come from the chatter of servants and maids.”

Davey would suffer a huge loss by ignoring these seemingly trivial gossip stories. No matter what plan he made, he had to think about all the different variables and people who could be involved. By just relying on someone’s predictable behavior and betting on that would be a shortcut to losing everything. Davey knew what actions to take because he could somewhat predict the overall flow of events, but it was difficult to act on that alone.

Davey didn’t know when they had changed forms, but the twins were sound asleep in Rinne’s arms.

Rinne, the silver-haired girl, was basically the twins’ pillow. She slowly opened her eyes and stared at Davey. The halo floating on her head shone for a second, then returned to normal. She commented, “Sir Davey’s biological signals very stable. Nothing unusual. Analyzing that overall condition is over ninety-five percent. Satisfactory results. This is highly valued by Rinne.”

“Rinne.”

“Rinne highly appreciates Sir Davey’s recovery.”

Davey said nothing more at Rinne’s relieved voice.

“Four days…”

The first time this happened to Davey, he had been out for a few hours. This time, he had been out for four whole days. Davey didn’t know if the time increased with every encounter, or if it was just his accumulated exhaustion from using too much power. He thought that the reason was either of those.

—Are you okay now?

“Yeah, I’m feeling much more refreshed.”

Just like gaining strength from working out one’s muscles, the more people used their mana, the more mana they could have over time. Thanks to that fact, Davey’s amount of mana was increasing even as he remained in recovery.

Davey moved around, feeling satisfied that his body was returning to its best condition. He took his hand out from underneath the blanket, because he could feel something familiar on it.

—Oh my… This is the Remaining Spark!

Perserque exclaimed with wide eyes.

“It’s a little different, no?”

Davey looked at the pebble, which appeared to be a darker version of the original Remaining Spark.

‘If I don’t know, the best thing to do is to see for myself.’

As Davey borrowed Perserque’s power and used it, he could see the notes written down. He read it.

[Remaining Spark]

[Transformed Sacred Item]

[One-time Reconstruction When User’s Body or Mind Is Destroyed]

[Number of Times Remaining: 1]

[Special Condition - Automatically Used]

—Hm? It’s not that different from the earlier one.

“This one is actually better.”

This was a surprise. The Remaining Spark that Davey had previously used was automatically used in a battle with opponents stronger than transcendental beings. However, not only was that condition gone, but it also now included the destruction of the mind as well as the body. It was also not resurrection but reconstruction.

Davey found the word ‘reconstruction’ to be quite familiar…

—Metamorphosis when you die…

“That’s not going to happen.”

For that to happen, Davey would have to make plenty of preparations. Like Perserque said, it was worth it for Davey to put his life on the line for it if he was aiming for metamorphosis. After all, his body had a structure that was near impossible to metamorph. If he were to be completely successful in metamorphosis, he would have as enormous a growth as the last unstable metamorphosis he had undergone.

—Then, wouldn’t it be right for you to use it right now? The World Tree and you…

“No.”

No longer thinking about it, Davey opened his Pocket Plane right away and threw the orange pebble inside.

—Why?

“Unstable metamorphosis and complete metamorphosis are different.”

Davey instinctively knew how he would change in the future because he had experienced it once.

‘This is a way of recovery for my physical body or one that promotes my growth. It would also be a huge bomb.’

Stretching out his sore body, Davey slowly moved his limbs and cracked his neck. Walking forward, he said, “My body is like a compressed bomb right now. There will be a huge explosion if I use this and metamorph.”

The range of the explosion would probably be far beyond what Davey imagined.

* * *

The four divine beasts, the deal that God had offered, was a symbol of humans’ yearning for protection in a world where divine will did not exist. Of course, since all the power came from the four divine beasts, their existence made a great difference in giving hope to the people.

Creak.

All attention turned to Davey as soon as he walked into the conference room of the alliance, which was still chaotic from dealing with the aftermath. Some stared at him with strange hostility, and some stared at him in surprise.

“Davey?”

“Prince Davey?”

Davey heard voices of surprise from all over the conference room.

—Well, you were dead asleep for four days. It seems like everyone is thinking that you really overworked yourself this time.

‘...’

—Ha, it’s not even funny. These people have misunderstood. They think you drove away danger without even taking care of your own body.

Davey didn’t mean for this misunderstanding, but…this actually worked out in his favor.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“N–No, that’s alright! How are you feeling?”

“There’s no time to care about my health right now. There are still more important things to do.”

Some looked shocked by Davey’s statement. Of course, they would be puzzled if someone who they thought was selfish would take responsibility and make such a sacrifice.

“Things that could be purified should be purified. If I am capable of doing it and I have to, I will find a way to do so. I will take responsibility for it.”

“B–But you have not recovered…”

“I know my health the best,” Davey said stubbornly. He wasn’t okay, but his physical body could endure it.

Everyone looked at Davey in surprise. Although he was in perfect condition to fly all over the place, he could still act like a sick patient.

“Oh my… Prince Davey… You don’t have to do that! The priests are purifying the area for the long-term. They will do this for a few years. By then…”

“What if someone gets exposed to the weak death energy there and catches a disease? I am saying that I don’t want any other unnecessary lives being lost.”

“Prince Davey, you must watch out for yourself! Although you are not part of the Holy Empire, you are the only one who has received the stigmata.”

“That’s why I am stepping up. The one who is loved by God cannot be this lazy.”

‘Love, my ass. Laziness? That’s my favorite thing.’

Prince Sullivan mumbled that he didn’t think Davey would be this enthusiastic. On the other hand, Saintess candidate Lena widened her eyes and covered her mouth like she was touched. The others from the other kingdoms looked surprised, not expecting Davey to step up like that.

Davey did not expect it to have much of an effect, but he was coming across as a Saint who would sacrifice himself for humanity without any regard for his own health.

On the other hand…

“...”

“...”

Illyna and Yulis, the two people who knew Davey’s true nature, exchanged glances and just sighed.

“I will purify the forest right away. Cough… Cough… Don’t worry. If I step up just a bit more, everyone can be safe.”

As Davey coughed up some blood by cutting parts of his mouth, the crowd went wild. The reason he was acting overdramatically was not because of the people in front of him, but for the lower-rank knights, soldiers, and servants or maids of each kingdom who would be touched by him. Such news would spread easily and quickly, and would also be easily exaggerated.

Right now, this was a gathering place for many people from different kingdoms.

‘They say that news travels fast, right?’

“Prince Davey! You haven’t fully recovered after working that much! You do not have to do this when you did not even ask for any kind of compensation…”

“This is something I can do and something I must do. If left like this, many people will suffer. Human lives are more important than a reward, Prince Sullivan,” Davey said with an exhausted expression.

More and more people felt touched by Davey’s actions. Among them, the idiot who looked the most touched was none other than Prince Sullivan.

‘Oh, how innocent these people are.’

—It is not their fault that your acting is so realistic.

The fault was in the person who was tricked.

* * *

Crunch… Crunch…

In the western region of the Pallan Empire, a few people wearing robes were walking across a small desert region.

“Sir Yurgen, is this really a good thing?”

“Do not doubt. Remember that your core will become distorted if you doubt what the Mother of the Divine Tree has said.”

“But…”

“Elves’ lives matter too, right? We can only live peacefully for so long. If we cannot avoid battle with that human called Davey, we have no choice but to at least find a way that benefits us elves the most.”

“The Pallan Empire is the biggest kingdom among the human nations, right? Will they be helpful in catching Prince Davey?”

“We have to try and convince them… Since humans are led by their greed, the Saint of the Divine Tree is sure that they will agree to help us if we offer them something they cannot refuse.”

“Well… The empire would be more inclined to make a deal with us elves than some nameless prince from a small kingdom.”

What these elves did not know was the kind of political game this prince from a small kingdom was playing in preparation for such a situation. The conversation between the calm male elf and the young female elf traveled across the land with the eerie wind.