The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 1403

To put it simply, Kouna had failed, and it was a colossal failure at that.

Davey didn't know what to say. “Ummm...”

“I’m... I’m so sorry. I’ll make it again.”

Davey forced a gentle smile. “No, it’s alright. I’ll enjoy it.”

Her heart ached once she realized the look on his face wasn’t the smile of a man toward a woman, but a father looking at his daughter.

She knew in her heart she shouldn’t, yet the complaining continued to spill out.

‘That wasn't an illusion.’

Kouna thought about the future her divine beast had just shown her. She clearly remembered herself lying on the ground, and Davey kissing her on the lips. “Hehe. Heheheh.”

“Davey, who had picked up his cutlery to eat, muttered with a puzzled look, Hey... Rinne, what’s... up with her?”

No one there understood her state of mind.

‘He kissed me...’

Like a teenager daydreaming about her crush, Koona lowered her head, her face burning red.

Regardless of her reaction, Rinne watched her closely, then slowly walked over, crouched down, and looked up at her lowered face. Her blue eyes flickered for just a moment before she remarked, “Checking facial blood circulation status. Rinne analyzes that Kouna is feeling a specific emotion strongly.”

She was brazenly studying a person to analyze their state of mind. She continued, “Searching for information on the target subject. Rinne states this is—”

“S-stop it!” Kouna, who had been lost in her memory for a brief moment, pushed Rinne away and shouted, “What are you doing?!”

“Rinne requests in-depth analysis,” she insisted.

“S-stop it!”

“To expand Rinne’s information database...”

Kouna had a desperate look in her eyes. “Rinne, stop.”

With that, Rinne finally backed off. “Command accepted.”

Kouna, her face still somewhat flushed, glanced at Davey. Then, unable to steady her constantly trembling eyes, she rushed out in a panic.

“I-I’m just gonna go get some air! The fire was too hot!”

For the record, what Kouna was cooking required exceptionally low heat.

* * *

“Heheh. Heheheh.” When Kouna reached the small, beautiful pond in the Heins estate garden that was maintained by spirits, she couldn't stop herself from smiling.

Unlike how it had been in the past, the future shown by Haitai, her divine beast, was incredibly faint. Yet, that didn’t mean a completely different future would come.

“Haitai... Haitai!!” She urgently called out to her divine beast to confirm what she had seen. “Haitai!”

Yet, it didn’t answer. It was always like that. Haitai often didn’t respond to her unless it felt like it.

“Why doesn’t it show up at times like this...” She felt a burst of annoyance for no reason, but there was a much more important issue.

“Kyaah!” She plunged her feet into the pond and let out a sharp cry, clutching her cheeks with both hands.

Her mind felt like it was bubbling over. A smile kept spreading across her face, and she squirmed with excitement. “Ahem. Ahem! I... I shouldn’t...”

Caught up in a level of excitement far beyond her usual self, she reminded herself that this wasn't normal and that she absolutely shouldn't be acting this way.

Considering Perserque, Aeria, and Illyna, who all treated her so warmly, such thoughts were nothing short of betrayal.

However, her heart betrayed her reason and pounded madly nonetheless. It was only a vision of a kiss. Even so, she was beyond happy about it.

“I’m getting greedy...” she muttered to herself.

Even if the vision were to come to pass just as she’d seen, she had to restrain herself. Even if Davey allowed it, she had to give it up and let it go.

She genuinely yearned for Davey, yet if the situation of crossing the final line truly arrived, she wasn’t sure she could go through with it. It would destroy not just her happiness, but his as well. To throw such a wrench into his life and the lives of those close to him would be an eternal sin for which she might never forgive herself.

“Still, maybe just a little... maybe I can be selfish...”

If that kiss really was coming in the future, she thought a little self-indulgence would be alright.

Thus, a greed that even she herself felt to be repulsive blossomed inside her.

“I’ve never yearned for someone or something this strongly in my life...”

Being urgent and desiring something deeply were two different things. Now, for the first time in her life, she intensely craved just one thing.

Zing.

That was when it happened. Her head reverberated, making her feel dizzy.

“Ugh...”

A sharp buzz suddenly rang through her head. It was as if she'd been hit by some kind of unknown high-frequency sound attack.

She covered her ear with one hand, frowning. She had heard that sudden exposure to loud sounds could cause physical abnormalities, including tinnitus and other ailments.

Perhaps that was why.

The sky looked unusually high and red.

“It’s almost autumn.” Still, she couldn’t figure out why the sky looked so red.

The sound then vanished in an instant.

She slowly started walking towards the estate castle, and everyone except for her seemed to look completely normal.

“Maybe I’m a little run down lately and need some restful sleep. Well, I did see a future vision... so I’m probably just tired, right?”

Seeing the future wasn’t her intention, but she was tired from other things as well. Thus, she didn’t think much of it.

* * *

Goddess Freyja, who hadn’t often left her sanctuary since passing on the authority of sacrifice to Davey, closed her eyes as if waiting for something, then slowly spread her hands. A deep blue sphere of light formed above her palm and slowly began to rise.

She then parted her lips and spoke silently. She slowly floated the sphere upward, only for it to quickly scatter and vanish.

The deep blue sphere reappeared at none other than the core of the virtual space managed by Neltarid. It seeped into the core, and just as if it had existed from the beginning, it sent out countless fine and vein-like tendrils, much like neurons spreading.

It then connected with the other elements, resonated, and became incredibly stable.

A little later, Neltarid went to interact with the core.

“Hmm? This is a world I’ve never seen before... Did the goddess make another one?”

He considered several temporary names, but since it looked like a bubble and existed within the virtual space, he ended up calling it the Bubble World.

Nonetheless, Neltarid couldn’t quite understand it.

“To be a world this diverse, this precise, and this independent... Hmm, if Willow sees this, she’ll probably marvel at how bored Goddess must’ve been to bother with such trifles.”

* * *

Kouna simply decided to stay put in Heins. She was a member of the Sacred Group, but her contract was a special case compared to other Awakened individuals.

Naturally, her entire focus for the previous few days had been on figuring out what that prophetic dream had meant.

Whoosh! Pow!

As she moved across the training grounds, smoothly and precisely swinging a guardless straight sword, the source of her power coursed through her entire body. Yet, despite how sharp her movements were, she was struggling to focus. It was like a fog lying over her mind and preventing precise thought.

“Oh? What’re you doing here?” When Josiah Frances, who was passing by with a large bundle of documents, spoke to her, Kouna flinched and turned her head.

“Ah!”

“You seem less focused than usual,” Josiah remarked.

“Well... I haven’t been sleeping very well lately,” Kouna admitted.

“Are you not feeling well? Hmm. Your body odor is quite healthy, though.”

As she approached, sniffing, Kouna couldn’t hide her embarrassment and backed away. “W-what’re you doing?”

“Oh, it’s nothing much. I can tell a person’s condition from the scent they emit. You look fine on the outside, but something also seems a little strange. No, actually, it’s a familiar scent...”

The eyes of Josiah, who had turned silent for a moment, suddenly opened wide with surprise at her newest discovery.

“Say... look... hmm... This is a bit awkward to ask but....”

Seeing her complex expression, Kouna responded cautiously, “No, it’s fine. Go ahead.”

“If you make a contract with a divine beast, do you maybe go into some kind of mating season? This is exactly how beastfolk act when they're in heat.”

Kouna jumped in shock at her blunt question, as if Josiah had hit the nail on the head. “A-are you insane?!”

She ended up using harsher language than she usually would.

Of course, that only made Josiah even more certain of her conclusion. She declared, “I think I’m right. Oh, right. I remember now, you liked Teacher.”

Quite a few people knew Kouna had feelings for Davey. There were those quick to catch on knew without even needing to be told.

“Honestly, I can’t help you with that... but I can listen to your worries,” Josiah offered.

“I’m fine, thanks!” Koona, who had lashed out in a way completely unlike her, quickly turned away and hurried off, leaving Josiah standing there utterly bewildered.

Even while running, she recalled the future vision that had scattered her concentration. She smiled faintly. No matter the situation she found herself in, just thinking about that vision made her happy.

“Heheh...” A lighthearted laugh escaped her, making her surprised even at herself. She clamped her hand over her mouth, but it was already too late.

“Huh...”

She flashed a glance over her shoulder and saw Josiah, crouched down, smiling slyly with narrow eyes. “I’m curious what’s making you so happy.”

Seeing the danger in her eyes, Kouna started to panic, stammering, “N-no... Why... Why do you keep following me?!”

“Don’t be like that, just tell me what's going on. I feel like I’ll go crazy with how there’s nothing happening these days. Even Mit’s so engrossed in class now that there’s no fun in teasing him.”

Josiah, feeling curious and also worried that something might happen between Davey and his wives, pressed Kouna to find out more details.

Kouna couldn’t believe Josiah was a great mage. To her, she was nothing short of a busybody.

That was when it happened.

Zing!!

The high-frequency sound reverberated in her head again.

“Ugh...” Frowning at the sound in her head, Kouna looked at Josiah in pain.

She thought it was all in her head, but surprisingly enough, Josiah was frowning too.

“What’s that sound...” Josiah, annoyed, looked up at the sky.

“Are you okay?” she asked Kouna while keeping her eyes fixed on the sky.

Kouna was relieved to find that it wasn’t only her experiencing it. “That sound... Did you hear it too?”

“Of course I heard it! My hearing is much sharper than a human's... GET DOWN!!” Josiah instantly extended her long fingernails and slashed the air.

Slash!!

Even though she swung at the empty air, the sound of something being ripped apart rang out, and she quickly hugged Kouna and threw herself aside.

Boom!!

What followed was a massive bolt of lightning.

“What the...”

They were in none other than Heins Territory.

There was no safer place, not on the Tionis Continent, or even across all dimensions. Yet, something had dared to attack them.

Startled, Kouna raised her head and realized the sky was red. “A natural... disaster?”

There was only one possibility, mainly that the lightning, which fell as the sky changed, was somehow after the two of them.

It was quite the ridiculous explanation, but Josiah realized that the bizarre natural phenomenon was something that absolutely should never have happened.

Sure, if it happened in another territory, people could call it a rare natural phenomenon that only occurred once every hundred years, but something like that was impossible in Heins.

That was because Heins maintained consistent weather with proper distribution. They had firm control over weather phenomena.

Yet, a natural phenomenon was happening in Heins.

“Did a... a lightning bolt... just fall?”

“A mysterious sound... followed by a red sky... and an abnormal lightning strike,” Josiah murmured with a grim expression as she ran her hand over the lightning scars etched into the ground. “I’ve seen this symptom before.”

Seeing people gather after hearing the sound of the thunder, she sighed. “It happened before, too.”

“It happened before?”

“Yeah... I heard the same ringing before, but no one heard it except me then.” She nodded with a serious expression. “Stay indoors, just in case. No, if possible, don’t come out of the basement or the estate castle.”

It was a premonition, not just once, but twice. It clearly felt like the lightning had been guided toward Kouna.

“Josiah, Kouna,” someone called out.

Josiah approached Perserque, who had just arrived, and cautiously said, “Ah, you’re here?”

“There’s something important I need to share.”

* * *

“That’s all that I have on hand to share about the current situation.”

Davey and Perserque looked at each other.

“Is this even possible?”

“I find it funny, too. A keraunos phenomenon?”

Hearing their discussion, Josiah realized why the symptoms of the lightning seemed familiar.

It was one of the natural phenomena mages first learned about in theory, and one of the spells countless lightning-attribute mages aspired to imitate.

“The divine punishment... keraunos.”

“That’s right. But keraunos isn’t a phenomenon related to divine power like that, either. It’s a bolt of lightning that occurs with extremely rare probability.”

Perserque pulled out a red-covered book from a nearby bookshelf. “This must be it. We need to use the book containing the legends about natural disaster symptoms.”

A book related to the topic happened to be on a shelf in Davey’s office.

“But keraunos... there hasn’t been a reported case in hundreds of years, no? I thought it was just a theory or a fairy tale.”

Information on Keraunos, the mysterious natural phenomenon accompanied by a crimson sky and lightning, was extremely rare.

He was confused. “But that keraunos... targeted Kouna?”

“Davey, could this be the same situation as with Reina?”

Even if it was a natural phenomenon, it ultimately belonged to their world.

Therefore, Perserque speculated that there was a high possibility it was targeting Kouna, who could be treated as a foreign substance in the world.

“Willow, what do you think?”

Willow, who was sitting in a corner floating a connection device in the air and injecting divine power into it, raised her head with her eyes half open.

“I don’t think that's true,” she said firmly. “If a natural phenomenon like that existed, I would’ve known about it first. If the authority of harmony doesn’t work on it... then if keraunos-like lightning keeps striking, even I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

Everyone nodded at her explanation.

“More than anything, the structure of the lightning... it doesn’t align with any natural phenomenon I know. It’s as if it was created in a completely different place entirely.”

It was a phenomenon that seemed to have come from a place other than all the worlds that Goddess Freyja tried to protect, and that Davey had repeatedly risked his life to defend.

“Should we ask Goddess Freyja?”

“The goddess can’t meet anyone right now. Even if you went, Dad, I don’t think she’ll be able to see you.”

As Willow spoke indifferently, Davey slowly opened a rift leading to Goddess Freyja.

That was when it happened.

A feeling as if the world had momentarily stopped spread from beyond the rift, dominating the surroundings.

Then, Goddess Freyja, with blue hair, appeared from within.

“Goddess. I was just about to—”

She then walked slowly with an emotionless face and gently touched Davey’s clothes.

Poof!

His casual baggy clothes abruptly transformed into a neat, jet-black suit.

Boing!

A dignified-looking fedora even sat atop his head.

The goddess stared at him in silence, slowly covering her nose and mouth with one hand while giving him a thumbs-up with the other, satisfaction clear on her face.

[Price to pay.]

No one said a word as they read what the tablet said.

Poof!!

She then handed him a small, rolled-up map and vanished.

After a very brief silence, Willow huffed loudly in frustration.

“Davey, what is that?”

“A ruin map?”

The Goddess had left behind a map of a ruin. However, it was more of an internal map than an external one.

“This is...”

At that moment, Yuria opened the door and entered.

“Gracious Savior! I’m requesting a business trip!”

“A business trip?”

“Yes! A ruin has appeared in the west of the Rowane Kingdom, a remote area about a day’s ride from here. I’ve received intel that there are never-before-seen fruits there.”

The fact that she was immediately certain about information that was practically a state secret suggested she had already confirmed it herself.

‘How did she confirm that information so quickly, though?!’

“How’d you find that out?”

“Heheh. I have my ways. I absolutely want to research ingredients I’ve never seen before.”

Davey sighed and waved his hand.

While generally uncommon, discoveries like ancient ruins or entirely new species of trees did happen from time to time.

Then, Perserque stopped him. “Davey. Just a moment.”

“Hmm?”

“Yuria, can you explain exactly how that ruin appeared?”

“Hmm. If I compile the information that herbalists dismissed as tall tales...” Yuria smiled sweetly. “They said it appeared after a red lightning bolt fell.”

It must have been referring to keraunos, the phenomenon labeled as a mystery.

“When was that?”

“A few days ago,” she informed them.

“May I ask how you learned about this a few days ago?”

“Hehe. I have connections.”

Davey shuddered violently at her terrifying information-gathering ability. “Have you ever thought about joining the Shadows?”

“No, Gracious Savior. If I did that, I wouldn't be able to pursue my hobby.”

Josiah, who had reported the matter earlier, raised her hand. “Ummmm. But Teacher.”

“What is it?”

“Well... never mind. Just in case, you should take Kouna with you...”

If keraunos was truly being accurately guided toward Kouna, it made sense to keep her close.

However, she knew Perserque might not approve of such an arrangement.

“I also wish to accompany you. But if you leave the estate, we’ll be short on people to look after it. That would only leave Amy, so I’ll wait for you here instead.”

“You’re okay with that?”

“I trust you.” Smiling beautifully, Perserque placed her hand on his cheek, then turned and remarked, “Josiah. It would be good if you went along to keep an eye on things.”

“Sure... I guess so.”

“Gracious Savior! Are you going then?” Yuria asked in excitement.

“It’s only what is to be expected of me. There are things to investigate.”

‘A ruin, was it? Maybe that internal map...’

He then connected the dots and assumed the map the goddess had just given him was actually the internal map of the newly found ruin.

In fact, that was the conclusion everyone reached.

Thus, the party departing for the ruin was quickly put together. Rinne and Yuria from the Gourmet Research Group would be in attendance, alongside Davey and Josiah. Lastly, Kouna would accompany them as well.

“With the demon race and all, it seems like you’re getting involved with everything.”

Kouna pouted and lowered her gaze. “Why do you have to say it like that...”