The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

[Good work. Everyone will return to their places now. Even Yuria Helishana will not be able to successfully summon a spirit when the entire forest is corrupt.]

The elf speaking in the video with a creepy smile was Elder Condae.

[But, sir… Using this child even if she\'s half…]

[Ahem, are you not going to obey me? Tsk tsk, these youngsters… That kind of insubordination would not have happened back in my day. You do as you are told; defy me and face the consequences right away.]

[…Understood.]

[Haha, don’t forget that my will is also the will of the World Tree and the Saint of the Divine Tree.]

It was ridiculous seeing an ass draped in a lion’s skin.

[U… Understood.]

The young elf who was frowning in shock stared at the sleeping little girl, Myuu, whom Elder Condae was holding onto.

[If you want to blame someone, blame Lady Yuria, the one who defied the will of the World Tree and the Saint.]

Then, the video showed Elder Condae throwing Myuu into the middle of the swamp, the origin of corruption.

Clearly, Elder Condae had snuck back here like he knew nothing when he was the one who had accelerated the corruption in the forest.

“E… Elder Condae. What is…”

“Th—This is...”

When all the other elves looked at him in shock, Elder Condae became flustered. He did not know what to do.

“Sir Davey, do you think Rinne’s cinema is excellent?”

“Sure, excellent.”

“Requesting more compliments.” Rinne put her hands on her waist and puffed up her flat chest with a bright expression.

As Rinne confidently asked for more compliments, Davey smiled and said, “Sure, good job.”

“Re… Requesting more compliments! Requesting for materialistic compliments!”

“Stop it.”

“Hmph.” Rinne clicked her tongue, then glared at Condae.

Yuria said coldly, “Do you have anything more to say? Disgusting traitor.”

Although Condae always made a big fuss about getting rid of Myuu, it was a completely different story now. He had actually thrown a child, who was with abundant life energy, into the origin of corruption to accelerate it.

In response to Yuria, Elder Condae shouted back in feigned disbelief, “H… How could I! This is a conspiracy! It is a conspiracy! How dare someone conspire against an elder… Keugh?!”

However, Condae’s punishment came quickly. An arrow pierced his shoulder in an instant.

“If Rinne did not go and rescue Myuu after you left her like that, she would be dead. Do you understand?!” Yuria shouted at Condae furiously.

Elder Condae remained silent. Then, he looked around and glanced at the other elves, who all stared back in shock. They looked at him like they knew he would do this kind of thing. Some even looked at him with criticism, as if they were saying that he had gone too far.

“This is too…”

“How could you do this kind of thing, Elder Condae?”

At last, Elder Condae gave up pretending and screamed in fury, “This is all because of you! If you did not defy the will of the World Tree, none of this would have even happened!! You betrayed and disobeyed the World Tree!”

“So?”

“You are the real problem! Because you rejected the will of the World Tree!”

Listening to Elder Condae desperately shouting, Yuria smiled brightly.

“I’m glad you mentioned it. This is the World Tree’s will, right?” After saying that calmly, Yuria declared freely, “Then, the residents of the Moon Forest will no longer acknowledge the World Tree. We will reject all the useless, long-held customs of the World Tree.”

Yuria was declaring independence. In a way, this was a declaration of war; perhaps she remembered Davey telling her that he would protect her even if she became enemies with the World Tree.

Davey couldn’t help but laugh at Yuria’s bold and feisty decision.

* * *

“Do…you know the meaning of what you’ve just said?” Elder Condae asked with his jaw clenched.

“Oh, why wouldn’t I know?” Yuria replied.

“Are you saying you are going to ignore the three-hundred-year-old tradition and join forces with that disgusting and lowly being?! You’re betraying us divine elves?!”

“Condae! Get it right.” Even forgetting the honorifics, Yuria glared at the elder elf coldly and said, “We are not the ones who betrayed the elves. It is you and the World Tree.”

The elves’ oldest tradition was to protect adolescent elves, whether they were half or full elves; the young ones who had elf blood and lived in the village had to be protected without discrimination.

Condae became quiet at Yuria’s cold criticism.

“What did Myuu do wrong? What did she do to you? That child lived alone because she had no friends.”

“…”

“That little girl was so lonely that she turned to humans, the people she should be most wary of, and offered to show them the treasure first. Do you have any idea how that must have felt?”

Listening to what Yuria had to say, some of the elves lowered their heads; they also knew that they were partly at fault for abandoning Myuu.

“She was so lonely that she went to spirit beasts, who couldn’t even understand her, and boasted about making friends with those who weren’t even elves. She did that for hours. Then, she personally took them to her house and showed them the treasure that she said she wouldn’t show anyone! So…”

“…”

“Do you think you have the right to call other kinds disgusting and selfish?”

Whether it was elves or humans, all intelligent beings had their own thoughts and ideologies; some were kind while others were evil. It was just that elves had become rotten from their self-love and from being closed-off for too long.

“E—Everything is according to the elves’ law…” Condae said.

“If this is the elves’ law, I will no longer remain an elf or a High Elf priest.”

Yuria’s statement was shocking, but no one could say anything in retaliation.

“If this is true…”

“This is crossing the line, even if it is the World Tree.”

“What are we…?”

The elves who were in self-hate, loss, and shock could not easily escape their state of panic.

“Soon, this Moon Forest will not be under the World Tree. This forest will work closely with Prince Davey, a human, and the Heins Territory. Furthermore, it will be a relationship grounded upon freedom and understanding. Is anyone against this?”

Everyone shook their heads when Yuria asked firmly.

“I will follow your decision, Lady Yuria.”

“Damn it… It’s almost humiliating to be an elf!”

“This is unbelievable. I endured when we were driving out that little child, but this is…”

Then, the elves’ eyes reddened as they stared at Myuu, who was on Rinne’s back.

“We are proud elves! We have followed you here because we didn’t like the ones who are obsessed over tradition! If the World Tree cannot even see its own problems because of its void of self-love, I’d rather join hands with humans!”

“I will, too!”

“That’s right! Who can we trust if we can’t even trust the one who can summon a Spirit King?!”

The elves had a strange custom of trusting people based on one’s art in spirit magic.

They began shouting one by one until almost all the elves eventually agreed with Yuria. They were choosing to trust in Yuria and making this decision on their own after facing reality. This was the kind of freedom she wanted to give this forest’s residents.

—The girl is much more outstanding than I thought. I wonder if she knows that she would have lost her life if she just messed up a little bit.

While listening to Perserque, Davey put his fingers on Myuu’s neck. He commented, “Her life energy is gone.”

“Rinne acknowledges the mistakes. Analyzing that lots of life energy was drained even with a fast rescue.”

“It’s okay, she will recover if she receives healing magic and eats and rests well.”

Davey felt guilty, because both Yuria and himself had used Myuu. This child might grow up and hate him after remembering this incident.

“I can’t…look at Myuu anymore,” Yuria mumbled depressingly as if she knew that possibility as well. Her red eyes had tears which threatened to fall at any minute. “I had to ignore her until we got rid of the traitors, even though I knew it was dangerous.”

Yuria approached Davey, who was casting a recovery magic spell on Myuu with a little holy power, and hugged Myyu. She murmured, “I’m sorry… Myuu, I’m sorry…”

“Hm…”

At the same time, Myuu moved a little and opened her eyes after regaining consciousness from the magic spell. While recovering her life energy, she glanced at Yuria and was confused. She asked softly, “Hm… Why are you crying…?”

“I’m sorry. Myuu, I’m sorry… I am so sorry. I knew you were going to be in danger… But I… I ended up pulling you into this dirty fight for power,” Yuria replied tearfully.

Myuu began tearing up as Yuria began to sob, then hugged and patted her on the back. She said, “Mm… Mm, don’t cry, sis. You always comforted me and patted me on the back when I cried. And that made the tears go right back inside.”

“Myuu…”

“Myuu really likes you, sis.”

Yuria sobbed loudly and held Myuu in her arms as the child smiled brightly.

Davey silently looked away and noticed the Demon Lord was quietly looking at them with reddened eyes. He thought, ‘Man, you are emotional.’

—Your emotions are just dried up.

‘Well, I don’t feel good either.’

Sighing, Davey stared at Spirit King Gnoass who was purifying the forest while boasting his huge presence. Then, he called Myuu, “Myuu.”

“Hmm… Uncle?”

“Myuu, you said you wanted to see Gnoass, right?”

Myuu wiped her tears and nodded.

“Do you want to see him very much?”

“Yeah. Gnoass! Is Gnoass going to be friends with Myuu, too?”

As Myuu asked that question with an innocent face, Davey silently stared at the supreme Earth Spirit King Gnoass. He thought of forcing him to listen if he was going to reject. However, it seemed like his concerns were unnecessary.

[An innocent soul. Very clean. The Earth always welcomes innocent souls.]

‘This damn pedophile…’

“Gnoass says he wants to be friends as well. Anyways, you, stop moving so much. Your movements cost too much mana.”

Everyone stared at Davey in shock and bewilderment as they heard him say that to Gnoass. An elementalist was complaining to the Spirit King to not move unnecessarily since his fuel efficiency wasn’t good. The others were even more shocked because it wasn’t a regular spirit, but the Spirit King.

[I refuse, contractor. I know very well about exaggeration. Contractor, there is no way you cannot tolerate my power when I can be physically summoned.]

“Yay!!” Myuu, who was jumping up and down in joy, let out a gasp in surprise when she saw Gonass, the huge soil giant who was in front of her. “Woah… So big! Su~uper big!”

As Myuu ran over and tapped on Gnoass’ huge foot in delight, Gnoass began moving his other hand with one still dug into the ground. Then, he slowly picked Myuu up onto his shoulder and began moving.

‘This guy, I told him to stop moving like that.’

At Davey’s annoying gaze, Gnoass moved more actively and made Myuu even more delighted. Looking at it like this, the spirit looked like a grandfather giving a piggyback to his grandchild.