The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

‘What’s going on…’

Marin and Sapphire, finding themselves sitting in a detention cell, couldn’t hide their baffled expressions.

To be fair, if they had revealed themselves with their true identities as dragons, none of it would’ve happened. Sure, humans might be impressive in their own way, but from a dragon’s perspective, they were nothing more than lower beings. At that moment, however, they weren’t present in their capacity as dragons. They had only shown up quietly, disguised as innocuous humans, to make contact with Rudelite.

The plan had been going smoothly, even when they sent out their wave of energy... but things had taken a turn.

"Father, how is it possible for someone other than the dragon race to sense our wave signals?”

Instead of answering, Marin remained silent.

"Hey, keep it down in there! If you keep running your mouth, you’ll be stuck here even longer!"

"What did you say?!"

Unable to hold back any longer, Sapphire shot to his feet, ready to start a shouting match in retaliation.

Before things could escalate, someone appeared in front of him.

A young man with a slim body and crimson hair falling down to his shoulders—it was Rudelite.

"It’s been a while, Elder Marin," Rudelite greeted.

Marin gave a small, silent nod of acknowledgment.

"Wait... do you know these people, sir?” the guard asked.

"Yes. I apologize for the trouble, but could you release them for me?"

"Well... considering nothing major happened, and there was barely any damage, I suppose it’s fine."

With that, the guard grabbed the key and opened the iron bars.

"You can come out. I’ll show you around," Rudelite said with a prankster’s grin of schadenfreude.

"Rudelite... are you really Rudel?" Sapphire asked, looking at him with a mix of surprise and curiosity.

"Who else would I be if not Rudel?" he replied with a casual smirk.

"Hearing you talk, I guess you truly are the real deal..."

"Enough pointless chatter. Follow me—I already have a rough idea why you’re here," Rudelite said, turning around without a moment’s hesitation.

* * *

When Sapphire and Marin arrived at the private magic research lab assigned to Rudelite, they narrowed their eyes at the sheer number of magic books, countless sheets inscribed with magical circles scattered around.

“This is all I can offer you at the moment. My apologies, Elder Marin,” Rudelite said, bowing slightly.

“You look well. Is this the first time we’ve seen each other since your dormant period?”

“Yes, that’s right. Have the other elders been doing well?”

“They have…” Marin said with a faint, bittersweet smile, fully aware of what lay ahead of him.

Knock, knock.

“Rudel, His Highness is looking for… Oh, I see you have guests. My apologies,” a beastfolk maid said, bowing as she opened the door.

“It’s alright. Please let him know that I’ll come by shortly.”

“Understood.”

As the maid left, Marin turned to Rudelite with a wry expression.

“It seems you’ve taken a liking to this place,” he remarked.

“Yes, I have.”

“Well, even back in the day, you always put your all into it whenever you played your games,” Marin said with a slight chuckle.

“Thank you for remembering.”

“I’ve been watching you grow since the days you were practicing your first wing beats,” Marin murmured with a sigh before taking a sip of the tea before him.

“Mmm. This tea is quite good. What is it made of?”

“Oh, it’s a special blend created by Yuria Helishana, leader of the elves.”

“An elf? Interesting. And the ingredients…?”

“It’s made by steeping cricket wings—”

Pfft!!

Both Sapphire and Marin spat out their tea in unison, coughing violently.

“Cough… cough… That elf is… rather unique.”

“Well, it does taste good, so…”

An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment.

“Tch… Of all the places to go, why’d you end up here…” Sapphire muttered under his breath.

“Sapphire,” Marin said quietly, cutting off his words. He then shifted his gaze to Rudelite, his expression growing serious.

“The fallen ones have begun moving en masse toward Arrasis.”

“…”

“They’re likely aiming to bring an end to our civil war.”

“What’s the current state of our forces?” Rudelite asked.

“To be frank, it’s not good—even counting you, we have less than five full-fledged dragons ready for combat. There are three elders, and our lord has yet to awaken.”

Hearing this, Rudelite clicked his tongue in frustration.

“I never imagined the ones who performed the seal would remain asleep longer than the sealed ones.”

“Watch it! Such words are blasphemous toward the lord. And don’t forget… your mother—”

“I don’t have a mother. I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

Rudelite spoke calmly as he rose from his seat.

“It seems that you wish for me to return to the Dragon’s Nest.”

“That’s right. I’ve recently received word that five full-fledged fallen dragons came here specifically to capture you.”

“Word has already spread that far?”

Marin sighed deeply. “Yes. According to our spies’ intel, the five, led by Karrella of the black clan, had disobeyed their elders’ orders and acted on their own.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“This place is dangerous. Come with me so the Nest can protect you. Of course, I only see the ceremonial rite as an absolute last resort—the fewer sacrifices, the better.”

Rudelite remained silent, pressing his lips together.

He had made a promise to sacrifice himself.

First, it had been his younger sister. Now, it was his turn.

Born with traces of the Primordial Dragon bloodline embedded in their hearts, Rudelite and his younger sister Rubilite had been destined to become sacrificial lambs to end the civil war among the dragons. His sister had died first, and he would soon follow.

If the moderate faction had been stronger, perhaps such sacrifices wouldn’t have been necessary. But the unfortunate truth was that the radical faction of fallen dragons held greater power.

Even though Rudelite understood this, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of frustration deep in his chest.

He couldn’t understand this so-called duty to his race. He didn’t know what his kind had ever done for him to be worth demanding his life in return.

Until now, he had never questioned or resented his fate, but for some reason, these emotions were bubbling up.

As he was about to voice a bitter complaint, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. He widened his eyes in surprise.

“Hmm. My apologies, but that won’t do.”

The sudden voice startled Sapphire, and even Elder Marin turned his gaze toward the unexpected visitor, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Standing behind Rudelite’s chair was Davey, and beside him stood Rinne, silently munching on a skewer with an expressionless face.

“Your Highness…”

“Matters like this should be discussed with all relevant parties, wouldn’t you agree?” Davey said casually.

Sapphire, who had already encountered Davey before, tensed up, while Marin observed him with a conflicted expression.

‘I couldn’t sense his presence at all. When did he come in?’

Amid the growing tension, Davey strolled forward. He sat down next to Rudelite, crossing his legs before looking at Sapphire and Marin with eyes full of arrogance.

“And who might you be?” Marin asked cautiously.

“Shall we continue the conversation, Elder Marin?” Davey replied, ignoring the question entirely.

That one sentence was enough to reveal that Davey knew Marin’s true identity.

“Rudelite! Don’t tell me you… you revealed your identity during your little game?!”

Rudelite turned his head away and whistled to himself, clearly avoiding the question.

Seeing this, Rinne tilted her head slightly. “Rinne states that Rudelite did not expose himself. Rinne requests to clarify to avoid confusion.”

“He didn’t?” Marin asked, his gaze shifting to Rinne.

“Rinne explains that Rinne identified Rudelite as a dragon from the start. Rinne evaluates Rudelite’s attempts at disguise lowly.”

Rudelite grimaced at her comment.

But there wasn’t much he could say—it was true that his identity had been exposed. Not just to Davey, but also to Evangeline, Rinne, the Vampire Lord, and even the half-vampire.

To Marin and Sapphire, who had no knowledge of the true nature of this peculiar group, any attempts at explanations sounded like an excuse at best.

“What do you mean by that? Are you saying that you knew about Rudelite’s identity from the very beginning?” Marin asked skeptically.

Rinne casually pulled out a small bag of cookies from her pocket and began munching on them as she nodded nonchalantly. She swung her legs slightly as she sat, nibbling on her snack with a look of pure delight—appearing more like a child indulging in sweets than someone engaged in a serious conversation.

“Nonsense! Who could possibly recognize a dragon when in their polymorphed form? Sure, there are some exceptional humans who could, but those are incredibly rare—humans like that are born once every few thousand years, if that!” Sapphire shot back, glancing nervously at Davey as he spoke.

Davey smirked faintly while Rinne lazily scratched her ear and muttered in an annoyed tone, “Master Davey, Rinne evaluates this conversation to be pointless.”

“What?!” Sapphire snapped. “You little—!”

Bang!

Before Sapphire could finish his words, Rinne launched herself forward like a missile and delivered a perfectly executed dropkick to his chest.

“Gahh?!”

Rinne outwardly seemed to be nothing more than a young girl. Sapphire had been fooled and let his guard down, allowing her to deliver a critical blow.

She planted a leg on his sternum and looked down with her signature blank expression.

“Guh… W-What kind of strength was that?!”

“Pfft. Weak. Very weak. Rinne evaluates you as insignificant.”

Despite her expressionless face, her tone was laced with subtle mockery.

“You… You little—!!”

“That’s enough, Sapphire!” Marin interrupted.

“Father!” Sapphire protested, but Marin ignored his outburst.

“That young lady… she isn’t human, is she?”

“Good eye,” Davey replied with a casual shrug.

“May I ask something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Not long ago, five full-fledged dragons appeared on this land before disappearing without a trace. Their mission was to eliminate Rudelite, whom they saw as an obstacle to their plans.”

“I’m aware,” Davey lazily responded.

“Do you know what happened to them?”

He paused for a moment before finally responding in a quiet but resolute tone.

“If I told you that they’re all dead, would you believe me?”

A heavy, stifling silence followed his words.

The human in front of him claimed that all of them had died.

Five full-fledged dragons, who were practically the main combat force of their kind, had been eliminated without even a chance to resist. Among them, one was even a prodigy on track to becoming an elder.

For them to have been eliminated without being able to resist came, leading the dragons to conclude them as simply missing. If they had put up any significant struggle, or if their deaths had been prolonged, the situation would never have been categorized as a disappearance.

The truth behind their vanishing was that they hadn’t simply been defeated—they had been mercilessly slaughtered. And not just by any being, but by a human.

Elder Marin’s expression hardened, and Sapphire began to rethink if Davey could possibly have that kind of monstrous strength.

His thoughts were interrupted when Marin placed a firm hand on his shoulder, silently signaling him to stay out of it.

“Even if what you say is true, Rudelite would still be safer at the Dragon’s Nest. Human, it’s your choice if you wish to take Rudelite as your subordinate, but the current situation is far from stable. So—”

Bang!

At that moment, the door swung open.

“Teacher! Give me some blood!!”

A young girl stormed in, confidently demanding the human’s blood. Marin and Sapphire’s eyes widened with recognition.

She was none other than the Vampire Lord.

A being with absolute power like her was considered a single-entity catastrophe—they couldn’t understand what she was doing with this human.

“Well, look at that. There are two more dragons now? What’s been going on?” Yosia said nonchalantly as she bit into Davey’s arm, sucking his blood.

Marin and Sapphire, already overwhelmed, were further thrown into confusion.

Actually, they thought the five really could’ve been taken down if it were the Vampire Lord. Still, to annihilate them so completely without leaving a trace seemed absurd, especially since she didn’t appear to have fully grown into her powers yet.

Whoosh!!

Before they could process what the hell was going on, the sky outside the window darkened, and a massive eye slowly opened, gazing down on them.

[Contractor. I was planning to take a vacation, but— huh? Why are there two extra lizards here?]

Marin and Sapphire froze, stunned into silence.

The being outside resembled a dragon, yet not completely—the sheer pressure it exuded far surpassed that of any full-fledged dragon, leaving no room for comparison.

“It’s nothing. Go ahead and take your vacation. Where are you planning to go?”

[The Western Continent. I’ve heard that the giant squids along the coast are quite the delicacy.]

With that, the black dragon flapped its enormous wings and vanished into the sky with incredible speed.

As if things weren’t chaotic enough, another figure then appeared. This time, a massive groundburst dragon with a body that seemed to radiate flames like molten lava peeked through the window.

It was Groundburst Dragon Shandra Minea—the second Mythical Beast King.

The overwhelming aura it exuded was far stronger than in the past, enough to leave even Elder Marin frozen in place.

[Hey, Contractor. I was on my way to meet Behemoth, but— what’s this? Two more lizards?]

Given that all the figures who arrived immediately noticed Marin and Sapphire’s true identities, they began to consider that perhaps Rinne hadn’t been lying earlier.