The Hero’s Disciple Has Returned

The emotion of ‘love’ sequentially evokes the emotion of ‘expectation’. That’s why everyone who loves has expectations. This is the reason why we have expectations for parents, lovers, and children. Especially like saying “Look! I’m telling you, they just spoke! They said ‘Dad’!” to a babbling newborn. Therefore, those who love must not forget the fact that they should always be wary of being swept away by the emotion of expectation that is sequentially generated by that emotion of love.

Even if there was no ill intent and only pure feelings, if the other person perceives it as ill intent, it becomes ill intent. Above all, because misunderstandings and misconceptions always result in unsightliness, it becomes necessary to pay attention for the sake of one’s own dignity.

Anyway, one must be careful.

Yes, it’s right to be careful, but…

“You understand what I’m saying, right?”

Shake!

“It shook! It shook!”

The dragon egg was responding to my words. It was so subtle that at first, I thought it might be an illusion. I wondered if it was similar to how parents of newborns often say “Look! They said ‘Dad’!” when hearing babbling. But clearly, the dragon egg was showing movement in response to my words. This is incomparable to misunderstanding babbling. The difference was obvious even objectively. Therefore, this dragon egg…!

“Is it a genius?! It already understands words even before coming out into the world!”

I couldn’t help but sincerely think so.

(Because dragon eggs are perfect beings, they have self-awareness even in the egg state and have a high level of thinking ability incomparable to human newborns, so this level of thing was naturally possible, but unfortunately, only Sera had such knowledge in this world, so it could be seen as a natural result for Jade to have such a misunderstanding!)

Shake! Shake!

“Hahaha! You’re really amazing! Hahaha!”
“……”
“Hahaha….”
“……”

My brightly smiling face couldn’t help but freeze awkwardly.

When I turned my head, there was a face I hadn’t seen in a long time.

A junior I once taught various things

A man now even called the Mercenary King

Mercenary King Balik

The acquaintance I thought would take quite a long time to meet due to his tremendous stubbornness broke my expectations and came to see me, and at a timing I never expected, he came to my secluded place… An unexpected witness appeared to see my appearance that I thought no one would see.

To put it simply…

I want to die…

♧♧♧

Mercenary King Balik was a man with his own philosophy that a man should have some useless stubbornness. Therefore, he was the type of man who wouldn’t bend what he had decided once, no matter what others said. But even such a man knew the difference between stubbornness and foolish obsession.

Stubbornness is pushing through to the end a choice that you won’t regret even if you die, and foolish obsession is foolishly not letting go of something you know you’ll regret after death.

Although he’s not smart enough to draw a clear line and distinguish clearly… But because he has good intuition, he was a man who could realize if what he was doing was just a foolish obsession.

That’s why when he was half-killed by Sera, just before realizing her identity, when he thought, ‘Ah, I might really die here?’… He realized. That not going to meet Jade wasn’t stubbornness but a foolish obsession. If it had been stubbornness, he would have kept it to the end, but if it’s a foolish obsession, it’s a different story. So he abandoned his foolish obsession, and that’s why he came to meet Jade.

‘…I’m glad I came after getting permission.’

He thought it was really fortunate that he had contacted Sera’s side in advance and got permission. Looking at all the traps and magic set up on the mountain, they boasted a level of danger not inferior to ancient civilization dungeons. It was at such an incredible level that even Mercenary King Balik, who was no less than superhumans who had entered the realm of transcendence, became tense.

If he had recklessly come without contacting Sera’s side, saying he would surprise them… It was scary just to imagine. Above all, if they had set up such high-level work, they would have basically set up signal magic. In other words, the probability of encountering Sera after breaking through these traps would have been 100%. And the Sera he had experienced was a crazy person who would half-kill intruders first before listening to any conversation, whether it was a surprise or not. …No, she might kill without even listening. That crazy woman is fully capable of that.

Anyway, because Balik had notified in advance, such a tragedy did not occur. His excellent intuition had saved his life once again.

‘How did my life become like a candle in the wind?’

It’s not that he doesn’t know the reason.

It’s all because of that crazy woman…

‘To think such a person is the hero…’

Mercenary King Balik acknowledged Sera as the hero. No, he had no choice but to acknowledge her. With that level of strength, she’s either a hero or a demon king… She’s probably not the demon king, so a hero…

No, why did I think she’s not the demon king? That level of strength and madness is just like a demon king, isn’t it?

…Of course, it’s a joke.
…It was half a joke.

As befitting the Mercenary King, he had solved various high-risk requests, including those related to demons. Being demons, they possessed ‘demonic energy’, and Mercenary King Balik himself was the top expert in tracking that demonic energy. Therefore, he could tell at a glance, and if he had crossed swords, he would have known even more certainly. From his perspective, no demonic energy flowed in Sera’s body.

Demonic energy can’t be hidden even if one tries to hide it. Just as it’s natural for red blood to flow in a human body, it’s natural for demonic energy to flow in demons. Just as humans can’t change their red blood to another color, demons also couldn’t change their demonic energy, which is their life energy itself.

Only after recalling all these obvious facts… Balik could truly think that Sera was not a demon king but a hero. It’s this hard to escape from conspiracy theories. It’s not easy to get so entangled in your own conspiracy theory and struggle to get out of it, which shows what kind of image Sera had in Mercenary King Balik’s mind. At least, it was clear that she was far from a hero and closer to a demon king.

‘Anyway, can I finally see Brother Jade’s face?’

He had already heard from Sera that Jade was not in a normal state. When he heard that story, Balik wasn’t surprised. Giving one’s aura heart in the hope that a disciple won’t die. Such an absurd thing shouldn’t happen, but if Jade did it, it was something he could nod to, thinking it was entirely possible.

If the world had let him live feeling ordinary happiness in an ordinary family, Jade was someone who could have made a name for himself as an excellent nobleman or knight and become famous as a hero. But the world plunged him into a living hell, and eventually made him live as a mercenary and then live a quiet life alone, turning his back on the world. It’s no exaggeration to say that the world took away a great vessel named Jade from humans.

And his disciple is the hero.

Wasn’t it all for this that the world tormented Jade so much?

For a moment, such a thought crossed his mind, but Balik shook his head and completely shook off that thought. Because he felt that having such a thought itself was too cruel to Jade who had lived through that living hell. So he shouldn’t have such thoughts, and it shouldn’t be the truth. There’s no way such a thing could be the truth. Balik decided to settle it like that.

‘There’s nothing good about a stupid guy thinking too much.’

But there’s no better way to pass time quickly than thinking a lot.

Thanks to that, he could waste time quickly and

‘I can finally see it.’

He had finally reached Jade’s secluded place.

With his excellent eyesight, he immediately spotted Jade.

The ashen gray hair was gone, replaced by completely colorless white hair. Just by looking, one could tell it was an aftereffect caused by the collapse of body balance due to the loss of the aura heart. But fortunately, judging from the energy felt from him, it seemed there was no need to worry about Jade’s health.

He had heard that the balance problem of the body was adjusted with ‘nature’s mana’ instead of the aura heart… Honestly, being stupid, he couldn’t understand no matter how many explanations he heard. That’s why he wanted to see with his own eyes if Jade was okay, and seeing him like this, he could clearly tell that he was fine.

‘But what is he doing?’

Even if he lost his sense as a master due to losing his aura heart, it was strange that he seemed unable to sense his presence at all, and soon he realized that Jade was showing tremendous concentration on something.

And then he had to see him hugging something large and almost cheering. It was a familiar sight to Mercenary King Balik.

A mercenary friend he was close with had retired and was running a business while taking care of his child, and his daily routine was to hug his child tightly with those thick arms and say, “This kid is a genius!” He had seen that sight several times.

It’s that sight.

The man he sincerely respected was doing exactly the same thing now.

“Hahaha! You’re really amazing! Hahaha!”
“……”
“Hahaha….”
“……”

An awkward and heavy silence fell.

It was like the atmosphere of a man who had shown something that shouldn’t have been shown and a man who had seen something he shouldn’t have seen.

As mentioned several times,

Mercenary King Balik was stupid but had good intuition.

That’s right! He has good intuition!

He has good intuition, but…!

“…I’m glad to see you’re healthy, Brother Jade.”

But!

Being stupid, there’s no way he could have come up with a trump card to resolve this awkward atmosphere!

“……”
“……”

The awkward atmosphere became even more awkward, as if a cold wind from the north was blowing.