The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

No matter how hard Davey contemplated it, balancing the resentment and power of a wraith—that only spouted about its grief and rage—without forcefully purifying it seemed impossible.

Handling future or present events wouldn’t be particularly difficult. Fixing past events, however, was as impossible as scooping up already split milk that had dried up. To do something like that would require superpowers.

Despite his divinity, rewriting the past was beyond him.

Even Goddess Freyja had chosen to create parallel worlds rather than alter what had already occurred, when forging new possibilities.

Regression. It was a funny idea. And he knew it was also one of the most arrogant and inefficient concepts he could think of. After all, to do so would mean erasing all the accumulated karma.

‘Yeah. If anything, it’s closer to entering a parallel world—one carrying the potential for a better future.’

“Huff. Huff. Haah.”

In conclusion, all of that stuff had no practical use for him. And he also didn’t want to deceive a wraith that was burdened by its sorrowful past.

“Hufff. Dav—”

‘Wait. What was that sound?’

Thud!

Davey turned his head and saw Aeonitia, dressed in a snug tracksuit and drenched in sweat.

She had collapsed on the floor, struggling to catch her breath.

“Aeonitia?”

“Haah. Haah.” Panting heavily, she lay sprawled out, completely unable to move.

When Davey approached, she barely managed to lift her head.

“W-Water...”

“Here. Rinse your mouth and spit it out.”

Aeonitia stared at him blankly, confused.

“If you drink it all at once, you’ll regret it.”

Perhaps sensing that he wasn’t just messing with her, she weakly reached for the bottle—only for her arm to go limp before she could grab it.

He wasn’t surprised at her state. After all, she was just a kid who had spent most of her time indoors, buried in research or games. She wasn’t exactly going to have great stamina.

And yet, she had pushed herself past her limits just to keep up with him.

She was on the verge of complete exhaustion.

“Here. Take it slow.” Supporting her, Davey lifted the bottle to her lips.

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

“He—Hey!!”

Before he could stop her, Aeonitia somehow mustered a burst of strength to snatch the bottle and chugged the water like her life depended on it.

Davey placed his hand on her stomach to infuse his mana into her, wanting to prevent any complications from her sudden overconsumption.

Managing her weight gain was easy.

He knew for a fact that Perserque could adjust her body weight down to the gram with her natural abilities.

But that wasn’t the point—that would ruin the whole point of the plan.

The ultimate goal was to get her out of her shell, getting her outside.

If it were just about exercise, he could’ve just sent her to those lunatic muscle freaks, Killer Rabbit and Taurus. They were maniacally obsessed with muscle doping, but their training expertise was undeniably top-tier.

Speaking of which, Davey had sent Shiverwock to train with them before. He hoped it was doing well and hadn’t formed some kind of four-member muscle alliance along with the Great Orc Chief.

Though, come to think of it, Shiverwock wasn’t the only one who had suffered under their insane training.

There was also a gold dragon who had been forcefully muscle-doped and trained to the point of ruin. A former fallen dragon.

Given that she was both female and a dragon, Davey wasn’t sure if she had bulked up as dramatically as some of the others. Still, rumor had it that her grip strength alone had multiplied several times over.

“Pwah! Cough, cough!” Aeonitia, having drunk until she was satisfied, gasped for air before shooting him a furious glare.

Tears had welled up in her eyes—he could tell that she must’ve really struggled.

“If it was that hard, why didn’t you just stop running?”

“You wouldn’t have let me stop just because I wanted to.”

‘Well, she isn’t wrong.’

"Alright, then. We’ll stop running. You managed about six kilometers. Not bad!"

Six kilometers.

That was double the three-kilometer run that South Korean military personnel had to complete every day.

For a girl who had never done much physical activity, it was an impressive feat.

“Hiiiing. My legs are gonna get all muscular now...”

“Sit down."

Ignoring her complaints, Davey gently stretched out her legs and began massaging her calves.

Aeonitia immediately flinched. “D-Davey?!”

He paid no attention to her startled reaction. He continued to knead her sore muscles.

Her face steadily reddened, as if she was about to explode.

"With this, you won’t have to worry about sore muscles tomorrow. You did well."

“T-Then... we’re done?”

"Nope." Davey flashed a grin at her and pointed to the side. "Next exercise starts now."

* * *

For five days, Davey kept doing simple exercises with Aeonitia.

She had reached the point that she was keeping up with him.

Watching her run alongside him, he casually asked, "You already lost all the weight, so will you be sticking with it?"

"Hmph. There’s no harm in continuing something I’ve already started."

‘Go figure.’

Moderation was surely not in her vocabulary.

She wasn’t lazy by nature—she was just too intense. No matter what she did, she took it to the extreme.

First, it was research, then being a shut-in playing games, and now exercise.

Still, he knew it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Now that she had latched onto something healthy like exercise, teaching her how to do things in moderation had become even harder for him.

"What should I do? If I make her a daily schedule, she’ll probably develop an obsession with sticking to it."

"Davey, what are you mumbling to yourself about?" Aeonitia asked.

"Nothing. By the way, no more gaming these days? Did you have a change of heart?”

"Hmm. Well, doing this instead isn’t too bad, actually.”

"Just don’t overdo it," he cautioned.

"Oh? Is that something I should really be hearing from you, of all people?”

"I’m just saying, don’t get so into it that you forget to take care of yourself."

When she was deep into research, she completely neglected herself. When she was obsessed with gaming, she was no different.

He knew she’d be no different with exercise—if she got too caught up, it’d backfire.

Humans tended to go to ridiculous lengths when they became overly health-conscious.

"Come on, keep moving. You’re gonna lose your pump at this rate."

"Lose... pump?"

"What?"

"You don’t know, Davey? If you’re not careful, your heart will stop pumping so hard, and you won’t have optimal results." She gave him a baffled look.

‘This girl... There’s no saving her.’

"Alright. This is getting out of hand."

* * *

In the end, thanks to Yeon-Hee’s extreme remedy, Davey successfully dragged Aeonitia out of her life as a shut-in. She had already declared that she’d dive back into her research when she returned to Tionis. Which, in the grand scheme of things, was basically back to square one.

Now that she had regained an interest in outdoor activities through exercise, she would naturally pour herself into her original passion—research—with the same obsessive intensity.

“So I’m the root cause of all this, eh?”

Realizing there was no immediate way to fix the issue, Davey let out a sigh. Then a thought struck him.

‘Wait a second.’

She always went to extremes. Back when she was addicted to gaming, she had said she was too lazy to do any research. That meant she wasn’t completely incapable of losing herself in other distractions. He’d just have to call her out every now and then, and make sure she kept getting some variety in her life.

At least, until she naturally found a balance on her own.

That was the best thing he could do, both as her older brother and as the person that had turned her into such a workaholic in the first place.

“Aeonitia.”

“Yes?” Still lightly jogging, she curiously turned toward him.

“I don’t want you pushing yourself so hard that your body breaks down... or that your emotions wither away. This isn’t a request or command, though.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s just a favor coming from a family member. And a bit of nagging too, I suppose.”

She looked at him with surprise.

* * *

For all her brilliance, Aeonitia never strayed from her chosen path.

Meanwhile, as South Korea’s nuclear waste neutralization system began showing tangible results, Japan and China had started moving to counter Korea's growing influence.

But that wasn’t his concern.

Once he had honored his side of the contract, he took Aeonitia and Tiara back to Tionis.

In the meantime, there had been developments in Heins Territory as well.

Amy, who had been waiting for his return, seemed to have gradually found her own path. With the encouragement from Aeria and Illyna, she had apparently been spending quite a bit of time with one of the professors at Heins Academy.

They were both young, and they seemed to get along well. If things worked out, that’d be great. If not, at least Amy was taking steps toward starting her own life.

Amy and Aeonitia were different, yet fundamentally similar.

“What—”

“Hup. Hup. Hup!”

“The hell are you doing?”

Davey frowned as he watched Shiverwock furiously doing squats.

“What does it look like? I’m training! Huuup! Hup!”

His gaze shifted to the massive, muscle-bound white rabbit standing next to it with a very satisfied look on its face.

Davey felt a wave of nausea at the mere sight of the grotesquely muscular bunny.

“Shiverwock. How long have you been around for?”

Still in the middle of doing its squats, the dokkaebi turned its head toward Davey.

“A long time. A very long time.”

“Way back when you were still stomping around... were there any Gumihos?”

It hesitated for a brief moment before continuing its squats.

“Maybe there were. Maybe there weren’t.”

“What kind of answer is that?”

“I don’t know. The world’s affairs have nothing to do with me.”

Davey nodded—it had a point.

"Alright, then. What about wraiths?”

Shiverwock finally stopped moving. “Wraiths?”

"Yeah. Is there a way to weaken their resentment without fully purging them?"

Shiverwock quietly pondered for a moment before answering, "If the resentment is ancient, it may be impossible. But if the goal is just to weaken it, there is a way.”

Davey narrowed his eyes. “You mean it?”

Shiverwock nodded.

“It’s through deception. You should already know this—wraiths hold onto their memories very vividly. Yet, they’re also unstable. So tell me, what’s your goal? Do you want to completely resolve its resentment, or just weaken it?”

“I just need to weaken it and obtain the power of its resentment...”

“If that’s all, then what are you hesitating for? Just trick the ghost into venting its rage and let it win for once. That alone should be enough to weaken its resentment.”

A chill ran down his spine. He was familiar with that kind of method. And yet, he had never once considered using it—it’d be an act of deception, after all.

“If you’re not going to fully resolve its resentment, then drop the pathetic act of righteousness.”

Davey had no good response.

He knew it was for the sake of using the life essence orb, but he wasn’t sure he could really justify deceiving and breaking the lingering soul of someone who had once been a loyal servant.

If it were before, he might not have cared. But after seeing the wraith’s past, and with all of his own people he had to protect, he couldn’t bring himself to make such a selfish decision.

It wasn’t about looking good or showing off.

It wasn’t about being a pushover, either.

It was simply that reasonable pragmatism was not the same as pure selfishness.

“Woochi’s test isn’t about how a person should ideally manage this obstacle.”

Davey narrowed his eyes. ‘So he knows about Woochi...’

“He wants to see what choice you make after witnessing the reality of the situation.”

So, this was the final lesson from his sorcerer master. It was a test to see if Davey was worthy of being seen as an equal.

“Choose wisely. You may have many talents, but you are definitely a natural-born sorcerer. Not just any, but one with spiritual vision. And the essence of a sorcerer...”

...was to communicate with spiritual beings and discern the truth of the world.

To become the kind of person that became stronger in order to save those who grieve.

Even if it wasn’t mana, holy power, or spirit mana, the roots were the same.

Thinking that far, Davey was stuck between two choices.

Either ignore the sorrow of the wraith so he could complete the life essence, or find another way and resolve the pain that the wraith had—even if it meant delaying his own plans.

“No matter what you choose, Woochi won’t judge you too harshly for it. He’s not the type to force his way of life onto someone.”

“Damn... He got me good.”

Then, his decision became clear. “I’m giving up on manipulating the wraith.”

He couldn’t just walk past its sorrow like it was nothing.

Sure, using a wraith would’ve been the most efficient way to awaken the life essence orb, but efficiency wasn’t everything.

“There has to be another way.”

“You can’t resolve a painful past from a modern position. But there is one method that Woochi hadn’t mentioned...”

Davey quietly met its gaze.

“I see.”

He suddenly understood everything.

Without hesitation, he headed to the place where he had sealed the Wraith Frost.

"Alright. Let’s begin."

He reached out, making contact with the wraith once more.