The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 960

Dragons were a species that deeply valued respect and dignity.

Even the youngest of dragons were rarely cared for directly by anyone other than their own parents.

Runia’s parents, who were gold dragons, had fallen into an unbroken slumber, leaving her under the protection of the remaining moderate faction members. They allowed her to stay in the Dragon's Nest, ensuring her independence and safety.

Of course, this wasn’t entirely a good thing.

It explained why no one had noticed her condition, despite how dire her health had become over the past three days. If her parents had been alive, something like this wouldn’t have happened.

"Human!!!"

Two enraged black dragons unleashed their mana, pressuring Davey with overwhelming auras. Before things could escalate further, a golden-haired girl rushed in.

"Damn it..."

The girl ran straight to Runia, who was on the ground, her body cold and motionless. Kneeling beside her, she held the lifeless girl in her arms and gritted her teeth.

"How dare you kill a hatchling, even with the endorsement of the elder?” she spat out, her fury directed at Davey. A black dragon female when stepped forward, unleashing Fear.

"I’ll kill you, human!"

Bang!!

However, Rudel, who had followed closely behind, stopped her.

"Stop it. Where’s the proof that His Highness harmed Runia? Just because he found her doesn’t make him the culprit."

"You... Are you seriously defending a human right now?!"

She raged with anger, seemingly ready to attack Rudel. In response, he increased his pressure and restrained her.

"Analyze the situation first. It’s not too late to act after that. As a guardian of the balance of the middle earth, act with the dignity your role demands," Rudel said coldly.

Then, he turned to Davey. "What happened?"

"Don’t know, don’t care. Rinne."

At his words, Rinne stepped forward, her entire body emanating a brilliant white light. She oppressed the Fear in the surroundings, and the full-fledged dragons around them looked visibly surprised.

"You dare—!"

The black dragon acted as if her pride had been wounded by the fact that a mere golem resisted her Fear. She was about to push back even harder when Davey interrupted.

"Rein in your Fear. The girl’s already weak enough; do you really want to kill her for real?"

"What did you say?"

"Move aside.”

To the untrained eye, Runia seemed as good as dead. But in reality, she wasn’t entirely gone yet.

Neither advanced holy magic nor healing techniques could save her by that point, but Davey wasn’t going to give up. After assessing her condition, he tore strips of soft fabric from the wreckage around them and used them to wrap her body like a burrito.

Davey then cast a simple warming spell. It was a minor measure, but for a child who had lost so much blood and whose body temperature was dropping, maintaining warmth was essential.

Judging by the bloodstains and the state of her injuries, he figured it had likely been more than a day since she was attacked.

"It looks like she’s been in this condition for quite some time. I’ll do what I can to keep her alive for now—take me to a place with a high concentration of mana."

After a moment of silence, Rudel nodded. "Understood."

"Wha... wait a second! Rudel, what are you doing?"

"Step aside. Didn’t he say she’s still alive?"

"What? Are you seriously trusting that human’s clai—?”

"I am. So shut up for a moment, Arti.”

His cold tone left her stunned, her eyes widening as she just looked at Rudel.

Even so, he ignored her without a second thought. He maintained his icy demeanor and put his mana into motion. Moments later, a teleportation spell materialized before them.

* * *

The Dragon's Nest was inherently rich in mana, but there were certain areas where it was exceptionally dense in concentration.

Among those places was the home of one of their detractors—Rudel brought them directly to see Opal, the black dragon elder who was the most displeased with Davey’s presence. Without any formalities, he bluntly demanded that Opal open his lair.

The demand was nothing short of audacious. Naturally, Opal was at a loss for words. His initial shock turned into fury when his gaze fell on Runia, who was cradled lifelessly in Davey’s arms. His eyes widened in anger.

"Human... Don’t tell me...!"

"If you want to argue, we can do that later. For now, just show me the way," Davey interrupted coldly.

"What did you just say?"

Opal flared at Davey’s utter lack of respect, but before he could lash out, Davey cut him off again.

"Saving her is already barely possible, by a razor this margin. Any more delays, and she’ll be completely beyond help."

Opal clenched his teeth, seemingly ready to attack Davey.

"Runia! Why? You bastard! Why did you hurt her?!"

"I won’t repeat myself.”

"Elder! His Highness is trying to save Runia! Please, step aside!" Rudel pleaded.

“Ugh. Fine. Follow me..." Opal finally relented, though he didn't neglect to glare at Davey some more first.

He led the group onward.

"This is where the mana of the Dragon’s Nest converges before it spreads out again. Because of that, it contains an extraordinary concentration of mana—"

But before he could finish the informative house tour, Davey walked to the center of the dragon vein. As he stepped into the heart of the mana flow, an enormous amount of energy began to surge.

"A human can endure the dragon vein?!"

The intense mana had somewhat of an effect on Davey, of course. But he just simply ignored Opal’s astonishment and gently placed Runia at the center before extending his hand.

[Consume.]

Then an intangible force—like an invisible maw—devoured the remnants of the curse lingering within Runia. The cruel irony was that the curse, which had been killing her, was also the only thing keeping her alive.

"In this state, even if she survives, her body won’t regain mobility..." Opal muttered.

"What...? Is that true, Elder Opal?!" Rudel asked in shock.

Davey nodded at his words. "Yeah. That’d be the case under normal circumstances."

"Human. What do you mean by that?" Opal demanded, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"There’s always a way. If a miracle is needed, then you simply call one forth," Davey replied firmly, intertwining his fingers.

With a brilliant burst, radiant light and countless feathers scattered into the air as an overwhelming density of holy power energy poured out. The blinding light enveloped Runia and seeped into her body.

"I promised you, didn’t I? I told you I’d show you the world someday, as your protector," Davey said quietly.

Truthfully speaking, the promise had been nothing more than flowery words. He’d had zero intention of following through. But if even a sliver of her consciousness remained, he wanted her to hold onto her lifeline with everything she had.

The immense holy power coursed through her body, resonating with the stigmata etched into his back and wrists. As the enormous energies flowed into her, Davey sharply issued a command.

"Rudel, fetch some blood from a gold dragon. She needs a transfusion."

Rudel hesitated, startled. He couldn’t think of a gold dragon to ask for their blood. Just as he opened his mouth to respond, one of the full-fledged dragon guards in the lair—a golden-haired female—stepped forward.

"Take mine,” she said calmly.

Without hesitation, she unsheathed a dagger and made a shallow cut along her forearm. Davey collected her blood in a vial, poured it into a syringe he retrieved from his Pocket Plane, and began injecting it into Runia’s veins. He then poured holy power into her again.

The atmosphere of the silent makeshift operation room weighed heavily. The room was suffocatingly still.

After a while, Davey finally ceased the flow of holy power and stood up.

"I've done all I can—the rest is up to fate. It’s already too late to expect much. Honestly, it’s a miracle she’s even alive right now."

Runia should’ve already been dead. The curse had held her on the brink of death, keeping her alive just enough to suffer. Saving her required a divine miracle, but with Goddess Freyja in her slumber, Davey couldn’t invoke such a thing.

‘But perhaps the authority of a similar being might do...’

[Odin, you’re not gonna like this, but I’m borrowing some of your authority.]

The authority surged briefly, only to disappear with an audible crack.

"What the...?" Davey frowned.

The authority Goddess Freyja had bestowed upon Odin disintegrated almost immediately—her authority hadn’t even reached him. Being in the Saint Sanctuary, such a thing shouldn’t have happened to her.

‘Unless she’s not there at the moment.’

Davey looked at his hand silently for a moment before summoning more strength.

[Rho Aias.]

A familiar voice echoed in his mind.

- Use as much as you need.

Her will reached the Dragon’s Nest, and soon surged into Runia.

"My goodness... such overwhelming holy power!"

"How...?! How can a human draw on this kind of strength?!" The astonished cries of the full-fledged dragons filled the room.

As the miraculous energy seeped into Runia completely, Davey exhaled deeply.

"Make sure no one touches her. I’ve done the emergency work, but whether she survives or not is entirely up to her now."

A tense silence followed. Then Hobana, a full-fledged gold dragon, stepped forward.

"A stigmata... You. Human. You carry the stigmata, don’t you?"

“...”

"Then... it wasn’t you, was it? You didn’t harm Runia."

"I assume you noticed the dried bloodstains by now. I didn’t harm Runia, and I also have no reason to."

He then turned and met her eyes.

"Do you see her missing eyes?”

"Why... Why would anyone commit such a cruel act?" Hobana muttered through gritted teeth, her expression dark. Behind, her black dragon siblings mumbled in disgust.

"What kind of freakin psycho would do such a thing? This level of cruelty... it’s insane."

"But why just take her eyes? Her dragon eyes shouldn’t even have any significant magical properties yet.”

At that, Rudel looked at Davey. "Do you have any idea why this might’ve happened?"

“My interference ends here—the rest is up to you. This is your matter to deal with, not mine."

"Your Highness..." Rudel started, but Davey cut him off.

"Rudel, I’ve told you before. You’re still treating me as a human outsider, rather than a fellow member of Heins Territory.”

Rudel clenched his teeth. "That’s not..."

"I’m not forcing you to change. That’s your choice. But in this case, since I’ve made a promise with the kid, I’ll give you a hint.”

The others around him made puzzled looks.

"You said her eyes were taken, right? The other wounds may look haphazard at first glance, but they’re all surprisingly clean. Surgical, even. In other words, whoever did this had the capability to kill her outright.”

"But what would be the reason...?”

"It’s a cover-up, to make it less suspicious by just taking her eyes. To make it more cruel so that no one would further question what had happened. Additionally, it was designed to provoke your moderate faction into hostility toward me.”

The dragons who had recently arrived started murmuring amongst themselves, shocked by the revelation.

"What nonsense is this, human?!"

"It’s exactly as I said. Dragons hate harm to their kind—especially hatchlings. You know this better than anyone, don’t you?"

No one denied, as they knew he was speaking facts.

"You’re right. Human.”

"The situation perfectly paints a scene of me, a human, attacking a hatchling. The cruelty of the scene would only intensify your anger, leaving no room for reasoning or explanation. Attacking me would be the simplest course of action for you all.”

"Then... the purpose of all this was just to frame you?"

"That might be part of it, sure. But the real reason lies here," he said, pointing at Runia’s tightly shut, empty eye sockets.

"I looked closely earlier and noticed faint marks left behind. She was conscious when her eyes were taken."

“...”

"Why would someone go to such lengths to take her eyes, and then cover their tracks by mutilating her body just to frame me?"

"..."

"The answer’s simple—Runia saw something she wasn’t supposed to."

At his words, several dragons flinched, their expressions uneasy.

"Investigate those bastards," Davey said firmly.

"Those bastards...? You don’t mean... the fallen ones?!" one of the dragons exclaimed, horrified.

"If it wasn’t your moderate faction, and it wasn’t me, then there’s only one likely culprit left. And besides, they were already the most likely suspects, weren’t they?"

The dragons murmured amongst each other.

However—

"But that doesn’t make sense! They were all under our watch! There’s no way they had the opportunity to harm Runia..."

"Then think about it the other way around," Davey said calmly as he stood up.

He looked at the gathered dragons: three elder dragons—Marin, Opal, and Kaiser; the full-fledged dragons Rudel and Sapphire; the gold dragon Hobana; and the black dragons, Arti and Siller.

Although Davey wasn’t too sure of the full-fledged dragons, he had already taken note of the elders.

Elder Marin was straightforward enough, Elder Opal had a notoriously fiery temperament, and Elder Kaiser, as a green dragon, was gentle and composed.

"You’ve said before that your information was leaking, didn’t you?"

"Surely you're not suggesting...”

"You can’t ignore the possibility of a traitor," Davey continued while smirking. "Oh, I’ve always wanted to say this."

He extended his hand slightly and grinned.

"The culprit... is among us."

The room erupted with gasps and murmurs of disbelief.

"A culprit... among us?"

Davey turned his eyes to Elder Opal.

"I have a pretty good idea who it is," he murmured.

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Rudel, looking panicked, grabbed at Davey. "Then—then who is it?! Who’s the traitor?!"

"Rudel.”

He flinched as Davey called out his name.

"Fine... I’ll give you a little hint.”

Once he slightly flicked his finger, Rinne stepped forward, her six brilliant white wings spreading out. She was holding a golden spear as tall as she was. It was none other than the Spear that Can Melt the Balance of the World, which she pointed directly at Elder Opal.

All eyes turned to him in unison.

Opal began trembling visibly, his eyes widening with panic. "I—I'm not the one! This is a human conspiracy! Why—why would I do this?!"

"Then again... it’s true that Elder Opal had been hostile toward the human from the very beginning...”

The dragons reacted as Opal shouted. It seemed his position among the dragons wasn’t as solid as it would appear.

Davey remained silent for a moment before commanding Rinne.

"Rinne."

"Command received."

Without hesitation, she launched herself at Opal. He widened his eyes in shock and lashed out to counter her, but her strength, amplified by sephirothization, was far beyond what he could handle.

Squelch!

Hissss!

"Aaaargh!"

Everyone made shocked faces. Rinne had flashed toward him and shattered his magic. Her spear passed cleanly through Opal like a phantom and pierced Elder Kaiser, who had been standing behind him.

"You really shouldn’t underestimate others so easily. Whether they’re humans or dragons... Did you really have to go so far as to do that to a child?"

"Gaaa?! What...?!" Elder Kaiser gasped, his body slamming against the wall.

Unlike Elder Opal, Kaiser had earned considerable support among the dragons for his calm and gentle demeanor.

"But whether it’s mystery movies or novels, it’s always the ones like you who turn out to be the culprits."

"What? Are you only saying... I’m the culprit just because...”

"Of course not.”

Davey then extended his hand, his expression colder than ever.

"You’d better choose your next move wisely, Elder. The power the fallen ones possess may be unfamiliar to me, but it can be used in fascinating ways."

Davey used his divine power to check every dragon in the room.

"There’s only one of you here hiding the same power as the fallen ones.”

He pointed directly at Elder Kaiser.

"And that’s you.”