The Hero Returns

"Cintamani?"

Su-hyeun detected the unique magical energy and climbed up to the top of Miru's head and then took a look below.

The Cintamani was emitting light with a completely different level of clarity compared to before.

It was as if that marble itself possessed a will and was trying to say something.

Grrrrr—

Miru began descending to the ground.

Although its action was the same as usual, Su-hyeun was certain that Miru was acting separately from his order from earlier. In fact, Miru was heading toward the village of its own free will.

"Is there something in that village?"

Su-hyeun rubbed Miru's head.

The dragon was clearly excited. It trembled in excitement ever so faintly, but even then, he could clearly sense it.

However, Miru being this agitated could result in damages to the village down below.

"Calm down, Miru. Calm down."

Grrrr—

Miru let out a soft growl at Su-hyeun's petting.

Thud—

Soon, the dragon landed on the ground and lowered its head. The people riding on its back hurriedly dismounted.

As for the villagers, they didn't come outside the village. Judging from their presence while keeping their distance, Su-hyeun figured that they were immensely scared and wary of Miru.

He casually took a look at the village.

It was fairly large. At a rough headcount, there must have been at least well over a thousand people here.

The houses were built simply with fabric and wooden boards but looked quite sturdy in their own right. Besides, the outer wall surrounding the village prevented strong winds from blowing in, so they shouldn't collapse that easily, anyway.

"No matter how I look at it, it's just a regular village..." he thought.

Su-hyeun glanced at Miru.

That Cintamani protruding out of the dragon's forehead...

That item's reaction of suddenly emitting light seemed pretty similar to back when Miru discovered it hidden inside the Titan Turtle's body.

"Miru, I think you should get smaller for now. Everyone's scared of you."

Grrrr—

Crunch, creaaaak—

Miru's body began growing smaller. Its figure that was as big as an apartment building instantly shrunk down to the size of a baby winged dragon that was no bigger than a tiger.

"Are you there?"

Su-hyeun sensed the villagers' alertness soften just a tad, so he called out to them once more. When he did, a handful of brave people began emerging from the village.

"W—who are you?"

"Well, these folks behind me said that they need to come over here, so..." Su-hyeun replied while pointing at the people behind him. "They told me it'll be safe here."

"And what about that monster?"

"It's just a kid that accompanies me wherever I go. Hey, Miru. Greet them."

Gya-ong—!

Su-hyeun replied while petting Miru, and the dragon responded with an energetic bow of its head.

The villagers all made puzzled expressions at that response. They thought Miru was a monster, but to think that it followed a human's orders and even knew how to greet other people.

"In that case, why did you cause that commotion earlier? Lord wizard would have opened the way for you even if you didn't do anything threatening and simply told us that you wanted to enter."

This time it was Su-hyeun's turn to be puzzled when someone asked him that.

They would've let his group in if only he announced his intentions first? That implied that the people inside could tell the situation outside the wall.

"Does that mean I did something unnecessary? Or..."

Su-hyeun scanned the crowd of the villagers that had appeared before him.

It was then that he heard a certain voice.

"Ah, my apologies. Sorry about that."

A good-natured chuckle accompanied that voice.

Su-hyeun's eyes narrowed in response. The villagers all focused their attention on the entrance of an old man with a long snow-white beard.

"Uh, sir!"

"Sir, what brings you here...?"

"Guests from afar have arrived, so of course, I must come to welcome them in," the old man replied.

The old man had plenty of wrinkles on his face. His back was bent forward, and his steps seemed labored as well, but he still looked around his vicinity with a warm smile on his face.

That was when a male villager nearby walked up and addressed him. "Sir, the magic circle protecting the village has been shattered. What should we do now?"

"It was my fault, that one. I got too carried away with my stubborn streak."

"I beg your pardon? Your stubborn streak?"

"No, it's nothing to worry about. In any case, I was planning to do something soon anyway, so it's not a big problem. That's how it is, so you can rest easy and welcome our guests," the old man addressed the villagers and then shifted his gaze over to Su-hyeun next. "As for me, I'd like to have a chat with that gentleman in private."

He then turned around to walk away first.

Su-hyeun trudged slowly after the old man. The large gathering of the villagers didn't try to stop him and simply moved aside to make way for him.

He could hear their murmurings.

Is he a monster in disguise?

Does the good sir know him?

What is the monster next to him, anyway?

Suspicions regarding Su-hyeun spread around in an instant.

The old man eventually stepped inside the biggest building in the village, which was really only slightly taller and had thicker wooden boards than the other houses.

Miru was much larger than a full-grown adult man and, as a result, only barely managed to fit through the doorway.

Su-hyeun took a look at the Spartan interior featuring only a temporary bed before asking a question, "Sir, did you create that magic wall outside?"

The old man settled down on the temporary bed and stared at Su-hyeun who had cut straight to the chase before making his reply. "That I did. Couldn't you tell with just one look?"

"Were you protecting the villagers?"

"Indeed. You were better than I expected as well. Although I couldn't tell whether what you used was magic or not."

Grrrng, growl—

Just as the two people began chatting away, Miru got close to the old man and began pushing its head toward him.

Grrrr, grrrrowl—

This would be the first time ever for Miru to display this much friendliness to someone other than Su-hyeun.

The old man chuckled affably and petted Miru's head. Su-hyeun alternated his gaze between the former and the dragon, and as the thought of "I knew it" entered his head, he said a certain name, "Ellid..."

The old man that was petting Miru's head flinched in surprise at Su-hyeun's muttering, and that reaction only served to reaffirm Su-hyeun's guesses.

"So, you were Lord Ellid."

Ellid—the name he came across during the trial on the 40th floor—was the name that belonged to the being referred to as the "dragon emperor."

Also, he was Miru's ancestor in terms of the bloodline.

"Where did you even hear about my name?" the old man, Ellid, asked back.

Almost at the same time, the skin on his face broke down like particles of sand, and his façade went away.

Red scales underneath revealed themselves. This was the historic moment of Su-hyeun finally running into another red dragon beside Miru.

"I knew it," he thought.

Back when he first came face to face with the wall outside the village, he felt that the magical energy emanating from it was kind of familiar.

Just like one's fingerprints or blood, magical energy was bound to manifest certain characteristics that were unique to the individual user.

And the magical energy felt from the wall was quite similar to the energy he sensed back when he watched Ellid's last will recorded in the Cintamani.

That was why Su-hyeun had been wondering "what if" until now, and Miru's actions toward the old man reaffirmed his guesses.

"A while ago, I happened to come across the world where you used to live, and I got to watch your memories through the Cintamani," Su-hyeun replied.

"In that case, my name...?"

"I heard it from the other dragons living there. Dragon Emperor Ellid, the one who led the dragons for a long time, the descendant of the one true dragon king, and the strongest dragon ever in history."

"Well, that's kind of embarrassing. Is that how others perceived me?" He chuckled.

The corners of Ellid's lips curled up greatly.

That chuckle that forced its way out of his lips was quite a distance apart from Su-hyeun's initial impression of the dignified and wise old man.

"Now that I think about it, he's originally like this, wasn't he?" Su-hyeun quietly observed.

Ellid from the memories stored in the Cintamani did possess a rather frivolous personality.

The dignified aura he emitted or the expression he often made gave off an impression that he was a solemn character, but the way he spoke was best described as easygoing, and he didn't seem to sweat over the formalities all that much, either.

And his personality hadn't changed a bit even though it's been quite a while since he went missing.

"We have lots to talk about. I'm way too curious about so many things, you see. Such as, how did this guy end up following a human? How did you run into my kin? And how did you even reach this place?"

"I also have a lot of questions."

"First of all, you aren't thinking of doing anything to this village, right?"

Ellid's eyes were filled with waves of magical energy as he asked that. He was deliberately exposing his aura.

For a brief moment there, Su-hyeun witnessed the giant figure of the dragon emperor he saw through the Cintamani standing imposingly behind Ellid.

"Even in his current state, he can still exude this much pressure..."

Indeed, he deserved to be called the dragon emperor.

When thinking about how Miru's own presence would grow so much more substantial after going through the giantification process, then it became almost impossible to fully estimate what Ellid's true strength was.

"Doing such a thing won't be beneficial for me, so no."

Su-hyeun raised both of his hands to express his lack of intention to fight. Even Miru purred and nodded its head vigorously.

Ellid alternated his gaze between Miru and Su-hyeun and then chuckled again as if he felt relieved. "But of course."

Su-hyeun could only make a puzzled expression at that.

Now that he thought about it some more, why was a being referred to as the dragon emperor who used to lead his entire race currently protecting some human villagers in this place?

"What's the matter? Do you find it strange?"

"If you were alive, why haven't you returned to your kin?"

Without a doubt, as a red dragon Ellid possessed the ability to travel between different dimensions.

He used that ability to send away Fafnir who invaded his dimension to somewhere else and, in the process, ended up in this world himself.

He did believe that he wouldn't survive the process and left behind his will through the Cintamani, but here he was, alive and well.

"I can't go back even if I wanted to."

"Excuse me?"

"You have the Cintamani, so you should know why I ended up here."

"You wanted to chase away the demonic beasts, and so, you traveled to a distant dimension along with them. That's what I—"

"Indeed. To put it simply, I'm lost. The distance is so great that it's really challenging to find my way back home."

"Does that mean you will never be able to go back home?"

"There's no such thing as impossible in this world, you know. However..." Ellid shifted his gaze toward the doorway before continuing, "I can't abandon those guys, you see."

"Those guys, you say?"

"Some people saved me when I was near death. I owe them a great debt." Ellid scratched his head while wearing an awkward expression on his face. "It's not like I knew of a way to go back, and I figured it wouldn't take long anyway, so I chose to stay and protect those people for a while. As you can see, this world isn't all that different from the one where my race lives."

"Is it pity, then?"

"Something like that. After all, my kin can operate properly without me being around them, but that's not the same story for this place, is it?" Ellid took a look around his shabby dwelling. "The people here can't even build a proper house because they are constantly on the run from the demonic beasts, and without me, they won't live past a couple of days. It's not right to ignore their troubles and run away by myself when I owe them my life."

While saying that, Ellid reverted his appearance to that of a human old man.

It seemed that he had made up his mind to protect the people of this world.

That meant that Su-hyeun, also in the position of needing to protect these villagers, could now ask Ellid for his assistance.

"Not sure whether I should feel happy about this or not..." he thought.

Without a doubt, the goal of the current trial was to protect the villagers.

However, Su-hyeun didn't feel like celebrating the fact that now he could get Ellid's help.

Ellid being a part of this trial's backstory implied that the trial itself would be very tough to clear even after receiving his help.

"Could it be that the demonic beast from back then is here now?"

Su-hyeun wondered if Fafnir had ended up in this place as well and had to ask for clarification, only for Ellid to shake his head.

"It's not that creature."

"In that case?"

"It's something similar. Its personality is slightly different, but the atmosphere it gives off is broadly similar."

"It's a predator, then," Su-hyeun inwardly guessed.

Something with a similar atmosphere to Fafnir, meaning, a complete predator existed in this world, although it wasn't Fafnir.

"Finally."

Su-hyeun knew that sooner or later, he would end up fighting a predator if he kept climbing the tower.

And such a day had come a little sooner than he had expected.