Chapter 157 - Everyone Else is a Returnee

Kang MiRae explained her story while drinking the tea that Erta brewed. Meanwhile, Yu IlHan pulled Liera off him and sat down carefully so Yumir wouldn’t wake up.

“The world I went to, Lanpas, has an empire called Palladia, where I’ve been to. Oh, thanks for the tea. It’s very nice.”

“I think I’ve heard of it.”

“It’s the country that succeeded the Magic Kingdom of Illta. As it is an extremely ability-centered country where meritocratic ideals are placed onto a pedestal, anyone can become the emperor as long as they are talented enough. It lead to all sorts of magic being developed to the extreme.”

She also mentioned that magic engineering was one of the fields that were relatively advanced; and that she was sure since she had found a few books about the basics of magic engineering.

“Will you really help me out?”

Yu IlHan became agitated after hearing that. Kang MiRae, while looking at him, felt that she had somehow calmed down and discovered that her fatigue from the long battle had dispersed a little. Truly befitting of a case of unrequited love.

“Compared to what debt I’ve accrued until now, it’s nothing much. Although it is currently impossible due to the situation on Earth, I’ll look into it as soon as things clear up.”

“Thank you!”

“I said it’s nothing much.”

Just as Yu IlHan was puffed up in expectation for his soon to be mobile fortress, Na YuNa, who didn’t feel so good about the two looking at each other with such affectionate expressions, tapped on Kang MiRae and retorted.

“Don’t play around and work!”

“Oh, yeah.”

Kang MiRae remembered why she was here to see Yu IlHan in the first place and returned the sidetracked conversation to the original topic.

“What is this mana that’s being emitted from this mansion? The reason that so many monsters gathered here was probably due to the mana…… To think that mana formed a fog…… I’ve never even heard of it.”

“It will be like this for quite a while. Until the mansion grows, it will be difficult to control all the mana.”

“……Did you just say that the mansion ‘grows’, did I hear that correctly?”

“Yes.”

Kang MiRae intuitively felt that she would be better off not prying any further.

Thinking back, this man had wiped out an enormous number of monsters that gathered from all over the world during the past 20 days. Every time she thought she had gotten used to it, a new surprise would be sprung onto her, it was getting more and more tiring.

“Although there were no casualties, there was a lot of damage to the properties nearby thanks to this mansion attracting all sorts of monsters. Although it’s a little funny for me to be saying this, there will definitely be people who complain about why you caused things to turn out this way.”

“Oh, that’s true. Should I give them compensation for the damages?”

Kang MiRae smiled and shook her head.

“Not at all. Whether it’s chasing monsters out or attracting them, countless people’s lives were saved thanks to your mansion. It’s nonsensical to put properties and human life on the same scale in the first place. I only wanted to say that you needn’t care even if such people appeared.”

Yu IlHan once again felt that Kang MiRae was a truly good natured person. It was unbelievable that she had grown up under the delusional Kang Chan.

However, it seemed that she didn’t know that Yu IlHan would not have been bothered about such people in the first place. (PR:The damaged properties, not MiRae)

“It’s a very fortunate thing in the viewpoint of protecting Earth. We could worry less about human casualties when monsters appeared here. It’s just that I’m worried about you, Mr. IlHan, as you will be exposed to monsters in the future…….”

“This fortress, I mean, this mansion has an auto-shooting function, so it will be alright. Normal 4th class monsters won’t be killed, but it will be able to tie them down temporaryily.”

“……”

This was a meticulous fortress that relieved the worry from people’s hearts. Kang MiRae decided to not talk about it anymore. Instead, Na YuNa tilted her head and interjected into the conversation.

“Now that I see it, Mr. IlHan.”

“It’s Yu IlHan.”

“Mr. IlHan, did you kill a 4th class monster this time rouuuund?”

Yu IlHan shook his head.

“Unfortunately, none appeared. And, it’s Yu IlHan.”

“That’s straaaange. We also didn’t meet one.”

“It would have been dangerous if we did. No matter how strong we became, 4th classes are too hard without Mir. Moreover, Earth is only in the initial stages of the 2nd Great Cataclysm, why would there be 4th classes? There are very few 4th classes even in worlds after the 3rd Great Cataclysm.”

Kang MiRae chided Na YuNa, reminding her to not talk about such unlucky things, but Yu IlHan was able to infer that Na YuNa wanted to talk about something from her eyes.

“Is it strange?”

“Yeees.”

“In fact, it’s not like I haven’t thought like that either.”

No matter how many monsters the Bittersweet Persona attracted, there was no way 4th classes would randomly charge here.

However, if they didn’t get caught by the Bittersweet Persona, it was very likely that they weren’t caught by the Traps of Destruction, so if there were 4th classes born of this Great Cataclysm, it could be deduced that they had hid away from human eyes.

“But if they ‘just’ hid themselves, that’s not a problem.”

“Do you also think that there are 4th class monsters?”

“If we think about how Earth behaved until now, yes.”

Monsters were a problem because they attacked humans as their prey. Even Ericia or Flemir would think it was natural that they were hunting humans for records if they had not been under Yu IlHan’s command.

It looked bad since Yu IlHan was in the shoes of humans, but originally, there was no ‘good’ or ‘evil’ about monsters’ actions. It was the same as how humans raised and killed cows and pigs for meat. Likewise, humans could kill monsters for experience without any sense of guilt.

However, if such monsters didn’t appear in his eyes, and hid themselves because they hated to fight, he thought that there was no need to exterminate each and every one of them. Rather, it would be questionable if it could even be called a ‘monster’.

“What if they had another reason for hiding? A very bad reason.”

As such, Na YuNa’s words sounded even more persuasive.

“What do you think, Miss Na YuNa?”

“I’ll talk about it if you call me ‘YuNa~’ with overflowing love.”

“It was unpleasant to have met you until now, and let’s not meet again. Good bye.”

“I’ll say it! I’ll say it!”

Na YuNa pouted and brought out her thoughts. From the scale of the monster hordes in this Great Cataclysm, there definitely should have been 4th class beings appearing, but as if this was all planned beforehand, there was not even much of a single one, and that was very suspicious.

Precisely because it was now that people were being relieved after the monster wave had gone past, it was the time to move.

“Although we have no evidence, it feels a little quirky to ignore it…… why didn’t you say anything until now?” (MiRae)

“Because currently on Earth, only Mr. IlHan can fight against 4th classes.” (YuNa)

“What if you were just overthinking things?” (IlHan)

“Then I can’t help it. I’ll give you a kiss inst….. ouch!” (YuNa)

Yu IlHan watched Kang MiRae and Na YuNa’s affectionate skinship as he obediently drank tea. Meanwhile, Yumir woke up and clung to the girls alternately, so it seemed like Kang MiRae’s anger had dispelled a little.

“You can ignore her words, since she’s an idiot.” (MiRae)

“No, I’ll take a look around. Although Miss Na YuNa’s head seems like it’s empty, there is a sharp point about her, like a small shard of glass in the endless beach.” (IlHan)

“Wao!” (YuNa)

Yu IlHan stood up with Mir hanging on him like a koala. If it was the him of before, he would have been scared stiff at such a mission, but with Ruin Calling, he would have found it easy even if it was a planet ten times that of Earth.

“If you go around and find nothing, tell me. I’ll kiss you!” (YuNa)

“I refuse.”

“You’re being embarrassed!”

It seemed like Na YuNa still thought that Yu IlHan liked her.

Kang MiRae left with (well, if you can call putting her on the shoulders after electrifying her, ‘with’) Na YuNa, adding on that she would contact them soon. Yu IlHan put down Yumir who woke up and prepared to leave.

“Can’t I go too?”

“I’ll come back soon so rest a little more at home. If you become hungry, there’s Jangjorim (meat simmered in soup) and rice.”

“Ok.”

Of course Jangjorim referred to the one made with dragon meat. A homemade food containing Yu IlHan’s consideration for Yumir! There were also sister products – boiled dragon ribs and dragon dumplings.

He took Yumir to the bedroom and made Erta stay with him before leaving. The vast clearing of a garden, came into his view.

“Fuu.”

[Wow, how clean.] (Liera)

The mansion grounds were cleaner than he had expected.

Because all monster corpses disappeared? No way. It was because the mansion repaired itself by absorbing the remains and corpses of monsters.

Of course, this was after he had collected the remains of monsters above level 150, it was a waste to give it to the Bittersweet Persona.

“It’s completely intact, let’s go now then.”

[There’s no way there are 4th class monsters though……] (Liera)

[It wouldn’t be surprising even if there were, Liera.] (Spiera)

Yu IlHan flew up to the skies with the still disbelieving Liera, and Spiera who accepted reality. As Yu IlHan’s flight speed became faster as he adapted more to the Ruin Calling, the angels also had to fly relatively quickly in order to not get left behind.

[Should we really be able to find 4th class monsters like this?] (Liera)

“Whether it’s people or monsters, if they hid from others, then I have the confidence to find them. I think about things from their viewpoint…… I have a lot of experience doing that, so I know very well.”

[I had no intention to attack IlHan’s heart, but I stepped on a landmine again!] (Liera)

[You can just call it the power of the concealment master.] (Spiera)

However, even though Yu IlHan had looked over every single place on Earth with the two angels, he couldn’t find any 4th class monsters. This was including the Pacific where it had completely turned into a monster zone.

Although he found some that had potential to grow into 4th classes soon, it was true that there were no 4th classes currently.

“But since there are so many monsters here, let’s clean them up first.”

[It’s the first time I see a human who can use the word ‘first’ when talking about cleaning up an entire country.] (Liera)

Yu IlHan’s assault came as disaster was wrought upon the monsters. The endless storm of dragon bone spears accompanied with flashes from the Black dragon whip!

In fact, Yu IlHan kind of expected to see another vortex if a large number of monsters died, but it seemed that it wasn’t something that generated just because one wished for it to appear, but there was ALSO a sign of the vortex when Yu IlHan cleaned up the monsters in about 2 hours.

[Even though it’s happening right in front of my eyes, I can’t see through its mechanism!] (Liera)

[Wouldn’t it be a type of monster as expected? Even if we know everything else, we still do not know the mechanisms of monster appearances…….] (Spiera)

While the higher existences were busy making hypotheses, Yu IlHan cleaned up the nearby monsters and approached the vortex. Liera asked while seeing that Yu IlHan was putting away the whip and was taking out his spear.

[So, what are you going to do now? Although it was possible in the mansion since you had mana explosion, would it still be possible now?] (Liera)

“I should try until it shatters. It’s not like it will connect to another world.”

Declared Yu IlHan confidently and inserted mana into his weapon. Eternal Flame, purple flame and Blaze were fused into a white flame, following which he deployed the Spear of Untraceable trajectory while trying to imbue the power of a sword, whip and hammer into it at the same time.

“Hhhhhhhhp!”

Yu IlHan’s strike with all his power pierced through the vortex several times!

However, as it was still insufficient compared to the time he attacked using the power of the fortress, he attacked several more times while bringing up all the strength he could muster…… or so he was about to, when the vortex suddenly started to expand with a strange light!

“Goddammit!”

[Ah, it’s exploding!] (Liera)

[Yu IlHan, dodge!] (Spiera)

Before the angels even warned him, Yu IlHan called out Aegis in front of his eyes to protect him. Although the vortex caused a grand explosion, it could not overcome Aegis.

Yu IlHan realized that there was no green text on his retina, and realized that he could not break the vortex alone, and was putting away his Aegis…..

When he was met with a gate that showed a frightening scenery inside.

Author’s notes

That sounds nice, dragon dumplings…

The reason Yu IlHan beat up(?) the vortex without the help of the fortress, was because there was no world connected to him. To speak of it, he fell into a tiny misunderstanding