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Chapter 854. Afterwords (3)

“The doctor said he might start speaking soon. What do you think, Davey?”

In response to her question, Davey placed Moony in her arms and checked his uncle\'s pulse.

“Is checking pulses a thing in that other world as well?”

“Medicine works similarly wherever you go.”

After all, pseudo-medicine could never become mainstream.

His uncle’s body had mostly recovered, but his soul still had wounds from the mutation. After contemplating for a moment, Davey slowly infused divine power into his soul.

A pure, mysterious white light flowed into his body.

“Wake the fuck up, samurai. We have a city to burn.”

“Davey, are you crazy?”

“It was just a joke.”

Davey spoke calmly, reabsorbing the light that had seeped into his uncle’s body, then tightly held his sleeping hand.

“It’s going to be alright.”

Just then, his uncle, who had been sleeping peacefully, slowly opened his eyes.

‘Did the effects kick in that quickly?’

Davey watched in surprise as his uncle looked at him silently. His uncle then frowned and began to move, slowly sitting up to stare at Davey.

“Hyun-Soo...”

"Huh?"

Both Hyun-Ah and Davey were startled that he was able to immediately recognize Davey’s identity. His uncle gently tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hyun-Soo, it’s great to see you looking healthy.”

"How... No, there’s no point in asking how you knew. Uncle, how have you been?”

“I’m alright, thanks to you.”

He smiled softly and looked at the baby in his arms.

“Is he your son?”

“Are you Neltarid?”

“Haha, you’re probably the only one who refers to a god on a first-name basis.”

His uncle smiled with satisfaction.

“I heard you sacrificed a lot for this old uncle of yours.”

“Well, it wasn’t a big deal.”

Davey had simply given him something from a box that appeared after defeating a Malicious Spirit. Rationally speaking, it might’ve seemed like a waste, but Davey never cared for such cold logic. After all, it was his own choice how to use what he himself earned.

“Darian.”

“What?”

“I was told to ask if the name Darian would be a good name.”

“They told you to? Neltarid did?”

His uncle nodded quietly in response.

Considering that the Church of Neltarid had collapsed, his uncle was likely the only person on Earth who could still communicate with Them.

“Darian is a special name. I heard that in your world, it was a name used a long time ago, meaning ‘a child imbued with light.’”

“A child imbued with light...”

“He’s cute.”

“Isn’t he? I keep smiling whenever I see him.”

“It’s only natural for parents to feel that way toward their children.”

“Oh my... Uncle...”

Hyun-Ah’s eyes welled up with tears, surprised that he was standing and speaking.

“You’ve had a hard time because of your foolish uncle, Hyun-Ah.”

“Uncle!”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“What are you talking about?! Why would you apologize?!”

As Hyun-Ah cried in his arms, Davey looked down at Moony who was sound asleep.

‘Darian, huh? Not bad.’

As Davey stood up slowly, his uncle looked at him.

“Are you leaving?”

“I should get going.”

“At least meet with Yeon-Hee before you go.”

“I’ll visit next time.”

His uncle nodded quietly.

“Alright. Even though your past and present lives are different, I hope you visit from time to time and let us know you’re well.”

“Of course.”

“Good. Next time, bring your wife along too. Your uncle will personally cook a meal to welcome you.”

Even though he was the chairman of a massive international company, he apparently still enjoyed cooking for Hyun-Ah and Yeon-Hee. Davey didn’t know for sure, as all of this had happened after his death, but he’d once heard that his transformation was connected to his past self Hyun-Soo passing away.

“Oh, look at the time. Uncle, I’ll visit again sometime soon.”

“Alright.”

As Davey quietly stood up, Hyun-Ah gave him a playful slap on the back.

“Next time, give us a heads-up. You scared me, showing out of the blue.”

“Alright, I will.”

Even though he had been reincarnated and Hyun-Soo had died, they still saw Davey as their brother, their sibling, and their nephew since Davey still had his old memories. For that, Davey was truly thankful.

Though Davey had many friends still on Earth—like the Oxygen siblings and his slaves number one and two[1]—he returned to Tionis soon after. He headed to the room where Aeria and the others were talking with serious expressions.

“You’re back. So, did you get a good name?”

“Yeah.”

“What is it?” Illyna asked.

“How about here, did you all come up with any?” Davey asked in return.

“No, we talked about it but couldn’t settle on anything,” Perserque and Illyna responded.

“Darian.”

“Huh?”

“A child imbued with light. It’s a name blessed by Neltarid.”

“How were we supposed to compete when you got a name blessed by a god? You were supposed to go back to your past life’s family to get one,” Illyna teased.

“What does it matter? I can also give blessings of that level.”

Illyna sighed at his response.

“Still, I believe Darian is a good name,” Aeria commented.

Davey quietly nodded at her response.

“I think it’s perfect,” Perserque added.

“Then from now on, his name will be Darian O’Rowane.”

Rustle.

Waaa!! Waaa!!

Suddenly, the baby turned over and started crying playfully. Surprised, Aeria quickly picked him up.

“I think he likes his name too.”

“Hm, we’ll have to see about that.”

As they giggled, Davey stepped away—he babies usually cried because of either hunger, pain, or startlement. Since the child was protected by holy power, he knew he couldn’t be in pain, and given the safe environment, he likely wasn’t startled. Thus, he was probably just hungry.

Leaving the three behind, he left the room and walked slowly toward his bedroom. Once inside, he laid down on a rocking chair and took out a large egg sealed in its own card.

It was none other than the egg of the ancient dragon Eclipse.

This was essentially the child of the last ancient dragon left in the world. It had been hibernating for three thousand years, spending all that time as an egg—even after Davey ruled the Red Void.

To be frank, Davey wasn’t sure if this child would hatch properly. Figuring he should do his part for the ancient dragon race and ease the process, he gently placed the egg in the center of the room and ceremoniously raised his hand.

“Daddy?”

Just then, Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon barged in through the window, whining about something or the other. Davey couldn’t help but wonder where they picked up the habit of climbing in through windows.

“Wow! What a big egg!”

“A really big egg!”

The children cried out loudly in excitement. Davey knew they likely wouldn’t have done so quite as enthusiastically if they knew what exactly the egg contained.

“It’s not just any egg, it’s the egg,” Davey corrected.

“The egg?”

“That’s right. The egg that Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon’s little sibling is sleeping in.”

Initially, Davey had planned to leave the egg with Verdandi. Unfortunately, she refused, worried that any lingering power from the Abyss she had might negatively affect the child.

“Hmm... But why is my little sibling inside an egg? It’s hard...” Red Ribbon asked, tapping the surface of the large egg.

“To be protected,” Davey answered softly.

“Protected?”

“That’s right. Now, it’s time for your younger sibling to wake up from their long sleep.”

Davey channeled his power to surround the egg. He manifested his authority, utilizing the immense vitality spread throughout the world. Slowly, the power of time that Arbit had cast on the egg began to unravel, allowing the frozen flow of time to resume.

‘So now...’

Arbit had said the egg was close to hatching, after all.

Crack... Crack!!

“Oh! They’re breaking through the egg!” Red Ribbon commented.

“The ball, it’s breaking and busting! Oh no... It must hurt...” Blue Ribbon said.

‘Blue Ribbon, you sure are good at choosing your words,’ Davey thought.

Their eyes widened in amazement as the egg began to crack with a loud noise. However, before it could completely break, something seemed to halt the process.

“Huh? Daddy! The egg suddenly fell back asleep!”

“The egg is snoring away!”

Davey narrowed his eyes at the egg. Verdandi had said the egg would hatch naturally when the time was right, and so he wasn’t sure what this process meant.

Crack! Crack!!

At that moment, the egg began to break again, this time with a large crack forming along the surface. The crack slowly grew wider until a portion of the egg split open, its fragments falling away. Inside, a small baby dragon began to wriggle, opening its eyes for the first time.

“We already had a tough time deciding on Darian’s name. Now we have to come up with another name for this little one, too?” Davey wondered aloud.

A tiny dragon\'s paw, covered in soft, delicate scales, poked out from between the cracks in the shell. The baby dragon began to roughly break apart the remaining pieces of the egg. As Davey watched, a small, surprisingly cute black dragon emerged.

“Roar!” it cried, its wet body trembling slightly as it stood unsteadily on the floor. The little creature looked up at Davey, its wide eyes filled with curiosity.

“Roar!”

Davey remembered that birds took on the first thing they saw as their parents. He wondered if this little dragon would be the same.

Stretching out his hand, he watched the baby dragon sniff his palm. It then opened its eyes wide as it began to glow.

“Wow! They’re shining!” Red Ribbon yelled.

“They’re so, so bright!” Blue Ribbon added.

As the children continued to shout, the size of the glowing dragon slowly began to shrink. When the light finally faded, a small child, no older than two or three years, was on the floor looking up at Davey. The little girl smiled brightly, clearly recognizing him as its parent.

“Roar!”

Davey felt a wave of emotion wash over him.

“Your name is...” he started to say, but someone interrupted.

“Evangeline.”

Turning his head, Davey saw Verdandi quietly approaching.

“Evangeline?” Davey repeated.

“A long time ago, when my mother held her, she said if it were a girl, she would name her Evangeline. If it were a boy, it would have been Teeles.”

“Evangeline... It’s a bit different from the usual names for ancient dragons.”

Ancient dragons often had gender-neutral names like Arbit or Eclipse. Evangeline, however, was undoubtedly a sweet and feminine name.

“In ancient language, Evangeline means star in the night sky,” Verdandi explained.

Davey reached out his hand toward the child.

“Evangeline.”

“Roar!” she responded with a cheerful laugh, standing up unsteadily and toddling over toward Davey.

Fsss!

She opened her small mouth, and a faint spark of flame briefly flickered out of it.

“She transformed herself in her ‘mother’s’ image,” Verdandi said. “Maybe that’s what you’d look like if you were a woman.”

He’d had experience being genderless, but it was his first time being treated as a woman.

Davey wrapped the child, who looked up at him with windswept black hair, in a towel and made a faint, bittersweet smile.

“You’re not going to take her, are you?” Davey asked.

“No. The power of the Abyss will linger in me forever; it wouldn’t be good for her. As much as I want to, taking her with me would be selfish. She’ll look like this for the next two to three years, and then she’ll begin to grow. Her growth rate will probably match that of a human child, since she’ll grow up taking after you.”

Davey found it rather fascinating that ancient dragons gradually resembled their parents as they matured.

“Tsk,” Davey clicked his tongue in exasperation, realizing that in the blink of an eye, he now had two children. But strangely, it didn’t feel overwhelming.

“You’re going to raise her as a parent?”

“I already decided to become her parent in Eclipse’s place when I retrieved the egg. If I couldn’t handle being one, I wouldn’t have stepped up in the first place.”

Though Davey didn’t have much attachment to Eclipse, he nonetheless had a connection with her through his mentor—this child was the only trace of Hercules. When fighting Thanatos, Hercules had sacrificed himself by destroying the Abyss so that Thanatos couldn’t draw any more power from it. Without him, Davey knew he might not be here today.

And honestly, even though Davey already had a son, he wanted to have a daughter as well.

‘Well, I do have Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, so that makes it three daughters I guess.’

“I got myself a daughter without even realizing it. Nice to meet you, Evangeline.”

Evangeline O’Rowane.

As Davey smiled with Evangeline in his arms, she giggled and wiggled her little hands.

<Main Story Complete>

<Author’s Note>

Nice to meet you all! I’m Devil\'s tail, the author of Max Level Hero Strikes Back, which I also like to call Max Hero. It’s hard to believe, but the main story has finally come to an end after several years.

Doesn’t simply saying Max Hero just flow off the tongue so much better?

Anyway, writing this series over the past two years has been quite a challenge. In all my time writing novels, this is the first one that’s taken me more than a year to finish. For instance, one of my earlier works, [Return to the Beginning], only took me about a year to complete—even though it spanned twenty four volumes.

This, Max Hero, has definitely been the longest project I’ve ever taken on. Looking back, I sometimes wonder if I was half out of my mind when I planned it! But honestly, who wants to hear the author complain about their own novel? Right?

With the main story complete, I can finally breathe a little. That said, I do plan to release some side stories—ones that didn’t make it into the main plot, or just some fun extras I wanted to explore for myself.

I mean, it could seem like I’ve already included everything I wanted, but there’s still more that I want to share with you all! I’ll try my best to take out the complicated parts and come back with simple, succinct episodes soon.

Thank you all so much for sticking with Max Hero until the end. It’s been a long, tough journey—exhausting at times, but also incredibly rewarding.

So, when are the side stories coming? Well, have I ever taken more than three days off? I think you all know the answer to that! Haha!

1. Friendly reminder that Davey playfully referred to his helpers like Grape-flavored Cat Tower (Kim Seok-Hyun) as slaves. He’s not a monster going around enslaving people lol ☜