The Hero Returns

Creaak, creeaaak—

Thud—

A group of people had gathered inside a shady wooden house: a slumped person snoring away softly, a foolishly grinning person nodding their head in sleepiness, a person utterly sagging on a rocking chair.

Among them, the man sitting on the rocking chair raised his smoking pipe and muttered, "Even this is getting too weak."

The man puffed and sucked in a lungful of smoke.

Another man next to him heard that and extended his hand. "We don't have much more of the stronger stuff left, you know. Just be patient and smoke it."

"In that case, you can just bring out whatever is remaining, no?"

"If you keep thirsting for more stimulating stuff, even this will become like water to you soon. Now is too early."

Two men shared the pipe and took turns to smoke it. The ground below was peppered with similar-looking pipes and herbs.

Every single one of these people was a dark magician.

"Even this is getting way too boring."

They wanted something just a bit more stimulating.

Even the combination of drugs, booze, and women now felt like something was missing, somewhere. And they thought they knew what that missing thing was.

"People dying is still the most entertaining thing."

"Ha."

"Hahaha."

The muttering from the man in the rocking chair, Calvin, caused cackling laughter to break out from the men slumped and sagging like corpses around this place. They all thought the same as him.

Calvin heard others chuckling out at what he said, and chuckled softly himself as well. "It was so cool yesterday, wasn't it? Those fools chosen as sacrifices…. They were sobbing and pleading for their lives so much that I thought I'd die of pity for them."

"You remember the wife of that b*stard? Busy saying she'll die in his stead, pleading with us to let her die…. Man, I thought I might shed a single tear for her."

"Why didn't you die for her, then?"

"What, you think I'm mad? What about you, then?"

"I was thoroughly enjoying the view."

"Insane son of a b*tch, hahaha."

"You talking about yourself?"

"Morons, pu-hahaha!"

A loud sea of laughter instantly flooded the house filled with a group of languid men.

Creaaak—

It was then that the firmly-shut door was pushed open and the sunlight from the outside poured in. The laughter gradually died at the unexpected arrival of a guest, and everyone's gaze was focused on him.

The "guest" opening the door to step inside strode brazenly to the middle of the room.

A man lying near the entrance frowned deeply as if the sunlight entering through the wide-open doorway irritated his eyes.

"Hey, who the hell are you?"

They had never seen their guest before. He was even wearing armor as if he wasn't a native of this city. There was a red dragon perched upon his head, too.

Grrrr, grrrrr—

The dragon bared its fangs and growled at them.

The dark magicians lounging around began raising their upper torsos up one by one. They had to, as a dragon was baring its fangs at them in a clear display of hostility.

"Who the hell is this son of a…."

"Hey. This is the village of the dark magicians, right?" the guest asked.

Plop—

Su-hyeun strode into the room and sat on an empty rocking chair.

Creak, creaak—

The rocking chair creaked noisily as if it'd break at any second. The dark magicians glared daggers at Su-hyeun barging into their house completely unannounced.

It was Calvin in the opposing rocking chair who decided speak up for the rest. "Looks like this is the guest who entered our city a couple of days ago."

"Ah, now that I think about it…"

"Right. There was supposed to be a lucky sod who had lady fortune smile on him and made his way alive to this place."

"You f*ck, you think that's being lucky?"

"You're right. He's about to die soon, anyway."

Su-hyeun scanned the dark magicians cackling away, their object of ridicule being him. In the middle of that, he spotted a tobacco pipe rolling around on the floor and picked it up. A familiar stench stabbed him in the nose. "Hallucinogens…tobaccos laced with narcotics, I see."

"Uh? You know what that is, too?" Calvin shook around the pipe in his hand. "This crap, it really makes you fly, man. You should try it. You gonna love this stuff."

"Hey, man. You want to give him that?"

"Leave him be. He's going to die in a month anyway, so we should at least let him enjoy little pleasures of life like this."

"You said we don't even have enough for us to smoke, though?"

"Hahaha. Let him have a puff. We let him enjoy it a few times and prevent him from smoking it again. Don't you think the resulting reaction will be fun to watch?"

They busily mocked and laughed at Su-hyeun.

They didn't seem to hold a single lick of suspicion or wariness at the unannounced arrival of the guest. No, they simply thought of him as a source of entertainment, nothing more.

Su-hyeun looked around and took a whiff of this place. The house was filled with stench of drugs and booze. It didn't take a genius to figure out what type of men these losers were.

"I've something to ask you lot," said Su-hyeun.

"Hey, that asswipe is still talking, man."

"No, wait for it. Don't make the punk scared, man."

Su-hyeun ignored all the useless mutterings coming from here and there, and shifted his gaze over to Calvin. Even at a casual glance, one could tell that this guy was the top dog here.

"Do you know Sir Malcolm?"

"…What did you say?"

"Malcolm?"

"Did he just say Malcolm?"

The surroundings grew noisy once more.

However, this clamor was different in nature than the previous one. The voices previously mocking and laughing at Su-hyeun now took on the distinctive mixture of shock and wariness.

"How the hell do you know that geezer?" Calvin, buried in the rocking chair until then, finally stood up and asked.

However, that question caused Su-hyeun's brows to furrow deeply. "He is not a geezer, but…"

Gu-wuwuwu—

"…A 'sir' to you."

"W-what the hell??"

"This son of a…."

The magical energy flooding out from Su-hyeun's body began oppressing the surroundings. The house might have been small, but it was a house nevertheless. Once it started shaking viciously, other dark magicians luxuriating in their languidness all hurriedly woke up.

Creaaak—!

Bang—!

At the same time, the half-opened door was slammed shut tightly.

Su-hyeun continued on while glaring at Calvin. "Judging from your reactions, I don't need to hear your replies anymore. Why don't you tell me this, instead? For what reason did Sir Malcolm perform research on Ouroboros?"

Cold sweat began trickling down on Calvin's forehead as his eyes remained caught in Su-hyeun's glare. For some reason, holding the latter's gaze made the former's legs lose their strength. He initially blamed the drugs in his system, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"What the hell is he yapping on about?"

"I was getting bored anyway, so this is actually for the best. Calvin, let's just kill this b*stard right here. Why wait a month, eh?"

"Oh, that sounds like a great idea."

The reactions from the surrounding comrades caused Calvin to scream in his head.

<<W-wait a second, you goddam morons!>>

His voice didn't want to come out.

Calvin could only bob his lips up and down, and urgently shift his eyes this way and that. Unfortunately, his comrades had all stood up by then.

"How predictable. Then again, behaving this way naturally comes to your lot, doesn't it?" Su-hyeun got up from the rocking chair and unsheathed the sword tied to his waist. "I'm leaving only one alive. Got that?"

"This arrogant son of a…."

"Kill him!"

Pah-ahhk—

Chwa-rururuk—

A dozen plus dark magicians holed up inside the house began moving at the same time.

"Miru."

Gya-ong—

[Acquired the divine dragon's blessing.]

[Movement speed has increased.]

[Strength has increased slightly.]

[Resistance against magic has increased.]

[Magical energy is….]

Su-hyeun's body grew a level lighter.

While standing straight in his spot, he shifted his gaze and quickly scanned his entire vicinity. Black chains and balls of flames were raining down, while curses meant to slow Su-hyeun down followed right after them.

Swiiiish—

Su-hyeun spun around and swung his sword in a wide arc.

Splash—!

The thick chains were sliced apart, while the magic spells fired by the dark magicians scattered in the air. Magical attacks launched by a dozen-plus dark magicians had been instantly rendered useless.

"A sword…?"

"This b*stard! He was a swordsman?"

They felt only half convinced when Su-hyeun first unsheathed his sword, but after he took a swing with it, the dark magicians couldn't help but be utterly shocked by the truth.

This was the city of magicians, Moros. If you were not a magician, you couldn't enter here. Even then, a swordsman had managed to enter the city.

"A swordsman, you say?"

Boom!

"Aaaaahk—!"

Su-hyeun snapped his fingers, causing the face of the nearest dark magician to burst into flames. He stared at the burning dark magician rolling around on the floor before shifting his glare back to his surroundings and formed a smirk. "Technically, you aren't wrong."

"M-magic?"

"A magic swordsman?"

"I-is that even possible?"

A magic swordsman. It was originally a term to denote a person proficient at both magic and swords, someone who had familiarized themselves with the ways of both disciplines. However, the word lost its true meaning and turned into a derogatory term mocking the so-called jack of all trades who didn't possess talents for either discipline and decided to try both.

"G*ddammit, what the hell is this magic swordsman crap, anyway?"

"Kill the b*stard!"

Wudududuk—

Kwa-aaaht—

The magic from the dark magicians set upon Su-hyeun once more. He turned around nonchalantly and addressed Miru still perched upon his head. "I'll leave the rear to you."

Gya-ong—

Miru replied in a dependable tone of voice. The dragon had become rather reliable these days. Su-hyeun stopped paying attention to his rear and took a step forward.

Kwa-aaaah—!

His figure was soon sucked into the tsunami wave of dark magical powers. The dark magicians began crying out in excitement.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

"Busy acting tough and all. That's a good way to…"

Pah-jeeeck, pah-sususu—

Su-hyeun's silhouette was revealed once more after the dark magical energy dissipated.

[Indomitable body.]

[Falcon's Holy Armor.]

"You see, ever since the beginning…"

Step, step—

Su-hyeun walked towards the dark magicians in a relaxed gait. "…I've always been a bad match-up for you, the magicians."

He didn't really have a need to evade their attacks. Their spells couldn't really break through the magic resistance Su-hyeun possessed, after all.

The magical attacks by the dark magicians felt like little insect bites after his innate magical resistance was reinforced by the powers of his skill as well as the Falcon's Holy Armor.

"That's why punks like you just don't scare me." Su-hyeun took a glance behind him and continued on. "And there's no need to even mention that guy, too."

[Breath.]

Kwaaaah—!

Miru's Breath completely swept away the dark magicians on the other side. Although not that big in scale, the power behind it was more than enough.

In the blink of an eye, half of the dark magicians were taken care of. The remaining magicians, including Calvin, couldn't easily make a move and simply stayed in their spots.

"S-soon, others will hear the commotion and show up here! Even if you're strong, what can only one guy do?" Calvin looked as if he was having a seizure while threatening Su-hyeun. He knew that they couldn't do anything to their aggressor with the abilities they currently possessed.

However, these weren't all of the dark magicians.

For instance, the moment Su-hyeun left this house, he'd be greeted by the group of dark magicians with a number several times higher than what was in here.

"Tell them to come, then."

Pik, pipik—

Su-hyeun's sword cut off the heads of the dark magicians in sequence, with the sole exception of Calvin's.

"Because I'll cut every single one of them down."

"You son of a…"

Warning bells were going off inside Calvin's head.

He couldn't even see how Su-hyeun's sword moved just now. It was true that more dark magicians were outside the house, but now he began thinking that their numbers wouldn't be enough after all.

"What's going on?"

"Looks like a fight has broken out?"

Calvin could sense the other dark magicians getting closer one by one after they detected something off about the house. Too bad he couldn't celebrate this development at all.

<<One mistake, and everyone will die.>>

Calvin nervously gulped down his saliva. He needed to prevent them from coming inside.

While cold sweat trickled down his face, he asked a question. "W-what is it that you want?"

"Didn't you hear my question earlier?"

"You wish to know more about Malcolm?"

"It's Sir. Don't forget to add that. If you insist on being rude one more time, I'll just go and ask someone else."

That implied Su-hyeun would simply kill Calvin off and find someone else.

In the end, the latter had to resign himself. He took a look at the still-alive dark magicians in the near vicinity and opened his mouth. "For now…why don't we ask the guys outside to go away first?"

"Calvin!"

"Hey man, what are you…!"

"Shut up!" Calvin shot a murderous glare at the nearby dark magicians and continued on. "If you want to die, fine, be my guest. I've no desire to die like a dog here."

Calvin's words caused the surroundings to become silent.

Thinking that perhaps his words might get through, he glanced at Su-hyeun before turning around. "For now, allow me to…"

Bang-!

"Calvin! What happened here??"

The closed door was kicked open, and the black robe-wearing dark magicians began pouring into the house from the outside. They discovered all the corpses strewn about the place and formed stunned expressions.

"What kind of a commotion is this?"

"They are all dead?"

Dozens of dark magicians alternated their gazes between Su-hyeun and Calvin. The former observed the latter's cowardly expression and simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Too late."