When they arrived at the Odiria Kingdom, Ian’s breathing began to accelerate again. People were working together to build their kingdom back. Actually, most of the kingdom was already turning back to normal.

“Wow, they work fast. It’s like there wasn’t a war a week ago.”

Ian took out his map and checked the location Chase marked for him.

“That way.”

Ian pointed out towards somewhere and began to walk again.

“How do you feel?”

“Not good.”

You could tell he was nervous with just a glance.

“By the way, I was wondering something.”

“What is it?”

“When you were fighting with Harold, were you holding back?”

“Well…”

“You were, weren’t you?!”

“Maybe. Why do you ask?”

“It felt weird. I knew that Harold wasn’t at the level of an SS rank. What about Chase? Was he also holding back?”

“Probably.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Well… That part is a little weird. You might not know it, but Idarin is a little crazy. He was the one that requested it. It is a long story. We should focus on you right now.”

“Okay.”

Ian took a deep breath and stopped after taking another look at his map.

“Oh my god, we are here.”

He panicked and raised his head.

“The Snapdragon Tavern.”

It was getting late, and most people were done working, so it was time to drink. It was relatively a big tavern at the center, so Ian could tell that inside was crowded and noisy.

“Okay, maybe that is a mistake.”

He turned back and began to walk.

“What?”

Jay caught his collar and stopped him.

“Where are you going? Man up!”

“They won’t recognize me! It has been 14 years. I don’t know anything about them! I can’t just go up there and say, ‘Hi, I’m your son. Let’s be a family again.’ They would think I’m messing with them.”

Jay rolled his eyes and began to drag Ian without saying anything.

“Wait, wait, fine!”

Ian put on his hoodie and hid his face.

“Here we go…”

With shaking hands, he pushed the door and walked in. Inside was crowded, as he guessed. People were chatting, laughing, and drinking. Ian realized a young girl around his age was serving drinks to people. He forced himself to take a step forward towards the counter. When he reached there, he saw a woman cleaning the shelves.

“E-excuse me.”

“Hm?”

The woman stopped cleaning and turned back. A lovely-looking young woman greeted them with a smile. As soon as Ian saw her face, he felt like his heart had stopped. Sparkling blue eyes, long black hair, no one could refuse the similarity between the woman and Ian, but since he was hiding his face, the woman couldn’t see him.

‘Wow, such similarity.’

Jay also thought that too.

“How can I help you?”

Ian was like a statue right now, not moving. When Jay was about to poke him, Ian surprisingly spoke, but Jay facepalmed with the words that came out of his mouth. Ian tried to deepen his voice.

“Beer.”

* * *

“How do you know about Namean Dynasty?”

Elius put up a prideful smile.

“Heh, dad and I are the only remaining members of that glorious dynasty.”

Nobody talked for a while, but then Idarin opened his mouth.

“Well, first of all, Namean wasn’t glorious, and secondly, it wasn’t even a dynasty.”

“What?! No, it can’t be!”

“Yes, it is. The only reason why I know about them is that they were unordinary. They had solid opinions on so many things, and they were trying to grow as the first community that includes almost every race and treats them equally.”

“Well, what happened then?”

“At first, they were actually about to accomplish that. Their number grew in a really short time, but it was hard to control that many different people. Before long, conflicts between races began, and they fell apart. But they fell apart mostly because the man in charge disappeared.”

‘What? How do I ever bring it back to its glorious days if it was never glorious? And it wasn’t even a dynasty!’

“Maybe he meant, ‘achieve what I never achieved’ with that?”

‘Maybe, but why didn’t he tell me directly.’

“You were six years old. He probably wanted to keep you excited. You know, sometimes you overthink.”

‘No, I don’t… Whatever.’

“So, why did you ask about it?”

Idarin asked curiously. Elius suddenly became serious.

“I’ll revive Namean.”

“Ooh, it is good to be passionate.”

Idarin clapped slowly. Then Elius put his hand on Liam’s shoulder, who was sitting next to him.

“Hey, want to join us?”

“No.”

“Maybe.”

Liam immediately refused, unlike Ruvyn.

“Ah, come on!”

“But we don’t know anything about it yet. Tell us more about it.”

After hearing Ruvyn, Elius began to tell his plans. How he wants to discover every part of the world, how he wants to help people in need, gather people around, meet and befriend people, how he wants to become strong enough to crush everyone…

“Wow, sounds reasonable, a little childish, but reasonable.”

Idarin said after listening to Elius for minutes.

“Childish, how?”

“I mean… You can’t save everyone. Discovering every corner seems pretty hard too, and many other things but good luck!”

“Why…”

Elius asked with a disheartened tone.

“Come on, don’t get upset now. Let’s take a look at this first.”

Idarin opened his palm, and something appeared. A sphere, but it looked like a hologram.”

“This is the world map?”

Ruvyn asked surprisingly.

“How can it appear out of your hand?”

“Mana can do a lot of things, you know.”

“This is… He can materialize mana! Elius, be careful. Something is not right about him. He didn’t show up at war, and after he came, he blocked that massive explosion easily. Something doesn’t add up.”

‘Did you get that conclusion just because he materialized mana?’

“No, he can also teleport repeatedly easily. That should not be possible. And he smiles whenever there is a fight. He was smiling even when your father was fighting.”

‘…’

Elius chose not to say anything and began to listen to Idarin. There was a big ocean in the world’s middle, splitting it into two. Upwards of the ocean was the hemisphere that they were currently living in. A vast, really colossal continent was in its middle, and four small other continents were around it. Idarin pointed to one of the little continents.

“This little continent you see is the one we are living in currently.”

“Mohan Empire?!”

Elius surprised.

“This is like an ant compared to the one in the middle.”

“Yes. The one in the middle is where the real fun begins. You may encounter almost anything, literally.”

“Is that also an empire?”

Liam asked.

“No, there are countless kingdoms in it, but no one has the power to have control over this domain. There are even still undiscovered places. That may look small like this but believe me. It is not.”

“What is under this ocean that separates the world?”

Ruvyn seemed pretty intrigued about this topic.

“No one knows. Countless people tried to cross that ocean, but no one came back. Some people say the ocean is endless. Some people say there is land across that ocean.”

“Wooow.”

Three kids said that at the same time. It was getting late, so the cart stopped.

“Are we spending the night here?”

Elius said while getting out of the cart. They were in a forest.

“Okay, you two.”

Idarin pointed towards Ruvyn and Liam.

“If you want to, you can also join, but if you don’t.”

The ground shook and in seconds, a shelter formed.

“You can sleep there.”

“Join to what?”

Liam asked curiously. Since he was bored, he was looking for something to do. Then suddenly, a few golems formed out of the ground and stood beside Idarin.

“Brace yourself, Elius! Your path to becoming a supreme wizard begins now.”Elius smiled and took out his staff. Idarin took a look at Elius’ stance. He was ready to attack the golems at any moment. He smiled.

“No, no. I said a wizard. Put that away. You are not allowed to use any physical power. Lower your physical power to a level of an average human.”

“Eh?”

* * *

“Aaahh! This thrill! I missed it so much!”

009 said while looking at the bright moon.

“The feeling you get when ripping someone’s head off, crackling sound of their bones, when you put your teeth deep inside o their throat.”

He was back in his human form now.

“Put some clothes on.”

A piece of cloth appeared on Kaiser’s hand, and he threw it to 009. The scene was horrifying. If someone sees that, they’d probably puke. Dead bodies were scattered, their limbs weren’t intact, and they were bathing in their own blood. 009 took a deep breath and enjoyed the atmosphere once more.

“I guess no eyewitnesses left.”

Lyra said with a bored expression.

“Good.”

Kaiser nodded.

“What’s next?”

“Now, now. Let’s think. We should probably focus on keeping searching for that scientist and learn about some forbidden magic.”

Then he looked at the naked 009.

“The news of him escaping will be heard soon. We should be able to move around freely. Let’s begin with giving him a more human-like look.”

“Yes, his wanted posters will probably be all over the place by tomorrow. We should act fast. Cutting his beard and hair and dressing him appropriately should be enough for now.”

Kaiser nodded and quickly began to rub his hair. After a while, he suddenly stopped and raised his head.

“Why are we letting them only focus on him?”

He slowly began to smile. There weren’t many prisoners in here. But the weakest one was rank-A. They were psychos who attacked innocent people who couldn’t protect themselves. They attacked the people who weren’t adventurers, just for fun. Just to see the despair in their eyes, to make them beg for their lives.

“Let’s create a diversion. The ones who attacked weren’t here to rescue 009 tonight. They were here to set everyone free.”

And all of them were about to be released to the outer world after many, many years of hunger.