The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Episode 33

Barris and Winley seemed upset because they had to return to their place soon, even though they wanted to follow me.

‘I guess I am finally leaving this damn palace.’

-I don’t think I’m leaving here forever, but I’m pretty excited for the future.

‘How miserable will it be?’

At my thoughts, she, sitting on my thigh as if riding a horse, turned her head and smiled.

-Isn’t it fun? I am curious about what you’re going to do.

I don’t know what to do with your high expectations.

“Majesty.”

I was quietly getting ready to leave the palace. As I lifted my head to the unanticipated voice, an elderly man slowly walked in under the guidance of Amy. His age was around 70 years old. However, compared to ordinary people of his age in this continent, he looked strong and gave an imposing appearance.

“I am Marquis Patelis, and it is an honor to see the little sun of the kingdom.”

“Please get up, Marquis of Patelis.”

Usually, I wouldn’t have said that, but he was different. There were only three swordmasters in the Al Rown kingdom, and among them, he had the best skills and experience. He was well respected by the knights of the Al Rown Kingdom, and countless knights on the continent showed their respect just upon hearing his name.

It wasn’t just that. He was also the most crucial candidate with who I chose to destroy the nobility. The swordmaster was a kind of strategic weapon. Although he didn’t have a large number of troops, he became a central pillar of the country only by his strength and the power of his long-established family.

Usually, he held a neutral stance and kept a distance from the nobles, but now he wouldn’t stay neutral anymore. A few days after stealing all the information from the information guilds, I snuck into Patelis’ bedroom and left him all the information the nobles wanted to hide. Since he was a man of enormous loyalty and self-discipline, he would soon begin to investigate the aristocracy as soon as he vetted the authenticity of the information.

“I heard you’re leaving.”

“It happened to be that way. Any adult royal family members must leave the palace unless they are the crowned prince.”

“In the future, you might become the crowned prince.”

“That is a matter of the future.”

As I smiled, he adjusted his monocle and smiled vainly.

“You have grown a lot. If the former queen were here, she would have been so proud of you.”

“To my mother, I am just a terrible son.”

He shook his head at my reply.

“If you say so, this old man who couldn’t protect the queen majesty should have already bitten his tongue and died.”

I smiled at his words. Unlike my father, who gave up everything after my mother’s death, he, who volunteered as my mother’s knight in the past, seemed to have secretly searched for evidence behind my mother’s assassination. I found it out when I snuck into his house, which made me feel grateful towards him.

‘So please, shake all the nobles who are eating up the country.’

When I saw him without speaking, he looked at me as if I was his grandson.

‘I will deliver the final blow.’

“If you are in trouble, please feel free to contact me. I’ll help you as much as I can.”

“As a person keeping a neutral stance, if you look after me, the nobles will be outraged. You don’t want this little boy to die, right?”

When I said jokingly, he laughed.

“If I don’t do that, the life and oath of this sinful old man will be a lie.”

He said bitterly as if whipping the guilt he held.

“I’m going to turn the land into a place where people live. It’s not difficult.”

“Your Majesty.”

“So please do your job well here, Marquis.”

“…”

I smiled at him.

“You will be busy soon.”

As if he didn’t understand what I was saying, he remained silent for a long time.

* * *

After flying up to the neighboring province with the mana gate, I was on the move all day. It wasn’t that bad because Hines was quite close to the capital. If it were elsewhere, it would have taken a few more days.

-I thought you were the only one who had enemies in the palace, but that wasn’t true.

When did she wake up? Perserk floated in front of me as I read a book in the carriage. She, lightly dressed like a demon, looked down and giggled at me from a height where I could see her underwear if she moved a little by mistake.

-There are some vital people like that.

“Because Marquis Patelis was my mother’s knight. However, it is only recently that I got to know about him. So I don’t know him that well.”

-By the way, you handled the information well.

“At least it’s clear that he’s the only loyal person in this country.”

She giggled at my words, waving her hand in the air. Then the window of the carriage opened smoothly, and the dried-up lands began to appear.

-It feels like something is blocking the atmosphere here.

“Right, I feel the same.”

The Hines territory itself was pretty big. Nevertheless, this manor became abandoned because more than ninety percent of the landmass was suffering from drought as if it were cursed. There was no way to know the exact reason yet, but everything would weather and turn into a desert if it continued a little longer.

Among the inland regions, few lands were so barren like this. It was the only land in the Al Rown kingdom that was suffering from drought. The wasteland, which was seen outside the window, was initially agricultural, but the soil dried up and cracked as the drought continued. Fortunately, the government had hired some wizards to conjure water several times. If not, it would have been much worse.

Hiring wizards to spray water over a large amount of land wouldn’t solve the problem with a small budget such as ours, though.

“Majesty, I am sorry, but we should stop and stay somewhere around here for tonight.”

I nodded quietly at chamberlain Ferrum’s suggestion.

“We have no other choice because there is no private lodging nearby. Get ready for camping.”

“Yes, Majesty.”

After watching the chamberlains, maids, and escort knights move busily, I left the carriage, leaving Amy behind.

-Dry air. Sandy wind.

I strolled while looking at the block of land that looked like a desert. Although it was a large amount of land, not much of it was useful. When I walked far away from the carriage on the only paved road, all I could see was dried-up earth all over the place. I silently reached out my hand and touched the cracked ground. Then I closed my eyes and whispered.

-Checking Information.

Perserk’s insight was a unique ability infused with the will of God, and the subject wasn’t limited to living creatures.

Beep!

There was a faint light in her eyes as a simultaneous mechanical sound flowed out in the air. At this moment, a strange transparent status window began to appear out of the air.

-Region: Hines Manor.

-Earth condition: Lowest

-Special comments:

Due to a prolonged drought and a strange power, the earth is dead, and the ground is dried up.

It is showing signs of a curse (?): dead earth, climate change.

It seems possible to remove the curse (?).

-Was it a curse?

“I have to get rid of it. Rather, why do you have so many question marks like this in the status window of God’s will?”

I felt strange.

16. The lord is cleaning.

-I can’t answer your question.

“But it’s your ability.”

-I am only able to show. You probably know that the contents in the window aren’t mine but the will of a God with a cheap taste.

As a Demon King, she had no faith in God.

-So you don’t like them?

“Well…I am not in a position to say since I am borrowing the divine power of God, but I cannot deny that she is a God with a little peculiar taste.”

-By the way, as expected, it’s a curse, not something worse.

Ignoring Perserk’s joke, I quietly swept the cracked ground with my hands. This was the current situation shown in most of the Hines territory. Except for ten percent of the land, most areas were in the same situation as stated previously by the status window.

‘The curse that spread out the entire land…’

-I’m saying this because you might not understand. There is something called a spread-type curse in the curse tree, a vicious curse activated by an insignificant medium that spreads endlessly.

“I didn’t know there were still remnants of black magic left here.”

-Looks like one of the residents touched the medium.

It seemed that someone among the residents had triggered an unexploded mine. The Hines Manor had gone through that unfortunate event.

[Purification]

I laid my hand on the ground silently and raised my divine power. It was cleaning magic that was raised to the third rank.

Paaching!!

Even though it said removing the curse was possible in the status window, it seemed complicated.

“Look at this.”

A smile caught on the corner of my mouth. If I used the purification magic without any intention, it might seem that I wasn’t able to absorb the powerful repulsive force, which repelled my divine magic.

Fifth Tier [Purification]

The characteristic of purification magic, which boasted one axis of divine magic, could be used by first-class priests. And, depending on the individual’s capacity, they could rise to the eighth tier. If it didn’t work with the third-tier purification magic, I had to raise it a few steps.

Kaaching!!

Once again, you could hear the sound of something breaking. It seemed that the magic bounced back again, but the result was a little different.

Pushhkkk…

The colorless, odorless smoke slowly began to flow out of the area I had touched. The curse was scattered for a moment but recovered again.

-A curse that has been around for a long time cannot be removed so easily.

“That is true.”

I have to find the medium and destroy it; otherwise, I couldn’t remove the curse. Without doing that, it was like shoveling snow in the middle of heavy snowfall. I quietly returned to the carriage and leaned on the fluffy sofa, closing my eyes.

“This is how most of the land is like.”

Black magic, especially large-scale curses like this, mainly went extinct a long time ago. To be precise, we had very little information about the different species on the continent now, and it was safe to assume that a few black wizards once shook the continent.

-As it was in the past, the world has remained essentially unchanged.

As I listened to Perserk’s voice, I slowly closed my eyes.