The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1258

Right after the Gourmet Research Society and Evangeline caused a massive tree to erupt from the ground, they’d realized the danger and instantly ran.

Yuria and Rinne swiftly vacated the area with a refined efficiency and familiarity, likely the product of extensive repetition. Rinne even scattered a fine powder to erase their traces during the escape.

“Are you insane?! What on earth did you just do?!” Evangeline shouted in a panic.

Face pale, Marky shook her head frantically. “It... It wasn’t me! I didn’t do anything!”

Technically, the moment Evangeline noticed something strange about the unusual mana bomb Marky had brought out, it was already too late. The disaster had already been set in motion.

Both Evangeline and Marky turned to Yuria and Rinne, their eyes wide.

“What in the world was that?! Didn’t you check the safety of the mana bombs?!”

“There were absolutely no issues. With the mana bombs,” Rinne told her.

“Then why did that thing—”

“Because it wasn’t a mana bomb,” Yuria said flatly, then fell silent.

“What...? It wasn’t?” Evangeline found that hard to believe.

“Correct. It gave off a scent similar to the Divine Tree... but there shouldn’t be any World Tree Saplings left.”

It made no sense for an immature sapling to have somehow been sealed inside what looked like a mana bomb.

“I knew something felt off the moment I saw how weirdly big it was,” Evangeline muttered, remembering the one Marky had been waving around. “Then what even was that thing?”

“No idea. But one thing’s for sure—if we get caught, the Gracious Savior’s going to crush us to a pulp. So, we need to run. Right now.”

When they’d been caught up in the dark mage incident, things had accidentally worked in their favor since it ultimately led to the arrest of actual black mages.

However, what they’d just done was pure, undeniable, unadulterated terrorism. There was no explaining it away.

“I... I want no part of this.”

When Evangeline tried to escape, Rinne grabbed her arm. “Rinne evaluates the phrase ‘Live together, die together’ highly.”

“L-Let go of me!”

“Lady Evangeline, if we don’t stick together, we’re finished,” Yuria added as she approached. “Please. This was an accident. If you don’t help us, the Gourmet Research Society is done for.”

“But still...”

“Please, Lady Evangeline. Without the Gourmet Research Society, it’ll be so much harder to develop new and delicious foods.”

Moved by her earnest plea, Evangeline jumped to her feet. “That—! That’s not okay!”

While Yuria sometimes used bizarre ingredients, she also made plenty of great dishes using normal ones.

Evangeline still needed to meet with Super Ribbon, yet after making such a mess of things, it just didn’t seem right to go meet her.

Vmmm.

At that moment, her artifact lit up and Super Ribbon’s voice came through.

- Eva? I think something weird just happened over by the cafeteria. Everything okay?

Evangeline stared at it in silence for a few moments, cold sweat trickling down her forehead. “Huh? Something happened at the cafeteria? Oh no! I guess I’ll have to go another time!”

- Oh? Okay, got it. Be safe, and I’ll come find you as soon as class is over.

“Okay, thanks.” Evangeline closed the call like she had never stepped foot on campus to begin with.

* * *

The Gourmet Research Society had cast a face blindness spell, and even as they fled, Rinne erased any lingering traces. Rinne’s interference techniques were completely undetectable by Earth’s technology.

[Gourmet Research Society. Assemble. Immediately.]

However, there was no deceiving Davey. Even if they erased a spirit’s memory, Davey could simply summon a Spirit King and restore it. Their attempts at covering their tracks were, in the end, meaningless.

“Kyaaa!!” Yuria screamed, spinning in place and flailing wildly, while Rinne mumbled ‘Error’ over and over with a blank face, stumbling around.

“Haaah. I’m about to lose it.” Marky, the one who’d taken out the seed, sat with a hopeless expression.

She knew Davey’s temperament all too well. Since she was directly responsible for the tree sprouting incident, the blame on her was undeniably heavy.

Inside Evangeline’s lair, the four gathered, racking their brains endlessly.

Evangeline began, “Can everyone please stop freaking out?!”

“How did it even come to this? Everything was perfect... We didn’t expect a variable like that.”

Even if Earth couldn’t figure it out, there was no fooling that man’s eyes.

They had Evangeline as their insurance, but even her presence wasn’t enough to ease the dread in their hearts.

“What can we even do? It’s not like we did it on purpose! Who could’ve guessed something like that was sealed inside?”

“Rinne, this time, promise us you won’t betray us. I’ll also swear on the World Tree’s name,” Yuria said firmly.

Rinne tapped the halo, the Moon Ring, floating above her head and nodded. “Rinne evaluates solidarity highly. Rinne states any repeats of past betrayals will not be forgiven.”

In the past, during an incident involving the cursed items, they’d backstabbed each other and ended up hanging from a cliff together. Having learned their lesson, Yuria and Rinne nodded in agreement without hesitation.

They then turned to Marky, and Yuria said in a serious tone, “We need to deal with this. What's happened has already happened, but don’t worry, Miss Marky. Our Gourmet Research Society doesn’t abandon its members.”

Marky found it hard to believe, given their history. “Can I really trust you?”

“Of course. We’ll never leave anyone behind. If we get scolded, we’ll be scolded together. If punished, we’ll be punished together.”

At that, the three members of the Gourmet Research Society grabbed each other’s hands without a word. Then, they all let out a heavy sigh.

Clunk!!

Suddenly, the door rattled, and all four of them flinched and turned their heads.

“There you are.” Davey approached with a soft smile. Yuria and Rinne gulped hard as they stared at the walking grim reaper.

“U-Um... Gracious Savior... About what hap—”

Evangeline stepped forward, playing herself as the trump card to shield the Gourmet Research Society. “Dad! Don’t get mad! It was an accident!”

His face twisted into a bitter smile. “Eva...”

“If you yell here, I’m seriously not talking to you anymore!”

Davey was utterly weak when up against Evangeline. Unless it was about her education, he doted on her to an embarrassing degree, and it showed through in that moment.

Rinne and Yuria whispered quietly to each other.

“Intercept successful?”

“Rinne asserts the target appears to be neutralized.”

However, once others subsequently entered the room, their expressions turned pale.

Perserque, heavily pregnant, walked in with a calm smile. Behind her came Illyna, carrying her sheathed sword Caldeiras. Finally came Aeria, who entered silently before slamming the door shut behind her, as if to say ‘don’t even think about running.’

Davey was weak against Evangeline. Perserque, Illyna, and Aeria, however? They were a different story.

Rinne and Yuria whispered in a panic.

“Rinne states the intercept failed. Rinne repeats, intercept failed.”

“We’re screwed. The insurance just got completely obliterated...”

“Uhhh. Mom?” Evangeline wasn’t the only one who froze. Her face turned pale as she backed away, and Perserque gave her a sweet smile.

“Eva, I think we need to have a little talk.”

“W-Wait! Mom! I swear it wasn’t me! I just... I just tagged along with the Gourmet Research Society—!” she cried out desperately, but she showed no hesitation.

Perserque eventually grabbed Evangeline and dragged her out of the room.

“Good luck, Perserque.”

“Thanks, Aeria.”

“You’re welcome.”

Even Aeria, who almost never got angry, had clearly decided not to side with them this time. That’s when the Gourmet Research Society realized that the situation had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Slam!!

Yuria cautiously spoke up, “Ummmm, Gracious Savior? The young lady really didn’t do anything wrong.”

“She’s not completely innocent, either. Still, it’s not enough to punish her, so I was just going to let it go with some nagging, perhaps a lecture.”

Yuria didn't understand. “Then why did you...”

“Because it’s hard for me to drag her out. Did you actually think I wouldn’t notice you two trying to use Eva as a shield just to get out of this mess?”

Rinne and Yuria hiccupped and quickly looked away.

“What you awakened was a World Tree Sapling. One of the saplings apparently ended up out in the world buried in nature, eventually being pressed under sediment layers and transforming into something resembling an exploding mana stone.”

Its exterior looked like an exploding mana stone, but its core was something else entirely. The sapling had been deprived of nutrients and any aid for so long that it had regressed into a seed, entering a dormant state. It had been storing energy as a sort of survival mechanism.

Once it absorbed the small amount of juice and moisture from the fruit, it awoke from stasis and sprouted roots on the spot.

No one could say how unlucky they’d been to end up buying such a monstrous defective item.

“If that really had been a faulty exploding mana stone, do you know how many people could’ve gotten hurt?”

Facing his pointed question, Yuria and Rinne lowered their heads in shame.

“Hey! I mean, this is...!” Marky flinched and tried to speak up, but Yuria gently grabbed her arm and shook her head.

Davey lectured her, “You should’ve noticed from the start. You were being way too complacent. If you’re dealing with dangerous materials, you should’ve stayed alert. If someone like you, who usually notices stuff instantly, managed to completely miss it, then that just means you weren’t paying attention at all. So, this time, I’m not going to help you.”

Evangeline had been the first one to notice the anomaly in the stone.

His words left the trio speechless. No matter how much he loved his daughter, when it came to mistakes, discipline was still necessary. Evangeline wouldn’t get punished per se, just sitting through some scolding, but she could no longer protect the Gourmet Research Society from consequences.

“Still, I’m not completely heartless. I’ll give you a chance.” Davey turned his head and calmly said, “All three of you, close your eyes. If the person responsible steps forward and confesses, I’ll only punish them. However, if no one raises their hand, or if all three of you do, then I can’t promise what I’ll do.”

Marky flinched again. Sure, it had been Yuria who brought the faulty stone, but she was the one who'd pulled it out without hesitation after going crazy over the kur fruit’s properties.

Of course, she also had something to say in her own defense. Yuria had been the one who prepared it! If she just said it was her fault, she’d probably get away with it.

Just as Marky opened her mouth to speak, Yuria grabbed her arm once more and looked her in the eyes. It felt like she was telling her to trust her.

Marky felt reassured.

‘Right. The Gourmet Research Society never abandoned its own.’

She closed her eyes, believing in them.

“I’ll count to three. Confess,” Davey said.

Marky trembled and cracked one eye open. Then she saw Yuria and Rinne, kneeling beside her, raise their hands without hesitation.

- Even if we mess up, we take the punishment together.

She felt deeply grateful, and couldn’t let them take it alone. Marky slowly raised her hand as well, figuring that even Davey couldn’t be so heartless.

Seeing all three of them sitting there with their hands up, Davey said nothing.

Overcome with anxiety, Marky peeked sideways, noticing the other girls’ arms still raised high. Their loyalty made her want to cry.

However, she then noticed her fingers. Something was wrong.

Though their arms were raised straight, both Rinne and Yuria had subtly bent their wrists and were pointing their index fingers right at Marky.

They didn’t have to say anything. There was no mistaking what that gesture meant.

‘She’s the one who did it.’

There she was, hand raised like a fool, admitting guilt all on her own.

“Yuria. Rinne. Get out.”

At his command, Marky shrieked, “Y-You traitorous witches!!”

She wanted to scream and demand to know how they could do that to her, but Rinne and Yuria seized the moment and bolted out the door.

Davey smiled and quietly pulled out a rope. Then, he tied up all three of them—even Yuria and Rinne, who had been slowly making their way out.

“Huh?”

“Hmm?”

Rinne tilted her head, confused, while Yuria let out a dumbfounded noise.

“Normally, I’d shut down the entire Gourmet Research Society for this... but call it a silver lining, you did achieve something valuable for me. Taking that into consideration, we’ll just hang you up for three days.”

“W-Wait, Gracious Savior! If we accomplished something, why are we still getting strung up?!”

“If that wasn’t a World Tree Sapling, instead an actual bomb, you’d have gotten people killed! I don’t mind you experimenting, but if you're handling dangerous materials, you’d better verify them properly.”

None of the three said a word after that. There was absolutely nothing they could say.

“Plus, you all using my name to buy exploding mana stones without permission?”

They suspected that to be the real reason behind the whole punishment, but not a single one of them dared to point it out.

In the end, the Gourmet Research Society managed to avoid being disbanded entirely. However, the price was steep. Not only did they have their funding slashed in half, they also spent several days tied to a cliffside in a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge.

Thanks to an existing agreement with the American government, the image of the three of them bound and hanging off the cliff quickly became a spectacle. Footage of the scene was uploaded online, and within a short time, it racked up massive views under a very special title.

[Tionis-Style Punishment]

* * *

After disciplining the Gourmet Research Society, Davey took his sweet time relaxing.

One official came up to him, saying, "Truly, thank you so much, Prince Davey! While this wasn’t a pre-arranged agreement, ever since you planted that massive Divine Tree, vegetation has begun to return to the desertified regions."

He responded, "I just did what had to be done. It’s always better if we can build a good relationship going forward, right?"

"Ah! You really are an exceptional person. The Neltarid Order has agreed to oversee the Divine Tree’s surrounding area. It’s a bit unfortunate that it ended up being planted in Korea, but in the end, since the desertification plaguing every nation was halted early, we have no complaints."

Facing smiles from the presidents and foreign ministers from several nations, Davey responded with a smile of his own.

In terms of appearance, there was a clear age gap between him and the world leaders. Yet from the way everyone acted, it was obvious who held the upper hand.

"Now then. Since we’re on the subject, how about a little token of goodwill? I feel like if I give all this away for nothing, it’s just going to cause headaches later on. Of course, I’ll continue managing the Divine Tree myself, and for the time being, you won’t have to worry about desertification. If things go well, the Sahara Desert and the heavily deforested Amazon Rainforest will probably recover in no time as well."

Having prevented the global wave of desertification that had been giving every nation a massive headache, it was only natural for him to expect some form of compensation.

None of the world leaders were foolish enough to pass up the opportunity to form an agreement with the Saint of Tionis, a man who had just handed them the greatest win of their careers.

The Gourmet Research Society lost face, while Davey had his cake and ate it too.