The Hero Returns

"You seem to be greatly stunned." Hercules lightly waved his huge hand in front of Su-hyeun and continued, "But I definitely sensed a unique aura coming from you."

"Ah, you mean this?"

Su-hyeun activated his Sage's Eye once more. A bluish color swirled in his eyes, and a small amount of magical energy surrounded him.

Hercules clapped his hands and nodded. "Right, that's what I sensed. What is that exactly?"

"It's sort of magic."

"Magic, huh? Aha! You must be a magician then. But you look like a warrior, you see."

Hercules nodded his head theatrically as if he finally understood it.

It seemed that magicians were real existences in this world. Thanks to that, Su-hyeun now had a cover story.

He told himself, "Well, not a lot of magical energy leaked out, so it should be fine."

What's even more surprising to him, though, was Hercules's reaction speed.

"Just where did he fly in from, anyway?" he wondered.

The moment Su-hyeun activated the Sage's Eye, Hercules detected an unknown power being used and immediately flew toward the source. Moreover, he came from the sky, which meant that he flew in from beyond the scope of Su-hyeun's field of vision.

"You should return home at once. You seem to be lost, and the place beyond this point is somewhere you shouldn't be."

"There isn't any place in this world that 'I shouldn't be,' though. As long as my feet can take me there, I can go there. And by the way, I'm not actually lost." Su-hyeun extended his hand toward Hercules. "I came to meet you, Hercules."

"Do you know who I am?"

"I told you, I'm here to meet you. There's no way I wouldn't recognize who you are."

"Where did you hear about my whereabouts?"

"I didn't hear about it. I actually located you. Apparently, you've been having a hard time in this place, so I was planning to lend you a helping hand."

Su-hyeun carefully observed Hercules's reaction as he said that. Judging from how the latter mistook him for a Giant and attacked, there was little doubt that the demigod was involved in a war with this race of Giants.

Sure enough, Hercules scanned Su-hyeun from top to bottom and slightly furrowed his brows.

"A helping hand, you say…"

Although his words trailed off, even a moron could tell what he chose to omit just now.

Hercules proudly boasted a height of over 2.5 meters and a body full of rippling muscles, while Su-hyeun was about 1.8 meters tall and only had an adequately sized athletic physique.

The latter was by no means small, but when standing in front of Hercules, he came across as a little neighborhood kid in comparison.

"You don't fight with your physique, though?" Su-hyeun replied.

"Indeed. You fight with strength," Hercules chuckled softly and extended his hand as well. "It sure has been a long while since I ran into an outsider like you, and I'm not hating it. Although this place is rather dangerous, you being able to come this far indicates that you should be a skilled magician at least. Good to have you."

Su-hyeun shook the offered hand. "My name is Kim Su-hyeun."

"Kim Sheon?"

"Kim. Su. Hyeun."

"Kim, Kim Su…hyeun. That's an odd name."

It seemed Hercules found it rather tough to enunciate Su-hyeun's name properly because he continued to mumble it as they cautiously shook hands.

Su-hyeun looked at Hercules's large and heavy hand.

The demigod was doing his very best not to grip too hard with his hands. He was probably thinking that the moment he gripped any harder, Su-hyeun's hand would be crushed to bits.

A little while later, they stopped shaking hands and Hercules spoke again, "Well, I won't stop any warrior wishing to fight. Although you're a magician, I still applaud you for your bravery. It must be five years already since I last saw a human who willingly stepped forward to battle against the race of the Giants."

Thankfully, Hercules didn't turn Su-hyeun away.

For one, Su-hyeun was a human, and two, this race of Giants that Hercules kept bringing up must have been enemies of mankind.

It meant that the demigod saw Su-hyeun as an ally, not an enemy. The latter had been wondering what he should do in case he got turned away due to Hercules's change in personality, but it seemed that the change didn't transform him into a stuffy old man.

"In that case, why don't we leave right away? Well, then—"

Snatch—

Hercules snatched Su-hyeun's waist with one arm and placed him over his shoulders. Wondering what the demigod was doing here, Su-hyeun could only silently blink his eyes but became stunned by what happened next.

Ka-boom—!

Accompanied by a noise that sounded like a bomb that went off, the scenery before their eyes changed in an instant.

While carrying Su-hyeun on his back, Hercules leaped and practically flew in the air. To make it clear, the demigod didn't possess the power of flight, but just the action of him kicking the ground to jump up was enough to fling him hundreds, no, thousands of meters into the air.

"Flying" like this, Hercules eventually landed somewhere with a well-practiced posture. It kind of felt like Su-hyeun was on a wild theme park ride without any safety harness.

"Are you alright?" Hercules asked while putting Su-hyeun down.

After landing lightly on the ground, Su-hyeun looked up and replied, "That was fun, actually."

"Eh? It was fun?"

"Yes. It was quite entertaining. I think you might earn a decent living by charging for this service."

"Huh…Well, I'll be."

Hercules formed a somewhat sheepish expression from Su-hyeun's response.

He figured his passenger would not be alright at all, but too bad, the response proved to be rather lackluster. And judging from Su-hyeun's perfectly normal complexion, Su-hyeun didn't seem to be bluffing either.

Hercules muttered, "You are a strange guy."

"That's not something you should be saying, though."

"Touche. Follow me."

Hercules simply nodded as if he didn't have any comebacks and started walking in one direction. The two crossed some distance in an instant, and soon, their eyes caught the sight of a fairly large two-story wooden building.

The demigod stared at this lone house standing on an empty field and shouted, "Your dad's home—!"

"…Dad?" Su-hyeun thought.

He was stunned by that word and hurriedly stared at the house. Around the same time, the front door to the wooden building with smoke rising from its chimney was thrown open wide.

"It's daddy—!"

"Daddy!"

Two small kids—a girl and a boy—only as big as Hercules's biceps emerged from the house.

The girl with her hair elegantly tied behind her head rushed in first. Hercules bent down and picked the kids up in each of his arms to place them on his shoulders. "Oh my goodness, so heavy! Palaemon, Hale, my dear children! Did you miss your dad?"

"We missed you!"

"You're late!"

The two kids named Palaemon and Hale didn't seem to notice Su-hyeun's presence and simply rubbed their faces on Hercules's beard. Su-hyeun stayed a few steps behind and silently observed this scene for a little while.

"Hale! Palaemon! Bring your dad inside and…Oh, my!" It was then that a woman exited from the house with a ladle in her hand. She immediately spotted Su-hyeun and exclaimed in surprise, "We have a guest?"

She was beautiful. That was the first thought that popped up in Su-hyeun's head upon meeting the woman who must have been Hercules's wife.

Her golden hair extended down to her waist, and unlike Hercules, her figure, her arms, and even her legs were long and slim. As for her skin, it was flawlessly pristine as if the sun's rays had never touched her, while her slender but clear facial features were beautiful enough for most men to fall instantly head over heels in love.

Hercules replied, "Ah, him. He says he wants to help me. It sure has been a while, right?"

"To help you? But even after that event, how can he…?"

"He's a brave fellow indeed. He says he's a magician. So I suggested we should have a meal together at least. Oops, I forgot to introduce you. This is my wife, Megara."

"It's a good thing that I've prepared enough for everyone. Please, don't just stand there and come on in"

Megara turned around and lightly waved the ladle around.

A rather appetizing aroma wafted out from the open doorway. Now that he thought about it, Su-hyeun took care of his hunger back on the 101st floor with some beef jerky and raisins, didn't he?

"In that case, excuse me for this intrusion."

Just what was he supposed to do in this trial?

Su-hyeun decided to postpone searching for the answers and enjoy the meal in peace for the time being.

It wasn't as if he could come to a conclusion right away, anyway.

**

The meal was excellent.

They had warm soup and bread, a flame-roasted duck, and some vegetables he didn't recognize pickled in sour-tasting spices.

The roasted duck and bread were both good, but the soup happened to be the tastiest soup Su-hyeun had ever had in his entire life. Megara saw how Su-hyeun had emptied his bowl so quickly and was silently hoping for a second helping. She served him with another bowl of soup filled to the brim.

Clack—

Su-hyeun put his spoon down as the mealtime went on for a while. As for the kids, they had finished their food and immediately ran outside the house. They probably wanted to play in the front yard.

"Thank you for the food."

Megara smiled in contentment when Su-hyeun made a deeply satisfied face as he patted his full stomach. "You seem to really enjoy the meal. My husband used to be like that in the beginning, too."

Hercules quickly defended himself. "But dear, I still enjoy your cooking even now."

"You may say that, but your expression doesn't seem to agree, dear," Megara replied as she lightly pinched Hercules's cheek.

Su-hyeun smiled softly at the couple and asked, "How long have you been staying here?"

"Maybe about 10 years." The reply came from Hercules this time. "I stayed here alone when the damn Giants started crossing over, and we couldn't see each other for five long years, so I was really against the idea, but—"

"I was the one who insisted on it. If we were to live that way, then I should just stay by his side even if it's a little dangerous," Megara took over the explanation.

"Urgh! I always thought that no one can defeat me, but as it turned out, the world is much bigger than I could have imagined. To think that it wasn't some Giant, but this little lady that I can't win against…"

Hercules formed a completely exaggerated expression that said, "I'm completely helpless."

But then, Megara pinched his cheek again and started nagging him next. He obviously wouldn't have been hurt from her action, yet he still cried out and complained that he was in too much pain. Su-hyeun thought that these two really looked great together.

Su-hyeun, Hercules, and Megara chatted away like this as they took care of the rest of the meal, and in the process, Su-hyeun got to learn why no other people lived nearby.

"Portals from where the Giants appear, hmm…and it seems that Hercules has been stopping them," he thought.

He still had no clue just what kind of existence these Giants were.

Nothing stopped him from asking them about it, but he got a feeling that if he did, the overall mood during the meal would become rather gloomy. If he was alone with Hercules, that might have been fine, but since Megara was also here, he didn't want such a thing to happen.

Su-hyeun was really liking the current atmosphere, after all.

"I can more or less tell why Hercules has changed, too."

The "Hercules" Su-hyeun met on the 43rd floor was from his younger days.

Back then, Hercules gave off a somewhat gruff and aggressive vibe, but someone like that was now giving off the air of a gentle and dependable dad.

That was most likely due to Megara's presence.

She was certainly a charming woman. Not only was she beautiful, but she also had this natural air about her that soothed a person's mind.

"By the way, you say you're a magician? What kind of magic did you learn?" Megara asked Su-hyeun. "Honestly speaking, I've never met a magician before."

"The simplest I can show you is…"

Rumble—

Su-hyeun raised his fingers and created some small licks of divine Flame on his fingertips.

"Something like this."

"Wow—"

"Looks like I won't have to go fetch firewood for a while, then."

The reactions of the couple were split after witnessing the flames Su-hyeun had created. Megara was genuinely impressed, her hands clapped together. Hercules, on the other hand, was nodding away happily as if something great had just happened.

"By the way, friend. Have you ever battled Giants before?"

"No, I haven't."

"Is that so? Do you know what kind of creatures they are, then?"

Su-hyeun shook his head.

The race of the Giants—Hercules brought that up several times, but for obvious reasons, Su-hyeun had no clue what those things were.

Just that, judging from the name alone, he could guess that those creatures had to be massive in size.

"Makes sense, considering that most people don't know much about their distinct characteristics or their weaknesses. In that case, let's see…Where should I start my explanation…?"

Hercules rubbed his chin and pondered for a little while. It seemed that he wanted to start discussing the Giants right away.

But then…

Tremor, shake—

From the spoon Su-hyeun had put down to the other utensils and tableware, things on the table began vibrating noticeably. Su-hyeun and Hercules both stood up almost simultaneously at the minute vibration transmitting from the ground.

"It seems that…" Hercules looked at Su-hyeun with a face that said, what good timing. "Rather than my words, seeing them with your own eyes should be a better way of learning about them."