The Hero Returns

Chapter 359: Chapter 359

Su-hyeun looked examined his surroundings.

He didn't really need to look to know, but even then, he couldn't help but do a double take anyway.

He then bent down to touch the ground and feel the blades of grass.

The grass, full of moisture, looked and smelled splendid. It was a complete contrast to the 103rd floor's world that had lost all of its vitality and magical energy.

'Is this really a world where a predator exists?'

First things first: this was not an illusion. He confirmed several times, but his surroundings remained the same.

However, if this was really an illusion, so perfectly crafted that even he couldn't detect it, then…

…then he wouldn't win here.

As such, he decided not to entertain such thoughts.

Step.

Su-hyeun began to walk away.

He put some distance between him and the city and, for the time being, headed to the castle nearby that seemed to have been constructed purely out of gold.

Chirp, chirp.

Croak, croak.

He heard the sounds of birds chirping and frogs croaking in a small pond nearby. The path he was on was just about perfect for a peaceful stroll.

After walking for a while, Su-hyeun discovered a group of people yonder.

'Humans? No, wait. Similar races to humans are among them, too.' Su-hyeun's brows furrowed.

The group was composed of about 50 individuals.

Not only that, they were already well-armed as well.

Step, step.

Su-hyeun slowly walked up to them.

He didn't sense any hostility or resistance from them. However, the group seemed to be prepared for battle, judging from their armament.

Which also meant…

'I should prepare, too.'

Su-hyeun mounted it on his hips. He wanted it handy in case something happened.

Each and every one making up that group looked quite highly skilled. Not only the level of magical energy they possessed was quite considerable, but the light gleaming in their eyes couldn't be described as ordinary either.

Especially so with one or two among them. They were quite powerful individuals.

Thus, as Su-hyeun got close, preparing to unsheathe his sword…

Clack, clack.

"We greet your lordship, Grand Duke," one welcomed.

"We offer our greetings, Grand Duke!" another greeted him.

Starting with the man standing in front of the group, the 50 odd people all went down on their knees in a rather restrained, cultured manner, too.

"…?"

Su-hyeun, who had been getting ready for a fight, stopped in his tracks. He was confused. He didn't know how to process the situation.

'What's going on? Did they just call me 'grand duke'?'

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The 40 knights and 10 magicians said that they were from the imperial guard corps.

Su-hyeun wondered what 'imperial guards' could mean when he had been summoned to the world of the predator. But more than that, he found the title 'grand duke' even more puzzling.

"Okay, so… Are you saying that I am your grand duke?" Su-hyeun asked.

"You don't have to speak politely to us, my lord."

The being from a similar race to humans, who introduced himself as the leader of the imperial guard corps, Kyle, a Dark Elf, still had his head lowered before Su-hyeun.

Kyle wouldn't dare to look a grand duke in his eyes. He deemed himself not worthy.

These people were calling Su-hyeun 'grand duke'. That was because of the third trial he cleared earlier.

"If I'm really the 'grand duke' that you need to serve, then," Su-hyeun groaned as he spoke, "I'd like you to answer some things that I'm curious about."

"Okay," Kyle agreed. "How about we change the location first?"

Su-hyeun nodded in agreement.

Kyle got up and headed to the imperial palace. By then, the 50 imperial guard corps members had already been dismissed according to Su-hyeun's order.

Su-hyeun followed Kyle and asked him, "First of all, what kind of place is this?"

"It's the imperial court," Kyle paused, looked at Su-hyeun, then continued, "but I feel that what your lordship is asking me about isn't to learn where we are."

"That's correct. I'm asking what kind of a world this is."

"Simply put, it's an artificially created world, Sir."

"Artificially created?"

"Yes. And I trust that you already have a rough idea on what that means."

"Several summoned races, trials, and even the peerage… You receive a rank depending on your performance during the trial, and then, you're supposed to live in this world according to the rank?"

"You've correctly guessed it, Sir."

Step.

They stepped into the imperial palace, and Kyle stopped walking after entering a wide circle on the floor. When Su-hyeun joined the Dark Elf within the circle, their bodies began to 'rise'.

It seemed that this 'circle' functioned similarly to an elevator.

"Of course, it's possible to improve your peerage rank, Sir. In this place, strength rules," Kyle explained. "You can always challenge anyone and then take their peerage, and acquire the right to challenge higher ranks."

"That's fairly simple."

"Yes. Indeed, it is. However, in the eyes of those in the lower ranks, this rule is more on the side of cruel than simple."

"It's cruel?" Su-hyeun's brows furrowed.

Whir.

The magic elevator continued to go up. Its speed wasn't all that fast, and the location Kyle was guiding Su-hyeun to also happened to be somewhere up.

"You'll die if you fall behind in the competition, Sir. Once every month, 100,000 people will lose their lives starting from the lowest peerage and ranking."

"Crazy son of a—"

"There's no reason to swear, Sir," Kyle cut Su-hyeun off. "As I've said before, strength rules in this place. This place is a world where the strong preys on the weak."

Just as Kyle finished saying that, the magic elevator stopped.

The Dark Elf took a large stride forward before walking through the corridor right before their eyes.

"The weak will fall behind and lose their lives. That is the natural course of things in this place. There's no need to swear or think of it as bizarre at all, Sir. You'll soon get used to it."

Su-hyeun continued to follow Kyle. Then a thought occurred to him and said, "The flesh of the weak will become the food for the strong."

"…?"

"That's the definition of the 'strong preys on the weak' that I'm familiar with. Tell me, do you believe you're part of the strong? Just because you think this rank of the imperial guard corps, or whatever you call it, is not a low-ranked peerage?"

Su-hyeun didn't know all the peerages of this world in detail. Even then, he could easily surmise that in this world, the weak was sacrificed in hundreds of thousands periodically instead of the so-called strong.

To fill the void left behind by those who died, the predator dragged other people from different worlds. Just like that, the roles of the weak and the strong were filled again, and the people trapped here would train hard to become stronger and continue to compete in order to survive.

And this being before Su-hyeun's eyes, Kyle, was someone occupying a fairly high peerage that belonged to the imperial palace.

"I think you're mistaken about something here."

However, Su-hyeun didn't see Kyle as one of the so-called 'strong'.

"You are all 'weak' in this place. You struggle so hard in order to survive, yet barely manage to flee to somewhere safe, so you huddle in fear."

"What are you trying to say, Sir?"

"I'm saying that you shouldn't mistakenly think that you're 'strong' just because your flesh isn't being ripped off as a sacrifice," Su-hyeun explained. "It doesn't matter whether you're a hare or a deer. You're still nothing more than a prey in front of a lion."

"…"

Kyle didn't respond to what Su-hyeun had said. Su-hyeun's words made him think for a while. Silence ensued as they walked through the corridor.

Su-hyeun glanced at Kyle's face for a bit before scratching his head.

'How did he get to this state?' Su-hyeun wondered. He was genuinely curious.

The Dark Elves… Normally, they were a race that possessed a bit more human-like streaks than regular elves. They had a 'darker' side to them than other elves as well.

However, their roots still came from the elves. They treasured life and loved nature, and it would not change no matter what.

Yet Kyle had changed so much that his race's original nature was nowhere to be seen. He didn't manifest it at all. He found the death of 100,000 people as something natural and talked about it casually as if he knew there was nothing he could do.

In that case, could his nature be villainous to begin with?

No, that didn't seem to be the case. He didn't give off any sense of hostility in the way he spoke until now.

It's just that…

'He became used to it.'

He, too, had to struggle to survive.

He simply had become used to this—thus, his mindset—after spending far too long of a time in this place.

"We have arrived, Sir."

Creak.

Kyle arrived before a heavy-looking door and opened it.

Even the doorway to this room, located at the end of the long corridor, was huge. The door was at least four meters high, and the room was around 50 square meters.

There were a huge bed wide enough for 10 people to lie down and roll around, clothes rack where he could hang his clothes, and a bedside corner; two couches and a table between them; and then the peaceful scenery visible through the wall made out of thick glass.

It certainly was a fantastic accommodation.

More than anything else, the entire room seemed to be crafted out of solid gold, too.

'If such a room exists back in my world, it would probably cost tens of thousands of dollars to stay for a single night.'

But what really confused Su-hyeun was, 'How could such a lodging even exist in this world, though?'

First of all, it was already ridiculous to have a palace made out of gold.

While Su-hyeun stood there impressed, Kyle opened his mouth to say something. "From today onward, my lord grand duke can stay in this lodging, and…"

He hesitated, but then, abruptly bowed his head.

"What you said just now, I'll keep it in mind."

"Ah…sure. Please do."

Su-hyeun didn't expect that reaction and could only reply in a slightly stiff manner. He briefly wondered if he had said something unnecessary, so he changed the topic since there was something else he wanted to ask, anyway.

"Now that we're here, can you tell me how high the peerage of grand duke is? It does sound like something pretty high."

"To my knowledge, a person who started their stay in this place right off the bat as a grand duke is…"

"It's Su-hyeun… Kim Su-hyeun."

"Thank you. Yes, you're the very first one to do so, Grand Duke Kim Su-hyeun, Sir."

"How many grand dukes are there? Seeing how everyone's being classified according to their peerages, it doesn't sound like I'm the only grand duke here."

"There are three others. And now with you, Sir, there are four grand dukes. And above you is His Majesty the Emperor. There is only one emperor, however."

"The emperor, is it…"

It might be possible that this 'emperor' was the predator. Su-hyeun considered it and nodded again before asking something else. "Where can I find the emperor?"

"Even I don't have that information."

"Really?"

"Do you wish to challenge His Majesty?"

"Yes."

"In order to do so, you must fight and win against the other grand dukes first, Sir."

"What, you mean all of them?"

"Yes. It will be very difficult and arduous to…"

Ti-ri—

Buzz, buzz.

It was at that moment that a sound and a vibration came from Kyle's pocket. He got a little nervous and hurriedly turned halfway away from Su-hyeun. "M-my apologies. May I…?"

Kyle then pulled out a square-shaped stone from his pocket and brought it to his ear. Su-hyeun found this sight surprising to behold and continued to stare.

'Is that a phone? Not much of a gap in such things from modern science, then.'

From the magic elevator earlier to that stone telephone…

Su-hyeun found it mystifying that through magical means, one could catch up to a certain level in modern times. He had not run into other worlds where the civilization had progressed to this degree yet.

'Then again, ether stones are just some rocks containing magical energy, so…'

It was meaningless to label which civilization was backward and which one was advanced anyway.

While Kyle was talking on the phone, Su-hyeun turned around to take a better look at this wide room. Around that time, he could hear Kyle's surprised voice.

"W-what did you say?" Kyle couldn't believe what he just heard.

Su-hyeun looked at Kyle.

Although he couldn't hear what the other party was saying, something serious must have happened, judging from the tone of Kyle's voice.

"I…I see. I'll call you back as soon as possible."

Kyle ended the call.

Su-hyeun sat at the edge of the bed and stared at the Dark Elf. "Did something happen?"

"Ah…yes," he replied hesitantly. "It's an issue concerning other grand dukes."

"Other grand dukes, is it?"

"Yes. A new duke has arrived recently, but he…," Kyle tried to calm himself down and continued, "…has already defeated one of the grand dukes and became one."

The grand duke… It was the highest peerage in this world and the one right after the emperor himself.

From Kyle's perspective, this situation of a grand duke falling so quickly was not all that different from the half of the heavens suddenly flipping over.

However, the story was slightly different from Su-hyeun's point of view.

He didn't find it surprising at all.

'That guy made a move sooner than I expected.'

After all, he could more or less guess the identity of the new grand duke.