The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1301

Representatives from the International Federation; the Three Empires; the Holy Empire; the Demon King; and finally the Saint, who was at the center of the entire affair, had agreed to a summit.

News of the armistice agreement between the demons and humans spread like wildfire, sparking massive backlash and chaos.

Yes, the demons had indeed shown up with an army, but it had been to help the humans. However, it was also true that only a few years had passed since the two sides had fought a bloody war.

Most of the countries that reacted furiously were among the weaker nations. Unfortunately for them, that meant they had no choice but to swallow their anger.

For whatever reason, the Three Empires and the more prominent countries were all signaling that they were willing to at least try negotiations first, which made the weaker ones angry.

However, the most irate were the remaining royals of the Haetan Kingdom. They packed up their remaining funds and headed straight to the Contas Empire, staking their lives on a plea to the Emperor.

They asked him to ruin what they claimed was a ridiculous negotiation. They didn’t care about why the demons had helped the humans, or the current state of affairs.

The emperor simply looked at the royal family of Haetan, saying, “How amusing. You release such a creature into the world, causing the deaths of countless people, and now you want us to fight the demons who helped us clean up your mess? Do you take us for mercenaries who move at your command?”

The emperor wasn’t particularly thrilled about the negotiations, either. In fact, up until then, he had held off on making a decision and even leaned toward opposing it.

“Thanks to you, my mind's made up,” he declared. “I’ll take part in the negotiations.”

“Y-Your Majesty!” one of them cried out.

“Shut your mouth! If it were up to me, I’d burn the Haetan Kingdom to the ground for hiding that monster and giving it power. Still, I know that even that would be the result of the creature’s influence. That’s the only reason I’m sparing you unnecessary bloodshed.”

He would let it slide for the time being, only retaliating with some diplomatic and economic pressure. Even that was already an incredibly generous gesture.

“Your Majesty! Those demons are monsters who won’t admit their wrongdoing! A peace treaty with them? This is madness!”

“Guards, remove them. Oh, and one more thing. Don’t you dare cross the line any further. The ones who helped clean up the disaster you created were the very people you always insisted we keep at a distance.”

To the emperor, it was clear that the royals of Haetan were given the same level of contempt as the demons themselves.

As the screaming royals were dragged away, the emperor shook his head and leaned on his arm with a tired face. “No matter how hard you try, it seems you can’t become someone everyone believes in and follows.”

“Your Majesty, it looks like the summit is about to begin. Shall we prepare to move?”

“Fine. That should wrap up the post-war cleanup for now. Opening the treasury and compensating the victims properly—is that part already underway?”

“Yes, it’s proceeding without issue,” the man confirmed.

“Then let’s go.” The Emperor wondered what kind of situation that Prince Davey would create to bring the negotiations to success.

He also wanted to see the face of that mysterious Demon King.

* * *

Right after Abel left, Evangeline teared up. Feeling both sad and strangely relieved, she turned her computer on in an attempt to shake off the emotions.

She stared silently at the screen for a while, then slowly lowered her head and covered her eyes with her hands. “Ugh, seriously... What’s wrong with me?”

She couldn’t stop the tears from falling. Even the motivation to start streaming had vanished.

Of course, she had already posted a notice saying she’d be taking a break due to the catastrophe that hit Tionis. Even so, she felt like not streaming for such a long time was disrespectful to those who were waiting for her.

However, she just couldn’t bring herself to stream. She sat curled up in her chair, sniffling absentmindedly for quite some time. Eventually, Evangeline wiped her tear-filled eyes and jiggled the mouse to wake her computer back up.

“Yeah. Let’s just do something. Anything...”

Ding!

Just then, a message came through. It was perfect timing for her, and came from Moderation. She picked up her phone, stared at the screen with narrowed eyes, then slowly opened the voice chat file.

Ding! Ding! Ding!!

Yet, as she heard a few notification tones, her screen changed to show an incoming call. Startled, she took a deep breath before picking up.

- Oh! You’re back!

“I am,” she responded. “What’s up?”

- How’d everything go? Good?

“Yeah,” she replied in a lifeless tone, prompting a slight shift in his voice.

- What the—what’s with your voice? Have you been crying?

“It’s nothing. Just...” Anyone listening would clearly recognize that Evangeline was going through a rough time.

- Uh. hm. I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t have called.

“It’s nothing. Everything worked out... It really did...” When her voice cracked again, Moderation started to panic.

- What? What happened? Stay there! I’m coming to you!

“Waaah!!” When Evangeline finally broke down and started crying, Moderation immediately hung up the call.

About fifteen minutes later, a signal rang out in her room, signaling that someone wanted entry into her lair.

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and lightly waved her hand to grant access.

“Eva!” Moderation rushed in with a shocked expression and ran over. Evangeline, with teary eyes, was still curled up in her chair.

“Eva! What happened? What’s wrong?!”

In his hands was a box full of her favorite snacks.

“Ahjussi...”

“Yeah, yeah. You can call me ahjussi today. Just tell me what happened.”

“Waaah!!” In the end, she threw herself at Moderation and cried her eyes out.

With an awkward expression, he gently patted her back for a long time. “T-there, there. It’s okay. Cry as much as you want.”

Unfortunately, Moderation, being a shut-in gamer and homebody artist, had no clue how to comfort a girl her age.

* * *

Evangeline cried for a long time. Not knowing what to do, Moderation simply kept patting her back. Once she had calmed down a bit, he carefully asked, “So... what about the rest of your family? Nothing happened, right? Don’t tell me Reina got hurt or something...”

“No one got hurt. It’s just...” Evangeline started to say something, then fell silent. After a moment of thought, she spoke again. “Someone we were with went back to where they came from. Back to where they belong. It seemed like we only argued the whole time...”

When it looked like she might cry again, Moderation quickly tried to comfort her. “R-Right. It's a relief no one got hurt. I don’t know what happened, and I won’t press you for details. If you want to cry, cry all you want. Let it all out.”

“Thank you.” She nodded, sniffling, and Moderation casually opened the small fridge nearby.

It wasn’t strange for him to know where things were. After all, he had come to her streaming room plenty of times before.

“Oh. This’ll do.” He took out a sweet drink, poured it into a cup, and handed it to her. “Here. They say sweet things help when a person is feeling down. Drink up.”

Moderation was doing his best, awkward as it was. Eventually, after crying for another thirty minutes, Evangeline managed to calm down.

“Done crying?” he softly asked.

“Yeah.”

“Good. That’s all that matters. How about we do something to take your mind off things? Maybe play a game? Or draw?”

“Drawing... Let’s draw.”

Hearing that, Moderation nodded in satisfaction. “Great. Then let’s pick something for each other to draw.”

“Okay.”

Even though they both enjoyed gaming, what brought both Moderation and Evangeline into streaming in the first place was their love for drawing.

Evangeline called someone over. Moments later, black and rainbow slimes appeared out of nowhere, each carrying large canvases, and set two of them down.

Soon after, the black slime hopped up onto her shoulder. She picked up a pen, then said, “Moderation.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you still have feelings for Reina?”

“Feelings don’t just disappear that easily, but I’ve definitely been trying. She’s been through a lot—I can’t force anything on her.”

“I agree. Have you decided what to draw yet?”

“Hmmm. Not sure if I should ask you to draw my game character or not.”

Evangeline pulled out a small artifact. As it glowed, a video image appeared, showing the figure of a person.

“Draw me with him.”

“Hmmm. Who’s that? Kinda looks like Saint Davey.”

“Uh...”

“No worries. It’s none of my business.”

He instantly realized who the man Evangeline had said goodbye to was, but he made no mention of it. “Alright, I’m going to go extra try-hard mode. Once you’re feeling better, I’ll head back. Let’s switch over to games after that.”

“Okay.” Preparations finished, the two sat across from each other and began drawing on their canvases.

“Come to think of it, you asked me to do that art event with you before, right?” Moderation asked her.

“Sorry. I’ve just been too busy to remember those things,” she softly apologized.

“Well, I heard there was a whole incident in Tionis, so there's not much you could do. I spoke to the organizers for you, so we were able to wrap everything up just fine.”

Despite how laid-back he seemed, Moderation was a well-known art streamer. He had real skills when it came to drawing.

Even as he started to focus and move his pen, Evangeline didn’t touch hers. She simply watched him quietly.

Then, after staring for a while, she began to draw. She sketched him as he was focused on his work, though it wasn’t what he had asked for.

Without exchanging another word, Moderation and Evangeline both finished their work at almost the exact same time.

“All done,” Moderation announced. “Wanna see mine first?”

“Sure.”

Moderation spun his canvas around with a hint of excitement. There, on the canvas, was a scene she and Abel had never actually experienced. The two were smiling together, striking a pose like they were taking a photo.

Tears silently rolled down her face as she looked at the drawing.

“H-Huh?!” Moderation was at a loss for what to do.

Why was it that regret always came too late?

They had fought constantly, and never even talked much. If she had known he’d be leaving like that, she would’ve at least taken one picture together.

Of course, she knew it was impossible to get that time back. Since he’d returned to his original time, all traces of him had vanished. What she regretted most was not even trying to leave behind some memento. That belated regret made the sadness feel even heavier.

“Did I... mess it up?” Moderation cautiously asked.

“No. I just... Thank you. Really.” Evangeline forced a smile through her sniffling and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. She then turned her own canvas around. “I drew something, too.”

His expression twisted awkwardly when he saw it. “This... isn’t my game character.”

“I just... Watching you draw made me want to draw you instead.”

Though it was only drawn in black and white, her sketch fully captured every detail of him focused on his drawing, smiling brightly like a kid.

“Thanks for everything, oppa. Let’s keep being good friends.”

“Uhhh. Yeah.” Caught off guard by her calling him oppa, Moderation stood up with a bit of awkwardness.

* * *

The chat for Evangeline’s stream flew across the screen without slowing down.

[What the hell you crazy biatch, what’s that got to do with playing this trash game...]

[Mom, boss is eating weird stuff again!]

[No... No! My eyes!!]

Sporting an impressively shameless face, Evangeline was fully enjoying a notoriously difficult and broken game that had recently gained popularity.

The controls were atrocious, and the difficulty felt like it had been designed solely to torment players. It had once been infamous among streamers for that very reason.

“Hmm. If I do this here... Kyaaa!!! Nooo! Don’t go back! I said don’t go back to the starting point!!!”

[Okay, but boss, can we talk? What does drawing each other with that horndog Moderation have to do with you playing this garbage game?]

[Seriously? This is what you do right after coming back?]

[What did we ever do to deserve this?]

Evangeline glanced at the burning chat with a dull expression and answered flatly, “What do you mean? What did you do? You didn’t do anything wrong. It was Moderation who recommended this game to me.

[Moderation is done for.]

[Grab the crowbar!]

[Time to smash him, bois!!]

She giggled at the chat's collective meltdown.

Suddenly, Moderation was calling. She assumed it was because of the angry viewers practically flooding her chat with crap about him. Evangeline casually flipped her phone over to silence his calls.

“Serves him right. Who told him to recommend this kind of game?” Evangeline was steadily learning how to use streaming not just for art, but to mess with people. “Alright, we’ve played enough. Let’s switch to drawing now. Hmm. How about I draw some characters from novels or comics this time?”

The chat exploded again.

From obscure characters no one had ever heard of to the most famous names out there, the suggestions poured in.

Then one comment caught her eye.

[Draw Deathwing. Pleasepleaseplease]

“Deathwing? Oh, Deathy?”

He was a massive dragon from a once-famous game, known for his overwhelming presence and sheer size. She knew who he was, having seen a cinematic featuring Deathwing before.

She paused for a moment, considering the suggestion. “But honestly, Deathy’s not really my type. I’ve drawn it before, but to be honest, I don’t feel like drawing it again.”

[Wait, boss... What do you mean, not your type?!]

[You're not even a furry, who cares about preferences for dragons?]

Looking at the chat, Evangeline tilted her head. “What? I’m not some eyeless dragon. I’ve got standards too. You can totally judge a dragon by how they look.”

[Oh no...]

[Fact for you: Boss is a dragonfolk.]

[Damn, we forgot!]

[She acts so goofy we lost track lol] 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“Anyway! Deathy’s jaw is just way too big, and let’s be real. Later on, he’ll be way smaller than me. He’s not my type, so I’m not drawing him.

[Wait. You’re saying Deathwing is small?]

[That’s the dragon whose size makes castle walls look like toys, isn’t it?]

[Boss, I swear you weren’t that huge when we saw you transform.]

“That’s just because I’m still weak right now. I found out that my true body grows with my power. I’ve already finished growing physically, but how should I put it? My real body has so much influence and potential that it’s been sealed off.”

[The more you know. Boss’s true size makes Deathwing look tiny.]

[My god... how big do you even get?!]

[Do dragons like you just fly around Tionis??]

“I mean, normal dragons aren’t that big. My species is, um, a bit different. Anyway! I’m not into that square-jawed dragon. He’s got fewer wings than me, too.”

Her preferences were surprisingly specific.

“Since we’re already at this point, I’ll just draw a dragon that’s really my type.”

That moment became the start of a dragon drawing that would later go viral across the internet. Even Evangeline had no idea what kind of ripple effect that one serious dragon sketch would cause.