Cale questioned it, but had no choice but to ask the conclusion he’d reached in his mind.

“…I pass because of my looks?”

– Goodness!

A voice, sounding like someone in their mid to late teens, exclaimed as if unsure what to do.

– So cute! Look at how grumpy you look while asking if you pass because of your looks! You’re such a little cutie!

“…Goodness.”

Cale’s “goodness,” as he sighed, was for a very different reason than the Drew Thames of her teens. He heard the voices of the Super Rock and the other ancient powers in his mind.

– …Ho. I’ve never seen someone like this.

– She has a keen eye.

– How amazing. She’s amazing in many ways. The first thing she noticed when looking at Cale Henituse was his face? Hohoho.

This was the first time Cale had ever been called cute, whether in this world or during his life as Kim Rok Soo. He’d never been called cute in his thirty-plus, almost forty years.

“Ha, haha-”

Cale couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.

Someone came to their senses after hearing him laugh.

Ron Molan. Ron had only been anxious about this sudden situation for a moment before walking over to Raon with a stiff expression on his face.

“Raon-nim.”

“Hmm? Good to see you again, Grandpa Ron!”

Ron couldn’t muster his usual benign smile, even at Raon’s bright greeting.

“Raon-nim, how did a tree end up growing here?”

The grave of Cale Henituse’s biological mother…

Ron had been thinking about many things just from Cale’s presence here. But a giant tree bursting through the grave and growing like this? The tree was beautiful, but Ron couldn’t shake the stiff expression from his face.

“Ha, haha-”

It was because Cale Henituse, the child of the owner of this now-vanished grave because of the tree, was laughing so emptily while surrounded by these beautiful red leaves.

The laugh seemed somewhat filled with disbelief, yet also as if there was nothing behind it. Ron slowly looked around.

Raon, Lily, and Hong were simply watching the tree and Cale as if amazed. But everyone older than them was only shocked for a moment before all looking at Cale with complicated expressions.

“Hmm?”

Ron’s gaze then fell on a punk.

“Mm, mmph! Mmph!”

This bastard’s face had become a mess after being pummeled by the buzz-cut Dragon Rasheel. Lion King Dorph’s eyes were wide open as he flailed, staring at the red tree. His face looked both astonished and shocked.

“Why is this son of a bitch whining like this without considering the situation?”

Rasheel raised his palm as if to say Dorph was being annoying.

Pow!

“Ugh!”

Rasheel smacked Dorph’s back extremely hard, and Dorph’s head lowered while shaking intensely. Rasheel snorted before smirking.

“This is my first time seeing someone gain an ancient power. Truly fitting for a human this mighty Dragon has appro-, no, that’s not right. Hey! Is this okay?!”

Rasheel’s eyes widened.

“Is it okay for Cale Henituse to gain another ancient power? Is his plate okay?! Won’t it break again?”

Ron remained calm, while some others stiffened upon hearing that.

“…What do you mean by… his plate breaking again?”

Basen quietly asked, while Rasheel nonchalantly commented as if he couldn’t believe Basen didn’t already know.

“Cale Henituse’s plate is wide but practically completely full already. His plate will probably shatter if he absorbs one more ancient power.”

“W, what would happen if it breaks?”

Lily quickly interjected. Rasheel, annoyed by these little pests, held back his anger and responded bluntly.

“What else? He’ll die if his plate breaks. I heard he’s been through this many times already? This time is probably really dangerous.”

“…Rasheel-nim.”

Ron tried to stop him, but Rasheel had already said it, and Lily and Basen turned completely pale. Rasheel didn’t care, looking toward the bottom of the hill.

“Who is that?”

“…She is the Duchess of the territory.”

Ron answered Rasheel’s question, looking at the pale expression on Duchess Violan’s face. She had just arrived.

The Violan Ron knew would not have come here while Cale was here. However, she probably came because she was worried after seeing this bright red tree and hearing Cale’s scream.

She had come on her own. Many likely wanted to accompany her, but she probably came alone because she worried she might disturb Cale, who wanted to visit his biological mother’s grave quietly.

And after rushing over on her own, the first thing she heard was what Rasheel had just said.

‘Tsk.’

Ron clicked his tongue internally before bowing toward Violan. Duchess Violan stopped walking and disappeared behind a tree without getting any closer.

He heard Lily’s trembling voice at that moment.

“S, shouldn’t we stop him?”

“Who knows?”

Rasheel stood there with an odd expression, as if he hadn’t been the one asking if Cale was okay moments before.

“I’m sure Cale Henituse knows the condition of his body. We should just wait for now since he chose to do this.”

The great and mighty Rasheel was concerned about Cale, a rare person he could easily converse with, but he lacked the authority to stop him.

But Lily and Basen were different. Basen subconsciously walked toward the red tree.

“That is unacceptable. He cannot keep doing this. Hyung-nim should not do this if it can be dangerous for him-”

“What if it is something he needs to do?”

“…Excuse me?”

He stopped and turned around after hearing a voice.

The pink curly-haired Dodori stood there, arms crossed.

“Cale Henituse most likely knows that this may be taxing on his body. He made this decision despite knowing what it could do. He most likely believes that this is the only way for us to be victorious.”

Basen’s mouth slowly opened as he let out a quiet sigh.

“I will respect Cale Henituse’s decision.”

Dodori then closed his eyes.

Hero.

That wasn’t a title given at birth.

The path a person takes… The numerous decisions they make… The many things they do… All of those combined and the results they create are what earn someone the title of ‘hero.’

That was how a hero was born.

“If you cannot understand the weight he carries on his shoulders, you should at least respect his decisions.”

As the eyes of the young pink Dragon Dodori reflected what he had just said…

“Our human will be fine.”

He heard Raon’s confused voice. Rasheel, Dodori, and the siblings turned toward Hong and Raon, who looked confused, and On, who was shaking her head.

‘Hmm?’

The moment Dodori felt this was odd…

“…!”

Dodori, Rasheel, and Raon turned toward the red tree.

“What the……?!”

Rasheel subconsciously rubbed his arm, goosebumps rising.

Boom!

It made Lion King Dorph’s face slam to the ground, but Rasheel didn’t care. Rasheel pressed down on the fallen Dorph with one foot, wetting his lips with his tongue.

‘Something is getting twisted.’

Dragon.

An odd twist of something even a great Dragon like himself couldn’t detect was silently happening around them.

It was happening at the center of these sparkling red leaves. It was happening where Cale Henituse was located.

‘What is it? What is being twisted?’

Rasheel could sense something was happening but couldn’t tell what it was. The same for Dodori.

But they didn’t intervene.

‘…It is just a small amount of power.’

‘It is weak.’

They didn’t know what it was, but the twist and the strength of the power were weak.

Rasheel and Dodori chose to watch for now.

But one being… the black Dragon, clenching his front paws so tightly they were sweating… The young Dragon’s instincts told him what was moving right now.

‘Time……!’

Something not visible in the sky or ground… Something with less presence than air but definitely flowing and absolutely abiding by the laws of nature…

Raon could feel this existence of ‘time’ twisting with the red tree at its center.

‘No! This is not time!’

Raon sensed this great existence wasn’t just time.

Something even greater than time was hidden within this twist.

It was something that could be impacted even less than time.

A single word popped into Raon’s mind. Raon could somewhat make out the true nature of this twist that nobody, not even the other Dragons present, could decipher.

He couldn’t fully grasp it due to his youth and inexperience, but the word seemed to embed itself in his mind.

‘…Fate……!’

The power heading toward Cale Henituse right now was fate.

It was extremely small and weak, but Raon thought it was a more dangerous power than anything else.

‘It’ll be dangerous if that power reaches the human……!’

Boom. Boom.

Raon’s heart pounded wildly. Something inside him began to writhe. It was like the smallest ember landing on a handful of dry leaves. A small amount of power, similar to the ember, so small yet capable of consuming those dry leaves in flame, was writhing inside Raon.

Raon hadn’t noticed it, preoccupied with Cale’s potential danger.

Boom. Booboom.

That power slowly began to target that small amount of ‘fate’ on the red tree, unnoticed by Raon.

It seemed to be the only power capable of dispelling this omnipotent force.

This was the only moment to break the restrictions of fate given to a life form… The ‘present’ was the only time to do it.

Paaaaat-!

A red light enveloped Rasheel, Dodori, and everyone’s vision.

A gentle breeze swept through, everything appearing blood-red.

The blood-red light seemed to be swept up by the breeze, and they could see Cale Henituse floating to the top of the red tree.

“Ah.”

Raon gasped, seeing the smirk on Cale’s face.

The small amount of power that had been rising without Raon’s awareness sank back deep within Raon’s body.

“Human!”

Raon instinctively called out to Cale.

The blood-red lights headed toward Cale at that moment.

The red light tried to crash into Cale like a furious wave or tsunami.

“That’s odd.”

But Cale was focused on something else.

‘It’s warm.’

Although the red light looked extremely destructive, Cale felt a warmth he’d never experienced before.

Swoooooooosh-

Cale pulled back the whirlwinds surrounding him and moved toward the red wave, the wood attribute ancient power, ‘annual rings of life.’

“No-!”

“Shit!”

Cale couldn’t really hear the shouts of the people below the tree.

He simply closed his eyes and focused. He then summoned an ability within him.

At that moment…

– …Hey cutie, are you my kin?

Drew Thames sounded confused before continuing in a slightly happy tone.

– I just need to go in here, right?

Cale opened his eyes at that moment.

A diary was in his hand.

It was the item Drew Thames had left behind.

This diary…

Cale’s Embrace ability was used on the diary.

“Yes, ma’am. Please go in here.”

Cale severely lacked the plate space to absorb any more ancient powers.

That’s why he used Embrace to place his new power into this diary.

– That’s a relief. I let you pass because you look so cute, but you need to be part of the Thames household to use this power properly.

This ordinary brown diary… The red light slammed into it, and Cale closed his eyes for a moment due to the brightness before opening them again.

It was just a brief moment, but he could feel the power entering the diary.

“It changed.”

Once he opened his eyes, he saw the diary gently surrounded by red leaves, now red. He could no longer hear Drew Thames’s voice.

Cale touched the diary’s pages with an odd look in his eyes.

Now there were multiple powers he’d used Embrace on, including the earth attribute ancient power from before.

‘There’s also the black World Tree.’

It wouldn’t be bad to discuss the future of the fake World Tree he ‘Embraced’ at the underground labyrinth of the Molden Palace when he went to see the World Tree after this.

Cale organized his thoughts in his mind.

“Mm!”

Cale suddenly flinched, his eyes widening.

Chhhhhhhhhhh—

The diary left his hand and flipped pages on its own.

It opened to a blank page, and red words began to appear.

Cale could tell that Drew Thames, whom he had just ‘Embraced,’ was writing in it.

“Yes, ma’am. They are true.”

Nothing appeared in the diary for a moment.

Cale quietly looked at the diary, and the diary must have felt his gaze, as more words appeared, albeit in a much smaller font, as if she was mumbling.

He couldn’t understand what she meant, but the handwriting looked weak and filled with sorrow.

Based on what Cale knew, the Thames family had perished, and Drew Thames had been the sole survivor of the Thames bloodline by the time Deruth met her at the academy. He hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.

He was going to ask about the Thames family, the issue he had tried to ignore.

But Drew Thames started writing again before Cale could speak.

She then wrote something else.

Cale’s expression stiffened.

“Human, is it done now?”

Raon fluttered his wings and flew up next to Cale. However, Cale couldn’t answer as he could only stare at the diary.

There was someone Cale believed to be a single-lifer.

It was Choi Han.

* * *

“Choi Han.”

“Yes, your Highness.”

Tap. Tap.

Alberu was tapping on the long circular table in the meeting room of the Puzzle City City Hall.

“Should we do it?”

“What are you talking about, your Highness?”

Choi Han and Alberu looked into each other’s eyes.

The corners of Alberu’s lips twisted upward.

“Pretending to be dead.”

“…Excuse me?”

Choi Han’s expression became visibly distraught, but Alberu was smiling brightly.

“First was Cale Henituse.”

He was currently said to be between life and death.

“Second was the majestic gold Dragon, Eruhaben-nim.”

Alberu then pointed at Choi Han and himself.

“Third is me. And fourth will be my instructor-nim.”

Alberu brightly continued after seeing Choi Han’s expression turn odd.

“Choi Han, do you want to try dying once?”