The Second Salvation Myth of a Retired Regressed Hero

The hero Haineken emerged from the dust cloud.

“What in the world is going on here…”

Haineken looked at Doyun.

“Hey there. You alri…”

He trailed off, freezing at Doyun’s mangled state.

“Yes, I’m perfectly fine.”

“…Doesn’t seem like it.”

Doyun’s condition was gruesome at a glance. But urgent matters had to be addressed first.

Gripping his javelin, Haineken trudged towards where the minister had been flung.

“Watch out for his invisible blade.”

“Are you giving me advice now? A Cradle student, to me?”

The moment he reached the collapsed outer wall’s rubble, a sword strike lashed out from within.

Without even glancing that way, Haineken simply tilted his head with a look of disbelief at Doyun, casually deflecting the visible blade with a light javelin twirl to parry the Phantom Sword strike.

“This is really absurd.”

He then swung his javelin.

Doyun witnessed five javelin strikes thrusting downwards, each imbued with the ‘Revolving Heaven’ piercing technique, viciously tearing through the rubble pile as if wild fangs sinking into prey.

There were no screams. But Doyun could tell – the minister’s four limbs had been shredded, the final strike skewering his abdomen.

It was a devastatingly rapid five-strike combination.

“Hmm…”

Haineken lifted his javelin, pulling the impaled minister from the rubble pile, his severed limbs dangling limply like a fish on a spear.

“I was worried and tried warning you. You were so late, I thought you might have dulled your edge.”

“Heh, indeed.”

He snorted derisively as he examined the minister.

Doyun stuck his tongue out at the sight.

‘So this is the current generation’s hero.’

While weakened by the Holy Stone, the minister was likely among the Demon Lord’s elite assassination squad’s strongest. Yet Haineken had subdued him with contemptuous ease.

Moreover, Haineken’s stealth had been remarkably superior to expectations – to the point that even Doyun, aware of his presence beforehand, had nearly been fooled.

If an assassin of such caliber couldn’t detect him, that said it all.

His abilities exceeded expectations. Was he among the strongest bracket? Or was this simply the standard for so-called ‘heroes’?

‘At that level…’

He wouldn’t have knelt before Zik, Enoch’s guild’s finest javelin master and a top 5 powerhouse.

Doyun nodded in satisfaction. From the Earthling earlier to the recent displays, the current generation’s prowess truly impressed him.

“An assassin weakened by a Holy Stone is new, but far too easy. Your country must really value having such nice toys as your top grade… You’re a real Holy Stone fiend, senior.”

Haineken made a snide remark towards Doyun, his tone dripping with deliberate self-aggrandizement.

Such boastful words made his face flush – he wasn’t one to enjoy bragging by nature. But for now, he strained himself to appeal to Doyun as much as possible.

And Doyun could see right through his true intentions and awkward pretense. Contrary to his rugged exterior, the blatantly forced act was rather amusing.

Doyun couldn’t help but chuckle. Spouting such nonsense without knowing better – he must not have encountered the Commanders.

Seeing this, Haineken couldn’t contain his rising flush, glaring fiercely at Doyun.

“You’re laughing? Did you just laugh at me?”

“You’re trying to intimidate a dying student?”

“Don’t get cheeky. You said you were perfectly fine.”

“I feel like I’m about to die of heart failure. I’m just a timid soul, and you’re so terribly frightening to behold.”

“This is really too much. What kind of foul-mouthed brat are you?”

Haineken clicked his tongue. His body was already in tatters, yet he still had the leisure for witty retorts.

Shaking his head in exasperation, he retrieved an item hanging from his waist – a keyring-like object with multiple small blades attached.

Setting the minister down, he tossed the keyring into the air. The small blades instantly grew in size, transforming into light before pinning the kneeling minister’s feet, hands, neck, and chest, binding him in place – some sort of restraint item.

Turning his attention from the minister to Doyun, he spoke.

“So you’re the boss monster killer, not that big-assed girl.”

“Yes.”

“A real monster, you are.”

He tried to maintain a composed tone out of decorum, but inwardly, he was utterly in awe.

That earlier Phantom Sword assault, while deliberately held back, would have rattled even him without the warning – such was its stealthy ferocity.

Furthermore, Haineken’s initial javelin thrust had been a complete ambush. Yet the assassin had sensed it in advance, twisting his body to take the would-be head strike on his shoulder instead.

‘A mere student… survived against such a formidable opponent?’

He had even foreseen the potential assassination attempt, requesting Haineken’s assistance in advance via telepathy – something Haineken himself had failed to detect the minister’s assassin identity.

‘A madman, this one.’

The talent hunter licked his lips in anticipation.

That student Sophie had been astonishingly gifted as well – undoubtedly a once-in-years prodigy.

But this Han Doyun tread a different path altogether. Not a matter of mere talent, but the sense of a fully realized monster.

‘No matter what.’

We must recruit him to our guild.

Haineken resolved himself.

Then, someone alerted by the commotion approached.

“Why is there a hole in the wall…?”

It was an assistant instructor in the vicinity.

Poking his head out through the hole.

“Eh, Lord Hero? Why are you he… Eh? Eh? The, the Minister of Finance?”

Struggling to comprehend the situation, he paled drastically upon seeing Doyun’s state.

“…Eh?”

Hoping his eyes deceived him.

The Cradle’s treasure, no, the alliance’s treasure – the boss monster killer Han Doyun’s appearance was utterly wretched.

His entire body was drenched in crimson. Quite literally drenched in blood.

His left shoulder had been deeply cloven, his arm barely hanging on, while his remaining hand clutched his side to prevent his entrails from spilling out, missing several fingers to boot. His gouged remaining eye leaked bloody tears beneath the swollen eyelid, while a long gash from jaw to ear exposed the interior of his mouth. His thigh continuously spurted blood like a geyser, as if his femoral artery had ruptured.

Not to mention the myriad smaller and larger lacerations covering his body from head to toe. He was quite literally a tattered wreck.

To the instructor’s eyes, Han Doyun seemed on death’s door from either excessive blood loss or shock.

“Ah… eh, ah…”

His brain seemed to short-circuit from the unprecedented crisis, only able to let out strange groaning noises.

“He was attacked by a Demon Lord assassin. Summon every available healer at the Cradle, as well as the inspection party and the Headmaster.”

However, Haineken calmly spoke. To his eyes, Doyun’s injuries didn’t seem urgent at all – his monstrous vitality was already visibly healing the wounds.

Finally regaining his senses, the ashen-faced assistant instructor couldn’t even reply before dashing off in a hurry.

“So much fuss…”

Despite his words, Haineken understood the assistant’s reaction well enough.

Doyun’s injuries were truly horrific. Any other student would have perished long ago from such wounds. No, not just students – even the guild members he had brought along likely couldn’t guarantee surviving such grievous trauma.

‘Just what level is his vitality? His endurance seems high too…’

From his discerning eye, it appeared at least level 8, if not higher when considering the regenerative ability alone.

But that was an outrageous notion – for a student to possess level 8 stats.

There were only a handful across the entire alliance who had level 9 stats – true monsters beyond normal parameters. From a general perspective, level 8 was effectively the highest tier.

Yet a mere student having level 8 vitality? It was an unthinkable prospect.

‘I had to resort to all sorts of absurdities to reach level 8 agility, and he’s level 8?’

Not that he could simply ask Doyun about his stats – that would cross a line.

‘Did he encounter some freak blessing that extremely raised only his regeneration? No, he’s still a student who can’t leave the Cradle.’

Truly an existence shattering all common sense from top to bottom.

More than anything, he seemed utterly desensitized to such gruesome injuries and pain.

To be honest… he really looked like he was in agony. Truly agonizing pain. If Haineken had suffered those wounds himself, he would have incessantly grumbled about the pain, lamenting that he was dying.

‘Incredible mental fortitude. …Or perhaps something is simply broken within him.’

He had been observing Doyun’s eyes this entire time – those eyes devoid of any emotion since his arrival, displaying neither fear towards the assassin nor relief at a hero’s appearance, nor anguish from the horrific wounds.

Just endlessly calm, inscrutable depths like the fathomless ocean.

Reminiscent of his own master.

‘Just what kind of…’

Haineken pondered.

‘Life did he live in his previous incarnation?’

Averting his gaze from Doyun’s eyes, he shook his head slowly.

+++

The briefly calmed inspection party was now verbally persuading the instructors.

Then someone came running towards them, shouting frantically.

“Di, disaster!! Disaster!!”

All eyes turned towards him – the assistant instructor.

“…What’s the matter?”

Someone from the inspection party stepped forward to ask. The standoff between instructors and inspectors had entered a temporary lull.

They too sensed something dreadfully amiss from the assistant’s desperate cries, practically screams.

Eloah felt a premonition of misfortune from his demeanor. Something… was wrong.

“Di, disaster…! An assassin! A Demon Lord assassin has appeared at the Cradle!”

“What did you say!?”

The representative let out a shocked bellow.

“Stu, Student Han Doyun has…! Student Han Doyun was attacked by the assassin!!”

Thump.

Eloah’s heart sank.