Chapter 218. The Greatest Hero (7)
“Heracles...”
The person who entered the tent was none other than Heracles.
Don’t tell me... I was taken prisoner?
Maybe Kim Nameless hadn’t saved him at all.
Maybe Kim Nameless had also lost and been captured by Heracles.
The thought made Kang Yujin’s heart start pounding.
“What happened to Kim Nameless?”
“What?”
“Kim Nameless. What happened to him?”
“Kim Nameless? Who is that?”
Heracles looked genuinely confused as he strode inside.
Then he sat down on the folding chair beside the bed.
“Whoa.”
Crack.
The chair immediately collapsed beneath him.
It couldn’t support Heracles’s massive body.
“What a flimsy thing.”
Grumbling, Heracles simply sat down on the ground.
“Did you kill Kim Nameless?”
Kang Yujin asked again.
“Did you kill him?!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but calm down first.”
Heracles raised a hand.
“No one died.”
“Jason stepped in and mediated.”
“Jason...?”
Jason was practically the main sponsor of the Golden Ram Order.
He occasionally descended to the Material Realm to provide field guidance, and Kang Yujin had seen him during this operation in the Russian Far East as well.
Had that Jason really mediated the fight with Heracles?
“After that, your companions treated your injuries.”
“You’ve been lying here ever since.”
“I see...”
Then...
Kim Nameless was safe too.
“Feel better now?”
“Better, my ass.”
Kang Yujin turned his head away.
“Then why are you here right now?”
“It’s not like you’re a prisoner.”
“We’re under a temporary truce.”
“And I had something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Heracles spoke casually from where he sat on the ground.
“Kang Yujin, how was it?”
“What?”
“You fought me.”
“What did you think?”
“I don’t really understand what you’re asking.”
“Hmm. Then let me put it this way.”
Heracles stared directly into Kang Yujin’s face.
“Do you think you can beat me?”
"..."
Kang Yujin thought for a moment.
“I don’t think about things like that.”
"..."
“If I’m in a situation where I have to win, then I just do everything I can to win.”
“But you didn’t.”
Heracles answered indifferently.
“You got completely beaten.”
"..."
There was no excuse.
Kang Yujin had lost.
“You’ve defeated countless enemies until now.”
“There were times when you struggled, but in the end, you always defeated them and won.”
"..."
“But this time, you lost.”
“Why do you think that happened?”
“That’s...”
Kang Yujin couldn’t immediately answer.
It was something he felt he had no right to say after becoming stronger through the sacrifices of Zhuge Jin and the Three Venerables.
“Because I was weaker than you.”
“Right.”
“You’re weak.”
Weak.
That was a word Kang Yujin could not allow himself.
He had become stronger through the sacrifices of Zhuge Jin and the Three Venerables.
Because of that, he had to remain strong.
But Kang Yujin had lost.
He had become the weaker one.
“Well, don’t worry about it that much.”
Heracles slapped his massive knee.
“You’re already plenty strong.”
“There are hardly any living humans who can stand against you, right?”
“Even Demon God-class demons can’t really handle you.”
“That’s...”
“You aren’t weak.”
“I’m just strong.”
That was true.
Heracles was not a living human.
He was a Constellation, a being who had transcended humanity.
And more than that, he was Heracles, the legendary hero of Greek myth from thousands of years ago.
He wasn’t someone a modern human should reasonably compare himself to.
“So don’t get too depressed.”
“I’m a Constellation and a hero from mythology.”
“No one is going to mock you by saying, ‘Wow, you’re weaker than I expected,’ just because you lost to me.”
“But.”
“Hm?”
But...
Kang Yujin couldn’t accept that.
“I can’t use that as an excuse.”
"..."
“I should have beaten you.”
“Why?”
“Because I promised them I would never lose again.”
It was a promise to the Demon Venerable.
But Kang Yujin also considered it a promise to the other Venerables and Zhuge Jin.
“Just because you’re Heracles...”
“Just because you’re a Constellation...”
“doesn’t make my defeat acceptable.”
"..."
“I had to win.”
“You are stronger than me, that’s true.”
“But the probability of me defeating you wasn’t zero.”
Kang Yujin’s attacks had barely worked against Heracles.
But it wasn’t as though there had been no path to victory.
For example...
if he could land his Awakening Skill [Shatter Everything], he could win.
Landing a punch precisely on the required point against Heracles would be extremely difficult.
But it surely wasn’t impossible.
There had to have been other methods too.
And yet Kang Yujin had failed to find them.
In the end, he had collapsed before Heracles.
“I could have won.”
“Kang Yujin...”
Heracles’s large eyes widened.
“You dare say you could have defeated Heracles?”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand how arrogant that sounds?”
“I don’t care whether it’s arrogant or not.”
It didn’t matter if his opponent was the legendary S-rank Constellation Heracles.
“As the Contractor of the great ‘Nameless King’... I had to win.”
"..."
Heracles stared silently into Kang Yujin’s face.
Then, slowly, he spoke again.
“Then... what should you do now?”
"..."
“You lost to me anyway.”
“What are you going to do from here?”
Kang Yujin was momentarily at a loss.
“That’s...”
“There’s only one answer, isn’t there?”
Heracles raised one arm.
Then his enormous hand came down...
and patted Kang Yujin on the head.
“You’ll just have to become strong enough to beat me.”
“What?”
“Don’t think you can beat me simply by struggling harder with your current level of ability.”
“It’s not impossible, but the odds are too low.”
“Heracles...”
“If you want a proper fight...”
“then ideally, you’ll have to become as strong as I am.”
With that, Heracles roughly rubbed Kang Yujin’s head as though petting a dog.
“Ghk, what are you doing?”
“Because I like you.”
“What?”
“I said I like you.”
Heracles finally let go of Kang Yujin’s head and stood.
With his enormous frame upright, the tent suddenly felt cramped.
“What do you say, Kang Yujin?”
“About what?”
“Do you want to become stronger?”
“That’s... obviously.”
“Good.”
Heracles grinned.
“Then look forward to it.”
“What?”
“Someday, I’ll train you myself.”
Leaving those words behind, Heracles walked out of the tent.
Heracles... is going to train me personally?
Hearing something he had never imagined, Kang Yujin blinked in disbelief.
When Heracles emerged from the tent, he smiled when he saw me waiting outside.
“He’s an interesting one.”
“Is he?”
“Yes.”
“Very interesting.”
Heracles began walking across the wasteland with long strides.
I followed beside him.
“And he has the potential.”
“Potential?”
“The potential of a hero.”
The potential of a hero.
What exactly did that mean?
“You mean... he has the potential to become a hero like you?”
“You could say that.”
That answer surprised me quite a bit.
Heracles, the greatest hero of Greece, had just said Kang Yujin possessed the potential to become a hero like him.
That was an enormous compliment.
“Why?”
“Planning to upload it to Constellation Tube?”
Heracles glanced at me with a smile.
“Do whatever you want.”
‘Kang Yujin, the next-generation hero acknowledged by Heracles.’
‘Kang Yujin, successor to Heracles.’
“Go ahead and exaggerate it as much as you like.”
“I don’t use headlines that sensational.”
Jason’s channel did that kind of thing.
“When I fought Kang Yujin earlier, I told him, ‘A human cannot defeat a hero.’”
“So?”
“Do you know what he said to me?”
“No idea.”
“He said, ‘If I can’t defeat you because I’m not a hero, then I’ll just become one.’”
Heracles’s expression became serious.
“With that mindset alone, he has enough potential to become a hero.”
“Can you explain what you mean?”
I was curious about Heracles’s perspective.
Not as the Constellation contracted with Kang Yujin.
Just out of pure interest.
“I was born with an extraordinarily powerful body.”
"..."
“But if I had spent my whole life causing trouble around my hometown, then I would’ve been nothing more than a strong thug.”
“It was by undertaking the Twelve Labors and everything that followed that I finally became a hero.”
“So being a hero is determined by your actions?”
“No.”
“If I had to put it into words, it’s the mentality that makes you choose those actions.”
Heracles gazed into the distance.
“A hero is not defined by physical ability.”
“A hero is defined by their spirit.”
"..."
Had Heracles seen that heroic spirit in Kang Yujin?
“And once someone truly becomes a hero, a way to win will somehow appear.”
“Whether the opponent is some primordial giant... or Heracles.”
“Wait.”
“That doesn’t sound like something mindset alone can solve...”
“That’s why I said a way somehow appears.”
“Maybe you meet a good master and grow stronger.”
“Maybe the heavens hand you a weapon.”
“Or if neither of those happens, maybe you suddenly come up with some brilliant strategy.”
Heracles said it almost like a joke.
I couldn’t tell how much of it he actually meant.
“So take care of him.”
“Make sure that mindset of his doesn’t waver.”
“I’ll remember that advice.”
Heracles’s words were definitely worth taking seriously.
“But... Heracles.”
“What?”
“You’re working with Merlin, aren’t you?”
“Is it really okay to give advice that helps Kang Yujin?”
“Why would it be a problem?”
Heracles answered without concern.
“Merlin’s objective is to make people like Kang Yujin stronger.”
"..."
“So if I make Kang Yujin stronger, then things are proceeding exactly according to Merlin’s plan.”
“Isn’t that right?”
It was true.
Merlin wanted to create an absolute powerhouse in preparation for Armageddon.
If Heracles trained Kang Yujin and made him stronger, that benefited Merlin.
“In the end, Merlin has arranged things so that no matter how events unfold, he gains something from them.”
"..."
“The one thing he can’t allow is Constellations descending directly into the Material Realm and wiping out the demons themselves.”
“That’s why he came personally this time to stop you.”
“Heracles, Merlin is...”
“Don’t try to squeeze information about Merlin out of me.”
“If you want that too, you’re being shameless.”
Heracles cut me off before I could finish.
I also wanted to ask why they needed Joyeuse.
But apparently, he had no intention of answering that either.
“We are only under a temporary truce.”
"..."
Fair enough.
The only reason we were walking side by side like this was because we had temporarily suspended hostilities until Heracles returned to the Spirit Realm.
Just as when I had brought Constellations to Paris...
Heracles couldn’t use the Gate on his own.
“Anyway, Heracles...”
“Are you going to attack us again?”
“Who knows.”
“Now that things have turned out this way, Merlin will probably use a different method.”
“I doubt he’ll send me again.”
“Really?”
“Of course, whether I go or not ultimately depends on me.”
“But I’m not particularly interested.”
“Because Jason persuaded you?”
“That’s a big part of it.”
Earlier, Jason had clung to Heracles and desperately tried to persuade him.
“You seem pretty close to Jason.”
“I think highly of him.”
“Otherwise, I would never have boarded the Argo.”
“Really?”
“His ability to judge people and put them to use is second to none.”
“Wouldn’t you agree?”
“And his shamelessness in ignoring whatever everyone else says and stubbornly walking his own path.”
“You understand his strengths well.”
Heracles grinned.
“Depending on the situation, we may clash again.”
“When that happens, be prepared.”
“So until then, the truce continues?”
“That’s how you should see it.”
In the end...
we had managed to secure a temporary truce with Heracles.
That was a significant achievement.
If Heracles openly became our enemy and began attacking us in earnest, it would be an enormous headache.
Still, the problem isn’t solved.
There was no way Merlin would simply back down after this.
He would undoubtedly threaten us again using some new method.
If he merely sent another Constellation like this time, I wasn’t particularly worried.
That much could be dealt with.
But...
If I were Merlin, I wouldn’t choose that method.
Next time...
I would start a real war.
