The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 496

There were no longer any elements in my life that could get in my way, and from the position of having even become a martyr, if I engaged in official outside activities, the structure of things meant it would inevitably become extremely troublesome.

There were probably many reasons why they had packaged me not merely as someone whose achievements were being honored, but as a martyr close to a saint.

After thinking it over, I made a decision.

I would move once the rumors died down.

So I suppressed information as much as possible, informed only the people who needed to know, and then went into hiding.

If I announced my return while my value was soaring like this, troublesome elements beyond imagination would latch on.

Whether I liked it or not, if I disappeared for about two to three years, the postwar cleanup would be over, and public opinion would have withered away too.

To be honest, it was quite a good choice.

Living life while thinking of nothing but what was right in front of me, enjoying myself, and carrying on without needing to concern myself with anything.

In that way, two full years flew by.

Elpiria, who had only been flailing her arms and legs in her cradle, grew so much over those two years.

She succeeded in turning over, succeeded in sitting up, stood while holding onto the wall, and even got up on her own.

Her speech was still clumsy, but she had reached the point where she could imitate simple words well.

“Dada, hodd! Hodd!”

When Elpiria toddled over to me and stretched both arms up, I picked her up, and the little thing laughed, kyarureuk, as if she were so happy, urging me to hurry up and play with her.

However, Elpiria’s play threshold was so high that it surpassed our imagination.

And since that threshold was growing higher and higher, it was no small cause for worry.

“Brother…… I’m dying…….”

Arsha, who had already played with Elpiria for quite a while, was half-exhausted.

Not only her, but Nessi, who could not live without Arsha, had already fled into the deep sea, and Radon and the black dragon hatchling were also completely sprawled out.

That was what it meant for her threshold to be high.

To satisfy Elpiria, playing with her at an ordinary level simply would not work, so we had to play on a fairly large scale, and when we did that, even a Sword Master seemed to get tired.

Whether physically or mentally. Because of that, today, it seemed that Elpiria’s victims were gathering to hold a countermeasures meeting.

Only after playing with her for a long while did I lay Elpiria, who had fallen soundly asleep, down on the bed, then headed to Melissa’s office.

There were Luna, Lispa, Arsha.

Melissa.

And surprisingly, even Ashuria was there.

The reason Isna was not visible was probably because she was again wandering all over the place, committing eccentric acts here and there.

It was good news.

She, whose life had been denied because of the Outer God Yog, had finally been saved, and like an unbridled colt, she was now freely carrying out all the eccentric things she had been unable to do until now.

When I had seen her not long ago, there was no need to even say how relieved her expression had looked.

How happy she had seemed.

Perhaps the one who had wished for Yog’s death the most was not me, but her.

“Professor. You’re here?”

“Yeah.”

I could clearly feel the realm of a complete 6th Circle Archmage from her.

As if to prove she was a talented one.

After I returned from the subspace, Ashuria had astonishingly climbed the wall of the 6th Circle at a young age.

She had entered the ranks of Archmages.

Because of that, for a while, the world had apparently been in an uproar, saying that a divinity had appeared, that a new talent with the makings of a Demon Star had emerged, and so on.

However, she seemed to have no interest at all in outside affairs and such, so long as she could learn magic from me.

“Now. Let’s begin the meeting.”

Melissa opened her mouth with an expression that was trying hard to look weighty.

“The 18th Elpiria Countermeasures Meeting.”

At first listen, it sounded like we were dealing with some hostile target, but to be precise, that was not it.

The current situation, in which Elpiria’s play threshold was gradually rising, was quite serious.

“At this rate, the child is going to become a dopamine addict.”

The one who cut the starting line was Arsha, holding Radon in her arms.

Elpiria basically liked everyone she saw around her, but she had an especially strong fondness for Grivy and Arsha, who often played with her.

If she were just an ordinary child, that would be one thing, but since Elpiria possessed a strange power, her stamina could not be compared to that of an ordinary child.

“Right now, it’s only to the extent that she plays like that. But if she still does that after she grows up, then on a day when she accidentally causes some incident…….”

“The problem is how we solve it…….”

Elpiria was not yet in a state where we could teach her with words.

Since everyone already knew the situation, Melissa opened her mouth seriously.

“Everyone, try offering one opinion each.”

I opened my mouth.

“Picture books?”

“Music.”

Starting with Luna’s and my opinions.

“Wouldn’t it work if we taught her magic?”

Ashuria’s answer.

“How about showing her a play?”

There was also Arsha’s answer.

Of course, not a single one of them was an answer we could be properly certain about.

It was then.

Lispa, who had been slumped there with her chin propped on one hand, said,

“Why not just give her one filthy difficult puzzle? The kid is pretty clever, and if she gets interested in it, she’ll hold onto it all day. She’ll naturally get a sense of achievement too, and it’ll be good for her development. And regardless of her threshold being high, it’s not something she can finish in a short time.”

Our gazes, which had been deep in thought, turned toward her.

Melissa sprang to her feet.

“Employee of the Month.”

“What are you saying? I need to go to the Holy Kingdom for a bit. I don’t think I’ll be able to come for a while.”

“Finally getting lost?”

“Hey. It’s 100 years. You know there are 78 years left now, right? After that, if you try to bind me with human laws, it’s going to stop being fun.”

A chill swept through my whole body.

Lispa smiled brightly at me, then turned into light and scattered.

Then, according to her opinion, we had to make a puzzle that Elpiria could get interested in.

* * *

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Since that was the case, we needed people with related knowledge.

I called not only the Ryeong siblings, but also Marianne, the Dream Demon Princess, to the workshop.

“I’m thinking of making a puzzle.”

“Should we make a puzzle that used to be famous in the Eastern Continent?”

The first to speak was Cheon Ryeong.

“I believe that if we use the Paradise Artifact, we can make the puzzle even more varied.”

Hwa Ryeong’s opinion was not bad either, but I felt that if we kept using the Paradise Artifact, it might have a bad influence on the child.

“I’ll check out the children’s toys that have been passed down among Dream Demons.”

“Good. Then let’s start working.”

To be honest, as far as puzzles I knew how to make went, I had never really thought of anything besides drawing a picture and cutting it into pieces, or a cube.

However, whichever one it was, they felt somewhat difficult for Elpiria, who was only two or three years old, to handle, so I felt the need to create a system where the puzzle would operate on its own with even a slight movement.

We had plenty of money and plenty of technicians, so there was no problem anywhere.

Now the remaining problem was how to make Elpiria enjoy the puzzle.

Since her threshold was high, even when we gave her an airplane ride, we had to fly around at tremendous speed for the child to be satisfied.

In that case…….

[If you attach a reward psychology to it, I believe intervals will form, and a sense of purpose will also arise.]

You, Employee of the Month.

Unlike the old text, its form had changed a little.

Over the past two years or so, the Librarian had restored many of its broken parts while coming into contact with the Martial God’s Hall.

I had been a little nervous, thinking it might disappear completely, but it was resolved well.

First of all, making a basic cube-shaped puzzle was not difficult.

I refined crude oil containing mana to a certain degree and extracted naphtha, then refined plastic with that.

Then, I colored it and made a cube with nine squares on each face.

It would be hard for a small child’s hands to handle, so I also made it so that pressing a button would rotate the corresponding direction.

It would be easy if I made it with the Paradise Artifact…… but I did not want to let her get accustomed to virtual reality.

Looking with satisfaction at the prototype made that way, I immediately took it and brought it to Elpiria.

“Elpiria.”

“Dada! Dada!”

Elpiria stretched her hands toward me and fussed as if telling me to hurry up and carry her and run.

Normally, I would have picked Elpiria up and gone out right away.

But this time was different.

For a little girl, she was active to a truly surprising degree, so I was worried.

Still, it was fortunate that she did not let go of her attachment doll.

“Elpiria. Watch carefully.”

She did not properly understand me, but the child’s eyes were full of anticipation.

I twisted the cube, whose colors were unified one face at a time, this way and that, mixing up the colors.

Then the child’s eyes went round.

“Watch carefully. Elpiria. Turn this like this and turn it like this.”

At a suitable speed, I turned the faces this way and that so Elpiria could see it and understand.

It did not matter if she did not understand.

After all, it was not even a toy made for a two- or three-year-old child to play with.

However.

It was enough for her to try the process in her own way.

Afterward, I installed the additional device I had made.

Because I had made it in a design that a child would likely take interest in, Elpiria’s eyes sparkled.

“Now. Try pressing this.”

When Elpiria pressed the button firmly with her little hand, the corresponding face of the cube installed inside automatically moved.

After I then pressed a few other buttons here and there for her, Elpiria seemed to become interested and began pressing buttons randomly on her own.

Let’s start with this for now.

After all, even if I tried to plant in her a sense of purpose that she had to match the same colors, it would not be easy.

Even though I seated Elpiria, who had started playing with the toy by herself, on my lap, she began pressing this and that button at random, as if she were concentrating on the new toy.

“Kyarureureuk!”

When she pressed a button, the cube installed inside moved.

Astonishingly, Elpiria seemed to have understood the very goal of making different colors become the same.

Ohh…… Did she notice that?

After pressing this and that at random for a while, Elpiria soon made a tearful face.

“Uwaaaang!!”

Because the colors would not match the way she wanted, she seemed to be getting frustrated.

At that, I held Elpiria’s hand and pressed the buttons this way and that, matching the colors for her.

Elpiria’s eyes filled with interest and curiosity.

Then, when all the faces quickly turned the same color, Elpiria clapped her hands while giggling, kyarureuk, as if she were so excited.

“Now. Shall we try it one more time?”

When I let go of her hand, telling her to try it herself now, Elpiria pressed the button that mixed it.

Then the cube inside rapidly spun this way and that, mixing up the colors.

And then.

She looked at me.

“Uh…… Why?”

“Dada! Dada! This! Fwast!”

Only then did I realize that I should not be doing this for her myself.

It was a beginner parent’s mistake.

Still.

It was better than flying around with a child at supersonic speed…….

In truth, I had also thought that if this worked out well, I could make it as a children’s toy and sell it here and there.

But it seemed I had thought too lightly of a child’s psychology.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]