Chapter 185

Chapter 185## Chapter 185

### Earthlings of Another World (2)

The morning following their arrival in Rohan,

The moment Hesperon woke up, the four champions of the hero party, accompanied by the royal princess, assembled inside his medical bay to hold a council.

Their ultimate mission, after all, was the eradication of Immortal King Hans.

Given that members of their group had been imprisoned within his stronghold and managed a successful breakout, gathering their firsthand intelligence was an absolute priority.

Naturally, none of the others suspected that three of the six individuals gathered in that room were merely different guises of a single person.

“…And that is how we managed a narrow escape from the fortress. The journey afterward was largely uneventful. We traveled southward through territories overrun by dark beasts until you intervened to save us from the Griffin.”

Though Hesperon was now awake, his body was still mending, so Riley took the initiative to narrate their ordeal.

Hesperon merely rested against his pillows, prepared to chime in only if necessary, though her narrative proved so precise and structured that he had no need to speak.

“Mmm, the Immortal Fortress. I was aware that the Immortal King maintained a stronghold within the Northern Mountains, but its location in such a perilous zone has kept anyone from mapping it directly…”

Heinrich listened with profound focus, his eyes narrowing as he visualized the layout before speaking further once she concluded.

“We are in your debt for these critical details. They will prove invaluable when we finally march against the Immortal King.”

Isea, who already possessed a baseline understanding of the events, and Geos, who stood casually against the wall with his hands wrapped around his spear, both maintained grim countenances.

Only Harley seemed entirely detached, drifting off to sleep.

“…However, something troubles me.”

Geos spoke up suddenly, a sharp glint returning to his eyes.

Breaking from his typically reserved demeanor, he became intensely focused now that the conversation centered on their ultimate adversary.

“Your account seems to omit the precise mechanics of your flight from the Immortal King’s keep. Specifically, how you bypassed the defenses overseen by Banshee Queen Olivia.”

“As I mentioned, we succeeded because of Hesperon’s unique supernatural talent…”

“Forgive me, Princess, but this is not a detail we can simply overlook. Discovering a method to bypass security measures that the Immortal King undoubtedly perfected is a tactical breakthrough. We must analyze this for the battles ahead.”

Geos Calkin spoke with an uncharacteristic eloquence.

Heinrich and Isea, unaccustomed to hearing him speak at such length, stared at him in astonishment, and even the dozing Harley blinked his eyes open to watch.

“If this is a unique talent, what makes it potent enough to shatter such defenses? Does its activation rely on a highly specific set of parameters? Furthermore, can the underlying principles be adapted into other magical frameworks?”

He went quiet for a moment, shifting his gaze away from Riley to lock his eyes directly onto Hesperon, who remained propped up on the mattress.

The habitual gloom in his expression had vanished, replaced by a fierce, demanding curiosity.

“Lest we forget, our foe is Immortal King Hans. The very monster responsible for tearing down the Rohan Duchy we currently occupy and slaughtering countless souls across this continent. We cannot afford to be sentimental about withholding strategic secrets.”

“…Hmph.”

Riley found himself without a quick counterargument and merely grunted.

Though Geos was acting aggressively, his logic was sound.

In any ordinary circumstances, such an appeal would have drawn immediate support from the rest of the room.

The singular irony was that Geos was the sole outsider present who remained completely in the dark.

*‘Wait a moment. This might actually work out in my favor.’*

The man was demanding a public disclosure of a hidden technique under the guise of the greater good—which meant it was a precedent that could be exploited later!

For someone who had been eyeing that very methodology, this confrontation provided an ideal opening.

“Well, it isn’t a secret I am desperate to keep guarded.”

Having rapidly calculated his move, Hesperon spoke with complete indifference under the weight of Geos’s scrutiny.

“To be perfectly frank, I am not entirely familiar with the mechanics of this power myself. It has been fewer than two months since I even manifested it.”

“What… Are you claiming you were captured by the Immortal King almost immediately after entering the Northern Mountains upon awakening this power?”

“Ah, I didn’t travel there by choice. I simply materialized in that region. You see, I am an otherworlder from a different reality!”

“…An otherworlder?”

Geos frowned, looking highly skeptical at this sudden revelation.

Isea stiffened slightly beside him, though she quickly masked her reaction and maintained a neutral expression.

“And since the capability manifested during that transition… I don’t possess much technical data to share.”

He gave a slight shrug to punctuate his statement.

In truth, Hesperon had intended to utilize this narrative framework from the very beginning, meaning it wasn’t a massive concession.

He had no intention of advertising his origin to the public, but he saw no reason to go to extreme lengths to conceal it either.

*‘Consider it a piece of bait.’*

He wanted to observe Geos’s response, noting that the spearman had been tilting his head in deep concentration ever since the term ‘otherworlder’ was uttered.

“Sir Geos? Let us table this topic for now. Prying into the granular mechanics of his abilities serves little purpose at this juncture.”

“Ah!… Understood, Saint. It seems I require more context to fully grasp such an anomaly.”

“It would be far more practical to defer the matter to Lady Isea, our Archmage. Her understanding of exotic phenomena far exceeds our own.”

“Quite right. I allowed my urgency to get the better of me.”

With Heinrich stepping in to defuse the tension, Geos’s intense focus subsided, and the protracted briefing finally drew to a close.

“This meeting ran far longer than I anticipated. I must depart for the military encampment. Please use the remainder of the day to recuperate, as there are no further duties on the registry.”

“Hahaha! In that case, I shall head into the wilderness for a hunt! Sitting still was driving me mad, so this works out perfectly!”

One by one, the companions departed the chamber to attend to their personal affairs.

Yet, the room did not empty completely.

Just as Riley slipped past the threshold, carefully reading the room’s lingering energy…

“Hesperon? Do you have a moment to spare? There are a few matters I wish to discuss with you in private.”

Isea, who had remained behind, observed him with half-closed eyes and offered a subtle smile.

—

At the central headquarters of the World Returnee Association, located within the United States.

*Click— Click!*

“Phew, that takes care of that. Ah!”

The clerk, having finally finished logging the latest intelligence packet, stretched his locked joints before falling back into his seat.

“Ugh— the paperwork in this place is truly endless.”

As a staff member within the Association’s ‘Otherworld Situation Analysis Team,’ his primary responsibility involved aggregating field reports from various sectors to maintain an updated profile on each active dimension.

While it often felt like a thankless corporate grind, the repository he maintained was immensely sought after.

It granted unawakened civilians vital advanced data regarding alien environments, drastically raising their odds of survival if selected, while serving as a news feed for returnees wishing to keep tabs on their former realms.

In reality, even if an ordinary citizen underwent an awakening, they remained unaware of their destination until the localized rift claimed them, meaning the statistical odds of drawing a world they had researched among hundreds of options were quite low.

Even so, possessing even a basic overview was infinitely superior to being dropped into an alien landscape completely blind.

*‘If fate lands them in a realm they have already studied, they can drastically shorten their acclimation period and keep themselves alive.’*

The data backed this up, as evidenced by the steady climb in global survival and return statistics.

*‘Granted, from an operational standpoint, keeping up with the temporal variances makes the data updates a nightmare.’*

Because the central branch was required to collect and cross-reference intelligence from global satellites and regional offices, finalized entries were frequently rendered obsolete the moment they were posted.

Compounding the frustration was the sheer difficulty of verifying information stemming from dimensions that had only recently entered observation parameters.

Given that these compiled archives were distributed internationally, false entries could not be tolerated, demanding rigorous authentication protocols.

Yet, when dealing with a realm lacking established contacts or a steady stream of returnees, validation became an uphill battle.

*‘Fortunately, this particular dimension proves much easier to verify.’*

He nodded quietly to himself, reviewing the profile he had just committed to the live database.

“`
[New Entry] Auterica Dimension.

“`

While the total number of survivors from this sector remained low, the verification loop concluded swiftly because the handful of returnees provided near-identical descriptions of the geopolitical landscape.

Their departure windows were closely aligned as well, meaning their understanding of current events lacked significant discrepancies.

*‘…They report systemic instability across the continent due to the manifestation of the Demon King.’*

Monster hordes were actively destabilizing multiple sovereign territories, a minor principality had completely fractured, and an entire nation had fallen under the absolute dominion of vampire Devils who capitalized on the regional vulnerability.

Consequently, the association had tagged the location’s threat index as ‘Severe, Extreme Caution Advised.’

It was precisely the type of environment where low-ranking awakened individuals who failed to hoard adequate Karma ahead of time would immediately trigger their return protocols.

*‘Regardless, that is a problem for those deployed there. It’s getting late; I should pack up and head home.’*

His operational duties were complete; the utilization of the data now rested with the consumers.

With the update pushed live, the packet originating from the World Returnee Association Headquarters rippled across global networks via the internet.

In a matter of minutes, automated systems and freelance linguists translated the text into dozens of languages, making it accessible to global subscribers.

It stood as the most current overview of foreign dimensions available to the public, provided one paid the subscription fee.

“Oh? They are finally publishing records on this sector? It appears a significant number of Earthlings were dropped into Auterica.”

Among the users monitoring the network updates was Han Seong-hyeon, currently enjoying a quiet, civilian life in South Korea, far across the Pacific.

Having just completed his evening workout and stepped out of the shower in his private gym, he noted the fresh data stream on his phone while drying off with a towel.

Though the entry lacked high-level strategic details, it was vastly superior to the barren profiles of the past, suggesting a fresh wave of returnees had contributed their logs.

Yet, one specific line item drew a frown from him…

“`
– The continent of Ion is currently experiencing widespread destabilization due to the incursion of the Demon King, identified locally as ‘Immortal King Hans.’ Outbreaks of madness have been observed across all regional monster populations…

“`

Even back on Earth, the Immortal King’s moniker was being logged as ‘Hans.’

He had largely resigned himself to this outcome, yet a small part of him had hoped his aggressive counter-branding campaign might have yielded results.

Evidently, his efforts had failed to alter the vocabulary of the Earthlings running around Auterica.

“Tsk, nothing to be done about it now.”

In the grand scheme of things, he didn’t need to stress over the Immortal King title, considering the public here recognized him as the Hahoe Mask.

The foreign name was merely a footnote on a digital server.

*‘Mmm, the supplementary findings are solid, though. Reviewing this properly would definitely streamline someone’s integration process… I certainly could have used a briefing like this when I first arrived.’*

He stroked his jawline, scrolling through the breakdowns regarding Auterica.

“`
– Heinrich Saint Landguard, representing the Main God Church—the preeminent theological power within Auterica—is actively leading a coalition against the Immortal King, preventing an outright collapse of the defensive lines. However, the theater remains highly volatile…

– The Talia Kingdom, situated in the western expanses of the Ion Continent, has fallen under the complete administration of vampire Devils. While the strict governance of the Vampire Monarch has prevented external spillover thus far, the region remains a geopolitical powder keg…

“`

Naturally, the majority of these summaries covered events he had personally navigated.

In fact, saying he merely ‘navigated’ them was an understatement, given that he had been the primary catalyst behind most of those historical shifts.

*‘Wait, what is this?’*

His eyes caught a paragraph that wasn’t entirely redundant.

To his surprise, the document contained a piece of intelligence that had escaped his personal network.

“`
– A sudden coup d’état has destabilized the Calcos Tribal Federation to the south of the Ion Continent. Specific operational details remain scarce due to a total information blackout enforced by the conspirators. Given the region’s historic hostility toward outsiders, newly arrived individuals who manifest in this sector should…

“`

*‘A coup?’*

He was well aware that the southern Tribal Federation was a boiling pot of internal conflicts, and he had already slated the region for an upcoming excursion.

He had merely delayed the trip to settle his affairs closer to home.

*‘An internal overthrow? And executed with such precision that the established intelligence networks across Auterica were kept completely blind?’*

Granted, the Tribal Federation was notoriously insular, making it a natural blind spot for continental spies, but concealing a regime change of that scale required an extraordinary level of operational security.

It implied the architects behind the plot were meticulous planners.

*‘However, even the most thorough information blockade cannot account for an Earthling escaping the dimension entirely. For a source to provide this level of detail, they must have occupied a position close to the upper echelons of that conspiracy.’*

In any event, he was pleased to receive the update.

“Hmm… A southern coup. How can I turn this to my advantage? It would be ideal if I could extract a more comprehensive picture of the local layout.”

Significant political upheavals invariably yielded massive quantities of Karma.

Furthermore, the southern territories offered distinct advantages and resources tailored specifically for Harley’s development.

*‘It is his ancestral homeland, after all!’*

Naturally, that was an assertion Harley had decided on entirely by himself.

But if he simply broke the backs of any locals who chose to object, they would eventually see the sincerity of his claim, wouldn’t they?

With that thought, a highly enticing opportunity began to take shape in the south—a destination he had previously sidelined due to a lack of actionable intelligence.