Everyone Else is a Returnee

After Yumir saved tens of children from the threat of a monster, they followed him, calling him hero.

“I’m going this way.”
“Hero!”
“Wait for me, hero!”

These children were born after the 1st Great Cataclysm, so they were at most three or four years old, but they were smarter than their age, and were bigger in size as well.
Not only did they speak well, they understood Yumir’s words, and even followed him. Even if it was being baits to draw in monsters with their life on the line! They completely believed in him because Yumir had saved their lives once.

This was a very strange matter, but Yumir was born with the ability to speak, as he was a dragon, so he did not know what was strange with those humans, and just thought that it was convenient because they understood him.

The strange thing about the children wasn’t limited to just that. They ate the poisonous and cursed food well, and although it was difficult to find out due to the environment they were in, they were becoming stronger at insane speeds.

And Yumir knew why they were becoming stronger. Party play? No way. To level up through contribution during hunts, the children were too weak. Yumir would be satisfied if they just didn’t get in the way. The answer was much simpler than that.

“I level up when I eat meat!”
“I get strange skills too.”
“I also level up if I eat dragon meat.”
“Dragon! Hero is amazing!”

It wasn’t so rare to level up by eating monster meat. At least, among monsters, that is. Growing through eating the meat of one’s own kin was very natural.
However, these children were no monsters, nor were the monsters their own kin. Yumir pondered on that for quite awhile, but had to give up.

“Being strong is a good thing.”

If mankind knew of this matter, they would get noisy, saying ‘Humankind has evolved according to the harsh environments of the Earth’, or ‘This is proof that humans are becoming monsters!’ or whatnot, but right now, they were scattered over many worlds.
As one that only wors.h.i.+pped power presently, Yumir just thought that it was a good thing that they were becoming stronger, so he continued feeding them the monster meat. And to do that, he had to kill the monsters.

And one day.

[You have learned the skill, Rule.]

“Huh?”

Just as he was putting some grilled monster meat into the last girl’s mouth, some text appeared on Yumir’s retina.

“Huh?”
“Hero?”

When Yumir stopped moving, the child looked at him in confusion. Although this girl was only a crawling newborn when Yumir first saved her, right now, she looked like she was 5 or 6 years old. There were differences in growth rate among the children, and currently, she was growing up the fastest.

“Hm.”

Yumir, who read the text that appeared on his retina, remembered that his father, Yu IlHan, possessed the same skill. To Yumir, his father was the symbol of absolute power. He was happy that he became like him, even if it was a little.

“Who wants to be my underling?”
“Me!”
“Me too!”

The child right in front of him raised her hand in a flash. After that, the other children also raised their hands. However, as he had just acquired the skill, he could not take all of them. Yumir first decided to make the strongest 4 his underlings.
Of course, ‘strongest’ didn’t even amount to level 20, but considering that they only ate what Yumir give them while following him (though, they did suffer quite a bit), this was an insane speed of growth.

“If you become stronger I’ll make you my underlings.”
“Yeah!”
“Exciting!”

The children that became his underlings were excited, and the ones that couldn’t resolved themselves to become so in the future. But at that time, Yumir succeeded in finding new presences of humans again.

“Little children again.”
“Close? Are they close?”
“Hero, you’ll save them, right?”

Yumir looked back at the children he had saved and nodded seriously.

“More underlings are better.”
“Let’s go, now!”
“Be careful not to get in the way, you’ll die if you aren’t careful.”

Although he could have raised their morale, but he killed their morale instead. However, the children obediently listened to him. They knew plenty of the gap in them and Yumir, as well as the gap between them and the monsters. Really, their thought processes were unbelievable for their age.

[Kguooooooh!]
“Eek!”

It seemed like the ones that felt the children wasn’t only Yumir, as he could hear a monster roar in the distance. Their movement speeds were unbelievably fast so if he took any more time staying here, then it was likely that he would be met with a cruel scene.

“This won’t do.”

Since he had decided to save them, he thought that he couldn’t miss them right in front of his eyes, and kicked off the ground and ran. The power of concealment, more natural to him than breathing, hid Mir from the world, and even deceived the laws of physics.

“Hhhhhhhhp!”
[Kihiaaaaaa!]

Another round of roars. The screams of the children was farther away. When Yumir judged that he wasn’t too late, he put more power into his steps. The power of wind instantly amplified and pushed him forward!

[Kuhuuuuuu!]
“Hah!”

He had ran for an unknown amount of time, when he saw the back of a monster emitting frost from all over its body.
Yumir accelerated once again with wind without any hesitation. The distance between the monster’s head and Yumir was instantly closed, but his concealment had not worn off yet.

“Hhp!”

Just before they collided, Yumir pushed his fist forward. The blood in his body raised the magic in his body and strengthened his fist to be even harder than his bones.

[Critical Hit!]
[Kahak!]

The monster instantly fell over due to that strike. Beyond that, Yumir could see the children of Earth hugging each other and s.h.i.+vering in fear. Unlike the first round of children, they were still in fear after looking at Yumir.

“He, suddenly appeared.”
“Scary…..”

It seemed like they feared everything they met since they wandered around by themselves for so long. Yumir became a little proud when he heard that he was scary, but since he had not completely defeated the enemy, he decided to thank them later.

Wrapping wind around his body, he concealed himself again. The demon was still rolling on the ground after the critical hit, so did not notice Yumir concealing himself. This, would bring about a more painful result for the demon!

[Critical Hit!]
[Kuhaaaaaak!]

Being surprise attacked, no ice or magic would help. Moreover, it wouldn’t be so intact after being hit with a full strike from a dragon just before 4th cla.s.s!

Now that Yumir had succeeded in his surprise attack, the more-than 50 levels gap between them no longer mattered. At least, that’s what Yumir learned from Yu IlHan. Though, to be exact, he learned that all of his own accord despite not having many chance to learn from him at all.

[Kuoooooooh!]
“That hurts no? It will be easy if you give up. I’ll make you rest easy soon.”
“Hiiik, scary!”

Yumir looked down on the demon with two fatal wounds on its body and laughed. His smile was becoming more like Yu IlHans. The children s.h.i.+vered more after looking at that.

“Scary.”
“So scary.”

After Yumir cleaned up the monster, the children at that place couldn’t even look at him properly, nor could they run away, so they just stood there s.h.i.+vering. Well, this was no surprise and in fact, was the norm since the person in front of them had just killed a frightening monster that was taller than 10m in height. This was fear, and admiration!

“Fufufufu.”

Yumir became even more proud after thinking that, and the children who arrived late was in confusion before running towards the new children.

“He’s the hero.”
“He’s our master.”
“Hero? Master?”

However, there was no way young children would be able to explain things properly! In the end, the oldest (4 years old) who amazingly realized that this would bring about more confusion, said in a serious voice.

“We just need to listen to him!”
“Listen…….”
“To him?”
“Then you can live!”

The children were still confused, but this seemed to be the clearest explanation the had heard. Confusion gradually died down, and their eyes looking at Yumir became lively again.

“I will listen to you.”
“Please save me!”
“Okay!”

Yumir accepted them all without the slightest bit of hesitation! Now that the situation was cleared up, Yumir felt better, and took a piece of meat out from the monster for himself to eat, and distributed the rest to the others as he spoke.

“You guys eat too!”
“Yes!”

The children all ate the monster, and became stronger a little. Although this had never happened on Earth until now, nor should it happen, for the children here, none of that mattered.

“It’s tasty after a while!”
“I got this level thing!”
“Uu, I was so hungry!”

What Yumir was curious about was how these children managed to survive and not die of starvation until he came to save them, but even the people in question did not seem to know.

‘Their bodies are full of mana. They must have absorbed mana to survive.’

Judged Yumir after looking at the state of their bodies. And according to his knowledge, there was only one type of life form that could survive on mana alone.

‘So they’re monsters and not human after all?’

In fact, none of that would matter to him. What was important to him was to become stronger like his dad, just that alone. The children were no more than stepping stones for him. Of course, he would have to protect them and make them stronger in the process as well. Everything was what his dad once did!

“Well, then. If you ate then let’s go. Now, you guys need to do what I say as well, okay?”
“Yes!”
“Un!”

Like that, Yumir’s army numbered 78. However, the growth of the army had just started. There was no way only 78 had survived out of all the babies born over three years.

Of course, the overwhelmingly vast majority of them would have died. If they fell next to a monster, they would instantly meet their deaths, and even if they weren’t so unlucky, if they did not acquire the power to turn mana into life energy, they died as well.
Only the ones with the most exceptional talent among the children endured until Yumir’s rescue.

“Hero!”
“Follow the hero!”

1 year had pa.s.sed. The army increased to around 5,800 people, and the ones with the fastest growth rate looked to be around 12 years of age. Half of them had reached 2nd cla.s.s, and the four that became Yumir’s subordinates the fastest was harboring around level 70. Such was their insane rate of growth.

And as for Yumir himself.

[There are guys over there too. It’s bothersome so some of you get on my back and let’s go.] (Yumir)
“I want to get on!”
“I want to get on the hero too!”

He was reborn as a splendid dragon of the 4th cla.s.s.

Author"s notes

Translator"s notes
That "event" is a character popularity poll…. should I do it? Nah, Yumir best child, Mother best girl.