how void function can be return value? c++

Question

I do not understand, how void* function can be with return value. Code below, its work.

void *TcpClient::receive(int size=512)
{
char *buffer = new char[size];

if (recv(_sockfd , buffer , sizeof(buffer) , 0) < 0)
{
    std::cerr << "recv failed";
}

return buffer;
}

Answer 1

The function returns void*, i.e. the pointer to memory, not void.