The Knight King Who Returned with Gods : Chapter 4
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 4 Survivor
Leon Dragonia Lionheart.
The Hunter's Association
and the government are caught in a quandary over the survivor of the third
Black Gate to have appeared after 13 years.
Survivors are extremely
rare other-worlders from beyond the Gate.
They live in different
cultures and environments, some of which are oppressive or hostile to
Earthlings.
There are war heroes
sealed in ice walls, and vampires who can live forever.
There were descendants of
dragons, or dwarves who dug underground tunnels and defended fortresses.
All of them were no
pushovers, and each had their own stubbornness, but they tended to be content
to accept that their world had ended and to be treated as survivors.
Governments around the
world have the same policy towards survivors:
Bring them in somehow. If
they can't join the government, resettle them within the country.
As they were survivors of
a destroyed world, there were many who had excellent fighting power, and they
all had something special to offer.
Of course, not all
survivors were accepted. Some of the survivors had values that
the current human civilization could not accept.
And the latest survivor. Leon is the kind of
guy you don't really know how to deal with.
"What should I do?
Should I do some kind of court etiquette?"
"Uhm... I've seen
some historical dramas......."
The chief of the Hunter's
Association, Kim Jin-soo, and the deputy, Han Hari, looked at the survivor and
their benefactor with a puzzled expression.
Leon Dragonia Lionheart.
He claimed to be the king
of the Lionheart Kingdom.
He claimed to be the agent
of the Gods, a demigod, and an honorable knight.
His demeanor and speech
suggest a strictly hierarchical society. Three investigators attempted to
interview him, but he dismissed them with aggressive remarks.
Seolleongtang and Kimchi.
He refused to eat them, saying they were commoners' food.
Jjajangmyeon1. Although he
was briefly interested in the dish, he refused to eat it, saying that it was a
low-class dish with unsightly splatters of sauce.
They also tried to suggest
chicken, but it's also out because it's eaten with hands.
" ...... He is a
picky demon."
"I suppose so."
He rejected Earth's food
as the food of the common people just by looking at it. As a result, food had
to be flown in from the finest restaurants in the neighborhood.
"Hari... you go
first."
"M- me? I don't speak
sageuk2 well!"
"But he seems to like
you a bit. He even complimented you."
"All he said was that
I was brave...!"
Deputy Han Hari was brought in to deal with
this tricky survivor. The consensus was, given the favorable reception she got
from Leon in the Gate, she wasn't going to be kicked out.
"Ugh......."
Hari cautiously walked
over to Leon, who was gracefully slicing the finest T-bone steak and sipping a
'93 red wine.
"Your, Your
Majesty... may I be excused while you dine?"
"The swordswoman of
that time, sit down."
She's not immediately
dismissed. Hari sighed softly and clenched her fist against the cracked
reinforced glass for a moment.
'I'm sure my colleagues on the other side are
cheering me on.'
"How, how do you like
your meal?"
"Not bad. It reflects
the cook's dedication and painstaking effort."
“I'm happy to hear you liked it, Your
Majesty... We've sinned by serving you inferior food...."
"There's a misunderstanding."
Putting his knife away,
the blond man spoke soothingly,
"What I am pointing
out is the way you honor the king."
"A, and what are you
referring to?"
"When a royalty meets
with a representative of another nation, they should be treated with respect.
It's part of the dignity of your nation."
"Is, is that
so?"
"The food of the
commoners is as good for me. I was not raised to be so spoiled as to refuse
food on the battlefield. However, if you are standing in front of me as a
delegate of the nation's will, I expect you to show the same dignity."
In other words, the food
wasn't the reason for his behavior.
Hari honestly wondered why
he wouldn't just eat them, but if you think about it, you don't serve
McDonald's Big Macs when a head of state comes to visit.
"I see. I apologize
for the rudeness due to… limited knowledge......."
"Then that's enough. By the way, did you
say your name is Han?"
"Yes, yes, that is correct... My name is
Han Hari, Your Majesty."
Leon watched Hari mimic the sageuk bumblingly
and didn't tell her to ease up.
It was not for royalty to take it easy on
commoners.
"I've heard the tale
of this world."
"Ah...."
Despite his frustration
with the investigators, Leon was diligent in gathering information about this
world.
The investigators tried to
explain as much as they could about the Earth and its situation, so Leon had
some information.
"From what I can
gather, this place is under some sort of invasion. Gates. They appeared in my
world, too."
"Is that right?"
It was a common trope in
the survivors' testimony.
Gates. Portals.
Dimensional rifts.
Many names, but a common
trait.
"Demons. Those
particular creatures also haunt this planet, don't they?"
"Yes... they
do."
Hari had one mission.
First, to get him to join
the Hunter's Association, which is part of the Korean government.
The next was to make him
fit in, somehow, in this country called Korea.
The appearance of a
survivor always attracts the attention of the various governments in the world.
They'll try anything to bring them into their own nation.
In the 21st century,
scouting for survivors is at the center of espionage warfare.
Leon's value? As a
survivor, it doesn't need to be said.
Combat capability? Proven
by several associates.
The problem lies in his
insistence on hierarchy and his idiosyncrasies, but he's not that
incomprehensible in person. Above all──
'This person has a very clear sense of his own
worth.'
It's a sign of confidence
to be able to assume a commanding stance when dealing with an unfamiliar
inhabitant of another world.
Survivors tend to bend to
some degree when dealing with unpretentious types or nations.
You can't defeat a nation
as a single person. They instinctively know that nothing good will come from turning
against them.
But this man, Leon, is the
epitome of pride and self-respect.
He boldly demanded what he
didn't know and insisted that what he needed be given to him immediately.
He was a man who
considered himself noble, and as such, he would be dignified no matter who he
dealt with.
"Your Majesty... I
beg your pardon, but if it is acceptable to you, the government of the Republic
of Korea will handle your future position."
"What does that
mean?"
Hari slowly laid out the
options for him.
Become a hunter for the
nation.
Settle down and find
another path.
Whatever the case, the Association had made it
clear that it would support survivors, especially if they became national
hunters, emphasizing that the support would be enormous.
The upper echelons of the
Association still have no idea of Leon's value. But once they do, they'll be
happy to welcome him to Korea.
"This place is being
invaded by wicked creatures. An honorable knight must fight back. As long as I
am residing in your world, it is my duty to go to the battlefield."
"I see!"
Hari's face brightened.
‘He is actually more sensible than I thought,
isn't he?'
Many of the survivors
refused to enter the Gates or the Daemon Gates. They said they had no
obligation to get involved in another world's fight.
Those were the kind who
took every penny of the survivor resettlement money they could get.
'At least this one didn't seem to be that
shameless.'
"Then, if you join
our Hunter's Association──"
"No. A king cannot be
a part of another king's army."
'Huh? What does that mean?'
Hari wore a puzzled
expression.
He said he was perfectly happy not to be under
the government. Even in her own mind, she didn't think it would be in his best
interest to join the Association.
'But if he was telling the truth, wouldn't he
also refuse to join any other hunter's guild?'
"I will establish a
new Knight Order of my own in this world."
Hari could only barely nod
at Leon's ambitious declaration.
* * * *
"This is a strange
turn of events."
Chief Kim scratched his
head as he processed Leon's statement. Still, Hari gave a positive assessment,
"Not bad, isn't it?
At least he showed enough will to fight."
"Yeah, and he didn't
look like he wanted to go to another country."
Survivors as fit as Leon
are rare, even among the entire survivor population.
He's strong enough,
willing to fight by entering the Gates, and he's not hostile to the rest of
this world.
He's got the flaw of
having been raised in a hierarchical society, but that doesn't mean he's behaving
in a way that goes against the rules.
"Still, when he asked
to meet the President, I was horrified."
"Uh... you didn't
give him permission, did you?"
"I didn't want to
cross swords with him. He can put his sword into subspace and summon it at
will."
"I don't even have a
subspace pouch, so how does that work?"
If some random survivor
starts swinging a sword at the President... that would be a national emergency.
"What are we gonna
do?"
"Well... we'll
support him as much as we can."
That was the conclusion of
the Association's meeting.
Curry his favor and help
him settle in the country as much as possible.
For them, it was worth it,
even if it meant spending an astronomical amount of money.
"Our country's
government is too weak......."
"This is all because
of the big guilds who only care about money and power."
Korea's deeply ingrained
ills were still ailing the nation.
"By the way, before
we go into the Black Gate, wasn't there a Scarlet Gate recently, up in the
Honam Plain?"
"Yes, the Phoenix
Guild picked it up."
"I hope it goes
well... if something happens over there, we'll be in real trouble."
After the cataclysm, the
world was ravaged by dungeon breaks everywhere.
The problem with dungeon
breaks isn't just the monsters spilling out. As the cracks in the gates opened,
they let out "maso" along with the monsters.
Maso is a deadly poison
that erodes space and curses the land. The land eroded by maso had to be
cleaned up for at least a year before crops could be planted.
In other words, a dungeon
break in an agricultural area was fatal enough to ruin the year's harvest.
"The Phoenix Guild is
still home to S-class Hunter Lee Yong-wan, so even a Scarlet Gate shouldn't be
that difficult."
"......Yeah."
Chief Kim Jin-soo wondered
if he should tell Han Hari the information from the NIS3 that he had received.
Recently, the Phoenix Guild has been acting
suspiciously ever since they asked the government for an exemption and were
denied.
-Triring!
"Huh?"
At that moment, the phones
of Chief Kim Jin-soo and Deputy Han Hari vibrated at the same time. Triring,
triring, an ominous ringing noise.
[Honam Plain Gate Dungeon
Break occurs, all active personnel please stand by].
Seeing the message, the
two of them shouted in unison,
""Phoenix Guild,
you bastards!!!""
* * * * *
They must have thought
that being behind the enchanted glass would prevent him from hearing them, but
Leon had a clear grasp of the voices from the other side.
His blessed body was
already beyond human physique. He was a living saint. In other words, a
demigod.
'Looks like they're in trouble.'
It wasn't the dungeon
break that was the problem, it was the fact that it happened to be in an
agricultural area.
Apparently, when a dungeon
break occurs, the land becomes contaminated and crops don't grow........
'As
expected, there seems to be none.'
This convinced Leon that
'they' are absent on Earth.
'Bad harvests' and 'bad
crops' are all but certain proof.
'O Demera4. Are you well?'
He asked her well-being in
the 'temple' hidden in his heart.
────
She gladly responded to
the agent of the Pantheon.
***
Notes:
1 Korean-style Chinese noodle dish topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang, diced pork, and vegetables.↩
2 Polite language used in Korea’s kingdom era ↩
3 National Intelligence Service ↩
4 The goddess of life and fertility ↩
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