The Knight King Who Returned with Gods : Chapter 6
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 6 Divinity (2)
"Hello, it's been a long time since I turned on the
livestream. I'm Mr. Park, a farmer from Jeolla Province."
-What are you doing at this time?
-When will you upload the traditional Korean liquor
content?
Farmer Park was a farmer who was also a part-time
YubTuber.
He was a typical local YubTuber who showed his rural life
through farming content, eating frogs, and wild boar hunting.
He was here to see the rice fields of his friend Mr. Kim,
a farmer whose job was recently disrupted by the appearance of a gate.
"Didn't I mention in the community that Mr. Kim's
field is currently occupied by a gate?"
- ㅇㅇ You did
-The Phoenix Guild won the bid.
-Mr. Kim, set up a table for the Phoenix Guild hunters to
eat and drink so they could sort it out.
"Oh, but I heard that the dungeon break
happened?"
-Mr. Park don't lie
-S-class Yong-wan, and over 40 A-class from Phoenix can't
clear a Scarlet Gate?
-Bullshit ㄴㄴ
Even if Lee Yong-wan didn't do it himself, it would still be easy enough.
The viewers' reactions made Mr. Park feel frustrated,
because he had seen Mr. Kim, the owner of the field, cry unwillingly when he
saw the field contaminated by maso.
Mr. Park didn't know much about the hunters, but he knew that
the Phoenix Guild was a well-known top 10 guild and that they had great skills.
'Even
so, the dungeon break occurred, and Kim's fields are still contaminated with
maso. '
It's a catastrophe that farmers have feared since the
cataclysm 30 years ago.
"I'm telling you, it's true. Even the people from
the Association are coming and going. All the paddy has rotted because it's
contaminated by maso."
Mr. Park zoomed in on the camera footage, showing the
contaminated land and the Association members confronting the Phoenix Guild.
It wasn't just the crops that were rotting, but there
were even skeletal bones strewn about, suggesting that it was actually the
remains of something.
-...... Seriously? If it's spreading like wildfire in
Honam, this year's harvest should be a disaster, but no news?
-Isn't it fucked up? At least they've increased farming
subsidies because food self-sufficiency is down.
-What's the point of more subsidies? There's no land to
farm.
-The answer is smart farming. Doojung Future Food must be
bought now
-Corporate OUT!
After that, Mr. Park continued to take videos around the
perimeter of the gate.
Although a control line was drawn, Mr. Park was lucky not
to be spotted wandering among the crops, and the viewers' reactions became more
serious.
"Oh... there's a foreigner."
Just then, a blond man entered the frame of his camera.
Viewers raised questions.
-Who is this foreigner? Someone from the Phoenix Guild?
-He's poorly equipped for someone like that. He's not even
wearing any gear.
-Then he's from the Association?
-No Europeans in the Association. But he's very handsome.
-Aren't there a lot of women over there? They're all
carrying something? Zoom in a little, Mr. Park.
Mr. Park saw the altar that Leon had built and the straw
dolls. It was dusk, so it was hard to tell, but it looked like an altar.
'Is
it some kind of ritual?'
It was a common sight to see people conducting ritual
activities on land contaminated by maso.
They hope it will cleanse the land, but in the end, the
only way to cleanse it is to apply the Magic Tower concoction in time.
'Is
that blond guy some kind of mage sent by Magic Tower? No, he doesn't look like
a mage at all.'
Mr. Park was strangely intrigued by the man.
It was not just his appearance.
Even though he was being filmed from a distance, Leon, a
living saint, had a radiance that exuded an air of virtue and nobility.
He instinctively felt 'authenticity' in a way that could
not be felt from the upper class and actors that one often sees on TV or the
internet.
Modern elites may be high achievers and entrepreneurs,
but their elegance and pedigree can't replicate the real thing.
And then the next moment.
Mr. Park, a farmer, witnesses a scene that will change
his life.
* * * *
Leon is the first knight of Arianna, the goddess of light
and justice.
All the previous Lionheart Kings of the divine knightly
kingdom of Lionheart were Arianna's first knights, her apostles.
But in the Kingdom of Lionheart, where harmony with the
gods and devotion to them are virtues, some gods are an essential part of the
faith, so naturally the Lionheart Kings are also their apostles.
「Lionheart. My child.」
"I greet Mother Terra, Demera, goddess of life and
fertility."
Leon paid his respects and reverence to the ceremonial
doll, dropping to one knee.
Even in the Pantheon, Demera's standing is high. She is
the nurturer of all life and overseer of abundance.
As everyone struggled to process the voice that resounded
from the straw doll, the goddess Demera spoke,
「This new land is also
being invaded by evil. The land is tainted.」
"Yes, evil species exist in this land. But I fear
that divinity is absent and the lowly, lowly swine will sully the eyes of the
goddess."
Leon's first emotion upon returning to Earth was
‘disappointment’.
Being an awakened or a survivor is secondary. He had only
a faint memory of the 20 years he had been inhabiting this world.
However, he felt both frustrated and saddened by what he saw
upon his return: the tyranny of the top ten guilds and the incompetence of the
government.
「Ignorance and greed
are not necessarily sins. Such is the nature of mortal life. What will you do?」
"I don't like it, but that doesn't mean I'll throw
out the rightful rule. This country chooses its leaders by the pathetic means
of voting, but that's the accepted orthodoxy of the land, and it's the rightful
thing to do."
It was the only reason he recognized the president's
authority.
Although he is appalled by the incompetence of the man
who can barely handle a knife, his right to rule is inviolable, and therefore
Leon will abide by the law of the land.
"I will establish that rights and duties can run
parallel on this Earth. I will teach the ignorant and lead them to the right
path."
Earth.
His homeland, where power and money have become justice.
A land devoid of divinity above all else.
On this land, Leon intends to build a new pantheon.
He would restore the power of the now defunct Pantheon
and raise up a new order of Holy Grail Knights.
To do this, he needed faith. True faith in the multitude
of worshippers, priests, and temples.
「My dear, don't you
have a favor to ask of this mother?」
Demera understood Leon's intentions and smiled. The first
knight of Arianna. He was no longer an apostle of light and justice alone.
Not when the gods of the Pantheon chose the Grail Keeper
named Leon as their chosen vessel and decided to put all of their divinity into
the 'temple' of the Pantheon within his heart.
The gods staked everything on Leon.
They believed he would do his duty, slay the hordes of
evil and survive to the end.
He did so admirably for over two hundred years, and found
opportunity in a new land.
Thus.
The gods of the Pantheon will fulfill whatever he
desires.
They will trust the greatest knight who ever lived to
defend their honor and sanctity.
"Yes, Mother Demera. The freemen of this land are
suffering from a vile energy called Maso. Please be gracious to heal and
cleanse this land, though it is not your will."
Demera, in the form of a straw doll, bore divinity at her
fingertips. Though it was a meager blessing, nothing compared to the power of
having the faith of countless devotees.
But in a land where such faith is absent, it must seem
like a great miracle.
「You are my vassal.
Our apostle. The soil of this world is not this mother's flesh. Spread my
divinity and replace this barren land with my flesh, and everything on it will
be your ally.」
Divinity permeates the land.
A living saint, a demigod, a lionhearted king... and the
Mother of Life bless the land that shelters the fountains of life and
fertility.
The earth is life.
It is the source of all things and the beginning of a
world of abundance.
The divinity of the earth, with its infinite energy,
created a marvelous sight.
The earth, contaminated with maso, rotted, and the
incoming crops were destroyed.
The unforgiving divinity sprouted new life.
Simultaneously.
For the holy hand had awakened the inherent duties of all
things rooted in the earth, neither the contaminated soil nor the decaying
crops could halt their rise.
Leon turned to all who watched from afar and said,
"See and realize! O you who have not learned, you
who do not know! This is the world in the company of the divine!"
Row after row of rice rose like gold.
Everyone's hands and mouths trembled at the miracle of
life that had come forth from the corrupted land.
"Be fruitful and multiply. For this is the natural
duty of the living, and this bountiful land is a testament to the covenant unto
eternity."
* * * *
Han Hari, Chief Kim Jin-soo, and the rest of the Hunter
Association members were dumbfounded by the miracle before them.
How does maso pollute the environment?
How can life not grow in the contaminated area?
All of their questions led to one conclusion:
A malevolent force beyond the comprehension of human
common sense or technology was at work to ravage the world.
Crops cannot grow on the contaminated land. Cleanup efforts
are possible, but they are offset by a drastic expenditure of the precious
hunter's mana.
You can't grow anything on maso-contaminated soil.
That was modern common knowledge, and why modern humans
clung desperately to printed food and plantation agriculture.
As more and more land becomes contaminated due to dungeon
breaks, humanity's food self-sufficiency rate will plummet.
"Wha- what the......."
Hari and Jin-soo couldn't believe their eyes at the scene
before them.
The golden-colored crops covering the ground swayed
gently in the wind.
The rich golden fields shone brilliantly, as if the fact
that they had just been contaminated was a lie.
"Chief... this, this is real paddy."
"I, I can see that too."
The paddy had grown in an instant. It wasn't just the
Hunter Association's people that were appalled.
So was the leader of the Phoenix Guild, Lee Yong-wan, who
was trying to scare the Hunter Association by contaminating the land.
"Hah! You don't seem to know that crops grown by
magic are poisonous!"
Yong-wan had a point.
Ever since the cataclysm, mankind had been researching
ways to grow crops with magic.
However, the enchanted crops were inedible to ordinary
humans and actually contained toxins.
"What an ignorant thing to say. This crop was
blessed by the goddess herself. How can you label it as poison?"
"It's just a straw doll──"
"I forgive ignorance only once. Do not defile the
goddess with your flimsy tongue."
There was something powerful and subjugating about Leon's
tone. On top of that, an implicit wariness of the survivor kept him from acting
in vain.
'Shit,
he shouldn't have done that.'
The Honam Plain was a hostage. As the Association had
suspected, the Phoenix Guild had deliberately induced a dungeon break.
The top 10 Korean guilds still receive countless
benefits, but they wanted more, and the centerpiece was the exemption for
dungeon byproducts.
Right now, they want an exemption worth 1 trillion won a
year, but they will increase that in the future and eventually demand a full
exemption.
After all, if they could use a dungeon break as an excuse
to scare the government, then the government would have no choice but to accept
it in order to protect their country and their people.
But that was ruined by a single survivor. Yong-wan wanted
to say something.
"Let's be reasonable. I think it needs to be tested
for the safety of the people who will be eating that rice."
His intentions aside, the argument was true.
Crops grown with magic are inedible to normal humans. So,
of course, it needed to be tested.
"I'll lend you my guild's appraiser. I'm curious to
see what you've grown in just one second."
Yong-wan flashed his trademark mean smile as he waited
for the results.
Looking forward to the moment when he could unmask that
shameless stranger.
If the crops showed even a trace of magical energy, he
would call the man a fraud.
"The, the results are in!"
"Tha- that's fast."
"Our guild's appraisers are excellent."
Just as Yong-wan was expecting the appraiser to say that
they couldn't eat this rice, the cold sweating appraiser's mouth finally
parted,
"The appraisal result is 'Rare'!"
"Huh?"
"Each, each and every single one of these grains is
rare grade!"
***
Previous chapter | Novel page | Next chapter
Help us keep our spirit up by buying
us Coffee (人ゝω・）
