The Knight King Who Returned with Gods : Chapter 50
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 50 Sir Yappy's Big Data
Hari tended to start the morning early.
She woke up at the crack of dawn, did a light workout,
and ate fried eggs with ketchup.
Her morning routine was quite conscientious for a modern person.
Hari hadn't seen anyone start their day earlier than her since her orphanage
days.
"Ah, Your Majesty. Have you had a good
morning?"
"It's okay."
But Leon's mornings were much earlier than Hari's. Never
one to go to bed early, but he was up before the roosters cooed in the morning.
Standing up, he swung his sword mechanically. He doesn't
shed a single drop of sweat even in battle. How intensely does he have to train
to sweat profusely?
"You're an early riser, I see."
"Ah, good morning, Your Majesty the Queen."
It was a mysterious woman in a black dress with her face
covered with a veil.
"Have a seat, Queen."
Leon offered her a seat. The two casually sat down on
some benches on the training grounds.
"Make us some tea."
"Aye!"
Hari blinked and proceeded to prepare teacups for both of
them.
“Your Majesty, would you like green tea or barley tea?”
"Hmm, what do you say, Queen? Black tea would be
proper, but these days it seems they don't know how to handle tea."
"As long as it's hot, I am fine."
"I've been ignoring it, but I suppose we should hire
a maid after all. Han Hari."
"Ah, yes!"
Leon spoke while elegantly drinking the barley tea
offered by Hari.
"I will have you attend to Queen Beatrice for the
time being. Though I do not care for your gear, I want you to dress and behave
appropriately for the Queen."
"Ah... yes."
"It is not necessary to go to such lengths."
"No, it is not. Royalty must be properly attended to
and cared for."
"Then... did you say you are Miss Hari?"
The Queen's veiled gaze turned to Hari.
"Y, yes!"
"I sense an intense aura of fire coming from you. If
you don't mind, I'd like to take a look."
Did she notice? Her unique ability?
The Queen's unexpected request caught Leon off guard.
"I see. Draw your sword and show her what you can
do. You've been helping lighten the burden so far, and you deserve a
treat."
Leon passed the sword to Hari as if it was an honor to be
taught by the Lionheart himself.
Hari hesitantly took the sword and assumed her stance.
"Where did your knowledge of swordsmanship come
from?"
"I learned it from my master at the Academy. I've
heard that he was a promising kendo instructor before the Cataclysm."
"Show me your swordsmanship. I'll take a look."
"Thi- this is an honor."
Hari gripped the wooden sword and settled herself into
position as Leon instructed.
She had just graduated from the Hunter Academy and had
not learned any special sword techniques.
What she had learned was basic swordsmanship. There was a
gap in her level of training compared to the more obscure skills kept secret by
the Top Ten Guilds.
After rejecting the offers of the Top Ten Guilds in the
draft, Hari had to develop her own swordsmanship on her own.
She swung her sword.
A fast, heavy blow, imagined to be delivered by a
longsword, cleaving through space.
Hari was a prodigy... the youngest Class A Hunter. Leon
looked at her swinging the sword and said nonchalantly,
"Your move is large."
"......Yes."
Fast. But that's all. A fast sword that relied on
physical ability. It had a lot of gaps and the coverage was large.
"Is that supposed to be done while utilizing your
ability?"
"Y- yes. You figured it out right away, I see."
"Because I saw it when fighting that honorable knight
at the Honam Gate."
The headless knight. Leon remembered fighting him.
"Observe carefully. A sword is something you swing
with power but briefly.”
Leon took up the sword himself. He assumed his overhead
stance and slashed lightly and quickly.
An overhead slash followed by a middle cut. At first
glance, it looked effortless and simple, without much action.
The level of skill was such that even the Queen was
amazed when she saw it. Above all──
-Kwazik! Kwazik!
Sharp wind blades sliced through the ground and cut
through the surrounding structure. It was a terrifying wind blade that would
tear the entire training ground apart with just a little more force.
"It's easy enough, just try to imitate it by
swinging it ten thousand times a day."
"Ugh......."
"And then there's the Blessing of Fire, which
requires you to swing the sword with all your might to maximize its power.
Demonstrate it once more by using it."
Hari's unique ability, Blessing of Fire. The power to
convert heat resistance and magic power into fire.
It basically required a medium, and in a hectic battle,
it was most efficient to use a sword as a medium to ignite the fire and swing
it around.
Combined with Hari's unique ability, Blessing of Fire, her
swordplay was quite extravagant and convincing.
"Beatrice, what do you think?"
"Your use of fire is immature."
The Queen stood up and drew her sword. It was a sword
passed down through the Spero royal family.
"The only way to utilize fire with swordsmanship is
to imbue the sword with fire magic."
The Queen snapped her fingers, and fire surged from her
sword. It was fire created by magic.
“Fire is a force that can easily be disturbed. Fire
should be used while compressed, not scattered.”
Beatrice's words were true, and the fire in her sword was
compressed to the limit.
Unlike Hari's fire, which quickly scattered around the
sword, the Queen's clung to the blade, not wavering in the slightest.
The movements she demonstrated with her fiery sword were so
beautiful, almost like dancing, causing Hari to let out an involuntary gasp of
admiration. Then──
"Releasing the compressed fire will become a deadly
blow. Just like this stab──"
The sword soared towards the sky. In the next instant, a
fiercely spinning flame shot out like a cannonball, tearing a hole in the
clouds.
"Eh......."
There was a hole in the sky... Hari stared dumbfounded at
the sky above her.
"Compressed fire doesn't leave anything behind. All
you have to do is compress it to a high enough temperature to turn everything
into ash like this. Easy, right?”
"......."
Not easy.
Although Hari had been taught by the strongest of the
strong, the teachings of the brightest geniuses were hard to comprehend.
* * * *
New recruits came in.
This was because the Association had announced the
achievements of Leon's first batch of recruits and promoted them all at once.
-Did those 1000-year-old D-classes really get promoted to
C-class all at once?
-You saw the video. It's insane.
-I can't believe the Ds survived that long against
demons. That kind of survival rate at a Shifting Gate.
The video of the first batch's graduation test was also
part of the reason.
“Yes, I learned a lot.”
“It was a really… rewarding time.”
The recruits in the video were sincere.
For them, who had been unable to escape the fear of death
in the D-class for many many years, Leon was their salvation.
-Coverage is below average. Make the most of your limited
vocabulary.
"......Uh, even if you tell me to--"
A machine gun was aimed.
"Then I will."
.........
......
...
"The following individuals will be rewarded for
their outstanding performance."
Seven of the forty-three trainees who completed the
program were presented with potions refined from the heart of Orc Warriors.
A valuable item that ordinary D-class Hunters would never
be able to afford. The recipients were Gu Dae-sung, Kim Do-han, and other
Hunters who had actively demonstrated their abilities in battle, which also
drew the enthusiasm of many hunters.
-God, they're giving the Heart of an Orc Warrior to a
D-class Hunter?
-It's an item that even most mid-sized guilds only give
out to promising talent!
-It's nice to have some luck.
The results of the training were amazing, as were the benefits.
Even the guild members who had become full-fledged soldiers were given blessed
crops for free.
-Wah~ I'm so happy.
-The Pantheon Guild is the best.
- Everyone join the Pantheon Guild. His Majesty Leon is a
good man, and everyone should be nice to him.
The machine gun behind the camera wasn't the reason for
these words.
"Whew~ I have to report to the Chief and the
Chairman of the Association...... I have to feed the new recruits potatoes and
sweet potatoes... I also need to change the weapons, where can I find a
blacksmith…”
Leon was not the type to sweat the small stuff. He
actually considered it a disgrace to do such chores, so naturally, she was the
one doing most of the work for the Pantheon Guild.
And that was not all.
"Taxes! What do I do about this?!"
There was that too. Leon still refused to pay taxes. He
said a king can't pay taxes.
The Association had been doing things in a way to
accommodate him as much as possible.
For example, rice supplied from Naju Plain is refunded
and treated as tax.
It also required cooperation with the local county office
to use most of the tax money entirely for residents at Leon's instruction amid
the outrageous tax collection within the Pantheon Guild.
It was impossible to build facilities for the convenience
of residents out of the blue with private capital.
"Ugh... accounting is not my specialty......."
Her head hurts. She had learned how to pay taxes at the
Hunter Academy in Korea, but this was out of the question.
Hari was carrying snacks for the Hunters as she wrapped
her head in her hands when--
-Hari?
"Sir, Sir Yappy?"
In the hallway ceiling. Yappi was hovering above, defying
gravity.
"What a surprise......."
Whenever she saw Yappy in the dark, she got startled.
-Can’t handle accounting work?
"Huh?"
It was an unexpected quip from Yappy. It seemed it heard
Hari talking to herself.
-Wanting to share accounting duties to increase
efficiency.
"Sir, Sir Yappy......!"
That's right. The Pantheon Guild had an all-arounder
Grail Knight, Sir Yappy!
"Well, we also need to account for expenses and
taxes, and I've visited accountants, but the whole 'we don't pay taxes' thing
is a bit extreme."
-Refer to big data. Application of the Hunter
Administrative Special Act. Hunter meal expenses can be processed. Production
registration of own equipment has been completed.
"What?"
Was there such an expense? Hari remembered that last
month, the trainees had only spent 38,000 won on sugar and salt.
But in the accounting, it was registered as 38 million
won.
It wasn't even corruption, it was accounting
manipulation.
“S, something seems wrong?”
-Not wrong. Crop prices in the Naju Plain skyrocketed.
Utilizing the special support type of the Agricultural and Fisheries Act.
Purchase tax credit.
“So… you bought the crops at a high price and included
them in the hunters’ meal expenses? Isn’t that a scam?"
-Separation of business. Pantheon Farm and Pantheon Guild
are completely separate businesses. Utilizing special support from the
Agricultural and Fisheries Act for Pantheon Farm. Additional tax exemption
benefits apply.
-Utilize the Trainee Family Support Project. Register a
welfare business in the name of Pantheon and utilize additional tax exemptions.
-Registering an independent pension business. Increase
asset value through investment.
Downloading the country's legal system in 0.1 seconds and
find loopholes in the law in an instant.
'Is
this big data?'
Hari marveled at Yappy's high-intelligence computational
power to find solutions in a fraction of a second.
"Wow~ that's really helpful, I think I can put this
issue to rest for now."
-If you have any further issues to discuss, please let me
know.
"Mm...."
There was nothing more Hari could ask for since Yappy had
taken care of things so quickly. She now spoke of a very personal concern.
"His Majesty has asked me to attend to the queen,
and since I'll also need to hire a maid, he said to provide an outfit... well,
I assume it's a maid's outfit, right?"
Hari knews that Leon's worldview was very medieval.
As it is an otherworldly fantasy kingdom, it cannot be
compared exactly to Earth, but aren't the maids he was thinking of probably
dressed like maids?
Yappy agreed.
-His Majesty Leon. Similar to early and medieval European
kingdoms. The assumption of handmaiden outfit = maid uniform is reasonable.
“Right, right? I was hesitating because I thought I’d get
criticized for cosplaying later.”
-No problem. Ordering 'maid uniform' rationalized by big
data?
"I'd be grateful if you did!"
Hari didn't know.
The 'big data' of maid uniforms that Yappy was talking
about was the comprehensive data of internet home shopping.
It was the number one product that received the most
satisfactory star rating there.
-My boyfriend really loves it.
-My boyfriend likes it so much. I need to wear it often.
-I highly recommend it!
It was a harmful effect of big data.
* * * * *
Upon returning, Yappy did not rest, but set to work.
Heto, the god of metal and blacksmithing, had entrusted
Yappy with one task:
The rise of the Pantheon Guild and the resurrection of
the Lionheart.
For that, manipulating public opinion and spreading faith
is essential. Yappy gets right to work, utilizing all of its 1,398,865
accounts.
First, he edited the footage filmed at the Shifting Gate
and translated it into the language systems of every country on the planet with
an active internet connection.
Yappy also thoroughly analyzed local YouTubers, overseas
YouTubers and channels, and communities related to hunters and religious
communities.
Among them, Yappy's latest concern was to investigate the
strength of the weapon obtained from Archdemon Androzin at the Shifting Gate.
-High-density ore. Strength measurement: superalloy MDⅤ or higher.
Yafi saw the possibilities of this great metal. While not
comparable to the 'new iron' shown by the divinity of iron and blacksmithing, it
is at least as hard as the superalloy MD series Yappy had used to in its
original world.
-Presence of similar minerals. A special mineral from
Mountain Gate. Commonly known as 'adamantite'. 99.8% Identical.
What does this mean? Yappy had computed hundreds of
different variations and deemed them worthy of purchase and study.
-Legendary mineral. 230 million won per 1 kg of
adamantite. Need to increase funds.
The budget required was enormous. Yappy sought permission
from Leon to secure funds.
[We need large quantities of these materials to build
facilities and workshops.]
[Hmm, military funding. Money is always needed. Is the
money from selling rice and the gate not enough?]
[Not enough. Suggestion: Stock market intervention.]
Leon was only vaguely familiar with stocks, though he was
surprised to learn that a famous investor from his time on Earth was still
alive.
[How do you plan to raise the money?]
[Operation Warfare. Manipulation of future markets.
Hacking into public surveys and sending the coin market skyrocketing.]
[Hmm... I forgot to tell you about human justice.]
Leon recognized the AI's lack of human morality.
[It's inevitable that there will be victims in those
sordid money pits. But you are a Grail Knight, whose name reflects the Goddess
of Light and Justice. There can only be justice even when it comes to money.]
[Kiklug?]
Leon laid down a few principles:
Reduce the number of innocent victims.
The standard of innocence would be human morality.
With its overwhelming computing power, the AI absorbed
human morality, commonly condemned financial crimes, etc. into big data and
naturally came to one conclusion.
It was possible to make a lot of money and still be
morally good behavior.
-Discovered 187 suspected stock price manipulations.
Engaged in immoral behavior. Entering unlimited short trades.
Yappy used 1% of its computing power to engage in stock
market activity. The computational power of artificial intelligence, which can
turn even the world's best supercomputers into primitive things, had begun to
meddle in the world's stock market.
-To be a righteous looter.
The destruction of the world's stock market manipulators
began.
***
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