The Knight King Who Returned with Gods : Chapter 59
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 59: We will not tolerate such atrocities!
The Jeju Island Gate appeared a week ago, and it was
Guild Leader Lee Yong-wan's Phoenix Guild that won the bid for the gate.
Lee Yong-wan brought in the Golden Lion Guild's Hwang
Gum-cheol to clear the Red Gate, and the combined Firebird x Golden Lion raid
team set out to conquer it.
There was one basic rule to attacking a red gate:
If you can't clear it, you must call for backup.
And if backup is requested, the Association has the
authority to forcefully mobilize 'Hunters' to the red gate when a dungeon break
is imminent.
This is pretty much the only option available, as a red
gate basically causes damage to the level of virtually blowing away a city
during a dungeon break.
Even this was not accepted by the large domestic guilds,
so it came with the condition that 'failed capture' must be a predetermined
fact.
This was why the Association sent Kim Jin-soo and Hari to
the Black Gate previously, as scapegoats for the de facto failure of the gate
capture.
"So, this me, you're going to mobilize me?"
Leon's eyes flashed with displeasure, and Chief Kim
Jin-soo replied cautiously, sweating profusely,
“Of course not. The Association wants to maintain an
amicable relationship with His Majesty. We are not yet at the stage where we
can issue a mobilization order in the first place.”
An emergency mobilization order would require the
preceding guild to declare failure. The problem was, there were hunters who
escaped, but it was ambiguous whether it was a failure or not.
"I need to see them first. Where are the
returnees?"
"They are being treated at the hospital. I hear they
are pretty much unresponsive right now......."
"It doesn't matter. Let's go."
Leon headed straight for the Jeju hospital where the
returning hunter was said to be. The Association personnel, who had been
notified of Leon's visit in advance, bowed ninety degrees at the sight of him.
"This way, Your Majesty."
The wounded from the Phoenix and Golden Lion Guilds were
squeezed into a four-person room. None of them were in very good condition, but
they were undergoing treatment without any serious cases.
"So this is the hospital."
Following Leon to the hospital, Beatrice marveled at
Earth's modern hospital facilities.
The rooms were kept clean to prevent infection and there
were tons of nurses and doctors on duty.
It was quite a spectacle. She thought, 'why couldn't we
have thought of something like this in our kingdom... no, it would have been
impossible...'.
"Hum, it's not quite civilized."
"This facility?"
"Yes. I understand the purpose of this place to
treat soldiers wounded in battle, but how can commoners also receive treatment
here?"
He didn't mean it in a discriminatory way, as if
commoners didn't deserve to be treated.
In the Lionheart Kingdom, as well as in most other
countries in that world, commoners eat the blessed crops and never get sick.
The act of curing illness is repeated with every meal.
They also have no germs in their mouths, so the concept of dentistry was
foreign to them.
When commoners did receive healing, it was usually for
accidental injuries, and since there was no god of medicine, the goddess of
life and fertility took over.
Why do you need a doctor, why do you need
hospitalization, when you can just come to the temple, offer a couple of
prayers, eat a good meal, and go home?
Such things were only needed for soldiers and knights who
had suffered serious wounds, such as the reattachment of a severed arm, or for
those who had suffered internal injuries.
Even that was taken care of by the priests of life and
fertility on the battlefield.
“……Your Majesty’s world is a unique case that cannot even
be put on a scale.”
"Well, I am aware of that. Hence the burden of
representing all the Gods."
"Huhu......."
The Queen didn't bother to tackle the arrogant entitled
divine king, for she herself was now the high priestess of dreams and death.
"I see that they are quite rude."
"That's because they're sedated. Please wait a
little longer….”
"That won't be necessary."
Leon approached the Queen.
"Is it my turn to step forward?"
"Please."
Beatrice conjured up her holy power. She was the high
priestess of Fleur, the Goddess of Dreams and Death. Though she was an
inexperienced and novice high priestess, she was not incapable of intruding
into a person's dreams.
"This shouldn't be difficult. I'll create a new
space in his dreams. It was I who constructed the repeated worlds within that
gate."
As a gifted dreamer, she had maintained a repeating world
in the midst of the demons, so what she was doing now was more than familiar.
"Huu......."
How ironic that the memories and experiences of the
horrific repetition would be so helpful after being freed from them.
Beatrice entered the unconscious hunter's dream, where
she could see into his consciousness.
[......This.]
Beatrice, who soon awoke from the dream, testified to the
sight she saw in his consciousness.
"It was a knight in green armor, carrying a huge
one-handed hammer and shield, and claiming to be protected by the Goddess of
Life and Fertility."
"Hmm... Demera?"
But maybe not. There was no guarantee that other worlds
don't have goddesses of life and fertility.
"Do you know the knight's name?"
"Geobrick. Apparently he is called the Magnificent
Geobrick. And... the Guardian of Gerhane. He is supposed to be the mighty
knight of Montreal….”
"......!"
At that moment, Leon's eyes widened.
"Your Majesty?"
"We shall depart immediately. I'll lead the
way."
Leon's willingness to leave immediately brightened the
complexion of Kim Jin-soo and the rest of the Association.
With four S-class players and most of the raiders out of
contact, sending someone in such a situation would demand at least comparable
power.
Other large guilds in Korea would naturally reach out,
but the power they would send would be questionable. But if it was Leon.......
'This
man does not operate on profit and loss.'
Moreover, his strength had a reputation. Perhaps equal to
or greater than world-class monsters.
"Shall we call the troops at the headquarters? I can
arrange a charter flight right now."
Leon was in Jeju Island precisely at this time to
purchase horses for the knight cadets.
It was unusual for a hunter to purchase horses for a gate
attack, and it was definitely unusual not to bring men.
Kim Jin-soo explained that they could use the
Association's private plane to bring the soldiers over, since they would need
troops to attack the gate.
"No, I'm not bringing soldiers to the gate this
time."
"Why...?"
In response to Kim Jin-soo's question, Beatrice, who had
witnessed hunter's dream sequence, voiced her guess,
“Because mediocre skills are meaningless, right?”
"Exactly. At the very least, they should at least at
the level of a knight-errant. At least strong enough to not get themselves
killed."
"That would be me, Ms. Hari, and the three of them.
It was a mistake not to bring Sir Yappy."
Certainly not the soldiers, like Gu Dae-sung, Jim Do-han,
and the other B-grade cadets, who are only marginally competent.
"The sooner we go, the better. We'd rather be quick
than wait for Sir Spinner."
Was there a need to hurry that much? Faintly aware of the
seriousness of the situation, she headed to the gate with Leon.
* * * *
"......."
"W, what in the world......."
What they saw as soon as they entered the gate was traces
of a horrific war.
Scorch marks of incineration of any trace of human
habitation. Not even a blade of grass was left standing.
Ruthless massacre and merciless destruction. Witnessing
the graphic 'execution gallows', Hari gritted her teeth.
"T, this is too much......."
People were skinned and hung.
The sight of skinned children, men and women, young and
old, was enough to have most people frowning.
"Hoekkk!"
Suho could not bear the nausea and vomited. Jaehyuk
patted Suho on the back.
"......."
Cheon So-yeon had seen everything under the sun as she
cleared gates, but she had never seen such a gruesome execution ground before.
Leon and Beatrice surveyed their surroundings calmly,
though not without frowning.
“It’s been some time since the execution was set up.
Could these be the hunters?”
"Probably not. They're rather short in stature
overall. Koreans are generally tall."
Additionally, traces of people staying there until
recently were discovered. Several footprints lay across the charred field.
"They killed them all using the Scorched Earth
Tactic1 to ensure that not a single seed remained in the land."
"You are familiar with it?"
"When I killed the orcs, I did something similar to
some of their remaining land."
Leon rode his horse, leaving the executed victims behind.
"It's been a long time since things were done here.
We'll follow the trail and find out what's going on."
Leon led the way, followed by the Queen and the cadets.
Though they were still getting used to it, traveling on
horseback was much faster than walking.
"Your Majesty."
Beatrice asked as they continued on horseback.
"You may speak."
"You seem to be in a bit of a hurry, not even
waiting for Sir Yappy. Do you suspect something?"
"Hmm... I was inconsiderate."
As they were riding along, Leon began to talk,
"As I said before, people with half-assed skills are
not safe, because there is a Holy Grail Knight here."
"A Holy Grail Knight... you mean Sir Geobrick?"
Beatrice remembered the green-armored knight she had
witnessed in the hunter's consciousness.
The Majestic Geobrick. Claiming to be a knight of a
deity, his power was definitely in the realm of the Unearthly.
"He is a Holy Grail Knight favored by Demera, the
Goddess of Life and Fertility. A Holy Grail Knight three generations before me,
whose lessons were passed down through my generations."
Leon doesn't know much about him either. Holy Grail
Knights have a long lifespan by nature.
When they talk about a generation, usually they were
referring to at least 200 years.
"Ser Geobrick was born eight hundred years ago, five
hundred years before I was born. At that time, he sent out troops to subdue the
barbarians and ascended to heaven.”
"A, ascended?"
“It probably means he was dead, Nuna.”
Leon did not deny Suho's conjecture. In essence, great
saints don't describe their passing as death.
Their deaths were actually ascensions to paradise, led by
the deities themselves.
"But Sir Geobrick did not make it to Paradise."
" ......His soul did not come."
"I have traced the aura of his holy relics, but I
have not found him or his troops anywhere."
Beatrice saw Leon personally ascending the fallen
trainees to paradise.
So she knew that, at least in Leon's world, there was an
afterlife, and that it was populated by souls favored by the deities.
If the Holy Grail Knight was the most favored saint of
his time, how could his soul not reach paradise?
"I have three guesses. First, Sir Geobrick is
actually alive."
It was entirely possible. Holy Grail Knights do not
inherently have a fixed lifespan.
They ascend when they fall on the battlefield, or when
they resign themselves to be embraced by the gods.
"Second, his soul was lost in the middle. And
finally──"
"Renegade......."
The Holy Grail Knight, Geobrick. Though favored by the
goddesses, he may actually be a renegade.
"We may be able to find out the truth by attacking
this gate, but it involves a very powerful Holy Grail Knight. If there is a
battle, it will not be what a mere human can handle."
Therefore, only the humans who can survive the aftermath
of the battle had been selected. They were not yet in a position to handle the
force.
The farther they followed the trail, the darker the
cadets' faces grew.
"Again......."
“They set it up as a show of pride.”
The corpses on the execution ground, as they were called,
were as gruesome as they could be.
Bodies burned to death, villages razed to the ground
devastated, and traces of massacres without the ability to resist.
Leon eyed them, especially those with flayed skin, and
seethed.
"This is inexcusable, such atrocities. These people
are great sinners who deserve to die.”
Hari nodded in agreement with Leon's words.
'As
expected, His Majesty is also angry at this tragedy.'
At first look, Leon may be discriminatory and
authoritarian, but at his core, he was a just man.
Despite their cultural differences, Hari felt he was a
man of justice worthy of following.
"Han Hari. And the rest of you, listen."
The cadets' eyes focused. They were tired of the carnage,
but they concentrated on Leon's clear voice, knowing he was the knight who
would lead them out of this hellish place.
"Whatever happens from now on, you will only follow
the King. Do not trust your eyes or your minds. Do you understand?"
"U, understood."
"I will only follow Your Majesty's direction!"
Why would he make such an obvious command? The cadets
gave him a puzzled look, but Leon didn't say anything more and continued on
ahead.
How far did they go?
-Aaaah!
-Help!
Another tragedy was upon them.
The smell of flammables and burning flesh, the sound of
wailing on the wind.
“Your Majesty! It’s a village! People are being
slaughtered!”
A group of knights and soldiers on horseback were killing
unarmed, vulnerable people indiscrimately. Men and women, young and old, were
slaughtered, and those who resisted were beaten mercilessly.
-Die! I'll kill you!
-Kahahahaha, die, you lowly things!
A massacre in the making. Anyone can see that it is a
scene of one-sided slaughter. Leon became enraged as he watched the horrific
carnage, where those who resisted were torn limb from limb in even more
horrific fashion.
"These, these scum...!"
"Your Majesty!"
Hari was moved by Leon's sincere outrage: I can trust and
follow this person’s righteousness!
"Our allies are in peril! We are charging in!"
"I will follow you!"
Although Hari was still clumsy, she grasped the reins of
her horse. The other cadets did the same.
They had no doubt that this was the moment to save the
civilians who were being mercilessly massacred and establish justice. With the
help of the Lionhearted King, they would do justice.
-Drap, drap, drap!
Horses' hooves pounded the ground. The Lionheart King,
who had summoned his lance, ran at full speed, so fast that no one could catch
up with him.
Fumbling riders and their horses couldn't keep up.
"S, so fast! I can't keep up!"
"That's how angry he is, just like when he encountered
the 'orcs'!"
The cadets excitedly tried to catch up. Just then, Suho
cocked his head and said,
“……Uh, isn’t there something strange about the
direction?”
"Huh?"
Hearing Suho's question, Hari looked straight in Leon's
path.
The direction in which Leon was furiously charging with a
shout of rage, that was... the residents confronting the massacre.
"To the Lionheart......! Glory!!!!"
Boom! At the moment of impact... three of the villagers
were impaled on the lance like skewers.
Your Majesty?
Not in the other direction?
***
Notes:
1 Scorched Earth Tactic: A tactic that exhausts the enemy army by eliminating all military supplies and food that the enemy can use in the vicinity .↩
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