The Knight King Who Returned with Gods : Chapter 66
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 66: Stress Relief
After finishing his meal, Leon prayed in front of the
altar.
For Leon, prayer time was not just a time to recite
wishes and express gratitude.
He communicates with the gods, speaks to them directly,
and acts as an agent of their will.
His prayers are always answered by the gods.
[Leon, my knight, your goddess has waited for your
prayer.]
'Goddess Arianna.'
Leon reported his news for the day. Something close to a
standard work report. Leon sought 'their' well-being first.
'Goddess. How are Sir Geobrick and his men?'
The souls of the knights and soldiers Leon had brought
back, having remained at the gate until the very end. The gods had welcomed
them.
If they had been guided safely to paradise, he wouldn't
be too worried, but.......
[Their souls were tainted by the things of the dead, and
the gods themselves are purifying them and leading them to Paradise one by
one.]
'That's good.'
Leon sighed in relief, and the goddess said,
[My knight. You seem to be lacking energy recently.]
'Nothing to worry about, just a little tired.'
[Your goddess is very worried about you, Leon. You have
served too long, you have fought too long.]
'I just did what had to be done.'
[There is nothing in the entire creation that deserves
such a struggle, and your goddess is weighed down with debt.]
Leon was pleased by Arianna's concern, but he asked
lightly, hoping to ease the goddess' worries,
'What about the other deities?'
[Hmph, War without subtlety wish you to expand your
reach, also, lately Metal appears to be getting involved in something.]
'I'm relieved to see you have something to do.'
[Come to think of it, Dream has something for you, but it
must be conveyed through the High Priestess].
Leon seemed to know what Fleur, the deity of dreams and
death, would deliver.
If Fleur was merely delivering a message, she could
deliver it directly to Leon.
But if it's a prophecy, it's a different story.
Fleur is the goddess who oversees death and the
afterlife, but she also intervenes in dreams, making prophecies and giving
fragmentary glimpses of the future.
This was usually relayed through her priests, and the
Lionheart Kings of the ages did not take such prophecies lightly.
'Something big is going to happen soon.'
[My knight's fatigue has reached its peak, and your
goddess's heart is heavy, as I feel that you are going to bear an even heavier
burden.]
For a time the goddess spoke on behalf of the gods of the
Pantheon, Arianna said,
[My knight, your service is pleasing to the gods, but
there is much concern even from the vantage point of an observer.]
'I apologize for causing you concern.'
[Rest up, my knight, and enjoy some entertainment. You
have been running for two hundred years without rest, and it is time for you to
rest a little.]
'Entertainment'... that's a word I haven't heard in a
long time.'
[Yes, it seems there is a lot of entertainment in this
day and age, but I am not sure if my knight will find them enjoyable, but there
are some things that are immutable and supreme through the ages and the world.]
'Is there such a thing?'
[Embracing a woman.]
'...............'
Leon did not respond to the goddess' words. She wasn't
exactly right.
[In the eyes of your goddess, the queen is a good match.
Her beauty is also admirable even to 'Love'.]
'..... Goddess.'
[Or how about that redheaded girl, the one War has his
eye on? If she's good enough to receive the Lionheart King's grace, she should
be able to handle it.]
'She is a young maiden. How can you say such a thing?'
[In essence, humans are able to relieve pleasure by embracing
the opposite sex. In order to exalt the glorious name of the Lionheart here as
well, shouldn’t we rebuild the royal family as soon as possible?]
Leon shook his head and, in a rare moment, dismissed the
goddess's words. And then──
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I have something for
you──Ughu!"
Hari stumbled over the threshold as she ran toward Leon.
What a dumb thing for someone with superhuman physical abilities to do....
"Tsk, tsk. What is it?"
"I have prepared something for Your Majesty, with the
advice and assistance of Sir Yappy."
"......."
Hari had conferred with Yappy and prepared something.
Leon suddenly remembered the Big Data No. 1 maid's outfit she had worn
previously as a handmaiden's outfit.
"If you wear such a scandalous outfit again, I will
make you do a handstand and parade around the neighborhood naked."
"W, what about my dignity?”
"Have you prepared such clothes again?"
"No, no, no!"
Hari shook her head in the negative.
* * * *
They arrived at a dungeon gate, where Hari said she had
something for him. There, members of the Hunter's Association were waiting for
them.
"You have arrived, Your Majesty."
Chief Kim Jin-soo and the rest of the hunter raiding
team, carrying things, stood waiting for Leon.
"What are you doing here?"
"Yes! Actually, we've gathered here as a way for the
Association to repay Your Majesty by supporting Deputy Han-hari, who organized
this event!"
"Hmm?"
Organized? What does that mean? Leon didn't know much
about it, since Hari had only brought him here for a surprise.
To be honest, he'd only come because he thought it
wouldn't be a sham if Yappy cooperated as well.......
"Let's make our way through the gate!"
Hari walked through the gate, which opened onto a vast
forest.
"What is this place?"
"This is a training gate that is managed by the
Association."
The Association maintained several gates for training and
business purposes.
Like the gate at Seoul Station, there were several gates
that were not only used to test Hunters' ranks, but also to train their own
raiding teams.
One of them was reserved for Leon.
“Now, I will introduce the gate. The characteristic of
this gate is that it is where various animals, plants and monsters appear.”
Since the gate is rated Green, there are no dangerous
monsters. The Association also visited for local adaptation training, and most
importantly, the herbs that only grow here are regenerated.
“A small animal is worth 1 point! A medium-sized animal
is worth 3 points! Orcs that are occasionally found are worth 10 points!”
"Hmm... In short, it's hunting."
"Yes! It's a recurring gate that refreshes after a
while anyway, so don’t worry, you can just hunt as much as you want!”
Leon knew why Hari had brought him here. It was to hunt.
"I was only guessing, but I thought hunting might be
popular where Your Majesty came from."
"So you've set up a hunting ground for me to try
out. Remarkable."
How could she come up with such a thing?
Leon knew what Hari's intentions were. He hid it, but his
gloomy demeanor must have still reached the child's eyes.
Then again, the goddess had told him to relax.
"Hunting... hunting, huh......."
Indeed, it had been two hundred years. As Hari guessed,
hunting was the favorite pastime of knights and nobles in the Lionheart
Kingdom.
They refine themselves, win the competition in style, and
offer their victories to the gods.
Although there was no time to enjoy it due to the war
with numerous demons, enjoying the thrill of hunting was a noble tradition.
"They're herders, aren't they? They're carrying
instruments."
Korean traditional musical instruments. The heavily
armored hunters would enter the field with these loud instruments to herd and
drive the prey.
Yes, to make hunting fun, you need a herder.
Leon smiled and turned to Hari,
"Did you say there are orcs?"
"Yes! That's why we're all fully armed!"
"Let's go with some of those beasts for now."
Leon urged his horse into a gallop, and the Association's
self-proclaimed herders began to make a raucous noise.
* * * *
The Thick Claw tribe are forest orcs who live in the
forest and lead a peaceful hunting life.
They serve the forest gods, offer them mountain
sacrifices, and consider themselves managers of the forest.
-Kkeuaaaaag!
A scream pierced the dense forest. A rumbling laugh
erupted that engulfed it.
"Kahahaha! You damned big axes, you dare to hunt on
our territory? We haven’t had enough game lately, one of your forearms would be
enough for a meal!"
"First skin the face, we need to sacrifice the skull
to the gods!"
They were hunting the same orc species. They were waging
a bloody slaughter war with other orc tribes due to forest territory issues
that had recently begun to intensify.
The forest orcs, who were few in number, could have
chosen to coexist with each other, but orcs solve everything by violence.
There can be no coexistence among them, only battle and
killing to enforce their wishes.
-Da-da-da-a-da-da-da!
"Hmm? What is that?"
"The pig beast shouts loudly as it runs….”
The moment the Orc hunters of the Thick Claw tribe tilted
their heads in the direction of the sound, a huge presence suddenly appeared.
"Huh?"
A white steed. A lance with delicate and exquisite
engravings that couldn't be compared to the crude things of the forest, it
was──
-Kkuheelg!?
It pierced the forest orc's heart.
-W, what!
-Intruder!
Screams erupted from the orcs. A knight appeared from
nowhere and hunted the orcs down.
"Hahahahahaha! I guess there's a certain charm to hunting
that doesn't come from battle."
“Who are you, you bastard!”
"A human! How dare you kill our tribe members!”
"Kill him!"
The forest orcs charged, but their opponent was the Holy
Grail Guardian, the pinnacle of the Holy Grail Knights.
The orcs, less than forty in all, were swept off the
ground.
"R, run!"
“It’s a monster! Run away!”
The orcs tried to flee into the forest, realizing the
battle was one-sided. As long as he was alone and using melee weapon, he
wouldn't be able to hunt down the entire tribe in the end.
-Whoosh!
"Keuheolg!"
A fleeing orc fell to the ground as an arrow shot through
his neck.
"W, what?!"
One after another, the orcs fell to the ground. Thanks to
their thick skin, they were supposed to be able to withstand quite a few
arrows, but the skill of the bowman was too much for them, and they fell to the
ground after a vital point was hit.
With only a few of the tribal orcs able to escape into
the forest, Leon dismounted from his horse.
"If you are hunting, you should take a trophy."
Leon pulled out a molar from a decapitated orc and placed
it in his pocket. The pouch was already full of orc molars.
“Uhm….”
Hari, who followed to the site where the mayhem occurred,
got off her horse and smiled awkwardly.
"Y, Your Majesty is good at shooting with bows, I
see."
As Hari remembered, Leon was a known long-range attack
hater in the Association, so she hadn't even bothered to prepare a bow and
arrows for him to use on this hunt.
However, after Leon wiped out the first orc village, he
took the orc hunter's bow and arrows and used it to hunt the orcs.
And for someone who despised ranged weapons so much, his
bow was remarkably deadly.
"You're misunderstanding. Just because someone is a
knight doesn’t mean they don’t know how to use long-range weapons.”
"I- is that so?"
"Hunting is a nobleman's sport and pastime. How can
hunting be done only with spears and swords?”
Knights, especially knights of pilgrimage and those who
travel a lot, must secure their own food even in remote areas.
Knights had no choice but to become masters of hunting,
and of course they used bows and arrows.
“The bow is a weak weapon for killing monsters, but it is
sufficient for killing prey.”
"That... makes sense, but this... Your Majesty is
really good at shooting."
Leon chuckled at Hari's honest admiration.
"I was famous for being the greatest tournament
champion of all time, but I was also the second-best huntsman of my time, and I
won the hunting competition occasionally."
“Your Majesty was the second? Then was the first one a
different Holy Grail Knight?”
"Hmm, it is difficult to call that person a Holy
Grail Knight. She was favored by the goddess of the moon and the hunt, but she
was more of a hunter than a knight."
Leon remembered a memory from the past. When the Kingdom
was still at peace, before the demons invaded.
The kingdom's most powerful knights and nobles
participated in the competition, where they showed off their might.
"She was the high priestess of the Moon and the
Hunt. She was a saint. Her bow was like a shooting star, which, when she shot
it at its fullest, she would be able to cross the ridge of the mountain.”
"Eh......."
What an outrageous thing to say, but Hari knew well what
those favored by the gods were capable of.
Splitting a giant bear monster over fifty meters tall,
wiping out hundreds of demons in a single stroke. Leon is the living proof of
that.
And it was clear from the Jeju Island Gate that someone
with this much power was not even considered to be the pinnacle of the 'Holy
Grail Knight' rank.
"But... did you really have to hunt only orcs like
this? There's no point in preparing the herders."
"I apologize for that. But how can we hunt rabbits
when there are bears in the forest? If you want to win first place in the
competition, you have to aim for the big game.”
He looked at the orcs like they were his prey. Hari
smiled bitterly.
"There's the tribe leader's corpse, and judging by
the magic power, he must have some good stuff."
"Ah, indeed. IWow, isn’t this rare? It’s a shaman’s
totem. It’s not an item that drops often.”
"Sell it and give it to the employees who are acting
as herders."
"Eh? Y, Your Majesty don't mind? This is a pretty
good item. It is worth about 100 million."
"It'll be a small price to pay for all those people
who came to spend their off days working on their asses."
"Cough, cough!"
Hari coughed at the bluntness of the expression. It
certainly was.
Hari had asked the Association for a gate to serve as a
hunting ground for Leon, nothing more.
The mobilization of workers in the thick of their job was
a mandate from higher ups in the Association to look good in front of Leon.
Mobilizing subordinates anywhere was easy.
It was important for their organization to look good to
Leon, but it was a terrible act to have a bunch of regular folks sweating their
asses off at the gate.
"Anyway, the footprints of the fleeing orcs lead
down here."
"W, would you like to hunt more of them? According
to the mapped information, you've crushed a bunch of orc villages......."
"Yes. How can we just ignore those beasts polluting
the forest with their breath? Even if they are fake, the orcs must be killed.”
"Hah......."
Leon handed the orc's bow and quiver of arrows to Hari,
who sighed.
"You're going to have to be good at everything if
you want to be a knight. Today, practice your bow."
"Uhm... I’ve only ever used a bow during an aptitude
test when I was at the academy.”
Hari felt insecure about her lack of skill. Leon patted
her on the shoulder and laughed.
"I can teach you the basics."
"Is that so?"
Hari smiled weakly at Leon's words.
"Still, I'm glad you're feeling better."
"......."
Anyone who sat on a throne would receive tributes of
jesters and treasure to gauge their mood. It was so routine that he remembered
always treating it rather mechanically.
But Hari did this purely to cheer himself up. There was
no desire or hunger in it.
"Well, I suppose it's nice."
"Yes? I wasn't quite able to hear you?"
"I want you to kill at least three orcs, and if you
don't, I'll show you the old ways."
"Old?! I haven't shot the arrow many times, Your
Majesty!"
Leon reined his horse. Hari hurried after him.
* * * * *
A few days later, Hari walked around the Pantheon
headquarters building, smiling.
After that day's hunt, Leon was in good spirits. Hari's
plan had been quite successful.
"Oh~ Deputy Han."
"Ah, Chief!"
On her way to the warehouse to retrieve her training
wooden sword, Hari encountered Chief Kim Jin-soo, a dispatched official of the Association.
"What are you doing here? I thought you went to
collect the harvested rice from the rice warehouse."
“The tractor broke down. I came to pick up some
supplies.”
"It breaks down often. Is it because it's an old
machine?"
"Well, they haven't had it out since the Naju plains
were contaminated, so it must be poorly maintained."
If this is the case, wouldn't it be better to use horses
or cows like in the old days? Hari blurted out her thoughts.
"...... That might be true."
"What?"
"No, just, when His Majesty blesses them, they're
almost like divine horses, right? I heard that the horses bought from Jeju
Island ran much better than before after the blessing ceremony."
Indeed. The horses purchased at Jeju Island Gate were
strengthened using the reins of the late king. The gap was so huge that they
could have taken over the world horse racing market with just one horse.
"Thanks to this, it has also become difficult to
deal with. Our Cream has changed......."
"Well, the hunters are superhuman, so I guess that
balances it out. But when did you name it?"
They arrived at the warehouse while chatting trivially.
Every time Hari passed by, she cleared her mind and said a prayer.
After all, it housed the hammer left behind by the Holy
Grail Knight, Sir Geobrick.
"Seongbulhasoseo1......."
"According to the doctrine of the Pantheon, wouldn't
your Buddhist and the Christian prayers be blasphemy?"
Kim Jin-soo scolded Hari for making the sign of the cross
and putting her hands together. The two opened the warehouse door──
"......?"
"Huh?"
Nowhere in the warehouse was Sir Geobrick's hammer to be
seen.
***
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