WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 13: I Became a Landlord
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The first thing Kim Junyong saw when he came out of the dungeon was some bastard holding Lee Mina by the collar.
‘How dare he touch my stalker?’
They were a little annoying, but they were fun to tease.
They were also great for taking his anger out on. Perfect emotional dumping grounds.
“Cut it off.”
“Yes.”
Remi moved at once, and the bastard’s arm was cut off.
“Aaaaargh!”
The people who seemed to be his subordinates rushed over and hurriedly reattached his severed wrist.
‘Oh?’
So Earth had plenty of priest-type hunters too.
The bastard rolled his reattached wrist and roared.
“You son of a bitch! You fucking bastard. Do you know who I am?”
Kim Junyong admired his spirit.
Most people lost their nerve when a body part was cut off, yet this one was still so full of rage!
He was Junyong’s favorite kind of human.
A toy that repaired itself no matter how many times he stomped on it.
‘Should I play with him a little?’
It wasn’t as if Junyong had picked a fight first. This bastard was the one talking back, and even the scales hadn’t said a word.
<...He seems to need a lesson.>
Apparently, even the goddess of Belheim didn’t smile at arrogant bastards like him.
“How would I know? Duuumbass.”
“You fucking bastard!”
Kang Hyeonsik’s eyes turned bloodshot.
Well, fuck.
Of course he didn’t know. That was why he’d dared to hurt the eldest grandson of the chairman of the mighty Daesan Group.
Fine. He’d teach him.
He’d show this bastard exactly who he’d messed with.
And what would happen to him now!
Fucking bastard. It was too late for regrets.
“Fuck, I’m the eldest grandson of Daesan’s Chairman Kang Mujin, and the eldest son of Kang Changseong, the president of Daesan Electronics! Got that?”
“Sure. I’m Junyong.”
“You nobody! Is your father some big shot?”
Kim Junyong gave a small laugh and waved a hand.
His mana core had started running when he unlocked his status window, but the dark mana he’d stored was still nothing compared to its newly expanded capacity.
‘I’ll play with him until my dark mana fills up.’
Now, how quickly would all that confidence and arrogance come crashing down?
Crrrk.
Black tentacles rose from the ground and bound his body.
The Daesan Guild hunters rushed forward in alarm.
“Managing Director!”
But they jumped back in fright at Kim Remi’s sword strike.
Swish!
Remi drew a line across the ground with her sword.
“Do not interfere with Master’s business.”
Then Managing Director Kang Hyeonsik urgently called for help.
“Uuugh. T-Team Leader Park!”
Seeing the managing director dangling from the tentacles and struggling, Team Leader Park gritted his teeth.
“Save the managing director!”
“Yes!”
Team Leader Park’s ten-person unit boldly stepped forward, but...
Slaaash!
Remi drew her sword and danced through them, sending every last one to the ground.
It happened so quickly that no one could clearly see what she’d done.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Urgh, ugh!”
Team Leader Park, who had been at the very front, had lost an arm.
Each of the others had lost either an arm or a leg too.
Everyone nearby gaped.
Their shock and unease turned to terror in an instant.
“Aaah!”
“My God! Hurry, help them!”
“B-But!”
They watched Remi, afraid to approach.
“Take them.”
“Y-Yes!”
With Remi’s permission, they hurriedly carried the wounded away for treatment.
Without the slightest change in expression, Remi flicked the blood off her sword and sheathed it.
A beautiful woman with long, straight hair, wearing a three-stripe tracksuit and holding a longsword. Her presence seemed greater than ever.
“Uuugh.”
They couldn’t get past her.
There was no crossing that line.
The Daesan Guild hunters’ morale melted away like snow.
While they stood there, not daring to move, Kim Junyong controlled the tentacles.
Crrrrk.
“Aaaaargh!”
Several more black tentacles sprouted and wrapped around Kang Hyeonsik’s body.
“Gah, you bastard! Let me go!”
“Wow. You still haven’t lost your nerve.”
Kim Junyong grinned.
This was fun.
He used to play like this all the time in Belheim.
“You fucking bastard. Do you think Daesan will let you get away with this?”
“Aha! So you’re counting on your family.”
There had been plenty of noble children like him in Belheim.
How had that crown prince died again?
“You son of a bitch! Let me go! If you let me go now...”
“Are you right-handed?”
“What?”
Crrrrk.
“Aaaaargh!”
The tentacle wrapped around his left hand pulled hard on his arm.
An ordinary person who wasn’t even a hunter had no chance of enduring it.
Crack.
“Aaaaargh!”
One arm was torn off.
Fwoosh.
Still wrapped in the tentacle, the severed arm burst into flames, giving off black smoke.
“Can’t stick it back on now, can you?”
Kim Junyong smiled.
Bureau agents Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina stared with their mouths hanging open.
“We’re fucked.”
“T-Team Leader! Close the fence, now!”
“Huh?”
“Hurry!”
Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina hurriedly closed the fence to block the view. Then they shouted at the police, who had arrived some time ago but hadn’t been able to intervene because this was a hunter matter.
“Disperse the civilians and secure the area! Hurry!”
“Y-Yes!”
Meanwhile, Kang Hyeonsik screamed even more fiercely.
“You son of a biiitch! I’ll chew you to death! You don’t do things you can’t handle the consequences of!”
“Wow, you’re tougher than you look.”
Kim Junyong smiled as he watched Kang Hyeonsik’s emotions.
Pain, humiliation, anger, certainty.
That certainty came from his firm belief that Kim Junyong could never touch him.
His almost religious faith was laughable.
“Consequences? Heh.”
Listen, brat. These hands had killed three emperors.
And here was a mere conglomerate heir putting on a cute little show.
At Kim Junyong’s gesture, the tentacle around Kang Hyeonsik’s right arm twisted sharply.
Crack.
“Aaaaargh!”
His remaining arm bent at an unnatural angle.
“Ah, how merciful. So merciful.”
He’d only broken it, after all, so the boy would still be able to feed himself.
“S-Stooop! Aaaah!”
Certainty disappeared from the bastard’s mix of emotions.
“Aw, what?”
He still had two perfectly good legs left.
“P-Please spare me! I’m sorry!”
“Wow, what a letdown.”
The tentacles moved, dragging Kang Hyeonsik over and setting him in front of Kim Junyong. Junyong looked into his eyes and chuckled.
“Interesting.”
Pain, unease, fear, a desire for revenge.
Revenge was good.
He should let him go, like Nolbu waiting for gourd seeds after saving a swallow.
‘So this is why people hide their power.’
People came looking for him, picked fights all on their own, and helped him relieve stress. What could be better?
Looking forward to the big event to come, he released the bastard.
Thud.
Kang Hyeonsik fell to the ground and immediately passed out, perhaps from losing so much blood.
“Remi.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go.”
“Shall I dispose of him?”
Kim Junyong glanced at the fallen Kang Hyeonsik and chuckled.
“Leave him. Even a dull little swallow might bring back an entertaining gourd seed.”
“...Yes.”
Master’s nasty hobby had flared up again.
Children’s fights turning into adults’ fights was a saying that held true anywhere. That bastard would probably cause a whole string of funerals.
Remi shook her head and followed Kim Junyong.
Back at the scene they’d left behind...
“M-Managing Director!”
“A healer! Hurry!”
The Daesan Guild members rushed to save Kang Hyeonsik.
Cheon Yubeom watched them bustle around with a dazed expression.
‘Is this a dream?’
All that running around today, worrying that Kim Junyong might clash with ordinary citizens, had been for nothing.
He’d made an enemy of South Korea’s most powerful business family in one go.
“Ah, Team Leader.”
Section Chief Lee Mina sank to the ground.
“My legs gave out.”
“Haah. Section Chief Lee.”
Almost ready to give up on everything, Cheon Yubeom sat down beside her.
“He really meant it.”
“Meant what?”
“When he said he was the one doing the torturing...”
“He sure did.”
Kim Junyong.
A monster who had entered the Demon Realm for the first time through a dungeon and cleared it in less than thirty minutes.
No, there was another monster right beside him.
“Wasn’t Team Leader Park Jongseok over there Grade 2?”
“...He was.”
“She cut him down with one stroke.”
“...”
Kim Remi.
Her sword had destroyed the ten-person hunter team led by Park Jongseok. He was now having his severed right arm hastily reattached, and his teammates were barely managing to get their own injuries treated.
Even if divine power was called a miracle of modern medicine, injuries like those looked as though they’d need at least a few weeks of recovery.
“What do we do?”
“...Contain the damage as best we can.”
“Can we?”
“...The higher-ups will handle it.”
Who knew anymore?
All Cheon Yubeom wanted was to disband the hastily formed “Temporary Kim Junyong Surveillance Team” and get some rest.
‘I’d rather just focus on conquering the Demon Realm.’
Neither of them ever wanted another special unit assignment or anything involving villains.
“At this point, what he said must be true, right?”
“What did he say?”
“Two hundred years.”
“...Probably.”
The seven world-famous national-level hunters.
They had returned after a hundred years.
Perhaps South Korea’s hunter community now had a hunter who could surpass even them.
But one who could no longer be controlled...
* * *
There was a cafe on the first floor of the building that housed the hospital.
Kim Jangmi sat by the window, waiting for Junyong.
Her face was full of smiles as she looked through a stack of documents.
“Hehe.”
How on earth had he done it?
He’d said he was meeting someone from the Bureau, so their discussion must have gone well.
She’d thought she might have to support her younger brother through a prison sentence, but now that worry was gone.
As her son had said, there must have been some sort of “deal” between the hunters.
Tap, tap.
She looked up to find her younger brother and Remi standing outside the window.
“Oh! Junyong!”
Kim Jangmi gathered her things and came outside with a smile.
“You’re here too, Remi.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you want to meet here?”
“Oh, there’s somewhere I want to stop before we go home.”
“Where?”
“You’ll see.”
They went out to the road and waited to catch a taxi.
“Remi, you can go back inside now.”
“Yes.”
Whoosh.
“Oh? She could’ve come with us.”
“I called her because I was bored. Now that you’re here, I don’t need her.”
“Why would you say something so cold?”
Kim Junyong shrugged.
Their souls were connected anyway.
Whether Remi took physical form or not, they were always together. There was no need to explain all that in detail.
“The taxi’s cramped.”
“Oh, honestly...”
After a long taxi ride, they got out on a main road.
“Let’s walk a little.”
“Sure.”
“Your hand.”
Junyong chuckled, took his older sister’s hand, and walked down the alley.
“Do you remember this place?”
“...Not really.”
The neighborhood was a mix of two-story houses and newly built low-rise apartment buildings. As they walked up the gentle slope, Kim Jangmi sank into her memories.
“Well, it has changed a lot.”
There were restaurants and shops everywhere.
“It got famous after appearing on TV once, and land prices around here shot up.”
Like Garosu-gil, the neighborhood had briefly become trendy, only to lose its popularity when the trend passed. Plenty of businesses were still open, but “For Rent” banners hung here and there.
“It’s up there.”
They continued up the hill for a while. Just as the crowds began to thin, Kim Jangmi stopped and looked at a building.
“Here it is.”
“Yujin Restaurant? It’s not open.”
The restaurant looked like a converted two-story house. The lights were off, as though it had closed down.
“Look at the house, not the restaurant.”
“Hmm.”
Kim Jangmi’s face was full of anticipation as she watched her younger brother, so Kim Junyong dug through his old memories.
“Huh? Our house?”
“Haha, that’s right. It’s the house we used to live in.”
Kim Jangmi beamed.
Then she took the property registration papers out of her bag and handed them over.
There was still the paperwork to transfer it to him as a gift, but...
“I inherited it because you weren’t here, but it’s yours now.”
“Huh? You’re giving it to me? Do you really need to?”
“I can support myself.”
“...”
Her younger brother had returned after wandering from battlefield to battlefield.
She couldn’t find a tenant at the moment, but with a few repairs and someone to rent the place, at least her brother wouldn’t have to worry about starving somewhere.
“I’m not the one giving you this house. Mom and Dad are.”
The inheritance their parents had left behind when they died.
It was only right that her younger brother should have it.
Kim Jangmi wiped away the tears that quietly welled up.
Footnotes:
Nolbu is the greedy brother in the Korean folktale “Heungbu and Nolbu.” A swallow brings magical gourd seeds in return for help. Nolbu tries to copy his brother's good fortune, but his gourds bring disaster instead.
Garosu-gil is a Seoul shopping street known for its fashionable shops and cafes.
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