WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 15: What If Seoul Had a Nuclear Weapon?
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Yu Jihun rushed home as soon as cram school ended.
“Huff, huff!”
For some reason, he was in such a hurry that he ran up the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.
Beep-beep-beedle-beep!
He quickly entered the door code and stepped inside, where the smell of fried chicken greeted him.
“Mom!”
“Oh! You're home, Jihun?”
Past the living room, he could see his mother and his uncle sitting at the dining table.
“Oh, hello, Uncle.”
“Hey.”
His mother smiled as he bowed his head in greeting.
“Hungry? Go wash your hands.”
“Okay!”
Jihun took off his school uniform, hurriedly washed his hands, and sat down.
His mother and uncle seemed to have been drinking beer. They were both in high spirits.
“Here, have some.”
“Okay.”
Jihun ate the chicken, stealing glances at his uncle.
Wow. Yesterday had been too hectic to notice, but now that he looked, his uncle did resemble his mother a little...
But seriously, forty years old with that face?
Were hunters the future after all?
“What are you curious about?”
“Huh?”
“You've got curiosity written all over you.”
“Y-you can see that?”
“Of course.”
“Haha.”
Had it shown on his face?
Jihun gave an awkward laugh.
“I-it's just... I'm happy to have an uncle.”
“That's all?”
“And it's pretty amazing that you're a hunter...”
Kim Junyong chuckled.
Just then, Kim Jangmi clapped her hands as if something had come to mind.
“Oh, right! Jihun, you know all about hunters, don't you? I saw Choi Hyunju today!”
“Huh? The hunter Choi Hyunju? Korea's number one?”
Jihun was stunned.
“Yep. I got to see a celebrity I'd only ever seen on TV.”
“Whoa! Choi Hyunju's way more than just a celebrity, Mom.”
People who weren't interested in the hunter world might only know Choi Hyunju as the highest-ranked hunter still in Korea, someone in commercials who appeared on TV a lot.
“Sh-she's ranked thirty-first in the world! Just having someone like that in Korea is a blessing. Thanks to that one person, our defense burden... The reason Korean hunters get treated so well is all... The salt and light of Korea's hunter community... The rate of dungeon breaks... And serving the country as deputy director of the Hunter Management Bureau... You have no idea how amazing she is!”
As Jihun poured out his words at top speed, Jangmi looked taken aback, while Junyong chuckled.
“You know a lot.”
“Huh? Oh, y-yeah. Everyone my age does. Haha.”
Then Jangmi suddenly asked him a question.
“Did you know your uncle joined the Bureau?”
“What? Why?”
Jihun quickly reached a conclusion and slapped his forehead.
“Oh!”
His uncle must have made a deal with the Bureau.
Was he serving his country to get a lighter sentence?
“Junyong, show him that.”
“This?”
Junyong held up his ID card.
“S-Special Adviser? Was that even a position...?”
An adviser was an adviser. What made one special?
An adviser was usually a cushy position given to executives before retirement, or a role created because an organization genuinely needed an outsider's advice or connections.
A salary, but no actual work.
All they had to do was step in now and then to offer their network or experience.
“Your uncle even got an expense card.”
“Huh? But he's an adviser.”
Did advisers get a separate allowance for expenses?
“Then you don't get a salary?”
“They said it's twenty billion won.”
“What?”
That salary wasn't just excessive. It was absurd.
This wasn't some oil-rich country...
As far as he knew, someone in Korea would have to join a major corporate guild to earn that kind of salary.
“Even you think it's a lot, right?”
“Of course!”
“And Choi Hyunju came in person to deliver it. That's what impressed me more.”
“Wow.”
Someone Korea's top-ranked hunter had personally come to recruit.
A man with a twenty-billion-won salary.
And an expense card on top of that...
“Th-that's sick.”
Jihun gazed at his uncle with eyes full of admiration.
“Hehe.”
For some reason, Junyong didn't dislike that look.
Ah, was this what people meant about the pull of blood ties?
Was he already getting attached after seeing the boy for just two days?
His nephew was unbearably cute.
Jangmi opened another can of beer and took a long drink.
“Ahh. More than anything else, I'm just soooo happy I don't have to worry about your uncle getting hauled off somewhere again!”
“...”
This seemed like a lot more than just that...
Uncle, just what were you doing before you came back?
* * *
The Hunter Management Bureau.
Deputy Director Choi Hyunju called an emergency meeting.
Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina attended the ten o'clock meeting, having barely managed a few hours of sleep after staying up for two nights.
Director Park Taejun, who had been discharged from the hospital, was there as well.
“Now that everyone's here, let's begin. First, Director.”
“Yes?”
“You're sure you're all right now?”
“I'm fine.”
Park Taejun had narrowly escaped death.
It hadn't been a curse, and surgical examinations had found nothing wrong.
There had been only one symptom.
Simply thinking of Kim Junyong brought on a terrible headache.
Two hours ago, it had vanished completely.
Tap, taaap.
Choi Hyunju wrote on the whiteboard.
- Mad Sovereign
“I assume everyone here studied at least some Belheim history before joining the Bureau.”
Choi tapped the whiteboard.
“You all know about the Mad Sovereign, correct?”
“Yes. Wasn't he one of the demon realm lords in the Demon King's Army?”
“He was the key figure who gave us a chance to counterattack in the later years.”
“Without his rebellion, the final expedition against the Demon King would never have been assembled.”
After listening to their answers, Choi let out a short breath and spoke.
The Mad Sovereign.
A demon realm lord who first rose to prominence around year fifty and wiped out five corps of the Allied Forces in one fell swoop.
Five corps sounded simple enough, but twelve kingdoms and one empire had fallen.
Year eighty. The Mad Sovereign's betrayal.
Without warning, he had begun fighting the Demon King's Army.
This gave the Allied Forces, which had been on the verge of destruction, a chance to regroup and muster their last strength for the final raid against the Demon King's Army.
Year one hundred.
The final seven heroes defeated the Demon King and returned to Earth.
It was basic Belheim history that anyone could find with a quick internet search.
“There's a vast gap between the history you study and the reality. I experienced him firsthand.”
Choi Hyunju's expression was grave.
“You know the most famous of his many other names, don't you?”
“Disaster...”
“That's right. Disaster. It truly was the perfect word to describe that demon realm lord. Eventually, both the Demon King's Army and the Allied Forces avoided him, afraid of getting involved with him at all. But...”
Choi's face hardened.
“Why do you think he was called a disaster? You couldn't avoid him just because you wanted to, or stop him just because you tried. He was a disaster no one could resist.”
“Ahem. I understand, Deputy Director. But what does this have to do with our current emergency involving Kim Junyong and the Daesan Group?”
Choi added more writing to the whiteboard.
- Mad Sovereign (Kim Junyong)
“...!”
Those who had begun to suspect the truth when Choi launched into that grim history lesson were horrified.
Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina, in particular, looked as though their souls were about to leave their bodies.
“Do you all understand now?”
Bang.
Choi slammed a hand on the podium.
“Fuck. We're screwed. But!”
“...”
“Strangely enough, I saw hope.”
Choi shuddered.
The person Choi had naturally assumed to be a demon had turned out to be an Earthling.
The sight of the Mad Sovereign merely sulking while his older sister scolded him was unforgettable.
It had been a shock in itself!
A Mad Sovereign who listened?
A disaster that could be kept under control?
“If we can just build a friendly relationship with him, Seoul will effectively have a nuclear weapon.”
“A nuclear weapon?”
“Yes, a nuclear weapon! What does one do? It deters war! Who would dare touch Seoul with the Mad Sovereign here?”
Everyone in the meeting room fell silent at Choi's words. None of them had ever seen Deputy Director Choi Hyunju this worked up.
“Why compare him to a nuclear weapon? Because we can't control this! Is there anyone here who can handle the Mad Sovereign? Ha! No one!”
Choi swept a fierce gaze over the room.
As Choi released all the energy that had been held back, the pressure made everyone feel as if they couldn't breathe.
“Listen carefully. He's a disaster. We must stay alert. We have to build our relationship with him with the utmost care. It's a blessing from heaven that he has a family! That's where I saw hope.”
Even thinking about today was terrifying.
They had actually weighed recruiting him against eliminating him.
They couldn't keep approaching this with that sort of attitude.
“Right now, with the Mad Sovereign... No, we're banning that name too. Mr. Kim Junyong... No. We'll simply refer to him as the Special Adviser from now on. I plan to establish a Special Adviser Support Department.”
Even the way they addressed him required care.
They couldn't offend him.
Careful. They had to be careful.
“Deputy Department Head Cheon Yubeom will be promoted to department head and transferred to lead the team.”
“What?”
Choi spoke firmly as Yubeom stared in shock.
“You're our only choice. The Special Adviser has asked for Team Leader Cheon several times. Choosing someone else when you've already built some trust with him would be too much of a risk.”
“B-but it's such a huge responsibility. I'm not sure I can do it well.”
“You don't have the right to refuse.”
“...”
Choi continued giving orders at a rapid pace.
“Director.”
“Go ahead.”
“Stop Daesan.”
“...It's not that simple. The eldest grandson of the Daesan family has been left with a crippled arm.”
“It is simple.”
Choi stepped away from the podium and approached the director.
“Would you rather lose your wallet or your life?”
“My wallet, obviously.”
“Exactly. Even if the economy collapses, shouldn't we at least keep our citizens alive?”
If Daesan went under, so would the country.
People said it like a joke.
But one company collapsing wouldn't destroy a country.
It would only make the country poorer.
Surely that was better than dying?
“This is a matter of life and death, Director. You have to make it happen.”
“Ugh. But...”
“Persuade them. Keep them from going out of their way to provoke a disaster.”
Choi clapped and withdrew the energy.
The heavy pressure weighing down the meeting room vanished in an instant.
“This is serious. Everyone needs to stay sharp. If the Mad Sovereign loses his mind, this country is finished!”
Everyone seemed to agree, but Park Taejun still looked uneasy. Choi noticed.
“Director. Do you have something to add?”
“No, I understand how powerful and dangerous the Mad Sovereign is. I know the history too! But isn't it possible that he and Mr. Kim Junyong aren't the same person?”
“That's a reasonable doubt.”
Choi nodded.
“It is him.”
“Are you certain? I'm not trying to put you on the spot, Deputy Director. I just want to be sure before we move forward. We're dealing with the Daesan Group. I need a solid reason too.”
That was fair.
They couldn't make an enemy of Korea's largest conglomerate on a mere guess.
“What makes you so certain?”
“Because the Mad Sovereign was the one who killed me.”
“...I'll take responsibility for Daesan.”
The matter needed to be put in order and reported to the president immediately.
“Let's sum this up. We're reviving the Returnee Support Program, which ended ten years ago. We'll be helping Mr. Kim Junyong adjust to modern society after his return from a twenty-year absence.”
The Returnee Support Program.
Many early returnees had failed to adjust to society after coming back from Belheim's extremely stressful environment and had become villains.
Once the social adjustment program for returnees began, the number turning into villains dropped noticeably. It had been a great success.
Those with families, in particular, were nine times more likely to adjust successfully.
Kim Junyong's case was very promising.
“But isn't a salary of twenty billion won excessive?”
“Director. When a returnee realizes they need money, do you think they'll look for a job? Or take someone else's money?”
“...”
The Bureau director accepted the point at once.
“I understand.”
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