WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 39: The Guardian's Knight
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The crowd parted at Ryu Jai's arrival.
As people gradually moved away from her aura, Kim Junyong and Lee Mina were left standing alone.
‘Who are they?’
‘Do they know Ryu Jai?’
‘They're Korean hunters, aren't they?’
The people gathered in the convention hall studied Kim Junyong and Lee Mina with interest as they faced Ryu Jai.
Anyone could see that the two were about to clash.
In Belheim, a circular stage would naturally form whenever a duel broke out. Since the hunters were all returnees, they were familiar with that culture.
Before anyone knew it, the crowd had formed a huge circular dueling arena in the center of the hall. Their excitement and anticipation only encouraged a fight.
Ryu Jai, one of the parties involved, flashed a bright smile at the man before her, Kim Junyong.
“Just as I thought.”
It was a familiar energy.
She could feel Belheim's blessing in Kim Junyong's body.
The claims that he'd defeated an A-rank devil and cleared an A-rank dungeon weren't lies.
A god's power was like a miracle, making such things possible.
The seven chosen ones.
She could feel the divine blessing that had been granted only to her and her companions in this man too.
“You're a guardian, without a doubt.”
There was something strange in Ryu Jai's eyes.
Satisfaction, pride, anticipation, affection?
“You've trained well. Ah, and that face...”
Smiling, Ryu Jai looked Kim Junyong up and down.
‘Handsome.’
Above all, she liked that he was a guardian.
A chosen warrior of Belheim.
That strange sense of kinship made her like him even more.
‘He'd be perfect as my sixth boyfriend.’
No, her curiosity and desire to conquer him burned so strongly that she would be willing to drop a few of the others if she started seeing him.
“What's with her?”
Kim Junyong flinched.
There was a faint madness in her eyes.
And what was with those surging emotions?
Intense possessiveness, longing, even lust...
“Are you crazy?”
“Hehe. People often get the wrong idea.”
“Didn't you come to assassinate me?”
“Why would I kill you?”
Pure confusion. Complete confidence.
She was telling the truth.
“Didn't Daesan send you?”
“Hmm? Hahaha.”
Ryu Jai laughed brightly.
“Their business is no concern of mine. I don't hurt my comrades.”
Kinship, closeness, goodwill, a sense of belonging.
Wait, when had they even met?
How could she trust him this much on their first meeting?
Her unquestioning acceptance of him as an ally left him dumbfounded.
Well, if he had to look for a reason...
<...Measuring Belheim's divinity...>
He could feel the Scales resonating with Ryu Jai's divine power.
That resonance was growing stronger.
A faint blush had spread across Ryu Jai's face as she spoke.
“I came because of the sword the woman with you was carrying.”
“Reminox?”
“That's right. You know it. Just as I thought...”
It was real.
The Demon King's sword, which should have been in Belheim, had appeared on Earth. This was clearly a crisis, and yet...
“As one of my kind, surely you wouldn't handle a demon sword carelessly.”
Trust. Faith.
Those firm emotions flustered Kim Junyong, which was unusual for him.
“She's hopeless.”
Was she such an easy mark that she'd ask for the bank account number the moment she got a scam call?
“Ah... Shall we go somewhere else to talk?”
Her eyes were half closed, her face deeply flushed.
She looked bewitched by something, but surely Kim Junyong wasn't the cause.
“Scales. Do something about her.”
She really was hopeless.
Flash!
The Scales appeared before Kim Junyong.
“Gasp!”
Ryu Jai's eyes widened as far as they could go.
This presence.
This energy.
“Ahh.”
Ryu Jai forced her knees to stay straight as they threatened to buckle.
‘It's greater than mine. Maybe even Logan's...’
Just how much did Belheim favor him?
How could his divine power be so strong?
No, this wasn't simply a question of strength.
‘It's on a different level!’
It was almost like standing before the goddess of Belheim herself...
<Bel's Scales resonate with a warrior of Belheim.>
“Ahh.”
Ryu Jai sank down as though she were collapsing.
The overwhelming difference in their standing as beings finally forced her to her knees.
A god.
This presence rivaled that of the goddess herself.
“Hmm.”
Kim Junyong shook his head at Ryu Jai, who had shrunk back like a mouse before a snake.
“Well, this is...”
That Earth god.
No wonder the existence of a sacred relic had caused such a fuss.
This represented a god's “authority.”
Perhaps it was only natural for warriors who had received “power” from a god to bow before the “guardian of the Scales,” who possessed that god's sacred relic.
‘That goddess. She gave me something like this as a ticket?’
The ticket to Earth the goddess had given him seemed to hold far greater secrets and possibilities than he'd imagined.
“Get up.”
“...H-how could I?”
He sighed at the sight of her trembling.
“Hmm. What should I do with her?”
He did need to give Earth's god three more divine orbs.
She wasn't an assassin hired by Daesan, but she'd come to him on her own. If they hadn't crossed paths, he would have simply put her to work clearing East Asia's dungeons. But now they'd met like this.
Should he kill her and take the orb?
<A warrior meant to follow divine commands lost her way, unable to hear her god's voice.>
<I ask that you grant her one chance by evaluating and judging her deeds thus far.>
At the Scales' unusually polite request, Kim Junyong nodded.
“All right. I'll judge her.”
<The guardian of the Scales evaluates the deeds of a divine warrior.>
Flash, flash!
“Urrgh!”
A powerful beam of golden light struck Ryu Jai.
Enveloped in the pillar of light, she shook in agony.
‘Urrrrgh.’
The pain was so overwhelming that she couldn't even think of wishing she were dead.
<Causing family discord, adultery, multiple relationships at once...>
The Scales tipped sharply toward the pan of chaos. The dragon carved into the pan stirred and breathed fire. Ryu Jai burned in those golden flames.
‘Ahh.’
Why had I lived such a debauched life?
With a god's power in my hands, I had sought nothing but worldly power.
Tears of regret and repentance streamed down her face.
Flash!
<...Defeating devils, hunting minions of evil, rescuing citizens, saving cities...>
The orbs stopped clinking into the pan of chaos, and white orbs began pouring into the pan of order instead.
Flaaash!
The white orbs far outnumbered the black orbs.
The Scales quickly tipped toward the pan of order.
‘Ahhh.’
All of Ryu Jai's pain vanished. She shuddered at the warmth surrounding her body.
This was divine forgiveness and healing, comfort and salvation.
<A warrior sworn to divine commands briefly lost her way because she could not hear her god's voice, but she did not fall into corruption. I ask that you offer this lost soul a chance.>
The Scales were asking him for a favor.
Kim Junyong stroked his chin.
“Me? How?”
Of course she couldn't hear her god's voice. She was on Earth.
<You may make her a guardian's knight.>
Well, look at that.
An employee had been abandoned after the head office went under, and now they wanted the owner of a subcontracting company to hire her?
Did he really need to?
He could simply kill her here and get a divine orb.
“...”
Kim Junyong looked at Ryu Jai.
She floated in the air, surrounded by a soft golden glow. She looked as peaceful as a newborn baby, so harmless that punishing her or holding her sins against her seemed pointless.
This was the first person he'd seen whose “order” outweighed their “chaos” even after “Judgment.” Well, that was partly because he'd only used the Judgment skill on villains and devils so far.
‘She doesn't deserve to die.’
He wasn't the Mad Sovereign.
Kim Junyong, a citizen of Seoul, wasn't an indiscriminate murderer.
“All right. I'll make her my knight.”
Flash!
<Ryu Jai's “Divine Warrior” status is revoked.>
The golden light surrounding Ryu Jai shrank rapidly and was absorbed into the Scales.
Thud.
Ryu Jai, who had been floating in the air, landed on the floor.
Flash, flash!
<Ryu Jai is appointed as a “Guardian's Knight.”>
Some of the divine power absorbed by the Scales flowed toward Ryu Jai and entered her body.
<Please allocate the power of order to your knight so that she may oppose chaos.>
<You have 1,270 order points remaining.>
Hmm? Why wasn't it 1,000, the value of a divine orb?
Where had the extra 270 come from?
<These are the order points from the settlement of Ryu Jai's karma.>
“...?”
Kim Junyong paused.
‘She gets a settlement too?’
As guardian of the Scales, Kim Junyong had his good and evil karma settled every day and received rewards or punishment.
But now he also got to decide the fate of the order points Ryu Jai had accumulated.
“...So she's my little point earner.”
<...A guardian's knight is a companion and assistant who works alongside you...>
What a long explanation.
So she really was his little point earner.
Kim Junyong gladly allocated 270 points to Ryu Jai. They came from the “good karma” she'd accumulated since returning to Earth.
It had saved her from Judgment, and now it would become the foundation for her comeback.
“Hehe. Grow big and strong.”
With 270 points, she should be able to handle devils well enough.
Kim Junyong could have used the remaining 1,000 points to strengthen the Scales, but he converted them into an orb instead.
<Goodness Acquired>
Flash!
He looked at the golden orb in his hand with satisfaction, then put it into subspace.
“Deputy Head Lee.”
“Gasp! Y-yes!”
Lee Mina, who had been waiting with a hand over her mouth, careful not to make even a sound as she breathed, jumped in surprise.
“Let's go.”
“Sh-shall I take you home?”
“What are you talking about? We haven't even finished our business.”
Why had Kim Junyong come here?
Because of the invitation from Daesan.
He hadn't even known Ryu Jai would be here. Since she wasn't an assassin hired by Daesan, he had no business with her.
Kim Junyong swept his gaze over the spectators.
Shock, surprise, excitement, fear, a desire to compete.
Every hunter in the banquet hall was staring at him, but he didn't bat an eye.
An ordinary person would naturally grow nervous under so many people's attention. All the more so in a room filled with dozens of East Asia's most prominent hunters.
But people at their level couldn't make Kim Junyong nervous.
Nobody grew nervous just because flies were buzzing around.
“Where did he go? Oh, there he is.”
When he looked for Daesan's chief of staff, he found the man hurrying out of the banquet hall.
As Kim Junyong headed that way, the hunters scrambled aside.
Two hunters stepped forward and blocked his path.
“Stop.”
“Who are you?”
“Wu Feilong.”
“Lin Hongyu.”
Lee Mina drew a sharp breath at their introductions.
“Do you know them?”
“They're r-rankers. Super rankers.”
Oh, powerful hunters in the world's top one hundred.
Were these the assassins Daesan had hired?
Kim Junyong let his killing intent rise.
“...!”
“...!”
Both hunters flinched and froze. The Scales were startled too.
<Murder without Judgment is a serious crime.>
“Oops.”
He'd nearly committed murder again.
He needed to follow the proper procedure.
“Come at me.”
At Kim Junyong's bold demand for grounds to claim self-defense, Lin Hongyu and Wu Feilong took hesitant steps back.
“We're not here to f-fight.”
“What did you do to Ryu Jai?”
The brief glimpse of Kim Junyong's killing intent had already cowed them both.
“What? Go see for yourselves.”
“Th-then, excuse us.”
“...Thank you for not hurting her.”
“...?”
What was with these anticlimactic fools?
“Let's go, Deputy Head Lee.”
“Ah! Yes.”
Once the two of them disappeared after Daesan's chief of staff, the silent banquet hall began buzzing again.
“Th-that was insane. He subdued Ryu Jai.”
“How did he do it?”
“It was an aurora that looked like it was made of gold!”
“What kind of skill was that? I can't even begin to guess.”
All they had seen was the pair talking before Ryu Jai suddenly rose into the air in a golden glow, held helplessly in place as her body jerked and convulsed.
Then he'd tossed her aside and left without a care.
“I think it was telekinesis.”
“Good grief. What were they talking about?”
“Is there a rift forming among the G-ranks?”
“Wait! Ryu Jai's ranking dropped!”
“What?”
At someone's shout, everyone pulled out their phones and opened the Demon Realm Forum.
[Ryu Jai: Rank 833]
“What the hell? She's just a ranker now!”
“That's crazy! Was it the Star-Absorbing Art?”
“Did she suffer a permanent injury?”
All kinds of theories poured out.
Ryu Jai, the guardian ranked fifth in the world, had become a ranker in 833rd place.
The upper rankings, which had been fairly static, had undergone a major shift.
“Wow, do you know what I just saw?”
“It was insane. Ryu Jai couldn't put up any resistance.”
“What? No, everything's fine. She just knelt down.”
Some reported to their guilds. Others called acquaintances, spoke to the companions beside them, or posted anonymously on the Demon Realm Forum.
Everyone who had witnessed this turning point in history was swept up in excitement.
Footnotes:
The Star-Absorbing Art is a technique from martial arts fiction that drains another person's internal power.
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