WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 40: Off the Rails
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Demon Realm Forum, General Discussion
- I'm in Korea right now, and it's gone crazy. Ryu Jai got absolutely destroyed without being able to do a thing.
- What kind of fresh bullshit is this?
- There are a fuckton of witnesses. Check the rankings.
- Huh? Ryu Jai's gone from the rankings.
- She's farther down. Dropped to 833rd.
- Holy shit. What is this?
- The rankings aren't based on one-on-one fights in the first place, are they?
- A higher ranking doesn't guarantee a win, but the higher-ranked hunter generally has the advantage.
- No, I'm asking whether the system even allows one fight to reverse their rankings.
- Huh? Good point. Isn't getting stronger through hunting the only way to raise your ranking?
- Even that has clear limits. Once you're a ranker, you get ridiculously few experience points.
- Wow, from 5th to 833rd... Does that mean she's not a guardian anymore?
- Hey, hey, why's everyone only talking about Ryu Jai? Who the hell beat her? There's no new name in the rankings.
- Who else? That new G-rank who supposedly showed up in Korea.
- Tsk. Where does Korea keep finding these elite talents?
- He must be from the great nation.
- What's his name? Can a G-rank who isn't even a ranker exist?
The Demon Realm Forum erupted.
Ryu Jai was the fifth-ranked hunter.
That meant she was the fifth-strongest human in the world and one of only seven guardians. She was a strategic asset for humanity against A-rank devils and dungeons.
Why else would her influence be described as national-level?
That unshakable position, unchanged for the past ten years, had crumbled.
All because of an unknown hunter who wasn't even a ranker.
A hunter surrounded by buzz.
A hunter Korea was keeping firmly under wraps.
As the world reeled at this hot news and scrambled to gather information about Korea's “hunter,” the hunters gathered in the Daesan Hotel banquet hall could barely contain their excitement.
“But what happens to the alliance now? Ryu Jai was supposed to be its president, and look what happened to her...”
“Hey, are you stupid? This whole thing was just a show.”
“What? This was a show?”
“Oops. It's still confidential, but...”
“Oh, I've heard about it too. There's no alliance. This is just a formality.”
“Huh, really?”
The Asian Hunter Alliance consortium.
Some hunters knew the background behind it. Others knew nothing and had simply boarded a plane to Korea for a little vacation because their guilds told them to attend.
While everyone discussed the consequences of today's events, in a corner of the banquet hall...
Brrr.
“Hey, Kenchi.”
“Huh?”
“What's with you, Kenchi? Are you still in a daze?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Let's go too. The alliance is already finished.”
“G-go where?”
“Where else? Sightseeing. I've got to try Korean pork belly.”
“...”
Takahashi Kenchi's face had gone pale.
“S-sightseeing? Korea's dangerous. Shouldn't we go home?”
“What? What's so dangerous about it?”
“Didn't you see that Korean hunter earlier?”
“Thanks to that hunter, Korea's now the safest country in East Asia.”
“...!”
That was exactly what made it dangerous.
Safe? Bullshit.
Right now, Korea was the most dangerous country in the world.
The Demon Realm?
No, Korea was the most dangerous place right now.
‘A-am I the only one who recognized him?’
Kenchi stared at his Hardbank Guild colleagues in horror.
Sightseeing?
They'd be better off sightseeing in the Demon Realm!
“H-Hina. Did you see that hunter's face earlier?”
“I did. He was pretty good-looking.”
Kamishiro Hina's face flushed a little.
“Koreans all look so nice.”
“Hey, that guy was one of the better-looking ones. The average Korean man looks terrible.”
“Oh, what would you know, Yuji?”
His colleagues' banter made Kenchi's head spin.
“But why are you asking about his face?”
“No reason. Doesn't he look familiar?”
“Hmm? I've never seen him before.”
“Maybe you saw him in a drama?”
Kenchi squeezed his eyes shut as the two remained utterly clueless. His heart pounded, and his body went stiff.
‘Nobody knows. Well...’
How many people actually knew the Mad Sovereign's face?
Kenchi had only recognized his true face because he'd been tortured and mocked before dying in front of him.
‘Does nobody else really know?’
Takahashi Kenchi looked around.
His colleagues, the hunters from other countries... Had none of them sensed anything strange?
Even the SR-rank hunters on his own level hadn't recognized him at all.
‘It's the Mad Sovereign!’
He wanted to shout it, but the words wouldn't come out.
More precisely, he couldn't find the courage.
It was like a brand burned into him by his death.
An instinctive fear.
He could still remember it vividly.
That smiling face as the man tortured him, forcing him to shout, “Long live Dokdo!”
Now all the pieces fell into place.
‘He was from Earth.’
He'd never imagined it.
The Mad Sovereign.
Of course he'd assumed the man was a high-ranking demon. How could he have been from Earth, just like Kenchi?
Wait, then Korea was now...
‘This is insane!’
Were they turning the Mad Sovereign into a hero?
This wasn't right. It just wasn't.
“Whew. I'm going home.”
He wanted to return to Japan as soon as possible.
Boooom!
Just then, an explosion rang out from somewhere.
“Huh? That sounded like upstairs.”
“Is the building going to collapse?”
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
Once bitten, twice shy. Kenchi's reaction was far out of proportion.
“I have to leave right now!”
He rushed out of the Daesan Hotel convention hall, looking ready to swim to Japan if he couldn't get a flight.
* * *
Kang Changseong, president of Daesan Electronics, had given up watching the banquet hall the moment Ryu Jai knelt before Kim Junyong.
‘Fuck.’
He could think of nothing but curses.
Ryu Jai, who had been so confident, couldn't even move.
When he returned to the room where their secret meeting had been taking place...
“President Kang. The Party has accepted Tianluo's demands, so we'll be taking our leave.”
“What? The negotiations are already over?”
“Haha, that's right. The Party made a generous concession. Tianluo hunters will no longer have to wear electronic tracking anklets when they go out.”
“...?”
That was China for you.
The president of Tianluo Guild looked thoroughly satisfied, and the president of Hardbank was no different.
“Our government has also readily accepted our conditions.”
“What were Hardbank's conditions?”
“They've agreed to introduce electronic payments for dungeon entry permits.”
“...?”
Then how the hell had they been getting dungeon entry permits until now?
“Anyway, we should get going.”
“We hope Daesan gets what it wants from the Korean government too.”
President Kang Changseong's face fell as he watched the two hurry away.
“Those bastards.”
They hadn't even bothered with any real back-and-forth. They'd used absurdly easy demands as an excuse to wrap up negotiations and pull out at once.
‘Ryu Jai was subdued.’
This wasn't simply a case of a Korean hunter beating a Taiwanese hunter. It could provide grounds for a clash between governments, and public opinion in Taiwan could fuel the situation further.
Taiwan and Korea might clash.
What should Daesan do?
The government hadn't even sent a messenger yet.
Negotiations, his ass.
This wasn't just a deal falling apart. He was about to take all the blame.
“P-President!”
After the Chinese and Japanese guild representatives had filed out, the chief of staff rushed into the room, where only Daesan's people remained.
“What happened?”
“Ryu Jai lost consciousness! It was completely one-sided.”
“...Damn it!”
This wasn't even a question of whether he should take a gamble.
He'd never imagined such an overwhelming gap could exist even among G-ranks.
What would happen if fifth-ranked Ryu Jai fought first-ranked Logan?
Logan would have the advantage, but the outcome would be far from certain.
‘Then that means Kim Junyong is the strongest person on Earth.’
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
Far from feeling sorry for his son, he was now getting annoyed. The brat should've known who he could afford to mess with!
They'd buttoned the first button wrong, needlessly souring relations between Daesan and Kim Junyong.
‘We should've just ripped that button off back then!’
He'd misjudged his opponent.
He'd dragged his feet, trusting in Daesan's size and influence, only to end up alienating the government too.
One pointless bluff had tangled everything beyond repair.
‘Damn it.’
Should he have stayed out of it?
Should he cut someone loose now?
Would sacrificing the president of Daesan Guild be enough?
While Kang Changseong, president of Daesan Electronics, agonized over his options, the door opened and the worst possible person walked in.
“Everyone's here.”
“Grrrk.”
Unconscious bodyguards lay beyond the doorway.
This was a Daesan Guild event.
Even the lowest-ranked bodyguards were hunters of Grade 5 or above, but...
“...”
“Where's Kang Hyeonsik? Oh, there he is.”
Kim Junyong pointed at Kang Hyeonsik, who was hiding behind the Daesan Guild members.
Whip!
“Aaaaaargh!”
Black tentacles sprang up and wrapped around him. Kang Hyeonsik screamed wildly as the terror of that day came flooding back.
He flailed his right arm, the only one he had left, but a black tentacle seized it.
“Hyeonsik!”
“Oh, so you're his dad.”
“Mmph.”
When black tentacles bound President Kang Changseong too, the Daesan Guild members were badly shaken.
They hadn't expected him to use force so recklessly, without even trying to talk first.
“Nngh! Dongsu! Dongsu!”
Im Dongsu!
An SR ranker, ranked 77th.
Daesan's leading hunter stepped forward at the urgent call of Kang Changseong, first in line to inherit Daesan.
The enormous salary, special treatment, and kinglike luxury he enjoyed were all for moments like this.
“Release the president and the executive director.”
“Don't want to.”
“...”
Im Dongsu was at a loss for words.
This was the sort of person it was impossible to hold a conversation with.
“Then you leave me no choice but to use force.”
Kim Junyong grinned.
Resolve, responsibility, trust.
It wasn't the type of “loyalty” most common in Belheim, but this bodyguard from Earth had fairly firm convictions too.
Im Dongsu hadn't lost his nerve, even facing someone who had easily defeated Ryu Jai.
“Go ahead.”
Now then, would this be the first sacrifice of his outing?
Hurry up and attack.
The moment the Scales declared it self-defense, your neck would snap.
Tap-tap.
Im Dongsu rushed forward in the blink of an eye and swung his blade.
Whoooosh!
Kim Junyong raised a barrier to block the sharp wave of mana. In the meantime, Im Dongsu abruptly changed direction and charged at Lee Mina.
Kim Junyong smiled.
‘Look at this guy.’
Trying to take a hostage?
<A threat to the guardian has been detected. Punishment appears necessary.>
A ball of black mana appeared beside Im Dongsu's flank just as he reached Lee Mina. He was close enough to grab her by the collar if he stretched out his hand, but...
‘Danger!’
He squeezed out every last bit of mana to protect his side.
Thoom!
A heavy explosion rang out.
Booooooom!
The building shook, followed by a tremendous blast.
Im Dongsu smashed through two walls before crashing to a stop. His entire body was covered in blood, but somehow, he was still alive.
“How dare you go after my subordinate?”
“Oh!”
Lee Mina's eyes grew moist. She'd almost become a hostage.
She was deeply touched.
Kim Junyong turned his gaze to Kang Hyeonsik, whose face was filled with despair.
“Telling your dad didn't do you much good, did it?”
“...”
His expression was completely different from before.
There wasn't a trace of anger or desire for revenge.
Only despair, fear, and a desperate plea for mercy.
Was it because he was from Earth?
He had even less backbone than the young nobles of Belheim.
“What a letdown.”
Kim Junyong had expected Daesan to set a trap and provide him with plenty of entertainment. But now that he was here, there was no trap.
Im Dongsu had been the only one to come at him with everything he had.
“Are you guys going to attack?”
“...”
Kim Junyong asked the Daesan hunters just in case, but they stayed silent, busy avoiding his gaze. One even shook his head.
He had no nasty taste for using force on people who were just part of the scenery.
“Good grief. You're even worse than the one-armed guy.”
At least Kang Hyeonsik had refused to yield to superior strength and screamed abuse at him. None of these guys had any fight in them.
“A-Adviser!”
“Hmm?”
At the fairly familiar voice, he turned to see a group approaching.
The awakened person at the front was...
“Deputy Director?”
One of Korea's leading awakened people, someone his older sister liked.
She approached Kim Junyong, her gaze filled with desperation, unease, and fear.
Footnotes:
“The great nation” is a boastful reference to China.
Dokdo is the Korean name for islands claimed by both Korea and Japan, where they are called Takeshima. Forcing Kenchi to cheer for Dokdo adds a nationalist humiliation to the torture.
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