WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 42: The Goddess's Apostle
──────
The scenery changed in an instant.
Choi Hyunju gasped.
“Ah!”
Wasn't this Kim Junyong's house in Hansan 2-dong, which she'd only seen in reports?
‘Did we teleport?’
She'd already been told that Kim Junyong could teleport, but this was the first she'd learned that he could take party members along.
<You have traveled to the base “Big Bro Junyong's House.”>
“Huh!”
She drew a sharp breath at the notification on the phone in her hand. There had been all sorts of guesses about the “bases” added in the Demon Realm Conquest app's update. Now she knew for certain.
‘This really is a base.’
Even within the Bureau, it had only been a guess. Now she had confirmation.
‘Are bases like teleport points? Is there one in Andong too?’
The adviser had once traveled to Andong and back in an instant.
There was a very simple way to check, but she couldn't bring herself to ask.
“Aaah. That was fun.”
Kim Junyong looked utterly innocent as he stretched, looking refreshed.
It was terribly sad and frightening that such harmless delight had come from putting his malice into practice.
Hadn't he turned a father and son into enemies, then slipped away himself?
No.
She shouldn't think like that.
‘Get a grip.’
She had to help the adviser adjust.
How could she expect the Mad Sovereign to have a normal state of mind?
She should be grateful that he was even trying to adjust to society.
Choi Hyunju gathered her courage.
She forced herself to speak and dared to ask a question.
“Do you have anything in mind for dealing with Daesan?”
“Daesan? What's there to deal with?”
Kim Junyong chuckled.
In Belheim, they would at least have mobilized an army or an order of knights. Earth's noble families were rather sloppy.
“It's been a while, so I was looking forward to it. But for a trap, they weren't very coordinated. Sloppy work.”
“...!”
He thought Daesan had set a trap for him?
‘Ah!’
She should be grateful there hadn't been a massacre.
Choi Hyunju hesitated.
Should she clear up the misunderstanding?
Should she defend Daesan?
How would the adviser react?
“Leave them alone. If they get cocky and come at me again, that'll be fun.”
Kang Hyeonsik, the first person to pick a fight with Kim Junyong, was dead.
But his grandfather and father were still alive.
Whether those two fought or not, someone would survive. Someday, the survivor might work up the courage to pick a fight with Kim Junyong again.
“Hehe. You've got to have these little pleasures in life.”
“...”
Kim Junyong stepped onto the terrace and looked outside.
“Closed for the day?”
Cheon Yubeom was moving between the tables in the yard, clearing away the plates the customers had left behind.
Kim Junyong looked at Choi Hyunju and Lee Mina, who had followed him outside.
Choi Hyunju wasn't his subordinate.
“Let's go to the Demon Realm later.”
“Pardon? The Demon Realm?”
“No, not you. Deputy Manager Lee and that one.”
Kim Junyong briefly pointed to Cheon Yubeom on the first floor.
“They're my first human subordinates, after all, but they're way too weak.”
“Ah, understood.”
Training, then.
Lee Mina looked at him with determination.
“I-I have a lot of work to do, so I should return to the Bureau.”
“The Bureau's busy every day.”
“...”
And whose fault was that?
There was a mountain of things to clean up right now.
Before leaving, Choi Hyunju asked another question.
“Would you like me to assign some staff to help with the business?”
“Nah, it's just a hobby. Leave it alone. I'll hire people myself if I need them.”
“Ah, understood.”
A hobby.
The adviser saw this business as a form of amusement.
“I'll be going, then.”
“Sure. Keep up the good work.”
Choi Hyunju left Kim Junyong's house and called her secretary.
[Deputy Director! Where are you?]
“I'm in Hansan 2-dong.”
[What? We're outside the Daesan Hotel.]
“I'll take a taxi back. Meet me at headquarters.”
[Understood!]
“...”
Teleportation.
She still couldn't believe it.
More importantly, there was a lot to sort out.
“Haah.”
Daesan, Taiwan, and the Asian Hunter Alliance, which had gone completely off the rails.
‘I'll pass Daesan over to the director.’
Only a few people had witnessed Kang Hyeonsik's death.
And all of them were Daesan's people.
If they could work out a deal, it might be surprisingly easy to bury the matter.
“As for Taiwan...”
She didn't know how Taiwan would respond.
Ryu Jai had knelt before Kim Junyong.
Too many people had witnessed it. The information was still spreading in real time, making it difficult to contain.
The real problem wasn't any protest from Taiwan or Ryu Jai. It was that Kim Junyong's name had spread around the world.
The attention on him had grown enormous.
‘Can he possibly live quietly?’
Interest in the appearance of a new G-rank hunter had already been burning hot. Defeating Ryu Jai had poured oil on the fire.
Just thinking about managing the agents that countries would send to investigate Kim Junyong told her there was a rough road ahead.
Then, suddenly, Choi Hyunju gave a small shudder.
“...Am I a little more comfortable around him now?”
Amid the urgent situation, she'd somehow managed to talk to the adviser and even approach him.
Did this mean she'd made good progress in overcoming her PTSD?
Her heart thumped with a strange sense of pride.
“Ah, wait...”
Surely no one had recognized the adviser's face?
Quite a few high-ranking Asian hunters had been gathered there.
“Hmm. I'd better prepare for it.”
The Mad Sovereign's appearance on Earth would attract far more attention than the arrival of a new G-rank hunter.
* * *
Japan's Hardbank Guild.
The reason this guild was considered Japan's best was simple. It had no fewer than two SR-rank hunters.
Neighboring South Korea had only two SR-rank hunters who weren't villains. Hardbank had just as many, despite being a private company.
“Hey, Kenchi! Sounds like things went wild in Korea!”
“Ryota.”
“Haha, I should've gone.”
Nozawa Ryota.
He was an SR-rank hunter and, alongside Takahashi Kenchi, one of Hardbank's leading men.
“Hmm? What's with that face?”
“Ryota. Do you know what the Mad Sovereign looks like?”
“The Mad Sovereign? How would I know what that demon realm lord looks like?”
“Didn't you say the Mad Sovereign killed you?”
Takahashi Kenchi's eyebrows drew together.
Kenchi had felt a sense of kinship with Ryota because they had both died at the Mad Sovereign's hands.
“You idiot. What does being killed by him have to do with knowing his face?”
“How can you not know?”
Every returnee had experienced “death” in Belheim.
Ryota recalled a rather unpleasant memory.
“There was a flash in the distance, and I died. I don't even know what hit me.”
“...You didn't see his face?”
“I was too far away. Besides, he always wore a hooded robe, didn't he?”
“...”
Kenchi scowled.
That bastard Ryota.
He'd had an easy death.
“Hey, hey. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Damn it. I thought you'd died in agony like I did...”
“It was agony. Do you know what it feels like to burn?”
“I do! Fuck, I know all about it!”
Kenchi had died after suffering every kind of torture.
“Haah, fuck.”
“Anyway, why bring up the Mad Sovereign all of a sudden?”
“He's on Earth.”
“What? Pfft, hahaha.”
Ryota laughed.
“Don't be ridiculous. Why would a demon realm lord come to Earth? Something like that would be at least A-rank.”
With the destructive power of a demon realm lord, wouldn't something like an S-rank dungeon have appeared?
For a devil to descend to Earth, it had to pass through a dungeon break.
“Are you saying an S-rank dungeon appeared on Earth and broke open without us knowing?”
“...The Mad Sovereign was from Earth.”
“Don't be ridiculous.”
That couldn't be true.
Ryota thought Kenchi had started making more jokes since the trip to Korea.
“Enough of this nonsense about the Mad Sovereign. Tell me about Ryu Jai. Did that Korean hunter really crush her?”
“...”
“Come on, don't keep it to yourself. There's no video, so everyone's curious.”
“It was the Mad Sovereign.”
“Hmm?”
“That Korean hunter who crushed Ryu Jai.”
Fear filled Kenchi's face at the memory of what had happened barely half a day earlier.
“Fuck. The Mad Sovereign was from Earth.”
“...Are you serious?”
“What reason would I have to lie?”
Seeing Kenchi's serious expression, Ryota grew serious too.
“What proof do you have?”
“He captured me and tortured me for three days. How could I forget his face?”
“...Couldn't he just look like him?”
“Ryota!”
As Kenchi's expression turned threatening, Ryota waved his hands.
“Whoa, calm down. If that Korean hunter is the Mad Sovereign, why is the world so quiet?”
“Even you don't know his face, and he killed you.”
“...Fair point.”
Ryota had never even considered the idea that the Mad Sovereign might be from Earth. He had stood far above even the other demon realm lords.
This wasn't simply a matter of recalling a memory. It overturned their entire understanding of the world.
Unless the Mad Sovereign had left a wound so deep in someone's soul that it remained as PTSD, as it had for Kenchi, it wouldn't be easy to recognize him just from his face.
Few people knew his face in the first place.
The Mad Sovereign had begun acting openly around the fiftieth year after the summoning.
Ten million people had been summoned, but most of the summoned persons had died within those first fifty years and returned to Earth.
“...Isn't this a huge problem?”
“A massive one.”
“...Kenchi. I don't think this is something our guild can handle.”
Kenchi nodded too.
“We need to bring this to the world's attention.”
The Mad Sovereign had descended to Earth.
This was dangerous.
They had to stop the Mad Sovereign from sneakily hiding his identity and trying to rule(?) Korea.
‘I'm the only one who can do it.’
Kenchi burned with a sense of duty.
Kenchi wasn't particularly fond of Koreans, but he couldn't leave them to become the Mad Sovereign's victims.
For the sake of world peace, the Mad Sovereign had to be eliminated.
* * *
Ryu Jai had a long dream.
I saw the goddess.
She scolded me for my debauchery,
and punished my laziness.
After pain and loss that seemed as though they would never end,
I was granted a chance at forgiveness and atonement...
Her eyes snapped open.
“...”
A ceiling. A bed that swayed.
“Oh? Ryu Jai!”
She turned her head slightly. It was her third boyfriend.
“Where am I?”
“Where else? On your private jet.”
“Why am I here?”
“Lin Hongyu carried you here on their back. Want me to call them?”
“Yes.”
Soon, Lin Hongyu and Wu Feilong came in.
“Are you all right?”
“I'm fine.”
“...”
Despite Ryu Jai's answer, neither looked reassured. She didn't seem to have any external injuries, but...
“Ryu Jai, your ranking dropped.”
“My ranking?”
Ryu Jai picked up the phone by her pillow and chuckled. When she checked, she was ranked 833rd.
“Now you're both ranked higher than me.”
“This isn't something to laugh about, Ryu Jai.”
“What happened? What did he do to you?”
“Right. To us, it just looked like he grabbed you and you didn't resist.”
Ryu Jai nodded at Lin Hongyu and Wu Feilong's words.
“That's right.”
“What?”
“How could I resist?”
The divine power that had once filled her was gone.
‘The goddess has withdrawn her blessing.’
<Ryu Jai>
Class: Guardian Knight of the Scales
Her original class had been “Goddess's Warrior.”
“He's an apostle sent by the goddess.”
“What?”
A dreamy look settled over Ryu Jai's face.
Like a believer who had received a divine revelation.
“There's a chance to repent for my sins and be forgiven...”
I shall destroy evil and follow him.
As Ryu Jai quietly made her vow, Lin Hongyu and Wu Feilong exchanged looks.
‘She's lost it.’
‘We'll need to report this.’
Ryu Jai seemed not to be in her right mind.
“Get some rest.”
“Yes, you should rest.”
Once the two left, Ryu Jai lay back down.
“Ah!”
She had to tell her comrades too.
The Seven Final Heroes.
Before the raid on the Demon King, they had received another blessing from the goddess and been reborn as Goddess's Warriors.
She entered the Guardian Club's chat room and shared the overwhelming news.
- The Goddess's Apostle has descended.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
