WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 44: Luciel the Devil
──────
Kim Junyong had taken on human subordinates for the first time.
There was a somewhat extreme group of humans who followed the Mad Sovereign in Belheim, but their love was one-sided.
As far as Kim Junyong was concerned, his first and second human subordinates were Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina.
“Hah, hah.”
Shwaaaak.
“Aaaaah!”
Baaang!
They looked exhausted enough to die.
Despite struggling as though they would go mad if they had to keep going, neither gave up.
‘They've got some grit, haven't they?’
How satisfying.
Was this what it felt like to take on disciples?
Their skills were terrible, but their effort and dedication put Kim Junyong in a very good mood.
When people worked this hard and were eager to learn even one more thing, he couldn't help wanting to teach them more.
“Good. Let's take a break and eat.”
“Hah, hah. Yes, sir.”
Kim Junyong summoned Ed at once.
Pop-pop.
“Meeeeow! You called, Master?”
“Yeah, let's eat.”
“Meow! Leave it to me!”
He had given Ed, his dungeon keeper, some authority over the dungeon. Like Kim Junyong, Ed could retrieve things from it as though pulling them out of subspace.
Shwak, click!
The camping equipment Ed brought out unfolded on its own through telekinesis, setting up their resting spot.
“Please sit here, Master. Meow.”
“Good.”
Kim Junyong sat in a camping chair and crossed his legs.
All sorts of camping supplies fell neatly into place, turning a long table into an outdoor kitchen.
Cheon Yubeom asked, his mouth hanging open.
“E-Ed, you can enter the Demon Realm too?”
“Meow! I'm a smart cat too.”
Ed proudly held out a phone.
“Gasp!”
Did that mean Ed was a hunter too?
“W-what's your class?”
“I'm a cat. Meow.”
“...?”
<Kim Ed>
Class : Cat
Mana : null
Skill : null
Kim Junyong's shoulders shook with laughter.
How could Cheon Yubeom or Lee Mina know that Earth's god had thrown together those hunter credentials?
“Anyway, what do you two want to eat?”
“W-we'll...”
The sudden question caught Cheon Yubeom off guard.
He was so mentally and physically exhausted that he didn't particularly feel like eating, but...
“Cold noodles!”
“Oh, good choice. Cold noodles.”
“I-I'd like that too.”
Lee Mina quickly chose a dish, Kim Junyong accepted it, and Cheon Yubeom agreed.
“Meow! They'll be ready in no time!”
Fwoooosh.
The burner lit up, and a pot of water went on it.
While Ed raced around, pitter-patter, Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina sank into their chairs.
“Haaah.”
Cheon Yubeom had already killed dozens of minions of evil.
Never in his life as a hunter had he hunted this much in a single day.
His hands and feet were trembling.
His stamina might recover, but taking lives consumed an enormous amount of mental energy.
“Yubeom.”
“Ah! Y-yes, sir!”
“You can stop if it's too hard.”
“No, sir!”
He shouted in alarm.
If they stopped, wouldn't they leave the Demon Realm?
Then Kim Junyong would hear about the uproar in Taiwan, and he might go there to do them harm.
They absolutely couldn't let that happen.
“I'll see this through, no matter what!”
“You little rascal.”
Impressed by Cheon Yubeom's resolve, Kim Junyong chuckled.
Even while worn out and struggling, his sense of duty burned bright. It was remarkable.
To feel such a deep sense of duty toward one's own training.
Lee Mina was no different.
The two of them seemed to have staked their lives on this training.
“If my subordinates are this serious, maybe I should put in a little more effort too.”
“...?”
“Once we've eaten, we'll really kick things up a... Ed.”
Kim Junyong stopped midsentence and called to Ed.
The cat was boiling the noodles and making the seasoning, grinding a green bead into a fine powder and adding it to the mix.
“What's that you've got?”
“Meow? This is a bead of luck.”
“A luck stone?”
Kim Junyong's eyebrow twitched.
“Meow! That's right!”
Noticing the master's interest, Ed took a handful of green beads out of a pocket and showed them to him.
“Huh?”
Kim Junyong sprang out of his chair in surprise.
“You can use them if you need them, Master. Meow.”
“Where did you get these?”
“I earned them through business. Meow.”
“...!”
Kim Junyong's eyes went round.
“You have Luck Extortion?”
“That's right. Meow!”
“Huh.”
Kim Junyong let out a breath of disbelief.
Looking down at Ed, who was gazing up at him with round eyes, he grinned.
“You useful little bastard.”
“Meow?”
Luck Extortion was an extremely rare power among devils.
How could he not be delighted to learn that Ed had it?
“So you sold food for luck instead of money?”
“Meow! That's right! If you wish, Master, I can try taking souls or lifespans instead.”
“Come on, a soul contract for a single meal? That's crossing the line.”
Just like a devil, always trying to get something for nothing.
A soul contract was a proper devil contract. It required a payment of sufficient power in return. Yet Ed wanted to settle that payment by providing a mere meal.
A devil through and through.
He couldn't let that cute ball of white fur fool him.
“How many luck stones can you collect in a day?”
“Meow? That depends on how business goes.”
“Does it now?”
Kim Junyong grinned.
There was something almost wicked about that smile.
“You shouldn't be hanging around here. Go sell food.”
“Meow?”
“We can't let a precious talent like this go to waste.”
“B-but what about your meal, Master? Meow?”
“Oh, we can throw something together. Hurry along.”
“Meeow? But I can't manage it alone.”
At Ed's words, Cheon Yubeom jumped to his feet.
“I'll go.”
A step too late, Lee Mina looked defeated.
“You two need to train.”
“Ah.”
Cheon Yubeom slumped back into his chair, looking utterly lost.
Kim Junyong turned his gaze toward the one remaining person.
He walked over to Kim Remi, who had somehow found time to set up a hammock and was lying in it with sunglasses on.
“Remi.”
“...”
Look at this little bastard, pretending not to hear him.
“Go help sell food.”
“Shall I cut the customers' heads off?”
“Hey!”
Kim Junyong almost gave Remi a smack, but tried persuasion instead.
“I'll share the luck stones with you.”
“...Tsk.”
After a moment of conflicted thought, Remi climbed out of the hammock.
“Ed, let's go.”
“Yes, Remi.”
Pop-pop.
Once the two disappeared, Lee Mina stared in bewilderment.
“A-Adviser. What exactly are luck stones?”
“Luck stones?”
“Yes. If even Remi is willing to get up for them... Are they really valuable?”
“They are.”
Kim Junyong grinned and placed the green beads Ed had given him on his palm.
“These things increase your luck.”
“Huh? Is that all?”
Kim Junyong chuckled at the two of them. They seemed to have no idea what these were worth.
“When did you two say you returned?”
“I returned in my eleventh year in Belheim.”
“I returned in my fifteenth year in Belheim.”
“Wow, you really are amateurs.”
“...”
They were treated with respect in their own right, but they had nothing to say before a two-hundred-year returnee.
“Do you know about equipment enhancement?”
“Of course!”
“And alchemy?”
“We know that too.”
Of course they did.
Almost any royal castle would have an alchemist or an enhancement specialist.
“Oh? Wait, does this have something to do with enhancement success elixirs?”
Kim Junyong grinned.
“Why wouldn't it? No, that's not all.”
The true value of luck stones lay in their unique form.
“Luck is a kind of power we can't control.”
It wasn't dark mana, white mana, or divine power, but a power born from chance within the world itself.
Luck stones were the only way to influence how it worked.
“Do you understand how amazing it is to gain access to a power you can't control?”
Rolling the green beads around in his hand, Kim Junyong looked more delighted than he had in a long time.
“Ed's a useful little cat.”
Luck Extortion.
Apparently, skill alone hadn't made Ed the Demon King's cook. There was no way someone with Luck Extortion hadn't used luck to get ahead.
‘Was dying by my hand and coming back to life a stroke of luck too?’
Perhaps even this strange connection between them was a result of Ed's ability. Luck was, after all, an unpredictable power that tied people together.
The stones could be processed into all sorts of items, including enhancement elixirs, destruction prevention talismans, and synthesis blessing scrolls.
“I-I see.”
“Heh heh heh. Farming luck stones.”
At this point, wasn't it practically a factory?
That Ed.
The cat had done something incredible.
“By the way, aren't you going to take those out?”
“Oh! Ah! Yes, sir.”
Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina hurried over to the pot and scooped out the boiling noodles.
“Oh, Team Leader, mix in the seasoning first.”
“Uh, right.”
Kim Junyong shook his head at their clumsy efforts.
“Maybe I should summon another errand runner...”
Countless devil souls still remained in Kim Junyong's void pouch.
He didn't even have enough mana yet to summon Malsun, the strongest among them.
His mana core would have to grow several dozen times larger just to meet the summoning cost.
“None of them are any fun except Malsun...”
All the souls he kept with him were combat troops.
They were loyal and reliable, but that also made them boring.
“Oh, right. I had these guys too.”
He had met the goddess of Belheim when he captured the Demon King's Castle.
To show her that he was a dark mage, he had collected a great mass of souls from that place.
Ed's soul was among them, but so were the souls of countless other devils who had been there.
The banquet at the Demon King's Castle.
The rulers of various regions who had received the Demon King's invitation.
The souls of the demon realm lords.
Kim Junyong frowned as he looked through the souls added to his collection that day.
‘The Demon King's not here.’
The Demon King must have escaped.
Or perhaps the Demon King's rank had been too high for Kim Junyong's void pouch to hold.
“Let's see.”
Kim Junyong summoned one of the souls that had once been a demon realm lord.
‘I'm only going to use it to run errands. No need to give it all its power.’
He deliberately used only a moderate amount of mana.
The summoned devil's rank would fall, but that was exactly what he wanted.
Fssss.
A mass of black liquid floated in the air.
[...Mad Sovereign!]
The creature tried to lunge at Kim Junyong the moment it saw him, but it had no chance.
“Now, now.”
[Grrrr!]
The soul was completely under Kim Junyong's control.
It had only two choices.
“Will you become my retainer?”
[Never!]
“Then get lost.”
Pop-pop.
[W-wai...]
Kim Junyong scattered the mana without a trace of regret.
It was the moment a demon realm lord's soul, which had once ruled over part of Belheim, met its end.
“All right, next.”
Tzzzt.
[Hmph! I'd rather die than serve the likes of...]
Pop-pop.
“This isn't easy.”
As expected, lord-class devils had plenty of pride.
“One of them will follow me.”
Kim Junyong went ahead and summoned all the remaining devil souls he had collected that day.
Pop-pop-pop.
Twenty-one black spheres floated in the air.
“All right, who's going to become my retainer?”
[Ugh.]
[Mad Sovereign...]
[Traitor.]
[You deserve to be torn apart.]
Kim Junyong grinned at the hostile devils and held up one finger.
“First come, first served. Just one.”
Pop-pop.
One black soul swiftly flattened itself against the ground.
[I will follow you, my lord.]
“Okay. The rest of you can get lost.”
Pop-pop.
[Aaaaargh!]
[I'll get you, no matter what!]
[Revenge!]
Pop-pop-pop.
Once he had destroyed every other soul, the lone remaining mass of black spirit trembled.
“Take physical form.”
[Yes, sir.]
The black mass looked around, but there were only two models to choose from.
“Huh?”
Cheon Yubeom flinched in surprise as the black soul approached him, but it was too fast to dodge.
Wobble.
The black liquid soon took shape.
Its combat uniform looked exactly like Cheon Yubeom's, but its build was different.
A tall, slender man with a neat mustache stood before them. He bent one arm and bowed his head in the manner of a Belheim noble.
“Luciel, the Demon King's shadow and head butler, greets his new master.”
“Oh!”
He had thought this was a demon realm lord, but it had been a devil who lived at the Demon King's Castle all along.
He had found the perfect errand runner.
“Let's have a bowl of cold noodles.”
“Yes, Master.”
Kim Junyong was deeply satisfied with the obedient reply.
He had privately been prepared to use any amount of violence or torture to help their new family member settle in, so this was a relief.
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