WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 5: Golden Scales
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“Wow, that's amazing.”
Kim Junyong's bright voice made Kim Jangmi's heart ache all over again.
“Sniff... My Junyong. It's okay. Your big sister will keep you safe.”
“Huh? From what?”
“I'll sort everything out somehow, so don't you worry about a thing.”
“Ooh.”
Kim Junyong chuckled.
His sister was clearly not in a normal state. Who was supposed to be worrying about whom here?
The stress of their current situation seemed to outweigh the joy of their reunion. Her sense of responsibility and the pressure she felt were getting out of hand.
“Calm down.”
“Yes, I'm fine.”
“You don't look fine at all.”
Instead, it was Junyong, sitting inside the holding cell, who had to comfort Kim Jangmi.
‘Family.’
Kim Junyong felt excited.
It was like receiving a gift he had never expected.
He had simply assumed they would all be dead.
Yet here he was, reunited with family.
“Junyong, Mom and Dad...”
“Sis. Let's talk later.”
Just then, two people approached who might as well have been wearing signs announcing that they were from the Bureau. The strong concentration of mana he sensed suggested they were fairly high-ranking hunters.
“It's Cheon Yubeom!”
“Wow, I've never seen him in person before.”
He must have been quite famous, because everyone turned to look.
“The Bureau? No! Nooo!”
Kim Jangmi began to tremble.
Her reaction was so violent that Kim Junyong asked, “Sis, what's wrong?”
“If they take you to the Bureau, you're in serious trouble!”
The Hunter Management Bureau's Special Investigation Unit enjoyed enormous power and popularity.
But that was how the public saw it. To a suspect, the place was no different from hell.
Under the Special Hunter Act, they could trample all over human rights during an investigation.
Even healthy people came out crippled.
“Absolutely not! You can't take my little brother!”
Kim Jangmi was too terrified to think straight.
She had finally reunited with her brother after twenty years. She couldn't lose him again like this.
Watching her, Kim Junyong felt something strange.
Someone had remembered me,
had kept missing me,
was trying to protect me,
and was worried about me.
For someone who had spent two hundred years as a dark mage in Belheim, this was unfamiliar territory.
‘This doesn't feel bad.’
His chest felt light and ticklish, as if something were welling up inside him.
“Sis.”
“Yes?”
Kim Junyong placed a hand on his sister's shoulder.
“Uh...”
Her eyes soon lost focus, and she collapsed to the floor. The police officers jumped in alarm.
“Hey! What happened?”
“What do you think? She's asleep. Take her home.”
“...What is going on?”
While the police stood there in confusion, someone from the Bureau stopped in front of Kim Junyong.
“Are you Kim Junyong?”
“That's me.”
“I'm Section Chief Lee Mina of the Hunter Management Bureau's Special Investigation Unit. You'll need to come with us.”
He glanced at Kim Jangmi, whom the officers had laid on a bench, then nodded without protest.
“Let's go.”
He had simply gone with the flow, treating every incident that came along as a bit of entertainment, and somehow ended up in a holding cell.
He hadn't known his sister was alive. If he had, he would have looked for his family first.
‘I've made things complicated for no reason.’
He needed to clear his name.
No, it wasn't as if he had been falsely accused.
He needed to skip the trial.
No matter how much he argued with the small fry, they would obviously keep bothering him. At times like this, it was better to meet someone with the authority to make decisions and settle things directly.
Creak.
The cell door opened, and he let Lee Mina put the handcuffs on him without resisting.
Specially made for hunters, the cuffs were a little heavier.
“Let's go.”
A van was already waiting outside.
Clunk. Vroooom!
As soon as the door closed, the driver pulled away.
“Ooh, what a smooth ride!”
It was so comfortable that comparing it to the carriages of Belheim would have been an insult.
Cheon Yubeom sat beside Kim Junyong, with Lee Mina facing him. They were well placed to subdue him if he tried anything.
“You probably don't remember, but this is our second time meeting.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I was there at the scene. You fell out of the sky, didn't you?”
“Oh. Back then.”
Kim Junyong chuckled at the memory.
Apparently, it had been three days ago, but since he had spent that time unconscious, it felt like only yesterday.
“We'll question you formally when we reach the Special Investigation Unit, but could I ask you a few quick questions first?”
“I'm bored anyway. Sure.”
Section Chief Lee Mina's eyebrows curved upward at his unexpectedly cooperative attitude.
“You're a returnee, aren't you?”
“That's right.”
“When did you return?”
“Then.”
“Then?”
“I returned that day.”
“Hmm, that doesn't make...”
Section Chief Lee Mina swallowed the rest, lips moving without a sound.
“What? Why ask if you're not going to believe me?”
“I believe you. It just goes against common knowledge.”
“Then maybe your common knowledge is wrong.”
“...”
Kim Junyong turned toward the window.
“That woman in the parking lot... You summoned her, right?”
“Right.”
Summoning was also magic.
He hadn't awakened yet, but he could use summoning magic?
Putting Kim Jangmi to sleep earlier had been magic too.
“...And you haven't awakened yet either.”
“Awakened?”
“Yes. When returnees come to Earth, all their abilities are reset, and they awaken again. Killing a minion of evil unlocks the status window, right? That's what we call awakening.”
“Everything gets reset?”
“Yes, that's right.”
“Hmm.”
Kim Junyong sank deep into thought.
“What's wrong?”
He didn't answer Lee Mina's question. After a while, he nodded to himself.
“How big is the time difference?”
“Pardon?”
“Between Belheim and Earth.”
Lee Mina readily answered the question he had finally asked after a long silence.
“Ten to one.”
“Huh. So twenty years have passed on Earth.”
“Are you claiming you spent two hundred years in Belheim?”
“Yes.”
“That's imposs...”
Lee Mina started to object, but Cheon Yubeom intervened.
Kim Junyong closed his eyes and thought hard for a while before smiling.
“I see.”
“See what?”
Kim Junyong glanced at Lee Mina.
He wasn't normally one to share his discoveries, but since Mina had provided useful information, he made a special exception.
“An avatar. When you're summoned to Belheim, only your soul is called over, and an avatar is created there. Oh, I call it an avatar, but it's exactly like a human body. A god created it, after all.”
“Pardon?”
“If you two were summoned there too, didn't you already die in Belheim? Yet you're alive now.”
“That's... true?”
“When the avatar dies, its soul is summoned back to Earth. It enters the original body that was kept in storage. You lost everything you learned when you switched bodies, so you assumed you'd been reset.”
“...”
Kim Junyong's face was full of interest.
His thirst for knowledge was what had allowed him to become the strongest dark mage.
‘That also explains why I couldn't summon Remi.’
Belheim and Earth didn't exist on the same timeline.
They were in different dimensions.
It seemed that beings other than gods could only move freely between dimensions as souls...
‘Then Remi has two avatars.’
When summoned in Belheim, Remi was a cold-looking man.
When summoned on Earth, Remi was a high school girl with straight hair...
“Ahem.”
Then did I have two bodies too?
Where was my Earth body?
Just then, a set of golden scales appeared before his eyes, interrupting his thoughts.
Clink.
<‘Sharing Knowledge’ and ‘Sharing Insight’ are placed on the scale of order.>
<Bel's Scales tip heavily toward order.>
The scales, already tilted, tipped even further.
“Oh!”
“What is it?”
“I'm talking to myself. You don't have to respond to every little thing.”
“...”
Section Chief Lee Mina's eyebrow twitched.
Despite trying to stay patient, she was starting to get angry.
His deliberately needling attitude was irritating too.
Kim Junyong paid no attention and focused on the golden scales.
The heavily tilted scales had now tipped all the way over.
<Bel's Scales cannot withstand the imbalance.>
<Bel's Scales forcibly intervene.>
<A ‘Reward’ is placed on the scale of chaos.>
Clink.
A bead, half white and half black, appeared on the scale of chaos. The scales, which had been on the verge of collapsing, found a precarious balance while still tilted to one side.
Oh, was this something I had to keep from collapsing until the final tally?
There were still more white beads, so the scales sagged heavily to the left. They were merely holding together without collapsing.
‘If I do more good deeds now, the rewards should keep piling up.’
Was this truly a sacred relic made by a god?
It was designed to encourage good deeds.
Just then.
<The Guardian has not activated the status window. The reward is rejected.>
Crack.
The bead with the yin-yang pattern shattered.
The scales, which had barely been holding their balance, tipped sharply.
The turtle-shaped pan symbolizing order dropped away and vanished.
Then the golden scales disappeared too.
<Bel's Scales grow.>
<Guardian, please choose how the scales will grow.>
<Reinforce Beam>
<Expand Pans>
Kim Junyong had been startled when the scales vanished, but the choices brought him some relief.
‘I thought the whole thing was breaking.’
He had nearly lost a valuable sacred relic before even getting a proper chance to use it.
‘Let's see.’
“Reinforce Beam” would let the scales withstand a greater imbalance.
They would be able to hold up even in a situation like the one just now.
“Expand Pans” would allow him to place more beads on them.
So there was a limit to the number of beads the pans could hold.
“Reinforce Beam.”
Pop-pop.
The scales appeared again in the empty air.
The beam looked sturdier than before and extended farther to both sides.
‘Interesting.’
A sacred relic that could grow...
“Heh heh.”
“Why are you laughing?”
Unable to hold back any longer, Lee Mina questioned Kim Junyong, who was staring into empty space and talking to himself like a madman.
“Oh, I got something pretty nice as my hero's retirement payout.”
“Pardon?”
“So, when are we getting there?”
“Haa.”
Lee Mina frowned and let out a deep sigh.
Kim Junyong smiled.
A little needling had ripened the fruit nicely.
Now it was about to fall.
“...You seem to be seriously mistaken about something.”
Lee Mina frowned and lowered her voice.
“Mr. Kim Junyong, you're under arrest and being transported as a murder suspect. Do you not understand the situation?”
“What about you?”
“...?”
“Have you never killed anyone?”
“Why, you...!”
Lee Mina's face flushed red.
“You little bastard! Where are your fucking manners? I've been polite to you this whole time, and you think you're getting the royal treatment?”
“Heh heh heh.”
“You're laughing? Hey, you fucking bastard. You think this is funny?”
Lee Mina exploded and grabbed Kim Junyong by the collar.
“Heh heh.”
“You're still laughing?”
Kim Junyong laughed even harder.
Yes. More. Get even angrier.
If there were no negative thoughts to feed on, a dark mage created them.
The Emotional Overload Curse was working beautifully.
It turned Lee Mina's slight discomfort into irritation,
irritation into annoyance,
then displeasure,
then loathing.
And finally, rage!
As Kim Junyong absorbed that energy, his eyes gleamed with madness.
Whooosh.
Just then, a cool, refreshing energy rose and wrapped around Lee Mina.
“Ah...”
Startled by her own actions, Mina released Kim Junyong's collar.
“...Whew. I got carried away.”
“...”
Cheon Yubeom comforted the regretful section chief.
“It wasn't your fault, Section Chief Lee.”
It was the fault of the one who had provoked you.
Isn't that right?
“...”
Kim Junyong met Cheon Yubeom's gaze without looking away.
Disappointment filled Junyong's face, but he wasn't all that discouraged.
This much energy was enough.
“Are you a priest?”
“I'm a paladin.”
“A pal? We're not that close.”
“I don't know why you're provoking us, but curses don't work on me.”
Kim Junyong chuckled.
“Where do you stand in the Bureau?”
His interest shifted to Cheon Yubeom.
“I'm a Grade 3 hunter.”
“What does that mean?”
“I'm qualified to head a department.”
“Oh?”
The soul of a fairly high-ranking paladin...
Excellent material for corruption.
I want it.
The look in Kim Junyong's eyes changed.
Cheon Yubeom looked away.
He felt uneasy meeting those eyes, which shone with chilling possessiveness and madness.
“Want to make a bet with me?”
“...”
“With your soul on the line.”
“...”
Cheon Yubeom's face stiffened.
The “Sixth Sense” that had always saved him from danger sounded a warning.
This man was extremely dangerous.
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