WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 59: The Calm Before the Storm
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Gulp, gulp.
“Wow, I feel alive again.”
Yu Jihun sighed with pleasure after gulping down the cool water.
“What brings you here this early?”
“Hehe, I was out exercising and thought I’d stop by since I was nearby.”
“You little rascal.”
The exercise was probably just an excuse. It seemed he’d simply come to see his uncle.
The positive feelings pouring from his nephew softened Kim Junyong’s heart too.
Just look at those beautiful emotions the boy was sending him.
Affection, joy, reassurance, respect, trust, security, pride.
Wasn’t family a wonderful mystery?
Blood ties alone allowed people to share such unconditional love and support.
He’d spent so little time bonding with Yu Jihun since returning to Earth, yet his nephew supported him without limits.
“Have you been working out lately?”
“Yes! Running’s really popular these days, you know?”
“Oh, is it?”
“Meow, it seems Earthlings have finally come to their senses and decided to train.”
Kim Junyong shooed Ed away for interrupting their warm little chat.
“Ed, go make breakfast.”
“Meow, understood!”
“Put plenty of luck in it.”
“Meow! Don’t worry! I’ll serve you a meal full of energy and good fortune!”
Ed dashed into the kitchen. While breakfast was being prepared, Junyong continued chatting with the nephew he hadn’t seen in a while.
“You don’t seem very busy these days, Uncle.”
“Me? Nothing much going on.”
“Haha.”
Yu Jihun laughed awkwardly.
“Nothing much” hardly covered the Ryu Jai incident, which had made quite an impact as word spread.
“What happened with Ryu Jai?”
His eyes sparkled.
He’d been dying to know.
For modern people hungry for the latest news, online communities offered a window into what was happening. But with so much false information mixed in, the quality was poor.
The media was so quiet and secretive that there was barely any information at all.
The name “Kim Junyong” hardly ever appeared. Reports usually referred to him only as “the special adviser.”
Even while following the same discussions as everyone else, Yu Jihun felt as though he got twice the dopamine because he actually knew the person involved.
Ryu Jai and the special adviser had fought.
The special adviser had won.
Ryu Jai had returned beaten to a bloody pulp.
Despite the flood of information, Yu Jihun still felt thirsty for more.
Then a thought had struck him.
‘Why don’t I just ask him?’
This wasn’t some casual acquaintance. This was his uncle!
His mother had happily given him permission when he said he wanted to exercise in the mornings. Today, on only his second day, he’d headed straight to his uncle’s house.
“Oh, her? I took her on as a subordinate.”
“Whoa!”
That information wasn’t anywhere on the internet.
Yu Jihun was stunned.
A subordinate?
“Wow, a G-rank hunter working under you... Wait, she’s R-rank now.”
“Oh, is she?”
This was the first Kim Junyong had heard of her ranking dropping.
“Yes! Her ranking fell after what happened with you, so all kinds of weird rumors started going around! People said you used the Star-Absorbing Art, or that you had a technique that stole other people’s powers.”
“I just took back her divine power.”
“D-divine power?”
“Something like this.”
Kim Junyong took out a bead.
Yu Jihun’s eyes widened at its mysterious golden glow.
‘It does look kind of holy...’
Was that just because he’d heard the words “divine power”?
It seemed to have a sacred air about it.
“Well, being R-rank doesn’t mean she can’t hunt devils.”
“But only G-rank hunters can hunt A-rank devils.”
“Who says?”
“Huh? Isn’t that common knowledge?”
Kim Junyong chuckled.
The so-called common knowledge of these weak Earthlings.
“Even a Grade 1 hunter can hunt an A-rank devil.”
“What? H-how is that possible?”
“Listen carefully, Jihun.”
His nephew was all ears, unable to contain his curiosity, so Kim Junyong kindly explained.
“Say we have a knife here.”
Pop.
A dagger about thirty centimeters long appeared in Kim Junyong’s hand.
“Whoa.”
“Touch it.”
“I-it’s a real knife.”
“What else would it be? A fake?”
Yu Jihun picked up the dagger with trembling hands and examined it.
It looked different from a kitchen knife.
This wasn’t a knife made for preparing ingredients.
It was a knife made to kill.
“Could someone kill a chicken with this?”
“Y-yes!”
“Good. That’s a C-rank devil.”
“Whoa.”
He drew in a sharp breath at the scale of his uncle’s comparison.
A C-rank devil was just a chicken?
“Then what if you had to kill a big dog with it?”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
“What isn’t dangerous?”
“Y-you’d get hurt, but I think you could kill it.”
“Good. B-rank devil cleared.”
Kim Junyong grinned at his nephew.
“Now a bear about two meters tall appears. Could you kill it?”
“N-no.”
“Good grief.”
Such weak-minded assumptions. Such a lack of willingness to take on a challenge.
No wonder Earth’s god was frustrated.
“You could. Why couldn’t you?”
“B-but you could die.”
“Of course!”
You were trying to kill something. Naturally, you could die too.
This wasn’t hunting.
“Hunter” wasn’t the right word.
They were holding back devils.
It was more accurate to call them warriors who fought with their lives on the line.
“The divine power G-rank hunters have is a gun. Could you kill a bear with a gun?”
“Wouldn’t I be able to?”
“That’s the problem.”
Humanity had only ever hunted bears with guns.
Only seven people had guns.
Whenever a bear appeared, those people went out and dealt with it, and their value had soared through the roof.
After hearing the explanation, Yu Jihun thought it over.
“There have been cases where people cleared A-rank dungeons without a G-rank hunter, but the losses were terrible.”
“They succeeded anyway, didn’t they?”
“W-well, yes.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
“But lots of people died. Talented Grade 1 hunters.”
“Everyone dies.”
“...?”
“If you survive, you get stronger. That’s how it works.”
“...!”
“Life-or-death situations are a basic part of powering up.”
Yu Jihun couldn’t help marveling at his uncle’s tough-guy theory of growth.
“Are there people who actually train like that?”
“Of course there are.”
Kim Junyong chuckled as he thought of Subordinates One and Two, who were probably being put through hell by the Demon King’s butler.
If Ryu Jai grew stronger, he’d accept her as a subordinate too.
If she got complacent while hunting, he’d cast her aside.
“So you’re saying Hunter Ryu Jai has lost her gun?”
“More or less.”
“Th-then she’ll have a hard time clearing A-rank dungeons now, won’t she?”
“She still has to do it.”
He had no use for a subordinate who refused to take on a challenge.
If she became a warrior ready to fight with her life on the line, he intended to truly accept her as his subordinate.
Whether she became someone who merely scraped together points for him or a true guardian’s knight was up to Ryu Jai.
The same went for Logan Hayes.
“Then if an A-rank dungeon appears overseas now, will you go deal with it?”
“Me?”
“Wait, you won’t?”
“Why would I?”
Kim Junyong tilted his head. He really didn’t seem to have considered the subject.
Well, perhaps he’d go if the situation was truly desperate. He could earn some points that way.
“Th-then will the other G-rank hunters come all the way to East Asia? Would Hunter Arjun in India be the closest?”
“Oh, he’s dead.”
“Oh, he passed... What?”
Yu Jihun’s eyes darted about wildly.
“Come on, Uncle. You and your jokes...”
He said it because it was too hard to believe, but by now, he knew.
His uncle didn’t make empty remarks.
He hurriedly took out his phone and searched.
“Come on, Uncle. You must’ve heard wrong. Here’s a photo of Arjun at worship this morning.”
“Huh? Let me see.”
Kim Junyong looked at it.
“That’s a double.”
“...”
At this point, Yu Jihun began to feel uneasy.
“Who told you Arjun was dead?”
“I killed him.”
“...!”
Good heavens.
His fears had come true.
Suddenly, his uncle felt very far away.
“Wh-why?”
“Hmm? Because he was beyond reform.”
“Whoa, he was a villain?”
“You could say that.”
“Then all of Asia’s defenseless now.”
This was a disaster!
They’d lost two G-rank fighters.
By his uncle’s explanation, that meant losing two guns.
Now humanity had to hunt with knives.
‘Wh-what do we do? Will someone come from somewhere else? The other G-ranks...’
World peace was far too vast a subject for an eighth grader to worry about.
Kim Junyong ruffled his nephew’s hair.
“Breakfast’s ready. Let’s go eat.”
“Oh, yes!”
As they ate together, Yu Jihun kept sneaking glances at his uncle, his unease slowly growing.
‘Surely nobody else died too?’
He couldn’t ask.
He was too afraid.
“Something worrying you these days?”
“Huh?”
With the time to leave for school approaching, Kim Junyong asked his increasingly anxious nephew a question.
“Is someone bullying you?”
“N-no?”
“Shall I go cut them down?”
“No! Don’t, Sis Remi!”
“...”
Yu Jihun was horrified by Remi’s offer as she ate with them.
“I get along with all my friends.”
“Then what? Don’t feel like going to school?”
“Shall I cut down the school?”
“No! Don’t! Calm down, Sis!”
“...”
Remi found being called “Sis” slightly irritating, but he was her master’s nephew, so she couldn’t bring herself to cut him down.
Kim Junyong asked with a wry smile.
At times like this, being able to see someone’s emotions so clearly wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“Then what exactly are you so anxious about?”
“Huh? Me?”
Caught off guard, Yu Jihun told the truth.
“I was wondering if you’d k-killed anyone else...”
“Oh, is that it? Here I was worrying something had happened at school.”
“Hehe, school’s going fine.”
Still, hearing that his uncle was worried about him made Yu Jihun feel reassured.
“I let Logan live, and I killed Jose.”
“...?”
The names were so famous that he struggled to process what he’d heard.
“Whoa!”
Had South America’s G-rank hunter just died?
‘Two died, and two lived?’
Yu Jihun started.
“Th-then Logan’s ranking too!”
Alarmed, he opened the Demon Realm Forum.
Many of its boards were locked to ordinary people, but anyone could view the rankings on the home page.
“No way!”
He was gone.
[Sophie Giro: Rank 1]
[Vikram: Rank 2]
[Jabari Okoye: Rank 3]
[Wang Yan: Rank 4]
[Luca Romano: Rank 5]
[Johann Müller: Rank 6]
[Ivan Petrov: Rank 7]
...
[Logan Hayes: Rank 451]
“I-it’s true!”
Logan’s ranking had dropped.
Why am I only seeing this now?
Oh, right. I went out running as soon as I woke up.
Wait, why didn’t I see it yesterday?
Oh, right. It happened after I went to bed.
“Whoa! Uncle, you met Logan yesterday?”
“That’s right.”
“...!”
Something enormous had happened overnight.
W-was this really all right?
His nephew’s curiosity had been satisfied, but rather than easing, his anxiety only grew. Kim Junyong asked him another question.
“What are you still worried about?”
“You, Uncle.”
“Hmm?”
The unexpected answer caught Kim Junyong off guard.
“I-I trust you no matter what.”
“...”
He did trust him.
“But I wish you’d be just a little less scary.”
“I scare you?”
“No! Not me. I’m worried other people will be scared.”
To him, this was his uncle. But wouldn’t other people see him as a murderer?
His nephew’s concern was so sweet and touching that Junyong ruffled his hair.
“Just finish your breakfast and go to school.”
“Yes, sir.”
It seemed the world would erupt, just as Yu Jihun expected, but on the surface, all was quiet.
Online communities were buzzing over the changes in the rankings, while governments around the world were putting every effort into understanding what had happened.
When Logan arrived at the airport on a flight with his country’s flag carrier, government representatives were waiting to meet him.
“We’re from Sentinel.”
“We’d like you to come with us for questioning.”
“This isn’t compulsory, but we’d appreciate your cooperation.”
Two agents from Sentinel, the United States’ hunter-management agency, had come to meet him.
They were extremely careful, worried they might offend him, but Logan nodded as though it were no big deal.
“Let’s go.”
He needed to share information with the government anyway.
Logan willingly followed the agents.
Footnotes:
The Star-Absorbing Art is a technique from wuxia fiction that drains other people’s internal energy.
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