WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 66: The Sword That Calls Disaster
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The house already belonged to Kim Junyong.
There was no need to go through a real estate agent.
A Bureau agent had simply come along to enter the door code and show the family around.
“Sangsu, open the door.”
“Oh, yes. The code for 10-8 is...”
Kim Sangsu checked his phone and opened the door. The family went inside, full of excitement.
“Wow, it's clean.”
“Whoa, the entryway's huge.”
The owner had put a lot of care into building the house, and it showed.
“Wow, the rooms are huge, too! This one's mine!”
“You can have it. I'll take that one with its own bathroom.”
“Huh? There's a room with its own bathroom?”
“I called it!”
The siblings already seemed excited about moving.
Looking around the spotless house, Kim Jangmi asked in confusion, “Wasn't the previous owner still living here this morning?”
“Haha, that's what I understand.”
“Wow.”
Kim Jangmi couldn't help marveling.
How much money had they spent to get the previous owner to move out in a single day?
And how many people had it taken to clean the place so thoroughly and bring in new appliances with their protective plastic still on?
Her brother was contributing so much to the country that they would mobilize all those people for him.
“The kids seem to like it.”
“Well, it is nicer than an apartment...”
“Then you take this house.”
“Hmm? There are plenty of rooms. Why don't you live here with us?”
“Nah, I'm good. We've got plenty of houses.”
“That's true...”
It wasn't a matter of having enough rooms. All nine houses in this area now belonged to Kim Junyong.
“I'm happy with my current place.”
He had already established his base there, so he couldn't move.
There was no need to, either.
“Huh? Are you closing the restaurant?”
“No, I'm moving it across the street.”
There were nine houses in all, spread across both sides of the road around his original home.
The three across the street formed one block, while the other six, including his current house, formed another.
‘If I expand it, I think they'll all fit within range.’
It was best to leave the dungeon core where it was.
Now that his family would be joining him and his retainers, he thought it would be better for security to move the restaurant across the street.
He couldn't give up his source of luck stones, after all.
They held a kind of power that interfered with “causality,” something even mana couldn't affect. For now, even Kim Junyong could only get luck stones through Ed.
Giving that up would be stupid.
“You can move in as early as tomorrow.”
“Wow...”
“Once you decide what you'd like to use the other houses for, Adviser, we'll help you renovate them.”
“Renovate what? They all looked old. Let's just knock them down.”
“Pardon?”
“Demolish them.”
“Ah, yes.”
What power did Kim Sangsu have to object?
He diligently reported everything in the Teukgoji group chat.
- He's picked 10-8 for his older sister.
- The Adviser says he's staying in his current house.
- He says he'll open the restaurant in a building across the street.
- He wants all the remaining buildings demolished.
A message from Deputy Director Choi Hyunju soon appeared.
- Understood. Keep listening in case he has any other requests.
- Yes, understood.
Once Kim Jangmi had finished looking around, she took her excited children home for the time being.
Kim Sangsu drove them to their apartment building, then got out to open the door and bowed politely.
“We'll have the move completed tomorrow.”
“R-right.”
She still felt dazed.
Could they really decide to move this easily? It was amazing that every administrative and practical step could be rushed through in the blink of an eye.
More than that, was it really all right to accept these benefits so casually...?
“Having his family around is a great source of strength for the Adviser.”
Kim Sangsu's confident words brought a small smile to Kim Jangmi's face.
“That's reassuring to hear. I'm the one who's always grateful to the Bureau for taking such good care of Junyong.”
“Oh, not at all. The Adviser's the one taking care of the world.”
Tomorrow was another weekday, so she had to go to work.
The Bureau would send people to handle the move, though.
“Ugh, I don't want to go to the clinic.”
“...Mom, you're the director. You have to go.”
“I know.”
“Haha, are you excited too, Mom?”
“It's just... a weight off my mind.”
Her brother had returned after being missing for twenty years, only to move out on his own not long afterward. She had been wondering whether she had failed to look after him properly, whether she had neglected him, and now she had a chance to make up for it.
“I can't wait! Ah, I want to skip school tomorrow!”
“Go to bed.”
“Okay, okay.”
She sent her affectionate son off to his room.
Yu Jia wasn't showing it, but she seemed just as excited. She was already sorting through the things in her room.
Yu Jihun returned to his own room, took a quick look around, and nodded.
“Okay, I don't think I need to pack anything separately.”
The movers would take care of everything anyway.
As an eighth grader, he didn't have any precious belongings he needed to pack himself.
“Okay, okay.”
“Aww, Mala, Tanghulu! Have you been good?”
“Mala.”
“Tanghulu.”
“Aww, you're so smart.”
After spending a while getting the two parrots his uncle had given him to repeat words, Yu Jihun quietly turned on his computer.
“This is my last night in this place.”
‘Should I leave one last trace of myself?’
As Yu Jihun hurried to find his earphones, Mala and Tanghulu discreetly turned their heads to face the wall.
* * *
Kim Junyong woke up early the next morning and tilted his head at the visitor who had arrived with Kim Sangsu. The older man looked vaguely familiar.
“Hohoho, it's been a while.”
“Oh, right. Hmm.”
The man was deeply shocked that Kim Junyong seemed to have forgotten him, but with the composure of his years, he soon introduced himself.
“We've met before. I'm Park Taejun, director of the Hunter Management Bureau.”
“Oh, that time. The...”
As Kim Junyong tapped his head, Park Taejun's face darkened. It was a pain he never wanted to remember.
“I-I'm truly sorry about what happened then.”
“Haha, it's all in the past. Let's forget it. Still, I guess you're my boss now?”
“Y-your boss?”
“Aren't you?”
This was a meeting between the director of the Hunter Management Bureau and the Bureau's special adviser.
“Well, that's r... No. We're partners. The Bureau doesn't consider you our subordinate, Adviser.”
“Oh, I like that attitude. No one's going to call you an old fogey.”
“Hahaha.”
Park Taejun laughed, breaking into a cold sweat.
“The reason I've come today is to discuss the redevelopment of the houses.”
“Oh, that.”
As Kim Junyong's property holdings grew, the houses around him had become empty.
He needed three buildings.
His sister's house, his current home, and the restaurant.
The residents of all the remaining houses had moved out, leaving them vacant.
“How about leaving it to the experts? I'll personally oversee the project and ensure the best possible result.”
“Hmm. Sure, go ahead.”
“Ah, thank you!”
Park Taejun cheered inwardly.
More and more foreign intelligence agents were being spotted in the area.
‘We need to make security the focus of the entire design and redevelopment.’
To do that, it was best to have full authority.
“Is there anything you absolutely want included?”
“Hmm, let's just put in a garden or something.”
The empty properties were all old low-rise apartment buildings. He chose to have them razed for a garden rather than build anything new.
“Just ask my sister. I'm happy with this house.”
“Yes, understood.”
“And ask Ed about the restaurant.”
“Yes, understood. I'll show you the plans as soon as they're ready. As for starting construction, I was thinking we could time it to coincide with your vacation...”
“Vacation? Hmm. I'll go with Department Head Cheon and Deputy Department Head Lee once they get out.”
“Yes, I'll schedule it that way.”
The deputy director had told him that Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina were having quite a hard time. It seemed they were still a long way from leaving the Demon Realm.
‘That gives us a little more time for the design.’
Park Taejun headed down to the first floor to ask Ed what he wanted.
Left alone on the second floor, Kim Junyong stretched and looked toward the house his sister would be moving into.
“I'm looking forward to it.”
Having family living nearby gave him a strange sense of comfort.
Even more than his sister, it was his nephew, her younger child, whose face kept coming to mind. He had only spent a few days with the boy, but he had already grown attached.
“When's Remi coming back?”
Was it because he had been thinking about his family?
Being alone felt especially boring today.
* * *
The planet Belheim.
A grand banquet was being held at the imperial palace of the Adria Empire, the only nation whose ruler could claim the title of emperor.
Augustus Adrian III.
The most exalted person alive was hosting a victory banquet.
Today, they would officially announce the Demon King's defeat and declare the war over.
It was also the day the Allied Forces, which had united all humanity under a common purpose, would disband.
“...And so we confirmed the Demon King's corpse! Though we could not find the Mad Sovereign's body, we believe he perished during his battle with the Demon King. I therefore declare victory for our Allied Forces!”
“Wooooo!”
Emperor Augustus Adrian III smiled and waited for the cheering to fade before calling out again.
His voice was being carried far and wide by an archmage's amplification spell.
“Though the Allied Forces disband today, the Demon King's Army has not been completely destroyed!”
“...”
“The demon realm lords have all been wiped out, but devils are still hiding throughout the continent!”
The Demon King was dead.
The demon realm lords who had ruled over various regions, though weaker than the Demon King, were all dead as well.
The Mad Sovereign, who seemed to have died taking them with him, was also dead.
Their mutual destruction had handed victory to the Allied Forces.
All that remained were the devils and monsters that had retreated into darker, more hidden places.
They still needed to be cleared out...
It wasn't yet time to scatter humanity's strength...
“The empire will fight! Until the day not a single monster remains on this continent, the empire's sword will not rest!”
Carried by the amplification magic, the emperor's declaration stirred the people's hearts.
“Humanity shall once again rule this continent! I, Augustus Adrian III, swear in the name of my ancestors that we will fight until we restore the prosperity they enjoyed two hundred years ago!”
“Wooooo!”
He waved to the cheering crowd and acknowledged them for a while before stepping down from the platform.
The allied kingdoms had sent envoys to attend today's victory banquet. The rulers of two neighboring countries had come in person to celebrate their victory.
The two hundred years they had spent together had brought them close.
“A splendid speech. Hahaha.”
“Hahaha. King of Daul, King of Yunapa. Thank you for coming.”
“It is an honor to have brought this crisis to an end alongside Your Imperial Majesty.”
“Haha, will you continue fighting alongside us, King of Daul?”
“Hahaha, surely it's better to search for and hunt down the small fry in separate groups. Isn't it time we tended to our own kingdoms?”
The emperor smiled at the King of Daul's words.
How stubbornly they clung to life.
It had been two hundred years since the invasion from the Demon Realm.
Amid countless deaths and fallen kingdoms, humanity had naturally come together under the name of the Allied Forces to survive.
They had been united for all those long years, yet the stubborn survival of the remaining kingdoms made him grind his teeth.
But today would mark the beginning of their grand unification.
“The Allied Forces may disband, but we will remain united in spirit as humanity reclaims the continent.”
“Indeed. The King of Yunapa speaks truly.”
The emperor grinned and gestured. His guard drew a sword like lightning and cut off the King of Yunapa's head.
“...Huh?”
“W-what!”
“Aaah!”
The Imperial Palace Knights, who had been waiting in position throughout the hall, drew their swords and began killing people.
After watching the slaughter, the emperor turned away.
He walked toward the imperial chair high on the platform.
‘A feast of blood.’
Wasn't it the sweetest scent?
With the Demon King dead, the most exalted person on this planet is me, and me alone.
Augustus Adrian III.
And this continent needs only one nation: Adrian...
He shuddered as delight ran through his entire body, then frowned at the sudden silence in the banquet hall.
He sat down and looked back.
A cold-faced man stood at the entrance.
A man holding a sword everyone knew.
“...!”
The emperor sprang to his feet in shock.
This was a man he never wanted to face.
No, if that man was here, didn't that mean the other one had come too?
The emperor began trembling like a leaf.
Footnotes:
The parrots have food names: mala is a numbing, spicy Chinese seasoning, and tanghulu is candied fruit on a skewer.
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