TKWRG 5

Chapter 5

The Honam Plain.  It was a week ago that a gate appeared in this place, the breadbasket responsible for South Korea’s rice production.

The crimson gate, with an average clearing difficulty of A-rank, had been awarded to the Firebird Guild, and its clearing was expected to proceed without issue.

If only the Firebird Guild had actually cleared it properly.

“What on earth is going on here!”

Section Chief Kim Jinsoo and Assistant Manager Han Hari flew straight to the Honam Plain by helicopter. There, they were able to meet Firebird Guild’s guild master, Lee Yongwan.

“Ah, Section Chief Kim. Our rookie Han Hari is here too?”

Despite the gravity of the situation, he was relaxed. Seeing that expression, the two of them had an intuition.

*This bastard… did it on purpose!*

There was no doubt. The Firebird Guild had deliberately neglected the gate clearing to cause a dungeon break!

*They kept demanding exemption benefits, and now they pull something like this?*

Recently, friction between the Association and the Firebird Guild had been frequent.

Throughout the year, the Firebird Guild had continuously demanded exemption benefits from the Association, as one of the country’s top ten guilds.

They had demanded exemption benefits up to one trillion won on income generated from gate byproducts, magic stone revenue, and monster materials.

The justification was the training of newcomers and the rising medical costs of guild members.

The government, which was already granting various benefits to major domestic guilds, expressed difficulty and rejected Guild Master Lee Yongwan’s demands.

Everyone suspected he might try something, but to pull a stunt like this in the middle of the chaos caused by the first black gate in thirteen years!

*You damn bastards! Do you have any idea what the Honam Plain is! We haven’t even finished the purification work on the Naju Plain, and now this!*

Since the gate crisis, the world’s food trade routes had frozen solid.

The vast granaries that had been slow to respond in the early days of the gate crisis had been contaminated by mana dust, and Korea was no exception.

The amount spent purchasing purification reagents from the Magic Tower to cleanse the nation’s finest grain belts was astronomical!

If this year’s harvest in the Honam Plain was ruined, the food self-sufficiency rate that had somehow been maintained would be cut in half.

Assistant Manager Han Hari, growing desperate, pleaded.

“Hunter Lee Yongwan! You must close the gate immediately! Today marks a full week! If it goes beyond that—”

“I know, I know. The rights to an awarded gate transfer over. But what can I do?”

Guild Master Lee Yongwan mocked the two with a despicable smile.

“Many of our guild members are injured. In this state, clearing will be difficult. I believe our Firebird Guild will have to give up the clearing rights to the Honam gate.”

“……!”

Section Chief Kim Jinsoo and Assistant Manager Han Hari’s faces boiled crimson. The two wanted nothing more than to curse out the bastard before them and throw a punch, but he was an S-rank hunter.

Not only was Kim Jinsoo, a mere B-rank hunter, no match, but even Han Hari, an A-rank hunter, could only handle his subordinates at best.

*You bastards! With this many A-ranks, you’re saying the gate can’t be cleared?*

“What will you do?”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“The monsters that came out in the first wave—the Association handled those, didn’t they? But you know the gate hasn’t fully burst yet, right?”

Thanks to the fact that the personnel deployed for the black gate hadn’t been harmed, the Association had some breathing room.

But that would only last so long. A gate packed full of monsters on the inside triggers a dungeon break between the seventh and tenth days.

In other words, the crimson gate in the Honam Plain hadn’t fully burst yet.

“Right now, the clearing rights to the gate—”

“That won’t do. Section Chief Kim, why are you being like this? According to the Hunter Act, the guild that won the bid retains the clearing rights until the eighth day. You know that.”

Even the Association couldn’t forcibly strip the clearing rights from a gate that had already been awarded. The Firebird Guild master was exploiting exactly that.

“We’ll do our best until tomorrow. But so many of our people are hurt that I’m not sure the clearing will go well.”

“You bastard…”

Han Hari couldn’t hold back and spat out a curse. At her words, Lee Yongwan smirked and remained relaxed.

“See, it’d be so much better if we just came to a nice, amicable agreement. Are we the only ones asking? Cheongseong, Mujin, Shark—heroes who risk their lives fighting to protect this country, can’t they ask for one tiny benefit?”

“Already… you’ve already received so much in subsidies and tax benefits…”

The benefits the government gives to major guilds are by no means small. The problem was that these were pigs who didn’t know how to be satisfied.

“Should we go to Japan? They’ve promised us far better treatment than this beggarly South Korea of ours.”

“……!”

Yes, that was the problem.

The global scramble for survivors and awakened ones.

The wealthier the nation, the more they tried to recruit high-ranking hunters for their own security, engaging in covert operations even at the cost of diplomatic friction.

To preserve what little fighting force it had, the Korean government had been binding the major guilds with enormous benefits… but even that had reached its limit.

“Do you… have not even a minimal sense of patriotism?”

Even if contempt for the weak and the strong devouring the weak were the virtues of this world, at the very least… shouldn’t a minimal conscience and justice exist?

“Patriotism? Justice? Those went out of style long ago. Why are you being so childish? Miss Han Hari, didn’t I tell you during last year’s draft? The world is money and power—that is justice.”

Hari trembled, swallowing her fury. This was why. The reason she had joined the Hunter Association.

The current state of Korean hunters, who thought only of money and risk and gave not a single thought to those who suffered as a result.

The present era, where humanity was lacking, justice was plummeting, and those who tried to live right were mocked.

It was a reality far too revolting for a young girl who had admired heroes and wanted to protect people.

But should she accept it? That the world was nothing but money and power? If she accepted such a miserable reality, where on earth would she find justice?

“What vulgar and antiquated creatures you are.”

That was when it happened. Everyone’s gaze turned toward the voice that came from beyond.

“Y-Your Majesty Leon?”

“Do not address a king so carelessly, woman. Only honorifics are permitted to you.”

The man who had followed the two of them, saying he wanted to see the world—he had apparently heard the entire conversation, and now stood between the two parties.

“Who are you? You look European—”

“You stand before a king! How dare a lowborn wretch wag a loose tongue!”

“Huh?”

S-rank dealer Lee Yongwan. He was one of South Korea’s mere twenty S-rank hunters and the guild master of the Firebird Guild, representative of the top ten guilds.

In this era, where a hunter’s power was directly converted into authority and wealth, no one dared speak carelessly in his presence. And yet…

*What’s with this bastard?*

Calling him a lowborn wretch—him, the guild master of a top-ten guild and one of only twenty S-rank hunters? And what was this nonsense about standing before a king?

“You want to die—”

“Stop, Hunter Lee Yongwan! He is a survivor!”

“A survivor?”

At those words, Lee Yongwan suppressed the mana he had been gathering. Right, survivors. They were foreigners who had come from a culture different from Earth’s.

Setting aside their cultural differences, survivors held tremendous value in and of themselves. Of course, not all of them did.

Lee Yongwan did not commit the foolish error of immediately antagonizing a survivor.

“My apologies. I am Lee Yongwan of the Firebird Guild. A survivor… could it be that you came from that black gate—”

“A king does not speak twice.”

Leon, having silenced him outright, turned to Han Hari and Kim Jinsoo and asked.

“State the problem.”

“Pardon?”

“Do not make me say it twice. This king is not well-versed in this thing called a gate. Organize the problem concisely and report it.”

At his words, the two of them brightened. The survivor was showing his willingness to personally resolve this problem.

“It’s a dungeon break! If a dungeon break occurs, mana dust will be released in massive quantities and contaminate the land! If that happens, the entire Honam Plain could be contaminated! Even now, the mana dust that has already spread is contaminating the soil!”

“And the solution?”

“We must purify the contamination through desalination and clear the dungeon as quickly as possible to eliminate the dungeon itself!”

“I understand. So the problem is that the contaminated land and the gate are expanding. Muster your forces. By tomorrow, the moment the clearing deadline for those vermin—or whatever they are—expires, this king shall personally intervene.”

“Are… are you serious?”

Leon was, at minimum, an S-rank hunter. With a powerhouse like that offering to assist, no fool would refuse.

“However, before that…”

“Before that?”

The two were prepared to accommodate whatever he wanted. Should they outfit him with a weapon first? No, he already had his own sword.

He didn’t seem to have armor, so should they hurry to an auction house and procure something?

But what Leon demanded was completely unexpected.

“A king of another nation cannot arbitrarily conduct military operations on foreign soil. First, I must receive direct permission from this nation’s king.”

“Pardon? No, that’s, that’s fine—”

“All matters have their lawful procedures and proper order. Hurry and send a dispatch to your king.”

“……”

Not even the world’s top ten guilds would tell the President to come show his face. For a moment, Lee Yongwan thought:

*Is this bastard even worse than me?*

* * * *

“…This is the President.”

Fortunately, the President, who had been on an overseas tour, did not end up flying all the way to the Honam Plain.

When Leon heard that the President had gone to request support regarding the black gate, he was satisfied, blessed the President’s return journey, and contented himself with a brief phone call.

“Your Majesty! All fifty members of the Hunter Association’s clearing squad are ready!”

Han Hari and Section Chief Kim Jinsoo, having filled the official clearing headcount of fifty, stood armed before him.

“Good. You said the legal deadline for the vermin expires tomorrow?”

“Ah, yes…”

Hari stared at Leon as if surprised. Given that he emphasized the social hierarchy, she had assumed he would ignore legal procedures and charge straight into the gate—his behavior was that unexpected.

“Do you take this king for a barbarian?”

“Pardon? N-no, of course not!”

“Civilization has its lawful procedures. How could one call oneself an honorable knight while failing to uphold the law imbued with a nation’s authority?”

“Ooh…”

The Association staff murmured in admiration. Leon seized their attention at once and displayed his innate leadership.

“More importantly, did you prepare what I instructed?”

At those words, Hari and the other Association staff could not shake their puzzled gazes.

“Um… Your Majesty.”

“Speak.”

“You told us to prepare, so we did prepare, but… what on earth are these for?”

What Leon had ordered were bows and arrows, and a pumpkin skull adorned with ornaments. He had also commanded them to make dolls out of rice straw.

“Precious land has been contaminated, has it not? The contamination of the land must be purified.”

“Pardon?”

The over one hundred rice straw dolls had been made by Association staff who had rushed around the city, urgently asking “women who had given birth” to make them.

“Are those the ladies who made the dolls?”

“Y-yes, they are.”

Over a hundred women, dragged over after receiving urgent requests from Association staff and community center employees at the crack of dawn, stood in a line.

From young women to middle-aged women to grandmothers past sixty, the age range was immensely diverse.

“Each of you, show the doll you have made.”

There were some who grumbled endlessly at his commanding tone, but the compensation the Association offered granted them leniency.

Leon began inspecting the rice straw dolls the ladies had made.

“Hmm… this is absurd.”

“…Pardon?”

“To think you would call such metaphysical grotesqueries dolls.”

“Huuk…!”

The first rice straw doll was flung to the ground.

“Ho, and this one?”

“D-do you like it, young man?”

“It’s as though it were a living doll.”

“I don’t think it’s quite that well-made—”

“Were I to live looking like such an ugly thing, I would sooner choose self-annihilation.”

“……”

The second, third, and twentieth dolls were also flung to the ground. Then it was Hari’s turn.

“Hmm? You participated as well?”

“Ah, yes! I have a knack for handiwork, so I’m good at making dolls and such!”

Indeed, Hari’s doll was quite presentable. Despite being made of rice straw, it had a charming shape and was well-decorated.

“To think you’ve given birth—how unexpected.”

“Pardon? Ah, I’m… not married. I thought any woman would do… wasn’t that the case?”

“No, foolish one.”

*Rip! Rip!*

“Ah! My straw doll!”

The cruelly torn rice straw doll fluttered away in the wind and vanished forlornly.

After such harsh standards, the one who caught Leon’s eye was the eighty-ninth—an elderly lady.

“Excellent! How many children have you borne, madam?”

“Twelve.”

“Hmm, a true patriot at a young age and a living source of life. Do you have plans for more children in the future?”

“My old man’s already kicked the bucket.”

“Haha, a lady as abundant in life force as you could surely remarry. You’re still young, so take about ten years to think it over carefully.”

“I’ll be the one kicking the bucket first.”

“By custom, to a lady who has borne ten or more children, I would dispatch a knight to deliver a plaque and gifts in person, but forgive me that circumstances do not permit it.”

Leon kissed the back of the elderly lady’s hand and placed the rice straw doll upon the altar.

“The conditions are met.”

Before the prepared items, Leon produced something.

A subspace opened, and a cup appeared on his palm.

It was a faded, cracked old cup, yet no one could take their eyes off it. As if some mysterious power flowed through it.

“You are the mother of the abundant land. Dwell within the harvest dolls offered to you by the children of the earth.”

Water filled the cup. As the self-filling cup was placed before the altar, a strange thing occurred.

The water in the cup boiled furiously and surged upward as if flowing in reverse, entering into the rice straw doll!

“W-what on earth is happening?”

The Association staff, the ladies who had made the rice straw dolls, and the Firebird Guild members alike could not tear their eyes from what was unfolding before them.

A sunset rises.

Red light dyes the clouds, and a repeating day is about to begin.

But on this day, the sunset of May 24, 2032… would become a special beginning for the entire world.

“Lionheart, my child.”

The rice straw doll rises. The doll, imbued with divinity, gives off a benevolent voice and proves itself.

“I greet the Great Mother Earth. Goddess Demera, divine essence of life and abundance.”

Divinity descended upon this land.