༺ Night before the Festival (1)༻
Inside Merkarva City was the guardian academy and thus it was comparatively safer from demonic beasts than other cities.
Safety attracted more people and more people led to the prosperity of the city but not everyone received the benefit from that increased prosperity.
There was a slum in every city and there was a gang reigning over the anarchic streets of Merkarva City.
Black Star Group.
A group of gangs that increased their size in the backstreets through power and violence.
Their main source of income was illegal circulation of moonshine and slaves, and no one cared about the ingredients of their low-quality alcohol. There were some who complained about the trash taste of the alcohol but no one really cared about it.
Those idiots would be dealt with by the members of the Black Star Group that always stayed in those bars.
“Kuaahk…!”
But this time, it was a bit different.
“Give me more alcohol. More booze…!”
“K, kyaaah…!”
“O, oh dear. Sir, pleaseee…”
The store keeper ran up in a fluster. He couldn’t do anything even though his employee, Renya, was being harassed by a drunk customer.
“You fucker! You’re calling this alcohol?”
The drunk customer creating a ruckus looked a bit old to be called a boy and a bit too young to be called an adult.
But the reason he couldn’t lay his hands on him was that he was a student of Merkarva Academy. Although he wasn’t wearing a uniform, it was obvious that he was a superhuman seeing how he flung away muscular giants with one hand!
No matter how buff a person was, they still couldn’t stand a chance against a single Grade 5 knight, and that was just how things were in this world.
‘Damn it! What the hell is the Black Star Group doing? They’re only on time when they’re coming to take protection fees!’
This bar was buying moonshine from the Black Star Group and at the same time, they were paying them protection fees.
In the back streets, protection fees were given mainly due to violence than logical business relationships, but in any case, the Black Star Group had to do something because the store keeper was paying a large sum of money as the protection fee.
“Who the hell is it that’s creating a fuss at the bar, huh!?”
‘T, they’re here!’
It was the high executive of the Black Star Group that the store keeper used to call a son of a bitch, Red-haired Dickson! Even though he wasn’t an official former guardian, he was a former roaming knight who used to work as a mercenary!
Besides, as if they heard news about him being a student of the Academy, Dickson’s brother – Luger the Crazy Hound and the son of the Black Star Group’s boss, Rickie, were also here!
“Huooh? Wut now?”
The student with a ponytail turned to Luger and his brother with a twisted tongue. Behind them were dozens of Black Star Group members lining up in a menacing posture.
“Fuck off from our business when we’re still being—”
“Ah, shut up. I don’t like hearing guys.”
Ignoring the words of the Black Star Group members, the boy violently pulled Reyna the employee deeper into his embrace. He was clearly a drunk sexual harasser.
“…This bastard.”
Leaving behind the Luger brothers that had intimidating frowns on their faces, the son of the boss, Rickie, walked up while lighting his cigar on fire.
“An Academy student, huh. Underage kids shouldn’t come to a place like this.”
“Who the hell are you now?”
“Rickie Johnson. I am the future boss of the Black Star Group.”
“Oh, okayy?”
“Kid. Just leave if you’re done drinking. I will be nice and pay for your alcohol today so…”
– Glug!
It happened in the blink of an eye. The drunken boy suddenly picked up a bottle of alcohol and poured it over Rickie’s head.
Drip. The flowing moonshine wetted Rickie’s waxed hair and turned off his cigar.
“B, brother!”
“This bastard…!”
Lifting his hand, Rickie stopped his underlings. He was the only one in the group that was still keeping his rationality but it didn’t take long for him to growl like a beast.
“I’ve seen a bunch of people like you. Thinking you’re something big just because you’re a knight. I’ve seen too many of them.”
Using a towel that he received from one of his men, Rickie dried his hair and lit his cigar back on fire. He gestured to the Dickson brothers standing behind him as they walked up in response.
– Vuiing…!
The long sword and spear in the hands of the two brothers vibrated. After noticing that was the unique reaction of a weapon resonating with the aura of a knight, the eyes of the boy underwent a quick shift. His opponents were knights.
Rickie enjoyed seeing that change with an evil and crooked gaze.
“These guys are the crazy hounds of the north. They are infamous slave hunters notorious for their name, Red Hounds. A mere student—-”
– Kajik!
– Bababam!
“Huah?”
It happened in the blink of an eye. The boy, who appeared to be having trouble standing up straight, suddenly smashed Luger and Dickson down with his bare hands. Since he had empowered himself with Shura, Rickie couldn’t even see the thing that happened right before his eyes.
“I’m listening. Continue.”
“…What can I do for you, Sir?”
“You don’t have to do anything. Because today will be your last day.”
“S, sir?”
One night. There was no need to wait until the next sunrise for the 100 members of Black Star Group to be demolished.
****
In the game, mafia and gangs were just mobs that give experience points, and were third-rate evil groups that were supposed to be crushed during a quest.
That didn’t change even when it turned into reality, and if I were to line up all the gangsters that I destroyed in the last iteration, they would take up 25 laps around a sports field.
Of course, destroying one gang wouldn’t clean up the dense darkness of the slum but it was still better than nothing.
“Is it here?”
“Y, yes yes… Sir!”
After I made the boss of the Black Star Group someone who could only have porridges his entire life, Rickie brought me to the underground storage in the slum while being completely afraid of me who did such a thing to his father.
The underground storage was damp with no ventilation. The disgusting odor and humidity of this area was something difficult to get used to.
“How could you lock people in a place like this, you fucking trash.”
– Slam!
When I smacked him by the back of his head, Rickie started shivering like a leaf and said sorry on repeat.
“Huh. What are you?”
“Brother Rickie?”
I crushed all the guards that I saw on the way. Even though I was a nice guy, I wasn’t nice to bastards like them.
“T, this way!”
Several cages appeared as soon as Rickie opened the door to the underground storage. There were a bunch of dirty cages as if they were smuggling animals.
However, the ones they were smuggling weren’t animals but humans. Specifically, they were ‘demi-humans’.
“Open them.”
“Sorry sir?”
“Open all the cages.”
“But sir! W, we will be doomed then!”
“You are already doomed, you idiot.”
The frightened Rickie started opening the cages one by one. Some left through the opened gates of their cages whereas some blankly looked back at us without moving from their seats.
“At least there’s not that many.”
There were roughly 20 demi-humans ranging from a dryad, which was a mixed-blood with fairies, a dog beastman and a dokkaebi1Dokkaebi are legendary creatures from Korean mythology and folklore. Dokkaebi, also known as “Korean goblins”, are nature deities or spirits possessing extraordinary powers and abilities that are used to interact with humans, at times playing tricks on them and at times helping them. Legends describe different dokkaebi in many forms and beings with a thousand faces, and dokkaebi often wear hanbok… Ehew. Seeing how they were from all sorts of different cultures, it seemed that taking them back home would be quite an arduous task.
In this world, demi-humans were a target of ostracization. These humans with an unfortunate fate waiting for them would suddenly awaken into a demi-human and be reborn with strength and abilities that far exceeded the norms.
People ostracized others just because of skin color, so there was no way they wouldn’t discriminate against demi-humans. Besides, just less than 100 years ago, hunting demons and demi-humans used to be the main focus of the Old Faith.
“If you go outside you will find a carriage. It’s a carriage from the Dunareff family and if you get on it, they will take you back home.”
A few of them seemed to have different language systems, but they should be able to understand what was going on by looking at other people.
『Many Unspecified』
※ Difficulty: D+
※ Reward:
– Even distribution of 25 points
– Rumors about you will spread across demi-humans.
It was followed by a small reward but it didn’t specify the siblings. It’s probably because they were in the role of villains according to the scenario, and because I didn’t personally consider them as good on top of that…
“Is there a sibling here that goes under the name of Ren and Ron?”
The dryad girl pointed at a cage in response to my words. As for this girl… I should probably entrust her to Yuel.
I walked up to the cage that the girl pointed at and inside were kids that appeared to be about 9 years of age who were crouching down while vigilantly looking at me.
“Wait… they’re a lot smaller than I thought.”
Wolf siblings, Ren and Ron.
Unlike most demi-humans who usually awakened into one after birth, beastmen tended to awaken at birth. Because of that, it was common for them to be killed or sold at an extremely young age but…
This was strange, wasn’t it? When I saw them in the last iteration, they looked like they were about 20 years old, which was twice the age implied by their current appearance.
I did hear stories about how beastmen had physical growth that accompanied mental growth but… weren’t they still just way too young?
“Hi guys?”
“Hiik…!”
“D, don’t hit my brother…!”
The girl shouted while trying to protect her younger brother. She was probably the older sister Ren but…
『I will kill you, you bastard…!』
She had a very different atmosphere from the one she had in the last iteration. She was uhh… a very big lady in a lot of ways with a husky voice… Was this little girl going to grow that much in just one year?
Ren and Ron used to be villains working under the Old Faith in the last iteration. In an attempt to control the public perception, the extreme demi-human discriminators and the fundamentalists used the wolfmen slaves to commit all sorts of ruthless acts, which even resulted in a political stand-off of the 1st Princess and the 2nd Princess.
Looking back at it now, it used to be a lot of work.
Originally, the wolf siblings were supposed to be sold to the Old Faith through the Black Star Group. They were powerful werewolves and difficult foes to fight against, and were both killed by Park Sihu in the last iteration.
What I did now was save these unfortunate kids who would later grow to be an evil mid-boss.
“A bit different from what I thought but… let’s go guys.”
I carefully reached out to them but the sharp claws of the girl slapped my hand away.
“G, go away! Leave us alone!”
“N, noona…”
Because of all the things that adults had done to them, their wariness was on a different level. I couldn’t leave them like this though, so… I took out a jerky from my pocket.
“Do you want some snacks?”
“I’m not a kid!”
It backfired. Did she not like jerkies?
“Guys. Let’s just quietly all leave.”
“Leave us alone! Just let us go…!”
Ren tried to strike the bars of the cage with her fist in a fit. It seemed that she was trying to be as intimidating as possible but her hand was the only thing that was going to be injured.
“Huu…”
I snatched her hand by the wrist.
“You’ll just hurt your body.”
“L, let go!”
“It’s okay. No one is going to hit you anymore. You guys are now safe.”
“Ah…”
When I tapped her on her back to relieve her, she slowly stopped writhing her body in fury. These children who always suffered from the persecution of adults instead of their protection were always vigilant of their surroundings.
It was a very sad thing to see.
“What are your names?”
“Ron… My name is Ron.”
“…Ren.”
Ron, who was anxiously gazing at me, replied first which was followed by Ren, who was in my arms.
“I see. My name is Korin. Korin Lork.”
“…Are you a Mister Knight?”
“Yes.”
I could feel Ren immediately turning energyless when I continued tapping her back. Her constant wariness to protect her younger brother must have taken an immense toll on her mind. As soon as she felt slightly relieved, she fainted into a deep sleep.
“…”
Did I really have to put these kids into my guardians guild?
The ones I was thinking of were the mid-bosses Ren and Ron, and not these kids. I was going to use their specialties to deal with the fundamentalists and the ‘Spiritualist’ but…
“What are you going to do now, boss?”
A leisurely voice echoed from behind. The lady wearing a waitress uniform was the one who was harassed by me at the bar… or rather, someone that was pretending to be harassed.
Renya the waitress.
Even though she looked like a normal waitress of a backstreet bar, she was in fact an executive of the intelligence guild.
“Take them to my inn. And give them some food.”
“Were you a philanthropist?”
“Think of it as you wish.”
I received a great amount of help from Renya when looking for the organizational structure of the Black Star Group and the location of their underground storage. She was a great person to have a dry business relationship with just like Dorron, and it was therefore possible for me to be fairly carefree with her.
“Huu~.”
Thoughts muddled my brain because I unexpectedly came across these young kids.
Ehew. All in all, I did something good so I guess it was still worth it.
****
On the eastern side of Merkarva City in one of the platform villages, a foreign beast landed on the landing zone of flying animals.
The animal had a red beak and strangely enough, it only had one leg but it didn’t give off the feeling that it had a disability since it had an exceptional sense of balance. Instead, its fluttering eight-colored wings gave its onlookers an auspicious sensation.
It was called Shangyang in the east and was a bird that could only be mounted by the higher-ups of the society.
“Hello sir. You must be from the east. Can I please have a look at your ID?”
The man wearing an eastern clothing touched his long beard in silence after getting off the Shangyang, and the boy and girl that dismounted with him soon took out a golden plaque.
It was a plaque with the emblem of a falcon and was the most well-known emblem of the east in this continent.
“I see you’re from the Purple Hawk Academy!”
“Yes, that is the case. I am Senior Professor Kang Ryun. They are my disciples.”
“I am the student council president, Kang Yuhua.”
“Jinhyuk is my name~. Nice to meet you.”
Since they were already informed of the guests from the east, the landing zone staff immediately led them to a carriage.
“We at the El Rath Kingdom welcome you for your visit. We have the carriage prepared right here so please follow me.”
Following the staff, the three got on the prepared carriage. Carriages were supposed to transport dozens of people at once but this specific one had fewer seats and had fancy decorations inside, as if it was for VIPs only.
“Weow~! The reception is quite good.”
“Hyuk. Master hasn’t even taken his seat yet.”
Jinhyuk nonchalantly sat down on one of the seats which earned a reprimand from Kang Yuhua. Even though her sword was still inside the scabbard, the viscosity of her qi was enough to pressure Jinhyuk.
“Whoa whoa~. Big Sister. You know I’m not good at fighting.”
“…Haa. Is that something a Grade 1 Knight is supposed to say?”
“Certainly can to you, Big Sister.”
“Stop. Cut the idle talk.”
The middle-aged professor made his disciples shut up with one sentence and gracefully sat down on his seat. He was sitting with a straight back that seemed to be showcasing the rigidness of his personality.
“By the way, master.”
Kang Ryun closed his eyes as if trying to have some time for meditation but Jinhyuk spoke to him.
“Is it certain? Is that bitch really here?”
“…”
Yuhua didn’t reproach him this time because she too was here because of the same reason as Jinhyuk.
“Yes. It is certain that the Chairman of this Academy has taken her. His Majesty guaranteed it.”
“…”
“…”
The two people turned silent in response. Even though it was a chilling silence, their eyes were burning with fury so Kang Ryun looked at his disciples and clicked his tongue.
“How can you achieve anything big if you cannot even hide your hostility?”
“It doesn’t matter. As long as I can beat up that fucking bitch.”
“Hyuk’s very crude with his tongue but… I can’t leave Hua, that wicked thing, alone either. Thinking of how Ran is still locked inside her, I… Master… No. Uncle. Is there really a way to save Ran before the end of the festival?”
“Of course. Yuhua. I want to save my niece just as much as you.”
Listening to their conversation, Jinhyuk quietly opened the lid of the drink bottle next to him. Unlike those two people who were acquainted with the person in question, he had a different purpose.
As the sole survivor of the pandemonium of the burning Moonlight Castle, revenge was the only thing in the mind of the boy.
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