All of them were young. Even the oldest among them didn’t seem to be more than 30 years of age. Their simple clothing was covered in dirt and dust, and fatigue was evident on their faces. Looking at their appearances, it seemed that they hadn’t been able to wash themselves comfortably for at least a week.
‘Hunters?’
After reaching this conclusion, he couldn’t help but feel a bit strange.
…It was a complicated feeling.
Although they were all of different races, nationalities and mentalities, one thing that every Hunter had in common was their belief that they could drive the demons out of their land. It was this fact serving as the focal point that caused these characters with strong personalities to come together, and it was also the fact that caused others to get a feeling of unity from them.
But this group was different.
Some of them appeared to be hunters. That much was obvious. After all, in the first place, it was Lukas who had spread the practical means to fight the demons. As the method was developed, the source gradually faded away, but it was, without a doubt, Lukas.
At that moment, someone at the edge of the group caught his attention. The reason he’d taken such a long time to notice them was because they were very small, and their face was completely blocked by the large hat on their head.
…They didn’t just feel small. Even if they were to straighten their posture, it didn’t seem like they would reach further than Lukas’ waist.
A child? No, if that was the case…
“Thank you for lending us a hand.”
At that moment, the man at the front of the group bowed his head towards Yang In-hyun. Lukas realised that he was the leader of the group.
An honest face, black hair, and a sword sheathed on his hip. Yang In-hyun looked at the sword for a moment before asking in an emotionless voice.
“Where is it from?”
“Huh?”
“The martial art you use. Where did it originate from?”
“Uh, th-, that…”
The man was thrown for a loop at the sudden question. It was at that moment that Lukas chose to intervene.
“Did anyone get hurt?”
The man seemed even more bewildered by Lukas’ sudden intervention but quickly replied.
“Ah, no. This person stopped all the corpses from falling here…”
“It was really close.”
“Thank you.”
Subsequently, as their tension faded, voices expressing their gratitude could be heard in succession.
The corpses of demons suddenly falling from the sky was nothing short of a disaster for them. Although they seemed to have some level of combat ability, it didn’t seem to be that great. If Yang In-hyun hadn’t stepped in just now, some of them would have suffered grievous injuries.
“…”
Yang In-hyun stared blankly at the man for a moment before abruptly turning around and walking away. It seemed he was heading over to the demons’ corpses.
‘What’s with him all of a sudden?’
He couldn’t understand Yang In-hyun’s intentions. It hadn’t been like this when they had been in the World of Void, and it seemed that Yang In-hyun held a certain amount of resentment towards the Three Thousand Worlds.
“But what the hell happened?”
“Perhaps it was infighting among the demons.”
“There was that tremendous sound…”
Looking around, the group began to talk about what had just happened. Nevertheless, they had no idea what exactly had happened. They could only guess. The level of martial arts Pale had displayed was completely incomprehensible at their level.
The typhoon that had swept through the area was just the wind pressure released from a sword slash that had slaughtered half of the demon army in an instant.
They probably wouldn’t believe it even if they learned the truth.
“Thank you again. I am Kim Sang-un.”
Smiling brightly, the man stretched his hand out. It seemed that he had determined that Lukas would be easier to talk to than the awkward Yang In-hyun.
Lukas clasped his outstretched hand.
“I’m Luka-”
The end of his sentence stretched unnaturally. But just as a strange glint could appear in Kim Sang-un’s eyes, he finished.
“-sajin.”
“Lukasajin? Ah. I see.” (TL: Luka-saji-cid-is-er. We can’t forget the others)
He thought that it was a strange name before realising how rude that thought was. This was clearly visible from his expression.
“Um. By the way, where is sir Lukasajin from?”
Lukas, whose thoughts that it was a stupid name weren’t very different from Kim Sang-un’s, replied.
“…England.”
In the past, when he was active on Earth, those who didn’t know Lukas often mistook him for an Englishman. In other words, it was easier to lie about being an Englishman.
But Kim Sang-un continued to look at him with a blank expression after hearing his response. Had he made a mistake? Perhaps he was asking him where he was affiliated to instead of his nationality.
That would be more difficult to answer, and just as Lukas tried to think of a response, Kim Sang-un spoke again.
“Ah, it’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it. I…”
Just as Kim Sang-un was about to say more, Lukas felt a presence behind him.
Tap, tap, tap. Then came light footsteps that seemed to follow a rhythm. It was Pale.
“Ung-hng-hgn.”
She was walking over towards him while humming something. It seemed that she was done with her business.
“Is that another member of your party?”
“Yes.”
It would be better to say that it was another walking bomb instead of a party member.
As soon as he turned around with that thought in mind, Lukas saw Pale with blood dripping from her face.
“…!”
Traces of her meal!
Before Kim Sang-un could see her clearly, Lukas quickly grabbed and started wiping her face with his sleeve.
“What are… doing… so suddenly…!”
Swinging both her hands wildly, Pale tried to struggle, but he ignored her.
In any case, after seeing this, no one would believe that Pale was the one who had wiped out half of the demon army, with the reason being that she wanted to eat these creatures that she’d never seen before— but better safe than sorry.
“Sir Lukasajin?”
Don’t call me that.
Lukas couldn’t help but feel some mental distress as he wiped Pale’s face. Pale looked up at him with an ambiguous expression. For a moment, their eyes met.
“…”
Pale’s eyes were incredibly blue, but there seemed to be a strange light within them that wasn’t usually there.
“Hey…”
Just as she was about to say something.
Rumble-!
A strong wind blew over.
Had the demon army returned?
“Something is coming.”
As Yang In-hyun looked up at the sky and murmured, Lukas’ gaze followed. And he couldn’t help but feel surprised.
The thing that had appeared in the sky was a huge aerial warship.
* * *
Aerial warship. No, it was large enough to be called an aerial fortress.
Just from looking at it, Lukas could tell how advanced the technology used on this battleship was. Of course, some of the universes he’d gone to had even more advanced technology than this, but.
“The level of science and technology on earth shouldn’t have reached this level.”
The scientific civilization of this world had stagnated. This was because the appearance of the demons had caused the collapse of society, and left nigh unhealable scars on every country.
There was only one possibility that he could think of. Could it be that more time had passed than Lukas thought?
So much so that they were able to restore civilization and build such a large warship?
“Mm. I think that would be a bit hard.”
Slurp. Wiping the corner of her mouth, Pale moved to draw her sword again. Waking up from his thoughts, Lukas hurriedly spoke.
“You can’t eat that.”
“There is nothing in the world that cannot be eaten.”
“…then just hold it in for now. I’ll give you something much more delicious later.”
“Mm. If you say so.”
Pale smiled brightly.
It was only then that Lukas realised she’d been joking. She’d never had any intention of eating the aerial warship in the first place.
“The Aerial Fortress [DiArk]…!”
“It came on time. What a relief…”
The group weren’t surprised. Instead, they seemed to cheer as they saw the aerial warship approach. This allowed Lukas to gain a rough grasp of the situation.
It seemed that after realising the existence of the demon army in the sky, they had requested for reinforcements in advance. The aerial fortress was the reinforcement sent to deal with the city’s crisis.
‘…things are really strange.’
He couldn’t get rid of the strange feeling of incongruity that he’d had since coming here.
Firstly, he needed to figure out where the discomfort was coming from… So it would be better to stay away from Kim Sang-un’s group.
Unlike in his home universe, it would be more difficult to deceive the people on Earth. They would basically need to forge identification in order to enter the important places.
But more importantly, the datafied information was stored in a computer network, so it would be impossible to perfectly make forgeries without hacking it.
‘I should enter that city first.’
Perhaps he’d be able to gain a more accurate grasp of the situation after wandering through the streets for a while. Lukas decided to take a bit of a risk to follow them for a while longer. Even if it was a bit dangerous, they could deal with it.
‘…however…”
There was one thing that Lukas had done that he didn’t understand.
And that was why he’d used a pseudonym. After all, if he had said he was Lukas Trowman, it might have been possible to meet his disciples wherever they were.
‘…’
To be honest, he had to admit that he was a bit afraid. The current Lukas… had changed a lot. A lot had changed since his final battle against Nodiesop in the Great Game.
The Lukas at that time was an Absolute. Because his mind had been complete at that time, the only thing he’d shown his disciples was what was morally right. He’d been able to speak with an unshaking voice at any time.
Not now.
He’d become much stronger compared to then, but, ironically, his mental aspect had become unstable.
The current Lukas could feel anger, happiness, and confusion even towards trivial things.
In other words, he’d become human.
…He couldn’t help but wonder if his disciples would become disappointed upon seeing this. Although it might seem insignificant, this matter was incredibly important for Lukas. (TL:…the dumbest smart person…)
He couldn’t help but think about Min Ha-rin’s eyes. Forcibly ending his introspection, he erased the image from his mind.
‘Lightning God, who won the preliminaries?’
The Preliminaries for the Great Game.
A huge field created by the Rulers where the persons they selected fought. Those who participated in it were all those with incredible growth potential.
Although he asked, Lukas didn’t expect the Lightning God to easily answer—.
[Your disciples won.]
—It was a nice miscalculation.
The Lightning God had answered without hesitation.
For a moment, Lukas wasn’t sure how to react. As mentioned before, this wouldn’t be a lie… unless he was up to something else.
“Huu.”
In the end, this was Earth.
That fact gave him a strange feeling.
“…”
Was he happy, or sad?
Lukas couldn’t accurately identify his emotions. It was probably both.
On the other hand, even if he’d gone back to his home universe, Lukas would have probably felt the same way.
He smiled bitterly at the thought, but it quickly disappeared as they entered the city.
* * *
“Huu. We’ve arrived.”
They arrived in the city.
Lukas felt that the streets here looked quite different from the way they appeared from the cliff. Of course, the high rise buildings were just as they’d seen from afar.
However, it was the architecture of the buildings below them and the pedestrians walking through the streets that caught his attention…
“We have to go to the castle to make a report first. What will sir Lukasajin do?”
“…”
“Sir Lukasajin?”
Lukas finally opened his mouth.
“What is the name of this city?”
“Uh…”
Kim Sang-un looked at him suspiciously, but Lukas didn’t take back his words.
“This city used to be called Kazan(Казань), but there are almost no natives left. In the first place, this was a land that had been abandoned because of the demons…”
“…”
“After the Dimension Meeting that was held with the humans who appeared during the Great Fusion, we decided to change the name.”
After those unfamiliar words, the words he heard next were familiar.
“It is called New Luanoble.”
(1/3)
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