Chapter 17
Gu Daeseong realized he had been saved and looked up at Leon in disbelief.
The Gnoll Captain’s axe... had stopped in midair. More precisely, it was trembling, caught between Leon’s fingers, unable to move.
'H-how strong would you have to be to...?'
The Gnoll Captain’s raw strength was at least on par with a C-rank Hunter. It was a fixture of the Seoul Station Gate, practically a graveyard for rookies.
And Leon had stopped its swing with a finger—and was holding on so tightly the gnoll couldn’t even pull it free?
That would be impossible unless he possessed overwhelmingly superior strength.
"Do it again."
Daeseong wondered if he’d misheard and asked him to repeat himself.
"What... did you say?"
"Ahem. Raise your shield. I said face him one more time."
???
Then Leon actually let go of the Gnoll Captain’s axe.
"Now, block its attack and counter. Hurry."
"What? What are you doing...? Everyone’s in danger!"
By common sense and proper procedure, Gu Daeseong was entirely right. But from the Lionheart King’s perspective, his behavior was so disrespectful it deserved a sharp rebuke.
"Insolent fool! You have the honor of receiving instruction from the Lionheart King, and you dare to object?"
"But...!"
This was unfair! What had he done wrong?
"I, a Grail Knight, have deigned to instruct a mere free-citizen soldier. This is an honor my family will pass down for generations. And yet you cannot even show gratitude for such boundless benevolence?"
Leon calmly spouted words that went beyond insult. Even the gnoll standing nearby was dumbfounded by his outrageous attitude.
But Leon merely looked down at the benighted commoner with pity.
"Raise your shield! Block the axe and counterattack!"
"Ghh...!"
With Leon having let the Gnoll Captain keep its axe, Daeseong had no choice but to raise his shield if he wanted to survive.
"Grrr...!"
As Daeseong got to his feet, the Gnoll Captain glared fiercely at Leon. Naturally, Leon drew far more of its attention than Daeseong did.
"Kyaaaah!"
Ignoring Daeseong completely, the Gnoll Captain swung its axe at Leon. Just as the weapon was about to smash into his head—
-Thwap!
"Grr?"
The axe blade stopped in midair. Once again, its razor-sharp edge was caught between Leon’s fingers, unable to move an inch.
"You mad, rabid mutt."
The Gnoll Captain shrank under Leon’s gaze. Leon stared at the axe for a moment, then seized the shield in the gnoll’s hand.
An unblemished hand closed around the shield, and something unbelievable happened.
-Crunch! Crrrkk! Krrrrrrk!
The iron shield buckled. It was crushed in the shape of Leon’s fingers, exactly as his hand had gripped it.
It was a horrifying sight—a demonstration of the monstrous force a grip could exert. And it made just one thing clear.
Don’t challenge me.
"Y-yes, sir..."
The Gnoll Captain understood at once. Wild beasts, more than anything, understood the hierarchy of strength.
It realized that Leon was a being it could never hope to challenge, and tucked its tail between its legs.
Instead, it turned its anger and humiliation on Daeseong.
"Uh..."
W-what had I done wrong? Daeseong was bewildered by the way the gnoll’s attention had unexpectedly shifted to him, but the now-shieldless Gnoll Captain immediately swung its axe.
"Aaaah...!"
Gasping for breath, Daeseong raised his shield. Clang! The blow rang out, and the shock traveled through the shield.
'It’s strong!'
What a heavy blow! And that man had stopped this kind of axe swing with one finger?
"Fool! Just because you have a shield, why try to stop it with brute force?"
Leon barked at Daeseong, watching the fight from right beside them as he began to call out advice.
"Never face an opponent whose strength surpasses yours head-on! Deflect it, like you did before! Turn its weapon aside and look for an opening! That is how the weak must fight!"
Damn it, if it were that easy, would I still be a perennial D-rank Hunter?
Even so, Daeseong tried to deflect the axe swinging at him again with his shield.
He twisted the shield and let the blow glance off at an angle. Instead of absorbing the full impact, he redirected it diagonally.
-Clang!
"Ghk...!"
But it was easier said than done. The Gnoll Captain had adapted, anticipating the shield’s turn.
"Your opponent isn’t a training dummy! It’s a living, breathing creature—a beast that learns! How can you expect to succeed just by turning your shield?"
"Aah! Damn it! Then what am I supposed to do—"
Thud! A kick slammed into Daeseong’s side. Leon’s kick sent him tumbling to the ground.
"W-what are you doing—?!"
As he fell, Daeseong saw the path of the Gnoll Captain’s axe. If he’d lowered his shield absentmindedly while answering Leon, the blow would have hit him.
"Focus. Take my advice as though it came from the heavens, but keep your eyes on the enemy at all times."
Leon struck the Gnoll’s head as it swung its axe, stopping it, then looked down at Daeseong.
"Get back up."
Why the hell was this lunatic doing this to him? Just as Daeseong was about to protest, Leon spoke.
"Don’t let your talent go to waste. Bring out your potential. You can do better."
Talent? Me?
Those words stirred a strange feeling in Gu Daeseong.
A Hunter with no unique skills. A perennial D-rank with no talent, who had merely Awakened by chance.
No one had ever told him he had talent. Naturally, he’d always assumed he had none.
Leon, unexpectedly offering him words of encouragement, was unlike anyone Daeseong had ever met. The sound of his voice alone filled Daeseong with a strange sense of trust.
I can do this.
I can do it.
He raised the shield. It was his first time using one. He’d always fought with a sword.
-Clang!
It was heavy. Damn it, how had I deflected that attack before?
'Keep your eyes on the enemy at all times.'
He followed Leon’s advice. Through the narrow field of vision behind his shield, he watched the axe in the Gnoll Captain’s hands.
If only he could read the path of its swing!
-Kang!
The sound was clearer than before, a scraping metallic ring as the blow slid aside.
"I-I did it...!"
"Kraah!"
The gnoll’s forepaw slammed into his stomach. Gu Daeseong went flying far away.
"Tsk... Pathetic. You still can’t see the whole picture. You have a long way to go."
He’d been so fixated on the axe that he hadn’t noticed the gnoll’s leg move. Daeseong’s vision blurred, and at last his eyelids closed.
He was rated D-rank again this year.
* * * *
With Gu Daeseong unconscious, only Leon, the Gnoll Captain, and Shin Taehoon remained.
"G-grr..."
The Gnoll Captain glared at the fallen Daeseong but kept a wary eye on Leon. Its learned fear kept it from moving.
It could only cower in fear and watch Leon. And even that was enough to—
"How long do you intend to stare at this king’s face, you filthy mutt that isn’t even human?"
-Whack!
Leon flicked a finger. It wasn’t even a punch. Yet the instant his swinging index finger touched the Gnoll Captain’s jaw, its head spun thirteen times around.
-Krrrk!
The Gnoll Captain crumpled to the ground, its neck making a sound like its bones had been broken—and ground to pieces.
"Ugh... Disgusting."
Leon grimaced like a germaphobe who’d touched something he shouldn’t have, then stepped in front of Shin Taehoon.
He briskly wiped the finger that had touched the Gnoll Captain on the hem of his clothes. Taehoon didn’t dare say a word.
The Gnoll Captain served as the boss of the Seoul Station Gate, which had no designated boss monster.
It was the graveyard of C-rank novices. Many rookie Hunters encountered the Gnoll Captain and survived only with help from an Association employee.
A Hunter who could toy with the Gnoll Captain like that...
"C-could you be an Association employee?"
Come to think of it, even though they’d been in danger, the Association employee hadn’t stepped in. Instead, he’d kept his distance, as if he’d expected things to turn out this way.
"That’s right! Nayeon...!"
Taehoon looked toward the cave, which he hadn’t even had time to think about, and his eyes widened in shock.
"Mmm... O-Oppa, we’ve taken care of them all."
"The young ones have worked hard."
At the mouth of the cave, where dozens of kobolds were supposed to emerge, Old Man Oh stood smiling as he wiped the blood from his gauntlets.
"Then... I’ll conclude the test."
With the Association employee’s words, the party test in the Seoul Station Gate came to an end.
A short while later.
Han Hari, who had been waiting at the entrance to the Seoul Station Gate, spotted Leon and ran over.
"Y-Your Majesty! I trust Your Majesty is in good health?"
"What do you mean, ‘Your Majesty’s health’? I just went for a walk."
To Leon, the Seoul Station Gate had been no more than a stroll. Even weakened, with most of his holy power gone, the Knight King’s body was still that of a demigod.
Even tens of thousands of Gnolls couldn’t leave so much as a scratch on him.
"Then... did you accomplish what you set out to do?"
Leon had come all the way to the Seoul Station Gate under the pretext of taking a test to learn how Hunters operated and find capable people.
"No. I met several Hunters in the waiting room, but every one of them was all packaging and no substance. As for anyone fit for military service..."
Leon thought of one man.
Gu Daeseong. A D-rank Hunter.
His skill with a shield was unusual. More precisely, it was terrible, but Leon could see his potential.
A soldier needed to know how to use a shield. Daeseong was worth training.
"Well, at least I’ve found a candidate for squad leader."
"I see."
Just then, Hari noticed the Association employee and the other party members emerging with Leon.
She was startled when she recognized the elderly man among them—not Old Man Oh, but Oh Kangtae after removing his 'mask.'
"C-Chairman of the Association?!"
"It’s been a while, Ms. Hari."
Oh Kangtae—no, Oh Kanghyeok.
The chairman of the Hunter Association flashed a genial smile.
* * * *
A café near Seoul Station.
"Did you know?"
Oh Kanghyeok, chairman of the Hunter Association, had assumed Leon had figured out who he was from the moment he paid no attention to the kobold cave.
"From the beginning. A warrior of your caliber couldn’t possibly be some nobody."
Leon had known ever since Oh Kanghyeok approached him under an assumed name. The energy he carried was anything but ordinary.
"Heh heh, I even wore a Mask of Illusion to disguise myself, but I suppose it was pointless."
A magical item that altered one’s face to make them look like someone else was meaningless to Leon from the start. He was a foreigner in this country who didn’t even know the face of its most famous Hunter.
"I heard you’re forming a guild."
"If you mean replacing the name of my knight order with that of a guild, then yes."
Chairman Oh Kanghyeok wanted to understand Leon’s intentions.
What he was pursuing. The direction he was headed. If he knew that, perhaps he could keep Leon in a small country like the Republic of Korea.
"On behalf of the nation, I’d like to thank you for purifying the Naju Plain. The President also hopes to meet Your Majesty soon and express his gratitude in person."
"It was a trivial matter. It hardly warrants a king’s thanks."
"We’d like to offer you something in return as well. Is there anything you might want—"
"You needn’t be so anxious. I have no particular plans to leave for another country."
"......!"
He’d hit the nail on the head.
What the Association wanted from Leon was precisely for him to remain in the country.
He had already proven himself a powerful being, but the miracle of purifying mana-contaminated land made him more valuable than any other survivor.
If other countries learned of Leon’s abilities, they’d want to secure him even if it meant starting a war.
'We can’t even trust our ally, the United States.'
The United States had also lost vast breadbasket regions to Dungeon Breaks. They would pay any price to have Leon purify that land.
And Leon seemed to already understand just how valuable he was.
"You have it wrong."
"What do you mean...?"
"Purifying contaminated land is not some divine power or ability of mine."
"What does that mean...?"
The Association employees had told him Leon purified the Honam and Naju Plains. He’d even seen the footage. How could that not be his ability—
"Could it be... that anyone who worships Goddess Demera can do the same...?"
"Not just anyone. They would need to be a priest with true faith and the goddess’s recognition."
It was astounding. Could a single priest solve a problem humanity had yet to overcome completely?
"This world has religious freedom, as I understand it."
"......That’s correct."
Religious conflicts still broke out, but there was no religious persecution in Korea. One religion was particularly zealous, but compared to Middle Eastern groups that carried out bombings, it was practically harmless.
"This is a problem that will resolve itself naturally. If you desire the power of divinity, first prove yourselves through faith without expectation of reward."
"......"
Chairman Oh Kanghyeok wondered whether he should truly trust a religious man from another world. But that didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t deny the land had been purified.
"I understand Your Majesty’s wishes. Still, if there’s anything you need, we’ll help."
"In that case, I can give you the opportunity to serve this king."
"What would that be?"
"I need to raise my renown."
Renown? Oh Kanghyeok gave him a puzzled look.
"When you say renown..."
"I intend to spread my name across this land... no, throughout the world, and gain opportunities to spread the faith."
In other words, Leon believed that as his renown grew, he would be able to spread the faith of the Pantheon.
He wasn’t wrong. In fact, it was the most effective way to do so.
"Hmm... I see. If Your Majesty wishes to build your renown... there’s one method that would be best. I assume you’ve already guessed what it is."
Oh Kanghyeok recalled that Leon had taken the test to find capable people.
He had formed a guild, accepted residents, and recruited guild members.
The simplest way to build renown in the modern world. It went without saying.
"I think it would be best to first establish a record of accomplishments that can raise your Hunter rank. These days, few things spread one’s renown as well as strength."
"How does one raise this rank?"
"It’s simple. Clear a Gate. Of course, the process will be complicated for Your Majesty, who has only just settled on Earth."
The first problem was getting into a Gate. Most high-rank Gates were awarded to guilds, which entered ahead of others. The only Gates Leon, a rookie Hunter, could enter were low-rank Gates owned by the Association that no one had bid on.
"If you want to raise your renown quickly, there’s nothing better than a high-rank Gate."
"But I was told those things are claimed in advance by what you call guilds."
At that, Chairman Oh Kanghyeok smiled and replied.
"Actually, there’s a Crimson Gate that no one has managed to clear. It’s a rather unusual Gate, and even the Association is struggling with it."
He took out his smartphone, played a video, and set it respectfully on the table.
On the screen was a 'spider.'
"This is a Crimson Gate that appeared in Cheongju. It’s a special Gate that was recently reclassified as an actual 'Red' Gate."
Eight wide-angle lenses swept in every direction, moving without pause. Its eight thick legs were far too cold and vicious to belong to a living creature.
A massive main cannon and secondary cannons were mounted on its iron-armored carapace, reminiscent of a huge crab’s shell. The railgun fired projectiles while spewing a menacing electromagnetic field.
-Aaaah! Run! Ruuuun!
-What the hell is that?! We can’t beat that thing!
A nightmare of urban warfare, racing from building to building on eight legs while toying with the Hunters.
"This is the boss of that special Gate. No one has cleared it in a year."
「Acquire or destroy the 'Orb of Wisdom' guarded by the Jagd Spinner.」