Chapter 5
The Gate appeared in the Honam Plain—a region responsible for South Korea's rice production—one week ago.
The scarlet Gate, rated A-rank in average difficulty, was expected to be cleared without incident after the Firebird Guild won the bid.
If only the Firebird Guild had done its job properly.
"What on earth is going on here?!"
Manager Kim Jinsu and Assistant Manager Han Hari flew straight to the Honam Plain by helicopter. There, they met Lee Yongwan, the head of the Firebird Guild.
"Ah, Manager Kim. And our rookie, Han Hari, too?"
Despite the gravity of the situation, he remained relaxed. The moment they saw his expression, the two of them knew.
'That bastard... He did this on purpose!'
There was no doubt about it. The Firebird Guild had deliberately dragged its feet on clearing the Gate to cause a dungeon break!
'They've been demanding tax exemptions nonstop, and now they pull a stunt like this?'
The Association and the Firebird Guild had been clashing more and more often lately.
The Firebird Guild had spent the whole year demanding tax exemptions, insisting that it deserved special treatment as one of the country's top ten guilds.
They wanted tax exemptions on up to one trillion won in income from Gate spoils, mana stone sales, and monster materials.
They claimed it was to train promising Hunters and cover the rising cost of treating their guild members.
The government already granted the major guilds all kinds of benefits, so it had been reluctant to grant Guildmaster Lee Yongwan's demand.
They'd suspected he might try something, but how could he pull a stunt like this while everyone was already reeling from the first Black Gate in thirteen years?!
'Those damned bastards! The Honam Plain is so important! The purification work in the Naju Plain isn't even finished yet, and now they've pulled this!'
Ever since the Gate crisis began, the world's food trade routes had frozen solid.
The vast plains that had been slow to respond to the initial Gate crisis were contaminated by mana—and Korea was no exception.
The cost of buying purification agents from the Mage Tower to cleanse the country's renowned breadbasket regions had already been astronomical!
If they lost this year's harvest in the Honam Plain, the food self-sufficiency rate they'd somehow managed to maintain would be cut in half.
Assistant Manager Han Hari, growing desperate, spoke up.
"Hunter Lee Yongwan! We need to clear the Gate right now! It's been a week! If we let it go any longer—"
"I know, I know. The rights to a Gate pass on after that. But what can we do?"
The guildmaster mocked them with a vile grin.
"A lot of our guild members are injured. I don't think we can clear it in this condition. The Firebird Guild will have to give up our clearance rights to the Honam Gate."
"......!"
Manager Kim Jinsu and Assistant Manager Han Hari's faces flushed red. They wanted to curse out the bastard right in front of them and punch him, but he was an S-rank Hunter.
Kim Jinsu was only B-rank, and even A-rank Han Hari could only take on one of his subordinates.
'Those bastards! They have so many A-ranks, and they're saying they can't clear the Gate?'
"What are you going to do?"
"......What are you trying to say?"
"The Association handled the first wave of monsters that came out, didn't it? But you do know the Gate hasn't fully burst yet, right?"
Because none of the Association employees deployed to the Black Gate had been injured, the Association had some breathing room for now.
But that wouldn't last. A Gate packed with monsters would cause a dungeon break sometime between the seventh and tenth day.
In other words, the scarlet Gate in the Honam Plain hadn't fully burst yet.
"Then hand over the rights to clear the Gate right now—"
"I can't do that. Come on, Manager Kim, you know better. The Hunter Act says the guild that won the bid retains the clearance rights through the eighth day."
No matter what, the Association couldn't forcibly take the rights to a Gate that had already been auctioned off. The Firebird Guild's guildmaster was exploiting that very fact.
"We'll try our best tomorrow. But a lot of our people are in pretty bad shape, so I can't say how well we'll do."
"You bastard..."
Han Hari couldn't hold back and cursed. Lee Yongwan chuckled at her outburst, still perfectly at ease.
"Wouldn't it have been better if we'd just reached a friendly agreement? It's not just us, you know. Cheongseong, Mujin, and Shark—heroes risking their lives to protect this country—can't even ask for one tiny little benefit?"
"You've already... already gotten so much in subsidies and tax breaks..."
The government gave the major guilds plenty of benefits. The problem was that they were pigs who could never be satisfied.
"Maybe we'll go to Japan. They promised to treat us much better than this lousy Republic of Korea."
"......!"
Right. That was the problem.
The global scramble for survivors and Awakened was playing out in every country.
The wealthier a country was, the harder it tried to recruit high-ranking Hunters for its own security, even carrying out covert operations at the risk of diplomatic friction.
The Korean government had been keeping its major guilds on board with enormous benefits just to preserve the strength it had—but even that was reaching its limit.
"You... don't have even the slightest bit of patriotism?"
Even if this world valued the strong preying on the weak and the powerful taking everything, shouldn't there still be... at least some conscience and justice?
"Patriotism? Justice? Those went out of fashion ages ago. Why are you being so naive? Hari, I told you this during last year's draft, didn't I? In this world, money and power are justice."
Hari trembled as she swallowed her anger. This was why she'd joined the Hunter Association.
The way Korean Hunters today thought only about money and risk, without giving a second thought to the people harmed as a result.
An era in which humanity had been cast aside, justice had plummeted, and anyone trying to live decently was mocked.
For a young girl who'd admired heroes and wanted to protect people, the reality was utterly repulsive.
But was she supposed to accept it? That money and power were all that mattered? If she accepted such a miserable reality, where could she possibly find justice?
"Truly, what a vulgar and backward lot."
Just then, everyone turned toward the voice that came from farther away.
"Y-Your Majesty Leon?"
"Do not use the king's name so carelessly, woman. You are permitted only to address me with honorifics."
The man had followed the two of them, saying he wanted to see the world. He must have heard their entire conversation, for he stepped between the two sides.
"Who are you? You look European, but—"
"You stand before the king! How dare a commoner wag his tongue so carelessly!"
"Huh?"
Lee Yongwan was an S-rank damage dealer. He was one of only twenty S-rank Hunters in South Korea and the guildmaster of the Firebird Guild, one of the country's top ten guilds.
In an age when a Hunter's power translated directly into authority and wealth, no one dared speak carelessly in front of him. And yet...
'What's with this bastard?'
He was calling him, one of the top ten guildmasters and one of only twenty S-rank Hunters, a commoner? And what was this nonsense about standing before a king?
"You want to die—"
"Stop, Hunter Lee Yongwan! He's a survivor!"
"A survivor?"
At those words, Lee Yongwan lowered the mana he'd been gathering. Right, a survivor. They were outsiders from cultures different from Earth's.
Whatever their cultural differences, survivors were valuable in their own right. Of course, that wasn't true of every single one of them.
Lee Yongwan wasn't foolish enough to immediately make an enemy of a survivor.
"I apologize for that. I'm Lee Yongwan, guildmaster of the Firebird Guild. A survivor, huh... You came from that Black Gate—"
"A king does not repeat himself."
After silencing him, Leon turned to Han Hari and Kim Jinsu.
"Explain the problem."
"Pardon?"
"Do not make me ask twice. I know little about these Gates of yours. Summarize the problem clearly and present it to me."
The two of them brightened. The survivor had shown that he was willing to resolve the matter himself.
"It's a dungeon break! When one happens, large amounts of mana are released and contaminate the land! That could contaminate the entire Honam Plain! The mana that's already spread is polluting the soil even now!"
"How can it be resolved?"
"We need to purify the contaminated land and clear the dungeon as soon as possible so the Gate itself disappears!"
"I understand. The contaminated land and the Gate are expanding. Gather your forces. The moment those so-called birdbrains' legal deadline ends tomorrow, I will deal with it myself."
"D-do you really mean that?"
Even by the most conservative estimate, Leon was an S-rank Hunter. No one would be foolish enough to refuse the help of someone that powerful.
"However, before that..."
"Before that?"
The two of them were ready to accommodate whatever he wanted. Should they start by getting him a weapon? No, he already had his own sword.
He didn't seem to have any armor, though. Should they hurry to an auction and find something for him?
But what Leon asked for was completely unexpected.
"A king of another country cannot conduct military operations in someone else's territory as he pleases. I must first obtain permission directly from this country's king."
"Pardon? No, th-that's not necessary..."
"There are proper procedures and protocol for everything. Send a courier to your king at once."
""......""
Even the top ten guilds wouldn't tell the president to show up in person. For a moment, Lee Yongwan thought:
'Is this bastard even worse than me?'
* * * *
「...This is the President.」
Fortunately, the president, who was on an overseas trip, didn't have to fly all the way to the Honam Plain.
When Leon heard that he was away requesting support in connection with the Black Gate, he understood and wished him a safe return, content with a brief phone call.
"Your Majesty! All fifty members of the Hunter Association's clearance team are ready!"
Assistant Manager Han Hari and Manager Kim Jinsu stood before him in full gear, having gathered the required fifty members for an official Gate raid.
"Good. You said those birdbrains' legal deadline ends tomorrow?"
"Ah, yes..."
Hari stared at Leon in surprise. Given how much he emphasized social rank, she'd expected him to ignore legal procedures and charge into the Gate right away. His behavior was completely unexpected.
"Do you take me for a barbarian?"
"Pardon? N-no, of course not!"
"Civilization has proper legal procedures. How can one be an honorable knight without obeying the laws that embody a nation's authority?"
"Oh..."
The Association employees were impressed. Leon won them over at once, displaying his innate command.
"More importantly, did you bring what I ordered you to prepare?"
At that, Hari and the other Association employees couldn't hide their dubious looks.
"Um... Your Majesty."
"Speak."
"We prepared everything you asked for... but what exactly do you intend to use these things for?"
Leon had ordered a bow and arrows, an amber skull decorated with ornaments, and even some straw dolls.
"This precious land has been contaminated, has it not? We must purify the land."
"Pardon?"
The Association employees had hurried around the city, asking women who had given birth to make more than a hundred straw dolls for them.
"Are those the women who made the dolls?"
"Y-yes, Your Majesty."
Over a hundred women stood in a line, having been summoned at the crack of dawn by urgent requests from Association employees and community center staff.
Their ages varied widely, from young women to middle-aged women and even grandmothers over sixty.
"Each of you, show me the doll you made."
Some grumbled at his commanding tone, but the compensation offered by the Association had made them more amenable.
Leon began inspecting the straw dolls the women had made.
"Hmm... This is unbelievable."
"......Pardon?"
"You would call this abstract, grotesque monstrosity a doll?"
"Sob...!"
The first straw doll was tossed aside.
"Oh? What is this one?"
"D-do you like it, young man?"
"It looks almost alive."
"I don't think it's that well-made—"
"If I had to go on living with a face this ugly, I'd choose to take my own life soon enough."
"......"
The second, third, and twentieth dolls were tossed aside, too. Then it was Han Hari's turn.
"Hmm? You took part as well?"
"Oh, yes! I'm good with my hands, so I'm quite skilled at making dolls!"
Hari's doll was certainly impressive. Even though it was made of straw, it had a cute shape and was decorated nicely.
"I wouldn't have expected you to have given birth."
"What? Oh, I'm... not married. I thought any woman would do... wouldn't she?"
"No, you foolish girl."
-Rip! Rip!
"Whoa! My straw doll!"
The brutally torn straw doll was swept away by the wind.
After such harsh standards, the one that finally caught Leon's eye was the eighty-ninth doll, made by an elderly woman.
"Excellent! How many children have you had, madam?"
"Twelve."
"Hmm, at such a young age, you're a true patriot and a living wellspring of life. Do you plan to have more children?"
"My old man kicked the bucket."
"Well, someone as full of vitality as you could certainly remarry. You're still young, so take your time and think it over for about ten years."
"I'll be dead first."
"We normally send a knight to present a medal and gifts in person to any woman who has given birth to more than ten children. Forgive me that circumstances won't allow it this time."
Leon kissed the back of the elderly woman's hand and placed her straw doll on the altar.
"The conditions are met."
Leon took something out from among the items they'd prepared.
A subspace opened, and a cup appeared in his palm.
It was an old, faded cup, cracked in several places, yet no one could take their eyes off it. It was as though some wondrous energy flowed from it.
"You are the Mother of this fertile land. Dwell within this harvest doll offered to you by the children of the earth."
The cup filled with water. When the self-filled cup was placed before the altar, something strange happened.
The water in the cup boiled furiously, then surged upward as if flowing backward, pouring into the straw doll!
"W-what on earth is happening?"
The Association employees, the women who'd made the straw dolls, and the Firebird Guild members all stared, unable to look away from what was happening before their eyes.
The evening sun rises.
Red light colors the clouds, and another day is about to begin.
But the sunset on this day, May 24, 2032, would mark a special beginning for the entire world...
「Lionheart, my child.」
The straw doll rose. Imbued with divinity, it spoke in a benevolent voice, revealing its nature.
"I greet you, Demera, Earth Mother, divinity of life and abundance."
Divinity had descended upon this land.