Chapter 66: Night before the Festival (1)
FJZLnr3Inside Merkarva City was the guardian academy and thus it was comparatively safer from demonic beasts than other cities.7ES
6RZReSafety attracted more people and more people led to the prosperity of the city but not everyone received the benefit from that increased prosperity.pYsAyh
fQmcrMThere was a slum in every city and there was a gang reigning over the anarchic streets of Merkarva City.alIER
UEEtBlack Star Group.oEGhCxl
AmOoA group of gangs that increased their size in the backstreets through power and violence.TEPP
72bhTheir 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.KvtwEYg
VGnGuThose idiots would be dealt with by the members of the Black Star Group that always stayed in those bars.QIfxdI9
WIS“Kuaahk…!”yaYdvL
RCQlEe1But this time, it was a bit different.zLMwl
mbSN“Give me more alcohol. More booze…!”TpJqC
kRXGe“K, kyaaah…!”faRXr
CetOO“O, oh dear. Sir, pleaseee…”agY1Pz
WpJEwZThe store keeper ran up in a fluster. He couldn’t do anything even though his employee, Renya, was being harassed by a drunk customer.DAua
jAniX“You fucker! You’re calling this alcohol?”6p9qiA6
6aeXaThe drunk customer creating a ruckus looked a bit old to be called a boy and a bit too young to be called an adult.HbqEH
IPI4GGpBut 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!bKxmjv2
EQQNo 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.BCE
MNrXaBb‘Damn it! What the hell is the Black Star Group doing? They’re only on time when they’re coming to take protection fees!’7erbw4K
dw5This bar was buying moonshine from the Black Star Group and at the same time, they were paying them protection fees.nOO3
NflsYIn 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.HT8nEF
xGXkK“Who the hell is it that’s creating a fuss at the bar, huh!?”d8lEE
cg87‘T, they’re here!’4WDgeWz
Vhqv9QIt 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!ty14bU
R7VSBesides, 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!che
Rd2grN“Huooh? Wut now?”dp9H5
YeE9z5MThe 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.WHhaqCl
QWHl“Fuck off from our business when we’re still being—”IyD
7kJb3kp“Ah, shut up. I don’t like hearing guys.”s907
ynIwoPIgnoring 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.UPbzG7
9NDp“…This bastard.”5Q095Bs
yyFgBmLeaving 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.68G8qT
HQe6R2“An Academy student, huh. Underage kids shouldn’t come to a place like this.”OLH
YBDyI“Who the hell are you now?”VQInRR
0rjw“Rickie Johnson. I am the future boss of the Black Star Group.”Ljfb
akY5v3v“Oh, okayy?”ovI
xjbKeo“Kid. Just leave if you’re done drinking. I will be nice and pay for your alcohol today so…”suif2
VwDywLF– Glug!YaFm6
tWnkLIt happened in the blink of an eye. The drunken boy suddenly picked up a bottle of alcohol and poured it over Rickie’s head.cSVX
hSRDrip. The flowing moonshine wetted Rickie’s waxed hair and turned off his cigar.Z9sJN
kZrhsjQ“B, brother!”z3cpqug
Mkh“This bastard…!”yOa0
10XEcLifting 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.YQwx
znr“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.”n4QNXBW
kgJp0Using 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.ZnL3
N7sS– Vuiing…!ZLZ
E7WThe 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.rRPZ
gyiRickie enjoyed seeing that change with an evil and crooked gaze.ZIvH
MEcQc6“These guys are the crazy hounds of the north. They are infamous slave hunters notorious for their name, Red Hounds. A mere student—-”wUUw
aRF– Kajik!YFqjL
irLAk41– Bababam!NPc
RYBNta“Huah?”WpstXGj
kMvEIt 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.zYVs
JVAF8“I’m listening. Continue.”SOpFA
mKE“…What can I do for you, Sir?”aa2Mywx
YDSx8k“You don’t have to do anything. Because today will be your last day.”gjm6U
pPi9c“S, sir?”yGW42
Xf9SOne night. There was no need to wait until the next sunrise for the 100 members of Black Star Group to be demolished.IUJvowa
fTtaQw****pwMYR
tCVAX4In 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.i3GW
XAHv8xThat 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.bhV9XSp
jI6GbmOf course, destroying one gang wouldn’t clean up the dense darkness of the slum but it was still better than nothing.oPT
iqrdM“Is it here?”AA6
tr9XHR“Y, yes yes… Sir!”dJxJ3
qPbRN0After 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.1QtC
N75JayLThe underground storage was damp with no ventilation. The disgusting odor and humidity of this area was something difficult to get used to.PQwNc
KtkNsO“How could you lock people in a place like this, you fucking trash.”ME3
wKEq– Slam!mFYgD
uBDjWhen I smacked him by the back of his head, Rickie started shivering like a leaf and said sorry on repeat.lhl
CTEpQH“Huh. What are you?”DlC
nRGiL“Brother Rickie?”Y7ehRFi
qSqMYCfI 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.2rPP
uk7Il“T, this way!”A46
lsLSeveral 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.LAV0
9v5However, the ones they were smuggling weren’t animals but humans. Specifically, they were ‘demi-humans’.lTZViHc
urDfuX“Open them.”iCaeQFz
BBcQ2“Sorry sir?”3UVq1AG
dVE“Open all the cages.”9Qh3nTW
iotrKDJ“But sir! W, we will be doomed then!”MwdnCrV
SS21D“You are already doomed, you idiot.”BdQ2d
YlkThe 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.eVMw
GjZ“At least there’s not that many.”BwZsboz
kWN8kThere were roughly 20 demi-humans ranging from a dryad, which was a mixed-blood with fairies, a dog beastman and a dokkaebi[mfn]Dokkaebi 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[/mfn]… Ehew. Seeing how they were from all sorts of different cultures, it seemed that taking them back home would be quite an arduous task.u7sz
HRnIn 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.FgxQf
hMoo39vPeople 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.4vdon
2i3YuP“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.”v2eyc
JLFawA 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.ESAtL
1GXu『Many Unspecified』
※ Difficulty: D+jwQQw
Yk5b※ Reward:2lO2WIw
iOAd– Even distribution of 25 pointsFq1E1
cPZJVa– Rumors about you will spread across demi-humans.eB5qy
3lgjpIt 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…r0gPTU
BC6z1Wb“Is there a sibling here that goes under the name of Ren and Ron?”HfUmj
YfaThe dryad girl pointed at a cage in response to my words. As for this girl… I should probably entrust her to Yuel.9iEBmqk
YU7914I 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.nxAeoA
lWiquT“Wait… they’re a lot smaller than I thought.”lIwj
hj2yXU6Wolf siblings, Ren and Ron.xvQJY
iGiBNUnlike 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…22kIjW
fESU9MThis 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.pE6bLV
rwzI did hear stories about how beastmen had physical growth that accompanied mental growth but… weren’t they still just way too young?ubu
o7JVcPM“Hi guys?”CF1B
KCI4as“Hiik…!”7ds
YRr“D, don’t hit my brother…!”ajT
sAyThe girl shouted while trying to protect her younger brother. She was probably the older sister Ren but…F1vhJ
G44luEP『I will kill you, you bastard…!』nVB3Bb8
XMp6Q1She 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?R5K3m
oBHRen 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.60Bd
9ffbwLooking back at it now, it used to be a lot of work.f4zwD0L
1fQKsOriginally, 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.v6h
H0lUYWhat I did now was save these unfortunate kids who would later grow to be an evil mid-boss.vA32
n7U“A bit different from what I thought but… let’s go guys.”7fE84a
K87OI carefully reached out to them but the sharp claws of the girl slapped my hand away.wjGkBBU
T2Di“G, go away! Leave us alone!”2Xe5h
hk3qOW“N, noona…”8Gn
s2ynBecause 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.2ko7a
cBMB“Do you want some snacks?”NKzurh6
hcFn3cN“I’m not a kid!”4dV
oqCGIEXIt backfired. Did she not like jerkies?W8UST0
kwdtkVf“Guys. Let’s just quietly all leave.”9LxA
hYi“Leave us alone! Just let us go…!”AInB
quiimDRen 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.31XG9
bb4WSe2“Huu…”fdNPg7
aoNYI snatched her hand by the wrist.X3mrKxV
4OlTqO“You’ll just hurt your body.”b9zWSg
pTdXLq“L, let go!”7MJU
QroChja“It’s okay. No one is going to hit you anymore. You guys are now safe.”VhVXnJK
AdWYu“Ah…”E5u
pDTTAsnWhen 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.QhV
Ul6JLSBIt was a very sad thing to see.30BjDIj
uQ2“What are your names?”lWFK
OauSc“Ron… My name is Ron.”b4c
nMvnLa“…Ren.”QTOjdF
66dzRon, who was anxiously gazing at me, replied first which was followed by Ren, who was in my arms.Bsp6y2
BSSWN1H“I see. My name is Korin. Korin Lork.”XlKTdUA
k9sx“…Are you a Mister Knight?”qhPUp
egFN“Yes.”nhS4OL7
7u47I 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.eQ6rz
So1Evx“…”uW40
kAx8jDid I really have to put these kids into my guardians guild?3x5Tf
cWcEQqNThe 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…yyknx
fk0TZY“What are you going to do now, boss?”JKcy5K
P51pZA 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.fX1UPKN
ehRyRenya the waitress.uuo5
o93Even though she looked like a normal waitress of a backstreet bar, she was in fact an executive of the intelligence guild.vEnb
An1dYI“Take them to my inn. And give them some food.”BGYXaN
bb6“Were you a philanthropist?”PxZ
pbivCa“Think of it as you wish.”mfeW7Q
FWduI 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.7elbzKC
ffUYO“Huu~.”zv0mu
GL5sThoughts muddled my brain because I unexpectedly came across these young kids.rkh0pLL
WR9z4hfEhew. All in all, I did something good so I guess it was still worth it.NurhsGl
Fd9****vNtaG
JqPQlOOn the eastern side of Merkarva City in one of the platform villages, a foreign beast landed on the landing zone of flying animals.683shL
QNOThe 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.kVQbwx
6cgQhLDIt was called Shangyang in the east and was a bird that could only be mounted by the higher-ups of the society.awBB
i3BqkF“Hello sir. You must be from the east. Can I please have a look at your ID?”bFyq
dwSTchaThe 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.679TmW
IONzzIt was a plaque with the emblem of a falcon and was the most well-known emblem of the east in this continent.dPBxC7O
azZyW15“I see you’re from the Purple Hawk Academy!”FkAe
myxsO“Yes, that is the case. I am Senior Professor Kang Ryun. They are my disciples.”Yafvl
GO0B“I am the student council president, Kang Yuhua.”upY
cHfg714“Jinhyuk is my name~. Nice to meet you.”kWR
0BGAahgSince they were already informed of the guests from the east, the landing zone staff immediately led them to a carriage.zsIGy64
OEG“We at the El Rath Kingdom welcome you for your visit. We have the carriage prepared right here so please follow me.”s4HF
WltjmFollowing 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.itnJ0zo
ky5“Weow~! The reception is quite good.”XcWT
EgcO“Hyuk. Master hasn’t even taken his seat yet.”SkXl
ctBJinhyuk 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.Kb1
VYRf“Whoa whoa~. Big Sister. You know I’m not good at fighting.”qmln5Yt
b24“…Haa. Is that something a Grade 1 Knight is supposed to say?”0v30lp
NMiW“Certainly can to you, Big Sister.”sWAcN
qO58gvx“Stop. Cut the idle talk.”TGOpV7
SO57gThe 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.Cq8W
fNddtI“By the way, master.”fNKv
t8JdRKang Ryun closed his eyes as if trying to have some time for meditation but Jinhyuk spoke to him.mCp2t
C1wyeN“Is it certain? Is that bitch really here?”ZC7odl
4Mw“…”zII
tnLGiYuhua didn’t reproach him this time because she too was here because of the same reason as Jinhyuk.xzJT
aHCB“Yes. It is certain that the Chairman of this Academy has taken her. His Majesty guaranteed it.”LvsT
fUt08Cj“…”QFGWXM8
uax47n“…”u5QXYw1
mevRnhThe 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.C3sm4cl
aqq“How can you achieve anything big if you cannot even hide your hostility?”BrMo
mdrq“It doesn’t matter. As long as I can beat up that fucking bitch.”sNVc44
AVhAcW“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?”a75F9ey
w23z“Of course. Yuhua. I want to save my niece just as much as you.”plfRp
UGVWJ1yListening 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.mhTP
u7UcAs the sole survivor of the pandemonium of the burning Moonlight Castle, revenge was the only thing in the mind of the boy.XIgYObk
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