Chapter 29
#29
After the situation concluded, I returned immediately to Ulsan.
Gang Inhan and the guild members who had arrived in Ulsan first were receiving treatment at a temporary hospital established by the guild.
“Is Inhan alright?”
“Yes, Representative. He suffered some severe abrasions, along with fractures to his left arm and leg, but we treated him urgently with high-grade recovery potions. His life is not in danger.”
At the words of the guild member managing the hospital, I nodded.
That much was a relief.
Thanks to the Chain Contract, none of the guild members, including him, had lost their lives.
“Uh…… Representative. The Guild Leader has been asking for you.”
“He’s awake?”
“Yes, I think you should see him……”
At those words, I nodded and headed toward the hospital room where he was admitted.
When I entered the room, Gang Inhan sat with his head deeply bowed, his face clouded with sorrow.
I called out to him.
“Are you alright?”
“Ah! Representative.”
It seemed he hadn’t even noticed I had entered the room.
Only when I spoke did he finally turn his head toward me.
The next moment, he bowed his head deeply to me and opened his mouth.
“Representative, I’m sorry. Because of my hasty judgment, I caused you hardship. I am truly sorry for disappointing you.”
He apologized to me sincerely and courteously, bowing his head.
Soon, he reproached himself for what had occurred due to his actions and said he would take responsibility.
“I suppose I simply don’t have what it takes to lead a guild. I will take responsibility and resign.”
It seemed he felt a great deal of responsibility because of this incident.
He was an honest man, just as he appeared.
A man who tried to fulfill his duty in the tasks he undertook, and who sought to take responsibility humbly when he failed.
I felt I understood why the benevolent Spirit of the Gentle Wind had chosen this man.
He was truly the sort of man rarely seen in this day and age.
I shook my head at him and spoke.
“It is not your fault, Inhan.”
“But I—”
“No one will think that.”
I cut off his words, speaking in a slightly firm tone.
“I heard the situation from the Spirit. What you did to save the guild members.”
Even while raiding the Gate and under attack by Jang Sancheol and his mob, he had evacuated twenty-six guild members. The remaining four, unable to abandon Gang Inhan, had stayed of their own accord and were captured alongside him.
As a guild leader, he could be seen as having made the best possible choice.
“It was you, Inhan, not me, who saved them.”
“Representative……”
“I will say this with certainty. From now on, they will follow you, not me.”
At my words, Gang Inhan’s eyes began to redden.
I continued speaking to him.
“So don’t think of taking responsibility and resigning. No one will want that.”
At those words, he finally burst into tears.
I yielded my place so he could rest comfortably.
Finally, before leaving the room, I smirked and spoke to him.
“Inhan.”
“Y-yes?”
“You have good friends.”
The four who had been taken hostage with him were friends who had been with Gang Inhan since the Sacred Fire Battle.
With those final words, I left the room.
His sobs echoed endlessly from inside.
* * *
The next morning, I went back to the hospital room where Gang Inhan was.
“How is your body?”
“Yes, Representative. Thanks to the potions, I think I could be discharged even now.”
“Rest for the time being. More importantly, I have something to tell you.”
“Something to tell me?”
I nodded and opened my mouth.
“You are aware of Yangsan’s current state, yes?”
“Yes. It was similar to Ulsan’s previous situation. Magic beasts were still roaming the streets.”
“It’s because the Gate hadn’t been sealed. It should be fine now.”
At those words, Gang Inhan’s pupils slowly began to widen.
Soon, he broke into a wide grin and opened his mouth.
“Representative, you intend to become the King of Yangsan.”
He seemed to think so, assuming that I had sealed Yangsan’s Gate.
However, I shook my head at Gang Inhan’s words.
When he looked at me with a puzzled face, I spoke to him.
“A being called King is unnecessary. Of course, a focal point is needed. You be that focal point, Inhan.”
At those words, Gang Inhan jumped in shock, his mouth falling open.
“Yes!? R-Representative. What do you mean—”
“Even I would find it difficult to manage two regions alone. Rather than that, it is better to entrust them to people I can trust.”
At my words, Gang Inhan’s eyes began to redden.
I continued speaking to him.
“It will be difficult. As of now, Yangsan has lost its King. Of course, they likely never wanted a King to begin with. Now, what they need is not a King, but a hero.”
That was a fact made clear enough by what Jang Sancheol had done to kidnap Gang Inhan.
He had forcibly ordered the citizens of Yangsan to raid the Gate alongside him.
“Now there is no King of Yangsan with compulsory power. There is no longer any King’s Command Gem with which to issue forced orders either. You know what must be done to become a hero, yes?”
“I must do what you did before, Representative.”
“Yes. I will provide sufficient robot support. Do not refuse as you did last time. That task is impossible alone.”
At those words, Gang Inhan nodded with a serious face.
“This time, I will not disappoint you.”
A certain resolve could be felt in Gang Inhan’s words.
The resolve that this time, he would see it through without fail.
Gang Inhan would likely accomplish it.
Given his strength, as long as no problems arose, he would resolve this matter smoothly.
I slowly rose from my seat.
“Ah, Representative. Are you leaving?”
“Yes, I have other business to attend to.”
“Other business?”
I nodded and spoke.
“Yes. While I’m at it, I intend to take Gimhae as well.”
* * *
The top floor of a certain building in Gimhae.
There, Gim Jinsu, a thin man wearing glasses who had become the King of Gimhae, was dripping with sweat as he looked at the man before him.
The man wore a benevolent smile, yet Gim Jinsu could not smile along with him.
Currently, hundreds of things surrounded the building outside.
“So…… you are the King of Ulsan?”
Gim Jinsu cautiously opened his mouth to the man before him, Hancheol.
Hancheol merely nodded.
“Then what brings you here……?”
“First, you are the King of Gimhae, correct?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Then I will be blunt. Step down from the throne of Gimhae.”
Gim Jinsu’s eyes widened in shock at those words.
Soon, his expression began to twist fiercely.
“What, are you suggesting we go to war with you?”
“Mr. Gim Jinsu.”
Hancheol spoke to him, still smiling.
“Do you not understand the current situation?”
“What? What do you mean by—”
“Do you believe a war will break out in this situation?”
At those words, the blank expression on his face vanished, and realization turned his face ashen.
Indeed, the current situation was exactly that.
Robots surrounded the building, and he was having a one-on-one meeting with the King of another region whose strength was unknown.
Of course, conversely, I was also surprised.
I had not expected him to reveal that he was the King so easily.
Did he think I had come with good intentions simply because I was smiling?
No matter the reason, to reveal that he was the King so easily……
Well, in any case, my evaluation of him was complete.
I spoke to him.
“I do not mind if you wish to wage war. Of course, I would prefer to resolve this through conversation.”
At those words, Gim Jinsu gulped and asked me with a tense face.
“What do you want?”
“Did I not just say so? Step down from the throne of Gimhae.”
“Do you want the King’s Command Gem?”
I shook my head and opened my mouth.
“I’ll say this while I’m here. Hand over the King’s Command Gem to me right now. I will destroy it right here.”
“What? Then…… you were not after the throne of Gimhae?”
“What I want is the region called Gimhae. Not to be its King. Honestly, I wish to resolve this peacefully. I do not want to dispose of talent with my own hands if I can help it.”
He likely understood who the “talent” referred to.
Nevertheless, his expression was troubled, unlike before.
To be precise, he was scheming.
Having been burned by revealing he was the King just moments ago, he was thinking more carefully.
Before he could entertain such thoughts, I drew my sword from my waist.
The next moment, I swung my sword horizontally.
Kukukung!!
The top of the building was cut away cleanly, and the ceiling vanished.
“Huck!”
“I am warning you just in case. Do not think of opposing me.”
To prevent unnecessary situations in advance, I needed to show my strength.
Of course, I did not know what he was thinking, but it would certainly not end well for him.
I faced him again and opened my mouth.
“I will be honest. The position of King is too much for you. Has anything in Gimhae changed since you became King?”
He could not refute my words.
Naturally.
Before meeting him, I had briefly checked the state of Gimhae, and he truly had done nothing at all.
He had not raided the Gate, and magic beasts still roamed the streets.
Even after the Sacred Fire Battle had ended, Gimhae was no different from before.
This was the result of neglect by the so-called King of Gimhae after he had taken the throne following the Sacred Fire Battle.
“If you had done anything at all, I would not have gone this far. So hand over the King’s Command Gem willingly.”
At those words, he closed his eyes quietly.
After thinking for a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Are you saying that if you become King, things will change?”
His face as he uttered those words was calm.
An expression devoid of even the slightest dissatisfaction, as if he were asking purely out of curiosity.
Therefore, I too simply nodded quietly.
After a brief silence, unexpected words burst from his mouth.
“Before I hand over the King’s Command Gem, could you grant me one request?”
“What request?”
“Could you take me to Ulsan for a moment?”
What was he thinking?
Since it was not a difficult request, I nodded.
I commanded Eria and headed to Ulsan with him.
After dropping him in the center of the street, I opened my mouth to him.
“As you requested……”
“……”
However, I had no choice but to stop mid-sentence.
Because the moment he saw the streets of Ulsan, he burst into tears.
“……”
He simply looked at the streets of Ulsan, shedding tears wordlessly.
The streets of Ulsan were lively.
People were walking the streets safely, and not a single damned magic beast was in sight.
It was a scene that felt as though the daily life of old had returned.
After watching that sight for a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.
“My wife lost her life to a magic beast.”
“……”
I quietly listened to his words.
“Burning with vengeance, I killed magic beasts, and having survived, I became the King of Gimhae before I knew it. I wanted to gather people immediately to raid the Gate and tear those damned magic beasts apart, but I could not go, worried for my only daughter.”
At those words, only now did I foolishly realize.
That not everyone becomes King because they want to.
Some fight to survive, and in fighting and winning, they become King.
The reason he had not touched the Gate at all was probably due to what little conscience he had left.
He could have ordered others to go without going himself, but he would not have wanted to sacrifice people like that.
“I made offensive remarks. I apologize.”
I bowed my head politely to him.
Indeed, if it was for his only daughter, he would have been unable to attempt the Gate raid even if he had wanted to.
He was not a villain.
But at my apology, he shook his head and opened his mouth.
“Certainly…… the King of Gimhae was a position too great for me.”
He spoke to me, shaking his head.
The next moment, he took out the King’s Command Gem from his inventory.
He put strength into the hand gripping the King’s Command Gem and destroyed it himself.
Kwa-jik! Kang!
The shattered pieces scattered in all directions, emitting a blue light.
It was a mysterious and beautiful sight, though I had seen it once before.
While briefly watching that sight, he bowed his head to me and opened his mouth.
“I entrust Gimhae to you.”
To his request filled with sincerity, I nodded and replied.
“Yes. I will make it a place no different from here.”