It was a week ago that the Jeju Island Gate was opened, and it was Guild Leader Lee Yong-wan of "Firebird" who won the bid for the gate.
Yong-wan enlisted the Golden Lion Guild's Golden Chul to clear the red gate, and the combined Firebird and Golden Lion raid team set out to attack the red gate.
There's one rule of thumb when trying to capture a Red Gate: if you can't capture it, you must call for backup.
If the raiders called for help the Association has the right to forcefully mobilize "Hunters" to the Red Gate when a dungeon break is imminent.
This is almost the only enforcement power the Association has, because a Red Gate dungeon break could destroy a city but even this was not accepted by the large domestic guilds, so it came with the condition that the 'failed capture' must be a predetermined fact.
This is why the Association sent Kim Jin-soo and Ha-ri to the Black Gate as scapegoats for the de facto failure of the capture.
"So you want this king to act?"
Leon's eyes flashed with displeasure, and Chief Kim Jin-soo replied cautiously, sweating profusely.
"Of course not, the Association wants to maintain amicable relations with Your Majesty. In the first place, we're not even at the stage where we can issue a mobilization decree yet."
An emergency mobilization decree would require the guilds that raided the gate to declare failure. The problem is that there is a Hunter who escaped, but it is ambiguous whether the raid is a failure or not.
"I need to see him first. Where is he?"
"He's being treated at the hospital. I hear he's pretty much unrecognizable right now...."
"It doesn't matter. Let's go."
Leon headed straight for the Jeju hospital where the surviving Hunter had been taken and the Association staff, who had been radioed in advance of Leon's visit, bowed ninety degrees at the sight of him.
"This way, Your Majesty."
The wounded from the Firebird Guild and the Golden Lion Guild were crowded into a four-person room. None of them were in very good condition, but none of them were seriously wounded.
"So this is the hospital."
Following Leon to the hospital, Beatrice marveled at Earth's modern hospital facilities.
They're kept clean to prevent infection, and staffed by countless nurses and doctors.
It's quite a sensation, she thinks, why couldn't they have thought of something like this in her kingdom… no, it would be impossible….
"Well, it's not barbaric."
"This facility?"
"Yes. It's meant to treat soldiers wounded in battle, but how can commoners be treated here?"
He didn't mean it in a classist way, as if commoners didn't deserve to be treated.
In the Lionheart Kingdom, as well as in most countries, commoners eat the blessed crops and never get sick.
They live long lives and are healed at every meal. They also have no germs in their mouths, so the concept of dentistry is foreign to them.
When commoners did receive healing, it was usually for accidental trauma, and since there was no god of medicine, the priests of life and fertility took over.
Why do you need a doctor, why do you need hospitalization, when you can just come to the temple, say a few prayers, eat a good meal cooked by the priests, and go home.
Such things were reserved for soldiers and knights who needed urgent treatment like reattaching a severed arm, or to repair a wounded intestine.
That's for the Priests of Life and Fertility on the battlefield.
"...Your Majesty's world is such an anomaly that it can't even be put on a scale."
"I am aware of that, hence the burden of representing all the gods."
"Hoohoo...."
The Queen didn't bother to tackle the arrogant entitled god-king, for she herself was now the High Priestess of Dreams and Death.
"Many of you are impolite."
"That's because they're sedated. If you'll give me a moment, I'll...."
"That won't be necessary."
Leon approached the queen.
"Is it my turn?"
"Please."
Beatrice raised her powers. She was the High Priestess of Fle, the Goddess of Dreams and Death and though she was an inexperienced and novice High Priestess, she was not incapable of intervening in a single dream.
"This shouldn't be difficult. I'll create a new space in his dreams."
As a gifted dreamer, she has maintained a repeating world in the midst of demons, so what she is doing now is more familiar than she realizes.
"Whoa...."
How ironic that the memories and experiences of horrific repetition are so helpful only after being freed from them.
Beatrice entered the dream of the unrecognizable Hunter, where she could see into his consciousness.
[...]
Soon enough, Beatrice emerged from the dream and told him what she had seen in his consciousness.
"It was a knight in green armor, carrying a huge one-handed hammer and shield, and claiming to be protected by the Goddess of Life and Fertility."
"Hmm…Demera?"
Maybe not. There's no guarantee that other worlds don't have goddesses of life and fertility.
"Do you know the knight's name?"
"Georgic. Apparently he's called the Majestic Georgic and…the Protector of Gerhane. He's a monstrous knight...."
"...!"
At that, Leon's eyes widened.
"Your Majesty?"
"We shall depart at once. This king will lead the way."
Leon's willingness to leave immediately brightened the complexion of Kim Jin-soo and the rest of the Association staff.
With four S-rank Hunters and most of the raiders out of contact, sending someone in such a situation would require at least comparable power.
Other large guilds in Korea would naturally be stretched, and the power they would send would be questionable but if it was Leon....
'He doesn't operate on profit and loss.'
Moreover, his strength it's probably on par with world-class monsters, or better.
"Do you want me to call in the troops in the building? I can arrange a charter flight right now."
Leon was in Jeju just in time to purchase horses for the knight cadets.
It was unusual for a gate hunter to buy a horse, and he didn't need to bring soldiers with him.
Since troops would be needed to attack the gate, Kim Jin-soo could use the Association's private plane to bring them over.
"No, I'm not bringing soldiers to the gate this time."
"Why…?"
In response to Kim Jin-soo's question, Beatrice, who had witnessed the Hunter's dream, spoke up with a guess.
"Because there's no point in using mediocre people, right?"
"Exactly. At the very least they need to be a knight that wouldn't get killed in the fight."
"That would be me, Ms. Ha-ri, and the three of them. It was a mistake not to bring Lord Yappy."
At the very least, Koo Dae-sung, Kim Do-han, and a bunch of B-rank cadets of mediocre skill are not enough.
"The sooner we go, the better. We'd rather be quick than wait for Lord Spinner."
Vaguely aware of the gravity of the situation, she headed for the gate with Leon.
* * * *
"...."
"What the hell...."
What she saw as soon as she entered the gate was a horrific devastation and not even a blade of grass was left standing on the scorched earth.
After witnessing the ruthless slaughter and destruction, Ha-ri gritted her teeth.
"You, this is too much...."
People are being skinned and hanged.
"Uweh!"
Soo-ho vomited in disgust, and Jae-hyuk patted him on the back.
"...."
Chun So-yeon had seen everything under the sun as she cleared gates, but she had never seen such a gruesome execution site before.
Leon and Beatrice scanned their surroundings coldly, though they didn't frown.
"It's been a while since I've seen an execution. Do you think these are Hunters?"
"Probably not. They're too short for that. Koreans are generally tall."
They also found signs of recent human occupation and several footprints that crossed the charred field.
"They've practiced the Blue Night tactic and killed every last one of them, so that not a single seed is left in this land."
"You know that well?"
"When I killed the orcs, I did something similar to their few green spots."
Leon left the executed victims behind and mounted his horse.
"It's been a long time since the work here was done. We're going to trace the tracks and find out what's going on."
Leon leads the way, followed by the Queen and the cadets.
Though they were still used to it, traveling on horseback was much faster than walking.
"Your Majesty."
Beatrice asked as they rode.
"You may speak."
"You seem to be in a bit of a hurry and didn't even wait for Lord Yappy. Do you suspect something?"
"Hmm…this king was inconsiderate."
As they rode away on horseback Leon began to talk.
"As I said before, mediocre people are in danger, because there is a Holy Knight here."
"A Holy Knight…you mean Sir Georgic?"
Beatrice remembered the green-armored knight she had witnessed in the Hunter's dream.
Majestic Georgic, is a knight of the gods and one of the strongest Holy Knights.
"He is a Holy Knight favored by Demera, the Goddess of Life and Fertility. Sir Georgic was a Holy Knight three generations before this king and his skills were passed down through this king's family."
Leon doesn't know much about him either since Holy knights are naturally long-lived.
When they talk about a generation, they're usually talking about at least 200 years.
"Sir Georgic was born eight hundred years ago, five hundred years before this king was born, and he ascended while on a campaign against the barbarians."
"Ascended?"
"That means he died, sister?"
Leon did not deny their conjecture since by nature great saints don't describe their deaths as death.
Their deaths are ascensions to paradise and they're led by the gods themselves.
"But Sir Georgic did not make it to Paradise."
"His...soul did not arrive."
"I traced his aura through the holy relics, but I could not find him or his troops anywhere."
Beatrice had seen Leon personally escort his fallen trainees to Paradise so she knew that, at least in Leon's world, there was an afterlife, and that it was populated by souls favored by the gods.
If a Holy Knight was the most favored saint of his time, how could his soul not reach Paradise?
"I have three guesses. First, Sir Georgic is actually alive."
That's entirely possible since Holy Knights are not inherently mortal.
They ascend when they fall on the battlefield, or when they lay down their posts to be embraced by the gods.
"Second, his soul was lost in the middle. And finally──"
"Defection...."
The Holy Knight, Georgic, favored by the goddesses, was actually a traitor.
"We may be able to find out the truth by attacking this gate, but it involves a powerful Holy Knight. If there is a battle, it will not be a human one."
Therefore, only those humans who can survive the aftermath of the battle have been selected. Leon was not yet at the point where he could afford to use up his troops.
As they retraced their steps, the cadets' faces grew darker.
"Again...."
"'They made a show of it."
The corpses on the execution platforms were horribly mangled.
Bodies burned to death, villages trampled and ravaged, people slaughtered without resistance.
Leon stares at their flayed skin in particular and growls.
"This is unspeakable, this atrocity. These people deserve to die."
Ha-ri nods in agreement with Leon's words.
'I see the king is outraged by this tragedy as well.'
Leon may be discriminatory and authoritarian, but at his core, he is a just man and despite their cultural differences, Ha-ri deemed him just enough to follow.
"Han Ha-ri, and the rest of the cadets, listen."
The cadets were tired of the carnage, but they focused on Leon's clear words, knowing he would lead them out of this hellish place.
"Whatever happens from now on, you will only follow this king. Do not trust your eyes or your minds. Do you understand?"
"Ah, I understand."
"I will only follow the King's path!"
The cadets gave him a puzzled look, but Leon didn't say anything more and continued ahead.
How far up did he go?
-Gah!
-Help!
Another tragedy loomed.
"Your Majesty, it's a village, people are being slaughtered!"
Knights and soldiers on horseback were killing naked people indiscriminately. Men and women, young and old, slaughtered those who resisted, and mercilessly beat those they captured.
-Die! I'll kill you!
-Kahahahaha, die, you lowly things!
It was a massacre in the making, a scene of one-sided slaughter and Leon was furious as he watched the horrific carnage, as those who resisted were torn limb from limb in even more horrific fashion.
"You, you scum of the earth…!"
"Your Majesty!"
Ha-ri was thrilled to see Leon genuinely outraged; this man's sense of justice could be trusted!
"Our allies are in danger! We're charging!"
"I will follow you!"
Ha-ri clumsily grabbed the reins of her horse and the other cadets did the same.
They had no doubt that this was their moment to save their people from being mercilessly slaughtered and to bring justice.
With the help of the Lionhearted King, they would do justice.
-Thud, thud, thud!
Horses' hooves pounded the earth and with his lance summoned, the Lionheart King galloped away at full speed, so fast that no one could keep up.
"He's too fast, I can't keep up!"
"That's how angry he was, when he met the 'orcs'!"
The cadets excitedly tried to catch up but just then, Soo-ho shook his head and said.
"...Uh, isn't the direction a little strange?"
"Huh?"
Hearing Soo-ho's question, Ha-ri looked straight in Leon's direction.
The direction in which Leon was furiously charging was towards…the residents facing the massacre.
"Glory to Lionheart…!!!!"
In the moment of impact three people were impaled on the lance like skewers.
Your Majesty?