Chapter 18

Chapter 18. The First Hero (12)

Hii~

Ella seemed to want to help Lee Naye as well.

She puffed out her chest proudly and patted it with her fins.

Kim Seongchan sent Ella back to the Spirit Realm.

Then he spoke in a quiet voice that only Lee Naye could hear before walking away from her.

Tears gathered at the corners of Lee Naye’s eyes and sparkled.

She looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment.

Lee Naye stared at Kim Seongchan as if she had just met her savior.

“Love? Was that a confession?”

Kosdal, who had been quietly watching everything, suddenly spoke.

“How can you joke at a time like this, Sir Kosdal?”

“Didn’t you say love? How is that a joke?!”

Kosdal became angry.

Even the wrinkles on his face seemed to express how wronged he felt.

Kim Seongchan wondered what was going through Kosdal’s head for him to bring up love in a situation like this.

Hahaha!

Kosdal’s angry voice was buried beneath Lee Naye’s cheerful laughter.

Only Kim Seongchan could sense it.

Lee Naye’s laughter sounded like she was forcing herself to laugh loudly in order to deny reality.

Lee Naye wiped away the small tears running down her face with the back of her hand.

“How long are we supposed to keep doing this? Do you really think Lee Naye can control Silnyang? It’s already been several years. Isn’t it about time we gave up?!”

The exhausted voice carried years of built-up resentment.

Even after the angry shout from a Fist Rice Ball Guild member, Kang Taesik did not answer.

Who else besides Lee Naye could become the Guild Master of the Fist Rice Ball Guild? Even if all she could do was use a shield, she would still be qualified to become Guild Master. Don’t they understand that she’s the one refusing the position?

Kang Taesik swallowed the words he wanted to say.

After Lee Naye became unable to use a sword and failed to properly control Silnyang, she had lost her confidence.

Kang Taesik had been waiting for her to regain that confidence ever since.

He decided to continue what he had been doing.

Various vegetables were spread across the cutting board, and Kang Taesik was slicing peeled potatoes.

Only after finishing the potatoes did Kang Taesik speak.

“She’ll come back once the Terk Kingdom starts doing well again.”

“Let the Terk Kingdom take care of itself! How long are we supposed to stay like this?!”

Smack!

“Why did you hit me?!”

The guild member who had been smacked on the back of the head shouted.

Kang Taesik wanted to shout too.

But he was not in a position where he could do that.

Kang Taesik was one of the founding members of the Fist Rice Ball Guild and held the highest position after the Vice Guild Master.

“If you have enough energy to complain, use it to train harder.”

“We’re always training hard! If someone saw us, they’d think all we ever do is train.”

“Then train even harder.”

“What’s the point of training hard? We’re stuck eating stew filled with nothing but vegetables. I want meat! Meat!”

“There is meat!”

Listening to a group of grown adults complain about side dishes, Kang Taesik pointed at a piece of meat.

Beside the large pile of vegetables was a chunk of meat about the size of a potato.

It was nowhere near enough to feed all the guild members.

“Do you know how I feel when I watch that huge guy with no skill slicing up meat and eating it?”

The guild member was talking about one of the newer members.

He must mean that big guy.

As soon as Kang Taesik thought of the large guild member, only unpleasant memories came to mind.

He barely trained, was excellent at flattering people, and acted arrogantly toward both people of this world and other Heroes simply because he belonged to the Fist Rice Ball Guild.

He was staining the guild’s reputation.

“So what? You want to start flattering the Guild Master like that guy? You know he’s using food to manipulate people in such a petty way! If I give in too, who do you think he’ll do it to next?”

“That’s true, but this is still too much!”

“He’s right! We can’t just keep taking this!”

“We’re only enduring it because you’re here, Kang Taesik. But this isn’t right!”

The guild members who had been listening began pouring out their complaints one after another.

What’s wrong with these guys? It’s not like I can fix this. Why are they complaining to me?

His head grew hotter with every complaint.

Kang Taesik wanted to shout too.

You think I don’t know this is wrong?!

They were being discriminated against through food.

Anyone who stayed on Park Seokdu’s good side could drink beer and eat as much meat as they wanted.

That petty, pathetic bastard.

Kang Taesik could not understand how people who never improved their skills and only knew how to flatter others were supposed to help the guild.

The Guild Master did not seem to think about anything.

He simply appeared drunk on the authority that came with being the Guild Master of the Fist Rice Ball Guild.

“And what is the Vice Guild Master even thinking, going out to hunt Wild Pigs when the problem can’t be solved anyway?”

At first, Kang Taesik and the other guild members had gone out with Lee Naye to hunt Wild Pigs.

It had felt good when the villagers thanked them.

There had even been times when knights stopped them, telling them not to interfere because protecting the villages was the knights’ responsibility.

That was how things had once been.

But then...

Kosdal stopped coming, the knights stopped helping, the villagers changed, and the Vice Guild Master still refused to give up.

The knights who had told the Fist Rice Ball Guild to stay out of it because they would protect the villages themselves changed after rumors spread that Kosdal was no longer coming.

At first, the knights began arriving only after most of the Wild Pigs had already been killed.

Then they started watching the situation from a distance.

Eventually, they stopped coming at all.

That was when the villagers’ attitudes changed too.

Some shouted at the guild members, demanding to know why they had arrived so late.

There were even people who became violent.

“I don’t understand how Lee Naye can keep helping the villagers even after being treated like that. No one would blame her if she had quit a long time ago.”

“Exactly. And knowing all that, I’m curious why you still refuse to help Naye.”

Kang Taesik felt killing intent.

When did he get this close?

Kang Taesik might currently be suffering childish discrimination over meat from the Guild Master, but he was still one of the original members of the Fist Rice Ball Guild.

He was also a Hero who had fought against a Lord of the Demon King’s Army and had sent countless demons to the afterlife.

Yet he had failed to sense this person’s presence.

If this had been a battlefield, the man had gotten close enough to cut off his head.

The instant Kang Taesik turned his head,

“Uwaaagh!!!”

Kang Taesik threw away the kitchen knife in his hand and stumbled backward.

The knife he had thrown unconsciously did not contain much strength.

However, it flew straight toward the face of a man whose killing intent felt even stronger than a demon’s.

The man turned his body sideways and avoided it.

“Isn’t that a little too much discrimination based on my face? You actually threw a kitchen knife at me.”

Kim Seongchan relaxed his expression after avoiding Kang Taesik’s knife.

If a fist came flying next, it would be annoying.

“Who are you?”

After finally calming down, Kang Taesik watched as Kim Seongchan picked up the fallen kitchen knife.

Seeing Kim Seongchan relax his expression, Kang Taesik slowly lowered his tense shoulders.

Kim Seongchan had no interest in Kang Taesik’s shoulders.

Instead, he took processed Wild Pig meat out of his high-grade subspace pouch.

It’s better to show them through actions than words.

Even if he introduced himself as Lee Naye’s guest, there was no better way to start a conversation with these people than with meat.

When Kim Seongchan began taking out the meat, every guild member opened their mouth in surprise.

Some even shouted,

“Whoa!”

Takakakak.

Kim Seongchan sliced the thick Wild Pig meat into convenient pieces and put down the kitchen knife.

With a reaction like this, it was the perfect time to introduce himself.

“I’m Kim Seongchan.”

Overwhelmed by the strange atmosphere created by Kim Seongchan calmly introducing himself while cutting an unusual piece of meat, Kang Taesik suddenly remembered that he had thrown a knife at him.

He immediately bowed his head.

“I apologize. My name is Kang Taesik.”

“If you’re sorry, what should you do about it?”

Kim Seongchan had almost been hit by a kitchen knife.

It had been thrown slowly enough that almost any Hero could have avoided it, even if it had not been Kim Seongchan.

Still, Kang Taesik had threatened him.

That could not simply be settled with words.

“If you ever need help with monster subjugation or anything else, I’ll come immediately.”

Normally, that would have been enough to settle the matter.

Situations like this were not rare in another world where dying at any moment would not be strange.

“Sounds good. From now on, go hunting Wild Pigs together with Lee Naye.”

The apologetic look in Kang Taesik’s eyes wavered.

Kim Seongchan was not trying to gain anything for himself.

Instead, he wanted Kang Taesik to go with Lee Naye and hunt Wild Pigs while facing the villagers’ cold treatment alongside her.

Kang Taesik was clearly the one at fault.

Even so, his eyes showed resistance at Kim Seongchan’s demand.

Kim Seongchan read that look and picked up the kitchen knife.

Black mana wrapped around the blade.

The moment it did, he threw it.

Swish!

The kitchen knife pierced into the wall.

The entire blade disappeared inside, leaving only the handle visible.

Kim Seongchan took another kitchen knife out of his high-grade subspace pouch.

“Should I throw one at you the same way?”

Kang Taesik’s body stiffened.

He could barely open his mouth.

The training hall became cold and silent.

What Kim Seongchan did next would decide whether these people became friendly toward him or turned hostile.

He completely froze.

Throwing a kitchen knife and making it stick so cleanly into a wall was not easy.

After covering it in mana, he had controlled the strength so precisely that only the blade entered the wall while the handle remained outside.

It looked as if it had been measured with a ruler.

Kang Taesik became tense.

Where did someone like this come from?

Kang Taesik imagined trying to copy what Kim Seongchan had just done, then immediately gave up.

If he tried, the knife would probably pierce completely through the wall and fly outside.

Kang Taesik knew very well how difficult such precise control of strength was.

Still, this was too much.

Isn’t he being a little too violent just because I looked unwilling?

For a brief moment, Kang Taesik thought,

Should I fight him?

The thought rose quickly.

Then he immediately shook his head internally.

Anyone who could bury a kitchen knife into a wall with that level of precision was clearly skilled.

And since Kim Seongchan was Lee Naye’s guest, it would be better to settle this peacefully.

I’ll just say I’ll do it and end this.

Having made his decision, Kang Taesik tried to speak.

But the words would not come out easily.

Kim Seongchan’s gaze was too sharp.

This is what happens when I seriously glare at someone.

Lee Naye stepped in front of the frozen Kang Taesik.

“Seongchan, aren’t you going too far?!”

Lee Naye pulled out her shield.

Even while everyone else was frozen in place, Lee Naye alone had moved without hesitation.

“Naye, do you also think my face is the problem?”

Kim Seongchan asked while Lee Naye blocked his path with her shield.

Lee Naye quietly looked away.

An invisible blade pierced his heart.

Kim Seongchan suffered an emotional wound and looked past Lee Naye toward Kang Taesik with a fierce gaze.

Protected by Lee Naye’s reliable shield, Kang Taesik finally found some peace of mind and opened his mouth.

“I’ll do it.”

“From now on, help the villagers together with Naye. You know how much Naye was mistreated by those villagers and still kept saving their lives, so make sure you go with her from now on.”

While soothing his wounded heart, Kim Seongchan told Kang Taesik to work hard alongside Lee Naye.

If Lee Naye had not been there, most of the villages would have disappeared.

Only a few villages had moved quickly enough to prepare against the Wild Pigs.

Thanks to Kim Seongchan’s help, they could now defend themselves even if Wild Pigs attacked again.

But Kang Taesik did not know that yet.

Once he sees how much things have changed, he’ll realize something.

When Kang Taesik saw the villagers who would never have survived without Lee Naye, he would probably feel many things.

The mood around the other guild members also relaxed once Naye raised her shield. That should be enough...

Lee Naye looked deeply moved.

Kim Seongchan relaxed his angry expression and walked toward the cauldron where water was already boiling.

“Shall we make some Wild Pig Stew?”

Kim Seongchan summoned If and Ella.

It was time to make delicious Wild Pig Stew for the people who had been unfairly discriminated against because of food.

“That was Wild Pig meat?!”

Kang Taesik shouted in shock.

The guild members around him reacted almost exactly the same way.