Ranker’s Return

Hyeonu left Etono to escape the emperor. Even without seeing the emperor, Hyeonu could tell…

He just had a feeling that the moment he met the emperor, the war of the demon world invasion would begin.

‘It is only until the end of Arena Week...’

He wasn’t going to stop by Etono for now. Even if he needed to drift around the world, he didn’t want to return to Etono. He would get rewards even if he didn’t participate in the battle, but it wasn’t his personality to just sit back and watch. Hyeonu wanted to play at the front of the main scenario. He wanted to control everything with his own hands.

‘Thus, I can’t get caught by the emperor.’

It was clear that Hyeonu would fall behind if he participated in Arena Week while the war was in motion. The large guilds were not easy opponents. It wasn’t that Hyeonu didn’t have the confidence to catch up. He just didn’t like the act of catching up. He always wanted to stay ahead at the front.

“Let’s go to Blanc first.” It was an excellent choice. If Hyeonu were to go to Blanc where John Blake stayed, it would be easy for him to get information about the surrounding cities. Additionally, it was quite far away from Etono. “Return.”

[The Blanc Return Stone has been used.]

[Moving to Blanc.]

[Current number of uses remaining: 5/6]

[Remaining time to charge it once is 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.]

***

Hyeonu appeared in Blanc and walked to the castle where John Blake was. John Blake was the only one Hyeonu knew here anyway. There was no NPC in Blanc who would give Hyeonu more reliable information than John Blake.

‘Even if I only get the composition of the surrounding forces...’

At the very least, there would be no crisis. The operation would be completely different as long as there was some basic intelligence.

“John Blake,” Hyeonu called out to John Blake, who was sitting in the center of the clean training ground with his eyes closed. John Blake’s eyes opened halfway at Hyeonu’s call. His bleary eyes made it seem like he had been sleeping.

‘Was he really sleeping?’ Hyeonu wondered inwardly. He erased his unnecessary thoughts and continued, “I’m seeing you again after a few days.”

John Blake opened his eyes completely and answered Hyeonu’s greeting, “Yes. What brings you here? I’m sure you are still busy.”

“I’m running away.”

“Running away?” John Blake questioned after hearing Hyeonu’s unexpected answer. He looked worried. The master of a city had run away from his own city. It was incomprehensible based on John Blake’s common sense. However, Hyeonu had said it, so John Blake couldn’t dismiss it as a lie or take it lightly.

“I want to put off the war a little bit... So I ran away,” Hyeonu explained.

“Put off the war? Will the war be postponed without you?” John Blake asked.

“I am the best of the adventurers. But in fact, that isn’t the reason... It is because without me, there are no adventurers who can talk to the emperor.”

The war would naturally take place as scheduled without Hyeonu. However, progress was likely to be slowed to some extent as Hyeonu was the only player who could communicate with the emperor. Even if the emperor tried to proceed with his orders, the interim processes had to increase.

Previously, the emperor gave instructions to Hyeonu, and Hyeonu took care of all the work. Now when the emperor gave orders, it would fall to the nobles under him. Then the nobles would submit quests to the adventurers they knew. The level of the adventurers who received such quests was bound to be lower than Hyeonu’s. This meant that even if the quests were given, it would inevitably take more time to fulfill the conditions. If the player met the quest conditions, they would have to go back to the return point. It would go back from player to noble, from noble to emperor. They had to do what had been done before but in reverse.

So Hyeonu’s disappearance meant the progress of the world would naturally slow down.

“His Majesty will be pretty annoyed. You had better be determined when you go back. He won’t like that.” John Blake’s lips curved up as he grasped the situation. Hyeonu’s act of defiance was on a shallow—no, cute level... at least, in John Blake’s eyes.

‘His Majesty will be angry,’ he thought. In the past, it was Lebron, and now it was Lebron’s disciple. They took turns to upset the emperor.

“I don’t know what is on your mind precisely... but I think it is a good choice this time,” John Blake added. 

“Do you have any information on the current situation?” Hyeonu asked.

He got a strange feeling from John Blake’s words. It was because John Blake’s tone was meaningful.

‘I can roughly feel it...’ Hyeonu roughly expected what John Blake was trying to say. It was a story about the hardliner demon kings.

Sure enough, John Blake brought out words related to them. “Damanos and Galiya have summoned all the nobles under their control. It is probably because of the nobles who died not long ago.”

“Do you know what was said?”

“What do you think was said? It was said that the humans in Etono must be eliminated immediately.” John Blake told Hyeonu the news he had heard.

“I don’t know if I should like... or hate it.” Hyeonu made an expression that was hard to read. John Blake’s words were just that—neither good nor bad.

“How can it be good? The nobles will flock to Etono.”

“It is great that the enemies we need to deal with are coming to us. I just don’t like it because I don’t know how many there are.” Hyeonu hadn’t thought about what Etono was going to do.

Lebron and the emperor were currently in Etono. Hyeonu thought that as long as those two people were present, there would be no problem even if Baler came. In the worst-case scenario, they could at least put up a resistance even if they didn’t win.

“Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of them first? The fewer risks, the better,” John Blake said.

“Yes, that’s right. It is best to be as safe as possible,” Hyeonu agreed. It was better to be as careful as possible regarding anything that could cause problems for Etono. Then Hyeonu asked, “In that case, are there any cities with nobles of the hardliner faction around? I will try to take care of as many as possible before returning to Etono.”

After hearing that, John Blake threw over a scroll of white paper of unknown origin. “This is a map of the demon world that I received from Baler. It was said to be made in the past. The masters of the cities have changed, but it is due to conflict within the same force. I hope you will be careful. If you have any problems, come here no matter what. I will take responsibility for the rest.” John Blake expressed a lot of concern for Hyeonu.

They had spent very little time together, and their number of meetings was less than 10. However, Hyeonu was the disciple of his disciple. For John Blake, Hyeonu was like a grandson to him, so it was natural for him to be worried.

‘I can move without any burdens,’ Hyeonu thought. Regardless of whether he knew about John Blake’s feelings, Hyeonu liked having reliable back-up.

John Blake was a demon king. In other words, there were only six strong existences in the demon world that were comparable with him.

‘I’ll run away if I have to.’

This made Hyeonu feel like he could fight with a relaxed heart. Hyeonu bowed to John Blake. “Thank you, John Blake.”

John Blake took Hyeonu’s hand and said, “Why thank me for something I should do naturally? No matter who you meet, remember one thing—you are a Knight of Keon, and I am a Knight of Keon. There is no defeat for the Knights of Keon.” 

***

Hyeonu exited the castle where John Blake lived and unfurled the map. The scroll map was much larger than it seemed. Something popped up as he opened it. When he finally unfurled the map completely, it appeared in front of Hyeonu like a hologram.

‘Is my position here?’

There were dots with seven colors like that of a rainbow shining on the map. The top right corner of the map also had seven colored dots with names written beside them. Among them, the name ‘Rubolle’ was next to the purple dot.

‘Purple is Rubolle...’

Hyeonu found the purple dots on the map. The map was large, but there were only 72 dots. Finding the purple dots wasn’t very difficult.

‘Here is Blanc.’ Blanc was the largest among the purple dots. Beside Blanc, there was a small name that said ‘Demon King Rubolle’.

‘The nearest city...’

There were four cities around Blanc, one each in the east, west, north, and south directions. The city in the south was purple like Blanc. All the other cities were red dots. The owner of the red dot was Damanos, the demon king of iron and blood. Damanos was the demon king who originally had control of Etono, Hyeonu’s city.

‘I’m a bit sorry about this...’

Coincidentally, all the cities around Blanc belonged to Damanos’ forces. There was no coincidence. No, by this point, it was an ill-fated relationship—for Damanos, of course.

‘I will start from the strongest.’

Hyeonu planned to visit the city with the strongest noble from among the three cities. He had to hit first when they were off guard. This way, things would become more convenient in the future. Once they started to become alert, killing them would be several times more difficult. 

The red dot to the west of Blanc read ‘Viscount Krashen’. ‘Viscount Barede’ was written in the east, and ‘Viscount Delrun’ was in the north. The masters of all three cities were viscounts. Of course, even if they were all viscounts, there was obviously a difference in strength. It was just impossible to know who was strong and who was weak from this map alone.

‘How can these three be the same?’

Hyeonu smacked his lips together. He hadn’t expected this. They were all viscounts. Hyeonu was in a position where he had to choose a city to visit just based on this.

‘It is annoying to go back and ask...’

Of course, it was clear that he would get the most accurate information from asking John Blake, but he didn’t want to do that. The masters of all three cities were viscounts, so their strength would basically be the same anyway.

‘This guy is needed at a time like this.’

“Tang-E, come out,” Hyeonu summoned Tang-E. It seemed better to let Tang-E choose than to pick on his own. Hyeonu knew better than anyone else that he wasn’t very lucky when it came to these types of things.

“Why did you call me, Master dude?” Tang-E appeared on the ground. There was greasy oil around his mouth, so he must’ve just been eating meat.

“I called you to ask you something.”

“Ask? Me? Ahem, come on. Please ask, Master dude. Tang-E will answer whatever it is.” Tang-E put his hands behind his back and puffed up his chest, showing off a prideful appearance.

“Krashen, Delrun, and Barede—who is the strongest?” Hyeonu asked.

Hearing that, Tang-E looked distressed for a moment. Then he opened his mouth with his usual arrogant expression and said, “Delrun. Delrun seems the strongest. I think he is the best of the three.”

It was an unfounded answer, but Hyeonu listened to Tang-E’s words. In any case, it would be a groundless speculation regardless of whether he or Tang-E picked.

“Then let’s go, Tang-E. Let’s kill Delrun.”