I Became the Count of the Borderlands
"Joren Tamer, I appoint you Count of the Borderlands."
The crowd rippled with confusion.
"What is a Count of the Borderlands?"
"Did Her Majesty mean a Count of the Frontier?"
The monarch’s expression darkened.
"Silence!"
The vast throne room fell quiet at once.
The high court, so imposing a moment ago, now forced every sudden petitioner to bow low before it.
For a fierce light had kindled in the young queen’s eyes.
"Joren Tamer. Are you deaf?"
"Y-Yes... No, Your Majesty."
"Then why do you not answer properly?"
The knight’s pupils quivered.
What an insolent man.
The queen’s clear eyes held a calm, simmering anger.
How dare he refuse my offer?
Joren Tamer had been knighted at twenty and had steadily built merit in battle, even earning distinction not long ago for helping to put down ogres and rising to the rank of Upper Knight.
When she had met him before the campaign, he had seemed rather promising. Young, yet not arrogant; handsome, with a disciplined bearing.
She had meant to reward his service and presence by naming him captain of the royal guard.
Not only did he refuse my offer, he’s suddenly acting like a lunatic. What is he plotting?
Uh, hey, system window? What am I supposed to do here?!
Then, as if a different person had taken over his body, he had begun spewing bizarre nonsense no one could understand.
V-Very respectfully, please take back that order. No, I mean, please withdraw it.
The dignified manner in which he had once spoken had collapsed into absurd, flustered antics. He looked nothing like the man she had met before. He truly seemed possessed.
Is he pretending to be simple-minded on purpose? If so, why? Does he not want to stay by my side?
The moment the queen’s gaze fell on him, Joren jerked as if her eyes were flames.
He barely restrained the urge to kick him outright and slap him senseless, and Queen Daisy asked again, "Will you refuse my will again?"
Joren shook his head in a panic.
"N-No, Your Majesty. It is a true honor that you would bestow such an outrageous... no, such an august title upon me. But... what is a Count of the Borderlands?"
"How did you just address me?"
"Pardon? Your Majesty...?"
"I was a princess more than ten years ago."
Queen Daisy’s brow twitched.
"To call the King of Kain 'Your Majesty' as well, are you saying you refuse to acknowledge me as queen?"
At this rate, she might as well send for an executioner instead of a title.
Joren dropped even lower.
"N-No, that is not what I meant, Your Majesty. I merely... for a brief moment, I was so overwhelmed by your boundless grace that I seem to have lost my senses."
Daisy wanted to step on his head. To humiliate her like this before her retainers.
"Unfurl the map."
The court mage, who had been standing rigidly at attention, summoned a map into the air.
"Count of the Borderlands. Your assigned domain is here."
Daisy drew her sword. The tip pointed to the far west, the extreme edge of the kingdom.
The hall stirred again.
"...Auphocalypse City?"
"Isn’t that just a city on the map? A place with no market and no citizens?"
"I’ve heard there are more monsters there than people."
The queen slammed her sword down.
"Silence!"
Only the sound of swallowed breaths remained in the hall.
"There is no longer any Auphocalypse City. From this moment forth, it shall be named the Tamer Domain."
Slowly lifting his head, Joren stared at the map. His territory was surrounded by rugged mountains, marshes, and drawings of all manner of monsters.
"Your Majesty. As deputy minister of internal affairs, I humbly inquire: what exactly is a Count of the Borderlands? I have never encountered such a title, in any age..."
At the cautious question of a stepping-forward minister, the queen answered with perfect ease, "That is because I just created it."
"...Pardon?"
"It is the sovereign’s duty to grant titles. Do you have some complaint about that?"
"N-Not at all, of course not. I only..."
"Then if you do not, get out of the way. No, step back."
She dismissed the interruption and continued.
"A frontier is the boundary of a nation. If the Tamer Domain touched another country’s border, it would naturally become a Marcher County."
The lord of a march was one whose fief adjoined a foreign realm. Its location made it seem dangerous, since it required constant readiness for invasion, but precisely because of that, it was a post vested with enormous military, judicial, and administrative authority.
"However, the Tamer Domain is the end of our border, yet it does not actually touch another nation. Therefore, I see fit to make it a Count of the Borderlands rather than a Marcher County. Your treatment shall be equivalent to that of a count, and matters such as taxation shall be settled after you take up your post."
As Joren’s vision blurred, Her Majesty’s bright smile came into view.
"Congratulations. You are now the first and only Count of the Borderlands in the history of the continent. Protect my precious people well."
Joren struggled to his feet, his knees trembling.
"I-I am unworthy of such grace."
It was time to strike his shoulder lightly with the flat of the sword to seal the oath.
"Agh!"
The blow, powered by the inhuman strength passed down through the royal line, landed squarely on his crown.
* * *
"Shit... shit! Shiit!"
The newly appointed Count of the Borderlands staggered out of the palace with a lump on his head.
By the history of the game, Joren Tamer should have become a trusted captain of the royal guard.
But after that, he would be caught in some incident or another and die. A tragic character.
"Why Joren of all people! Why shove me into some game character instead of leaving me with my own perfectly decent name!"
His howl rang out vividly.
"Why is the captain acting like that?"
"Beats me. Ever since he was resurrected, he keeps saying strange things. Was there some problem with the resurrection ritual?"
To his subordinates, all they could do was conclude that he had suddenly gone strange.
The soldiers’ whispers made Joren feel even more wretched.
"Damn it... what the hell is a Count of the Borderlands supposed to be?"
If a Marcher County was a luxury handbag, a Count of the Borderlands was a tote bag.
"What do you mean, a domain? More monsters than residents? I struggled to avoid a death sentence, and they hit me with something even worse!"
He had tried to remove one lump, only to end up with a bigger one.
"Aaaaaah!"
The bright sky looked less blue than sickly.
As he replayed the day in his mind, the reason became painfully clear.
He should never have accepted that quest.
* * *
"Haaaah~"
The family’s breadwinner, Ho-yeong, cared for his younger siblings morning and night and worked at a logistics center by day.
As always, he planned to make up his lack of sleep on the commuter bus.
Ever since his parents died three years ago, this had been his routine. He didn’t especially hate it. He had never resented anyone for it, either.
The kids got into school all right, didn’t they.
If anything, the life suited him. So long as his siblings grew up healthy, that was enough.
He didn’t have some grand dream he had failed to realize. Sleeping each night with a good dream was sufficient. He might not own a fancy gleaming car, but he wasn’t living hand to mouth on debt, either.
If he had to name a regret, it was only that his younger siblings had matured too early. Knowing how tight the household finances were, they never threw the kind of petty tantrums children their age usually did. Ho-yeong wanted to do a little more for them, anything at all.
"It’s already noon. Time really flies."
As usual, he loaded up a generous portion at the cafeteria.
"But why kimchi stew, seriously? That’s just unfair."
He kept track of his siblings’ meal plans, but never looked at his own.
After eating, he went straight to the break room and pulled out his phone. There was still one major task left on the schedule.
The defense game Reign of Dice.
"Work-blah, work-blah, worklululu."
It was nearly his only pleasure.
"Let’s see... anyone bought items? Oh, there are a few."
And it was his useful side hustle.
"Time to wreck today’s daily quest. Who should I use as my hero?"
The hero he chose was the shaman Badha.
She could use the useful, unique skill Conversion.
"Why bother recruiting troops? Just seduce the enemy instead."
Turning enemy units into allies. Because the gauge cost rose in proportion to the enemy’s level, weak monsters could be converted quickly, while stronger monsters required a long charge-up.
"Classic weakling move. Gobbling up trash mobs with Conversion."
Ho-yeong’s strategy was to save skill gauge whenever possible. In the early game, he held out with careful troop placement and towers.
"Oh, an ogre."
An especially strong mid-boss appeared.
Just as the ogre began casting Earth Slam, Ho-yeong timed his move.
"You. Become my soldier!"
Perfect timing. The ogre was converted.
Its Earth Slam triggered anyway, wiping out the surrounding trash mobs in one sweep.
"Nice, you’re doing great, you big idiot."
With the gold he had saved, he upgraded the front-line towers all at once.
Each time a new wave emerged, the ogre stood firm at the front and held them back.
"Now I just need a few more troll shamans."
He converted the troll shamans, who had healing abilities, with only a small expenditure of gauge.
"There, now the ogre won’t die. It’s basically a living tower. Man, I think A-young’s weird way of talking is rubbing off on me. Tsk."
Thanks to the constant healing that kept the ogre alive, he cleared the stage easily.
"I won with 3,500 KP left over. Nice and juicy."
When a stage was cleared, the remaining KP was converted into the game’s currency, Light Stones. He had been about to use those to buy item enhancement materials.
Season-limited quest! Auphocalypse Domain Defense has been unlocked!
He blinked at the unfamiliar notice.
"What? A seasonal quest? But Auphocalypse was a city, not a domain."
He wondered if the settings had abruptly changed, and then read the explanation page.
"Wh-What is this? Is this real?"
He sprang up from the sofa.
"If I clear this quest... I can receive the accumulated points as cash at the end?!"
The player who clears this quest can convert the accumulated KP (Kill Point score) into cash at the end of the quest. Exchange rate: 10,000 won per point.
In addition, this quest grants a special reward of five Mythic Items!
"10,000 won per point? And it’s not based on the points you finish with, but on accumulated points earned? That’s insane! And Mythic Items? Five of them?"
The highest-grade items in the game. If he sold them to the Item Gamble, he could make a fortune.
It was an event too tempting to ignore. But through years of experience, Ho-yeong knew something else: every tempting thing always came with a lump attached.
"Unless this game company’s gone crazy, there’s no way they’re handing out money for free. There’s a trap condition somewhere. If I don’t read the details, I’ll be the sucker."
Even though he was a high school graduate and kept his distance from books other than web novels, Ho-yeong always checked contracts carefully.
Important Notice
- This quest applies Hardcore Mode. If you lose, you will not be granted a second chance.
- Any taxes and levies on the converted cash must be borne by the recipient.
- This quest may be entered only with one account per person. If fraud is committed through proxy accounts, hacking, or unauthorized programs, all rewards will be confiscated. Guardians who discover such cheating are encouraged to report it actively. A modest reward will be provided.
"Huh? That’s it?"
The conditions were surprisingly reasonable. Of course, the Hardcore Mode part, where death meant the end, was troubling, but given the reward, he could accept that.
He read the detailed notice until the screen almost burned into his eyes, but he couldn’t find anything that looked like a trap.
"Then this is completely broken, isn’t it? Is this some event to attract new users? The buzz alone is going to be insane."
When he checked the game community Reoda Gallery, sure enough, it was already plastered with talk about the special quest.
"It's loud in here. The site’s going to crash. Still, this kind of event is exactly what they should do. If I can’t get rich, at least I can try. Wait. What’s this? Emergency notice?"
Just before he pressed the participation button, a new announcement appeared.
"Additional penalty. If the player fails to clear the quest, all account information and data will be deleted. Any bound items will lose ownership restrictions and be put up for auction?"
As he read it aloud, Ho-yeong’s face twisted.
"Damn it, dandelion fluff germination! I knew it. Tch. I thought it was too tempting."
There was no way he would welcome losing the account he had built up so carefully.
Ho-yeong fell into serious internal conflict.
Do I do it? Or not? Do I? Or not?
Even if he sold every item he had, would he even make five million won? The annoyance of losing those things seemed far smaller than the thrill he would feel if he cleared the quest.
More than one billion won...
For the past three years, he had never let his siblings go hungry, but he had also never taken them out to eat someplace nice where they could relax without worrying.
With that kind of money, I could give the kids everything they want, everything they need, everything they crave. I could send them to a BTX concert, pay for cram school, buy the little one those TiNiPang and AjuPang dolls. No, I could cover all of their college tuition, too.
Ho-yeong made up his mind and pressed the participation button.
You have joined the season-limited quest Auphocalypse Domain Defense.
Something felt off. He had definitely turned the media volume off, so why was he hearing a notification voice?
Emergency Patch: Ultra-Hardcore Mode has been applied. If you fail to clear the quest, not only will all your game data vanish, but it will also lead to your death.
The screen had already changed from the game interface to a landscape he had never seen before.
A harsh wasteland with not a single blade of grass. A naked mountain range with no sign of roots, let alone trees.
You cannot give up or pause,
Beyond it, a colossal black dragon appeared.
You also cannot leave the game until the quest is finished.
It spewed black fire.
"N-No... aaaaaah!"
The black flames that reached beyond the screen swallowed him whole.
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