Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Goat King
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(69) Goat King
While tracking Ruby and the Tyrant, Jade had worried that he might run into the Goat King before Ruby.
But he had Saph, who could read the demon's name, and the magic to dispel it matching that name.
He figured he could exploit any moment of carelessness from the foe.
But it was a huge mistake.
'Am I the one who let my guard down instead?'
The Goat King raised his axe.
It was quite a distance away, yet it looked close enough to reach with a swing.
Jade flinched at every single gesture from the demon.
But the Goat King had merely rested the axe on his shoulder.
"Jade, was it?"
The Goat King glanced up at the night sky for a moment
before continuing.
"Judging by your use of the Light of Dispel, you must be some kind of demon hunter."
The Goat King's low voice rumbled through the ground before crashing over Jade.
"It's about time for pests like you to show up."
As the Goat King stepped forward, his guard beasts parted like waves to the side.
It was as if the entire dwelling were shifting.
Even the Tyrant, who had seemed so massive, looked like a pony by comparison.
Even so, Jade showed no fear on the surface.
If that was his only strength, then it was a strength.
"In the ancient southern kingdom, there was a religion that worshipped goats,
where priests in goat masks offered human sacrifices.
And Rotikan designated goat-horned figures as demons to turn that ancient faith
into a denomination.
But seeing you, you really do look like the devil incarnate in goat form."
"Thanks."
"Speak, goat!"
Jade deliberately used the word 'goat' instead of the authoritative names Goat King or Goatran.
That way, he could ease not just his own fear, but that of the three behind him as well.
"Where are the kidnapped children?"
"In a place you'll never know."
The Goat King halted at a subtle distance
in reply. It was about five steps from where the pig had evaporated,
too far for Jade to approach easily, but close enough for the demon's axe blade to reach.
'I shouldn't have shown him the Light of Dispel.'
Jade regretted it.
"Go-Goatran!"
Barshu spoke up from behind.
His voice trembled, but he delivered the necessary words precisely.
"If you return the children, we'll meet your demands."
The Goat King looked past Jade at Barshu.
Then he turned to Hur beside him.
The two trembled just from meeting the Goat King's gaze.
The Goat King snorted derisively and asked,
"Will you serve me as King of the Plains and stand at the vanguard of my kingdom?"
"If the children are returned safely, yes. Wasn't that what you wanted?"
Jade stayed out of it and just listened.
After a long silence, the Goat King finally spoke.
"It was."
"It was?"
Jade furrowed his brow and pressed on.
"You're speaking in the past tense, huh?"
"There are more children in Gran, and more armies too. All gathered conveniently in one place, easy to catch."
At the Goat King's words, Hur asked in the Kun tongue, flustered.
Saph quietly translated beside him.
"He's asking what you plan to do with the children."
The Goat King, as if mindful of Jade, replied in the Rom tongue.
"I weighed which side brings more profit. Eating humans makes me smarter.
But at some point, it stopped working. There was a limit.
Children, though—eating them keeps making me smarter.
No, that's a bit off in phrasing. Better to say it clears my mind and improves my mood."
The Goat King's voice shook the earth, the air, and drove the two Kun hunters into despair.
The Goat King's shadow, bearing the moonlight, dyed the surroundings in darkness.
The air grew thick and heavy, and the Goat King's breath heated Jade's face from afar.
"I'll devour one child a day as I march on Gran. What I need is a legion of ten thousand,
not a handful of hunters from your tribe.
To make Gran's army mine, I need Gran's children."
The Goat King extended the hand opposite the one bearing his axe,
pointing at Barshu with a clawed index finger.
"First, I'll devour you lot.
That way, your children get one more day to live.
What a beautiful sacrifice that would be."
Barshu drew his sword, but the Goat King didn't move, axe still on his shoulder.
Instead, the goats behind him raised their horns in unison, ready to charge,
while the encircling beasts prepared to attack.
"Saph, this thing has a name, right?"
Jade asked quietly.
Saph answered without hesitation.
"Ramatus."
Jade called out loudly.
"One question, Ramatus!"
The Goat King widened his eyes and glared at Jade.
"How long have you had this army?"
"How do you know my name?"
"A pointless question. I already know the answer. Three years, right?
Next question. Who is your master?"
Jade pressed on regardless.
Murderous intent crept into the Goat King's relaxed expression.
"My master is me."
"Ramatus, a lowly demon like you can't be masterless. Speak. Who is your master?"
"This bastard! I was going to let him live long enough to ask a few questions,
but he wants to die first, does he?"
The Goat King took two steps forward.
Now it was within axe-swinging range from his shoulder.
Still, Jade didn't retreat.
He even stepped forward to put distance between himself and Saph.
"Where is the hellgate you crawled out of, Ramatus?"
The Goat King raised the axe with both hands.
"You'll find out when you go to hell."
Jade looked up at the axe blade's tip, thrust straight toward the night sky.
The blade targeted his head, and beyond it, the stars twinkled in the clear night sky.
At the same time, he saw something dark arcing through the air.
It was a massive black-furred horse—the Tyrant.
Thud!
The Tyrant impaled itself on the Goat King's pointed horn.
"Urk!"
The Goat King lost his balance and staggered forward.
Dark blood, visible even in the gloom, gushed out, flowing down the horn and soaking the goat's face.
The Goat King's frame was so enormous that even a horse dangling from his horn only made him wobble, not fall.
"Wh-what is this?!"
The Goat King yanked the Tyrant off his horn and slammed it to the ground.
The fallen horse writhed in agony, spilling its guts from its belly.
"Je-Jewel... it's me..., the Tyrant."
The Goat King glanced at Jade and Saph,
then up at the night sky,
down at the Tyrant again, and asked,
"You..., where the hell did you fly in from?"
"Th-that's..."
The Tyrant mumbled, unable to answer.
"I threw it."
Clank, clank—the sound of chains rang out as pale chains gleaming in the twilight and glowing red eyes approached from the gloom.
It was Ruby.
He leaped from afar,
landing in the midst of the beasts encircling the group.
Then he hopped across their backs like stepping stones.
The beasts he stepped on let out bizarre cries and thudded to the ground.
The final sheep had its head smashed into the dirt.
Ruby spun several times in midair before landing between the Goat King and Jade.
Ruby dusted off his hands and asked Ramatus,
"Are you that goat worse than the pollenless flower's stamens eaten by flower bugs,
worse even than the flower rice scattered from it?"
Three minutes earlier.
Ruby had led all the children out from the underground ruins.
The children let out small cheers upon emerging from the darkness.
"Quiet. No noise yet."
Ruby restrained the excited children. Jade's voice echoed from not far away—beyond the hill.
Ruby went to the hill's edge to check the situation.
There stood a goat of enormous size on two legs.
"Oh ho, that has to be the Goat King at a glance. Right?"
"Indeed. That is the King of the Kuman Plains, Goatran."
The Tyrant continued in a weary voice.
"I've kept my promise. Now let me go,
and proceed with the negotiations."
The Tyrant panted, awaiting Ruby's reply, when a boy piped up.
"That horse ate my mom."
Another girl tattled.
"That horse ate my uncle. It took me hostage then too.
Uncle was our village's best hunter, but it lied, saying it'd let us both live if he came unarmed.
When Uncle really showed up without weapons, it ate him anyway."
The girl sniffled, recalling the event.
"Don't keep promises with it. It doesn't either!"
The children erupted, spilling the Tyrant's crimes all at once.
The Tyrant panicked and shouted.
"Lies! These kids are lying. Warrior to warrior! Man to man, let's talk."
The Tyrant showed unprecedented desperation.
"Send me to the Goat King. Then we fight fair and square.
A great warrior like you values an honorable fight above all else, right?
You wouldn't kill a bound man like this without a proper duel, like some coward?"
Ruby listened to the Tyrant's excuses while also hearing the children chattering all at once.
He could even hear Jade arguing with the Goat King from afar.
"Great warrior?"
Ruby turned to the Tyrant and said,
"Yes. If you're a warrior, keep your promise."
"You called me a slave earlier."
"That's..."
"Fine, fine. A promise is a promise."
When Ruby unbound the chains, the children despaired.
The Tyrant rose slowly and said in a solemn voice,
"Then I'll go first and present the negotiation terms to His Majesty... Ung?"
Ruby grabbed the Tyrant's neck.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
"You said you'd keep the promise. I'm sending you to your Jewel."
"Then why gra—?"
Before the Tyrant could finish, Ruby signaled the children and said,
"Kids, get down."
The children flattened themselves to the ground in unison.
"Wh-what are you planning?!"
The Tyrant freaked out.
Ruby gripped the Tyrant's scruff with one hand and its muzzle with the other,
spun it once in place. The Tyrant's body lifted into the air in an instant.
Ruby whirled twice more and hurled the Tyrant away.
The Tyrant arced through the air and speared straight onto the Goat King's horn.
"See? Even to enemies, a promise is a promise."
Ruby turned to the delighted children and said,
"Stay put here. I'll bring your dads."
"You're leaving us here?"
Barshu's daughter asked.
"Be right back."
"How quick?"
"Count to a million in your head."
"I can only count to fifty."
Barshu's daughter said.
"Then count to fifty twice."
Ruby told her and dashed toward the Goat King.
The Goat King looked down at the Tyrant spilling guts from its torn belly,
then shifted his gaze to Ruby.
"What did you just say, little one? Something about flowers?"
"Don't mind it. Just your average insult."
Ruby snickered and glanced at Jade.
Jade looked thoroughly pissed.
"Huh? I thought I'd get praise? Why are you mad?"
"You know you made this situation harder?"
Jade snapped.
"Tch, picky bastard. What common sense rule did I break this time?"
At that moment, the Goat King swung his axe down.
The blade fell straight for Ruby's head.
"To dare turn your back on me for even a moment..."
The Goat King envisioned the human corpse split in two as he swung.
But the axe blade shattered.
Ruby had blocked it by clasping his left and right manacles together.
The immense weight sank one of Ruby's feet into the ground,
but neither the manacles nor his knees buckled.
"Most who face me follow the same pattern: initial dismissal, then ambush, soon surprise, final death."
The Goat King staggered back, holding the broken axe, face stunned.
Ruby threw his chains, wrapping them around the goat's horns.
Then he leaped backward, yanking the Goat King along.
The Goat King yelled,
"You think these puny silk threads can subdue me?!"
The Goat King pulled at the chains with both hands.
But they didn't budge.
Ruby burst out laughing.
"How is it? My silk threads are pretty tough, huh?"
Ruby yanked the chains, forcing the Goat King flat to the ground on all fours.
"What are you lot doing?! Attack! All of you!"
The Goat King's voice boomed through the quiet night air.
Some of the waiting beasts charged at Ruby,
others at Jade and Saph.
Ruby bellowed even louder.
"Hey, Jade! Save the nagging for later—I'm fighting now!
You know the combat protocol, right?"
Saph was already flat on the ground,
and Jade followed suit, shouting to Hur and Barshu,
"Get down!"