Chapter 4
Chapter 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Family
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Kang Geohan! I like you. Stand before me.”
The baron called out to Kang Geohan in a pleased tone.
He had stubbornly insisted that Kang Geohan lift the stone of demonic essence, and that stubbornness had paid off. It was a satisfying moment for a noble.
As Kang Geohan stood before the baron, the steward approached and briefly taught him the necessary etiquette.
Kang Geohan knelt on one knee, just as the steward had instructed.
The baron spoke.
“Examiner. Let us begin immediately.”
“Yes. In the name of the Linekar Kingdom, I shall serve as witness.”
The baron nodded, drew his sword, and laid the flat of the blade against Kang Geohan’s nape.
“In the name of Linekar’s great guardian, fearless pioneer, and just ruler, His Majesty King Hannon Serophit Linekar, I, Baron Rocos Burjoji, ask you this: Will Burjoji’s serf Kang Geohan always remember this cold blade at his neck and swear to dedicate his life as a sword for the kingdom’s protection and expansion?”
Kang Geohan honestly didn’t want to give his life, but there was no way he could say no here. He simply gave the response the steward had taught him in advance.
“Yes. I swear it.”
With a solemn expression, the baron lifted the blade from his neck and plunged it point-down into the ground right in front of Kang Geohan’s knee.
“I dub Kang Geohan a knight of the Linekar Kingdom. The knightly surname bestowed upon you is Yellow. Kang Geohan Yellow. Always remember your oath and serve the kingdom with gunpowder-like bravery and steam engine-like passion.”
“I engrave this honor upon my heart and swear it.”
“Congratulations.”
The baron smiled as he retrieved the sword from the ground.
Kang Geohan grasped the baron’s offered hand in a friendly manner and rose to his feet, his mind in a daze.
He had known that becoming a trainee knight came with a knighthood, but he hadn’t expected to become a full knight so immediately.
‘That’s how important riders are. They grant a knighthood just for becoming a trainee.’
Thanks to that, Kang Geohan found himself swept up in a strange mood.
Before kneeling, he had been treated like a mere tool as a serf, but now that he had stood up straight, he was a knight.
The boys and girls he accidentally made eye contact with hurriedly bowed their heads.
This was a society of absolute class hierarchy. Even those who had mocked and scorned Kang Geohan until moments ago couldn’t dare meet his eyes now.
‘It’s... so easy.’
Everything had changed in an instant.
Kang Geohan as a child. The bullying from people that had made his already unhappy boyhood even more miserable crumbled so futilely before his steadfast will.
Even the lightly blowing breeze felt entirely different from before.
The baron asked Kang Geohan,
“Kang Geohan Yellow? Tell me which squire you wish to take. You may choose two squires.”
A knight’s squire. It was a status bound to a knight, but far better off than a serf.
‘Squire?’
‘He’s choosing squires.’
‘Maybe...?’
The boys and girls who had been bowing their heads slowly lifted them and began murmuring.
For boys and girls who had spent their lives shuttling between factories and 12-person dormitories, becoming a knight’s squire and seeing the wide world was sweet even in imagination.
But Kang Geohan already had someone in mind. In fact, there was no one else.
“I’ll take Squad Leader Davis from Group 9.”
“Good. And the other one?”
The murmuring grew a bit louder.
‘He tore off a piece of bread for me once...!’
‘He smiled at me last time.’
‘Doesn’t he like me?’
But Kang Geohan shook his head.
“There’s no one else I particularly want to take. If it’s alright, I’d like to fill the remaining spot later on my own.”
“Taking just one... Well, that’s fine by me. Do as you wish.”
A chorus of “Ah...” rose, and the disappointed boys and girls dropped their heads.
It was ridiculous.
Kang Geohan clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘They really thought I might pick them? Unbelievable.’
In this territory, Kang Geohan had only one ally.
Squad Leader Davis.
“M-Me...? A squire? To a kid who’s a knight now?”
Even after Kang Geohan had grown taller than him, Davis still called him a kid.
He seemed unable to believe the situation, his face dazed, but when his eyes met Kang Geohan’s grinning ones, he involuntarily bowed his head.
The baron looked around at everyone and said,
“Alright! Good work, all of you. I grant you a day’s rest. Go inside and relax. Sir Kang Geohan Yellow, I’ll have a room prepared for you, so rest well today.”
Kang Geohan took the at-ease position as the steward had taught him and replied,
“Thank you, my lord.”
His willpower was already hitting rock bottom. Kang Geohan was starting to find it hard even to stand.
He was escorted to the room the baron had prepared and collapsed onto the bed without undressing, falling asleep as if fainting.
* * *
[Ding! Due to the influence of the stone of demonic essence, demonic essence settles into your body.]
Kang Geohan woke to a voice that was unfamiliar—no, familiar.
He bolted upright, folded the blanket, and opened the window.
The dry summer breeze, warmed by the sunlight, entered the room, lifting his spirits. In that state, he did a simple morning exercise routine.
Folding the blanket, opening the window, morning exercises. Making these small things a daily routine.
That was one of the secrets to overcoming depression and strengthening his will.
After finishing his morning routine, Kang Geohan thought about the voice that had woken him. It was only natural.
‘If what I saw wasn’t a hallucination, then the sound I heard wasn’t one either. It was speaking to me in Korean like this.’
The more he thought about it, the more amazing the ability seemed.
Thanks to it, he could receive information he didn’t know but desperately needed.
‘Demonic essence settling into my body?’
But what did that mean?
Kang Geohan checked his InBody screen.
[Kang Geohan]
Height: 176cm
Weight: 55kg
Willpower: 5.2(+4.8)/18
Strength: 6.1/7
Mana: 0.1/0.1
Fat Mass: 6.21kg
Muscle Mass (Skeletal Muscle Mass): 19.98kg
Demonic Essence: 1 pindem
Willpower varied day by day.
Today, the Puria Grass wasn’t working as well, providing only 4.8 points of boosted willpower.
Next, his pitiful weight and muscle mass caught his eye.
Among them, what made him frown was,
‘My muscle mass decreased even more?’
Compared to right before the trainee test yesterday, his muscle mass had dropped by about 5g. A big enough difference to change the first digit from 20 to 19.
Losing even the little muscle he had—it was enough to harden his expression.
But right now, something else bothered him more.
‘Demonic essence and mana. These two new stats have appeared.’
1 pindem of demonic essence.
And 0.1 mana.
He didn’t know about demonic essence, but he had heard of mana.
‘The energy that allows knights and mages to exert superhuman strength is mana. It’s appeared? Along with demonic essence?’
At that moment, Kang Geohan inferred one fact.
‘Ah, I get it! Mana comes from demonic essence. That’s why they had me lift the stone of demonic essence!’
It was simple logic. Just as lifting weights builds muscle and increases strength, lifting the stone of demonic essence builds demonic essence and strengthens mana.
‘Lifting the stone of demonic essence wasn’t just a test! That’s the way to train mana!’
It was common knowledge to freemen, but to Kang Geohan, an ignorant serf, it was a massive revelation.
A completely new concept to him, who had thought that lifting something to grow only applied to muscles.
‘Lifting the stone of demonic essence to build mana.’
The stone of demonic essence.
Suddenly, saliva gathered in his mouth. The thrill it gave was incomparable to the muscle stimulation from weights. Excruciatingly painful, but just as addictive.
What if demonic essence was even greater than muscle?
“Demonic essence. Demonic essence.”
Was it because demonic essence had formed? Kang Geohan felt lighter on his feet as he paced the room.
The room wasn’t his old 12-person dormitory. It was a large, clean space comparable to a comfortable 21st-century hotel room.
Being in the noble’s castle, it even had a full-length mirror he had never seen in this life, placed in one corner.
Lost in thought as he paced, Kang Geohan naturally approached the full-length mirror and casually took off his top.
As he carefully examined his body, Kang Geohan’s expression hardened.
“What... is this?”
With a serious face, Kang Geohan touched his body.
“How...?”
He felt his shoulders, his abs.
They were there.
Muscles were there.
Pathetic and meager, but unmistakably muscle-like shapes clung to his body.
But that made no sense.
“No way. My muscle mass clearly decreased from yesterday, but the definition and size look better? Visibly better?”
Yesterday he was a skeleton, today still a skeleton—but today’s was a skeleton with muscle.
He couldn’t understand it.
“In just one night?”
Even jacking up on steroids couldn’t achieve this.
His muscle mass had objectively decreased?
“No way...”
There was only one factor that could explain this absurd situation.
With a dazed expression, Kang Geohan muttered,
“Could it be... the effect of demonic essence?”
If this was truly the change brought by a mere 1 pindem of demonic essence...
Thump.
Kang Geohan’s heart began to race with anticipation.
* * *
Davis couldn’t sleep a wink, half thrilled and half worried by the sudden changes in his life.
Having stayed up almost all night, he packed as the baron’s steward had instructed yesterday and headed to Kang Geohan’s lodgings early in the morning.
Pacing anxiously,
Dong- dong-
At the stroke of nine o’clock, he knocked on Kang Geohan’s door and called out.
“Sir Kang Geohan Yellow! Time to move!”
After knocking, Davis trembled with tension.
His fate had changed overnight.
‘It’s weird. From the baron’s serf to Sir Kang Geohan’s squire...’
His heart pounded.
The boy he had raised his whole life suddenly felt unfamiliar.
He vaguely feared how his life—and his relationship with Kang Geohan—would unfold from here.
That tense time passed,
And finally, the door opened.
Kang Geohan emerged, impeccably dressed in his knight’s uniform.
Davis was slightly surprised.
‘They say position makes the man—this must be it?’
The scrawny, unimpressive Kang Geohan looked somehow sturdier overnight.
Still skinny as an anchovy, but today he was a plump, good-looking anchovy.
Davis quickly bowed his head.
“Has the knight arrived?”
Kang Geohan waved it off.
“Don’t use formal speech. It makes me feel distant...”
To Kang Geohan, Davis wasn’t just his late father’s friend—he was the only adult who had cared for him in place of his parents.
Whether thinking of his life in the Laniakea or on Earth, being spoken to formally by Davis felt awkward.
But Davis looked troubled.
“B-But how can this lowly one speak to you so...”
“Uncle. We’re family.”
At those words, Davis froze mid-bow. As he raised his head, his eyes reddened slightly.
‘Family.’ They had never called each other that before. But... hearing it, Davis’s throat tightened.
Family.
Overwhelmed, Davis forgot his station and nodded repeatedly.
“Yeah. Family. Yeah... Thank you.”
“What for?”
“I was too shocked yesterday to say it... Thank you for making me your squire...”
“Don’t say squire either. I had no choice if I wanted to leave with you. You’re just Uncle.”
“Yeah... Thank you.”
Davis’s eyes reddened further. A sob caught in his throat.
From Burjoji Baron’s serf to Kang Geohan Yellow’s squire. No, family.
Only then could Davis shed his worries and fears and fully accept this change as a true blessing. But Davis didn’t bask in the emotion for long.
He wiped his eyes and said to Kang Geohan,
“Then let’s go. The escort knight must be waiting.”
Davis wasn’t the type to slack off just because he’d dropped formal speech.
A lifetime as the baron’s serf, rising to squad leader—he was someone who carried out his duties precisely and responsibly.
He even shouldered all of Kang Geohan’s luggage and took the lead.
“I can carry some...”
“No. You knights do knight things now, and I’ll do mine. Don’t steal my work. Idle hands lead to death.”
Davis shook his head firmly and guided Kang Geohan’s path.