Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: What Is the Life of a Hero...
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Has time passed that quickly already?
More than that, if I don't take down Lee Gok within this timeframe, I'll end up getting raped?
"Raped by Lee Gok..."
Honestly, it might not be so bad?
And why not? Lee Gok was a renowned beauty the whole world recognized.
In this women-dominant world, she was the kind of woman who could leave even other women spellbound. The chance to hold someone like that? Hell yeah, thank you very much.
I was confident I could pound her baby pouch with everything I had.
But let's think about this rationally.
Before being a perfect beauty in every way, Lee Gok was the heiress to a hunter family with a thousand years of history.
The top candidate to succeed the Supreme Lee Clan—one of the world's top ten families.
What if sleeping with a woman like that somehow led to marriage?
Me—an orphan with no family to speak of—becoming Lee Gok's husband?
Let me repeat: this was a fiercely matriarchal world where women called the shots.
In a place like that, what would my life look like if I rocketed to modern nobility status just because of my dick?
Prosperity? Yeah, right.
I'd be shipped off to a noble house with zero backing and fucked every single day.
Surrounded by every woman in the household, Lee Gok included.
"At least Seolgi would sneak in for some..."
For the record, the gender ratio here was 1:8.
A world where women were far stronger, had higher status, better skills, and vastly outnumbered men to boot.
Laws naturally skewed toward women.
Men were so scarce that, in this reversed society, family members—wife, sister-in-law, even mother-in-law—could legally fuck the husband if they were all one household.
Of course, the news occasionally ran stories about wives fighting their relatives to keep him all to themselves.
Anyway.
Hunters had libidos way stronger than average women.
And not just any hunters—these were women from a prestigious hunter clan. The idea of handling every last one of them...
"I'll die. Dry up and wither away for sure!"
No thanks.
Day in, day out, surrounded by the sounds of nonstop fucking? Only a madman would sign up for that life.
That's why I had to clear this quest—no matter what. It was my survival on the line.
But the problem was... how?
"Submit her, it says... But if I charge straight in, she'll crush me in under a minute..."
Is this balanced?
Even luck-based trash games aren't this bad.
At least pit me against a somewhat tough opponent. This was like telling me to topple a skyscraper barehanded with no gear.
Impossible.
Munch, munch, munch...
"My head's so tangled, I can barely taste the rice ball..."
"It's made from dungeon ingredients. Does it suit your palate?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah... It's good. Really delicious, actually..."
"!! R-Really? Hehe... I'm so glad."
While I was lost in thought, she'd gathered all sorts of ingredients for these rice balls on the way here, huh.
Lunchtime rolled around, and Lee Gok kept offering them to me—each one glistening like it was coated in slime.
They were a gift from a princess, so I couldn't refuse. I ate every one.
And honestly? They were damn good.
"What the hell is in these? Tastier than convenience store triangle rice balls...!"
The texture was a bit odd when you chewed, but the flavor? Surprisingly solid.
Nah, straight-up delicious. Like rice made from soft cheese.
That nutty aroma was especially killer.
"These are way too good. How do you make something like this from dungeon scraps?"
"Hehe. Experience, that's all. Stick around dungeons as long as I have—nearly fifty years—and you'll hit this level naturally, Hyunjun."
Fifty years...
...Hold up.
Far as I knew, Lee Gok was fifty-seven this year.
Which meant her first dungeon dive could've been when she was under ten.
"...Back when I was a kid, Korea had just shaken off its backward-country status."
She must've caught my shocked vibe.
Lee Gok gave me a wistful smile and opened up about those days.
"We were on the cusp of becoming a developing nation. Korea needed 'heroes'."
"Heroes... you mean?"
"Yeah. Ones the whole world would notice. A kid star to put the Republic of Korea on the map."
Her mother, Lee Yul.
Hunter Association Korea Branch Chief Im Eonnyeon.
No question, both were pros' pros when it came to raw skill.
But hunter 'strength' and 'star power' were worlds apart. Those two, products of a bygone era, were just overripe has-beens.
So the Korean government back then poured everything into unveiling a new figure.
That manufactured hero? Lee Gok herself, or so she told me.
"Picture it: the branch chief—who's lived over two hundred years—clears a deep dungeon layer. Or a kid under ten explores the first floor. Which grabs people's attention?"
"Obviously... the kid."
"Right?"
A child who hadn't even awakened her hunter powers properly, surviving the dungeon's first floor?
That'd be front-page worldwide news today.
But back then, with people glued to newspapers and TV? Lee Gok must've looked like a goddess.
No SNS, no real internet. If the networks pushed, you became a star overnight.
Lee Gok's life as Korea's hero... sure, it was the stuff of legends. But happy? Not even close.
"Was it... tough?"
"Hehe. Who knows. Honestly, back then I thought it was just how things were. Didn't really register."
Lie.
I'd lived every flavor of misery in my previous life—crushed by a truck in the end.
Lies like "It was fine, even if it sucked"? They didn't land with me.
Too many times I'd spouted that crap myself.
"Did you... go to elementary school?"
"National school, you mean? Nah. Took the qualification exam instead—counts as graduated."
"What about middle or high school?"
"Nope. Thought about Hunter Academy—they've got a full university track... for a hot second."
"Thought about it, but never enrolled?"
"Yeah."
"Why not?"
"Sitting at a desk rereading stuff I already knew? Way less efficient than chugging monster blood in a dungeon mid-fight."
Elite mindset, through and through.
She had that noble air that made even another princess like Seolgi seem second-rate by comparison.
But man...
It hit sad notes too.
"Lee Gok."
"Yes, Hyunjun?"
"You like cooking, right?"
"......Pardon?"
The hero who'd sacrificed her life for Korea.
My image of her—once just "impressive"—sharpened into focus.
Then it hit me.
For someone who'd spent more time in dungeons than on Earth from childhood to adulthood, what the hell was "fun"?
Deep in a dungeon, away from prying eyes, her non-combat passion?
This triangle rice ball right here in my hand.
"These rice balls? Insanely good."
"Haha... well, forty-plus years of dungeon chow. Anyone could..."
"No way. You could camp in a dungeon forever and not everyone hits this flavor."
If she saw food as mere fuel, she'd slap it together and scarf it down.
No shaping, no taste-testing, no care.
Taste and looks? Irrelevant to survival.
But more than that, I'd seen her face.
Handing me rice balls, lighting up brighter than ever when I called them delicious.
Not her usual refined smile. Pure, unfiltered joy.
Nom nom... "Mmm, still amazing!"
"...You're a sneak."
"Huh?"
"No clue how you're doing it, but shoving rice balls under that helmet... Least I could see your face..."
Oh, right. I'd been hooded up this whole time.
My armament even let me eat with the helmet on.
Her secret slipped, but I stayed hidden. She puffed her cheeks like a sulking princess.
Always so poised and elegant.
That sudden cute pout? Adorably disarming. I blanked for a second.
"Snap out of it. Can't let myself fall..."
"...So how about you, Hyunjun? What was your life like?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. I spilled my past. Your turn."
"My story, huh..."
Slip up, and my real identity's toast.
But she'd bared her soul. Clamming up now would be rude.
No choice.
"Just skim the Seolgi bits."
Skipping my first-life reincarnation drama, I shared my orphanage days onward—the rough ride of a reversed-world guy.
"You... went to school."
"Yeah."
"Impressive. Some guys stick to online classes for safety."
"Haha. In-person sticks in my brain better."
School regrets, maybe?
Every school story brought that wistful smile.
I'd tried switching to online myself midway.
Seolgi sniffed it out and basically forced me through graduation.
"Ah... I really hate being a hunter."
"Y-Yes?!"
Right as my tale wrapped up.
Lee Gok flopped down, legs splayed on the cave floor. Stared at the ceiling, mumbling like reality had crashed in.
Like someone finally catching a breather.
She turned to me, flashed that same bright rice-ball smile.
"Thanks. Haven't had real fun like that in ages."
"Nah, just swapping old stories."
Commoners thrill at a hero's triumphs and downfall. Turns out heroes crave the everyday lives they missed.
What a weird existence.
Then.
"I've got a dream, you know."
"A dream...?"
"Yeah. But it's ridiculously out there."
A dream too lofty even for her?
What could it be?
I leaned in, curious—
"...I want to go to the moon."
"The moon?"
"Yes."
One hell of a curveball.
"Why the moon?"
"Closest thing from Earth."
"...That's it?"
"Nah. No dungeons on the moon. No monsters. No people."
"...!"
To the moon.
That simple wish packed layers of longing.
All of it impossible.
She knew it, yet voiced it anyway—that her dream was unattainable.
Afterward, gazing at the cave ceiling in place of a starry sky, her eyes held zero heroism.
Just a fragile princess. Even knowing she could be my enemy soon.
"Then let me..."
"...?"
"If I can... I'll take you there."
"!!"
In that starless cave.
The knight, face still hidden, made a promise to the princess yearning for the impossible.