Knight (4)
Knight (4)
From time immemorial, rulers have justified their rights with all sorts of pretexts. All those titles like King, Emperor, Son of Heaven—were nothing more than fancy labels to make the justification sound plausible.
However, whether genetically or spiritually, there's no fundamental difference between a mere homeless bum and an emperor.
Thus, the power they wield isn't something they created themselves—it's just proxy-swinging the power born from the collective efforts of many.
But Dojin was different.
"The actual ruler of the Dungeon."
"A ruler who seized dominion with his own power alone."
"The true master of the Dungeon."
The Lord stared at the hugely gaping Dungeon entrance, utterly unable to contain his shock. There had been endlessly countless attempts to manipulate the Dungeon up to now.
Magic Stones, the rare resources from the Dungeon—if you could mine them without any conditions, conquering the entire world would be a piece of cake.
Yet no one had ever succeeded in controlling the Dungeon or unraveling its secrets.
"How could this be—."
Something he'd thought was realistically impossible.
For example, the King being a pervert who enjoys anal masturbation, the Saintess desperate to meet a man, or the Emperor's true identity being a dragon.
The shock that hit the Lord was on the level of personally witnessing those rumors that had only circulated as conspiracy theories.
"O, Lord of the Dungeon Territory."
Dojin looked at the Lord—shocked with his mouth hanging wide open—and burst into laughter. Then he started hamming it up like a deranged clown.
"Will you pay—the price for using my land without permission."
"Here is the chamomile tea..."
"Hmm."
Dojin lifted the tea brought by the maid from the Lord's castle and savored its aroma. Just the scent alone wafted up like hot-stewed sweet apples.
However, Dojin—who'd tried plenty of these tea types back on Earth—knew all too well that the smell and taste weren't the same thing.
Slurp- As expected, the tea tasted like mint soap diluted in water.
A flavor so impossible to call "delicious" that it naturally made you set the teacup down.
"...The aroma is nice."
"Thank you—."
But with the maid fidgeting restlessly right beside him, Dojin couldn't very well say the tea tasted like garbage, so he complimented the scent and glanced at the Lord shuffling through documents in front of him.
"Still got a ways to go?"
"Al, almost done."
Right now, Dojin was role-playing a character. An apostle of God, appointed from the heavens as the Dungeon's master.
'What a moronic character setup...'
Still, in this Otherworld where gods actually existed, the gimmick landed perfectly. Hadn't he slipped right out of the Holy Kingdom by claiming to be God's apostle?
Even if a Holy Kingdom envoy showed up in the Dungeon Territory someday, his fib wouldn't get exposed. Their stories might differ a bit, but the key point—he'd claimed to be God's apostle—would match up.
"It's done."
The Lord said so and handed the neatly organized documents to Dojin.
Dojin took the papers, lightly scanned them top to bottom as if reading, and listened to the Lord's report.
"To Dojin-nim, master of the Dungeon, our territory promises to return a portion of the profits obtained from the Dungeon..."
"So, how much is that?"
"...3 percent of the territory's revenue."
"That's low?"
But upon hearing Dojin, the Lord stiffened with a troubled expression. It was unavoidable for him too.
"It's the absolute maximum we could scrape together. Taxes are budgeted way in advance to begin with... Suddenly dropping 3% of the budget like that..."
Dojin got it. Being able to suddenly free up 3% of the territory's taxes was proof of how cleanly and upright he'd managed things.
To compare to Korea, it was like the government suddenly announcing they'd pay an individual 20 trillion won in compensation for monopolizing private land.
Never mind the backlash—mobilizing that kind of budget was impossible in the first place. He'd probably stripped every slush fund and resource bare.
'He seems dead serious about this.'
From the Lord's actions, Dojin realized he was genuinely trying to make amends. Well, duh—claiming to be God's apostle meant no cheating without risking divine smackdown.
With that realization, Dojin decided to concede a step. Truth be told, 3% from one piddly territory wasn't a huge sum anyway.
"Let me get paid in a different way instead."
"What... sort of way?"
"For example... tax exemption."
The Lord's face lit up bright at that. Sure, taxes would drop starting next year, but staving off a massive immediate payout was the top priority.
City management was all about how well you kicked incoming crises down the road.
"Of course. The Dungeon belongs to Dojin-nim from the start. Taxing goods from there is downright unreasonable."
"And bump up donations to the church too."
"We'll consider it."
Truth be told, Dojin didn't give a damn about church donations one way or the other, but tacking on the "God's apostle" label while completely ignoring the church would look fishy, so he threw it in.
"Finally—."
"Yes."
"God commanded me not to spread word of my activities far and wide. But if crap like today happens again, that'll be a problem, right?"
"...You're right. A repeat of this would be troublesome."
If he went public as God's apostle? Sure, he'd snag attention and support from every nation—but he'd also hog unwanted heavenly scrutiny.
Not good. He was secretly name-dropping God; getting caught would have those petty deities fly off the handle—who knew what they'd do.
"Then how about this—."
"Speak."
"You make me a knight of our territory, Dojin-nim."
"Knight?"
Dojin's ears perked right up. Just a regular high schooler not long ago, he'd harbored his own boyish dreams about knighthood, hadn't he?
Of course, those dreams and awe got totally smashed by the Knight Candidates he'd run into today...
"Yes, each territory has the right to appoint specific individuals as knights. If Dojin-nim wouldn't mind..."
"Hmm... a knight..."
"It's a purely honorary position—no restrictions or duties whatsoever. At the very least, in this city, even nobles won't dare touch you—I guarantee it."
Spotting Dojin's interest, the Lord jumped in, reeling off every benefit and honor to lure him.
In reality, Dojin becoming a knight wouldn't saddle him with any obligations. He was way too big a fish to be leashed by some puny knighthood.
But just having him as a territory knight? Massive political wins.
"...Fine, whatever. Handle it however."
"Thank you."
"No biggie."
Dojin grinned and accepted the honorary knighthood. The Lord smirked too, scoring his own gains.
Creak-.
Emilia—who'd been waiting for her master like a loyal dog in front of the door—jumped up the moment he emerged.
"You're late!"
"Yeah, sorry."
"I was bored to death—!"
"Told you, sorry."
Dojin tossed a casual apology to the Emilia who'd waited all this time and headed off to the Dungeon with her.
Leaving the Lord's mansion en route to the Dungeon, she asked Dojin what he'd talked about with the Lord.
"...Hey, Dojin?"
"Yeah?"
"What'd you guys talk about in there?"
"Curious?"
"Duh."
Had Dojin maybe screwed up somehow with the Lord—ending up in prison or worse?
Forget the Lord—even his underling local officials had her village in terror, slaughtering livestock for meat and crops, raking in taxes. Back then, defying authority wasn't even a concept.
If Dojin had crossed that line—she couldn't imagine the punishment; fresh worry bubbled up.
"Nothing special. Hmm... For starters, I became a knight."
"...A knight?"
"Honorary one, though."
She couldn't wrap her head around it. After beating on knights and mouthing off to the Lord, he gets knighted?
Emilia wasn't schooled enough to parse the tangled politics linking Dojin, the Saintess, and the Lord.
But one thing was crystal clear.
"...Master's incredible."
"—Want one too?"
"Huh? You mean the knighthood?"
"Yeah."
"If I could snag one..."
Emilia pictured herself heading home with a knight's title pinned on. Way easier to dream up than world-saving hero crap.
The glory felt downright tangible.
'Whoa—hold up... So I could deck that sleazy manager who groped me?'
Knight status was huge. A walking WMD that could legally beat hundreds of peasants to death.
And that's not all—most got treated like quasi-nobles serving the royals or some noble house.
Power to vaporize a lowly village-harassing official, easy peasy.
"Want me to hook you up?"
"...How?"
"Somehow."
"...Conditions?"
"Hmm—what'll it be..."
Dojin mulled a condition that'd hook her interest and boost her growth.
"Make me surrender. Sound good?"
"Surrender?"
"Yeah. Ambush me, sneak attack at night, whatever—just get the words 'I surrender' out of my mouth."
"Sounds tough."
"If it's easy, what's the point?"
Sure, making her a knight was child's play... but Dojin didn't want her treating the title like pocket lint.
Stuff you sweat for becomes true treasure.
Easy grabs? Tossed aside without a thought.
"...Deal."
"Hit me anytime. Oh, not inside the Dungeon? For real dangerous."
"I'm not that clueless."
What do you take me for?—Emilia puffed her cheeks and shot Dojin a glare.
Bantering like that, they reached the Dungeon—and spotted the Knight Candidates still kneeling out front, hands raised high.
A straight-up absurd scene; Dojin shot them a look like why the hell are you still pulling this?
"What's up with you guys? Why're you still here?"
"B-because the instructor hasn't come back..."
"Instructor?"
Ah—.
Dojin finally remembered he'd restored the Dungeon to its original state.
He'd scattered those dozens of candidates inside every which way.
"...Slipped my mind."
Belatedly, he unsealed the Dungeon and force-ejected the trapped Knight Candidates.
Ptui ptui- The Dungeon spat them out one by one, snapping back to its prior state—which is to say, fully open.
Dojin eyed the collapsed, passed-out Knight Candidates on the ground and started counting heads.
'Good—no fatalities.'