Chapter 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: The Karma I Don't Know About
-----------------------------------------------------------------
32 years.
This was the time Kang Taesan had spent stranded in the harsh southern jungles of the Rosenstein Empire, a world dubbed the "romance fantasy realm."
It amounted to a mere three years back on Earth, but the brutal wilderness of this other world had completely remade his appearance.
He stood at 190cm tall—a bit over Han Jaewoo's 188cm—but his bulk made him look twice as massive.
His skin was charred black by the sun, his beast-like muscles bulging and rippling as if ready to burst.
His body was covered in the hideous hides of magical beasts, and in one hand, he gripped a massive bone axe.
Anyone would peg him for a 50-year-old bandit lord who'd seen it all or a savage tribal chieftain driven mad by blood and slaughter.
But astonishingly, his actual Earth age was exactly thirty this year.
He'd been a solid twenty-seven-year-old MZ generation kid from the '90s when he vanished.
Beneath that hulking, prematurely aged(?) exterior, Kang Taesan's core was still the soft-hearted, emotional "K-youth" with fresh memories of reserve army training.
When he first arrived in this world, the system window before his eyes had presented a brutal main quest.
['Southern Tribes Unification']
Just as protagonist Han Jaewoo had chosen "SSS Plausibility (Looks)" to survive, Kang Taesan had selected [Perk: Environmental Adaptability (S)] to endure this nightmare jungle teeming with venomous insects and beasts.
The S-rank adaptability granted him tenacious vitality and overwhelming physical prowess.
Leveraging that, he launched a campaign of conquest to return to Earth.
But one problem arose: he was too damn nice.
"Aigoo, tsk tsk. I didn't even hit that hard—why's there so much blood? Come here, let me put some salve on it."
Every time he saw the natives spewing blood after flying back from his punches, the thirty-year-old youth's heart softened.
As he splinted the broken leg of an enemy chieftain while clicking his tongue, he scrapped his plan to conquer the south by force.
'Screw this—bloodshed ain't my style. Time to eat.'
He set down the bone axe and picked up a hoe.
He poured his entire S-rank environmental adaptability into farming and survival skills.
He tilled the fertile southern soil into a vegetable patch and started grilling wild boar into "K-barbecue."
The garlic and ssamjang (from similar local fruits) combo utterly conquered the savages' taste buds.
"Ooh! Great Chieftain! Your grilling skills are a work of art!"
"We'll follow you, Chieftain! Refill on the lettuce, please!"
Before long, he had transformed into the benevolent, true village chief whom the southern savages genuinely respected and followed.
Spreading pork belly across the entire south could lead to "peaceful unification" without a hitch.
No, he didn't even need unification.
"Even if I went back, it'd just be slaving away to pay off loans. This place has good air and good people. Better off here. Yeah."
Kang Taesan even gave up on returning.
He planned to enjoy this peaceful otherworld life forever with his modest vegetable patch and the simple tribesfolk who followed him.
Until those damn "flyers" rained down from the sky like snowflakes.
One day.
Tens of thousands of paper scraps fluttered over the peaceful southern jungle.
Kang Taesan, watering his fields, picked up one flapping down.
[Searching for the Runaway Northern Grand Duke (Emperor's Husband)]
Anyone harboring him will have their entire clan exterminated. Finder will be granted a fief.
— Emperor Edelgart
In the center of the flyer was the face of a black-haired, blue-eyed man so handsome even he, a guy, felt breathless.
And below it, in blood-red, bold letters like spewed gore: the savage message above.
"Tsk tsk. The guy's got real star power. What kinda mess did that pretty boy pull to piss off his wife this bad?"
Kang Taesan clicked his tongue and crumpled the flyer.
Perfect texture for lining under pork belly wraps.
He had no inkling then how that "pretty boy's" runaway act would shatter his peaceful daily life.
Just days later.
The Emperor Edelgart, eyes rolled back in rage over her husband's flight, descended at the southern jungle's edge with the empire's elite knight order.
She didn't bother with pointless slaughter.
Instead, she exploited the savage tribes' "might makes right" rule to the hilt.
Stepping out alone, the emperor lightly swung her sword into empty air.
Kwaaaaang—!
An overwhelming red aura blasted out like a storm, erasing the south's largest mountain peak clean off the map.
As the dust cleared, revealing a gaping void where the mountain had stood, the southern savages lost their minds.
"From this day, all tribes in these lands submit to the empire."
Edelgart's chilling voice boomed across the entire jungle.
"No veto. Dig up every last rat hole and find my husband. Fail, and next time it's not a mountain—it's your villages that vanish."
At that ruthless ultimatum, the pacifist thirty-year-old village chief Kang Taesan flew into a rage.
His blood-and-sweat lettuce patch was at stake.
"Y-You vicious empire scum! You can't steal my simple peace!"
He unleashed his full 190cm power, gripped the bone axe, and charged the emperor.
And it ended in three seconds flat.
Edelgart flicked her hand like he was a nuisance, and despite his S-rank adaptability, Kang Taesan got swatted like a fly with a giant flyswatter—pinned to the ground, beaten senseless in a cloud of dust.
The savages watched with their own eyes as their invincible chief got one-shotted in three seconds by the emperor's insane might.
They dropped their weapons right there, flattened themselves to the dirt, and swore absolute loyalty to the empire.
Thus, the most violent "forced unification" ever—without a drop of blood or a single battle.
As Kang Taesan lay sprawled on the ground, face swollen, a familiar system window sliced through the air before his eyes.
Main Quest 'Southern Tribes Unification' completed.
Forcing return to Earth.
"No... wait a sec. Getting beat mid-grill was bad enough, but I didn't want unification like thiiiis!"
Kang Taesan's desperate scream went unfinished.
His massive frame was mercilessly sucked into a blue dimensional rift that tore open in the air.
Back on Earth. South Korea. Seoul Hunter Association, first-floor lobby.
Amid flashing red emergency lights, a massive blue "returnee gate" ripped open, spewing thick mist.
Kung—!
The heavy thud of footsteps crushing asphalt echoed through the mist.
At the same time, Han Jaewoo—who'd been humming triumphantly, drunk on thoughts of his 3 billion won, heading for the exit—froze in his tracks.
The "dimensional resonance" detectable only between returnees from the same world.
Cutting through the acrid mana stench assaulting his nose was a piercingly familiar scent.
The rich, elegant red rose aroma from the imperial gardens of the "romance fantasy world."
The exact fragrance his fiancée always wore.
In that instant, Han Jaewoo's heart plummeted, his face draining white as a sheet.
'F-Fuck. That smell... Edelgart?! She punched through dimensions to Earth already?! While I was inwardly celebrating 3 billion omakase, she was sharpening her blade?!'
Visions of his limbs severed, mithril coat shredded, flashed through his mind.
He wanted to drop to the lobby floor and grovel right then.
Your Highness, it was all my fault.
But one second later.
His panic-stricken reason snapped back to cold logic.
'Wait. No.'
Han Jaewoo wiped the cold sweat trickling down his spine.
'Edelgart's a native of the "romance fantasy world," right? That blue "returnee gate" is an exclusive portal only Earthlings use after clearing quests. No matter how yandere the emperor is, she can't open that dimensional door.'
Only then did Han Jaewoo exhale in relief.
The rose scent was probably from whoever just returned rolling near the imperial gardens.
'Phew, nearly lost ten years of pride in one go. Don't flinch, Han Jaewoo. You're the Northern Grand Duke.'
190cm tall.
But the intimidation radiating from him rivaled a 3-meter monster. Charred black skin draped in crudely stitched magical beast hides, clutching a telephone pole-sized bone axe—a dead ringer for a mountain bandit.
"Wh-where the hell is this..."
Flustered by the alien surroundings, glaring lights, and crowd's stares, the thirty-year-old youth Kang Taesan instinctively raised his bone axe, unleashing raw mana.
Kuwoong—!
The pressure he emitted matched the killing intent of a top-tier A-rank monster—no, an S-rank at minimum.
"Wh-what the hell is that insane look?!"
"It's one of those 'savage returnees' like the orc-hide guy who smashed up the lobby last time! Everyone, defensive formation! Subdue before he causes trouble!"
Association guards and lobby hunters paled, drawing weapons.
Returnees devoured by otherworld harshness often lost reason upon return, unleashing bloodbaths as murderous demons.
Convinced Kang Taesan was one, they tensed to the max.
As screams and chaos swept the lobby, only Han Jaewoo stood stock-still, unmoving.
No—he couldn't move.
'Whoa, what movie monster is that savage?! Moving draws eyes. Stay put.'
Han Jaewoo inwardly screamed in agony, unwittingly frozen in the Northern Grand Duke's haughty, rigid pose smack in the lobby center.
With hundreds backing away or collapsing, his solitary upright figure shone like the sun.
And then.
Kang Taesan's gaze, sweeping the room with murderous aura, locked dead on the black-frock-coated man: Han Jaewoo's face.
"...?"
Kang Taesan's eyes bulged like watermelons.
Jet-black hair.
Deep, icy blue eyes that pierced souls.
Impossible not to recognize.
The face from the flyer he'd used as pork belly wrap days ago.
The runaway husband of that mad emperor who'd wrecked his peaceful life, torched his garden, and beaten him to dust!
The root of all tragedy.
The source of all evil!
The horrific memory of getting pummeled and the grudge over his lost lettuce patch exploded as rage.
Kang Taesan's eyes bloodshot red.
The bewildered otherworld savage vanished; S-rank feral killing intent crushed the lobby.
Kwajik, kwajik!
Kang Taesan shattered the marble floor, striding toward Han Jaewoo.
Veins bulged on his bone-axe-gripping wrist; fangs ground like a beast's.
He loomed over Han Jaewoo like a mountain range, shadowing him, and growled low and deadly.
"...Han Jaewoo...?"
The savage's call, as if ready to rip a man in half.
Han Jaewoo, who'd just relaxed thinking "Edelgart couldn't come," felt his heart stop at this musclebound psycho recognizing him perfectly.
'Wh-what?! How do you know my name?! What'd I do to you?!'
His legs shook like aspen leaves, but ten years of duke training kept his facial muscles miraculously composed.
With cool, sunken blue eyes, he coldly gazed up at the muscle monster.
Outwardly, the chilling poise of a sword demon who could fell mountains.
But inwardly, he was bawling like a child.
'...Um, who are you?'