....Thup!
This is a monumental moment.
Of course it is.
He returned alive. After facing a transcendent monster at the distant border with the human world, he somehow managed to survive and make it back to the Demon King's Castle!
…..Thu-up!
"Huuuaaah!"
Kim Jangcheol reached out his hand. He grabbed the highest crag at the top of the Cliff of the Dead. He pulled himself up.
His head poked over the edge of the cliff.
And thanks to that, he saw it.
The large but shabby tent—no, the heartwarming sight of the makeshift Demon King's Castle, the farm shack!
"...."
Tears welled up faintly in the corners of Kim Jangcheol's eyes.
Wow. Who would've thought that ugly tent would feel so welcoming. Maybe people really need to go through hardship to understand what's precious.
"Right, Tbong?"
"Tbong!"
The Fourth Star Master who recklessly invaded the human world. It was a journey he'd rushed off on to try and stop that guy and the Fourth Star legion.
His party?
There wasn't one.
He didn't bother dragging anyone else along—it would've only slowed him down. So he'd brought only Tbong as his sole companion.
"Tbong! Tbobong!"
"Yeah, that's right. Thanks to you, the return trip was a lot smoother. Isn't that right?"
"Tbobong!"
Tbong, who had stuck just his head out of Kim's arms, puffed up proudly. His big eyes sparkled with pride.
And honestly, he deserved it.
The fortress city of Magrat, located at the boundary with the human world.
Getting there required running like mad on foot. He had to rely on the fastest shortcuts he'd memorized through countless hours of gameplay.
But coming back?
He was able to use the wells he had activated on the way there. In fact, that was one of the reasons he had brought Tbong. Thanks to that, they could teleport from the Fourth Star Master's region to the First Star Master's territory instantly.
"...Still, I really wish someone would restore the Demon King's Castle's well. Damn that Second Star Master bastard."
Kim Jangcheol grumbled resentfully at the now-deceased Second Star Master who had become fertilizer (?).
And understandably so.
That guy had caused the collapse of the Demon King's Castle, destroying the teleportation well in the process. Which meant that to get from the Cliff back to the castle, Kim had been forced to go mountain climbing, which was never in his fate.
"Well, anyway... I've arrived!"
Having finally climbed the cliff, Kim Jangcheol caught his breath.
Then he looked around the area surrounding the Demon King's Castle.
'Thank goodness, nothing seems to have gone wrong while I was away.'
He could see figures wriggling in the vast potato fields.
The farming corps was hard at work harvesting the super potatoes. Nearby were others restoring the fields that had been wrecked during the Second Star Master's rampage.
Any other changes?
Nothing particularly stood out.
'Haha. Nice. Very nice. Excellent. Zephyros and Hartok really handled things well. Looks like it's even more lively than when I left. Feels like there are more people... no, more demonfolk around too.'
It wasn't just his imagination. The number of figures roaming around the Demon King's Castle had clearly increased. Maybe about three or four times more?
'Heh. Could it be they all came out to voluntarily lend a hand to the farming corps?'
Maybe so.
Families must've come out to help their fathers, husbands, or sons working hard in the fields.
Like a happy weekend at a family farm. They were probably sweating with joy, imagining the potatoes they were digging up would soon be on their dinner tables.
"....."
Honestly, the hair on his arms trembled for a moment.
He felt... proud.
Proud and deeply moved.
This reality he had cultivated felt almost too good to be true.
"Shall we go, Tbong?"
"Tbong!"
It had been a long time since he returned.
He'd have to greet everyone naturally so they wouldn't be startled by his sudden appearance. Especially the children—they might be scared by the Demon King's appearance, so he needed to be extra careful.
Kim Jangcheol took a step forward with a strangely excited heart.
Toward the potato fields he had no choice but to pass through on the way to his farm shack. Toward the place where everyone was working hard together with energy and cheer.
He approached.
Then he saw it.
The sight of a happy family spending a peaceful time together on the farm.
'...Wait, what?'
Something was off.
Did he just see wrong?
Kim Jangcheol rubbed his eyes hard. Then looked again toward the potato field.
Thanks to that, he saw clearly.
Among those sweating and toiling in the potato fields... were soldiers of the Third Star legion.
"Why are you guys here?"
"...Huh?"
The question slipped out dumbly.
Perhaps only after hearing his voice did they realize someone had approached. A crab-shaped demonfolk who had been carefully digging up a super potato with his claw turned to look at him.
Then jumped in surprise.
"It's the Demon King!"
"Wha?"
"Huh? It's really him!"
"The Demon King has returned!"
"The Commander of the Farming Corps is back!"
The entire area instantly turned noisy.
Not just the members of the farming corps nearby, but all the other demons came swarming over. Their eyes sparkled with overwhelming respect.
Thanks to that, Kim Jangcheol got to indirectly experience what it must feel like to be a superstar idol appearing at a fan meeting… Or not—he actually felt something more like complete bewilderment.
'Wait a sec? It's not just the Third Star Legion soldiers?'
He looked around at the demons crowding around him.
Thanks to that, he easily noticed them. Blended naturally among the regular farming corps were insectivorous plant types and mushroom types—soldiers from the Second Star legion.
"....."
This was strange.
Second Star legion soldiers were supposed to stay in the Second Star territory. Same with the Third Star. In the game, you never saw them wandering into other territories.
And yet.
"Why are you here?" Kim Jangcheol asked again.
The answer came from Zephyros, who popped his face out from the crowd of murmuring demonfolk.
"They all came to the Demon King's Castle while you were away, my lord."
"...Whoa, that startled me."
"Apologies for suddenly showing my face, my lord. It's just that things are quite packed around here."
"Then could you please show your whole body instead of just your face?"
"I'm trying, truly. Excuse me for a moment."
Zephyros squeezed himself out from between the body-pressing Third and Second Star soldiers like a commuter on Seoul Subway Line 9. Then he straightened out his disheveled clothes and said,
"As I mentioned, these individuals arrived at the Demon King's Castle during your absence."
"They came to the Demon King's Castle?"
"Yes."
"Who told them to?"
"No one."
"You're saying they all came here voluntarily? Abandoning their own legion territories?"
"Yes."
"Don't tell me—it's because their Star Masters died or got captured here?"
"That's not it."
"Then what?"
What on earth had happened?
What could possibly be the reason that soldiers, who in the game had always remained strictly within their respective territories, suddenly abandoned those rules?
'Could it be that monsters too strong for them to handle showed up in their zones? Or their Star Masters disappeared and left a power vacuum?'
Maybe that's it.
If so, then it needed fixing.
That was what Kim Jangcheol was thinking—until he heard an utterly unexpected answer.
"They say they heard rumors that if you come here, you won't starve and can live with a full belly."
"...What?"
***
"Sigh. I never thought I'd end up starving like this in a fortress."
This was the boundary of the Abandoned Land. The narrow isthmus blocked by the fortress city, Magrat.
[T/L: isthmus - narrow strip of land.]
The interior of the fortress was a complete disaster.
But despite that, the servant Dyoll thought: the mess inside this fortress wasn't nearly as bad as what was going on inside him and his young master's stomachs—or even inside the belly of Aged Kimchi.
....Grrrgle!
His stomach growled without shame. Dyoll felt a stinging sadness paired with heartburn as he asked his young master,
"Is there any way we could get more rations?"
"There's not. Probably not."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. What do you take me for?"
"You're our dashing and handsome young master, of course."
"But such looks are useless in situations like this. When even the food stores were burned down by those rampaging demons who stormed all the way inside the fortress."
Reivaj let out a soft sigh.
What he said was true. And it was also the reason this fortress city had ended up suffering a sudden food shortage.
"Ugh. Of all places, why did it have to be the food storage that caught fire…."
Grrrrrrrrgle!
Dyoll's stomach growled again right on cue with his sigh.
Reivaj said,
"Let's just endure a little longer. According to what I heard at the ration office earlier, the broken bridge in the rear should be repaired in about ten days."
".....Ten days?"
"Yes."
"Do you think we'll still be alive by then?"
"People don't die just from starving for ten days."
"But we'll suffer like we're dying, won't we?"
"Then you'll just have to conserve your strength. Like Lord Aged Kimchi, who hasn't wasted a single word."
"....."
Aged Kimchi did not say a word.
For some reason, he had fallen into deep silence a few days ago, as if he were someone contemplating something profound, or as if he had submerged into himself to find answers from a faraway place.
Dyoll scrunched his nose.
"If staying quiet made you less hungry, there'd be no one starving to death in this world."
"But what can we do? Even the rations for the fortress guards have been reduced to a tenth. No one's going to care for wanderers like us."
"But, young master? Isn't this exactly when you should make use of your family's influence?"
"....What do you mean by that?"
"No, I mean, well, if you just go up to the fortress commander and clear your throat like, 'Ahem, ahem,' and then drop something like, 'I'm the second son of such-and-such noble house, yada yada blah blah,' wouldn't that do the trick?"
"So you're suggesting I use the family name to receive special treatment?"
"Yep."
"Have you lost your mind?"
"...Yep?"
"Do you still not understand why I left my family behind and chose to wander the world, why I willingly came to suffer in this dangerous frontier?"
Reivaj's expression hardened sternly.
Dyoll shrank his neck.
"Uh, I—I do understand. Of course I do. But the situation is what it is…"
"Enough. Don't ever say such a thing again."
".....Yes, I'm sorry."
"No, I scolded you when you're suffering alongside me for my sake. Still, let's try to endure just a bit longer."
"Yeeees…"
Dyoll's lips pouted out about a foot. He understood his young master's stubbornness, but still, he was really hungry.
And now they had to endure for ten more days?
Survive by starving?
'...We might actually die at this rate.'
He didn't like that.
He had to eat something.
But there was nothing to eat… no, actually, there was something.
'Tsk. Should I... eat that?'
Dyoll suddenly remembered the heavy sack he had stumbled upon a few days ago and decided to keep. A sack filled with strange, horribly shriveled, almost rotting-looking potatoes.
***
"Whew. This is ridiculously, no, absurdly overcrowded now."
Kim Jangcheol sighed deeply after receiving Zephyros's report. The soldiers of the Second and Third Star legions who had left their designated territories and come up to the Demon King's Castle. And soon, likely the Fourth Star legion soldiers would be joining too.
Thanks to Zephyros's report, he now understood the full story of why they had come.
'So it was the news of the Demon King's Castle's potato farming jackpot that spread everywhere.'
That's why they all came.
Because they were sick of hunger.
Sick and tired of it.
They heard that if they came here, they wouldn't starve.
"..."
Hearing that reason, he just couldn't bring himself to drive them out. After all, farming had started with the promise to let everyone survive without having to invade the human world.
So he didn't expel the soldiers from the other territories. He just couldn't.
'.....Why the hell did they all have to come like refugees, with their families and all, making it so damn hard to turn them away, ugh, damn it.'
And so the population exploded.
And with it, more mouths to feed.
Kim Jangcheol shook his head violently, as if trying to clear the mess forming in his brain.
'No. It's fine. I can still manage. The population increased way more than expected, and it'll probably keep increasing, so things will get tight... but we've got super potatoes.'
He could keep them all from starving, somehow.
He had to.
So he needed to check.
...With that in mind, he walked diligently.
And opened the door to the super potato storage.
Creeeaaak.
As he opened the door, the fresh-sweet-earthy smell of potatoes wafted out! Kim Jangcheol inspected the amount of stored potatoes with a serious gaze. For now, he was satisfied.
'Looks like there's enough after all.'
He'd use part of these to make chuno, and the rest he'd replant like before. That way, they could all survive.
'Alright, let's start by checking the condition of the ones I'll use as seed potatoes.'
Kim Jangcheol pulled one out from the massive pile.
It was heavier than your average watermelon.
He couldn't help but smile.
'Whew, this one's a beauty. If I plant this, the next harvest will be... huh?'
Unintentionally—
Hesitation
Kim Jangcheol felt a strange, uneasy feeling. He looked down at the seed potato in his arms.
But nothing.
He couldn't see it.
'The eye... why can't I see the potato eye?'
There should've been one.
That's normal.
But really, it wasn't there.
'What the...'
He checked the back.
Still nothing.
'Is this a mutation?'
Thump, thump.
His heart started pounding involuntarily.
He put down the seed potato he was holding.
Picked up another.
Inspected it.
But—
'This one too...'
Nothing.
No eye.
Not in front. Not in back.
Looked here. Looked there.
Still nothing.
'Why? Why?'
His eyes moved frantically. He inspected more in the storage. But they all lacked them. He couldn't see a single potato eye!
'What... is this…'
Potatoes without eyes. Was that even possible? Why was he only noticing this now?
Maybe it was because the potatoes were covered in so much dirt when harvested, and he just didn't think something so essential could be missing, so he didn't check.
Or maybe… why?
'Could it be that when the Second Star Master died, the potatoes absorbed his essence or something?'
Maybe that mutation made them grow huge.
But the price for that?
They became sterile. No eyes, like seedless watermelons. No, like eunuchs.
That seemed the most plausible explanation.
'Holy sh—'
His heart pounded like mad.
Potatoes without eyes.
He knew better than anyone what that meant.
'All the ones we just harvested are seedless watermelons... no, they're eunuchs?'
They couldn't be used for farming anymore. On top of that, they had already harvested almost all the wild potatoes from the Abandoned Land to start their farming operation.
Which meant the only conclusion was...
'I'll have to sell this...'
To buy new seeds.
Shiver!
Chills ran down his spine.
The promise he'd made to Aged Kimchi, staking his life. His vow to never set foot in the human world again.
He now had the sinking feeling that, barely a few days later, he'd have to break that vow without hesitation.
Kim Jangcheol's heart beat in a frantic rhythm.
[T/L: I am not getting any support from webnovel platform, so please support me and read ahead chapters on my ko-fi page "RevengerScans" : https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]