Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 5

Future Knight Episode 5

“The law of universal gravitation?”

Artheon still tilted her head, looking puzzled.

“Yes. There is a universal gravitational force that attracts all objects with mass to each other. The force with which a star pulls an object is what we call gravity, but more precisely, it is the sum of universal gravitation and the centrifugal force due to the Earth’s rotation. The scientist who discovered this was Isaac Newton, a mathematician, physicist, and philosopher.”

At his incomprehensible words, Artheon could only stare blankly.

She couldn’t understand what he was saying at all.

“Oh, he must have been a great man. To have three jobs.”

Kang Chan felt a sense of futility wash over his face as he saw her paying attention to completely different things.

After that, Kang Chan tried very hard to make her understand, but the worldview of this place, which she had believed to be true for hundreds of years, was so thick and solid that it was never easy to convey the truth to her.

“Anyway! This world revolves!”

“How does the world revolve? The world is still like this.”

‘Ah, damn it… I’m exhausted.’

He had been fiercely debating with her for two hours about something that even elementary school students knew.

He was already exhausted.

As his body and mind grew tired, Kang Chan keenly felt that he had no talent for teaching anyone.

He had no choice but to take out his trump card.

“Then I will show you evidence rather than words.”

Artheon’s ears perked up at his words of showing evidence.

“What is it? What is it?”

“Would you like to see this?”

Kang Chan held out his arm to Artheon, and her gaze naturally turned to his arm, where an unbelievable thing happened.

“Oh my! Oh, my goodness!”

A hologram floated above his arm, faintly depicting the Earth, the former home of mankind, though not this Neo Earth.

“This is what you call a star, Artheon.”

Artheon’s mouth dropped open.

She was surprised to see a star for the first time, but as a magician, she could immediately tell that the hologram in front of her was not magic.

“How did you do that? I don’t feel any magical energy at all.”

“It’s called science, Artheon. Where I lived, civilization was highly developed with science, not magic. The spaceship I came here on was also made with that science.”

“Science?”

Kang Chan answered her again, who asked back with an incredulous look.

“Yes.”

“That can’t be. Science, science is definitely…”

She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe it.

She couldn’t believe that the hologram in front of her was made with science.

Of course, it wasn’t that there was no science in the current Erkanndor continent where she lived.

However, science was only at a lower level compared to magic.

Therefore, it was only recognized as a low-level technology mainly used by the lower classes such as farmers and commoners.

The royals and nobles used magicians, who were highly skilled manpower, to pursue various conveniences in their daily lives.

They used fire magic to instantly heat water when using hot water, enjoyed air conditioning using ice magic when it was hot in midsummer, and lovers whispered love through magic communication using crystal balls late into the night with their lovers.

And when going out or traveling, they enjoyed using space movement using magic circles.

Magic was used not only in these trivial personal daily lives but also throughout society as a whole.

When building castles, they easily shortened the air by applying lightening magic to heavy building materials, and permanent space movement magic circles were installed throughout the continent, and famous agricultural and fishery products from other regions were sold to every corner of the country in the best freshness through the distribution network.

Of course, it was the table of the royal family or wealthy nobles.

When magic was like a monopoly of the wealthy, farmers and commoners relied on weak science to try to reduce even a little hard labor.

Farmers made water mills to trim grains, and plowed fields with plows attached to cows.

Lumberjacks made cranes to lift felled trees, and construction site workers who did not receive the benefits of magic had to move heavy objects using the principle of leverage.

In addition to these daily lives, there were many differences between magic and science in war, and it was a natural principle in this world that a small number of magicians were much more powerful in long-range attacks than a large number of archers handling bows.

No matter how strong the lance charge of the heavy armored cavalry was, it was nothing more than hitting a rock with an egg in front of the magic weapon Gigantes [a large magical construct or weapon].

To her, who lived in such a world, the hologram he showed seemed closer to magic than science.

Now she had no choice but to believe that he came from another world.

“Then are you really an alien from outer space?”

‘What, what, an alien?’

His words sounded a little strange, but when he thought about it, he couldn’t help but agree with her, thinking that he might be an alien from their point of view.

“Yeees… well, I’m an alien…”

‘Haha, damn it. To be called an alien by an alien…’

Kang Chan, who had suddenly become an alien, made a face as if he had chewed something, and Artheon tried not to lose her composure with an unbelievable face.

“Then why did you come here?”

“I don’t know, but I think I crash-landed.”

“Crash-landed?”

He silently nodded at her question.

“We are an exploration team exploring the vast universe, and while I was in deep sleep for a long space voyage, something happened to our spaceship and it seems that we crash-landed here. After that, as you know, I am here like this…”

In reality, the Red Mars was a battleship, but a battleship is just a ship for combat.

He introduced the Red Mars as just an ordinary spaceship to hide his purpose.

“I see. You were an exploration team from outer space. I understand. Then, for now, please rest in our village until you have fully recovered. When the time comes, we will guide you to the crashed spaceship.”

Kang Chan’s face brightened at the welcome news.

“Thank you so much.”

“Ah! And about the vines that tied your ankles before. Please don’t misunderstand. It wasn’t to keep you locked up, but a trap magic to prevent intruders. After that, we caught you because you seemed too excited, so please understand that.”

“No. I deeply apologize for going crazy and running wild at that time.”

A smile appeared on Artheon’s lips as she looked at the human bowing his head.

“Then stay here and recuperate. Please tell me if you need anything.”

“Thank you for your deep concern.”

With those words, she left him to rest, leaving only one child behind.

“Jaina, take good care of Kwangchan from now on. He is an important guest of our village from now on.”

“Yes?”

Jaina’s expression twisted as if she had chewed something.

* * *

Kang Chan, who ended up staying here, sat at the table and pondered after Artheon left.

He wondered what kind of existence they thought of him.

He was concerned about her unexpected kindness.

Until now, his motto was not to believe in kindness without reason, and his motto had rarely been wrong.

From his point of view, when he looked at humans, there were only two types.

They were enemies and allies.

However, for some reason, they never seemed to treat him as an enemy.

He didn’t know what they were up to, but if they knew what he was going to do to this planet, they would never have spared him.

He was like a robber who broke into a peaceful home with a knife.

But they didn’t.

They were only curious about where he came from and why he came here, but they didn’t seem to know anything about his true purpose in coming here.

A bitter smile appeared on Kang Chan’s face.

As Kang Chan was smiling softly, the door opened quietly and Jaina crept in.

Kang Chan, who was staring at Jaina in disbelief, called her.

“Hey, you.”

Jaina, who was startled, turned her head and looked at Kang Chan and answered.

“Yes?”

“Come here and sit down.”

“Sit down?”

When Kang Chan nodded, Jaina, who was cautiously looking around, slowly approached the table and sat down.

However, she was pretending to be nonchalant and trying to avoid Kang Chan’s gaze.

“Don’t pretend to be nonchalant. It seems like we’ll be seeing each other often, so why don’t we make up now?”

“Yes? Really?”

“Yeah, and if you’re really 95 years old, I apologize for speaking informally.”

Jaina’s expression brightened as if she was relieved that the other person was being friendly.

“I really swear to the spirit of the forest that I am 95 years old.”

“Okay. I’m sorry for judging by appearance. But I look much older than you, so why don’t we just be friends?”

“Friends? But I’m much older than you…”

“I’m taller! Are you going to be friends or not?”

Jaina, startled by Kang Chan’s sudden raised voice, carefully opened her mouth.

“O, okay. I’ll do it.”

“Okay, then from this moment on, we are friends.”

“Uh-huh, I got it… yo.”

The two reached out and shook hands awkwardly, but both couldn’t help but feel like they were losing out.

Kang Chan’s face darkened as he heard the detailed circumstances of how he came to this village through the elf girl he had coaxed into becoming his friend.

The story she told was hard for him to believe.

The elf girl said that he was the sole survivor of a giant ark made of iron that fell from the sky engulfed in flames a year ago.

‘A giant ark made of iron engulfed in flames? That must be the spaceship I came on? Then did the battleship really crash-land?’

It was unbelievable, but looking at himself left alone in this uncivilized village, the story had to be true.

He could never have imagined that these uncivilized people would break into the battleship and kidnap him here.

‘Without the battleship, I can’t continue the mission or contact the main force. Am I supposed to survive alone on this planet until the follow-up team arrives?’

He was just overwhelmed.

He had returned alive from countless battlefields, but this was the first time he had felt so vaguely overwhelmed.

Even if the follow-up team departed right now, it would take at least 20 years to arrive here.

Moreover, the Red Mars he came on was a special battleship made to come to this planet.

It was like a test piece equipped with a super-space navigation system, a special secret that has not yet been put into practical use.

Rebuilding such an exploration ship and the process of arriving here on it…

All of that would not be easy.

The distance from the solar system to the OGLE-2006-BLG-109L system, 5,000 light-years away in the direction of Sagittarius, was not a distance that could be reached in one go even with super-space navigation.

There are also threats from black holes that suck up even space-time and magnetic fields generated from numerous unidentified gas layers in the universe, so with the current technology that cannot cope with such unknown threats, normal navigation and super-space navigation had to be combined hundreds of times.

Fortunately, with the help of the coordinate measurement satellites that the Red Mars left behind at regular intervals while coming here, they could arrive in about 20 years.

Compared to the fact that it took the Red Mars a whopping 40 years to come here.

Kang Chan fell into agony.

Doing nothing and just praying to be rescued and spending as much as 20 years in this uncivilized place was his honest feeling that he wanted to set the sleep capsule to 20 years later and close his eyes comfortably.

‘I was born to fight. Combat is everything in my life. The place where I should die is the battlefield, not a miserable death on this uncivilized planet. I will definitely survive and complete the mission.’

He had no intention of ending his life on an uncivilized planet, so he had to survive. To do so, he desperately needed the help of the elves living here.

That was his only remaining way to survive, knowing nothing and having nothing.

But to do that, he had to thoroughly hide the fact that he was an enemy.

They should never realize his true nature.

Never.