Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 3

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

“Such powerful tree magic? Is that Amari?”

The elves who had been gathered in front of the stranger turned around to see two women standing there.

Judging by the hand extended towards him, the giant tree root that had suddenly sprung up seemed to be her doing.

All the elves bowed deeply to the elf standing behind her.

“We greet you, Arteon.”

The woman, Arteon, who received everyone’s respectful greetings, slowly approached the stranger, and the other elves very politely cleared the way.

She responded to them with a light nod and stood before the stranger, addressing him.

“Stranger, you have finally awakened.”

The elf who spoke to Kang Chan was an exceptionally old woman, even among the elves who maintained their youth for a long time.

She only had a few wrinkles and white hair, but she seemed to be the oldest elf in this village.

“Are you feeling alright?”

Her voice was as warm and comforting as a spring breeze, but the stranger’s face was as cold as a winter storm.

“Hah! Hah! What the hell are you babbling about?”

Exhausted, the stranger glared at the woman who was speaking to him in an incomprehensible language, instead of answering.

He had attempted to escape the crisis, even using the combat mode that exacerbated his pain, but it had ended in failure. He was empty-handed, without a weapon, and his body was bound by tree vines.

A shadow of despair slowly crept over his face.

Then, as if having made up his mind, he looked at the woman babbling in an incomprehensible language with a determined expression.

“Heh heh… This is a damn mess. Ugh, ptooey! To go like this without even putting up a proper fight… It’s frustrating, but Red Mars of our special forces takes no prisoners!”

As he activated the suicide mode at the end of his shout, the suicide poison stored in his body was injected into his heart, rapidly spreading throughout his body.

His face contorted in severe pain.

“Kuh!”

Suddenly, the stranger’s face turned purple, and black blood flowed from his nose and mouth, startling the elves who were watching him. Amari, after checking his condition, shouted.

“He’s ingested poison!”

“Suddenly taking poison…”

The surrounding elves began to stir at the word ‘poison.’

Amidst the commotion, the elf named Arteon calmly reached out her hand to him and shouted.

“Cure.”

A green light descended upon his body, and his complexion, which had turned earthy, gradually returned to normal.

He was passively accepting the slowly approaching death, feeling the pain of his blood vessels burning.

Then, suddenly, he felt his whole body refreshed.

‘Is this poison supposed to make you feel refreshed when you die? Good. But when am I going to die? Am I already dead? I don’t think so…’

Suspicious, he slightly opened his tightly closed eyes and looked around.

He saw the same people he had seen before using the suicide poison, still staring intently at him with expressionless faces.

“What, what is this? Computer. What’s going on?”

-The suicide poison C-13 used in the body has now been completely removed. The cause is unknown.

“What? The poison disappeared? Once C-13 spreads through the blood vessels, no medicine can save you! This is impossible!”

Arteon frowned as she watched Kang Chan talking to the computer and getting excited by himself.

His behavior of talking and getting excited alone seemed strange to her.

Amari and the elves next to her whispered to her.

“Arteon, that human doesn’t seem to be in his right mind.”

“Yeah, he must be crazy to be so strong.”

“Yes, he doesn’t seem normal to me either. And he’s not wearing pants…”

Arteon and Amari’s faces turned red as they glanced down at his unsightly member.

“Well, it doesn’t seem that impressive.”

She said that, but Kang Chan’s member was something that wouldn’t be out of place anywhere.

“Anyway, judging by his attempt to commit suicide, it seems he’s hiding something.”

“From what I heard him say to himself, he seemed to be using a different language than us. I’ll try to communicate with him again using translation magic.”

Arteon mustered her courage again and approached the stranger.

“I have no choice. If the poison doesn’t work, I’ll have to bite off my tongue. That’s better than being tortured to death…”

Having witnessed countless times the sight of captured enemies suffering from cruel torture, unable to die or live, he knew that taking his own life was the easiest way to die.

As he was lost in thought, Arteon spoke to him again.

“Can you understand me?”

The stranger raised his head and looked at the elf.

His face was filled with determination.

“Computer, switch to dialogue sync mode.”

-Switched to dialogue mode sync mode.

‘Stay calm. I can’t give up here. Yes, let’s not lose hope. Computer, find out if that woman’s language can be translated.’

-Yes, I understand. Please wait a moment. Bleep… Bleep… Bleep… I’m sorry. I have searched all 1,469 languages that existed in the solar system, but I cannot find any similarities.

‘A language that’s not even in the computer that stores all of humanity’s languages. Who are these people? Are they not humans who arrived on this planet first? Could they really be aliens living on this planet?’

He recalled the information implanted in his brain chip during the briefing the day before departure.

A thousand years ago, the Korean Astronomical Research Institute in South Korea discovered the OGLE-2006-BLG-109L system, an extrasolar system very similar to the solar system, which caused a stir in the academic world at the time.

And afterwards, this planet ‘Neo Earth,’ discovered by unmanned exploration satellites deployed there, was a planet with conditions very similar to Earth, and scientists said that there was a very high possibility that organic life forms like those on Earth existed.

Five hundred years have already passed since humanity lost its mother planet Earth due to the Last Impact and settled in space.

However, there has still never been a single case of life being discovered in space other than on Earth, so the mission given to the advance team was to confirm whether life existed on Neo Earth other than on Earth.

And if life existed, to find out whether they had an intellectual civilization or not.

The secondary mission to be carried out afterwards was a demolition operation to make this planet the second Earth of the Space Federation UNA (US, NATO, ASIA).

However, even if the people in front of him were truly alien life forms with intellectual civilization, Kang Chan no longer had the strength to continue the operation.

Because he had nothing left.

The warship, weapons, and comrades had all disappeared, and only he had woken up alone in a remote forest village on Neo Earth.

It was truly maddening and frustrating for him.

‘What the hell happened while I was asleep?’

As he was lost in such worries, Arteon extended her jade-like hand and cast a spell on him.

Then, a small cluster of light gathered in her hand and flew towards the stranger, drawing a beautiful shape. The stranger, who had been lost in worries, was startled by the cluster of light flying towards him and screamed.

“Kuh!”

Thinking it was a laser weapon, he thought, ‘I’m going to die!’ and cowered.

But even after a few minutes, he felt no pain in his body.

Confused, he raised his head again and looked up at the strange woman standing in front of him.

‘What is it? It’s nothing. Are these guys making fun of me?’

Feeling like he was being mocked by the other party, anger welled up in his heart.

But that was only for a moment. The moment the strange woman opened her mouth again, he couldn’t hide his surprise.

“Can you hear me now?”

He was startled when the woman, who had only been babbling in a strange language, suddenly spoke the same language as him so fluently.

‘She was definitely speaking a strange language, but she suddenly speaks our language so fluently. Could it be?’

In an instant, the thought that they might not be aliens crossed his mind.

“Are you a human?”

“What is a human? I am an elf, a race that lives in this forest.”

“Elf? I’ve never heard of that race. Then how do you know our language?”

“It is possible through magic.”

“Ma, magic?”

“Yes, don’t you know magic?”

The only magic he knew was the silly tricks like card magic or coin tricks that his colleague Dick showed him whenever he was bored.

Of course, magic and tricks are completely different from the start.

“It’s a high-level mental magic called Speak. It’s a magic that can convey and hear one’s intentions to animals and plants, regardless of language or race. It’s strange that you don’t know magic?”

“I don’t care about magic or anything like that! Hurry up and untie me!”

“That, that guy!”

The eyes of the surrounding elves burned with anger at his arrogant attitude.

A young, insignificant human had been constantly speaking informally and acting arrogantly towards their lord, Arteon.

The elves, who already hated humans, glared at the stranger with stinging anger.

He was used to such hostility, as he had always received it from enemies.

But Arteon’s next words made his head go blank.

“Um, I’m very sorry to interrupt you, but before we talk, could you please put on some pants? We elves also cover what needs to be covered.”

At the elf’s words, spoken with such a refreshing smile, the stranger was momentarily stunned, thinking, ‘What is she talking about?’ and then desperately tried to cover his lower body as he realized that his lower body was incredibly exposed.

Even he, who had lived a life of bloodshed without tears, had a shred of shame.

But his arms, which they had tightly bound, refused his will, and the stranger, unable to control his trembling shoulders due to the overwhelming sense of humiliation, shouted at her with angry eyes.

“Y, you guys took them off! Kuh!”

The stranger suddenly fainted instead of shouting out of boiling anger.

He had been bedridden for a year and his body had become extremely weakened. He had forcibly used combat mode to the limit, and his body was completely exhausted, causing him to faint.

Arteon, looking at the stranger who had lost consciousness, gestured to the elf standing behind her.

Then, the elf woman, with a reddened face, hastily took off her outer garment and covered his lower body.

“Oh dear, he’s lost consciousness again.”

“I wonder where that human came from? The strength he showed earlier was really terrifying.”

“His strength was terrifying, but I’m more curious about his identity.”

“He’s a very suspicious person who carries suicide poison in his body. I think it would be good to isolate him and interrogate him.”

“I don’t know why, but he seemed very anxious. Shouldn’t we reassure him first before asking him questions rather than interrogating him?”

“I understand. Then let’s do that.”

“He might try to commit suicide again, so always have a healing mage on standby next to him.”

Amari nodded slowly and gestured to the elves behind her.

“Move him back to the house.”

“Yes, Amari.”

* * *

Everything was on fire, and everyone was screaming and running in all directions.

Familiar scenery. This was Plant Edai, where the families of the Imperial Army of Mars lived, where I was first put into actual combat after 10 years of hellish physical modification surgery and combat training.

The comrades who were put into the surprise operation with me were all smiling.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying this situation.

They indifferently pointed their guns at the fleeing civilians, seemingly devoid of any feelings of guilt, and pulled the triggers of their railguns [electromagnetic projectile launchers].

Small iron balls accelerated by the rail’s magnetic field began to spew out at them at tremendous speed.

Everyone, young and old, turned into bloody masses, and their bodies scattered in all directions.

No matter how much they were the enemy, they were civilians. I was 12 years old, and the first enemies I had to kill were women and children. What crime had they committed? I was afraid to shoot them.

All the members with me gave me contemptuous looks.

When the instructor repeatedly ordered me in a strong tone, I had no choice but to pull the trigger of the railgun that I had aimed at them.

Then, with a loud noise, the bullets I fired, like the bullets of others, mercilessly turned them into chunks of meat.

After that, I kept pulling the trigger like crazy, and I felt my emotions gradually becoming duller each time I saw them blown apart by the railgun I fired.

I don’t remember how many people I killed at that time, but since that day, people have called us this.

The devils who stained Mars with blood, Red Mars…”