Damned 13th Regression – 234
by Jessie@AFNCC
<Regression number 13 is damn right, episode 234>
Side Story – The Ninth Destruction.
It’s been 1 month since Babel collapsed.
Joo Gong-hyeok who returned to Earth promised a bright future for humanity.
In consultation with each government compensation and land were paid for hunters and suitable hunters were employed in undeveloped areas and various industries.
And then one day 1 year and 7 months later.
A hunter stopped in front of a road sign in the rebuilt state of Wyoming.
「Route 191 Rock Springs」
“It’s Rock Springs.”
His name is Kane Marquez.
He was a former elite of the Unique City Company’s Special Unit 0.
After confirming his destination Kane walked into Rock Springs.
As he entered the city people’s eyes were focused on him.
Faded armor Dirty hood made from monster skin.
He didn’t even have a properly trimmed beard and looked like a typical retired hunter.
“Hey there. “Hyung Hunter stop for a moment.”
Kane slowly turned around.
Rock Springs Sheriff Hunter wearing a shiny sheriff’s badge approached him.
“What brought you to Rock Springs? “My brother is not a registered hunter in this area.”
“To meet someone I know….”
“who?”
Kane loosened his shoulder straps and took out a photo attached to the inside of his breastplate.
It was a photo of Special Agent 0 and everyone smiling brightly just before killing the Demon King and holding a festival on the 5th floor.
“I’m here to meet Manager Shimada no Osamu Shimada.”
“Where where are you?”
The sheriff’s expression hardened when he saw the man in the photo.
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“Mr. Shimada this person…”
“What happened?”
The sheriff scratched the back of his head.
“He died last month.”
“…yes?”
“Can you see the window over there?”
The sheriff pointed to a round hole on the side of the road.
A dark red spear was stuck in the hole between the buildings.
“I died because I got hit by that thing. “It is said to be the spear thrown by Joo Gong-hyeok in Seoul.”
“….”
Kane who couldn’t forget what he was saying barely came to his senses.
“What about your family? Manager Shimada must have come to Earth with his family.”
“Mr. Shimada’s wife committed suicide a few days later. “I will temporarily take in the child who is left alone.”
The sheriff sighed heavily.
“If we know each other would you like to see our faces? “It’s dinner time so I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“Thank you.”
Kane followed the sheriff helplessly with unfocused eyes.
“Mom I’m here.”
“Is he here?”
As the sheriff entered the house an elderly woman put down a pot and greeted him.
But she soon frowned.
“Who’s behind you?”
“The little official I took charge of a while ago. I guess he’s an acquaintance of my parents. “We’re going to eat dinner together so please bring out another bowl.”
“Excuse me?”
Kane took off his hood and greeted.
“Ayuyu be scared.”
The old man avoided eye contact and entered the kitchen.
His own son was also a hunter but the bloodshed caused by wandering hunters was a source of fear for the worried elderly people.
‘I’m just glad they didn’t kick me out immediately because of my son.’
The sheriff brought the child.
Kane bowed and greeted the child.
“Hello Shinji. “Do you remember me?”
“Uncle Kane?”
“that’s right. “It’s been a while hasn’t it?”
The child sitting at the table did not respond and just played with the spoon.
“Let’s say a prayer of thanks before eating.”
The old man wrapped his hands and prayed.
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Even though the prayer was over the child stayed still for a long time without even touching the stew.
The old man said something as if he was frustrated.
“Your father’s friend is here. “I came here because I was worried about you but it’s not polite to keep your mouth shut like that!”
“Mom stay still.”
The child took a spoonful of stew.
And then he opened his mouth.
“Dad said he wanted to see Uncle Kane.”
“so?”
“Your uncle and old friends.”
The nine-year-old started talking clinking his spoon.
“Dad always said that. He said he was very good at barbell. He also drove a 20m Titan and his weapon was worth 300 yellow coins one of only 10 in the city. “With it they fought against machines and beasts to protect the Earth.”
“….”
It was the same with Kane.
He was the pilot of the silver battle weapon Titan and the equipment he wore was expensive enough to buy an entire company street.
“My dad was so successful at Babel but here he can’t even get a part-time job at a convenience store.”
But on Earth that meant nothing.
The child continued to clink his empty spoon.
“I got fired from my part-time job at the parking lot within a week. The men who were fired from the factory because of Hunter threw stones at their houses. Strange right? It’s not like my dad took it from me. “My dad wants to work but he can’t.”
“…It must have been difficult.”
“I was fine. But I guess Dad had a hard time. I don’t want my mom and me to see this. Everything is so difficult here. “I always drank because I wanted to see my uncle and friends.”
Then the child pressed his eyes with both hands.
“Then my dad died.”
“….”
“My grandfather who was walking down the street swore at my mother and called me a whore who was hanging out with a murderer. My dad was so angry that he screamed causing the windows around him to break and bleeding from his ears. And then here…”
The child touched the center of his chest.
“A spear flew in here and my dad died.”
“…were you with Dad at that time?”
“Huh yes.”
Sigh!
The fork Kane was holding was horribly crumpled.
The sheriff warned as a haze-like energy arose and his coat swelled.
“Hey I understand how you feel but don’t show off in my house.”
“Ugh pitiful thing.”
The meal ended with the old man embracing the child.
After finishing his meal Kane came down the stairs.
Outside the sheriff was waiting smoking a cigarette.
“Because I ate. “Should we go out of town?”
“…yes.”
“Follow me. “I’ll take you there.”
There was no place for dangerous strangers in the city.
The sheriff was also attached to watch over him.
The two people trudged on.
The sheriff opened his mouth taking in the cold air.
“Are you going to take the child?”
Kane hesitated.
“I don’t know. “I wonder if I can afford that.”
“Have you never been to the fief you received from Hunter Headquarters?”
“I’m still looking for my family…”
The sheriff who was smoking a cigarette threw the butt into the sewer.
“I guess I spent all my compensation money looking for my family. The fief must have been in chaos too. “They say that fiefdoms without owners are full of problems.”
“What problem do you mean?”
“You’ll find out when you go.”
As we arrived at the village gate the sheriff leaned his back against the fence.
“Goodbye brother. Honestly I don’t expect to come back again.”
“….”
Kane left the city without saying anything.
A brightly colored billboard was seen near the national highway.
“Our Earth! Let’s save and take care of it with our own hands!”
“Hunter will protect the Earth and sacrifice his body and mind for the advancement of humanity.”
「Hunter Public Interest Development Headquarters Director Joo Gong-hyeok.」
Cough!
The billboard was broken to pieces.
“Damn it….”
Kane took out a fief certificate from his pocket.
[Route 302 Mentone Texas.]
[Hunter Kane Marques Fief. 12 hectares (36300 pyeong).]
It’s time to go home.
To a home that is neither my hometown nor my family.
The man walked with weak steps to a village he did not know.
* * *
“fief? What are you talking about? “There’s nothing like that in our neighborhood.”
Sheriff of Mentone a small town in Texas.
Billy Brooks stabbed Kane in the chest with a stick.
“Stop talking nonsense. “Don’t even think about wandering around my neighborhood.”
“There will be a fief.”
Kane took out the fief certificate.
The sheriff’s face crumpled as he read the warranty.
“What is this? Hey old man!”
A grumpy voice came from the sheriff’s office.
“why!”
“Wasn’t the guy who was captured last time in our local fiefdom the end?”
“I don’t know either! “The country must have taken care of it!”
“shit.”
Sheriff Billy went into the office and checked the land register.
“Kane Marquez Kane Marquez here he is.”
The sheriff frowned.
“Was this a fief too? “Geocham follow me.”
A small town with a total population of less than 200.
When Kane appeared there with the sheriff all eyes were focused.
Most people had a look of caution.
The sheriff also glanced at him.
“Don’t cause an accident. “Do you know what happened to all the people who caused the accident?”
“….”
I know it well.
Summary execution.
You will be killed instantly by a spear flying from the sky.
Outside the village under the hot sun.
After walking for a while along the hills and passes that deviated from the road he stopped at the top of the hill.
“See? “From there to there it’s all your land.”
“My land?”
Kane looked around.
It was a wasteland with nothing but stones and withered trees.
To put it bluntly it is a land that has never been touched by human hands let alone traveled by people.
“What about home?”
“We renovated an empty Baptist church nearby. “I guess that’s it.”
Where the sheriff pointed there was nothing to see but collapsed concrete and rotten trees not even a church.
“That? “A house?”
“…I guess it was left empty for so long that people thought it was empty and demolished it. “Already last year a person who bought rebar and construction materials came and destroyed several empty houses.”
“Is that what you call it? “That’s my house given to me by the institution.”
“Then report it to that agency. “First I’ll bring a tent from the warehouse so you can live there for the time being.”
As the sheriff returned to the village Kane sat helpless in the wasteland.
He knows well that reporting it to the agency is meaningless.
A fief that the Hunters received upon returning to Earth.
They were literally worthless land without an owner.
Every land on Earth has an owner.
All the fertile land in this profitable city has an owner.
The hunters’ fiefdom was just an excuse to match the rewards the hunters received.
‘I tried complaining to change the land.’
I don’t know how long it will take until a new fief is assigned. Months or years.
Like Manager Shimada I might fly to another country whose language I don’t even know.
Kane looked up at the sky.
“What do I do now?”
Plant hunters and talented hunters grew something in their fiefdoms.
But he didn’t know how to do anything.
All Kane knew how to do was kill monsters.
How to effectively kill people and monsters.
At Babel just thinking about that was enough.
“Would a barbell have been good?”
Kane closed his eyes in a shabby tent.
The quiet darkness continued and I could feel eyes looking at him from the darkness.
‘Kane Kane. ‘I want to go home.’
‘When I go to Earth I want to drive my car.’
Phew!
“Hi!”
Flesh was smeared all over Kane’s body.
Same nightmare again.
Javier’s head rolled on the floor.
‘Kane I want to go home too.’
“I’m sorry! Javier I will never think about the barbell again! Sorry! Sorry!”
He cried and gathered Javier’s flesh.
However even though Javier’s flesh was pulled together Javier’s body exploded again.
The arms and legs he had pulled together were scattered and Kane’s face was covered in blood.
He screamed and opened his eyes.
Sunlight coming through the tent.
It was the first morning in the fiefdom for the hunter who saved the Earth.
Kane knelt down and prayed.
“I’m sorry Javier. I’m really sorry. I’ll never want to go back to Babel again. Really. “Forgive me Javier…”
Kane quietly cleared the fief starting the next day.
It was the same as what other hunters I saw while walking around did.
If you had land and no ability there was only one thing you could do.
Kane cultivated the land with infinite stamina and strength.
They uprooted cacti and trees and turned over the ground like an excavator.
He smashed the hill with his fist and blew it away and kicked the rock to shatter it.
It took less than a week to level 36000 pyeong of land.
“…What do we do next?”
If the farmer had seen his fiefdom he would have said that it was not cleared but rather a mess.
Kane is not a farmer.
I just pulled down trees and removed stones as I saw in old school textbooks but I had no basic knowledge about farming.
“After working hard I’m hungry. “I guess I should go to the village.”
He took his money bag and went to the village general store.
The store manager who had piled up a lot of fertilizer answered bluntly.
“satellite? “What are you going to plant?”
“Uh… I mean. “Please give me anything that I can plant now.”
The store manager quietly looked Kane up and down.
His appearance was even more disfigured than before due to the rough work.
“Do you know how much you touched? Melon seeds alone cost $5 for 10 seeds. Orange or grapefruit seedlings grown around here cost as much as $200. “Do you have money?”
Kane became completely dumb.
Even though trees were like that I had no idea that fruit seeds were so expensive.
Kane checked his pockets.
Even with all my assets combined I only had $82.
‘The food was poor today.’
Kane cleared his throat.
“Well at least melon seeds.”
“How much?”
“Just give me 80 dollars worth.”
“Ha what are you going to do with it?”
“I will grow it on my own land.”
The general store owner shook his head as if he was dumbfounded.
“Okay that’s it. Can you see it over there?”
The general store owner pointed to the orange seedlings and seed boxes piled on the fence beyond the window.
“Take it all. And don’t come back again.”
“…Money.”
“There is no need! “Get out of my store right now!”
The general store owner got angry.
“Our store is ruined because of a damn hunter like you! “The store will be closing next month!”
The owner held his head.
“The price of the plague seed remains the same but the price of agricultural products has completely plummeted. One hunter grew a million-pyeong farm by himself so everything including oranges and melons became shit! Fuck so I went to sell fertilizer and Hunter makes fertilizer too. Then what should I do! Oh I’m not the only one who failed. The fertilizer factory guys would have gone bankrupt and all of their orange farm friends would have gone bankrupt. So fucking good! Shipal!”
The owner cursed and took out a drink from the shelf.
“What are you doing! You tunnel killer! “Get out of my store!”
“…”
Kane quietly left the $80 he had and left the store.
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