Future Knight

Chapter 26

9. A Dragon in Ennui

Kang Chan brushed off his seat and hurried back to the battleship where he was staying, only leaving words of gratitude for everyone.

He needed time alone to completely internalize the realizations he had gained from the bloody battle with Urkanta.

However, part of the reason he hurried back was definitely due to the incident with Jaina.

Since that day, he had been too embarrassed to see her face.

Their friendship had always been so vague that he felt terribly awkward around her.

As a result, Kang Chan, who was almost clueless in these matters, couldn’t handle his emotions and ended up running away.

Having fled back to the battleship, Kang Chan quickly retreated to the quiet of his room, immersing himself in contemplation to make the realizations his own.

However, thoughts of Jaina kept tormenting him incessantly.

Her bold actions, which he had thought were youthful impulsiveness, and her unexpectedly large chest that pressed against him… He had always thought of her as just a child, but in reality, it was he who had been immature.

“Ah! Damn it! Damn!”

Kang Chan, who had been sitting cross-legged, jumped up and ran out of the battleship like a madman.

He felt that if he stayed inside, the huge battleship would be filled with his dirty desires.

But as he stepped outside, he was greeted by the red evening sunset.

The lonely sunset made his already complicated feelings even more tangled.

“…….”

Kang Chan still couldn’t fully understand his own feelings.

One thing was certain: he desperately wanted to see Jaina.

While he was looking at the sunset and thinking of her,

Jaina was sitting in front of Kang Chan’s empty house, looking at the same sunset.

‘Ah, I’m crazy, I’m really crazy. Why did I do that back then?’

Jaina’s face turned even redder than the sunset as she recalled Kang Chan’s lips touching hers.

At that moment, all she wanted was to convey her feelings to him somehow.

Her love had become so desperate that she needed to tell him, who was so oblivious.

Now, because of what happened yesterday, they might never go back to being the carefree friends they once were.

They might even lose each other as friends forever.

But she had no regrets.

Her feelings were too earnest for that.

‘I don’t want to be a child to him forever.’

Since that day, she had started to change little by little.

* * *

A few more days passed. After steadying his emotions to some extent, Kang Chan devoted himself to training and managed to partially make the realizations from the battle with Urkanta his own.

He had unknowingly grown little by little while clashing with Urkanta in a virtual space countless times.

Then one day,

Kang Chan decided to finally check on the state of the Red Rabbit, something he had been putting off.

There had been various incidents, and he still didn’t want to reveal Zaid’s presence to them, so he pretended not to know and forgot about it. But the Red Rabbit was as vital to him as his own life.

‘Please be safe, Red Rabbit.’

Kang Chan’s anxious footsteps revealed his nervousness.

Soon, he arrived at the entrance of the massive hangar. When Kang Chan placed his hand on the hangar’s recognition device, the enormous hangar door slowly began to open.

Then, the latest combat weapons of the Red Mars, the most elite special forces unit of the Federation, which had been hidden until now, revealed their grandeur.

Small stealth assault ships were fixed to the wall launchers along with nine Sapience units.

At the far end, the massive Zaid stood in silence, showcasing its grandeur as it was secured on the huge launcher.

Zaid.

A pinnacle of the current Federation Defense Force’s mechanical technology, it possessed such tremendous combat power that a single unit was said to be equivalent to a small space battleship.

For Kang Chan, Zaid had been his cherished weapon, almost like a limb, since he was sixteen years old.

Meeting it again felt like reuniting with a brother. With a delighted expression, Kang Chan stroked the cold metal foreleg of Zaid.

“Good to see you, Red Rabbit.”

The adorable name didn’t quite suit the massive Zaid, which was known as the pinnacle of mechanics, but it was a nickname Kang Chan had given out of his affection for it.

Kang Chan deactivated Zaid’s sleep mode and opened the hatch.

As the majestic Zaid’s shoulder part opened, a simple cockpit was revealed.

Kang Chan effortlessly jumped up to the cockpit, which was about five meters high even when crouched, and began checking Zaid’s condition from the pilot’s seat.

Although Zaid boasted the strongest durability in the universe, a thorough check was necessary since it had been on a crashed battleship.

However, as expected, his worries were unfounded. Zaid was so sturdy that he regretted doubting its resilience.

-No issues detected.

“Of course, it’s you.”

Kang Chan grinned and roughly patted Red Rabbit’s sensor master.

Then, leaning back in the cockpit, Kang Chan looked much more relaxed.

He had regained almost all the strength he once had.

Now, if he wanted, he could carry out independent operations.

But he had no desire to do so.

All he wanted now was to forget his mission and stay here with Jaina for a long time.

However, he knew well that it was absolutely impossible.

The future that awaited this planet wouldn’t change just because some time had passed.

Knowing this, Kang Chan felt his heart being torn apart.

It was a painful reality he could never prevent.

‘What should I do from now on? Why did I come here? It would have been better if I hadn’t come in the first place…’

As he agonized over his crumbling beliefs, a stranger’s voice echoed in the hangar.

“Wow! What is all this?”

Startled, Kang Chan quickly stood up and searched for the intruder.

“Who’s there!”

“Hey, hello? Sorry for suddenly barging in like this.”

The intruder was a man with emerald hair and stunning looks.

Judging by his round ears, he didn’t seem to be an elf.

Kang Chan hurriedly pulled out a small electronic pistol from the emergency stash inside Red Rabbit and aimed it at him.

“Who are you? Identify yourself! This place is off-limits!”

To Kang Chan, this was an absolutely secret location that could never be exposed.

With an unknown intruder barging in, his nerves were sharper than a blade.

The intruder laughed heartily and waved his hands playfully.

“Hahaha, identify myself? I’m just the owner of this land.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! This forest is the elves’ territory!”

“Huh? Since when did this forest become the elves’ territory? Hmm, I should ask them. Anyway, oh my legs. Hey, young man. Mind if I sit down?”

The young-looking man’s elderly-like behavior made Kang Chan even more suspicious.

“No! Don’t move! If you try anything funny, I won’t let it slide.”

“Young man, when you get to my age, there’s no place where your bones don’t ache.”

Despite Kang Chan’s warning not to move, the intruder casually sat on a nearby box.

Kang Chan, as a warning, pulled the trigger towards the surrounding area.

A loud gunshot echoed, and a bullet from the small electronic pistol drilled a small hole in the hangar floor.

“That was a warning. Move again, and I’ll blow your head off.”

Kang Chan’s eyes glinted with a deadly intent reminiscent of his special forces days.

But the intruder seemed completely unconcerned with Kang Chan’s deadly glare, focusing only on the bullet hole.

“Oh my! Such a powerful little gun! I can feel a strong electric force, but it’s definitely not a magically operated weapon. How did you make it?”

Despite being warned not to move, the intruder approached the bullet hole and kept poking it with his fingers, excitedly.

Without any hesitation, Kang Chan pulled the trigger again.

Another gunshot echoed.

This time, he aimed not to miss but directly at the intruder’s head.

Yet, something unbelievable happened.

“What! How!”

The bullet, fired with gunpowder and further accelerated by the electronic barrel to a muzzle velocity of Mach 5, spun in the air just before hitting the intruder.

Panicked, Kang Chan pulled the trigger again, but those bullets also stopped in mid-air, spinning around the intruder’s head and chest.

“That’s impossible.”

The intruder, a young man with emerald hair, picked up one of the bullets that had stopped near his head and chest and examined it with great curiosity.

“Oh? Is this the metal slug fired from your little cannon? Impressive, very cool! Its lethality must be remarkable.”

“No way… how did you stop the bullet…?”

Kang Chan couldn’t believe it.

Even though he had encountered various incredible supernatural powers since arriving on this planet, he had rarely been this astonished.

The intruder hadn’t dodged quickly.

Nor had he cast any magic.

He had just stood there, defenseless.

And yet, the bullet hadn’t even touched him, stopping mid-air instead.

“Hey, could you show me that weapon of yours?”

Kang Chan felt an inexplicable fear toward the intruder making such an absurd request, but he overcame it with sheer determination.

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

In an instant, a covering made of micro-machines enveloped his body, and high-frequency blades extended from his hands, glowing red.

Kang Chan had donned his suit and entered combat mode.

The intruder, seeing Kang Chan in his suit, exclaimed again in admiration.

“Oh! That’s quite revolutionary! I can’t feel any magical power in it, yet it moves so fluidly, wrapping around your body as if it’s alive. How does it work?”

“Go to hell and find out!”

Before he even finished speaking, Kang Chan charged at him at full power.

But the intruder watched calmly, remaining completely at ease.

Kang Chan closed the distance in an instant and swung his blade at the intruder’s neck with all his might.

However, it was once again blocked by an invisible wall, causing only a shower of sparks.

Just like with the bullets, the high-frequency blades couldn’t penetrate the invisible barrier.