Future Knight

Chapter 6

After a long period of contemplation, Kang Chan finally concluded that the best way to survive was to cling to these primitive beings and endure for twenty years here.

‘Alright, first I’ll stay here and investigate the life forms on this planet, then I’ll try to contact the main base by sneaking to the crash-landed battleship.’

As he was pondering various schemes, a thunderous noise suddenly erupted from his stomach.

*Grrrrrrr!*

Kang Chan’s back hunched like a shrimp.

“Heck! My stomach, my stomach… What’s happening?”

*Grrrrrrr!*

He hadn’t noticed it due to his constant tension, but for the past year, he had only been eating thin gruel while lying down.

Moreover, having just released a massive amount of waste and exerted tremendous energy, it was natural for him to feel hungry.

For someone who had lived in space all this time, feeling hunger was almost an impossibility.

One pill was enough to stave off hunger all day long.

The pills he consumed were highly concentrated with all the essential nutrients and calories needed for human survival, encapsulated within a triple-layer membrane.

When it was mealtime, the membrane would dissolve in stomach acid, causing the contents to swell upon contact with fluids, thus eliminating hunger and supplying nutrients.

In the vastness of space, preserving food for long periods and cooking it was extremely difficult, which led to the creation of these pills, and they had become a staple for all humanity living in space.

He couldn’t even remember the last time he felt such hunger.

Thanks to those pills, which he had been consuming one each morning out of habit.

To him, hunger was akin to unbearable pain.

“Feeling this kind of pain in my stomach, is this how painful hunger is?”

*Grrrrrrr!*

“Huh!”

As another loud rumble resonated from his agonizing stomach, he hurriedly grabbed a piece of fruit in front of him.

Instinctively, he thought he had to put something in his stomach.

However, even though he picked up the fruit, he didn’t feel an urge to eat it.

He had excellent eyesight.

By the old Earth standards, it would be above 5.0.

The fruit looked increasingly disgusting and repulsive to his eyes.

Unlike the fruits he had only seen in pictures, this one had tiny, fuzzy hairs on its surface.

Kang Chan held the peach with its tiny hairs sticking out and hesitated for a long time.

‘How am I supposed to eat this…?’

His hand, holding the peach, trembled slightly.

He brought the peach to his mouth and pulled it back several times.

Jaina, who was watching him, couldn’t help but chuckle at his behavior.

A grown man struggling to eat a single peach was quite cute.

Unaware of Jaina’s gaze, he gave up on the peach with lots of hairs, set it down slowly, and rummaged through the fruit basket for an easier prey.

But there wasn’t a single fruit in the basket that seemed easier.

All of them either had hairs, hard surfaces, were slippery, or had numerous tiny holes.

“Ugh! Disgusting!”

To the elf Jaina, his behavior was incomprehensible, but for him, who had never encountered plants in his life and was born and raised in space, these unknown organic masses were the epitome of repulsion.

With a trembling hand, he chose the smallest and most manageable fruit rolling around on the table.

It was a raspberry.

Though it was still disgusting, he picked it up because it was the smallest and seemed the easiest to eat.

‘I have no choice. If I want to survive, I have to eat!’

He closed his eyes tightly and tossed a raspberry into his mouth. Then he chewed with all his might.

As the raspberry was crushed by his molars, its unique sweet and sour taste and aroma filled his mouth.

‘What!’

He opened his eyes wide in shock.

“This, this world…”

It suddenly felt as if music was playing in his ears.

The sweet and sour taste and aroma of the raspberry, transmitted through his taste buds to his brain, was electrifying.

Kang Chan shouted loudly.

“Delicious!”

Jaina was startled and flinched when he suddenly shouted, but as usual, he paid no attention to her.

All his senses were focused on the incredible taste of this organic material.

It wasn’t the bland taste of synthetic food.

The fresh raspberry, grown in nature, was a shocking taste he had never experienced in his twenty years of life.

After that, he stuffed every fruit he could get his hands on into his mouth.

He began to devour them greedily, like a beggar who hadn’t eaten for ten days.

*Crunch!* *Munch munch*, *smack smack*, *crunch* *crunch*, *smack smack smack*…

The young elf watched him and clicked her tongue.

‘What’s with this human? He was struggling to eat a moment ago, and now he’s devouring everything like he’s possessed. I can never understand humans.’

Jaina shook her head as she watched him eat fruit as if he didn’t care whether it went into his mouth or his nose.

Kang Chan didn’t have time to care about how Jaina was looking at him.

He just ate the fruit mindlessly, as if he was determined to make up for a lifetime of not eating fruit.

The once plentiful fruit basket was emptied in no time, and Jaina had to sweat and work hard all night to bring him more fruit baskets.

—

In the beautiful meeting hall built atop the largest tree in the elf village, elves and their dwarf allies were having a serious conversation.

“He claims to be from another world. I believe he is telling the truth. His unfamiliar yellow skin, jet-black hair, and eyes are unlike any humans on this continent.”

The elves and dwarves filling the hall began to murmur.

“Oh! So, he’s an alien?”

“It’s ominous… an alien in our forest.”

The ancient sages of the forest, who had withered like old trees, whispered in ominous tones.

“Everyone, please be quiet.”

When Arteon chastised them, the noisy hall instantly fell silent. He then turned to the dwarf lord and spoke again.

“Lord, you personally inspected the crashed ark he came on, so I must ask. Did you sense anything unusual there?”

At Arteon’s words, a gloomy expression spread across the dwarf lord’s face.

“Alas, I have nothing to say. We pride ourselves on being the best at handling metals, yet we can’t even identify the metal used in that ark or how it was joined. The only thing we discovered is that the metal composing the exterior of that massive structure is stronger, tougher, and more heat-resistant than any metal we currently possess.”

Once again, the hall was filled with murmurs.

The various metals possessed by the dwarves were said to include the strongest dragon bone and the mythical metal orichalcum, yet this metal was even stronger, leaving everyone in the meeting hall speechless.

Arteon spoke again.

“The human who came aboard that ark is currently in a very weakened state. It’s understandable, given that he was in a coma for a year. Therefore, I’ve instructed that he focus on recuperating for now. We will continue to observe and monitor him closely, and I will keep you all updated. That concludes my report.”

As she sat down amidst applause from everyone in the hall, the next speaker, known as Rhaesion, stood up. The entire hall focused intently on his face with tense expressions.

The real reason they had gathered was to hear his report.

“Now, we will address the main agenda of the meeting, which concerns the Green Elves. Over the past month, I have gathered various data by monitoring their activities with the Elf Rangers.”

At the mention of the Green Elves, the hall fell silent as if it had been struck dead.

In this heavy silence, the foreheads of the elf lord Arteon and the dwarf lord Gafeld von Craxion trembled slightly.

“We must hope that humans will intervene on our behalf.”

A shadow of concern fell over Arteon’s face as he spoke.

“Hmm, we can only hope.”

The dwarf lord Gafeld von Craxion, praised as the Hammer of the Gods, also wore a dark expression.

—

The next day, the warm and gentle morning sunlight shone on Kang Chan’s eyes, causing him to frown as he woke up. He slowly sat up and looked around him.

The area was littered with fruit peels and seeds.

And beside the bed, an elf girl who had fallen asleep from exhaustion after carrying heavy fruit all night for him was sound asleep.

“Munch munch… Ahh, mmm.”

Seeing Jaina, who had fallen asleep from fatigue after carrying heavy fruits for him all night, made him feel a bit sorry, but he didn’t think to apologize.

Even though he had been in a vegetative state, he had no intention of forgiving the girl who had caused him such an indelible emotional wound.

Kang Chan carefully extracted himself from the bed without waking Jaina and slowly inspected the house.

Since waking up, he hadn’t had the chance to look around due to the constant urgency of the situation, but now, unlike before, he had some leisure to take in his surroundings.

Since he had to stay here for a long time, it was necessary to learn about this world in detail.

‘How on earth was this made?’

The house seemed to have grown naturally from the tree, with no signs of artificial work.

From the bed he had slept in to the dining table and the drawers, everything seemed to be just parts of the tree that had grown into shape.

After marveling at the intriguing structure of the house, Kang Chan stepped outside and was even more astonished.

“…….”

Under the serene blue sky he saw for the first time, emerald leaves were dancing in the breeze under the warm sunlight.

The rich scent of the forest filled his lungs with each breath, making his whole body tingle with exhilaration.

“Is this the scenery of Earth, humanity’s ancestral home, that I’ve only seen in pictures?”

The beauty of nature seen with his own eyes was incomparable to photographs.

His chest tightened with emotion, and he unknowingly teared up.

He thought he had become dried up, living a life without blood or tears, but where did these tears come from…?

He stared at the drop of tear on his fingertip for a long time until it dried.

Throughout the day, Kang Chan grew increasingly irritated by Jaina’s incessant chattering.

Even though she knew he couldn’t understand a word after the magic wore off, the girl didn’t seem to stop talking.

“…….”

Language barriers had never been an issue in his life.

The bio-computer implanted in his brain contained a vast array of languages, allowing him to speak various languages without effort.

Living with the elves, who spoke an unknown language even the bio-computer didn’t know, was exasperating.

However, he couldn’t always go to Arteon to ask for the Speak Magic to be cast on him.

So he made a decision.

He resolved to quickly learn their language.

Moreover, he had heard that all the races living on this continent spoke a common language with only slight dialectal differences.

If he could master the language here, he would have no trouble communicating with other races in everyday conversation.

‘That’s one good thing. Unlike Earth, which has too many languages.’

For the sake of survival and his mission, he had to hasten his acquisition of the language of this planet.

“To survive on this planet, I need to quickly learn their language. Computer, start recording all conversations with them from now on.”

“Yes, understood.”

“I will master it within a month.”

From that day, Kang Chan’s tearful battle with the language began.

No matter the country, the most important aspect of any language is its vocabulary.

Kang Chan grabbed anyone he saw, young or old, and desperately gathered their words by pointing at objects and having them name them.

The words he collected were stored, combined, and organized by the bio-computer, which helped him understand the characteristics and grammatical structure of their language.

Thanks to his intense efforts, within just a month, Kang Chan was able to engage in basic communication with them, albeit awkwardly.

Many elves were astonished by his memorization and comprehension skills.

However, they didn’t realize it was all thanks to the bio-chip in his brain.

For him, memorization was as simple as seeing or hearing something once, with no fear of forgetting it.