Chapter 325: Political Maneuvering (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 325: Political Maneuvering (4)
The atmosphere was shattered.
My mood had soured at the news of a mere priest's clumsy counterattack.
All of it tangled together, making me realize I couldn't take things any further with her.
I had no choice but to call it a night.
Instead of making more progress, I took her home.
In the process, I learned something I hadn't known.
“…So you were still living in the dorms.”
The fact that Elena was still living in the Korea University dormitories.
She had started her life as a Hunter in earnest, but she was still a student at Korea University.
It wasn't unreasonable for her to still be living in the dorms, but… it was a little disappointing.
A woman who lives on her own is a man's unchanging ideal type, after all. Tsk.
“Seoul’s housing prices are incredibly expensive. Monthly rent, long-term deposits, or buying a place—it doesn't matter, they're all terrifying.”
As she said this, Elena shivered, as if truly consumed by fear.
Well… her gesture was a bit exaggerated, but I understood.
The current price of land in Seoul is so high, you can't help but call it insane.
Still, with Elena's current income, she should be able to afford a decent place.
“I do not want to waste so much on rent. Elena will live in the dorm and save money diligently.”
She was more of a penny-pincher than I thought—no, far more.
A deeply filial one, at that.
As she clenched her fists, firming her resolve, her chest swayed along with the movement.
I gave a bitter smile and asked her.
“Are you saving all that money to send to your family in Bulgaria?”
“Correct!”
Her reason for saving money was, from top to bottom, all for her family.
To ensure her family, who had lived their whole lives mired in poverty, would no longer have to live in hunger, she stood in a distant foreign land, facing monsters with a giant shield.
“But at the rate you're earning now, don't you have quite a bit left over even after sending money to your family?”
In reality, her income was by no means small.
Every time we cleared a dungeon, she earned several million won or more.
And when a good artifact or a high-grade mana stone dropped, her earnings would often jump to over ten million won.
We were consistently running four to eight of those dungeons every month.
It was more than enough for her parents and her string of younger siblings to live in comfort.
“I wish you'd spend a little on yourself too, Elena.”
I said it out of a desire for her, the one earning the money, to also enjoy some of that abundance.
But she gently pushed my arm away from hers, pressed her index finger to her lips, and began to scold me with a stern expression.
“Do-jin! That kind of mindset is not right. Do you not know the saying that you must earn while you are young?”
“Uh… I know that one.”
“A Hunter is a job that earns much money. But… we do not know when we might get hurt or die.”
“……”
So that was the reason.
“Elena wants her family to eat their fill until the day they die, even in the future. Even if Elena dies, or gets hurt.”
She was preparing for the distant future.
And she was doing it while imagining the worst possible outcome she could think of: retiring due to injury, or dying in a dungeon.
Right.
She was right, and it was the correct mindset.
After all, being a Hunter is a high-risk profession where income and danger are proportional, a job where you never know when you might die.
Moreover, her position was the one that faced monsters first and closest.
It might not be so strange for someone like her to prepare for her own death in advance.
But there was one thing she was overlooking.
“Elena.”
“Yes, Do-jin.”
“You will never die.”
When I said it with a tone full of conviction, her expression turned stern again.
“Do-jin… that kind of confidence? Arrogance? It is not good.”
It seemed my words came across as overconfidence or arrogance.
But this time, she was wrong.
I pressed my index finger to her lips, just as she had done moments before, and replied.
“As long as I'm here, Elena will never die.”
“Do-jin…”
Elena looked at me with an affectionate expression.
Is this the moment? The pre-goodbye kiss timing…!
Just as I slowly started to bring my face closer to hers.
Suddenly, she opened her mouth and practically swallowed the finger I had pressed against her lips!
Then, a sharp pain.
“Ack!”
Only after I cried out from the intense pain did she release the finger she was biting.
Then she said.
“Do-jin, you have been too arrogant because things are going well recently. You will reflect on this from now on.”
“Kngh…”
That didn't work. Not at all.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
On the way home after seeing Elena into her dorm.
In the end, I did succeed in getting a goodnight kiss.
…Of course, I had to listen to a rather long lecture from her about abandoning my arrogance first.
“Arrogance, huh.”
The word, which just moments ago I'd considered a minor trial on the path to a kiss, now spread subtly through me, like the bitterness that follows the intense sweetness of chocolate.
It was a poignant feeling, as if sharp arrowheads were piercing my heart, which had been calm for the first time in a while.
“Hmm.”
It wasn't a reflection like, ‘Ah, I've been arrogant lately.’
It was just… the thought that I'd been drifting further and further from my original personality recently.
Whenever I felt my personality becoming more and more unrestrained, I had thought it was my original nature, rediscovered by gaining a younger body and shedding the shackles that had suppressed me…
“But lately, I'm not so sure that's all it is…”
My personality has become far too unrestrained to simply dismiss it as that, and it's raising questions.
Impulses exist in everyone's mind.
When you're extremely excited, angry, or happy, and so on.
When your emotions are more intense than usual, you tend to have thoughts like, ‘Should I just go for it?’
But for the most part, it ends as just a thought and doesn't lead to action.
No, to be precise, it shouldn't lead to action.
Because actions and words born of impulse rarely lead to good results or outcomes.
So then, what about my current life?
“…It's extremely impulsive, with no semblance of a plan.”
As I slowly recall the events since I got this body, I'm left with many regrets.
I should have done this then, or that at that other time.
Sometimes I wonder if I really had to go that far.
If I think about it carefully, I can see better paths.
It's to the point where I can't console myself by saying everyone feels that way when they look back on the past.
Countless methods I could have easily thought of even back then, but let slip by.
“Change.”
I am changing.
And change doesn't always happen for the better.
Like a child who was once perfectly good but goes off the rails due to a sudden change in environment and walks a wrong path.
Have I, too, in my craving for the freedom I'd suppressed for so long, crossed the line into self-indulgence?
If so, where did it start to go wrong?
“…That's obvious.”
I lift one of my wrists.
The bracelet, set to be visible only to me, and the two beads hanging from it.
It probably started from here.
To be precise, when I went beyond being ‘One with Aptitude’ and became the ‘Bearer of Karma.’
If what I'm enjoying now is self-indulgence.
“……”
Perhaps this karma…
is eating away at me.
* * *
The Purity Cult, which boasted the second-largest number of followers in Europe after the Vatican Orthodox Church.
Despite this fact, their influence in South Korea was insignificant.
This was because their entry into the country was a step—no, two steps—behind major religious powers like the Vatican Orthodox Church and Buddhism, as well as the various large and small religions that flourished only within Korea.
As with anything, getting a head start is more important than anything else in religion.
The reason being, once someone embraces a religion, they rarely change their minds.
The number of believers in the Purity Cult, which was practically a latecomer, was small compared to other religions.
So, was the Purity Cult's standing in South Korea also minor?
Funnily enough, that wasn't the case.
Despite their small number of followers, their position was better than one might expect.
And the reason for that?
It was because not everyone who sought out the Purity Cult did so solely to protect their chastity.
“How was this week's mass, Chairman?”
“Hmm… It was very good. I feel as if my promiscuous past from my youth has been washed away, if only a little.”
“Haha, that's a relief. I'm sure you will be able to reach the gates of heaven, Chairman.”
“Thank you.”
Among those who sought out the Purity Cult, quite a few came for the purpose of repentance.
To reflect on their debauched or promiscuous pasts, repent, and finally wash away their sins.
And such people were either chaebols or powerful figures.
Why would those who had always acted without restraint suddenly show such behavior so late in life?
That, too, is simple.
Because they could no longer deny the existence of God.
“This is this week's donation.”
“Thank you, as always. The Goddess will be watching over you, Chairman.”
The power to heal wounded bodies and wash away impure energy—divine power.
This power, close to a miracle, made it so that even those who denied God's existence could no longer do so easily.
The existence of these people, who now acknowledged God and believed in an afterlife, secured the Purity Cult's position.
That was also why their church building could be established on a prime piece of land in Gangnam.
“Ah, and I also put in a word with the Association about that brat, Kim Do-jin, we talked about last time.”
“I am indebted to you, Chairman.”
“Indebted? Don't be silly. Just offer up another prayer for me later.”
“I will be sure to do so.”
In the same vein, he was confident he could condemn Kim Do-jin, who had grown arrogant and bared his fangs at the Purity Cult.
“I'll be going now. See you at next week's mass.”
“Please take care on your way out.”
Joo Kyung-tae watched the old tycoon leave the church in a wheelchair pushed by his secretary.
Just moments ago, the man had been talking about repentance and what not, but now he couldn't hold back, reaching out to grope the swaying buttocks of the female secretary walking ahead of him. The sight made Joo Kyung-tae frown instinctively.
But that was only for a moment.
‘It doesn't matter. That sin, too, will return to me as money.’
Having sinned, he would return and hand over another massive donation.
Yes. Just like the thick envelope currently sitting on that table.
After seeing off his important follower… no, his client, Joo Kyung-tae stepped back inside the church.
He asked the apprentice priest who handled various tasks under him.
“Have you called the Magic Tower about installing the magic circles that disappeared?”
“Priest, about that…”
When an excuse came out before a ‘yes,’ he scowled.
“I'm sure I told you this was the most urgent matter to handle… Have you still not done it?”
The building's outer walls felt empty.
This was because all the magic circles protecting the church had vanished due to the actions of that villainous Kim Do-jin.
I had instructed him to coordinate a schedule with the Magic Tower as quickly as possible to have them reinstalled.
At Joo Kyung-tae's angry voice, the apprentice priest frantically waved his hands and shook his head.
“N-No, that's not it, Priest! I did call the Magic Tower.”
At this, his anger subsided slightly.
And in its place, a question arose.
“For someone who did, you don't look very happy.”
In response to the question of why he was making such a face, the apprentice priest struggled to speak.
“W-Well, you see. I called the Magic Tower and brought up the installation of the magic circles, and they said…”
The apprentice priest trailed off mid-sentence.
When Joo Kyung-tae scowled again, he finally continued.
“That a directive had come down… to no longer engage in any transactions with the Purity Cult.”
Kwang!
Before he could even finish, Joo Kyung-tae slammed his hand on the desk and shot to his feet.
He asked in a voice that had grown even colder.
“Who is the blasphemous one who issued such a directive?”
The apprentice priest, shivering once from the cold fury directed at him, squeezed his eyes shut and answered as if shouting.
“Th-They said it was an order that came directly from the T-Tower Lord!”
“Wh-What…!”
At the appearance of a figure far beyond his imagination, Joo Kyung-tae's face instantly contorted.