Chapter 145
Chapter 145
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Contact Request, Nowon-gu Hunters (7)
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11.
“……It’s just hard to trust people themselves, you know.”
I let out a sigh of my own.
If only Choi Uk…… if only his 《Clairvoyance》 were here right now.
The absence of the man who’d been the command center of the <Association> felt all the heavier in a moment like this.
Gong Min-young’s plan was simple.
Disguise us as Choi Su-cheol’s group and escort us all the way to the Gangbuk-gu Papal Court.
- They’ll recognize us from our levels or titles, won’t they?
She brushed off my concern about the plan with ease.
- Don’t worry. No one looks me straight in the eye. Hunters, slaves—they’re all too scared and keep their gazes lowered.
It made perfect sense.
You had to focus your mind with the intent to “see” before levels and titles became visible.
“I don’t exactly trust Gong Min-young either…… that woman.”
High risk, high return……
Even when suppressing the gangsters, the biggest help had come from the insider.
I quietly closed my eyes.
What mattered right now…… was saving Do Ye-jin and Choi Uk.
“We don’t have much time. Without Gong Min-young’s help, we’d have to prepare for a siege on Gangbuk-gu.”
Preparing for a siege alone would take an enormous amount of time…… and if Song Chan-un slipped away or went into hiding during that?
The situation would spiral into the worst possible mess.
“It’s not even a high-risk, high-return issue anymore…… We have no choice.”
We had about a week left.
I had to get Do Ye-jin back within that time.
“You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you? No point in me saying anything now……”
Lee Seong-mi gave a feeble smile.
“……But what’s the price? For providing help on this scale. It can’t be small.”
I flinched for a moment.
I don’t know why it startled me so much, but Gong Min-young blew out some cigarette smoke and smirked.
“The price? It’s nothing big. The Lead Hunter oppa agreed to marry me.”
“……What?”
“What?”
“Whoa.”
“Huh?”
Lee Seong-mi and the other Hunters stared back and forth between me and Gong Min-young, as if they couldn’t believe it.
“No, that’s not it.”
Amid the barrage of questions, I hurriedly shook my head.
“Don’t worry. That wasn’t the condition.”
“What do you mean ‘no’? He’s gonna be mine. Same difference.”
Same difference?
Was marriage that simple? Lee Seong-mi shot back.
“You have Ha-kyeong with the Association Leader!”
“Ha-kyeong? Your girlfriend?”
“We…… get along great. Really great. Every time I see her, it’s like a field of flowers blooms.”
Wait, what was this all of a sudden?
“What~? So she’s not officially your girlfriend yet? Nice. Guess I still have a shot.”
Enough, enough.
I pushed away the dizziness with a sigh and waved both hands.
“No. We’ll talk about this properly later. This isn’t the time to joke around.”
Gong Min-young narrowed her eyes and glared at me.
“Hmph…… After I saved your life, you’re gonna wipe your mouth clean and back out?”
A sharp silence fell for a moment.
Was she…… saying she’d stop cooperating? The moment that thought crossed my mind.
“Fine.”
Gong Min-young stepped one step closer to me.
“Oppa will fall head over heels for my charms soon enough.”
“…………?!”
“I’ll teach you slowly…… and gently.”
Her personality was…… incredibly straightforward and bold. The total opposite of Jeong Ha-kyeong.
“……That was all a joke. The real condition is something else.”
That’s when Gong Min-young flashed a smile that looked like it might crumble any second.
An inexplicable silence stretched out.
Gong Min-young finally blew out a puff of cigarette smoke after a long pause.
“Oppa. You have that glowing sword, right?”
And spat out words that were impossible to comprehend.
“Could you kill my mom with it?”
12.
Snowflakes were drifting down over Gangbuk-gu.
“It’s…… truly beautiful.”
Snow blanketing the world in white.
A sign of pure love, without a trace of pretense.
“Isn’t it?”
Hwang Ga-in gazed contentedly at the scene and spoke.
A fierce gust of wind whipped through now and then.
Each time, her black-and-white hair fluttered elegantly.
“Yes, it is.”
When Choi Sin-yul answered politely, Hwang Ga-in turned back with a soft smile.
“I’ve always…… loved winter.”
The observation deck of the old [Dream Forest of Northern Seoul] site.
Once a filming location for dramas and movies, this landmark had transformed after integration into Paradise into a grandiose, ornate [Twin Towers].
“In winter…… I could hide. My body, my face.”
“…….”
“The world just…… called me ugly, pig, stupid bitch…… all sorts of things.”
Hwang Ga-in caressed her lushly beautiful face, her slender yet voluptuously feminine figure.
Then she nestled into Choi Sin-yul’s arms.
“Truly a dream come true.”
In the grace of the Lord who always protected her…… Choi Sin-yul wrapped his left arm around Hwang Ga-in’s back.
“It’s no dream. It’s grace.”
It was truly a gracious miracle.
For such a strong, handsome man to love that Hwang Ga-in……
“Yes…… all by the Lord’s grace.”
Choi Sin-yul began gently caressing Hwang Ga-in’s sensual curves.
Choi Sin-yul.
He’d once been the scion of a famed Korean kendo family, a promising athlete…… but after losing his left eye in an accident, his life had fallen apart, or so he said.
It was Ikilras’s Absolute Sovereign who had pulled the despairing Choi Sin-yul from those depths.
“Ah…….”
Now, any man who saw Hwang Ga-in had one of two reactions.
They were too afraid to even lift their gaze.
Or they fell instantly for her beauty and couldn’t look away.
“Ever since being chosen by Him, my life changed completely. Yours too. Mine too.”
The world hadn’t looked at her, but the Holy Apostles had come to her personally and looked upon her.
The world had scorned and ignored her, but the Holy Apostles had called her [Daughter].
Even now, when she closed her eyes and prayed.
She could feel it—the love of Him, [Ikilras’s White Crown Prince], chilling her heart.
That was precisely why.
For Him.
For His will and His nation.
Hwang Ga-in could do anything. She could become anything.
───Kuuuung.
That’s when the bronze door to the balcony behind her swung open.
“Shrine Maiden.”
Someone entered, tapping the floor with a staff as they walked.
“To grace this humble Papal Court with your presence—such an honor.”
He always wore that slippery smile, his eyes half-closed.
A resplendent robe of pure white.
An ancient tome of Ikilras at his waist, a staff in hand.
It was Pope Song Chan-un.
“Didn’t you knock?”
“Ah, my apologies.”
Song Chan-un.
Perhaps because he’d been a Catholic priest in his former life.
He always had that gentle demeanor and feminine speech.
But……
The madness hidden behind that feminine politeness even unnerved Hwang Ga-in.
“So, what’s the update? Did you get anything out of that [Daughter of the Abyss]?”
“It’d be faster if you saw for yourself. If you’d follow me?”
Hwang Ga-in exchanged glances with Choi Sin-yul, then nodded.
“This way, then.”
Song Chan-un led Hwang Ga-in to the cloud bridge.
And he flashed a smile at the two orphan children trailing him like attendants.
“Now……! Jin-su, Hyeon-jeong. Head back to your quarters. It’s prayer time. You’re not allowed here yet.”
The orphans bowed loyally, their eyes sparkling.
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
As they scampered off, Hwang Ga-in remarked.
“They’re always so obedient.”
Song Chan-un grinned and started across the cloud bridge.
“Children who lost their parents, starving and freezing. Bring them here, give them warm beds and full bellies—what do you think their reaction would be?”
“They’d be grateful, sure.”
“They end up worshipping me like a god. In old Buddhist terms, a living Buddha.”
The three crossed the fully glass-walled cloud bridge to the opposite tower.
“Why bother?”
“Hope is the best fertilizer. Especially the pure hope of children…… Ahh……! Despair comes when hope snaps…… and from that, we can extract even more divine star power.”
The moment they crossed the bridge, the world assaulting their senses shifted.
“Please kill me. Just kill me, please……”
“……Please…… please stop…… pleeeeeease───!”
Instead of quiet, ear-splitting screams and wails. Instead of sweet scents, the stench of blood and rot.
“Still got that rotten taste.”
“My thanks for the high praise.”
The right tower.
This was Song Chan-un’s prayer room.
To be precise, a human body and weapon experimentation lab.
“Pain begets endurance, endurance begets faith.”
“Hmph.”
“They’ve earned the chance to serve His kingdom, the new kingdom and land He shall rule! How joyous!”
Along the top-floor corridor on both sides.
Experimentation labs lined up, screams and stench leaking from the doors.
“Of course you mean that sincerely.”
“Naturally.”
They passed mendicant monks wheeling mobile beds down the hall. Spotting Hwang Ga-in’s group, they prostrated themselves on the floor.
On one bed lay a blood-soaked boy wrapped head to toe in bandages.
The boy’s eyes met Song Chan-un’s, and tears began to flow.
“Po…… Po…… Your Holiness…….”
“Ah…… it’s Su-hyung.”
Song Chan-un called the name naturally and gently stroked the boy’s face.
“Having trouble with your prayers lately?”
“It hurts…… so much…… Your Holiness…… I…….”
“Hurts……, you say. You still haven’t borne fruit, so your devotion in prayer must be lacking.”
Song Chan-un politely gestured to the mendicants.
“Help Su-hyung focus more on his prayers.”
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
The mendicants hurried the bed down the hall.
The boy reached out toward them, sobbing.
“No…… please…… Your Holiness…… Your Holiness……?”
Song Chan-un waved kindly, like a parent bidding farewell to a child, then turned to Hwang Ga-in.
“Oh, and the holy weapons are progressing splendidly.”
Holy weapons.
Weapons Song Chan-un crafted by infusing <Forge> arms with divine power.
These transcendent ‘living weapons’ had brought massive advances to Nowon-gu’s hunts.
No one outside the Pope and his subordinates knew the production method.
“Who cares about that crap. You’ll handle it fine. I asked about that bitch.”
“Night is eternal—why the rush? She just arrived.”
The moment Song Chan-un opened one lab door, Hwang Ga-in snapped open her fan to cover her nose and mouth.
Blood reek…… and the acrid smell of burning flesh…… this was no joke.
Soon, she saw it.
The wretched figure hanging from the ceiling, bound in iron chains.
“Hmm…….”
Hwang Ga-in fanned herself, narrowing her eyes.
“You’ve had your fun with her.”
“Yes~ She made for a most gracious prayer subject.”
The left leg was twisted like wrung rags, flesh and bone shredded…… and from the abdomen, entrails spilled out long.
“Hey, you bastard! Who asked for a freak show? I told you to gut the bitch’s old man.”
Hanging there was none other than the [Daughter of the Abyss], Do Ye-jin.
“I wanted to.”
“And the guy who ‘wanted to’ turned her into this mess, huh?”
“What can I do? She just won’t wake up. Even I’m out of ideas.”
She wouldn’t wake up?
Hwang Ga-in froze at those words.
“You did all this and she still hasn’t woken? For real?”
Song Chan-un gave an apologetic smile.
“Yes. From what I can tell…… her subordinate’s power is blocking her consciousness from returning…….”
“Subordinate power can interfere with that too?”
“Her regeneration is insane, for one. What takes ‘Stars’ Healing’ two hours finishes in twenty minutes.”
Was that granting immunity even to mental damage? Song Chan-un smiled humbly.
“That’s all I know—the details escape me. My faith must still be lacking.”
Hwang Ga-in was starting to get fed up with Song Chan-un’s tone.
“Faith my ass in a case like this…… But seriously. Something I don’t get?”
“What do you mean?”
“The [Nameless Demigod]…… why’d he make his daughter this weak? She’s got jack shit for power.”