Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: Infiltration, Gangbuk-gu Papal Palace Fierce Battle (2)
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3.
Is that even possible……?
No, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.
With cold like this, of course the waterways would be solidly frozen.
“Why the hell are these things frozen? Get on quick, you bastards.”
Gong Min-yeong flung open the car door and snarled viciously. We climbed aboard one by one, heads bowed like prisoners.
“Yeah, that’s right, one by one. Seats are tight…… You, and you, up front with me.”
Lee Sung-mi, Lee Ha-ram, and Ryu Hyun-ji in the back. I was up front with Gong Min-yeong.
The carriage was just like the one in Seodaemun-gu, with front and back seats facing each other.
“Whew…… Feels like I can breathe now, huh?”
No sooner had the carriage started moving.
Gong Min-yeong’s expression and tone flipped 180 degrees.
“Big bro, you’re not mad at me for what I said, right? It was all just for show~ You know.”
From brutal overlord to playful girl. She leaned in close to my face.
“Those guys turn into total idiots because of Song Chan-un. Makes ‘em easy to fool.”
“So?”
“But a little reward kiss wouldn’t hurt, right?”
Is everyone in Nowon-gu insane?
I pushed away her lips closing in with my finger.
“Please……. This isn’t the time.”
“What’s that? Suddenly clamming up and changing your tune? Forgot our deal?”
“……?”
“………?”
“………You’re joking, right?”
Gong Min-yeong stared at me intently.
“Joking, joking~! Tougher nut than I thought. Fine! I’ll show you all my charms later.”
She giggled like a schoolgirl and patted my shoulder.
Then, suddenly, she glanced out the window and shuddered like she was utterly fed up.
“God, this place…… Just too damn cold. I hate it. Used to be warmer than this.”
“Used to be?”
I asked without thinking.
Gong Min-yeong stuffed tobacco into her pipe and shrugged.
“It hasn’t always been…… like this from the start…….”
The one who answered, surprisingly, was Lee Ha-ram.
“Third week of April…… It was just…… normal……. But after the shaman showed up…….”
Song Chan-un.
Maybe to swallow the grief surging up at his name, Lee Ha-ram bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut.
Lee Sung-mi comforted him with her usual gentle expression, and I asked Gong Min-yeong,
“Been wondering since earlier, but did Hwang Ga-in really just appear out of nowhere?”
“Yeah. Maybe she was hiding while giving birth to the god……?”
Giving birth to a god……?
A chill I couldn’t comprehend swept over me again, making me shiver.
Choi Su-cheol earlier too, treating something so absurd like it was normal—it was eerie.
“Th-that…… Wh-what’s a god? What do you mean giving birth to a god……?”
Ryu Hyun-ji asked cautiously.
Gong Min-yeong stared out the window and inhaled her pipe smoke.
“Heard it’s the bloodline of Ikilras. Hwang Ga-in’s holy apostle is this guy called [Ikilras’s White Crown Prince].”
Ikilras’s White Crown Prince?
Hold on. This didn’t match what I knew.
“Isn’t it the Absolute Sovereign? Lead Hunter, right?”
“Absolute Sovereign? Oh, Absolute God……? You don’t know shit. Hwang Ga-in isn’t the one chosen by the Absolute God, big bro.”
What?
Gong Min-yeong grinned, blowing a donut ring of smoke.
“It’s Sword God Choi Sin-yul.”
“Choi Sin-yul? Sword God?”
“Yeah. Cringe-ass nickname, but that’s the god…… Like, god with a g.”
Not an apostle, but a god?
Then there were two gods in the north? My head throbbed—what the hell was going on.
“I’ll tell you about Choi Sin-yul and Hwang Ga-in later. Right now, we need to focus on Song Chan-un.”
I peered out the window.
Then…… Amid the snowstorm, something hanging from a streetlamp swayed side to side.
“What’s that……?”
“A corpse.”
Gong Min-yeong shrugged like it was nothing.
“Song Chan-un’s doing?”
“Song Chan-un? Nah. He plays the nice guy.”
“……!”
“The slaves…… No, citizens all think the Pope’s super nice. The shaman’s the bad one. Carrot and stick, they say.”
Carrot and stick?
They treat people like animals?
“Then it’s Hwang Ga-in’s work?”
“Yeah. That’s how she’s always been. How she’s ruled Nowon-gu…… Gangbuk-gu. For show, y’know.”
Really just for show?
The corpse looked like…… Waste tossed after some grotesque torture.
“Crazy bastard…….”
I muttered without thinking, and Gong Min-yeong flicked ash out the window, murmuring,
“Hwang Ga-in aside, they say Song Chan-un wasn’t always that psycho…….”
“……?”
“Used to be a real~ sweet priest.”
That lunatic……?
Maybe she saw my expression—Gong Min-yeong smirked.
“You don’t buy it either? Me neither. But he was pretty famous as a good cleric. Heard he heard confessions super kindly.”
“And he just turned like that?”
“Guess everyone at the church with him on Collapse Day died.”
Why was that?
For some reason, Kim Gye-sang’s face flashed before my eyes.
No…… It’s different.
Kim Gye-sang didn’t get consumed by that despair. I asked carefully,
“Where’d you hear all that?”
Gong Min-yeong gave a wistful smile from somewhere.
“My mom.”
I couldn’t say a word.
Gong Min-yeong waved her pipe like it was no big deal.
“What’s with you? Let’s talk important stuff. Song Chan-un’s got two unique weapons, at least.”
“Wha……?”
“One’s the holy staff he always carries. The other’s the holy book on his belt.”
Hearing that description.
Song Chan-un’s outfit from Jegi-dong flashed vividly in my mind.
“The staff reflects enemy magic……? Or skills anyway, absorbs ‘em and bounces back.”
“Or brainwashes someone?”
“What? How’d you know?”
I told her about Im Ga-hee, and Gong Min-yeong scowled.
“Im Ga-hee…… That bitch pulled some crazy shit too…… Sigh…… She was just a psychopath. Not a zealot…….”
Gong Min-yeong twirled her finger at her temple and sighed it away.
“All these monster freaks now…… That’s how they got that way.”
“All of them?”
“Yeah. Anyone who resisted or might resist gets dragged to the Papal Palace and turned. They implant bugs in their brains.”
Can’t control ‘em? Turn ‘em into monsters and use ‘em?
Such insane cruelty…… Goosebumps rose all over my body.
“Not you?”
“I’m the one success case. Don’t know how many they experimented on after. But no one like me.”
I had nothing to say.
Gong Min-yeong gave a bitter smile and deeply inhaled the smoke.
“And the holy book…… That’s mostly for summoning spells.”
“Summoning?”
“Seen swarms of rats or demons?”
I sucked in a breath.
“Yeah, figured you have. All those? Song Chan-un’s familiars.”
All that power was Song Chan-un’s?
Impossible…… She grinned at my look.
“Don’t underestimate him. He’s the Pope, after all. Think he controls us like dogs just with that crazy bullshit?”
A foreboding silence fell suddenly.
Gong Min-yeong relit her pipe, and Lee Ha-ram clenched and unclenched his fists silently.
Yeah…… So that’s it.
From how Lee Ha-ram didn’t resist, I knew for sure.
Gong Min-yeong was telling the truth.
Which means…… Everyone here is a victim?
While I thought that.
The carriage, passing Gangbuk-gu’s central waterway, made a sharp curve and stopped.
“Everyone ready?”
“…………!”
“Dunno how it’ll go, but we split into Barrier Team and Song Chan-un Team.”
Barrier Team?
Song Chan-un Team?
“Barrier Team disables the barrier on the Papal Palace roof. Song Chan-un Team grabs Song Chan-un, obviously.”
“Wait…… Why split up? Choi Su-cheol said killing Song Chan-un would drop the barrier.”
I glanced at Lee Ha-ram as I spoke.
“Might. Might not.”
“……?”
“This op’s simple: Kill Song Chan-un, drop the barrier, bounce. Cool with that?”
“……Cool.”
“But if the barrier doesn’t drop after we kill him? Sword God or shaman shows up here, we’re screwed.”
Yeah…… I got it right away.
This op was a blitz.
Once Nowon-gu’s disarmed, our main force from Seodaemun-gu could advance.
“Alright. This is the Papal Palace. Heads up from now on.”
Here we go……
I wiped my sweaty palms on my coat.
“Let’s go.”
Gong Min-yeong opened the door and got out. I followed right after.
And in that moment, I shuddered.
The Snow Palace…… It hit me.
Against a backdrop of snowscape.
Twin spires rose majestically yet ominously.
My gaze locked on the peak of those twin towers.
A pale beam pierced the snowy sky toward the northeast…… Nowon-gu.
Ah, that’s the barrier……
This time, I looked down.
Massive marble walls encircled the twin spire grounds.
“Uncles. I’m here.”
Gong Min-yeong waved and shouted.
To the guards flanking the main gate in the center of the wall.
What the…… Wild beasts?
Two monster hunters in priest robes…… Crouched on all fours.
“Grraaaaaah……?”
They all turned to Gong Min-yeong. She approached, tilting her head.
“What’re you staring at, you ugly old fucks. I’m here, open the damn gate.”
“Grraaaaa…….”
Tension strung tight.
One monster hunter stared right through me……
“Hey, hurry up!”
Clearly not a shred of reason left.
But they obey the Four Great Priests?
The monsters obediently swung open the massive iron gates.
My heart pounded.
Beyond that gate…… Somewhere in those towers…… Song Chan-un…… You’re hiding.
- Someday…… I look forward to meeting you in person.
Yeah…… I’ve come for you.
Right then, it all happened at once.
“W-W-W-Wait just a s-s-s-sec.”
In an instant.
One monster hunter opening the gate froze, then twisted its neck unnaturally, like snapping bone.
“M-M-Min-yeong?”
It stared at Gong Min-yeong, gauging her eyes.
But that voice—wrong.
Like two people speaking at once…… Chills ran down my spine.
That speech…… That voice……!
Gong Min-yeong provocatively blew smoke at it.
“What? Problem?”
“Ch-Ch-Choi S-S-Su-cheol’s R-R-Raid T-T-Team w-w-wasn’t y-y-you……?”
“Right?”
“Ch-Ch-Choi S-S-Su-cheol’s d-d-dead, h-h-how’d y-y-you g-g-get h-h-here?”
As expected……
They knew Choi Su-cheol was dead.
Gong Min-yeong hadn’t lied.
“You knew and still play dumb, you fuck.”
Gong Min-yeong smirked and tucked her pipe into her sleeve pocket.
“Y-Y-You.”
The monster hunter grinned.
“K-K-Knew y-y-you’d c-c-come.”
Right on cue.
Roars of monster rats and demons echoed from everywhere.
“Now, dinner time.”
Gong Min-yeong clapped her hands together.
Like a wolf snapping its jaws.
Targeting the possessed monster hunter.
In that instant.
Space tore, and a monster wolf’s maw burst out, devouring the monster hunter’s upper body.
Blood sprayed in a long arc.
Gong Min-yeong whipped out her staff-sword, spun, and slashed at me.
Precisely, the chains on my wrists.
As the pressure released, she yelled,
“We got this! Go! Don’t let him escape! Miss him now, Gangbuk-gu’s untouchable forever!”
I didn’t waste time with “Got it” or “Can’t leave you.”
As the gates started closing again.
Dawn.
I summoned the Dawn Sword and plunged into the Papal Palace courtyard in a flash of divine light.
Dong…… Dong…… Dong…… Dong……
The emergency bell shattered my eardrums.
And from all sides.
The pursuers’ howls hunting the intruder grew louder.
Damn…… Which way?
In the chaos, I had to hesitate, wasting time.
Kikikikikikikikik──
The twin towers.
Their main gates, the drawbridge iron doors, were closing.
Fifty-fifty odds.
One of the two was right.
Pick wrong, and it’s over.