Faith vs Conviction (3)
Cheonyang-ji’s grand assembly was now only a day away.
Tomorrow, at last.
I was going to settle things with the cult leader once and for all.
But before that, there was one thing I absolutely had to prepare.
I turned into a noisy side street.
This was Insa-dong Antique Street.
Unlike the old days, when it had only dealt in old and rare goods, it had become a black market for illegal merchandise ever since the Gates opened.
I stopped and looked up.
Ungyeok Antiques
It had a refined, elegant air to it.
And if I thought about what was going to happen tomorrow, it felt pretty fitting.
Yeah. Pretty fitting.
I slung a huge military duffel bag with a hollow interior over my shoulder.
Then I opened the door and stepped inside.
The jingle of a bell was followed by a rush of dusty air.
A portrait of Bodhidharma hung on the wall, while brass bowls, porcelain, and old books were piled in untidy mountains.
And among them, I saw a sword.
Since I’d been living the life of a swordsman lately, my interest went there naturally.
Just as I reached for it—
“Whatcha want?”
An old man in a beret popped out from somewhere.
His teeth were stained yellow and his eyes were hollow, so he didn’t exactly look welcoming.
“I’m looking to buy something.”
“Then have a look around.”
The old man puffed on his pipe and blew out a cloud of smoke.
“Not stuff like this. I’m looking for something a little more special.”
The old man caught my eyes, and his own lit up at once as he nodded vigorously.
“You should’ve said so sooner! This way!”
He led me into a darker back room.
With a rattle, he slid open the partition door, and a new world spread out before me.
If the outside had ordinary antiques, then inside was packed with things you’d only expect to see in a dungeon: ancient coins, an elf lantern, a centaur saddle, a dwarf pocket watch.
Among them, I picked up a necklace.
It looked much like the one I’d found in the Orc's Box I’d brought out of the dungeon not long ago.
If this was the real thing, it would be worth tens of billions by itself.
The gemstone set into the necklace caught the overhead light and glittered.
I snorted inwardly.
Fake.
The real thing had a matte surface that wouldn’t even take fingerprints.
But since an antique shop wasn’t a proper auction house, it had no certificate of authenticity, and most of the merchandise was counterfeit.
Of course, the fakes were good enough to fool experts completely.
The old man hissed in admiration and started selling hard.
“Kyah! You picked that right away. You’ve got an eye, all right!”
He got so excited that his words sped up and spit flew everywhere.
“You know the Sotheby’s auction in London? This is the exact same thing that was in the Orc's Box sold there. I think the hammer price was over twenty billion won, wasn’t it?”
As he spoke, he kept sneaking glances at me.
“Normally I’d have to ask for tens of billions, but since there’s no box, I’ll cut it to exactly one hundred million. How’s that?”
It wasn’t even worth answering.
If he knew I was the one who’d walked off with the Orc's Box from this year’s auction, he’d probably faint on the spot.
When I gave no reaction, the haggling began.
“Okay! Since you’re my first sale of the day, special discount! Thirty percent off! Seven million and it’s yours!”
I let out a light sigh.
“Ah, ah! Fine. Fine. I’m in a good mood! Half price! Five million!”
I turned halfway around.
Thinking I’d given up, the old man hurriedly scrambled for a better offer.
“Okay! One million! No, three hundred! That’s it, I can’t go any lower! I really can’t!”
Before the miracle of turning one hundred million into three million,
I tossed the necklace into the air.
Whoosh—
I drew my sword in a flash too fast for the eye to catch, then slid it back into the scabbard.
The necklace, fallen to the ground, split neatly in half.
Inside the center of the gem was a lump of cheap lead.
“Huh?”
The old man stared in confusion, his eyes opening so wide it was almost comical.
“Let’s not waste each other’s time.”
The old man picked up the necklace from the floor.
“Damn it. You’re paying for this. That thing cost fifteen thousand won, you know.”
He brushed the dust off the necklace and looked up.
“So what are you actually looking for?”
I said, “A Black Oni Contemplation Statue.”
Its proper name was a ghoul corpse.
Undead ghouls turned black and died when a silver stake was driven through their hearts.
Because they died with their heads bowed and their bodies curled in on themselves, they’d earned a nickname that made them resemble the Buddha in a contemplative pose.
“...And what exactly are you planning to use that for?”
I hesitated there.
Truth was, the person who’d introduced me to this old man was none other than Simon, the 2nd Apostle.
The old man was clearly the sort who made pocket change by scamming people in Insa-dong.
I had no idea why she’d sent me to someone like him.
...No. Don’t doubt it.
At this point, my most reliable ally in Cheonyang-ji was Simon.
I decided to trust Simon.
“Someone I need to kill. One of the people inside Cheonyang-ji.”
“...”
At the mention of Cheonyang-ji, the old man’s face stiffened.
“You were sent by Hae-na, weren’t you.”
It was a name I didn’t know.
Probably Simon’s real name.
Simon had told me, “If it’s her, she’ll definitely help you.”
The old man set down his pipe.
“Wait here.”
He took a key from his pocket.
“Step aside for a moment.”
Then he pulled back the carpet on the floor.
There was a safe underneath, locked shut.
He opened it with the key, and a black object came into view.
It was the Black Oni Contemplation Statue, shaped like a Buddha.
“I never thought the day would come when I’d use this.”
The old man carefully took it out.
I stood there and looked at the Black Oni Contemplation Statue resting on the floor.
The dead ghoul had its eyes closed and wore a strangely peaceful expression.
“Handle it carefully. That thing’s dangerous as hell.”
“How much?”
“Forget it. Just take it. I’m honestly grateful you’re doing what I couldn’t.”
That was unexpected.
I’d thought he’d be as miserly as I was, but he was handing over a rare item for free.
I took an envelope from inside my jacket.
It was stuffed with fifty-thousand-won bills.
By market value, this should be more than enough.
I set the envelope on the table.
“If it’s not enough, tell me. I’ll give you more.”
The old man didn’t even check the money.
He just kept puffing on his pipe and stared out the window with an empty look in his eyes.
Seen in profile, the old man somehow looked lonely.
I could leave now.
My business here was done.
I probably wouldn’t come back to this place again.
That was why I wanted to ask.
“Who was it?”
It was a sudden question, but the old man understood exactly what I meant.
“My son.”
The old man spoke calmly.
“He even took out loans to pay his tithes. After that, the loan sharks stripped him of everything—including his organs.”
I didn’t need to hear the rest to know what came next.
The old man, who had lost his son to Cheonyang-ji, was quietly dreaming of revenge.
In this dusty little back room.
“Take the money. But please, do it for me too.”
I didn’t touch the envelope.
I put the item into my duffel bag and left the antique shop.
In the early dawn, Jeong Myeong-su climbed into a limousine.
The other Apostles, except for Simon, boarded the separately prepared security vehicles.
From Seoul to Daegu.
The cars kept running without stopping.
The limousine was silent.
Jeong Myeong-su stared out the window and tried to soothe his uneasy heart.
Something feels like it’s going to happen.
Jeong Myeong-su was a dark mage, but he wasn’t a prophet.
Still, his instincts were telling him that something terrible would happen on the day of the grand assembly.
And yet he had pushed ahead with the event anyway.
Was it his pride?
Or was it just a complacent faith in momentum and routine?
Even he didn’t know.
Recently, more than half the Apostles had died, and Yohan, his first disciple, had disappeared.
It was clear that there was a force hostile to him.
Jeong Myeong-su clenched his teeth.
If only you’d show yourself right in front of me!
He was sick to death of an unknown enemy who attacked from the shadows.
He almost wished they’d just come at him head-on.
“We’ve arrived, Cult Leader.”
The driver got out in a hurry and opened the door.
Beyond the window, a grand building spread out before him.
Even though the door was already open, Jeong Myeong-su remained still for a long moment, lost in thought.
At last, with a hardened expression, he stepped forward.
Fine. Let’s see what you’ve got. I’m not going to just keep taking this lying down.
The master of Cheonyang-ji stepped out of the car.
Meanwhile, in front of the stadium in Daegu, a crowd was surging in waves.
“Hoo.”
The breath spilling from my mouth cooled quickly in the air.
I exhaled a white cloud and turned my head.
Thousands of people had already gotten off the long line of buses parked along the roadside.
Impressive.
Tour buses and sedans had been arriving nonstop since two in the morning.
The roads in the area were a complete mess.
Today was Cheonyang-ji’s grand assembly, the day more than one hundred thousand believers had gathered.
I didn’t expect it to be this big.
I’d had a sense of the scale, but seeing it with my own eyes was still startling.
“Brr. It’s cold.”
“Let’s get inside already.”
“How long has it been?”
The Cheonyang-ji believers were wearing robes marked with a peculiar emblem.
On their backs was a cross made of a skull.
What was unusual was that today, the believers wore masks just like the Apostles.
Since this was an event exposed to the press, it was meant to hide their faces and protect their privacy.
Every mask and robe they wore was a pale green.
It symbolized the idea that Cheonyang’s world was a peaceful, grassy plain.
The light-green tide filed into the World Cup Stadium in orderly lines.
Across the road, people standing on the other side shouted at them.
“Go back! Get out of here, Cheonyang-ji!”
“What kind of rally comes all the way to Daegu?”
The Cheonyang-ji event was held at the same place every year.
For that reason, Daegu citizens had no love for Cheonyang-ji.
Since it was a sham religion, it had damaged the city’s image.
There had even been protests, but the mayor of Daegu had announced there was no legal basis to block the stadium rental.
Was that really true?
Seoul had refused to permit Cheonyang-ji’s assemblies.
In exchange for pouring enormous bribes into Daegu’s municipal government, Jeong Myeong-su had built himself a giant nest of his own.
“Get lost, you cult freaks!”
Those opposing the assembly waved their banners.
<Cut out the cult by its roots!>
<Freedom of religion? Give me a break!>
<Cheonyang-ji is a blight on society!>
The police separated both sides and kept the event from turning into a clash.
So far, no trouble.
Then a message crackled through my earpiece.
“This is Simon. Everyone report your positions.”
With Yohan gone, Simon stood at the head of the 12 Apostles.
“Andrew. South is clear.”
“Philip. East is clear too.”
“This is Paul. West is clear.”
Reports came in from the 3rd Apostle to the 5th.
I spoke into the earpiece.
“Judas. North is clear as well.”
That was the area assigned to me.
“Stay alert the entire time the assembly is in progress.”
After entering, I made my way into the stadium with the believers.
As the holy fire blazed, the opening ceremony of the main assembly began in earnest.
To the sound of lively music, countless pale-green balloons soared into the sky.
The believers cheered.
I stood in the northern seats and scanned the surroundings.
I was checking for the possibility that a sniper might be hiding somewhere, waiting to assassinate the cult leader.
My job was to eliminate anyone suspicious the moment they appeared.
Of course, the cult leader always surrounded himself with a magical shield.
Simon stood guard at his side.
If you were a master of Ganro-ryu, you could cut down incoming bullets with your blade.
Apprentices, magic, and personal bodyguards.
They’d built a three-layer defense system.
Thorough. Very thorough.
On the stage, temporary Apostles held their positions.
One hundred in total.
They were mercenaries hired with money.
No matter how much Jeong Myeong-su had bribed the mayor of Daegu, he still had to keep an eye on the government.
So he couldn’t openly bring in firearms.
Instead, he’d ordered the mercenaries to carry swords.
Once the opening declaration was over, the main assembly began.
This was the part where all twenty-four elders gathered together to read out the resolution statement.
They too wore specially made pale-green robes.
“If you believe in Him, you shall go to Cheonyang!”
“We shall have invincible bodies!”
“We shall never die!”
It was the same as the previous service.
The elders taught that they would not die until the cult leader permitted it.
They preached that if you believed in Cheonyang-ji, you could live comfortably until the age of one hundred and twenty and then pass away in peace.
Standing on the white circular stage, the elders raised their voices into the microphones.
“Let us all shout together!”
“To Cheonyang!”
“To Cheonyang!”
The believers joined in one after another, singing in unison.
When the reading of the resolution statement ended, the center of the stage split apart and a massive structure rose up.
A cross with a skull embedded in it.
The same hateful symbol of Cheonyang-ji.
And then—
- Hm? What’s that?
- Who put that thing up there?
The elders’ voices crackled through the earpiece.
And no wonder.
Someone was sitting on top of the skull cross.
I said, “So you really are immortal?”
At the voice pouring out of the radio, they seemed to panic and start flailing about.
- You? ...Who are you?
- What are the Apostles doing?
- Why hasn’t anyone taken that down?
I pressed the button in my hand.
Click.
The Black Oni Contemplation Statue sitting atop the cross opened its eyes.
“Kyaaaah!!!!”
With a scream that could have split eardrums, light erupted from the ghoul corpse.
When mana touched a dead ghoul, it caused a strange kind of explosion.
It drove some of the living beings within a hundred meters to their deaths.
- W-What is that?
- Wait, that’s...
Along with the blast, the Black Oni Contemplation Statue burst open in a spray of light.
The believers stood up and clapped.
They seemed to think this was all part of the stage production.
Smoke drifted away in the wind.
“Kuhhh...”
“Ugh.”
“Nngh...”
The faces of the elders were revealed as their pale-green masks were blown away by the wind.
They looked like old men on the verge of death.
Their hair had gone pure white, and every tooth had fallen out.
Their skin was wrinkled like deflated balloons.
One by one, the elders coughed up blood and collapsed in turn.
Blood spread across the floor like a star with twenty-four horns.
The elders who had shouted of immortality had died instantly.
This was how it worked.
You stuffed the body part of your target into the Black Oni Contemplation Statue’s mouth.
Then, when it exploded, the person whose body part had been placed inside would age at terrifying speed.
The mouth of the Black Oni Contemplation Statue was crammed full of strands of hair from the elders that Simon had procured for me.
Thrown into a panic by the sudden turn of events, the believers sank into chaos.
For the one listening from somewhere, I said into the radio, “You’re next. Cult leader.”