27
Chapter 27
For a while, the Pastor, the Monk, and I continued our conversation.
We discussed what numerological significance the magic runes might hold, and what meaning there could be behind the blood spilled from my right hand injuring the monster. However, I soon found myself losing interest.
The parts I had ignored, fixated solely on the idea that there were 25 types of magic, slowly began to resurface.
"Well, I can accept the amusing speculation that a 5x5 grid with 25 spaces could mean 25 types of magic. But aren't we assigning way too much meaning to a single Hand magic rune?"
"That's true."
"Since imagining and expressing it in words seems fine, we should look into the magic runes that Shin Na-in and Lee Se-jun saw as well."
"Ugh..."
Pastor Park Yo-han couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.
Right. We all knew there were too many logical leaps. We thought it sounded plausible because we were forcing the pieces to fit, but with a cool head, its limits were obvious.
The Pastor was especially excited about the part where the blood from my right hand dealt damage to the monster, going on and on about the power of the Lord. Looking back now, I wondered if he was the most mystically inclined among us.
Monk Cheong-hwi also quietly pressed his palms together in reflection.
"Hmm. I certainly may have been too hasty. While walking in the dark, we should be wary of missteps, but I almost became like a moth darting into the first flicker of light I saw. I forgot that these magic runes were discovered alongside bizarre creatures, and by obsessing over the meaning of the numbers, I neglected to guard against their inherent danger."
"Let's just forget about the right hand and left hand for now. Won't those smart foreign folks who came to Pyeongtaek figure something out? They probably know more about this cursed stuff than we do."
"Well, if that Shaman, Bosal Geulmun, were still alive, he might have figured something out from the numbers. Since he was a guy who boasted about reading fortunes, he probably would have intuitively grasped the numerology."
Above all, we needed to know if the Hand Line magic runes actually held any numerological significance.
A thought crept into my mind, wondering if it was even okay to believe in numerology. I also questioned whether it made sense for it to align with human occultism in the first place. So, we refrained from excessive speculation and deduction, focusing on other aspects instead.
Namely, the intuition I had felt.
What was unique was that neither the Pastor nor the Monk doubted my statement.
"From what I've seen, you're possessed by magic. You're not the type to lie about something like this. Though we do need to filter out some of what you say."
"No matter how hard a person tries to deceive themselves, it is difficult to hide their true desires."
We decided our thinking had been too focused on numbers. Rather than looking for meaning in the magic runes themselves, we chose to find it in the most reliable physical evidence. Through magic.
The point was to avoid putting our amateur occultist heads together and coming to the wrong conclusion, and instead think only about the concrete facts like people who had actual combat experience.
"Hey, Baek Jemin. For the Hand Line, you instantly got the intuition—bam!—that it's a magic symbolizing human intelligence. Was it like that when you learned Alteration-type Magic too?"
"It was similar for the Eye Line. Though the situation around me when I awakened was so shocking that it didn't really show."
Who could have known that Han Myeong-un, who was standing night watch with me, would overcome the age gap and end up making out with a couple, getting all tangled up with them?
When I first saw them, my legs gave out, and their appearance and ecology were still absolutely terrifying. If it weren't for learning magic runes, they were creatures I'd never want to encounter.
Reminiscing about the past, we discussed the principles of magic.
As we did, the difference between Dogma-type Magic, which depended on religious faith, and Alteration-type Magic, which utilized the human body, became much clearer.
"What? So you're saying that messing around and raising hell with your left hand wasn't to focus your mind, but a condition to activate the magic?"
"Then did you think I was fucking crazy and shot my own left hand?"
"Either way, you're a crazy bastard!"
As the Pastor yelled and glared, Monk Cheong-hwi raised his body, showing us both his palms with a calm smile.
"More importantly, did you say it was Stage 2 of the Eye magic? It's fascinating that you activate the spell to bind an opponent caught in your field of vision with the logic that 'time is relative, and because my pain is the longest, I share that time.' It's very solipsistic..."
"An arrogant perspective. Fitting for an incantation user."
Pastor Park Yo-han stared at me with a subtle gaze, his arms crossed, before eventually shaking his head.
Like that, the three of us guessed what each line symbolized based on my practical intuition and understanding, rather than something like numerology.
"Since the Hand Line is said to be the beginning of humanity's evolution into the lords of creation and a symbol of it, it means human intelligence. I believe the underlying logic is that the righteous right hand of humans, the lords of creation, can defeat monsters that seem to blaspheme humanity."
"Then the Eye Line is... seeing. Senses? Hmm. It would be cognitive ability. As Baek Jemin mentioned, sight has the greatest influence on how humans perceive the world. Seeing and feeling. Look at it. It's to the point where the act of seeing is separated from the other five senses. Because the most certain way we perceive objects is by seeing them. Besides."
"Besides?"
"Well, what about it. There's a theory that the eyes originate from the brain. Since perception ultimately comes down to the human mind, we can say the Eye Line magic is deeply related to the brain."
"Pastor, you're more scientific than I thought."
More than anything, I didn't know the Pastor had such an interest in these things.
He didn't seem like the same person who, just a moment ago, was spitting as he babbled about splitting 25 into 2 and 5 to make the perfect number 7. I never thought I'd see the day the Pastor would appear so rational and scientific.
"You brat, rationality originally refers to the Lord's harmonious providence. The idea that humanity evolved from apes is clearly nonsense because of the missing link, but proper inquiry into the human form, modeled after the Lord, and its physical body can be seen as part of an attempt to understand Him."
"Pastor, then do you not believe in dinosaurs?"
"Of course I do. Their bones were found. Do you know why they died from a meteorite? Because they didn't believe in the Lord, so keep that in mind."
I had wondered if he might be an imitating Amalgam, but thankfully he wasn't.
The Pastor's story about how God punished them with stones before punishing them with fire and water began to play softly like background music. There, the Monk and I made eye contact.
"Why don't you ask Shin Na-in and Lee Se-jun if they had the same experience. It seems you haven't talked with them much."
***
Our first meeting on February 22, 2028, ended just like that.
Harboring the amusing but baseless hope of 25 types of magic, I decided to spend the remaining time meeting with Shin Na-in and Lee Se-jun to talk.
Shin Na-in had his earphones plugged in, singing a church hymn while tapping the electronic piano keyboard. Perhaps he was touched by his own singing, as he shed tears and soon clasped his hands together in prayer.
"Almighty Lord God... Speak only the words that will make me repent for failing to show a pure heart after vowing to serve You. I shall soon recover."
"Hey. Shit-head."
I placed a hand on his shoulder to snap him out of it before he could fall into a trance.
I had waited 20 minutes in front of the bathroom stall while this bastard was in there controlling his sphincter with his earphones in and singing songs, so I figured I had the right to steal 20 minutes of his prayer time.
That was how we were able to talk about the magic runes.
"It's amazing that you had a similar experience, Mr. Baek Jemin. The eyes are perception, and the hands are intelligence. If so, I will explain in as much detail as possible about the guidance the Lord provides through the ears."
"No, it's fine. Short and concise. Just the main points."
Shin Na-in was surprisingly diligent in these matters, so he actually kept it short and concise, giving me only the main points.
"The ear is a massive harmony. A melody that guides humanity... 'Destiny ordained by the Lord' might be a fitting term. Within that melody, even the voices in people's hearts become part of the harmony, and only the cries of monsters are subtly jarring."
It was a truly idiotic explanation, but I let it slide since it was clearly an effort by Shin Na-in's standards.
Since drawing the magic runes directly would cause problems, we focused on exchanging words and visualizing them in our minds. Thanks to that, I got a rough idea of what the Hearing Line magic rune looked like.
The Hearing Line magic rune was a vertically long oval with four horizontal parallel lines drawn across it.
I inadvertently recalled that numerology stuff and compared them, but no matter how I looked at it, it didn't seem to have anything to do with the number 7, so a chuckle escaped me. As expected, it was just entertaining nonsense.
"I'm leaving, shit-head. Pray hard."
"Let's sit and pray together, Mr. Baek Jemin. The Lord is one who strives to save lost lambs. I do the same."
"You giving out military notes?"
"How much would you like?"
Since he was actually going to give me some, I quickly tried to slip away.
Then, something strange occurred to me, and I looked back at Shin Na-in.
"Shit-head. Come to think of it, the Pastor didn't make the sign of the cross, so why did you do it back then?"
"Back when...?"
"At Suwon Station. When you took the Drone Operator's device."
....
At that, Shin Na-in's expression rapidly hardened.
As if he had killed a person, he avoided my gaze with a pale face and trembling eyes, looking like a criminal who had committed a cardinal sin. Then, Shin Na-in finally let out a deep sigh.
"I've been caught."
As soon as I heard those words, a sense of foreboding washed over me, and I instinctively took a step back.
Was this bastard... possessed by a monster and under its control?
Or had his body been stolen by Priest Jeong Yong-hwan?
Just as I was debating whether to scream, Shin Na-in revealed his true identity.
"Actually, I am someone who even completed the Catholic sacrament of confirmation. My baptismal name was Dae-geon Andrea. Looking back, it's utterly shameful."
"What? You?"
"Yes. I almost missed the salvation within the church by falling for the wicked schemes of the Antichrist Pope."
And so, the truth about Shin Na-in was revealed.
Born into a Catholic family as a believer from the womb, Shin Na-in was a devout follower. However, he grew furious at the Catholic Church's move to indigenousize by allowing ancestral rites and being lenient toward shamanism and other religions, eventually converting to Protestantism to become a true Christian.
"Salvation lies only within the church. Knowing this, the Catholic Church, which leaves those who are misguided by other religions alone, is truly the greatest of heretics, the messengers of the Antichrist! To think I couldn't shake off the habits of that time and made the sign of the cross, which isn't even written in the Bible...! It's proof that my faith is still lacking!!!"
"Right. Pray hard."
I left Shin Na-in behind and went to meet Lee Se-jun.
Lee Se-jun was sitting on his mattress in his quarters, cleaning his firearm, currently wiping the inside of the muzzle with a cleaning rod.
"Mr. Se-jun. Let me borrow the cleaning rod when you're done."
"Sure. I left the oil out, so feel free to use it next to me."
Finally looking like he'd had some proper rest, Lee Se-jun appeared more relaxed, like a next-door neighbor rather than a staff sergeant.
I plopped down in front of him and brought up the topic of magic runes.
I explained that from my recent conversation with the Pastor and the Monk, we were trying to figure out what aspects of humanity each line of magic symbolized. I asked if he had any enlightenment when learning the Heart Line.
Lee Se-jun then stopped cleaning his gun, tapped the barrel with his oil-stained hands, tilted his head, and squeezed out an answer as if he were struggling to grasp at a clue.
"The heart is... life. It could also be existence. The magic rune was just a single circle with a line drawn straight through it. There was a horizontal line inside the circle, but nothing else to it."
"Did you also see it through the fog, Mr. Lee Se-jun? It was a different shape until then. How did you awaken Stage 2?"
"When I was feeling extremely depressed about the fact that I wasn't being helpful... I opened the booklet just in case, and the Heart magic rune happened to appear. At that time, hmm, how should I put this..."
Lee Se-jun wasn't very good at explaining, but I could roughly understand him.
It seemed he had awakened to Stage 2 accompanied by negative and depressing emotions, which made me think Shin Na-in might have reached Stage 2 in a similar way. The ability to distinguish people's inner voices when focusing and the ability to hear monsters' inner voices looked a bit different.
However, it didn't seem like both the Hearing and Heart Lines had vastly different effects for each stage like the Eye Line did.
"I learned a lot thanks to you, Mr. Se-jun. I'll go get my gun, so wait a sec."
"Mr. Baek Jemin, looking at it now, you just came here to do this because you didn't want to clean your own room, right?"
"Survival rates are higher when we go on missions together."
"Geez."
Lee Se-jun was annoyed but let it slide.
It wasn't like Operators had to fight alongside the soldiers. He could have easily taken a relaxed rear-support mission like the Pastor, who was slacking off in Pyeongtaek, but people were truly foolish. Since his goal was to fight monsters, he seemed intent on volunteering for frontline missions despite trembling in fear.
With that, I brought my standard-issue K2 Rifle and cleaned it while making small talk with Lee Se-jun.
"Come to think of it, I heard there's an upgrade option for the K2? The one active-duty guys use. Is that an active-duty thing?"
"Yes. I switched to the K2C1 a long time ago. Are you still using the regular K2, Mr. Baek Jemin?"
"I tried using an American gun, but it was expensive."
"Well. Considering ammunition resupply, you should. American firearms companies might hand them out as promotions, but it's an event that could end on a whim. Once you get a taste for it, you won't be able to handle the resupply. Quietly following the military standard and getting supplied is the best option."
Aside from his occasional lack of tact, Lee Se-jun was quite a decent person among our Supreme Mages.
The fanatical Protestant Pastor Park Yo-han. Monk Cheong-hwi, who was so deep in quiet meditation that he was hard to approach. Hamza, who vanished like a ghost. And the shit-head Shin Na-in.
Compared to these eccentric individuals, Lee Se-jun and I shared quite a lot of emotional similarities. In particular, we had a strong mutual understanding as people who had lived ordinary, secular lives without being religious.
That was why I couldn't help but ask this question.
"Normally, after getting assigned to a long-term deployment, people would curse the country and call it a fucking joke, so why are you working so hard?"
"I was a basic living subsidy recipient. I grew up on the country's money and enlisted."
Clack.
After finishing assembling the firearm, Lee Se-jun aimed it at the ceiling, inspected it this way and that, then raised an eyebrow and looked at me with a smirk.
"Even if the country threw it at me without much thought, even if they treat me like an idiot. I, Lee Se-jun, do not forget the favors I receive. A person should have loyalty. Right?"
"Then you won't forget the favor of me saving your life either, right?"
"I remembered that and cleaned the gun with you, fully prepared to clean your room."
This guy's math is weird.
***
February 27, 2028, 9:17 AM.
We, the Supreme Mages, spent our time regrouping, each doing our best in our own way.
The Pastor said he was heading back to Pyeongtaek to explore the occult with the Yankees, the Monk headed to the medical ward to calm the soldiers who were injured or suffering from aftereffects, Hamza went to the command post and became a master at taking ID photos, and the three of us Alteration-types were tied to a team and maintained a standby status in exchange for 3 Military Notes per person per day.
In the meantime, new faces began to appear one after another at the Suwon City Hall CP. They were Civilian Operators who had joined, guided by Captain Kim Ho-un and First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi.
To our Alteration-type trio, who had been spending time slouching in the lobby, the sight of their ranks was quite a shock.
"What's that? Why are they wearing the Taegeukgi like capes?"
"What are you talking about? Who would wear the Taegeukgi like a cape..."
Lee Se-jun felt the same bewilderment I did.
Four men and two women in their thirties and forties, wrapped in the Taegeukgi as if cloaking their upper bodies, were entering with their chests puffed out proudly. Like conquering generals. Near the four trigrams of these Taegeukgi flags, crosses were drawn densely, which gave a rough guess as to what religion they might belong to.
Only Shin Na-in greeted their appearance with a satisfied smile.
"Do not arrogantly step forward alone to defeat evil, but gather your strength with many. It seems it has happened according to those words. How reassuring."
At this moment, I was relieved by the fact that our Civilian Operators didn't need to get along with each other.
First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi, who noticed us, approached and whispered the name of their organization, which cemented my thoughts even further.
[Taegeuk Jesus Descent Eastern Academy].
At the dizzying name that sent a thrilling shiver down my spine, I hastily turned my head away. First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi seemed to understand the creepiness I felt, as he added a follow-up.
"The command post won't tie different organizations together, so you can rest assured."
Leaving those words behind and watching First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi go to guide the Taegeuk Jesus Descent Eastern Academy to the gear station, I realized once again how precarious South Korea was.
To think they had to drag even people like them here, South Korea.
In the face of an existential crisis, my mind, which had been solely obsessed with magic until now, turned ice cold. I stopped slouching, stood up, and patted the backs of Shin Na-in and Lee Se-jun.
"Gentlemen, let's go. I feel like being a bit patriotic today."
"Huh? You, Mr. Baek Jemin?"
"Haa...."
"Yes."
Instead of a thirst for exploring magic, I spoke to the two of them with a sense of crisis that might be the first in my life.
"I want to fucking be patriotic right now, so let's hurry up and go."
End