Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: We Borrowed the Form of Religion to Avoid Becoming Beasts
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*Fwoosh! Click.*
Sitting beside the man, Kanghyeok lit a cigarette and snapped his Zippo lighter shut.
He leaned against the wrecked car, the pistol in his right hand resting on his knee, its barrel aimed at the prone figure.
“Haaah… Gnhh.”
The man groaned and glared at Kanghyeok, but Kanghyeok didn't even glance his way as he exhaled a plume of smoke.
“Don’t get any funny ideas.”
*Sizzle.*
“Hooo!”
Kanghyeok smoked his cigarette, waiting for the man to recover enough to talk.
“Hoooo!”
Why did things feel so tangled?
His mind was already a mess because of William and Iron Mask.
This man, appearing now, was undoubtedly a great source of hope.
But look at his eyes.
To borrow his own turn of phrase, he was staring at Kanghyeok as if he were looking at Satan and the devil himself.
Moreover, having recovered somewhat, the man snatched up his combat knife and tried to swing it at Kanghyeok’s neck.
*Bang!*
“Ghk!”
Kanghyeok shot the blade, sending the knife flying, and gave the man a pathetic look.
“I told you not to get any funny ideas.”
The man clutched his numb wrist, his face contorting.
Moving so suddenly with cracked ribs must have been excruciating.
He staggered and fell back, unleashing a curse along with a groan.
“You… you’ll burn in hell…”
Kanghyeok looked away from him and put the cigarette back to his lips.
“I’ll go when it’s my time.”
Kanghyeok chewed on his lip as he finished the cigarette, then stubbed it out on the ground and spoke.
“Are you one of the Errant Priests?”
“The what now?”
the man asked, his voice laced with confusion.
*‘So he’s not one of the Errant Priests.’*
The Errant Priests weren’t discovered until some time in the future.
It had to be one of two things.
Either this man wasn't a member, or the Errant Priests hadn't been fully formed yet.
Kanghyeok’s gaze shifted to the man’s attire.
He only wore a Roman collar around his neck.
Far from the bulletproof cassock of the priests, he wore a tactical vest and a ridiculous hockey mask.
But what if the Errant Priests hadn't been fully formed yet?
That would explain why he didn't know the name and why he wasn't wearing the proper vestments.
*Hooo!*
Kanghyeok took a deep breath, as if to expel the lingering scent of smoke from his lungs, and spoke.
“Didn’t your Father teach you not to rashly condemn sinners?”
He needed confirmation.
Confirmation that this man was somehow connected to the yet-to-be-formed Errant Priests.
“How… did you know that?”
The reaction he wanted.
But he still wasn’t certain, so he added another remark.
“I know a thing or two about you people.”
“…Who are you?”
“Someone your Father taught you to avoid.”
“…”
Kanghyeok focused on the man’s eyes.
The man's gaze, fixed on Kanghyeok’s clothes, was filled with bewilderment and doubt.
Kanghyeok put a new cigarette to his lips and took out his lighter.
*Click.*
“Hah! I’m with the Company.”
“…What company?”
Kanghyeok met the man’s gaze and bit down on the filter.
“You already know.”
At the word ‘Company,’ the man’s eyes trembled slightly.
It clearly meant he knew of the Company’s existence, which allowed Kanghyeok to be certain of his identity.
A first-generation Errant Priest.
No, they didn't even have a name yet, so it was more accurate to call him a prototype.
“I was told you people wear suits.”
“Circumstances.”
The man’s face twisted into a scowl, but it likely wasn’t from the pain.
“Tch.”
His expression suggested he now understood how Kanghyeok had been able to subdue him.
He had just picked the wrong opponent.
If it hadn’t been Kanghyeok—if it hadn’t been someone from the Company—his combat skills would have been more than enough.
Enough to take down the thugs in this area without them even laying a finger on him.
He was skilled enough to even take on Nobody’s trained subordinates.
“Smoke?”
“I don’t accept things from sinners.”
Kanghyeok looked down at him for a moment, then let out a soft laugh.
“Why am I a sinner?”
The man shot him a contemptuous look and spat out his words.
“I saw with my own two eyes and heard with my own two ears.”
He said he’d seen the bodies.
Kanghyeok had only harmed people here once.
The men who had attacked him in the building where he went to get bullets and a knife.
“Did they tell you that? That it was all my fault?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve got it wrong. They attacked first. I was just trying to get some bullets and a knife.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, and a muscle in his cheek twitched.
“Lies.”
“Why do you believe them but not me?”
“…”
“Because I’m with the Company?”
“…No.”
“Then is it because you don’t want to admit you were fooled by them?”
“…Shut up.”
Kanghyeok smiled silently and offered the cigarette again. But once more, the man refused it.
For a moment, he felt like someone who’d been rejected after offering a hand to a stray animal.
“Suit yourself.”
Kanghyeok put the cigarettes back in his pocket and steadied his breathing.
This felt strange.
He had encountered the Errant Priests a few times and had even fought them.
They had a habit of avoiding Company personnel.
But there were times they had to face each other at gunpoint, and that was only when the Errant Priests deemed a fight unavoidable.
Naturally, their battles were always fierce.
That was the kind of relationship they had.
With the members of the Errant Priests.
So this was the first time he’d ever had a conversation with one at such close range.
“What’s your name?”
“Gabriel.”
And you?
Kanghyeok gave a perfunctory answer to the question thrown by the man's gaze.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Bastard.”
“That’s not your real name either, is it?”
It must have been true, because the man didn’t argue.
Whether it was a codename or a baptismal name, he didn't know, but they always used names like that.
A moment passed.
“Do you people already know a lot about us?”
Gabriel tried not to show it, but his voice was tinged with caution as he spoke. Kanghyeok shook his head.
“No, only I know.”
“How?”
“By chance.”
Gabriel rested the back of his head on the ground and spoke.
“Damn it.”
Kanghyeok scoffed and asked a question he had been curious about for a long time.
“What is your organization’s purpose?”
No one had ever figured out the true purpose of the Errant Priests.
Even the Company didn't know, as they had stopped their investigation midway.
So, if Gabriel answered, Kanghyeok would be the first to find out.
“We don’t have a clear, overarching purpose.”
“Really?”
Gabriel’s eyes seemed to deepen as if gazing at the stars in the night sky, and his lips parted.
“It’s close to martyrdom. We want to make the world a slightly better place by eliminating the wicked.”
“Since when did martyrdom become murder?”
“Because it’s done with a spirit of sacrifice. We’re aware that we’re sinning. That’s why we…”
Gabriel trailed off, touching the Roman collar around his neck.
“We borrowed the form of religion to avoid becoming beasts.”
Kanghyeok didn’t reply.
Their mentality was difficult to comprehend.
Still, he thought he understood why they wore clerical clothing, why they acted as vigilantes, and why they targeted specific individuals.
If that was the case…
“You’ve been active here for a while, haven’t you?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because the men who attacked me seemed to be afraid of something.”
Gabriel belonged to a group that despised sinners.
In a place rife with sin, perhaps the best thing he could do was act as a vigilante.
That would explain why the arms dealers didn’t draw their weapons even when their lives were on the line.
“The people here are afraid of you.”
“Damn it, is everyone in the Company like you?”
“It’s a world of people. Everyone’s different.”
Just thinking of Leila and William, who were in the same company, they were distinctly different from him.
Kanghyeok met Gabriel’s gaze and spoke in a low voice.
“Give me your information on Iron Mask.”
“What if I don’t know anything?”
“You’ve been active here. You have to know.”
To be precise, a member of the Errant Priests couldn't possibly not know.
Perhaps, like Kanghyeok, he had come here to pursue Iron Mask from the very beginning.
“Tch.”
Gabriel twisted his lips and thrust a hand into the pocket of his tactical vest.
There was no killing intent, nor did it seem like he was about to attack, so Kanghyeok waited for his hand to emerge from the pocket.
“Take it.”
Kanghyeok took the photograph from Gabriel’s hand and examined it in the light of his lighter.
“Their base of operations?”
“Not exactly. It’s one of their warehouses.”
Kanghyeok narrowed his eyes and rubbed his mouth.
This much?
Three warehouses.
The photos were taken at night, so the background wasn't clearly visible.
But he could estimate the size of the warehouses by the height of the armed man in the picture.
*‘They’re too big.’*
The man in the photo looked tiny.
They were nearly the size of logistics warehouses, and there were three of them.
If it were a single building three times the size, he might have been able to handle it alone.
But the problem was that the space was divided into three separate locations.
What if the information he wanted wasn’t in the first warehouse he chose?
What if it was in another one?
They would try to destroy the evidence.
Then he would have to wander aimlessly again, searching for more information on them.
“I have another team member.”
The moment Kanghyeok looked at him, Gabriel continued in a strained voice.
“The two of us were originally going to handle it. But as you can see, that’s become difficult. You have to help.”
His tone was strange, somewhere between a request and a command.
“Do you trust me?”
“Not completely. But I can’t let you steal what I was chasing first. We will be the ones to judge them.”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened, as if issuing a warning.
But that was the same as saying he and his partner would help Kanghyeok.
Kanghyeok raised one corner of his mouth in a faint smile and handed the photo back.
“Will you be able to fight?”
“Not today.”
Gabriel said wearily, clutching his chest.
His face contorted in pain, and he let out a sigh-like groan.
Even with a tactical vest, he had taken multiple bullets.
The pain must be excruciating.
“But I can fight tomorrow.”
Despite having injuries that would require at least four weeks to heal, Gabriel spoke with confidence.
He had something to rely on, and Kanghyeok already knew what it was.
“Don’t overdo it with the morphine.”
A powerful painkiller, but a drug nonetheless.
Addiction would leave him rail-thin, like skin stretched over bone, a junkie shivering even in the middle of summer.
Anyone who knew history knew how many junkies flooded the streets after World War II.
“I’m prepared for the side effects.”
Gabriel sucked in his lips and turned his head toward Kanghyeok.
“Why are you after them?”
“There’s something I need to find out.”
“Is this a Company operation?”
“It’s personal. What about you?”
The fact that Gabriel had targeted them meant he had uncovered some of their evil deeds.
If it were just about arms dealing, it wouldn't make sense for him to be hunting them down.
Even the men who sold Kanghyeok bullets and a knife were still alive and doing business.
There had to be another reason, and he was curious to know what it was.
“I was going to show you anyway.”
Gabriel took another photograph from his pocket and handed it over.
This one was folded in half.
As Kanghyeok moved to unfold it, Gabriel shook his head and spoke.
“Not now. Open it when you’re ready.”
What in the world could it be?
When Kanghyeok looked at Gabriel, the man’s eyes were vicious as he spat out his words.
“They are vile sinners. Be here tomorrow, same time.”
Kanghyeok nodded.
Three warehouses, three combatants.
If each person took one warehouse, eliminated the hostiles, and collected information, they would definitely get results.
“Don’t be late.”
Gabriel gasped for breath as he pushed himself up.
Then, he walked away with labored steps.
Kanghyeok watched until he was out of sight, then unfolded the photograph.
“Son of a bitch.”
He muttered a low curse.
He couldn’t help it.