Chapter 94.1
"Cult Leader, wake up."
"Why...."
"You have to go to school. It's already eight o'clock."
Thud!
"Ouch."
I hastily got up and fell off the bed. With a groggy mind from lack of sleep, I looked at Ji-Ah, who was in front of me. Eventually, I realized that today was the weekend.
"It's the weekend today. Why would I go to school?"
"Because you didn't wake up, I had to lie... I'm sorry. Anyway, I'm glad you're awake."
"....Why did you wake me up?"
"As you may know, there's an executive meeting today. You have to go quickly."
Forcing myself to wake up from my dazed state, I looked up at the clock on the wall. It was eight in the morning. As far as I knew, the executive meeting was going to be held at six o'clock. Not six in the morning, but six in the evening.
"There's still plenty of time. Why did you wake me up so urgently? Ugh...."
I touched my knee, which had hit the floor when I fell off the bed and got up from my seat. Sleep had long escaped me. Ji-Ah, with her hands clasped together, quietly mumbled, “I’m not entirely sure about the details either, but Teacher said that it was absolutely better to go early.”
“Uncle said that? ...Alright, I got it.”
I didn’t know why, but if Uncle said that, then it was worth trusting him. When Uncle used the term ‘absolute,’ it meant that he was really confident. Of course, that didn't mean that I couldn't trust Ji-Ah. Since I had spent such a long time with my uncle, I couldn’t help but trust Uncle's words more than hers.
After quickly completing my preparations, I left the underground chapel along with Ji-Ah. I got into the car that Uncle had parked. As always, Ji-Ah sat in the passenger seat, and I sat in the back seat.
The car immediately started moving. I felt a strange urgency from Uncle's movements as he shifted gears and turned the steering wheel.
"Why are we in such a hurry?"
Uncle drove so frantically that it felt chaotic. Only after he finally reached the highway did he respond to my question.
"Don't you know as well? The Voodoo Cult's Gangwon Branch has an underground chapel in, ummm, Taebaeksan. The terrain there is rough, and the layout of the roads is a bit strange. If we don't hurry, we'll be late."
“Didn’t we receive a rough map of the area?”
Uncle shut his mouth for a brief moment.
"...The executives' words can’t be trusted. We especially can’t trust the Chungcheong, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang Branches. The Chungcheong Branch guys gave us the map," Uncle said in a meaningful manner.
I immediately understood what he meant. The forces of the faction that kept going on about impeachment and rebellion were the Chungcheong and Jeolla Branches.
The reason why we left at eight o'clock in the morning, even though the meeting was supposed to start at six o'clock in the evening, was as a precaution against the possibility that the Chungcheong Branch, which was preparing for a rebellion, gave us the wrong map in an attempt to disrupt us.
The car quickly crossed the road and soon reached the mountains. Uncle drove the car onto the mountainous road. Compared to the highway, the road was very rough and bumpy, but Uncle skillfully navigated through the road with his excellent driving skills. Eventually, the car stopped in the middle of the mountains. The surroundings were filled with trees and grass.
"From here on out, we have to rely on the map and walk. I have no idea if the map is correct, though," Uncle said after getting out of the car and looking around the mountains.
We silently followed behind Uncle and wandered around the mountains. The path was rough, so we almost stumbled a couple of times. Especially Ji-Ah, she tripped a lot.
Grab.
I grabbed Ji-Ah's wrist just as she was about to fall over. With this, Ji-Ah had already almost slipped for the eleventh time.
"Ah! ...Ah, thank you, Cult Leader."
"Please look at the ground while walking."
"Yes, I’ve been looking, but... Ah!"
While Ji-Ah was speaking, she almost fell again, and I just barely managed to catch her.
"I told you to be careful."
"Yes... I understand."
"Hey, Sun-Woo. Just carry her. I'm getting anxious just looking at her."
"No, no need. I can walk on my own...!"
As Uncle suggested, it seemed like it would be faster to carry Ji-Ah, but she strongly refused.
It was impossible to forcibly carry her if she didn't want to be carried. We continued walking on the mountain path, and Ji-Ah followed along while constantly teetering and on the verge of falling. We continued walking for a total of three hours. No, perhaps it was four hours. It was difficult to tell because my sense of time was distorted. The place that we arrived at was a cliff that was so high that the bottom wasn’t visible.
"...Those damned bastards. They gave us a weird map."
Uncle crumpled the map in a fit of rage and threw it down the cliff. I glanced down the cliff. The cliff was so dark and deep that the bottom wasn’t visible. Even I, who didn't have acrophobia, felt a tingling sensation.
Ji-Ah was holding onto a tree far behind us.
"T-teacher. What should we do? It might be better for me to go back now and—"
“Go back, my ass. We’ll just have to wander around until we find it or something. There’s nothing else we can do.”
Uncle patted Ji-Ah, who was consumed by fear, on the shoulder and started walking in front of us again. This time, there was no map in Uncle's hand. He was actually trying to find the way with nothing else but intuition. I thought it was an absolutely reckless thing to do. The mountains were filled with an ominous and eerie darkness as time passed. Wandering around the mountains any longer would be dangerous. On top of that, my legs were starting to hurt. I didn't want to walk anymore.
"Ugh, those executives are using all sorts of dirty tricks to stop you from going. When we arrive, we have to beat them up a bit. If we are able to arrive, that is..." Uncle uttered his complaints as I followed along behind him.
The flowers and weeds that decorated the floor swayed from side to side. However, the wind wasn't blowing.
"Teacher, something feels off."
Ji-Ah was the first one to feel uneasy. Following her, my uncle also sensed that something was strange, and he looked around the area.
Eventually, my uncle's gaze turned toward me.
"Sun-Woo, what are you mumbling about right now...?" my uncle asked as he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. There was no need nor opportunity to answer.
I finished what I was doing. I carefully spread out my hands, and I gently touched the smooth soil with my fingertips which were emitting a green glow. I closed my eyes. I could hear the whispers of the plants within the darkness. At the same time, my stomach grew hot. There was a distinct pain as if my organs were bubbling over and melting away.
My hands and feet spasmed from the pain. My consciousness faded in and out. Even in the midst of that, I did not stop speaking. No, I couldn't stop. The end of a prayer always had to end with a certain sentence.
"...Nan non Bondye."
It always had to end with the name, Bondye. As I recited the last sentence of the prayer, the whispers of the plants that had slowly been growing in volume gradually ceased.
Flap, flap, flap...
The birds hiding in the mountains all flew up into the sky. The flapping sounds created a strange and eerie resonance.
"What did you just do—"
Rumble rumble—!
Uncle could not finish his sentence. The mountain screamed. The scream completely absorbed all other sounds.
Burst, crack...
Tree roots shot up into the sky and swayed. The roots resembled snakes.
The screaming did not stop. As the sound continued and grew louder, the shape of the mountain changed. The plains became slopes, and the slopes became mountain ridges. The mountain repeatedly gathered and scattered to create a path. Weeds and tree roots sprouted out from both sides of the path as if welcoming us in. Beyond the long and straight road that stretched ahead, a small cabin could be seen not too far away.
"Let's go," I said while pointing across the road.
My uncle gawked at the scene as if he couldn't believe his eyes, and Ji-Ah sat huddled with her hands wrapped over her head.
"It's an earthquake...!"
"No, it's not an earthquake. Get up. It's all over," my uncle reassured Ji-Ah by patting her shoulder. He then looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"Did you use a power?" he asked as if to confirm.
I shook my head. I had used a form of power, but strictly speaking, it wasn't exactly a power.
"It’s a prayer."
"No wonder. It seemed much stronger than last time." My uncle finally nodded as if he understood.
What I had uttered was a Prayer to Granbwa. Granbwa was the owner of all the plants and mountains in the world, and I had asked her for guidance to reach the chapel.
“...That was a bit overkill,” I muttered to myself as I looked at the result of the prayer.
Considering that it was prayer, this was way too much of an exaggerated way of guiding me to the destination. In order to guide me, what Granbwa had created was not a path but a canyon.
[After being in the city for such a long time and coming to the mountains, I felt excited, you see...]
"No, I’m not saying that you did something wrong. On the contrary, it’s good. It's alright."
[It must have been painful for you, I'm sorry...]
"There's no need to apologize. It was cool. Really."
Soothing the sulking Granbwa with compliments, we followed the road. Ji-Ah stood up after forcefully calming down her trembling legs, and my uncle followed behind me while supporting her.
[Is 'singing' also possible?] Legba asked as we were walking along the road.
I shook my head. There were three methods of using the power of the Loa. The first method was to ‘borrow’ the power of the Loa. The second method was to convey wishes through a ‘prayer.’ The third method was to communicate through ‘singing.’ Currently, I was only able to borrow and pray. In order to use the final method of ‘singing,’ it was necessary to further develop my prophetic abilities, and I also had to strictly increase the number of sacrifices.
"It will soon become possible."
Furthermore, this executive meeting would serve as a stepping stone for me to be able to use this final method.
***
On the other hand, inside the Voodoo Cult Gangwon Branch’s chapel.
This place was an area blessed by the second Cult Leader, Do Myung-Jun. No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it had been ‘cursed’ by Do Myung-Jun.
Just before the Holy War broke out, Do Myung-Jun engraved spells into the Gangwon Branch’s chapel and its surroundings. As a result, the underground chapel became a place that could not be reached without a map.
The paladins and crusaders who set out to track down the location of the chapel would either disappear after getting lost in the mountains or would disappear and be found as miserable corpses downstream of a river. In the end, the Holy See gave up on tracking down the location of the chapel and banned civilians from entering the mountains.
This was also the reason why the executive meeting was being held in Gangwon Branch’s chapel. The uninvited could never find the Gangwon Branch’s chapel.
"It's already time. We're about to start the meeting, but..."
Yun Chang-Su, the owner of the underground chapel and an executive of the Gangwon Branch, looked around the round table. The executives of the Gyeonggi Branch were temporarily taking refuge overseas to avoid the Holy See's pursuit, so they couldn't participate. The problem was that Jin-Sung, an executive of the Seoul Branch, and Sun-Woo, the Cult Leader, had not yet arrived at the meeting.
"I heard that the Cult Leader would also be attending this meeting... And it looks like Executive Jin-Sung is also nowhere to be seen. Has anyone been able to contact them?"
Silence filled the air. Yun Chang-Su looked at a man who was fiddling with his fingernail at the far end of the round table.
"Wasn’t Executive Yeom Man-Gun somewhat friendly with Executive Jin-Sung?"
"Well, shucks! That there's the most dang-darn ridiculous thing I've ever laid ears on in all my born days. Been a coon's age since I laid eyes on the face of that ol' varmint enemy,” Yeom Man-Gun of the Jeolla Branch said abruptly as an expression of displeasure flashed across his face.
After listening to his words, Yun Chang-Su kept his mouth shut and frowned for a while. Due to his dialect, it took him some time to understand Yeom Man-Gun's words.
"Executive Yeom Man-Gun, your words are harsh. Please be a little more careful."
“Y'all reckon them folks sittin' here are just here fer some good ol' fun? We done woke up smack dab in the middle of the night, bustin' our backs gettin' over here, but that darn Cult Leader ain't shown his face yet, dag nabbit—!”
"Hey, watch your words."
Interrupting Yeom Man-Gun's words was the Gyeongsang faction's Yuk Eun-Hyung. The two were famous for not getting along.
“Huh? Ha! Hah?”
Yeom Man-Gun narrowed his already small eyes and glared at Yuk Eun-Hyung. In response, Yuk Eun-Hyung retaliated by glaring back in a piercing manner at Yeom Man-Gun with his large, sharp eyes.
"You bastard, there are things you can say and things you can't say. The Cult Leader is scared of us because you talk like that.”
Underneath Yuk Eun-Hyung’s seemingly contemplative words, one could tell that he subconsciously thought of the Cult Leader as a child. Yeom Man-Gun let out a snicker.
"Aww, shucks! I ain't meanin' no harm in mockin' him or nothin', but durn it all, everyone's already jumpin' to conclusions. It's 'cause that ol' Cult Leader ain't got the sense God gave a goose, that our Voodoo Cult's in such a mess. Hahaha, y'all see the irony now, don'tcha?” Yeom Man-Gun said in an openly mocking tone.
Yuk Eun-Hyung subtly rolled up his sleeves and glared at Yeom Man-Gun. Yeom Man-Gun glared right back at him.
"Whoa there, partner! You're fixin' to drop a body with that stern look of yours!" Yeom Man-Gun said.
"Now, now, calm down, everyone. We can’t do anything about the Cult Leader not being here. Shall we start the meeting by ourselves?”
The one who intervened in the mental battle between Yeom Man-Gun and Yuk Eun-Hyung was the Chungcheong Branch’s Ha Pan-Seok. He had a subtle smile on his face as he continued to speak.
“Since he wasn’t particularly a useful cult leader, it won’t be a problem even if he's not here."
"Watch your words..." Yuk Eun-Hyung tried to say something, but he eventually closed his mouth. It was because he couldn’t find the words to refute that statement.
The third-generation Cult Leader, Sun-Woo, last attended an executive meeting two years ago.
But as Ha Pan-Seok said, the Cult Leader was nothing more than a puppet. He didn't show any powers like Voodoo spells or the power of the Loa, and he conveyed all his statements through Executive Jin-Sung’s mouth.
The only words that directly came out of the Cult Leader's own mouth were meaningless questions like, "Is Mother still alive?"
The First Cult Leader controlled the cult’s followers with his charismatic and sharp dignity, while the Second Cult Leader did so with his chillingly persistent madness and relentless determination. On the other hand, the Third Cult Leader lacked such charisma.
No one believed in the Third Cult Leader, who had blankly stared at the ceiling with murky eyes devoid of any desire, obsession, or emotion. Even Yun Chang-Su and Yuk Eun-Hyung, who were somewhat sympathetic, only supported the Third Cult Leader out of pity and empathy.
"Well, now, let's take'er easy and get this show on the road, shall we? Are we seriously gonna keep waitin' on him without even munchin' on a little snack?"
At Yeom Man-Gun's urging, Yun Chang-Su glanced at the clock. The hands were racing toward six o'clock. Yun Chang-Su hesitated. It felt wrong to proceed with the meeting without the Seoul Branch, which was the headquarters of the cult, but it also felt wrong to wait forever without knowing when they would arrive.
"At the very least, let's wait until 6 o'clock—"
"Dadgummit, I'm gettin' mighty frustrated... but I reckon we better hold our horses. Seems like Ha Pan-Seok's got somethin' mighty important to share. Let's give him a fair shake and see what he's got to say."
As if he had been waiting to interrupt, Yeom Man-Gun cut off Yun Chang-Su when he tried to speak.
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