Chapter 104: Hanbit Palace
When Jae-hyuk returned to the TTG Guild, he was troubled.
[Return to the Hanbit Palace, they’ll make good use of you]
Of course, if Jae-hyuk were to join the guild of the Hanbit Palace, they would treat him quite well.
Unlike in the past, when he was just a pawn, he’s now a promising academy prospect.
At this age, he already has a B-grade Hunter’s Certificate, so he should be able to make it to A-grade without too much trouble, and if he does well, he could even aim for S-grade.
But Jae-hyuk knew what the Hanbit Palace was like.
From a young age, he’d been led by his mother to attend all sorts of religious prayers and retreats, receiving an education that bordered on brainwashing, but as his mind hardened, he realized this wasn’t right.
So he ran away, joined the academy, and deliberately disconnected. Not completely, but he used training and exams as an excuse to cut off contact.
Then came the senior draft and he tore up the application form his mother had given me to join the Hanbit Guild and entered the TTG Guild.
“Hah…….”
When Leon first stood up in front of the class and told us about his guild and his faith, he thought that he was like the Hanbit Palace but now he knew that the gods that the TTG Guild worshiped were real while the Hanbit Palace was a cult full of sociopaths.
It wasn’t just his mother’s insistence that he return to Hanbit.
It’s because of the god who spoke to him after his religion class.
[They’re a bunch of sneaky heretics, a bunch of sociopaths. Punish her.]
“……she’s my mother.”
[There’s more to life than information from blood relatives! Heretics are unforgivable cardinal sinners!]
Jae-hyuk originally believed in the God of Light and Justice. He offered the Ten Commandments to her, and practiced the teachings and codes according to her standards.
But on the day Leon connected the knight cadets to the gods…Jae-hyuk was connected to a different god than the Goddess of Light and Justice.
‘Why would the God of Sky and Thunder connect to me…….?’
Ultima, God of the sky and thunder, this unruly god connected to Jae-hyuk gave him a command.
[Punish the sociopaths! They will be punished by heaven!]
Jae-hyuk didn’t know how he, a mere cadet, was going to punish Hanbit, and that included his own mother.
“Damn it…….”
On the way back to TTG Guild Jae-hyuk bumps into someone and reflexively ducks his head.
“I’m sorry──”
“You visited your home?”
“Huh?”
At the familiar voice Jae-hyuk’s eyes widened as he slowly raised his head in a stupid reaction.
“Your Majesty?!”
Leon was staring at Jae-hyuk in surprise.
* * * *
“I understand the situation. Indeed, it has come to that.”
Jae-hyuk confessed everything to Leon, who came to him with half an idea.
That he had been a devotee of the Hanbit Palace for a long time, that his mother was forcing him to return to Hanbit and that Ultima, the God of Thunder, was ordering their punishment.
As Jae-hyuk faced Leon, he realized that he was the only one he could talk to.
“Thunder,” he said, “even so, how can you condemn a child to a thousand years of karma?”
[I am the heavens, who can discuss the karma of the heavens]
Leon shrugged his shoulders in agreement, but he was not at ease.
“If thou wilt punish the heretics, leave it to me.”
[No, I want my child to wash his filthy heresy with his own hands; I want him to give his will to me].
Ultima, god of the sky and thunder, was one of the most powerful of the pantheon of gods, and a fiercely principled man.
Leon knew it wouldn’t be easy to convince Ultima, especially when it came to sociopaths and demons, whose attitudes were almost as repulsive as his own.
“Kim Jae-hyuk, why did you not confess to this king that day?”
“Because I thought he might …….”
Jae-hyuk would have had no choice but he was too afraid of the consequences to tell Leon.
Jae-hyuk had seen what Leon had done to the orcs and demons, and to the Beast God’s heretics.
“I’ve heard there’s a group that’s been pulling the same stunt lately.”
“What? No way…….”
“Lord Spinner has made it clear. They have already declared war on this king and the gods.”
“Your Grace… my mother is…….”
Leon cut Jae-hyuk off with a hand gesture.
“This king is not a madman who kills randomly. I will hold them accountable.”
Seeing is believing.
Leon stood up and turned to Jae-hyuk.
“Where is their cathedral?”
* * * *
Hanbit Palace, this new religion, born after the Cataclysm, views the System as God’s will and salvation.
They claim that the Awakened Hunters and the System that guides them to close the gates is a miracle of God.
In the post-Cataclysmic era, the Hanbit Palace has sneaked its way into the lives of the modern world.
The Hunters they admire and the fact that the system that modern science cannot decipher was a message from the gods, an aid of some sort, was not a claim without credibility.
In fact, many scholars had speculated that the system and the gates were the work of a transcendent being.
“So I said, ‘You can’t even do that, so how do you expect to be saved? Just believe. Don’t doubt, just believe, and you will be saved.’”
“Salvation!”
“Salvation!”
“You want to be saved? Believe. Only believe. Believe my words and do only what I command, and you will all be saved!”
Park Yong-shin, a priest of the Hanbit Palace was born in 1990 and he experienced a cataclysmic event at the age of twelve.
In those turbulent times, when there was no academy yet and everything was learned by doing, he made a name for himself as a promising Class A Hunter.
It was in the winter of 2014 that he met God.
A fluctuation gate occurred in Samcheok.
At this gate, where the difficulty level suddenly changed, Park Yong-shin lost all his teammates and was on the verge of death but then Hanbit Palace Master Park Yong-shin heard a voice.
[Do you want salvation?]
He answered the voice, and the voice’s owner granted him grace.
He was the seventh S-class Hunter to emerge in Korea, and the organization he founded is now Hanbit Palace.
“He bears witness that He is real; look at the warriors of God who are favored by Him; listen to the gospel the moment they enter the gate.”
And indeed, the Hanbit Palace does perform miracles. It’s a variation on a system called Divine Guidance, to be precise.
One Hunter testified at the podium.
“It was an ordinary gate, but the moment I entered the gate, unlike the other hunters, my system went haywire.”
In a gate that would normally be a simple matter of defeating a boss and mining magic stones, the hunter followed the system’s guidance and explored the dungeon, with surprising results.
“Hidden rewards. Discovering that treasure trove changed my life, and it’s all by His grace!”
“Alas…….”
“By God…….”
This was a common occurrence for hunters in the Hanbit Palace.
Most of them received a different system message upon entering the dungeon, and it saved their lives, or gave them treasures.
This was not just an isolated case, but a phenomenon centered around the Hanbit Palace, and even the Hunter Association had notarized it, so it was not difficult for the Hanbit Palace to expand its power.
Park Yong-shin stood on the Hunter’s podium to testify.
“And that’s not all,” he said, “a cure-all herb for an ailing old woman, a miraculous growth for an incompetent Hunter.”
If this is not a miracle of God, then what is? My very existence is proof of it!
Believers hang on Park’s every word.
Even those who were cynical, calling him a fraud, drooled as he brought up cases that had even made the news.
That’s why they give money to non-believers, come to dawn prayers, and pay their extra quarter.
Because they want to be a part of that miracle. They want to have a miracle of their own.
“Hmm?”
Park Yong-shin was in the middle of a sermon when he noticed a blond man in the congregation who stood out from the crowd.
Next to him, a silver-haired woman in a cotton robe and a spider-like machine were tapping away at a hymnal.
‘TTG Guild? What are they doing?’
Park Yong-shin continued his sermon, inwardly admiring the dignity and steady posture that exuded from Leon.
“Your Majesty.”
“Hmm…….”
Beatrice nudged him, but Leon was lost in his own thoughts.
‘Sociopaths.’
They are everywhere. Parasites who prey on the plight of the people, burrowing into the cracks of their hearts and minds, preaching false doctrine and filling their mouths.
One of Leon’s greatest abhorrences is the cults of miscellaneous gods that spring up in the most inhospitable places.
By nature, divinity is fed by faith, not by material things. Why would a god need money?
Of course, they need it to run the church since priests are human and need to eat but to ask for money in such a crude and undignified manner.
If it were only money, he would have passed them off as lowly but Leon found the whole idea distasteful and suspicious.
“There, Brother. You are a very important visitor.”
Park’s gaze met Leon’s.
“This is your first time here, brother, and you are supposed to be baptized.”
Park Yong-shin had the audacity to invite Leon to the pulpit and Leon was happy to oblige.
As he approached the pulpit, he pulled a sack out of subspace. He then threw it onto the podium.
The contents of the sack dripped with rainwater. It was a large wad of cash.
“…… What the hell is this?”
“Work a miracle.”
“What?”
“I thought you said you could experience a miracle if you gave an offering. Go ahead and do it.”
“That’s rude.”
Park Yong-shin frowned at Leon’s outburst and glanced at the camera filming him.
‘Idiot. Your every move will be recorded.’
Although the Hanbit Palace had been labeled as a semi-cult by the world, there was a reason people could deny it.
Indeed, its followers received a different system message at the gate, one that brought them benefits.
“You try to test God’s miracles with a mere sacrifice.”
“Isn’t it your god who demands material goods and faith for salvation? I find the idea of trading with a god disgusting, but I will trade with your god for once.”
“…….”
Park did not hide his displeasure.
How dare a medieval barbarian, who worshiped a pagan god, insult his god.
“Did you say that you can go to heaven with loyalty and devotion, and that you will have your place according to your offerings?”
“Heaven is only the reward of the believer, the salvation of the chosen!”
“And you are the chosen one?”
“You must obey and submit to your pastor, and only then can you reach heaven; that is the truth, the gospel!”
“A servant of God identifies himself with God, who gave you that right!”
Heaven, as he knows it, is paradise and to enter it, he had to be true to himself.
Slaying pagans and giving lots of money would not absolve him of his sins.
The more you give, the more space you get in heaven.
When he heard that to prove his faith, he had to be willing to go down to the bottom of the pit, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“What a shallow, sleepy faith.”
Park didn’t dare to retort to Leon’s stern words.
It wasn’t for lack of arguments. The Church’s arguments were invincible, built on a tableau of unconditional faith and insubstantial salvation but his instincts told him that the being in front of him would not allow it.
His flimsy arguments were stifled by the fierce gaze and angry majesty but that was okay. He had a winning argument.
“Unbelievers! Heretics! Minions of evil are invading our temple! This evil must be driven out of the house of the Lord!”
Thousands of church members rose to their feet in response to Park’s shout. They unleashed a searing fury on the unbeliever who had insulted their faith.
“Get away, you evil thing, this is God’s house!”
“That’s right, back off!”
“Filthy bastard, His wrath shall drown you in boiling blood!”
Leon bore the jeers of the socialites in silence.
Contemplating the nature of the being that these poor, foolish men’s ugly faith supported.
But
“You stupid, foolish──”
There is something about insults that can never be accepted.
“──Devil…!”
“……!”
-……chuckle!
“……hut.”
He instinctively read the stunned gaze focused on me and the change in the atmosphere.
Something… something was wrong.
“This lowly thing…….”
There are three insults that Leon could never accept.
One is parental insults.
As the son of Wulfric Dragonia, the great Grand Duke of Dragonia, any insult to them is an insult to his family.
The second is blasphemy against the gods.
How could mortals insult the gods? Sometimes those who did so were tongue-tied, dismembered, and dried in the sun.
Finally,
Leon takes the insults directed at him surprisingly lightly.
It is the king’s sin, his immorality, that the vegetation has dried up on this land, that lightning has fallen, that there is a drought.
A king makes no excuses. A king does not evade. A king does not shift blame.
He only takes responsibility, for that is the place of a king.
Even insults against him were blamed on his own immorality, not his sin but…….
“How dare you. You… you lowly bastards… you socializing bunch…….”
He said he could take any insult.
“Comparing this Lionheart King to the devil!”
I will never allow myself to be called a demon. Never! Never!
“I will punish you for your shallow faith and shallowness! The guidance of the divine stars shall purify you!”
“Your Majesty…here?”
Beatrice asked, but Leon had already drawn his holy sword.
The hilt of the holy sword streaked light everywhere, projecting celestial movements──
“The holy relic of Saint Anak shall guide the stars!”
The necklace in Leon’s grasp suddenly shot an immense amount of light into the sky. The next moment──
* * * * *
Mr. Watanabe, an employee of JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, was doing his usual celestial observations when he noticed a strange movement.
Identification number M85-HCCI.
The comet, which had been spotted six months earlier, was scheduled to graze the Earth until today.
Dubbed Comet Mickey in honor of its original discoverer, Dr. Mickey of the University of Michigan in the U.S……..
“Did it change its orbit?”
Watanabe rushed to report the sudden change in orbit.
“That’s nonsense! Why would a comet that was passing by just fine suddenly come this way?”
“Well, to be precise, it’s on the Korean Peninsula──”
“Who cares! It’s over six kilometers across! It’s going to blow us all away, not to mention the Joseon Peninsula!”
This was a 6 kilometer long comet and the comet that ended the Cretaceous period was over 10 kilometers long, so a comet of this size would at least blow away all of Asia!
The aftermath would be enough to warrant a discussion of human extinction!
“Comet Mickey, it’s accelerating! It’s passing through Earth’s gravitational field in less than three minutes! It’s going to hit!”
“We’re all dead!”
At this point, all of the world’s space agencies were reacting similarly.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶