WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 107: Rumor

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Jinju Museum warehouse entrance.

Team Leader Joo Seoyul, dispatched by the Mystic Association, welcomed the visitors.

"Wow, it's been a while since we've had a new species, huh?"

"Isn't this the first-ever pterosaur?"

The visitors included paleontologists, representatives from fossil excavation companies, and curators from natural history museums.

Most had long-standing business relationships with the Black Lotus Society, and some foreign scholars had rushed over from abroad.

"Please line up over here. We'll check your tickets before you enter!"

That was why Jinju Museum was closed today.

VIP guests had paid no small amount of money to get in.

"Team Leader, why were we from the Special Task Division dispatched here?"

Joo Seoyul answered the team member's question with an annoyed expression.

"Why? Want me to tell you we're supposed to do whatever the higher-ups say?"

"No, it's just strange. Events like this aren't usually under the Special Task Division's jurisdiction."

"Officially, it's for safety, since he's handling wild dinosaurs. In reality, Mrs. Park is keeping an eye on Gari Bodhisattva."

"Gari Bodhisattva? Why?"

Joo Seoyul gave the team member a look of disbelief.

"He was already a Black Knot, then fought a few monsters and became a big shot who could command great yokai. Now he can command dinosaurs too. If it were you, wouldn't you keep an eye on him?"

"Ah..."

"There are already rumors that his raw ability alone puts him unofficially at Yellow Knot level. I can't imagine how far he'll go."

In any case, determining Gari Bodhisattva's true strength had become an important task for the Mystic Association.

After helping the Tsuchimikado Clan defeat the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox and even subduing the Mountain Lord of Taebaeksan, Gari Bodhisattva could be considered one of the country's highest-ranking exorcists.

"For now, we're escorting the professors, so let's focus on that."

Then a strange shriek echoed from deeper inside the museum.

Kieeeeeek!

It was a metallic screech, like metal scraping against metal. The scholars reacted at once.

"Oh! It seems they've successfully summoned a new dinosaur!"

"Pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs."

"That's not what's important right now!"

"Argh! I can't take it anymore!"

"Ah, you can't go in yet!"

A Black Lotus Society employee tried to stop the professors, but there was no holding back scholars burning with academic passion.

Thud!

What greeted them when they entered was a massive shadow covering the ceiling.

Long, outstretched wings.

An abnormally long, thin neck.

A lengthy snout, sharp as a spear.

Flap!

When the enormous wings spread, a gale swept through the space as if an explosion had gone off.

The scholars' documents flew away, hats were blown off, and their hair stood on end.

"Aah!"

"Good heavens! Good heavens!"

"I-it's huge! Huge! It's massive!!"

The scholars had been caught in the gust and were left in disarray, but smiles spread across their faces.

"They said it was a pterosaur found in Jinju... I never thought it could really be..."

"An azhdarchid..."

"No, that's not it."

A paleontologist adjusted their glasses and corrected them.

"That one's native to the Korean Peninsula. So... it's Jinjuichnus procerus."

"Well, that's what the paper calls it."

"But there's someone up there..."

The pterosaur had a saddle on its back. Baek Yohan was riding Jinjuichnus with both arms spread wide.

"Ahh, I am Toruk Makto. I am Korea's Toruk Makto~"

* * *

Whenever the Black Lotus Society held a Dragon God Ritual, they usually invited scholars.

It gave them a rare chance to see prehistoric creatures in person.

"My God... Its wingspan must be ten meters?"

"Wasn't the estimate eight meters? It's bigger than I expected."

"It could be an especially robust specimen! Let's check the skull!"

"Look at the toe arrangement! It matches what's in the paper!"

"What about its walking posture? How does it move? And its flight? Does it run along the ground before taking off after all?"

The gathered scholars competed to examine my Toruk, Jinjuichnus procerus.

Before the Dragon God Ritual for the pterosaur began, Bang Seoryeong had asked whether she could invite scholars who worked with the Black Lotus Society.

"Why scholars?"

"To observe and record the true appearance of prehistoric creatures and preserve it as reference material."

Come to think of it, Bang Seoryeong had told me before.

When modern paleontologists created reconstructions of dinosaurs, they borrowed the Black Lotus Society's power.

Dinosaurs brought forth through spirit possession appeared as they had looked in life.

In other words, they were the finest biological reference material possible.

The sleek, agile dinosaurs in Jurassic Park had apparently been based on Dragon Gods summoned by the Black Lotus Society.

Those materials were incomparably more accurate than some idiot's made-up reconstruction claiming dinosaurs had been furry mutant creatures.

Not reconstruction models, exhibits, or computer graphics, but dinosaurs that appeared in the very forms they had in life.

Could there be any more accurate reference material?

Still, that only applied to dinosaurs.

Strictly speaking, pterosaurs weren't dinosaurs.

It might offend dinosaur sensibilities to exclude pterosaurs from the dinosaur category, but that was how biological classification worked.

Decarabia's Bird-Soul Magic, though, summoned and commanded the souls of birds.

As long as pterosaurs were biologically birds, I could summon them, making this the world's first case of summoning a real pterosaur.

"If scholars can see a real pterosaur, they'll come running with fire in their eyes. In exchange for providing one, you could receive a modest fee from them too."

"A modest fee?"

"Usually money. It's about one or two hundred million won per person, but for someone like you, isn't that a small amount?"

"You're such a rich young lady that you don't know how valuable money is."

"So... will you do it?"

"Mm..."

I had to think about it.

Money really didn't mean much to me anymore.

I couldn't even spend all the money I had. What would I do with more?

"Oh, there's a tradition of listing you as a co-author when the invited scholars write their paper. It's nothing major, but you could brag about it wherever you go..."

"I'll do it. I want in!"

I'd become a co-author on a king-dino paper?

Me?

Baek Yohan's name would be right there?

I couldn't resist that!

So I accepted the offer and invited the scholars.

Money? Fifteen or so people came, and I made several billion won, but that wasn't what mattered now.

"Oh... So this is what a pterosaur that lived in the Early Cretaceous looked like?"

"Judging from its snout, it must have specialized in hunting fish. Its hunting method may have resembled a stork's."

"Flying! How does it fly? Toruk Makto! Could you show us?"

Ahh, that scholar was clearly a true scholar.

Holding the reins, I gave Jinjuichnus an order.

"Jinju, let's fly."

"Kieeeeeek!"

Just as expected of the enchanted artifact reins Bang Seoryeong had given me.

Jinju understood my command at once and spread its huge membranous wings.

A sovereign that ruled the sky.

A legend whose footprints alone had shaken the academic world.

The massive pterosaur that had roamed the skies of the Cretaceous Korean Peninsula kicked off from the ground.

It burst out of the warehouse like an explosion, crushing the floor beneath it before rising dozens of meters into the air with only two flaps of its wings.

"Kyaaaak!"

Jinju and I shot into the sky in an instant, and the humans on the ground looked as small as ants.

"Don't go too far! You'll leave the barrier's range!"

A barrier had been set up around the museum for this demonstration.

Even so, it felt unbearably cramped for this great king of the skies, but there was nothing I could do.

"Whew...!"

I decided to stop worrying about that and enjoy the flight.

Jinjuichnus was beneath me.

Its long neck and enormous wings.

Skin without a single feather.

And those unbelievably huge wings visible beneath my feet.

Ahh, I was flying.

I was flying on a pterosaur.

It was incredible.

Father God.

I'd never been prouder to be a Christian than I was at this moment.

Ahh, I was free.

* * *

At some point, a bizarre urban legend started spreading through Seoul.

People claimed they could hear some strange shriek from the sky at all hours of the day and night.

Some said it sounded like a crow, but it was far too loud for that.

It was even more unsettling because no matter how hard people looked up after hearing it, the sky appeared no different from usual.

Among spiritual beings, the urban legend became more detailed.

"Did you hear? That strange shriek people keep hearing lately."

"That? Someone said they saw it while passing through Songpa."

"Yeah, that... Apparently it's a pterosaur."

"A pterosaur?"

At a bar near the Mystic Association where exorcists gathered, they were talking about the strange shriek occasionally heard throughout Seoul.

"If it's a pterosaur, is it the Black Lotus Society? They're the ones who summon dinosaurs."

"First, pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs. Second, the Black Lotus Society has never summoned a pterosaur before."

Then who the hell was summoning a pterosaur and flying around in the middle of the night?

"A pterosaur familiar... That's seriously awesome."

"I'm fucking jealous."

"But are you sure it isn't the Black Lotus Society?"

At someone's question, Mr. Park, who had been drinking beer, answered confidently.

"I'm telling you, it isn't. The Black Lotus Society barely ever comes down from the mountains in the first place."

"Then who's commanding a pterosaur?"

"Apparently it's an exorcist called Gari Bodhisattva."

"Gari Bodhisattva?"

It was an unfamiliar name.

Still, someone seemed to have heard of it and spoke up.

"Isn't that person the one who did pretty well during the vampire hunt?"

"The vampire hunt? That incident when they came over from China?"

"You mean the one Lincoln left behind while hunting?"

"What else could it be?"

The fact that Gari Bodhisattva was a sorcerer who had received a Black Knot wasn't widely known, partly because this industry was secretive by nature and partly because Yohan's exploits involved hunting demons and great yokai from overseas.

"But rumor has it that he played a major part in sealing the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox in Kyoto."

"The Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox? ...That's bullshit, right?"

"No. My nephew works in Japan, and I hear his reputation is huge over there. Some say he isn't Pastor Park's successor."

"Pastor Park? Don't tell me he's with Holy Temple Church?"

"That's what I've heard. He's definitely Christian if he walks around with a rosary around his neck."

"Why hasn't someone that skilled become known?"

"Does anyone know anything about this Gari Bodhisattva?"

The exorcists who had been discussing the pterosaur naturally shifted their conversation to Gari Bodhisattva.

Some repeated stories they had heard from colleagues.

Others talked about things they had read in exorcist communities.

Yet the more they talked, the more Gari Bodhisattva became some incomprehensible, bizarre monster.

"He commands an Eight-Foot Sister? And he armed that Eight-Foot Sister with heavy weapons?"

"He beat the hell out of three high-ranking vampires?"

"He melted Kyoryong Bodhisattva and all the rebels to death during the Black Lotus Society rebellion?"

"Isn't this guy fucking insane?"

"What's this Yurim Hotel business? Didn't the Great Unification Church buy that place?"

"I heard it was transferred to Holy Temple Church ages ago. But people say there was a demon there..."

"So... he sealed the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox, hunted down and killed Kim Gicheol single-handedly when he was a Black Knot-level sorcerer, and this time subdued the Mountain Lord at Taebaeksan?"

"Hey, is all this information confirmed?"

"There's a limit to how much bullshit you can make up. A first-year sorcerer doing all that..."

"No, I'm telling you it's real! My friend is a freelance Taoist priest who went to Yurim Hotel, and they survived after coming face-to-face with a demon there!"

In summary, Gari Bodhisattva had defeated at least two demons.

He had beaten hundreds of dream demons lurking in Itaewon, several great yokai, and Kim Gicheol, one of the country's most notorious cult leaders.

The exorcists tilted their heads at these achievements, which were impossible to believe for a first-year sorcerer.

They thought the information had been exaggerated.

Since these were stories traded over drinks at a bar, they assumed they were inflated rumors.

But there was no smoke without fire.

The exorcist called Gari Bodhisattva clearly wasn't an ordinary person.

Information about Yohan, which Holy Temple Church had kept secret until now, had reached a point where it could no longer be hidden. It was only natural that the title would start making the rounds.

Among them was someone who stayed quiet, gathering information without saying a word.

'...T-this isn't some ordinary monster, is it?'

Cha Hyeran of North Korea's Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau, who had been gathering information on Gari Bodhisattva, Baek Yohan, had gone pale.

Footnotes:

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