WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 110: Bible Camp (2)

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After that, I spotted Cha Hyeran at church a few more times.

It was during Wednesday and Friday services. I was only there because I happened to be meeting Pastor Go, but Cha Hyeran sure was showing up diligently.

Whenever I saw her lingering in the darkened sanctuary after service with her head bowed, I wondered if I'd done the right thing by not reporting her back then.

Then Saturday morning came.

I arrived in front of the church for our Bible Camp departure.

"Pastor Go, you're here."

"Yeah, Yohan. I ended up coming too."

Pastor Go?

I thought Pastor Jin, the pastor in charge of the elementary department, was going to Bible Camp.

"What about Pastor Jin?"

"He's coming too. I'm just assisting."

It wasn't official, but there was still a hierarchy among associate pastors at church.

The pastors in charge of the adult Sunday service ranked highest. Below them were the newer pastors, from high school and middle school to elementary school and preschool.

Usually, until they built up enough seniority, they either couldn't move up to the main service or branched out to establish a church plant of their own.

So Pastor Go taking an assistant role at the elementary department's Bible Camp meant he was going pretty strongly against the church's internal pecking order.

"Is this because of Cha Hyeran?"

"That's right. You said you'd keep an eye on her, but we don't know what she might try."

Well, I couldn't exactly stop him if he was coming because he was worried.

While we waited, the kids arrived one by one.

"Hi, Yohan hyung. Oh, Pastor Go is here too."

There were younger kids I already knew, along with people who had been in the elementary department with me since back then.

Cha Hyeran arrived soon after.

"Y-Yohan, Comrade."

"Hey, Comrade Cha Hyeran. You made it."

Cha Hyeran gave an awkward bow, then immediately drew everyone's attention.

Word had already spread that she was from North Korea, so everyone was curious in a good way.

"Yohan! Make sure you lead the John Group properly!"

The group I got was the John Group.

Not because it was named after me. Yohan is the Korean biblical name for John, and the Bible Camp groups were based on Jesus' twelve apostles.

"Yes, sir. Mr. Kim Peter, you take good care of the Peter Group."

"Mr. Baek Yohan, you take care of your group too."

Peter and John were fairly common names in Korea.

"I wonder why there aren't any Jameses or Philips."

"Wouldn't Kim James or Han Philip sound weird?"

"There are actually quite a few Kim Peters."

"Peter was the head honcho among the Twelve, so..."

It was one of the most awkward names out there, but maybe it caught on because Peter was the leader of the twelve apostles.

"Aren't there some Pauls? Like Han Paul or Kim Paul."

"I don't think I've seen them very often."

We loaded supplies onto the buses while chatting about nothing important.

Normally, these buses took people to prayer retreat centers, but today they seemed to have been requisitioned for the elementary department's Bible Camp.

I'd gone to Bible Camp on these buses when I was little too.

I walked over to Cha Hyeran, who was carrying supplies onto the third bus.

"Did you bring anything, Comrade Cha Hyeran?"

"Huh? D-do I need to bring anything?"

"They'll give us food there, but you need to bring your own personal stuff, right?"

"Personal stuff meaning...?"

"A toothbrush, clothes, stuff like that."

I trailed off because saying underwear felt a little awkward, but she seemed to get it.

"Ah..."

"You didn't bring any?"

"...No."

Maybe she forgot because this was her first event like this.

"We'll stop at a rest area, so you can buy some at the convenience store. Did you bring money... Sigh. I'll lend you my card, so use this."

The moment money came up, her face went pale. She was definitely broke.

No wonder she'd been cramming food down in the church cafeteria.

"By the way, what did you tell your unit? We'll be gone for three days and two nights."

"I... explained that it was a means of infiltrating the church."

"Hmm... Is that so?"

Gugu! Gugu!

Why had the Gugus come all this way?

* * *

In Korean Protestant churches, retreats, or Bible Camps, are held once or twice a year.

Usually, the whole congregation went together. Bigger churches often split up into elementary, middle school, high school, and young adult groups.

I was a regular too. I'd attended every retreat since elementary school, enough to earn a perfect-attendance award.

The retreats I'd experienced were mostly just trips for fun.

Over three days and two nights, we'd play games with the teachers at the campsite, have campfires at night, and go swimming together.

Honestly, when I was little, I attended every retreat just so I could play with my friends.

There were worship services and hymn-singing sessions here and there, but the atmosphere was mostly peaceful.

Basically, it was just taking kids to a campsite for three days and two nights.

Except.

"Teacher! Teacher!"

"What is it, Minjae?"

"Eunhye got snacks twice!"

"Don't tattle! Teacher, don't believe him! He's lying!"

"Teacher! Teacher!"

"Hyunsu, what is it...?"

"When are we stopping at a rest area? Can we eat pizzuh hot dogs?"

"We have to drive another thirty minutes before we get there."

"We're going up! Up! Up! It's our moment!"

"You know together we're glowing!"

"Kids, why are you suddenly singing KPop Demon Hunters...?"

"Gonna be, gonna be golden~"

They were singing an English song remarkably well.

"Teacher, sing too!"

There was no escape.

The bus speeding down the highway at a hundred kilometers per hour was a perfect locked room.

"Phew..."

I already felt drained.

Was this the energy level of elementary school kids?

They could repeat the same song nonstop for an hour?

I'd heard that even border collies got tired before kids if you let them play together. I thought that was an exaggeration.

I hadn't planned on sleeping during the ride, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.

When I turned my head, twenty pairs of eyes glittered across the aisle.

"Teacher!"

"Teacher!"

"Teacher!"

"Teacher!"

I decided to give up.

If I stayed still, time would pass eventually.

I looked over to see how Cha Hyeran was doing...

"Tu, tururutu!"

"Teacher, you got every one wrong!"

Cha Hyeran was getting swept away in a tide of elementary school kids.

Maybe because she was a female teacher, the kids were clinging to her even more.

Good news for me.

Soon, we stopped at the first rest area on the way to Bible Camp.

"A rest area!"

"Pizza hot dogs!"

"Sausage-and-rice-cake skewers!"

The elementary school kids, already noisy enough, looked ready to explode with excitement.

Half my soul had already left my body, but I couldn't abandon my duties as a chaperone.

"Teacher Cha Hyeran."

We'd decided to call each other teacher while we were chaperoning.

"Ah, yes... Teacher Yohan."

"Should we get the kids something to eat? We have snack money set aside for them."

"Y-you're given money for that too?"

"It all came from the money their parents paid."

We collected sixty thousand won each as a participation fee, but that was tight once you counted facility fees, textbooks, souvenirs, transportation, and meals.

Well, donations from the congregation would cover whatever was lacking, so I could chip in a little too.

"Anyway, it's good that Teacher Cha Hyeran was willing to help. If they even asked me, they must've been short on volunteer teachers."

"Is... that so?"

"Take lots of pictures, and you learned how to use the group chat, right? Keep checking it and post anything unusual."

This wasn't my first time helping at Bible Camp.

Before I enlisted, I'd volunteered a few times.

I continued speaking while checking the group chat with the parents of the kids in my group.

"Oh, right. Teacher Cha Hyeran, you need to buy your personal stuff. Go get something at the convenience store. I'll take the kids."

"B-but is that really all right? There's the children's safety too..."

"Safety isn't really a problem..."

I casually looked up.

Cha Hyeran followed my gaze to the top of the bus.

Clack, clack!

Gari was standing guard on the bus as bold as could be.

Kohaku had run off saying she needed the bathroom, and the Mountain Lord and the older sisters were probably following along just fine.

"Then... I'll put it to good use."

Cha Hyeran took the card I gave her and ran toward the rest area convenience store.

"Then, shall we go get snacks?"

"Yes, Teacher!!"

They sure were loud.

* * *

"That bitch..."

In a corner of the rest area parking lot, Ri Gicheol ground his teeth as he watched through binoculars from inside a shabby old SUV.

"Comrade Cha Hyeran... filed a false report."

"This is why you should never associate with people from a Jesus-freak bloodline."

Ri Gicheol and his subordinates trembled with rage at Cha Hyeran's betrayal when they saw Gari Bodhisattva Yohan with Hyeran.

They had followed her because it seemed suspicious that, even if she was infiltrating a church, she was joining a three-day, two-night Bible Camp.

And there they saw Gari Bodhisattva.

Which meant Cha Hyeran's claim that she would infiltrate the church to find Gari Bodhisattva had all been a lie.

"What do we do?"

"What do you think? We execute her!"

There was no disagreement on that.

The important question was how.

"Those monsters are with them too. Can we handle this ourselves without Cha Hyeran?"

"..."

Their plan was to subdue Gari Bodhisattva with the Soul-Ensnaring Talisman and abduct him to North Korea.

For that, Cha Hyeran, a powerful sorcerer, had been indispensable.

But Cha Hyeran had betrayed them...

"We need to... contact Blood-Spirit Bodhisattva."

"B-Blood-Spirit Bodhisattva?"

"Yes. If it's Blood-Spirit Bodhisattva... she'll find a way."

She was the Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau's most highly classified sorcerer.

She was the shaman who had made the talismans they used.

She used human flesh and blood to make all kinds of sinister objects and perform dark sorcery, but her skill was unquestionable.

Ri Gicheol contacted Blood-Spirit Bodhisattva with the satellite phone they had brought in during their illegal entry. Soon, she agreed to help.

[Good, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel Ri Gicheol. I will lend you my power.]

"Th-thank you, Comrade Blood-Spirit Bodhisattva. I won't forget this help."

[Handle the task properly. If you fail even with my assistance... you understand, do you not?]

"...I'll keep that in mind."

After ending the call, Ri Gicheol spoke to his subordinates with a resolute expression.

"Tonight, we hit those bastards."

* * *

Gari Bodhisattva Yohan and Cha Hyeran arrived by bus at a youth retreat center in Gapyeong.

Judging by the cross planted right at the entrance, it was probably a campsite run by Gangnam Holy Temple Church.

South Korean Jesus freaks sure had money, using an entire property this big as a retreat center.

"Are we ready?"

"Yes. We have identified the lodgings of the brats and the traitorous bitch."

"We can begin the operation immediately."

The four North Korean sorcerers, including Ri Gicheol, went over the operation plan again.

"The highest-priority target is Gari Bodhisattva. Secure his name, date of birth, and an object that can serve as a medium."

"And then... we send a killing curse at him to incapacitate him, lure him with the Soul-Ensnaring Talisman, and take him north. Is that it?"

"But can that really work? Sending a killing curse from Pyongyang?"

"It can. If it's Blood-Spirit Bodhisattva."

North Korea's greatest sorcerer.

After Pastor Kim robbed them so humiliatingly, how much had the Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau sacrificed over the past twenty years to create that thing?

It had been possible because people were the cheapest thing in North Korea.

"Blood-Spirit Bodhisattva is preparing more than a hundred sacrifices to send the killing curse right now. There's no sacrifice more valuable than a person in spiritual sorcery."

That would allow her to wield an equally powerful spell.

The monster North Korea had raised was that kind of being.

"If we have the time, eliminate the traitor Cha Hyeran too."

"But is that all right? Without reporting it to headquarters?"

"Get your head straight. A traitor came from our unit. Do you think we'll get off safely? We have to report that bitch Cha Hyeran was killed during the operation!"

"...Understood."

Having finalized their plan, they skillfully surrounded the camp.

North Korean sorcerers trained as soldiers as well.

Used to special operations, they took their respective positions and waited.

Major Ri Myeonghui and Major Kim Jinhyeok also surveyed the inside of the camp, each holding a pistol.

"There isn't even any security."

"Why would a place where brats come to play house have anything like that?"

The camp was vast, but there were no guards or watch posts.

Infiltrating a place like this would be easy.

Senior Lieutenant Park Cheol and Lieutenant Colonel Ri Gicheol would be doing the same.

"Where's that Eight-Foot Sister bitch?"

"We confirmed she's in the middle of the camp with that bizarre monster."

Good. They should avoid clashing with those two monsters if possible.

They had no intention of fighting head-on, so they could just go around them.

"This is Ri Myeonghui. We will begin the operation shortly."

[This is Ri Gicheol. Proceed!]

[This is Park Cheol. I will move in shortly... Huh?]

An odd sound came through the radio.

"Comrade Park Cheol? What's wrong?"

[Hhk...! H-how?!]

[Comrade Park Cheol? What happened?!]

"Comrade Park Cheol! Report!"

[A-a tiger!]

"A tiger?!"

"Are you talking about the Mountain Lord?!"

Park Cheol had been discovered?

But how?

The two quickly looked toward the center of the camp.

If the Mountain Lord had noticed Park Cheol, Yohan's familiar, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost, would naturally have moved as well.

Yet they could see the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost standing in the distance, clearly visible even from here, wearing a brimmed hat.

"The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost is over there."

"Then did the Mountain Lord just happen to find Park Cheol?"

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel Ri Gicheol, shall we continue the mission?"

They asked Ri Gicheol over the radio whether to proceed, but before they could hear his answer...

【Po.】

A chill ran down their spines.

A voice that should not exist came from behind them.

'What? What is that? I can see her even now?'

Major Kim Jinhyeok thought he was hearing something impossible.

The being that made that distinctive sound was still standing in the middle of the camp.

Gulp!

The two swallowed at the same time.

The sound was as deafening as a falling boulder.

"Don't... tell me."

They turned around slowly.

Their heads moved like broken robots.

What entered the sight of the two sorcerers, their spiritual sight activated, was... a huge woman.

An Eight-Foot woman, half-human and half-beast, with an animal's head instead of a human one. She was just a little shaggy.

Eight-Foot Moe Ghost, FURRY ver.

【Po~】

It was one of the intern Eight-Foot-Tall Ghosts.

Footnotes:

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