WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 62: King of the Sanctuary (2)
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"All right, my judgment is this. There is one man and three women, so divide the man into three and let the three women share him."
【······What?】
Murmur, murmur!
The crowd erupted into commotion.
Everyone looked like they couldn't believe my ruling.
【Y-Your Majesty! W-What is this supposed to mean?!】
"Shh."
Oh Du-sik gasped and tried to protest, but he couldn't bring himself to say more.
Heh heh. I hadn't handed down this ruling for no reason.
A Soul Wedding was supposed to be between people who loved each other.
There was one man, and he was the kind of indecisive idiot who could've been the protagonist of a Japanese romantic comedy manga. He probably couldn't decide which one he loved more.
But among the women?
Among them, I could determine who loved him more.
In First Kings, Solomon once held a trial to determine who the mother of a baby was.
Two women brought in one baby, both claiming to be its mother. There was no clear evidence, so it was a headache of a case.
Solomon's ruling was that there was one baby and two women claiming to be its mother, so the baby should be cut in half and divided between them.
You might think that was a completely psychotic ruling, but King Solomon had a deeper intention behind it.
The women's reactions to the judgment that the baby should be cut in two and shared were completely different.
One woman agreed that they should split the child, while the other begged him to give the baby to the first woman, so long as the child wasn't killed.
Then King Solomon said,
"Do not kill the living child. Give the child to that woman. She is the true mother."
That was his judgment.
If she truly loved the child, she would have acted that way.
All Israel saw that the king possessed God's wisdom and upheld justice. That was First Kings, chapter 3, verses 16 through 28.
If any of them truly loved Oh Du-sik, surely one of them would give him up!
【Fine. Even if it means that, I'll take him.】
Good. You're out!
【I agree too! If I can't have him, then I'll burn him to ashes!】
······Out.
Wasn't that decision a little too quick?
At least hesitate a little.
Now then, final woman.
Are you the woman who truly loves Oh Du-sik?
I await your choice!
【Let's cut him into three!】
【······.】
"······."
Oh Du-sik looked at me.
His face clearly asked, Are you really going to cut me up?
Was I actually going to cut him up?
Did they want to graduate from being maiden ghosts and escape the world of the living that badly?
"Well··· um··· that's how it turned out."
【Your Majestyyyy! Please save me!!】
"Come on, you're already dead. What is there to kill? You'll just go to the afterlife in a more horrible way."
【Aaaah! Aaaaaaagh!】
Would they even accept him in the afterlife if he arrived in three pieces?
I couldn't actually cut him up, so how was I supposed to save him?
Then an idea flashed through my mind.
I scolded the maiden ghosts who genuinely wanted to divide Oh Du-sik between them.
"Hey! You said you loved him, but it was all a lie! You don't truly love this man! If you did, you would've let him go!"
【N-No, you were the one who made that ruling.】
"I was testing your love! You frauds! Get out of here, now!"
【Ugh, what the hell?】
【When are we ever going to graduate from being maiden ghosts?】
The maiden ghosts grumbled as they left My Home.
Oh Du-sik, having narrowly escaped death, burst into tears.
"Du-sik, I saved you, didn't I?"
【Th-Thank you! Thank you, Your Majestyyyy...】
"Next time, bring just one decent maiden ghost."
After the bachelor ghost nearly became O / Du / Sik, the hearings and complaint consultations continued.
I solved what I could solve and tried to sort out the more complicated cases, but the work piled up like a mountain.
This was only the number of petitioners within the Samgakji triangular area, formed where several districts met.
Could I handle all of them?
I didn't know. I'd do what I could for now.
* * *
There were various conditions for an auspicious site.
Some needed favorable mountains and water according to feng shui, while others were land blessed by the flow of spiritual power from the earth's veins.
The land had to be open on all sides rather than isolated, full of life force, a place where the wind lingered and passed through.
That was why land with good energy became an auspicious site, a place where evil things avoided it and everything naturally went well.
"Are the bronze mirrors in position?"
"Yes. We've installed the devices at every location and are ready to observe."
On the rooftop of a building in Bangbae-dong, Seocho District, employees of the Mystic Association's Facilities Division moved busily.
They were setting up all kinds of observation equipment around the area.
After the recent demon subjugation at Yurim Hotel, large numbers of evil spirits had vanished from parts of Seoul.
Yokai and other evil beings had disappeared all at once.
They believed it was related to the strange energy felt from the sky.
"Do you think what the Review Division said is true?"
"What, that an artificial auspicious site has formed?"
"Yes. Auspicious sites are supposed to be born naturally. Redevelopment and things like that usually destroy them. New ones don't just appear."
Many conditions were needed to create an auspicious site, and all of them had to align with miraculous odds.
In the modern era, many existing auspicious sites had been destroyed when redevelopment or disasters changed the terrain.
Yet every attempt to restore or create a new one had failed.
Artificial construction had no effect.
"It's not entirely unheard of. There are cases like the Vatican, Jerusalem, Potala Palace, and Varanasi."
"Those are all holy sites. Places that have been sanctified for hundreds or thousands of years."
"True. That's certainly the difference."
Hundreds, thousands of years. The wishes of hundreds of thousands, millions, even hundreds of millions of people, accumulating until a place gained history and symbolism.
That was the level required for an auspicious site to become a sanctuary.
And yet.
"Pastor Go from Gangnam Holy Temple Church says it has nothing to do with them······."
With Pastor Park absent, Pastor Go represented Gangnam Holy Temple Church.
According to him, the demon subjugation and the mass disappearance of evil spirits had nothing to do with the church.
Of course, no one in the Mystic Association believed him.
"What are you hiding, Pastor Go?"
No.
Who were you hiding?
"Team Lead. We've detected movement. It's coming from the Sadang area."
At the Facilities Division employee's report, Team Lead Kim took out an old-fashioned telescope.
A group of ghost spirits appeared within its lens.
They were all walking together toward Bangbae.
"How many times has this happened now?"
"It stopped at twenty-three, all from the direction of Seocho District."
Which meant there would be even more if they included the ones coming from Gwangjin District and Songpa District.
"They're streaming in like refugees."
Why were they gathering in such numbers?
The reason soon became clear.
"Team Lead. More are approaching from Namhyeon-dong. It looks like evil spirits are coming down from Gwanak Mountain."
Namhyeon-dong.
It sat beside Gwanak Mountain, an area that had been teeming with evil spirits and yokai since ancient times.
There were few new victims in the modern day, but only a little over a hundred years ago, Chang-gwi created by tiger attacks had appeared often enough.
Proper Mountain Lords had reportedly gone extinct by now, but plenty of evil spirits remained.
"They're hunting the ghost spirits."
Evil spirits were hunting down ghost spirits fleeing from the mountain as if running for their lives.
It was the instinctive hunt of evil spirits, which grew greater spiritual power by devouring other spirit bodies.
That was the fate of ghost spirits unable to pass to the afterlife. Those that became evil spirits were major targets for the Mystic Association and exorcists.
"They'll enter the boundary soon."
The ghost spirits hurried toward the boundary to survive.
When they reached it, they crossed through. But then.
-Kiiiiiiiiii!
-Kyaaah! Kyaaaaaagh!
Screams erupted in every direction.
They were cries of pain from being crushed to death.
The evil spirits were pinned down and compressed by an unseen pressure.
This was the truth behind the mass disappearance of evil spirits from before.
"The evil spirit disappearances··· Similar phenomena were reported in Junggok-dong and Munjeong-dong."
"So it's true. All evil within the boundary is being expelled."
This was called the Spiritual Apotropaic Phenomenon.
It was the automatic, wide-area repulsion of evil.
A rare spiritual phenomenon that occurred only in places where powerful spiritual energy had gathered and formed a sanctuary.
"A sanctuary in our country······."
Most countries had auspicious sites, but few ever reached the level of becoming sanctuaries.
Korea had suffered through Japanese colonial rule and the Korean War, breaking the nation's spiritual veins once. Many auspicious sites had also been destroyed.
What remained had long since been ruined by indiscriminate development during modernization.
Yet on Korean soil, an auspicious site that drove away evil on its own had appeared.
"It's certain. We still need to verify whether this is truly a sanctuary, but it's definitely an auspicious site. It's enough to report to the International Occult Association."
"The problem is who we should recognize as the manager of this auspicious site."
Regardless of real estate law, auspicious sites always had managers.
"Gangnam Holy Temple Church lies within its boundaries. Ordinarily, we'd have to discuss it with Gangnam Holy Temple Church."
But Gangnam Holy Temple Church had unofficially denied any involvement.
This wasn't a matter Pastor Go could settle on his own, but there was no way this sanctification had nothing to do with Gangnam Holy Temple Church.
"The manager of an auspicious site receives government subsidies, so we need to settle that too. But this isn't just an ordinary auspicious site. It's on the level of a holy site. How much are we supposed to pay?"
"I have no idea. A sanctuary forming after the sixteenth century is unprecedented."
Even then, it had only been a holy site limited to a cathedral and the nearby area.
A sanctuary spanning half a city was unprecedented since the Vatican in Rome.
To discuss this, they would have to meet that man.
"When is the Great Elder entering the country?"
"Oh, today, actually. He's arriving at Incheon Airport at dawn."
He was finally coming back.
It had been a long overseas conference.
There had been regular discussions at the Vatican about managing the vampire progenitors, meetings with vampire hunters, and then...
"Why did he go meet Davy Jones, of all people?"
* * *
At two in the morning, a passenger flight from Bermuda arrived at Incheon Airport.
At the entrance to the platforms where jet-lagged foreigners rubbed their sleepy eyes and searched for airport buses, an old man with an unusual presence took off his sunglasses.
He stood 1.9 meters tall and weighed nearly 100 kilograms.
The dense muscles exposed beneath his aloha shirt seemed to radiate testosterone.
He was Pastor Park Tae-jin.
The head of Gangnam Holy Temple Church, one of the Five Great Lineages, and the Great Elder of exorcists on the Korean Peninsula.
If anyone asked who Korea's most formidable spiritual master was, Pastor Park Tae-jin would be the undisputed answer.
"Pastor Park!"
"Oh, Pastor Go. I told you not to come greet me."
"The senior pastor has returned. How could I not come?"
Pastor Go and the exorcists of Gangnam Holy Temple Church had come to welcome Pastor Park.
Looking at Pastor Park's tanned, sun-darkened skin, Pastor Go guessed what had happened.
"It looks like you've been spending a lot of time outdoors."
"It seemed my great senior was very bored. Thanks to him, I got plenty of fishing done."
By great senior, he meant Davy Jones.
The Flying Dutchman.
Master of the wandering ghost ship.
Guide of those who died in shipwrecks.
Among the many theories about this maritime legend was one claiming he was Jonah, the protagonist of the biblical Book of Jonah.
The English Jonah had become Jones, while Davy, a variation of devil, had been combined with it to create Davy Jones.
Jonah, the prophet in the Old Testament, foretold the destruction of Nineveh.
But he repeatedly refused the command to warn Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Kingdom that had tormented his homeland of Israel, and urge it to repent.
For that disobedience, he had remained a maritime legend into the modern day, guiding the dead. He truly deserved to be called a great senior in the Christian world.
"I was surprised when you suddenly went to meet Davy Jones. Don't tell me the Kraken of the Bermuda Triangle was revived?"
"Ah, the Kraken. I was worried about that too, but it won't be revived again."
"What?"
That maritime legend that wouldn't die even when killed?
"Well, I'll tell you that story later··· I heard about Yohan."
"Yes, it was so urgent that I told you first, but··· You don't seem very surprised."
Pastor Go had told Pastor Park about Yohan as soon as he was able to contact him.
But Pastor Park's reaction was surprisingly calm.
As if he had expected this day to come.
"Pastor Kim and I were the ones who sealed that child's spirituality. But it was never something we could suppress forever."
Pastor Park gave a small laugh as he pictured Yohan's face.
"I suppose it's time to go meet him. Ah, Pastor Go, did you look into the place I mentioned?"
"You mean the Siloam Storage Facility in Singye-dong, Yongsan? Yes, I looked into it, but··· Of all places······ Why did you tell me to look into that place?"
At Pastor Go's puzzled question, Pastor Park whispered quietly.
"It's time to recover Pastor Kim's collections."
"······!"
Had this old man gone to meet a maritime legend and started looking for One Piece or something?
Footnotes:
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