WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 63: Senior Pastor Park

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It was the weekend.

Which meant it was church day.

"Kuuuh~ So gooood~~"

The large bathroom we used as a bath after renovating had a huge tub in it.

It was big enough to fit several people comfortably. A church deacon who worked in interior design had sold it to us cheap.

Apparently, it had originally been meant for a hotel suite, but the order had been canceled and they had extras left over.

They'd even suggested putting one in when Yurim Hotel reopened. Maybe I should consider it.

Chirp!

Coo!

Birds sang from the trees in the garden.

Only I could hear them because they were spirit bodies, but who cared?

A gentle woody scent drifted from the garden tree Pastor Go had given us as a housewarming gift. This was what phytoncides were all about~

When I came out after washing up, Gari and Eight-Foot Sister were ready to head to church.

"Good, good. I've got my Bible, and breakfast too. Oh yeah~ Spam kimchi stew~"

Perfect.

Best of all, today was a day off.

I'd been way too busy lately.

"It's 9:40··· Should we get moving? It'll take forty minutes to get there."

It took about thirty-four minutes by public transit to get to our church in Gangnam. Add the walking, and it came to a little over forty minutes.

Before we moved, I only had to take one bus and bam! I was there. Now I had to transfer twice, so it took longer.

"No, wait. Why do I need to take a car?"

I didn't need one.

Gangnam Holy Temple Church was within my range.

"I can slack off a little longer~"

Clack, clack!

Gari immediately clicked their teeth at the words slack off.

It felt like Gari wanted to tell me to get there early, sing some hymns, and greet the older church members.

The more I looked at Gari, the more they reminded me of my mom.

"Ah, just fifteen more minutes~ This is what sleeping in is for."

Clack, clack!

Seriously, Gari was an angel all right.

When Gari clicked those teeth together in that terrifying maw, there was no way I could ignore them.

I slurped up a piece of Spam soaked in kimchi broth and groaned.

"Wow, sis, the kimchi stew came out great today. Seriously excellent. Keep making it like this."

【Po~】

"Gari, stop air-frying chicken in the middle of the night. Look at how much work you're making sis do. It's embarrassing in front of Gugu's kids."

Clack?

Chickens and pigeons were from similar families, so maybe it looked to the pigeons like Gari was eating their own kind.

Though the incarnated Jjaekjjaekis ate chicken just fine.

"By the way, why's it so noisy outside again?"

I was about to use spatial movement to leave when I heard a commotion outside the front gate.

When I opened the door, ghosts were lined up in a long row.

"Sorry, but we're closed today because it's Sunday. Everyone, go on. Shoo, shoo~"

【Oh, Spirit King! Please show us mercy!】

【Please show us mercy!!】

Hundreds of ghosts shouted at once, enough to make my ears hurt.

Was this why kings hated hearing their subjects beg for mercy?

"Aren't you all modern people? The five-day workweek has been around forever. And why are you all talking like you're in a historical drama?"

【Uh, well··· Since you're like a Spirit King, we thought this was the proper way to speak?】

Koreans really were something.

Even after death, they still had flair. What a lively bunch.

"Whatever. I can put up with working six days a week, but I don't work Sundays. Go home. I have to go to church."

【We don't really have anywhere else to go. Can we stay here?】

"Just don't come inside. Someone crossed through the wall last time because they were a spirit body, and they're currently serving a seven-day sentence in Gari's stomach. I wouldn't recommend it."

Gulp!

The ghosts saw Gari's horrifying maw, swallowed hard, and repeatedly nodded.

After laying down the house rules, I used spatial movement to move near the church.

More precisely, I arrived in Pastor Go's office. It was the teleport point he had assigned me.

He'd told me to teleport there so I wouldn't suddenly appear in front of people and scare them.

I left the office and found a seat in the sanctuary. Today, there was a familiar face at the pulpit.

Pastor Park. Pastor Park Tae-jin, the senior pastor of our church, was looking down at his Bible.

He must have spent a long time in Bermuda, because he'd come back with bronzed, tanned skin.

I still couldn't believe he was the head of one of Korea's Five Great Lineages.

If he'd been a martial arts champion in his youth, I could have understood it. But he had been an exorcist?

Had he gone around beating ghosts to death with the beating rite?

"It's been a while since I heard Pastor Park's entire sermon."

"He's been appearing less often lately."

"He's getting up there in age."

Well, Pastor Park was over seventy this year.

But looking at that physique, there was no way it belonged to someone in his seventies······.

Near the end of the sermon, someone came over to me.

"Yohan, let's go to the senior pastor's office."

It was Deacon Kim, who worked as an exorcist with Pastor Go.

When we reached the senior pastor's office, Pastor Park soon approached with several associate pastors.

"Oh, Yohan. Pastors, you two can head out now."

"Yes? Ah, yes. It was nice hearing your sermon again after so long, Pastor."

The associate pastors other than Pastor Go bowed and left.

They were probably ordinary associate pastors, not exorcists.

"All right, let's go in."

Pastor Park entered the senior pastor's office with me.

As we sat down, he had me take the seat across from the head of the table.

"So, Yohan. Quite a lot happened while I was overseas."

"Yes···."

I had been wondering where to start, but it seemed Pastor Go had already told him everything.

"I thought a day like this would come. Your spirituality was simply too powerful."

"Um··· You knew?"

"Of course. Pastor Kim and I were the ones who sealed your spirituality."

I'd expected it.

There was no other explanation for why I, someone born with spiritual abilities, had been unable to see ghosts all this time.

"It started with a request from your parents."

Apparently, my parents had noticed my spirituality early on.

How could they not? When I was young, my spiritual sight had opened, and I'd cried and screamed at the smell of ghosts.

"Those born with spiritual abilities often die young after being eaten by monsters or ghosts. Your parents worried about that."

Because of it, my parents consulted the pastor at their church, and Pastor Park happened to be an expert in that field.

"We sealed it for the time being, but your spirituality was so powerful that it was bound to break free someday. Then Pastor Kim, who has since passed away, came up with an idea."

「Is this the child?」

I still remembered it.

Pastor Kim had been a famous star pastor at our church back then.

He had practically been the next successor who would lead Gangnam Holy Temple Church after the senior pastor.

「Hey··· You should attend church diligently.」

「What?」

「If you hate church, then go to a temple or something. You've got a rough fate ahead of you, kid.」

"So we gave you a safety measure. That angel there is proof of it."

「Uh, this is the Book of Enoch, an original apocryphal manuscript excavated in Ethiopia. I stole it.」

The original Book of Enoch he had given me then.

Gari had been sleeping inside it.

"It's been a long time. I hope you've been well."

Pastor Park looked directly at Gari and smiled.

"Uh, you can see Gari?"

"Only faintly. It's not like I can see Gari clearly and without conditions the way you or Pastor Kim can."

"I see··· Did you know Gari?"

Seeing Gari move as if nodding, it did seem they knew each other.

But since when?

"Long ago, I clashed with a Nazi tomb-raiding crew in Ethiopia. Pastor Kim and I seized the original Book of Enoch after they excavated it."

"······."

Nazis?

The word sounded absurdly anachronistic coming out of nowhere.

"Anyway, as time passed, your spirituality was bound to leak out. A church is God's sanctuary, where wicked things cannot enter. That's why we told you to keep attending church."

"So that's why my parents were always on my case about going to church."

"You resented them sometimes when you were young, didn't you? Still, try to understand. Your parents wanted you to live as normally as possible."

I remembered getting slapped for dozing off during dawn prayer.

They made me attend every weekend service without exception, and they treated Bible study as more important than studying for the college entrance exam.

When I was young, I thought my parents were simply obsessed with religion.

Thinking back now, all of it had been their love for me.

I had resented them once, but I understood now.

"Well, this is how things turned out."

"Your hard road has begun. But don't worry. The pastors will help you."

"Um, to that extent?"

Pastor Park and Holy Temple Church had no obligation to help me that much.

"No, it's our duty as Christians. If you've received God's anointing, we can only follow it."

"Um··· Please take care of me."

When I awkwardly nodded, Pastor Park burst into hearty laughter.

"All right! Then shall we give our Yohan some essential training from a senior exorcist?"

"Uh, Pastor··· Wait······."

"It's fine, Pastor Go. I've thought it all through."

Pastor Go looked flustered, but Pastor Park did not hesitate.

"Yohan, you're free today, right? Come somewhere with me."

"Uh, yes."

* * *

The place Pastor Park took me to was, surprisingly, Yongsan.

It wasn't far from the church, but it was an area lined with commercial buildings. Why had we come here?

"Yohan, have you been to Yongsan before?"

"Yes, to build a computer."

I could see the old shopping buildings where computer parts used to be sold.

Most of them had been demolished and redevelopment was underway, but traces remained.

"Until recently, Yongsan was a quiet neighborhood. But after the recent redevelopment, it seems the neglected areas have become slums. So troublesome things have begun settling there."

Troublesome things?

As I wondered what he meant, someone approached us.

"Huh? Is that?"

"Bokrye!"

Bokrye··· Wait, Park Bokrye? The head of the Special Task Division?!

"You damned old man. You call me over the moment you arrive and start this shit?"

Mrs. Park coolly cursed at him. The old man ghost behind her was still the same.

【Ugh··· That thing got even uglier. Granny, can't we leave?】

Old man, it's about time you got used to it.

"What kind of language is that for your older brother? You already treat Old Man Kim terribly, but you really are something."

"Enough. Why did you call me? To brag that you found a successor?"

Mrs. Park glanced at me.

A successor? Did she mean Gangnam Holy Temple Church?

"It's more than that. Anyway, Bokrye, you and I need to work together."

"Work? What work?"

"If I called you all the way to Yongsan, you can probably guess."

At that, Mrs. Park narrowed her eyes.

"It is an area that's been causing problems lately. But why did you bring this kid?"

"A field trip?"

"······ You still haven't broken that habit?"

A field trip? Habit?

At that time, I didn't know.

Pastor Park had a truly terrible habit when training rookies.

「Pastor Park! Pastor Paaark!」

「I'm busy! Keep your eyes open! Hey! There! They're breaking through! Set off the Claymore we brought from the Vatican!」

「You never said anything about this! You never said anything about this! A, a hundred what?!」

「That fox bitch is interfering while we're wrapping this up! What are the ninjas doing, damn it?! Block them with your bodies! Hey, Pastor Kim! Hyatki Yakkyo! Hatki Yakkyo! What good does knowing now do?!」

「Aaaah! Pastor Park, you bastard!!」

Pastor Kim's first day on the job, stopping the Kyoto gumiho's Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

「Pastor! Pastor! That! What is that?!」

「Pastor Go! Don't panic! If you panic, you die! It's nothing, we're just catching one snake, so don't panic! Hey! I told you to save the missiles! Those things are expensive!」

「What kind of snake is as big as a building?!」

「Don't exaggerate. It's only eight stories tall. Judging by the size, it's only about two hundred years old.」

「Pastor Park, you bastard!!」

Pastor Go's first field training, subjugating a two-hundred-year-old imugi.

And then...

"It's nothing special. We're just here to catch a few doggies."

"Doggies? Like dog monsters?"

"Yeah, a similar family."

I should have realized then that those doggies were Lycanthropes.

That Pastor Park was the kind of man who trained his disciples very, very hard.

Footnotes:

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