WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 97: Sorcerers from the North

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There were only two ways for people to come from North Korea to South Korea.

First, by defecting.

Second, as diplomatic envoys.

Officially, anyway. There were unofficial routes too.

North Korean spies sent south.

They either came ashore in small submarines built for six to eight people, or entered through China or Japan with fake passports while pretending to be foreigners.

Neither option was easy, but neither was impossible.

This time was different.

An isolated fishing village on Gangwon Province's eastern coast.

People in suits had gathered on the beach of a coastal village whose population had dwindled so much that even its fishing cooperative could no longer survive.

"Team Leader Kang, is this the right place?"

"We told them to come this way, so they should come too. Unless they want to get hit by a torpedo."

Kang Gihan thought of the Navy submarine assigned to surveillance duty in the deep waters off the eastern coast.

They had not established a separate communications link, so Kang did not know whether the submarine's sonar had picked them up. Still, it had orders to sink them immediately if they strayed from the planned sea route.

They had agreed to make this a peaceful "visit to South Korea," so unless something went wrong, they would come to the designated location.

"Ah, there's something over there."

Joo Seoyul was the first to notice movement on the water's surface.

They were people.

More precisely, a group in diving suits was swimming toward the shore.

Splash!

Five people reached the beach.

Kang Gihan, Joo Seoyul, and the Mystic Association agents welcomed them.

"Welcome to South Korea, members of the Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau."

"......"

The group's gazes turned in one direction.

The person at the center of their attention was their leader.

The man who stepped forward beneath those stares was middle-aged and covered in vivid scars.

He looked every bit the battle-hardened warrior, and his voice was rough.

"Good to meet you, comrades of the South Korean Mystic Association. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Ri Gicheol of the Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau."

A lieutenant colonel.

That was a fairly high military rank.

Still, neither of them believed he was the strongest sorcerer here.

The energy they sensed from Lieutenant Colonel Ri Gicheol was rather ordinary.

The real deal was the girl at the very back, who had been radiating an alarming presence from the start.

'She's the real one.'

Her spiritual power was immense.

Normally, spiritual power was not displayed so openly.

They had obviously ordered her to do it beforehand, either as a show of strength or to crush their opponents' morale.

'......She's insanely strong. What do we do? We're getting overwhelmed here.'

'I know, Team Leader Joo.'

Every sorcerer from the Mystic Association felt the same thing.

When they showed signs of being intimidated, Ri Gicheol twisted his lips with satisfaction.

"We'll be joining you for this Mountain Lord subjugation. Let's work well together."

"......Yes."

They were supposedly here to observe, but had they really come to take part in the subjugation?

It made sense that they were confident. A sorcerer that strong at such a young age had to be a genius who would lead North Korea's exorcism world for the next century.

She was undoubtedly an extraordinarily powerful innate spiritual ability user.

'She's an incredibly powerful sorcerer, but......'

The two of them happened to think of the same person.

Young age.

Vast spiritual power.

Talent with no visible limits.

When compared to that person...

'We've got the better one back home.'

'Yeah, I agree. I'm feeling pretty patriotic now~'

"???"

Ri Gicheol looked baffled as the two suddenly steadied themselves.

* * *

The Taebaek Mountains crossed the Korean Peninsula and were important enough to appear in geography textbooks, though people generally knew them for Seoraksan or Geumgangsan.

Taebaeksan lay a little south of Seoraksan, about three hours from Seoul.

"Thanks for the comfortable ride, little sister."

"Don't mention it. We needed to transport the Dragon Gods too, so it only made sense for you to come along as well, brother."

Bang Seoryeong, the Society Head of the Black Lotus Society, smiled brightly as if it were nothing.

We were currently traveling in a large livestock truck.

More accurately, I was riding in a limousine, with the livestock truck following behind it.

The reason for using a livestock truck was simple.

We needed a vehicle large enough for Gari and Eight-Foot Sister.

"Couldn't the dinosaurs possess dolls so we could bring them along?"

"I could do it, as could highly skilled male shamans, but the lesser ones have not reached that level yet. The Black Lotus Society's overall capabilities have declined ever since the last purge."

Kyoryong Bodhisattva, a Black Lotus Society executive and Bang Seoryeong's aunt, had led a rebellion with her faction.

Gamigin, one of the seventy-two demons, had plotted to swallow up the Black Lotus Society, one of Korea's Five Great Lineages, but Bang Seoryeong and I had stopped it.

During that process, there had been a massive purge to weed out infiltrators, and the Black Lotus Society's forces had weakened considerably as a result.

"Is that okay? You've lost a lot of Dragon Gods too."

"We held another Dragon God Festival to replenish them, but there was no avoiding the loss of so many veterans."

"Still, it was something that had to be done."

Thanks to that, Bang Seoryeong's grip over the Black Lotus Society was stronger than ever.

Her view was that a united group was far better than a divided one.

"By the way, when will I get my dinosaur......?"

"Please wait just a little longer. We excavated a proper fossil in Jinju."

"Ooh......"

I had been waiting for them to make a special enchanted artifact saddle since I needed one to ride it around, but it looked like they had found a fossil in the meantime.

"I'll look forward to it~"

"You should."

We kept chatting on the way.

Maybe because we were both dinosaur fans, even debating dinosaur matchups was fun.

"We've arrived."

The driver smoothly brought the limousine to a stop.

We had arrived at a hotel beneath Taebaeksan.

It looked like a quiet rural area, but quite a few people had gathered near the hotel.

They were all monks and scholars, though.

The driver soon got out and opened the door for us.

The ride had been comfortable enough, and now he was opening the door too.

I bowed my head in thanks, then went to the truck and opened its door. Gari and Eight-Foot Sister slowly stepped out.

"Was the ride okay for you two?"

【Po~】

Clack!

It looked like they had not minded it. More importantly, the dinosaurs that had ridden with them...

Tremble, tremble, tremble!

They were terrified.

It was a little strange that beings called Dragon Gods could be so scared, but most of them were small dinosaurs. They had spent three hours in an enclosed space with much larger dinosaurs.

You needed more than ordinary courage to spend three hours in a room with a Tyrannosaurus.

"You're here?"

As I helped the two of them down, a familiar voice came from behind me.

When I turned around, a female scholar with a sleepy-looking face stood behind me, unfolding a fan.

"Scholar Choi!"

"It's been a while, Gari Bodhisattva."

Scholar Choi was Cheonghak's exorcist, who had been on the same team as Gagaram during the urban legend tracking request.

We had kept in touch every now and then since then, but it had been a long time since I had seen her in person.

"I heard you'd gone to Taebaeksan. It's been a while."

"You too, Gari Bodhisattva. I heard you've been active lately."

As I chatted with Scholar Choi about this and that, someone cleared her throat behind us.

"Ahem! Scholar Choi, is the Grand Academician here?"

"Society Head, the Grand Academician is at the summit with Seon Master Unjeong. They should be coming down soon."

"I see."

"Thank you for coming to support us. Please head inside the hotel first. We have other guests as well."

"Other guests?"

"Yes. North Korea sent sorcerers."

Ah, Pastor Park and the others had said North Korea would be sending sorcerers too.

What kind of people were North Korean sorcerers?

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested.

* * *

"Those South Korean punks ain't much after all."

In the underground auditorium of the Taebaeksan Hotel, Ri Gicheol wore a greasy smile as he watched monks and scholars passing by.

"I heard South Korea had these old groups called the Five Great Lineages, but it seems they only have numbers. Their skills aren't anything special."

"Exactly. They've been dragging this out for months because they can't catch one lousy tiger."

The sorcerers who had come down from the North.

The North Korean sorcerers of the Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau assessed the sorcerers of the Diamond Sect and Cheonghak.

The Five Great Lineages were made up of old private organizations that the state did not control.

To the Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau, whose members were often former special forces soldiers with professional military training, they looked like civilians.

"Comrade Cha Hyeran. What do you think of them?"

The North Korean sorcerers turned their gazes toward the young girl.

Among the generally older sorcerers, the girl was the only minor. Her age itself was proof of her ability.

After all, she was the talent selected to be sent to the hostile South.

"They are insignificant. The purity of their Juche power is poor, and I can't sense any innate energy from them either."

"Hmph. South Korea has had nothing special since Pastor Kim."

"Pastor Kim? Do you mean the one who subjugated the Baekdu Mountain Heavenly Pond Dragon in our Republic?"

"......"

Cha Hyeran's words silenced the North Korean sorcerers.

The fact that North Korea had accepted a foreign sorcerer's help was shameful history, something that ought to be forgotten.

"That's right. Still, even his Juche power was far inferior to yours, Comrade Cha Hyeran."

"Doesn't that prove our Republic possesses Juche power greater than that of South Korea's strongest sorcerer?"

Ri Gicheol did not bother correcting her.

A sorcerer's talent was not determined solely by the scale of their spiritual power, or Juche power.

There were plenty of people whose raw spiritual power surpassed Pastor Kim's.

Yet among all those powerful sorcerers, the one who had ultimately subjugated the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox, the Kraken of the Demon Sea, and the Count was Pastor Kim.

Even North Korea had needed to ask that born monster hunter for help.

'But things have changed. Without that bastard Kim Gwang-o, South Korea can't stand against the Republic.'

Of course, South Korea still had outstanding people.

Mrs. Park, the head of the Mystic Association's Special Task Division.

Pastor Park, Pastor Kim's teacher.

But both were too old.

The biggest problem with Korea's exorcism world was its heavy dependence on past legends called the great elders.

What about North Korea by comparison?

After the humiliation of barely subjugating the dragon of Baekdu Mountain's Heavenly Pond with Pastor Kim's help, they had cultivated sorcerers under the Supreme Leader Comrade's full support.

As a result, the Paranormal Military Force Management Bureau was enjoying the greatest golden age since its founding, and they had even discovered a powerful innate spiritual ability user.

"Comrade Cha Hyeran."

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel."

"The reason we came to this land of reactionaries today isn't simply to ensure the safety of the Republic's people."

"......"

"Show them clearly. Show those South Korean bitches the power of the Republic."

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!"

The North Korean sorcerers' lips curled.

Then a new group entered the auditorium.

They were shamans and male shamans dressed in colorful traditional clothing, and the old-fashioned sight made the North Korean sorcerers snicker.

"They go on about modernization in South Korea, but it looks like their sorcerers are all just this sort."

"From the way they're dressed, those must be the thugs from that Black Lotus Society or whatever."

Ri Gicheol asked Cha Hyeran for her assessment as his subordinates mocked them.

"What do you think? Any sorcerer stand out?"

"......That girl who appears to be their leader is exceptionally strong."

It was Bang Seoryeong.

The Dragon Maiden Bodhisattva, who had taken the position of Society Head of the Black Lotus Society at such a young age.

She certainly seemed capable enough to lead an entire group.

"And? Compared to you?"

"It depends on what dragon she's commanding, but......"

Cha Hyeran smiled confidently.

"I'm stronger."

"Good enough."

Even the leader of one of the Five Great Lineages was only at that level.

Just as expected, there had been no exceptional figure since that thief Kim Gwang-o.

'If the opportunity arises, we might even recover the Goryeo Bronze Sword that was stolen from the Republic.'

Those wicked South Koreans.

They had claimed they didn't know where it was after that relic thief died, but that excuse would only last until today.

"Proceed as planned. We need to make sure we crush their morale from the start, don't we?"

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel."

The confident North Korean sorcerers were about to act.

Then Ri Gicheol saw Cha Hyeran, who had been watching the auditorium entrance, freeze motionless.

"Comrade Cha Hyeran?"

"......"

Cha Hyeran was concentrating so intensely that she did not even register Ri Gicheol's voice.

Her attention was fixed on the young man who had entered far later than Bang Seoryeong and the Black Lotus Society's male shamans.

On the bottomless... spiritual power she felt from him.

"Is that even a human......?"

Footnotes:

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