WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 142: Great Calamity 【Great Floo■ of the Gap■■】 (8)
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Not long after the Inwang Gang left Sokcho.
Mogok.
Han-ga Academy.
Just as the rain began pouring down in earnest, two men appeared at the academy’s front gate. Soaked through, they supported each other as they walked.
Jeong Guhwan and Jeong Do-il.
After much deliberation, the sworn Jeong brothers had decided to make what flood preparations they could.
But it had not been enough.
Especially after the rain began growing worse yesterday, Jeong Guhwan could not hold out any longer. Jeong Do-il, a police constable, still had some ability to endure, but could not bring himself to abandon that useless, spineless, snitch-rat of a sworn younger brother.
“Principal! Principal Namgung Eok!”
Jeong Guhwan cried out desperately.
“Please help us! Please, just help us a little!”
Jeong Do-il said nothing. Pride as a police constable of the Empire kept his mouth shut.
The teachers leaned out from the windows and ground their teeth at the two Jeongs.
“Jeong Guhwan! You snitch, how dare you come here!”
“Jeong Do-il, you too! Can’t you see that everyone you arrested for being unruly is inside this place?!”
One had reported them, while the other had accepted those reports and hauled off the believers in chains. Nowhere in Mogok-ri would take in the Jeong brothers, least of all Han-ga Academy.
Namgung Eok stood a step away, silently watching.
“Good grief, those two really have no shame. Of all places, they come here. It’s a good thing the children evacuated to the warehouse first...”
As Gomchi grumbled beside Namgung Eok, Namgung Eok raised their gaze toward the rainy sky.
The heavens said nothing.
The heavens had never said anything.
They had merely sent people.
A young man.
And so they had sent many people, children, dormitory supervisors, and now, even those two.
“Principal, don’t you worry. If they try any funny business, Sundae hyung and I will deal with them.”
Pi Sun-dae had come to lend a hand in protecting Han Bada after hearing Han San’s request from Chuk Jae-seok. Hearing Gomchi speak, he stared in disbelief.
“Good lord, look at this fucking Gomchi. Hey! When’d you manage to put on an armband?”
“Come on, Sundae hyung. I was only standing in for your mouth for a moment. Gomchi’s a fish with only one mouth, isn’t it?”
As those words flew back and forth beside Namgung Eok, a smile appeared on Namgung Eok’s lips.
Namgung Eok recalled the first Bible verse they had ever read.
First John, Chapter 1: The Lord dwells amid the light.
[God is one who forgives.]
Namgung Eok lowered their gaze. The leader of the Cross Society spoke to the two Jeongs.
“Come in. You’ll catch a cold.”
The academy where rose of Sharon had been planted opened its doors and welcomed the man who had informed on it, and the man who had arrested its people.
At the same time.
On one edge of Seorak.
A man with his hands tied behind his back was thrown into the mud.
“Gah!”
The man screamed, hurriedly raised his head, and licked his lips.
“P-Please stop! Let’s not do this. God, yes? God will punish you. Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 19! Vengeance is mine...”
A boot stomped on his mouth, crushing the word of God that had echoed through the rain.
“Shut the fuck up.”
Kim Gun-ok muttered coldly.
Baekbaekgyo[1] had been torn apart. Kim Gun-ok, who had been the head of its enforcement arm, the Thunderbolt Masters, was now Baekbaekgyo’s Great Magistrate.
That was, if the five remaining stragglers standing beside Kim Gun-ok could still be called Baekbaekgyo, and if their leader could still be called the Great Magistrate.
The fact Kim Gun-ok had survived until now showed that Kim Gun-ok was not stupid. Knowing that this could not possibly be so, Kim Gun-ok ground their teeth.
“Wow, you fucking bastard. We had a hell of a time chasing you down, you know? Did you think you could run away? Our Father Cho.”
“Mmph...! Mmph...!”
“Before Gyeong-deuk got hauled off, I heard this whole fucked-up mess happened because of you?”
“Mmph...! Mmph!!”
Father Cho, whose mouth was being crushed beneath the boot, could only make muffled noises.
Kim Gun-ok glared.
“This fucking bastard isn’t answering. Hey! Are you ignoring me? Huh?”
One of Kim Gun-ok’s subordinates finally spoke.
“Great Magistrate, that bastard’s mouth...”
“Ah. What the hell am I doing... Why didn’t you tell me sooner, asshole!”
Kim Gun-ok smacked the back of the subordinate’s head and removed the boot. Only then did Father Cho cough up fragments of bloodied teeth and gasp for air.
“It’s a misunderstanding, it is...”
“Misunderstanding, my ass. We know everything.”
“Oh, honestly, it really is a misunderstanding...”
Father Cho smiled benevolently, his face covered in mud and blood. Inside, feeling the empty spaces where his teeth had been, he cursed.
‘You fake-cult bastards who deserve divine punishment! If only Archbishop Mutel[2] were still alive...’
Father Cho recalled his life.
More precisely, the life of his family.
During the Sinyu Year[3], Father Cho’s ancestor had fled into the mountain villages of Gangwon. The family had passed down the papal cross and the vernacular-annotated scriptures he left behind for generations, believing the day would come when God’s blessing descended upon them.
That faith had been rewarded.
During the Byeongin Year[4], when God’s fleet appeared on the sea, Father Cho’s grandfather, then still a child, had seen the uncivilized Joseon people shriek and scatter in terror.
Whenever Father Cho’s grandfather told that story, he would make the sign of the cross and recite Romans.
Vengeance is mine.
[God is one who takes revenge.]
As a child, Father Cho had listened to those stories while licking his lips.
During the Sinchuk Year[5], when he had just entered boyhood, Father Cho received a revelation as well.
Mutel! Gustave Charles Marie Mutel.
A man from the country that had sent the fleet of God his grandfather had seen.
The year after the events of the Sinchuk Year, that sword of God had personally gone to the scene and rebuked the unbelieving officials of Joseon with icy authority.
The moment Father Cho heard that story, he understood. He had to serve that man.
And so Father Cho lived that way. Like the man who had pushed through raging blizzards to report Ahn Jung-geun’s cousin and even have Baekbeom[6] imprisoned, Father Cho served as the Lord’s eyes and ears in this land of God.
‘Ah, Archbishop Mutel...!’
But.
Last year, 1933, had truly been a year of tribulations.
Archbishop Mutel had passed away. Larribeau, his successor, was not a man who could possibly be called God’s sword.
Father Cho, who had operated mainly in Gyeongseong, had been cut loose. He had no choice but to trudge back to his hometown.
At first, he decided to think of it as a vacation. It was time to rest while rolling a few unbelievers in straw mats and sending them to the Lord.
Father Cho’s name had carried weight in Chuncheon. When he leaked information, even an officer from the Chuncheon military police, though only a corporal, had brought him chicken.
But before long, that bastard named Han San started causing trouble...
“Han San! It’s him!”
Father Cho shouted with the same smiling face and hurriedly continued.
“It happened because of that bastard Han San. Me and you gentlemen too! Because of that snake Han San...”
“Han San?”
Kim Gun-ok paused, then clicked their tongue.
“Don’t you know we’re fucked if we mess with that bastard?”
A low groan passed among the Thunderbolt Masters gathered around Kim Gun-ok.
Baekbaekgyo had been destroyed by Kannoizuna Toono. Yi Gyeong-deuk had been captured by that Silver Fox.
And had that bastard Han San not gone to Gyeongseong only a few months ago to be granted an audience with the baron who hauled Baekbaekgyo members away in sacks?
“That’s exactly it! Why do you think he’s dangerous? Because he’s Judas. Judas who colludes with Pilate!”
At Father Cho’s desperate cry, Kim Gun-ok let out a hollow laugh.
“No, you fucking idiot. Of course that bastard is some kind of goddamned source of all this shit. What I’m saying is, we’re fucked if we touch him.”
Father Cho spat out another bloody cough, still smiling.
“I’ll, I’ll guide you! The flood has paralyzed all the government offices, hasn’t it? I’ll guide you to that Judas Han San with the heart of Peter, who lights Jesus’s path before him. I know the way...”
That was when it happened.
The tied-up man who had been speaking so passionately and the men around him who had been laughing at him all froze.
A scent suddenly drifted through the air.
Savory, yet sharp enough to sting the nose.
A smell like nurungji, one that could not possibly come from a wet mountain.
“Great Magistrate, that...?”
Kim Gun-ok looked where one of the Thunderbolt Masters pointed and opened their eyes wide.
“...What is that?”
On the slope, rainwater streaming down it.
A large palanquin sat there alone.
The Thunderbolt Masters recoiled in horror.
“Since when was that there...?”
“Th-Those people over there...!”
Strong-looking men stood beside the palanquin like part of the scenery. A bald man with thick lips stood among them.
An old woman’s rough voice came from beyond the palanquin curtain.
“It’s been a long time, Father Cho. I nearly forgot your face.”
Father Cho’s face brightened upon hearing that voice.
“Old Woman Wangdae! Park Il! You came to save me!”
Kim Gun-ok and the Thunderbolt Masters, who had been flustered, clicked their tongues.
Father Cho licked his lips and shouted hurriedly.
“Hurry! Hurry and untie me! These bastards! These fake-cult bastards, like the Egyptians! To dare do this to me, the bluest-blooded of the blue-blooded in Upper Hamlet!”
Inside, Father Cho rejoiced.
God’s blessing truly was with him!
Park Il and the palanquin bearers were the real thing. They were on a different level from the fake-cult rabble Kim Gun-ok led. They would quickly defeat those men and rescue him.
And after that?
[God is one who takes revenge.]
Remembering his grandfather’s words, his family’s motto, Father Cho wanted to make the sign of the cross in overwhelming emotion. But his hands were still tied.
More than anything, he grew impatient because he could not make the sign of the cross.
“Old Woman Wangdae! Please save me quickly. At this rate, I can’t show God my reverence!”
But.
Old Woman Wangdae merely chuckled.
“Save you?”
The palanquin curtain was lifted. The large old woman stepped out of the palanquin.
Thud. She stepped into the mud. She held a chicken in one hand and a yellowish axe in the other.
Whack!
The chicken’s neck was severed by the axe.
“Huh?”
As Father Cho stared blankly, the old woman held the flapping body upside down and poured its blood over the crown of his head.
Slowly.
As though pouring oil.
“W-What are you doing?!”
It was raining. Yet the blood running down from his head clung thickly to him and would not wash away. Like oil.
“Old Woman Wangdae! I serve God. My family may have respected your customs for over a hundred years, but how dare you perform this bizarre act on me...”
Old Woman Wangdae did not answer. She had no need to. The chicken blood poured over him stopped Father Cho’s mouth on its own.
Before long.
Once she had poured out all the blood, the old woman slipped the axe into her sleeve and stepped back.
Old Woman Wangdae knelt in the mud, her posture respectful without the slightest trace of irreverence.
Park Il and the palanquin bearers followed, bowing deeply all at once.
The smell of nurungji grew stronger.
Then the ground rumbled.
Thud.
Thud.
The sound was too heavy to be footsteps, as though the mountain itself were walking.
“Uh...”
Father Cho, covered in chicken blood, opened his mouth.
“Uh, uh...”
“Uhhh...”
The Baekbaekgyo Thunderbolt Masters and Kim Gun-ok, the Great Magistrate, opened their mouths.
Thud.
Thud.
Something emerged, pushing aside the gray veil the rain had cast over the world. Black stripes spread like ink over its wet back.
When it finally raised its head, its eyes were the only thing in that ash-gray world that possessed color.
“G-God...”
The moment Father Cho muttered those words, the Mountain Lord swatted him.
The tied man’s body rose from the mud.
Then it slammed back into it.
The Mountain Lord pinned the man in the mud beneath one paw and lowered its head close to him.
A desperate scream burst out.
“G-God! Goooood...!!”
The heavens said nothing.
“God, God! Your servant, aaagh! God, save me, it hurts! It hurts so, aaaagh!”
The heavens said nothing.
“God... why...”
The heavens said nothing.
They had merely sent a beast.
Soon, Father Cho said nothing either.
“One of the Great Lords[7] has an upset stomach.”
Old Woman Wangdae whispered without raising her head.
Meanwhile, the Baekbaekgyo remnants led by Kim Gun-ok were behaving with great wisdom. They had all prostrated themselves flat on the ground.
Their foreheads buried in mud. Without a single sound of breath. Listening only to the sound of their own hearts beating.
How much time passed?
The scent grew fainter.
As the rumbling of the ground faded into the distance, Kim Gun-ok finally raised their head. A sigh like the leaking of a heart reduced to mush barely escaped their mouth.
The tiger was gone.
No, had there truly been a tiger in the first place?
Kim Gun-ok felt as though they had dreamed it all. A wild mountain in the rain. Prostrate subordinates. The prostrate palanquin bearers. The palanquin. The large old woman.
Where Father Cho had been, there was only blood and the remains of a headless chicken.
“Hm.”
Old Woman Wangdae rose and brushed the dirt from her clothes. Mud that should have clung to her fell away like fine sand, leaving not a single stain on her skirt.
As she climbed back into the palanquin, the old woman spoke.
“Does your doctrine say that the East will perish through a judgment of water?”
Kim Gun-ok regained their senses.
The palanquin curtain had already closed. Her voice drifted out from beyond it.
“Follow us. You may be of some use in the rite that will soon be held.”
Kim Gun-ok reflexively wanted to refuse, but even the Thunderbolt Masters under Kim Gun-ok’s command knew that was impossible.
A magistrate, no matter how great, could not evade a summons from the royal court.
Footnotes:
[1] Baekbaekgyo was a Korean new religious movement whose leadership became notorious for murdering followers in the 1930s.
[2] Gustave Charles Marie Mutel (1854–1933) was a French Catholic bishop who headed the Korean Catholic Church from 1890 until his death.
[3] The Sinyu Year was 1801, when a major anti-Catholic persecution drove many Korean converts into hiding.
[4] The Byeongin Year was 1866, when France launched a punitive expedition after Joseon authorities executed Catholic missionaries.
[5] The Sinchuk Year was 1901; the Sinchuk Incident was a violent anti-Catholic uprising on Jeju Island.
[6] Ahn Jung-geun assassinated Itō Hirobumi in 1909, while Baekbeom was the pen name of Korean independence leader Kim Gu.
[7] Daegun-mama, literally “great prince,” is a royal honorific applied here reverently to the tiger as a divine being.
Footnotes:
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