[Chapter 190]
[Unable to Feel at Ease]
Before the regression.
After Iriya's martyrdom, the Mana Religion actively expanded its influence.
The Fairy government had no justification to stop it.
Above all, public sentiment did not follow them.
It was inevitable.
Guarantee freedom of religion!
This is clear religious oppression!
Give me back my child, you bastards!
The disaster of monsters invading Seoul took away so many things.
Although there was a pioneering boom, that was a situation for people who turned crisis into opportunity to be happy about.
It didn't apply to people who had been diligently living their daily lives.
Moreover, they lost not only property, but also their loved ones.
Even though the Eternal Group and business groups stepped up to provide some support, there was nothing they could do about human lives.
Let's submit to the Mana God.
All beings die and find rest in the embrace of the Mana God.
People longed for the dead.
They couldn't move forward.
They only denied reality and looked back on their happy past.
To such people, the doctrines of the Mana Religion were very appealing.
Even if my parents, partner, child, friend suffered terrible pain being eaten by monsters.
The doctrine that the Mana God would embrace them and give them rest gave them hope to live.
They just needed assurance.
Assurance that the Mana God would protect them.
They didn't need evidence.
This was why those fallen into despair could only cling fanatically to the Mana Religion.
Furthermore─
─Mana is dissolved in the world.
Mana consists of the memories, emotions, and thoughts of beings.
Therefore, the mana dissolved in the world is the collective will of all people in the world, as well as my will, and also the collective will of the people I love.
Memories, emotions, and thoughts. That is the soul that defines existence.
In other words, it can be said that people's souls are dissolved in this world.
After Iriya's death.
The newly reorganized Mana Religion presented a doctrine that would once again entice people.
It was the correlation between mana and souls.
The story that would be taught in mana studies was quite complex and abstruse.
It was difficult to understand.
But to summarize the abstruse story in an easy-to-understand way─
─The precious people of the believers who died in the Seoul invasion are wandering the nine heavens, unable to attain enlightenment due to their deep resentment.
That was it.
People who heard the conclusion shed tears with emotion.
A precious younger sibling died.
They mourn and pray for the sibling's soul.
But the sibling is too resentful to be happy and is sad.
How resentful must they be to be wandering the world unable to attain enlightenment?
People who fell for the Mana Religion sincerely believed those words.
O leader who upholds the will of the Mana God.
Please tell us how we can save them.
Then how will the Mana Religion believers act?
The answer was simple.
They offer up their property and anything else while praying for their enlightenment.
Or they curse the Fairy who couldn't prevent the Seoul invasion and was away on a provincial tour.
Or they ask to meet the soul of the person wandering the nine heavens just once.
Or─
─Memories, emotions, thoughts.
If souls are dissolved in the world like that, they might be able to resurrect them if they just prepare a vessel to contain them.
They ask for them to be resurrected.
It's nonsense.
But in a world where magic exists, it couldn't be dismissed as complete nonsense.
Moreover, they were crazy.
And they were in a state of mind where they wanted to grasp at straws.
In that situation, the Mana Religion spoke words to soothe the believers' souls.
Let's hold a soul-returning ceremony. Let's have a time to meet the souls wandering the nine heavens.
Soul-returning ceremony (返魂祭).
People were enthusiastic.
Their pain was that great.
The Mana Religion also propagated that they would hold soul-returning ceremonies for people who died for reasons other than the Seoul invasion.
It was a natural progression for people to flock from all over the country.
The Fairy government couldn't stop it.
The soul-returning ceremony was a religious event.
They weren't leading terrorism, but just saying they would do it in the Mana Religion as it was done in Buddhism in the past.
So the soul-returning ceremony proceeded smoothly without any interference and─
─Gift
Sindorim activated
He, who said he lost his younger sister in the Seoul invasion, attended the soul-returning ceremony and prayed with the wish to bring her back to life.
And as people's wishes were added, the influence of
'Why are you trying to revive me... Yeon-su, why did you make such a sacrifice?'
But contrary to Sindorim's wish.
His
He wanted to revive the dead.
That wish gave Sindorim the power to turn into a ghoul and resurrect the dead.
However─
'─Yes, just as you saved me, this time I will revive you. I will, I will definitely save you.'
The dead certainly resurrected.
Not in the body of the living.
But in the body of the dead.
They were resurrected as ghouls.
And following their instinct to kill the living, they caused terrorism.
Thus, the Yeongdeungpo area was half-destroyed in an instant.
'Yeon-su, my little sister... Oppa will definitely save you. If I devour those people's souls, I'll surely be able to revive you.'
His terrorism was suppressed by On Tae-yang's party and the Twelve Seats who were dispatched to the scene at the time.
Afterwards, the Mana Religion's recognition plummeted sharply and it faced decline.
☆
Sindorim died.
When he heard that news from Twenty-five.
Eun-ha doubted his ears.
Sindorim died...
It's not impossible.
The Kraken incident was like that.
The Seoul Disaster was like that.
Other incidents were like that too.
There were so many variables that changed the future in this life.
So it was understandable that Sindorim died in the Seoul invasion in place of his younger sister, unlike in the previous life.
"But it still feels uneasy..."
But Eun-ha couldn't easily accept it.
It was good news.
Because there was no need to use force to kill or persuade Sindorim.
Unlike the previous life,
Nevertheless─
─Were things originally this easy?
He couldn't shake off the uneasiness.
Experience was telling him.
That the future he prepared for wouldn't pass by so easily like this.
Eun-ha, who had been through so much, couldn't just happily accept the good news.
I hope it's just my groundless worry, but even so it's too unsettling.
In the clan hall office.
Eun-ha sank into thought as he leaned back in the office chair.
Just in case, Eun-ha had Twenty-five check again if Sindorim really died.
They say Sindorim really died.
His younger sister Shin Yeon-su fell into despair and joined the Mana Religion.
Since Sindorim died,
Even so, it's suspicious that the person called his younger sister is involved with the Mana Religion...
Twenty-five said.
The younger sister is regarded as the new saint of the Mana Religion.
That strangely bothered him.
It made Eun-ha suspicious.
"Could it be that the younger sister also has
"Papa?"
"Nah, that can't be."
Then Eun-ha voiced a very unlikely doubt.
Soon he shook his head.
They say you never know about life, but it wouldn't be such a convenient story that both siblings had the gift of
Ugh... But I can't call Twenty-five and ask him to investigate someone under the Mana Religion's protection...
In the end, more detailed information is needed.
Eun-ha wanted to investigate the Mana Religion to resolve his suspicions.
But it was very difficult to investigate a huge religious organization in detail.
Moreover, he had even received a warning from the darkness recently.
He had to restrain himself for a while.
So he was trying to refrain from contacting Twenty-five as much as possible.
It's fortunate the darkness hasn't turned against me, but it's still troublesome.
The darkness isn't on my side, and the moment I use the darkness, I'll be caught by its weakness...
He thought about using the darkness instead.
Soon Eun-ha abandoned the thought.
Whether the darkness was completely under Baek Seo-jin's management.
He had been unsure since talking with Baek Seo-jin before.
The darkness couldn't be trusted.
Moreover, he didn't want to be leashed by the darkness.
It was then.
Knock knock
There was a knocking sound.
Eun-ha quickly raised his head.
"It's me, Mok Min-ho. I'm coming in."
"Alright, come in."
Mok Min-ho opened the door and entered.
Mok Min-ho, holding a bundle of documents in one hand, approached Eun-ha.
Then with a thud.
He put down the bundle of documents on the desk.
"Take it."
"What's this?"
"Last month's activity reports of clan members. I thought I was going to die organizing it. Look through it all and approve it."
"You could handle such things on your own as the sub-lord... I just need to approve it, right?"
"Don't you need to check what activities the clan members are doing? How can the clan lord be so negligent..."
"You guys will do well enough."
"Forget it, just look at it properly."
Mok Min-ho was the sub-lord.
Having gained authority, he was stubborn.
Eun-ha made a sour face and pretended to look through the document files casually.
He tried to send Mok Min-ho away like that.
But Mok Min-ho seemed intent on staying until he finished looking through it all.
In the end, Eun-ha had no choice but to flip through the documents.
"Since there are more people in the clan now, there's more and more to check."
"It will keep increasing from now on. People will keep joining."
"It's better than not having people, but it will become harder to manage. Should we recruit one more sub-lord?"
"That's not a bad idea. How about recruiting one person who's good at work?"
"Do you have anyone to recommend? Eun-woo?"
"Don't make Eun-woo busy."
"I saw him focusing on exhibiting photos last time. Seeing that, Eun-woo doesn't seem to have that much work..."
"Still, he must have more work than you. Don't say that to someone who does what he needs to do and spends his free time."
"Then who should we choose? Choi Eun-hyeok?"
"Eun-hyeok is good with a sword, but he makes a lot of mistakes in this area."
"That's true."
As the Pandora Clan became A-rank.
More work came in compared to last year and their recognition increased.
Moreover, the individual ranks of the players rose quite a bit too.
As a result, there were so many more things the Pandora Clan had to pay attention to.
Although the administrative burden didn't increase much as Han Seo-hyeon hired administrative staff.
The burden on people making important decisions increased greatly.
"Let's call a staff meeting next time. We'll discuss it then."
"Alright, don't forget."
So it wasn't unreasonable for Mok Min-ho to suggest bringing in one more sub-lord.
Eun-ha accepted his opinion.
Meanwhile, Eun-ha's gaze was quickly scanning through the documents.
While he had to look closely at the new recruits, he only needed to check the performance of people he already knew.
Everyone is working hard. Cheon-seo doesn't do work when told, but he seems to be working hard when forcibly thrown into dungeons...
As new recruits came in.
Lee Cheon-seo seemed to have washed his image as a kind senior.
No Eun-ah noticed this and made sure to include new recruits in Lee Cheon-seo's party.
In that state, Mok Min-ho threw them into any dungeon and they worked hard.
Eun-ha smiled bitterly.
"But the idiot hyung has more property damage than work compensation?"
"He transforms into a giant wolf at the drop of a hat, so property damage is inevitable. I already told him to be careful. We had our player rank frozen last year because of you in the player rank evaluation, we can't have it frozen any further."
"That's right. It would be good to put clan members who can handle this hyung in his party as much as possible. You, Mok Min-ho..."
"Wouldn't Mary be suitable?"
"It's a bit much to have 2 or more telepathists in one party unless it's a special case... And from what I saw last time, Mary doesn't seem to be able to stop him well either? She's more the type to be swayed. Or how about attaching Min-ji?"
"Min-ji wouldn't be bad."
Jin Parang was the clan's troublemaker.
But strangely, the public evaluation of him was quite good.
Besides this, Eun-ha looked over the recent activities of the clan members.
There were problem children like Iriya who kept proselytizing to people at every chance.
There were incidents like Bae Su-bin getting into arguments with players from other clans during missions.
Anyway, except for minor issues, the clan was running smoothly.
Then─
"─While coming back from subjugating monsters, they found a grandmother who had been reported missing?"
Eun-ha stopped at Choi Eun-hyeok's activity report.
There was a special note written.
"Ah, that's Eun-hyeok's story. It seems she had dementia. From what I heard, she disappeared while her family took their eyes off her for a moment."
"How did they end up taking their eyes off her... But it's fortunate they found her."
"Apparently the family went to the Mana Religion to prepare for a soul-returning ceremony while leaving the grandmother behind."
"Soul-returning ceremony?"
"I heard the Mana Religion is holding one soon."
Then Eun-ha paused at the words Mok Min-ho brought up.
He asked again.
Mok Min-ho nodded.
A soul-returning ceremony...
This feels really strange.
A soul-returning ceremony to honor the souls of the dead.
It wasn't strange to think about.
But the fact that the Mana Religion was the organizer and their actions in the previous life kept bothering him.
Eun-ha couldn't feel at ease even though Sindorim was said to have died.
─It would be better to check directly.
In the end, Eun-ha made a decision.
Since he couldn't use Twenty-five.
Now that it's come to this, he would infiltrate the Mana Religion himself.
"I'll be taking out a few clan members soon. I have some separate business."
"Why are you taking out kids who are working well? You keep taking out kids when you don't even work properly yourself..."
"You don't seem to know, but I work too."
"What work do you do?"
"Anyway, please let me take them out."
Mok Min-ho frowned deeply.
But as long as Eun-ha held the position of clan lord.
The authoritarian Mok Min-ho couldn't defy No Eun-ha.
☆
It will soon be June.
Then the homeroom teacher told the students they would go on an untimely field trip.
"This field trip will be to Nanjido Park. Teacher will tell you how to come the day before the field trip."
Nanjido Park was once used as a landfill.
But after the
Ha Baek-ryeon listened to the explanation.
"The Han River is right nearby, so you'll be able to see a very beautiful scenery. Also, on a clear day, you can even see the old National Assembly building across the Han River."
By the way, the new National Assembly building where lawmakers conduct political affairs is located elsewhere.
The old National Assembly building in Yeongdeungpo-gu is only used as a cultural space now.
The homeroom teacher talked a lot.
So Ha Baek-ryeon started tuning out the explanation halfway through.
"Lunchbox... What should I ask mom to pack?"
She's looking forward to the field trip.
Ha Baek-ryeon wanted to tell her mother as soon as school ended.
Then she suddenly remembered.
Ah, kimbap and cup noodles!
Jean Valjean had mentioned it before.
The truth of field trips is to make do with kimbap and cup noodles.
The imagination came to her naturally.
Ha Baek-ryeon licked her lips.
'Try drinking the noodle broth together later. It'll taste even better.'
'Really?'
'Of course. Especially since you're good at making ramen, Baek-ryeon. Cup noodles are well...'
'Huh? How do you know that?'
'...Didn't I tell you before?'
She took after her mother and was good at cooking.
Of course she was good at making fried eggs and ramen.
She could make cup noodles with her eyes closed.
Ha Baek-ryeon hummed a tune.
"Ah, should I try packing kimbap myself? I should ask mom to teach me later."
She's really looking forward to the field trip day.
She hopes the weather will be nice.
That way they can see the National Assembly building across the Han River.
Eating kimbap and cup noodles while looking at that, and having fun with friends.
Ha Baek-ryeon was pleased just thinking about it.