72 Episode 72 - Messiah vs. Messiah, Part I (1/2)
Chapter 26. Messiah vs. Messiah, Part I
Translator: Khan
Editor: RED
1.
It was quite a warm night, warm enough to spend the night on the green grass. That night, Kim Tae-hoon began collecting information.
”The smoke began to flow out of the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner and became a monster.”
The man, who was now kneeling naked in his pants and underwear and wearing only his jacket, was Kim's first target. In fact, it was right to say that they were collected rather than hunting.
For Kim, hunting was his own determination, and sometimes his life depended on it.
If Kim dealt with an animal, who had raped a woman by force and was concerned about future trouble and killed her on the spot without mercy, it would not be called hunting, it would be an insult to him who has been hunting monsters.
”No, it was a beast, not a monster. Tiger, lion, wild boar… elephant! There was also an elephant!”
Of course, Kim had no intention of showing the leisurely air of the winner, the mercy of the hunter to the man.
”So, where is the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje?”
”Yes?”
”Where is the Messiah you serve?”
”Well, it's…”
”If you answer my question, your life will be saved, I'm sure I promised.” There was only one deal he wanted to keep, only one deal with the man. ”I'll ask you again, where are they?”
”Well, I don't know. She and her Guardians don't stay in one place and move on. I only see them when the Guardians with the Stigmata come to receive the payment periodically!”
”Where are they?”
”I said everything! I told you everything I know! Please let me live...”
If you answer the question, you will be saved. In other words, if you do not answer the question, you will die.
”I'm sure the woman who was killed by you, would have cooperated with you, until she died.”
”You, you son of a bitch! You didn't want to spare me from the beginning… eub… eub… eub…”
It was all Kim wanted to do.
2.
Ppuduk! A neck was forced to turn and the sound slid past the silent foothills. It was a feeble sound. It was so weak that it was hard to hear unless one was near.
”Really…” In other words, she heard the noise and it meant that she was close. ”Do you really have to kill them that way?”
At night, Kim began collecting information. After kidnapping the remnants of the Messiah in Buyeo and those who described themselves as the believers of Messiah, he obtained information from them and killed them all.
She had to look at the whole scene from a stone's throw. He didn't do it to bother her. For him, she was a hostage, and he just needed to watch her so that she wouldn't play tricks. Anyway, it was not a pleasant sight.
”You don't have to kill them without conditions.” She, who had been silent, complained to him.
”I don't have to kill, but they have enough reason to die. Looting, rape, murder, robbery. In American law, there is no shortage of electric chairs.”
”Isn't it fair to give them a chance to at least reflect?” Kim's behavior was too much from her point of view. ”What you do is not a judgment.”
She was not a good woman. She had no desire to be a good woman. But she had some good, she had her own justice. The goodness she had was a coin. It was a coin with a reflection on one side, a coin with a judgment on the other, an opportunity for those who sincerely reflect, and a judgment on those who do not.
”Let's make one thing clear,” he answered. ”I have no intention of judging them. I remove them because they are potential threats.”
”Potential threats?”
”A hostage is valid when there is a watchdog. A hostage without a watchdog is not a hostage, but a variable, like a mine that might explode at any time. It is better to be a murderer than to risk myself, my companions, and my men for my mercy and humanity.”
”What is that…” Kim Tae-hoon was a little funny and in a frank spirit as Kate was making such an objection.
”The potential threat is eliminated in advance by any means possible, isn't that the American style? That's why agents from the NSA, CIA, and FBI are filming a fake beard and an Afghan in Afghanistan on the other side of the Atlantic with a camera named Global Hawk, which costs 200 million dollars?”
The United States, not any country, was the most enthusiastic, most thorough, and quickest in the world to eliminate potential threats to its homeland.
”It's…” Kate, the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Korea, could not be unaware of it. Finally, Kate shut her mouth.
She couldn't answer his cross-question unless she abandoned her own belief in the U.S., and status of the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Korea.
He did not explain any more to her. Her values didn't matter to him and were not important to him. What was important now was to organize the information he had received.
He immediately took a thermos bottle out of his bag. Hee drank the coffee he had drained before nightfall.
She sat on the ground with a long sigh at this sign that he would no longer talk. Then she grabbed her hair like she was tearing off her coveted blond locks.
Meanwhile, he began to match fragmentary information.
'The Messiah I met this time is stronger than I thought.'
According to the information collected, the Messiah organization that he had met was the most systematic and calculating of all the groups he has met.
'They take advantage of the characteristics of religion.'
The Messiah organization had four major classes. The peak was Messiah, or God, in short. Below it were those with Stigmata, the Guardians of God. Next, there were believers who believed in Messiah as God. The last class was slavery, who were not treated as human beings, and they were simply consumed. Of course, there was no much difference to the general group with classes here.
'They are well armed with mystery.'
The difference was the actions of Messiah and the Guardians. They moved in the Chungcheong Provinces without staying in one place, eliminating monsters, and handing out food and weapons to survivors. Of course, food and weapons were given only to those who believed, followed and served.
They showed salvation and compassion. For those who wanted to survive humanly in the Chungcheong Provinces, and for those with power and status, the Messiah had become a must-believe religion.
'It's a lot better to be a god than a king.'
That was why Kim considered this Messiah wise.
Realistically, it was impossible to properly manage a situation where most of the social infrastructure had collapsed. However, Chungcheong Province was not a small area like Seoul, where infrastructure and population were concentrated. Infrastructure and population were scattered all over the open land.
There were many more mountains than buildings. In these places, areas that could be managed only with intimidation were very limited. But mystique was different.
'It is a very good time for the concept of religion to have power.'
The reason why a man who had never been to the Vatican worshipped the Vatican and Muslims bowed every day to Mecca, which they had never seen before, was also due to the mystery.