Ch.2020. Punk City and the Boy and Girl

Amon ultimately decided to trust the priest.

Such a clear mutual interest was reason enough to trust.

The priest, realizing he had gained Amon’s trust, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Follow me. I’ll take you to your siblings.”

The priest cleaned his glasses and called a taxi.

His car had already departed to be with the Lord.

Amon offered a brief moment of silence toward the priest’s car, then got into the taxi.

***

Fortunately, the nun and the children were safe.

Thanks to the holy knights, they were being safely protected in the cathedral.

“Even the Higgjen Group wouldn’t dare attack this place.”

Though the modest cathedral lacked the robust defenses or perfect barriers of a corporation, they had religion as their shield.

This shield was actually much stronger than any mediocre defense system.

Even though religion’s influence wasn’t what it used to be, spitting in the Vatican’s face would quickly earn one the label of heretic.

Of course, one might wonder if a company ruthless enough to attack an orphanage would care about such things, but that was only possible because the orphanage had no power.

From Higgjen Group’s perspective, an ordinary orphanage attack could be perfectly concealed with minimal effort.

But that wouldn’t work with this cathedral.

Because this cathedral was an archdiocese.

In the Church of Goddess hierarchy, it ranked just below the Vatican, making it untouchable.

If Higgjen Group ever dared to touch this place, concealment would be impossible, and they would have to prepare for a direct confrontation with the Vatican.

Therefore, the priest could be certain they were safe while inside.

“So please relax and rest from your journey today.”

The priest handed bedding to Amon and Sonia.

The two bowed to the priest and immediately ran to their siblings and the nuns.

‘Even though they’re not related by blood…’

Watching them, the priest smiled contentedly.

After sending them off, the priest turned and headed upstairs to his room marked with his nameplate.

[Gregory]

Entering the room, he sat on the sofa, yawned, and rubbed his face.

The priest enjoyed the silence of the room alone.

There was nothing to do at home anyway, and since he’d promised to protect the orphans, he planned to be on duty tonight.

He brought two blankets—one for his upper body and one for his lower body—and tossed them onto the sofa.

He removed his cumbersome priest’s garments and changed into casual clothes.

Without bothering with his phone or web surfing, he sat at his desk reading the Bible for several hours, then closed it and sat on the sofa.

The priest rubbed his tired eyelids.

He bent down and untied his boots.

After neatly removing his boots and placing them aside, he began pressing his fingertips into the soles of his feet.

Then he sniffed his fingers and grimaced in disgust.

It was a surprisingly mundane gesture that would have shocked anyone who knew him.

But since no one else was in the room, he felt no hesitation in behaving this way.

“My, what a remarkably domestic scene.”

…He was supposed to be alone in the room.

The priest momentarily wondered if it was a ghost and turned around.

But what met his eyes wasn’t a ghost, but a perfectly normal person.

And of all people, someone who knew the priest.

“Fu—ck!!!!”

Whether from the shock of Amon suddenly appearing,

Or from the embarrassment of someone he knew witnessing his undignified behavior,

Or perhaps both,

The priest dramatically expressed his feelings by tumbling off the sofa.

Thud!

“Oh, my aching bones…”

Fortunately, nothing was injured.

His tailbone hurt, but not enough to call it an injury.

The priest patted his lower back and managed to get up.

Instead of getting angry at Amon for startling him,

“What brings you here?”

He greeted Amon with a bright smile.

Should this be called professionalism, or was the priest simply too kind-hearted?

Amon pondered this, then decided to ask what he was curious about first.

“Do priests swear too?”

Flinch.

The priest’s eyebrow twitched.

Of course, doctrinally speaking, priests weren’t completely forbidden from swearing.

Even saints would use curses like “child of Satan” or “child of a whore” when necessary, so there was no reason a priest couldn’t.

But there’s such a thing as image.

It didn’t look good for a priest, who should spread good words to people, to have a foul mouth.

To use a chef analogy, it was like seeing a chef smoking—

While you know they wash their hands, customers might still feel uncomfortable. Swearing was like that for priests.

The priest twitched his eyebrows and racked his brain.

But unable to come up with a suitable excuse, he opted to change the subject.

“So what brings you here?”

“Well, answering a question with a question…”

“What. Brings. You. Here?”

Amon reluctantly went along with the obvious subject change.

“I came to discuss the Higgjen Group.”

As soon as those words left Amon’s mouth, the priest walked to his desk.

He reached his hand under the desk.

Click.

A very faint button click was heard, so quiet it would be imperceptible during conversation.

Amon looked around.

But he couldn’t sense any change.

“You won’t feel it. That’s the point of a soundproof barrier. You can speak freely now.”

Amon looked around curiously, then trusting the priest, got to the point.

“Please share information about the Higgjen Group with me.”

“Don’t you already know through your precognitive abilities?”

“I know the big things like the Secret Garden or their beliefs. But I don’t know detailed information like security systems or employee profiles.”

Because such things can’t be known through past settings.

Swallowing those words, Amon looked directly at the priest.

The priest understood what kind of information Amon was requesting.

Security systems, employee profiles, work schedules, and so on.

Usually, only certain roles within the Vatican would request such things.

‘Inquisitors…’

In other words, the Vatican’s secret sword.

While holy knights were righteous warriors who punished heretics in the open, inquisitors were assassins who operated in the shadows.

And now Amon was making requests typical of such people.

The priest had to ask carefully.

“Are you… planning to get your hands dirty?”

Amon nodded quietly.

The priest could only hold his forehead.

He understood the sentiment.

Not only Amon but Sonia and the orphanage had been attacked, pushing his patience to the limit.

Especially since Amon and Sonia were destined to leave for the Vatican someday.

They couldn’t protect this orphanage forever.

So he must have chosen to attack as the best form of defense.

But ideals and reality are different.

In reality, Amon is just a youngster who couldn’t even properly kill one elite ninja from the Higgjen Group.

If someone like him went to the company, he wouldn’t assassinate anyone—he’d be captured and turned into a lab rat.

‘Amon doesn’t seem like he wouldn’t know that…’

The problem was that the Amon the priest knew wasn’t that reckless.

While he didn’t know Amon completely, he knew well enough that Amon wasn’t the type to charge in recklessly with blood rushing to his head.

Rather, the Amon the priest knew would keep his burning heart in check while coldly seeking methods of revenge.

Therefore, instead of rejecting Amon’s request, the priest decided to accept it conditionally.

“Please tell me your plan. If I judge it to be reasonable after hearing it, I’ll give you all the information I have.”

Amon momentarily looked flustered at the priest’s condition.

But soon he steeled his resolve and spoke.

“Alright. I’ll tell you. But I need your guarantee that you’ll cooperate with the plan I share.”

The priest accepted Amon’s condition without much thought.

But after hearing the specific plan from Amon’s mouth, he couldn’t help but regret that choice.

“How do you know that?”

The plan that came from Amon’s mouth contained information he should never have known.

The priest couldn’t be certain since it was information even he didn’t know, but he was confident it wasn’t false.

“How do you know that erased history?”

When you deal with ghosts and exorcisms, you inevitably learn certain things.

One of those is historical contradictions.

Most veteran exorcists know that there are several contradictions in the history recorded in the Bible.

Not just exorcists, but holy knights and priests of similar rank know this too.

Nevertheless, they don’t try to expose these contradictions.

They simply label these contradictions as “erased history” and keep quiet about them.

The priest knew of the existence of erased history but didn’t know its specific contents.

But he never expected Amon to suddenly bring up that erased history.

According to the history Amon described, most contradictions fit together perfectly, so it couldn’t be dismissed as false.

“Who exactly are you…”

The priest had to seriously consider.

Who exactly was this person before him?

Was he friend or foe?

Was it right to leave him be?

Should he report to the Vatican?

Seeming to notice the priest’s troubled mind, Amon smiled bitterly and said:

“Is that important right now? I don’t know what erased history means to the Vatican, but I have no intention of fighting the authority of the Papal Office, so don’t worry.”

Hearing Amon’s words, the priest began weighing his options.

The Vatican’s stability versus loyalty to Amon.

Normally, the priest would have chosen stability.

But for some reason, he wanted to keep his loyalty to Amon.

Amon had trusted him with a secret, and what would happen to Amon if he reported it?

Above all, this was essentially a confession.

The moment he revealed a confessor’s confession to the Vatican, the priest would essentially lose his qualification as a priest.

Therefore, the priest decided to let this matter go.

“Alright. I’ll keep my promise.”

The priest stood up and handed a USB to Amon.

Amon tossed the USB into his coat’s inner pocket and thanked the priest.

“Thank you.”

“I wish you luck.”

Having finished his business, Amon left the office.

Through the window, just as he had entered.

Only then did the priest realize how Amon had sneaked in.

Amon leaped away and disappeared into the darkness.

The priest looked in the direction Amon had vanished, recalling the plan Amon had shared.

‘In terms of feasibility… it’s entirely possible.’

According to Amon’s plan, even with Amon’s physical abilities, he could bring down the Higgjen Group.

No, it was precisely because it was Amon that the Higgjen Group could be brought down.

But apart from feasibility, the plan itself was reckless beyond measure.

‘Is Amon not afraid of death?’

The priest couldn’t help but recall:

The look in the eyes of a fanatic who believes without doubt that God will protect him from death.

A plan premised on death that only such a person could devise.

The priest smiled bitterly as he laid out the bedding.

Planning how to keep Sonia at the cathedral as Amon had asked.

*

And the next day.

“Sonia?”

“…”

“Sonia? Would you like to talk?”

“…Did you know?”

Faced with Sonia’s fierce questioning, the priest couldn’t help but confess the truth.

“If you’re asking if I knew… I did know.”

“Then why didn’t you stop him?”

“Well… that’s…”

The priest couldn’t bring himself to say it was necessary.

Because Amon’s plan was still in progress, and a misstep here could put Amon in danger.

But if he didn’t explain the immediate situation, Amon would be in danger in a different sense.

‘But why did he leave the explaining to me?!’

The priest looked into Sonia’s eyes.

The light had disappeared from them, and he felt that if he took a wrong turn, she might start looking for a kitchen knife or an axe.

Then the priest lowered his gaze to look at the screen Sonia was showing him on her phone.

On that screen,

Was Amon, walking arm in arm with a madam from a brothel.

‘Come on! Why are you doing this to me?’

Once again, the priest suffers.