Ch.203203 – Rewarding Good and Punishing Evil 4

# 203 – Encouraging Good and Punishing Evil #4

Taking advantage of the moment when the pastor collapsed after being shot, a trial was held in the church.

Jeongseok, who had dreamed of becoming a prosecutor, shouted with the rigid demeanor of one.

“Going to church while neglecting your family is worse than being a non-believer who doesn’t attend church at all! Therefore, Elder Kim, you are guilty!”

Guilty!

Elder Kim Yeook, who had suddenly been declared guilty, seemed bewildered by the situation. Perhaps feeling the weight of everyone’s stares, Elder Kim Yeook trembled and shouted.

“…I! I was devoted to my family in my own way! I was never good at laundry or cooking to begin with! My husband originally did all the cleaning, dishes, and cooking! But I still tried my best in my own way!”

Elder Kim Yeook still seemed unable to admit that she had neglected her family. Thinking it would be difficult to persuade her mother at this rate, Yang Juhui spoke more harshly.

“Since we’re talking about Dad! After you separated from him! We became so poor that you could barely afford to buy me a secondhand school uniform! My bag and shoes were all hand-me-downs from my sister! In middle school, I couldn’t even afford to go on the school trip and had to borrow money from the neighbor!”

Yang Juhui seemed to have had a harder time financially than I’d thought. She always looked so neat and tidy that I never realized her uniform was secondhand or her shoes were used.

So that’s what they meant by “the hanger is more important than the clothes.”

“And yet Mom went to America for overseas missionary work after borrowing money!”

“What! Are you saying I should have gone out to earn money? I was doing God’s work, which is more important than earning material wealth! Going on missions! Evangelizing! That’s more important than earning worldly money!”

Elder Kim Yeook’s expression grew confident again.

I spoke to her.

“Elder, that’s not true. God’s work and worldly affairs aren’t separate. Doesn’t 2 Thessalonians say that those who don’t work shouldn’t eat?”

“That’s…!”

“Even the Apostle Paul earned his living by making tents. The Bible teaches that everyone should earn their own keep. Are you greater than Paul?”

My logic was flawless.

Because I was simply reciting what was written in the Bible.

Soon, Yang Juhui’s mother seemed to be at a loss for words. Of course she would be. No one in this world could live perfectly according to what was written in the Bible.

I pressed on with my momentum and shouted.

“And that pastor is a bad person! He’s killed many people!”

“…That can’t be true!”

“Look! See the restless souls writhing around that pastor! He’s a monster who has killed countless people! He speaks pretty words but fails to live by them!”

Why do teachers, pastors, and similar professions receive more criticism when they commit crimes than other occupations? Because they always speak of doing what is right.

They earn their living by telling others to stay away from evil and embrace goodness. When they secretly do terrible things themselves, people naturally feel disappointed and hurt.

In that sense, Cheon Aesu was truly a monster.

“I’m telling you, he killed them all!”

“Hehehe…”

Just then, someone’s laughter was heard.

Laughing as if this situation was highly amusing, Pastor Cheon Aesu seemed to have recovered from his gunshot wound and risen to his feet.

He spoke.

“These are all lies. They are servants of the devil Satan. Especially look at that girl over there. She appears to be a woman, but in reality, there’s a vicious devil inside her.”

With a pointing gesture, Cheon Aesu’s hand extended through the evil spirits to point at Yu Dahui.

“That girl is the real devil and murderer! Everyone! Don’t be fooled by what these wicked people say! The words of Satan are always as sweet as honey and pleasant to hear!”

Pastor Cheon Aesu clearly had no intention of admitting his sins. Moreover, he was denouncing us as worse people than himself.

“Could you believe that all these incidents happened because of them? The truth is, they are the ones who caused this problem!”

Though it seemed like false propaganda, it was technically correct. Regardless of how many people Pastor Cheon Aesu had killed, we were indeed the ones who had caused this current situation.

I decided to admit it freely.

“That’s right! It’s all because of me! I did this! I made all this happen! I’m the villain! But so what!”

I acknowledged that I had done wrong. I was a bad person.

Yang Juhui chimed in too.

“Me too! I’ve stolen things from friends and looked through their stuff!”

Soon Jeongseok joined in as well.

“I often litter on the streets or jaywalk when no one is watching.”

“I… I’ve given away food gifts from fans when I was too full! And I lied to the fans saying I ate them!”

After Kwon Sua shouted, Bong Jiyeon, who had followed us and was watching this scene as if it were entertaining, added her piece.

“I’ve lived my whole life being good, so I’ve never done anything bad.”

That seemed to be her case.

Then Teacher Hong Miri chuckled.

“I’m keeping twin sisters locked up in the basement of a building.”

That’s right. Everyone had bad deeds they wanted to hide.

We were all villains.

But we were aware of our wrongdoings and facing them head-on. We acknowledged that what we were doing wasn’t right. That was the difference between us and Cheon Aesu, who was still spouting lies.

Suddenly, Yu Dahui pulled something out.

It was Pastor Cheon Aesu’s nameplate.

“I can hear blood crying from this piece of wood. It’s my mother’s blood. You beat my mother to death with this! And then made it look like suicide!”

If that was true, it was a shocking revelation. Confronted with direct evidence, even the pastor seemed flustered and couldn’t easily come up with a lie this time.

“That nameplate… I thought it had disappeared… so you…!”

Indeed, only sharp truth can defeat lies.

I raised the gun in my hand and shouted.

“This gun belongs to you too, right? You used this to shoot and kill Kang Bada!”

“……”

The situation and evidence were crystal clear. Cheon Aesu flinched as if in more pain than when he’d been shot.

“…I thought I had thrown that gun into the river.”

At Pastor Cheon Aesu’s muttering, the congregation began to stir. Elder Kim Yeook was among them. She asked.

“Pastor! That’s a lie, right? Tell me it is!”

“Mom! That pastor might have made my sister disappear too!”

“…Dohui?”

“Yes!”

“That can’t be! Pastor was the one who helped us the most when Dohui went missing! You shouldn’t say such things carelessly! If what you’re saying is true… what kind of person would do such a thing?”

This city had an unusually high number of disappearances.

Mostly young women.

I didn’t know why Cheon Aesu killed them and made them disappear. If I had to guess, he probably offered their blood as sacrifices to the sea of eternity to prevent the flood.

Soon Pastor Cheon Aesu chuckled.

“How noisy these foolish humans are. If killing just one woman could save a thousand lives, shouldn’t one do so? If killing ten could save ten thousand?”

“Finally showing your true colors! You murderer!”

I hurled primitive and colorful insults at the pastor.

Of course, Cheon Aesu didn’t seem to care at all.

“I did the right thing. Only heaven knows my merit. If I am to be judged, it should be through the righteous judgment of heaven, not the condemnation of brats like you!”

“My daughter! My daughter! You…!”

Elder Kim Yeook screamed as if she had finally lost her mind. What she had believed in all this time turned out to be a castle built on sand.

She couldn’t bear the thought that all the time and devotion she had invested had been based on lies.

“What is this! What is this! Aaaagh!”

But Elder Kim Yeook was absorbed by the mass of evil spirits wrapped around Cheon Aesu without being able to resist. Several hands pulled at her, creating a truly horrific sight.

—Let’s become one.

—Become one with us.

“Ugh, what the hell is that!”

I was terrified.

The evil spirits wrapped around Cheon Aesu seemed to hate him while simultaneously wanting to make others as miserable as themselves.

If I can’t be happy, then you shouldn’t be either—was that their mentality? Any sympathy I had felt for these vengeful spirits vanished in that moment.

“Mom!”

Yang Juhui shouted loudly.

But all I could do was pull her back by the shoulder.

“The pastor is coming this way! We need to run! Run!”

# # #

Cheon Aesu was chasing after us.

More precisely, he was after Yu Dahui.

“Do you know how many souls will be saved if I kill that one girl? Not doing good when you have the ability to do so is the most terrible evil. Hand over that child! You brats!”

Pastor Cheon Aesu was determined to kill Yu Dahui and return everything to normal.

“Yu Dahui! Aren’t you ashamed! So many people are suffering because you’re alive! People are in pain because you’re alive!”

I suddenly became worried about Dahui. What if she gave in to those words and decided to die?

But Dahui’s resolve was stronger than I expected.

“People aren’t suffering because of me! And one person disappearing won’t solve the problem! I won’t be fooled by your words anymore!”

She was right. It would be ridiculous if all the world’s problems could be solved with the blood of one high school girl.

“And I’m not that good of a person. Honestly, I don’t care if others suffer because of me! I’m a bad person!”

As we fled, we eventually arrived at the old school building. We quickly escaped to the basement of the old school building, with Cheon Aesu following behind us. It was terrifying, like being chased by a literal monster.

“Ahhh!”

“What is this!”

Many people at the school were swallowed by the army of ghosts surrounding Pastor Cheon Aesu. If caught, we too would be sucked into those screaming hands. We absolutely couldn’t let ourselves be caught.

Eventually, we reached the third floor of the old school building.

I shouted to everyone.

“Everything has gone according to plan so far! Now comes the real challenge!”

On the third floor of this old school building, where dreams and reality intermingled, there was a pond. That place led to the 3.5th floor, somewhere between the third and fourth floors.

A place where time flowed 30 times slower.

It could rightfully be called the purgatory of this world.

“We need to lure him there and make him fall in.”

I planned to trap Cheon Aesu, the hero who couldn’t die even when shot, on that 3.5th floor. I thought this plan would work because Cheon Aesu was a being who aged.

Originally, he was a boy when he was born.

But quite some time had passed since then, and now he was middle-aged.

I wasn’t sure if he aged more slowly than others because he was a hero created by false rumors, but the fact that he aged remained unchanged.

What if we pushed him into the 3.5th floor, a prison-like place of infinite time and suffering, since he couldn’t escape the influence of time? It would surely be effective.