Chapter 141: To the North! (3)

“But how many did we catch?”

“Not sure? Maybe around 50 or 60?”

Well, since they were just poor folks, I did feel a bit iffy about it.

Like hell I did.

Weirdly enough, I was feeling satisfied.

Hm.

That’s probably not good.

Feels like I’m turning into a demon king, not a saint.

I mean, what kind of saint enjoys eating souls?

Then again, they don’t believe in Kanora, so maybe it doesn’t matter.

They were just under dictatorship until recently anyway.

Who cares.

If anyone gets in my way, I’m cracking their skull.

“So are you planning to catch all of them too? There must still be at least a few million left. You can’t kill them all.”

True.

I don’t plan to go that far.

“How many were there before the Cataclysm?”

“About 25 million.”

That’s a lot.

I don’t remember the details, but I think this northern place used to be called Kim’s Joseon.

A dictatorship.

Communist dictatorship.

That’s gone now, and if only a few million survived, then… I’ll need to change strategy.

“Caught quite a few, huh. Hm. A few million… There’s also China, but their numbers are bigger. Here, it’s fewer, so let’s just sort out and catch only the ones we can justify as self-defense.”

“Wow, the saintess is just casually saying she’ll hunt people down.”

Not saying I’ll catch innocent people.

Only the ones like today.

That way, both the goddess and I will be satisfied.

Win-win.

“Huhu, giving your life for Goddess Kanora isn’t too much to ask, right? So in that sense, I’m still a saintess, aren’t I?”

“I think she was always like this, but that hero guy had her on a leash over there.”

“Now that you mention it, yeah.”

I even wrecked my own hometown with my own hands.

And even after that, I held back more than I thought I could.

Yeah, the hero was the problem.

Why did he stand in my way?

Thinking back, there were so many things I couldn’t do because of him.

No, no.

I need to keep my head straight.

No need to enjoy massacres.

After all, the people here don’t know us yet.

Did they betray me like my hometown did?

This is our first meeting, so it doesn’t matter.

Of course, they’ll be hostile.

So, only when they go too far—then we deal with them.

“Let’s go, then. To Baekdu Mountain.”

“You know… Don’t you think we’ve gotten a little weird? Even if we had power in our worlds, catching innocent people…”

She really is a young girl.

Still has a child’s heart.

Not quite saintess material yet.

If someone insults Jesus in front of a believer, what would they say?

Even if they don’t curse, they’d feel uncomfortable at least.

“They’ve committed blasphemy against the goddess.”

“But should we really see that as a crime?”

“Of course. As the goddess’s followers, we must punish such people for blasphemy.”

The girl tilted her head like she didn’t quite buy it, but once I shoved a mint chocolate candy in her mouth, she went quiet.

“But let’s stop here. No matter how trashy this place is, word could still get out.”

“Sure, fine.”

Let’s not ruin the president’s image.

We’re already short on people—can’t just ignore the North Koreans.

So next, I called Ttaengchili for intel.

“So, the most populated area near here would be Wonsan?”

“Yeah. And apparently, there’s a giant tiger there.”

Ttaengchili whipped out a tiger photo like he was waiting for this moment.

It was definitely huge.

Pure black, with white stripes.

If you got caught by that thing, one kick would turn you into ketchup.

But people still chose to live near it?

“Why would anyone go there?”

“Because being near it keeps the other monsters away.”

“Hm… So even monsters avoid the tiger for fear of being eaten.”

“Exactly.”

So humans risk death just to live near that tiger?

How pitiful.

The Cataclysm really ruined the world.

Could the lack of Awakened in North Korea be because they were too underfed to awaken?

“Isn’t it strange that there’s not even one Awakened here? No matter how poor, you’d expect at least someone.”

“Yeah, people say there are conditions to awakening. At the very least, you need to be healthy.”

“Then it makes sense why India and China suffered so badly too.”

With such massive populations, they’d have lots of poor people.

Especially those two—they’re big, but like fragile eggs, full of poverty.

“Starting from Baekdu Mountain, there are a bunch of places lined up.”

Ttaengchili mumbled while looking at another hologram map.

“Should we bring the hero along for this?”

“Why bother? If we did, we’d be stuck saving these people and eating sweet potatoes.”

That guy is light.

Justice.

A hero.

He’d try to save everyone—even those who insulted me.

Even if he liked me, he wouldn’t let me kill them.

Maybe that’s why…

Whenever I cracked skulls in front of him just because I didn’t like someone, he’d go berserk trying to ‘fix’ me.

So I always snuck around and did it behind his back.

No loose ends.

“So should we wait and see how strong the tiger is before deciding?”

“No. Just from what we’ve seen, it’s safer to move as a group.”

“Are you worried we might lose?”

Doesn’t seem likely.

We’ve never lost before, and we have divine power on our side.

That tiger may be strong, but still—

“It’s not about that. Even just now, we ran into hostile North Koreans right away. More enemies will show up.”

“True enough.”

“Wouldn’t it be better for you to go ahead as an angel and promote the Kanora religion from the start, rather than us splitting up and going separately?”

“Yeah, I guess if we just showed up alone and told people to believe in Kanora, they’d call us crazy.”

“Exactly.”

That makes sense.

If we went separately, it might just create unnecessary friction.

First, we need to save the North Korean people while showing up as angels.
If we do that, no one will be hostile at first.

And if we at least provide them a livable environment?

Then they’ll become followers of Kanora right away.

“Then let’s start with Wonsan.”

“But shouldn’t we contact the President?”

“We can contact him later. There’s no rush.”

We don’t know how the President might react if we call now.

At the very least, we should only reveal our work in North Korea once the Kanora religion has taken root in people’s hearts.

“Then, please make sure Mr. Ttaengchili doesn’t leak anything to the Guild Alliance.”

“He’s not someone who’d talk, and we’re managing the information flow tightly anyway.”

That’s good.

We absolutely can’t let this be known until we’ve secured the North Korean region.

***

Blue House

President Han Sang-jae of South Korea received a report from Chief Secretary Park Chun-seok.

“Kanora Church has moved?”

“Yes.”

“Where to? China, I assume?”

“We’re not sure yet.”

Han Sang-jae thought about where they might have gone.

Since their base was still intact, they hadn’t left completely.

But they did mention China, so maybe that’s where they went.

Well, they’ll handle it on their own.

To be honest, the only reason he could act so boldly toward hunters these days was thanks to those returnees.

“They did well in Japan too. Maybe they plan to quickly clean up China as well?”

“That’s likely.”

That makes sense.

China has sheer numbers.

Maybe they left to firmly establish the Kanora religion there.

Come to think of it, the country—no, the continent—is fascinating in its own way.

Despite losing hundreds of millions in the Cataclysm and from monster attacks, it’s said over 200 million are still alive.

“Disgustingly persistent people. Kanora Church should take care of them before their numbers grow again.”

Since ancient times, population has meant national power.

Han Sang-jae had no intention of shedding a single tear or offering sympathy for however many Chinese died.

That’s how it always was—when China was strong, Korea had to walk on eggshells.

But when China was divided, Korea could breathe and flourish.

It was fortunate that they were divided now, but you never know what might happen.

If they were physically beaten down enough, perhaps Korea could enjoy peace for at least the next century.

Still, life isn’t that easy.

With numbers in the hundreds of millions, there are bound to be many hunters too.

There’s nothing they can really do.

With the eyes of the Western powers watching, they couldn’t risk attacking China even with the returnees.

So, they must use Kanora Church.

If Kanora can suppress China, Korea can secure the peninsula and grow stronger with the vast mana stone resources around the Baekdu mountain range.

Come to think of it, that’s actually very smart.

With a powerful ally, he could go down in history as a great national leader.

“They’re very capable people… I mean, Kanora Church.”

More accurately, he saw them as unpredictable, rather than just capable.

“Still, shouldn’t we at least give them a warning?”

“No. There’s nothing good in making them our enemy. Besides, it was those women who took down the hunters, wasn’t it?”

There’s no benefit in antagonizing returnees.

They’ve already demonstrated overwhelming power—hunters who challenged them ended up crushed.

They even prevented Seoul from being wiped out.

If we try to restrain them now, they might just leave for another country.

Or worse—they might present someone even more dangerous than that succubus under the name of Hallyu.

Honestly, he’d already stopped thinking about that possibility.

It was better to cooperate and appease such people than to provoke them.

Unlike those idiotic hunters, he was the President.

“Hmm, that’s true. But if we let them get too proud, they might become arrogant.”

“They’ve already been tested. They’ve overcome countless trials in another world. And despite having enough power to overturn this country, they’re staying quiet. That means they don’t crave power or authority. More importantly—it suggests they feel no attachment to Korea as their homeland.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“So there’s no need to stop them. And maybe…”

Han Sang-jae looked at a map of the Korean peninsula on the wall.

It showed Japan and part of China with Korea at the center.

But his eyes weren’t on the peninsula.

They were fixed on the northern side of the Amnok River.

“Maybe it’s possible?”

“!!”

Kanora Church had to stay in Korea.