Chapter 161: A Country of Sacred, High and Beautiful Goddess.

Insulting our goddess is no different from insulting me.

And it’s no different from insulting my mother.

“You insulted our mother — can you really call that person innocent? Hm?”

“Ah.”

“Think about it. Aren’t you both feeling something welling up inside when you think of your mother right now?”

Anyway, once you’ve received the blessing of Goddess Kanora, you can’t help but feel that way.

“Well… maybe that’s true.”

“Huh? I don’t feel anything like that.”

“Think carefully. From now on, for both of you, Goddess Kanora is your mother. Isn’t that right?”

Even for this tin can, our goddess is now his mother.

“Well, if I go along with your logic, I guess that checks out.”

“But that damned priest dared to call her a cult?”

At my words, she tilted her head.

“Ah. That does make me mad. Hm, yeah, it’s kind of strange. I guess science can’t explain this?”

“See? This is exactly it. Even this tin can gets turned into a daughter by our great mother, Goddess Kanora.”

A goddess so powerful, she can even sway androids. Our goddess is mother to all.

“What even is this? Anyway… I guess it’s pretty amazing.”

“Now then, let’s keep growing our numbers.”

This is just the beginning.

For our goddess.

I will create many believers and make her the one true deity on Earth.

Ttaengchil’s abilities were quite formidable.

While the Southern China Hunter Alliance was gearing up for full-scale war, I used the gap left by Nanjing’s absent hunters.

Ttaengchili’s language circulation package program activated.

It spread the Kanora faith among many Chinese people.

Unlike in North China, where Kanoraism had been suppressed, in the South there was no such crackdown, so gathering followers wasn’t difficult.

“I heard something about some goddess cult?”

“You mean that Kanora Goddess cult or whatever?”

“Seems like it? Anyway, it sounds pretty amazing.”

People started flocking in droves, and this was exactly what I had aimed for.

“Goddess Kanora has given her revelation to Namgung Clan near the Great Wall: to establish her kingdom on the lands of ancient Shu Han. So, children of Kanora, you must go to this new Shu Han.”

The land of Shu Han. I trust they’ll make their way there just fine.

Information on China is pretty much blocked right now, so I plan to get help from Cheonma and Battle mage later.

“Is there a new world over there?”

“Unlike the arrogant regimes divided North and South, Namgung Clan will guide our goddess’s children to her.”

That’s what I told the believers.

“Wooooooaaahhh!”

Cheonma and Battle mage seemed to be working really hard, because more and more hunters were slipping away every day.

And with them, our children of Kanora also increased.

I’d say that’s already a big achievement.

One by one, the Chinese started leaving Nanjing.

Thanks to Namgung Clan sending people directly, it wasn’t hard for them to slip out.

Of course, only to a certain extent.

I wasn’t about to take every single Chinese person living comfortably in Nanjing.

The key was North China, after all.

As the war dragged on, more hunters deserted, weakening public order, and more Chinese followed Namgung Clan.

And I’ve heard Namgung already started teaching martial arts to select people.

If it’s at that level, they’ll manage just fine.

“When are we leaving here?”

“How long has it been?”

“About a month, I think?”

A month.

A whole month.

That really took some time.

Or maybe not — a month’s actually not that long, is it?

With Namgung Clan serving as a rallying point, gathering people didn’t seem so hard.

“If your tail gets too long, you’ll get caught. Enough people have slipped out, right?”

“Yeah. And it looks like fighting at the border escalated. It’s pretty much full-scale war now.”

Looking at the hologram map Ttaengchili pulled up, I could see scattered battles along the North-South Chinese border.

Hunters fighting hunters.

One of the few real hunter wars in this era.

Honestly, it’s a little sad.

If it weren’t for us, China wouldn’t be at war right now.

“Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. South China had US backing, after all. Now that it’s blown up, America will just keep the North and South fighting.”

Ah, yeah.

So I guess it’s not entirely our fault after all.

Anyway, the Chinese who got out will probably live better lives now, so it’s a win-win for everyone.

“That’s a relief. What about Cheonma and Battle mage?”

“They sent word — they made it out too.”

“That’s good to hear. We should probably wrap this up too.”

I need to make it look like people joined the Kanora faith naturally — not because someone forced them, but because they chose to walk into Kanora’s world.

To the Shu Han where Namgung Clan is.

I bet even the US will like that. Looks like they have no intention of leaving China alone anyway.

For a country that claims to be the world police, they’re pretty ruthless.

Only our goddess should be allowed to do things like that.

***

Blue House Headlines:

-Escalation of the North-South China war. When will peace return to China?

-Weakening hunter control in China leads to desertions in the provinces.

-Namgung Clan proclaims Kanora faith as state religion, declares the Republic of Kanora China!

At last, the explosion everyone expected has happened.

China, already split in two — or three if you count Taiwan — is now fractured even more.

“Is China filming another Three Kingdoms drama or what? Jeez.”

“But thanks to that, we’re pretty relaxed now, aren’t we?”

Park Chun-seok had a point.

“Yeah. The Saint is definitely incredible.”

As the North-South war escalated and the damage grew, the U.S. couldn’t afford to meddle with Korea.

The president personally said that as long as Korea continued the Baekdu Mountain development project in the North and stayed a pro-American state, they wouldn’t care if it became a Kanora theocracy, restored the Korean Empire, or even resurrected the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

I don’t know how miserable China must look for the U.S. to make such an exception, but thanks to that, Korea got to enjoy the fruits of war.

“Hmm. Alright then. How about the Holy Goryeo Kanora Theocracy? Given the territory, using ‘Goryeo’ sounds right, and adding ‘Kanora’ would help win over people in North Korea and Manchuria.”

“Oh. Not bad. Then let’s go with that.”

“Holy Goryeo Theocratic State.”

It turned out to be quite a decent name.

Shortened, it’d just be ‘Goryeo’.

Overseas, they’d still call it Korea anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

“Kinda reminds me of the Holy Roman Empire.”

“Don’t compare us to that. A country neither holy nor Roman. We’re going to be a truly holy, noble, and beautiful nation of the goddess. That nonsense of an empire can stay in the past — this Holy Goryeo Theocratic State is a beautiful name, isn’t it?”

Honestly, I hate getting dragged into the Saint’s absurd race, but what’s done is done.

Can’t put it back, so might as well go all in.

“True. Anyway, this lifts a big burden off us.”

“Yeah. In the West, the U.S. just needs to say the word and everyone falls in line.”

“Never imagined the Saint would bring things this far.”

That Saint is something else. Don’t know how such a being exists — she brought every problem possible but also met every condition.

She swallowed North Korea and Manchuria whole, but technically, it’s not a cult… or rather,

“Well, I gave the orders. It can’t be helped.”

“So, shall we make the declaration?”

“Yeah. Let’s proclaim the establishment of the Holy Goryeo Theocratic State to the world.”

We’re not rushing because we’re proud — but because it’s best to declare at the same time as the Namgung clan’s declaration in western China.

That way, it’ll slide under the radar quietly.

Staying quiet means staying unnoticed.

“Uh, but by the way, Saito Mizuki contacted us separately.”

“Didn’t I tell you to handle that bastard on your own? What’s the issue?”

Ugh, Japan again.

Honestly, I preferred it when we were just having disputes.

Now, thanks to that lunatic Saito, even Japan is turning into a cult nation.

“He proposed a Holy Kanora Federation.”

“Seriously? How many times is this now? I’m sick of it. That Saint poisoned Japan. Right now, we’re struggling just to absorb the North Koreans, barely holding on with Chinese laborers… This is just…”

Wait.

Hold on.

Could this actually be… a good thing?

If it’s a federation, not a forced empire like in the colonial days, maybe we could actually squeeze a lot out of Japan.

And besides, I’m the Pope.

Even if it’s half-forced, Saito Mizuki himself is treating me like the Pope.

Could this be a golden opportunity to place Japan beneath us and pull their money in?

“Why are you hesitating?”

“Let’s think… If we set conditions, a federation with Japan might actually work, no?”

Suddenly, it seemed plausible.

If I played my cards right, this could really work.

“Huh?”

“Look, the old grievances were already settled. And they’re not calling themselves the Japanese Empire — they’re proposing this federation themselves, with Korea, where I, the Pope, reside, as the center.”

It’s not something to get sensitive over.

With North Korea and Manchuria, our budget is already stretched thin.

Even with the U.S. support and the war boom, we don’t know if we can extend infrastructure all the way into Manchuria.

We’ve only just started recovering from the Cataclysm era. And now including the North and Manchuria will cost a fortune.

But then this psycho Saito shows up with a convenient offer.

If handled well, this might solve the budget issue.

“Ah.”

Park Chun-seok seemed to get it too, his eyes widening.

If we accept the Kanora Federation, we can demand investment in North Korea and Manchuria in return.

“Japan’s weak now, too, after the Cataclysm. They’re no longer powerful enough to swallow Korea. And from what I see, that psycho Saito genuinely worships Kanora.”

This could be the perfect chance to bleed them dry.

It’s not like we’re merging — it’s a federation.

Two nations, two systems.

Their powers are similar enough that neither can dominate the other.

If that’s the case, then there’s no problem.

We’ll suck them dry, then later tell Japan to go establish their own Kanora Theocracy with Saito as Pope, and dissolve the federation.

“Contact Saito right now. Tell him we’re considering it positively and propose a summit at the Pyongyang Vatican.”

“Yes, sir!”

In the end, we can’t avoid becoming a theocratic state.

And we can’t escape the daily pestering from Saito either.

If we can’t avoid it, we might as well get everything we can out of it.

Turn a crisis into an opportunity.

Though, frankly, it’s all that Saint’s fault to begin with.

Seems like China wasn’t the only one to get its head smashed by her.