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Chapter 99

"Uh, yeah? Yes?" Ha Soo-Yeong was on the floor. She nodded, barely managing to answer. She couldn\'t gather the courage to lift her head and look at his face.

At that moment, Ha Soo-Yeong was struck with a newfound realization. Sun-Woo was better at handling spells than she was. He might even use spells that she didn’t know about. He might know how to turn someone into a zombie without using the zombification drug.

She couldn’t even begin to guess what punishment he might inflict upon her. She couldn’t predict the extent of his capabilities...

‘Fear arises from ignorance.’ Ha Soo-Yeong recalled the passage once again.

"Look up."

"...Sorry, no. I\'m, I\'m truly sorry, sir."

"Look up, quickly."

Ha Soo-Yeong kept her head bowed, not moving at all. It felt like something bad would happen if she lifted her head. Suddenly, she felt a light above her head. It wasn\'t the dim and gloomy light that came from Voodoo magic. It was a very bright, almost blinding, radiant light.

She had heard that the Cult Leader could not only use Voodoo magic, but also divine power. According to her father, the Romanicans had developed an unfathomably terrible way of torture utilizing divine power. Was Sun-Woo going to torture her using this method?

Her stomach churned. ‘I\'d rather die than be tortured. But, I don\'t want to die. I\'d rather become a zombie. No, I don\'t want to become a zombie either. I don\'t want any of it...’

Meanwhile, Sun-Woo was still aiming the light at her. In this situation, she had no choice but to apologize until she was forgiven. Ha Soo-Yeong adjusted her posture and kneeled down.

"I was wrong. I won\'t do it anymore. I\'m serious."

"Enough, raise your head."

"I was wrong. What I did wa-was wrong. But can’t you forgive me now? I went this far. I even kneeled down—!" Ha Soo-Yeong begged for forgiveness, raising her head with a loud cry.

Immediately after, she regretted it. It was all thanks to the light coming from Sun-Woo\'s hand that was still aimed at her.

‘Ah, my sixteen-year-long life ends here. It wasn\'t a happy life, but it was an okay life nonetheless...’ Ha Soo-Yeong closed her eyes, convinced of her impending death.

Click!

Instead of death, what she heard was the unexpected sound of a camera shutter. Confused, she raised her head.

The bright and radiant light that had been bathing her had disappeared. Sun-Woo\'s smiling face was barely visible as the shadows of the forest loomed over him.

"...A flash?" Ha Soo-Yeong belatedly realized what the source of the light was. It was not from Voodoo magic or divine power, but a simple camera flash.

After the realization, a sense of emptiness washed over her. Sun-Woo fiddled with his phone after taking the photo and eventually extended his hand toward Ha Soo-Yeong.

“Get up. Let’s go.”

“W-why’d you take a picture...” Ha Soo-Yeong asked with a slight tremor in her voice. She was so shocked that she lost all her formality.

Sun-Woo stared coldly and emotionlessly at her. “Just in case.”

“Just in case?”

"I don\'t feel like explaining. Hurry up." Sun-Woo shook his hand as if telling her to hurry.

For some reason, she didn’t want to grab onto the hand. If she could, she wanted to forcefully push it away or grab it and slam it into the ground. But she didn\'t have the strength to do so—she was so weak that she couldn\'t even stand up right away.

"If you aren’t coming, I’m gonna go by myself."

"..." Ha Soo-Yeong had no choice but to take his hand and stand up.

Truly, she had no choice.

***

10:50 p.m.

The pale moonlight seeped through the window into the conference room. The executives of each faction were sitting around the round table, engaged in casual conversations with professional smiles decorating their faces. Among them, only Ha Pan-Seok\'s face was pale and sickly.

"Executive Ha Pan-Seok. What\'s the matter?" Jin-Sung asked, unable to bear seeing his face like that any longer.

Ha Pan-Seok had been biting his nails until they bled with his head bowed, but he suddenly raised his head. His eyes were devoid of strength, and his hair was all over the place. Whatever was going on, it was clear that he was suffering from an overwhelming sense of anxiety.

"Executive Ha Pan-Seok?"

"...My daughter."

When Jin-Sung asked again, Ha Pan-Seok managed to barely open his mouth.

\'His daughter\'? What about his daughter?

Jin-Sung scrutinized Ha Pan-Seok\'s face with narrowed eyes. His complexion was even paler than before. His face was turning purple, going beyond a sickly blue color.

“Did something happen to your daughter?”

“Y-yes. My Soo-Yeong. I think she made her way into the woods by herself, but she hasn’t returned...”

Drrrk!

Right then, Jin-Sung forcefully pushed the chair and stood up. He immediately prepared to leave.

Ha Pan-Seok stared at Jin-Sung with a blank expression.

"Let’s go in and look for her." There was a burning fire in Jin-Sung\'s eyes.

"It would be unwise."

Before Jin-Sung could leave, Yun Chang-Su from the Gangwon Branch grabbed him.

Jin-Sung glared at Yun Chang-Su with bloodshot eyes. "Are you telling me to just let her go missing like this?"

"The surrounding mountain paths are all twisted and tangled since the former Cult Leader enchanted them. If you go out right now, even you, Executive Jin-Sung, will get lost."

"But as adults, we can’t just stay put like this."

"The mountain doesn\'t discriminate between children and adults." Yun Chang-Su sighed deeply. "For now, all we can do is hope for her return..."

If one let their guard down for a moment, it didn’t matter if they were children or adults. They would find themselves lost in the mountains at night. Yun Chang-Su had spent decades in the mountains. He knew better than anyone how dangerous it was to go into the mountains at night.

"I’m going to go regardless."Jin-Sung stepped outside again, dismissing the objections. He couldn\'t just sit still.

At that moment, someone appeared in front of him.

“...Huh? What?”

“The meeting is starting soon. Where are you going?”

“I, uh, heard that Executive Ha’s daughter was lost in the mountains...”

Jin-Sung diverted his attention to the girl tightly holding onto Sun-Woo’s hand. Her name was Ha... Ha... what was it again? He couldn’t remember her name, but anyway, she was the daughter of Executive Ha Pan-Seok.

"Why is she with you?"

"She seemed lost, so I brought her. I happened to meet her in the mountains."

"Oh... that’s great news. I was actually planning to go look for her." Jin-Sung briefly glanced behind him. Ha Pan-Seok still had a vacant expression on his face.

"Executive Ha Pan-Seok! Seems like the Cult Leader has brought your daughter back.”

"...Daughter? What, Soo-Yeong? Is it Soo-Yeong? Is she back?"

"Yes. She’s here."

Ha Pan-Seok quickly got up from his seat and went over to Jin-Sung. Then, he looked at his daughter standing next to Cult Leader with her head drooped down. Tears welled up faster than his words came out. They were tears of relief.

Along with relief, a new emotion began to stir in his heart. He felt a complex mix of anger and resentment toward his daughter, who had almost gotten into serious trouble by going into the mountains without a word.

"We can talk later. The meeting takes priority."

"...Yes."

Sun-Woo had read the twisted expression on Ha Pan-Seok\'s face and quickly sent Ha Soo-Yeong back to her accommodations.

Ha Pan-Seok stumbled and sat back down in his seat. His body slumped like a deflated balloon.

Sun-Woo sat at the head of the round table and looked at Ha Pan-Seok. "Executive Ha Pan-Seok, Are you doing okay at the moment?"

"Huh? Oh, yes. I\'m fine..."

‘At the moment?’ Although the wording was a bit strange, Ha Pan-Seok didn\'t have the leisure in his mind to decipher the meaning at the moment. He was too busy trying to calm down his heart.

Sun-Woo looked at the lost Ha Pan-Seok and nodded slightly, checking the time on his phone. "It\'s 11 o\'clock. Let\'s start the meeting."

It was finally 11 o’clock.

***

The longer the meeting dragged on, the clearer it became that all the issues bled into one single problem. The number of cult members was decreasing, and the pressure from the Holy See was increasing, causing a shortage of funds to operate the cult.

Although the Jeolla Branch was in a relatively better situation because they were operating a factory, the Chungcheong and Gangwon Branches were struggling.

"What about the Seoul Branch?" Yun Chang-Su asked. It was a question directed to my uncle.

My uncle crossed his arms and glanced at Ha Pan-Seok before answering, "I met Han Su-Yeop the other day."

The unexpected statement from my uncle caused a stir at the round table.

"Han Su-Yeop, the traitor? What was he doing, and where was he?"

"Yes. He stole the Cult Leader\'s Altar and was running a pseudo-religion called the Voodoo Revival Church. Thanks to confiscating all the donations Han Su-Yeop had collected, the Seoul Branch is doing well." My uncle said it as if it was not a big deal, but the round table had been flooded with confusion at the mention of the traitor’s name.

Each executive had a different attitude toward me. Yun Chang-Su and the Gyeongsang faction\'s Yuk Eun-Hyung were friendly, while Yeom Man-Gun and Ha Pan-Seok were hostile.

"What in tarnation done happened to him?" Yeom Man-Gun asked in confusion.

‘What happened...’

It seemed to mean, \'What happened to Han Su-Yeop?\'

Uncle furrowed his brow and rolled his eyes around as if trying to decipher Yeom Man-Gun\'s words. He then nodded and said, "The Cult Leader himself has decreed \'zombification\' as punishment."

"Z-Zombification!" Yeom Man-Gun exclaimed, gasping for breath.

The Voodoo Cultists feared zombification more than death. They were not afraid of death itself but rather the loss of the freedom to choose death. What the Voodoo Cultists feared was not pain or death but the deprivation of freedom.

"It is only fitting that the crime of betraying the Voodoo Cult be punished with zombification. Han Su-Yeop must have expected that much." Yun Chang-Su nodded in agreement.

Ha Pan-Seok sat next to him, with a stiff expression.

"Let\'s discuss the traitor later. Right now, the most urgent matter at hand is the financial crisis," I said, gesturing toward Yeom Man-Gun.

"You are right, Cult Leader," Yun Chang-Su agreed, nodding his head.

I redirected the topic of conversation. I understood why the executives were curious about Han Su-Yeop, but discussing the financial crisis alone would take up all the time we had.

Just as the chaotic atmosphere was starting to calm down, I looked at Yeom Man-Gun and gave him a signal with my eyes.

“I actually have something that I told Executive Yeom Man-Gun regarding the financial crisis.”

“Y-Yup...reckon I did hear somethin\'...” Yeom Man-Gun stammered as he wasn’t confident.

It seemed that he couldn\'t remember what he was going to say. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, as what I had told him wasn’t a simple story that one could memorize by listening to it once.

"Let me explain," I said.

"Oh, no sir. Let me...”

“It\'s okay. I have something to show to the executives anyway."

Yeom Man-Gun, who had been twisting uncomfortably, finally smiled as if he was relaxed. He seemed relieved that he didn\'t have to explain it himself.

I brought a random book from nearby and placed it on the round table. It was an economics book that my uncle had brought. It had been used and read so much that it looked like it could tear apart at any moment. After unleashing Voodoo magic, I embedded the curse of fainting into the book. I put an engraving on it.

A faint, ominous purple light emanated from the engraved book.

Yun Chang-Su looked up and tilted his head in confusion. "...May I ask what you did to the book?"

The other executives also looked puzzled at the engraved book. Just in case the book flew open in the wind, I pressed down on the cover with my fingers.

"I just embedded a spell into an object. I call it \'engraving.\'"

"Onto objects...? Could this be the technique that the Second Cult Le—"

"No, engraving is slightly different from the technique my father used." With those words, I opened the book.

Voodoo mist flowed out from the book. To prevent the executives from inhaling it, I controlled the mist and pushed it into a corner of the conference room. The executive\'s eyes widened with shock at that sight. I continued my explanation.

“As you can see, by engraving a spell in a book, the spell will be activated when it is opened, just like how a bullet shoots out when you pull the trigger."

"Then, if you engrave a spell on a gun, would it be activated when you pull the trigger?"

"Yes. It would be possible if you had a gun."

The idea of engraving a spell on a gun came from Ha Pan-Seok. I was a little surprised by the idea, as I had never imagined it before. Come to think of it, if someone engraved a spell on a gun, it seemed possible to activate the spell engraved on it by pulling the trigger.

However, at the moment, there was no way to obtain a gun, so it was just a token of imagination.

"Executive Yeom Man-Gun, you run a soju factory. Am I right?" I asked.

Yeom Man-Gun nodded silently. My uncle handed me a bottle of soju from Yeom Man-Gun, and I engraved a curse of intoxication, adjusted to have only minimal effects in terms of both addiction and pleasure. I showed it to the executives, shaking the bottle lightly.

"I will mass-produce this in Executive Yeom Man-Gun’s factory and sell it. In other words, we will sell spells."

"...Isn\'t the curse of intoxication forbidden?" Yuk Eun-Hyung asked anxiously.

I nodded. "You\'re right. However, unlike when my father deemed the curse of intoxication forbidden, the Voodoo Cult is now being persecuted by the Romanican Church. Given the situation, there is a need to relax the restriction."

The pleasure caused by the curse of intoxication was so intense that it could melt the human brain. Since the pleasure was immense, the addiction and dependency that came from the curse were strong as well. My father had restricted the curse of intoxication in the fear that the spells would control the people rather than the people controlling the spells.

However, we were under different circumstances. With financial difficulties and the oppression of the Romanican Church, the Voodoo Cult was in a precarious position, and we were on the verge of collapse. In order to rebuild the Voodoo Cult and resist the oppression of the Romanican Church, some changes were inevitable.

"That doesn\'t mean we won\'t follow my father’s will. It means we will only allow the use of the curse of intoxication with the lowest intensity of pleasure so that it doesn’t cause addiction and dependency," I said.

"What do you mean by a minimal amount of pleasure?"

"Although the use of intoxication spells is usually prohibited, we will allow the use of it if the intensity of the spell is controlled to its lowest setting. In other words, those who can control the intensity of the spell can use the curse of intoxication," I explained.

After the Ritual of Succession, I gained the ability to control the intensity of spells. Naturally, I could also control the level of pleasure of the intoxication spell. However, other executives would not be able to control the intensity of the spell. In simple terms, it meant that I was the only one who would be allowed to use the spell.

Although it was a bit selfish, the others could go and learn to control the intensity of spells if they deemed it unfair. Good luck to them though, because this wasn’t a skill one could harness from mere practice alone.

"Let me continue. First, I will engrave intoxication spells on the products manufactured at Yeom Man-Gun\'s factory—”

To summarize, I would engrave the curse of intoxication onto the alcohol produced in Yeom Man-Gun’s factory. I would engrave one out of five bottles and leverage this to extend the scope of Yeom Man-Gun’s business. Forty percent of the generated revenue would go to the Jeolla Branch, twenty percent would go to the Seoul Branch, and the remaining forty percent would be divided and distributed to the other branches.

"We are in favor of it, but it seems that Executive Yeom Man-Gun’s opinion is important..." Ha Pan-Seok said while subtly gauging the situation.

It was true that Yeom Man-Gun\'s decision was the most important since the proposition directly involved Yeom Man-Gun\'s business.

"Executive Yeom Man-Gun has gladly accepted the proposition. We are truly grateful."

However, I had already convinced Yeom Man-Gun. He expressed willingness to actively participate in my plan. He said that his business was struggling with the appearance of a new competitor. By engraving his products, we could eliminate the competition and increase sales, taking out two birds with one stone.

Yeom Man-Gun was a religious person but also a businessman. His willingness to participate was enough proof that my plan had the potential to succeed. I had met Yeom Man-Gun in advance not only for me to seek his agreement but also for him to judge the plan through the perspective of a businessman.

"By the way, there is one more thing I would like to mention." However, this was just one of the methods to solve the financial crisis we were in. Expanding Yeom Man-Gun\'s business and dividing the profits was the long-term solution.

"Thanks to the confiscation of Han Su-Yeop\'s assets, the financial situation of the Seoul Branch is quite comfortable. We will set aside money to cover the operational costs of our branch, as well as to invest in the future, and we will distribute the remaining funds to you, the executives.”

"Huh? Uh, wha... Cult Leader, wait."

"However, we will reinstate the offering system that was temporarily abolished after the Holy War."

The offering system referred to the practice of regularly offering local specialties that served as sacrifices to the Loa at the Seoul Branch. It could be thought of as a form of tribute. The offering system was abolished naturally after the downfall of the Voodoo Cult following the Holy War, but it was time to bring it back.

By distributing the profits from Yeom Man-Gun\'s factory, the financial difficulties could be resolved. The remaining money from the Seoul Branch would be distributed to the other branches, and used as a pretext to resurrect the offering system. Through this, it would be easier to collect offerings to the Loa, increasing the power of the Loa and strengthening the authority of the Cult Leader. As a result, the Cult Leader would also have more influence and it would be more difficult for opposing forces to emerge.

I thought it was a pretty good plan.

***

The meeting ended on a peaceful note, all thanks to the Cult Leader\'s clever strategy. By distributing the profits from Yeom Man-Gun\'s factory, the financial difficulties would be resolved in the long run. By distributing the remaining money from the Seoul Branch, the short-term difficulties would be handled as well. The executives were more than happy to praise and worship the Cult Leader, as they had just been given a large sum of money without having to lift a single finger themselves.

"Yeom Man-Gun, that bastard...!"

However, Ha Pan-Seok was going through hell. He was troubled that Yeom Man-Gun, the leader of the Jeolla Branch, one that had schemed a rebellion with him, had turned and joined the Cult Leader’s side. Moreover, he was sweating because the Cult Leader had declared that they would bring back the offering system.

If the offering system was resurrected, the Cult Leader\'s power would be strengthened through the offerings received from the other branches. And that was not the only problem. The Cult Leader determined the distribution ratio of the profits from Yeom Man-Gun\'s factory and the distribution ratio of the headquarters\' surplus. All the financial power was in the Cult Leader’s hands.

By resurrecting the offering system, the Cult Leader was essentially saying that the distribution of finances would be decided based on the quality of the offerings. In other words, he had succeeded in establishing a system that kept the other branches in check with each other. This was a clear warning to the opposing forces, including Ha Pan-Seok himself.

“Damn it...”

Rather than seeing the financial crisis as a threat, the Cult Leader saw it as a golden opportunity to increase their power. He might already even know that the headquarters of the rebellion forces was the Chungcheong Branch. In the worst-case scenario, he might come for retaliation right away...

Knock, Knock.

As the ominous thought passed through his mind, Ha Pan-Seok heard a knock. He held his breath and focused all his attention on the presence beyond the door. Was it Yeom Man-Gun? Or was it Jin-Sung? It was also possible that the Cult Leader had personally come for retaliation.

However, he had to keep his cool. He shouldn’t be tense. Even if it was the Cult Leader behind the door, he could not show any signs of weakness. If he did, he would just be exposing himself as being guilty. The moment he showed signs of wavering, the Cult Leader would surely determine that he was serving as the pillar of the rebellion and would unleash his wrath.

"Who is it?" Ha Pan-Seok asked calmly, trying to keep his emotions in check.

He slowly opened the door. Beyond the door, there was nothing but darkness.

A man walked into Ha Pan-Seok\'s room, confidently striding in, looking like he was riding the rushing current of darkness. There was no hint of hesitation in his footsteps. It was as if he was casually strolling into his own living room. Despite his rude demeanor, Ha Pan-Seok couldn\'t say a word.

"....What brings you here, Cult Leader?"

The person who had entered his room was none other than the Cult Leader.

"Didn\'t you know what I came for when you let me in?" the Cult Leader asked.

A gentle smile adorned his lips, but his eyes were clearly analyzing Ha Pan-Seok\'s face.