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Chapter 233

When land came into view in the distance, Damballa said, [Hey, kid.]

I held onto my poncho, which the wind was about to blow away, and wrapped it even tighter around my body.

"Yes?"

[I’m sorry to say this about Bade, but wouldn\'t it have been better to call upon a different Loa instead of him?]

[What? What\'s the problem?]

[Bade, it\'s not your fault. I just... had doubts about the Prophet\'s choice.]

"..."

Damballa and Bade\'s voices overlapped. I kept my mouth shut and tightened my grip on Damballa\'s scales.

I almost slipped and fell into the sea because Damballa\'s massive body was shaking. Her yellow eyes stared at me as if she were accusing me.

[Kid, I said it hurts!] Damballa hissed, sticking out her tongue.

I had purposely squeezed harder with the intention of making it hurt, so I didn’t respond to her. Perhaps Damballa\'s words earlier had hurt Bade’s pride as he stirred up an even stronger wind.

The waves became rough. Damballa\'s movements became rougher, matching the intensity of the waves. I held onto the scales tighter so that I wouldn’t fall off.

Suddenly, Legba said, [Yeah, there was clearly a better choice.]

I didn\'t say anything in response. I just chewed on my lips. I also knew that there was a certain Loa that would have been better than Bade in this situation. Since we were in a rush, I knew I should have summoned that Loa, even if it meant risking danger.

La Sirene. The Queen of the Sea. She could appear as a mermaid, a whale, or the very embodiment of the sea itself. If it were her, we would have reached Yuk Eun-Hyung\'s stronghold in a matter of minutes. Even so, I did not call her. No, I could not call her.

[I understand why you\'re scared of her.]

"..."

[Because even your mother, the former Prophet, could not control her,] Legba said.

La Sirene was dangerous. Even though my mother had been able to easily control all the Loa like servants, the only Loa she had been unable to control was La Sirene.

Since I currently had the Staff of Reversal, or the poteau mitan, I might be able to control La Sirene now, but I was afraid of the risk of not being able to control her.

[It is a fear that must be overcome in order to surpass the former Prophet.]

"...Yes, I suppose so," I replied curtly to Legba\'s words.

My mood wasn’t great. The way he said that I had to surpass my mother made it sound as if my mother was dead already and that I had to take on the role of the next Prophet.

I knew that Legba didn\'t mean it that way. I also knew that I still had to fulfill the role of the Prophet even if my mother was still alive. Despite that, my mind kept leaning towards negativity.

Crash—!

The sound of waves crashing against the rocks echoed. Before I knew it, we were close to land. Damballa picked up speed. In the blink of an eye, we reached the beach. I let go of the scales and got off Damballa\'s back.

I could see two figures in the darkness. They seemed to be members of the mercenary corps standing guard on the beach. The two aimed their long spears toward me and took a step back.

"W-who are you?"

"Don\'t you recognize me?"

I gently stroked Damballa\'s body, which was coiled next to me. Suddenly, Damballa\'s body shrunk and transformed into the shape of a staff.

I held the staff and approached them, unleashing Voodoo magic. An eerie purple glow illuminated the darkness. Then, I took off my poncho.

"Guide me to where Executive Yuk Eun-Hyung is."

"Ah...!"

They gasped in awe as they looked between my mask, the staff in my hand, and the violet Voodoo magic. They lowered the spears aimed at me and bowed their heads as if apologizing for their rudeness.

"Understood, Cult Leader!"

The two of them quickly guided me somewhere. The thick darkness that covered the ground began to fade away. I walked behind the two of them and glanced back for a moment. The waves of the sea had gotten calmer, and I could see the sun peeking through the horizon.

* * *

They led me to the temporary hospital. They called it a hospital, but it was nothing more than a makeshift tent on barren land. They didn’t even have beds.

They laid mats on the floor and used primitive methods to disinfect or bandage the patients. That was the extent of the treatment. The facilities were extremely poor.

Just from a rough glance, I could tell that the injuries that the patients had sustained were very serious. Some wounds were so deep that bandages couldn\'t stop the bleeding, and some joints were twisted in grotesque ways. A couple of patients had their body parts amputated.

The sounds of patients screaming and convulsing in pain echoed from all directions.

"...Baron Samedi."

It was truly a scene of death, and Baron Samedi was sitting in the center of that scene as if it was only natural to do so. He had arrived before me and watched the tragic scenes while smoking his cigar.

When I called out to him, Baron Samedi turned his head and looked at me. There was no trace of a smile on his face.

[I was wondering who was looking at me. So it was the Prophet.]

The smoke he exhaled covered the ground, obscuring the sight of the patients. He pushed through the mist and approached me. The smell of the cigar in the air was thicker and much more pungent than usual.

"Looks like someone is going to die here."

[A few have already died. And there are some that will die soon,] Baron Samedi said as if he was stating the most obvious thing in the world.

He hadn’t said vague statements like ‘death is near’ or ‘death might come.’

He was saying that some of them would die soon with a voice filled with certainty. If Baron Samedi said that, it meant that those were deaths that I couldn\'t prevent.

"Cult Leader, this way!"

The two people guiding me called out in front of a tent. The mention of the term ‘Cult Leader’ drew the mercenaries\' attention toward me. They looked at me with a mixture of fear and suspicion in their eyes. Ignoring their gazes, I entered the tent.

"...Have you arrived, Cult Leader?"

Inside the tent, I saw Yuk Eun-Hyung receiving treatment. He was shirtless, with more bandages covering his exposed flesh than visible skin. Even the visible parts of the skin were filled with scars and remnants of wounds.

There were several bullet holes in his left arm, and his right hand was severed. The severed hand was placed on a table in the corner of the tent.

He was still undergoing treatment. A member next to him inserted tweezers into the holes in Yuk Eun-Hyung\'s body and removed the embedded bullets.

Despite this, Yuk Eun-Hyung only broke out in a cold sweat and showed no signs of pain. He even had a faint smile on his lips.

"Executive Yuk Eun-Hyung, what’s the situation?" I said, taking off my mask.

"It\'s not good. We\'ve lost most of our bases to the enemy, and there have been several casualties—"

Rip.

At that moment, another bullet was pulled out of Yuk Eun-Hyung\'s body. There was a bit of flesh stuck to the bullet. Yuk Eun-Hyung closed his eyes tightly and let out a silent scream before opening them again. His eyes showed strong determination as he looked at me.

"...Huff. I\'m sorry. Anyway, there are several casualties... To be honest, I don\'t see any chance of winning. That\'s why we barely managed to evacuate the injured and other members through the sea."

"I suppose Ji-Ah was sent back in the same way."

"Yes, she\'s part of the personnel from the headquarters, so we prioritized sending her back," Yuk Eun-Hyung said with a nod.

I went to the corner and picked up Yuk Eun-Hyung\'s severed right hand that was placed on the table. Judging by its condition, it seemed like it hadn\'t been severed for long. In the worst case, it was half a day old. It had been severed cleanly.

While holding the hand, I said, "If the situation had turned out like this, you should have reported to me first."

"I\'m sorry. But the situation was already too bad... From your perspective, I thought it would be better for you to abandon the Gyeongsang Branch, ugh!"

As I reattached the severed hand to Yuk Eun-Hyung\'s wrist, he let out a scream. I unleashed Voodoo magic and drew a spell array.

To ensure that the wound healed properly, using an advanced restoration spell would be best, but it hadn\'t been long since the hand had been amputated, and the cross-section was clean. An intermediate restoration spell would do the job.

Moreover, many other people needed treatment besides Yuk Eun-Hyung.

"Whether I abandon the Gyeongsang Branch or not is my decision to make. You only needed to inform me about the situation."

"Yes, I\'m sorry... Ugh, it hurts..."

"Endure it even if it hurts a little."

I forcibly reattached Yuk Eun-Hyung\'s severed hand onto his wrist. Yuk Eun-Hyung trembled in pain and groaned. Mist flowed out from the spell and array and enveloped his hand and wrist.

His hand and wrist fused back together alongside bubbling sounds. The lingering wounds on Yuk Eun-Hyung\'s body were roughly treated with a lesser restoration spell.

"Try moving your right hand."

"...My right hand has been re-reattached," Yuk Eun-Hyung exclaimed in a startled voice as he clenched and unclenched his right hand.

His fingers twitched as well. Judging by how well it moved, it seemed to have reattached properly.

The mercenary treating Yuk Eun-Hyung looked at him and then at me with widened eyes.

I looked at the mercenary and said, "Gather the injured and bring them to me. I will treat them. Executive Yuk Eun-Hyung, stay here and rest."

"I’m alright. Thanks to you, I\'m perfectly fine. You can command me to do anything..."

"Just rest. There will be tasks for you later."

"No, I can\'t!" Yuk Eun-Hyung shouted as he abruptly stood up from his seat.

Yuk Eun-Hyung was always calm, but this was the first time I heard him raise his voice. He pulled back the tent and looked up at the sky. The dark sky was gradually getting brighter.

"...When the dawn breaks, the enemies will start attacking again," Yuk Eun-Hyung said, wiping the cold sweat off his forehead with the right hand that I had reattached for him.

"The Romanican clergymen only attack during the day. It’s because they know that our mercenary corps is familiar with night operations... They will definitely attempt an attack as soon as dawn breaks. We need to prepare before that..."

"More than half of you are injured, and even the ones who are relatively unharmed are non-combatants. How do you plan to prepare?"

"..." Yuk Eun-Hyung closed his mouth and lowered his gaze to the ground.

As I suspected, he didn\'t have a proper plan after all. With so many casualties, there was no reasonable plan.

I had expected that, so I didn’t feel disappointed whatsoever. I fiddled with my staff and said, "After treating the mercenaries, I will take care of the enemy myself. Please convey what I said to the members as well.”

It was an opportunity to test the power of the poteau mitan. That was why it was enough for me to go alone.

* * *

Near the mercenary corps suppression site, a makeshift tent had been set up for the crusaders to rest and organize. Inside, Do-Jin closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but he couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard he tried, so he decided to swing his sword and train until the sky turned completely bright.

There, he spotted a familiar face.

"...Ye-Jin?"

Ye-Jin was wearing a priest\'s robe and walked between the tents. He thought he had been mistaken at first, but that wasn’t the case. No one else could exude such an aura other than Ye-Jin.

Ye-Jin turned her head toward the voice that called her.

"Ah, there you are! I finally found you."

"...Why are you here?"

"What do you mean? Am I not allowed to be here?"

"It\'s not that. Why is a priest here..."

Do-Jin tried to recall whether the Priest Order had been included in the mercenary corps suppression operation. However, there had been no mention of priests being included.

They said that there some clergymen might participate in the operation as individuals rather than as part of an organization. Perhaps...

“I came as a substitute for Joseph. He said he had something to do and passed the job on to me."

"Ah, I see... But Joseph? Is it fine not to use honorifics to address him?" [1]

"Since no one’s listening anyway, it’s fine to be a bit informal here, right?"

"That\'s true," Do-Jin said as he nodded and looked up at the sky.

At some point in time, the sky had become completely bright. The weather was very nice, and the wind was also refreshing. Ye-Jin sniffed the wind and wrinkled her nose.

"...I smell a bit of blood in the wind."

"Really? I can’t really tell."

Do-Jin also sniffed with his nose, but he couldn\'t smell the scent of blood. He looked toward the direction of the headquarters where the mercenary corps was stationed and said, "The smell of blood might be because... there are many casualties on the mercenary corps\'s side."

"Did we have any casualties on our side?"

"We did have some, but barely any. After all...” Do-Jin trailed off.

The Romanican clergymen were overwhelmingly superior in terms of numbers, equipment, and training. The mercenary corps did try to resist to some extent, but it was hopeless. They didn’t even have the intention to kill the Romanican clergymen in the first place. It seemed like they were busy minimizing their casualties instead.

On the other hand, the clergymen attacked the mercenary corps mercilessly. Many people were injured, and some were even critically wounded. If they received timely treatment, they would survive, but it seemed unlikely that the mercenary corps had proper medical facilities.

In Do-Jin\'s eyes, this operation was closer to a massacre than a suppression.

He expressed his sentiments in a diplomatic manner. "...Good thing I only have to provide support from the rear. Since the frontlines will take care of everything, it seems like there\'s nothing for me to do here."

Ye-Jin nodded.

"I\'m glad I\'m in the rear support too. I\'m not good with blood because I have a weak stomach."

"Ah, that\'s right."

"When do you think this mission will end?"

"Well, probably today. At the latest, tomorrow...?"

Do-Jin suddenly stopped speaking and stared at something.

Ye-Jin also followed Do-Jin and looked in the same direction as him. However, Ye-Jin couldn’t see anything.

Do-Jin continued to gaze at a certain location, and then he suddenly unleashed his divine power to draw a blessing array. Then he cast the blessing array on his own eyes.

With his enhanced vision, he stared intensely at the entrance of the stronghold where the mercenary corps was stationed. Someone was coming out of the entrance.

It wasn\'t the mercenary corps leader Yuk Eun-Hyung. After all, Yuk Eun-Hyung had a large stature. The person coming out of the entrance right now had an average build, wore a poncho, and had a mask on and a staff in hand.

"..."

Do-Jin opened his eyes wide and looked again.

"...It’s the Cult Leader."

A mask and a staff.

It was definitely the Voodoo Cult Leader.

1. Normally people address Joseph as Joesph-nim. ☜