< 83. Hell of Disbelief (11) >
***
‘Asif?!’
It is a recognition number that classifies prisoners who have committed crimes so heinous that the committee has to step in and suppress them. It is a name whose etymology has never been questioned.
Was he, as the scriptures say, ‘the greatest evildoer’?
‘What is the identity of the Prophet? Even if he is called Asif, he is not a prisoner. At least not when he came into contact with that race.’
Because this is not a committee that would let prisoners roam around freely and do missionary work abroad.
‘I don’t know how old the period described in the scriptures is. It was a time when the word Asif was used as a common noun meaning the worst sinner and also as a proper noun referring to a prophet…’
The thoughts continue.
‘It would be reasonable to assume that it was at least before the prison system was created.’
If so, it would not be an exaggeration to think that the identification numbers given to prisoners later were influenced by the author.
An important figure who left his mark on history in some way.
‘Then it must have had an influence on the naming of the first inmate.’
Asif-1.
The identification number mentioned at the bottom of the list of special missions of the committee.
Minjun looked at the string of characters created by the light.
– 443. ((Confidential)) Obtain and submit the soul fragment of prisoner identification number ‘Asif-1’. Reward: 7 million talents
My thoughts become deeper.
‘No, when you think about the commonly used naming conventions… numbers are added after names only when the second being is born. When something exists alone, in other words, the first being is not given a separate number.’
If there was only one prisoner in the entire universe named ‘Asif-1’, would he have been called ‘Asif-1’?
or not···.
Was he just called Asif?
‘Even so, there’s no evidence.’
While considering various possibilities, the bishop recited the following sentence:
“The villager said in amazement and joy, ‘Prophet, Asif, we say, then how shall we serve that great Being? How shall we praise the primordial race?’
“The Prophet Asif answered, ‘Strike their unconsciousness with ceaseless prayer. Shake them from their deep sleep. Make them look at you. Let their dreamy gaze rest on you.’”
“The village chief asked in confusion, ‘What should we do next? What should we do after we have caught their attention?’”
“The Prophet Asif answered, ‘A dream too sweet is hard to wake from. Those whom you serve are immersed in the happiest of dreams, so cloud them with nightmares, so that their sleep may be faint.’”
“The village chief asked hesitantly, ‘What will happen when they finally wake up?’”
“The Prophet Asif smiled and replied, ‘All lies will fall down.’”
Minjun realized that the worldview of Dreamland that he had heard from Joachim and the contents of the scriptures did not match perfectly.
Rather than being contradictory, the version Joachim gave was much more fleshed out. Perhaps later doctrinal scholars added various interpretations.
‘If you just pick out the facts the prophet spoke of, this is it. A race that has existed since the beginning is now asleep, and they have the ability to create anything through dreams, and when they wake up, the lie will collapse.’
The modern Dreamland sect interprets them as creators. The concept of ‘anything’ has expanded to include ‘everything’, that is, the world.
Also, since this world is the result of a dream, and is false in a relative sense, it seems that the collapse of the lie meant the collapse of the world.
‘The service is over.’
The bishop on the pulpit leads the choir once again.
“Only in your dreams do we dream of you.”
The priests sang.
“Only in your dreams do we dream of you.”
***
The bishop who had been standing on the podium returned to his room in the building. Minjun followed him secretly.
And the moment the door closed.
“Huh! Who, who are you!”
I tried to fight back reflexively, but Minjun was faster.
Hurrruk!
The shadow cast from his back covered the entire room without a single gap. The doors, walls, windows, and even all the furniture were hidden in the darkness and could not be seen.
Minjun was in that strange space where all sides were covered with black waves. He was looking at the bishop with a dagger in his hand. Gojeo made a declaration in a low voice.
“No matter what you do here, no one outside can hear, feel, or see it.”
“you are···!”
Minjun read the bishop’s expression. That expression was not that of someone who was confused because they couldn’t guess the identity of the other person. It was an expression of surprise because they knew who he was but couldn’t understand why he was here.
“You know me?”
The bishop answered in a voice that tried to be calm.
“Of course. He’s an agent hired by Bishop Joachim. To lead Father… the Patriarch to eternal rest.”
As he was a high-ranking member of the church, it would have been natural for information to be shared. The bishop glared at the swaying shadow and said.
“Our sect is supported by the Elder Dragon. Even if you were to harm or kill me….”
Dragons, along with elves, are a race with almost no chance of awakening divine powers. The former have difficulty accepting the concept of worshipping a being greater than a dragon, and the latter have difficulty believing in a being whose existence has not been completely proven, even when they doubt and distrust the living.
That is why the dragon supports a sect that scratches its itch. As long as its function and utility have been proven, there is no way that Callieter would carelessly kick out Dreamland. Also, the sponsorship contract she signed is limited to the Earth Diocese, so she does not care about conflicts with the main sect.
“I have no intention of killing you. Just answer my questions honestly.”
It doesn’t kill.
However, he is prepared to use drastic methods even if it means risking friction with Caliether.
The happy bug won’t work on the priests, so they have to resort to primitive methods, and torturing a priest is like carving granite with a teaspoon. So Minjun guessed that today would be a very long day.
The agent asks, holding out a dagger.
“Joachim, where are you? And tell me everything you know about why that guy ran off with the Patriarch’s head… and what he plans to do with it.”
The bishop’s face was distorted with complex emotions.
“Do you know something too?”
“I ask the questions.”
“Are you planning to find Joachim and hand him over to the aliens?”
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“······.”
The moment he took a step forward with his sword in hand instead of answering, an unexpected answer came out of the bishop’s mouth.
“Okay, I’ll tell you everything.”
“······?”
Let’s glare at him, as if to imply that he is trying to avoid the situation by lying. The bishop denies it.
“I am the Acting Patriarch because I have the strongest divine power among the remaining ones. It is an absolute standard that no one can sue. However, that does not mean that all priests follow me.”
“Is there division even within the Earth Diocese?”
The bishop agreed with silence.
Only then did Minjun understand why the Earth Parish member who had ordered the pharmacist elf to interfere with Joachim’s pursuit was cooperating with him.
“You don’t want the Earth Church to turn its back on the other world’s main church.”
“that’s right.”
A very tired shadow falls over his face.
“That damn head… It would be better to just hand it over to the heretic judges. If things continue like this, the entire Earth Church may be branded as a heretic. We can ‘negotiate’ later.”
But this meant that some priests decided that they would take risks to protect the Patriarch’s head and continue to let Joachim escape.
Minjun couldn’t understand.
“Then why are Joachim and his followers so obsessed with their heads?”
“Because it is a sign of a miracle.”
He told what happened after Minjun killed the patriarch. He said Joachim returned to Frankfurt with his severed head, half-souled.
“He emphasized several times while he was alive that even if he died, the head of his body should not be buried or cremated, but kept. Joachim tried to maintain it even after he went mad.”
The senior bishops prepared for his funeral, keeping his cause a secret. Then a miracle occurred.
“Did the dead alien open its eyes again?”
It was a question asked in a cold tone.
“······”
The bishop’s eyes were shaking.
“No way!”
Minjun shouted as if he couldn’t believe it.
It was he who cut off his head. At that moment, I could clearly see that his soul was leaving his body. Furthermore, that race is not one that can be resurrected by cutting off their head.
The bishop spoke with confidence.
“The Patriarch opened his eyes again.”
The process was said to be very blessed and magnificent. The eyelids and mouth opened, and a holy light that could not exist in this world exploded and filled the room. The high priests who saw the scene were all moved and cried out loud.
“It was a ray of truth that could not exist in this false world. Truly beautiful… It was the most beautiful radiance I have ever seen!”
Minjun heard that expression and something came to mind.
‘Talent?!’
But that doesn’t make sense.
If his spirit had harbored talent, Minjun would have confirmed it long ago. Moreover, how could it remain in a head that had already lost its soul?
The bishop continues.
“Joachim was so moved that he spoke to his father’s head. He asked if it was a miracle that God had brought him back to life. He asked what he had seen when he died. He asked if he would continue to stay with us.”
But when the Patriarch came to his senses, instead of answering all those questions, he said this:
– Why am I still on Earth?
Minjun’s eyes become fierce.
“The Patriarch··· seemed to have expected that his body would naturally be returned to his home dimension.”
Joachim and the priests questioned him, and the patriarch, who had not yet fully regained consciousness, finally opened his mouth. What he said next angered Joachim and several other bishops.
Long before he died, he had been waiting for a certain cycle. As that time approached, the alien became increasingly obsessed with returning home, and his anxiety grew into madness.
His primary goal was to return home alive.
“If it’s a cycle, then what?”
It seemed as if the alien had muttered something like that before losing his life at his hands.
“He said that there was a cycle in which the sleep of the sleeping gods would become shallow. We were shocked when we heard that. Before that, he had never said anything like that to the laity or even to us priests. Also, there was no such thing in any of the scriptures he had handed down to us.”
As the questioning continued, the head began to vomit out the truth.
“That’s why the crazy patriarch… before he died, he performed a ritual by brutally murdering three high-ranking priests. He prayed that the god who saw this would perform a miracle and send them back to their homeland. So that they could set foot on their homeland before the cycle came back.”
“No matter how crazy you are, that method···.”
The bishop shakes his head.
“The three dead were all children he had taken in and raised like his own children… no, they were actually like his own children. What could be more horrible than a father who sacrifices his own children for the sake of God? Furthermore, they were all priests who had received much grace from God. He thought that only by doing so would he be able to attract the attention of God and perform great miracles.”
The discomfort and side effects that Minjun felt after hearing their doctrines were manifested in reality through the madman.
“But in the end, Joachim applied the brakes and the Patriarch met his death. If you listen to the story after his resurrection, it seems that he accepted his last moments with joy rather than despair. He also considered death as a second option to return home.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I thought that the best option was to return alive, but if that didn’t work out, I would have to return dead.”
The agent’s expression hardened.
“Yes, I expected that. My home dimension would be unlocked shortly after I die.”
“The Patriarch was such an important person? Then why didn’t you lift the ban and bring him in earlier?”
“I didn’t mean it that way. I predicted that the other members of the same dimension, who were unable to communicate with each other due to the blockade of all communication, would discover something strange after his death. And the means of determining the cause was….”
“Lift the lockdown and bring in all of our fellow beings from other dimensions?”
“Yes. If he was already dead, I expected that they would take his body away. That was all my head said. After the resurrection, as time passed, I wondered what he was thinking and closed my mouth again.”
Minjun asked, trying to calm his nagging headache.
“So, where is Joachim now?”
The bishop recited an address with a tired expression.
“Joachim is trying to keep the Patriarch’s head from being taken away by the Order, believing it to be proof of a miracle. He feels that the Earthlings are being discriminated against despite being fellow believers. The Order is ignoring all of our inquiries about the hidden doctrines, including the ‘cycle,’ and is only making one-sided demands to return the head.”
In their opinion, the Patriarch is a hypocrite who has kept some of the doctrines hidden and unspoken for decades. Naturally, suspicions have arisen that there may be more secrets, apart from the periodic slumber of God.
That was why some priests were angry at him and the alien main group, who only had a head left.
“All believers should be equal under God, but the church and the patriarch discriminated against us because we were not of their race.”
Racial discrimination against church members.
“They don’t want to convey the truth in its entirety. Do you know? Why are these aliens so greedy… and what are they preparing for the coming cycle?”
Minjun didn’t say anything in response.
I plan to find out about that from now on.
< 83. Hell of Disbelief (11) > End
