Chapter 343

Chapter 343

“You came to see me?”

“Yes! To be precise, I came to ask for your cooperation.”

“Cooperation……. Cooperation with what?”

“From now on, many Paladins will be coming in and out of Shinchon.”

“That isn’t exactly welcome news.”

“Ah, do not misunderstand. This time, they are not entering for evangelism.”

Johan had tried to take control of Shinchon while Zeon was absent. Even aside from that, Zeon did not trust Johan as a person.

“No evangelism? You expect me to believe that?”

“It does not matter whether you believe it or not. I have no particular reason to ask you to. I am merely informing you that this is how things have turned out.”

“So this is a one-sided notice.”

“From your perspective, I understand it would be unpleasant. I understand. But even so, it cannot be helped.”

The smile at the corners of Johan’s mouth deepened.

“Are you saying you’ll keep sending Paladins into Shinchon even if I oppose it?”

“For the time being…….”

“What for?”

“There is no need for you to know the reason.”

“Then I can’t cooperate either.”

Zeon answered coldly.

At Zeon’s unexpected words, Johan’s eyes turned cold.

“It seems you have misunderstood. My words are not a request.”

“Are you saying you’ll start a war if I refuse?”

“That is not impossible.”

“Interesting.”

“It will not be interesting if you take my words lightly.”

“Then go ahead and try it. War!”

Zeon provoked Johan.

Johan glared at Zeon with terrifying eyes.

In the small eyes beyond his glasses, immense hostility and killing intent swirled.

An energy commonly called madness was surging within them.

Even under that maddened gaze, which would make most people’s legs go weak, Zeon did not shrink back at all.

“Many people in Shinchon will die.”

“Even more people will die in Dongdaemun.”

“Is there any need to go this far?”

“You’re the ones who crossed the line first and then gave me notice.”

“You have a strong backbone. Keep that up, and it will break.”

“Before I break, your neck will be cut.”

“Good! Then let us do this. I will forbid Paladins from operating in Shinchon. In exchange, allow ten lay believers of the Church to operate here.”

“Lay believers?”

“Yes! Ordinary believers, exactly as the words imply. If you guarantee their activities in Shinchon, I will forbid the Paladins’ entry.”

Zeon frowned.

He did not believe Johan’s words.

There was no way the people Johan sent would truly be ordinary lay believers.

They were probably forces Johan had secretly raised. But if Zeon completely blocked their entry as well, he would truly have to go to war with Dongdaemun.

Even if they were elites Johan had secretly trained, it would take a long time for only ten people to gather information.

He had to be satisfied with buying the bare minimum time to raise Jetoya.

“Fine. But ten people. I’ll give you exactly one month. If they operate in Shinchon beyond that, I’ll personally drive them out.”

“Good.”

Johan answered readily.

There was a smile on his lips.

Because he had achieved the goal he wanted.

In truth, he had not expected Zeon to let Paladins move freely in Shinchon.

The Zeon he understood was more troublesome than anyone.

He was a vicious bastard who would never bow to a strong human.

It was unimaginable that someone like that would allow Dongdaemun’s Paladins to roam freely in Shinchon, which could be called his territory.

That was why Johan had deliberately provoked him.

He had first sent priests and Paladins of the Church to strongly provoke Zeon, then offered a point of compromise.

As a result, Zeon accepted his proposal.

The one-month limit bothered him, but it was still enough time to obtain information.

The people he had decided to dispatch were absolutely not ordinary believers.

Dark Saints.

Saints who protected the Church from the shadows.

They were Dongdaemun’s secret weapon, comparable to City Hall’s Numbers or the North District’s Punishers.

Until now, Johan had kept the Dark Saints tightly hidden.

They were literally secret weapons, so he could not reveal them.

The very fact that he was mobilizing such people showed just how important Johan considered this matter.

‘I must secure the Saintess.’

It was the first divine voice he had heard after founding the Church.

Originally, he had thought there was no God.

If God existed, the world could not have fallen into such ruin. That was why he had claimed to be God himself.

In words, he had said he served God, but inwardly, he thought he himself was the god of the new world.

But his thoughts had been wrong.

God existed.

What he had heard had never been a delusion or a hallucination.

Such a sacred voice could not be something altered by another person.

God existed above the heavens, and through Johan, He intended to make His will known to the world.

The beginning of that was the Saintess.

Together with the Saintess, the Church would grow explosively.

Zeon silently looked at Johan’s gloomy face.

He had some idea of what Johan was thinking.

‘This will be a good chance to learn how much hidden strength Dongdaemun has.’

---

Chensi possessed a very complicated bloodline.

Her father had been born between a Chinese grandfather and a Korean grandmother.

Her mother had been born between a Russian maternal grandfather and a Czech maternal grandmother.

Chensi was born between those two.

Before the Great Cataclysm, her bloodline would have been considered very special.

It was not common for such different bloodlines to meet and create such a beautiful being.

That was how strangely beautiful Chensi’s appearance was.

Her unique beauty, which could not be hidden even by a nun’s habit, drew many people’s eyes.

An appearance that attracted attention wherever she went had many inconveniences, but also many advantages.

The advantage was that everyone treated her kindly.

When it came to men, there was not a single exception.

Every man wanted to look good in front of her and answered kindly.

Thanks to that, she displayed outstanding ability in gathering information.

That was why Chensi had come to Shinchon.

Chensi was a member of the Dark Saints.

Because of her ability specialized in information gathering, Johan had pushed her into Shinchon first.

Even now, Chensi was collecting information while speaking with a man.

“So you haven’t seen anyone particularly strange?”

“That’s right, Sister!”

“If you hear any strange stories or rumors later, could you tell me?”

“Of course. If I hear anything like that, I’ll run to you first and let you know, Sister.”

“Thank you.”

At the man’s answer, Chensi smiled faintly.

It was a smile far too bewitching to belong to an ordinary nun.

The man looked completely enchanted by Chensi’s smile.

Judging that there was no more information to obtain from him, Chensi coldly turned around. But the man could not take his eyes off Chensi’s back until the very end.

Feeling that gaze, Chensi’s expression turned icy.

‘Filthy trash…….’

She forcibly held back the nausea rising within her.

Simply receiving a gaze filled with such filthy desire was torture to her. But she endured it somehow, thinking this too was a trial given to her by God and Johan.

What mattered to her was not the gaze of a filthy man.

It was carrying out the mission Johan had given her.

Find the Saintess.

That was the mission Johan had given her and the Dark Saints.

For that purpose, the Dark Saints had scattered across the slums and were gathering information in many ways.

But so far, no special news had come in.

‘Can we really obtain information related to the Saintess in Shinchon?’

Chensi was honestly skeptical.

Every district was hostile to Dongdaemun, but among them, Shinchon was special.

It was partly because Zeon existed here, but also because Shinchon had already nearly been taken over by Dongdaemun once.

Because of that, the people here were especially hostile toward clergy from Dongdaemun.

Only someone like Chensi could charm men with her appearance and gather information. Everyone else was struggling.

They had already been searching Shinchon for ten days, but they had not obtained a single useful piece of information.

Because of that, Chensi and the other Dark Saints were slowly beginning to think they should withdraw from this place.

“Does the Saintess really even exist on the surface……?”

Chensi was muttering absentmindedly when her gaze suddenly changed.

That was because, within her field of vision, she saw an entrance to an underground sewer blocked by thick iron bars.

“If she isn’t on the surface, could she be underground?”

That thought suddenly came to her.

She knew as well.

People lived in the underground sewers too.

Those who had no land to stand on aboveground had burrowed underground.

They were the ones living the most miserable lives in Neo Seoul.

Chensi approached the iron bars.

A tremendous stench flowed out through the bars.

The smell alone was enough to make her mind go hazy.

If Chensi had been an ordinary person, she would have backed away at this point.

Unfortunately, she was not an ordinary person.

To Chensi, a Grade B Awakened baptized by Johan and possessing a special ability, a smell of this degree was no problem at all.

Instead, Chensi felt a sense of mission.

“Yes! If not me, then who would enter such a filthy place? Is it not the way of God to descend upon the filthiest and harshest places?”

Craack!

When Chensi grabbed the padlock attached to the iron bars and twisted it, it broke far too easily.

The iron bars opened limply.

Just before entering underground, she suddenly turned around.

“Strange. I’m sure I felt someone’s gaze.”

But no matter how wide she opened her eyes and looked, there was no one there. Still finding it strange, she even activated a detection Skill, but again, nothing was detected.

“Was it my imagination?”

Chensi muttered and stepped into the underground sewer.

Immediately after her figure vanished completely into the darkness, something rose from a secluded corner of the alley.

It was a Sand Soldier, a soldier made of sand.

The Sand Soldier stared blankly at the underground sewer Chensi had entered, then turned back into sand.

---

“As expected, she found it.”

Zeon smiled bitterly.

He had attached one Sand Soldier to each of the Dark Saints who had entered Shinchon and had them watched.

The Dark Saints never dreamed that Zeon would attach Sand Soldiers to them and monitor them.

Thanks to that, Zeon could sit at home and watch their every movement.

In that way, Zeon gathered information on the Dark Saints.

“Fifty people in total. All baptized by Johan and active in the shadows. Normally, they gather information, but if Johan gives the order, they can turn into assassins at any time. Among them, the ten at the top need the most attention. That woman named Chensi who just entered the underground sewer is one of them.”

That was why he had paid even more special attention to monitoring her movements.

Controlling a Sand Soldier remotely from home like this was quite burdensome even for Zeon.

A Sand Soldier was literally a soldier created to fight, not a watcher with free will.

Because of that, Zeon had to spend even more mental strength on the Sand Soldier attached to Chensi. But the effect was clear.

Because he had confirmed that Chensi had entered the underground sewer.

“Is it time to decide now?”

Since she had entered the underground sewer, it was only a matter of time before the identity of the Saintess Johan was looking for was exposed.

Zeon knew very well what would happen if the Saintess fell into Dongdaemun’s hands.

Dongdaemun would definitely use the Saintess to expand explosively.

If that happened, the existing order would certainly be shaken from its roots.

That was not what Zeon wanted.

Zeon had two options.

The first was to kill Chensi.

The second was to kill or hide Remura.

Both methods required taking on enormous risk.

Just as Zeon’s worries deepened—

Clatter!

The door suddenly opened, and Briel’s voice rang out.

“We’re back, Zeon!”

Briel was entering confidently with Levin and Jetoya.

The moment Zeon saw the three of them, he made his decision.

‘Dongdaemun…… I need to end this.’