Chapter 199: Proselytization (3)

By the time Il-mok finished the song, Baek Cheon was looking at him with tears streaming down his face.

“I see now what a fool I’ve been, Young Master! To think I had the audacity to spread the greatness of the Divine Cult through theater and gain attention, yet never once thought of using songs. My vision was so small, so pathetic! I’m so ashamed I could cry!”

Which he was already doing. Then, he dramatically dropped to his knees.

“I knew you were a genius at martial arts and strategy, but I never dreamed you were a musical prodigy as well! I want to gouge out these eyes of mine for failing to recognize Young Master's talents."

"Ahem. Well, gouging out your eyes is a bit much." Il-mok cleared his throat awkwardly and turned his head away.

Getting praised for something he didn't even compose himself made him feel weird in various ways.

But, actually, that wasn't it at all.

'Why the hell are they looking at me like I'm even worse than this lunatic?'

The people watching from the sidelines were staring at Il-mok like he was the attention-seeker of the century.

Even Baek Cheon seemed to acknowledge him as being several levels above in their hierarchy, which made things even more uncomfortable.

'I'm not an attention-whore, damn it!'

The whole reason he was singing right now was to dump the singer role at the assembly onto Baek Cheon.

"Ahem. It just came to me by chance. Come on, you try it.”

"Yes, Young Master!"

Baek Cheon stood up with the face of someone who'd been entrusted with a historic mission, his eyes shining with a clear light as he stared intently at Il-mok.

'Ugh, this is uncomfortable.'

His eyes were already twinkling enough, but now they were getting misty too, which made Il-mok's skin crawl.

With a light sigh, Il-mok sang "Peace Like a River" one more time. Maybe because the song was simple, Baek Cheon managed to pick up the song without much difficulty.

Il-mok nodded, "Excellent. Then I'll teach you the next song as well."

Il-mok planned to teach him several hymns in addition to "Peace Like a River."

For Il-mok—or rather, for his past self, Seo Ji-hoon—church songs were surprisingly familiar.

It wasn't because he was a religious person. Seo Ji-hoon was a huge believer in work-life balance; the idea of giving up his Sundays for church was his personal definition of hell.

No, he knew hymns because he had survived a famously terrible time in a man's life. A special kind of hell that most South Korean men are forced to go through.

'Goddamn boot camp.'

And with that, Il-mok started to teach the song that had been mercilessly drilled into his head during that awful time.

“Through the dark of the night, through the pitch-black of night, we journey onward to the dawn!”

A song he’d picked up at Nonsan Training Center because he was starving for snacks at that time.

A song that boasted a club-like atmosphere.

Siloam.

"Oh Maitreya, we shall thank you. For giving us light."

After completing Nonsan Training Center, he continued going to church on weekends to get snacks and avoid harassment from his seniors. Thanks to that, several hymns were branded into his mind like scars.

Though it was a memory from nearly a decade ago, because it was his military days memory, it was stuck in one corner of his mind like PTSD and wouldn't go away.

He'd even heard hymns occasionally during his time working as a social welfare civil servant whenever he got involved with volunteer organizations.

One way or another, the organizations most closely related to volunteering were Christian and Catholic groups.

Maybe the tune was just that simple, or maybe Baek Cheon was just a natural, but he memorized Siloam just as fast as the first song.

‘Is this why they are so hard to erase from one’s memory?’

Hymns are designed to be sung by a big crowd of normal people, so they have to be catchy and easy to learn.

They were so catchy to the point where they got on the list of "songs you can't listen to during exam season" because they'd get stuck in your head forever.

He could already picture of future in his mind.

A scene where all the people of Lanzhou sang Siloam together.

***

After learning two hymns from Il-mok, Baek Cheon returned to his quarters and was singing those glorious songs again.

‘The Young Master could have easily sung these before the believers himself, yet he yielded the honor to me. This too is the Young Master’s grace!’

He saw it as nothing less than grace as vast as the heavens. And so Baek Cheon immersed himself in practice with the mindset of a prophet carrying a religious mission.

As he practiced his singing, a certain epiphany suddenly struck Baek Cheon's mind.

'Wait a minute?'

'Young Master told me to use songs to spread our Divine Cult’s graces far and wide. And at the Hall of the Demonic Way, he told me to spread the Divine Cult’s greatness through theater.'

As he recalled the two great missions Il-mok had bestowed upon him, he arrived at a shocking conclusion.

'Why am I doing them separately?'

And just like that, his imagination went into overdrive.

What if he depicted the great achievements of the past Heavenly Demons using the play, and at the most crucial moments of the play, sang magnificent songs with his majestic voice?

A scene emerged from his mind.

A scene where people were completely engrossed in his bewitching play, chanting his name and looking up at him with adoration.

Thud.

Before he knew it, he'd sat down on the floor in a meditative position, and inspiration overflowed in his mind like a bursting spring.

And in tune with that inspiration, the demonic energy of the Hundred Flower Demonic Art coiled in Baek Cheon's dantian escaped and began flowing through his limbs.

The side effect of the Hundred Flower Demonic Art was a pathological need to be the center of attention.

'Yes! And for the finale, I'll shower the stage with flower petals, scattering them like a storm of hidden weapons!'

'I've been trapped in narrow-minded thinking all this time! Just as I can mix theater and songs, there's no rule saying I must only execute the Three Forms with the Feather Arrow Needles!'

While pondering ways to draw more attention, Baek Cheon gained even greater enlightenment about martial arts.

***

The next morning.

"Young Master! Young Master!"

The familiar voice of a madman coming from outside the door made Il-mok sigh and get up.

"Come in."

As soon as Il-mok's voice fell, Baek Cheon, Dam Bin, and Hyeokryeon Seon-ah, who'd been standing guard, entered the room.

"Why are you raising hell—I mean, why the commotion so early in the morning?"

Il-mok had unintentionally blurted out his true feelings in his drowsiness, but it didn't register in the energetic Baek Cheon's ears. Not that it mattered, Baek Cheon had always been the type to only hear what he wanted to hear anyway.

"Last night, this Baek Cheon came to understand Young Master's great intention."

"???"

Il-mok wondered what nonsense this was now, but before he could ask, Baek Cheon suddenly bowed to him.

“First, you told me to spread the word through plays. Now, you’ve told me to spread the word through song. It all makes sense! Your real plan was for me to combine them!”

"......"

Il-mok frowned.

'A play that combines songs and acting... so he's invented the musical theater?'

This crazy bastard had somehow managed to create the world's first musical drama.

'Then again, opera and pansori are also forms of musical theater, but does this world have opera or pansori? If they do exist, this would be a perfect opportunity to send this crazy bastard abroad to learn them.'

But then he thought that getting rid of the madman was probably the more urgent priority. Right after finishing spreading the hymns in Lanzhou, that is.

Unaware of Il-mok’s plan, Baek Cheon continued rambling.

"While realizing Young Master's deep intention and swimming in an ocean of inspiration, this Baek came to understand. Since all the rivers return to the sea, all these realizations are also connected to the Hundred Flower Demonic Art that I've learned. Thanks to Young Master's teachings, this Baek one has broken through a barrier!"

Baek Cheon then repeatedly bowed as if ready to split his forehead on the floor.

At that devout posture, Dam Bin and Hyeokryeon Seon-ah, who were watching from the side, also showed surprised expressions.

“I’d heard the rumors that people get stronger just by being around you, Young Master, but I never imagined you taught him songs with such intention. Incredible."

"As expected of Big Brother! Teach me something, too! I’m ready! I’ll learn anything!”

Now that all three of them were looking at him like he was some kind of god, Il-mok just gave a weak cough. “Uh, that really wasn’t my intention.”

For some reason, it felt as though he himself was being lumped into the same category as Baek Cheon.

"Hohoho. You're even being humble about it."

“You truly are the greatest!”

They just would not believe him.

"Haah..."

Il-mok let out a deep sigh and gave up.

***

The next evening, at a riverbank just outside the city.

In a somewhat dark place a short distance away from the washing spot where housewives did laundry during the day, countless people had gathered there.

About two-thirds of them gave off an atmosphere of being tense and trembling with fear, while the remaining third harbored feelings of excitement or bewilderment.

The tense and fearful ones were people from brothels and taverns, while the excited or bewildered ones were people who'd been lured by the honey trap and missionary work and had come out of curiosity.

The groups with completely different atmospheres couldn't mix at all, their only common point being that they kept looking around as if searching for someone.

And in that unsettled atmosphere, someone revealed themselves.

"Today, I wish to deliver benevolent messages to all the believers who have come to our Maitreya Luminous Cult's gathering."

The speaker was a middle-aged man wearing a mask of a wrathful deity. It was none other than the Branch Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's Lanzhou Branch.

The people from brothels and taverns who knew of the Maitreya Luminous Cult's existence looked at him with tense faces, while those lured by the honey trap looked at him with faces full of questions.

'Maitreya Luminous Cult?'

'Benevolent messages?'

'What's he talking about?'

In the midst of this, the Branch Leader's sermon began.

“We are the Maitreya Luminous Cult! We are the ones who wait for the coming of the great savior, Maitreya, who will purge this wicked world and save us all! And I tell you now, the savior is close! For Incarnations of Maitreya has already come to Lanzhou and wiped the filth of the Heavenly Orchid Society from our city! This is the sign we have been waiting for!”

Hearing that the Heavenly Orchid Society had been taken out by some kind of divine being, the curious people in the crowd started whispering excitedly.

In that unsettled atmosphere, the Branch Leader cried out.

“And now, to begin, let us sing together a song to honor the Incarnations of Maitreya who descended for our sake and fought against the wicked."

As soon as his words ended, Baek Cheon stepped forward.

He wasn't even wearing a mask.

As a wave of whispers went through the crowd at the sight of his handsome face, Baek Cheon felt a jolt of pure ecstasy as if he'd immediately ascend to heaven.

"The song you will sing with me today is 'We Shall Fight Against the Wicked.’”

Like the true attention hog he is, Baek Cheon boldly declared and began singing.

Following "Peace Like a River" and "Siloam," there was another hymn he'd learned from Il-mok.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored."

A hymn that Il-mok thought might align most closely with the doctrine of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

“He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat…”

A song so simple and famous that even people who didn't know hymns would know at least its chorus.

“GLOOORY! GLORY! MAITREYA CUULT! GLOOORY! GLORY! MAITREYA CUULT!”

The hymn known as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."