Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 146

Chapter 146
Religion could be a ray of light for one person, but it could also be a chain for another. A proper religion might be able to save thousands of people, but a corrupt religion would drive its followers off the edge of a cliff.

‘The Church of Madness will solely be used to fulfill my own greed and ambitions,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought.

He had no plans to turn the Church of Madness into an upright and righteous religion, as this was all in a test, and the things he did in it would not affect anything back in reality. That was why there would be no problem even if he became the worst cult leader in the history of the continent.

‘First, I need to gather some followers,’ he thought.

The start of any religion was its followers; that was especially a given with a cult established solely for the purpose of exploiting its followers. What Kang Yoon-Soo needed right now were the kinds of followers who would not hesitate to disown their own family for the sake of their faith if he wanted to place the entire continent under his religion.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked at the siblings outside the window and thought, ‘I have to start by coercing those two…’ He then left the Cathedral of Repentance.

“What took you so long? Have you finished what you needed to do?” Rekil asked while yawning.

“Yeah,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Oh? Then I hope you have a nice long life. The robe was cheap anyway, so you can just keep it. It’s a shame, though. You were pretty alright for an undead,” Rekil said.

“We’re going back to the church. I hope we can run into each other again in the future,” Reanna said.

The siblings were about to turn around and leave when Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly said, “I’m thinking of establishing a new religion on the continent.”

Reanna stopped in her tracks and turned around. She looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and asked, “What do you mean by a new religion?”

“It’s just as I said. I’m also planning to absorb all of the religions on the continent and place them beneath my feet,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

Rekil could not hide the shock on his face as he asked, “Have I gone deaf? Did that skeleton just say it would unite all the religions on the continent?”

“That’s right,” Reanna replied, staring at Kang Yoon-Soo with eyes filled with amusement. She then asked, “So, you’ll really make a religion?”

“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. He continued, “I’ll need your help to unite all the religions.”

“Oh my, I was about to think that you were an alright one… but aren’t you just a crazy skeleton?” Rekil replied with a grimace. He continued with a hint of anger in his voice, “I know we’re doing the work of the church to make a living, but do you really think we’d accept such a preposterous offer?”

“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“We’re done here. Let’s go, noona,” Rekil said as he angrily stomped away.

Kang Yoon-Soo said in a low tone, “You shouldn’t go back to your church.”

“Why so?” Rekil asked with a mix of anger and annoyance in his voice.

“You won’t be able to receive any rewards for your work,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly said. Rekil’s eyes opened wide in surprise.

Reanna took out a cigarette before asking, “What do you mean by that?”

“The Sylphia Church of this day and age has been corrupted, and the current head of the church, Ravelstir, is the reason behind it. I’m certain that you haven’t received most of your rewards for your work,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The siblings were stunned by the skeleton’s words. It was true that they had not received most of the rewards they were supposed to receive for the undead subjugation. However, the church had promised to compensate them for the delay in payment by giving them high-ranked equipment and gold later on.

“Are you implying that we won’t be able to receive the rewards we’re due?” Reanna asked.

“This isn’t simply about you not being able to receive your dues. You’ll be banished from your church,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Why is that?” Reanna asked in response.

“It’s because you’re from a fallen church,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The siblings were surprised once again. It was true that the clergy members who had come from fallen churches were being discriminated against by the church.

Rekil furrowed his brow and asked, “How can we trust you?”

“You’ll see that the mission document you received is missing a stamp in the reward section. They already planned not to pay you your dues,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.

Reanna immediately took out the document and scanned through it. She looked at the place where the rewards for the mission were listed, but there was a palm-plant-shaped stamp on it, unlike what Kang Yoon-Soo had claimed.

However, upon closer look, she found that the stamp looked different from the official stamp used by the church; there was a discrepancy in the number of leaves. The official stamp used by the church had seven leaves on it, but this stamp had eight.

“Oh my god…” the siblings muttered in shock.

Reanna was deep in thought for quite a while before she asked, “What is the religion you are trying to establish?”

“The Church of Madness Urnokra,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied.

“Its doctrine?” Reanna asked.

“There’s no such thing as abstinence from alcohol,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Then can I drink?” Reanna asked.

“Yeah,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied curtly.

“Can I smoke?” Reanna asked again.

“Yeah,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied again.

“Then I’m in. I’m converting,” Reanna said with a shrug.

Rekil looked at his sister with a stunned expression before crying out, “Noona!”

***

They had arrived at a desolate village. All the supplies and food in it had all been stolen by bandits. Its residents had long given up on hope, and their hearts were as dry as their ground.

‘This looks like a good place to start,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought as he sat down in an empty plot of land.

A dirty little girl, who was dressed in rags and was so skinny that she almost resembled a skeleton like Kang Yoon-Soo, carefully approached him. She got close enough to him to look under his robe and see his hidden face.

“Kyaaaah!” The girl screamed in horror when she saw Kang Yoon-Soo’s face.

Kang Yoon-Soo did not even spare a glance at the girl as he opened his backpack. The next instant, there was a fragrant and scrumptious-looking piece of bread in his skeletal hand.

The girl gulped and began, “M-Mr. Skeleton…”

“What?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked in response.

“Please give me that bread. I beg you. I am very hungry,” the girl said in a desperate, pleading tone.

“I’ll give it to you if you believe in the Church of Madness,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The girl immediately nodded, and Kang Yoon-Soo tore a piece of the bread off and gave it to her. The girl devoured the piece of bread, and tears started to flow down her cheeks as she tasted it. It had been ages since she had last had bread, and she sucked her dirty fingers, trying to eat the crumbs that clung to her fingernails.

The girl then looked at the skeleton and asked, “Can you please give me more…?”

Kang Yoon-Soo stared at the girl and said, “I’ll give you two more pieces of bread if you bring other children with you.”

“Three pieces of bread,” the girl said, trying to haggle.

“I’ll give you four,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The girl brought a few of her friends over, and the hungry children devoured the bread Kang Yoon-Soo gave them in an instant. However, the pieces of bread he gave them were nowhere enough to satiate their hunger. The children stared at Kang Yoon-Soo, hoping to get more bread from him.

“I’ll now tell you the tale of the Church of Madness Urnokra,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

The children’s ears perked up, as they expected him to give them more bread if they listened to him until the end.

Kang Yoon-Soo spoke for a long time, and by the time the story finally ended, the sun was beginning to set. He distributed bread to the children before sending them back.

The next day arrived. This time, more children gathered around him, and Kang Yoon-Soo told them more stories before distributing bread to them just as he had the previous day.

A week passed since Kang Yoon-Soo had arrived at the desolate village. The once empty lot he sat in was now filled with children.

“Mr. Skeleton! Tell us more stories!”

“You promised to tell us the story of one of the disciples of Urnokra, Henrick, and how he almost ruined the continent in his drunken stupor!”

“No! He promised to tell us the story of disciple Iris, and how she became a glutton who swallowed the heart of the continent!”

“Move! I’ll sit in front!”

Kang Yoon-Soo had already stopped giving out bread, but the children did not mind, as they were more curious as to what story he was going to tell.

The adults of the village were becoming suspicious of what was going on. The children, who had been lifeless after the village was plundered by the bandits, seemed to have been reinvigorated by something one after another.

“What’s going on?”

“My son told me that a skeleton tells them tales everyday.”

“A skeleton? Isn’t that an undead being?”

“What?! Don’t we have to call the Templar Knights from the church or something?”

“Do you have the money to pay them? We haven’t even been getting any relief money from the empire these days!”

“Let’s go and see it for ourselves first!”

A few of the hot-headed adults raised their pitchforks and ran to the empty lot, but it was only after sunset that they returned back to their houses.

“Huh? You were going on about bashing that skeleton’s skull in or something. What took you so long?”

“That skeleton’s tales… They were quite interesting…”

Then, the number of adults loitering around the empty lot slowly increased as well.

Kang Yoon-Soo thought while looking at the increasing crowd, ‘It seems to be quite effective.’

He was not a talented Orator. There was a time in his previous lives when he had reached the pinnacle of the Orator class, but he had never been the type to tell interesting tales. However, he had his companions to make use of, and the crowd loved the tales of Shaneth, Henrick, and Iris, with a few twists of Kang Yoon-Soo’s own addition.

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly felt melancholic as he thought, ’I miss them…’

He was surprised by his own thoughts. He was stunned to have even thought that, but he did not dislike it at all. He did not dislike the fact that he liked his companions.

‘It’s now time for the siblings to make a move,’ he thought.

The siblings entered the village, and Rekil grumbled while stomping angrily, “Damn it… I was a fool for thinking that only the skeleton was crazy. You were a crazy bitch too, noona.”

“Do you want to die?” Reanna responded threateningly.

“Yeah! Just kill me already! I can’t bear to live with the guilt of creating a non-existing god!” Rekil protested.

Bam!

“Aahk! My forehead!” Rekil screamed in agony.

“Be careful not to let anyone hear you,” Reanna said in a low voice.

Kang Yoon-Soo started to become more active now that the villagers had lowered their guard against him. He and the siblings went door to door, visiting everyone in the village.

The village that had been recently plundered by bandits was going through dire financial straits, and its public hygiene was in the worst possible states. The villagers, who lacked any medical knowledge, were afflicted with all sorts of diseases; most of them were slowly deteriorating while waiting for death to come and take them away. That was the reason why the siblings were nothing short of a ray of salvation for them.

“May the benevolent light of madness heal your illnesses,” Rekil muttered.

Then, a patient lying half-dead on a nearby bed suddenly regained his vigor. He exclaimed in surprise, “Oh my god… Oh my god…!”

The siblings’ divine powers were quite strong. They could not cure diseases outright, but they were powerful enough to revitalize patients in an instant.

The newly-energized patient held Rekil’s hands while crying a river of tears, saying, “Thank you…! Thank you very much!”

“Ah… No, you don’t have to be so grateful. It wasn’t that difficult for me,” Rekil said, trying to pull his hands away.

However, the patient shook his head and said, “I was a scholar living in the city before, which is why I’m aware of how amazing it is for a Priest to heal someone for free!”

What the patient had just said was true. The corrupt church felt that it was a waste of time and divine power to heal the poor, and most of its priests focused their time on healing the rich for handsome rewards, or healing politicians for free in exchange for favors.

Rekil felt conflicted after leaving the house. He muttered, “I’m having mixed feelings about this…”

“It’s ironic that we’re doing good deeds only after leaving the church,” Reanna said while patting her brother on the head.

A small tent had been erected in the empty lot. Kang Yoon-Soo was inside, and a crowd surrounded him while listening intently to a speech he was giving. He was not sharing tales this time, but rather teaching the crowd about the church’s doctrine.

“The Mad God Urnokra won’t be giving you salvation,” Kang Yoon-Soo began.

The crowd could not hide the surprise on their faces. They thought, ‘Is it not a given for a god to offer their followers salvation?’

Kang Yoon-Soo shook his head and continued, “The only ones who can save you are yourselves. Cast away your greed, but yearn for competition. The only way to save the world is not through good deeds, but through action. You can speak of the wrongs of others when you are rich yourself. The Mad God Urnokra will never laugh at those who have failed, but will hand down divine punishment to those who refuse to work and laze around while judging others.”

It was actually a doctrine he had made up on the spot that emphasized hard work and labor, since the followers of the Church of Madness would be working for him anyway.

Kang Yoon-Soo continued, “Remember this. You are the only ones who can save yourselves, so you should work hard and toil for the sake of the Church of Madness.”

Surprisingly, the village slowly began to transform after that day.

The adults, who had given up all hope when the government did not send any relief funds, rolled up their sleeves and took matters into their own hands, and the children helped out with whatever chores they could, even if it was to forage for small edible plants. The ruined buildings were repaired, and the fields were tilled.

Kang Yoon-Soo was present for the entire process, as he personally led the villagers. He instructed, “Demolish the rundown smithy; it’ll be more beneficial for us to use the materials from that to repair the other buildings.”

“What should we do with these plants?” one of the villagers asked.

“Those are difficult to grow, but will give us an abundant harvest. I’ll plant those myself,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The villagers were slowly becoming enamored by the skeleton.

“How is it that a skeleton is way better than a human?”

“He’s cold on the outside, but he’s quite warm on the inside.”

The villagers had come to fully trust the skeleton, and none of them dared to even be skeptical of their savior. Those who had tried to convince the others to chase Kang Yoon-Soo away because he was an undead being had now changed their minds as well.

“Church Leader! Please come and have a drink before you continue working!”

The villagers had even started to call Kang Yoon-Soo ‘Church Leader’.