The First Hunter

Chapter 49. The Vatican, Part II

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

4.

On December 31, 2016, there was one thing that survivors found when monsters came out.

God!

Most people who sought and prayed to God in that way were frustrated that God did nothing for them. But people in Europe, especially Italy in Western Europe, were different. When they sought God, God was willing to answer the young sheep who were looking for him. The Vatican was the answer.

“It’s still as a beautiful city as it used to be. It remains alive and protected from monsters.”

The Vatican’s appearance, which had been able to maintain its presence after monsters came out, was the clearest proof that God’s will was in this land. In the face of that evidence, Europe had no choice but to enter an age of fanaticism beyond blind faith. In that era, the Vatican, which proved that God still existed, became the most powerful group of a new order.

“Since the Vatican remains undiminished, the Cardinals must be doing well.”

A Cardinal’s presence among them was absolute. The seventeen remaining Cardinals in Vatican City were just like agents acting at God’s will.

“They have to stay healthy.”

It was a superficial story that the public knew.

“They carry a cross instead of you.”

There were more hidden stories to be said than done.

——————

There was something to talk about.

It was certain that a Cardinal’s dignity was absolutely undeniable in an age in which faith in God was so fanatical. But could they make the right decisions?

There was no need to mention the incompetence of the Cardinals. There was no need to describe incompetence in the first place. What mattered is whether the Cardinals had knowledge, experience, judgment, or examples to consider when making decisions during the age of monsters.

Of course, there were no such things for the Cardinals. Indeed, the Cardinals did not know monsters. Staying in the Vatican, the safest place in the world from monsters, they had never seen a living monster with their own eyes.

Nevertheless, survivors of Western Europe left their fate to the Vatican, and they were willing to risk their lives in a war against the monsters if the Vatican cried out for war.

Their faith in God made it possible for some of them, but they were only part, and most of them, even though they made rational judgments before faith, were still willing to leave their fate to the Vatican.

——————

“Isn’t that right, John?”

“Sir Spencer, you have harsh words.”

The above- mentioned was possible due to a man saying this remark, who had a long horse-like face and a golden ponytail, dressed in the black priestly robes.

Archbishop John Gabriel was the head of the Vatican City State, which had been newly established, and he had made it possible. He, who was originally one of the deacons of the former Pope, now led Vatican City in the monster era.

When the Cardinals concluded that they would pray to God to defeat the monsters, John Gabriel led an army armed with powerful relics and weapons through Europe, starting with the Louvre Museum as well as the relics of the Vatican, and won the war against the monsters.

John Gabriel had shown the decision that the Cardinals had made through inefficient processes was not good. His accumulated results were the basis for people to be willing to leave their fate to the Vatican.

He was really a hero of rare caliber. Now, he was talking with Mao, the head of the Six Snakes, in front of the peaceful scenery of the Vatican.

“So why did you come here?”

“There’s something the Vatican has to do.”

“Why should the Vatican help the Six Snakes?”

“Because you’ve been helped.”

If anyone knew the identity of the Six Snakes, they could not help but know what he meant.

Mao gave John Gabriel a scenario: put all the responsibility on God and the Cardinals by putting out the symbolic existences of the Cardinal in front, and take all the good results for himself.

It was a wise and touching scenario.

Even if he was defeated in the battles with the monsters, he did not have to take responsibility for the failure. If he said that defeat was God’s will, everyone was convinced and nodded.

The Cardinals were like a cross for John Gabriel. Just by making people admire the Cardinals and holding them sacred, John Gabriel was able to be forgiven all his failures.

In other words, to John Gabriel, the Six Snakes and Mao Spencer specifically were an Achilles heel. Of course, he was not satisfied with this conversation now.

“What I want is simple. You lead the Crusaders, and fight with the head of the Giants, Hrungnir.”

Not to mention, he didn’t like the speaker, nor the content of the conversation.

“The Crusaders are not allowed to lose.”

The Crusaders were the army of the Vatican City. It was literally an army that fulfilled the will of God, a group that had gathered the Awakeners representing Western Europe, armed them with the most powerful relics in Western Europe, and planted faith close to madness in God. It was the best weapon the Vatican had ever built with their power.

Now, Mao was asking the Crusaders to hunt Hrungnir?

“And when the Crusaders are defeated, Europe is shaken.”

At the viewpoint of John Gabriel, it was a hunt that was more likely to be a defeat then a win. In addition, as he said, the Crusaders were not an army that could be allowed to be defeated.

“Yes, that’s why I want you to do it, and as terribly as you can, the faces of those who fight with you will be so terrible when they are so desperate.”

It was not just a defeat, but a desperate defeat. Of course, John Gabriel had no intention of receiving this proposal.

“What do we get by doing that?” That was why he was asking this question now.

“You’ve already learned the lesson, right?”

But as said before, Mao and the Six Snakes were Achilles heels for John Gabriel.

“Lesson?”

“The lesson of Moscow.”

As Achilles had been shot dead by an arrow in his heel, John Gabriel had no way of doing anything to his fatal weakness. It was still true. In front of Mao, he could no longer express his intention to refuse.

“… what is your intention in doing this?” Eventually, John Gabriel decided to defend his Achilles heel.

Mao was glad to answer at his reply. “A hero appears in a desperate situation, in a war that the holy army of the Vatican cannot even win.”

“You are going to be a Messiah, and are not going to hide in the shadows anymore?”

At the cross-questioning of John Gabriel, Mao looked at the Vatican landscape instead of answering.

‘If the Six Snakes become a Messiah, Kim Tae-hoon, you will have to cross the dead bodies of the Vatican and Europeans before you kill us.’

Mao looked at the scene and smiled at the corner of his mouth.

5.

“Huck, huck!”

Frankfurt, Germany…

Germany, whose main river was the Rhine, was not only one of Europe’s major economic centers, but also always crowded with people before the advent of the monsters. However, since the advent of the monsters, Frankfurt had become a land of monsters, where there was no reason to visit unless it was a mercenary who made monster hunting their job.

‘Fuck!’ In other words, Emma’s job, a red-haired beauty who had been panting in the Dreieich Nature Reserve in Frankfurt before it was ruined, was now nothing but a mercenary. She was also a mercenary who would now lose her life in exchange after encountering a powerful monster.

Awwww! In addition, it was a group of Werewolves with orange eyes that were chasing Emma. There were no less than ten of them! Even that was considered small now.

“Werewolves have been seen in hordes of over a hundred, and the monsters are mad!”

The number in the werewolf packs that Emma and her colleagues encountered for the first time was over a hundred. It was crazy.

‘Damn it! Damn it!’

If a dozen Werewolves formed a pack, the level of hunting difficulty became yellow grade. Even Emma, who had survived for a year since the monster appeared, had never heard of a hundred Werewolves forming a pack.

‘All monsters are going crazy because of the Giants.’

It was the Giants who crossed the Baltic Sea and set their huge feet on German soil that made such nonsense a reality. The Giants were a powerful threat to humans and monsters alike. Of course, to fight the ruthless Giants, monsters began to unite, dozens of them becoming hundreds, hundreds becoming thousands.

But Emma and her colleagues didn’t know that.

“Huck, huck, huck!” The result of that ignorance was Emma’s rough breathing. To survive, she and her colleagues had scattered. They had scattered in all directions and run away.

‘Damn it!’ At the cost of nine sacrifices, it was a way to escape with one or two people surviving. It was the highest survival rate in this situation.

‘I did not expect that I would die here even before I got married!’

And at this moment, Emma was sure she was one of the nine sacrifices. Her face, which turned purple for lack of breath, was evidence.

“Huh-uck, Huh-uck!”

‘I’m sure I am really about to die, damn it. I can smell the coffee that I’ve never had since the monsters appeared…’

It was also evidence that she could smell the deep aroma of coffee between gasps of breath. It was evidence that her nose had lost its sense of smell as she was about to die.

‘Hmm?’ In the end, Emma saw a phantom in her eyes. ‘What, what?’

A long ways away, in the trees, in front of a campfire, the sight of two men and a woman drinking coffee with marshmallows as if camping, filled Emma’s eyes.

‘Am I dreaming because I am already dead?’ Of course, she thought it was a fantasy.

“Yipe!” Emma fell to the ground, not seeing the roots in front of her feet, looking at the phantom. She fell forward and turned over and looked behind her.

Awwww!

She saw twenty orange eyes running madly to eat her, and…

Whizz! There was something dimly passing fast through those orange eyes with an eerie sound.

Bloosh! Angry Werewolves fell like broken dolls, shedding blood at their temples.

‘Ah…’ Of course, Emma thought this was a dream, a vain sight until a man extended her his hands and words.

“Are you all right?”

“Ah… Ah ah…”

“Oh, you can call me Jang. And those are my bodyguards, you can call them Kim and Mary.

“You’re so surprised that you can’t talk.”

It was then that Emma could see that this was not a dream, but a reality.

“Have some warm coffee and Marshmallows, and warm yourself.”

Of course, the reality that she saw was the most unrealistic reality ever since the monsters had appeared.

6.

After the advent of monsters, mankind was deprived of many things. Most of the things that enriched mankind were taken away. Humans could no longer expect to drink coffee after eating rich salads and oily steaks. So it was with Emma.

As an Awakener, she knew how lucky it was to be a mercenary and be able to eat food and not to starve to death in exchange for killing the monsters. Now, however, she was in the middle of a quiet forest, sitting in front of a bonfire, and she was soaking her mouth with the most delicious coffee she had ever had, eating moderately melted Marshmallows.

It was a luxury she had never imagined. Of course, in front of this unrealistic luxury, she was forced to melt.

“How did you get chased by monsters?”

“I ran into a hundred Werewolves, and I had to run away.”

“Then why did you come to Frankfurt? To this dangerous place?”

“The mission we were given was to clean up the surroundings so that the Crusaders could fight the Giants.” In front of the man named Jang who had saved her from death, she did not intend to hide or do anything.

“Where are the Crusaders?”

“They’re waiting in Stuttgart.” She said everything she knew. “I heard that they’re going to attack the leader of the Giants in Frankfurt on February 14.”

“If it is the leader of the Giants…”

“It’s a monster with dark blue eyes that makes the Giants look like children.”

“Then Emma, why did you participate in such a dangerous thing? You would not be able to live after being exposed to the fear of the dark blue-grade monster.” Jang was surprised at the words that she spoke of her own accord.

Emma gave a bitter laugh at the words.

“The Vatican told me to do so, so I should do it. How can I resist His will? Much more, since the Crusaders are present in full force, it is a holy war. Not to get something, it’s about paying back what I’ve been given.”

“But it’s too dangerous, isn’t it?”

“It’s all right, and there’s a rumor that the Oracle has come down.”

“The Oracle?”

“On February 14, God sends a Savior to save the world on his behalf, and the Savior will save us from the Giant.”

Emma, who said the words, sipped her coffee and scanned the crowd. Emma’s eyes stopped at a man who was looking at her, drinking coffee in the same way as her.

A wry smile hung at the corners of his mouth, Kim had bushy hair that gave her a sharp impression.

‘What is it?’ Emma, who could not guess the meaning of the wry smile, cocked her head.

“Savior, do you mean the Messiah is coming down?” Jang asked her again.

Emma swallowed her coffee quickly and said, “Yes, it’s not one, but five. Those five will save us from the trials.”

“Messiah…” At the word Messiah, Jang also made a similar smile to the man named Kim, who was smiling wryly.

Emma cocked her head again and asked, “Is there a problem with what I said?” The advent of the Messiah, it was not a story for them to smile at like that.

At the question of Emma, Jang smiled and said, “There is no problem. It’s just my face looks weird. Who doesn’t like it when the Messiah is descending? Isn’t that right, Kim?”

At Jang’s sudden question, the man Kim swallowed the coffee he was drinking and said, “I’m really looking forward to it.”