Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 234.3

Those carrying the corpses passed us by, heading further down the corridor… as though they hadn’t noticed us, hidden behind the loads they bore.

And at the very end of the procession was a familiar face.

“Share happiness.”

…!

The one who had ‘converted’ us.

Still wearing a school uniform, that delicate-looking teenager, along with a male student dressed in the same school’s uniform and looking like her twin, was carrying the body of Kim Heowoon.

When our eyes met, she gave us a slight smile before moving on again…

“Shall we follow?”

Ho Yoowon and I slowly followed after them. Following that bizarre procession all the way to the corridor’s end…

“Let us share happiness.”

We emerged into a vast, open cavern.

A space that could be called the plaza of an underground bunker.

It was already filled with coffins.

“Share happiness.”

There, the people stopped and placed the corpses into empty coffins.

Once they finished, they gathered in a circle. The eldest-looking man among them stepped forward, raised both hands, and covered his head.

And he cried out,

“Let us share happiness.”

Everyone made the same gesture.

“Be happy. Be happy. Be happy…”

In the coffin-filled space, a great many people raise their hands above their heads and fervently pray.

“May the misfortune of being born into this world find peace in death. May happiness be with you.”

‘……’

Then I understood.

Where this place was.

Final Ritual Chamber

A sanctuary used by members of the Church of the Luminous Unknown. It takes the form of an aged underground bunker and, being itself a ghost story, has no fixed location in reality. It moves between various places for the performance of religious rites and triggers multiple anomalous phenomena. For reference, see detailed records here.

There are rumors that the true form of this space is actually something’s stomach, but its true nature is unknown.

The chamber’s form varies by sect, and capacity ranges from a few people to tens of thousands. There even exist ritual chambers housing a single person.

In other words, this was one of the ‘Final Ritual Chambers’ being managed by the Happy Ending Sect.

‘I’ve come right into the heart of Church of the Luminous Unknown, then.’

And I’m certain of one thing.

Those people are already insane.

The Church of the Luminous Unknown is not an organization that strives, like the Disaster Management Bureau, to preserve reason and emotion or to remain human.

At first glance, this ritual, which seemed earnest and serene like a place of mourning, was no different.

‘They killed them themselves.’

Likely… relatives.

To be admitted as a lay member of the Happy Ending Sect, one must commit at least one murder, and the victim must be someone the applicant genuinely wishes to be happy.

So this seems to be a recruitment ritual for the Happy Ending Sect.

‘This is driving me nuts.’

I don’t want to witness this in person.

Now people step forward, recounting whom they killed and how good those people were, laughing and crying. If there had been food above, I would have vomited.

[Heavens, I half-expected a cult, but.]

…??

[Not even the typical fare. Where are the sacrificial animals? The fire, goats, and pentagrams? So tame, it’s almost bland. Do you think you can exploit converts with that kind of showmanship?]

…It seems it was far too bland for the taste of the ghost story talk show host, who has been soaked in provocation.

Truly, that was a Braun-like remark… huu.

Ah, come to think of it.

‘Earlier… before I lost consciousness, didn’t he say something?’

[Oh, I asked if help was needed, Friend!]

[But it happened too suddenly to confirm your intent, so I’ve been watching for the moment.]

Hmm… Well, okay.

In any case, I didn’t have the headspace to dwell on this topic further. Things were escalating into outright madness.

“Be happy!”

At last, those who had given their impressions shove the corpses into strange black containers. The ritual seems finished.

‘They just keep going in.’

That must be some supernatural mechanism, like a way of recycling bodies. So…

I stopped it.

As the coffin containing Kim Heowoon was about to be pushed in front of me.

“Be h—”

At that moment.

Everyone conducting the ritual looked at me.

A strange, horned being exhaling black smoke.

Yet instead of screaming and fleeing, they merely stared in silence.

Then someone murmured.

“Ability?”

The whisper spreads.

“It’s an ability.”

“Who is it…?”

And one of them stepped forward. The person who evangelized me. He blinked, looked at me, and then nodded calmly.

“You’re keeping it for yourself? Okay. That’s fine!”

Haa…

I opened the zipper at my wrist and placed Kim Heowoon’s corpse into the tattoo of amorphous flesh there.

Just to make it clear, it did not feel good…

‘If I was still my usual self, my hands would already be shaking.’

The Happy Ending Sect official, who had watched the grotesquerie with shining eyes, looked at me and laughed.

“Anyway… did you see? Even the child of Paradise of Love that you had cast away has found happiness!”

……

“Welcome, now, to the Happy Ending Sect.”

Salt Goblin

Latest posts by Salt Goblin (see all)