Chapter 74
Human sacrifice.
The act of offering a living person as a sacrifice.
This alien ritual, which began around the time human society formed and religion was born, had developed as a concentrated form of human malice and madness.
In the Inca Empire, there was a sorcery ritual called capacocha where children were sacrificed, and in the area now known as the Middle East, it’s said they burned newborn babies alive in fireplaces. In Mayan civilization, they periodically offered children to the god of the underworld due to the belief that precious things should be offered to the gods.
In China, they boiled people alive for human sacrifice, and during the Shang Dynasty, the state even led human sacrifices using prisoners as materials.
The period when human sacrifice was most severe in the Shang Dynasty was during its final years. It was said that at this time, they performed terrible rituals such as throwing people alive into snake pits or making them walk on heated copper pillars.
Such horrific human sacrifice rituals could be easily found worldwide.
In some regions, people were fed alive to crocodiles, in others, they were wrapped in chains and drowned in the sea to pray for a good catch. In some places, people were locked in sealed rooms in shrines and starved to death, claiming they were being offered to the enshrined gods, and in others, illegitimate children were locked up and starved to death to turn them into zashiki-warashi.
Religious reasons.
Sorcerous reasons.
Human madness desiring enormous rewards after terrible rituals.
Human madness boiling over to see blood.
Human sacrifice was not just a simple sorcery ritual, but essentially a distillation of human malice and madness shaped into a form of sorcery.
Was human sacrifice a vessel for human malice and madness?
Or did human malice and madness create human sacrifice?
The term human sacrifice became almost taboo in modern times, and even mentioning it has become an impious act.
Such an ominous word sprang from the demon's mouth, from Lee Serin's mouth.
"H-human sacrifice? What... what do you mean?"
She looked at Jinseong with a face full of questions.
"Before explaining, I have a few things to ask. Now, Lee Arin. Have you never seen this pattern before?"
Lee Arin looked at the picture for a moment at his question and then shook her head.
"No, I haven't."
"Is that so? Then let me narrow down the question. There was a street fortune-telling booth when you were going to meet your friend. There was a picture drawn on the tent there, have you never seen this pattern in that picture?"
"Fortune-telling... booth? No... Is there something strange about that place?"
Lee Arin asked back, showing some fear and anxiety, but Jinseong, as if satisfied with the answer, turned to Lee Serin and asked:
"Have you ever examined that fortune-telling booth closely?"
"N-no... It was my first time going that way yesterday... And, um, I'm not really close with Ella..."
After hearing his sisters' words, Jinseong nodded.
At least these kids weren't the main targets.
Crom Cruach.
The name of the highest god worshipped by the Gaelic people until the 5th century, and at the same time, the name of the being they feared most.
Crom Cruach had many names, being called Cenn Cruaich, Crom Dubh, Crom Cruach, etc. Most of these numerous names had terrible and cruel meanings.
Their meanings included twisted hill, bloody heap, head of the hill, blood-soaked grain pile, twisted blood-covered monster, twisted darkness, bloody black, etc.
The name Cenn Croithi or Cenncroithi meant 'head of all gods', but this name was rarely used, and only the names embodying the aspect of fear were widely used.
This terrible supreme god was in charge of abundance and the sun, and it was said that if human sacrifice was made to this god, it would bring an enormous harvest and warm sunshine to the region, making people's lives peaceful. However, as time passed, the symbol of the sun was taken by the Tuatha Dé Danann, and it became a god solely in charge of abundance.
The price this twisted idol demanded was just one thing:
The firstborn.
It wanted the first of all living things.
If fruits ripened, the very first one.
If crops were harvested, the very first one harvested.
The first beast caught in the returning season.
And, the firstborn child of a person.
Among these, what this twisted darkness liked most was a child born to humans, especially a young child untainted by time. Therefore, people offered their firstborn child to Crom Cruach as a newborn, regardless of whether it was a son or daughter, and if there was no newborn to offer, they would cut off the head of the grown firstborn and offer it on the altar, and if even that was not available, they would invade other places, kidnap firstborns, and cut off their heads.
According to the place-name legends passed down in Ireland, the Dindsenchas, the harm from this cruel, bloody human sacrifice ritual was so severe that if you dug a field a little deeper, corpses that hadn't rotted due to resentment would appear with their eyes wide open, and the severed heads used in the ritual formed hills.
This bloody hill emitted all sorts of foul odors and spewed words of resentment at passersby, and this terrible structure was said to have remained intact until St. Patrick appeared much later to destroy it.
Called Saint Patrick in English and Naomh Pádraig mac Calprainn in Ireland, this hero was said to have spread Christianity carrying a three-leaf clover, and it was said that he performed miracles using clover and a hammer to defeat evil ones and destroy twisted idols.
Even if they're firstborn, twins have a different symbolism, so it seems they weren't selected as sacrifices.
Jinseong turned his head to look at his innocent younger sister who had unknowingly stuck her head into a tiger's mouth and pulled it out.
Crom Cruach's human sacrifice ritual proceeded according to procedures.
And one of those procedures was confirming the 'qualification of the offering'.
It was a procedure created to confirm whether the child kidnapped from another tribe was truly the 'firstborn', or whether the child taken from pitiful residents trying to avoid human sacrifice was truly the 'firstborn'.
For human sacrifice, it was necessary to offer the firstborn, and if it wasn't the firstborn, not only would there be no good harvest, but drought or disaster would come, so this confirmation process was necessary.
What was needed for this was precisely this pattern of Crom Cruach.
This pattern was designed to be hidden among other symbols and recognizable only by the sacrifice.
The firstborn child.
In other words, beings suitable as offerings for human sacrifice could recognize this hidden pattern.
Moreover, the pattern included subduing sorcery to suppress the mind and induce sleep in the sacrifice who recognized the pattern, making them easy to capture.
It was no different from a picture that would surely kill you once you saw it.
Fortunately, his sisters didn't recognize the hidden pattern of Crom Cruach, and there were no signs of other sorcery being cast, so it could be said to be safe for now, but...
Tsk. Marten. Marten...
Could it be said that Ella B Winter, his old colleague and Lee Arin's friend, was also safe?
* * *
Jinseong's explanation wasn't long.
That the tent he saw when visiting Ella's house was suspicious, that it smelled of blood, that upon checking, there was a pattern of human sacrifice ritual drawn, and that the fortune-teller was trying to use someone as a sacrifice for that ritual.
That someone could have been Lee Arin, Lee Serin, or Ella.
And that since they didn't recognize the pattern, Lee Arin and Lee Serin were free from being sacrifices, and Ella needed to be checked as well.
The explanation wasn't long, but it contained enough content for Lee Arin and Lee Serin to understand.
Lee Serin readily accepted Jinseong's request after hearing the story.
And Lee Arin...
"R-rabbit! Rabbit is in danger!"
She was about to dash towards Ella's house with a pale face.
Jinseong stared intently at the restless Lee Arin, then spread his hand wide and brought it in front of her eyes. Then he mercilessly grabbed her face and chanted an incantation.
"In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam quoniam tu, Domine, singulariter in spe constituisti me."
As he grabbed her face and chanted the incantation, Lee Arin's face changed to a peaceful expression, and as if her body had become languid, she lost strength and slumped down on the bed. Moreover, as if drowsiness was overtaking her, her eyes were half-closed.
Seeing this, Jinseong nagged:
"You haven't properly practiced martial arts. You shouldn't just train your body and accumulate energy, but you should also sufficiently train your mind."
Lee Arin tried to open her eyes wide out of worry for the rabbit, but seeing Jinseong about to nag, she just closed her eyes.
"If your mind training had been proper, you could have sufficiently resisted the drowsiness. Even if the martial art you're learning imitates beasts, you should be able to resist this much..."
And then she just escaped.
To the world of sleep where she couldn't hear the nagging.