Chapter 104
“Hey... You’re kidding, right?” Min-Seo said.
She was laughing, but her gaze was cold. Her eyes and her mouth were behaving completely differently. It was like a person who had never smiled before was trying to raise their lips to imitate a smile. It was a smile that felt somewhat eerie and awkward.
"...Don’t tell me you're serious?"
I remained silent, and Min-Seo glared at me with grotesquely furrowed eyebrows as if she couldn't understand. Min-Seo thought I was joking, but this was not a joke. I had completely forgotten that I needed to write a proposal.
"I forgot. I'm sorry."
I admitted my mistake and apologized. Unnecessary excuses would only have the opposite effect, and if the other person was Min-Seo, the backlash would only be worse. Perhaps it was because I had quickly apologized, but Min-Seo's distorted face gradually returned to normal. Fortunately, it seemed like her anger had subsided a bit.
"What the hell, you fucktard! That thing’s due today, and you’re saying that you forgot? What are we supposed to do now? Are you insane?”
...Nevermind.
Since I was getting battered by insults, I felt disoriented rather than angry. Moreover, it wasn’t a situation where I could get angry. Min-Seo had entrusted me with the task of writing the proposal, and ?I didn’t do it.
"Hey, he says that he’s sorry. No need to roast him that hard. It’s not like we’ll die if we don’t complete it by today, right? And if it was so urgent, you could have done it yourself."
"Yeah, you should have just done it from the beginning."
Yu-Hyun and Jin-Seo shielded me from Min-Seo’s roasting. Yu-Hyun looked between me and Min-Seo with narrowed, piercing eyes, while Jin-Seo stared at Min-Seo with strangely relaxed eyes.
Min-Seo laughed as if she couldn't believe it.
"I clearly told you to do it last week, and you agreed, so how is it my fault that this troglodyte didn't do it? And am I supposed to forgive everything just because he apologized? It's not like the proposal will magically appear just because he said sorry..."
"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt," Ha-Yeon cut in, interrupting Min-Seo.
There seemed to be a pile of documents in her hand. From a rough glance, it looked like the thickness of the stack was quite significant.
Min-Seo looked at Ha-Yeon with a puzzled expression.
"What is it?"
"Actually, I wrote the proposal. Would you like to see it?"
"What? Then you should have given it to me earlier... Well, whatever, give it to me."
After taking away the proposal from Ha-Yeon as if she was stealing it, Min-Seo quickly skimmed through it. The wrinkles on her forehead suddenly smoothed out. After flipping through the proposal, she smiled and nodded.
"This is amazing. After you apologized, the non-existent proposal magically appeared," Min-Seo said as if she was joking.
No one laughed.
I looked at Ha-Yeon. She briefly met my gaze, then quickly turned her head away. She was frowning while biting her lips and desperately avoiding my eyes.
Something was off. That wasn't the Ha-Yeon I knew.
It would have been normal if she had said, 'Aren’t you going to say thank you?’ or ‘What would you have done without me?’ or something else along those lines while going on a tantrum... Did her personality suddenly change? No, was it even possible for a person’s personality to change so abruptly?
Moreover, how did she know that I wouldn't write the proposal in the first place, and why did she write the proposal for me instead? Did she want something from me again? Was this also part of the strategy to recruit me into the International Theological Association? Could it be that she still hadn’t given up even after my firm rejection? Then, why did she want to recruit me so desperately into the International Theological Association?
I didn’t understand. I couldn't understand why Ha-Yeon kept trying to help me. I couldn’t understand at all. Countless questions swirled around in my head.
"Well, that takes care of the proposal... Next is this."
While I was lost in thought, Min-Seo handed us a piece of paper.
'Application for a mission trip supervised by the Elder Council'
The application had formal and rigid sentences about the mission trip, and below that, there were blank spaces for writing phone numbers and names.
"What is a mission trip?! I need an explanation!" Dae-Man exclaimed. He stopped reading the application midway and threw the paper to the side.
Min-Seo frowned for a moment as if she was annoyed.
"Don’t tell me you don’t know what a mission trip is?"
"I don't!"
"Unbelievable, this idiot... How can someone that’s a vice priest be so ignorant, so ignorant..."
Although Min-Seo wasn't exactly the most qualified person in terms of character to be a clergyman, I decided not to point that out.
With a sigh, Min-Seo continued, "Literally, it's a trip to spread the Romanican faith to another country. But in truth, that's just the pretext..."
"Ah, so you’re saying that going to another country to spread the Romanican faith is considered a mission trip?"
"Yes, you blockhead. Can you stop exercising and read a book for once?"
"I am reading a book on sports nutrition!" Dae-Man proudly replied.
Min-Seo ignored his comment and continued, "Until last year, the travel destinations were places like Japan or Africa. It was quite literally a trip for missionary purposes..."
Min-Seo shut her mouth and hesitated for a moment before adding, "This year, the goal is not missionary work but rescue work. Since they’re going, they plan to send some of us along with them as well."
"Rescue... I guess that makes sense," Dae-Man said as he crossed his arms and nodded in agreement.
"Wow, hearing you say that makes me even less eager to go. I wasn't planning on going in the first place~" Su-Ryeon said while frowning and waving her hands in a loathing manner.
Yu-Hyun was dozing off, and Jin-Seo sat across from them, staring into space with empty eyes. Ha-Yeon had her head bowed, so her face couldn't be seen.
Min-Seo slowly scanned the room and said, "Only student council members that want to go will go. This year’s mission trip is more like a deployment rather than a trip, and it may be especially dangerous for inexperienced first-year students, and so on and so forth. Even the teacher in charge advised us not to go if possible. But why do those elder bastards..."
Min-Seo continued speaking, but I didn't bother listening to the details because there was no need for me to listen. Most of what she said criticized and condemned the Florence Academy staff, the Elder Council, and the Romanican Church.
Her words, summarized as much as possible, were: “I want to pull out all the few remaining strands of hairs on the top of those old folks’ heads who are forcefully trying to send us on unnecessary missionary trips every year.”
"Those Elder Council bastards seem to see students' lives as their own expendable goods. When I see those elders pretending to be important, I really─"
"..."
While Min-Seo continued to angrily spew out curses, I carefully examined the application.
Although the schedule was set immediately after the first round of exams, it said that the schedule may be subject to change at the school's discretion. They planned on visiting only areas outside the disputed jurisdiction, but for safety reasons, we were to be accompanied by clergymen of archbishop rank or higher. The Florence Foundation would fully cover the travel expenses...
Among them, one sentence caught my attention.
"They call this a trip, but in reality, it’s not. You could potentially die if you make a mistake. There hasn't been a student who has died on a mission trip until now, but... From what I can see, if any of us goes on this trip, I think that the first student to die on a mission trip will be one of us," Min-Seo said while scanning the faces of the students.
"Anyway, for this reason, I’ll assume that no one is going on this mission trip. I can just tell the teacher that all the first-year student council members won't be attending."
"I'm going." I interrupted Min-Seo.
"...You're going?" Min-Seo repeated while scratching her neck as if she was surprised.
I nodded and repeated, "Yeah, I'm going."
"Why?" Min-Seo furrowed her brows as if she could not understand.
My eyes were still fixated on the application form. A complex mix of excitement and fear filled my chest. I carefully made sure that my voice was not trembling as I took a deep breath and said, "Just because. It seems like it'll be fun."
The expressions of the student council members who heard my words all stiffened in unison. Of course, the real reason why I wanted to go was not because I actually thought it would be fun. Honestly, it didn't seem like it would be fun at all. Just as Min-Seo said, ?it would only be dangerous.
Nevertheless, I had to participate in this mission trip.
The country that possessed the third staff of the Soul Tree, the Staff of Reversal, was Saudi Arabia. The Elder Council had organized and chosen that place as the destination for the mission trip, both to send clergymen to rescue the Romanican Church missionaries trapped in Saudi Arabia and as a mission trip location for the Florence Academy student council members.
[Look, I didn't lie.]
In my mind, I could hear a voice mixed with laughter from someone other than Legba.
***
After the meeting, I walked to the classroom with the application form in hand.
"Sun-Woo."
Someone called me from behind. It was a woman's voice. Clearly, Ha-Yeon had come after me to patronize me again. I reflexively frowned and turned my head. However, Min-Seo was there instead of Ha-Yeon
"I was roughly correct..."
Whether it was Ha-Yeon or Min-Seo, it was all the same. I disliked Ha-Yeon slightly more, though. Min-Seo furrowed her brows in confusion when she heard me.
"What are you suddenly mumbling?"
"I’m just talking to myself."
"What kind of stuff are you saying to yourself... Anyway, can you please make some revisions to this?" Min-Seo said while angrily handing me a stack of documents from her left hand.
I impulsively accepted it. It was the proposal for the religious essay competition that Ha-Yeon had submitted during the meeting. Just from a rough glance, I thought it was quite thick, but when I actually held it, it was thicker than I initially thought. It seemed thicker than most textbooks. I had no idea what kind of content it contained for it to be this thick... In any case, I had no idea why she was asking me to revise it.
"You said that it needed to be submitted right away. Won't it be too late if we make revisions?"
"That's true, but if we submit it as it is, it could be a big problem... Read the twentieth line on page twelve."
Following her words, I turned the page and read the twentieth line on page twelve.
[The essay competition’s origin started with the illegal activity of the Elder Council. In the past, if you submitted a research paper written at home at the end of the semester, it would be recorded in the student record. However, it was distorted into a competition format where you complete the research paper based on the collected data after it was discovered that the twin children of the former elder, Rafael, had forged and submitted the research paper...]
"I don't think I can submit it as it is."
The problem wasn't just the length. Ha-Yeon's proposal had too many of her own subjective opinions. Moreover, all those opinions were nothing but criticism or hostile opinions toward the Elder Council. It could even be seen as a petition requesting the dissolution of the council rather than a proposal.
Min-Seo nodded seriously and explained, "The truth is, what you've just seen is the tip of the iceberg. First, we need to polish the sentences to be less aggressive and remove any sentences that are hostile toward the Elder Council. Then, the problem of the unnecessarily long length will be resolved on its own."
"But you can do that yourself. Or you can ask Ha-Yeon to do it."
In terms of editing, Ha-Yeon could do a much better job since she wrote it. Furthermore, refining the sentences and removing the criticisms of the Elder Council was something that Min-Seo could have easily done by herself. I wondered if there was a reason why I had to do it. I wasn't busy, but I didn't want to willingly accept it. Perhaps it was because it was Min-Seo's request.
"I talked to Ha-Yeon about it, but it seems like she doesn't even know what the problem is..."
Min-Seo paused for a moment as if she was lost in thought. Then she looked at me with empty eyes and said, "I can't do it either. I'm busy, and I can't even distinguish which sentences are hostile."
"What kind of bullshit... What kind of nonsense is that?"
"I mean, a pessimistic person can not identify a sentence criticizing something. I unknowingly sympathize with those sentences. If I keep reading, I can't distinguish what's right and what's wrong."
It seemed like Min-Seo was aware of the fact that she was pessimistic. As if she was reluctant, she continued to speak with a hesitant expression. "Um, and there are a few things in the data that Ha-Yeon somewhat fabricated. Can you change them into proper data?"
"Where do I find the data?"
"Um, in the Florence Elder Council something... Central Library. Look for it there. Most of the information should be there, and there should also be last year's student council project proposal, so if you roughly follow that, it should be fine."
Her tone was unusually kind compared to usual. I tried to guess the reason why. First of all, it seemed like Min-Seo herself couldn't directly do the editing work. Ha-Yeon was pessimistic, so she also couldn’t do the editing work, and Su-Ryeon didn't seem like she would do it even if asked. Based on Su-Ryeon's behavior so far, she didn't seem very diligent. Yu-Hyun was also the same. Dae-Man didn’t need any explanation.
Looking at the list of student council members, there was no one else to ask for help except for Jin-Seo and me. However, Min-Seo seemed to have a bad relationship with Jin-Seo and it seemed like she had a tendency to avoid her. She probably didn’t want to ask Jin-Seo for help with anything.
"It seems like you have no one to ask except me, right?"
Min-Seo turned her gaze away and bit her lip. She had a pained expression on her face. Immediately after, she tried to hide her expression and forced a smile, but it was too late. I had already figured out her true feelings.
"...What are you talking about? Since you were the person who was supposed to complete the task in the first place, that’s why I’m at least asking you to edit the proposal. If you don’t want to do it, I can ask someone else," Min-Seo urgently explained as if she were a criminal trying to prove their innocence.
"Then ask someone else. I'm busy."
"Hey, you don't even go to after-school academies. How’s someone who learns blessings from YouTube supposed to be busy?"
"You don't have to go to after-school academies to be busy... Anyway, I'm busy. Ask someone else."
Min-Seo grabbed my arm as I tried to leave.
"Ah, you jerk, listen. Hear me out and make a decision."
Min-Seo was the type of person to use others as needed. Therefore, she boldly discarded those who were not needed and only took care of those that she deemed necessary. And to her, I was a necessary person. At least for now.
I decided to use that to my advantage. Compensation for the job... For example, if she offered information or benefits that would help me become a prelate in the future, I would consider taking on the job then. If Min-Seo really entrusted the work to someone else, I wouldn't lose anything, either.
"What was your specialization? Paladin? Crusader?"
"Paladin."
"What’s your goal? Central, right?"
She was referring to the Central Paladin Order. The fastest way to achieve my goal was to join the Central Paladin Order. If I established myself there, I could become the Pope's Inquisitor, responsible for managing the underground prison of the Holy See Headquarters.
As I nodded, Min-Seo immediately asked, "So, you know the requirements for joining Central?"
"I do."
I needed an admission test certificate, a recommendation letter from clergymen of archbishop rank or higher, and a portfolio from when I worked at a local Paladin Order or when I was studying at the academy.
"I'll write the essay competition proposal in your name. It will be helpful when creating your portfolio," Min-Seo said earnestly.
But that wasn't the answer I wanted.
"And?"
"And? You bastard, It's absurd to credit this much to you for just editing. Do you understand?"
"That won't be able to make it to Central with this."
I needed a more decisive benefit. Min-Seo would know better than anyone what I wanted. However, she kept her mouth shut to seize all the credit for herself.
After silently watching Min-Seo chew on her lips for a while, I moved my steps back toward the classroom, and Min-Seo grabbed me again.
"Hey, alright! Wow, you’re really... Alright, it’s fine if I include you in the planning of the Satanist Identification Project, right? Let's make it so that we co-planned it together. That’s fine, right?"
"Sure. I'll do the editing. I just need to give it to you by tomorrow, I assume?"
"Haha, ha, ha... You’re completely insane. When did you figure it out?"
"I could tell just by watching what you did this morning."
The Satanist Identification Project was a joint effort between the teachers and the student council. However, we always had to rely on Min-Seo to hear about the operation's progress.
At some point, I began to suspect that Min-Seo had some special authority regarding the Satanist Identification Project.
These suspicions solidified into certainty this morning. The method of pressuring the hidden Satanist through surveys while slowly narrowing down the candidates sounded exactly like an idea that Min-Seo would devise. Thus, I was convinced that Min-Seo was involved in planning the Satanist Identification Project.
"If I’m involved in the planning, then I should also be able to hear about the operation's progress, right?"
"...Maybe. It might vary depending on the situation."
Although it varied depending on the situation, just having the qualification to hear directly about the progress of the Satanist identification operation was enough.
The main objective of this identification operation was to identify the Satanist, but there was also a possibility that Florence Academy accidentally found out my true identity as the Cult Leader of the Voodoo Cult as a result of this operation.
However, if I knew the progress of the Satanist Identification Project and the overall plan, I could come up with countermeasures. I could also decorate my portfolio for admission to the Central Paladin Order, so it was like killing two birds with one stone.
***
There was the strange phenomena on Mount Taebaek that seemed to have been done by the Voodoo Cult and the frequent appearances of demons and demonic beasts nationwide. Thus, as part of the Satanist Identification Project, the Florence Elder Council formed reconnaissance teams by pairing up teachers who were not teaching a class.
The reconnaissance teams were instructed to immediately apprehend students who exhibited suspicious behavior outside the classroom and report them to the disciplinary committee. They were also instructed to report immediately if they detected any strange phenomena that might be related to the Satanist.
"I should be taking a nap right now... This is not the time to be wandering around..."
"Taking a nap during working hours? How lazy can you be?"
Do-Jin and Bok-Dong had just finished patrolling half a circle from the barn to the sacred training ground on Eiden Hill. The dark circles under Do-Jin's eyes were more pronounced than usual.
"Did the survey that we conducted in the morning have any effect?" Bok-Dong asked, intending to wake Do-Jin up.
Do-Jin mechanically moved his feet and answered, "Roughly... about twenty people seemed to lack faith or had a rebellious nature, so to speak."
"I see. So, are those twenty people being suspected as Satanists?"
"No. Those people are not likely to be Satanists... The ones who are actually suspected are roughly around six people."
Perhaps due to lack of sleep, Do-Jin's words were unclear. Bok-Dong raised his eyebrows.
"On what grounds are those six people being suspected?"
"They’re unnaturally normal," Do-Jin said while widening his bloodshot eyes.
"They fully understood the intention of the questions and deliberately answered as if they were normal... in other words, they were pretending to be normal."
"Considering the nature of the infiltrating Satanist, that certainly makes them suspicious."
"So, who are those six people?"
"Sun-Woo and Min-Seo. I can't remember the rest... damn it. I didn’t get much sleep."
Unlike Do-Jin, who spoke calmly, Bok-Dong looked pale.
"Sun-Woo? And isn't Min-Seo the student who helped with the Satanist Identification Project? I also heard that she was the one who suggested the survey idea."
"That's right. Although she only suggested the idea, we came up with the questions... Anyway, I can't understand why Min-Seo got involved in the planning in the first place. Have the elders finally lost their minds?"
"If Min-Seo is a Satanist, the theory of her having a split personality would make sense. She’s getting suspected due to an idea she came up with herself."
"The same goes for Sun-Woo. Does he look like a Satanist? If it's an act, he should win an Oscar."
Bok-Dong nodded at Do-Jin's words.
Min-Seo often displayed inappropriate behavior and garnered the teachers' dislike. However, Sun-Woo was the opposite. He did not engage in any disrespectful behavior, let alone actions that went against etiquette. If Sun-Woo was a Satanist and all of his actions were just an act, then he truly had to be a skilled actor.
On the other hand, it was also possible that he was a Satanist precisely because of that reason. Based on the events that had occurred so far, the Satanist tended to have a strong inclination toward perfectionism.
No, thinking about it from their perspective, in order to avoid suspicion, they might have only revealed their perfectionist tendencies when causing incidents while appearing sloppy in their everyday life...
"I don't know." Bok-Dong shook his head.
The more he thought about it, the more tangled up his deductions became. He didn't know who the Satanist was, but he trembled at their wickedness. The Satanist was weakening Florence Academy's cohesion by making the teacher suspect students and even making students suspect other students. It even caused two students who had received Holy Names to be on the list of suspects. The fact that two suspects came from the seven Holy Names that represented the grade was quite a shock to Bok-Dong.
"Yeah, I don't know either. Let's continue trying until tomorrow, and if there's no effect─"
Kyaaahhhhhhh—!
At that moment, a scream was heard from somewhere. Do-Jin instinctively gripped the sword at his waist while Bok-Dong drew a blessing array with divine power.
"Over there... the restroom. It's coming from the restroom!"
The scream was coming from the public restroom installed near the sacred training ground. Before Bok-Dong could finish speaking, Do-Jin rushed toward the restroom, and he sensed a presence approaching from behind the door. Do-Jin immediately prepared to draw and swing his sword.
Creak!
The door opened. However, Do-Jin did not draw his sword. What came out of the doorway was a female student.
With tears streaming down her face, the pale-skinned girl approached Do-Jin and sobbed. Without lowering his guard, Do-Jin took a few steps back and asked. "Which class are you from? It's class time. Why are you outside?"
"Sniff! I-I told the teacher I was going to the restroom, sob. I told him and came out... to the bathroom, hick! But an ear, an ear...
"Ear? What do you mean by an ear?! Speak properly!"
"A-a severed ear. I don't know, I have no idea..."
Do-Jin walked past a female student and entered the bathroom. There was an unidentified piece of flesh on the sink. Do-Jin cautiously picked it up.
"...An ear."
Just as the girl had said, there was an ear there. It wasn't from an animal. It was clearly a human ear. The edges were jagged as if it had been torn off rather than cleanly cut off. Was this the work of the Satanist? If so, what could possibly be the motive behind such an act? Was it a warning or simply a trick to confuse them?
"What's going on? Whose scream was that?!"
Bok-Dong belatedly followed Do-Jin into the bathroom. Do-Jin looked at the ear in his hand with a vacant expression and said, "It was the girl outside. She found this... severed ear on the sink and was shocked..."
"What are you talking about? No one was outside!" Bok-Dong exclaimed coldly.
Do-Jin's eyes shook.
"She’s gone? What are you talking about? She was here just a moment ago."
Do-Jin glanced outside the restroom. As Bok-Dong had mentioned, there really was no one there.
Bok-Dong put the severed ear into an envelope he took out of his pocket and said, "Let's leave this to the forensics team. If we can identify whose ear it is, it will help with the investigation."
"Alright. But, seriously, was there really no one outside?"
"When I arrived, there was no one. Could it be that you briefly hallucinated because you were too tired?"
"That's unlikely. Even if I'm really tired, I've never hallucinated before..."
Do-Jin looked around outside. Not only were there zero female students, but there wasn't even a single rat in sight. After scanning the surroundings for a while, Do-Jin swallowed hard.
The fear in his eyes was clearly evident.
This was the men's restroom. There was no women's restroom nearby.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m