Chapter 110
Whenever the Satanist caused an incident, they would observe the people struggling after they got caught up in the incident. Looking back at all the incidents that caused by the Satanist, this had always been the case.
Today, the Satanist had observed the situation through the ravens’ eyes when the clergymen were affected by the black magic and started fighting. Similarly, when the bird-type demonic beasts appeared on Eiden Hill, the Satanist observed our actions through the demonic beasts’ eyes. They had watched us argue about who should become the bait as if they were enjoying the whole situation.
The Satanist was enjoying this. They felt exhilarated whenever they watched people struggle in the palm of their hands.
On the day Jun-Min had transformed into a demon, the Satanist had been observing the entire situation on-site. As soon as the Satanist realized that their location had been exposed, they attempted to escape. At that time, I could not fully utilize Bossou's power, and the Satanist was also incredibly quick.
As a result, I could not catch him.
When the dogs in the barn turned into demonic beasts and attacked us, Jun-Hyuk had run away. When he ran, he was incredibly fast. Even his physique was similar to that of the Satanist. In summary, if I were to express the reason why I suspected him to be a Satanist in one word, it was...
[Intuition. All the evidence presented is purely speculative. Or it's just nonsense,] Legba said.
He seemed annoyed as he continued, [You're jumping to conclusions without any actual proof and adjusting the evidence to fit your narrative. You yourself are probably aware of this already.]
"When reasoning, Sun-Woo always has a habit of coming to conclusions first and then finding evidence to support these conclusions. It's called confirmation bias."
At that moment, I recalled Noah's advice from within the Ark's illusion. I had already predetermined Jun-Hyuk as the Satanist, and I had tailored the evidence to fit this conclusion.
Satanists dealt with taxidermied creatures. There was a possibility that the Satanist had used a taxidermied creature with a similar physique to Jun-Hyuk’s. Therefore, the fact that Jun-Hyuk had a similar physique to the suspected Satanist did not prove that he was a Satanist. The same went for the fact that he was fast at running.
Moreover, when the dogs in the barn turned into demonic beasts, Jun-Hyuk went to the teacher's office and called Do-Jin. If it wasn't for Jun-Hyuk, more students could have been seriously injured, or they could have been killed. If he were a Satanist, there would be no reason for him to go to the teacher's office and call Do-Jin.
"...This is driving me crazy."
There was no definitive evidence, but all I could think about was that he was suspicious. In that case, was there any motivation for him to be a Satanist? No, there was no clear motivation either. There were possible motives that Jun-Hyuk might have for being a Satanist, but similarly, there were also potential motives for him not to be a Satanist.
Even just looking at the incident that happened today, it was possible to see pieces of evidence that seemed to contradict my conclusion. The insane woman that the Satanist had used as a medium for black magic was Jun-Hyuk's mother. If he really was a Satanist, would he be crazy enough to cast black magic on his own mother's body? Well, if he was a Satanist, it wasn’t impossible. In fact, there was also a possibility that he had used his mother to cause the incident in order to avoid suspicion...
Legba was the one who broke my reverie. [If you think about it that way, the possibilities will be endless.]
His words were right. If I kept thinking like this, then there would be no end to it. I had no idea how intelligent the Satanist was, and I had no idea what they were thinking about. Deducing anything in this situation was meaningless.
At that moment, Jun-Hyuk furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "...What do you not understand?"
I stared at his frowning face. There was no sign of lying in his eyes. If that was all an act, then Jun-Hyuk was on par with me or even better in terms of acting skills.
"No... It’s just that I have something to think about," I mumbled as I lightly shook my head.
Jun-Hyuk had been tilting his head in confusion but suddenly nodded as if he understood.
"Sure, I guess you must be tired. Anyway, are you busy after school tomorrow?"
I planned on finishing editing the proposal that Ha-Yeon had written either tonight or tomorrow morning. I didn't have any specific plans after school tomorrow.
"I don't have anything tomorrow."
"Then let's go eat with In-Ah. Since I'm feeling grateful, It'll be my treat."
"...In-Ah?"
"I feel like if she’s left out again, she will nag us about how sad she is. Since I’m the one treating, it doesn't matter anyway, right?"
If he really was treating us because he was grateful, I thought it would be more appropriate to bring along Ha-Yeon instead of In-Ah. But there didn't seem to be a need to dwell on it.
It didn't matter who he called, and if I had to choose, it’d be better to call In-Ah rather than Ha-Yeon.
"Okay, then I'll contact In-Ah right now—"
"No, it's okay. I'll do it."
"Really? Uh, okay then."
Jun-Hyuk's tone was unusually firm. I figured out why. All people had a motive behind their actions. However, there were many times when Jun-Hyuk's actions had no motive or perhaps no clear motive.
That’s why I felt he was suspicious, but there was no confirmation that he was a Satanist. I couldn’t even think of a plausible motive. I willingly agreed to meet him tomorrow because I thought he might slip up and reveal evidence during our meeting. I planned to analyze his tone, expression, and gestures to find anything that could become evidence.
I briefly said goodbye to Jun-Hyuk while he sent a message to In-Ah before setting off. Jun-Hyuk and Min-Seo's faces crossed my mind. I suspected not only Jun-Hyuk, but also Min-Seo. It was because the reason why she delegated the task of revising Ha-Yeon's proposal to me was not very satisfactory.
The reason why she couldn't revise the proposal herself was because she was too ‘busy’ and because she ‘couldn't distinguish sentences.’ However, like me, she also didn’t attend after-school academies, and she always passed off work to others while claiming to be busy. Perhaps it was because she had tasks to fulfill as a Satanist after school.
[Aren’t you intentionally ignoring evidence that hinders the conclusion this time as well?]
"..."
Min-Seo was a student directly contributing to the planning of the Satanist Identification Project. She had no reason to show such a proactive attitude toward the project if she was a Satanist. If the teacher's speculation about Satanists having a split personality was true, then it would be meaningless to try to deduce anything.
"This is seriously driving me crazy..."
[This might be another one of the Satanist's schemes.]
"Ah... I see."
It could be the Satanist's plan to induce division by making people suspicious of Jun-Hyuk and Min-Seo. I didn’t think they had calculated everything to that extent, but it didn’t hurt to consider it.
[There's one thing you're overlooking, but it's better for you to realize it later.]
"Can't you just tell me now?"
Legba remained silent. [...]
It meant that he had no intention of telling me. I resigned myself and turned away. I briefly went to the Florence Academy to check the chairman's office, but I heard from the secretary that the meeting was taking longer than expected, making it difficult for him to meet me.
I returned to the underground chapel. It seemed like I had to give up on the idea of going to the Central Library today.
***
When I opened my eyes, it was early morning. I heard clattering sounds coming from the kitchen. When I left my room, I noticed that my uncle was wearing rubber gloves and doing the dishes. Ji-Ah was sitting at the table, drinking coffee, and checking her phone from time to time. Looking at it from up close, I could see that it was a stock chart.
"...Cult Leader, it seems like you woke up early," Ji-Ah said while flipping her phone over. She looked up at me.
As always, her tone was calm and dry. I pointed at the flipped phone and asked, "Do you invest in stocks too?"
"Since Teacher suffered a big loss this time, I decided to take over until the losses have been recovered."
My uncle occasionally glanced in my direction like a guilty person. I shot him a look. My uncle slowly turned his head toward the sink and continued doing the dishes.
"Well, there are times when you lose money with stocks... Ah, and Ji-Ah, you shouldn't exaggerate like that. Honestly, it wasn't such a big loss, was it?"
"Cult Leader, I will let you know how much Teacher lost. It’s exactly—"
Uncle hurriedly interrupted Ji-Ah. “Hey! ...Sorry, sorry. I messed up."
I wondered how much he lost to react like that... I thought about peeking, but I stopped. If Uncle was leisurely doing the dishes like that, it meant he was confident in recovering the losses at any time. If he didn't have the confidence to recover the losses, he would have been working hard since early morning, gathering every penny he could find. That was his personality.
"Are you going to school?" Ji-Ah sighed and changed the subject.
I nodded, and she continued, "You seem to be going early today."
"I woke up early since I have things to do in the morning."
"I see... By the way, I noticed that you visited the Paladin Order yesterday. What did you go there for?" Ji-Ah suddenly asked as if she had just remembered.
Her face was still expressionless, but there was a hint of worry in her eyes. I chuckled.
"Don't worry. I went there because I did a good deed."
"That's a relief. Did you receive any suspicion from the paladins? If they were rude to you, then you just have to tell—"
"No, nothing like that ever happened. The leader there really liked me a lot..."
Han Dae-Ho, the director of the Eastern Paladin Order, favored me greatly. It seemed like he was trying to give a good impression in order to recruit me into the Eastern Paladin Order. Since there was no harm in building a friendship with him, I made an effort to maintain a good relationship with him for now.
Rustle.
Suddenly, Ji-Ah took something out of her pocket and handed it to me. It was a rosary. There was not just one, but two.
"It's a rosary that you can wear on your arm. I thought it might help you avoid suspicion. I received it as a gift from the dBP CEO, Bae Jung-Hwan."
"Oh, thank you. But I don't think I need two."
"If you wear two, maybe you can avoid twice as much suspicion?" Ji-Ah innocently asked.
It didn’t seem like wearing two rosaries would double my chances of avoiding suspicion, but since she was giving them to me, I decided to accept them for now. I wore one directly on my arm while I put the other one in my pocket. Since the design wasn't too flashy, it seemed like it wouldn't attract attention even if I wore it regularly, which was nice.
[To others, you probably look like a faithful Romanican believer. To me, it just looks uncomfortable.]
"Oh well, what can you do?" I shrugged off Legba's complaints and headed to school.
As soon as I arrived, I went straight to the chairman's office. I was planning to get the Central Library access permit from Chang-Won.
"I'm sorry, the meeting hasn't ended since yesterday..."
"What kind of meeting lasts that long?"
"I haven't heard anything other than it being a significant matter..." The secretary said as she bowed slightly in an apologetic manner.
According to the secretary, the meeting that had started last night was still ongoing. I couldn't understand how important the meeting had to be for it to last overnight.
"This is frustrating," I said, expressing my exasperated feelings out loud.
[Indeed, it’s frustrating,] Legba repeated.
I had to go to the Central Library today in order to revise Ha-Yeon's flawed proposal. In addition, I had planned to investigate information about Florence Academy and the Satanists at the Central Library, but without a permit from the chairman, all of my plans fell through.
I also checked the vice-principal and principal's offices, but they were absent, just like the chairman. Since I didn't have a close relationship with the vice-principal or principal, it was uncertain whether they would willingly grant a permit in the first place. The Satanist Identification Project was currently underway, so it was possible that they wouldn’t have a favorable impression of students entering the Central Library.
"..."
I picked up my phone.
***
The sound of breathing, the clashing of metal, and fast-paced music could be heard. A group of people were each doing their own exercises in a place where all these sounds mixed together.
Dae-Man had always been a famous gym rat, and Jin-Seo had recently been training her body with a deadly schedule. Both of them were exercising in the gym after arriving early in the morning.
In the midst of exercising, Dae-Man's battle cry could be heard. "Hoo—!"
Jin-Seo frowned slightly and put wireless earphones in her ears. She then resumed her workout. Even after she had turned up the volume of the music to the max, she could still occasionally hear Dae-Man's battle cry.
Dae-Man worked out harder than anyone else, and he was also good at it. Anyone who had tried exercising would easily be able to understand how much effort went into building his body. Nevertheless, Jin-Seo found Dae-Man unbelievably annoying.
"Hoo! Yeap~"
It was because his damned battle cry kept interrupting the flow of her workout. Moreover, once Dae-Man occupied a machine, he wouldn't rest for about twenty minutes, so if there was a day when her workout routine overlapped with Dae-Man's, she had to give up on that day's workout altogether.
"..."
But he still worked hard, so...
Jin-Seo pursed her lips and looked at herself in the mirror as she did squats with a determined expression on her face. Even though the weight hanging on her shoulders was a whopping one hundred and thirty kilograms, her posture remained steady, and there was no sign of strain on her face. This amount of weight wasn’t particularly heavy for her.
"Huff."
After finishing a set and collecting her breath, her phone rang. She widened her eyes as she checked the caller ID and cautiously answered the call.
"Hello?"
This was her first time receiving a call from him. Strangely, when she received the call, her breathing was faster than when she was exercising.
"Yes, I'm working out. Why?" Jin-Seo casually replied after catching her breath. While speaking, she worried whether her voice sounded strange.
After some formalities, when the voice beyond the earphones finally got to the point, her eyes widened in surprise.
"...Now?"
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