Chapter 181
There were different kinds of ways to lose consciousness. Falling asleep was one way, and fainting was another. Losing one’s sense of reason and seeing the world through a white filter due to feeling intense emotions could also be considered a form of losing consciousness.
When Yu-Hyun stabbed me in the side of the body with the spear, I coughed out blood and lost consciousness. My eyes naturally closed as if I were falling asleep, and after that, my consciousness completely disappeared. It was a terrifying and seductive sleep. Ever since the Holy War, this was the first time I had slept so deeply and comfortably. I didn't even dream.
"Ah, arghh...!" I woke up screaming.
"Oh my, you scared me!"
I couldn't remember where I was or how much time had passed. I didn’t even remember how I ended up falling asleep.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I abruptly sat up and looked around. I was lying inside a tent, and next to me was a teacher I had never seen before. They stared at me with a bewildered expression. Judging by their appearance, they seemed to be a priest specializing in healing. It felt like I had seen them before in the nurse’s office.
The priest specializing in healing placed their hand on their chest, closed their eyes, and then took a deep breath. "You startled me. If you suddenly scream..."
Without even listening to her, I asked, "Where am I?"
The priest specializing in healing looked at me as if I were a weirdo.
"Where you ask...? This is the provisional infirmary. It was constructed to treat students that get injured during the exams,” the priest specializing in healing said as if they were stating the obvious.
‘Infirmary?’
"What about the exam?"
"It's over. You were completely fine up until just now. Why are you suddenly acting like this? Didn’t you enter this room yourself?”
"I was fine up until just now...? Wait, no, the exam is over?"
"Huh? Yes, of course. It ended ages ago."
I looked at my wrist and didn’t see the digital watch that I had worn during the exam. I glanced outside through the slightly open entrance of the tent. The sun, which had been shining brightly up until I had lost consciousness, was nowhere to be seen. Only a fading glow from the setting sun remained in the sky.
It was somewhere between evening and night.
"What about... what about the others?" I urgently asked the priest as I got up from my seat.
The priest glanced at me with puzzled eyes.
"They are either receiving treatment in the temporary infirmary like the other students, or they are waiting on the bus. Oh, they should be departing soon."
"I will be on my way then, thank you."
"Huh? You don't have to rush like that. Another bus will come later..." the priest said, but I didn't listen to her and walked out of the tent.
I took a deep breath. The summer night air was humid. In the distance, the headlights of a bus shone like a lighthouse. I followed the light like a lost ship. I had to catch the bus quickly.
I didn't know which bus I had to take. I had forgotten the designated vehicle number. Among the many students boarding the buses, In-Ah appeared. She glanced at me, but seemingly uncomfortable with the idea of facing me, she avoided eye contact and quickly boarded the bus.
I boarded the same bus as her. Since we had taken the same bus on the way here, I thought I could follow her. Even if I happened to board the wrong bus, it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't be a problem if what I saw wasn't In-Ah, but another girl.
My current goal was clear.
Ma Yu-Hyun.
"As expected, you’re the Cult Leader."
I had to find Yu-Hyun.
***
In-Ah boarded the same bus, sat in the same seat, and stared out the window in the same way that she had done on the way to the examination site. To be precise, there was nothing else she could do besides stare out the window. It was because Sun-Woo was sitting next to her.
"..."
The bus was quiet. No one spoke. The eyes of the students, which had been filled with vigor before the exam, no longer sparkled. The atmosphere was tense because they were completely drained after taking the exam, and it was also because of the incident that had occurred during the exam. After the end of the exam, while taking attendance and tallying the tokens, Miss Ye-Jin, Mr. Bok-Dong, and two students from the Class of Patience were taken away in an ambulance.
The students didn’t exactly know what had happened, but they speculated that it couldn't be anything good.
"The Satanists came seeking revenge..."
"Why would the Satanists bother to seek revenge when they don’t have a moral compass? They must have..."
"Why are you talking about this again? Let's stop..."
There was also speculation that this was the work of a Satanist once again. Since a Satanist had been executed after causing trouble in the previous incident at Florence Academy, they assumed that another Satanist had come for revenge...
Although some students enthusiastically let their imaginations run wild, other students trembled at the mention of the word “Satanist.” The students of Florence Academy were exhausted. They had faced too many crises in such a short period of time.
While the children were bickering amongst themselves, In-Ah kept her mouth shut. She didn't want to think about anything anymore. It felt like she had done fairly well on the practical exam, and now that it was over, she wanted to take a break.
"..."
However, the fact that Sun-Woo was sitting next to her was bothersome. He had definitely betrayed her during the exam, but that was something that had happened during the exam. Looking back, she realized that there was no need to get angry about it. There was no need to bring up that incident after the exam and create unnecessary conflict. Doing that would be too... immature.
So, she decided to just move on from what happened during the exam. The problem was that Sun-Woo's condition seemed really off. She couldn't say it was good, but she couldn't say it was bad either. His eyes were definitely open, but he didn’t move at all, as if he were sleeping. His breathing was shallow, making him look like someone on the verge of death. Honestly, she hoped that he would speak to her first, but he didn’t seem to have the thought or leisure to do so.
As always, In-Ah playfully tapped Sun-Woo's shoulder with her fist. "Hey. Don't you have anything to say to me?"
She intentionally asked bluntly, with the thought that asking a little playfully would help dispel the awkward atmosphere.
However, there was no response. There was a long silence, and In-Ah felt a little hurt as she pursed her lips and stared at Sun-Woo.
"...Huh?" Sun-Woo belatedly replied after feeling her gaze.
It couldn't even be called a response. His voice contained no emotion or meaning. His empty response saddened In-Ah. Sun-Woo didn't even care about In-Ah's feelings right now.
"..."
In-Ah’s mood was just about to turn bad due to his attitude, but she quickly regained her composure. She was no different from him in the sense that she was also not considering the other person's feelings. Hadn’t she also reproached Sun-Woo while only thinking about her own feelings? The reason why Sun-Woo seemed to be in a bad mood was perhaps also because of this.
In-Ah gathered her courage and said, "Hey."
Hoping that the other person would understand her feelings first was a naive and childish thought. If she didn’t say anything, he wouldn’t know. If she was in a bad mood, she had to truthfully express that she was in a bad mood. That was the right thing to do for both the other person and herself.
"Honestly, I felt a little upset earlier because you deceived me."
"..."
"But I also made a mistake. You did that because it was an exam, but I revealed my bad mood too blatantly... But I really did feel a bit upset."
In-Ah stopped speaking for a moment. It was because Sun-Woo seemed to need time to think about how to respond.
So for a few seconds, and then a few minutes, there was no exchange of words. There was only an awkward silence, just like when they first greeted each other.
"...I’m just saying that’s how it was."
She tried to break the silence with meaningless words, but as expected, there was no response. In-Ah turned her head and looked out the window. She couldn't see anything because it was dark.
"Who am I talking to...." she muttered as if she was frustrated.
As expected, there was no response. Upon reflection, besides when they had first met and when he openly explained his family background, Sun-Woo rarely talked about himself. He didn't share how he was feeling, didn’t express any concerns, and rarely even engaged in small talk. Most of the time, In-Ah would speak first and Sun-Woo would just go along with it.
Suddenly, she remembered the time they sat together on a secluded bench at school and looked up at the stars. In-Ah looked up at the sky through the car window. It was pitch black. There was no moon, and there were no stars.
"..."
‘Maybe we aren’t as close as I had thought.’
She thought that they were close, but maybe Sun-Woo didn't think of her in the same way. Perhaps this was the reason for the distance that she always felt was present.
She didn’t know.
***
On the bus, In-Ah started a conversation. What did she say? I couldn’t remember. Maybe I didn’t hear what she said.
Right now, my mind was filled with the voice of a Loa, the voice of another Loa, the voice of another Loa, more voices, and even more voices that were all intertwined into a tangled mess. At first, I could distinguish between the voices. Legba, Baron Samedi, Granbwa, Bossou, Sobo, Bade, Dan Wedo, Marinette, Damballa... I could understand who was saying what. But after a while, I couldn't tell who was who, nor could I tell what they were saying at all.
I couldn't recall what In-Ah had said to me. I didn’t even know what I said. No, I didn’t even know what I was thinking about. My mind was just filled with the thought of finding Yu-Hyun, and a familiar sense of anxiety and fear that I had experienced before.
The bus suddenly stopped, and I got off the bus. Then I walked around aimlessly in an attempt to look for Yu-Hyun. I couldn’t see properly. Everyone's faces appeared blurry as if their faces were all melting away into mush.
Tap.
"Sun-Woo?"
As I was walking, I bumped into someone. I held my breath. Someone was calling me. Numerous students and teachers who had gotten off the bus were looking at me.
I was left alone in the midst of this crowd. I saw the faces of the countless people looking at me. Their expressions were not visible because they were wearing iron masks.
They smashed the innocent Voodoo Cult members’ heads with their clubs and tied my father onto a rack before pouring oil onto him and setting him on fire. They took away my mother, appeared in my dreams, tortured my mother, and then laughed at the sight of my mother suffering in pain. They were the inquisitors.
The me standing amongst the inquisitors, all of whom were staring at me while wearing iron masks and robes, was such a small existence. If they stepped on me, I would just be trampled to death without even being able to resist.
I took a step back and looked around. I wanted to escape. But no matter where I looked, all I could see were inquisitors wearing iron masks and robes.
There was nowhere to run. Every time I took a step back and looked around, I felt smaller and smaller. Eventually, I couldn't even see the inquisitors’ faces.
All I could see were threatening feet that seemed ready to trample and crush me at any moment. I knew this was an illusion, but I couldn't escape from it. That was what made it even scarier. If this was an illusion that I couldn't escape from despite knowing that it was an illusion, then how on earth could I get out of this illusion? I covered my ears, closed my eyes, and crouched down. Should I run away? I had to run away. I wanted to run away...
Tap.
It was at that moment that someone tapped my shoulder. And then the illusion was easily shattered. The iron masks that had covered the faces of the people who had been looking at me rolled off and turned into ashes before disappearing.
It was then that I could finally see the world as it was, and I was able to see the expressions of the people that were looking at me.
Everyone, regardless of whether they were a student or a teacher, was looking at me. The expressions on their faces were clearly startled. And in the middle of that crowd, there was Yu-Hyun. With a grin on his lips, he reached out his hand to me.
"..."
I hesitated to take his hand. This could all be a scheme. A scheme to safely capture me before I could rampage with the power of the Loa and Voodoo spells.
All the children looking at me were all Yu-Hyun's allies. The teachers were the same. Perhaps the inquisitors that I saw weren’t actually hallucinations. There was no guarantee that an inquisitor wasn’t hiding among all these people. I had mistakenly thought that a hallucination was reality, but perhaps I had mistaken reality for a hallucination.
I didn’t know.
Seeing that I didn’t take his hand, Yu-Hyun spoke in a very soft voice that only I could hear. "I'm the only one who knows for now."
I looked up. Yu-Hyun was looking down at me while reaching out his hand. Instinctively, I could tell what he was saying, or rather, I could tell what message he was trying to convey.
"Shall we go together? You seem to have a lot to say."
I felt disgusted.
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