Chapter 39
"You know that there is practical training this morning, right? Work hard, and have a good day! Ah, In-Ah, come to the teacher's office for a moment."
At the end of Ye-Jin's homeroom class, In-Ah pushed her chair in and rose from her seat. She then exited the classroom.
Several students, including Jun-Hyuk and me, glanced at In-Ah. Perhaps it was because of her mood, but everyone seemed to be scared of her.
"So why did you guys fight?" Jun-Hyuk approached and asked nonchalantly.
"I said something wrong."
"What did you say? I've never seen In-Ah that angry. This is a world record."
"I don't know. Get lost...”
I was sleepy, so I had no energy, but above all, I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I didn't answer and just lay face down on the desk. Nevertheless, Jun-Hyuk continued to talk without getting discouraged.
He said things like, “Why did you fight?” and “If you touch her today, you'll die,” and so on. They were all words that weren’t particularly meaningful.
"It looks like you’re not telling me no matter what. Should I just ask In-Ah?”
As I remained at my desk without responding, Jun-Hyuk gave up and got up from his desk. Then I left the classroom.
A few minutes later, I heard a crashing sound from the hallway. Jun-Hyuk, who had left, came back in. He seemed to have gotten hit by In-Ah because he was limping.
"You said you’d come back after asking In-Ah. Why did you come back after getting hit?"
“She didn’t answer the question, so I kept asking her when she suddenly hit me. What’s wrong with her?” Jun-Hyuk grumbled and fiddled with his shins.
Soon, In-Ah returned to the classroom. When I looked at her face, she seemed to be very angry. I wondered whether her anger would be relieved by today. No, it was entirely possible that she would not just ignore me today but would continue to ignore me in the future. When I thought about that, I felt a little depressed, and my mind just felt confused.
“Look at her face. She looks like she could kill someone. What should we do? I think you’re in big trouble.” Jun-Hyuk smiled while looking back and forth between In-Ah and me. There was no sign of concern, and he just looked like he was having fun in this situation.
* * *
There was a practical training session in the morning. The venue was the sacred training ground. I went along with Jun-Hyuk, and In-Ah went with her own friends. In-Ah had many friends besides Jun-Hyuk and me.
Besides me, she had a lot of people she could hang out with, and even if I didn’t exist, it probably wouldn’t affect her too much.
"Just who do you think you are?”
Suddenly, In-Ah's voice drifted through my ears.
I was really nothing to her. To her, if I existed, then that was fine, and if I didn’t exist, then that was more or less fine as well.
While I was walking, Legba coughed loudly, [You don’t have to be so pessimistic about it.]
Legba continued to speak, [Relationships are always like this. If you try to catch them, they will run away, and if you try to let go, they will come to you. That’s what a person is like. Don’t worry about it too much, and just do what you need to do.]
My heavy heart felt somewhat lighter after hearing his words. But that didn’t mean I felt any better about this entire situation.
Soon, we arrived at the sacred training ground. It was bustling with lots of people. There seemed to be students from classes other than the Class of Charity. When the time came, Ye-Jin greeted everyone with a big smile.
"Nice to meet you~ Today's practical training will be jointly conducted with the Class of Chastity and the Class of Charity. Recently, a lot of faculty members have been sent out on missions, so there are lots of joint training sessions.”
Ye-Jin rambled on about some relatively unimportant things.
With the simultaneous outbreak of demons and demonic beasts across the country, several teachers were dispatched to support the workforce. Therefore, there was a lack of teachers in the school, and the number of joint training sessions naturally increased as a result. That was more or less what the teacher was saying.
"Why do Satanists keep releasing demonic beasts and demons? Do they have nothing else to do?" Jun-Hyuk said as if he was mumbling to himself while listening. It sounded like a rhetorical question, so I just sat still without answering. Ye-Jin continued to drone on for an extended period of time when she checked her watch and then gasped in surprise.
“Oh dear, I can't delay this any longer. I’m sorry, everyone! I’ll start explaining the instructions for the practical training right away. The reason why you’re all gathered here today is to create a fusion blessing array.”
Ye-Jin explained while drawing four blessing arrays in the air. Soon, the strokes of each blessing array began to get tangled with other blessing arrays, and the four blessing arrays became one.
The light of blessing emanating was blindingly bright and brilliant.
It was a fusion blessing.
I was the only one who could cast Voodoo spells as the cult leader, while fusion blessings could be cast as long as the caster was a priest that reached the archbishop level.
[That’s because Voodoo spell arrays have a much higher level of difficulty than blessing arrays.] Legba said in a low voice.
Voodoo spells were difficult to master because of their higher difficulty, so it was difficult to distribute to normal attendees. On the other hand, blessings were easier to master because of their lower difficulty. Thus, higher-tier techniques like fusion blessings could be distributed to normal attendees.
This was also one of the reasons why the Voodoo Cult lost the Holy War.
"It's kind of like this. I’ll just skip over details and trust that everyone understands what to do! Ah, right, this practical training will be done in groups. The groups will be composed of four people. Everyone will cooperate with their group to cast a fusion blessing array, and then they will present what they have learned! I will now tell you about your groups!”
Ye-Jin was out of breath just from announcing the contents of the practical training to all of the students. She looked rather hectic today.
After collecting her breath for a while, she pulled something out of her pocket. At first glance, it looked like a laser pointer but was too big. It was also too small to be called a beam projector.
Ye-Jin injected divine power into the unidentified object.
Pat!
Light gushed out of the object and formed a floating hologram in the air.
Group 1
Sung Ha-Yeon, Koo Jun-Hyuk, Han Jun-Seo, Yoo Chan
Group 2
Ha Yuri, Heo Jun-Gang, Go Jang-Su, Im Dan-Myong
Group 3
Seo Yo-Han......
...
......
In the hologram, the composition of all the groups from Group 1 to Group 50 were all indicated.
“Wow, that’s amazing. Technology has advanced so far. In the past, we only had combat-type artifacts, but these days–”
The identity of the object she just used seemed to be an artifact. Ye-Jin expressed her admiration by starting a lecture about the development of technology.
I ignored Ye-Jin’s words and simply stared at the hologram window that had appeared in front of me.
Group 46
Han Dae-Soo, Yoon Woo-Jin, Jung In-Ah, Do Sun-Woo
I happened to be in the same group as In-Ah, who I just fought earlier. Jun-Hyuk was watching the window next to me, and he patted me on the shoulder. He smiled and said, "I wish you all the best! Good luck!"
Then, he bolted toward his group. I was left alone as I looked around my surroundings. In-Ah stood with her arms folded in disapproval. Her glare was so sharp that it looked like it could cut. It was difficult to approach her, but not approaching her was also a problem.
"You’re Do Sun-Woo, right?"
As I was hesitating for a while, two students from the Class of Chastity approached me. They each had a name tag on their chest that read ‘Han Dae-Soo’ and ‘Yoon Woo-Jin,’ respectively. They were both in the same group as me: Group 46.
Han Dae-Soo had long hair and a very rough impression, while Yoon Woo-Jin had short hair and a clean impression. It was easy to distinguish between the two of them because they did not resemble each other at all.
While Han Dae-Soo and Yoon Woo-Jin were exchanging brief greetings, Ye-Jin added further explanations as an after-statement. "Everyone–! The time limit is 150 minutes–! You can decide the presenter and the group leader amongst yourselves–! You can start now–!”
Unlike Bok-Dong, Ye-Jin’s voice was quiet, so some children couldn't understand Ye-Jin properly and tilted their heads in confusion.
Thus, Ye-Jin continued to shout for a long time. Eventually, her strength seemed to run out, and she lowered her head while gasping heavily. If she was going to do that, wouldn’t it have been better just to use a microphone?
"She's an interesting person. She’s your homeroom teacher, right?” Yoon Woo-Jin asked with a smile. The tone of his voice felt like he was making fun of the opponent, but it seemed more like a habit rather than something that he did intentionally.
As I nodded, Yoon Woo-Jin grinned with only one corner of his mouth raised like before.
"What about In-Ah? Where is the girl named In-Ah? Isn’t she from your class?" Han Dae-Soo asked while scanning the area with a perplexed look on his face. His messy, uncombed hair swayed back and forth on both sides. His tone had a crude quality to it.
Yoon Woo-Jin and Han Dae-Soo were polar opposites in every aspect, from their appearance to their manner of speech and their habits.
Then, someone trudged up behind Han Dae-Soo.
"I’m here. Is there a problem?"
It was an ice-cold tone. The atmosphere hadn’t exactly been amicable, but it had been somewhat okay. However, after In-Ah’s arrival, the atmosphere quickly went cold.
In-Ah crossed his arms and glanced over at the three of us one by one while leaning on one foot. In particular, the gaze that touched me was as cold and frosty as ever.
"We don't have time to chat, so let's start right away," In-Ah said. We hurriedly finished our greetings and prepared to draw the fusion blessing array.
* * *
"I'll be the captain and presenter. Is that fine?” Before starting to draw the fusion blessing array in earnest, In-Ah confidently led the group meeting.
Obviously, the higher your understanding of normal blessings, the easier it was to handle fusion blessings. And out of everyone in the group, the one who had the best understanding of blessings was definitely In-Ah.
Thus, none of us could refute In-Ah's words.
"The keywords will be 'AoE,' 'recovery,' and 'spirit.' We will focus on practicality, and the framework is—"
She went on to explain everything. She said some stuff about the projection of the spell, some details about the array, and something about the sections of the array that would be fused. I had no way of understanding a single thing that she was saying.
I just quietly listened by the side and pretended to understand by occasionally nodding my head.
"Then, Han Dae-Soo. Just informally draw a brief outline of the spell projection. Yoon Woo-Jin, you remember all the blessings that I stated earlier, right? You can help from the side. And Sun-Woo..."
In-Ah had been assigning roles in an orderly manner when she said my name and stopped talking. Her eyes, which had been burning with enthusiasm, cooled for a moment.
"...You can figure out what you need to do on your own.”
Then she awkwardly turned her head away. Her tone itself was not very cold, but the contents of her sentence were. It seemed like her anger had eased compared to before, but it didn't seem like she had completely cooled off yet.
Thus, the role assigned to me was to 'figure out what I needed to do on my own.' However, even without me, the members of the group constructed a fusion blessing, and there was nothing I had to do.
"Wait. But how about writing a presentation outline? Do we not have to do that?” Han Dae-Soo asked in wonder while drawing a projection.
"We don’t need one. I'm the presenter anyway."
In other words, she basically saying, ‘Everything is in my head, so we don’t need anything like a presentation outline.’
Since it was none other than what In-Ah was saying, none of the group members questioned her words. She had a remarkable understanding of blessings, and all the group members were aware of this fact.
"Yoon Woo-Jin. Please draw one more lesser blessing."
“Han Dae-Soo? Please do cross-validation of the blessing array and the projection. Do a briefing if there's a mistake."
"Oh, this part is wrong. Yoon Woo-Jin, help me fix it."
In-Ah gave all the instructions. Not only did she give out all the instructions, but she was also in charge of drawing the most important parts of the fusion blessing array. Our group was practically like an In-Ah one-man team. Angry In-Ah was full of charisma unlike usual and didn’t show any signs of wavering. I felt uncomfortable just watching from the side without doing anything, so I decided to help Yoon Woo-Jin draw a blessing array.
But it didn't seem to help much. Rather, the more I intervened, the more the blessing array seemed to get distorted.
"Sun-Woo, don't touch that place."
Yoon Woo-Jin was unable to bear it and ended up warning me. There was still a sneering grin on his mouth.
"Ah, sorry." I quietly withdrew.
If one thought about it, this was the natural result. For someone like me who couldn’t even handle a regular blessing array properly, it was a bit of a stretch for me to handle a fusion blessing array.
Discouraged by Yoon Woo-Jin's warning, I just stared blankly at the members of the group who were busily drawing a blessing array.
Even without me, Group 46 smoothly drew a blessing array. No, perhaps it was because I was not contributing that the blessing array was being created more smoothly.
I was ‘dead weight,’ so to speak. I was just there to make the numbers and was not really necessary.
Rather than just hanging around and doing nothing like this, I thought it would be better to get out of the way.
"I'll go to the bathroom real quick."
Everyone was so engrossed in drawing the fusion blessing array that they didn't answer me, so I got up and headed toward the bathroom.
Inside the bathroom was Jun-Hyuk. He was standing in front of the washbasin mirror while turning his head around and arranging his hair.
"What are you doing?"
Jun-Hyuk looked at me in surprise.
"What? Why are you here... Oh, no way... Did you get 'exiled’ too?"
"Exiled? What are you talking about?"
"If you do group practical training, students are usually divided into three types."
Jun-Hyuk raised three fingers.
"One. A leader who leads the group by sharing roles."
Then he continued to explain by folding his fingers one by one.
"Two. A worker who performs a given task according to the role. And—"
Jun-Hyuk folded his last finger.
"Three. Unnecessary losers. You and I belong here."
Even though it was definitely true, it was still hard to accept. At the same time, I felt perplexed.
"You're somewhat decent at blessings. So how’d you get exiled?”
As for me, I couldn’t handle blessings properly, so it made sense that I would get exiled from my group. But Jun-Hyuk was pretty good at blessings. Within the Class of Charity, his skill level was just below In-Ah’s.
Jun-Hyuk smiled awkwardly and answered, "There was another level in my group. You know, the one dressed in white. Sung, Sung... Sung Myung-Jun?”
“Sung Ha-Yeon.”
"Yeah, her. Anyway, she said that she’ll just do it herself and she told everyone else not to interfere."
I had no idea how he remembered Sung Ha-Yeon as Sung Myung-Jun. Jun-Hyuk seemed to have a slightly different way of remembering names compared to other people.
"And then what did she say? I think she said something like, ‘You're all so stupid, so you probably can't understand what I'm saying.’ It was a bit annoying. I had no idea why she was using honorifics either~"[1]
Jun-Hyuk copied Ha-Yeon's tone and expression. It was a high-quality performance.
"She's been like that since middle school."
"Oh, you were in the same middle school? It must have been tough."
Jun-Hyuk shook his head. Ha-Yeon had always been consistently arrogant. However, it was a fact that her skills matched her arrogance. She would probably be able to deploy a fusion blessing on her own. It was safe to say that she deserved to be arrogant. Of course, I still hated Ha-Yeon. Whenever I saw her, I just felt a physiological rejection.
“As for you, it must be because of the awkwardness. In-Ah probably didn’t assign you anything, so you must have come here. I can totally see that happening.”
Everything that Jun-Hyuk said was absolutely correct. It was so accurate that I began to wonder whether I had a hidden microphone or a surveillance camera attached to my body.
After smiling bitterly and finishing my business, I immediately tried to leave the bathroom.
"Hey, just stay here. Even if you go back, you probably won’t be of much help anyway.”
Jun-Hyuk kept messing with his hair. He messed up the hair that he had gone through all that effort of tidying, and then he would once again fix up his hair. It looked like he had spent the entire practical training session repeating this same process.
“No one wants us in the group anyway. It’s better to just kill time by fooling around here.”
He was absolutely right. Even if I went back, I wouldn’t be of any help, and none of my group members would welcome me. However, that didn’t mean I could stay cooped up in the bathroom the entire time.
“I don’t like getting carried for free.”
“It’s not that we’re getting carried for free, it’s that we don’t have a license. If someone without a license tries to drive, then that’s just going to cause an accident. We’re helping them by staying still.”
“But doing nothing is still a bit...”
“Ah, if you go back, then I’ll have nothing to do again,” Jun-Hyuk pouted in disappointment. I left him behind and exited the bathroom. I headed back to where my group members were.
The group members were still absorbed in drawing the fusion blessing array. They didn't seem to care much whether I had come back or not.
"Oh, Sun-Woo. Help me connect this part here. This part just doesn’t seem to work out for some reason."
Sometimes Yoon Woo-Jin asked me for help. Every time, I helped them with all my might. However, it was very much ‘sometimes.’ Other than those ‘sometimes,’ no one really needed me here. Just like this, time passed by. Even though the amount of time that passed was only two hours, to me, it felt like an eternity.
* * *
"Everyone~ time's up! Each group leader, please come out. I'll decide the order of presentation now~"
Soon, 150 minutes passed by, and it was presentation time.
At Ye-Jin's call, each group leader slowly came forward. The order of presentation was decided by pulling lots. It was a classic but fair way.
The lot number that In-Ah drew read ‘24,’ which meant that we were going to be the 24th group to present.
"You picked well."
"Indeed. We’re right in the middle."
Yoon Woo-Jin and Han Dae-Soo praised In-Ah's lot-picking skills. The 24th slot was just right because it wasn't too early or too late.
Nevertheless, In-Ah's face showed no signs of joy. While looking intently at the number '24' written on the lot, she murmured softly, "Who's in front of us is important.”
Before I had a chance to understand what she was saying, Ye-Jin's voice came from behind.
"The presentation time is one minute per group. After the presentation, the presenter will take questions for one minute. Depending on how well you answer your friends’ questions, you may be given extra points or vice versa! Also, it is possible for other team members other than the presenter to answer the question!” Ye-Jin said with a microphone that she had brought from somewhere. She looked a lot more comfortable than before. While smiling broadly, Ye-Jin added, "I should have used a microphone earlier~"
"Then the first group should be... Group 49! Where's the presenter for Group 49?” Ye-Jin asked while scanning the area. The presenter from Group 49 raised his hand with a bitter expression. Ye-Jin approached them and handed over the microphone.
The face of the presenter turned pale as if he were nervous while grabbing the microphone. He sighed deeply, cleared his throat, and soon began to present.
“I am the pre–presenter for Group 49. My name is Jung Chan-Hee. The fusion blessing array we made uses—”
The presentation time was very short, only one minute. At first, I thought it would be nice and convenient since it was short, but looking at Group 49’s presentation, my thoughts changed. Since the presentation time was short, presenters had to summarize the key points. Anyone who was not able to do so would go over time and lose marks. Of course, some people finished the presentation within a minute by speaking quickly or omitting some of the contents. One example was Group 3.
However, they didn't get a perfect score either.
"Why was there a lesser blessing array on the bottom left? What was the intention behind that?"
"Oh, that was a mistake in the process of making–"
"The joints between the blessing arrays feel a bit loose. Was this intentional as well?"
“That wasn’t intentional at all. It was the result of a minor mistake, however, if you look at the overall structure, it doesn’t affect the–”
“Then is the fusion blessing array just a mistake from start to finish? Was there anything that you intentionally did?”
After Group 3’s presenter successfully completed the presentation and let out a sigh of relief, they panicked as a result of getting overwhelmed by a bombardment of questions. Ha-Yeon asked all the questions. She drove presenters into a corner by delivering accurate and sharp feedback.
"You couldn’t answer the questions, so I think you’ll get some points deducted. The quality of the responses to the questions was disappointing, but the presentation was good! Good job~"
"Yes... Thank you..."
In the end, Group 3’s presenter could not answer Ha-Yeon's questions.
After the Q&A, Group 3’s presenter blanked out for a long time with a stunned face and then started to sob. Ha-Yeon looked at her as if she was looking at something shameful and ridiculed her.
Thus, 22 groups completed their presentations, but none of them received a perfect score. Either they lost marks for exceeding the time limit, or they lost marks due to failing to answer Ha-Yeon's question. It was either one of the two.
"Who's next?"
After the 22nd presentation, it was now the 23rd presentation. Our turn would be after that. In-Ah collected her breath while holding back her nervousness.
When Ye-Jin asked for the next group, someone raised their hand and opened their mouth.
"It's our group."
Their tone was calm, and their voice was small. Nevertheless, the voice was clear and distinct. Inside the sacred training ground, everyone's eyes were on her.
"Oh...."
In-Ah was preparing for the presentation, and she sighed in despair as she looked at her.
In-Ah’s words of “who's in front of us is important” briefly lingered in my ears.
1. In the original, she uses honorifics, which can’t really be expressed in English. ?
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