Chapter 85
"It's creepy," Han Dae-Ho said while going down the stairs.
He was on his way down to the basement of the Basar Market, where the fire had occurred. Next to him was the religious otaku subordinate paladin, Oh Hee-Jin.
Oh Hee-Jin had a clipboard attached to her side. It contained summaries of the doctrines and characteristics of the Satanists, Voodooists, Semitists, and various other religions.
"Um, Director," Oh Hee-Jin said abruptly as she was following Han Dae-Ho.
"What is it? Hurry up and tell me, damn it. Don't beat around the bush."
"It's about what happened last time. Is everything fine?"
It was a vague question. After belatedly realizing Oh Hee-Jin's intention, Han Dae-Ho nodded.
After extinguishing the fire, Han Dae-Ho immediately identified the identity of the apprentice paladin impersonator. His name was Sun-Woo, and there was nothing unusual about him except for the fact that he was a first-year student at Florence Academy. Dae-Ho had only wanted to know his name and school in the first place, so he didn't investigate further.
Shortly after, Han Dae-Ho contacted Bok-Dong, a teacher at Florence Academy who was close to him, and told him that Sun-Woo had been a great help in extinguishing the fire and that he had rescued a whopping twelve citizens. It was all thanks to Han Dae-Ho that Sun-Woo's actions became known among the teachers at Florence Academy. However, Han Dae-Ho didn’t receive the news that Sun-Woo was teetering on the line between life and death while lying in the hospital.
"It's okay. It’s not like I lied or anything," Han Dae-Ho replied as if it was nothing.
"But Director, he's not a real apprentice paladin. He's just a student pretending to be one. Giving equipment to someone like him and saying that it was a big help undermines the reputation of our Paladin Order—"
"You’re worrying too much. I have everything under control, so just stay quiet," Han Dae-Ho said with a light laugh.
If Sun-Woo's actions were spread around, as Oh Hee-Jin had warned, it could greatly damage the Paladin Order’s reputation. However, Han Dae-Ho believed that there was no image left to tarnish in the first place. While taking criticism from the public was not that big of a deal, missing out on talent like Sun-Woo would be a tremendous loss. Han Dae-Ho planned to recruit Sun-Woo to the Seoul Paladin Order Eastern Branch for practical mission training and dispatch training. Reporting Sun-Woo's actions to Florence Academy was also for the sake of that goal.
"If you say so, Director..."
Oh Hee-Jin eventually nodded. She picked up the clipboard that was attached to her side and meaninglessly looked through it.
Splatter...
At that time, an ominous sound resounded from somewhere. Han Dae-Ho and Oh Hee-Jin's gaze turned to one place. There was a man missing his lower body crawling on the ground with his arms. He looked like he was half-dead. His intestines were stretched out like a rope following the path he had crawled from.
"G-ghost...!"
Oh Hee-Jin's face turned blue.
"Hey, snap out of it!"
Han Dae-Ho hit the back of Oh Hee-Jin's head and quickly approached the man. He could be a ghost, as Oh Hee-Jin said, but he could also be a decent citizen whose lower body had been blown away by the explosion. However, it had already been four days since the explosion, so there was no way it was a citizen that had survived until now.
"This is Seoul Paladin Order Eastern Branch Director Han Dae-Ho. Are you okay? Ugh!"
Han Dae-Ho approached the man, but he stepped back at the sudden stench. The terrible stench was coming from the man's body.
"C-Commander... Commander... Save me, please... Commanderrr..."
The man was ceaselessly crawling toward Han Dae-Ho while calling him a commander. From afar, it looked as if he was only missing a lower body, but up close, it appeared that his head was also cut in half. The smell of rotting corpses and strong chemicals emanated from the cross-section.
Behind Han Dae-Ho, who had lost his nerves due to the shock, Oh Hee-Jin said, “Formalin....”
Formalin was a drug commonly used as a preservative for taxidermied creatures.
Taxidermied creatures?
Han Dae-Ho suddenly felt a sense of unease and discomfort.
"Commander... Please save me..."
Bloooop.
It happened when Oh Hee-Jin covered her mouth to suppress the urge to hurl and when Han Dae-Ho was looking at the man with a pale face. Suddenly, the severed section of the man's head bulged and expanded, changing shape and threatening to burst at any moment.
Han Dae-Ho felt an instinctive sense of danger as he saw this.
"Get down!" he yelled as he rushed toward Oh Hee-Jin.
Bang–!
With a loud explosion, bits of flesh, teeth, sawdust, and cotton flew everywhere. Although the explosion wasn't very large, bits of sawdust and teeth were embedded all over Han Dae-Ho's body.
Despite the pain, Han Dae-Ho didn't make a sound.
"Director, are you okay?"
Oh Hee-Jin regained her senses, and she abruptly stood up to draw a healing array. The array repeatedly collapsed before she could finish it because she was still in shock.
Han Dae-Ho smiled and stood up. He then stopped Oh Hee-Jin's arm as she was drawing the array. "It’s fine, it’s fine. What’s the use in trying to use the blessing when it doesn’t work?"
"No, but the wound..."
"It's nothing. It's not like it’s a burn. I’ll recover if I sleep for a day," Han Dae-Ho said as if it was nothing and removed the fragments from his body.
Blood spurted from the area where the fragments had been embedded and stained his clothes. The blood didn't stop and continued to flow. Soon, Han Dae-Ho's clothes were completely dyed red.
The man who had exploded left countless traces while he crawled. Sawdust, cotton, blood, hair, and slimy liquid marked the man’s path. Han Dae-Ho and Oh Hee-Jin followed the traces.
They passed through a dark corridor filled with the overpowering smell of gunpowder and descended a slippery staircase. The room they arrived in was filled with the smell of medicine, it was similar to the smell that came from the man.
"...The smell is so strong."
Han Dae-Ho wrinkled his nose and looked around while walking ahead. Pale flesh was scattered everywhere, and the floor was covered in an unknown liquid. Due to the explosion, the walls had either collapsed or were painted black.
Oh Hee-Jin followed Han Dae-Ho from behind and read through the clipboard she was holding. She had entered a state of concentration when Han Dae-Ho tapped her on the shoulder.
"It smells like the Satanists. What do you think?"
"I also think it's the Satanists. It’s that guy from two years ago."
“Yeah, I understand that it’s that guy from two years ago, but...”
Han Dae-Ho scanned his surroundings. There weren't any taxidermied creatures. Instead, there was only the flesh of people that ‘had been’ taxidermied creatures.
In the taxidermy incident that occurred two years ago, the culprit cherished the taxidermied creature that they had made very much. It was similar to how an artist might cherish their work more than their own life.
Then what could have been the creature for why the culprit had blown up their cherished taxidermied creatures? No, what was the reason why they had no choice but to blow up their taxidermied creatures? Such was the question that arose within Han Dae-Ho’s mind.
"Director! You should come here!"
Oh Hee-Jin's urgent voice pulled Han Dae-Ho out of his reverie. Han Dae-Ho hurriedly walked toward Oh Hee-Jin. His footsteps made a sputtering noise, and the floor was slippery, so he almost slipped several times. When he arrived where Oh Hee-Jin was, he couldn’t find anything.
"What? Why did you ask me to come here?"
"T-There. Can you see it?"
Oh Hee-Jin pointed to the floor with her shaky hand. There was some sort of substance that was similar to powder that was floating around on the surface of the liquid. The powder was a faint shade of purple. Han Dae-Ho tilted his head.
"What is that?"
"It's bone powder. It’s the purple-shaded powder that we saw back then."
"What exactly do you mean by back then? Don’t tell me you’re referring to the Holy War?"
During the Holy War, the Prophet suddenly scattered bone dust into the air during battle. Purple mist flowed out of the scattered bone dust. Those from the Holy Army that had inhaled the mist all unanimously lost consciousness and collapsed without any resistance.
Han Dae-Ho was one of the conscripted members of the Holy Army at the time, so he vividly remembered the scene.
The Prophet sobbed while scattering bone dust as if they were dancing, and the Holy Army collapsed like dominos in response. Even Han Dae-Ho had helplessly lost his consciousness in the mist.
"Yes, it's the bone dust that appeared during the Holy War. It seems like the Cult Leader of the Voodoo Cult came here."
"...You, are you sure about that? Are you sure it’s not just some sawdust or stuffing that fell out of the taxidermied creatures?"
"You know it as well, don’t you, Director? The bone dust from the Voodoo Cult feels different. In the first place, it doesn’t make much sense for bone dust that should have disappeared in the explosion to remain here....”
Oh Hee-Jin's voice trailed off as her lips trembled.
Just as she said, bone dust from the Voodoo Cult felt different from any other ordinary bone dust. It didn't burn even when set on fire, and no matter how scattered it was, it would gather back together. The purple mist that emanated out was chilling to the bone.
If death was actualized into a physical substance, perhaps it would become like this dust.
“Then, did the Satanists and the Voodooists...”
“...”
Han Dae Ho’s words trailed off. In his mind, an ominous yet very certain deduction was emerging.
A battle had taken place between the Satanists and the Voodooists here. It was unclear why the Satanists and the Voodooists had fought. In any case, during the battle, the Satanists, who were backed into a corner, had detonated all the taxidermied creatures they had with them as a last resort. It all made sense if he thought about it this way.
"I guess this means that the 3rd generation Cult Leader has made a move?"
In other words, it meant that the Cult Leader of the Voodoo Cult, who had been dormant for seven years since the Holy War, had started to act.
It was not positive news that the Cult Leader, who had been sharpening their blade for the sake of achieving vengeance for their parents, had finally drawn their blade. It meant that the three religions, the Satanists, the Romanican Church, and the Voodoo Cult, had entered into a three-way war.
Is the Second Holy War about to begin...?
Han Dae-Ho felt a cold and eerie feeling as he looked at the scattered bone dust that littered the ground.
***
‘I’m not afraid of fire anymore. I’m not afraid of fire...’
‘If we go now, it’s not too late. We can go.’
[He’s still sleeping? Isn’t it time for him to wake up now?]
‘It’s okay to use it just once more—’
Thump.
With the sound of something collapsing, I opened my eyes.
The emotions that I felt and the scenes that I saw in my dreams were still fresh in my mind. In my dream, I ran into the fire. My body was trembling with fear.
I wasn't afraid of fire, but I was afraid of something else.
A scene appeared within the rising smoke and within the scattering fragments of my consciousness. One was the scene of my father hanging on a rack and burning in the fire. The other was the scene of a cat that was dying while leaking out its intestines from its torn-open stomach.
I was chased by fear, so I rescued people. And I was chased by time, so I hurried to the Great Auditorium. Whenever I felt pain, I used the intoxication spell to forget the pain.
When I reached the Great Auditorium, the world was filled with darkness, and I once again jumped into the fire to save people. Even in the midst of that, the images of my father and cat continued to haunt me.
These scenes continued to repeat in my dream. When I opened my eyes, my whole body was covered in cold sweat. My heart made a dry and stiff sound that echoed throughout my entire body.
"Huh...?"
Then, I heard someone's voice. It was a surprised tone, but the voice was clear and pure.
When I forcefully moved my stiff neck toward the direction of the voice, Jin-Seo appeared. She looked at me up and down as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
I put her in the back of my mind and looked around the room. It seemed like a hospital. It was impossible to know how many days had passed since the day that the market exploded.
"What day is it today?" I asked.
When I looked at her face, inexplicably complex emotions flooded into my mind like a tsunami, but I acted as calmly as possible and asked for today’s date. Jin-Seo just stared at me for a while without answering and then buried her face in the bed.
"The 19th," she said.
Her clear voice echoed in the hospital room.
It couldn't possibly be May 19th, so it must be April 19th. That meant it had been about a week since the appointment ceremony. I was amazed that I had been sleeping for such a long time.
Jin-Seo raised her head and looked at me with narrowed eyes.
"I thought you were dead."
"Luckily, I didn’t die."
"...I said, I thought you were dead," she repeated.
I didn't know what kind of answer she was expecting. I looked at her face.
She turned her head as if she was trying to avoid my gaze, but then she turned her head and looked at me with a piercing stare.
Her hair was messy and unkempt, and her eyes were slightly red. Her pupils were watery as if she was about to cry at any moment.
"Did you cry?"
"What are you talking about? Why would I cry?"
"No, I mean, even now....”
Tears were glistening in her eyes like morning dew. Jin-Seo noticed it belatedly and buried her face in the pillow again as if trying to hide her tears. Her moist eyes became dry, but the pupils were still red.
"I didn't cry."
I didn't even ask.
"Yeah... but if it's the 19th."
I extrapolated the date and weekday in my head. If it was the 19th, it was probably Monday. The clock on the hospital room wall pointed to ten o'clock. I had to arrive at school before quarter past eight... Ok, never mind, I was too late. I forced my groggy body up.
Even when lying down, I had a feeling, but now that I was standing, my body was in a worse state than I had originally thought.
Bandages were wrapped around various parts of my body, and several needles were stuck in my left arm. But surprisingly, there wasn’t anywhere in my body that hurt in particular. It was to the point where I could be discharged without any problems.
Tap.
Suddenly, as I was about to get up from the bed, Jin-Seo grabbed my wrist. She forcefully pushed me back onto the bed with her tremendous strength.
"Why are you getting up? Where are you going to go?"
"I'm going to school."
"Don't force yourself. Rest if you're in pain."
"I'm not in pain anymore. So I think I can be discharged—" I said while getting up once again, but Jin-Seo immediately stopped me.
She looked at him with a dazed, sleepy, and vacant expression. Her eyes were somewhat empty.
Clutch.
Suddenly, she grabbed my wrist.
"What, what are you doing? Hey, it really, really hurts!"
"Yeah, it hurts, right?" she said while smiling at me. It was a clear and transparent smile. Her voice was no different from usual, but her tone was somehow mystical. Her tone of voice was completely detached from reality, like something that you would hear in a dream.
"If you're in pain, just lie down. Don't even think about going anywhere."
"..."
I could see her teeth marks on my wrist. Jin-Seo rubbed those marks and laughed heartily.
Although her face had such a bright smile, her shoulders were trembling slightly. It meant that she was feeling afraid of something.
"Yeah...."
I reluctantly threw myself onto the bed and closed my eyes.
Jin-Seo was hoping that I wouldn't leave and that I would lie quietly in bed and complete my treatment before being discharged. She was genuinely worried about me, and perhaps she had taken care of me tirelessly during the week I was unconscious.
When I realized this, I suddenly felt an unbearable sense of shame. I covered myself with the blanket all the way up to my head and tightly closed my eyes. The memory of the day when smoke and flames soared out due to the explosion vividly entered my mind within the darkness.
"What are you doing?"
Jin-Seo poked my body with her finger over the blanket. It felt like she was checking whether I was alive or dead.
"...Nothing," I answered without lowering the blanket that covered me.
I wasn’t able to calmly face her right now.
More precisely, I couldn't bear the guilt that flooded my mind every time I saw her face.
It was because the reason I saved her was just too dirty.
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