The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 122

"...What brings you here, Elder Gabriel?"

Toward Gabriel who had entered the chairman’s office, Kim Chang-won bowed his head respectfully in greeting. Gabriel received the greeting with a light nod of his head.

The two sat facing each other around the table placed in the center of the chairman’s office. Gabriel immediately brought up the main point without any formal pleasantries.

"I came to talk about Teacher So Do-jin’s disciplinary action."

"..."

"Among the elders, there was talk that the disciplinary level might be too excessive. Therefore, we’re considering lowering the level of discipline."

"...Among the elders, you say?"

Kim Chang-won asked back. The elders, famous for being inflexible and conservative, had never once overturned disciplinary actions against teachers.

For them to say they would consider lowering the disciplinary level, Kim Chang-won was truly doubting his own ears.

"Is there a reason the elders suddenly made such a decision?"

"Of course, we can’t lower the disciplinary level without any conditions. We’d lower the discipline from suspension to salary reduction, and instead..."

Gabriel continued. The story was that in exchange for lowering So Do-jin’s disciplinary level from suspension to salary reduction, So Do-jin would serve as bodyguard for the elders during the Satan worshipper detection operation.

Only then did Kim Chang-won understand and nod while gritting his teeth. He wondered why they were suddenly speaking sensibly, but of course it would be like this. He was disgusted by the elders’ selfishness.

"...Is that a proposal, or an order?"

"Of course, it’s a proposal. It’s not an order."

Gabriel said this and then looked around as if searching for something.

"Come to think of it, where is the secretary?"

"Well. He said he had to go home briefly due to some urgent matter, but there’s been no contact since. It seemed quite urgent..."

"Oh dear. I hope it wasn’t anything serious. These days the world is so turbulent..."

Gabriel clicked his tongue.

"Anyway, think carefully about the proposal. I’ll go to the restroom for a moment."

Gabriel rose from his seat with difficulty and slowly walked toward the restroom. Arriving at the restroom, Gabriel washed his hands and only touched his hair while looking in the mirror.

He hadn’t come to the restroom to relieve himself in the first place. He had made the excuse of going to the restroom just to give Kim Chang-won time to think alone.

Creeeeak...

Just then, the door of the farthest stall opened by itself. Gabriel stopped touching his hair and held his breath.

This faculty restroom always had its windows closed, and they were closed now as well. There was no possibility that the door had opened due to wind.

Feeling his spine tingle with an eerie sensation, Gabriel slowly walked toward the corner stall.

"...Is anyone there?"

No answer came back. He steadfastly continued walking without stopping until he reached the corner stall. And finally he saw what was in the corner stall.

No, more precisely, he saw what was ’hanging’ in the corner stall.

It was the chairman’s office secretary. The secretary’s stomach was split in half, and the inside was completely empty. The secretary’s neck was wrapped with intestines, and his body was hanging in the air. Like someone who had committed suicide by hanging themselves with rope.

Thud.

The cell phone Gabriel had been holding fell to the floor. It hit the restroom tile floor and the screen cracked.

Gabriel picked up the broken cell phone with a face that had turned pale blue. Even as screen fragments embedded in his fingertips and drew blood, he moved his fingers without a moment’s hesitation.

- This is the Seoul Eastern Holy Knight Order. What...

"At Florence, there’s a Satan worshipper. A Satan worshipper, urgh...!"

- Excuse me? What do you mean...

"Urgh, kuhehe-ek...! Kuhhh-eok...!"

The elder, unable to suppress his rising nausea, finally began vomiting on the restroom floor. The flustered voice of the Holy Knight could be heard continuously from the receiver.

* * *

"Another swordsmanship class? How many is this since last time... Well, good work, hurry up and go rest."

After moving the two unconscious students to the infirmary, I left the infirmary while hearing the nurse’s disgruntled muttering. Then I immediately headed toward the Divine Training Ground.

Baron Samedi’s prophecy to beware of screams kept circling in my ears, and I was walking out of worry that something might have happened to So Do-jin who had been lured by the screams.

No, actually I wasn’t worried about So Do-jin. I just wanted to confirm whether I had correctly interpreted Baron Samedi’s prophecy.

"...Don’t you need to go to the infirmary?"

Kim Jin-seo, who had been following me, asked.

"Me? Why would I?"

"Doesn’t it hurt?"

She lowered her gaze and glanced at my expression.

Her usually sharp eyes were drooping, and her gaze toward me was cautious.

I shook my head. My solar plexus was still throbbing with pain, but it wasn’t enough to warrant going to the infirmary.

"I’m fine."

"You always say you’re fine."

"Then should I say I’m not fine?"

"...That’s not what I mean!"

Kim Jin-seo suddenly raised her head and spoke as if shouting. Her eyes sharpened momentarily, then as if startled by her own voice, she flinched and drooped down again. I gave her a small smile.

"Suddenly getting angry. Scary, scary."

"I’m not angry."

Kim Jin-seo answered in a small voice with her head down. That’s when I noticed the sword in her hand. It was the practice sword we had used at the Divine Training Ground.

"Why are you carrying the sword?"

"The sword...? Huh? This..."

She looked at the sword in her hand with round, surprised eyes.

Due to the urgent situation, she seemed to have forgotten to put it down and brought it out as is. The sponge that had been attached for sparring had already been removed.

Even so, the blade was so dull that it didn’t look particularly threatening. It was no different from a toy sword.

"Why did I bring this?"

"If you stab me again this time, it won’t end with just fainting. There’s no sponge either."

"...I won’t stab you."

"Just in case, I should be careful."

"I said I won’t stab you. You don’t need to be careful..."

Normally she would have shown a relaxed smile and pressed me back, but this time she seemed at a loss, moving her gaze here and there.

She seemed quite sorry for making me faint during sparring. It was quite entertaining to see her showing a different reaction than usual.

"...But where are you going?"

She who had been hanging her head dejectedly suddenly asked as if remembering.

"Divine Training Ground. What about you?"

"I was following you."

"Why follow me?"

"Can’t I follow?"

"There’s nothing wrong with it..."

"Let’s go together then."

It was an unexpected companionship. She swept her fallen hair up over her head and stared at me quietly.

"Why the Divine Training Ground?"

"...To see if something happened."

"He told us to stay in the classroom. The teacher did."

"Since when do you listen so well?"

When I spoke teasingly, Kim Jin-seo glared at me with narrowed eyes as if offended.

"I do listen well..." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Right, since you listen well, go to the classroom."

"You really...!"

She glared at me with eyes full of betrayal. Then she frowned slightly and continued.

"I won’t talk to you."

"Really?"

"...No."

She dropped her glaring gaze to the ground. Then she walked weakly beside me.

Occasionally her head touched my shoulder with a tap, tap. She kept her head down, covering her face with her hair, and opened her mouth.

"You were really mean..."

"What was?"

"..."

While I teased her playfully, we soon arrived in front of the Divine Training Ground.

The atmosphere was strangely desolate, and the surrounding air was murky. Along with Kim Jin-seo, who was holding her sword with a tense, stiff expression, I tried to enter the Divine Training Ground.

Click.

"...It’s locked."

But we couldn’t enter. The door was firmly locked from the inside.

I briefly checked the interior through the window. All the lights were off, and none of the practice swords that had been scattered on the floor were visible.

It was cleaned up so perfectly it seemed excessive. As if trying to say that something like swordsmanship class had never existed in the first place.

"Why? Is there something?"

Kim Jin-seo stuck her head next to mine and tried to look through the window. She approached so suddenly that I was flustered and pulled my head back.

"There’s nothing."

"Right. But why are you avoiding me?"

"...Let’s go up."

I didn’t answer Kim Jin-seo’s words and turned my steps toward the classroom.

I don’t know what happened to So Do-jin who had been lured by the screams toward the restroom. However, seeing the Divine Training Ground cleaned up neatly without even traces of battle, it seemed he had resolved it well on his own.

If the one screaming had really been a Florence student, So Do-jin would have taken that student to the hospital.

Even if it had been a trap, So Do-jin would have resolved it well and come out. For now, it seemed convenient to believe that.

"So why did you avoid me earlier? Because you were embarrassed?"

Kim Jin-seo, who had been chasing me back to the classroom, persistently asked. Her tone asking with a small smile was clearly full of mischief.

"Well... But are you going to keep holding that sword?"

"There’s nowhere appropriate to put it right now, so for now... But why are you changing the subject again?"

"..."

She looked at me with narrowed eyes and asked.

I just kept my mouth shut. If I answered carelessly, I felt like I’d get caught up in her pace.

Even if I tried to cleverly change the subject, it didn’t work on Kim Jin-seo. The comfortable silence that followed was brief before she again bumped her head against my shoulder and opened her mouth.

"Won’t you answer me?"

"Figure it out yourself."

"Is that okay?"

"Do you need permission to think?"

"...Right."

While having trivial conversation with her and walking...

Fwoooooosh!

Birds flew up from Eden Garden. It wasn’t just one or two. Dozens of birds were flying away beyond the horizon in fan formation. I could faintly feel the ground trembling under my feet.

The school was surrounded by heavy silence.

The smile that had been faintly hovering on Kim Jin-seo’s face completely disappeared. She glared at the flying birds with sharply focused eyes.

Kuguugugung...

Then, along with an explosion sound, there was a sound like something collapsing. The sound became an echo and wandered everywhere. Following that, a bizarre sound like birds crying could also be heard.

Kaaaaak, keeeeaaak...

As the sound grew closer, I realized that it wasn’t the sound of birds crying. It was a tangle of screams created by dozens of screams entangling and clumping together.

Screams again. Echoes of false pain.

"..."

Following the screams that had echoed from the Divine Training Ground, explosion sounds, and then screams again. It was too organic and sequential to call coincidence. Something was definitely happening.

The situation required calm and rational judgment, but the situation gave me no breathing room.

Tap, tap, tap, tap...

Someone with brown hair fluttering was running toward me from a distance. As she got closer, her features became clearer.

She was frowning and trying to hold back tears, but nonetheless wiping away the unpredictably flowing tears with her sleeve while desperately running toward me.

It was Jeong In-ah.

"What-"

Thud.

Before I could even speak, she ran up in one breath and nestled into my arms. She who had been rubbing her tear-soaked face against my clothes suddenly looked up.

Round, large eyes with brown pupils embedded like stars stared piercingly at me.

"Woo, Woo-ya..."

Tears formed in her eyes as she called my name. Her scent, which I had become familiar with from spending time together, felt strangely unfamiliar.

Her fragrance was strong enough to make me momentarily dizzy. I could feel my heart pounding and my face burning. Her cold hand was placed on my cheek.

"We were having class in the gym, when suddenly the building collapsed. Sob, huu..."

"..."

"Hiccup, the kids. The kids got crushed under the pillars, sob. He, help me, Seon-woo..."

The Priest department students’ class location was the gymnasium. Come to think of it, the explosion sound seemed to have come from the gym direction.

Combining Jeong In-ah’s words, the gymnasium had collapsed and students were crushed under pillars, and since there was no one who could lift them, she had been asking for help here and there when she found me.

Jeong In-ah looked up at me while shedding chicken-dropping-like tears.

"What are you doing, hurry to the gym-"

Slash.

Then, her words were cut off. At the same time, her neck was also cut off. Jeong In-ah’s severed head separated from her body and rolled on the ground.

Thud, her body lost strength and collapsed to the floor. Instead of blood, sawdust and cotton poured out in gushes from the cut section of her neck.

"Where do you think you’re..."

Beyond that, Kim Jin-seo holding a sword was looking down at Jeong In-ah’s corpse, no, the taxidermy’s carcass, with cold and chilly eyes.

Hissssss...

Thick, acrid black smoke rose from the carcass that had been bisected by the blunt practice sword. The carcass lost elasticity and became liquid-like and mushy, then finally all turned to smoke and scattered into the sky.

Where the carcass had been sprawled, Jeong In-ah’s usual school uniform and sweatshirt remained, along with something long and thin like thread.

"Hair...?"

It was hair. Very long and thin brown hair.

Wheeeeeee!

There was no time to understand the situation, let alone time to be flustered. Sirens echoed from speakers installed throughout the school.

Static, along with the sound of adjusting audio, a teacher’s voice began flowing throughout the school.

- Ah, ah. Do... student, come to the...room immediately. If you don’t comply, it will be considered rebellion against the Romanica Church... ...nts. ...woo student, come to the class...room immediately.

The teacher’s voice was mixed with static and difficult to understand. Anxiety crept in.

Static, static static...

The continuous static became faint and then completely disappeared. And again the teacher’s voice could be heard.

- Do Seon-woo student, come to the principal’s office immediately. If you don’t comply, it will be considered rebellion against the Romanica Church. Repeat. Do Seon-woo student...

That voice was calling for me.