The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 59

"Hmm, this is definitely convenient."

So Do-jin said while looking down at the holy item in his hand. It was the holy item that Ha Ye-jin had used for group formation during the fusion blessing circle group practice, which he had borrowed from her.

Several students who were looking at the bracket raised their hands with puzzled expressions.

"Teacher, my name isn’t here."

"Ah, mine too..."

There were quite a few students whose names weren’t on the bracket. At a glance, it was about half. Among them was Jeong In-ah.

So Do-jin stared blankly into space with sleepy, vacant eyes for a moment before opening his mouth.

"Ah, I excluded the priest aspirants from the bracket."

"What? Then what do we do..."

"You guys go over to that fusion blessing circle in the corner and analyze that blessing circle and write a report. It’s a fusion blessing circle deployed by none other than former Inquisitor Saint Judas, so there should be a lot to learn."

The priest aspirants who had been expressing doubts finally breathed sighs of relief and moved toward the fusion blessing circle in a group.

That made sense. Since priests don’t engage in direct combat but play a supporting role from the rear, there was no need for them to do sparring practice.

With the priest aspirants excluded, only the Holy Knight and Holy Warrior aspirants remained. The remaining number was just over a hundred. It was much fewer compared to the beginning.

"Now, from now on we’ll start the practice..."

"Teacher."

Just before So Do-jin was about to proceed with the practice, I raised my hand. I had scanned through the entire bracket looking for my name, but no matter how many times I looked, I couldn’t see it.

I had a sense of deja vu. I felt like something similar had happened before.

"Oh, come to think of it, I excluded your name too. Are you by any chance aspiring to be a priest?"

"No."

"Then what are you aspiring to be?"

"I’m thinking of either Holy Knight or Holy Warrior."

Not all priests handle divine power well, but usually students who handle divine power well aspire to the priesthood.

On the other hand, since I don’t handle divine power well, I decided to choose either the Holy Knight course or Holy Warrior course.

"Really? Anyway, you’re not a priest aspirant. Wait a moment."

So Do-jin fiddled with the holy item. The hologram window from the holy item flickered with static noise. Soon my name was added to a corner of the bracket.

"I added your name, so check it."

I checked the bracket again. At first glance it looked like a tournament, but it wasn’t a tournament format.

It was a system where you have 1-on-1 matches with 3 randomly selected students, doing a total of 3 matches, and scores are given based on wins and losses.

"The scoring criteria are as follows. Victory is 3 points. Draw is 2 points. Defeat is 1 point. Naturally, the higher your score, the higher your grade for this practice will be. I won’t take questions because they’re bothersome."

3 wins 0 losses would be 9 points. 2 wins 1 loss would be 7 points. 0 wins 3 losses would be 3 points. It seemed scores would be calculated this way. It was inevitably a structure where the better your bracket luck, the higher score you’d receive.

"Then, we’ll start the practice now. Time limit is 3 minutes. Students whose names are called, come up to the ring."

With So Do-jin’s somewhat unfriendly explanation finished, the practice began.

I checked the bracket several times again. No matter how much I washed my eyes and looked again, the bracket didn’t change.

"Teacher. This bracket... it was randomly determined, right?"

"Yeah. It’s completely random, why?"

So Do-jin glanced at the bracket.

Then, like me, he rubbed his eyes several times as if he couldn’t believe it, and finally let out a hollow laugh before opening his mouth.

"Well, what can you do. It’s all luck. Anyway, do your best."

"Ah, yes..."

My first opponent was Gu Jun-hyeok. Second was Kim Jin-seo. And third was Yeo Min-seo.

My bracket luck was really bad. As if it had been rigged.

* * *

The ring prepared in the training ground was quite large and sturdy, surrounded by a cage.

Students who entered the ring wore something called an ’impact detection device’ on their bodies and sparred. It was a machine that automatically made a sound when an impact above a certain level, that is, enough to cause combat incapacitation or death, was applied to the body.

Wins and losses were determined based on this device. If you made the opponent’s ’impact detection device’ make a sound, you were judged to have won the match.

Beep!

"Seo Ha-rin combat incapacitation judgment. Kim Jin-seo wins."

"Thank you for your hard work."

Matches were conducted with lightning speed, and the overwhelmingly dominant student was Kim Jin-seo.

With her natural physical abilities and excellent blessing utilization, she instantly subdued her opponent to claim victory.

It happened in just 10 seconds. There wasn’t even a trace of mercy.

"She seems a bit angry."

"Whose fault would that be?"

When I muttered to myself while watching Kim Jin-seo, Gu Jun-hyeok scolded me. The nuance was as if it was because of me.

"Whose fault? Mine?"

I don’t think I did anything particularly wrong. While I was tilting my head, So Do-jin struck the ground with his sword tip. Thud, a dull sound filled the Sacred Training Ground.

"Next, Gu Jun-hyeok, Do Seon-woo. Don’t chatter and come out."

"Oh, is it our turn already?"

Gu Jun-hyeok asked innocently. So Do-jin’s face crumpled slightly.

"Shut up and come out."

"Yes!"

When So Do-jin spoke roughly, Gu Jun-hyeok finally stepped into the arena.

I stood on the opposite side and put on the ’impact detection device.’ That completed the preparations.

If desired, you could choose and use practice weapons, but unfortunately I didn’t know how to handle any weapons.

"Hmm, oh. This is pretty good."

In contrast, Gu Jun-hyeok took a weapon. The weapon he chose was quite unique.

Holy Knight aspirants usually choose three-section staffs or shields that can handle both offense and defense.

Holy Warrior aspirants usually choose firearms, but if there are no firearms, they sometimes choose swords or spears as alternatives.

Since Gu Jun-hyeok said he aspired to be a Holy Warrior, I naturally thought he would choose a sword or spear, but...

"Do Seon-woo has no weapons. ...Gu Jun-hyeok. Are you calling that thing a weapon?"

"What? No, isn’t this a weapon? It was there so I brought it."

"That’s not a weapon, it’s... Ah, fine. Do whatever you want."

When Gu Jun-hyeok waved what he was holding and asked, So Do-jin sighed as if giving up. Students were looking at the weapon in Gu Jun-hyeok’s hand with puzzled expressions.

The weapon he held was a ’rope.’ A thin cord used for tying practice weapons. Gu Jun-hyeok had brought it thinking it was a weapon.

Several students burst into laughter and teased Gu Jun-hyeok, but Gu Jun-hyeok himself had a serious face.

"Hey. No going easy. No resentment if you lose. No hard feelings. Okay?"

"Yeah. Handle it yourself."

I had no intention of resenting. I had no intention of losing in the first place.

My next opponents were Kim Jin-seo and Yeo Min-seo. Even using Bosu’s divine power, I couldn’t guarantee victory against them.

Kim Jin-seo’s movements were too fast and varied, with many variables, and Yeo Min-seo was a variable in herself.

Therefore, I planned to secure 1 victory in the match against Gu Jun-hyeok. Then I could at least avoid the humiliation of 0 wins 3 losses.

"Then, match start."

Ding!

Along with So Do-jin’s words, a bell rang.

I kept my distance and calmly read Gu Jun-hyeok’s movements. Contrary to expectations, Gu Jun-hyeok didn’t rashly charge in. He was just deploying blessing circles and checking the condition of the rope in his hand.

"Huff. I’ll teach you the essence of ’bondage play’ that I’ve trained every night."

Amid the flowing tension, Gu Jun-hyeok boasted and spouted nonsense. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead for a moment.

I’m someone who doesn’t usually get scared easily, but this time I was somehow frightened. You could call it instinctive crisis awareness.

"What kind of stuff are you doing at night, you crazy..."

Swoosh!

My words couldn’t reach their end. Gu Jun-hyeok had rushed up close and swung the rope. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

I barely managed to dodge it by jerking my head back. Gu Jun-hyeok’s face was more serious than ever.

"Hey! If you run your mouth, I’ll bind your mouth first!"

With that serious face, Gu Jun-hyeok continued spouting nonsense. Somehow it was hard to concentrate. Every time Gu Jun-hyeok opened his mouth, my attention got distracted.

"Shut up!"

I kept my distance and dodged Gu Jun-hyeok’s attacks here and there.

The rope Gu Jun-hyeok wielded tried to wrap around my arms and legs like a living snake. His skill with the rope was very proficient. The claim about training every night wasn’t entirely nonsense it seemed.

"1 minute elapsed. 2 minutes remaining."

So Do-jin said calmly. I thought at least 2 minutes had passed, but in reality it was only 1 minute.

Perhaps due to the psychological pressure of other kids watching me, I was already out of breath.

"Hey! Getting tired? That’s why you should do some cardio!"

"I told you to shut up!"

Gu Jun-hyeok waved the rope tauntingly as he spoke.

Unlike me, he didn’t even show signs of being tired. In a long battle, I, who was relatively lacking in stamina, would obviously be at a disadvantage. I needed to finish the match as quickly as possible.

Bosu.

I had decided not to use Bosu’s divine power against students, but there was no other way to win except this.

At first I had the naive thought that ’maybe I could beat someone like Gu Jun-hyeok without divine power,’ but Gu Jun-hyeok was also in the upper ranks academically. He just seemed easy because of his strange personality.

[Bosu is getting hungry. Thinking that offerings are insufficient.]

Due to using Bosu’s divine power too much recently, his condition wasn’t very good, but it should be sufficient to deal with Gu Jun-hyeok.

I kicked off the ground with legs imbued with divine power, closed the distance, and instantly approached Gu Jun-hyeok.

His face, stiff with apparent confusion, came close.

"Ugh...!"

Gu Jun-hyeok let out a single scream. I grabbed his collar and put weight on my feet.

I planned to use the self-defense techniques I learned from Kim Bok-dong to throw Gu Jun-hyeok to the ground.

Thud!

However, the one who fell wasn’t Gu Jun-hyeok but me.

I thought I had fallen because my steps got tangled while executing the technique, but that wasn’t it. Both my ankles were tied with rope.

"Secret technique, ’Quick Binding.’ Phew... I never thought I’d have to bring out this technique."

"You son of a... huh?"

I tried to get up quickly, but I couldn’t get up. No, my whole body wouldn’t move. Both hands and feet.

In that short time, my wrists and ankles had all been tied up. Gu Jun-hyeok looked down at me with a sneer.

"Ah, this is secret technique, ’Fast Binding.’"

"Secret technique, secret technique at the end of every sentence. Shut that mouth of yours."

"Threatening while tied up isn’t scary at all, you know?"

Gu Jun-hyeok was deliberately using speech patterns I disliked to provoke me. He was really seasoned at provocation.

It was a moment when I instantly understood why Kim Jin-seo beat Gu Jun-hyeok to death every sparring session.

Gu Jun-hyeok came behind me as I struggled and wrapped rope around my neck.

"Don’t worry, it’ll be over quickly. It’s nothing much."

"...This is amazing. How did you do it?"

I asked with a smile. I was genuinely amazed. To be able to bind a person so completely with such thin rope.

Gu Jun-hyeok’s hand, which had been about to pull the rope to finish, stopped.

"Trade secret! Well anyway. Since we agreed no resentment, let’s finish this cleanly."

Gu Jun-hyeok slowly pulled the rope. The rope dug into my flesh and wrapped around my neck, choking me. My breath stopped, and my vision gradually began to turn black.

Snap.

I heard the sound of something breaking. It certainly wasn’t the sound of my consciousness breaking. It was the sound of rope breaking.

I used Bosu’s monstrous strength to forcibly break the ropes binding my hands and feet. It was truly bizarre, but why would monstrous strength be called monstrous? It’s monstrous because it’s bizarre.

Gu Jun-hyeok looked in bewilderment at me getting up and the broken, scattered rope, then chuckled.

"Hey. Isn’t this too unconscionable?"

"If it had been real rope, I would have lost. It was just rope so I barely managed to break it."

"Ah, damn. Equipment difference..."

Bang.

I threw Gu Jun-hyeok to the ground.

Beep!

The impact detection device attached to his body let out a sharp sound.