The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 103

At dawn when the sky was just beginning to brighten, two men were walking along the treacherous mountain path of Taebaek Mountain.

"Hey, is it really okay for us to come in here? The path feels strange, and it seems like we’re going in circles..."

"Ah, if you’re going to keep whining like that, just go back down the mountain. I can catch the goat by myself!"

The man dressed in all black clothes from top to bottom said while covering his face with his cap brim. The buzz-cut man who had been grumbling with a frowning face scratched his head and laughed foolishly.

"Eh, hehe~ That’s not what I meant, I’m just worried."

"Nothing to worry about, just shut up and stay quiet. Just be careful not to let the goat we’ve almost caught escape, got it?"

"Ah, I got it. Geez, snapping at me just for being worried..."

The buzz-cut man muttered while secretly glaring at the black-clothed man. The black-clothed man lightly ignored his muttering and pressed forward along the mountain path with quick steps.

The reason they had come to Taebaek Mountain was to capture alive a rare animal called the Korean goral that could only be caught on Taebaek Mountain.

The buzz-cut man and the black-clothed man were brothers, with the buzz-cut being the younger brother and the black-clothed being the older brother. They were illegal poachers who made their living by capturing rare animals and selling them to Japan.

Japan valued rare animals extremely highly, influenced by the indigenous faith called ’Shinto’ that reveres animals.

"...Shh."

The older brother who had been advancing without hesitation suddenly lowered his head. Then he brought his index finger to his lips. The younger brother also brought his index finger to his lips, following his older brother’s movements. The brothers’ gazes converged on one point.

Beyond the bushes, a goat was wandering around, looking here and there.

"Now, when I give the signal, we go at the same time. Got it?"

The older brother gave orders to the younger brother in a whispered voice. The younger brother flared his nostrils and nodded.

The goat seemed not to have noticed their presence yet, walking along the mountain path leisurely and gracefully.

Soon the older brother held up three fingers and began folding them one by one.

"Now. One, two...!"

"Yaaahhhhh!"

Just as the older brother folded his second finger, the younger brother suddenly let out a battle cry and rushed toward the goat.

The goat was startled and began fleeing quickly into the forest. The younger brother chased the goat, flailing his long arms comically.

The older brother stared blankly at the scene, dumbfounded.

"That stupid bastard!"

The older brother cursed after belatedly grasping the situation. The younger brother, who had always been lacking in some ways, had interpreted the counting "one, two" as the signal. The problem was counting numbers after saying he would give a signal.

Damn it, it’s not like this is our first or second day hunting, what kind of mistake is this...

Brief regret flashed by. But now wasn’t the time for regret. The older brother hurriedly followed his younger brother into the forest.

He couldn’t let the goat they’d almost caught slip away right before their eyes, and no matter how lacking his younger brother was, he couldn’t let his only blood relative go missing in the mountains.

Taebaek Mountain was famous for having the most missing persons and casualties due to something called Voodoo or Tofu religion, or whatever it was.

"Hey, you! Stop chasing that thing and stand still! Stand still!"

"Waaahhhhh..."

"Stop yelling and stand still!"

The younger brother was screaming like crazy while chasing the goat, and the older brother was chasing his younger brother while also screaming like crazy.

The goat was fast, and the younger brother’s steps were equally fast, and the older brother’s steps were also fast. If any one of them had been slower, there would have been a conclusion, but all three were uniformly fast, so the chase showed no signs of ending.

The seemingly endless chase ended shortly after.

Thump!

The younger brother who had been running boldly while flailing his arms suddenly sat down on the spot, his legs trembling violently.

The younger brother’s face as he slowly turned to look at his older brother was pale with fright. His trembling lips and chattering teeth clearly showed how terrified he was.

"Huff, gasp. You idiot, when I told you to stop, why didn’t you...!"

The older brother who was about to scold his younger brother trailed off his words and stared blankly at the spectacular view spread before his eyes with a dazed face. Suddenly his knees gave out and he too sat down on the spot. The scenery was so overwhelmingly vast and beautiful that it made even his leg strength, trained through years of poaching life, seem worthless.

The vast forest visible below the cliff. Through its center ran a huge path. Along the path’s edges were gigantic flowers and grasses he’d never seen before, spread out magnificently like crowds welcoming a hero’s triumphant return.

When the wind blew, the flowers, grass, and forest spread on both sides of the path swayed neatly from side to side.

It was scenery he was seeing for the first time despite three years of illegal poaching life on Taebaek Mountain.

"Heh, hehehe..."

Taebaek Mountain’s nickname is ’the living, breathing mountain.’ It got this nickname because the way paths change and scenery changes in the blink of an eye feels like a living being moving.

Taebaek Mountain had such rough terrain and complex paths that it would instantly turn unsuspecting hikers into people in distress.

He had thought all of that was just legend. He thought it was excuses made up by those who didn’t understand the principles of mountains out of fear.

But the mountain had actually changed. Scenery he had never seen once during three years of poaching was now spread before his eyes. As if the mountain really was living and breathing.

"Maybe it’s really time to believe... Adonai or something, Torah or whatever..."

In the heart of this man who had been a ’fashion Romanica believer’ - an atheist who only pretended to believe in Romanica Church after it became the state religion - unexpected religious faith was blooming.

* * *

"Oh, Charity Woo is here!"

As soon as I arrived at the classroom, Jeong In-ah playfully greeted me. Her face seemed a bit more gaunt than before, but her smile was still bright.

"Don’t call me that."

"Why? The sound is cute and nice."

"How is that... Never mind, call me whatever you want."

She wasn’t the type to stop calling me that just because I told her not to. If I reacted, she would definitely get more excited and tease me more. I gave up and took out my books to sit down, but Jeong In-ah looked at me with sparkling eyes as if trying to prevent me from studying.

"...What?"

"Just! It feels like it’s been a long time since I saw you."

It hadn’t been that long since we last met on Friday. No matter how different people’s standards for "long time" were, seeing each other after three days and calling it a long time...

I didn’t want to hurt Jeong In-ah’s feelings as she smiled brightly, so I didn’t bother to point it out.

"Ah, that ice cream from last time was delicious."

Jeong In-ah asked as if she suddenly remembered. She seemed to be talking about last Friday when I took her to a franchise ice cream shop to cheer her up.

"Wasn’t it too sweet?"

"You’re completely tasteless! Ice cream is more delicious the sweeter it is."

Jeong In-ah said instructively. I don’t dislike sweet things, but I don’t like them when they’re too sweet. Strangely, eating too much sweet food gives me headaches. Jeong In-ah looked at my frowning face, smiled playfully, and continued.

"Sometimes you seem really picky about food. Ice cream is bad because it’s sweet, coffee is bad because it’s bitter, what do you eat? You don’t eat spicy food either, right?"

"Oh, how did you know?"

"You really don’t eat it? Wow... I made the wrong friend..."

Her tone was clearly playful. Even knowing she wasn’t serious, I felt inexplicably hurt. Of course I didn’t show it.

Thump!

Then someone put their arm on my shoulder and squeezed between Jeong In-ah and me.

"How about me? I eat spicy food well and I’m not picky about food."

When I looked up, Gu Jun-hyeok with disheveled hair was looking back and forth between us with a foolish smile.

His face was full of minor wounds and bruises, and his arm was in a cast. Looking closely, his leg seemed to be limping slightly too. Literally his whole body was bruised and covered in wounds. His condition was more serious than when he came after being beaten by Kim Jin-seo before.

"You, your face, why..."

Jeong In-ah looked at Gu Jun-hyeok with her smile completely gone. Gu Jun-hyeok lifted the arm he had placed on my shoulder to scratch his head roughly and opened his mouth.

"Well... I got beaten up a bit. It just happened."

"What! Don’t tell me Kim Jin-seo again..."

"What are you talking about? The gym has been closed for how long. My mom beat me up."

Gu Jun-hyeok cut off Jeong In-ah’s angry words as if it was nothing. The atmosphere was cold.

Jeong In-ah was opening and closing her mouth as if she didn’t know what to say, and I kept silent. I didn’t have words of comfort, and even if I comforted him, it wouldn’t mean much.

"What’s with this atmosphere, it’s not like someone died... Just pretend you didn’t hear what I just said. Hey, was the school gate inspection strict today? Did you guys get caught too?"

Gu Jun-hyeok quickly tried to change the subject. Jeong In-ah tilted her head with an innocent face as if she knew nothing, and I quietly nodded.

Today was the first day that Satan worship detection operations began, and the plan was being secretly executed starting from the school gate inspection. It was information only student council members would know.

"Oh, it was pretty strict today. Did you get caught too?"

When I pretended to be casual and asked, Gu Jun-hyeok raised his eyebrows as if he had a lot to say.

"Hey, no way. I’ve been dressing like this every day since I entered school, but they only catch me today? If they were going to catch me, they should have done it before. Suddenly talking about dress code violations made me so angry I couldn’t stand it."

"So what did you do?"

"What could I do? I just got penalty points and said sorry~ and came back."

For someone who said he couldn’t stand it, he had endured quite well.

Gu Jun-hyeok was wearing casual pants with a school uniform shirt, and a tie casually draped around his neck. His shirt buttons were all undone. It was more surprising that he hadn’t been caught until now while dressing like that.

"Hey, did you guys do some kind of survey too?"

"Survey?"

At Gu Jun-hyeok’s question, Jeong In-ah repeated his words as if hearing it for the first time. Gu Jun-hyeok turned his gaze to me.

"Did you?"

"I did it. The questions were kind of strange."

"Right? It’s not just me who felt that way, right? I mean, why ask whether there’s anyone in the family hospitalized? Very, no, extremely unpleasant."

Gu Jun-hyeok clicked his tongue with a frowning face. He really seemed to have been unpleasant, not just empty words.

Today at the school gate, along with the inspection, surveys targeting ’prime Satan worship candidates’ were conducted. There were many questions about sensitive issues like ideology and family history.

I was also one of the prime candidates, so I did the survey. Of course I didn’t answer truthfully, and I appropriately manipulated my answers to avoid suspicion.

Rattle!

While Gu Jun-hyeok was complaining about the survey questions, the door opened and Ha Ye-jin entered.

"Good morning~ Ah, it’s not really a good morning, is it? Since it’s Monday."

The students nodded in agreement. Ha Ye-jin smiled so deeply that dimples formed.

"But let’s think of it as a good morning and start today! There are quite a few announcements today, first..."

She continued with the morning assembly. As mentioned before, there really were many announcements today. From notifications about exam schedules, to warnings about recent random assault cases, to encouragement to work hard since departmental classes would start from today.

"And you all know about Voodoo, right? Recently strange phenomena occurred at Taebaek Mountain, and there are suspicions it might be the work of that cult leader. There are theories that they’ve started activities again recently, and since we don’t know what they might do, everyone should be careful..."

Following that, Ha Ye-jin gave lengthy warnings to be careful about Voodoo. According to her words, the Voodoo cult leader is a very wicked person, and he’s even more dangerous because he’s been harboring poison since the Holy War.

How scary. I should be careful too.

[Making a fuss over nothing. Romanica Church people seem to like inflating small matters.]

Legba spoke with a slightly angry tone. I didn’t answer and stayed quiet. After finishing the assembly, Ha Ye-jin soon left, and the kids began chatting as usual.

"Is Voodoo that Voodoo that went extinct before?"

"Yeah, hey. Look at this photo. It’s posted on Grazie, what kind of mountain, geez..."

"Wow, this is what Voodoo did?"

"They even say they control weather, there was an uproar about sudden earthquakes and the sky splitting at Taebaek Mountain..."

I quietly listened to the kids chatting. It was more interesting than expected.

What had been creating a path through Granbwa’s prayer became "the cult leader caused an earthquake" through the kids’ mouths, and the storm I had summoned for training to control Loa powers was being inflated into stories like "the cult leader split the sky."

"Voodoo..."

While I was enjoying listening to the stories, Jeong In-ah bit her lip and muttered to herself. Suddenly feeling bad, I buried my head on the desk and closed my eyes. I intended to sleep but sleep wouldn’t come. I had no choice but to just keep my eyes closed.

* * *

A meeting was held in the student council room during lunch time. It was a really sudden meeting notified by text message near the end of third period. After finishing my meal and going to the student council room, Yeo Min-seo looked back and forth between the clock on the wall and me with sharp eyes.

"You’re 1 minute and 13 seconds late."

"..."

Isn’t 1 minute and 13 seconds not really late...

I found it a bit absurd, but it was a loss to get into words with Yeo Min-seo, so I quietly sat down.

Looking around, everyone was there except two people. Yeo Min-seo, Ma Yu-hyeon, Kim Jin-seo, Seong Ha-yeon, and me. Han Su-ryeon and Kang Dae-man were missing.

"Where are the other two?"

When I asked, Yeo Min-seo pointed with her chin toward a wardrobe crammed in the corner of the student council room.

"That’s what I’m saying. Try opening that once."

Crash!

When I opened the door, Han Su-ryeon poured out of the wardrobe along with blankets. She looked around frantically with sleepy eyes. She seemed to have been sleeping just now. Han Su-ryeon, who had just woken up, tidied her messy hair and opened her mouth.

"Ah, what a surprise. What? Why?"

"Sit anywhere. The meeting has started."

"What, a meeting? I didn’t know there was one. I slept all morning..."

Han Su-ryeon roughly stuffed the bedding into the wardrobe and sat down. So now only Kang Dae-man hadn’t come. Yeo Min-seo seemed extremely displeased by this fact, crumpling her face and also crumpling the documents in her hand.

"That bastard Kang Dae-man really... I want to hit him once. No, I just want to fucking beat him up..."

"Oh. That’s kind of funny. Hit Kang Dae-man once."

Han Su-ryeon giggled in agreement.

"I’m not joking."

"Ah, yes."

When Yeo Min-seo answered coldly, Han Su-ryeon smiled awkwardly and scratched her head with exaggerated movements as if showing off. For a while, silence flowed.

Bang!

What broke the silence was Kang Dae-man entering the student council room by roughly opening the door. His hair was completely soaked with sweat.

"Sorry, I’m late!"

"Right, why was Mr. Kang Dae-man late?"

Yeo Min-seo asked sarcastically. Kang Dae-man showed off his tremendous muscles that seemed ready to burst his uniform and opened his mouth.

"I was late because I was exercising! I couldn’t resist post-meal exercise."

"Right... Sit down. I don’t want to talk to you."

"Oh, we’re on the same page. I don’t want to talk to you either!"

"Shut up and sit down!"

Yeo Min-seo shrieked. The two always had a bad relationship. Rather than bad relationship, Yeo Min-seo unilaterally disliked Kang Dae-man, while Kang Dae-man didn’t seem to care at all.

"Anyway, now that everyone’s here, let’s start. Today we’ll keep it simple and finish, first is..."

Yeo Min-seo who was about to start the meeting suddenly stopped talking. Then she shifted her gaze to me. Her pupils had cooled frighteningly cold.

"Do Seon-woo, did you write the proposal I told you to write?"

She asked while narrowing her brow. Looking around, everyone was staring at me. But none of them showed any sign of worry for me.

They were expressions full of trust, believing without doubt that I would have done it. I was in trouble. I didn’t even know if there had been such a thing as a proposal or whatever.

"Hey, did you write it or not?"

Yeo Min-seo asked again. I needed to find some excuse, but no matter how much I thought, there was nothing to excuse. I couldn’t say I couldn’t write it because I was busy going to a Voodoo executive meeting.

"...Was there such a thing?"

I just spoke honestly.

Yeo Min-seo’s expression began to harden bizarrely.