The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 107

Her hospital room receives no light even during the midday hours. This is because blackout curtains flutter in the breeze, driving away any sunlight that tries to enter. Occasionally, weak light flows from the broken fluorescent lamp, but even that is far from sufficient to fully illuminate the room.

"Ms. Jeon Hye-su? Are you sleeping?"

The only moments when light enters are when nurses open the door to ask routine questions about her well-being, or to bring meals and water.

The pure white light from the corridor gently pushed away the darkness through the half-open door, but the patient sitting on the bed didn’t move a muscle. She simply continued her mechanically long sleep, covering herself with blankets pulled up to the top of her head.

"Hye-su?"

The nurse approached the bed cautiously, carrying a tray with breakfast. Even so, the patient on the bed didn’t move at all.

She tried to calm her growing anxiety. She set up the table and placed the tray on it, then gently pressed the bed.

The patient was properly in bed. Judging by some movement, she didn’t seem to be sleeping either. She simply appeared unwilling to face the nurse. She breathed a sigh of relief.

At least it wasn’t like last time when she had escaped.

"You scared me. You used to jump up whenever I entered, even from sleep... You are listening, aren’t you?"

The nurse continued speaking to the unresponsive patient.

"Oh, they said they’ll fix the fluorescent light during lunch today, but you’re not too inconvenienced, right? Since you originally disliked light anyway..."

The patient had previously caused a suicide commotion by pulling out the fluorescent light and using the exposed wires. The fluorescent light had been broken in that process.

As the nurse finished speaking, the broken fluorescent light swayed from the ceiling. The warm breeze of late spring was rushing in through the window.

The nurse took a deep breath. Fresh air she hadn’t experienced in a while. It felt refreshing, as if all the waste accumulated in every corner of her body was escaping with her exhaled sigh. Subsequently, a creepy and unpleasant sensation began flowing down her spine.

"Hye-su?"

The nurse called again, but there was no answer.

Flutter, flutter...

Through the curtains swaying in the wind, the sky was briefly visible. Red sunset glow rising from the horizon was seeping into the blue sky.

Swoosh!

The nurse roughly pulled back the blanket. Patient Jeon Hye-su, who should have been lying in bed, was not there. Instead, there was a doll crudely made by stitching together animal hides to awkwardly imitate human form.

The doll occasionally writhed. As if trying to assert that it was alive.

Even so, it was nothing more than death crudely disguised as life.

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

A belated scream echoed. The wind was strong. Through the pulled-back curtains, the sky was visible. Darkness was descending. Darkness enveloped the pale sky tinged with sunset glow.

The night sky became clear.

* * *

As the days grew increasingly sunny, she couldn’t go outside the dormitory during the day. This was because there was a risk of getting sunburned.

Going for walks every night had become a habit for her, who was in a situation where she couldn’t go out during the day.

Today too, as soon as the sun set, Seong Ha-yeon left the dormitory and was walking without any particular destination. Her head was complicated. The atrocities she had committed against Do Seon-woo in the past, which she had heard from her friend, wouldn’t leave her mind.

Writing the proposal in his place had also been an action stemming from guilt. It was a shallow thought that if she did so, Do Seon-woo might forgive her atrocities even a little.

"Haah..."

Seong Ha-yeon sighed while recalling Do Seon-woo’s expression during the meeting. When she handed the proposal to Yeo Min-seo, his face looking at her was coldly hardened. Doubt and suspicion dwelt in his eyes.

Rather than forgetting her atrocities, it seemed she had only reminded him of them, which was painful.

Even so, she didn’t want to apologize. No, she couldn’t. She had never once said sorry to anyone other than her father. When she tried to apologize, her words always got stuck at the ’so’ of ’sorry.’

Plop, patter.

While she was walking looking at the ground, lost in thought, rain began falling from the sky.

The rain that had been carefully tapping the ground drop by drop suddenly began pouring down fiercely like a waterfall. Since it was an unexpected shower not in the forecast, Seong Ha-yeon wasn’t carrying an umbrella.

"No way, what, woo-ugh...!"

Seong Ha-yeon, who had been muttering to herself out of habit, quickly cut off her words and spat out the rain that had entered her mouth. Then she looked around. There was nowhere visible to buy an umbrella.

She could hear faint siren sounds from the direction of the alley. Whatever was happening, it seemed Holy Knights had been dispatched there.

If she revealed that her father was Saint Judas, the Holy Knights would willingly lend her an umbrella or give her a ride. Even without revealing it, there had been times when Holy Knights recognized her first and showed kindness.

Receiving help from Holy Knights as a priest wasn’t particularly pleasant, but thinking to put out the urgent fire first, she ran headlong into the alley.

Splash, splash.

With each step, water splashed and hit her ankles. Despite shuddering at the sensation of wet clothes sticking coldly to her skin, Seong Ha-yeon continued running.

She could either ask Holy Knights for help to avoid the rain, or even if she didn’t meet any Holy Knights, going through the alley would allow her to reach Florence dormitory faster than other routes.

Soon the faint red light of the siren became clear. She could see two vehicles lined up in the distance. Seong Ha-yeon approached them, feeling both displeasure at being soaked by rain and happiness at meeting Holy Knights.

The scene she encountered was shocking.

"Hey you bastard, you think you’re some kind of cardinal just because you’re wearing fancy clothes!"

"Bastard? How old are you? Who are you calling bastard, bastard..."

"You’ve eaten enough, bastard. Better than you who spouts informal speech to just anyone..."

They were fighting. It wasn’t just verbal fighting. Grabbing each other’s collars and shaking while cursing was commonplace. They would dip their hands in falling rainwater to mercilessly slap cheeks, or it would develop into quiet fistfights without a single curse word.

Despite the endless torrential rain, their eyes showed glittering murderous intent. There was a clear will to kill the opponent with each slap, each punch.

"..."

Seong Ha-yeon silently turned around to leave the alley. Her body was shaking like crazy and her teeth were chattering. It wasn’t because of the cold. Her body was trembling uncontrollably from fear.

The eyes of those clergy fighting in the rain, kicking water and rolling in water, were too similar to the eyes of the ’strange uncles’ who had tried to cut off her arm when she was very young. Recalling the eyes of the uncles who had brought a saw to her arm without a moment’s hesitation while she screamed and begged for her life, and the chilling sensation of the saw, Seong Ha-yeon was soaked in fear.

Thump.

Then, someone grabbed her shoulder.

Splash!

"Ah, haaaaak! Don’t, don’t come...! It’s not me. It’s not me..."

Seong Ha-yeon, whose legs gave out and who sat down, covered her face with both arms while muttering incomprehensible words. Even in the heavy rain, the fear cast over her face was vivid.

"What’s not you... Hey, get up."

The man tried to grab Seong Ha-yeon’s arm to help her up. Seong Ha-yeon, who had fallen into panic, lowered her center of gravity downward, determined not to get up, and struggled.

Even so, the man didn’t let go of Seong Ha-yeon’s arm. His hand persistently tried to help her up.

Chomp!

Finally, Seong Ha-yeon bit the man’s wrist. She bit and chewed it thoroughly. When once wasn’t enough, she bit twice, three times continuously. When he still wouldn’t let go, she tried to bite and tear it off, but by then her jaw had already lost strength.

"Hey, stop... Hey!"

The man, unable to bear the pain, shouted. Seong Ha-yeon, startled, trembled and looked up.

Because her vision was blurred by fear, and because rain was falling steadily, she couldn’t see the man’s face clearly.

Even so, Seong Ha-yeon could immediately tell who he was.

"Huh?"

"Suddenly biting and... No, first get up."

The man roughly shook his arm to shake off the pain from his bitten wrist, then extended his hand to Seong Ha-yeon again. She unconsciously took his hand and stood up. Then she wiped away the raindrops and a few tears from around her eyes.

The person arranging his rain-soaked, drooping hair with rough hand movements was Do Seon-woo. Having roughly washed the blood flowing from the torn flesh with the pouring rain, he looked at Seong Ha-yeon with somewhat weary eyes and opened his mouth.

"Can you do it too? What your fa... father does."

"What?"

Flustered, Seong Ha-yeon tilted her head and asked back. Partly because she didn’t understand what Do Seon-woo meant, but also because his voice was hard to hear due to the fierce rainfall.

Do Seon-woo frowned and touched his forehead, then spoke again with clear pronunciation.

"Purifying magic and dismantling black magic circles, that thing."

"...Ah."

Seong Ha-yeon let out a short exclamation. Her father would dismantle Satan worship black magic circles and drive away magic through special blessings that only the Purification clan could use.

It was a blessing that necessarily required bloodshed, so she wasn’t very keen on using it, but she did know how to use that blessing.

"I know how to use it."

"Really?"

Do Seon-woo nodded and pointed to a woman who had collapsed as if thrown into the middle of the bloody fight between the clergy.

The woman was shedding black tears, and black foam was bubbling from her mouth. Black mist was also rising from both the tears and foam.

"There’s a black magic circle drawn on the back of that person’s neck. That’s also the reason the Holy Knights and priests are fighting."

"..."

"Can you do it?"

Do Seon-woo asked while looking directly into Seong Ha-yeon’s eyes.

Seong Ha-yeon carefully avoided that gaze and looked at the black magic circle drawn on the woman’s neck. Fortunately, it was small. She thought she could somehow manage something of that size.

"...I think I can do it."

As soon as Seong Ha-yeon said those words, Do Seon-woo grabbed her wrist and pulled her along. He guided her through the small war waged by Holy Knights and priests, leading her to the front of the collapsed woman.

Her grabbed wrist ached numbly, but it didn’t feel particularly bad.

With Do Seon-woo sending wary glances in all directions behind her, Seong Ha-yeon began drawing the blessing circle her father had taught her.

Unlike other blessing circles, the purification blessing circle required careful attention to each stroke. If even one stroke was drawn differently from the standard, it would become a completely different type of blessing instead of purification blessing.

Seong Ha-yeon, who had been drawing the blessing circle halfway while receiving Do Seon-woo’s protection, suddenly stopped her hand. Her pupils trembled incessantly.

"..."

She had forgotten how to draw the next part.

She knew how to use purification blessing, but this was her first time actually using it.

...What should I do?

* * *

After crushing the crow’s eyes, the first thing I did was summon rain through Dan Wedo. The magi flowing from the black magic circle had the characteristic of settling on the ground when it rained.

If magi spread everywhere through the air, there was a risk that the entire vicinity would turn into a battlefield. That’s when I encountered Seong Ha-yeon.

For me, asking Seong Ha-yeon for help was an extremely pride-damaging thing. However, only the Purification clan could dismantle black magic circles. Given the situation, I had no choice but to ask for her help.

Then, Seong Ha-yeon, who had been drawing a blessing circle, suddenly stopped her hand and stared at me blankly.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

I shouted first out of anger. Seong Ha-yeon seemed flustered and cowered like a frightened puppy, then carefully read my mood and opened her mouth.

"...To use purification blessing, I need to draw blood."

"So?"

"I think it will hurt..."

What kind of nonsense...!

I almost lost my reason to anger. Curses rose to my throat, but I barely held them back.

Without answering, I showed her the bite mark on my wrist. It must have been bitten so hard that blood was still dripping. This wasn’t just a simple bite but more like being torn by teeth.

"Ah, I understand. Then..."

Seeing this, Seong Ha-yeon reluctantly answered and looked around. She seemed to be looking for something.

"What?"

"Do you have something like a knife?"

Seong Ha-yeon asked urgently while rolling her eyes. She seemed to be looking for something sharp to draw blood since purification blessing required bloodshed. However, there were no immediately usable sharp objects nearby. While looking around, a green soju bottle entered my vision.

Crash!

I grabbed the head part of the soju bottle and smashed it on the ground. The soju bottle, which had originally been a blunt weapon, became a decent weapon once broken.

This should be sufficient for making wounds. Since Seong Ha-yeon was from the Purification clan, there was no need to worry about infection issues.

"For now, with this..."

"You."

Just as I was about to hand the broken bottle to Seong Ha-yeon, someone spoke to me.

The gazes of all the clergy who had been punching each other with murderous intent were fixed on me. One of them pointed his index finger at me while slowly approaching.

"You, what did you just do?"

In the torrential rain, the man’s eyes gleamed menacingly. The clergy who had stopped fighting began surrounding us as if coordinated, all approaching at once. All of them were pointing their index fingers at me accusingly.

"What are you doing? You’ve completely come to your senses."

"Right, you’ve come to your senses."

"What did you do? There was the sound of glass breaking."

"There was the sound of glass breaking."

"Glass broke..."

I couldn’t understand what they were talking about at all.

[Is this ’two truths and one lie’...]

I heard Legba’s voice. I didn’t have the mental capacity to respond. It was an unfamiliar fear I was experiencing for the first time. I stepped backward. The clergy surrounded and closed in on Seong Ha-yeon and me. Madness and anger clearly rose in their eyes.

Their anger, which had been directed at each other until just now, was now converging on us all at once.