The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 46

"Sorry. I’m late."

The fire on the bear went out, and his face was revealed. It was Kim Bok-dong.

Kim Bok-dong seemed to blame himself for being late, but we were grateful just for him coming.

If it weren’t for him, we would have slowly died from inhaling smoke, or been consumed by the approaching flames.

Kim Bok-dong strode through the flames and guided us.

At the end of the flames was Ha Ye-jin. Divine power was gushing out around her body. It was a tremendous amount.

The rain that was extinguishing the flames seemed to come from the miracle she had reproduced.

"You must have been scared! Hurry and get on! These are good kids! They’re not magical beasts!"

Behind her stood two giant dogs. They had muzzles in their mouths and saddles on their backs. A gentle light flowed around their bodies. It was the light of blessing.

Gu Jun-hyeok tilted his head and opened his mouth.

"Eh. There are only two?"

"Oh! This is a problem! Wait a moment, for now two people ride on one! They’re sturdy kids!"

Ha Ye-jin shouted frantically.

She was reproducing a miracle while simultaneously drawing blessing circles and healing circles with both hands. There were dozens of blessing circles drawn like that. It was understandable that she was frantic.

Gu Jun-hyeok looked back and forth between me and Kim Jin-seo.

"Um, I’ll ride alone. I have dog... dog motion sickness."

Gu Jun-hyeok showed a reluctant smile as he rode alone on the dog’s back.

It was a ridiculous excuse. Not seasickness, but what is dog motion sickness. Besides, what does this have to do with motion sickness in the first place.

However, there was no time to think. The flames were spreading on the wind.

Kim Jin-seo and I rode the same dog. There was plenty of space. After confirming that we had all gotten on the dogs, Ha Ye-jin approached with big steps.

"Good boy, let’s go home~"

Woof!

When Ha Ye-jin stroked the dog’s neck with her right hand, the dogs all barked in unison as if answering. The dogs carried us as they made their way through the mountain path.

Before long, the darkness lifted and the lights of Florence’s campus began to appear in the distance. The dogs were very fast and the riding experience was good. Even going down such a rough mountain path, there was almost no shaking.

Rustle.

Kim Jin-seo, who was behind me, grabbed my collar. I was startled and turned around. She was staring at me with a nonchalant face.

"I felt like I might fall."

"...Who?"

"Me."

She spoke as if it was natural and quickly turned her head away. Her hair fluttered in the wind, making her face hard to see.

The dog was still running, but as I said again, the riding experience was good so there was almost no shaking.

Perhaps Kim Jin-seo was having the ’dog motion sickness’ that Gu Jun-hyeok mentioned.

If I could help relieve motion sickness just by letting her hold my collar, I could let her hold it as much as she wanted. Is dog motion sickness really a thing?

[Well... what she learned is half-baked psychology.]

Legba muttered.

However, it wasn’t a situation to answer, and there was no time to answer. The dogs had already left the mountain and brought us in front of Florence’s main building.

The dogs shook their bodies vigorously like after taking a shower. We tumbled down from the dogs’ backs.

Woof!

The dogs barked at us as if talking to us, then returned the way they came. They were incredibly fast as expected. The dogs disappeared into the darkness like that.

In front of the antique-style main building, the three of us just stood there staring at each other without saying a word. In the silence, Gu Jun-hyeok opened his mouth.

"No, what. What are we supposed to do now. They’re not going to tell us to have class like this..."

Crash.

At that moment, someone fell from the sky like a meteor. Gu Jun-hyeok stopped what he was saying as he let out an exclamation like a scream.

What fell was So Do-jin. The blade of the sword he was holding was covered in the black blood of magical beasts, and a gentle light of blessing flowed on his legs.

He sheathed his sword and opened his mouth.

"No class today, so go home. Rest and come tomorrow."

"Oh. That’s awesome."

When Gu Jun-hyeok smiled and spoke, So Do-jin’s face crumpled.

"Instead there’s makeup classes."

"Ah."

Gu Jun-hyeok sighed. I stared blankly at So Do-jin.

Then So Do-jin glanced back, and our eyes met.

His eyes, which were always dazed with fatigue, were strangely clear just this once. I caught a glimpse of something like obsession in his pupils.

"Anyway don’t wander off somewhere else. Go home immediately. If you’re caught wandering around, you’ll get penalty points."

Crash.

Right after that, So Do-jin disappeared. More precisely, he climbed the mountain at tremendous speed, but since I couldn’t follow him with my eyes, it looked like he had vanished.

Looking at the professors in charge of each department at Florence, sometimes I wondered if they were really human. Kim Bok-dong, Ha Ye-jin, So Do-jin, all of them were like that.

Among them, what caught my attention was So Do-jin.

The light of blessing flowing in his body was somehow heterogeneous. It didn’t look like it came from blessing circles, but rather like light manifested from inside his body.

Right now it was difficult to explain clearly. I could only vaguely guess that So Do-jin was somehow different.

"I have nothing to do even if I go home, ah. I can go to the gym."

The one who broke the momentary silence was Gu Jun-hyeok. Even in this situation, Gu Jun-hyeok wasn’t serious at all, and was actually smiling like an idiot.

Kim Jin-seo looked at him as if she couldn’t believe it.

"You said you decided not to go starting yesterday."

"Hey, you."

Gu Jun-hyeok glared at me with an unpleasant smile.

"I’ve done enough by now, so cut me some slack! Eh? I helped earlier."

I couldn’t understand their conversation at all. It would be more appropriate to say I couldn’t follow the context.

Kim Jin-seo heard Gu Jun-hyeok’s words and turned her head to look at me. As always, there was no expression on her face, so I couldn’t guess what she was thinking.

"...Fine. Just this once."

Kim Jin-seo nodded slightly.

What did Gu Jun-hyeok help with, and why is Kim Jin-seo agreeing? I was the only one who couldn’t join their conversation from earlier.

"Again with the talk only they know..."

I muttered to myself out of unnecessary feelings of alienation.

* * *

"So Do-jin! Do you see anything!?"

"Three to the southeast, one to the north."

"How’s their condition!?"

"They look fine. They don’t even seem to know there was a forest fire. You took care of all the magical beasts anyway."

So Do-jin squinted as he surveyed various parts of Eden Hill from atop a tree. The light of blessing swirled in his pupils.

After looking down at the hill for quite a while like that, So Do-jin almost fell from the tree with a wobble. It was dizziness from overwork.

"Phew."

So Do-jin, who sighed while holding his forehead, opened his mouth.

"How many people have we evacuated so far?"

"283!"

"What’s the total?"

"287! If we rescue the remaining four, there will be no missing personnel!"

Kim Bok-dong shouted from under the tree with a booming voice. So Do-jin frowned.

"Speak a bit quieter. We can all hear anyway."

"What?!"

"I said you can speak quietly!"

"Ah! Got it!!"

Kim Bok-dong seemed to have no intention of lowering his voice.

So Do-jin shook his head as if resigned, moving the light of blessing that had been swirling in his pupils to his legs.

"I’m going. Have four dogs on standby."

Then he spoke to Ha Ye-jin like giving an order. Ha Ye-jin, who was in the middle of extinguishing the fire by reproducing a miracle, scrunched up her face.

"What? Am I your subordinate? Fix your tone."

"...Please have them on standby. Thank you."

"Fine. Just hurry up and go."

Ha Ye-jin answered curtly.

So Do-jin crouched as if compressing his body, then leaped toward the southeast like bouncing. Ha Ye-jin clicked her tongue watching that sight.

Kim Bok-dong approached Ha Ye-jin with big steps.

"Ha Ye-jin. You’re working hard."

"If you know, that’s enough, idiots. Think before you move."

"Mm. I’ll keep that in mind."

Kim Bok-dong nodded. Ha Ye-jin turned her head away with a displeased face.

When Kim Bok-dong and So Do-jin thoughtlessly rushed straight to the hill, Ha Ye-jin immediately went to the Holy Knight Order in front of Florence and borrowed military dogs. They were improved breeds that were very large and had good blessing sensitivity.

Thanks to that, all students could be rescued without injury, and the time required for rescue was also greatly reduced.

The reason Kim Bok-dong and So Do-jin couldn’t move against Ha Ye-jin’s words was all for these reasons.

"But why isn’t the Holy Knight Order sending reinforcements?"

"Have you ever seen them come on time? I didn’t expect it from the beginning."

"That’s too harsh. There’s a former Holy Knight right in front of you."

"What. You’re not even a Holy Knight anymore anyway."

At Ha Ye-jin’s words, Kim Bok-dong laughed sheepishly.

Woof, woof!

At that moment, the military dogs that had gone down the mountain carrying students returned. The military dogs panted with their tongues out, waiting for Ha Ye-jin’s praise.

Ha Ye-jin smiled and approached the military dogs, stroking their necks.

"Good job. Good job~"

The military dogs rolled over on their backs and rolled around on the ground.

Although they had been bred to increase their size, except when dealing with magical beasts, their personalities were just ordinary gentle dogs.

Ha Ye-jin was startled and tried to get the military dogs up, but they were too heavy to lift.

"No, kids! It’s dirty. Get up quickly. Quickly!"

"Puppies are cute after all."

"Help me! Don’t just watch!"

Ha Ye-jin shouted in a sharp voice. Only then did Kim Bok-dong help Ha Ye-jin get the military dogs up.

"Priests must have a hard time too. Having to train military dogs."

Priests, who have weaker physical strength compared to Holy Knights or Holy Warriors, sometimes fight using livestock with good blessing sensitivity. The priest department curriculum includes time to learn how to train personal military dogs.

"Of course. We have much more to do than Holy Knights. We have to do research and other things too."

"...Please refrain from job disparaging remarks."

"It’s not disparagement, it’s fact."

Ha Ye-jin spoke teasingly. Kim Bok-dong smiled reluctantly. He had nothing to refute.

Holy Knights had a brief golden age 9 years ago, then have been in decline until today, making them an unfortunate profession.

Behind Kim Bok-dong, who had been lost in contemplation for a while, So Do-jin flew over and landed. In each of his hands were two students, a total of four students. It looked like he was carrying food waste.

"Ugh..."

"Teacher Do-jin... please let us down now..."

The students made zombie-like groans with pale faces.

So Do-jin handed the students over to Kim Bok-dong. Kim Bok-dong put them, who were almost about to faint, on the backs of the military dogs.

The military dog barked "Woof!" and went down the mountain. Kim Bok-dong put his hands on his waist and smiled proudly as he spoke.

"With this, we’ve rescued all 287 people. The fire extinguishing is also..."

"Fire extinguishing is done. The Holy Knight Order never sent reinforcements to the end."

Ha Ye-jin interrupted Kim Bok-dong’s words. So Do-jin, who was beside them, frowned and opened his mouth.

"Have you ever seen those guys come on time? I didn’t expect it from the beginning."

"Huh. I just said the exact same thing. We’re in sync."

"Really? So what am I supposed to do about it."

"Just saying. Your speech patterns and all."

Ha Ye-jin clicked her tongue and continued.

"Are the bird numbers correct?"

So Do-jin tilted his head and pretended to think for a moment.

"For now, the magical beasts I dealt with are 7. Kim Bok-dong, what about you?"

"I got 6."

"Then the total is 13. There were 21 birds in the livestock building, so 8 are missing."

"Really? Then the rest must be over there."

So Do-jin pointed with his chin toward the deep darkness beyond the forest that had turned to ash.

Without anyone saying who should go first, the three began walking toward that direction almost simultaneously. Ash wet from rain stuck stickily to their feet.

"Ugh."

Ha Ye-jin was disgusted by that texture.

So Do-jin also had a very displeased face, but he only frowned without showing it otherwise.

On the other hand, Kim Bok-dong walked forward with big steps as if this texture was familiar to him.

How far had they walked? In the distance, they could see something that had turned to ash piled up like a tower.

So Do-jin stopped walking for a moment and frowned. Then he stopped Ha Ye-jin who was following behind.

"Wait, don’t come."

"What? Why!"

"Just because."

Ha Ye-jin grumbled from behind, but So Do-jin didn’t care. The reason So Do-jin stopped her was one thing. Like the ’tower of corpses’ he had seen earlier, there was a possibility that the pile of ash in front of them was also made of human corpses. So Do-jin didn’t want to see Ha Ye-jin vomit again.

Kim Bok-dong fearlessly approached the pile of ash and examined its identity. Then he raised his eyebrows as if puzzled.

"It’s not human corpses. It’s magical beasts. Looks like they died from being struck by lightning."

Parts of the feathers had completely burned away, and bright red scars remained on the exposed skin.

The scars somewhat looked like Lichtenberg patterns. This meant the magical beasts’ cause of death was lightning.

Kim Bok-dong counted the number of dead magical beasts one by one and examined their corpses.

"All 7 died from lightning strikes. Two of them... were they shot?"

Seven died from lightning strikes, and two died with holes pierced through their hearts. It seemed like they had been sniped with something like a rifle.

Therefore, there were a total of 9 magical beast corpses here.

"...9 corpses?"

"9 corpses? Why are there 9?"

"Get back!"

Flap flap flap!

One bird magical beast that they thought was dead tried to fly up by flapping its wings.

So Do-jin hurriedly drew his sword and took a stance. However, Kim Bok-dong didn’t back away. He was looking at ’that thing’ with puzzled, no, fearful eyes.

"This is taxidermy."

Cotton and sawdust were pouring out from the magical beast’s broken wing. The magical beast’s pale pupils flashed and emitted light.

Kim Bok-dong clenched his fist and struck the magical beast’s head without a moment’s hesitation.

With a crack, the magical beast’s head burst. Some unidentified machine-like thing popped out from inside.

Kim Bok-dong picked up that machine. The flash was coming from there.

"The method is exactly the same as that incident 2 years ago."

Kim Bok-dong said. His eyes were trembling with fear. His focus was distant.

He was now recalling the tragedy from 2 years ago. That day when dozens of taxidermied creatures went wild in Incheon.

Waaaah!

A belated siren sound broke the silence. It meant the Holy Knight Order had arrived.