The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 55

"Ah, ah. Wait a moment. I really got hit hard. No, didn’t you say earlier you’d go easy..."

Thwack.

Kim Jin-seo’s fist crashed into Gu Jun-hyeok’s jaw. Gu Jun-hyeok collapsed on the spot as if flowing down.

He wasn’t unconscious, but judging by how his legs were trembling, he seemed to have lost his strength.

Thus the sparring ended with Kim Jin-seo’s victory. It was a victory achieved purely through striking without any submissions.

"Ah, wow. I almost bit my tongue. This is attempted murder."

"You said you wouldn’t wear a mouthpiece."

"Huh? Did I say that?"

Gu Jun-hyeok had said he wouldn’t wear a mouthpiece for provocation. Likewise, he hadn’t worn headgear either. Thanks to that, he got hit more painfully.

Gu Jun-hyeok lay spread-eagle in the middle of the ring and let out a hollow laugh.

"Ah, this is really driving me crazy. My skills aren’t improving."

"They have improved. More than before."

Kim Jin-seo said calmly while unwrapping the hand wraps around her fists. Gu Jun-hyeok looked up at Kim Jin-seo with vacant eyes.

"How much more do I have to do to be able to win? It seems impossibly far."

"3 years."

"Oh? That’s not as bad as I thought?"

"No. 15 years."

"15 years? That’s a bit... No. Is even 15 years not enough?"

Gu Jun-hyeok jumped up from his position while scratching the back of his neck. His head was spinning from being hit directly in the jaw dozens of times, and his legs were trembling.

His sweat-soaked hair was stuck to his forehead. The gym owner, who had been watching the sparring from a distance, walked over with his arms crossed.

"Jun-hyeok, are you okay? I told you to just wear headgear. Stubborn kid."

"That’s what I’m saying. I should have just worn headgear. My jaw keeps shaking."

"Of course your jaw is shaking after getting hit like that. Jin-seo, you should also go a bit easier during sparring. The kid’s dying."

Kim Jin-seo, who had been wiping away her minimal sweat with a towel, silently nodded. The gym owner looked at Kim Jin-seo with pride.

Gu Jun-hyeok was one of the top fighters in the gym, but Kim Jin-seo had beaten him as if playing around. The gym owner was grateful that such a genius had registered at his gym.

"Jin-seo. There’s going to be a competition soon, do you want to participate or not?"

"What kind of competition?"

"Competitions are all more or less the same. Want to do it? If you place, you can add it to your award records."

Kim Jin-seo’s eyes briefly lit up at the mention of award records.

"Yes, I’ll do it."

"Okay. Then I’ll sign you up."

The gym owner took out a pen from his chest and scribbled something in his notebook. He clicked his pen for a while, then suddenly raised his eyebrows as if remembering something and opened his mouth.

"Oh right. Jin-seo, if you’re going to compete, you need to quit that too. Ciga..."

"Ah, gym owner."

"...Well anyway. I’m telling you to take good care of your health."

Kim Jin-seo hastily cut off the gym owner’s words. The gym owner nodded knowingly and appropriately moved on from the topic.

"What, Kim Jin-seo. Do you smoke cigarettes too?"

Gu Jun-hyeok asked with surprised eyes. His voice was too loud, so all the people in the gym focused their attention on Kim Jin-seo.

Kim Jin-seo glared at Gu Jun-hyeok with a cold gaze.

"I don’t smoke."

"Then what was that earlier? Didn’t the gym owner tell you to quit something?"

"I don’t know."

Kim Jin-seo said while still glaring at Gu Jun-hyeok. Her expression was emotionless and her tone was dry as could be, but somehow she still seemed angry.

"Really? If not, then not. Why are you looking at me like you want to kill me?"

"Want to spar one more time?"

Kim Jin-seo asked with a smile. Gu Jun-hyeok was frightened by that smile and slowly backed away.

"Um... Ah! Something came up at home. I have to go. Let’s spar next time~"

Gu Jun-hyeok ran away from the gym as if fleeing.

Kim Jin-seo immediately resumed her workout. She jumped rope, did shadow boxing, and hit the heavy bag and mitts.

Several members asked her to spar, but they all passed out before making it through the first round. No one was sufficient to be Kim Jin-seo’s opponent.

She worked out for nearly 4 hours straight, then washed up and left the gym.

From the gym to home was about a 50-minute walk. Taking the bus would be normal, but Kim Jin-seo deliberately ran that distance.

It was partly for physical training, but mostly to forget distracting thoughts.

"Oh."

Then she encountered a familiar figure from behind. Even in the darkness, she could clearly distinguish only his back.

Come to think of it, he was always standing with his back to her in the darkness. Back then too, and now as well.

"Do Seon... Mm."

Kim Jin-seo’s words, as she was about to call out to him without much thought, stopped.

According to what she had heard from Gu Jun-hyeok before, Do Seon-woo lived alone in a villa. But the house he had just come out of wasn’t a villa.

Was he coming out after playing at a friend’s house until late at night? Or a relative’s house? Various speculations arose, but none could be confirmed.

It would also be awkward to ask him directly. If she brought it up carelessly, he might mistake it for stalking.

"..."

During that time, Do Seon-woo had already moved far away. It was too late to catch up now. Kim Jin-seo turned and started running down a different path.

After running for about 15 more minutes like that, she became short of breath and her chest started to ache sharply.

In the past, she could run for 30 minutes straight without getting tired at all, but lately her stamina had noticeably worsened. Her cardiorespiratory endurance had definitely declined.

Clatter.

As she was bent over catching her breath, the cigarette pack in her inner pocket fell out. She briefly considered whether to pick it up or not, but finally picked it up and put it in her pocket.

And she ran again. No matter how much she ran, the distracting thoughts that had once attached themselves wouldn’t easily come off.

Later, she couldn’t breathe and her heart was pounding, but still she didn’t stop. It was practically self-torture.

What distracting thoughts she was running so hard to shake off, even she herself didn’t know.

* * *

Smack.

Someone hit my cheek. I came to my senses immediately. I tried to sit up abruptly, but my body ached everywhere and I couldn’t get up at all. I let out a weak groan and lay back down.

A giant was staring at me blankly.

"You awake? Crazy bastard."

He suddenly cursed at me without any context, which hurt my feelings slightly, but there wasn’t anything I could really do about it. I just lay there quietly... I tried making a sound as a test, and my voice came out better than expected. My mouth, which had felt dry enough to crumble at any moment, was now moistly dampened.

The giant sighed deeply and opened his mouth.

"Hey, you. What were you thinking going in there?"

I didn’t answer and first looked around, turning my head to assess the situation.

The place I was lying was on a hospital bed. I didn’t know which hospital. How much time had passed was also unclear. An IV was inserted in my right arm.

And somehow my chest felt empty.

"Ah, uh. What. Where..."

The keepsakes I had managed to retrieve, along with Baal’s Maw and the trumpet, were gone.

I searched from my inner pockets to my pants pockets, but couldn’t find anything. My heart pounded and made the sound of a broken clockwork mechanism.

"What are you looking for? This?"

Then the giant took something out from his chest. It was the keepsakes and holy items I had been looking for.

Suddenly I felt dizzy and my breathing became labored. The giant casually examined them and opened his mouth.

"Don’t tell me you went in there to get this..."

Thwack!

I snatched it away from the giant and put it in my chest. My heart was racing wildly.

"Did you open it?"

The holy items were one thing, but the keepsakes were objects that should never fall into someone else’s hands.

The giant let out a hollow laugh as if incredulous and opened his mouth.

"I didn’t open it, man. What is it anyway?"

"..."

"If you don’t want to say, don’t. I’ve lived my whole life and never seen such a crazy bastard again."

The word "again" was slightly annoying, but I let it pass. Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t opened the box.

I tried to check the time on my phone, but it wouldn’t turn on, perhaps because the battery was dead. There was a slight crack on the corner of the screen.

"What time is it now?"

I asked the giant. The giant, who had been about to get up from his seat, looked at his wristwatch in an awkward position.

"A little past 11. Why, do you have an appointment?"

11 o’clock. When I left Jeong In-ah’s house it had been around 9, so I had been unconscious for about 2 hours. For someone who had run into a fire scene with bare skin, I had woken up quite quickly.

I slowly got up despite my aching body. My whole body was full of pain, but it was still walkable.

Since my studio apartment had burned down completely, it would be better to go to the chapel and sleep there tonight.

Thinking that, I started walking, but the giant stretched out his arm to stop me.

"Hey hey? Where is this crazy bastard trying to go with that body? If you have an appointment, just cancel it. The treatment isn’t finished yet."

"I’m fine."

"Don’t be stubborn. With that body you can’t even walk, let alone... you can walk."

Pop.

I pulled out the IV and walked briskly toward the hospital room exit. My walking speed was clearly slower than usual, but it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t walk.

Compared to when I used Bosu’s divine power without an altar and my joints twisted, or when I used Granboa’s divine power and vomited blood for half a day, this was relatively mild.

"Hey man! I’m not trying to stop you, but at least take this."

In the middle of walking, a booming shout reached the back of my head. The giant was running toward me making thumping sounds. In his hand was a business card.

"If there’s anything wrong with your body, don’t endure it and go to the hospital right away."

"Yes."

"Kid, you might die from ignoring it. If you feel sick, contact here immediately. I’ll cover the costs."

I received the business card. ’Seoul Eastern Holy Knight Order Commander Han Dae-ho.’ Below the position and name was a phone number.

The design was very simple. Just black text on white paper with the Holy Knight Order logo, and no other decorations.

"But what’s that box?"

While I was looking at the business card and memorizing the phone number, Commander Han Dae-ho asked.

"Kee, mm."

I was about to say keepsakes but closed my mouth halfway. Would it be okay to truthfully say it was keepsakes? Might I invite unnecessary suspicion? It was because of such thoughts.

"Kee? Kee, what."

"My mother’s keepsakes."

I pretended to ponder while speaking. It was actually my father’s keepsakes, but considering my false identity, saying it was my mother’s keepsakes seemed more natural.

It was miserable that I had to lie even when explaining about the keepsakes.

"Ah... Right, go. And definitely contact me if you feel sick."

Han Dae-ho looked at me briefly with eyes full of sympathy, then turned his head as if embarrassed. I bowed my head and left the hospital.

The alley, where even streetlights were sparse, was full of darkness. Occasionally my knees would buckle involuntarily and I’d almost fall, but I just endured it.

Rip.

I roughly tore up the business card Han Dae-ho had given me and threw it on the ground.

[Why are you tearing up something he gave you?]

Legba asked puzzledly.

"Because I’m not going to contact him anyway."

[You never know when you might need it. As he said, you might really need to go to the hospital.]

"I memorized the number just in case, but this level of injury will heal if I just rest."

[It’s naive but you’re probably right.]

I smiled slightly. And I walked through the empty alley where no one was around.