Chapter 182
After belatedly regaining consciousness, I grabbed Yu-Hyun's hand and stood up. I didn’t want to hold on to this hand, but given the current situation, forcibly rejecting his hand would seem awkward.
Some teachers I had never seen before approached me and asked if I was okay. I said that I had gotten slightly injured during the exam and that I probably still hadn't fully recovered, so I planned to go to the hospital today or tomorrow. When I said that, the teachers all understood.
Then I followed Yu-Hyun out of the school gate. When I stood up and started walking away, the crowd that had gathered around me dispersed as if it had never existed in the first place.
Along the way, I made eye contact with In-Ah. She had a face that seemed to indicate that she wanted to say something to me, but when she saw me with Yu-Hyun, she quickly averted her gaze.
"Florence Academy has an unnecessarily large number of students... It could be reduced by about half to a smaller number of elite students," Yu-Hyun said abruptly while looking at the students pouring out of the school gate.
He then turned his head to look at me. His gaze indicated that he wanted me to answer. I started walking without answering him. Yu-Hyun walked next to me and then tilted his head as if he were curious.
"You seem to be quieter than I thought. I thought you would have a lot to say."
"...I can't say it here."
I just barely managed to answer his question. The voice that came out of my mouth was dry and cracked. It didn't feel like my own voice. My body wasn't in good condition. I wasn’t just thirsty—I was experiencing dehydration symptoms at this point. My vision would occasionally blur, my stomach felt queasy, and my head hurt. I couldn't tell if it was because I had abused Dan Wedo's power or if it was because of the psychological pressure. But now wasn't the time to worry about that.
"Why? Are you afraid that someone might hear? Even if they hear, they wouldn’t be able to understand anyway."
"..."
"It's because ordinary people live without knowing why special people are special. Only special people can recognize each other."
I kept walking without answering. Thankfully, Yu-Hyun obediently followed me. While walking, I looked around and occasionally turned my head to glance behind me. There were hardly any people in sight. However, the word hardly meant that there were still some people around.
Although I couldn't see anyone at the moment, we might encounter someone if we continued to walk. We had to take a path where we wouldn’t encounter anyone at all. I knew a few places that were like that. When I was young, I had to avoid people, so I had to find such paths. Now that I thought about it, this situation wasn’t that much different from back then.
While walking, Yu-Hyun said some things to me. He didn’t say anything dangerous. Most of what he said were pointless words that didn’t deserve a response. I came up with appropriate responses to whatever he said, so as not to annoy him. We continued to walk while searching for a suitable place.
"By the way, where are we going? Don’t you live in the dormitory?" Yu-Hyun suddenly asked with a puzzled expression on his face.
It was a question that he had asked stupidly late. A normal person would have asked immediately after leaving the school gate.
I subtly observed Yu-Hyun's expression. His smile, which had been disguising nonchalance, was strangely precarious. What had been visible on everyone else’s face, but not his face, finally began to show.
It was the mark of deception.
He had known that I lived in the dormitory from the start. But for some reason, he hadn’t revealed this fact until now. I had no idea why. The only thing that was clear was that he had not followed me by mistake, but rather, he had intentionally followed me.
"I wonder..." I answered while scanning the area.
This was a desolate alley with no people or parked cars. It was also a location where cult members could enter the underground chapel via a secret passage.
There was a CCTV camera, but it was not working. The wires had been severed. It did not matter if someone secretly reconnected the wires and fixed the CCTV without my knowledge. I only had to make the CCTV camera malfunction.
I looked up at the sky one last time. There was no moon, and there were no stars in the night sky. It was a new moon.
"Ogun."
I called out to Ogun. He willingly lent me his power because, in front of Yu-Hyun, I existed as my true self.
Tick, tick, tick...
The street lights went out. The lights in the residential and commercial areas, too. All the artificial lights disappeared.
The darkness of nature filled the void that remained. It was a darkness that didn’t contain even a single ray of moonlight. I knew how deep and terrifying the darkness of nature could be, and I knew how to harness such darkness.
He seemed to have lost some of his usual calmness and composure. Jin-Seo felt strangely nervous as she said, "Where should I start...?"
"Don't worry about me. Just start with the part you want to talk about," Joseph said while waving his hand as if to reassure her.
Jin-Seo began her story.
She talked about how she had faced a demon during the exam, that she had let the student that she was with escape, and how she had fought the demon alone. Suddenly, a third eye appeared on the demon’s forehead, and her body felt weak as a result. A snake emerged from the ground and subdued the demon. The heart of the demon was pulled out, and it fled. The student brought Bok-Dong and Ye-Jin, but immediately after, they all lost consciousness due to the black magic.
Jin-Seo explained everything she remembered about the situation, but she did not mention her own desires that she had glimpsed through the black magic.
After Jin-Seo finished her story, Joseph asked, "Are you saying a snake crawled out of the ground?"
Jin-Seo nodded in response. Joseph looked intently into Jin-Seo's eyes. It seemed like she was trying to hide something, but her eyes didn’t show any signs of lying. It was hard to believe, but there seemed to be no choice but to believe it for now.
"A snake..."
The Romanican Holy Book frequently mentioned snakes and contained many descriptions of miracles related to them.
However, there was no method of summoning a snake through miracle replication. At the very least, there was no known method at the moment. Thus, it was unlikely that a snake had appeared due to a miracle. Although Jin-Seo possessed incredible talent, she was not exceptional enough to replicate a previously unknown miracle.
Joseph recalled the names of snakes mentioned in the scriptures of various religions. Satan from Satanism, Naga from Hinduism, Damballa from Voodooism, and the various snakes from mythologies from ancient, obscure religions that had long since disappeared.
The possibility of it being a conflict between the Voodoo Cult and the Satanists was low. It was true that there was a snake Loa named Damballa in the Voodoo Cult, but no Prophet from the Voodoo Cult had ever directly invoked and used Damballa.
Besides, there was no reason for the Prophet to use their powers to save a Florence Academy student.
Therefore, the remaining possibility was that it was a conflict between two different Satanists with opposing inclinations. There was a high possibility that it was an internal conflict. He didn’t know why the Satanists were fighting each other. This was something that he would have to figure out from now on.
"Oh, now that I think about it, I have something to show you,” Joseph said before taking out his phone and showing her a photo he had saved.
"By any chance, is this the demon that you saw?"
"..."
Jin-Seo narrowed her eyes at the photo. The image quality was very poor, and the focus was shaky, making it difficult to see the subject clearly. After staring at the photo for a while, a chilly anger filled Jin-Seo’s eyes.
In the photo that Joseph showed her, there was the appearance of a demon. It was the demon that had killed Jin-Seo's foster mother and the one that had targeted her after appearing at the examination site. She could tell from the demon’s shining armor, its elongated arms, and glowing red eyes. Her heart raced. Just by seeing the image of the demon in the photo, her blood boiled as if the demon were right in front of her.
"It seems to be right."
Joseph nodded and put his phone away. There was no need for him to hear her answer. Just by looking at her expression, he could tell what response would come back.
He had expected it after hearing about the symptoms that the two teachers and the two students who had been affected by black magic had suffered, but the demon that had appeared at the examination site was indeed that demon.
According to Jin-Seo's words, it was still alive and wasn’t dead yet. Demons didn’t die unless their hearts were completely destroyed. In other words, it meant that it was impossible to tell when that guy would appear again.
Joseph secretly smiled to himself. There was still a chance. A chance for repentance.
"...I have one last question to ask. Once again, it’s a bit straightforward," Joseph said after hiding his smile.
Jin-Seo nodded silently once again. Her gaze was cold, and there was no movement in her expression. She was still thinking about the demon. The demon wasn’t dead yet, and it would come back someday. She had to prepare for that moment. She couldn't just back down in fear like she had done this time. She had to kill it with her own hands. She had to rip out the heart hidden beneath its tough armor.
Joseph silently stared at Jin-Seo and said, "What's your relationship with Sun-Woo?"
"Huh... What?" Jin-Seo returned the question.
It was, as he had said, a direct question, but she was taken aback by its directness.
