The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 96

Yeom Man-geun of the Jeolla branch’s accommodation was room 202. For someone who came alone, he had received a fairly good room.

Rooms 301 and 302 were the largest and best rooms, and the next best rooms were 202 and 201.

"We should hurry and leave from here cheaply."

There, Yeom Man-geun was holding a phone receiver and talking to someone. There was no need to ask who it was. It was Ha Pan-seok from the Chungcheong branch.

Because their plan to eliminate or impeach the cult leader and then install Ha Su-yeong as the 4th cult leader had been miserably ruined, Yeom Man-geun and Ha Pan-seok were sweating bullets.

"We still have to live our own lives, so let’s stop with this rebellion and coup talk..."

When Ha Pan-seok, who had been caught plotting rebellion and cornered into a desperate situation, asked about future plans, Yeom Man-geun said that the best option was simply to run away.

The sound of Ha Pan-seok shouting loudly could be heard through the receiver.

"My ears are going to fall off. Ah, then is there any good method..."

Yeom Man-geun, who was about to say that, stopped speaking and held his breath.

He could sense a presence beyond the door.

His pupils moved rapidly left and right in the darkness.

"I’ll call back."

Click.

He hung up the phone and Yeom Man-geun got up from his seat. He hid behind the door and emitted Voodoo magic power.

The presence beyond the door stood there without moving an inch.

Knock knock...

Then, a knocking sound echoed.

His heartbeat grew incredibly loud. His hair stood on end and his legs went weak. Cold sweat flowed.

It wouldn’t be Ha Pan-seok, and it wouldn’t be Yoon Chang-su or Yuk Eun-hyeong either, so then...

It was certainly either a ghost, or the cult leader who was scarier than ghosts.

"Are you there?"

A voice came from beyond. As expected, it was the cult leader’s voice.

Damn it, that cult leader bastard finally came to kill me!

Lamenting inwardly, Yeom Man-geun hid behind the door. Then he emitted Voodoo magic power and began drawing spell circles.

"I saw you going in earlier..."

Crack, crackle!

At the same time the cult leader muttered to himself, the sound of something breaking came from beyond the door. His hands trembled with fear.

He’s planning to tear the door apart with force!

Bang!

Soon the door opened. No, it was torn apart.

Yeom Man-geun hastily aimed sorcery at the man who opened the door and entered.

Fainting sorcery.

It was too obvious and hastily prepared sorcery, so he didn’t know if it would be effective, but there was no better sorcery for dealing with people.

"..."

However, no mist flowed from the spell circle.

The spell circle hadn’t activated in the first place. Some strong and strange power... something like the cult leader’s power had dismantled the spell circle.

Yeom Man-geun swallowed hard. An unfamiliar and eerie fear he had never felt before was passing along his spine.

"Fainting sorcery is a bit obvious."

Click.

The man who opened the door and entered turned on the light. Yeom Man-geun shielded his eyes from the sudden rush of light with his hand. The light was so bright he couldn’t see the face of the man who entered.

Soon his hazy vision gradually returned to normal. The man’s appearance was revealed.

"...Cult Leader."

"Don’t be too wary. I didn’t come to harm you."

The cult leader said as he strode into the room. He said in words that he hadn’t come to harm him, but he had certainly come to do something similar to harming.

That was because Yeom Man-geun was a key figure in the faction plotting rebellion. From Do Seon-woo’s perspective, there was no reason to keep him alive.

Yeom Man-geun emitted Voodoo magic power and drew the next spell circle. If he drew just one more stroke, the spell circle would be complete.

However, somehow it didn’t seem like the sorcery would activate even if he completed the spell circle.

That mysterious power the cult leader possessed...

The power to manipulate Voodoo magic power to dismantle spell circles and manipulate sorcery mist was the problem.

"Pl-please spare me!"

Eventually Yeom Man-geun stopped drawing spell circles and collapsed to his knees right there.

Using sorcery would be meaningless, and it would certainly only further twist the cult leader’s mood.

In times like this, the best option was to prostrate oneself and beg for one’s life.

"I only did errands. Please spare me."

"Errands... errands?"

At the questioning words, Yeom Man-geun continued.

Everything he had done was all ordered by Ha Pan-seok of the Chungcheong branch, and he had only done Ha Pan-seok’s bidding and had never directly participated in rebellion...

Detailed self-justification continued.

"..."

The cult leader nodded silently and pulled over a chair to sit down. Then he leisurely crossed his legs and looked down at Yeom Man-geun.

Every visible movement was full of openings. Yet Yeom Man-geun didn’t dare think of resisting. It was because of the Voodoo magic power gently flowing from the cult leader’s fingertips.

The color of the Voodoo magic power was pure purple with no impurities mixed in. Just seeing the color of the magic power, when sorcery was activated with that, its intensity would be beyond words.

"Executive Yeom Man-geun."

"Y-yes..."

"Why are you like that? Please get up and sit comfortably. If you stay like that, I feel uncomfortable too."

The cult leader said with a gentle smile. It was a warm yet somehow chilling smile.

Yeom Man-geun felt grateful for the cult leader’s mercy while trying not to let his guard down as he awkwardly sat in a chair.

"Is the factory running well?"

The cult leader clasped his hands together. Yeom Man-geun silently nodded with his clenched fists placed properly on his knees.

Then the cult leader began rummaging through his pockets. Yeom Man-geun swallowed hard. He was terrified of what might come out of that pocket.

In the worst case, he expected zombie drugs to come out, or at least a dagger. However, contrary to expectations, what the cult leader took out was a phone.

He held the phone screen toward Yeom Man-geun.

"Executive Lee Jin-seong uses coins as a money laundering method. Excluding church operating funds, this is how much money fell to me."

Coins.

Yeom Man-geun had heard of them. There were dozens of people around Yeom Man-geun who had gone into debt playing with coins, sold all their household belongings, and disappeared.

Yeom Man-geun counted the numbers beyond the screen. How much is this, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands... Even if one was 100 won, it was considerable money.

"They say one coin is worth about 1,000 won in Korean currency."

"O-one thousand won!"

Yeom Man-geun unconsciously repeated the cult leader’s words.

Even if one was 100 won it would have been a lot, but if it was 1,000 won, it was an unimaginably enormous amount of money.

However, it was too early to be surprised here. The cult leader’s next words were even more shocking.

"I’ll give you half of this money."

"..."

Yeom Man-geun silently scratched his shortly cropped side hair. He felt a chill down his spine. It felt like ice chunks were sneakily climbing up each vertebra of his spine to the back of his neck.

However, at the same time, heat was boiling in his lower abdomen. It was heat that boiled up unconsciously at the sight of money.

Saying he would give half meant he was trying to buy him. It meant he should abandon Ha Pan-seok and join his side for money.

To exaggerate a bit, it might even be an order to completely eliminate Ha Pan-seok.

"I understand what you mean. I’ll take care of Ha Pan-seok, so Cult Leader..."

When he had thought just surviving would be more than enough, if money was given on top of that, there was no reason not to accept it.

Although betraying Ha Pan-seok weighed on his conscience somewhat, Yeom Man-geun thought there was no more foolish act than throwing away one’s life for the sake of loyalty.

"What such violent words are you saying?"

However, the cult leader laughed as if he had heard some joke, taking it lightly.

Yeom Man-geun was confused and lost for words, staring blankly at him.

"Th-then. What about the money?"

Soon the smile that had been on the cult leader’s face disappeared.

In his eyes looking at Yeom Man-geun was an extremely cold heat. It was a contradictory expression, but there was no other way to describe such a strange gaze.

"I’d like to borrow Executive Yeom Man-geun’s factory to do some work together."

"Th-the factory..."

Yeom Man-geun showed clear signs of hesitation as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Betraying Ha Pan-seok would only prick his conscience momentarily, but giving up the factory was a different story.

"That’s a bit..."

Yeom Man-geun said hesitantly. Though indirect, his words clearly contained the meaning of refusal.

The cult leader firmly closed his mouth in a straight line and lowered his gaze. Then he nodded his head a few times slightly.

Gurgle, gurrrgle...

Then, from beyond the torn door, some unknown things began swarming in. Wrapped in darkness, they looked like dozens of giant serpents at first glance.

Swish!

"Gaaah!"

When the cult leader gestured, one serpent roughly coiled around Yeom Man-geun’s neck. Then it began slowly strangling him.

"Pl-please spare me. I’ll do whatever the Cult Leader orders!"

Yeom Man-geun frantically shouted while touching the scales of the serpent wrapped around his neck. The rough texture of tree bark could be felt at his fingertips.

The cult leader looked at Yeom Man-geun with cold eyes without a trace of sympathy, then smiled slightly.

"Really? Then does that mean you can also lend me the factory?"

The cult leader asked again.

If he gave up the factory, his livelihood would eventually become so difficult that he would barely be able to put food on the table.

But he couldn’t not give it up. Then the cult leader would immediately strangle him to death.

Would he die now, or would he die later...

Without question, dying later was better. Yeom Man-geun thought that as long as one stayed alive, even if the sky fell, a hole to escape through would appear.

In the end, he nodded.

Thud!

Then, the tree branch that had been coldly strangling his neck gently released its strength. Yeom Man-geun roughly gasped for breath and collapsed onto the spot.

The cult leader looked down at him with the same motionless posture as before, as if nothing had happened.

"Why are you so surprised?"

The cult leader asked. Yeom Man-geun was shocked to his spine by that inhuman coldness. However, he couldn’t tell the truth.

He quickly racked his brains, looking for an answer that could get him out of the situation.

"N-no. It’s just, I was wondering if you had regained the altar..."

It was words he had thoughtlessly uttered in his urgency. Immediately after, he realized it was a slip of the tongue.

Fire was settling in the cult leader’s cold eyes that had shown no emotion. Burning anger stared piercingly at Yeom Man-geun’s face.

"...’Regained’?"

As if responding to the cult leader’s anger, tree branches writhed like serpents beyond the door.

The cult leader continued.

"How do you know about that?"

"I-I just passed on what Ha Pan-seok said exactly."

Yeom Man-geun had really just repeated exactly what he had heard from Ha Pan-seok. He didn’t even know why the cult leader was so enraged. He was truly wronged.

"Executive Ha Pan-seok said that."

The cult leader repeated his words.

"Y-yes. So I’m innocent, really..."

Yeom Man-geun hastily nodded and claimed his innocence. Without even knowing what he had done wrong.

"Hahaha..."

The cult leader laughed as if he had lost his mind. Yeom Man-geun squeezed his eyes shut.

From the atmosphere, it seemed he had made an enormous slip of the tongue, and the tree trunks writhing beyond the cult leader’s shoulder seemed ready to strangle him at any moment.

"The front and back match up."

The cult leader muttered meaningfully. Yeom Man-geun opened his eyes.

Tree branches were writhing beyond the torn door. However, it was just wind blowing. The cult leader wasn’t inflicting any harm or threat on him.

"That aside, we still need to finish talking about the work."

The cult leader opened his mouth, raising his hands that had been on his knees toward the sky.

"It will probably be better conditions than you think. For me and for Executive Yeom Man-geun."

* * *

Regarding the ’work’ to be done by borrowing Executive Yeom Man-geun’s factory, it seemed I should hear the opinions of other executives as well.

So we decided to make the final decision at the 11 o’clock meeting. It was natural if natural and fortunate if fortunate, but Yeom Man-geun seemed to very much welcome this ’work.’

[What are you planning to do about Ha Pan-seok?]

Legba asked. I could sense anger in his voice.

"...We have to go by principle."

[You seem reluctant.]

Of course. If Ha Pan-seok had been alone, I might have felt more comfortable, but that wasn’t the case, which made me even more reluctant. However, if I left him alone, I would be in danger instead. Therefore, I had no choice but to handle it according to principle.

[It’s the right judgment.]

Legba said with satisfaction. I thought it was more a matter of profit and loss than right and wrong, but I didn’t bother to voice it.

I left Yeom Man-geun’s accommodation and went down the stairs. The further down I went, the closer the darkness that had settled on the ground became.

By the time I reached the first floor, everything was shrouded in darkness so thick I couldn’t see an inch ahead.

I walked through that darkness deep into the mountain. My eyes quickly became accustomed to the darkness.

Caw, caw-caw...

Rustle, rustle...

Here and there I could hear night birds crying or the screams of leaves brushed by wind.

However, I didn’t feel afraid. Rather, it was cozy.

[If you use Marinette’s fire, you could light the path ahead. You could also summon ritual candles with sorcery.]

Legba casually suggested, but I shook my head.

"Darkness has its own romance. Especially in mountains."

I was accustomed to darkness. It was for similar reasons that Kang Ji-ah preferred storage rooms or attics.

[Well... I know and yet I don’t.]

Leaving behind the sighing Legba, I silently walked the mountain path. I had brought my phone just in case, but I didn’t particularly want to check the time.

I liked that feeling of darkness swallowing time and space, making both time sense and spatial sense fade.

"Is this about right?"

[Not bad.]

After walking for who knows how long, I found a fairly good location.

It was a plaza-like place with a flat floor and almost no trees. Like something artificially created, the plaza formed an almost perfect circle.

I raised my head. Starlight was pouring through the circularly opened sky. Trees swayed at the edges.

However, I didn’t have time to lose myself admiring the scenery. I hadn’t come here to admire scenery.

I emitted Voodoo magic power and drew spell circles.

Reproduction sorcery, ritual candles.

I brought out as many candles as possible. And spread them in a circle around myself. The purple light of the candles seeped into the darkness. The darkness filled with light gathered around me.

[Very stable. The atmosphere is quite good too.]

Legba quietly recited his impressions.

There were two main changes since the succession ritual.

First, I became able to use reproduction sorcery multiple times simultaneously.

Intermediate or lower reproduction sorcery like ritual candles could be used up to 10 times simultaneously.

Second, I became able to control the intensity of sorcery.

Literally, I became able to arbitrarily control the power of sorcery. Not only illusion or restoration, but also controlling the intensity of reproduction sorcery became possible. For instance, with candles, I could control the intensity of their light.

[The first cult leader was skilled at control. Thanks to that, the couple got along well too.]

"Pardon?"

[It’s a joke.]

Legba chuckled. I don’t know what was supposed to be funny.

[Let’s move on. You didn’t come here to talk about sorcery, did you?]

Legba seemed to want to change the subject. It was somewhat puzzling, but I decided to move on.

I had come to this place for one practice session. However, as Legba said, I hadn’t come for sorcery practice.

What I was about to do was practice that could ’only’ be done here.

"Sobo, Bade, Dan Wedo."

Namely, practice to control these unpredictable Loa.

Bosu and Granbwa are well-behaved and listen well, and their divine powers are considerable. However, their side effects are severe, making them difficult to use frequently.

But these are different.

Sobo is the Loa of thunder and lightning.

Dan Wedo is the Loa of water and rain.

Bade is Sobo’s brother and the Loa of wind.

These three Loa turn a deaf ear to the prophet’s words, but their divine powers are tremendous while having relatively fewer side effects.

They are double-edged swords because they cannot be controlled, but if they could be controlled, these three Loa would become my most reliable allies.

Rumble!

[Sobo enters. Ah, Bade!]

[Bade enters. Oh, Sobo!]

Then, thunder rumbled as if announcing Sobo and Bade’s entrance.

Bade, like Sobo, had a frivolous way of speaking and a capricious personality. Being brothers, the two had similar personalities, speaking styles, and voices.

[Ready, ’Ba’?]

[Of course, ’So’.]

[Dan We... It falls, rain...!]

Whoooosh!

The voices of Sobo, Bade, and Dan Wedo echoed alternately. Dark clouds gathered in the clear sky and rain began falling.

Sharp, cool wind scattered the falling rain here and there. Lightning flashed through gaps in the dark clouds. It was a precursor to lightning strikes.

Rumble rumble...

Occasionally thunder echoed and flowed along the mountain ridges. The reverberations were ominous and eerie, sounding like the mountain was wailing.

Rain, wind, thunder and lightning.

They were gathering around me as a violent storm that seemed ready to blow away the entire mountain.

[Will you be alright?]

In the midst of the layered noise created by Sobo, Bade, and Dan Wedo’s voices, Legba quietly asked.

Actually, my head was already starting to ache as if it would split. However, I couldn’t afford to complain.

I had to control this enormous storm surrounding me right now.

I had no time to pay attention to mere headaches.

"Sobo, Bade, Dan Wedo!"

I shouted their names from the center of the raging storm.

Rumble!

They answered by increasing the power of the storm. The ritual candles spread in a circle were swaying precariously in the rain and wind.

My hair, which I had carefully arranged, got wet from the rain and disheveled by the wind, becoming a mess.

"---!"

At some point, the storm became so strong that even my voice couldn’t be heard.

If I relaxed even slightly, my body seemed like it would be blown away by the wind. The rainfall was fierce. Lightning was cutting the sky into thousands and hundreds of pieces.

The trees filling the mountain repeatedly lay down and stood up in the wind. Furthermore, the entire mountain shook.

"--, --, - --!"

I called their names again. My voice was buried in the noise and disappeared, and no answer came back.

Suddenly fear began to well up.

Could I really control this storm? Had I done something unnecessary that I couldn’t take responsibility for?

However, I soon pulled myself together.

If I was going to collapse from just this much, I wouldn’t have started in the first place.

"----!"

I recited prayers. Rain, wind, and thunder shattered my voice.

Still, I don’t stop praying.

Voodoo is a religion born from oppression and tyranny. The freedom and resistance cried out by slaves whose freedom was taken became Voodoo doctrine as it was.

Therefore, Voodoo prayers are the outcries and howls of those who resist.

Crack, crackle!

The storm that shook and uprooted trees entirely, rushing fiercely toward me.

The voice of the whispered prayers crumbled helplessly before the roar of the storm, thick rain struck my body mercilessly, and the cutting wind pierced my flesh.

I don’t stop praying.

I pray and face the storm. My voice breaks into pieces on the wind and scatters in the storm. Thick raindrops soak and strike my entire body.

Lightning flashed.

Boom!

Lightning struck and split a tree’s trunk. Debris from the fallen tree rained down over my head.

The prayer doesn’t stop.

Fear of disaster that cannot be resisted. The outcry of weak humans facing it.

That is precisely Voodoo prayer.