The Cult Leader in the Clergy Academy

Chapter 314

Knock, knock.

Ji-Ah knocked on Sun-Woo's door while holding snacks.

She didn't know who her parents were. She had no other family members either. Therefore, she didn't know what it felt like to lose a family member. Instead, she could only guess.

Some people were like family to her too, like Jin-Sung or Sun-Woo for example. Although she couldn't call her family, Soo-Yeong had also become someone precious to her now.

When she thought about what it would be like if one of those precious people died, Ji-Ah felt sad. However, because Jin-Sung, Sun-Woo, and Soo-Yeong were related to her by blood, she couldn't fully understand Sun-Woo's feelings.

Knock knock.

Sun-Woo didn't react after hearing Ji-Ah's knock. She knocked again, but there was still no response, so she just opened the door wide.

"I'm coming in," she said as she entered Sun-Woo's room.

His room was neatly cleaned. She could hardly smell anything bad. His bedsheets were neatly arranged. His usually messy desk was neatly organized. Sun-Woo sat in front of his desk and was quietly reading a book.

Sun-Woo was fine these days. To be more precise, he appeared to be perfectly fine. She didn’t know what he behaved like outside, but in front of people like Ji-Ah, Jin-Sung, Soo-Yeong, Soo-Hyun, and Anna, he seemed fine.

But to Ji-Ah, Sun-Woo looked even more precarious than before.

"Cult Leader," Ji-Ah called out to Sun-Woo.

Finally, he turned his head toward her. He stared at Ji-Ah for a while without saying anything. His gaze was somewhat eerie.

Ji-Ah walked over and placed snacks on Sun-Woo's table.

"Would you like some?"

"What is this?"

"They are cookies. I just made them."

Sun-Woo stared blankly at the cookies in the container.

"You can make cookies too?"

"I learned recently. I thought it would be good to make this and that, so I learned how to make a variety of different things."

"Oh... I'm sorry, but I don't think I can eat it. My digestion hasn't been good lately," Sun-Woo said.

Recently, Sun-Woo hardly ate any food. Even when he did eat, he barely ate about one-third of what others ate. Even then, it seemed like he was unable to digest what he ate properly, as he occasionally vomited.

When Ji-Ah asked Sun-Woo if he was okay, Sun-Woo always said he was fine. He just said that he had temporarily lost his appetite.

Ji-Ah tried making porridge and rice gruel for Sun-Woo, but he couldn't digest them properly. At this point, it wasn't the food that was the problem.

"How have you been lately?" Ji-Ah asked.

Ji-Ah knew that Sun-Woo wouldn't eat the cookies. Still, she had baked the cookies as an excuse to start a conversation with Sun-Woo.

These days, Sun-Woo seemed perfectly fine on the outside, but at the same time, he didn’t seem fine at all. He seemed to be extremely tough on the outside, but Ji-Ah felt like he would completely fall apart if there was even a small crack. Therefore, Ji-Ah found it difficult to approach him without creating such a pretext.

Sun-Woo stared at Ji-Ah silently. Ji-Ah met his gaze without avoiding it and stared straight back. He had been expressionless all along, but he closed his eyes tightly for a moment, then smiled faintly.

"I’m fine. How about you, nuna?"

"I'm neither good nor bad," Ji-Ah said.

She hesitated to say more. She wanted to say something else, but her lips wouldn't part. What should she say? Ji-Ah was quick-witted, so she could mostly figure out the truth behind Sun-Woo's words. Nevertheless, Sun-Woo’s lies sometimes deceived her.

Sun-Woo was good at lying, but the current Sun-Woo couldn't even lie properly. He couldn’t even properly lie even though the lie was just a simple ‘I’m fine,’ and he was trembling so much that it looked like he would break down at any moment.

Ji-Ah thought about what to say. She pondered and hesitated several times.

After some contemplation, she gathered her courage, no, she gathered her audacity and finally said, "Shall we go out together?"

***

Many things were happening in Romanican society. Demons and demonic beasts no longer appeared, but the problem was the people.

A Romanican radical group staged a protest before the papal conclave, and some of the protesters turned violent by collectively assaulting the riot suppression troops. PIn the process, one paladin from the riot suppression troops fell into an unconscious state, and an accident occurred where ten people from the protesters were seriously injured and one person died.

Considering the scale of the battle between the riot suppression troops and the protesters, the casualties were relatively low. The problem was that some of the protesters who assaulted the suppression troops were a group supporting Pope candidate Yu-Hyun.

As the conclave approached, it was revealed that the prominent candidate, Yu-Hyun, was gaining support from a radical group, which came as quite a shock to the public.

"You know the protest group that clashed with the riot suppression troops this time? They were from that erm... Levi Order! Yes, the Levi Order, they..."

"Who protests like that in this day and age? What was the reason for the protest in the first place?"

"I see this as a political maneuver by the forces who are trying to restrain Yu-Hyun. The evidence is..."

Florence Academy students interested in politics, or those who liked discussing political matters, talked about the riot all day long. While their opinions on the incident varied, the conclusion was the same. The influence of the prominent candidate, Yu-Hyun, was being shaken.

Due to this incident, Yu-Hyun was under attack from various factions. Yu-Hyun's competing factions exploited the fact that he was young to criticize his political inexperience. Additionally, they pointed out the unethical actions of the forces supporting Yu-Hyun.

Not all students of Florence Academy were interested in the incident. Only a small minority of students chatted incessantly about it.

However, all the students were vaguely aware of this incident. That was how significant the impact of this incident was.

"Well, how about the sea? If we take the train, um..."

Meanwhile, In-Ah was seeking advice from her friends for the trip. She was thinking of going to the sea.

Even though people died in the protest, and numerous political issues were arising, it was a distant story to In-Ah.

She heard that someone lost consciousness while suppressing the protest and that someone died while protesting. She heard about injuries, accidents, and battles. When she heard each of those words, the incident seemed serious. However, that incident never resonated with In-Ah.

The incident simply amounted to another tragedy and disaster that was happening somewhere far away. Above all, the current situation stemmed not from an attack by Satanists or the Voodoo Cult, but from a conflict between the Romanican church and the government.

Instead of mourning the situation, people were divided into protesters and those who supported the riot suppression troops as they fought against each other.

“Won’t it be better to go the East Sea? The sea there is clear and pretty.”

“Since it’s going to be a one-day trip, isn’t it better to go somewhere close? You’ll spend all the time traveling if you go to the East Sea.”

In-Ah's friends were seriously discussing which sea would be better to travel to.

The opinions were split between one friend who believed that it would be best to go to the East Sea and another friend who believed that going to the nearby West Sea would be more reasonable since it was a day trip.

Her two friends, divided into two camps, passionately presented their own arguments.

In-Ah, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, raised her hand and softly said, "Oh, but it's not decided yet that it will be just a day trip."

“...”

Upon hearing In-Ah's words, the two friends who were engaged in a heated debate simultaneously fell silent. Silence filled the air. In the distance, the sound of another group's conversation about Yu-Hyun and the protesters could be heard.

The two friends stared blankly at In-Ah and furrowed their brows as if they couldn't believe it.

"You’re saying you’re not going on a day trip, by maybe staying overnight? With Sun-Woo?”

"Are you completely crazy? Are you really a priest? Are you sure you aren’t a cultist?"

"What? No! When did I say it just going to be the two of us? I never even mentioned going with Sun-Woo in the first place!" In-Ah hastily explained to the two friends.

"Huh, what? Didn’t you say that you were going to go with Sun-Woo?" one of the friends asked, looking puzzled after hearing In-Ah’s explanation.

"...Well, yeah. Sun-Woo’s going to come! But, there might be other people too..." In-Ah mumbled.

"Who else is going?" someone asked.

The person who asked wasn’t In-Ah, nor her two friends. The question wasn’t from the three people who had been conversing from the beginning, but from a gatecrasher who had interrupted. In-Ah and her friends all turned their heads simultaneously.

There stood Su-Ryeon, smiling innocently and brightly.

"What's up, when did you arrive?"

"I stopped by while passing by. It seemed like you were having an interesting conversation~" Su-Ryeon said casually.

By the time Su-Ryeon reached her second year, she already become acquainted with almost all the female students at Florence Academy. In-Ah and her friends were no exception.

While In-Ah's friends greeted Su-Ryeon with smiles, In-Ah's expression was gradually stiffening. In reality, In-Ah had planned to go to the beach with Sun-Woo alone. It was because this trip wasn’t just for fun.

In-Ah believed that Sun-Woo was in a very bad state. He would sometimes mistakenly think that he had said things he never said, and he sometimes mistakenly believed he didn’t say something that he had previously said.

And she didn’t know exactly why, but it seemed like he wanted to escape somewhere.

In-Ah had planned this trip for Sun-Woo. However, now that Su-Ryeon knew about this trip, In-Ah's plans had practically gone up in smoke.

Su-Ryeon was extremely talkative. She would chat about the existence of the trip here and there, and contrary to In-Ah's plans, unwanted guests would intrude on her trip.

"It's nothing special. I was just talking about which sea is pretty, that's all," In-Ah awkwardly lied to Su-Ryeon.

Su-Ryeon looked at In-Ah with a strange look and then smiled slyly.

"You were talking about going on a trip with Sun-Woo. I heard everything, you know?" she said.

"..."

‘Darn it, she heard everything.’

In-Ah cursed internally and said, "Y-yes. But it's not a trip. We’re just going somewhere close for fun. It doesn't have to be the sea, just anywhere..."

Su-Ryeon completely ignored In-Ah’s words. Instead, as if suddenly remembering something, she said, "Oh, now that I think about it... It would be fun if we all went on a trip together. Shall we gather everyone and go to the beach?"

Meanwhile, In-Ah's face got stiffer and stiffer. Due to Su-Ryeon’s intervention, In-Ah's plans were completely crumbling apart.

Su-Ryeon immediately went to gather people. The first person she sought out was Dae-Man.

"The beach? Sounds good! My pecs have really developed lately. I can say that my body is in optimal condition for a beach trip."

"I didn't ask about that~ Anyway, you're coming, right?"

"Of course!" Dae-Man readily agreed.

Next, she went to find Jin-Seo.

"Sun-Woo is coming?" Jin-Seo asked.

"Yes!"

"Why is he coming? No, in the first place, he’s..."

"Anyway, come! Sun-Woo is coming!"

There was no need to hear Jin-Seo’s response. If Sun-Woo was coming, Jin-Seo would definitely come.

Su-Ryeon then went to find Ha-Yeon. However, Ha-Yeon was not at school today as she had gone to work at the Central Priesthood. Unable to find Ha-Yeon, Su-Ryeon went to find Min-Seo.

"The beach? What are we taking?"

"Hmm, a train?"

"A train... How much is the ticket?"

"I don't know. Should I pay for it?"

"If you’re going to pay for it, I’ll definitely go."

Min-Seo readily accepted Su-Ryeon's offer to pay for the train ticket.

Su-Ryeon returned to In-Ah’s classroom. "Hey, In-Ah! About six people have gathered, including you and me!"

In-Ah's face darkened so much that it couldn't be any darker.

After glaring at Su-Ryeon sternly, In-Ah let out a dry laugh.

"I never said I would take you with me."

"Huh? So you were planning to go alone with Sun-Woo?" Su-Ryeon innocently asked.

If she truthfully answered that she had been planning to go alone, it would seem suspicious. In-Ah had no other choice. Eventually, she nodded and reluctantly said, "No, well... whatever. Just do what you want..."

In-Ah was already in a state of resignation.