Chapter 64
After completing the practical sparring match in the sacred training ground.
“Yeo Min-Seo.”
Do-Jin called out Min-Seo's name with a cold voice. Min-Seo looked down at the floor without answering.
She looked as if she was analyzing the structure of the floor tiles in the sacred training ground.
“I will leave the decision regarding your actions to the disciplinary committee. I assume you have no objections?”
“...Is this incident severe enough to leave it to the disciplinary committee?”
"You did not comply with the instructions of the teacher during this practical training, and you also injured four students, including Sun-Woo, in an unexpected act, and so on. There were so many incursions that I’m too lazy to list them all.”
“Ha. Yes, sir.”
Min-Seo reluctantly nodded her head and turned around.
Her attitude was very uncooperative.
Do-Jin's brows wrinkled.
“Hey, Min-Seo.”
Min-Seo turned her head in the direction of the teacher’s voice.
"What?"
"Answer me again."
"Ah, yes. I'm sorry."
Min-seo bowed her head. She apologized, but her attitude was still ridiculously uncooperative. Do-Jin stared at Min-Seo with cold eyes.
"Do it again."
"Yes. I'm sorry."
There was still no change in attitude.
"Again."
"...I'm sorry, sir."
It was only then that Do-Jin let Min-Seo go. It still wasn’t very satisfactory, but just having Min-Seo say ‘I’m sorry’ was already a grand achievement. Min-Seo forced down her boiling anger and stepped out of the sacred training with infuriated steps.
"Wow, I feel so refreshed~"
Triggered.
At Jun-Hyuk's teasing voice, Min-Seo looked back. It was unknown whether it was because she was angry or whether it was because she was upset, but her eyes were red.
Jun-Hyuk looked at Min-Seo and swept his chest as if he was refreshed.
*
Jun-Hyuk went straight to the training center after school. His match record was two wins and one loss. Except for his confrontation with Sun-Woo, he had won all his matches. Jun-Hyuk picked up a jump rope and was just about to do some jumping in order to warm up his body when he encountered a familiar face.
"What? Well, if it isn’t Miss Jin-Seo who left early because she was sick. Why are you here?"
Jin-Seo was sitting on the edge of the ring while holding her breath. The bandages that were wrapped around her hand were stained red with blood. Her fists seemed to have torn. There were often cases when the fist would tear up and bleed when hitting sandbags and mitts. However, in this case, it was bleeding too much. Her hands were completely covered in blood.
“Wow, what happened to your hands? How many people did you beat up?”
"I didn't spar today."
“Why? Is it because you got wasted by Min-Seo?”
Jin-Seo narrowed her eyes. Jun-Hyuk smiled brightly and backed away.
"It was just a joke~”
"What do you mean it was just just a joke? You're absolutely right," Jin-Seo said as if she had accepted reality while jumping up from her seat. When she unwrapped the bandages that were covering her hands, her hands, which had become completely messed up, were revealed.
Jun-Hyuk looked at the sight and gulped. Just how much did she work out for her hands to end up like that?
As she searched the cabinet, Jun-Hyuk approached her.
"What are you looking for?"
"Hand wrap."
"Huh? Why are you looking for that? Are you going to continue working out today? With your hand in that state?"
“...”
Jin-Seo glanced at Jun-Hyuk. Her gaze was fierce. Based on Jun-Hyuk’s deductions, the look in her eyes meant that she didn’t want him to talk to her anymore.
"Hey, let me ask you one thing."
If he continued to talk to her, it was possible for him to get hit by her, but he wasn’t able to keep his mouth shut. There was no particular reason for this. If he had to state a reason, he would have to say that it was because he was born with a tendency to not be able to keep his mouth shut.
Jin-Seo rummaged through the cabinet for a while before stopping. She then looked at Jun-Hyuk. Her eyes were completely empty and without focus. Jun-Hyuk felt an indescribable fear, and he instinctively shrank back.
"Hey."
Jin-Seo stared at Jun-Hyuk with unfocused eyes.
"You’re annoying, so it would be great if you could piss off."
"Ah, hahaha. Oh~ that was a little scary. I almost pissed myself."
"I'm not kidding."
Jin-Seo was still staring at Jun-Hyuk.
A cold sweat ran down the back of Jun-Hyuk's neck. This wasn’t a joke. He was seriously scared. Jun-Hyuk desperately suppressed his fear and barely managed to croak, "You really don't want to listen? It's related to Sun-Woo though."
Jin-Seo turned a deaf ear and continued to silently search the cabinet. Jun-Hyuk felt awkward for no particular reason, and so he fiddled with his hair.
Even after a long period of time had passed, Jin-Seo didn’t respond. A heavy silence filled the room.
"If you're not going to listen, then that’s fine~ I was planning to tell you something really important as well."
Jun-Hyuk soon gave up and turned around.
Bang!
At that moment, Jin-Seo roughly closed the cabinet. Startled, Jun-Hyuk looked back.
While wrapping the bandages around her hand, Jin-Seo strode toward him. Her gaze was still fierce.
"...What is it?"
However, at the words that came out of her mouth, Jun-Hyuk burst into laughter. She pretended not to be curious, but it looked like she had been secretly curious on the inside.
Jun-Hyuk tried to hold back his laughter and asked a question, "Why did you fight with Sun-Woo in the morning?"
“We didn't fight."
"Really? If you didn’t fight, does that mean that you just got angry by yourself?”
“I never got angry.”
"Hey, tell me the truth. Why were you angry?”
Jin-Seo dropped her gaze down to the floor. She seemed to hesitate to answer.
“He lied to me, but...”
After saying it out loud, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. She started to feel that maybe she was a bit of a petty person and felt ashamed of herself. Thinking about it, it didn’t really make sense for her to get angry over something like this. After all, Sun-Woo was someone that had saved her life twice. No, but that didn’t mean that the fact that he lied went away. But was lying such a big mistake? She felt like she had reacted too insensitively, but still...
She suddenly felt a headache, so she stopped thinking. While nonchalantly picking his ear with his finger, Jun-Hyuk said, “Ah, that’s not really all that important. I’m just saying for you guys to get along with each other. You two are interested in each other, but you both pretend not to be interested, and things just keep going in the wrong direction. Wherever I see you guys interact, I feel so frustrated that it’s driving me crazy.”
"Each other?" Jin-Seo asked as if she had heard something odd. As if Jun-Hyuk had waited for that response, smiled confidently.
“Yup, each other. Hey, do you know how many wins and losses Min-Seo had during today’s practical training session?”
"It should be 3 wins and 0 losses."
"Wrong~ It's 2 wins and 1 loss~!" Jun-Hyuk said with a smile as if he was delighted. Jin-Seo's eyes grew a little wider.
"Why is it 2 wins and 1 loss? Who did she lose to?”
"Sun-Woo. For your information, Sun-Woo had a win-loss ratio of 3-0."
"Huh...?"
Jin-Seo blankly opened her mouth and made a weird noise. Her reaction seemed to indicate that she couldn’t believe it.
Then again, it was a reasonable reaction. Sun-Woo didn’t have the skills to beat Min-Seo. Not just Sun-Woo, but no first-year Florence Academy student had ever been able to beat Min-Seo in a spar. However, Sun-Woo beat Min-Seo. She wasn’t belittling Sun-Woo’s power, but it was still hard to believe.
As if he had anticipated such a reaction, Jun-Hyuk grinned and opened his mouth.
"To explain! After you lost to Min-Seo and left early after moping in your crippling depression–”
“Hey.”
“...Anyway, after you left the school early, Min-Seo and Sun-Woo competed, right? But for some reason, Sun-Woo was ridiculously angry for some reason. Do you know what I mean? Ah~ you should have seen it with your own eyes. Anyway—”
Jun-Hyuk chanted out oohs and ahhs like a jester as he continued his narrative. Sun-Woo was very angry for some reason and beat down Min-Seo with the mace of justice. And that was how he won the spar, and that’s how Min-Seo ended up going to the disciplinary committee. That was the general gist of the story.
In Jun-Hyuk's epic tale, Sun-Woo was portrayed as a hero.
"Why is she suddenly going to the disciplinary committee?"
"...Well, Min-Seo usually commits a lot of crimes."
"What are you even—"
“But that’s not what’s important~ I’m telling you, Sun-Woo became really angry. Why do you think he got angry? Huh?”
Jun-Hyuk interrupted Jin-Seo. His epic tale had many suspicious parts to it, but now was not the time to question him about those things.
Why was Sun-Woo angry?
“He doesn’t like Min-Seo either. That's probably why."
Min-Seo despised her opponent if they were weaker than her and acted impudent if they were stronger than her. As an analogy, if we were to compare her with a dog breed, it could be said that she had a chihuahua-like personality. It was safe to say that out of the entirety of Florence Academy freshmen, almost no one liked Min-Seo.
‘Fold over if you don’t like Min-Seo. Thus, the entirety of the Republic of Korea folded in half, and that was the origin of the 38th parallel...’ Such baseless jokes even sprang up and openly circulated amongst the Florence Academy freshmen.
“Well, there’s that reason too. But, I’m telling you, the timing in which he got angry was straight after you left early after losing to Min-Seo! Right after that, his face went completely stiff, I’m telling you.”
“So what?”
"If he wasn't interested in you, why would he be like that~? That’s what I'm saying.”
Jin-Seo tightly shut her lips and dropped her gaze down to the floor. Her heart was beating strangely, as if it was throbbing. Perhaps it was because of the aftermath of exercising too much or because of some other reason. Jin-Seo herself didn’t know exactly why she was feeling this way. Thoughts that were close to delusions festered and revolved around inside her head. She shook her head to forcefully shake off those thoughts.
"That’s just spec–speculation."
"Spec–speculation? Not just speculation, but spec–speculation? What the heck is that?"
Jin-Seo glared at Jun-Hyuk with fierce eyes.
“Hey, why are you looking at people in such a scary way just because they fooled around a little? It’s so stifling that it’s making it hard for me to talk.”
“I never looked at anyone in a scary way.”
"Yes, yes~"
Jun-Hyuk continued to talk with his chin jutting out as if to tease her.
“Well, anyway, just try a bit harder. If Sun-Woo lied, then just directly ask him why he lied.”
“...”
“If you always have your mouth shut like that, how is Sun-Woo supposed to know how you feel?”
He hit the nail on the head. Even if Jin-Seo was feeling bad or if something upset her, she would never express her feelings through her words. If she let it out, nothing would change. So she thought it would be better if she was the only one that suffered and went through a hard time. When Jin-Seo dropped her head without answering, Jun-Hyuk quickly opened his mouth as if even that brief silence was painful for him.
“What bullshit did Sun-Woo say? He doesn’t lie, right?”
Honestly, he wasn’t really all that curious. It was simply a question he asked so that he could break the silence. Jin-Seo pondered for a brief moment before opening her mouth.
“When his house caught on fire, I asked where he was, and he said that he was in the library.”
“Huh? Why is that a lie?”
Jin-Seo explained that when she was on her way home from the training center, she witnessed Sun-Woo coming out of a certain house. Jun-Hyuk listened to her story and quietly nodded his head. In other words, Sun-Woo was not in the library, and he was somewhere else, but he had lied and said that he was in the library. That lie had hurt Jin-Seo’s feelings. Only then did Jun-Hyuk roughly understand the situation. Jun-Hyuk had been listening to the story for a while, but raised one eyebrow as if he had found something odd.
"...But where exactly did Sun-Woo come from?"
“He came out of a Western-style house located in the middle of an alleyway near the school.”
There was only one alleyway near the school. She was referring to the alleyway that Sun-Woo, Jun-Hyuk, and In-Ah used on their commute to school. If it was a Western-style house located in the middle of that place...
"Isn't that the house where In-Ah lives?"
"...”
“Ah! Come to think of it, no, that’s not right. Or maybe? Maybe I’m right? There’s only one Western-style house in that place.”
Jun-Hyuk saw Jin-Seo's expression darken and tried to belatedly patch up the situation, but it was too late. Jin-Seo passed Jun-Hyuk without a word and left the training center with a dumbstruck expression on her face. She walked so fast that he didn't even dare to chase her. Not that there was any reason to chase her in the first place.
"Oh, this is bad."
Jun-Hyuk squatted on the spot and pulled at his own hair strands.
"This is fucking bad...” Jun-Hyuk mumbled. Rather than despair, a distinct expression of anger could be seen more clearly on his face.
*
"The contract has been established."
Baron Samedi's dreary voice rang through the room. My head naturally tilted in wonder.
"...Is it supposed to end this quickly?”
"A contract is supposed to be completed swiftly. What if the contractee’s mind changes during the process?”
“That’s true, but you typically have to pay a price in exchange for forming the Contract of the Dead.”
“That’s how it’s supposed to be. However, just this time, I’m thinking of accepting a late payment. What do you think?” Baron Samedi said while laughing cheerfully. The price of the contract was supposed to be prepaid. However, he said that he was allowing a late payment, just this once.
“Sounds good to me. Let’s go with that, then.”
I had no idea what ulterior motive Baron Samedi had, but it wasn’t a suggestion that was bad for me, so I gladly accepted it. The later I paid the compensation, the better.
In any case, the contract was established.
This contract was a precautionary measure in case I found myself in a desperate crisis in the future. Even if I prepared for crises by interpreting Baron Samedi’s prophecies, perfect preparation was impossible. It was safe to have at least one insurance.
“I have no more requests.”
With this, the negotiations that were under the guise of requests were complete. I saw Baron Samedi’s eyes shimmering beyond the darkness. His eyes were blurry, as if he was deeply contemplating something.
"...What are you doing?"
“Hmm. Well, I’m sure it’ll work out somehow. Have courage, Cult Leader. May your future be filled with peace! I’ll be off now!”
After leaving meaningful remarks, Baron Samedi immediately turned into fog and disappeared. The room was filled with the scent of death left by Baron Samedi, along with the scent of the purple fog that had flowed out from the candle. There was no airflow in the cellar, so the fog did not disperse and simply remained.
[The high and mighty Baron Samedi unexpectedly readily accepted your propositions.] Legba said. He sounded rather surprised.
"Because I took advantage of the characteristics of the Loa."
[Yes, it was very refreshing. You definitely resemble your mother for sure. Baron Samedi also couldn’t go against your mother’s wishes.]
"But I still have a long way to go if I want to be able to catch up to her," I said with a self-deprecating smile.
Although the negotiations with Baron Samedi were successful, I had only succeeded in negotiations. I still wasn’t able to take full control over conversations in front of Baron Samedi like my mother had been able to.
Click.
I turned on the lights. The light was so blinding that I thought that I lost my vision for a moment. My eyes, which were accustomed to darkness, could not easily take in the light. I stood there for a long time and waited for my eyes to adjust to the light.
When the blinding light finally subsided, I noticed my father’s keepsake laid out in the middle of the room. There was a box and a ring. The box was securely locked with a padlock.
“...”
My father absolutely insisted that I open the box only after becoming an adult. And I intended to honor his will. On the other hand, I was truly curious about what was inside.
The key to unlocking the box was the ring. It was designed so that once the memorial gem that was embedded in the ring fit into the groove of the lock, the box would open.
I had a faint memory of my father explaining how it worked.
In other words, I could open the box right now if I wanted to. To be honest, I felt the urge to open the box immediately and to see its contents.
[Then open it.]
While I was lost in deep contemplation, Legba spoke as if it wasn’t a big deal.
[You have too many uncertainties in your life. If you stubbornly persist, you might end up dying without even knowing what’s inside the box. It’s better if you just open the box right now.]
"But it’s part of the will that my father left behind. It's better to respect his last wishes."
[Then are you really going to wait until you become an adult?]
In response to Legba's question, I decisively shook my head.
As I said earlier, I will respect my father’s will. However, if I was faced with a situation where I couldn’t keep following his will, then I intended to open the box without hesitation. For example, if I was in a life-threatening situation before even getting the chance to open the box as an adult.
Ideally, I had to hope that such a situation would never occur. However, just in case such a situation occurred, I intended to carry the box and the ring with me at all times from now on so that I would be able to check the contents of the box wherever and whenever I desired, even if I was on the brink of imminent death.
I would keep the box inside my bag or inside Baal’s Maw, and I would take it out when I needed it. The ring was small, and there was a high possibility of losing it, so I figured that wearing it on my finger would be for the best.
I tried the ring on my finger. First, I tried the index finger.
"It doesn't fit."
The size was too small to fit the ring on my index finger. Next, I tried the middle finger. It didn’t fit. My thumb would obviously not fit, and it also didn’t fit on my relatively thin ring finger.
The only finger that the ring fit in was my smallest finger, in other words, my pinky.
"...Were my father's hands this small?" I muttered to myself and reluctantly put the ring on my left pinky.
It fit perfectly. It seemed like the ring had been designed to be worn on the pinky finger from the beginning. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have made any sense for it to be this small.
Crack.
At that moment, a crack formed on the memorial gem embedded into the ring.
"Huh...?”
Between the cracks, a thin mist slowly seeped out. The mist was so delicate and elusive that it seemed like it could disappear with a single breath. The color was a familiar shade of purple.
The mist of a voodoo spell.
Was there a voodoo spell contained within the gem? Was a spell infused into an object? How was this possible?
I had no time to wonder. The mist engulfed me. My consciousness faded away.
My consciousness, which had been unaffected by even advanced voodoo spells, had collapsed by only this thin strand of mist.
Plop.
My body relaxed. My eyes closed, and I was greeted by a thick and endless darkness.
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