The Cult Leader in the Clergy Academy

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Chapter 9

Bae Sung-Hyun and I walked with long strides toward the front of the class. Ha Ye-Jin greeted us with a smile.

“You both know how to use blessings, correct?” Bae Sung-Hyun and I weren't that close to each other to say we were pair.

“Then, shall we try using the intermediate blessing of strength?”

“Oh.”

“Hm, is there something wrong, Do Sun-Woo?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Oh no. An intermediate blessing when the best I could do was a lesser blessing? I felt the world going dark. Maybe it was because I was nervous, but my forehead started to break out in a sweat and my fingertips started to tremble.

As I was dealing with my anxiety, Bae Sung-Hyun completed his blessing array with outstanding skill. It was undoubtedly a perfect intermediate blessing of strength. His array gleamed with brilliance as if to boast his success.

“Bae Sung-Hyun did a great job. Now please, Do Sun-Woo, draw the blessing array for us.” Ha Ye-Jin pressed me on. I took my shaking fingers and drew the array of the intermediate blessing of strength.

As expected, I failed. The array lost its light and crumbled into ashes. I felt my heart crumble with it as well.

Ha Ye-Jin seemed to be caught off guard and looked at me with a puzzled look. “Um, was that because you were nervous? Try again.”

“I can’t.” I gave up. My body shook, and my heart broke; I couldn’t bear to try again.

Ha Ye-Jin’s face hardened. “And why is that?”

“I can only conjure lesser-level blessings.” Ha Ye Jin’s hardened face turned slightly softer as I told her the truth.

“Hm~ Okay, I understand. I can call someone else, but why don’t we try one last time?”

I spent the whole night yesterday attempting intermediate blessing arrays, but not once was I successful. I knew I would get the same result even if I tried again. However, Ha Ye-Jin told me to give it one more shot, and I could see a glint of hope in her eyes. She saw the possibility in me.

“Alright.” I decided to try to make it up to Ha Ye-Jin. Although I knew I wouldn’t be able to succeed, I decided to put my faith in her.

I soothed my fretting heart and steadily started drawing the blessing array. I inserted the core made with divine power into the complex array woven with dozens of straight and curved lines.

Right afterward, a brilliant, ecstatic light spewed forth from the blessing array. It was the light of the blessing. This meant that I had succeeded in drawing a complete blessing array.

“I-I did i–!” But it was a short-lived moment. The brilliant light of blessing faded away and left a dull blessing array stranded in the air. I had failed yet again.

“...I’m sorry.” I hung my head down. I couldn’t face her, and I was embarrassed that I had celebrated thinking that I had succeeded. It was a disaster.

However, Ha Ye-Jin did not look disappointed. No, she looked surprised.

“Do Sun-Woo, where did you learn to draw your blessing arrays? Was it at an after-school academy? Or maybe by your parents?”

“Oh, I learned by watching videos.”

“Videos? Are you talking about online lectures?”

“No, I’m talking about... YouTube.” The class erupted with giggles. Some laughed because they were making fun of me, while others found me genuinely funny. They must have thought that I was joking, but I wasn’t.

I learned how to draw blessing arrays through YouTube because no one around me knew how to use divine power. I hadn’t been to any of the popular after school academies either.

“So you’ve never been to an after-school academy? And your parents didn’t teach you?”

“Yes, ma’am. My situation, uh, didn’t permit that.”

“I see. You have some bad habits when it comes to divine power. Here, why don’t you try releasing some divine power?”

I did as I was told, releasing some divine power from my fingertips. Ha Ye-Jin suddenly grabbed my hand and used it as a brush to draw a blessing array in thin air. Unlike mine, this blessing array was perfect, without any faults.

“Your first bad habit is the direction you draw your array. I noticed that you drew in the counterclockwise direction when most people draw in the clockwise direction.”

“Oh, huh.” It was common practice to draw circles in the counterclockwise direction in voodooism. It seemed that my habits had carried on my drawing of blessing arrays.

“Your second bad habit is in the process of you creating your core. You have a nasty habit of—”

Ding dong dang dong~

Before Ha Ye-Jin got a chance to finish her sentence, the bell rang.

“And how good are you? He’s pretty good for learning through videos online.”

“Who even does that? Learning how to do blessings through online tutorials is unheard of! Weren’t you joking?”

‘‘Hey! You be quiet.” When Koo Jun-Hyuk picked a bone with me, Jung In-Ah defended me. I didn’t have to say anything. Usually, this was how our conversations went. Jung In-Ah and Koo Jun-Hyuk argued back and forth and eventually looked at me to find me awkwardly smiling.

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll teach you.” It seemed like she thought I didn’t get a chance to use blessings because of poor family circumstances. If one thought about it, she wasn’t technically wrong, but I felt guilty. I was discreetly lying to her.

Of course, this was coming from me, and my whole life was a lie.

“Isn’t it nonsense that the person who placed twelfth in evaluations is teaching first place?”

“Didn’t I tell you to be quiet?”

“Ack.” Koo Jun-Hyuk stressed the word nonsense as if to put extra emphasis on it. Jung In-Ah lightly kicked the shins of the provoking Koo Jun-Hyuk. I just laughed while watching their interaction.

[I realized a few things from class. Two important things. It’s urgent.] Legba suddenly spoke to me. I could hear the urgency in their voice.

However, I couldn’t answer Legba immediately because Jung In-Ah and Koo Jun-Hyuk were next to me. I looked around and spotted a public bathroom close by. F.A. was so big that they had constructed public restrooms for convenience.

“You guys go ahead. I’m going to make a stop at the bathroom.”

“Huh, oh, okay.” I sent Koo Jun-Hyuk and Jung In-Ah off first and walked into the bathroom. It smelled foul, but there wasn’t a better place to talk to a Loa.

[Okay. First of all, you have a bad habit when drawing your blessing arrays. Fix it.]

“That doesn’t seem too important. Why didn’t you tell me later? I thought it was something urgent.”

[No, it is urgent. Usually, all blessing array cores take the shape of a sphere or an ellipsoid. However, you used a cubic core instead. Do you have any idea what this means?]

“Huh? I’m not too sure.”

[Curse arrays use a cubic core. Your habits from drawing curse arrays are apparent through your blessing arrays. Since F.A. teachers aren’t idiots, they’ll have you found out if you carry on.]

I gulped. I did not know I had such a habit.

[When you draw your blessing array, make a spherical core. Then you’ll be able to draw a blessing array successfully.]

“Woah, are you serious?”

I experimented by attempting an intermediate blessing of strength array. I placed the core made out of divine power into the center of the blessing array. The blessing array seemed to emit light for a moment, but then it lost its glow and quickly broke down. To no surprise, I had failed yet again.

“Hey, it’s not working.”

[Huh, as if it would work when you’re still using a cubic core. Use a spherical core.]

However, I could only conjure a cubic core no matter how hard I tried. I didn’t know how to construct a spherical core in the first place.

[Make it a sphere!]

“What?”

[A sphere!]

“How?”

Legba sighed. [It’s clear that you don’t have any talent in using divine power.]

It was impossible for someone like me, who had spent seventeen years drawing curse arrays, to conjure a good blessing array.

[Ha. Okay. We can slowly learn how to conjure spherical cores later on. But now, this is something very important. Listen carefully.] Legba paused dramatically, trying to scare me.

I listened to what they had to say with a serious face—while sitting on the toilet. Very seriously.

[I smelled the stench of blood and sulfur. Just for a second.]

“...Huh?” I thought it would be unimportant, but it was quite the opposite. It was earth-shattering news.

Blood and sulfur were the key ingredients that Satanists used during their rituals. These smells usually rubbed off on them. Legba had smelled blood and sulfur during class. This could only mean one thing.

[It seems that the Satanists have infiltrated F.A., although we don’t know why.]

A Satanist was hiding in F.A.

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