The Cult Leader in the Clergy Academy

Chapter 242

‘As long as you handle it well, there won't be any big problems. You might get caught up in rumors, though.’

I recalled the advice Baron Samedi had given me before coming to school. He had told me that as long as I handled things well, there wouldn’t be any big problems.

Even after calling Bossou, I didn't hit Yu-Hyun. Instead, I thought about what would happen if I hit him. Nothing good would come out of hitting him right now. It might temporarily relieve my anger, but I had to think about the consequences.

At the very least, I would have to be prepared to receive a penalty point, and there would be rumors about how I beat up Yu-Hyun, which would be a difficult situation for me to deal with. If I didn’t control my strength properly, I could even end up killing Yu-Hyun.

"Bossou? What are you suddenly saying, you b—"

Smack!

I swung my fist, not toward Yu-Hyun, but toward myself. This was the first time I’d taken the brunt of Bossou’s punch.

My brain bounced around in my head, and my vision spun. My legs wobbled. However, it didn’t hurt at all. I wondered how much harder I would have to hit myself to feel pain.

"..."

Smack!

Yu-Hyun was rendered speechless as he stared at me with a dumbfounded expression. I punched myself in the face again.

Splatter.

Blood gushed out of my nose. I punched my face a few more times with my fist. My mouth burst open, and blood poured out. The floor was suddenly covered in blood.

As I approached Yu-Hyun, he stumbled backward. Fear appeared on his face. I looked at my face through the reflection from a window of a dark, empty classroom. It was covered in blood.

"What? Are you not going to hit me more?” I said while looking at Yu-Hyun.

My pronunciation was slurred due to the blood in my mouth. Blood stained my shoes, making my steps feel sticky.

"...You're insane."

"Did you figure that out now?"

Crash!

I chuckled and shattered the window using my head. It didn't really hurt, but my head throbbed.

Glass shards poured onto my head. I touched the back of my head with my hand. It was covered in blood.

It was strange that so much blood came out even though it didn't hurt at all. Yu-Hyun continued to stare at me with a completely bewildered expression. I could clearly see the fear on his face.

Suddenly, laughter spilled out of my mouth. It was strange. When Yuk Eun-Hyung and his mercenary corps were afraid of me, I felt so sad. But now, I couldn’t help but laugh.

"What should I have done differently?" I asked Yu-Hyun.

He just listened to me without answering.

"Should I have just scared them a little and let them go?"

"..."

“People that were no different from family got hurt, and several mercenaries died.”

It was okay for me to get hurt. I could endure any amount of pain. After all, I could just use a restoration spell to heal myself.

Thanks to Baron Samedi, who took away my sense of touch as payment for the contract, I didn't feel any pain from most injuries. Even if I abused the restoration spell and exhausted all my strength, I would recover quickly after sleeping for a few days.

But I couldn't bear it when someone close to me got hurt. Even if I used a restoration spell to heal their wounds, the pain remained. When I saw someone close to me getting hurt and in pain, I also felt the pain. It wasn't a type of pain that would disappear after sleeping for a day or two.

“What more are you telling me to endure? How are you asking me to endure it?”

Thinking back to that moment, my teeth naturally clenched. The blood that had come out of my head flowed down to my eyes, obscuring my vision. Everything in front of me turned red.

I wiped the blood away with my hand and looked around. In the distance, someone was approaching me and Yu-Hyun. It was Jin-Seo. Next to her was a petite female student who often accompanied her.

"..."

The female student, whose name I didn’t know, seemed surprised by my bloody appearance and took a few hesitant steps back. Her face was pale, and her fingertips were trembling.

Jin-Seo looked between me and Yu-Hyun with an expressionless face. Several more students arrived from behind Jin-Seo. It seemed like the noise of the window breaking had attracted them here.

Thump.

As soon as I saw them, I fell to my knees and grabbed Yu-Hyun's leg. Then, with a wailing voice, I cried out, "Haven’t you hit me enough...? Why are you suddenly doing this?”

There was no need to shed tears. The blood flowing from my head acted as tears.

*

Jin-Seo’s encounter with the student had been a coincidence. For the past few weeks, Jin-Seo had been devoted to exercise and training sessions, so she barely studied and attended classes sporadically.

She was called to the teacher's office because of her attendance. The teacher explained that she could face disciplinary action if she continued to be absent so frequently.

Jin-Seo explained that she had been going through various hardships, making it difficult for her to come to school. It wasn't to the point where she couldn't come to school at all, but it was true that she had been struggling with various things.

The homeroom teacher nodded with a worried expression.

"But if you keep being absent like this, due to the rules, it will be difficult for me to avoid giving you disciplinary action. Even if it's just for a moment, stop by and show your face. Then, I'll try to handle it somehow as tardiness or an early leave..."

"Yes, thank you."

When Jin-Seo finished the counseling session and left the teacher's office, the student came out of the counseling room next to hers. As soon as the student saw Jin-Seo, she revealed a delighted expression and approached her.

"What's up? Why did you come out of the teacher's office?" the student asked.

"The homeroom teacher called me over. It was for a counseling session," Jin-Seo replied curtly.

She didn't mention the reason for the counseling session because she was embarrassed to say that she had been called in for not attending class. If she said something like that, there was no doubt that her friends would tease her and call her a delinquent.

At that moment, she stared at Jin-Seo and asked, "Was the counseling session because of your attendance record?"

Jin-Seo turned her head toward her friend in surprise.

"How did you know that?"

"It's obvious. You haven't been coming to school lately, and we’re in the same class. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?”

"Oh, right. We are in the same class."

"...That comment just hurt a little."

"Well, then get hurt," Jin-Seo said with a slight smile.

It was a joke. Her classmate looked at Jin-Seo with a puzzled expression and said, "You don’t come to school because you don’t want to, and you get called to the teacher’s office as a result. Isn’t this a textbook example of a delinquent?”

"Hey, I wouldn’t say it’s a textbook example..."

"And you smoke cigarettes too."

"..."

Jin-Seo couldn’t think of a response, so she kept her mouth shut. Instead of responding, she glared at her classmate.

However, her classmate, far from being scared, seemed to smile confidently. In the past, just a slight glare or a blank expression would make her scared and submissive. But lately, perhaps because Jin-Seo had spent more time together with her, she didn’t seem to get intimidated by most of Jin-Seo’s actions.

“Look at you, glaring at me because you have nothing to say. As I thought, you’re a delinquent.”

"Be quiet. You, you..."

Jin-Seo wanted to retort in some way but struggled to come up with anything. Although her classmate was annoying, it wasn’t to the extent that she could swear at her, and she didn’t want to shout at her either. She didn't know what to say in moments like this. Jin-Seo thought for a moment and decided to say whatever came to mind.

"You... little toddler."

"A little toddler? How am I a little toddler?"

"Because you're short."

"I'm not that short, you know? I'm average!"

"Is the average this short?"

"You're just too tall!"

She had said that remark without much thought, but it seemed to be quite effective. The friend who always talked a lot was on her tippy-toes while raging at her.

Jin-Seo quietly looked at her and smiled. She used to be annoyed by how the student constantly talked to her, but lately, she didn’t find it annoying. It was somewhat fun to be with her.

"I envy you, being tall. I... huh?"

At that moment, her classmate abruptly stopped talking. A little puzzled, Jin-Seo looked at her.

Her classmate was looking somewhere with a pale face. Her hands were trembling, and her eyes showed a clear sense of fear. Jin-Seo turned her gaze to where her friend's eyes were focused.

"..."

It was an unbelievable sight. The hallway was covered in blood. The floor, the walls, everything was covered in blood. One window was shattered, and shards of glass were scattered on the floor.

Sun-Woo was kneeling on top of all that mess. She couldn’t tell whether he didn’t feel any pain or whether he was in a situation where he wasn’t even able to think about the pain, but he was desperately holding onto Yu-Hyun’s leg. Meanwhile, Yu-Hyun was standing with his fist clenched.

Sun-Woo's face was already miserable. Blood was dripping from his mouth and nose, and his hair was painted with blood. It seemed like he had hurt his head badly.

"...What is going on?" Jin-Seo said.

Upon hearing Jin-Seo's words, her friend quickly regained her senses and hurriedly dashed toward the teacher's office.

"T-Teacher. I'll call the teacher!" her friend said.

Jin-Seo approached Sun-Woo and Yu-Hyun. Her heart was pounding like crazy, and she was out of breath. Her vision went white, and her sight narrowed.

Yu-Hyun looked at Jin-Seo approaching him and said something, but she didn’t hear him at all.

There was only one thing that she could hear at the moment, and that was Sun-Woo's desperate voice. There was also only one thing that she could see at the moment, and that was Sun-Woo's face covered in blood.

"W-wait just a moment. Hey, listen to me first. This bastard is just putting on a show—"

Snap!

"....A-ah, aaaaargh—!"

Jin-Seo twisted and broke Yu-Hyun's finger. And then she grabbed his collar.

Yu-Hyun tried to shake off her hand, but he didn't have enough strength. Jin-Seo tightened her grip on Yu-Hyun's collar, exerting even more strength. Then she glared fiercely at Yu-Hyun with sharp eyes.

"What's going on here?"

"Argh, fuck. Seriously..." Yu-Hyun muttered, looking down at Sun-Woo.

He let out a dry laugh and continued, "...You really did a good job of gaining her favor. You crazy bastard."

"Hey, I asked you what's going on here?" Jin-Seo asked, not even acknowledging Yu-Hyun's words.

The sound of her heartbeat continued to grow louder. Eventually, she couldn't hear anything other than the sound of her heartbeat.

Jin-Seo turned her head slightly and saw Sun-Woo trembling and kneeling while curled up and covered in blood. The sound of her heartbeat grew even louder.

Yu-Hyun alternated his gaze between Jin-Seo and Sun-Woo, then suddenly burst into laughter.

"Ha, hahaha...! Sun-Woo, so you planned this all along, huh? This is seriously giving me the chills... ugh!”

Smack!

Jin-Seo let go of Yu-Hyun's collar and kicked him in the stomach. "I asked you what was going on here. I never told you to laugh."

The action had been so fast that there had been no time to react. Yu-Hyun wheezed a couple of times and collapsed to the ground. Yu-Hyun looked up at Jin-Seo. Her eyes were completely filled with wrath.

Looking into her eyes, it was clear that nothing that he said would get through to her. Yu-Hyun glanced at Sun-Woo. He was crouched over while secretly smiling.

He had been wondering why Sun-Woo was inflicting self-harm out of the blue, but now he realized that Sun-Woo must have staged such a show because he didn't want to dirty his own hands. As the belated realization struck Yu-Hyun, he also felt the chills.

"What, what are you doing—?!!"

At that moment, a sharp and angry voice echoed from the other end of the hallway. The female student who came with Jin-Seo had brought a teacher from the teacher's office.

The teacher approached with a flushed face. The student who always talked a lot followed closely behind the teacher.

Yu-Hyun looked at the teacher's face. It was a familiar face for some reason.

It was Ye-Jin. She was known to have quit her teaching job and to be working under Joseph, so he couldn't understand why she was here. In any case, it wasn't a good thing. In fact, from Yu-Hyun's perspective, the situation was unfolding in the worst possible way.

"Ah... fuck, seriously."

It was because Ye-Jin was one of the teachers who intensely despised Yu-Hyun.