The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 36

"Oh my, it suits you so well!"

The clerk said with a bright smile.

Jeong In-ah looked at herself in the mirror and smiled shyly with a faint expression on her lips.

"Then I’ll buy this too!"

"Yes! Would you like to look around more?"

"No! This is enough."

Jeong In-ah shook her head. She felt she had already bought plenty.

"Yes, then I’ll help you with the payment."

The clerk took the clothes Jeong In-ah had chosen and headed to the counter. Beep, beep, the sound of scanning barcodes rang out continuously.

"The total is 456,100 won. Do you need points accumulated?"

"No no, it’s fine."

"Would you like a receipt?"

"Just throw it away please!"

"Yes!"

The clerk put the clothes in a bag. Jeong In-ah took the bag.

For Jeong In-ah, 450,000 won was quite a big expense, but she didn’t feel it was a waste. All the clothes she bought were gifts for her younger sibling who would be returning.

Jeong In-ah finished shopping and left the department store. Floral fragrances filled the air everywhere, and the fresh scent of grass came carried on the wind.

The streets were bustling with people.

Lovers holding hands and looking at each other with honey-dripping eyes, families out for outings, children gathering in groups of three to five looking for things to play with.

Everyone’s faces were full of smiles. They all looked happy. Jeong In-ah became happy along with them and laughed meaninglessly.

Ding-a-ling...

The next place Jeong In-ah went was an ice cream shop. Her sibling loved cake very much, and among them, loved ice cream cake the most.

"I’ll take this one please."

Jeong In-ah pointed with her finger at the largest and most delicious-looking cake among those displayed.

"Yes, please wait just a moment."

While the clerk was packaging the cake, Jeong In-ah fiddled with her phone.

There were several texts from Gu Jun-hyeok, and some other meaningless greeting texts from other friends.

There was no reply from Do Seon-woo.

She didn’t know what he was doing, but Do Seon-woo was hard to reach on weekends.

"The ice cream cake is ready."

While she was mindlessly scrolling up and down looking through the text conversations with Do Seon-woo, the cake came out.

Jeong In-ah said thank you with a small greeting and left the shop. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Ding-a-ling.

A refreshing sound came from the bell on the door.

Like that, with both hands full of clothes, cake, and various miscellaneous gifts, she waddled home. As she walked, her shoulders gradually started hurting, so she decided to rest briefly at a nearby park.

"Ugh."

Jeong In-ah put the bags down on the ground and plopped down on a bench.

She hadn’t walked much but had worked up quite a sweat. It was because the weather had suddenly become warm.

The cold wind had become refreshing before she knew it, and the sunlight was cozy. It was full spring. She sat on the bench for a while, drying her body in the sunlight.

She suddenly looked up. The buds that had kept their mouths tightly shut were shyly opening. The leaves peeking out through the openings were a clear pink color.

Come to think of it, it was almost time for the cherry blossoms to bloom. She suddenly remembered this time last year.

Last year, Seokchon Lake where she went with her sibling. The cherry blossoms that bloomed brilliantly there. The cherry blossom petals that scattered and poured down whenever the wind blew.

She thought they had eaten a lot of different things while walking around, but she couldn’t remember exactly what they ate.

As she traced her memories, laughter naturally came out. The recalled memories felt more beautiful because they were hazy.

At the time, it didn’t seem like she was that happy, but looking back, it had been an incomparably happy day.

"Thank goodness."

Jeong In-ah muttered to herself quietly. It was hard to explain exactly what, but everything was just fortunate.

"Heh."

On the way home, Jeong In-ah laughed for no reason. It was because the clouds carved like sparse footprints in the blue sky looked cute.

The scenery she had always seen felt strangely unfamiliar and interesting today, and also beautiful.

* * *

Beyond the door stretched a corridor so long its end couldn’t be seen. There was nothing that could be called light, only darkness filled everything.

Kang Ji-ah and I carefully moved our steps and walked down the corridor. Through the silence, we occasionally heard ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling bell sounds. There were also rustling sounds. They sounded like insects or mice crawling around.

Every time there was a sound, Kang Ji-ah beside me would flinch and tremble.

"Cult Leader. I think it would be better to go back and get a flashlight or candle, something to light the way, and come back."

She said in a trembling voice. The corridor was dark, but it wasn’t so dark that we couldn’t see ahead.

"Let’s just keep going. We’ve come this far already."

It would be bothersome to go back now, and more than anything, I thought it would be a waste of time.

Kang Ji-ah followed me with somewhat displeased, shuffling steps. Her shoulders were trembling finely.

"Um, how about using the phone’s flashlight function to light the way as we go?"

After walking for a while, Kang Ji-ah suggested. I turned on my phone. The battery was only at 2%.

"There’s no battery."

"Ah."

Kang Ji-ah hung her head in despair.

"Why don’t you do it yourself?"

"I left my phone behind earlier..."

"Then let’s just go."

We walked again. Kang Ji-ah stuck closely to my back and followed me.

We walked quite a lot like that, but the corridor showed no sign of ending. It seemed we’d have to walk much more. My legs were starting to hurt.

"Cult Leader. As I mentioned earlier, wouldn’t it be better to go get something to light the way and come back?"

Before long, Kang Ji-ah spoke to me again.

"We can see ahead even if it’s dark. I don’t think there’s much need for that."

"But it’s too dark. I think it could be dangerous."

Kang Ji-ah’s voice was still trembling as she said this.

"Are you scared by any chance?"

"No."

"Be honest. Then we’ll go back."

"I’m not scared. I just think it might be dangerous..."

Clatter!

"Eek...!"

From beyond the darkness came a loud, dry sound. The sound became an echo that moved eerily through the corridor.

Kang Ji-ah couldn’t even scream properly and sat down right there. Through the darkness, tears forming at the corners of her eyes glinted faintly.

"So you are scared."

"...No."

Kang Ji-ah denied it to the end, but no matter how I looked at it, she seemed scared... I had no choice but to emit Voodoo magic power and draw a spell circle in the air. From the drawn spell circle, a purple candle emerged undulating.

The candle’s purple light burned away the corridor’s darkness and revealed the scenery beyond.

Low-grade reproduction sorcery, ceremonial candle.

Since it was low-grade reproduction, the light wasn’t very strong, but it was still better than nothing.

I held the candle and trudged forward. Kang Ji-ah, who had been sitting down, stared at me blankly as if dumbfounded.

"Why didn’t you use it from the beginning...?"

"Because your reaction was interesting. Sorry."

"..."

Kang Ji-ah moved her lips as if to say something, then soon gave up and followed me.

"Cult Leader, you’re really similar to Teacher in many ways."

"That’s the first time I’ve heard that. How are we similar?"

"You’re both very playful."

"Hey, I’m nothing compared to Uncle."

"No... From what I can see, there doesn’t seem to be much difference."

We had meaningless conversation as we strode down the corridor. With light, it was definitely easier to walk.

Eventually reaching the end of the corridor, we could see an iron door tightly closed beyond. There were three latches on it, and each latch had a lock tightly secured.

"I’ll open it."

Rustle.

Kang Ji-ah took out a bundle of keys from her pocket. She inserted the keys one by one and unlocked the padlocks on the latches. I lit the way with the candle beside her.

Click.

Finally all the locks were undone. Barely calming my trembling heart, I grabbed the door handle and pulled.

Creak creak creak.

With a bizarre sound like the floor splitting, the stiff door opened. Beyond the door was a huge room. Like the corridor we had walked through, it was a room filled only with darkness without a strand of light.

The unidentified jingling and clattering sounds that had been heard continuously in the corridor came from here. The room was full of foul odors. It was a sour smell of filth and sweat mixed together.

Occasionally I felt signs of human presence, but I couldn’t tell if it was Kang Ji-ah’s or someone else’s here.

"Be careful. There might be magical beasts or something."

Kang Ji-ah warned me. I lit the way with the candle and slowly moved my steps, examining every corner of the room.

The first thing I saw was a safe. A very large and sturdy-looking safe.

Kang Ji-ah ran over, assessed the safe’s material, then immediately began picking the safe.

Clank!

In less than 3 minutes, the safe door opened with a cheerful sound.

Inside were bundles of 50,000 won bills, gold bars, and jewels. It seemed to be money collected through worship services. There was so much cash and goods that I couldn’t even estimate their value.

"Let’s take everything."

Kang Ji-ah said.

I emitted divine power and injected it into Baal’s Maw.

With a creaking sound, the entrance opened. Kang Ji-ah put all the money bundles, gold bars, and jewels into Baal’s Maw. She looked exactly like a bank robber. Seeing this, she was definitely Uncle’s disciple.

"Then now let’s go back..."

Clatter.

"Haaahhh! Haaahh!"

"Kyaaahhh!"

Something hit Kang Ji-ah’s foot as she was getting up to leave.

There was a sound like iron bars shaking, and simultaneously some unidentified life form began screaming madly.

Kang Ji-ah was startled by the screaming and screamed along with it.

"Grrr, uh. Uh. ...Huh?"

After screaming and trembling for a while like that, Kang Ji-ah suddenly let out a puzzled sigh. For the first time, an expression appeared on her usually expressionless face.

She seemed flustered, terrified, and disgusted.

"Cult, Leader. This thing."

Kang Ji-ah pointed with her finger beyond the iron bars. I approached Kang Ji-ah and turned the candle toward the direction she pointed. The purple light illuminated beyond the iron bars.

"Haaahhh! Haaahhh!"

When the light touched it, ’that thing’ began screaming madly again.

The screaming didn’t stop. Even as its throat became hoarse and its voice completely cracked, that thing continued to scream. It seemed to have completely lost its reason.

I slowly looked at ’that thing’ beyond the iron bars.

The brown hair was curly, and the arms and legs were emaciated. The skin revealed through torn clothes was pale, with blue veins and bruises scattered everywhere. The brown-tinted pupils, like the hair, had no focus.

It was a zombie.

"Haaahhh! Haaahh!"

Clatter. Clatter clatter clatter clatter.

The zombie grabbed the iron bars and shook them. The screams it let out made horrible sounds like scraping metal. Transparent saliva dripped from its wide-open mouth. On the collar around its neck hung a bell and a name tag.

Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling.

As the zombie thrashed about, the bell shook and made sounds. It was a dry, parched sound.

There was a name written on the name tag. When I confirmed that name, I just let out an empty laugh in disbelief.

"Found it..."

I stared blankly at the name written on the name tag and just laughed like I had lost my mind while sitting down. Every time I laughed, my stomach churned as if gastric acid was boiling, and my belly hurt with a sharp pain as if my intestines were being cut.

"But why are you here of all places..."

Jeong In-ah’s missing younger sibling, Jeong Yun-ah.

She was now in front of me.

As a zombie, trapped behind iron bars.