Chapter 40: Hello Cult (3)
“Boss, 2 more servings of stir fried rice cakes here.”
Yoo jin was eating stir fried rice cakes at a street stall.
Naturally, along with Lee Si-wang and the kids.
Watching the food getting sucked into Yoo jin’s mouth in an instant, Lee Si-wang let out a sigh.
“Um, Teacher Yoo jin. Is it okay for us to be like this?”
“We didn't eat dinner anyway. Just eat for now.”
“…….”
Yoo jin erasing Lee Si-wang’s anxiety with a louder voice.
Since words weren’t getting through, the black sunglasses headed toward the kids who were behind Yoo jin.
Jin-ho and Ye-na, who received the gaze for help, put down the toothpicks they were picking at.
“Teacher. Vice Guild Master mister is right. This isn’t the time to be like this.”
“Even if we don't go in and search directly, just in case, we should at least wait in front of the sanctuary…….”
“This is tasty. Can’t help it. Please add 2 servings of fried food too.”
The kids’ voices lost to the fried food.
“Hey, kids. While you have time to worry, just eat one more thing. If growing sprouts eat so sparingly, where will you use that energy? Don’t cry later that you didn't grow tall and eat a lot now.”
Yoo jin, who spoke with a serious expression, received the fried food and wore a smile.
“…….”
“…….”
The kids looked at Lee Si-wang and shook their heads.
Meaning there is nothing more they can do.
“Ha…….”
A small sigh flowed out of Lee Si-wang’s mouth.
“Sighing to kill the appetite……. Do you not trust me?”
Yoo jin with lips red because of the stir fried rice cakes was seen.
Wearing an expression more confident than ever.
“I trust you…….”
How could he not trust a Returnee.
He is probably the strongest among the Awakeners existing on Earth.
“I trust you but…….”
Ten minutes ago.
In other words, the twenty Yoo jins who appeared before his eyes came to mind.
‘So the worry is also twenty times.’
Lee Si-wang couldn't bring himself to spit out the last words for fear of getting hit with Tteokbokki.
***
At that time.
Inside the Heavenly Mandate Holy Order.
Pat!
Papat!
Yoo jin’s clones were searching every nook and cranny inside the Heavenly Mandate Holy Order at a speed the eye couldn't follow.
Crash.
Thud!!
“What, why are the walls so weak?”
Well…….
They were being careful in their own way.
***
Somewhere underground in the Heavenly Mandate Holy Order.
Inside the secret place where Seong-hyeon was trapped.
Click!
One more light turned on at the leader Kim Seong-hak’s signal.
Seong-hyeon’s body, which was taking in the place where the darkness disappeared, trembled.
A large water tank.
Because a familiar face was seen inside it.
“You…… son of a bitch!”
Seong-hyeon, who was hanging on the cross, struggled strongly.
However, the cross he was embedded in didn't even think of budging.
No, rather.
Zzzzt!
Zzzzzzt!
“Aaaah!!”
It only gave pain to the hanging Seong-hyeon by sending out an electric current.
Smirk.
A smile spread on the face of the leader who was capturing that appearance in his eyes.
“It sounds better than any praise.”
An appearance hard to believe was the same human being.
A child is appealing in pain, yet he spits out these words while laughing.
“Looking at that reaction, it seems I am right. To still try to find that. Even though it is no longer what you knew.”
The leader, who was looking at Seong-hyeon, turned his body and captured the water tank in his eyes.
The figure of a human floating in the water tank.
“She is being used well as a vessel. She probably thinks now is more valuable than her first life where she only suffered from illness. Well……. If she can think, that is. Kuhahaha.”
Dirty laughter that one couldn't think was a sound made by a human flowed over the leader's lips.
“Only you…… definitely…….”
At the small flowing voice, the leader's mouth closed.
“Only you, I definitely won't forgive. Absolutely…… absolutely…….”
Although smoke was even rising from his body, Seong-hyeon was enduring the pain and glaring at the leader.
“Playing along ends here too. Coming here tirelessly for a year. This time I will absolutely not send you back alive.”
“…….”
Whether due to pain, or because his strength ran out after barely enduring.
This time Seong-hyeon couldn't make any retort.
At that time.
Jiiiing―.
The door opened and someone walked in.
The leader turning his body at the presence.
“Oh my, I made you wait.”
“I was wondering why you weren't coming. You were in the middle of a fun game alone.”
Thud.
Thud.
Footsteps approaching through the darkness.
When the sound disappeared.
“Why are you here…….”
Teacher Lee was filling Seong-hyeon's view.
“You don't need to know that. You are quite brave. To barge in like this alone for almost a year. Even though neither the police nor the teachers believed you.”
A teacher of Taewoon High.
Teacher Lee.
Although not close, Seong-hyeon had also taken his class in his first year.
“As expected…… adults are…… all the same…….”
Seong-hyeon's expression was crumbling.
Teacher Lee, who was capturing that appearance like watching an animal trapped in a cage, showed a fishy smile.
“You knew that just now? You really are a kid.”
Outside, no, at school, it was an expression he had never made even once.
The leader approached Teacher Lee's side.
“I didn't do it on purpose to have fun alone, I thought it was better not to encounter him since you are from the same school.”
“Oh my, it's a joke. I'm sure the Leader judged well.”
“I am grateful you say so.”
“By the way, seeing him here, this kid won't be able to leave this time.”
“Yes. Because he is a foolish guy who doesn't know even when given a chance. I intend to use him as material.”
“I see.”
Teacher Lee, who nodded briefly, slowly approached Seong-hyeon hanging on the cross.
Thud.
Thud.
Footsteps same as the devil-like leader rang out.
Before long, Seong-hyeon and Teacher Lee became close enough that only each other's faces were visible.
Seong-hyeon's sharp expression filled the space between Teacher Lee's red glasses.
“Wow, the expression is bloody. For a young guy. But you know, who looks at a teacher with such an expression?”
As soon as Teacher Lee's words ended…….
Zzzzzzt―.
“Uugh!!”
Electric current poured over Seong-hyeon's whole body.
Smoke rising again behind the scream.
Only now was a satisfactory expression made on the face of Teacher Lee looking at Seong-hyeon who dropped his head in pain.
“This is right. A foolish human who doesn't even know what the Messiah's teaching is should bow his head like this.”
A dirty voice rang out, but Seong-hyeon couldn't make any reaction.
Now even the strength to resist didn't remain.
He didn't know how many times already the electric shock felt like piercing his whole body with spears.
“…….”
Seong-hyeon's appearance barely hanging on the cross like a puppet with cut strings.
Teacher Lee and Leader Kim Seong-hak, who were capturing that appearance, met eyes.
“Since the insect became quiet too, let's go out and have tea…….”
At that time when Teacher Lee's voice was ringing.
“Hey, hey.”
A voice that made Teacher Lee and the leader's expressions sink came in riding the light.
The passage where the door was half open.
Through there.
“Get away from my student.”
Yoo jin was standing.
***
Teacher Lee was trembling all over as if he had seen a ghost.
“H, how are you here…….”
It was understandable, because a figure he had never imagined at all was standing before his eyes.
Yoo jin.
A teacher appointed to Taewoon High not long ago.
A figure with rumors that someone from somewhere high placed him there.
And…….
‘Move.’
The day of the problem.
The day the monster terror occurred.
The one who dismantled that barrier, which was made so no one could dismantle it, with just a single hand…….
A figure wrapped in a veil.
Teacher Lee's calm breathing began to ripple in fear.
“Is he someone you know?”
At Teacher Lee's changed atmosphere, the leader who was next to him asked.
“He is a teacher at our school.”
At Teacher Lee's voice, the leader beside him stroked his chin.
“Hmm…….”
The leader's crumpled brow.
The greeting shared with the new believer he met in the chapel came to his mind.
“So you weren't just a believer, you.”
The figure in front of his eyes who was with the kids.
A suspicious guy wearing sunglasses was also together.
He just thought they were believers who came for the first time.
So he didn't mix words as much as possible, and didn't reveal emotions either.
Like any other time.
‘Looking at the current situation, it seems I did well though…….’
The leader's face crumpled abruptly.
And he directed that gaze toward the cross, to be exact, toward Seong-hyeon hanging on the cross-shaped torture machine.
“Did you perhaps come to find this guy?”
The child dropping his head as if still without strength.
However, on that child's face, an expression completely different from before was being made.
Trembling pupils.
A dumbfounded expression.
So.
It seemed he didn't imagine it at all.
This child too.
The actions of this person…… who is in front of his eyes…… who caused this nonsensical thing.
“How on earth did you come here? This isn't a place just anyone can enter…….”
At the leader's voice, Yoo jin only now crossing the door.
“Really? I didn't know. I heard places like churches and temples accept anyone? Guess here isn't like that?”
Wearing a nonchalant expression, he was closing the distance.
“Well, religious facilities are indeed places that accept any human. Since God embraces any sinner.”
“Embraces you say……. Is that true?”
“What do you mean?”
“The embracing part.”
Yoo jin's dark brown eyes captured the disciple hanging on the cross.
“Is that embracing him? Doesn't look like it to my eyes.”
“This too is one of…….”
“Stop spouting bullshit. You cult bastard. I didn't come to play with you.”
“…….”
The leader became mute like a honey-eaten mute at Yoo jin's sudden outburst.
Unlike such a leader, Teacher Lee, who was capturing Yoo jin in his eyes, was busy.
“It's not the time to be chatting. We must dispose of him quickly. An out, outsider…… if someone in the school knows about us…….”
“Do not worry, Brother. The thing you worry about won't happen. I just asked. How on earth…… he entered here.”
The leader's expression became infinitely cold.
The leader whose atmosphere completely reversed opened his mouth while looking at the approached Yoo jin.
“What happened to the people guarding the door?”
“Probably sleeping?”
Yoo jin speaking while picking his ear nonchalantly, not caring about the leader's heavy expression and atmosphere.
“I see. Then the ones who came with you?”
“I told them to stay outside because it's dangerous.”
“That means then, that you came here…….”
“Yeah. Only I know. So quickly come at…….”
As soon as Yoo jin's words ended.
Shuk!
Orange crystal wrapped around Yoo jin's body.
In Yoo jin's shaking gaze, the leader raising his right hand was captured.
“I was going to attack anyway. Because that way I can kill without anyone knowing.”
The appearance of the leader smiling brightly.
However, that voice didn't reach Yoo jin.
Only the gaping face was slightly visible.
“Then next is…….”
When the leader raised the opposite hand…….
Crack!
Crack!
The orange prison wrapping Yoo jin's body.
To be exact, the space around it cracked and crumpled.
Crumple crumple.
Like crumpling useless paper with hands.
Yoo jin was crumpled and rolled up along with the orange prison wrapping his body.
Yoo jin, whose surprised eyes drew a diagonal line and who was gathering his hands to do something.
“…….”
Soon let his expression droop and took no action.
Just.
Only staring at Teacher Lee and the leader with piercing eyes.
“No need to make such an expression. Anyway, from the moment we met, you were destined to become like this.”
As soon as the leader's words ended.
Thud…….
Thud…….
Something spherical about the size of a palm fell to the ground.
And then scattered grain by grain and went up to the sky.
That appearance was like orange fireflies ascending to the sky after finishing their lives.
“Well, let's think of it as a small event after a long time.”
The leader turning his body as if it was nothing.
Unlike him, Teacher Lee, who met eyes, couldn't easily understand the series of situations that happened in front of his eyes.
Because he saw Yoo jin's power clearly that day.
Because he got rid of the barrier no one could break.
Because he eliminated that monster S-Rank, summoned by that person, in one blow.
“…….”
Teacher Lee's gaze headed to the leader.
Kim Seong-hak.
Before being a leader, a scientist of forbidden arts offering abilities to the Messiah.
Just as seen, unlike general Awakeners, he suppressed Yoo jin with two Unique Skills.
He thinks it's possible.
A general Awakener can have only one Unique Skill.
However, this crazy scientist is a monster who became able to use two of those nonsensical abilities with that person's power.
Therefore, he thinks he can win.
But…….
The last.
The last action of Yoo jin strangely wasn't forgotten from his mind, Teacher Lee.
“T, Teacher…….”
At Seong-hyeon's sobbing voice, Teacher Lee's mind was waking up above the surface.
And…….
“First, let's go out and have a cup of tea.”
“Yes, let's do that…….”
“How I wanted to hear stories about whether that person is doing well.”
Teacher Lee turning his body following the leader.
It was the leader and Teacher Lee leaving the door leaving only the sobbing Seong-hyeon in the large place.
Right.
He just gave up.
Because the leader's power was too strong.
Because he realized painfully that he could do nothing in that barrier prison.
Right.
It was just that.
A small smile spread on the face of Teacher Lee leaving the door.
Along with a sigh of relief…….
.
.
.
***
Same time.
Street stall.
Flash!
Into the mind of Yoo jin who opened his eyes.
The clone's memory flowed in.
And then…….
Grin.
“Found you.”