Chapter 41: Hello Cult (4)
Yoo jin, who had gulped down the last stir fried rice cakes in one breath, and the party moved quickly to the Heavenly Mandate Holy Order.
Tracing the clone's memories, they rapidly entered the underground area where Seong-hyeon was trapped.
Like that, without being noticed by anyone's eyes, Yoo jin came to arrive at the underground prison where Seong-hyeon was confined.
"What is this, is he Jesus? Why is he stuck on a cross?"
In Yoo jin's gaze, Seong-hyeon hanging on a cross machine was captured.
Seong-hyeon showed no reaction even to Yoo jin's voice.
The reason was unknown, but whether he had fainted or fallen asleep for a moment, he was not showing any reaction.
"Even if they say every generation has a cross to bear, this is too much."
"Teacher, that is a metaphor……."
"That is a real cross……."
Jin-ho and Ye-na shook their heads.
"To think such a place exists underground. Was it not just a cult?"
Lee Si-wang took off his sunglasses and rolled his eyes.
The dark interior that was slowly captured in his view.
It was a space that contrasted with the flashy sanctuary seen from the outside.
A wide underground area packed with cold mechanical devices.
Although not many lights were turned on in the large space, he could capture those things that were here and there in his eyes, albeit faintly.
"A hospital……. No, it seems like a laboratory."
Lee Si-wang's voice flowed out containing many emotions.
Everything reflected in his eyes was a series of things that were truly difficult to believe.
On one side of the wide space, there were beds commonly seen in hospitals, and on top of them lay humans with numerous mechanical devices attached to their whole bodies.
Not knowing if they were alive or dead.
Humans with skin that had lost its original color were visible.
As he turned his head just slightly, a large water tank entered his sight.
A water tank that looked like a concentration of even higher technology at a glance.
Familiar Mana Stones were embedded in the lower part of the water tank and the place that looked like a control device.
It was said to be familiar, but it was a Mana Stone familiar because it was Lee Si-wang.
A Mana Stone that only comes out in S-Rank dungeons.
It was a top-grade Mana Stone that called for hundreds of millions, billions for a single one.
Lee Si-wang's eyes narrowed.
Since it is a quite famous cult, they might have a lot of money, but.
The number of Mana Stones embedded in the mechanical devices was quite significant.
So.
"The cult isn't the main body. This looks like the main body?"
Yoo jin slowly moved his steps and shifted to the front of the water tank.
Lee Si-wang, who was chasing Yoo jin with his eyes without lifting his feet, nodded his head.
"Yes. It seems so even to my eyes. The religious group called Heavenly Mandate Holy Order is just a shell. It seems they operate this place with the money earned there."
"There are probably a few places similar to this place. In this underground."
"Yes. Judging by the fact that managing personnel are not seen. Rather than a space where experiments actually take place, this place is……."
Lee Si-wang hesitated for a moment while speaking.
His gaze reached the children.
He could not bring up the words easily.
Because he thought it could be quite a shock to the children.
When Lee Si-wang could not open his mouth, Yoo jin's voice rang out as if replacing his words.
"It must be a warehouse. Or something like a maturation room. Like liquor."
"……."
Lee Si-wang's expression sank.
Along with the expressions of the children contained in his gaze.
Like that, the truth of this place and the Heavenly Mandate Holy Order was being revealed to some extent.
In the midst of that.
Yoo jin's feet, which were taking steps, stopped.
A large water tank.
That is, in front of a girl floating gently inside an unknown liquid.
A cold exhalation flowed along Yoo jin's nose.
A girl visible in his gaze.
A young female child with her eyes closed, unknown whether she was dead or alive.
The moment he confirmed that girl's face.
"As expected……. I was right."
He spat out a monologue that no one could understand.
Ye-na, Jin-ho, and Lee Si-wang, who were at the back, made expressions of inability to understand and shifted their gazes to the water tank Yoo jin was looking at.
A peer?
A female child who looked to be about high school age.
It was definitely a face they were seeing for the first time.
"So you had been fighting alone……. Seong-hyeon……."
Yoo jin was making the saddest expression in the world.
Around the time doubt was blooming on the faces of the party looking at Yoo jin.
"H, how……."
A new voice was heard.
Gazes gathering in an instant.
Seong-hyeon, who was hanging on the large cross, had woken up.
The party discovered the awakened Seong-hyeon and moved quickly to the front of Seong-hyeon.
"Are you okay? Seong-hyeon?"
"Look at the wounds…."
"Wait just a little, I will untie you."
As the children and Lee Si-wang touched the cross where Seong-hyeon was bound here and there.
However.
"What is this? It won't open."
"Is there a button somewhere or something?"
"If it becomes like this, even by force…."
"Oi, stop for a second."
At the approaching voice, the children and Lee Si-wang turned back.
"Teacher, this won't open."
"I will try even by force……."
"No. Forget it, do the untying later and move aside for a moment. I have something to say."
At Yoo jin's voice, the children and Lee Si-wang tried to spit out words of opposition, but at Yoo jin's serious expression that could not be seen before, they shut their mouths and retreated to the back.
Yoo jin facing the disciple hanging on the cross.
"H, how are you alive. Clearly, you died earlier……."
Seong-hyeon's eyes facing Yoo jin shook.
"Ah, that? Teacher has good abilities, right? To figure out this place, I performed some magic tricks."
"……."
He didn't know exactly what he was saying, but Seong-hyeon did not ask anymore.
Well, he didn't have the strength to ask questions again either, but because he was clearly, distinctly right in front of his eyes.
His teacher.
As Seong-hyeon's mouth shut like that, this time Yoo jin's mouth opened.
"I knew it was reckless, but I still didn't think you'd barge in alone on that very day."
At Yoo jin's voice, Seong-hyeon shifted the gaze he was facing to the empty air.
"Liar."
"What?"
"Don't lie. Even though you knew everything."
"What does that……."
"You knew everything. That's why you tested me. That I…… had my Unique Skill stolen."
Was it because of the fatigue of the physical body.
Or was it because of the sense of betrayal regarding Teacher Lee seen earlier.
Seong-hyeon could not control his emotions.
Yoo jin, who was containing such a Seong-hyeon in his eyes, could not spit out any words.
This child's emotions.
The anger spat out right now.
Because he understood.
Rather, it was the children, not Yoo jin, who harbored questions at the voice Jo Seong-hyeon spat out.
"What does that mean, Seong-hyeon?"
"That the Unique Skill was stolen…."
Despite the children's worried gazes, Seong-hyeon did not spit out any words.
Silence flowed for a moment like that.
Yoo jin, who was quietly containing Seong-hyeon's condition in his eyes, opened his mouth.
"Let's go first. Let's go out, get treated, and talk slowly."
The wounds inside the heart would be more painful than the wounds visible on the outside, but.
Because the wounds revealed on the outside and his appearance were unspeakable, Yoo jin tried to move the disciple to the hospital first.
"I don't need it……. Adult's help……."
A voice that settled down coldly.
"What does that mean, Seong-hyeon? Let's go to the hospital first."
"Right. Even now blood is coming out from the wounds."
"Forget it. Go."
Despite the children's worry, only a cold voice flowed from Seong-hyeon's mouth.
At the determined attitude, the children's gazes headed towards Yoo jin.
Lee Si-wang's gaze watching this as well.
Yoo jin let out a deep sigh with a silent look.
"Ha……."
He scratched his head and approached Seong-hyeon.
"Let's go."
"I said forget it, how many times do I have to say……."
"Why are the little brats these days so disobedient? There isn't a guy who says 'Yes!' at once when the teacher speaks."
Yoo jin ignored Seong-hyeon's words and tried to untie Seong-hyeon bound to the mechanical device.
"I said forget it! Seriously!"
A loud voice returned.
"I don't need it! Even if I go back, you're going to kick me out of school anyway!"
At that sound, Yoo jin's hand stopped.
"Please go! Adults are…… teachers are all……."
The party froze in surprise at Seong-hyeon's pent-up anger.
"The same……."
At Seong-hyeon's head dropping powerlessly with the last words, Yoo jin's eyes narrowed.
The situation seen through the clone.
The appearance of Teacher Lee who was with the cult leader.
That must have played a part too.
However.
The biggest thing was probably.
The conversation with Corporal Yoon Byeol came to Yoo jin's mind.
Seong-hyeon who became a liar.
Adults who no one believes.
Among them.
'I needed someone like you.'
Water drops fell below the cross.
At that time.
"Y, you guys, what are you!"
A sound was heard from the door side.
The startled children and Lee Si-wang's heads moved.
They discovered the personnel outside the door.
Two men wearing white gowns.
They seemed like researchers helping with experiments under the cult leader.
"What do we do?"
"What do you mean what do we do. Since we're caught, we have to prepare to fight."
When the children and Lee Si-wang composed their expressions and were hardening their minds for the things to happen ahead.
As if cut off from the world.
A voice rang out that did not care at all about this critical situation where the infiltration was discovered.
"Do you remember the conversation you had with me a few days ago?"
Yoo jin said to Seong-hyeon with a voice where urgency could not be found.
"What does that……."
"The reason you came here. It's not because of your skill."
"Don't say strange things, and run away. The cult leader will come."
"Answer me. The reason you came here. It's not because of your skill."
"I said go, seriously! You'll die at this rate! If the cult leader comes, this time you will really die!"
Because it was Seong-hyeon who didn't know it was a clone.
The fear that the appearance of being defeated by the cult leader would become reality again encroached upon his whole body.
"Please just go! I came to find my ability, why would I come here!"
The researchers who were two had increased to five before anyone knew.
They knew of the occurrence of intruders too.
At this level, a report must have gone into the cult leader as well.
"Go! Seriously! I'll take care of my own business!"
Despite Seong-hyeon's shout, Yoo jin did not move.
"There might be the part about coming to find the ability too. But you came to find something bigger. Do you remember? What I asked last."
"……."
He hoped he would say it.
No, exactly speaking, he hoped he would believe it.
The teacher who came all the way here.
The friends.
And himself.
Yoo jin wanted to let him know that the child in front of his eyes was no longer a loner.
"I said it then too. Your dream is different. Is it that child? Your dream."
Yoo jin's hand moved.
Seong-hyeon's eyes moving following that tip shook.
The loud sounds and movements of the party and the researchers.
Those things disappeared as if they were things of another world.
And in Seong-hyeon's field of view, only one thing came to enter.
The water tank.
Exactly speaking, towards the female child inside the water tank.
"The reason you want to find your ability, isn't because you're scared of being cut from school but……. It's because you don't want to blame your friend."
Sound disappeared from Seong-hyeon's world.
Going back in time a little.
At that time when Yoo jin was looking at the top-secret materials received from the principal.
[Candidate 1922 Family Interview]
Yoo jin's gaze was sucked into the laptop.
In that place appearing to be a counseling room, the door opened and Seong-hyeon entered.
Clack!
"I am Seong-hyeon's dad."
And then Seong-hyeon closed the door again and left.
Clack!
"I am Seong-hyeon's mom."
Seong-hyeon was playing a prank like a comedian doing a one-man show.
The interview official's voice rang out.
"What are you doing……? We all know that you don't have a family."
At the interview official's voice, Seong-hyeon who was in front of the door scratched the back of his head.
"Hahaha……. I'm sorry. I'll come for real now."
Seong-hyeon's figure disappeared outside the door again.
After a little while.
"Heave-ho."
Seong-hyeon came in pulling a wheelchair.
"My friend's dream is to enter this school, so we came together."
The female child of a similar peer age sitting in the wheelchair had red cheeks as if shy.
But at the same time, she was making the happiest smile in the world.
Whether that was the case or not, the interview official's voice rang out.
"Hmm, the friend over there can't come to this place……."
"No."
Seong-hyeon's firm voice rang out.
"She is family."
Unlike the serious voice, a broad smile was built on Seong-hyeon's face.