The Cult Leader in the Clergy Academy

Chapter 264

Chapter 264

Yeom Man-Gun and Yuk Eun-Hyung blinked their eyes and stared at her while Ha Pan-Seok furrowed his brow as if he was not impressed. Ji-Ah had no expression from the start.

The only ones who smiled at her were Uncle Jin-Sung and Yun Chang-Su. Yun Chang-Su smiled especially brightly and approached her.

"You look much better."

"Executive Yun Chang-Su, you haven't changed at all! You even seem to have gotten younger."

As the two shared a tearful reunion, Uncle approached her.

"It seems like you were able to make it. I thought you wouldn’t come.”

"Thanks to you, I was able to arrive. I was a bit late because I had some work that I had to deal with."

After greeting Yun Chang-Su and Uncle warmly, she greeted the other executives via eye contact.

Yeom Man-Gun and Yuk Eun-Hyung stood aloof without responding to her greetings, while Ha Pan-Seok accepted the greetings with a stoic expression and a bow.

Her gaze turned toward me. Instead of greeting me, she widened her eyes in surprise. Then she approached me.

"Oh my, is that Sun-Woo?"

"..."

"You've really changed so much! How did this happen?" she said.

She reached out to touch my cheek, but I swatted her hand away. She said that I had changed, but in my eyes, she was the one who had changed a lot.

Her personality had hardly changed, but her appearance had changed significantly. Although each individual change wasn't major, when put together, they made a big difference in her overall look.

"Executive of the Gyeonggi Branch, it's fortunate that you've returned," I said in a formal tone.

Her expression slightly stiffened.

"Why are you being so formal and distant? Can’t you be like in the past..."

"Because the memorial service is ongoing. An executive meeting is also still taking place,” I said.

Woosh!

I used Marinette's power to try to push her away and prevent her from acting friendly with me.

The flames burning in the center of the square fiercely soared toward her. The flames engulfed me before charging toward her and stopped right in front of her.

She took a step back with a surprised expression on her face. It was only then that I extinguished the fire.

"Let's save personal conversations for after the event is over," I said.

"...Fussy," she muttered with a smile.

I then announced the end of the memorial service and entered the Chungcheong Branch’s chapel.

The reason I pushed her away was simply because I didn't like her.

Except for Uncle Jin-Sung, the executives of the Voodoo Cult feared me as the Cult Leader. Uncle had no thoughts about me. Soo-Yeong envied me as the Cult Leader.

However, that woman had always pitied me since I was young. She looked at me with sympathetic eyes and always with a gaze filled with pity.

I disliked her pity.

* * *

"By the way, what was your name?"

"Me? I haven't really settled on one. I don’t just have one or two names, you see. Was the most recent one I used 'Anna' or 'Cozette'? Just call me whatever. I don't care."

"It’ll be convenient to call you Anna," Jin-Sung nodded.

The Executive of the Gyeonggi Branch, Anna, was exchanging greetings with the other executives.

She talked about the time when she lived in hiding to escape the pursuit of the Holy See. She changed her name several times, altered her face many times, and was finally able to completely evade the pursuit of the Holy See.

The executives found Anna's stories enjoyable. Anna had a talent for making her words witty.

Even if she said the same thing as someone else, it became a bit more interesting and exciting when she said it.

Jin-Sung, in particular, listened attentively to her story. It didn't seem like someone else's business.

As Anna's story was coming to an end, Ha Pan-Seok said, "Executive Jin-Sung."

Jin-Sung, who had been listening to Anna’s story with great interest, stiffened his expression. For a long time, Jin-Sung did not have good feelings toward Ha Pan-Seok. If I had to be more specific, he only had bad feelings towards him.

Jin-Sung would usually respond informally, but he replied to Ha Pan-Seok's words in a distant, polite manner.

After the executive meeting ended and we returned to the chapel, my uncle asked me if it would be okay for Anna, the executive of the Gyeonggi branch, to stay in the underground chapel for a while.

Since the Gyeonggi Branch’s chapel had collapsed a long time ago, Anna had nowhere else to stay. He told me she would stay for a short while until she found a room, so I agreed.

In order to avoid Joseph's surveillance, I hadn't been visiting the underground chapel very often, so it didn't matter to me.

I planned to minimize my visits to the underground chapel in the future. This decision was influenced by what Sung Yu-Da had told me today.

"Inquisitor Joseph suspects... no, he is almost convinced that you are the Cult Leader of the Voodoo Cult."

I had previously asked Sung Yu-Da to tell me the location of Noah's Ark.

To fulfill that promise, Sung Yu-Da was taking me to the site of Noah's Ark when he abruptly mentioned the story about Joseph.

I knew Joseph had suspicions about me, but I didn't realize he was convinced I was the Cult Leader.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"He asked me directly if I knew more about you. It was a question he asked knowing that you are the Cult Leader."

"Then why hasn't he reported or arrested me yet? If he's an inquisitor, he could have arrested me on the spot."

"Probably because he still doesn't have objective evidence. From now on, he will probably follow you persistently to gather irrefutable evidence. Be careful."

"..."

That was definitely true. Recently, Joseph had been more persistently following me than before.

He suddenly appeared at the Eastern Paladin Order, where I was doing my dispatch training. Last time, he even sent a spy to stalk me.

I made up suitable excuses to avoid or evade the situation, but I couldn't continue living such a precarious life forever.

“Can’t the purification clan do anything about that guy? For example, can you dismiss him?"

"Dismissing him may be difficult, but creating a pretext to get him off your tail will be possible. I will try to do it as quickly as possible."

I nodded without saying more or asking questions. I couldn't understand why Sung Yu-Da was going to such lengths for me. It wasn't solely because I was holding Ha-Yeon hostage.

As my uncle mentioned in the recent executive meeting, Sung Yu-Da was not someone who could be restrained by holding a hostage.

He had stronger shackles. He must have taken an oath, or perhaps something more substantial than an oath, like a conviction.

It was clear that there were other reasons why he couldn't report me to the Holy See and why he had no choice but to help me.

Or maybe, as my uncle had said, he might be trying to stab me in the back.

Sung Yu-Da turned around and asked, "Are you listening to my request to not approach Ha-Yeon?"

I carefully studied his face. From his expression alone, it seemed like he had asked such a question because was genuinely worried about Ha-Yeon.

However, there were times when a strange expression and gaze that I couldn't quite understand would surface, making it impossible for me to judge.

"You don't need to worry. I haven't been in contact with Ha-Yeon."

Crumble!

At that moment, the ground collapsed.

"Ah, ahh...!"

"Why is the ground collapsing like this?"

Sung Yu-Da and I simultaneously fell. The time it took for us to fall felt strangely long. It was if we were falling from several kilometers high in the air. Sung Yu-Da and I screamed as we continued to plummet for a while.

At the moment, I tried to stop the fall using Bade's power or whatever I could use.

Thud—!

Finally, our bodies hit the ground. It felt like we had fallen for an unimaginably long time, but our bodies were unharmed once we landed on the ground.

I opened my eyes and looked around. The surroundings were filled with pitch-black darkness, so I couldn't see anything.

"Oh, I was wondering who it was..."

At that moment, a voice came from the darkness. It sounded like a voice I had heard somewhere before.

It was not recently, but also not very long ago. I remembered it from a somewhat recent past.

"It seems like welcome guests have arrived!"

"..."

When the darkness lifted and light poured in, I finally remembered whose voice it was. The owner of the Ark, Noah, stood in front of us.