御书房文学网

Chapter 267

His house had always been empty. Do Myung-Jun had no siblings, and he only had his father, who was always in the chapel because he was busy performing the duties of the Voodoo Church. So, he would frequently invite them over to his house by stating that he was lonely as an excuse.

"It doesn’t seem like anyone is here," Lee Seh-Hwa said without even ringing the doorbell in front of the house.

Sung Yu-Da silently nodded.

It definitely seemed like no one was there. The windows, which had always been clean, were currently shattered.

Do Myung-Jun would often bring Lee Seh-Hwa and Sung Yu-Da to his house and would do nothing besides look outside the window. He would say that looking outside the window felt like he was looking at a moving painting. There was no way someone like him would leave the window broken like that.

Sung Yu-Da pressed the doorbell just in case, but as expected, no one came out. He thought about pressing it again, but he decided against it since it seemed like no one would come out anyway.

"If he\'s not at home, he must be in the chapel," Sung Yu-Da said as he looked up at the broken window.

The shattered part of the window reflected the sunlight and sparkled. Upon closer inspection, he noticed spider webs on the window. It seemed to have been left neglected for weeks even after it was broken.

"The chapel? Do you know where it is?"

"I\'ll find out."

Sung Yu-Da knew that the Voodoo Church’s chapel was located somewhere in the middle of a mountain. He had been there once with Do Myung-Jun when he was very young. He still remembered almost stumbling several times due to how difficult the path was. However, he couldn\'t remember which mountain it was.

He grabbed his phone and called the person in the purification clan who controlled most of the clan’s political power. He basically functioned as the clan’s leader. He was an elderly inquisitor who was familiar with the Voodoo Church’s first leader.

Sung Yu-Da could easily contact him since they were relatives.

In fact, there were even times when he would ask Sung Yu-Da to call him more frequently.

"Hello, how have you been? I called because I have something to ask you."

Sung Yu-Da quickly got to the point after exchanging brief pleasantries. When Sun Yu-Da asked about the location of the Voodoo Church\'s chapel, the elderly inquisitor willingly provided the information.

After expressing his gratitude, he hung up the phone. Not only did he learn the name of the mountain he had inquired about, but he also learned the way to get there.

"Let\'s go."

Sung Yu-Da took Lee Seh-Hwa and headed toward the mountain where the Voodoo Church chapel, or more precisely, where Do Myung-Jun, was located.

Sung Yu-Da brought a car since it was a long distance to walk. While driving, whenever they stopped at a traffic light, Sung Yu-Da would turn his head to look at Lee Seh-Hwa sitting in the passenger seat. He could not read her expression properly just by looking at the side of her face, but he felt like he knew what she was thinking. Along the way, it started to rain. At first, he thought only a few drops would fall, but it suddenly started pouring heavily.

The winds were strong, and there was also the occasional rumbling of thunder. Lee Seh-Hwa, who had been sensitive to noise since she was young, shuddered every time she heard the thunder.

She glanced at the car’s windshield wipers moving left and right and then said, "Do you have an umbrella?"

"It should be in the car. But there might be only one."

"We can share, right?" Lee Seh-Hwa casually said.

Sung Yu-Da also tried to be casual and replied, "...Yeah. We can share."

Before they knew it, they had arrived at the mountain where the chapel was located. It was still raining. Because the weather was cold, snow and rain fell simultaneously, but the snow melted as soon as it touched the ground.

After parking in a random place below the mountain, Sung Yu-Da and Lee Seh-Hwa shared an umbrella and walked along the mountain path.

He used to think that the path was extremely rough when he was young, but after growing up and walking through the path again, he realized that it wasn\'t as rough as he had thought. In fact, compared to other mountain paths, it was relatively flat.

Paladins would often walk through mountain paths or even climb cliffs to rescue people who were stranded in the mountains, so to Sung Yu-Da, this kind of mountain path was almost like a walk in the park.

Slip!

Suddenly, Lee Seh-Hwa slipped and stumbled while walking alongside Sung Yu-Da. Thanks to her thick clothing, she wasn\'t injured, but her outer garment was slightly torn.

Sung Yu-Da took off his own outer garment and covered her with it. Lee Seh-Hwa\'s eyes widened at his sudden kindness.

"I\'m fine. It’s cold, so you should keep wearing it.”

"It\'s not that cold."

"Pretending to be tough, huh? Anyway, thank you," Lee Seh-Hwa said with a smile.

Due to the cold, Lee Seh-Hwa had been shivering a bit since earlier, but she stopped trembling after receiving Sung Yu-Da’s coat.

Sung Yu-Da tilted the umbrella a little more toward Lee Seh-Hwa and continued walking along the mountain path. However, no matter how much they walked, the chapel did not appear.

The chapel was located deep in the mountains, but perhaps due to the rain, it felt like the chapel was even further than he initially remembered.

At that moment, Sung Yu-Da noticed a rusty bench. It seemed to have been built to allow passing hikers to take a break, but it had been neglected for a long time.

Sung Yu-Da briefly checked on Lee Seh-Hwa\'s condition. From a glance, he could tell that she looked exhausted.

"Let\'s take a break."

"Alright," Lee Seh-Hwa replied as if she had been waiting for the opportunity.

Lee Seh-Hwa tried to sit on the bench right away but hesitated upon seeing how wet the bench was. However, Sung Yu-Da plopped down on the bench without any hesitation.

"Argh, your butt\'s going to get all wet. Aren\'t you cold?"

"It’s not that cold. And I\'m already soaked, so it doesn\'t matter."

"I guess you\'re right."

After a moment of contemplation, Lee Seh-Hwa nodded and also sat down on the bench. As Sung Yu-Da had said, they were already completely soaked, and they were too tired to care about such things.

The rain was still pouring heavily, but since they had climbed higher up the mountain, there was more snow than rain, which provided them with some relief.

While holding onto the umbrella, Sung Yu-Da stared at Lee Seh-Hwa and said, "You seem to use formal language with everyone."

It occurred to him that not only did Lee Seh-Hwa use formal language with Do Myung-Jun and Sung Yu-Da, but also with her friends. Sung Yu-Da had never seen her speak comfortably in informal language with anyone. It was hard for him to even imagine her doing so.

Lee Seh-Hwa nodded and said, "Yes, it seems so."

"Even when you’re with me and Myung-Jun... I mean, with Do Myung-Jun, you always use formal language. I think I\'ve told you a few times that you can speak comfortably."

"Hmm, I just think that I prefer using formal language."

"Why?"

"I\'m not sure exactly why. I think I want to keep a little distance from everyone. Does it bother you when I say it like that?”

"It doesn’t bother me. Are there any people you don\'t use formal language with?"

"Well, maybe with just my younger brother?”

Come to think of it, Lee Seh-Hwa had a younger brother. From what he could remember, his name was Jin-Sung. He saw his face only once during high school and never saw him again after that.

"How is your younger brother doing these days?"

"It seems like he\'s not doing anything. He doesn\'t seem to be interested in the Romanican Church either... I keep telling him to work part-time and earn some money, but he doesn\'t listen. The only thing he knows how to do is ask me for pocket money.”

"Didn’t you almost use informal speech just now?" Sung Yu-Da said.

Lee Seh-Hwa thought carefully about what she had just said, then smiled.

"Maybe it’s because I feel comfortable around you. It seems like I sometimes use informal speech, and sometimes I use formal speech around you."

Sung Yu-Da stared at her smile and then stood up from his seat. Lee Seh-Hwa also stood up. The two started walking towards the chapel once again.

Perhaps Lee Seh-Hwa felt cold, as she firmly wrapped the coat she received from Sung Yu-Da around herself. Then she moved closer to the center of the umbrella.

Sung Yu-Da unconsciously tightened his grip on the umbrella.

Almost leaning into Sung Yu-Da\'s embrace, Lee Seh-Hwa looked up at him and asked, "Are the members of the purification clan designated marriage partners by the clan?”

"Yeah."

“So I suppose you must already have a marriage partner prepared for you.”

“Probably.”

Sung Yu-Da deliberately gave a vague answer.

In reality, his marriage partner had already been decided, and he already knew who it was. They had even met and talked face to face before.

However, he didn\'t want to reveal this fact to Lee Seh-Hwa. She looked at Sung Yu-Da with a slightly sad expression and said, "If that happens, we won’t be able to meet like this. And Myung-Jun is already drifting away from us."

"We should still meet occasionally, even in the future."

"Seriously, I hope the three of us can continue to meet like we used to in the future."

They wouldn\'t be able to see Do Myung-Jun anymore. He had become the leader of the Voodoo Church.

Sung Yu-Da and Lee Seh-Hwa regularly interacted with each other as Romanican clergymen, but their interactions with Do Myung-Jun gradually faded away over time.

Eventually, even the memories they had shared with him would fade and disappear.

However, Sung Yu-Da did not explicitly mention this fact. He simply silently walked on.

The flat mountain path became a bit rougher, and more snow fell than rain when the chapel suddenly appeared before their eyes.

Sung Yu-Da and Lee Seh-Hwa silently gazed at the Voodoo Church\'s chapel. It was larger than they had expected. It seemed to be several times larger than the chapel in Sung Yu-Da’s childhood memories.

Snow was piled neatly on the almost flat roof. When the wind blew, the snow cascaded down in heaps.

Sung Yu-Da was the one to break the silence.

"Let\'s go inside," he said.

He swallowed nervously as he walked toward the main entrance of the chapel. He didn’t feel any presence inside the chapel, but for some reason, he was convinced that Do Myung-Jun would be inside.

Sung Yu-Da knocked a few times and then opened the door with a creak. The door was not locked.

Lee Seh-Hwa entered the chapel, looked around, and said, "...Myung-Jun?"

Her voice echoed in the empty chapel. The chapel was quiet and dark, with a strange purple mist gathering on the high ceiling.

The two of them walked further into the chapel. Despite walking carefully, their footsteps strangely echoed loudly. In the innermost part of the chapel, there was a door. A purple mist flowed out of the half-open door.

The fog that had accumulated on the ceiling seemed to have flown out of that room.

“Seh-Hwa, let’s go back.”

Sung Yu-Da suddenly felt a sense of unease and tried to lead Lee Seh-Hwa out of the chapel.

However, when he turned around, he couldn\'t see Lee Seh-Hwa. She was already standing in front of the door where the fog was flowing out. Sung Yu-Da hurriedly approached her to stop her, but he didn’t make it in time. Lee Seh-Hwa opened the door as if she were possessed.

“...”

When she opened the door, the first thing that caught her eye was the purple fog in the room. Beyond the fog, she saw the shadow of a person kneeling on the ground.

Sung Yu-Da immediately recognized that the shadow was Do Myung-Jun. He was continuously muttering something while kneeling in front of a candle emitting a purple light.

Whoosh.

A sudden gust of wind extinguished the candles. Do Myung-Jun turned his head and glared at Sung Yu-Da and Lee Seh-Hwa with eyes wide open in surprise.

Blood dripped down from his eyes and splattered on the floor.

"Why are you guys..."

Before Do Myung-Jun could finish his sentence, Lee Seh-Hwa touched her face in confusion. Blood flowed down her eyes and ears.

"Huh?"

Drip.

Before long, Lee Seh-Hwa\'s face was covered in blood. Lee Seh-Hwa sat down on the spot.

Sung Yu-Da, still not understanding the situation, looked back and forth between Lee Seh-Hwa and Do Myung-Jun.

"Huh? Oh, wait. Where are you guys? Yu-Da, Myung-Jun, where—?!"

"Seh-Hwa, Lee Seh-Hwa!"

"Ah, arghhhh─!"

Lee Seh-Hwa screamed and covered her ears. Sung Yu-Da urgently called out to Lee Seh-Hwa and hugged her. She trembled uncontrollably and screamed. The mist that filled the room began to swirl turbulently.

The wind blew, and the ground shook. Thunder could be heard from outside.

“Ah, ah...”

Do Myung-Jun, about to approach Lee Seh-Hwa, kneeled down and hesitated. He repeatedly bowed toward the extinguished candle. He hit his forehead on the floor, and blood from his forehead stained the ground.

Suddenly, a flame reignited in the candle. However, the flickering flame seemed fragile and unstable.

"Oh, Legba! Legba, please listen. She is not the one to be the Prophet. It\'s not her... Please, Legba!" Do Myung-Jun said to the candle.

A smile briefly appeared and disappeared from his lips. His bloodshot eyes were like those of a madman. Do Myung-Jun drew a dagger from somewhere and cut his palm. He let the blood drip onto the candle.

The flame consumed his blood and barely emitted a faint light.

"She has nothing to do with this, really nothing at all..." Do Myung-Jun muttered as he clenched his fist and continued to let his blood drip onto the candle.

Eventually, Do Myung-Jun bowed his head in despair. He ripped out strands of his own hair, buried his face in the ground, and sobbed for a long time. The candle had already been extinguished.

Drip, drip.

The tears and blood that Do Myung-Jun and Lee Seh-Hwa shed fell to the ground. Lee Seh-Hwa\'s screams and Do Myung-Jun\'s sobbing could be heard inside the room where the mist had cleared, and the sound of thunder continued to rumble outside.