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Chapter 88

"Is this a dream?" I murmured out the hypothesis that came to mind.

It was a hypothesis with a low possibility, but it was not completely impossible. Through the ring and box that was left by my father, I experienced several hallucinations. No, I had dreamt vivid dreams that were difficult to distinguish from reality multiple times. Since then, it felt as if the boundary between dreams and reality had become blurred.

[Those addicted to Voodoo spells often show those types of symptoms,] Legba said. His tone was a little sarcastic.

"Why are you talking about addiction all of a sudden? I don’t think I’ve used enough spells to become addicted."

[It could be the initial symptoms of addiction. Before you lost consciousness, you used the intoxication spell excessively. It’s highly likely that that is what’s causing the problem.] Legba spoke calmly, but he seemed to be subtly scolding me.

Excessive use, he said... At the scene of the fire, I had used the intoxication spell a few times to forget the pain. No, well, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t just use it a few times, I used it quite a lot. However, I honestly didn’t know whether it had reached the point of addiction. At the moment, the important thing was not the addiction or whatever it was.

"So, am I in a dream right now?"

[Well, what do you think?] Legba retorted mischievously.

"Ah, can you not?"

[Okay, I understand. It\'s not a dream. However...]

[It\'s a reality that’s so vivid that you’d want to believe it\'s a dream!]

At that moment, someone interrupted Legba. It was Baron Samedi. He had promised to come every five days, but he would sometimes show up every three or four days if he felt like it. Baron Samedi ignored Legba, who was coughing with discomfort, and said, [It would be best to go to the Great Auditorium right now. Or you can check the paper hanging on the bulletin board in front of the classroom first before going.]

"The Great Auditorium...?"

"Yes, the Great Auditorium!" Baron Samedi repeated my words enthusiastically. I left behind the lingering feeling of uneasiness and walked toward the bulletin board in front of the classroom.

[You would have gone to the Great Auditorium even if I didn’t tell you though. That’s what causation is,] Baron Samedi said.

I slowly read the paper hanging on the bulletin board.

"An inauguration ceremony will be held during homeroom time this morning, so all students are requested to gather at the Great Auditorium..."

Ah.

"...This is a dream, right? Please tell me it’s a dream, quickly."

[Hahaha! Yes, perhaps you might have wanted it to be a dream, but this is, without a doubt, reality. Even if you tightly close your eyes and open them again, reality won’t change. It looks like you\'re going to be late again.]

[It’s just an appointment ceremony. Who cares if we’re a little late? Take your time, take your time. Your body hasn’t fully recovered, right?]

[Indeed, no matter how late you are, the outcome won\'t change anyway. That\'s what causation is!]

Legba and Baron Samedi took turns speaking. Their voices echoed in my head. I felt so frustrated that I felt like crying, but I didn’t have the luxury of wasting time at the moment. I had to head toward the Great Auditorium immediately.

"Bo-Bossou."

[Bossou is on strike right now.]

"Ah, stop joking and hurry!"

[Oops, sorry, Bossou will respond to your call.]

I borrowed Bossou’s power and dashed toward the Great Auditorium. Strangely, I couldn\'t run very quickly. Usually, when borrowing Bossou’s power, I would be able to run very quickly, but because I was running so quickly, it became harder to change directions. If I had known it would be like this, I would have jumped out of the window instead of taking the stairs. Even if I had done that, I would have been late anyway.

[By the way, I was genuinely surprised last time! I can\'t believe you were able to change the predetermined future. Causation has been distorted.]

While I was running frantically, I heard Baron Samedi\'s voice.

[Could this distortion also be part of causation? Well, in any case, it’s become more entertaining for me...]

His voice, filled with mischief, gradually faded away.

* * *

The morning sunlight passed through the stained glass of the Great Auditorium and split into various colors. White noise flowed out from the speakers, and the sound of students chatting filled the auditorium. Jin-Seo cut through the commotion and took her seat.

"Hey. You came today?" As soon as she sat down, Min-Seo provoked her. To be precise, it wasn\'t really a provocation, but it sounded like one to Jin-Seo. It was because her tone of voice was always condescending.

"Yeah. I came today," Jin-Seo replied.

She would normally keep her mouth shut, but today, she decided to casually reply to her comment.

"When you want to come, you come, and when you don\'t want to come, you don\'t come~ You seem to think of school as your neighborhood playground," Min-Seo teased with the corner of her mouth raised. Jin-Seo looked at Min-Seo and smiled.

There were smiles on both their faces, but both smiles were frighteningly chilly. Su-Ryeon glanced between the two of them and suddenly felt a chilly sensation run down her spine.

‘I smell a fight...’

Over the past few weeks, continuously mediating fights allowed Su-Ryeon to gradually be able to smell the ‘scent of a fight.’ For a while, silence flowed between Jin-Seo and Min-Seo.

At that moment, Min-Seo suddenly pinched her nose and furrowed her brows.

"What\'s that smell all of a sudden? Urgh," Min-Seo said.

Su-Ryeon thought that Min-Seo might have read her thoughts, and she was surprised. Dae-Man was sitting next to them, and he started sniffing his own clothes all of a sudden.

"Hmm, at the very least, it doesn’t seem like the smell of my sweat!"

"...Yeah, besides the sweat smell. Don\'t you smell something burning? It’s like the smell of smoke," Min-Seo said while staring at Jin-Seo with a smirk on her face. Min-Seo\'s words were intended to mock Jin-Seo, as she had been inside the Basar Market during the fire.

‘Is she crazy?’

While thinking so, Su-Ryeon looked at Jin-Seo in surprise. Jin-Seo wasn\'t laughing, nor was she frowning. Instead, she had a subtle expression on her face.

‘Ah... this has gone a bit too far.’

Su-Ryeon inwardly clicked her tongue.

"Well, I\'m not too sure."

However, Jin-Seo didn\'t back down at all. Instead, she calmly replied while managing to let out a relaxed laugh. Min-Seo let out a hollow laugh as if she couldn\'t believe her eyes.

"How come you can’t smell it? The smell of smoke has filled this entire place."

"Is that so?"

Jin-Seo retracted her gaze from Min-Seo and then moved her gaze toward the podium before continuing to speak.

"Shall I prevent you from smelling it in the future, then?"

"...What? You—"

"Snicker, ah, um, cough. Ah, Min-Seo, I’m really sorry. I’m really, really sorry."

Min-Seo was just about to retort back at Jin-Seo, but she couldn\'t continue her sentence. It was because of Su-Ryeon\'s unintentional laughter.

"No, it’s not that I laughed at you. It’s because I suddenly had a funny thought. Really."

"..."

"Are you sulking? No, listen. I really didn’t laugh at you, it\'s just... Snicker. Ah, no. The truth is, your surprised face was just so cute... Did I upset you? Huh?"

Su-Ryeon continued to hold back laughter while looking at Min-Seo. Her face was unusually flustered. It was not only because Su-Ryeon had laughed at her but also because Jin-Seo\'s reaction was so different from usual.

"Ah, ah."

At that moment, Chang-Won, who was on the stage, grabbed the microphone and started testing the mic. With that, the commotion in the Great Auditorium came to an end. Chang-Won continued to speak in the auditorium, which was filled with a chilly atmosphere.

"Firstly, let me apologize for the sudden adjustment of the schedule and for proceeding with the appointment ceremony today. Since homeroom time is short, we will informally proceed with a brief appointment ceremony."

With those words, the lights in the Great Auditorium dimmed halfway. The few remaining lights illuminated the stage. It was a special lighting effect for the sake of the appointment ceremony.

"Ah... ahem." Lost in thought, Ha-Yeon suddenly shivered after getting startled by the sudden darkness. No one was paying attention to her, but Ha-Yeon coughed unnecessarily while being conscious of her surroundings.

"There was some confusion regarding the re-election of the Holy Name of Charity this time, but following a discussion, we have ultimately decided that—”

Chang-Won paused for a second. There was a moment of silence.

"Just like we previously decided, Sun-Woo will be elected. Do Sun-Woo, please come up to the podium."

“...?”

The students sitting in the auditorium all closed their mouths and looked blankly up at the stage. Jin-Seo and Ha-Yeon had calm faces, but the rest of the students couldn\'t hide their bewildered expressions.

Sun-Woo was late for the appointment ceremony, and as a result, he was stripped of his qualification. The fact that Sun-Woo was being chosen as the Holy Name of Charity regardless of this fact meant that it would cause a lot of controversy. The students\' doubts eventually turned into resistance.

"Weren’t they droning on about how they would strip him of his qualification...?"

"What kind of flip-flopping is this? I mean, the fact that Sun-Woo was late was his fault in the first place."

"They say he was involved with the fire at the Basar Market."

"Does that really count as a consideration? There is no way this would have happened unless bribery was involved—"

The chaos sparked by the students\' resistance grew like a snowball and eventually filled the Great Auditorium. The students who could not accept the decision complained that it was unfair, and they argued that the fact that Sun-Woo was involved with the blaze in the Bazar Market was his own fault. The words were just blurted out without much thought.

Rinnnnngg—!

Then, a sudden noise was heard. Chang-Won had brought the microphone to the speaker to intentionally create the noise. He quickly spoke up without missing the momentary silence that followed.

"During the Basar Market fire, Sun-Woo threw himself into the burning building to save the citizens and helped extinguish the flames. Sun-Woo protected others as if they were part of his own body. No, he went so far as to sacrifice his own body to save others. That student who impersonated the apprentice paladin and helped the Eastern Paladin Order is none other than Sun-Woo."

Silence filled the hall. However, it was a different type of silence compared to before. The story of the mysterious person who had extinguished the flames and saved the citizens during the fire before suddenly disappearing was very famous among the Florence Academy students. It was because rumors had spread that he was a Florence Academy student.

Many considered the mysterious person a hero, as they had thrown their body into the fire without any sort of compensation or reward. Thus, after the revelation that the mysterious person was, in fact, Sun-Woo, the confusion and doubts that filled the audience could not help but come to an end.

"I believe that Sun-Woo\'s selflessness and compassion, which helped him save many others without sparing his own body, goes beyond that of the Holy Name of Charity and should become a lesson for all clergymen."

The heavy silence continued without an end in sight.

"In addition to this, various other factors have been considered, so I hope that the students have no misunderstandings about the school\'s decision."

With that, Chang-Won concluded his speech. The students were still unable to recover from the shock. In-Ah sat in the back, and she was particularly shocked. She felt a sense of betrayal due to the fact that Sun-Woo had not told her about this.

"Therefore, we shall now begin the appointment ceremony—"

"Um, Chairman. Ummm, well, I\'m really sorry. Haha.”

Just as he was about to start the appointment ceremony, Miss Ye-Jin hurriedly went up onto the stage. Chang-Won felt an inexplicable sense of unease and sudden foreboding.

‘...Could it be?’

"Don’t tell me you can’t contact him again?"

"Haha, well... I definitely confirmed that he had been discharged from the hospital and contacted him the day before..."

"...Oh my goodness."

Chang-Won clutched his head.

The backlash from the teachers was cut off when the International Theological Association incident was brought up. They thoroughly kept the fact that Sun-Woo helped the Seoul Paladin Order Eastern Branch during the fire a secret and revealed the truth on the day of the announcement to calm the students\' dissatisfaction.

All of this was part of Chang-Won\'s plan. If everything went according to plan, there would be no variables. However, he was arrogant. There were still variables that he hadn’t anticipated. Chang-Won had excluded the possibility of Sun-Woo not coming to the appointment again.

"For now, keep trying to contact him," Chang-Won said.

Even though he didn’t outwardly show it, he was currently very impatient. If they delayed the appointment ceremony or chose another Holy Name of Charity, then it was clear that there would be severe backlash from not only the students but also the teachers. He was able to handle the backlash the first time with some maneuvering, but he didn\'t have the confidence to handle the backlash again a second time.

"Yes, but this thing keeps saying that the phone is turned off..."

"I\'ll try to buy some time, so for now, tell the teachers..."

Thud.

At that moment, the door opened.

It was a familiar sight to Chang-Won.

A person walked through the door and past the students in order to make it to the stage. However, that person’s steps were not as unstable as before. His steps were filled with more strength than usual. In an instant, he crossed the Great Auditorium and climbed up onto the stage.

Thump.

He sat down in front of Chang-Won and placed one knee on the ground. The lights of the Great Auditorium shone brightly on him, giving him a serene glow.

It was Sun-Woo.

"...By any chance, did I miss the appointment ceremony again?" he asked casually while looking up at Chang-Won.

"It was a close call."

"I’m sorry."

"...It’s alright."

Chang-Won reached out his hand over Sun-Woo\'s head. A pure white halo bestowed by the Pope flowed out of Chang-Won\'s hand and gradually enveloped Sun-Woo\'s body.

"I should be the one thanking you instead."

Swish—!

A refreshing sound, like that of a droplet falling, echoed throughout the great auditorium. It was the sound of the start of the appointment ceremony for the Holy Name of Charity, and it was also the sound of the Eucharist, which signaled the bestowal of the Blessing of Superhuman Strength.

The light that had been wandering around Sun-Woo finally gathered into one mass. That mass of light seeped into Sun-Woo\'s heart as if being absorbed.

With this, Sun-Woo became a part of the Seven Holy Names, and with that, the appointment ceremony came to an end.