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Chapter 255

I headed toward the underground chapel with Jun-Hyuk\'s taxidermied raven persistently following me. I thought about using Bossou\'s power to kill it, but I didn\'t even have the strength to do that.

"Are you happy because In-Ah is happy?"

"Shut up."

"You probably aren’t. We are different from In-Ah. We are outsiders..." the raven said.

I ignored it and walked on. However, despite trying to ignore it and walking away, the raven’s voice still crept into my ears, especially what it said about how in the end, we were alone because we were outsiders, and so on.

Although I would have normally brushed it off and moved on, for some reason, it bothered me today. Perhaps it was because I had just seen In-Ah\'s family in harmony, and I felt a sense of deprivation from the fact that I could never have a harmonious family like In-Ah\'s. That was probably why I found Jun-Hyuk\'s voice so annoying.

"I look forward to the day we meet again. I’ll be waiting for you with a masterpiece."

"Oh, please... I didn\'t ask, you crazy bastard," I muttered to myself, trying to block out Jun-Hyuk\'s voice as he kept saying whatever he wanted without context.

But Jun-Hyuk, oblivious to my fatigue, continued to speak. I plugged my ears and walked toward the underground chapel. The raven kept trailing behind me.

Buzz! Buzz!

I heard vibrations. The sound wasn\'t coming from the phone I used as a Florence Academy student, but from the phone I used as the Cult Leader of Voodoo Cult. My uncle was calling.

—Hey, Sun-Woo. Are you in the dormitory?

"I\'m outside."

—Good. Come to the underground chapel right now.

"Well, I was going to... but why?"

On the other end of the phone, I could hear noise in the background: Ji-Ah\'s voice, Soo-Yeong\'s voice, something falling, the sound of wind, and so on.

My uncle said something, but I couldn’t hear him because of all the noise. As the noise gradually subsided, I could finally hear his voice.

—...Birthday. Hello? Can you hear me? It\'s your birthday!

"Oh..."

—Anyway, come quickly! Come to the, what do you call it, the rooftop instead of downstairs.

Click.

With those words, he hung up the phone.

Silence fell. The raven who had been making noise beside me also fell silent. I put my phone in my pocket and looked at the raven.

"Hmm... It seems like you\'re the only loner here."

"..."

"Rot away alone in the underground prison for the rest of your life. You can make friends with the taxidermied creature you created."

Flutter!

As if it was angry in response to my words, the raven flapped its wings roughly and leaped into the air. The raven flew so high that it was almost invisible to the naked eye and then turned into a dot and disappeared. It looked as if it had been sucked into the darkness of the night sky.

I arrived at the underground chapel. Normally, Ji-Ah would have greeted me, but no one came to welcome me today. The empty underground chapel was quiet. I changed into comfortable clothes and went up to the rooftop where we normally had parties together.

Uncle greeted me as soon as I arrived. "Oh, you just arrived? Take a seat!"

On the rooftop, four chairs were arranged in a circle around a table. Uncle, Ji-Ah, and Soo-Yeong were already sitting in three of the chairs. A cake was placed on the table. As I took my seat, Ji-Ah inserted candles into the cake.

"You guys prepared a cake? When did we ever do anything like this?"

"We thought about giving it a go since we hadn\'t done it before. Isn\'t that right?" Uncle said.

I didn\'t say anything and just smiled. I realized that I hadn\'t celebrated my birthday for the past few years. Not knowing today was my birthday and never having celebrated it before explained why everything, from the cake to the candles on it, felt unfamiliar to me.

After Ji-Ah finished inserting the candles, she tried to light them with matches. However, the wind kept extinguishing the flames.

Ji-Ah furrowed her brow in confusion after trying three matches without success. "I\'m sorry, the wind keeps blowing..."

"Bade," I called out.

After a strong gust of wind, the wind suddenly died down. Bade wrapped his wind around us, blocking the incoming wind.

[Using my power for such trivial matters annoys me, but I\'ll let it slide this time! Birthdays are meant to be happy!] Bade said.

I chuckled. Meanwhile, Ji-Ah managed to light all the candles. Looking at the eight flames flickering from the winds that even Bade\'s wind couldn\'t stop, Soo-Yeong said with an excited expression, "Shall we sing too? You know, since we\'re already at it!"

"Oh, Sun-Woo doesn\'t like doing those childish things. He probably won\'t even participate properly," Uncle said.

Then he suddenly stood up and glanced at me. "But... Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~."

"What are you doing? What are we supposed to do when you start singing all of a sudden?"

"I agree. Songs should be sung together."

"Okay, shall we do it again? Ready, one, two, three!" Uncle gave the countdown.

Ji-Ah and Soo-Yeong clapped together and sang. At first, I couldn\'t lift my head out of embarrassment, but later I just clapped along.

If I kept bowing my head because I was embarrassed while everyone was congratulating me so enthusiastically, they might feel uncomfortable.

"Happy birthday to you~ Now, blow these out!"

"If you can\'t blow them all out at once, you\'re not a Cult Leader. Got it?"

Blow.

After the song ended, Uncle and Soo-Yeong urged me to blow out the candles. I blew them out. Uncle, Soo-Yeong, and Ji-Ah cheered softly and clapped.

As soon as the candles were out, Uncle took them out, placed them on the edge of the desk, cut the cake, and divided it onto plates. He gave Ji-Ah and Soo-Yeong a slice each.

Uncle smiled as he handed me a plate with cake. "How is it, celebrating a birthday after a long time? This is good too, right?"

I nodded. "It\'s childish... but still nice."

"Things like these are nice because they are childish," Uncle said.

Come to think of it, he was right.

***

"Why are the demons appearing so frequently these days? It wasn\'t like this before..." Han Dae-Ho muttered as he looked around the Han River surrounded by \'No Entry\' tape and paladins.

"It seems like the end is near," Hee-Jin joked in response.

Sun-Woo followed behind them and silently observed the scenery of the Han River.

The three of them were heading toward the Han River to exterminate the demons that had suddenly appeared. Originally, the Central Priesthood managed the area near the Han River, but their men weren’t enough to defeat the demons. Thus, they requested support from the Eastern Paladin Order.

Tap.

Suddenly, Han Dae-Ho tapped Sun-Woo\'s back as he looked around the Han River with a stern expression.

"You don\'t need to be tense. You can just stay still," Han Dae-Ho said, ducking to cross under the caution tape.

“...”

Hee-Jin and Sun-Woo followed, crossing under the tape. The scene where one of the demons had appeared was chaotic. Priests from the Central Priesthood had unleashed their divine power and drawn several blessing arrays.

Some priests seemed to be preparing for miracle replication as they were kneeling and praying. The demon sat quietly on the island in the center of the Han River. At first glance, it was much larger than the typical demon.

Han Dae-Ho approached the praying priests.

"Thank you for your hard work. I am Han Dae-Ho, the director of the Eastern Paladin Order. What is going on?"

One of the praying priests stood up. "Oh, director. Uh... yes, well..."

They sighed.

Han Dae-Ho nodded continuously as he listened to the priest\'s words. To roughly summarize, the demon that had appeared on the island in the center of the Han River stayed in its crouching position without doing anything for several hours.

Despite attacking the demon through miracle replication, they were not able to inflict any damage on it. In a turn of events, other demonic beasts and demons began to emerge in a rural area in large numbers, so the Central Paladin Order and Crusader Order were all dispatched to help them. That left the East Paladin Order as the only place that the Central Priesthood could request support from.

"So... in conclusion, are you saying that we need to eliminate that demon over there?"

"Yes."

Han Dae-Ho stared at the demon crouched on the island.

The demon glared menacingly with its glowing red eyes, but it didn’t make any other movements. This made it even more terrifying, as it meant that the demon was unique and different from the typical demons that would attack humans on sight.

Han Dae-Ho gazed at the demon intently, then sighed deeply. "To engage in battle, we need to approach the island where the demon is... But it seems we don’t have any way of getting closer."

"Ah, well... we have a boat," the priest said, pointing to a boat tied to a stake.

The boat was small, and it looked like it could barely carry one person, let alone three.

Han Dae-Ho let out a deep sigh. They had no way to deal with the demon if it suddenly decided to attack them while they were on the boat.

"Approaching by boat seems difficult. It’s risky too. You would have had a better chance of calling the Crusader Order under these circumstances. They have snipers and such."

"Yes, that\'s why we called the Crusader Order. But they haven\'t arrived..."

Screech!

Before the priest could finish speaking, a vehicle came in and stopped right in front of them. The car door opened, and crusaders poured out.

The crusaders that the priest had called had just arrived. They were from the Northern Crusader Order, a Crusader Order that had been rising in power as a result of a sudden decrease of power from the Holy See\'s Crusader Order and Central Crusader Order due to the mercenary corps suppression incident.

The crusaders got out of the vehicle, each wielding their weapons in hand. Some held swords, spears, or maces, while others carried pistols or giant sniper rifles. Their equipment level was on a different dimension compared to the Eastern Paladin Order—they had only brought minimal equipment on top of close combat weapons.

"Wow... seems like they won’t leave anything for us," Han Dae-Ho exclaimed as he looked at them.

Hee-Jin stood beside him, and he frowned as if he was displeased. "Why did they even call us?"

"I don’t know. Maybe they want us to feel a sense of relative deprivation," Han Dae-Ho said with a self-deprecating smile.

This was something that he could have sent as a formal complaint to the Central Priesthood, but Han Dae-Ho just laughed it off. The Eastern Paladin Order frequently dealt with situations like this, and they were all too familiar with the way other clergymen treated them as pushovers.

"Sigh... well, what can we do? Let\'s just take the deployment fee and leave," Han Dae-Ho said with a sigh.

Hee-Jin looked very annoyed as he watched the praying priests. However, Sun-Woo showed no reaction. He didn\'t get frustrated like Hee-Jin or smile with a touch of resignation like Han Dae-Ho. He stared down one of the many crusaders who got out of the vehicle.

"Why? Do you know them?" Han Dae-Ho asked.

Sun-Woo nodded in response. Among the many crusaders, one with a sword and a gun approached Sun-Woo, smiling slyly.

"Long time no see."

"..."

Jin-Seo shook hands with Sun-Woo and greeted him.

Sun-Woo just stared at Jin-Seo as if he had seen a ghost.