“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of the Voodooists,” I said. I bet I knew more about them than anyone else.

“Really? Some people haven’t heard of them.”

“It’s hard not to know them…. If you don’t mind me asking, what is the name of your younger sibling?” I questioned.

“Jung Yoon-Ah. They're a year younger than me.”

“How long have they been missing?”

“Around eight or nine months? I’m not too sure. At this point, I just hope they’re alive.” Jung In-Ah answered with a strained voice. Talking about her sibling seemed to take a lot out of her.

“I’ve heard rumors that most of the kidnappings are done by the Voodooists,” Jung In Ah said. “You should be careful as well.”

“Yeah…. You’re right. I should be careful,” I replied.

Jung In-Ah spoke ill about the Voodooists and the different kidnapping incidents. I played along, and before I knew it, we were in front of my house.

“See you tomorrow.” Jung In-Ah waved goodbye. I smiled in return and stepped into my house.

I couldn’t feel my arms or legs. I plopped on my bed and drew my blanket up to my chin. I wanted to take a nap, but I just couldn’t sleep.

[...]

Legba was uncharacteristically quiet that day.

***

“So their name is Jung Yoon-Ah, and they’re sixteen, right?”

“Yup.”

“Nope, I can’t find them anywhere.”

I headed straight to the underground chapel after a simple dinner. I had asked my uncle Lee Jin-Sung to see if we had a member named Jung Yoon-Ah.

My uncle shook his head. “I think that it’s a groundless accusation. Even if we’ve been branded as a cult by the public, we haven’t resorted to means like kidnapping, right?”

“I know you’re right, but…”

“Don’t worry about it so much. It might be the jobs of Satanists or other cults that use us as a cover-up,” my uncle said nonchalantly.

The Voodooist doctrine shared many similarities with the Romanicans. Both valued love and respect and sought to understand what it meant to be good. Obviously, both religions frowned upon crimes like kidnapping. Jung In-Ah’s sibling was probably kidnapped by another cult impersonating us. No, it had to be imposters.

I tried to think of it that way, but I couldn’t help feeling pangs of guilt and malaise at the back of my mind.

[Lee Jin-Sung is right. There’s no need to worry about it. Even if our cult did play a role in kidnapping her sibling, it’s not your fault.]

“Of course it’s my fault. I’m the Cult Leader.”

[Um, that’s a sound argument.]

Legba’s pointless answer made me drop my head. My chest tightened, and my shoulders felt heavy. If our cult played a part in the kidnapping of Jung In-Ah’s sibling, then I was accountable since I was the Cult Leader.

“Hey, Sun-Woo, are you free this Saturday?” It was my uncle that had cut through the rambling thoughts inside my head.

“Saturday? Sure, I’m free. What’s up?”

“We got a request for help. Should we take it or not?”

“Request? From whom?”

My uncle took a better look at his phone. “‘It’s dPB’s Corporate Chairman.”

“dPB?”

dPB was a company that sold and manufactured holy artifacts. It was not an exaggeration to say that eighty percent of the holy artifacts used in Korea were created and distributed by dPB. Their market cap was valued at around ten quadrillion won.

“What does their chairman want to do with us?” I asked.

“His wife’s got an incurable disease.”

“Then he should go to a priest.”

“The priest couldn’t do anything to improve her state. He even went to soothsayers and fortune tellers, but they couldn’t help her either. He’s desperate, and we’re his last resort.”

“Hm.”

It was illegal to go to a soothsayer or a fortune teller in an attempt to see the future. If a chairman of such a big company resorted to such illegal means, it probably meant that the situation was dire, and he was extremely desperate.

[Take it. You’ve been saying how you’re running low on funds.]

There weren't a lot of Voodooists, so it was impossible to keep the cult running with just the offerings from the members. Therefore, we took in requests like these to compensate for the lack of money.

Because of our poor financial situation, it was logical to think that this was an excellent time to take in a request. But… there was something that I couldn’t shrug off.

“You think we should do it?”

“Why?”

“We’ve lost the Altar, and it’s been a while since our last request. What if I’ve lost my touch?”

“Don’t worry about that. We can try, and if it doesn't work, we apologize and walk out.” My uncle laughed as if it was nothing serious. “Our numbers and offerings have been decreasing, and our finances are in bad shape. We have to take in these requests.”

“Hm.”

“So, are you up for it or not?” my uncle asked.

There really wasn’t a choice. The cult would collapse if I didn’t take in requests like these.

“I’ll do it. You said Saturday?”

“Alright, I’ll make the appointment.” I could see my uncle’s finger dart on his phone to send a text.

***

I went to school a bit earlier the next day. Although the official start of the day at F.A. was at 8:15, most students arrived at school around 7:30 and spent around forty-five minutes practicing their healing and blessing skills or going over their course material.

I happened to wake up early, so I made my way to school and got there around 7:30. Half of the class was already present by the time I got there. Students were either studying or chatting with each other. I didn’t have any friends to talk to, so I quietly sat down to start studying.

I found someone already sitting in my seat. I first thought I had made a mistake, but upon rechecking it, I was sure it was my seat. Someone else was sitting there.

“That’s my seat.”

“Huh? Oh, sorry.”

It seemed he didn’t have any ill intent. He got up from my desk immediately. I sat down and took out some books from my bag. One was the Holy Book, and the other was a Romanican history textbook. I wanted to make up for my poor scores in the physical exam by studying for other exams. As I opened my textbook to study, I could feel someone’s gaze on me.

“What?”

“Huh? What?” The guy who had been sitting in my seat was staring at me from the desk next to me. It made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

‘He’ll walk away if I ignore him.’ 

I focused on studying, but even after a few minutes, the person didn’t budge.

“You’re the one who fell during the physical exam yesterday, right?”

Not only did he not budge, but he started asking me questions. Who did he think he was? I looked at his face with discomfort. His face did not stand out, and had a very vague impression of him. I noticed a name tag on his chest that read ‘Koo Jun-Hyuk.’

Hmm, Koo Jun-Hyuk…

This guy was the one who had made it to second place during the physical exam.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Why’d you do that? Trying to satisfy the special conditions, I mean.”

“Just because.”

“Did you think you were going to make it? Or did you think you weren’t?”

“I dunno.”

They weren’t questions worth answering, so I just answered them passingly. Any other person would have lost interest by now, but not Koo Jun-Hyuk. He kept asking questions, to which I answered dryly. His questions went into one ear and out the other. Koo Jun-Hyuk ignored that and persisted with his inquiry, disturbing my studying.

“Hey, I have to study. Can you please go somewhere else?” I said as politely as possible. I had had enough.

“Oh, my bad. I just wanted to be closer to you. See, you’re famous. I guess I’ll leave now.”

Now, he had said something that caught my attention.

“What? Famous?”

“Huh? You didn’t know?” Koo Jun-Hyuk said, sitting back down.

“You were sleeping during the opening ceremony, right?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Ha, I’d be surprised if you weren’t famous. I bet everyone has seen you, even if they don’t know your name.”

Thinking back, I’d done many things that would have attracted attention. I wanted to leave my mark out there since it would help me become a prelate, but this… I didn’t want to become famous this way.

“Just saying, you’re probably—”

“Hey, you guys.”

It was none other than Bae Sung-Hyun. He had been talking to his group of friends just earlier, and he now interrupted Koo Jun-Hyuk.

“Can you keep it down? Everyone else is trying to study here.”

“Oh~ isn’t it our class president? My apologies, sir~”

“Tssk.”

Koo Jun-Hyuk handled the situation with a cheeky attitude. Bae Sung-Hyun clicked his tongue in annoyance, even though he had been talking to his friends as well.

There was a saying that fit this situation perfectly. What was it again?

“Pot calling the kettle black—the man’s crazy,” he said, lowering his voice so Bae Sung-Hyun couldn’t hear.

Koo Jun-Hyuk had said the exact words that were on the tip of my tongue.

“It seemed like Bae Sung-Hyun dislikes you. Be careful. He’s kinda famous,” Koo Jun-Hyuk continued in his hushed voice.

“Of course, he is famous. He’s the holder of the holy name of charity.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Uh, how do I say this? Urgh. I’ll tell you later.”

Bae Sung-Hyun was intensely staring at us. Koo Jun-Hyuk stood up, quickly wrapped up his sentence, and returned to his seat.

I finished studying but couldn’t concentrate; it was hard to shake off Koo Jun-Hyuk’s words. The words in the book seemed to disperse into thin air before they made it to my eyes.

[You’re famous! That’s great! You’re one step closer to your goal.]

However, this wasn’t a good situation.

This wasn’t the time to talk back to Legba.

So, I quietly resumed my studies.