Correcting the Villainess of the Academy - Chapter 153

Chapter 153

Heaven’s Door (19)

***

In the middle of a ruined old city.

There, an unexpected round hill had risen.

From below, red blood trickled down, and occasionally, a groan of pain escaped from the strange hill.

“Hoo…”

At the top of the hill, a woman was squatting.

Her face was splattered with blood, and she lit a cigarette hanging from her lips. She gazed at the ruined landscape.

Her eyes were filled with a mixture of indifference and boredom. Somewhere between the two, a void lingered in her gaze.

“Move quickly! Check the dead and the wounded…!”

“If your blade is out of charge, head to the supply depot…!”

“Gather the bodies in one place…”

A group of heavily armed soldiers in armored suits was busy cleaning up the battlefield around them. The emblem on their shoulders was that of the Republic. Despite the fierce battle they had just fought, their movements were disciplined and orderly.

Among them, a man who appeared to be the commander approached the hill and spoke.

“Hae Wolhwa-nim.”

“Hmm?”

At the sound of her name, the girl with the cigarette in her mouth looked down.

She looked to be in her late teens, at most in her early twenties—clearly not fully matured in appearance.

However, the middle-aged man showed her an almost excessive level of respect.

The girl, too, naturally accepted such treatment from the man.

Confirming that he had something to report, she stood up.

“Ugh…”

“Ah…”

“Priestess…”

With every step the girl took, the hill let out intermittent groans of pain. Each step brought forth a different voice of agony.

The girl, paying no mind to the sounds, descended the hill lightly, as if she were stepping on grass.

“Hmm…”

The man watching her let out a slight sigh.

The Barber, a sadist who took pleasure in cutting the throats of his victims while they were still alive.

The Unicorn, a criminal with an obsessive fixation on female virginity.

Humbert, a pedophile. The Collector, who harvested human organs and preserved only the external skin. And the Alligator, a mutant with an abnormally long face and teeth, who devoured his victims.

These were the leaders of the People’s Liberation Front (PLF), each a highly dangerous criminal listed under the topmost ‘Black’ wanted category.

But now, their limbs had been severed, and they were piled up like a living hill.

And it was this girl, who seemed utterly disinterested in the world, that had just walked over them.

“Are you… keeping them alive?”

“They might still have something to spill. That’s why I was watching them for a bit. Not that it yielded much, though…”

The girl shrugged her shoulders slightly, still wearing a detached expression.

“So?”

“The cleanup is complete. The core of the rebels has been annihilated, and we are tracking down the remaining stragglers.”

The man bowed his head slightly, showing respect.

“Congratulations on the successful recapture of the Holy Land. It will be remembered as a great achievement in the history of the Republic.”

“Hmm.”

Despite the man’s high praise, the girl remained indifferent.

“If there’s anything left, then there is.”

“Pardon…?”

She seemed uninterested and quickly shifted the topic.

“Enough. Continue with what you were saying.”

“Ah, yes, yes! As I mentioned, we are currently tracking the remaining stragglers. However… a large biological reaction has been detected in the center of the city.”

“…”

For the first time, the girl, who had been indifferent until now, furrowed her brow.

“It’s possible the last of the rebels are gathered there…”

“No, it’s not the rebels.”

“Excuse me?”

Cutting off the man’s words, the girl began to walk.

“Hae Wolhwa-nim? Where are you going?”

“Where do you think? I’ve come this far, so I might as well finish it. Don’t follow me. I’ll go alone.”

“Pardon? It’s dangerous. There are still some remaining rebels…”

“Tsk. Who’s worrying about whom? If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have even made it this far.”

“Ugh…”

The man, struck by her words, could only remain silent.

“You all stay here and finish up the maintenance. If there’s anything left to dig out, dig it out.”

With a half-hearted wave of her hand, the girl disappeared in an instant.

As the man stood there, dumbfounded, a group of young soldiers approached him and saluted.

“Battalion Commander, sir. Were you looking for us?”

“…Yes. You are to begin the sorting process now.”

The man gestured with his chin toward the pile of living hills behind him.

“Send those who are already dead directly to the incinerator. As for the ones still breathing, separate them for further interrogation. Use whatever means necessary. They’re all going to die in the end anyway.”

“Ugh…”

“You idiots! What are you standing around for? Move quickly!”

Reluctantly, the soldiers, who had been grimacing, began to dismantle the pile under the stern orders of their superior officer.

The man who had been speaking with the girl fell into thought as he gazed at the desolate landscape.

The City of Light.

Once the Holy Land of the old civilization and the center of the southwestern region, it was now reduced to mere ruins.

Yet even the crumbling skyscrapers here still reached higher into the sky than any building in the current capital.

The sight of the Holy Land, a stark symbol of civilization’s collapse. The recapture of this city had been a long-cherished goal of the Republic, but tragically, it had become notorious as a den of rebels in recent years.

Black magicians and mutants, pursued by the Intelligence Bureau and the army, had taken refuge here, swelling the rebel forces day by day. They even had the audacity to claim themselves as the spiritual successors of the old civilization.

The central government had been too intimidated to even consider a full-scale subjugation, but the situation reached a turning point when the elite 1st Regiment of the rebel forces, which had attacked Jinryeong, was completely annihilated.

Even the powerful named beast that had been hindering the subjugation—the master of the southwestern plains—had been killed.

With this perfect opportunity, the Supreme Council declared the recapture of the City of Light, though no one had expected Hae Wolhwa of Sloth to accompany the mission.

Yet even now, no one could guess the reason behind her involvement.

“Ah… Ahh…”

A pained groan echoed behind the man, causing him to turn around.

One of the rebels, who had formed part of the living hill, was muttering something with blood frothing at his mouth.

“Priestess… save us… unite us into the new heaven…”

***

Hae Wolhwa walked through the heart of the ruined city.

Collapsed buildings with exposed steel beams, asphalt roads riddled with sinkholes, rusted and bent traffic signs, and patches of weeds and trees growing sporadically.

The reason she had accompanied the subjugation was simple. She needed to confirm a growing suspicion.

The fact that she had dismissed her forces and entered the city alone was also due to that reason.

If her suspicion turned out to be true, bringing them along would be of no help.

Lost in thought, she suddenly stopped.

From across the plaza, something was watching her.

A woman, with neatly arranged hair, a clean suit jacket, a white shirt, and a tie.

Her attire was completely out of place in the gaping ruins, as if she were an office worker.

And perhaps… she was the source of the large biological reaction they had detected.

“You’ve come?”

The woman smiled faintly and greeted Hae Wolhwa as if they were familiar.

“I’ve been watching you all along. You’re really impressive.”

Even though Hae Wolhwa didn’t respond, the woman continued speaking on her own.

“I was really surprised. I didn’t expect to see such sensitivity from a native lifeform.”

“…”

“Are you perhaps one of us? Hmm? Maybe you’ve lost your memory.”

“A parasite spouting nonsense. Even lies have their limits.”

Finally, Hae Wolhwa spoke, her tone tinged with slight irritation.

Despite having heard words that were almost insulting, the woman maintained her smile as she looked at Hae Wolhwa.

Her unblinking eyes gave off a deeply unsettling feeling.

“Judging by the way you talk, you must be the ‘Priestess.'”

“That’s right. It’s a rather fitting title, don’t you think?”

“A priestess in a suit is something I’ve never heard of in my life. Not that there’s any priestess who would just let her followers die…”

Hae Wolhwa’s gaze remained cold and indifferent as she observed the woman.

“If you were watching, why didn’t you help? Even as they were dying, they were calling out for you. Were you scared and ran away? Hmm?”

“Scared… Scared? What’s that…?”

The woman tilted her head, genuinely puzzled.

“Ah… I found it…! This is it!”

Then she clapped her hands and smiled brightly, like a child who had found a hidden candy.

Her expression soon began to distort grotesquely.

“Sniff… I’m scared… sob… please save me…”

“…”

“Please… I beg you…”

The woman’s face was suddenly drenched in tears, her voice trembling with fear, as if she were a girl facing a wild beast.

Hae Wolhwa watched the scene with a look of disbelief. By now, she could clearly sense it. The woman before her was something that could not be understood by human logic.

And it was something that had appeared on this land before.

‘Professor… You must believe me…! They will come again…!’

The desperate plea of her former student echoed in her mind.

‘What use is there in knowing now…’

Hae Wolhwa swallowed a sigh and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. In a dry voice, she asked the woman before her.

“What is your name?”

The woman instantly stopped crying and opened her mouth. With a bright smile, she answered as if introducing herself to a new friend.

“Sadalmelik.”

End of Chapter