Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 75

< 75. Oh Jung-shin's Shock >

Rembrary hid behind a tree, watching Sagamjae and the monk argue.

His heart was pounding. Were they fighting right now?

“You expect me to believe that now?”

“Whether you believe it or not, do you have any other choice, Monk?”

“You impudent…!”

“We’ll be traveling together eventually, so why start off on the wrong foot?”

“Why did you come here?”

“I have an idol I’m in charge of.”

“What? You want me to believe that?”

“Shall I give you my business card?”

Rembrary, who had been carefully observing the situation, let out a small exclamation.

The ‘divine power that was very similar but different’ he had felt when coming this way was coming from that monk. Was that power a different form of divine power?

Then what was that alien energy Sagamjae was emitting? It didn’t feel evil like the demonic races, but it seemed different from divine power as well.

‘I’m glad I came to the temple after all.’

Rembrary even swallowed hard and gripped the dry tree bark tightly.

He didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed like familiar things were finally starting to happen in a world that had no divine power, no magic, and was bland.

“Yeon-woo.”

It was then. Sagamjae suddenly called out to Rembrary.

‘Did he realize I was hiding?’ Rembrary widened his eyes in surprise.

“Do you think you know who he is?”

But after hearing the question that followed, it wasn’t that he mentioned his name to call him. Sagamjae was asking the monk about Rembrary.

‘Why me all of a sudden?’ Rembrary looked at the monk with a bewildered expression.

The monk also had a look that said, ‘Why him all of a sudden?’

“Are you talking about the layman who said he wanted to enter the priesthood in the future?”

“Yes. Did he seem strange to you at all?”

“He seemed to have a rather… unique personality, but.”

“No, I’m not talking about his personality.”

“Then?”

“You noticed something unique about me as soon as you saw me. I’m asking if you felt anything like that from Yeon-woo.”

The fingers gripping the tree tightened even more. With his mouth half-open, Rembrary stared at Sagamjae. Just as he suspected his identity, Sagamjae had been suspicious of him all along.

He sometimes gave him strange looks. Was it because he was suspicious?

What on earth was his identity?

‘I should ask the monk later.’

The monk seemed to know a lot about Sagamjae, so it would be okay.

Rembrary, who had made a short-term plan, focused on Sagamjae and the monk’s conversation again.

“Well. I thought he was a layman with clear eyes, but I didn’t notice anything else strange.”

“Isn’t there anything that bothers you even a little?”

“If it’s something other than his personality, not really…”

“I see.”

Sagamjae sighed and wore a thoughtful expression, and the monk frowned.

“Why? Are you perhaps targeting that layman this time?”

“It’s not like that.”

Sagamjae’s lips, which had spoken so decisively, curved up gently. Then, his eyes, which had been directed at the monk, glanced this way.

Just as he was startled, thinking that their eyes had met, Sagamjae spoke.

“Woo Yeon-woo. Have you heard everything?”

***

‘Woo Yeon-woo is such a bad guy.’

Oh Jung-shin was on the verge of tears when he saw that the inside of the toilet, which was as dark as the abyss of hell even in the daytime, was indistinguishable from the footrest at night.

He had to turn on the flashlight on his phone to distinguish the footrest from the toilet, but it was difficult to do his business while holding the phone in one hand.

In the end, he turned on the light with the phone in his mouth, and at that moment, bugs from early summer swarmed towards the light from all directions.

Oh Jung-shin screamed silently and turned off the light, finally bursting into tears.

What was fortunate was that the cameraman, who he thought would be amused to see him, was also screaming and running around.

‘It would have been nice if he had come with me and held the phone for me.’

It would have been a very embarrassing situation in its own way, but he couldn’t help but think that way right now because he couldn’t distinguish the footrest from the toilet.

In the end, Oh Jung-shin groped around in the dark, found the footrest, and stood on it.

After finishing his business while crying, he hurriedly came out of the stall and washed his hands.

As he roughly wiped his hands on his pants and left the bathroom, his fear finally subsided.

‘That bastard has no loyalty at all. I’ll see how I act when he asks me for a favor later.’

Oh Jung-shin turned on the flashlight on his phone weakly and fumed with revenge against Woo Yeon-woo.

‘Damn it, where’s the way back?’

But as he shone the light here and there to find his way back to the main hall, he heard a strange noise not far away.

“Woo Yeon-woo? Woo Yeon-woo! Woo Yeon-wooooo!”

It was a voice looking for Woo Yeon-woo.

Oh Jung-shin’s fear returned and grabbed his neck, shaking him. He swallowed hard and looked in the direction of the sound. Why were they looking for Woo Yeon-woo here? Woo Yeon-woo didn’t follow him, so why was he hearing someone looking for Woo Yeon-woo?

He seemed to have heard stories about how someone went to see who was calling out to them, but there was no one there and only a baby, or how a baby threatened to give them money or raise them in a thick voice.

Unidentified 괴담 [urban legends] that were a mix of this and that swirled in Oh Jung-shin’s head.

“It looks like Woo Yeon-woo got lost?”

The cameraman, who had briefly abandoned Oh Jung-shin and disappeared because he was chased by bugs, belatedly approached and asked.

“No way.”

It seemed that the scary sound wasn’t just for him.

Oh Jung-shin, who was half-relieved, glared at the cameraman with renewed annoyance, then turned around and entered the opposite path.

The sound was coming from the opposite direction of the path to the main hall. Even if the voice looking for Woo Yeon-woo wasn’t a hallucination, Oh Jung-shin had no intention of going all the way there to find Woo Yeon-woo. Woo Yeon-woo had left him alone, hadn’t he?

He would wait in the main hall for a while, and if he didn’t show up for too long, well.

He would tell people and they would find him.

But Oh Jung-shin stopped walking after only a few steps.

‘Damn camera.’

The cameraman was filming Oh Jung-shin’s actions. Everything, including Oh Jung-shin ignoring the voice looking for Woo Yeon-woo and walking away.

He had been cleaning up his tarnished image by pretending that the slave and dog concepts were just for entertainment, and he couldn’t ruin it here.

Damn that camera, Oh Jung-shin gritted his teeth, but eventually walked towards the sound.

How long had he been walking like that?

The voice that had been looking for Woo Yeon-woo had disappeared in the meantime.

Oh Jung-shin repeatedly checked to see if the cameraman was following him well from behind, and continued to walk through the forest, unable to distinguish between front and back.

“Oh, I can’t see the road at all because it’s dark.”

The cameraman, who had been quietly following him at first, gradually began to complain.

Oh Jung-shin took that opportunity to quickly ask.

“Should we go back to the main hall for now?”

“Let’s go just to the front.”

“Where is the front?”

“I saw it when I was walking around during the day, but there was something like a 금줄 [geumjul – a sacred straw rope] set up. There was an open space in front of it.”

“If there’s a 금줄 set up, isn’t that a place we’re not supposed to go?”

“I’m not saying we should go over the 금줄, just near it. Why, I saw in the Singsingsingsing punishment game that Woo Yeon-woo wasn’t afraid at all, so he might have gone there out of curiosity.”

Shouldn’t you leave someone who went out of curiosity alone to satisfy their curiosity? Oh Jung-shin cursed inwardly, but for now, he walked in the direction the cameraman pointed.

Then, the voice from before, “Woo Yeon-woo?” was heard very close by this time.

Surprised, he shone the flashlight. Another cameraman, who covered his eyes with his hand as if he was dazzled, pushed through the bushes and walked over, asking, “Are you Woo Yeon-woo?”

It was another cameraman who had stayed in the main hall to film the 108 bows.

“I’m Oh Jung-shin.”

Oh Jung-shin, relieved that he wasn’t a ghost, quickly replied, and he asked with a pale face.

“Have you seen Woo Yeon-woo by any chance?”

“No. Why?”

“We were walking together, but Woo Yeon-woo suddenly disappeared.”

“Yes?”

Oh Jung-shin looked at the cameraman with a dumbfounded expression.

He was reminded of the cameraman who had been with him earlier, who had run away alone when the swarm of bugs appeared. Naturally, the suspicion arose that ‘Woo Yeon-woo didn’t suddenly disappear, but you went somewhere alone.’

The cameraman, unaware of the situation, said worriedly without knowing what Oh Jung-shin was thinking of him.

“It was somewhere around here, but Woo Yeon-woo suddenly said he would follow you not long after Oh Jung-shin left. But he was going well in the direction of the bathroom. Suddenly, he stopped and tilted his head, then changed direction. I followed him with the camera, but he disappeared in the middle…”

“Disappeared? Where? Did you film it with the camera?”

“That’s… actually, I stumbled on something and the camera lens was pointed downwards for a moment, and he disappeared right then…”

Oh Jung-shin belatedly asked in great surprise.

“Shouldn’t we look for him?”

“I was looking for him.”

“No, shouldn’t we get people to look for him? There are a lot of cliffs around here?”

They weren’t high cliffs, but there were many points close to steep slopes.

The cameraman asked in an anxious voice.

“Then I’ll go get people, so could you stay here?”

Oh Jung-shin was about to say that he would go get them, but he just nodded obediently.

He had to leave at least two people here in case Woo Yeon-woo popped out from somewhere, and he didn’t have the confidence to go back alone on the dark road.

“Oh dear, this is a big problem.”

The cameraman who had been filming Woo Yeon-woo ran off somewhere, and the cameraman in charge of Oh Jung-shin muttered worriedly.

Oh Jung-shin muttered, “I know,” and looked around. Then he frowned, saying, “Huh?”

“Why?”

“Didn’t you hear a sound just now?”

“Yes? I didn’t hear anything at all?”

“No, around this area…”

Oh Jung-shin muttered and walked away.

“Wait a minute. Bugs.”

The cameraman followed Oh Jung-shin, but stopped for a moment and turned off the camera, tapping the body to remove the bugs that were stuck to the lens.

Oh Jung-shin checked his position and walked a few steps ahead.

Then he bumped into something and stepped back in surprise.

***

Rembrary looked at Sagamjae in surprise.

Sagamjae was looking at him properly and smiling.

His smile was so unsettling. For a moment, Rembrary hesitated whether to turn around and pretend he didn’t know.

However, running away was not befitting of the dignity of a high priest.

Rembrary eventually put his hands behind his back and slowly walked out from behind the tree, smiling just as meaningfully.

The monk, who didn’t know Rembrary was here, muttered in surprise.

“How did the layman get here? Surely the 금줄 [geumjul – a sacred straw rope]… ?”

It was as if Rembrary had come to a place he shouldn’t have.

Rembrary then realized that the cameraman who had been following him had disappeared at some point.

It seemed that there was some kind of barrier, but he had broken through it. He didn’t know which point was the barrier, but anyway, there was no need to explain each and every one of these things.

The high priest’s leisure came from appropriate secrecy. Instead of explaining the situation to the monk, Rembrary asked the same question Sagamjae had asked.

“Monk. I have a question for you too.”

“Your tone…?”

“Do you know what my manager’s identity is?”

The monk’s pupils trembled. He had an expression that said, ‘You two are always together, why are you both asking me such questions?’

Sagamjae narrowed his eyes and looked at Rembrary, then advised the monk.

“Don’t tell him. Monk.”

‘The monk knows something!’

“If you tell him, I’ll go straight to pick up your son.”

At Sagamjae’s threat that followed, the monk’s expression, which had been hesitant, became frightening. As if he was very displeased.

But even though he was displeased, Sagamjae’s threat worked very well.

The monk made such a scary expression that it seemed like he would tear Sagamjae’s head off right away, but in the end, he flapped his sleeves greatly and turned around and went somewhere.

“Monk?”

Rembrary quickly tried to chase after him. Sagamjae blocked him with a grin.

“Yeon-woo, don’t bother the monk too much. He’s old, so he might collapse if you make it too hard for him.”

“You’re getting on my nerves a bit.”

“Isn’t it easier to ask me directly who I am?”

“I asked you before, but you didn’t answer.”

“Ask me again.”

“What is your identity?”

“It’s a secret.”

“You’re a rotten bastard, Gamjae.”

Rembrary, who had cursed, turned around sharply in the direction he had come from.

Sagamjae followed Rembrary, grinning from behind.