Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 212

< 212. The Hand Holding the Line >

As soon as the director shouted, “Action!” Writer Yoon pumped her fist and cheered.

“That’s it! Crazy! That’s the stuff!”

Rembrary was startled by her extreme reaction and stared at her. Regardless of how others saw it, Writer Yoon was jumping up and down, delighted all by herself.

“Yes! That’s the feeling!”

“Did you like it?” Rembrary asked as he approached, and Writer Yoon gave him a thumbs up.

“Yeah! Keep going with this feeling. That’s all you need to do.”

‘This feeling… the feeling of facing a heretic…’

Rembrary turned his head to look at the actress playing Baek Seol-cho. The actress, playing Baek Seol-cho, smiled and waved when she met Rembrary’s eyes. It was clear at a glance that she seemed to have a good personality.

‘She seems like a nice person, which is a shame. But from now on, you are a heretic.’

As Rembrary smiled warmly with cold eyes and walked away, the actress playing Baek Seol-cho felt awkward and asked her manager.

“Did I make a mistake…? I mean, Wooyeonwoo. Why is he looking at me so scary?”

“They say he sees ghosts and stuff. Maybe something’s attached to your back?”

“Really?!”

“I can’t see it, so I don’t know.”

* * *

The next day, January 1st, many people took a break, but Rembrary, Jongwoo, and Sagamjae hurriedly headed to the filming set early in the morning to continue filming.

While driving, Jongwoo yawned several times, then glanced at Sagamjae in the passenger seat and prayed earnestly.

“I really need to bring in another junior this year. Someone completely the opposite of you.”

Sagamjae was looking at the roster on his phone, and when he met Jongwoo’s eyes, he chuckled.

“Hoo…”

‘Just the face, no, just the face is amazing,’ Jongwoo thought, letting out a heavy sigh. ‘If he were a model instead of a manager, I wouldn’t even need to eat to feel full.’

‘Why did he have to come in as my junior and cause me so much trouble?’

“Sagamjae, you’re not even good at being a manager, so why don’t you just become a model or actor in our agency? Then I might be able to like you.”

“I’m sorry. My face shouldn’t be widely known.”

Jongwoo argued with Sagamjae about what that meant, causing a slight quarrel in the car, but fortunately, they arrived at the filming set on time.

While Sagamjae and Jongwoo were still continuing their bickering in the waiting room, Rembrary was reading the newly received script for episode 2 at the entrance of the filming set.

The newly received script was almost identical to the first script, but Ubakyeon’s lines were slightly different. There was no change in content, but one change was due to Ubakyeon’s character change, and the other was due to a change in tone.

Rembrary muttered his lines, reading them aloud to understand the content.

* * *

In episode 1, Go Gyuin and Haedam, who challenged the Wonhwa [elite female warriors], make it to the final five candidates after a short competition.

The Hwarangs [elite male youth warriors] also reduced their number to five through an exam, and Baek Seol-cho and Ubakyeon both made it to the final candidates.

Now, after several more tests, only two of these five will be finally selected.

After much deliberation on how to choose the two, the official in charge of this task gives the Wonhwa candidates and Hwarang candidates one test.

The test is for the Wonhwa and Hwarang to form an alliance. Who they ally with is entirely up to them, but the Wonhwa and Hwarang must form an alliance as a pair. The tests are conducted in pairs, and after each test, they will be given the opportunity to change alliances.

Forming an alliance without knowing anything about the other person seems absurd, but it was a test to see the ability to quickly identify ‘useful’ people as a leader who would lead the Nangdo [Hwarang trainees].

Once a test is over, everyone will know who the skilled people are anyway, so the judgment on discernment will be made in this test.

The ten candidates gathered in one place for this task. Go Gyuin is surprised to see Ubakyeon there.

Go Gyuin and Baek Seol-cho also meet for the first time at this time, but because they use pseudonyms like ‘So-and-so Rang’ or ‘So-and-so Won,’ they don’t realize they are betrothed to each other. However, even in that state, they are curious about each other.

However, while Go Gyuin is interested in Baek Seol-cho, he chooses Ubakyeon, who he has been close to since childhood, as his alliance partner. Besides their friendship, he knows that Ubakyeon is an outstanding figure in both literary and military arts. Since he applied to the Hwarang following Go Gyuin, Ubakyeon naturally chooses Go Gyuin.

Baek Seol-cho wants to form an alliance with Go Gyuin, but when he is rejected with an apology, he looks for the next partner.

Haedam knows Baek Seol-cho’s face because he had gone to the Baek family to run errands in the past. Haedam is not interested in Baek Seol-cho himself, but he is still angry about Go Gyuin applying for the Wonhwa.

Because of this, Haedam deliberately proposes an alliance to Baek Seol-cho to make Go Gyuin feel like ‘someone is taking away his territory.’

Baek Seol-cho, who is the weakest in swordsmanship among the five Hwarang candidates and is ostracized for being a nobleman, is in a difficult situation because the Wonhwa candidates don’t pay much attention to him. When Haedam, who is as skilled in swordsmanship as Go Gyuin, proposes an alliance, he quickly accepts.

To the five hastily formed alliances, the examiner says, “Assume that the country is in a state of emergency and you have been ordered to protect a very important item,” and gives each alliance a token, also informing them of the location of each alliance’s ‘secret place.’

The rules are as follows:

A hundred soldiers will play the role of enemies and search for the tokens. You must protect the token by avoiding or defeating the soldiers within a set time.

However, if you are in danger of having the token stolen by a soldier, you can avoid the crisis by revealing the location of another alliance’s secret base. Of course, if you don’t say the base location ‘accurately,’ it will be considered a leak of false information and you will be eliminated.

When the soldiers learn the location of the secret base, they will flock to that location, and the alliance whose location has been revealed must protect the wooden figure inside the secret base from being destroyed by the soldiers.

In other words, what you ultimately have to protect are the token and the figure.

Even if it’s another alliance, you can additionally choose which alliance to sell out or which alliance to join hands with.

As the test begins, Haedam approaches Go Gyuin and proposes to join hands to help each other if the secret base is in danger.

* * *

Jongwoo alternated between looking at Rembrary, who was acting quite convincingly, and Director Lee, who wasn’t frowning this time, and felt relieved.

As he was doing that, a staff member approached Jongwoo and spoke to him.

“Jongwoo.”

“Yes, yes. What’s wrong?”

“I’m here to confirm the outdoor shooting schedule.”

“Yes, yes. When is it?”

“I’ll post it again in the group chat later, but I thought it would be better for you to see it in advance. But it’s a bit far…”

“Yes. Show me.”

Jongwoo checked the schedule and checked the dates on his phone.

As soon as Jongwoo finished writing down the schedule, Rembrary finished filming his portion for the day and approached, asking.

“How was it?”

“It would be perfect if it weren’t for the unrequited love scenes.”

Rembrary smiled contentedly, and Jongwoo looked up and down at Rembrary’s Hwarang costume before quickly picking up his phone.

“You came at the right time. Let’s take some pictures of that outfit.”

“Now?”

“Yeah. I think the Wild Animal official cafe will like it if I upload them.”

While Jongwoo was snapping pictures with his phone, Rembrary repeatedly raised and lowered his arms, pretending to shoot an arrow, striking poses diligently.

Sagamjae watched the scene, impressed that the high priest over there was so enthusiastic about this kind of thing.

Since he had never been to that world, he didn’t know if Rembrary was unique or if all the high priests over there were like that. But what was certain was that Rembrary’s atmosphere was very different from the high-ranking saints he had experienced in this world.

“Wow. The reaction is already coming.”

Meanwhile, Jongwoo, who had taken and uploaded the photos, exclaimed less than 3 minutes later.

“Did you already upload it?”

“Yeah. Most people like it. They’re saying, ‘Please do a stage with the Hwarang concept,’ ‘Do an oriental concept,’ ‘Even if you just take a picture, it’s a pictorial,’ ‘If there were Hwarangs like this, I’d apply to be a Nangdo right away…'”

Rembrary put his hands behind his back with a satisfied expression and lamented.

“How unfortunate. They would have liked me even more if they saw my original form.”

“Your original form?”

“The real me inside this.”

Jongwoo understood Rembrary’s words as ‘the me who hasn’t lost his memory’ and clicked his tongue in pity.

On the other hand, Writer Yoon, who had separately checked and brought the lines that Rembrary had to memorize with effort, exclaimed in admiration upon hearing Rembrary’s statement.

“Oh my gosh, what’s going on? Wooyeonwoo has been working out! He’s a hard worker!”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you talking about building muscle?”

“No…”

“Then?”

“My soul is prettier…”

At that moment, Rembrary stopped speaking, his mouth agape. A crack. He saw a crack he had never seen before not far away. It wasn’t as clear as the crack that appeared behind the stage before, but it was definitely a crack.

“What’s wrong?”

Writer Yoon looked in the same direction as Rembrary.

Jongwoo was sure that Rembrary was seeing a ghost and quickly blocked Writer Yoon’s gaze, smiling.

“Of course, our Wooyeonwoo has a prettier soul, no, a prettier heart. He’s not good with words, but if you get to know him, he’s so kind! So please take good care of Wooyeonwoo’s scenes, Writer Yoon.”

Whether Jongwoo was talking or not, Rembrary only stared at the crack.

Then, he realized that Sagamjae was not far away today, nudged the grim reaper next to him, and pointed to the crack with his eyes.

Sagamjae also immediately discovered the crack and frowned. Rembrary approached Sagamjae and instructed in a very small voice.

“Check it out.”

“Yes.”

* * *

Rembrary went to the waiting room to change clothes and took off his Hwarang uniform. He also took off the feathered decoration on his head and put it down.

Meanwhile, Jongwoo checked SNS and shouted excitedly.

“Hey, the reaction to your Hwarang outfit is really good. Let’s upload pictures of you in a dopo [traditional Korean scholar’s robe] and a flower boy outfit later.”

Then, belatedly discovering that Rembrary’s expression was dark, Jongwoo asked in surprise.

“Wooyeonwoo? What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

He was more concerned because the person who was usually so cheerful was acting like this.

“You are sick, aren’t you? Are you dizzy?”

Jongwoo was surprised and put his hand on his forehead, but he didn’t have a fever.

“Does your stomach hurt? Did you eat too much earlier? Or your hands? Feet?”

Rembrary shook his head, muttering that it wasn’t that.

At that moment, a loud noise was heard from outside. A buzzing sound, the sound of something thin and long being swung around, and people’s screams.

“What’s going on?”

Rembrary and Jongwoo hurriedly went outside. There, Sagamjae was standing in front of the door with a troubled face, looking somewhere. As soon as he saw that direction, Jongwoo screamed and fell on his butt.

A blue, sparkling wire was bouncing like a snake on the floor, and several people were lying down. In the midst of the chaos, someone was screaming and someone was calling an ambulance with their phone.

However, Rembrary and Sagamjae saw one more thing that was invisible to others.

A hand coming out of the crack. The hand was holding the wire and shaking it around.

< 212. The Hand Holding the Line > End