Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 281

281. Why Is Everyone Following Me?

Rembrary was puzzled by the ambiguous reaction. “What kind of image does Redrin have that everyone is acting like this?”

As Rembrary frowned and looked back and forth between the director and Jang Taeri, Jang Taeri nodded with a serious face.

“Well, I guess no one can be perfect. There has to be at least one flaw.”

‘A flaw?’

“Handsome, but a cultist…….”

Rembrary’s shoulders slumped at the quietly added remark. The Redrin Temple was the largest temple in the world Rembrary had lived in. Even before Rembrary became a high priest. So, being treated like a cult was very unfamiliar.

Jang Taeri quickly changed his expression when he saw Rembrary looking dejected and waved his hand with a hearty laugh.

“No, with monsters popping out and pillars falling from the sky, religion is a matter of freedom.”

“……”

“But you probably can’t get in there right now, can you?”

“Can’t get in?”

“Yeah. There, maybe……”

Jang Taeri trailed off, looked at the director, and asked, “Right?” The director, who had been gaping, quickly nodded.

“Oh, trainee. The ‘Grand Master’ there often leaves his post and is out of contact.”

“!”

“This is one of those periods. During those periods, even if you send official documents, nothing gets processed. I don’t know what they’re doing. They say they’re going on volunteer work.”

The director glanced at the calendar and added.

“Maybe they’ll be back in contact by the time the trainee is discharged…….”

It would take two years to be discharged. Could he contact them in two years? Did that mean he really had to wait here for two years? Rembrary was shocked.

On the other hand, Jang Taeri, whose shock had subsided quite a bit, leaned back on the sofa and tried to persuade him again.

“Is there a specific reason why you have to go there? You can still practice your faith without going there, right?”

That was true. Like Jang Taeri said, he could temporarily join Jang Taeri’s company and then move back to Redrin.

“But I’m not going to join your company, Mr. President.”

However, Rembrary refused again. He wouldn’t mind not joining at all, but if he joined and then left, Jang Taeri would be very disappointed. He didn’t want that. Rembrary didn’t want to disappoint Jang Taeri.

Unable to know these inner thoughts, Jang Taeri closed his lips and nodded meaninglessly before smiling helplessly.

“If you don’t want to, there’s nothing I can do.”

* * *

As if he had really come because of Rembrary, Jang Taeri got up right away.

“I’ll be going now. See you next time, Director.”

“Oh, I’d be happy with that. Come visit anytime.”

“Then I’d be imposing.”

“No, not at all.”

Watching the director see Jang Taeri off with unusual cordiality, Rembrary also quietly got up. As a result, Jang Taeri and the director went to the elevator first, and Rembrary naturally followed behind. But……

‘A cat?’

He hadn’t noticed when they were sitting face to face on the sofa. But from behind, there was a cat firmly riding on Jang Taeri’s back. Moreover, it wasn’t a real, living cat, but a yokai [a supernatural creature in Japanese folklore].

Since when has Taeri been carrying a cat around? As Rembrary stared in bewilderment, the cat wagged its tail and suddenly turned its head.

When their eyes met, the cat tilted its head and soon floated over, asking.

[Kkaennipinyang?]

Rembrary stared mesmerized at the cat’s stiff, bushy whiskers and round eyes, and shook his head.

“No, I don’t have any perilla leaves [a Korean herb, also known as sesame leaves]. Maybe the cafeteria does.”

[Not that. Kkaennip.]

“No perilla leaves.”

[Aicham. Kkaennip.]

“I don’t have any.”

[I smell something good on you, nyaong.]

The cat yokai rubbed its nose against Rembrary’s cheek, and Rembrary stood still, liking it. But when he came to his senses, he saw the director and Jang Taeri stopped and looking at him. The director with a ‘Is he crazy?’ expression. Jang Taeri with a surprised expression.

Then Jang Taeri asked Rembrary, “You can see it?” The director quickly turned his head to the side and looked at Jang Taeri strangely this time. It was clear that the cat yokai was not visible in the director’s eyes.

When Rembrary nodded and approached, Jang Taeri asked in a curious tone.

“Rembrary, are you an Awakened?”

“Yes.”

“Did you have ‘eyes’ even before awakening? Or were you a saint?”

“……”

Rembrary recalled that Jang Taeri himself originally had neither ‘eyes’ nor was he a saint. Then, in the time that he had disappeared, had Jang Taeri gained ‘eyes’ or become a saint?

[Taeriya. He smells like kkaennip, nyaong.]

The cat yokai quickly approached Jang Taeri and stuck flat on her head, boasting.

“Really?”

As Jang Taeri scratched the cat yokai’s chin while asking back, the director rubbed his eyes and quietly took half a step back. He clearly thought that Jang Taeri and Rembrary were both crazy.

‘It seems that people who didn’t have eyes before can’t see yokai that came through the frog eggs even after awakening.’

Rembrary combined the director’s reaction and Jang Taeri’s words and roughly figured out what was going on.

Jang Taeri watched Rembrary with a complicated look for a moment before muttering.

“Even this is similar.”

* * *

As soon as Jang Taeri got into the car, the driver asked.

“Shall we depart?”

When Jang Taeri nodded, the car smoothly departed. Jang Taeri stared at the departing training center before texting Shin Jo-woon on his phone.

[I met that kid lol]

Soon after, the ‘read’ mark appeared, and a text message from Shin Jo-woon arrived.

[Is he going to your company?]

[He’s going to Redrin ㅠ He’s handsome but a cultist ㅠ But he’s not going to your company either ^^]

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ (laughing sounds)]

[I’m serious?]

[He rejected you indirectly, but you didn’t understand. He’s very interested in me lol]

[No, I’m not?]

Jang Taeri clenched his phone with both hands, flared up.

[He really looked like he wanted to go to Redrin?]

[Yes, yes]

Jang Taeri frowned and glared at his phone. When the driver looked at him in the rearview mirror as if wondering, ‘Is the president angry while looking at his phone?’, he quickly relaxed his forehead.

Then, as he looked at the quickly passing scenery outside, he smiled and picked up his phone again when the cat yokai’s tail tickled his neck.

[Do you know what? He recognized Jinangie]

[He must have eyes. Or is he a saint?]

[I don’t know. But I think I know why you said he’s similar to that kid]

* * *

The trainees who entered the SKO-B training center this time went back and forth between the underground training room and the 5th-floor ring arena, training in basic body movements, defense, one-on-one sparring, multiple-opponent sparring, joint attacks, and how to utilize their ‘abilities.’ Almost a month later, they entered a new practice.

Moreover, this time it wasn’t a mock practice within the training center. The instructor, who had brought a bus from somewhere, carefully explained to all the trainees inside.

“The reason why the preparation period was long this time is because this practice is much more dangerous than the first one. This practice involves entering an uncontrolled non-city and going around the entire city before returning to the starting point. The non-city where our training center is located is called a non-city, but it’s actually quite safe because of the hunters who travel to and from our training center, hunter company people, and volunteers. But there aren’t many training centers. Most non-cities are……”

Before the instructor could finish speaking, the bus stopped next to a tunnel.

“Very dangerous.”

Rembrary pressed his forehead against the window and looked outside carefully. The tunnel was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, and the bloodstains on the ground made it look eerie.

The bus door opened automatically, and the instructor got out first. The trainees awkwardly followed. Rembrary waited for everyone to get off before getting off last.

“Gentlemen. I will wait here, so go in and go around the entire non-city along the main road and come back.”

The instructor checked his watch after all the trainees got off and added.

“I’ll wait 24 hours. In case of an emergency, press the emergency button you received on the bus earlier.”

Then one of the trainees raised his hand with a frightened face.

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

Another one asked without raising his hand.

“How do you check if we’ve gone all the way around? We could just come back halfway, right?”

“As you follow the main road, there will be two people wearing black hats and holding stamps. That’s the checkpoint. They’ll give you food and water, so get a stamp on the back of your hand and take the food. I won’t tell you how many stamps you need to get. Because, like the trainee said, some trainees might just come back.”

“!”

“The main road…… you’ll know when you go there, what I’m talking about.”

The instructor looked around at the trainees and warned them one last time.

“Anyway, never leave the main road. Got it? You might die.”

The trainees’ faces immediately hardened at the word ‘die.’ But since it wasn’t a reaction he hadn’t seen once or twice, the instructor called Rembrary instead of comforting them.

“Representative.”

“Here.”

“You have the best grades, so you’ll go in first. The second trainee will go in 30 minutes after Rembrary, and the other trainees will go in another 30 minutes. That’s the order.”

Since Rembrary wasn’t scared at all, he answered that he understood and jumped over the fence with one foot. The trainees who saw that made a simultaneous ‘Uh, uh, uh’ sound, scaring themselves even more.

Rembrary glanced at them once and entered the tunnel without hesitation.

* * *

The tunnel, which was once filled with numerous cars, now had no cars passing through.

‘Judging from the fact that they come to the training center from other places, there must be a road.’

Thinking that, Rembrary walked alone through the tunnel where the orange lights flickered precariously. However, the tunnel was unexpectedly long, and no matter how far he walked, the light on the other side didn’t appear.

Moreover, as he continued to walk the same road, his senses dulled, and he began to get confused about how far he had walked.

Rembrary looked back only after walking for a long time, but by then, the outside was no longer visible behind the tunnel either. Rembrary walked forward again.

After walking like that for a long time, a faint oval light finally appeared, and then the outside appeared.

Rembrary rubbed his eyes because he was temporarily blinded. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, the scenery of the non-city came into view.

The buildings and well-maintained roads were no different from those around the training center. However, hyena-like people were wandering around like zombies, and some were lying on the streets, groaning.

The windows of nearby stores were all broken, and the showrooms were empty. It was clear that people had gone inside and stolen things.

‘Is that the main road?’

Still, it wasn’t difficult to find the ‘main road’ that the instructor had mentioned. Almost all the other roads were broken or blocked off in various places, but only one road was intact and continued on.

Rembrary moved his steps to the center of that road. How much further did he walk like that? He didn’t know how many groups of people he had passed fighting each other.

Rembrary noticed that people were glancing at him unusually and stopped. He turned around in a circle, but the feeling wasn’t a mistake. There were unusually many people only around him.

Moreover, all those people stopped and stared at Rembrary when he stopped.