Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 298

298. Praise!

The reporters arrived to interview Rembrary four days after exchanging brief messages on social media.

“Where is your family now? You’re about to become a successful Hunter; don’t you contact them?”

“My family isn’t in a position to receive contact right now.”

“Ah. Perhaps during the Cataclysm [a large-scale disaster]?”

“No, it’s not really related to that.”

At that very moment, Rembrary was already being questioned about his past by Jang Tae-ri.

“Then why can’t they be contacted?”

“They must be busy. I hardly contacted them before, anyway.”

“Still, shouldn’t you contact them at times like this?”

“It’s not that I’m not contacting them now, but that I can’t. They’re too far away.”

“Are they in another country? Which country?”

However, the more they talked, the more Rembrary struggled to answer, and Jang Tae-ri grew increasingly suspicious of him. So, when the reporters appeared, Rembrary quickly cut off the conversation and greeted them warmly.

“I’ve been waiting for you, future Hunter production team.”

Thanks to this, the staff, who had been repeatedly warned by the main PD [Production Director] that ‘Hunter Rembrary is very rude, so be prepared,’ were greeted by Rembrary’s warm welcome and wondered, ‘Is he better than we thought?’

In any case, a pleasant and good-natured subject is much better than a rude one. The staff greeted Rembrary brightly, exchanging formal greetings like ‘We look forward to working with you’ and ‘Let’s do our best.’

‘He wasn’t answering well earlier.’

Seeing this, Jang Tae-ri became even more suspicious of Rembrary and narrowed her eyes, but she decided it wasn’t something to discuss in front of the reporters, so she kept her mouth shut for now.

“PD Gu Ju-ho?”

Meanwhile, the lawyer, having heard that the crew had arrived, came out to the lobby looking for PD Gu.

“Who is PD Gu Ju-ho?”

Shin Jo-un was away today due to work with another contractor, but the lawyer had been instructed by Shin Jo-un in advance about this shoot and was waiting. Thanks to this, he came out as soon as he heard the reporters had arrived.

“That’s me.”

When PD Gu stepped forward, the lawyer took out a business card, handed it to him, and smiled.

“Hello, I’m Attorney Min Yi-yeon.”

PD Gu was bewildered by the sudden greeting from the lawyer and looked back and forth between Rembrary and her, with an expression that said, ‘Why a lawyer?’

“You’ll be drawing up a contract before filming, right?”

When Attorney Min brought up the contract, PD Gu inwardly clicked his tongue, thinking that Rembrary was surprisingly thorough in his preparations.

He seems like the type to say whatever he wants, but he called a lawyer right away. He’s no ordinary person.

It was Shin Jo-un who had called the lawyer and asked her to wait, but PD Gu, unaware of this, misunderstood that Rembrary’s rudeness might be a strategy.

“Haha, of course. Even in this world, we need a contract.”

* * *

While PD Gu was being held up by Attorney Min to review the contract before the interview, Rembrary spotted a familiar face among the reporters and his eyes widened.

‘Jung Seo.’

Jung Seo was late in entering because she was on the phone with her mother, so he had only just noticed her.

“Hello.”

Jung Seo, for her part, noticed that this interview subject was staring at her blatantly. She stopped before heading to the main MC [Master of Ceremonies] and gave a slight nod.

Rembrary, who received the greeting, was very happy to see Jung Seo after a long time and unknowingly asked brightly.

“Have you been well?”

Jung Seo had heard several times from PD Gu that Rembrary had a terrible personality, so she had been somewhat prepared, like the other staff members.

However, when Rembrary responded to her greeting with a warm smile, Jung Seo frowned and stared intently at Rembrary’s face.

‘That way of speaking…’

Not because the other person greeted her back, but because the way he spoke was so familiar.

Jung Seo tilted her head and furrowed her brow even more. She had felt a sense of familiarity when she watched the training camp entrance video, but after meeting him in person and exchanging greetings, that feeling became even stronger.

‘That’s the way Yeon-woo used to talk when he lost his memory.’

Although he had become unfamiliar after regaining his memory, Woo Yeon-woo was, after all, the benefactor who had saved her mother. Because of this, Jung Seo had tried to treat Woo Yeon-woo kindly even after he regained his memory. But suddenly feeling the ‘memory-lost Woo Yeon-woo’ vibe from a stranger felt very strange.

After thinking that it was strange, Jung Seo, reminded of the strange animosity Woo Yeon-woo had shown towards Rembrary, decided to approach Rembrary and continue the conversation, even though she would normally have ended it by now.

“You speak as if you knew me before. Are you perhaps interested in Wild Animal [likely a reference to a group or entity]?”

However, when the usually dry Jung Seo suddenly approached and tried to strike up a conversation, Rembrary immediately cut her off.

“A bit.”

It was a reaction based on his knowledge of Jung Seo’s usual personality. The Jung Seo that Rembrary knew did not engage in long conversations with people she wasn’t close to.

But for her to initiate such a long conversation first… He sensed that she was suspicious of him.

He decided that he shouldn’t just start talking friendly just because he was happy to see someone. Rembrary made a mental note and deliberately went to sit next to Attorney Min.

* * *

PD Gu had confidently promised to praise Rembrary unconditionally on the show when they were exchanging comments on social media.

However, when Attorney Min asked him to put this in writing in the contract, the PD hesitated and didn’t pick up his pen.

“PD Gu. Did you perhaps make empty promises to Rembrary? You say you’ll edit favorably but can’t specify it in the contract, what are you talking about?”

“No, it’s definitely not an empty promise. You can record it, Attorney Min. Really. But, you know how broadcasting is. It’s not just praising; if it’s all praise from beginning to end, who’s going to watch it as a promising Hunter interview program? They’ll see it as a program that gets paid to promote.”

“Wasn’t it?”

“It’s not!”

“Then are you saying you’re going to edit Rembrary negatively so it doesn’t look like a promotional program?”

“It’s not that, I’m saying I’ll do it appropriately. If there are flaws, we’ll point them out, and if there are good points, we’ll, you know, praise them. Do that too.”

After arguing for nearly 30 minutes, PD Gu realized that this wouldn’t work and made a suggestion.

“Then let’s do this. Have you perhaps seen our program before…?”

“No.”

“…I see. When a new promising Hunter is chosen to be interviewed, our program first includes a video of that person introducing themselves. Everyone feels awkward and uncomfortable when they have to introduce themselves, right? Viewers like seeing promising Hunters like that.”

“Okay.”

“First, we’ll film that video and then show you a sample of how we’ll edit it. Then we can revise the wording. How about that?”

Attorney Min asked Rembrary, “What do you think?” and Rembrary immediately agreed. PD Gu was relieved and quickly signaled to the staff.

Soon, the filming preparations were completed, Attorney Min took the contracts and went in a direction away from the camera, and Rembrary was left sitting alone on the sofa. Across from him, the cameraman raised the camera to capture Rembrary.

Before filming, PD Gu was about to tell Rembrary that there was no need to be too nervous, but when he saw that Rembrary was already not nervous at all, he signaled to the main MC instead of giving advice.

‘Start.’

The main MC nodded, went to sit next to Rembrary, and smiled brightly, pretending to be friendly.

“Hello, Rembrary! Thank you for appearing on our ‘Future Hunter’.”

The plan was that if Rembrary smiled and greeted him back, he would ask if he had seen their program, if he knew that the teaser video had become a huge topic, and then naturally ask him to do the self-introduction, which was a required course for their program.

“Yeah.”

“!”

However, when Rembrary answered the welcoming greeting indifferently, the main MC momentarily forgot what to say.

This MC was a well-known host even before the Cataclysm, so he had a lot of experience, but he had never received a ‘Yeah’ in response to ‘Thank you’.

The MC barely suppressed the urge to say, ‘You really are as rude as I’ve heard,’ and let out a natural-sounding laugh.

“I heard you like to joke around, and it’s true! Haha, you surprised me.”

“?”

“Ah, but has Rembrary seen our program before?”

“No.”

Give a longer answer, you little… The longer the answer, the easier it is to edit it favorably, even if it’s forced. The main MC grumbled inwardly and continued with the prepared question.

“The teaser video related to Rembrary is a huge topic on the internet right now. Do you know that?”

Fortunately, this time Rembrary gave a relatively long answer.

“Yeah. I saw it. I was trending in real-time searches.”

Now it feels like we’re finally doing an interview. The main MC thought to himself and deliberately asked in an excited tone, as if he were hearing a very pleasant story.

“How did it feel when people reacted so strongly? Weren’t you nervous or anything?”

“I quickly created a social media account.”

“!”

“It was difficult because there were people impersonating me. Ah, everyone. My account is ‘I’m the real Rembrary,’ so please come and find it.”

‘Don’t promote your social media so openly!’

The main MC, who had expected answers like ‘I was nervous,’ ‘I was trembling,’ ‘I’m grateful for the attention,’ ‘I didn’t know what to do,’ or at worst, ‘It’s annoying,’ unknowingly clenched the question paper in his hand.

“Ahem. Ahem.”

Seeing this, the assistant MC cleared his throat to signal ‘expression, expression,’ and only then did the main MC quickly relax his grip on the question paper and burst into a broadcast-friendly laugh again.

“Rembrary is very proactive!”

“I have a sacred mission.”

Usually, the main MC listens to the interviewee’s answer and adds new questions based on that answer.

But this time, he deliberately didn’t ask what Rembrary’s mission was. He felt like he would get an enormous answer if he asked. Instead, he smoothly continued with the originally prepared question.

“You wouldn’t know if you haven’t seen the show. We have a required course on our program, which is self-introduction!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. So, please tell the viewers what kind of Hunter Rembrary is, what kind of activities you want to do in the future, what kind of Awakener [a person with supernatural abilities] you are, things like that!”

As the main MC asked with a bright smile, the camera, which had been filming both of them, focused only on Rembrary’s face.

At this point, other interviewees get a little shy. No matter how bad the interviewee’s personality is, they get shy when suddenly asked to introduce themselves. That’s what self-introductions are like.

The cameraman deliberately zoomed in on Rembrary’s face for that reason. To capture a faint hint of nervousness or shyness, add some plausible subtitles, and then show the viewers ‘He’s a great Hunter, but he also has a cute side!’

However, Rembrary smiled warmly and suddenly spread his arms.

‘Why is he raising his hands?’

The cameraman, taken aback, reflexively shifted the focus back to include Rembrary’s arms in the frame. At that moment, a halo suddenly emitted from behind Rembrary’s head.