Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 323

323. A Subtle Approach

The junior priest, who had opened fire the moment he saw him, lowered his gun. Then, he walked closer, knelt before Rembrary, and bowed respectfully.

The smile he gave after bowing was so chilling that Daegu would have been utterly disgusted.

“Are you Ardor?”

“Yes, Rembrary-nim. I apologize for showing you such a lowly appearance.”

Ardor had messy silver hair, dark circles under his eyes, and no color in his lips or face. His deep-set eyes and the shadows around his gray pupils gave him a slightly patchy look. Rembrary grudgingly admitted that this madman fit Redrin-nim’s standards of beauty.

“You have bad trigger discipline. Shooting as soon as you see someone. What if I wasn’t the person you were looking for?”

“Then I would have died.”

Rembrary frowned at the matter-of-fact answer.

“Of course, I never doubted that you were Rembrary-nim.”

Ardor quickly corrected himself, sensing Rembrary’s displeasure, but it didn’t sound sincere. Rembrary crossed his arms and looked down at the self-proclaimed junior priest before asking,

“Which temple were you exactly affiliated with?”

“I was affiliated with the Yggdrasil Temple in the Western Continent.”

There really was an Yggdrasil Temple in the Western Continent. It seemed certain that this crazy Ardor had come from another world. However, Rembrary was starting to worry about Ardor. Would it be okay to have this guy join the Redrin Hunter Company?

“Rembrary-nim. I know you joined a company named after ‘Him.’ I assume I should join it as well to serve you by your side, Rembrary-nim?”

Ardor seemed prepared to join Redrin, but… Rembrary was bothered by the fact that he had shot at him the moment he saw him. He was fine because of his healing abilities, but what if he had shot someone else? Ardor claimed he was certain that Rembrary was a high priest, but that was just his word.

If someone else had been shot, Rembrary would have to heal them. It would be easy to expose his hidden healing abilities.

Of course, the situation was different from when he was the idol Woo Yeon-woo, so it wouldn’t be a big deal if his healing abilities were revealed. However, with no holy knights to protect him yet, the thought of how much trouble such a great power would cause was already overwhelming.

Especially since times had changed. In the past, he could have healed someone and claimed it was ‘Redrin-nim’s miracle!’ and the healed person would have been easily moved. Now, even if he showed his healing abilities, the other person would likely just think Rembrary had awakened as a healer.

“Rembrary-nim?”

Ardor, unable to wait any longer, cautiously called out to Rembrary, who had been silent. Rembrary gestured for him to stand up and asked,

“What do you do now?”

“I’m a pâtissier here in B City.”

“A pâtissier?” [A pastry chef.]

“Yes. I make and sell desserts from my original world.”

At the unexpected occupation, Rembrary tilted his head, and Ardor muttered worriedly.

“Actually, I’m a bit worried. If I join Redrin, it will be difficult to keep running the shop.”

It was unexpected, but seeing him seriously considering the shop, it seemed he wasn’t running it half-heartedly. Rembrary, seeing an opportunity, quickly suggested,

“Then you should keep running that shop. You don’t necessarily have to be affiliated with the same company as me.”

However, as soon as Rembrary told him not to join Redrin, Ardor, who had been smiling shyly, immediately turned serious.

“Do you not want to take me because I’m a junior priest? Does that mean a lowly junior like me shouldn’t be by your side, Rembrary-nim?”

Seeing that, Rembrary was reminded of yesterday’s incident. The author who had left over 60 consecutive comments, muttering like a madman, when Rembrary didn’t know his name. He spammed comments on social media, but what would he do in reality? Would he constantly follow him around and mutter? Either way, it wasn’t a sight he wanted to see, so Rembrary quickly appeased Ardor.

“It’s not that you’re a junior priest, it’s that attitude of shooting people without hesitation that’s the problem. You’re well-localized, so you know that people here aren’t familiar with Redrin-nim. But if you shoot everyone you see, how will we gather new followers?”

Rembrary’s explanation was quite logical and thorough in his own way. However, as soon as he finished speaking, Ardor asked, “Is it this hand that’s the problem?” and then shot his other hand with the gun he was still holding.

There was no time to stop him. With a loud bang, one of his hands disappeared, and blood splattered, some of it landing on Rembrary’s face.

“…….”

Rembrary raised an eyebrow at the unpleasant sensation of blood trickling down his forehead. Ardor, seeing this, was extremely apologetic and flustered.

“I… I dare to stain Rembrary-nim with this filthy blood. How could I do such a thing? What should I do? Please punish this heinous and lowly being, Rembrary-nim. My blood on the High Priest’s sacred skin…”

‘This guy is seriously crazy.’

Rembrary clicked his tongue inwardly, watching Ardor frantically search for a handkerchief, not even caring about his missing arm.

Judging by his behavior, it seemed like he would cause trouble whether he took him or not. He didn’t hesitate to shoot others or himself. A fanatic who doesn’t value himself is unpredictable. And if people here saw such a fanatic, they would never believe in the Redrin God. No, they would probably stay far away.

‘What to do? This guy is a problem whether I take him or not.’

Rembrary healed Ardor’s tattered arm while racking his brain.

“Rembrary-nim is healing me… Bestowing your power even on this insignificant and shameless being, it brings tears to my eyes.”

Ardor was genuinely shedding tears, but Rembrary ignored it.

After the healing was complete, Rembrary sat down on a nearby guest seat, crossed his legs, and pondered, ‘What do I do with this guy?’

‘Not all priests from another world are like this, right? Of course, it’s good to have as many priests as possible, but if only a few priests come over, I should try to find someone gentle and trustworthy like Mulu… Ah, right. Mulu!’

Fortunately, a good idea came to him soon after.

“Ardor.”

When Rembrary called his name, Ardor, who had been circling around and smiling, quickly approached and knelt obediently, looking up at him.

“Anything you say, Rembrary-nim.”

‘Anything I say, my foot. He probably doesn’t even know where he’ll shoot if he hears something he doesn’t like.’

“Rembrary-nim?”

“I’m giving you a special mission.”

“Special mission!”

Ardor’s eyes lit up, as if he liked the word ‘special’.

“What is it? I can accomplish any difficult task.”

“There are holy knights who came with me when I came here.”

“Holy knights…? I didn’t see them on the broadcast. Are they secretly guarding Rembrary-nim?”

‘If they were, you wouldn’t have shot me.’

“No, they seem to have scattered while crossing over.”

“Ah. I see. Well, that’s bound to happen when you enter an egg.”

Ardor, who had been acting like a madman the whole time, surprisingly understood what Rembrary was trying to say right away, as if he didn’t want his previous experience to disappear.

“You can’t come out of an egg until someone wakes you up from the outside. Rembrary-nim is worried about that, right?”

“Yes. So I want you to go around and find the holy knights who came with me.”

He was worried about what to do if he refused, but fortunately, Ardor seemed quite pleased that Rembrary had given him a separate order.

“Their names are Mulu and Ninring.”

“If I have to find Mulu-nim, it will be easy. I know Mulu-nim’s face.”

“A holy knight from the Eastern Continent also came over, so look for them together.”

“Should I kill them if I find them?”

“They came over to save me, so find them safe and sound. Don’t shoot them as soon as you find them.”

* * *

Rembrary, who had entered the wedding hall to find new followers, came out alone and got into the car. The member of the Redrin Hunter Company, who had been acting as the driver, was distracted by something else and asked casually,

“Huh? Why are you alone? Weren’t you picking someone up?”

“Things happened.”

The hunter glossed over it, saying, “Oh, okay?” He didn’t see Rembrary’s clothes because he only glanced in the rearview mirror.

However, when Rembrary arrived in front of the Redrin headquarters and took the elevator straight to the lobby from the underground parking lot, the production team and other hunters were horrified.

‘Blood on his clothes…’

‘Wow. There’s blood on the ends of his sleeves too.’

‘Look at the bloodstains on his face.’

‘What did he do?’

There were traces of blood splattering twice, once when Rembrary was shot in the chest and once when Ardor shot himself.

Especially since the broadcasting station staff weren’t Awakened [People with supernatural abilities], they imagined all sorts of things when they saw Rembrary’s clothes. Did he go to catch followers instead of saving them? Did he threaten them to force them to join Redrin? What did he do to get his clothes like that?

Since Rembrary was walking around so normally, they thought he was the one who had attacked, not the one who had been attacked. The fact that he had left to create followers and returned alone also fueled the production team’s imagination.

‘Was it because persuasion didn’t work out as well as he thought, so he beat them up?’

But no matter what others thought of him, Rembrary calmly returned to his room, washed himself, and changed into clean clothes.

‘Still, I managed to give Ardor a job somehow. And that guy will find Ninring and Mulu. Now all that’s left is to enhance Redrin-nim’s reputation… What to do? How can I get rid of the cult image here?’

* * *

When Jung Seo, who had left as a regular guest on , suddenly ended up in the cult hunter group Redrin, Jongwoo checked Jung Seo’s whereabouts every day by searching through the videos they uploaded.

He wanted to tell her to just quit everything and come up, but he couldn’t because he was afraid of getting on the bad side of HBS broadcasting station. Jung Seo was still pursuing her career as an entertainer.

Of course, the biggest reason Jongwoo couldn’t strongly persuade Jung Seo was because she strongly expressed her desire to stay.

But today, after checking Jung Seo’s whereabouts as usual, he was carefully reviewing the promotional poster proposal with Nakru. That’s when Jongwoo’s phone vibrated in his waistband.

Seeing that the vibration was short, it wasn’t a call, so Jongwoo slowly took out his phone to check the text message. But as soon as he saw the letters on the screen, he was so surprised that his eyes widened.

-Jongwoo-ya. It’s Rembrary. I want to release an album, what should I do?