Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 428

◈ 428. The Kind High Priest’s Advice

The bandit leader, startled by Rembrary’s sudden intrusion, belatedly recoiled in horror.

“Ugh! Who are you!”

Rembrary, fearing that the bandits might harm the theater troupe before he could even get there if he told the truth, concocted a quick story to explain his arrival.

“I’m Rembrary, and I like to heal those who are hurt.”

“What is this crazy guy talking about?”

However, the bandit leader, interpreting Rembrary’s kindness as some kind of twisted mockery, recoiled even further and shuddered.

That wasn’t all. He seemed to think he had been insulted and even pulled out his sword from his waist.

“Ah!”

“Oh my!”

The onlookers, who had been watching the situation with cautious calm, screamed in surprise.

Rembrary activated ‘God’s Majesty’ with a mere glance.

The bandit leader knelt down involuntarily, still holding his sword aloft.

He knelt so hard that a cloud of sand and dust rose, and the people watching, who were trembling and expecting blood to be spilled, flinched reflexively.

They couldn’t believe what was happening, even though they were seeing it with their own eyes. Why did that thief kneel down instead of swinging his sword?

But the bandit leader, even as the person directly involved, understood less than anyone else about what was happening.

He had been trying to cut down that rude fellow. Why did he suddenly kneel?

He didn’t know. He simply knelt down, overwhelmed by an inexplicable force and fear, like a shooting star.

‘Could it be… that guy’s doing?’ The bandit leader stared at Rembrary with wide eyes. ‘Did he make me kneel with just his force?’

At that moment, Rembrary snatched the sword from the bandit leader’s hand and nodded.

“Okay. I’ll take this too.”

As if kneeling was the bandit leader’s own decision. As if Rembrary hadn’t done anything.

In fact, that’s how it looked to others, so the bandit subordinates watching the situation widened their eyes.

“Boss… ?”

“The boss keeps getting rejected, so he must be crazy.”

“It seems like anyone is okay as long as they accept his advances.”

The bandit leader shook his head at their whispers, but only in his mind. His neck didn’t move at all.

His legs still hadn’t regained their strength, so he still couldn’t stand up.

Only after hearing Rembrary humming while smelling the flowers did the bandit leader barely manage to stand up, his knees trembling.

Seeing the woman he had been trying to woo for years watching with amusement, the bandit leader’s pride was utterly wounded.

He was angry at the blonde [Rembrary] who had suddenly intervened and disregarded his ego.

But he was hesitant to shout in anger because of the opponent’s strange trick.

A technique that suddenly instills fear and makes you kneel.

‘Is it not a trick? Killing intent? Could it be killing intent? They say that absolute masters can kill people with heart attacks with just their killing intent. Could it be that? He doesn’t look like an absolute master… just a crazy guy.’

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t find an answer.

Except that the blonde holding the bouquet and smiling was a very strong and strange guy.

Then, the blonde, humming with the bouquet, approached him with a gentle smile, grabbed his ear, and pulled it hard.

“Ouch.”

His grip was so strong that it felt like his ear would be torn off, so he had no choice but to be dragged along. The blonde threatened him in a very pleasant voice.

“Do you want to maintain your dignity as a leader? Take me to your hideout right now.”

The bandit leader cursed inwardly.

‘That dignity, I already lost it when I knelt, you crazy bastard!’

* * *

The bandits’ hideout was surprisingly not far from the village.

However, the path to get there was so cleverly hidden that it was impossible to find unless you were determined to search the desert thoroughly.

“The bandits put their heads together to make this path.”

Rembrary was impressed by that, but the bandits’ expressions weren’t good, as if they couldn’t honestly accept the compliment.

‘They must be twisted because they’re bandits,’ Rembrary thought, and gracefully traversed the steep path leading to the hideout.

“Okay. I brought you here. What do you want?”

When they arrived at the hideout, the bandit leader bared his teeth menacingly at Rembrary, who was looking around.

“First, let me look around inside.”

When Rembrary answered calmly, the bandit leader’s face turned blue, thinking, ‘Is this guy really going to accept my advances?’

The leader’s subordinates seemed to be thinking similarly, and they were watching the leader and Rembrary carefully.

In the meantime, an ambitious subordinate volunteered to be Rembrary’s guide, and the leader hit the guy’s head and said, grinding his teeth.

“Follow me! I’ll show you!”

“Actually, you’re happy that I accepted the flowers, right?”

“Shut up and follow me!”

Rembrary was a high priest who knew how to respect others, so he obediently shut his mouth.

Anyway, he had to focus and examine the hideout, so there was no time to talk.

‘There’s no one.’

But no matter how much he searched around, he couldn’t find the members of the Hwachine Theater Troupe.

‘Why is no one here?’

Rembrary, who had searched even among the people doing odd jobs, gently asked the bandit leader when there were no troupe members there.

“You kidnapped a theater troupe fifteen days ago. What did you do with them? Why is no one here?”

Before the bandit leader could answer.

Someone who kept looking at Rembrary from among the people doing odd jobs cried sadly.

“I’m here!”

When Rembrary looked at him, a young man who seemed somewhat familiar was standing there with a sobbing face.

Not knowing who he was, he stared blankly, and the young man cried even more sadly.

“I’m Duran! Duran who cooks!”

Only then did Rembrary recognize him as Duran, the incompetent musician who was in charge of cooking at Hwachine.

He had spent more time not seeing him than seeing him, so he had forgotten for a moment.

Rembrary was an intelligent high priest, but he had so many other things to remember that he sometimes had such human flaws.

“Oh, it’s you.”

Rembrary smiled gently and spoke as if he remembered everything, and Duran was about to burst into tears, but he held back, assessing the situation with Rembrary, who seemed to have come to rescue him.

Then, fear gradually rose on Duran’s face again.

At first, he thought Rembrary had come to rescue him. But since there was no one else and only the bandit leader and Rembrary were side by side, he couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Duran couldn’t figure out whether Rembrary had been captured or what.

In the meantime, Rembrary asked the leader again.

“One is over there. Where are the others?”

At those words, the leader wanted to sneer, ‘What? Theater troupe? I don’t remember anything?’ but when he met Rembrary’s eyes, he confessed the truth, recalling the fear from a few hours ago.

“I sold them off as construction workers for the tower.”

“Tower construction?”

“Building a tower is very dangerous, so there are frequent fatal falls.”

“!”

“Everyone avoids doing that work, so they use prisoners to work. Still, there aren’t enough people, so they pay a high price for capturing workers.”

The leader, who was speaking without guilt, flinched without realizing it when he met Rembrary’s eyes.

For some reason, those red eyes seemed to be searching through his ugly and wicked insides, silently accusing him: ‘You’re useless. You’re wicked. Are you even human?’ which made him deeply uncomfortable.

In fact, Rembrary didn’t say anything, but that’s how it felt strangely.

As the bandit hesitated for a moment because of that, Rembrary asked gracefully.

“So, where is that tower?”

His voice was still soft, and there was a gentle smile on his face, but the bandit leader’s heart pounded for no reason, and he answered honestly again.

“I don’t sell them right away; I collect them and then sell them… so they’re probably still in the 15th district. If you go quickly, you might be able to save them before they’re sold.”

Duran, who was watching the situation, cried and shouted.

“Let’s go save them, Rembrary! Let’s go save the leader!”

He seemed to be sure now that Rembrary had come to save them.

If you were quick-witted, you would find it strange that Rembrary had entered the bandits’ den alone, but Duran didn’t think that deeply.

He was a simple musician, and he just wanted to get out of this situation quickly and play the zither [a traditional stringed instrument].

However, Rembrary, who seemed like he would answer ‘Okay!’ right away, called Duran closer and asked a very unexpected question.

“Duran, didn’t Leader Nangil say there was a 14th district lord’s grandson’s first birthday party?”

“It’s not the lord’s first birthday party, it’s the lord’s grandson’s first birthday party. And yes.”

Duran sobbed and wiped his eyes.

Rembrary didn’t know anything about distances, but like a high priest, he pretended to calculate the time carefully and asked.

“If I go to the 15th district and then go to the 14th district, will they still be having the first birthday party?”

Duran shook his head.

“It’ll be over. But saving the troupe members is the priority. What’s the point of the first birthday party without the troupe members?”

Duran missed his troupe members, Nangil, Sanmyeong, and Hwanmae, so much that he couldn’t bear it.

However, Rembrary didn’t say let’s go this time either.

Instead, he thought calmly and suddenly turned his head towards the bandit leader.

The bandit leader, who was peeking at Rembrary, thinking, ‘He talks to his colleagues like that too,’ flinched when the blonde crazy guy suddenly looked at him and shouted, “Wh-what!”

Rembrary’s answer to that was something that neither Duran nor the bandit leader expected.

“Bandit. You take the incompetent Duran to the 14th district. Apply for a performance as the last part of the first birthday party there. I’ll go to the 15th district and save the troupe members.”

The bandit leader blinked a few times and shouted in horror.

“What? First birthday party? You’re telling me to perform at a first birthday party!”

At those words, the subordinates who were wondering what the leader and the blonde crazy guy were talking about approached, loitering around.

Duran was scared and clung to Rembrary’s arm, but Rembrary nodded calmly.

“I said apply, not when to perform.”

“If I apply and you guys don’t come!”

“You have to perform.”

“You bastard!”

Duran closed his eyes tightly as the bandit leader’s neck turned blue with veins.

But what Duran saw when he opened his eyes was not the bandit leader hitting Rembrary with his big hand.

It was Rembrary grabbing the bandit leader’s chin with one hand and putting his thumb in his mouth.

“!”

Duran and the subordinates all widened their eyes, wondering what that was.

Only the bandit leader, whose chin was grabbed, realized that Rembrary was muttering something very quickly that couldn’t be heard in human language.

Looking at Rembrary muttering incomprehensible words, the bandit leader was convinced that he had been caught by a very crazy guy.

Besides, it seemed like the opponent wasn’t putting much strength in his hand. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t escape from his hand.

That wasn’t the end. The crazy guy used his thumbnail to draw blood on his tongue and demanded.

“Promise that you won’t harm Duran and will take him safely to the 14th district with all his limbs intact and register for the last performance of the first birthday party.”

The bandit leader tried to shout, ‘Get lost, you crazy guy,’ but he couldn’t even curse, and the amount of blood filling his mouth became so much that he was suffocating.

His blood poured into his throat, and eventually it became so difficult to breathe that the bandit leader reluctantly nodded.

Then Rembrary asked again.

“Will you swear to God?”

The bandit leader nodded without knowing the meaning, and Rembrary took his hand out of his mouth, released his chin, and smiled.

“I received the oath.”

Surprisingly, the pain in his tongue disappeared in an instant the moment Rembrary let go.

The bandit leader realized that this blonde crazy guy was not only crazy but also used very strange tricks.

Rembrary, who smiled warmly at him with those eyes full of anger, explained what he had done.

“It’s best not to even try to break the oath. You might get seriously hurt as a test.”

“!”