Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 430

◈ 430. The Soldier Who Keeps Talking to Me

The Chief Manager steeled himself, wanting to shout ‘No!’ even if it meant spitting blood or tears.

“He says his wish is to perform in front of the Holy Master and then die.”

“He’s dying the day after tomorrow…”

“He says his wish is to dance before he dies.”

However, the murmuring around him was too loud. If he said ‘No’ here, he would surely be seen as a heartless person.

Yet, if he were swayed by emotions and agreed, he felt he wouldn’t be acting like a proper Chief Manager. It was a truly awkward situation.

While the Chief Manager was caught between these two options,

the bandit leader, for his part, was fuming, his ears reddening at the whispers of the people. *Who* were these people turning him into a tragic dancer!

He had made this resolution at least forty times on the way to the 14th City, but the leader made the resolution again. *When* that crazy blonde comes, he’s really going to kill him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rembrary also arrived at the 15th City and easily found the hideout of the merchants who traded with the bandits.

The hideout was located in the basement of a place disguised as an ordinary clothing store, making it impossible for ordinary passersby to find.

No one would imagine that people kidnapped from such a place were being sold to the Tower [a powerful, often corrupt, organization or institution].

However, finding the merchants created another problem.

“What? Give them back? What are you talking about?”

“Is it because he’s a bandit? His ideas are terrible. Huh? This won’t do! You don’t know the rules of commerce? You can sell your morals, but you have to keep the commercial ethics!”

“We got paid to sell them! Give them back?”

Even when the bandit said he would return the money, the merchants didn’t even bat an eye.

He had thought they wouldn’t be ordinary merchants, hearing that they traded with bandits, but these guys were unbelievably nasty criminals as well.

“No, our leader is in danger!”

“That’s your problem!”

The merchants, who were acting tough, even saw Rembrary standing next to the bandit, exchanged sly smiles, and whispered loud enough to be heard.

“Look at his face. Wow. His face is shining, shining. How much should we get for him?”

“It’s a waste to send him to the Tower. Let’s sell him to Sujeokmuwang [likely a powerful and ruthless figure].”

The bandit was frustrated and pounded his chest, but the merchants didn’t seem to be joking.

The Hwacheonchin troupe members, imprisoned and watching this, were anxious and stamping their feet.

“Rembrary! You should run away!”

“It’s okay, just go, Rembrary!”

“Leave Rembrary alone, you bastards!”

In fact, Rembrary and they hadn’t been together for very long. Although they were in the same troupe, they hadn’t built up much camaraderie yet.

However, they were grateful, sorry, and scared that Rembrary had risked danger to come all the way here to save them.

Some were even moved to tears.

Rembrary watched all this, slowly raised one foot, and grabbed his shoe.

“Rembrary! Don’t give up, run away!”

“Don’t take off your shoes, go, Rembrary!”

The troupe members were convinced that Rembrary was taking off his shoes to beg them to release the troupe members, so he wouldn’t run away, and they sobbed even more.

They didn’t know why he was taking off his shoes, but they couldn’t interpret it any other way.

The bandit, who was embarrassed next to him, even thought, ‘Huh? Is he really trying to sacrifice himself?’

At that moment, as the merchants were snickering, unaware of the divine punishment that would befall them,

just as Rembrary had taken off about half of his shoe, they heard shouts from the top of the stairs, “Ugh! Soldiers!”, “We’ve been caught!”

Rembrary put his shoe back on and lowered his foot.

The bandit looked up, and the merchants panicked and scurried around.

They frantically looked around for a place to escape, but there was no place to escape in the underground chamber.

Soldiers were already rushing down the only entrance staircase.

Finally, when the soldiers filled the stairs and entered the chamber, the merchants knelt down without even resisting.

They seemed to think it was better to just get caught than to resist and die in vain.

‘They give up so easily.’ Rembrary clicked his tongue at the merchants and quickly approached the troupe as the soldiers released the imprisoned people.

However, before he could take a single step.

“Wait a moment.”

The soldier who seemed to be the highest-ranking among the soldiers grabbed Rembrary.

“This person came to save them!”

When the bandit hurriedly stepped forward after seeing that, the soldier laughed and released Rembrary’s arm.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I know, I know. I knew these guys were here, but I didn’t know the location of the hideout, so I was wandering around. Then I heard two people talking about kidnapping and rescuing, so I followed them.”

Because he was a bandit, the bandit lowered his head and answered in a barely audible voice, “Yes…” when the soldier explained kindly.

Fortunately, the soldier didn’t seem to find it strange and immediately looked at Rembrary and asked.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“As you can see, I’m fine.”

“That’s a relief. You were really lucky. We reflexively looked at the Gongja’s [a term of respect, often used for someone of high status or a young master] side and heard about the kidnapping.”

“Then it’s thanks to me.”

Shouldn’t he be saying thank you here? The soldier blinked awkwardly, then noticed the troupe members stamping their feet, wanting to approach him, and asked.

“…Are those people over there your companions?”

“Yes.”

Just in time, the Hwacheonchin people also approached Rembrary and told him that Rembrary was from the same troupe as them.

The soldier sighed and advised.

“Next time, don’t try to save your companions by yourselves, please report it. This time was really lucky.”

“I will.”

Rembrary answered smoothly and smiled at Nangil, the leader.

He had to tell her the story of sending Duran to the 14th City first to reassure her.

Since they weren’t performing on the day of application and were told to apply on the last day, if they went without rest from now on, they might be able to perform.

“Let’s leave quickly, Nangil.”

“Yeah… okay!”

“Duran is-”

However, it was when Rembrary was taking care of the troupe members and trying to go up the stairs with the other victims.

“Oh, just a moment.”

About halfway up the stairs, the soldier who had spoken to Rembrary earlier called them again from behind.

When they turned around, he looked at not only Rembrary but also the other victims in turn and said.

“We need to take statements from the victims, so everyone has to stay here for a month. We’ll provide a place to stay and food, so don’t scatter and stay together when you go out!”

Everyone else seemed willing to cooperate, and they seemed tempted by the offer of providing food and lodging.

On the other hand, as soon as Nangil heard that story, her face turned pale and she shouted at the soldier.

“We have to go to the 14th City quickly! We have a performance!”

However, the soldier clicked his tongue as if he felt sorry for her, but refused.

“You can perform later. If there seems to be a problem, we’ll write a letter from here saying you can’t go because of the investigation.”

“That’s not…!”

“The investigation comes first. We need to catch these guys to prevent this from happening again.”

Nangil, who had gone up the stairs, was anxious and rubbed her face dry.

Sanmyeong, whose voice was hoarse, gritted his teeth and complained.

“Staying here for a month! Leader, if we stay here for a month and go to the 14th City, the first birthday party will already be over! The date is too tight!”

The troupe members’ shoulders drooped. Even so, there was nothing they could do. They couldn’t run away to avoid the investigation.

It was then.

“You seem to be in a hurry.”

The soldier who had grabbed Rembrary earlier, brought the merchants tied up like dried fish up the stairs, approached and spoke again.

When the group looked at him, the soldier suggested.

“We absolutely cannot let go of the people who were in prison because we need to get a clear statement from them. But these two people here, we can release the people who just arrived around tomorrow.”

At those words, Nangil shook her head weakly.

“It’s okay. We can’t submit the application anyway…”

“We submitted the application, Nangil. I told Duran to submit it.”

At those words, Nangil’s eyes were filled with hope again.

However, she soon became sullen and shook her head again.

“You need at least five people to be recognized as a troupe.”

“There will be five people.”

The bandit frowned, knowing that Rembrary’s ‘five people’ included his leader and colleagues.

However, if he said the wrong thing here, he would be dragged away by the soldiers, so he kept his mouth shut.

“Nangil, then I’ll go there first and perform. How about this?”

Hwanmae, who was watching, came forward and echoed Rembrary’s words.

“Let’s do that, Leader. Rembrary sings very well!”

Sanmyeong agreed with Hwanmae.

“Yes, Leader. There are so many troupes gathered anyway, so they won’t give one troupe a lot of time. If Rembrary sings and leaves in a short time, there might not be a problem.”

Nangil looked at Rembrary with eyes full of faint expectation and worry.

They hadn’t known each other for very long, so she seemed hesitant to ask him to run back to the 14th City for them.

Rembrary smiled gently and confidently pointed at himself.

“Don’t worry. It’s a very easy task.”

* * *

The Blood Cult members are divided into ‘General Cult Members’ and ‘Affiliated Cult Members.’

‘Affiliated Cult Members’ referred to all those who were not from the Blood Cult – those who had already learned martial arts from outside and then affiliated with the Blood Cult.

On the other hand, ‘General Cult Members’ included those who were born in the Blood Cult and those who came here as children and grew up, even if they were not born here.

They grew up learning and mastering martial arts in the Blood Cult, and even those who had no talent or interest in martial arts stayed nearby and made a living.

“Am I that Affiliated Cult Member?”

Mulu carefully organized the information she had gathered from various sources in her head and nodded to herself.

As she was doing that, she heard the sound of the door opening in the next room.

It seemed that someone who had gone out had returned.

‘Where does he go so often?’

Mulu glanced at the wall next to her room – probably the wall connected to the man in the next room.

New Affiliated Cult Members were gathered in one village to live until they got used to it, and Mulu appeared in the Blood Cult before the rooms were assigned to these Affiliated Cult Members.

The cult assigned temporary rooms to the Affiliated Cult Members in the order they stood in line when listening to the speech.

Because of this, next to Mulu lived that tearful man, Yungcheon, who called her ‘Samae [term for ‘younger sister’ or ‘junior female colleague’]!’ and gave her useless information such as ‘This is home’ and ‘We are family.’

Just as Mulu was about to organize the information she had gathered at breakfast again this morning,

“Samae! Samae!”

Yungcheon, the tearful man who kept calling Mulu ‘Samae,’ opened the door and came in, then suggested with a grin.

“It’s almost lunchtime, let’s go eat together!”

“You take care of all three meals.”

“People live by the strength of rice!”

Seeing his lively appearance, Mulu’s mood dropped as she thought of the Grand Priest who ate well.

‘I wonder if the Grand Priest is eating well. He should be…’