Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 616

◈ 616. Betrayal?

“Heretics. There can be no betrayal for the sake of God.”

The moment High Priest Rembrary faltered, Redrin was bound to suffer a significant adverse effect.

It would be acceptable if Rembrary publicly sacrificed himself to protect Redrin and its people.

However, it was absolutely unacceptable for Rembrary to deviate in another direction for the sake of Redrin and its people.

That choice would not benefit Rembrary himself, Redrin, or the believers.

“How selfish.”

“Is that so?”

However, Rembrary didn’t bother to correct Undu God’s misunderstanding, as he couldn’t afford to reveal such information to his enemies, lest they exploit it as a weakness.

“What can I do? I don’t understand you either, so it would be strange if only you understood me.”

“The priests of other worlds are completely different from the saints and clergy of our world.”

“We didn’t have people like you in our world.”

“So you were eventually driven out by demons.”

“Not driven out, but ran away.”

“……Do you have no shame?”

“If a formidable monster chased you and you ran away, would you be ashamed?”

“If running away caused harm to others, yes. I would be. Because I know shame.”

“Why should saving one’s own life be shameful when trying to save another’s is noble?”

“Because your act of saving your own life caused harm to our world.”

“Isn’t that why I’m taking responsibility and trying to seal it?”

“That’s the obvious thing to do. There’s nothing more ridiculous than acting self-righteous while doing what’s obvious. No matter what you do, the fact that you harmed us remains unchanged.”

“Are you making such claims while threatening Senior Woo-shil, who is originally from this world, and demanding my power? Have you ever tried to take responsibility for those you attacked, threatened, and killed?”

Rembrary and Undu God’s gazes collided. Neither of them looked away.

After a long while, Undu God turned his body to the side.

“There’s no point in talking further. We can’t understand each other at all.”

As Undu God opened the door and left, he frowned and glared at Rembrary, who followed him out.

Rembrary pointed to one of the many paths with his hand.

“I have to go too. Did you expect me to stay here?”

“…….”

Watching Undu God walk away, Rembrary clicked his tongue.

“You abandoned your humanity as you got promoted.”

“I can hear everything. Say it after I’m gone further away.”

* * *

After finishing the work of surveying the village surroundings for restoration.

While Ki Seong-hyun was speaking to the people at the village hall, Secretary Yoon sat in the back row and subtly asked Rembrary.

“What did you say when it was just you and the Nakru person earlier? Are you okay?”

“He almost tripped over a kimbap [Korean seaweed rice roll] and kept getting angry, probably because he was embarrassed.”

“No, why is he angry when he’s the one who stepped on it?”

“He says he has a lot of shame.”

Secretary Yoon widened her eyes and looked at Undu God, who was sitting in the middle.

Feeling her gaze, Undu God looked this way, and Secretary Yoon hurriedly raised her bag to block his view.

“What a strange person. I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

Secretary Yoon shook her head, then peeked at Undu God again from behind her bag.

Undu God was no longer looking this way.

Relieved, Secretary Yoon lowered her bag and asked something else this time.

“Mr. Rembrary, do you really not know someone named Morso?”

It was clear that Secretary Yoon had no interest in Ki Seong-hyun’s speech and requests.

“He’s the deputy director of the Hunter Management Agency.”

“What is the Hunter Management Agency?”

“The newly established Natural Disaster Response Department in the government is divided into the Hunter Management Agency and the Awakened-Only Prison.”

He had heard of the Awakened-Only Prison before, but the rest was new to him.

When Rembrary couldn’t understand at all, Secretary Yoon became even more suspicious of the plausible stories Ki Seong-hyun had told.

‘He doesn’t even know about the Hunter Management Agency. How could he be acquainted with its deputy director?’

“Ki Hunter said earlier that Mr. Rembrary and the deputy director were friends, but Mr. Rembrary betrayed him…”

Still, when Rembrary tilted his head, Secretary Yoon took out her phone and continued searching for something.

“What are you looking at?”

“This.”

Finally, Secretary Yoon handed Rembrary a group photo.

“I think it’s one of these people? It’s a news photo, and the description says the deputy director is also in it. It doesn’t specify who, so I’m not sure.”

At that moment, Rembrary, who had been staring at the photo, exclaimed, “Ah,” as if he recognized someone.

“Do you know someone?”

Secretary Yoon asked urgently in a small voice.

Rembrary pointed at the screen with his finger.

“This person. I know his face.”

Secretary Yoon quickly looked at the screen.

It was a bit confusing because the screen was small, but the person Rembrary was pointing at was a man with orange hair, cut in a crew cut like an athlete.

She was about to ask if this person was Morso, but unexpectedly, Rembrary also pointed to the woman next to him.

“And I know this person’s face too.”

It was a woman with gray hair and a short, blunt bob.

“Who is Morso?”

Rembrary frowned, pointing at the orange hair.

Morso was the High Priest of the North, and although he couldn’t remember her name, this gray-haired woman was the High Priest of the Central Continent.

When he briefly went back to his original world before, he clearly heard that these two had already been captured by the Demon King’s side.

Why are they in a photo here? And Morso is the deputy director here?

Secretary Yoon glanced at Ki Seong-hyun.

Ki Seong-hyun was still talking to the people, but he was staring intently in this direction.

Secretary Yoon made her voice even smaller than before and asked.

“Ki Hunter said that Mr. Rembrary was friends with someone named Morso, but their relationship soured because of a betrayal… Is that true?”

“No.”

“I knew it, right? But why does he know it so strangely?”

“No… Is it that incident?”

“Yes?”

Secretary Yoon, who had unconditionally sided with Rembrary, was taken aback by Rembrary’s mumbling as he tilted his head. ‘What? Did he really betray him?’

“Um… It seems like it was before that too.”

“Yes?”

“Ah. I think he was angry back then too.”

‘It’s not even just once or twice?’

As she stared with her mouth open, Rembrary, who had been pondering for a while, said brightly.

“No. I’ve never betrayed him.”

However, after seeing him pondering for so long, she didn’t feel as much trust as before.

Rembrary, on the other hand, thought about Morso and the High Priest of the Central Continent as he walked out of the hall after Ki Seong-hyun’s speech and headed to where he had parked the car.

Then, at the moment when Secretary Yoon asked, “Mr. Rembrary, you’re going straight home without seeing the president, right?”

He recalled the third prophecy that Shin Jo-woon had told him, which he had heard from Woo Sung-woo.

‘That’s right. It said I would be grabbed by the collar by someone with orange hair. Could that be Morso?’

There are more than one or two people with orange hair, so it might not be him.

However, now that things have come to this, it seemed like a good idea to check, so Rembrary looked for Ki Seong-hyun.

Ki Seong-hyun was already in his car, driving out of the narrow path between the rice paddies.

Rembrary quickly got into the passenger seat and asked Secretary Yoon.

“Secretary Yoon. Let’s follow Ki Seong-hyun.”

Secretary Yoon, who was putting on her seatbelt, asked back, “Yes?”

Because the instruction Secretary Yoon received was to take Rembrary to the volunteer work, and after the activity was over, take him home and then return to the company to report.

“Me?”

“Ah, should I drive?”

“Ah, no! This is my car!”

“?”

It was a well-known story among Shin Jo-woon’s secretaries that Rembrary often wrecked Shin Jo-woon’s cars, and because of this, Shin Jo-woon bought and sent new cars.

The dealer from whom Shin Jo-woon frequently bought cars had already joined the Redrin Church, he heard.

And with that terrible driving skill, who else’s car is he going to wreck!

Secretary Yoon hurriedly started the engine and drove off.

“But why are we following Ki Hunter?”

“To meet Morso in person.”

“You’re going into enemy territory?!”

“No matter how much I think about it, I’ve never betrayed Morso. So what does this mean? Doesn’t it mean Morso betrayed me?”

“Huh? That can’t be.”

However, they were in the middle of following Ki Seong-hyun’s car.

Ki Seong-hyun, who had been driving well, suddenly stopped his car on the shoulder of the road and got out.

Secretary Yoon also stopped the car, and Ki Seong-hyun approached and knocked on Rembrary’s window.

When Rembrary opened the window, Ki Seong-hyun frowned and asked.

“Why are you following me?”

Rembrary raised his cell phone.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I want to see Morso in person.”

“!”

“Take me there. Or give him a call.”

* * *

“250 years? It will take 250 years to close all the rifts?!”

“Ah, that’s only if our reapers work alone. If we combine all the reapers from other countries… it will be reduced to 200 years.”

“Why does combining all the other countries only reduce it by 50 years!”

“We have to set territories, assign responsibilities, decide who will work more and less, who will take on dangerous tasks, who will get the most credit when everything is resolved, and if there are fights in between, we have to sort them out, and we have to be more careful not to let this atmosphere be conveyed to the afterlife…”

Yeomra rubbed his forehead with his hand as he listened to his aide’s calculations.

Then, a voice called out, “Your Majesty,” and Sa Gam-jae approached.

Yeomra gestured for the aide to leave.

As the aide left, Sa Gam-jae came closer to Yeomra and reported.

“It seems that Nakru and Mirage are joining hands, which is causing a rift with other groups.”

Having heard about it vaguely before, Yeomra didn’t react with great surprise, but instead rubbed the opposite side of his forehead with his other hand.

“They’re really fighting hard. Division when they should be combining their strength.”

“It’s not a full-blown split yet, but their hearts have already left, so they will soon be fragmented.”

Yeomra sighed and lightly tapped the desk with his fist.

“The demons’ skill at sowing discord is amazing. To scatter those who had united against a common enemy in such a short time.”

“Demons are involved, but there is another cause this time.”

“Another cause?”

“Mirage is the group that represented Lumena when she was imitating humans. The deputy leader there seems to have blamed Rembrary for Lumena’s disappearance and holds a grudge.”

“What did he do with that grudge?”

“He brought down Nakru.”

As the number ‘250 years’ that the aide had mentioned came to mind, Yeomra became even more enraged and shouted.

“What are those Mirage guys? Do they want to be in league with the demons?”

“It didn’t seem like that was their purpose.”

Yeomra rubbed his temples a few times, then raised his mana, causing Sa Gam-jae to look up in confusion.

“Where are you going?”

“To Redrin. I need to ask if they can contact Lumena.”