Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 649

◈ 649. You Really Seem Like a Cult…

It’s all because I got a text from Daeju. The text even detailed the whereabouts of Gu Ju-il, whom Ardor had been grinding his teeth over until just now.

But should I tell Ardor about this?

Rembrary glanced at Ardor. Ardor seemed to notice something and quickly started blinking his eyes like a docile deer.

“Ugh.”

Mulu clicked his tongue softly at the sight, but Rembrary appreciated Ardor’s effort and told him.

“Gu Ju-il came to see Daeju. He’s at Redrine headquarters right now-”

Before he could finish, Mulu grabbed the back of Ardor’s neck as he leaped off the table.

“-is what I heard.”

Rembrary finished speaking a beat late and gently tapped Ardor’s head with the corner of his phone.

“High Priest, what are you going to do?”

Seeming to have calmed down a bit, Mulu let go of Ardor’s clothes and asked.

“Hmm. I think I should go check it out.”

Mulu immediately argued.

“Then Ardor should stay behind.”

Ardor protested, baring his teeth.

“High Priest, your Paladin Commander is currently jealous of me. He’s plotting to prevent me from earning merits by your side.”

But after saying that much, Ardor unexpectedly stopped talking and became quiet.

Then, he looked at the living room, and then beyond the duplex visible from the living room, before suddenly smiling brightly and changing his words.

“Yes, then I’ll stay here, High Priest. Please go and come back safely.”

Rembrary tapped Ardor’s head once more.

“I saw you checking the room where Yeonwoo is just now.”

“!”

“You’re coming with me.”

“You, you really want to take me with you. This Ardor… !”

Mulu frowned, but he seemed worried about what Ardor might do while he was away, so he didn’t object further.

But this time, he seemed worried about something else and asked cautiously.

“High Priest, then what about Woo Yeonwoo? You said you’d stay by his side for a few days in case Moroso comes.”

Rembrary shrugged.

“There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“?”

* * *

“Yeonwoo.”

“……”

“Yeonwoo?”

“……”

“I’m going to be away for a while.”

“……”

“Moroso kills without leaving a corpse behind.”

Woo Yeonwoo, who had been ignoring Rembrary’s words while covered in a blanket, wriggled and lowered the blanket to just below his eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“If you’re not here when I get back, how can I tell if you’ve gone out or died?”

“You… you crazy bastard…!”

At Rembrary’s worried question, Woo Yeonwoo lowered the blanket and moved his mouth.

Rembrary quickly approached and wrapped Woo Yeonwoo in a large blanket, lifting him up whole.

“Eek!”

Woo Yeonwoo struggled in surprise, but Rembrary didn’t falter and walked to the bathroom, placing him down.

Woo Yeonwoo leaned against the sink and stared blankly at the water in the bathtub before turning to Rembrary and raising his voice.

“Hey! Are you crazy?!”

“I hate things being dirty. Wash up and come out. I’ll take you for a walk.”

“Am I a dog?!”

“Dogs are cute at least…”

“Hey!”

Rembrary left Woo Yeonwoo, who was grinding his teeth with rising blood pressure, and came out of the bathroom.

Then, after heating up two slices of frozen pizza and taking out ice cream, Woo Yeonwoo came down the stairs looking neat and tidy.

Seeing that he was well-dressed in a thin coat, it seemed he was ready to go out.

“Where are we going?”

* * *

“This is where we’re going…”

No one cared about Woo Yeonwoo’s muttering as he pressed his forehead against the car window.

As Ardor parked the car in front of the headquarters building, Rembrary opened the car door and went outside.

Woo Yeonwoo looked like he didn’t want to go out, but after Mulu went out first and he was left alone with Ardor, he reluctantly followed.

“Why did you come here?”

“Ah. Something happened while you were hiding under the blanket.”

“What happened?”

“A PD [Production Director] named Gu Ju-il continued the documentary that Kim Murok gave up on making. The trailer was released for about 30 seconds.”

Rembrary heard a gasp from behind.

Turning around as he walked to the elevator, Woo Yeonwoo was standing there with a pale face and an open mouth.

“Really?”

“Yeah. And that Gu Ju-il came here looking for me.”

“Why, why?”

“I wonder why.”

While they were talking, Rembrary and his party took the elevator to the upper floor where Daeju’s room was located.

However, there was no need to walk directly to Daeju’s room.

In the hallway near Daeju’s room, Gu Ju-il was already standing face to face with Daeju.

Gu Ju-il didn’t reveal his name, but Daeju kept calling him ‘Mr. Gu Ju-il,’ so Rembrary knew his identity before he even introduced himself.

“Is that the PD Gu Ju-il?”

Rembrary wasn’t as angry as Ardor, but he was curious about who this person claiming to be Kim Murok’s successor was, so he walked towards him and spoke.

“You’ve arrived.”

Daeju bowed to Rembrary and then scanned Ardor, Mulu, and Woo Yeonwoo in turn before answering.

“Yes. This is PD Gu.”

“The person who made that documentary trailer.”

As Mulu looked coldly at Gu Ju-il, Gu Ju-il’s face turned noticeably pale.

“Looking at your expression, it doesn’t seem like you came to threaten me.”

Rembrary said that and stood in front of Gu Ju-il. He was going to ask him why he had come.

However, before Rembrary could open his mouth, Gu Ju-il knelt down first.

“?”

Rembrary furrowed his brow.

“What are you doing?”

“Help, please help me. Please help me.”

Rembrary knew that if someone came to him begging for ‘help,’ there was a 90% chance it was about his healing abilities, but he just asked.

“Help with what?”

“My family was attacked by a hunter who turned into a jellyfish! My two nephews were seriously injured, and my sister and brother-in-law seem to be infected. If this goes on, my sister and brother-in-law might be killed by other hunters. Please, please save my family!”

Ardor immediately took out his gun and pointed it at his forehead.

“Then you can die first and welcome your family, heretic.”

“!”

“Don’t listen to this heretic, High Priest. He attacked you and now he’s asking for help.”

Gu Ju-il was surprised for a moment, but that was it. He didn’t avoid the gun even though it was touching his head.

“I’ll give you as much money as you want. Please just help me this once. If you help me this once, I’ll, I’ll take the lead in restoring Rembrary’s image. I definitely will. No matter what others say, I’ll do it unconditionally. I really mean it. I can even write a contract. So please…”

Rembrary looked back and forth between Ardor, whose hand was trembling because he wanted to pull the trigger right away, and Gu Ju-il, who wasn’t avoiding his head even though he must have felt it.

Then he answered immediately.

“No.”

Gu Ju-il’s gaze turned gray. He looked like a person who had lost all hope in an instant.

Ardor cheered.

“Shall I kill him?”

However, Rembrary firmly refused and unexpectedly kindly helped Gu Ju-il up.

Then, he held Gu Ju-il’s hand tightly and said in a benevolent voice.

“I’ll help you even if you don’t go that far.”

“High Priest!”

Ardor exclaimed in disbelief and was stepped on the foot by Mulu.

Daeju tilted his head and looked at Rembrary.

Gu Ju-il had begged, but he didn’t expect to hear such an answer, so he opened his eyes wide and looked up at Rembrary.

“What does that…”

“I’ll help you even if you just become a member of our church. Don’t be so afraid.”

“!”

* * *

Not only in words, but Rembrary actually took Gu Ju-il with him and went straight to the place where his sister and brother-in-law were being held.

Rembrary healed Gu Ju-il’s sister and brother-in-law there, and then went to the hospital where his two nephews were hospitalized and healed them all.

Gu Ju-il stared blankly at the miracles that continued to happen from Rembrary’s fingertips.

When all the treatments were over, he couldn’t help but cry and say.

“PD Kim Murok tried to make a documentary about Rembrary as neutrally as possible. But I had a grudge against President Shin Jo-un, so I couldn’t do it like PD Kim Murok. I put biased information about Rembrary in the documentary to attack President Shin Jo-un.”

“It seemed like that from the trailer.”

As Rembrary said with a gentle smile, Gu Ju-il opened his mouth and couldn’t continue speaking.

“Aren’t you… angry?”

“When you’re as successful as I am, you get used to other people’s anger.”

“!”

Gu Ju-il stared blankly at Rembrary before barely managing to speak again.

“The documentary I made this time has already been taken away by a sponsor. I tried to cancel it, but it was too late. But there’s still a lot of data that I cut out because I was portraying Rembrary in a bad light. There’s also the edited version that Kim Murok made halfway through. If the Deputy Director of Mirage releases the documentary, I’ll make and release the second part.”

“Deputy Director of Mirage?”

Gu Ju-il hesitated for a moment, but he seemed to think there was no point in hiding it now that things had come to this, so he answered readily.

“…That person is the sponsor.”

“I thought that person might be sponsoring Kim Murok, but it was true.”

Gu Ju-il looked at Rembrary shaking his head and said with a determined expression.

“Anyway, don’t worry. I’ll do whatever it takes to restore Rembrary’s image.”

* * *

“You mustn’t trust him, High Priest. You must never fall for his silver tongue.”

Throughout the entire trip back home after resolving the Gu Ju-il incident, Ardor said this every 10 minutes.

He seemed shocked that Rembrary had forgiven and helped Gu Ju-il.

“He’ll definitely just take the help and back out. Or he’ll just attend gatherings and waste time.”

Rembrary ignored Ardor’s claims or just gave appropriate answers.

But as time passed and Ardor continued to insist that he should go and kill Gu Ju-il, he eventually got annoyed and finally answered.

“Ardor, do you know who truly wants to believe in God?”

“The people who have seen you, High Priest!”

“Those who have everything and those who are about to lose everything.”

“!”

“No matter how much Daeju and I promote Redrine, will the faith of novice believers deepen right away? But not those who have reached out for help themselves. Those who can truly believe in God are people like Gu Ju-il from earlier. If you kill him out of revenge right now, that’s the end of it. What’s left? But if he becomes a fervent believer, it will help Redrine. Do you understand?”

At Rembrary’s explanation, Ardor murmured in an impressed voice.

“You are so wise, High Priest…”

Mulu also nodded with a solemn face, as if he was deeply impressed by Rembrary’s words.

Looking at that scene, only Woo Yeonwoo shuddered and muttered.

“Wow… so you really seem like a planned cult.”

“When are you planning to become a believer, Yeonwoo?”

“Don’t have any vain expectations.”

Rembrary was about to explain the good points of becoming a Redrine believer to the grumbling Woo Yeonwoo when he took out his phone.

A call was coming in. From Ki Seong-hyun.

“Is it about Moroso?”