Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 671

◈ 671. Ta-da!

The moment I heard the story about the shoes, the words burst out of my mouth faster than I thought.

At Ki Seong-hyun’s instruction, the junior hunter asked with a bewildered expression.

“Excuse me? Just because someone throws shoes doesn’t automatically make them Rembrary, does it?”

“It’s not just that they threw shoes. They threw shoes and subdued a monster that was overwhelming several hunters. That means they’re strong, even while running away. Their actions are also similar to Rembrary’s.”

“I see. But if it’s Rembrary, shouldn’t we just announce it openly and bring him in?”

“As much as the number of followers has increased, so have the forces that vehemently oppose him. We can’t risk his location being leaked before he’s safely secured. We’ll handle it quietly for now.”

“Yes, sir.”

As soon as the junior hunter left, Ki Seong-hyun immediately called Jang Tae-ri on his phone to inform her of this matter.

Jang Tae-ri answered the phone with a calm voice, but when Ki Seong-hyun said, ‘Someone who might be Rembrary has appeared,’ her voice immediately rose.

—Really?

“I don’t know for sure, but he’s the most likely candidate to have appeared so far. I’ve issued an order to capture him… we’ll know the answer soon.”

—Please.

“Please tell CEO Shin about this on behalf of the Director.”

* * *

Jang Tae-ri hung up the phone and immediately called Shin Jo-woon.

“Are you busy right now?”

She asked out of courtesy, and the answer came back, “A little.” He seemed very busy.

However, Jang Tae-ri knew how hard Shin Jo-woon had been searching for Rembrary’s whereabouts for the past few years, so instead of hanging up, she increased her speaking speed.

“I’ll make this quick. Ki Seong-hyun just called and asked me to tell you something.”

[That guy. He clearly knows my number. Why does he always go through you to tell me things?]

“That’s not the issue right now. Someone who might be Rembrary has appeared!”

Jang Tae-ri shouted brightly, but when there was no response, she took the phone away from her ear and checked the call status. Had it been disconnected?

The call was still active. Jang Tae-ri put the phone back to her ear.

“Shin Jo-woon? Hello?”

[I’m awake.]

“Why are you so lukewarm in your reaction?”

[…….]

‘Is he so happy that he’s in shock?’ Jang Tae-ri stared strangely at the still-silent phone before shouting excitedly.

“I hope it’s really Rembrary! Right? If it’s Rembrary, let’s all get together and have a party! We’ve confirmed that he’s in our country, so we should be able to find him right away. Is he going to Redrin [presumably the name of their company or headquarters]? Or is he going to your house? Shouldn’t we send people to keep an eye out?”

[…….]

“Shin Jo-woon, are you really asleep?”

With no audible response, Jang Tae-ri, who had been excited, also lost some of her enthusiasm and asked. Shin Jo-woon was silent for about 3 seconds again before answering.

[I’ll talk about it later.]

With that, the call abruptly ended. Jang Tae-ri stared blankly before raising her eyebrows and looking down at her phone.

“What’s wrong? Why is he acting like this?”

* * *

‘I’m hungry.’

At that moment, Rembrary was walking along, thinking about the udon and tonkatsu he couldn’t eat, when he smelled food and stopped for a moment.

Having left the area where fields were the majority and houses were sparse, he was now seeing quite a few tall buildings around him.

He could still see fields and rice paddies in the distance, but it seemed like he was gradually entering a downtown area.

However, Rembrary was still frustrated because he couldn’t figure out his current location.

‘Redrin-nim [a respectful suffix], I’m hungry.’

How long had he been walking like that? Rembrary, who was praying weakly to Redrin, stopped abruptly when he discovered a sign that shouldn’t be in a place like this.

—Redrin Branch Office

“?”

‘Am I so hungry that I’m seeing things?’ Rembrary stared blankly at the sign attached to the small 3-story building before rubbing his eyes.

There was no change in the scenery he saw. The sign still read ‘Redrin Branch Office.’

Rembrary opened his mouth.

‘A branch office has been established?’

It was such an unbelievable sight that Rembrary walked around the building once.

He had been prepared for the possibility that the Redrin headquarters had collapsed. But a branch office has been established?

‘Does ‘branch office’ have a different meaning than I know?’ Rembrary habitually took out his phone, but when it didn’t turn on, he put it back in.

A bad feeling came over him. ‘Could it be that he has simply entered the path of evil and decided to make a name for himself? And that’s how his power grew?’

Since he’s a god in his original world anyway, even if his image deteriorates here, he won’t become a complete demon, so he’s just planning to…….

‘That’s unlikely, though.’

Rembrary, who had been thinking all sorts of things, decided to go inside and check for himself first. Seeing and hearing with his own eyes and ears is the most accurate way.

‘Okay. Let’s go.’

Having made up his mind, Rembrary opened the glass door on the first floor and went inside.

As he applied force, the clean, white interior slowly revealed itself along with the sound of a small bell.

However, there was no one at the counter near the entrance, and no one came out even though the sound was made when the door was opened.

Rembrary looked back and forth between the small bell hanging above the door and the empty counter.

‘Is this place not in operation?’

Still, just in case, he waited in front of the door for about 3 minutes. When no one still came out, Rembrary grabbed the door and shook it several times.

The subtle ringing of the bell turned into noise as it shook several times. Did that have an effect?

Finally, a door opened slightly from inside the hallway, and someone appeared. It was someone whose hair was disheveled like a bird’s nest, as if they had just woken up.

Rembrary’s expression naturally frowned at the sight of someone coming out of a place with a Redrin branch office sign dressed as if they were in their own room.

It didn’t seem like this was a Redrin branch office after all.

‘Could it be that someone completely unrelated was just putting up a Redrin branch office sign?’

As Rembrary was having such ridiculous thoughts, the bird’s nest human approached and asked in a sleepy voice.

“Who are you? Are you trying to become a believer?”

“I was hoping not.”

“Yes?”

He was hoping it wasn’t, but this bird’s nest head seemed to be an employee of the place with the Redrin branch office sign.

Staring blankly at the stranger who was asking questions in the proper way, even though his appearance didn’t look like a believer, Rembrary still couldn’t shake off his suspicion and asked.

“Has it not gone bankrupt yet?”

The employee frowned, stopping in the middle of a yawn.

“Who are you to come in here and start a fight right away?”

“Ah. I’m just someone who stopped by on the way.”

“So who are you?!”

“Oh, right. Could you lend me your phone?”

“Why would I want to lend it to you?! You’re starting a fight as soon as you come in!”

Rembrary clicked his tongue inwardly as the person with the Redrin branch office sign not only greeted customers looking like they had just woken up but also kept yelling.

The employee didn’t care at all and shouted at Rembrary.

“Get out!”

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“I’m not lending you my phone! I told you to get out!”

“No, not about that. About the last 2 years.”

He wanted to ask if the other person was from another world or from Earth, and if they were from Earth, how they ended up at the Redrin branch office, and whether the branch office was established because there were too many believers or too few, but Rembrary didn’t have a chance to open his mouth.

The employee, who had looked sleepy the whole time, was very skilled at chasing people away.

Before he could choose his words, Rembrary’s body had already been pushed to the front of the door.

Then, just as the employee was about to open the door with one hand and shout ‘Get out!’ again,

Another person entered from outside through the open door and grabbed the employee by the collar without warning.

The employee was caught by the collar in the sudden incident and released Rembrary, and Rembrary was thrown against the wall.

As he straightened his clothes while leaning against the wall, he saw a burly man who had just entered grabbing the employee by the collar and yelling at him.

“Hey, I told you to get out! Does my word mean nothing to you?!”

Coincidentally, the burly man was also pouring out the same words to the employee that the employee had been saying until just now.

However, it didn’t look good to see someone who might be a Redrin believer being grabbed by the collar.

As Rembrary thought, ‘Should I step in?’ the employee who had been grabbed by the collar shouted first, with the veins in his neck standing out.

“What are you talking about! The lease still has a long way to go before it expires!”

It seemed that the employee and the burly man who had just entered were acquainted. In a bad way.

“I wouldn’t have rented it out if I knew you otherworldly people were going to use it!”

“What does that have to do with it? We already rented it! We already have a contract!”

“I asked if there were any special conditions when we signed the contract, and you said there weren’t!”

“There aren’t! What’s so special about it?”

“This person? Does a pseudo-religious group look like it’s for ordinary use? You didn’t tell me it was going to be a Redrin branch office!”

The clever Rembrary roughly grasped the situation.

It seemed that this building was not purchased by Redrin but rented, and the person who seemed to be the building owner or manager didn’t like Redrin itself.

Even as Rembrary watched, the argument between the burly man and the employee was getting more and more violent.

“A pseudo-religious group! How can you call it a pseudo when there’s no god as certain as Redrin-nim!”

“It’s uncertain whether Redrin or whatever is a god or a demon, isn’t it?”

“What? It’s been revealed that it’s not! What’s your religion, you bastard!”

“I’m non-religious!”

“You’re so insensitive that you can’t even recognize the existence of God even though you feel the breath of God all around you, so you’re talking like that.”

“What?!”

Swear words began to mix into the words, and it looked like a fight was about to break out, so Rembrary hesitated for a moment whether to stop it or not.

If he stepped in, they were both people, and if he didn’t, the burly man was too big, and it seemed like the Redrin employee would be overwhelmingly pushed back.

After much deliberation, Rembrary decided to step in.

‘If I step in and help, maybe they’ll lend me a phone?’

Just in time, the burly man brought up Rembrary’s story.

“Now that the top is gone, isn’t your religion about to go bankrupt? In a few years, when Rembrary’s name fades, you’ll be a failing group, but you’re still acting high and mighty.”

Moreover, he even explained the current state of the Redrin Hunter Company in detail, so Rembrary couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Oh ho. So it hasn’t gone bankrupt yet?”

He said it because he was happy. At those words, the employee vented his anger on Rembrary for no reason.

“Are you still here?! And why are you always starting a fight!”

The burly man also belatedly recognized Rembrary’s presence and shouted fiercely.

“Who are you? Get out if you’re not involved!”

Unlike those violent people, Rembrary informed them in the gentle voice of a high priest.

“I can’t do that. It’s something that’s somewhat related to me too.”

At that soft voice, the burly man scoffed as if he was dumbfounded and mocked him unpleasantly.

“Why does that bastard talk like that? Does he think he’s Rembrary or something? He’s wearing only one layer of clothes in the middle of winter, is he crazy?”

Not stopping at words, the burly man even shouted, “You’re supposed to take off your hat indoors, you crazy bastard!” and even knocked off the bamboo hat that Rembrary was wearing.

The bamboo hat that touched the burly man’s fingertips flew sideways like a top, and Rembrary’s long blonde hair that had been placed inside flowed down all at once.

The burly man and the employee shouted in unison, almost at the same time, in horror.

“Rembrary?!”