Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 674

◈ 674. Hesitating Because You Might Get Hurt Is for Amateurs

Rembrary was bewildered. He had spoken with Daegu, so he assumed Daegu would have informed Ki Seong-hyun. Or had he not?

Daegu had rushed here and hadn’t had a chance to tell Ki Seong-hyun that he had found Rembrary. Because of this, the national hunters were still carrying out the existing order to ‘capture Gat’ [Gat refers to the traditional Korean hat Rembrary is wearing], but Rembrary had no way of knowing this.

“J-Just a moment!”

The flustered branch manager shouted and jumped up. He wanted to tell the national hunters in their uniforms, ‘This person is Rembrary-nim [Nim is an honorific suffix in Korean].’

However, as he was about to speak, he hesitated, wondering if Rembrary was deliberately hiding his identity, and couldn’t rashly reveal him.

The branch manager sent Rembrary a look that pleaded, ‘What should I do?’

But it was no use. Rembrary also hadn’t decided whether to reveal his identity or not.

‘What to do? If I reveal my identity and word gets out that I’m at the Gyeongju Redrine branch, those extremists might flock here. If they’re extremists, they’d be like Ardor, right?’

It didn’t seem like the Gyeongju branch, which seemed to have only one person working there, and even that person wasn’t an Awakened One, could handle people like Ardor.

Just then.

A table suddenly flew and narrowly missed the hunter standing in front of Rembrary, crashing into the wall.

Almost simultaneously with the ‘bang’ sound, the hunter looked in the direction the table had flown from and shouted.

“Who is it!”

“Me.”

The culprit was someone eating milk shaved ice in the corner. The milk shaved ice grinned and even raised a hand to confess, then said in a tone that suggested he couldn’t help it.

“Sorry. I have a condition where my feet move on their own when I see national hunters.”

It seemed like he wasn’t helping Rembrary, but rather just acting out of dislike for the national hunters.

“Obstruction of official duties. Arrest him.”

The hunter who had almost been hit by the table instructed without getting agitated.

“Yes.”

About three hunters approached the milk shaved ice.

However, true to the condition he had revealed, the milk shaved ice diligently kicked all three approaching hunters.

He even seemed quite strong, as he immediately injured all three hunters, and the atmosphere quickly turned grim.

“Dangerous person! Arrest him!”

The hunter who seemed to be the highest-ranking shouted again, and the hunters who had approached Rembrary all rushed at the milk shaved ice at once.

Those who had come to capture Rembrary were suddenly fighting someone who might be another hunter or an Awakened One.

‘Is there a special meaning to ‘dangerous person’? They keep shouting ‘dangerous person, dangerous person’.’

Rembrary shook his head, looking back and forth between the people who had started fighting among themselves, the ordinary people who were evacuating with their shaved ice bowls, and the store owner who kept taking pictures of the scene with a camera in case of property damage.

But soon, Rembrary realized that this wasn’t the time for him to be watching a fight.

‘I shouldn’t be here. All that’s going to happen if I stay here is my face will be revealed.’

Rembrary subtly called the branch manager.

“Branch Manager.”

“Yes, D-Dai, no, U-Um… nim.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Yes? Is that alright?”

“Didn’t we pay in advance?”

“No, that’s not it, but this commotion started because of us…”

Rembrary pointed to the milk shaved ice with his eyes.

“But isn’t that guy deliberately stirring things up and making it bigger?”

It was true that it started with them, but Rembrary and the branch manager weren’t creating the fight.

It was the milk shaved ice that turned the situation from a conversation into a free-for-all.

The milk shaved ice had helped Rembrary at just the right time, but it was clear that he was doing it not because they were allies, but simply because he wanted to vent his anger.

“Still…”

“Judging by how they’re handling it, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be able to catch him. Let’s go.”

“Alright. But will it be easy to get out of here?”

As the branch manager spoke worriedly, several chairs flew into the air. There were also sharp objects mixed in.

“Ugh.”

Then, a table flipped over and slid towards them, causing the branch manager to shrink back in horror.

On the other hand, Rembrary took advantage of this gap to take off his gat and put on a baseball cap that someone had left behind.

It seemed like those uniformed hunters were finding him using the keyword ‘Gat,’ so he wanted to eliminate that clue altogether.

“Let’s go.”

Rembrary nudged the branch manager, who was still cowering, and nimbly passed through the fighting people.

The branch manager hurriedly followed behind.

However, as soon as they slipped out of the place, Rembrary’s wrist was grabbed by someone waiting next to the door.

It was a hunter. Judging by his attire, he seemed to belong to the same group as those who had come to capture Rembrary.

The branch manager’s heart sank.

“Don’t take the elevator, use the stairs.”

However, the other person seemed to only think of Rembrary and the branch manager as customers who had come to the cafe, and said this before immediately letting go of his hand.

Rembrary replied firmly.

“Thank you.”

The branch manager shuddered at the tone. It was a normal greeting, but when Rembrary, who had been speaking informally the whole time, said it, it felt like something out of a textbook and made him cringe.

No, more than that. You can speak well without using informal language, can’t you? The branch manager thought to himself, but when he heard another bang from inside the store, he realized this wasn’t the time for that and quickly tugged on Rembrary’s arm.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

However, a hunter grabbed Rembrary’s wrist again as he was about to leave.

“!”

The branch manager’s heart sank again and he turned around. On the other hand, the hunter calmly demanded.

“That’s right. Show me your ID before you go. We might need to get witness statements when we write the report about today’s incident.”

The demand for identification had started again.

The branch manager looked at Rembrary with anxious eyes.

Rembrary didn’t have an ID, so he just stood still.

Unable to watch any longer, the branch manager quickly took out his own ID from his wallet and showed it. The building manager, who had followed them at some point, also held out his ID.

“I’m with them.”

The hunter checked the two IDs, returned them to the branch manager and the building manager respectively, and looked at Rembrary.

Rembrary stood blankly for a moment, then said confidently in a gentle voice.

“I don’t have it with me.”

Perhaps the tone, which showed no hesitation, had an effect. The hunter frowned and tilted his head, but then signaled that he could go.

It seemed like since the identities of two out of the three had been confirmed, he thought he could find out about the other one later.

However, just as the three relieved people were about to go down the stairs in a row.

Rembrary, who was moving between the building manager and the branch manager, quickly grabbed something that was flying towards them with tremendous force and speed, breaking through the door.

Reflexively, he realized it was a chair. Someone inside seemed to have thrown it.

The hunter standing by the door raised his eyebrows when he saw it.

Rembrary put down the chair and looked inside the store.

The milk shaved ice who had helped them at first was walking towards them with a feeble smile.

Then, when he made eye contact with Rembrary, he smiled apologetically as if he was sorry.

“Ah, sorry. I threw it at that guy over there, not you.”

No sooner had the milk shaved ice finished speaking than he kicked the hunter who was swinging a baseball bat at him and disappeared.

The branch manager pulled Rembrary. Rembrary also quickly turned around.

However, as soon as they went down a couple of stairs, the hunter by the door called out from behind, “Wait a moment.”

Not only that, but the hunter by the door came right in front of Rembrary, blocked his way, and demanded.

“Take off your hat.”

He seemed to have become suspicious when Rembrary caught the chair that was flying so violently that it broke through the door with one hand.

The branch manager turned pale and pinched the building manager’s side. However, there was nothing more that the building manager could do here.

When Rembrary didn’t take off his hat and just stood there blankly, the hunter’s hand slowly reached for his weapon.

Rembrary became troubled.

‘What to do? If I show my face here, my identity will be revealed immediately.’

Then, as Daegu had worried, the extremists who were targeting Rembrary might come and bother him.

But if he didn’t show his face and held out, it seemed like he would really be misunderstood.

‘I wish Daegu would come quickly. How much longer do I have to wait?’

As Rembrary was contemplating, he saw the hunter placing his hand on his weapon and had no choice but to take off his hat and reveal his face.

“Rembrary-nim?!”

The moment the hunter who saw it shouted in shock. The shaved ice store instantly became quiet.

He could see people sticking to the door and trying to look this way as much as possible. Cell phones were already raised above some of their heads.

“You can’t take pictures here!”

He could also hear the hunters shouting from beyond.

The hunter who had grabbed Rembrary stood there with his jaw dropped, then barely managed to apologize.

“So that’s why the team leader ordered us to ‘capture’ him. I was wondering what was going on since he hadn’t used the word ‘capture’ before.”

“Team leader?”

“Hunter Ki Seong-hyun.”

“Wasn’t someone else the team leader before?”

“Hunter Ki Seong-hyun is the team leader now.”

The hunter, who had briefly explained, looked at Rembrary with complicated eyes and said.

“Please come with us, Rembrary-nim. The team leader always has a grateful heart towards Rembrary-nim. He would never call you for bad intentions. Besides, the government is now cooperating with Redrine.”

Rembrary realized why those who had initially called him a dangerous person were trying to capture him today.

It seemed that Ki Seong-hyun had guessed that the person wearing the gat was Rembrary and had changed the instructions.

However, Rembrary shook his head.

“The head of the Redrine Hunter Company is coming here, so I can’t.”

The hunter raised his eyebrows.

“There was no mention of that.”

“Didn’t you lose contact in the middle?”

“No. Only the order to capture him came.”

“But the head of the company was supposed to come here.”

The hunter exchanged glances with the other hunters.

If the government was in a cooperative relationship with the Redrine Hunter Company as he said, they seemed hesitant to capture him without reason even though the head of the company was coming.

“Then let’s all stay here together until the head of the company comes.”

“We have to be dispatched immediately if a report comes in.”

“You can just leave one or two people behind, can’t you?”

“But to protect the High Priest—”

Rembrary was in the middle of coordinating opinions with the hunter.

Someone flew in front of the two of them in the blink of an eye and swung a broadsword at the hunter facing Rembrary.

When the hunter blocked the threatening weapon with his own, the sound of metal clashing against metal rang out.

The person who appeared with the sword was the milk shaved ice from before.

Moreover, unlike before when he had helped perfunctorily, this time the milk shaved ice shone strangely in his eyes and shouted excitedly at Rembrary.

“You’ve returned, Death Lord!”

‘Death Lord?’

At the word ‘Death Lord,’ Rembrary reflexively looked at the branch manager.

When the branch manager was talking about the extremist followers earlier, there were people who talked about him as the Death Lord or something?

Rembrary wasn’t the only one who realized the identity of the milk shaved ice at the use of the word ‘Death Lord.’

The national hunters also instantly hardened their expressions and raised their weapons.

The branch manager had said that the followers often caused accidents. It seemed to be true.

“Let’s go with us quickly, Death Lord. There’s no need to deal with those who only intend to use you.”

The hunters gritted their teeth at the words of the milk shaved ice. But even so, they could only take out their weapons and couldn’t swing them.

It was because the milk shaved ice was too close to Rembrary. In fact, Rembrary had become a hostage of the milk shaved ice.

Rembrary was also having difficulty suppressing the milk shaved ice right away because he didn’t know how his divine power would manifest in people right now.

‘Is there no choice? Should I wait until we go to a place where there are no people and use the Majesty of God?’

As Rembrary was making various plans.

A gunshot rang out and his stomach hurt. When he looked down, blood was flowing from his abdomen.

Rembrary’s blood stopped quickly, but the milk shaved ice behind him staggered and collapsed.

Wondering what was going on, he turned around and saw Ardor smiling brightly and lowering his gun from below the stairs.

“High Priest. Ardor has arrived!”