Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 676

◈ 676. What Were You Doing for 2 Years?

“I’m sorry, High Priest. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to tell Team Leader Ki. I’ll contact him right away.”

Turning toward the voice, Daeju was coming up with someone I didn’t recognize behind him.

“Just a moment, High Priest.”

As soon as he arrived, Daeju took out his phone and called Ki Seong-hyun, looking at the hunter who kept trying to bow to Rembrary with strange eyes.

Ki Seong-hyun answered the phone right away, and Daeju was about to ask about the bowing hunter but immediately started the call.

“Hello. Team Leader Ki, this is Daeju. I should have told you earlier, but I forgot because I came out in a hurry. I found the High Priest’s whereabouts not long after you called. …Yes. Yes. No, no. He’s right next to me now. He’s with the national hunters. Yes. Yes. Just a moment.”

Daeju looked back and forth between the milk shaved ice, the bowing hunter, Ardor, Rembrary, and the Gyeongju branch manager while talking to Ki Seong-hyun, then handed the phone to Hunter A.

Hunter A, who received the phone, answered “Yes. Yes. Ah. Yes.” a few times, and in less than a minute, he returned the phone to Daeju.

After Daeju finished the call, Hunter A spoke to Rembrary with an apologetic tone.

“Yes. As Rembrary said, there was a communication error in the middle. The team leader says there’s no need to capture him.”

“Didn’t I say so? That’s right.”

“Yes. Instead, he says he wants to see you once you arrive at headquarters and get settled.”

“Understood.”

“Regarding the side effects, then, I’ll ask for your help as before.”

As the hunters, after saying their greetings, took the milk shaved ice and the bowing hunter into the shaved ice shop, Daeju pointed down the stairs and said to Rembrary.

“It’s cramped here, so let’s go down.”

After going down the stairs, there was a parking violation ticket on the car that Daeju was presumed to have come in.

Even in small aspects of life, the rules have returned.

“They’re cracking down on cars now. I don’t think I’ve seen this after the Cataclysm [a large-scale disaster].”

“Yes. So now the High Priest can’t drive around.”

“Why does that conclusion come to that?”

“If you keep crashing the car here and there, the evaluation that has barely gone up will fall again.”

“I’m a racer, though?”

“Who instilled such a fantasy in the High Priest? No, it must be Shin Jo-woon himself.”

Rembrary was upset and didn’t answer, and Ardor, the culprit, indifferently left Daeju’s misunderstanding unattended.

Daeju opened the car door for Rembrary, blaming Shin Jo-woon for no reason.

“Please, get in.”

“Shouldn’t we talk while eating something?”

The Gyeongju branch manager, who knew how many servings of udon and tonkatsu Rembrary had eaten before, was horrified, but Daeju calmly replied.

“People are recognizing the High Priest’s face and gathering around. Let’s talk while moving first.”

Rembrary was about to say, ‘Surely not,’ but his eyes widened. Daeju was right.

People were really coming this way with their phones, inching closer.

In the short time they came out of the shaved ice shop and had a brief conversation, quite a few people were gathering this way.

“Isn’t that Rembrary?”

“I think it’s Rembrary?”

Some students were even stomping their feet and whispering.

Rembrary reflexively tried to wave his hand, but Daeju gently pushed him, so he had to get into the car.

Ardor also went under Daeju’s arm as if performing a stunt and quickly got into the seat next to Rembrary.

Daeju, who had become a doorman in a daze, was dumbfounded and glared at Ardor, but he didn’t get angry because he knew that the other party was not someone who could be reasoned with.

Instead, he gave his business card to the Gyeongju branch manager and the building manager with a half-resigned face.

“I’m a bit out of it right now, so I’ll repay you later for taking care of the High Priest. Leave me a text message with my number.”

The Gyeongju branch manager had the words ‘This guy next to me didn’t do anything’ up to his throat, but Daeju hurriedly left without giving him a chance to talk and got into the passenger seat.

As the car sped away, the building manager laughed and put his arm around the branch manager’s shoulder.

“Wow, I’m friends with a healer now. Should I join there too? Redrin? There aren’t any believers in the Gyeongju branch, right?”

“There are. There’s no room, so don’t come.”

“Liar. I’ve never seen you.”

“I’m telling you, there are!”

* * *

Rembrary watched through the window as people held up their phones from a distance inside the car.

He was surprised that most of those people had curious expressions rather than angry ones.

“The atmosphere has really changed a lot. It was a fierce atmosphere before I left.”

As Rembrary sighed, Daeju glanced back and smiled.

“It’s definitely different compared to two years ago. The High Priest must be very surprised.”

“Yes. I’m surprised.”

“Yes. No matter how surprised you are, it won’t be as surprising as what the High Priest did after knocking me out, though.”

“……”

As Rembrary stared blankly at the pointed words, Daeju avoided his gaze and turned his head back forward, saying.

“Redrin kept telling me that the High Priest would come.”

“Did she? I thought it was hard to get in touch with her.”

“Not often. She told me whenever she had the capacity to control her power. But she just kept saying you were coming, and no matter how long I waited, you didn’t come.”

“But I came this time, didn’t I?”

“That’s right. It’s a relief. The problem is that she didn’t say you were coming this time.”

“Oops.”

What bad timing.

As I was clicking my tongue at Daeju’s gloomy appearance, Daeju added with a sigh.

“Is that all? Some people even appeared impersonating the High Priest, and I had a hard time.”

“Impersonators? Is it possible to impersonate me?”

“They use accomplices to fake healing abilities, fabricate eyewitness accounts, and most of the time, they cover their faces and subtly… someone with a similar lower face only reveals their chin.”

“No, what’s the benefit of impersonating me?”

“There were people who tried to approach President Shin and CEO Jang to scam them, some who did it as a joke, and some who tried to extort money from people.”

Rembrary was genuinely surprised.

It’s infuriating that scammers impersonated him, but the fact that impersonators could extort money by selling Rembrary’s name meant that his image had improved that much, didn’t it?

I’ve heard a few times that my image has improved, but I didn’t know it would be to this extent.

“No, what happened in the last two years that made my image, which had fallen to the bottom, go up again?”

“Didn’t the branch manager tell you?”

“Everyone just says that there were many things, but they don’t tell me what those many things are.”

“It’s really because many things overlapped. It’s not just one or two things, so it’s complicated to explain.”

“Tell me anyway. It’ll take time to get to headquarters.”

Daeju took out his phone and checked something for a moment. When I stretched my neck and looked, it looked like a calendar.

Muttering to himself for a while while looking at the calendar, Daeju finally put his phone back in and opened his mouth.

“The start was surprisingly from the Management Authority.”

“Moroso [Likely a typo, should be ‘Moros’]?”

“It wasn’t a statement released under Moros’s name. But Moros’s influence must have played a big role.”

“What did they say?”

* * *

It was the fifteenth day since Rembrary had left.

Daeju was blaming himself for the fact that he had missed Rembrary at the scene, and he was trying to find out where Rembrary was by calling and running around here and there.

But no matter where he went, he couldn’t find out where he was after receiving the cake from Woo Yeon-woo.

“Daeju, don’t blame yourself too much because it’s not your fault. He’s someone who can live well anywhere.”

“If I had been a proper support to the High Priest…”

“What can Daeju do to a person who does whatever he wants?”

Meng Woo-shin tried his best to comfort Daeju, but since he didn’t have a close relationship with Rembrary, his comfort was very light.

“He’ll be back at the right time. He won’t die somewhere because he can heal himself.”

“Woo-shin.”

“Yes, Daeju.”

“Get out.”

“!”

Daeju, who had sent Meng Woo-shin out, hesitated whether to contact Jang Tae-ri or Shin Jo-woon, but he stopped because he thought it would be a hindrance.

But Meng Woo-shin, who had gone out, returned in less than 30 seconds.

“Daeju, look at this!”

Then he held out a tablet in front of Daeju.

Daeju was annoyed and was about to tell him to go away, but he reflexively focused his mind on the blunt voice coming from the tablet.

The spokesperson of the Hunter Management Authority, who was famous for having no change in expression, was announcing the Hunter Management Authority’s position on this incident in his unique, sharp voice.

The Management Authority, which had been silent all along, finally opened its mouth. Daeju clenched his fist without realizing it.

-Although we did not announce it for fear of causing confusion among the people, the government was already aware and preparing for the fact that there were races similar to Earthlings mixed among the monsters coming to Earth. We were receiving cooperation from some of them, and we had already confirmed through several tests that they and Earthlings are the same human beings.

Daeju was surprised and slammed the table with his clenched fist.

To think that the Management Authority, which he thought would push everything to Rembrary and pretend not to know, would speak like that.

He had to listen to the rest of the position, but that alone was a relief for now.

It would have been a really big deal if the Management Authority had cut it off by saying, ‘The Cataclysm is all Rembrary and the otherworlders’ fault. We were just standing still and got backstabbed.’

But the more surprising statement was after that.

* * *

“They said that breaking through dimensions is something that humans can’t do, that they don’t know the exact reason why Rembrary falsely blamed himself, and that they are presuming it was due to psychological self-reproach.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Rembrary said that the Demon King threw him over here.”

“Threw him?”

It was the right thing to say, but Rembrary frowned because he didn’t like the expression.

Daeju smiled faintly.

“The expression was a bit off, but it was still a helpful story for our side.”

“Did people believe it?”

“Of course not. There were a lot of stories about it being nonsense when it was announced.”

“Nonsense!”

“Yes. There were even all sorts of stories that the Hunter Management Authority was holding hands with our side and defending the otherworlders, and that the upper echelons were already all infiltrated by otherworlders.”

Rembrary was puzzled. If that was the case, wasn’t the Hunter Management Authority’s announcement not helpful but only worsening the situation?

He was grateful, but it didn’t seem to be the reason why his image had improved.

But Daeju was about to say more, but suddenly frowned as if something had come to mind, and coldly asked Ardor.

“I’ve been wondering too. Ardor, where have you been all this time, and why did you suddenly appear as soon as the High Priest appeared?”

Didn’t they know each other’s whereabouts? Besides, what happened, there seemed to be a subtle anger in Daeju’s voice when he asked.

Rembrary looked at Ardor, who was sitting quietly next to him.