Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 686

“Side effects? What are you talking about?”

Rembrary, with Hwasa’s help, went straight to Grand Master and asked.

Grand Master was sitting at his desk and put down his phone. Despite arriving as soon as Rembrary asked him to come, he remained calm.

“Didn’t High Priest heal those who were in critical condition and their families two days ago?”

“He did.”

“Those people…….”

Grand Master stopped talking, shook his head, and stood up.

“It’s better to see for yourself.”

Rembrary, Hwasa, and Ardor followed Grand Master into the elevator and down to the third floor.

Rembrary wondered why Grand Master had called him.

Grand Master had already heard about the side effects of the treatment.

He had followed the patients during their treatment and witnessed it firsthand. So why was he being called in two days later for an ‘urgent matter’?

As they walked down the hallway on the third floor, they could hear a commotion coming from inside one of the rooms.

It was a room with a thick, large door, and even with the door tightly closed, the sound of several people shouting at the same time could be heard in the hallway.

Rembrary looked at the room with a suspicious gaze. Grand Master seemed to be heading that way.

Could the people Grand Master said it would be ‘better to see for yourself’ be all in there?

“It’s in there.”

As soon as Rembrary became suspicious, Grand Master informed him as if answering his question.

Grand Master approached the thick door, took a deep breath, and opened it.

Rembrary peered into the room over Grand Master’s shoulder.

Dozens of people were gathered in a large, tiered auditorium, shouting towards the front.

Even with the door open, no one turned around because they were too busy shouting.

“Let us see Rembrary’s face!”

“Why can’t we thank Rembrary?”

“Show us that Rembrary is safe!”

“Rembrary used to come to the gatherings!”

“We want to express this feeling to Rembrary!”

Rembrary’s eyes widened as he listened to their shouts, and he looked at Grand Master.

Grand Master closed the door again and sighed heavily.

“Yesterday, they rushed over to see High Priest, and today they’ve been here since dawn doing this. They’re not here to protest; they’re just here because they like him, so it’s hard to handle. It’s awkward to kick them out.”

Hwasa looked at Ardor in disgust.

The way they were shouting that they wanted to see Rembrary looked like Ardor’s divided selves, but much milder.

However, Ardor seemed indifferent even though there were more people like him.

He wasn’t surprised, but he didn’t seem to like it either.

Hwasa suspected it might be something like self-loathing.

On the other hand, Rembrary was only briefly surprised at first. He quickly calmed down and even comforted Grand Master.

“If they want to see me that much, I can just say hello. Don’t worry too much.”

Grand Master recalled news footage of a famous celebrity appearing and a crowd of people gathering to see them, and immediately objected.

“Say hello? That’s dangerous.”

Even if 50 people gathering around Rembrary wouldn’t create the scene Grand Master imagined, he wouldn’t just treat 50 people and stop.

He might end up treating thousands more, and he couldn’t show his face and greet all of them. That’s what Grand Master thought.

“That’s how it always was in my world.”

But Rembrary was used to crowds gathering to see him, so he spoke calmly and reopened the door that Grand Master had closed.

The people were still shouting at the staff on the platform, not caring who was opening and closing the door behind them.

“Let us see Rembrary!”

“Why are you blocking us from seeing Rembrary!”

Grand Master was once again disgusted, even though he had seen it just a moment ago and when he first checked.

Most of the Earth-born believers believed in Redrin, but there was something awkward about their faith that wasn’t pure faith.

The same was true for those who sincerely believed in and followed Redrin.

The Earth-born believers seemed to regard Redrin as a god of healing or a god of health. There were fewer who cheered so enthusiastically.

So, when these people were making such a fuss, demanding to see Rembrary’s face even once, Grand Master couldn’t help but worry about this side effect being too noisy.

However, Rembrary calmly walked towards the center of the back row of the auditorium.

As he moved, some people turned their heads and finally began to recognize Rembrary.

Before they could exclaim, ‘Rembrary!’, Rembrary turned on his halo first.

“!”

Then, with his arms outstretched and his chin raised, those who felt the bright light pouring from behind staggered in surprise.

“I have come!”

When Rembrary spoke gently, the 50 believers who had been staggering simultaneously exclaimed, “Ah!”

Grand Master had worried that they would swarm like zombies, but unexpectedly, the believers abandoned their previous frenzy and knelt down.

“Rembrary!”

“Ah, Rembrary!”

“Your face is shining!”

As Rembrary raised his chin further, his forehead became almost parallel to the ceiling.

Hwasa thought he should lower it by another 20 degrees, but the 50 believers seemed happy just seeing Rembrary’s chin and neck, and shouted even louder, “Ahhh! Rembrary!”

“Now that I have come, there is no need to be noisy. Just look at me and feel Redrin within me.”

“Rembrary! Redrin!”

Hwasa was horrified by the sight of 50 people calling out the name of a strange god in unison. It wasn’t a good kind of horror.

Rembrary was from another world, so it was understandable, but how could Grand Master be the leader among such people?

Hwasa was so horrified that he eventually turned his head to look at Grand Master, finding him strangely fascinating.

However, Grand Master also had a similar expression to Hwasa.

After checking Ardor’s expression as well, Hwasa concluded that it was indeed self-loathing.

‘Earth-born pseudo-believers dislike Earth-born pseudo-believers, and fanatics dislike fanatics!’

* * *

Several days passed since then, and more burdensome believers were produced.

Since those who had been treated were still existing believers and Rembrary was skillfully appeasing them all, the news about this side effect did not leak out and become a major topic.

Rembrary had mentioned the side effects at the press conference, but people didn’t seem to think the side effects were at this level.

However, even after several days, the side effects did not disappear, and the number of enthusiastic believers participating in the gatherings only increased, so Grand Master began to worry.

Many places were already requesting Rembrary’s help.

He was currently rejecting all requests with various excuses, but for the sake of Redrin as a whole, it would be good to accept some of them.

Besides, Rembrary had already promised at the press conference to heal those who had been harmed by the jellyfish hunters. He had to keep that promise soon.

But if all those patients were to praise Redrin and Rembrary together…….

“Hoo.”

Grand Master sighed heavily and shook his head.

Meng Woo-shin, who was drinking coffee next to him, asked at the sound of the heavy sigh.

“Why are you sighing?”

The fragrant coffee scent, which did not match Grand Master’s inner thoughts at all, spread throughout the room.

“Grand Master, would you like a cup too?”

Grand Master looked at Meng Woo-shin, who was patting the espresso machine as if it were admirable, and sighed again.

Meng Woo-shin noticed that Grand Master didn’t have the leisure to drink a cup of coffee and asked.

“What’s wrong? Do you have any concerns?”

“It’s because of the side effects of High Priest’s treatment.”

“Ah, the side effect that turns even lukewarm believers into enthusiastic ones?”

“Yes.”

Meng Woo-shin raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t understand why Grand Master was so worried.

“Is that a side effect worth sighing about?”

“Don’t you think so?”

“It’s burdensome, but so what? Anyway, they sincerely believe in Redrin, so wouldn’t that be helpful?”

“It would be more helpful than you, who only calls Redrin’s name when you call on him.”

Meng Woo-shin felt offended by the unnecessary attempt to comfort him and closed his mouth.

Grand Master, feeling a headache coming on, sat down on a nearby round chair and explained.

“The way they become more friendly to us every time they receive treatment makes it seem like we’re using some kind of trick, rather than a side effect, which is why I’m doing this.”

“If we were using a trick, wouldn’t the side effects be a little more natural than what’s happening now?”

“Would those who are nitpicking even consider that?”

“I guess not. They’d probably pretend not to know about such things. But wouldn’t those who aren’t deliberately nitpicking think about such things to some extent?”

“I’m also worried that the side effects look a little… like drugs.”

* * *

Unlike Grand Master, who was worried about the side effects of the healing ability, Rembrary was more interested in other things.

One was the black cloud phenomenon. The black cloud phenomenon had not appeared even once since he returned.

Realizing this, Rembrary was amazed and searched for information about the black clouds, finding that it had been two years since the black cloud phenomenon had appeared.

―The black cloud phenomenon didn’t appear as soon as Rembrary sealed the demon realm and disappeared. So isn’t this thanks to Rembrary?

―The frequency had been decreasing before that. If you look at the exact dates, the black cloud phenomenon disappeared before Rembrary disappeared.

ㄴAs you said, the frequency decreased. But isn’t it true that the black clouds haven’t appeared since Rembrary disappeared, even though it’s about time for them to appear?

ㄴDidn’t the expert say there’s no evidence that Rembrary’s disappearance is related to the black cloud phenomenon?

ㄴㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Isn’t Rembrary the expert on such strange phenomena?ㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴNo one has explained why the black cloud phenomenon occurred = there is no expert on the black cloud phenomenon

―If you look at it that way, you could say that Rembrary was the culprit and the black clouds disappeared after he disappeared

ㄴIt’s twisted…

ㄴIt wouldn’t be easy to be this negative

‘It’s not treated as an established theory, but since the timing is right, has it been helpful to us?’

Rembrary thought after watching people talk about the black cloud phenomenon a little.

‘This must be one of the reasons why our image has improved.’

In any case, the disappearance of the black cloud phenomenon seemed to have played a major role in the rapid recovery and increased road traffic in the past two years.

If the systematized hunters are going around and dealing with dangerous Awakened and monsters, then there’s no chance of being hit by a sword suddenly falling from the sky while walking down the street.

However, Rembrary’s interest in the black cloud phenomenon had been brief in the past few days.

Just as Grand Master was constantly worried about the side effects, the part that Rembrary was focusing on during this period was the answer that Sagamjae would receive from Yeomra [King of the Underworld in Korean mythology].

Even the attempt to appease Shin Jo-woon was postponed as Shin Jo-woon himself and the Worldboom executive-level hunters went abroad to escort the summit.

‘Why haven’t I heard from him? Did Lord Yeomra tell him not to tell me?’

Then one day. Finally, Sagamjae contacted him.