Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 698

Everyone fell silent. Hwasa looked at Ardor, who in turn looked at Hwasa, their eyes darting back and forth.

Their lips seemed glued together, unable to part.

Neither Ardor nor Hwasa had even considered the possibility of Rembrary failing the document screening, leaving them speechless and bewildered.

After a long pause, Ardor finally asked,

“Why?”

Even as he asked, his eyes darted nervously, as if he were mentally running simulations to prepare a response to Rembrary’s answer.

Rembrary simply shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

Of course, Rembrary had no idea why he had been rejected. He hadn’t even imagined it.

Hwasa worried that Rembrary might be discouraged and bit her lip anxiously. But when she heard him mutter, “Did they exclude me because I’m too outstanding?” she spat out her lip and retorted gruffly,

“Are you stupid? They’re trying to pick someone outstanding, why would they exclude you for being outstanding?”

She then cautiously glanced at Ardor, but thankfully, Ardor seemed lost in his own thoughts and hadn’t heard Hwasa’s words.

Hwasa breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Rembrary.

Rembrary, for his part, wasn’t paying any attention to Hwasa’s words. He was already calling Shin Jo-woon.

Hwasa felt a second wave of relief and decided to quietly shut her mouth.

While Hwasa was riding her own internal waves, Rembrary quickly and accurately summarized the situation to Shin Jo-woon as soon as he answered the phone.

“I can’t participate in the High-End Hunter selection, Sardine. They didn’t even accept my application because I’m too outstanding.”

‘No, you can’t be rejected for that reason,’ Hwasa thought to herself, but Rembrary spoke as if he had seen the reason for his rejection posted in an official announcement.

In fact, Rembrary was convinced that he had been rejected because he was too exceptional.

If not for this reason, it would be absurd for someone as amazing as himself to fail the initial document screening.

Or perhaps the person reviewing the documents was jealous of him. In any case, he was certain that the root cause was his own greatness.

[That’s unlikely.]

However, Shin Jo-woon immediately refuted Rembrary’s opinion, saying, “Hold on,” and then hung up.

Hwasa, who overheard the conversation, felt a sense of peace.

About ten minutes later, Shin Jo-woon called back and informed Rembrary of the reason for his rejection.

[They said you were rejected because you don’t have a Hunter’s license.]

Rembrary was dumbfounded and asked,

“What? For such a trivial reason?”

[In some ways, it’s the most important reason.]

“Still, if it’s that important, they shouldn’t have even suggested that I apply in the first place.”

Rembrary was dumbfounded by the perfunctory nature of the process.

To think they’re augmenting the High-End Hunters with such a haphazard approach!

[That’s true.]

Shin Jo-woon replied nonchalantly and then hung up after telling him to do nothing for a while and that he would contact him again later.

That ‘while’ was another ten minutes or so, and Rembrary soon received good news.

[The Association President said he’s going to create a list of ‘candidates recommended by the Association’ and send it to each country. Your name will be on that list.]

“So, that solves the problem?”

[Yeah. Details will be announced later, so keep checking.]

Because Rembrary had the call volume turned up all the way, Hwasa, who was sensitive to sound, could hear almost everything Shin Jo-woon said.

‘Isn’t that corruption?’

Hwasa thought to herself but decided to keep her mouth shut for now.

* * *

As Shin Jo-woon had said, about three hours later, a text message arrived from the Hunter Management Bureau.

The cramped text filled several pages, making it difficult to read, but the content was simple to summarize:

1) The Association President has recommended individuals who are suitable to be High-End Hunter candidates, and Mr. Rembrary is included. If you wish to participate, please reply within 24 hours.

2) Recommended individuals must also participate in the preliminaries. However, they will have a separate preliminary round on the last day.

For Rembrary, there was no need to think about the first item.

He had no intention of going all the way to the second round and living as a High-End Hunter, but he had to go to the first round to meet Black Lynn for sure.

Rembrary immediately sent a text message indicating his participation.

[Participate>ㅅ<] The Hunter in charge of the response rubbed his eyes several times after seeing the reply, wondering if it had been sent in error, but Rembrary had no way of knowing that, so he immediately turned his attention away from the first item and focused on the second, more concerning item. "Separate on the last day?" As soon as Rembrary muttered, Ardor, who had been waiting for the right moment to speak, immediately jumped in and asked, "What is it, Your Holiness?" Rembrary said without taking his eyes off his phone, "It seems it will be difficult for me to meet Black Lynn in the preliminaries." "Excuse me? Why is that?" "They said that people who are participating by recommendation have to compete separately among themselves on the last day. But I doubt the Association President recommended Black Lynn." "I see. But don't worry, Your Holiness! The Lion and I may be able to meet them in the preliminaries. We'll keep a close eye out, and if we see any bastards like Black Lynn, we'll put a bullet in their heads—no, I mean, we'll keep a close watch on them." Upon hearing Ardor's trustworthy words, Rembrary's distrust surged anew, and he looked at Hwasa. Hwasa, who had been knitting while watching TV, replied casually when she caught his gaze. "Yeah, yeah, me too. I'll look for them. If I have time." However, he didn't have faith in her either, in the opposite sense of Ardor. It would be most reliable if Tae-ri could go. Rembrary sighed and carefully read the announcement again. * * * As the date of the Korean preliminaries approached, the participants worked hard on their final training. High-End Hunters had no official duties, but they were individuals with worldwide fame. Becoming this rank didn't automatically come with money, but using that fame, they could earn money efficiently no matter what they did. Once they became High-End Hunters, even if they started a small Hunter company, people would praise them as an elite few and rush to commission them. What a wonderful life! It was worth the effort for people to work hard. At the forefront of this realistic and calculating ideology, Hwasa also displayed a rare burst of motivation. On the other hand, Rembrary didn't train at all and only focused on healing people. However, despite his seemingly easy exterior, Rembrary's inner thoughts were not at peace. 'Hasn't the demonization been resolved yet?' He had tried to talk to Redrin about this, but he only felt a few crackling sensations and still couldn't contact her directly. 'It's becoming increasingly clear that people are opening their hearts. Why isn't it working? If I heal even more people and cause more people to suffer from side effects, will Redrin's demonization stop?' Even as he healed people, Rembrary was constantly lost in such thoughts. But the busiest people were not Rembrary or the participants, but the Hunter Management Bureau employees who were managing the Korean preliminaries. In particular, the hunters on Bella Team, who were in charge of the preliminaries, found it increasingly difficult to go home after work due to the tight schedule of this suddenly assigned event. Moreover, these hunters were all strong individuals who had become hunters. Most of them were not accustomed to desk work. As a result, the hunters were going crazy from the sudden overload of desk work, and the non-awakened general employees working with these hunters were going crazy because of them. The non-awakened general employees, who had entered the company through exams, had to suppress their frustration with the clumsy hunters and shout inwardly, 'You idiots!' dozens of times a day. And two days before the preliminaries. Unable to endure it any longer, they suddenly decided to relieve their annoyance and frustration from the increased workload by placing bets. "Alright, come here!" The team leader, upon hearing about the betting, became the most excited and even took the lead in organizing the bets. As the employees approached on their wheeled chairs in response to the team leader's call, the team leader, as usual, explained the betting method to the team members once more. "You all heard about the rules earlier, right? If anyone didn't hear, listen now! The preliminaries will be held for four days. For the first three days, we'll pick five people each day, and only on the fourth day, when the recommended individuals compete, will we pick three people, right? So, on the paper I'm handing out, write the names of the people you think will be selected in order in each box. You all have the list, right? The person who guesses the most correctly wins." The rules were not complicated, so no one asked to have them explained again. The employees quickly returned to their seats after the team leader handed out the papers and began to check the related videos and evaluations of each participating hunter. About 30 minutes later. The employees wrote their names at the right end, filled the boxes with the names of those they thought would be selected, and submitted the papers to the youngest member, who was collecting them. As the youngest member collected the papers and brought them over, the deputy team leader excitedly scanned through them. Then, the deputy team leader discovered a surprising fact and widened his eyes. "Oh. What's this? Why does Rembrary have so few votes?" The team leader took about half of the papers and shuffled through them, asking, "Why are you surprised? I didn't write Rembrary either." The deputy team leader looked at the team leader in bewilderment. "Oh, really? Why not?" The deputy team leader had naturally voted for Rembrary and assumed that everyone else had written Rembrary's name as well. Even those who were participating in the bet with a 'do or die' attitude would have written Rembrary's name. Who was Rembrary? Regardless of differing opinions on his personality or role, wasn't he the 'person who sealed the Demon Realm' that everyone knew? Officially, he was the 'world's only healer,' but those in the know were aware that Rembrary also possessed outstanding combat abilities. Yet, Rembrary's name was hardly written down, and even the discerning team leader had omitted Rembrary's name, leaving the deputy team leader utterly puzzled. "Did you exclude him because it's too easy?" The team leader looked at the deputy team leader's naive appearance as if it were strange and began to laugh heartily. After a long while, he finally asked, "Did you perhaps not check the preliminary rules?" The deputy team leader blinked blankly and asked, "Huh? Isn't it just competing against each other?" He hadn't checked in detail, but he had clearly heard that the preliminaries were in a 1:1 battle format, and the first main round would assess their ability to fight monsters. The second main round was directly supervised by the World Hunter Association, and since all the hunters from each country would gather to compete, it was impossible to know any information, but the preliminaries were definitely in a 1:1 battle format. And wasn't Rembrary the person who had fought and defeated the Demon King alone? Wouldn't the only people who could defeat Rembrary in a 1:1 battle be at least the current High-End ranked hunters? However, the team leader's gaze made the deputy team leader uneasy. Moreover, whether it was a misunderstanding or not, it seemed that the youngest member had laughed while passing by, saying, "Oh, dear." The deputy team leader also gradually felt a sense of foreboding. "Tsk, tsk." The team leader shook his head and sighed. "That's why information is important." "Yes?" The team leader gave the deputy team leader a meaningful look and took out a piece of paper from his drawer and handed it over. "Take a look. Those are the preliminary rules." The deputy team leader quickly took the paper and examined it, his eyes widening. "That's absurd! It's like they're deliberately trying to eliminate Rembrary!"