Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 883

◈ 883. Rembrary’s Invitation (3)

Taeri was asking for my help. Rembrary stepped forward as Jang Taeri looked at him.

“Just a moment.”

Originally, Ardor, the lower priest, should handle these minor troubles.

However, since his friends had come all the way to this other world, he, the high priest, intended to personally step up and show his responsibility.

“Now, children of Kamuel.”

As Rembrary stepped forward and spoke softly, the approaching soldiers paused. Rembrary smiled majestically and extended his hand.

“First, pick up the identification tags.”

Rembrary was stepping in. Jang Taeri felt relieved at his confident attitude.

“Are you crazy?”

However, the soldier did not follow the order. Instead, he put shackles on Rembrary’s outstretched hand.

Rembrary’s eyes widened, and Jang Taeri’s jaw dropped.

‘He’s just stepping in, not helping at all!’

Jang Taeri looked back and forth between Rembrary and the soldiers in confusion, but by then, another soldier was putting shackles on her wrist as well.

‘No, wait a minute! Is the first thing I do in this other world getting handcuffed?!’

Jang Taeri was horrified and looked at Ardor. He’s annoying usually, but a mad dog might be most effective in this situation.

“Rembrary-nim [term of respect] looks good in anything. Rembrary-nim in shackles. Actually, Rembrary-nim, I brought a Polaroid camera.”

That wasn’t it. It wasn’t effective at all. Ardor’s eyes were not right in the head.

‘Don’t take pictures, save your superior, you crazy priest!’

While Jang Taeri was cursing inwardly, Ardor was taking out a camera from his bag and got shackled.

Even Shin Jo-woon obediently put on the shackles and was just marveling at them, so Jang Taeri looked at Rembrary and asked urgently.

“Rembrary-ssi [term of address], are we okay? Is this okay? Are we going to prison like this?”

Rembrary looked around at the soldiers, tilted his head, and when he made eye contact with Jang Taeri, he told her.

“Prison is ‘prison’.”

“I know that!”

“I just remembered, Taeri-ssi. I’ve almost forgotten English.”

“Do you have to talk about your recent situation now?”

What does that have to do with this situation? Jang Taeri wanted to say more, but the others were too quiet.

Everyone who had enough power to resolve this situation by force was obediently following the soldiers, so Jang Taeri’s embarrassment gradually subsided.

They must have something in mind. Yes, they must have something in mind. Anyway, there are rules in this world, so Rembrary-ssi is following them obediently.

Jang Taeri suppressed her rising distrust and obediently moved with the group as the soldiers led them.

* * *

The group arrived at a temporary prison. The soldiers pushed all four of them into one cell on the first floor, locked the door, and left.

Once the four of them were alone, Rembrary looked at Shin Jo-woon with curiosity.

“Melchi, why are you so quiet? I thought you would be the first to go wild.”

“I was under the illusion that the pig had something in mind. I was wrong.”

“Ah, I was thinking about it.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Prison is ‘prison’.”

Shin Jo-woon stared intently at the shackles on his hands. He seemed to be contemplating whether to make the shackles out of ice and break them.

Jang Taeri sat down on the relatively clean floor and asked Rembrary.

“What the heck is going on? Rembrary-ssi, did you forge your identification pass?”

“Of course not.”

Rembrary said firmly, but in fact, he didn’t know anything. Rembrary looked at Ardor.

“It’s real, right?”

Ardor quickly nodded.

“Yes, High Priest. It’s real.”

Jang Taeri was dumbfounded and let out a hollow laugh.

“So, even after seeing the High Priest’s ID, those people arrested us? Is Rembrary-ssi’s ID from another country so it doesn’t apply here?”

Ardor snorted and corrected her.

“You can’t show the High Priest’s ID in a place like this. The IDs we submitted were those of high-ranking priests from the Redrin Temple.”

“Then it’s a forgery, isn’t it?”

Jang Taeri shouted in embarrassment.

Rembrary knocked on the iron bars with his shackles, making a metallic sound, and then interjected.

“Taeri-ssi, the identification pass itself is real. It’s just not ours.”

“That’s also a forgery…”

“But only we know it’s a forgery. They can’t tell it’s a forgery just by looking at the ID.”

Jang Taeri reluctantly nodded.

“That’s true.”

Jang Taeri wondered if there were computers and the internet here, but after recalling how Rembrary handled complex electronic devices, she concluded that there weren’t.

Besides, there must be a way to carefully check the identification pass here, but the soldier only glanced at it with his eyes earlier.

Even so, he shouted that it was fake and told them to arrest the group. There was definitely something strange.

“Why did they arrest us without any reason?”

Rembrary knocked on the iron bars again, and after confirming that the soldiers wouldn’t come even with some noise, he walked to the center of the prison.

“Melchi, Ardor, Taeri-ssi. Come here.”

When he called the group, the three gathered around Rembrary.

Once the four of them sat in a circle, Rembrary brought up the story he had been thinking about.

“Actually, I heard that the state of the Kamuel Temple has deteriorated since Moroso left. I heard the situation was complicated. But after experiencing it directly, it really seems to be in bad shape.”

“Is that why you quietly followed them all the way to prison?”

Jang Taeri pointed out the part she had been wondering about all along.

“That’s right.”

Rembrary nodded. Ardor nodded along without thinking.

“Me too, Rembrary-nim.”

Shin Jo-woon asked in confusion.

“Hey, Pig. A stable passage has been created that even non-believers like me and Taeri can pass through, right? Then Moroso can come and go between Earth and here like you, right? But the situation is complicated because Moroso is gone?”

“The passage hasn’t been open for long, Melchi. So Moroso hasn’t been able to return here yet.”

Jang Taeri tapped her legs with her shackled hands.

“Ah! Why are you telling me this now? If you had told me earlier, it would have been nice if Moroso could have come with us this time.”

“Moroso has probably already heard about the passage. He will come if he needs to.”

Rembrary briefly cut off the topic of Moroso and looked around at the group again, suggesting.

“Anyway, the situation here seems worse than what I was told. Since we’re in prison anyway, how about we see how far the situation has deteriorated before we leave?”

Shin Jo-woon looked suspicious.

“Why specifically with us?”

“I made a promise with Moroso. Moroso takes care of the Redrin-nim believers on Earth, and I take care of the Kamuel-nim believers here.”

‘So. Why specifically when we’re with you?’

Jang Taeri and Shin Jo-woon thought inwardly, but Ardor blindly agreed with Rembrary’s words.

“You are wise, Rembrary-nim.”

Shin Jo-woon and Jang Taeri couldn’t answer right away and looked at each other.

The travel plans they had prepared generously flashed through their minds at the same time. One month. Can we really go back within a month?

* * *

Honestly, Jang Taeri didn’t want to be in someone else’s country, even a prison in someone else’s country in another world, for even five minutes.

But even if she wanted to go back, she couldn’t remember the way back, and even if she wanted to go to the Redrin Temple first, she didn’t know how to get there.

Due to these realistic reasons, Jang Taeri had to stay in prison with them.

“I bought Rembrary-ssi a lot of delicious food and took him to fun places. Rembrary-ssi invited me and brought me to prison.”

“?”

“I never thought I would go to a prison in another world that I’ve never been to in our world…”

Rembrary gave her good words to cheer Jang Taeri up, who was too depressed.

“Taeri-ssi, but it’s spring, so it’s not cold or hot, right?”

Shin Jo-woon burst out laughing at Jang Taeri’s dumbfounded expression, but when Jang Taeri glared at him, he pretended to zip his mouth shut.

How long had they been waiting? It was when the group, who hadn’t slept properly for several days, fell asleep leaning against the wall.

The sound of the door opening with a thud woke them. Jang Taeri was surprised and raised her head.

A long light appeared and disappeared in the hallway connected to the prison entrance. Someone had come inside.

The person who came in was someone with a crude mask covering their face, but Jang Taeri immediately recognized that the person was the soldier who had ordered them to be arrested.

‘Why is he wearing a mask?’

Jang Taeri looked at the soldier suspiciously.

Whether he came to take them out of prison or not, if he came for ordinary reasons, there was no need for the soldier to wear a mask.

I don’t know why he’s doing that, but let’s pretend we don’t know. Jang Taeri deliberately took her eyes off the criminal’s face.

“Aren’t you that soldier?”

But there were four mouths here.

‘Rembrary-ssi!’

Jang Taeri was horrified and looked at Rembrary.

However, the soldier’s mouth, revealed below the mask, was distorted as soon as Rembrary recognized him.

Rembrary asked, regardless.

“Why did you come here like that?”

The soldier snorted, threw off the mask, and looked at the four people in the prison, saying.

“Are you guys high-ranking priests from the Redrin Temple?”

As Rembrary claimed, it didn’t seem like they were arrested because he recognized that the identification pass was a forgery.

“That’s right.”

When Rembrary answered, the soldier said in a sarcastic tone.

“Then you must have some money? I heard that the High Priest has returned to the Redrin Temple and it’s becoming stable again these days.”

“Is that the rumor?”

“Yes. So, rich Redrin priests, if you want to pass through here safely, pay up.”

At the soldier’s request, Rembrary realized what was happening here and clicked his tongue. He’s forcibly extorting money even after confirming the identification pass.

Moreover, judging by his confident attitude, it didn’t seem like this was the first time he was doing this. Rembrary recalled that point and asked.

“What’s the going rate?”

At Rembrary’s question, the soldier, who had been acting cocky all along, showed a slightly embarrassed look for the first time.

“The going rate for… heads.”

When Rembrary pressed for clarification, the soldier looked even more embarrassed, glanced at the group, and then stopped at Ardor’s face. The soldier’s eyes widened.

“What? You guys aren’t priests. Are you guys really ID forgers?”

The soldier, who was trying to extort money from real priests, didn’t seem to want to send away criminals, so he hesitated and tried to back away and leave the prison.

If he had imprisoned them as a taste to extort money until now, now he was about to do something in earnest.

“I’ll give you money!”

Jang Taeri, who didn’t want to be in prison any longer, urgently called the soldier. When the soldier paused, Jang Taeri said urgently.

“I’ll give you money. And we’re not forgers.”

The soldier looked back and forth between Jang Taeri’s face and Ardor’s face. He seemed to be struggling between a trustworthy impression and an untrustworthy impression.

Fortunately, the soldier checked Shin Jo-woon and Rembrary’s faces and regained his trust, approached the prison bars, and demanded.

“Give it to me.”

But when she actually tried to take out the money, Jang Taeri was faced with a difficult situation. She had a lot of money on Earth, but the money from Earth couldn’t be used here.

Cards wouldn’t work either, of course. Jang Taeri sympathized with how difficult it must have been for Rembrary to come to an unfamiliar world for the first time.

“Hey. Why are you saying you’ll give me money and then not saying anything? There’s a bag next to you!”

The soldier, who was tired of waiting, shouted, but the bag only contained Earth’s money.

Jang Taeri and Shin Jo-woon looked at Rembrary almost simultaneously. They didn’t have currency that could be used here.

But wouldn’t Rembrary, who was a great figure here, be different?

However, Rembrary had no intention of leaving after seeing only this far. Rembrary drew a firm line.

“I have money. But I’m not going to give it to you.”

The soldier’s face became fierce.

“What?”

“So proceed to the next step. What are you going to do next? Show me.”

The soldier was about to swear. But at Rembrary’s request, he suddenly had a strange thought.

Why is he so confident? Is it a sting operation? The fact that the other person was smiling gently even in this situation made him even more uneasy.

At that time, a very famous high priest with the name Rembrary came to the soldier’s mind.

No way. It can’t be. There’s no way such a great and wonderful person would be here. Even as he repeatedly denied it inwardly, the soldier’s face turned blue.