Attending the Assembly
It was the day after Chuseok, Korea's autumn harvest festival.
Rembrary stood before the refrigerator, smiling contentedly to himself. Unlike the day before the holiday, today he felt warm and gratified—thanks to the food packed tight into every corner of the fridge.
Meeting those two yesterday really was the right call. Even if they had grumbled about their visit overlapping with Hwan-shin's. Rembrary thought, once again, that meeting the two of them had been well worth it. With the fridge this full, even being alone didn't feel particularly lonely.
He spooned a few dishes onto a plate, set it on the table, and sat down. He was in high spirits, right in the middle of eating, when the phone he'd set beside his plate went off with a long, raucous buzz.
Rembrary tapped the screen and, eating with one hand, checked the message with the other. Hm? Daeju?
Unexpectedly, the sender was Daeju. The Daeju who claimed to be busy. The very Daeju who, before this, had done nothing but tell him not to come. Is he summoning me? Rembrary frowned and read the message through... He is indeed asking me to come. Caught off guard by the unexpected proposal, he found himself at a loss.
So Daeju was inviting him to a gathering for the god Redrin. Equal parts dumbfounded and intrigued, Rembrary decided the food came first. Only after he'd filled himself about halfway did he check Daeju's message again and send a reply.
Who asks a question without knowing what it means... Rembrary muttered inwardly and typed again. The difference between headquarters and a branch, perhaps.
Rembrary finished another five minutes of his meal, turned the matter over in his mind, and sent his answer. He did want to see the people who served the god Redrin in this world—and he was curious how Daeju had restored the procedures of a temple from an entirely different world.
Save your honeyed words. He had already learned from Sa Gam-jae how to read the hidden meanings between the lines of human texts! Still, for now, being invited to come first, coming was surely the right call.
Rembrary stared blankly at his phone for a long moment, then checked the clock. It was ten o'clock.
Freshly washed and dressed in a beige knit and black pants, Rembrary hurried out the door. In the very spot where Hwan-shin had parked his car yesterday, Maeng Woo-shin was now waiting, car parked and engine idling. The difference, this time, was that Maeng Woo-shin's face was full of displeasure.
"Fix your face, sunbae."
As Rembrary offered this advice while climbing into the passenger seat, Maeng Woo-shin's expression only crumpled further.
"Idol. You never got your license?"
"I've never driven a carriage before."
"What are you even saying? I've never driven a carriage either."
Rembrary gave up on explaining and, buckling his seatbelt, asked instead, "May I post on social media that I'm going out to play with you, sunbae?"
Maeng Woo-shin's brow creased, but he allowed it. "Do as you like."
At first, Maeng Woo-shin had taken Rembrary for a rude creature who spoke however he pleased, but his assessment was gradually shifting in a positive direction. Plenty of people still found Woo Yeon-woo insufferable—whereas they used to shudder and gnash their teeth over how insufferable he was, these days they could say it with a trace of amusement tucked into the words. And with Yeon-woo's name value as high as it was, showing off a friendship openly could hardly hurt. If anything, flaunting the friendship this openly was a fine way to shake off the strange rumors that had circulated in the early days of filming Dear God.
He had just posted it and was still hesitating over whether to upload a photo too, when Maeng Woo-shin, who had been driving in silence, grumbled, "I don't much care for the person receiving the 'Wish' this time."
Rembrary, who had been typing a reply to Sunwoo Sil—What about me?—turned his head. "Sorry, what?"
"The person receiving the Wish."
"What's that?"
"The one receiving the Angel's Wish."
"That's what I'm asking you. What is it?"
"You don't know?"
"What do you think I've been asking you this whole time?"
"Lord Daeju never told you?"
When Rembrary arched an eyebrow, Maeng Woo-shin made much the same face in reply. Yeon-woo hadn't entered through any formal procedure, but Daeju treated him quite favorably all the same. The two had spoken alone together, and Daeju had even given direct orders to look after him well. Naturally, Maeng Woo-shin had assumed Yeon-woo knew a little more about Daeju than most people did. Apparently not.
"Sunbae? I'm asking what it is."
Rembrary pressed again, but Maeng Woo-shin hesitated, unsure whether he was permitted to answer. Lord Daeju didn't tell him, so am I allowed to? But judging that if it were meant to be hidden, the man wouldn't have been invited here at all, he finally answered.
"The miracle Lord Daeju performs."
"A miracle?"
"Once a month, he picks one of the believers and grants their wish."
"Daeju does?"
"What is Lord Daeju, your friend?"
A subordinate. In my original world, that is. Rembrary dodged the question, and Maeng Woo-shin clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"Why on earth does Lord Daeju bother with you... Ah, right, you have the 'Eyes,' don't you."
Whatever Maeng Woo-shin grumbled, Rembrary was seriously analyzing this thing called the Angel's Wish. A miracle, so it must be a form of divine power.
Divine power came in many varieties. The kind Rembrary used was, if one insisted on describing it, divine power diluted only slightly—divine power at very nearly full concentration. He had been hailed as the greatest wielder of divine power in history, and the praise had not been idle. Thanks to that, Rembrary could shape his divine power into any number of forms as the need arose. Other priests, by contrast, received their divine power in processed, ready-made forms, and as a result all manner of bizarre shapes emerged. Which was why some priests, despite wielding weaker power, were venerated even more than their stronger brethren—their gifts were more practical, or simply more spectacular to look at.
Rembrary concluded that Daeju's ability belonged to the wish-granting category. Powers of that sort came burdened with limitations, but they sat comfortably among the better kind. Above all, they were optimized for drawing in believers. Redrin had left traces of painstaking deliberation everywhere—she had only the one priest in this world, after all.
Meanwhile, Maeng Woo-shin pulled into the parking garage of a building and shut off the engine. As Rembrary moved to get out, Maeng Woo-shin stopped him with a "Hold on," reached into the back seat, and pulled two envelopes forward.
"What are those?"
Maeng Woo-shin handed him one of the envelopes. "Put it on."
"This?"
So it was clothing, then. Rembrary drew the contents out and laid them across his lap. Sure enough, it was clothing—not a top and bottom, but a loose, ample cloak. White, trimmed in gold. And that wasn't all. Inside the envelope lay a mask of gold metal as well, shaped to come down over the nose—the kind of mask that made a person look tremendously suspicious and dangerous, while hiding their identity beyond any doubt.
"I'm supposed to wear this there?"
Turning his head as he asked, he found Maeng Woo-shin already shrugging off his thin coat and draping a cloak over his shoulders. Apparently, then.
"You've seen them once before—there's a group that attacks us wearing strange animal masks."
Nakru... most likely, anyway.
"You're hiding your faces from them?"
"Hiding our identities. Those guys are genuine psychopaths."
"Why? What do they do if they find out who we are?"
"They're desperate to kill Lord Daeju and can't manage it. I overheard a bit once—sounded like they're from some cult or other?"
"A cult? Isn't your group the cult, sunbae?"
"We're a cult. They're psychopaths."
Maeng Woo-shin said it flat as a plank, urged Rembrary to hurry up and put on the mask, and got out of the car first. Rembrary donned mask and cloak and stepped out after him. Mask aside, the hood attached to the cloak came down nearly to the brow, so his face was covered whether or not he bothered with the mask at all. Rembrary was grateful for one thing in particular: the cloak hid Woo Yeon-woo's white hair. He was hardly the only white-haired person in the world, but such hair was rarely seen.
"But sunbae—faces covered or not, everyone knows that's your car, don't they?"
"No CCTV in this garage."
"No cameras at all?"
"All removed. And it's deliberately linked up with a mega-mall's parking structure, so just coming and going here tells no one where you're actually going."
"Did you get the mega-mall's permission for that?"
"Presumably."
Maeng Woo-shin answered absently, but Rembrary suspected the mega-mall's owner might well be one of Daeju's believers. If Daeju owned the mall, he would simply be called the owner, and that wasn't the case—and yet, if they'd done such a thing without permission, the fallout could well have spiraled.
"This way."
As if the correct elevator out of ten had been decreed in advance, Maeng Woo-shin hauled Rembrary away from the one at the very end and over to the center, and the two waited endlessly for a car to descend. At last a chime sounded, the doors slid open, and Rembrary followed him aboard.
When the elevator stopped, a red-carpeted corridor lay before them. At its far end stood a huge black door, firmly shut, and in front of it six muscular guards in black suits stood like a bank vault. As Maeng Woo-shin approached, one of them held out a small black device, and Maeng Woo-shin swiped something that looked, no matter how one looked at it, like nothing more than a card across it. A green light flashed, the guards parted, and Rembrary followed him through the black door.
Inside, the space was utterly bright and cheerful compared to outside—at a glance, it looked like a buffet with all the tables cleared away. Rembrary swept his eyes quickly over the tables piled with food and asked, "Am I allowed to eat all of that?"
"Presumably. But take a little at a time. There are no tables here, so you'll be holding your plate the whole time."
"What's that?"
"French fries... or something like them."
Rembrary decided he was glad he'd come to the gathering, and spooned up a little of everything to carry to his mouth. For the several plates it took him, Maeng Woo-shin trailed behind with the face of a man being bored to death. Partly because Daeju had solemnly charged him to guard Rembrary's side, but also partly because he worried that if that lunatic Rembrary showed his face somewhere, it would spell trouble for the final stretch of filming on Dear God.
This time, carrying some unidentified meat slathered in yellow sauce to his mouth, Rembrary asked, "So you and your friends don't actually know each other's identities?"
"We're not friends. Ah—of course, once you're close and it's certain, you do reveal yourselves. Just never at a gathering like this."
"Why not?"
"Enemies slip in here too. Word is there's a reporter or a PD who's taken an interest in investigating the cult. A detective has definitely latched on. But the most dangerous ones are those animal masks."
"A detective isn't dangerous?"
"Less dangerous than a PD. Even if a detective tails us here, what's he going to do? Cult or not, we don't kill anyone or hurt anyone. We just gather, grant wishes, and have a good time."
"Then why hold gatherings at all, knowing enemies exist?"
"Because sometimes those very enemies witness a miracle with their own eyes and become true believers."
As they talked, someone stepped up onto the stage at the very front. His face was covered like everyone else's, but his cloak was adorned somewhat more lavishly than the ones the crowd wore.
"It's Lord Daeju!"
"Lord Daeju!"
"Lord Daeju!"
Judging by the man's attire, it was indeed Daeju, and the moment he appeared the crowd erupted in cheers of Lord Daeju, Lord Daeju. Daeju calmly raised a hand to settle the excitement, then tipped his chin toward a figure standing at the side of the stage holding a microphone.
At that, the man with the microphone called out in a breathless voice, "The recipient of this month's Angel's Blessing, please come forward."
The words had barely faded when someone of unidentifiable identity stepped up before Daeju, pressed their hands together, and knelt.
At Daeju's calm question, the kneeling figure begged in a voice thick with longing.
"Please make it so I never gain weight, no matter how much I eat."
Damn it, I'm jealous. Maeng Woo-shin clicked his tongue beside him.
Rembrary, tempted himself, asked, "Does that last a lifetime?"
"Nope. One-month pass."
— End of Chapter 142 —