If They Show Up, It Might Turn Into a Three-Way Showdown……
The moment she finished speaking, the team leader looked around the room.
"Who wants to go?"
Even without counting her, there were six people in the room. They were supposedly only going after a demon beast, but with that many demons watching, things could get uncomfortable. The demons were fickle creatures, by all accounts, and they hated Nakru — she wouldn't put it past them to butt in midway.
They had no intention of marching in under a banner reading We Are Nakru, but the odds of being found out mid-fight were high all the same. It was a dangerous errand no matter how you sliced it, and she'd braced herself for the possibility that no one would volunteer.
But the instant the question left her mouth, Eon Du-sin's hand shot up.
"Me!"
He bellowed it out cheerfully, then hauled his shirt halfway up his chest to point at the wound still swaddled in layers of bandages.
"It did this to me. I'm owed a proper round of payback!"
For all his bravado, the only reply was Woo Sung-woo's scornful snort.
"You nearly died with a perfectly healthy body, and you're talking about payback."
"Would you kindly call it letting my guard down?"
"Guard down or not, you were in perfect shape. If it hadn't been for my brother, it would've been a lot worse than it was."
"Exactly. How come you and your brother turned out so different, huh?"
"Anyone who claims my brother has a better personality than me — no exaggeration, you're the first one I've ever met."
The team leader scooped up a cushion and hurled it between the two men, who had been trading barbs back and forth without pause.
"That's enough. Quit fighting."
The rapid-fire insults subsided for the moment. She decided the room had improved considerably, mulled it over for a beat, then turned to Du-sin.
"Du-sin, you just got out of the hospital — I'd rather you not check right back in. So don't go."
Told he was hospitalized before the sentence was even finished, Du-sin pulled a face on the verge of tears.
"Aw, why is it always me!"
Woo Sung-woo, on the other hand, wore a smirk of deep satisfaction.
"Because you're the weakest. Honestly, Team Leader. You didn't even need to think that one over."
The team leader shot him a glare that said she found him thoroughly repugnant, and held out the company card.
"For the sake of the world. Go. And stop bullying the kid."
"For the sake of the world. He's not exactly a kid, though."
Rembrary gave the power button on his phone a short press to check the time.
Has Daeju arrived by now……?
Yesterday, Rembrary had asked the Tiger Head to stay put where it was for the time being. The Tiger Head had readily agreed and gone straight to the police station. Probably.
But the Tiger Head had no phone, which meant Rembrary had no way of knowing any of it — how things had gone, whether they'd been resolved, whether Daeju had arrived, what Daeju intended to do once there, whether there was even a way to return the culprit to normal. It was suffocating.
His body had fused itself to the sofa and refused to budge — plainly because those suffocating worries weighed far too much. Taein, knowing nothing of this, apparently took a dim view of Rembrary sprawled across the sofa, and as he passed by delivered a kick to his leg hard enough to smart but not quite bruise.
"Quit rolling around and go think up some lyrics, why don't you? Scheming is the one thing you're halfway decent at — put that brain to use."
"I am thinking. That is precisely why I lie here like this."
"Not even a little. It looks like slacking to me."
"This head of mine is laboring over a problem deeper than any man alive."
Having declared it flatly, Rembrary slumped back down and lifted his phone again out of pure habit to check the time —
— and in that instant, an ox's head burst through the wall.
Startled, Rembrary slammed his forehead into it with tremendous force.
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Moo, it hurts. Moo, it huuurts."
The ox head clutched its forehead and rolled around and around on the floor. Taein, entirely unaware that a demon beast had appeared, kicked the writhing mass of flesh as he walked past and nearly went down himself, barely catching his balance.
"What? What is it?"
He looked around, saw nothing, and kept walking.
Truly, what you don't know can't hurt you.
So thought Rembrary as he watched the ox head glare murderously at Taein's retreating back, snorting through its nose. Be that as it may, he could hardly stand by and let it do harm to one of his members.
Rembrary signaled the ox head to follow him and went on ahead into the room he shared with Jungseo. The moment it lumbered in after him, he shut the door and demanded,
"Why have you come?"
The ox head — head-butted by Rembrary the instant it arrived and kicked by Taein besides — at last remembered the errand it had clean forgotten, and sprang upright.
"I came to tell you something!"
"What is it?"
"The humans have gone to catch the Tiger! The humans who attacked Moo have gone to catch the Tiger!"
"Humans? Nakru?"
The ox head's head bobbed up and down in a rapid flurry.
"Yes! That's the name!"
"To the police station?"
Rembrary pressed, startled. "Those people went to the police station?"
It was dangerous for Nakru to go there now. Wasn't the Tiger Head at that very station, keeping watch over the culprit on his orders?
The ox head's story fit the situation perfectly. "Are you certain Nakru went there? How do you know?"
"For revenge! No — wait, no. Moo had nothing to do. Moo had nothing to do, so Moo tailed those brats around! For revenge! No, no moo!"
It seemed that after being chased down by Nakru one time after another, the beast had been lying in wait, planning to strike first this go-around. The ox head stole a glance at Rembrary's face, then put on its most pitiful expression and begged all over again.
"Help. Help, please. The Tiger's a good sort, he is. Tiger's a good sort, moo."
When the demon beast flung itself at his leg, clinging and pleading for help, Rembrary felt an unaccountable queasiness come over him and delivered a solid thump to its plump little crown.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Why'd you hit me? Why'd you hit me?"
The ox head clutched its head and let out a woeful, sniffling wail. Rembrary crossed his arms and sighed — not because of the ox head, but because of the Tiger Head.
Aiding demon beasts was hardly a High Priest's chief duty…… and yet he was the one who had ordered the Tiger Head there in the first place, so leaving it to fend for itself sat poorly with him. Besides, the Tiger Head was the demon beast he had gifted to Im Yu-han. Though she had never laid eyes on it, she had sensed its presence and seemed to get along with it in her own way — and the Tiger Head, for its part, appeared quite fond of her. Kept at her side, it could make a rather fine bodyguard.
The Tiger must be saved, that much is certain.
After long deliberation, Rembrary resolved to go and see for himself. Daeju was headed that way regardless, so going was plainly the better choice. And what if things went wrong and it turned into a three-way confrontation inside the police station? If it came to that, someone needed to step in and smooth things over from the middle — and that someone was him.
"Where are you going?"
As Rembrary shrugged on a jacket, gathered up a mask and cap, and headed for the front door, Hye-gyeol came out into the hall holding a toothbrush with toothpaste still on it and asked,
"If you're going to the mart, take me with! I've got shopping to do!"
"Buy something for me as well!"
Rembrary shouted this back at Hye-gyeol, shoved his feet into his shoes, and stepped outside. Hye-gyeol hurled curses at his back, but no amount of cursing from anyone could lay a finger on Rembrary's own magnificence, so he paid it no mind whatsoever.
Having sent the message to Daeju, Rembrary rode the elevator straight down to the first floor. But his brisk stride came to an abrupt halt at the apartment entrance.
"Where is the police station?"
Come to think of it, he had only ever read about such places in the news and the papers. Rembrary did not even know where a police station was to be found.
The ox head called out quickly.
"Five minutes, moo! That way!"
"On my own two feet?"
"Moo feet!"
"And at my pace?"
The ox head, having no way of knowing what Rembrary's pace might be, shook its head woozily from side to side.
Rembrary heaved a sigh and put on his mask and cap, though inside, What do I do? What do I do? What can be done repeated on an endless loop. Daeju had yet to answer his text. Perhaps he had already arrived. Or perhaps he was rushing there and simply hadn't seen it yet.
He needed to hurry — and yet Rembrary knew how to operate no means of transportation other than a car. He agonized over it for a long while, and at last tried calling Daeju. But Daeju, occupied with something or other, did not pick up.
He tried Sa Gam-jae next, and this time the call connected.
"I'm rather far away at the moment. If you can wait five hours, I will come to you."
"Might I lodge a complaint about you with Yeomra?"
"Complain all you like. He really ought to know how busy I am, after all."
Left with no other option, Rembrary called Shin Jo-woon. Fortunately, before the ring had sounded more than a couple of times, Shin Jo-woon answered.
"Hey, piggy. What?"
His voice was as unhurried as ever. But only the voice was unhurried — from around him came the din of people chattering and shouting over one another. Fragments drifted through — something about a film, a pamphlet, a scandal — and it seemed the company's business was in full swing.
"Mr. Shin Jo-woon. Are you busy right now?"
Hoping that perhaps he was marginally less swamped than he sounded, Rembrary asked, and Shin Jo-woon answered, "Yeah, a bit," before posing the question again.
"Why? Something urgent?"
"It's not tremendously urgent, but……"
"What is it? Out with it."
"Someone who isn't close to me but once shared a bond with me has gone to the police station. And someone with whom I have lately been building a bond is on his way to that same police station to meet that person. And I heard that a certain someone who is gritting his teeth, wanting to kill the person I've lately been bonding with, is also headed to the police station."
When Rembrary had unspooled the whole tangled explanation, Shin Jo-woon fell silent for a moment.
About three seconds later —
"I'm leaving now."
And with that answer, Shin Jo-woon hung up first.
Fifteen minutes or so later, the familiar car made its appearance and in an instant glided up to the apartment entrance, where it stopped. Rembrary hurriedly opened the door and climbed into the passenger seat.
"Where am I headed?"
"I'm not sure which station it is, either."
"No rough idea at all?"
"Here."
Rembrary held up the internet news page he had opened in advance. "The station in this article is the one."
Shin Jo-woon leaned over to peer at the phone screen, then stopped short for a moment. His eyebrow arched, and he shot Rembrary a sidelong glance.
"Are you going to meet this person? Or do you just happen to know someone at this station?"
"The person who isn't close to me but once shared a bond with me — that's this person. The one who might be in danger is the one going to see him."
"Do you know the culprit?"
"They say he used to be a trainee at our agency. A kid who very nearly made it into Wild Animal."
Shin Jo-woon pulled out from where he'd been idling and kept pressing.
"And this person gritting his teeth because he wants to kill the one who might be in danger — who is he?"
My brother, was the answer, but he couldn't bring himself to say it, so Rembrary only muttered, "How would I know that?"
While the car sat stopped at a red light, Shin Jo-woon knit his brow and asked,
"By the way, what exactly do you plan to do when we get there? You're not planning anything dangerous, are you?"
"No, I'm just going to watch."
"……"
"Green light. Let's go."
— End of Chapter 160 —