No Ill Intent Behind the Question
"We're really just going to watch?"
Shin Jo-woon asked, his tone dripping with disbelief.
As if. Rembrary answered honestly only in his head, then gave a solemn nod.
There was nothing to be done about it. He couldn't exactly tell Shin Jo-woon about the brush that erased emotions, or the cult leader, or the tiger-headed youkai.
Shin Jo-woon looked like he had more questions, but he held them back — as if he understood that the other party had no intention of answering anyway.
And a few minutes later, the two of them arrived at their destination. Shin Jo-woon parked the car a little distance from the police station, in a spot where the building was still visible, and asked, "So what now? Are you going inside?"
"If I go in—"
"People will talk for no reason."
"I suppose so, yes."
Rembrary pressed his forehead against the dashboard and mulled it over. So what now? He had come all this way, but Shin Jo-woon had a point.
The whole mess had been caused by the brush, true — but that didn't make the trainee any less of a criminal. He had already taken the life of an innocent man.
If someone went looking for a person like that on account of an old connection, who knew what kind of trouble it might drag them into.
But while Rembrary was still deliberating, he spotted Woo Sung-woo coming out of the police station, his brows knitted into a frown.
So the person Nakru sent was Woo Sung-woo, was it?
He'd arrived fast, too — already on his way out. Surely he hadn't already killed him?
Rembrary's own brows drew together in kind, and he stepped out of the car.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to see for myself."
Rembrary crept stealthily toward Woo Sung-woo, who had just pulled out his phone and was dialing someone. After a short wait, the call connected on the first ring, and Woo Sung-woo began to speak in a flat, businesslike voice.
"I don't see the tiger head. Maybe it went somewhere else?"
The tiger head is missing?
Intrigued, Rembrary focused hard on the conversation. But Woo Sung-woo's voice was barely audible from where he crouched — there was no chance of catching the person on the other end of the line.
"Yes. Yes." Woo Sung-woo kept nodding along to the call. Then, suddenly, he let out an "Ah" and turned around.
He spotted me! Rembrary scrambled to flatten himself behind a telephone pole.
But it turned out Woo Sung-woo hadn't sensed him at all. Glancing only briefly at the telephone pole, his gaze slid past it and settled on the police station as he continued.
"Not the tiger head. Though there was something interesting in there, I'll say that much."
Woo Sung-woo tore his eyes from the station and turned back around, walking off with a lazy, unhurried gait. Rembrary tailed him from cover, keeping low the whole way. Shin Jo-woon, wondering what on earth was going on, followed along, and asked as he caught up:
"What are we doing right now?"
"Shh."
Rembrary signaled him to be quiet. He'd worried Shin Jo-woon would pipe up again and make him miss Woo Sung-woo's voice, but Shin Jo-woon went silent the moment he'd been shushed, so there was no interference.
Woo Sung-woo had slipped into a small playground — the kind clearly built for young children but with an atmosphere that suggested delinquent teenagers used it more — and sat down on a worn bench.
"There's someone who's still human right now. But they're turning into a youkai, bit by bit."
Rembrary had feared Shin Jo-woon would speak up again, but true to form, he stayed quiet. The problem was that Woo Sung-woo himself suddenly fell silent.
Apparently the person on the other end of the phone was saying something lengthy.
Anxious, Rembrary dug his thumb into his own jaw and pressed.
Daeju was nowhere in sight, and the tiger head seemed to have sensibly fled on its own — fine, all well and good. But surely Nakru couldn't possibly know that the trainee criminal was turning into a youkai...
Has the change become that obvious?
But no matter how far along the transformation was, he was still not a youkai. And the trainee was under arrest, no less.
Nakru, which dealt with actual youkai, could hardly have any business with a human being — one still in police custody, at that — who had yet to fully become one.
Rembrary grew more and more uneasy. In a situation like this, obviously Nakru needed to be talked out of attacking that trainee.
But if someone as famous as himself got into a brawl with Nakru inside a police station, the problem was that his true identity as the great High Priest would be exposed beyond any doubt.
And once the great High Priest was exposed, rather than becoming a top star and gathering believers for the goddess Redrin, he might well end up playing hide-and-seek with Nakru for the rest of his days — or being hunted by all those who craved his power.
No, it's too early to jump to conclusions. Even Nakru wouldn't kill someone who's still human... right?
While Rembrary fretted, Woo Sung-woo opened his mouth again.
"You're right. We should kill them."
Shattering every last one of Rembrary's hopes.
Rembrary's eyes went wide.
He'd heard they were the sort who would sacrifice even Saints in the name of rooting out evil. He'd heard they showed no mercy to youkai. But he had never imagined they would kill someone who hadn't even fully become a youkai yet.
Meanwhile, Woo Sung-woo rose to his feet, rolling the phone over in his palm. The call seemed to be over. After a moment's thought, he actually started walking toward the police station.
He really means to kill him?
Rembrary briefly regretted dragging Shin Jo-woon along.
"I shouldn't have brought you, Shin Jo-woon."
If he'd come alone, he could have rushed straight at Woo Sung-woo this instant and bellowed at him to stop.
"Without me, you wouldn't have even gotten here."
"...That is true."
Conceding the point, Rembrary straightened his crouched legs to go after Woo Sung-woo.
Shin Jo-woon will think I've lost my mind... but there are priorities.
Even if he'd have to cook up some excuse for Shin Jo-woon later, stopping Woo Sung-woo came first. Right now, that was the priority.
But after only a few steps toward Woo Sung-woo, Shin Jo-woon seized Rembrary by the back of the neck and hauled him right back.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"You heard him. Someone has to stop this."
"What about that person?"
"Who?"
"The one who might be in danger. The one you said went to meet the criminal."
"He isn't here. I don't see him anywhere."
"Then you don't need to go either, do you?"
"If I don't go, that... that trainee dies."
"You said you're not even close to him."
"What does that matter when a life is at stake?"
Shin Jo-woon blinked a few times before answering.
"Well, it matters to me."
"It doesn't matter to me."
"What's gotten into you? That's so unlike you."
"What matters to me is not how close that person is to me."
"!"
"It's whether or not that person believes in the same god that I do."
"?"
Shin Jo-woon, who had been staring at Rembrary's tense face, visibly deflated and asked, "Why are we suddenly talking about religion?"
"I'll explain later."
Leaving Shin Jo-woon behind, Rembrary went after Woo Sung-woo. This time he didn't bother hiding — he just marched right up, clack-clack-clack, his footsteps loud and deliberate.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Woo Sung-woo turned his head. The moment his eyes met Rembrary's, he stopped in his tracks, his expression clearly asking, What are you doing here?
"You must not do it."
The moment he drew near, Rembrary got straight to the point. Woo Sung-woo listened, curious what this was about, then curled his lip.
"What are you talking about?"
"I heard the whole phone call. You must not do it."
"And what exactly do you think I'm going to do?"
"You said you would kill him."
He had a point, and it stung — but Woo Sung-woo asked, perfectly calm, "Did you only catch the end of the call? What about the beginning?"
"I heard it."
"Then you also heard why it has to be done, didn't you?"
"Even so. You must not kill him."
Woo Sung-woo ignored him and made to walk away, but Rembrary thrust out a hand and grabbed his arm.
Just then, a couple — a drunk high schooler and what looked to be the kid's parent, slapping the boy on the back as they stumbled out of the police station — noticed the exchange and muttered to each other, "Hey, isn't that Woo Yeon-woo?"
Impressive eyes, considering he was wearing both a mask and a cap.
Woo Sung-woo let out a sigh, took hold of Rembrary's arm, and dragged him into an alley beside the police station. Once Rembrary had followed along obediently, he walked far enough in that no one from the street could see them, confirmed the alley was empty, and flicked Rembrary square on the forehead with his finger.
"Insolence!"
"This isn't your problem. You've got nothing to do with it. Stay out of it."
"Do not kill him."
"I said it's not your problem."
"How can you speak so? You hold no authority to take a human life whenever it pleases you. None."
Woo Sung-woo decided the conversation was hopeless and simply tried to leave. Rembrary stretched out his arm and grabbed him again. Woo Sung-woo shook him off and kept walking, but now Rembrary reached out with his other hand too, holding on with both.
Woo Sung-woo looked at him, half wondering if he was joking — but Rembrary's face was more serious than he'd ever seen it.
Finally out of patience, Woo Sung-woo asked, ice-cold, "And what's your plan if the criminal finishes turning into a youkai and starts slaughtering people?"
"That is a matter to be settled after he becomes a youkai. He is not one yet, is he not?"
"By the time he's a youkai, it's too late. Once he transforms, the odds he kills someone skyrocket."
"And so a man stricken with grave illness, whose odds of dying are high regardless — does that mean we may put him to death in advance?"
Shin Jo-woon, standing off to the side listening to the argument, tilted his head and glanced over at Woo Sung-woo.
Woo Sung-woo was getting angry — Rembrary exasperated him that much. And yet he couldn't just shove the kid away and storm off, not when a shove could mean another head injury for someone whose head was already hurt.
"Yeon-woo."
He tried a soothing voice first. Then he grabbed Rembrary's arm, wrenched it, and slammed him against the wall.
"You do your own job. Sing, dance— ah, right, you can't dance. Act. Do all that."
But then Shin Jo-woon stepped in and clamped down hard on Woo Sung-woo's shoulder, and Woo Sung-woo — who had never had any real intention of hurting his brother anyway — let Rembrary go.
At that very moment—
A loud crash rang out, and a figure in an oversized flight jacket came sprinting out of the police station, bolting down the street as fast as his legs would carry him.
"Grab him!" The shout erupted from the police station along with a stream of profanity. A handful of officers tore out after the flight jacket, while several more scrambled into patrol cars and onto motorcycles and gave chase.
Rembrary remembered — that flight jacket was the very garment the criminal had been wearing draped over his head when he'd been taken into custody.
Woo Sung-woo watched it all unfold, let out a disbelieving laugh, then looked down at Rembrary with cold eyes.
"He escaped. Any moment now, he'll go somewhere and finish becoming a youkai. And now, thanks to you, people are going to die. Happy?"
But Rembrary didn't so much as blink at the bitter words.
"No. Because of me, one person is alive."
"!"
With that, Rembrary gathered up Shin Jo-woon and moved away from Woo Sung-woo.
Rembrary knew how expertly demon beasts could conceal themselves — so even though the tiger head had hidden itself, he was confident it wasn't far. It would have stayed near the criminal, meaning that as soon as the criminal got away from Woo Sung-woo, the beast would likely follow.
Rembrary only needed to find the tiger head. With that thought, he set off in that direction. If he could reach the trainee criminal before Nakru did, he was certain he could stop things before the boy fully became a youkai.
But Shin Jo-woon, who had been following him for the first few steps, turned back and returned to Woo Sung-woo's side instead. There he stood, in place, staring at him.
Woo Sung-woo, unable to believe this was really his brother, gritted his teeth, caught between doing something and doing nothing — and then his eyes met Shin Jo-woon's.
Woo Sung-woo's scowl deepened. He hadn't liked the man hovering beside his brother all this while, watching like it was a spectator sport, and now he'd come back just to stare at him like that. It made his mood worse still.
But Shin Jo-woon, loosening his neatly knotted tie with an easy smile, looked Woo Sung-woo straight in the eye and asked:
"That's your younger brother, I take it? You two look remarkably alike."
"We do."
Woo Sung-woo didn't bother asking who he was. He already knew — the man had appeared on broadcasts with his brother constantly; there was no way not to. But something about Shin Jo-woon's gaze felt vaguely off-putting, and as he studied him, Shin Jo-woon fiddled with his tie, held his stare, and asked:
"Are you two close? If you were gone... would it weigh on him a great deal?"
— The End of Chapter 161: I'm Not Asking With Bad Intentions —