Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 520

◈ 520. A Note from the Staff

Shin Joong-woon was in a foul mood. He knew a way to identify the culprit, but he couldn’t reveal it publicly.

His indecisive nature, his tendency to follow the majority, rendered him practically useless.

In the end, the corpse vanished, along with any evidence that could point to the killer.

Even the Pig [referring to Rembrary, likely due to his appearance or behavior] seemed unsure which of the Suja-named people [Geum-soo, Cheol-soo, In-soo, Kyung-soo, and Min-soo, all sharing the ‘soo’ suffix in their names] it was.

After feeding it information so diligently, it had all been for nothing.

If it were his dogs, they would never be confused, even if he appeared in a different guise.

Unable to use the laptop, he couldn’t work. Unable to use the phone, he couldn’t contact anyone.

His options were limited. All he could do was subtly steer the group in the right direction from the sidelines.

But if the group became too enthusiastic, that would also create problems.

“I’ve come up with a great idea.”

Just like that Pig.

Shin Joong-woon frowned. What was he going to say now?

Was he planning to flaunt that saintly demeanor he’d mentioned during breakfast again?

“Let’s kidnap the culprit and lock them up.”

‘Doesn’t sound very saintly.’

Shin Joong-woon thought, spearing a piece of roasted garlic with his fork. Personally, he didn’t like the idea.

“Why?”

Still, curious about the reasoning, he asked. The Pig explained with a familiar smile on an unfamiliar face.

“That way, they can’t kill anyone else. We keep them locked up for a week, and on the last day, we tie them up and bring them to the living room. Then, ta-da! Done.”

Rembrary, pleased with himself, looked at the group, grinning.

“What do you think?”

If everyone wanted to escape as Rembrary wished, this was an idea to reject, of course.

Wasn’t the culprit assigned the role of culprit?

Just as he, having become an ‘indecisive character,’ was restricted to following the majority, the culprit might also have specific conditions attached.

Like attacking at least a certain number of people. Or maybe not.

But kidnapping and locking them up as Rembrary suggested? Perhaps the culprit would fail the conditions and be unable to leave the dungeon. But…

‘Still, it doesn’t matter. It would be convenient if the culprit wasn’t wandering around.’

Having made up his mind, Shin Joong-woon smiled and praised.

“That’s a brilliant idea.”

At those words, that annoyingly perceptive guy looked at him with a face that said, ‘Do you really think so?’

A face that clearly showed he knew he was lying.

Instead of replying, Shin Joong-woon leaned back in his chair and listlessly poked at his food with his fork.

Waiting, when no one objected, Rembrary clapped his hands confidently.

“Alright! Then let’s go catch the culprit.”

“Do you even know where the culprit is?”

“Let’s split up and go separately. Then the culprit will try to attack one of us. That person will be the culprit.”

“What if we get attacked?”

“We catch them and lock them up.”

“Can we even catch them? You seemed to have trouble using your strength earlier.”

A look of pity spread across Rembrary’s face.

“Don’t want to go alone?”

He seemed to think he was whining because he didn’t want to be alone.

Shin Joong-woon thought for a moment, then decided to accept Rembrary’s suggestion.

He was an indecisive character, a role that followed the majority.

In other words, if there were no people around, he didn’t need to follow others’ opinions. The restrictions disappeared.

“No. It sounds like a good idea.”

Shin Joong-woon smiled and stood up first.

“Let’s go separately.”

* * *

“If I were the culprit, I’d target someone alone. There shouldn’t be anyone else around. Hmm…”

Rembrary decided to check the places he had noticed while walking around with everyone, mainly those where people didn’t go often.

There were many participants, but the mansion was just as large, so there were deserted places everywhere.

Besides, it was daytime earlier, but now it was evening, close to night. There would be even fewer people.

Rembrary decided to go to the children’s playroom on the 4th floor.

* * *

Woo Sung-woo’s role was to be a nuisance and bother people.

He watched the group members leave one by one, and when he was the last one left alone, he looked around the empty dining room.

Woo Sung-woo thought it was fortunate that he had come here.

If his younger sibling, who got sick after going to school for a bit—a feigned illness, of course—had come, they would have talked about their hard work and suffered for a month.

Woo Sung-woo stared intently at the empty dishes, recalling the corpse he had seen on the 3rd floor earlier, the corpse that was inside the room that the owner had locked with a key.

‘The culprit is quite clever.’

Rembrary said there wouldn’t be a culprit among them… but was that really the case? They had only been together for two hours, and no one knew what anyone had done before that?

‘Not the Saint. Shin Joong-woon might be capable. But if it were him… he wouldn’t have created a corpse but would have ended it with injuries. That level of control seemed easy for him.’

Then what about the Grim Reaper, Sa Gam-jae?

‘He also would have ended it with injuries rather than killing someone. Because he’s a Grim Reaper. Even though death inside the dungeon isn’t real death, he wouldn’t want to risk his job.’

Excluding the original colleagues, two unidentified people who were impersonating his colleagues came to mind. What about them?

Just then.

“Excuse me.”

Someone called him from behind. Woo Sung-woo turned his head.

* * *

Although he didn’t necessarily object to Rembrary’s opinion, Sa Gam-jae wasn’t very interested in catching the culprit or anything like that.

What he wanted to know was who was a real member of the group and who was fake.

It couldn’t be helped. Who would bother imitating them and causing confusion inside this dungeon?

Only those damned demons from another world.

Sa Gam-jae moderately slipped out to the middle, erasing his presence, and when the person he had been watching passed by, he followed after them.

‘Besides, that guy. He seems to be imitating me.’

He wasn’t the only one using honorifics, but various circumstances were subtly suspicious.

Sa Gam-jae made no sound at all and began to follow the guy up the stairs.

* * *

Rembrary went up the stairs, turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open. A dark room appeared.

Feeling along the wall, he turned on the light, revealing an interior filled with various children’s toys.

Since all the participants were adults, of course, there was no one inside. It was even on the 4th floor.

Rembrary leaned against the wall and squatted down. He would stay here for about 30 minutes.

Maybe the culprit would come this way. If they didn’t come, he would move to another place.

Rembrary picked up domino pieces rolling around at his feet and began to stack them.

Then, Rembrary heard a sound from the hallway and raised the corners of his mouth. Was it here?

* * *

“Shall we introduce ourselves?”

The person who had come to use the name Yoon Soo since arriving here turned his head while heading to the study. A person with a smile on his face was standing there.

He didn’t remember the name, but it was the person who was always with that unique-speaking Young-soo.

“Ah, yes. Why?”

Yoon-soo asked, a little nervous.

He didn’t think that person was the culprit, but anyway, there was someone playing the role of the culprit in this mansion, and that person had actually attacked and eliminated someone.

He had to be wary of strangers. Absolutely. Besides, he didn’t know the culprit’s face.

“Do I need a reason to introduce myself?”

“Y-yes…”

“But if you need one, I can make one up.”

“Pardon?”

“The room key from daytime. Who did you give it to? The culprit’s face? Did you see it directly? Or just the key?”

“!”

* * *

Rembrary, who went out into the hallway, was dumbfounded. The culprit he had been chasing wasn’t there.

In-soo and Kyung-soo were fighting like kangaroos [fighting intensely and clumsily].

“What are you doing?”

At the sight of their undignified appearance, Rembrary approached and asked. Only then did the two stop fighting, but they continued to glare at each other.

“It’s nothing much.”

“This guy’s behavior is suspicious.”

“Usually, suspicious things are said in the opposite situation, right?”

“Anyone could see that you were the suspicious one.”

However, even after stopping, the two continued to hurl words at each other.

Rembrary became puzzled when the two he had considered as Sa Gam-jae candidates were acting like this, but soon he sighed and turned around.

“Where are you going?”

The two Sa Gam-jaes, surprised by his turning around, asked. Both of them looked like they wanted to follow him.

“To be alone.”

“It’s dangerous.”

“What if the culprit attacks you?”

“Isn’t the reason I’m alone so they will attack? You two should stick together. You seem to get along well.”

Rembrary went straight down the stairs.

However, even after wandering around alone until late, the culprit did not come near Rembrary, and Rembrary eventually returned to his room around eleven o’clock at night.

* * *

The next day. When he woke up, another set of clothes was hanging in the closet.

‘The staff, or the person managing this dungeon, can come and go into the rooms as they please.’

When he went outside, the people using other rooms on the same floor were also walking around in different clothes than yesterday.

Rembrary came straight down to the dining room today. It was to ask the group about what had happened at night.

When he entered the dining room, unlike yesterday, there were quite a few people who had already arrived and taken their seats.

Rembrary looked around and found the group, then went to sit down and asked.

“How was yesterday? Did anyone have any personal achievements?”

Geum-soo answered with a smile.

“It’s not easy.”

It was a tone that suggested it was far from easy, but rather too low in difficulty. Since that’s what he said, Rembrary looked at Cheol-soo this time.

Cheol-soo simply shrugged and didn’t say anything else.

“What about you two? Who won?”

In-soo and Kyung-soo frowned almost simultaneously at Rembrary’s question.

Judging from the fact that they didn’t answer, it seemed that neither of them had clearly won.

“Looks like no one had any achievements. Should we wait for Min-soo to come?”

However, after breakfast came out, Min-soo didn’t come even after everyone had finished eating.

Even those who weren’t particularly interested in whether Min-soo came or not, unlike Rembrary, checked the clock and the empty seat, glancing over.

‘Could it be?’

Rembrary frowned.

Eventually, Min-soo didn’t come even after the mealtime had passed.

Rembrary was almost certain that Min-soo was Woo Sung-woo, and Woo Sung-woo was one of the high-end hunters, a hunter at the same level as Shin Joong-woon.

When Rembrary told everyone to split up and catch the culprit, it was naturally because he was confident that they were stronger than the culprit.

Besides, Woo Sung-woo had been catching monsters since before the Cataclysm [a large-scale disaster or event]. And he got caught?

Rembrary looked at the clock again. 9:15 AM. Staff in cooking uniforms came in and were cleaning up the dining room.

“Min-soo’s room was on the 2nd floor, right? Let’s go.”

But it was then, as he was about to leave the dining room. The person who had brought him the apple yesterday saw Rembrary again and exclaimed, “Ah!” and called out, “Just a moment.”

Then, they went into the kitchen and came out with a small lunch box and handed it to him.

“This. You asked for it to be packed separately.”

But the words that person gave Rembrary while giving him the lunch box were words that Rembrary had not said.

“If you need anything else, let me know.”

“I guess I’m lucky with food wherever I go.”

As that person went back to the kitchen, Kyung-soo, who didn’t know the situation, teased him from the side.

Rembrary puffed out his chest and said, “Right?” then said to the group.

“It’s a bit much to keep carrying it around, so I’ll go put the lunch box in my room. You guys go to Min-soo’s room first.”

Without waiting for an answer, Rembrary ran straight up to his room, opened the door, and went inside.

Closing the door and opening the lunch box lid, there was a small piece of paper tucked inside.

-One of the group

“!”