Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 601

◈ 601. Heard It From a Friend

“It’s just… because of something I heard from a friend.”

“A friend? What did you hear?”

Sunwoo Shil felt a bit guilty for not revealing his precognitive abilities while asking for help.

Although precognitive ability users are Awakened [people with supernatural powers], they often lack the ability to protect themselves, making them vulnerable to exploitation.

Even if Woo Yeon-woo is trustworthy, people can unintentionally make mistakes.

There’s no harm in being cautious, as words can leak out through slips of the tongue.

Besides, from Sunwoo Shil’s perspective, Rembrary is just a strange person he’s met twice.

“I’m going to be in danger.”

Rembrary looked around the room, then turned to Sunwoo Shil at the mention of danger and asked,

“Danger?”

“Some strange people are going to come here uninvited, and my friend saw me in trouble. My… friend.”

Woo Yeon-woo was taken aback and asked,

“What kind of friend sees things like that?”

Sunwoo Shil was about to answer when Rembrary interjected, pretending to know.

“Ah, is that the friend who does the exorcisms?”

Sunwoo Shil was about to say ‘yes’ when,

“Incompetent.”

He shut his mouth at Rembrary’s assessment and glared fiercely.

Woo Yeon-woo, trusting Rembrary’s words, smiled and asked Sunwoo Shil,

“Then you don’t have to worry about it, right?”

‘These two are ganging up on me…’

Sunwoo Shil was angry at their exchange but forced himself to manage his expression and retorted,

“He’s a skilled friend, okay?”

Woo Yeon-woo looked dubious.

Sunwoo Shil said firmly, “It’s true,” and then pointed to the sofa.

“Sit there. I’ll get some fruit.”

Seeing Woo Yeon-woo sit on the sofa, Sunwoo Shil walked to the kitchen.

As he took fruit out of the freezer, he heard a voice right behind him, “Green grapes.”

“Ah!”

Startled and almost falling, Sunwoo Shil saw that Rembrary had come up behind him and shouted angrily,

“You scared me! I told you to sit down!”

“Please give me green grapes too, Sunbae [an honorific term for someone older or more experienced],”

“Why am I your Sunbae!”

Sunwoo Shil shouted, then grabbed the back of his neck as his blood pressure rose, and continued to shout,

“Sit! Down!”

In fact, he could have overlooked being startled from behind, but since a car had already been wrecked, his patience was shorter than usual.

“Hey! Come here quickly!”

Noticing this, Woo Yeon-woo glared, and Rembrary went and sat next to Woo Yeon-woo.

Meanwhile, Sunwoo Shil cut and prepared the fruit and brought it to the coffee table.

Rembrary waited patiently and quickly grabbed a green grape.

‘It must be nice to be so shameless.’

Woo Yeon-woo stared at Rembrary, thinking this, then asked Sunwoo Shil,

“Assuming what your friend said is true, do you have any idea who your enemy might be, Sunbae?”

“I don’t know. I live without making enemies. I’m not a Hunter [monster hunter]. Even if I have enemies, they’re just people in this industry. I can’t imagine anyone going that far.”

Woo Yeon-woo was at a loss.

“But if you have no idea who it could be, it’s hard to prepare.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. We can’t just suddenly attack someone because we’re told we’re going to be attacked. But we don’t even know who it is.”

“I see.”

Sunwoo Shil sighed and looked at Rembrary.

Rembrary was busy eating fruit, not caring about Sunwoo Shil’s situation at all.

Seeing this, Sunwoo Shil felt annoyed and snidely remarked,

“You weren’t invited, but you came along and even wrecked the car. Shouldn’t you say something?”

“Come to my house, Sunbae.”

Unexpectedly, an unforeseen answer came back.

Sunwoo Shil scoffed, then choked on his saliva and looked at Rembrary in surprise.

“What?”

“Come to my house, Sunbae.”

Woo Yeon-woo was also surprised and looked at Rembrary.

Rembrary was sincere.

“Someone’s coming here, right? Then Sunbae just shouldn’t be here.”

Rembrary said, eating the grapes with the skin on, and Sunwoo Shil scratched his cheek.

“Well… when you put it that way…”

Sunwoo Shil couldn’t bring himself to say to the kind offer, ‘But the thought of living with you makes me feel hopeless.’

Instead, he asked Woo Yeon-woo,

“Then can’t I stay at your place? I’ve only met him twice, after all.”

“You could… but his place is probably safer.”

Woo Yeon-woo pointed at Rembrary with his eyes, and Sunwoo Shil ended up looking at Rembrary again.

Rembrary didn’t look trustworthy, but he had a gentle smile on his face.

Seeing that generous smile, Sunwoo Shil rubbed his forehead.

He was grateful, but he was already worried about his blood pressure.

* * *

Meanwhile, the dungeon that Hwasaja, Ardor, and Shin Jo-woon entered was, indeed, a normal dungeon without Rembrary.

It looked like a dense forest.

The sounds of insects and birds could be heard everywhere, and the sunlight was dazzling.

However, Hwasaja was already half out of his mind, even in the face of such beautiful scenery.

Ardor glanced at Hwasaja, then looked at Shin Jo-woon.

Shin Jo-woon was walking along expressionlessly, making it difficult to know what he was thinking.

Then, noticing Ardor’s gaze, Shin Jo-woon looked at Ardor and opened his mouth.

“I’ve always wondered. Do you serve Redrin, or do you serve Rembrary?”

Even in his dazed state, Hwasaja looked at Ardor as well.

In fact, Hwasaja was also a bit curious.

Ardor was crazy, but his devotion to Rembrary seemed excessive.

Ardor scoffed and retorted without hesitation,

“Do you have to choose between being Korean and being a member of the Shin family?”

At that, Hwasaja understood somewhat what Redrin and Rembrary meant to Ardor.

“Which one is the nationality and which one is the family?”

However, Shin Jo-woon insisted on asking again.

Hwasaja clicked his tongue. That guy is really persistent. Why is he asking that?

Neither Hwasaja nor Ardor knew why Shin Jo-woon was asking this question.

But Shin Jo-woon wasn’t just asking a random question.

The reason he was asking this question was to try to predict how Ardor would react if Rembrary really left Redrin and went to the demons, as Woo Sung-woo had said.

Muluna and Ninling are strong but rational, so they would predict and act first.

But Ardor’s behavior pattern is not like a human’s, so Shin Jo-woon, who is thoroughly rational, found it difficult to predict him.

Just then, a three-story building finally appeared in the dungeon, which had been a forest all along.

It was a rather splendid-looking building, even though it was built alone in the mountains.

The three of them finally came to their senses and looked at each other.

Now was not the time to fight, but to work together to get out of here.

Shin Jo-woon walked up as the representative and took down a note attached to the entrance of the building.

* * *

Sunwoo Shil immediately packed only the necessary luggage and followed Rembrary to his house.

He was a bit uneasy, but according to the vision, it was happening at home, so he was avoiding that.

About 20 minutes after Sunwoo Shil left the house.

Team B from Nakru rang the doorbell of Sunwoo Shil’s house.

“Why isn’t there any sound?”

However, after ringing the bell and waiting for a long time, there was no answer, and everyone frowned.

A team member cautiously asked,

“Could he have gone to work? Like at the broadcasting station…”

“…”

“Should we wait?”

Most of the team members suggested waiting for Sunwoo Shil to return, but Team B’s leader coldly laughed.

The team members flinched at the laughter, and the leader said firmly,

“If that rocker really has precognitive abilities, he would have run away knowing we were coming.”

The team members were surprised and asked the leader,

“Then we can’t catch him?”

“No. He can’t always predict the future. Otherwise, prophecy Awakeners would have become invincible long ago. I heard that prophecy abilities have many variables, are abstract, and don’t show everything all the time.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We have to create a situation where the rocker has no choice but to come here on his own.”

* * *

Jookyung and Siyoung had argued a bit before about ‘Are all demons bad VS That’s not true,’ but since they had already become family, they were getting along well again now.

The two were hopping around and playing long jump when they saw a familiar car coming and shouted excitedly.

“It’s the angel!”

“It’s the healer!”

The two children recognized who was inside and jumped up and down excitedly.

Then the car stopped, and someone got out of the back seat, but unexpectedly, it was someone they didn’t know.

Jookyung tilted her head and looked, wondering, ‘Who is that person?’

On the other hand, Siyoung immediately recognized Sunwoo Shil and shouted,

“It’s Sunwoo Shil!”

“Who’s that?”

“He’s a celebrity! My mom likes him!”

Even after hearing the explanation, Jookyung still didn’t know Sunwoo Shil, but when Siyoung’s mother said she liked him, she liked him too.

Conversely, Sunwoo Shil had followed Rembrary, but he was worried and looking around when some children recognized him, shouting, “Sunwoo Shil! Sunwoo Shil!” and ran towards him, so he smiled happily.

“Who are you?”

“The little one is Siyoung. The tall one is Jookyung.”

Rembrary answered for the children, and seeing Siyoung, who was particularly fond of him, he remembered what Siyoung had said before and additionally informed Sunwoo Shil.

“That’s right. Wooshil Sunbae. Siyoung’s dad looks like Wooshil Sunbae.”

“Oh, really?”

Sunwoo Shil smiled and asked Siyoung.

But unexpectedly, Siyoung, who had been excited all along, suddenly burst into tears when he met Sunwoo Shil’s eyes.

Flustered, Sunwoo Shil took out a handkerchief and wiped the child’s face. At the same time, his own nose tingled.

He didn’t know exactly what the situation was, but he could guess that the father who resembled him was not with the child.

‘How much the child must miss his parents…’

“Sunbae was surprised to see your un-photoshopped face.”

However, that sad atmosphere was immediately overturned by Rembrary’s words.

Woo Yeon-woo parked and got out, slapping Rembrary’s mouth.

“He’s crying because he misses his dad, you idiot.”

* * *

Rembrary showed Sunwoo Shil to an empty room and said,

“You can use this room.”

Sunwoo Shil put down his travel bag and looked at Rembrary, feeling a bit embarrassed.

He had yelled at him and everything. But seeing Rembrary’s consistently smiling and kind face, he thought he was a kind of crazy person.

“Don’t blush when you see me, Sunbae.”

“You… you son of a bitch!”

However, at Rembrary’s words, which he said with a look of disgust, Sunwoo Shil became angry and pushed Rembrary out the door.

As Rembrary was pushed out, Sunwoo Shil quickly realized his mistake and quickly opened the door.

“Sorry, I…”

However, Rembrary didn’t seem to care at all and was already walking away, humming.

“Is that guy’s head made of shape-memory alloy [a metal that returns to its original shape after being deformed]?…”

Then Sunwoo Shil felt a vibration and took out his phone to answer it.

“Hello?”

As soon as he answered the phone, the other person urgently shouted from the other end of the line.

“Hey, Wooshil! Where are you?”

It was his manager.

“I’m here… just. Here. Why? I don’t have any schedule today, do I?”

“There’s a big problem downstairs right now. There’s a water leak in your house!”

“Huh?”

“Come here quickly.”