Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 127

< 127. Suspicion >

It had already been three days since the Time Machine team started living in the palace.

Rembrary blankly opened his eyes. Was it because there were no curtains? The morning sunlight here was particularly dazzling.

Wishing to laze around a bit more, Rembrary rolled around in his blanket for a while.

When he was at the dorm, it wasn’t easy to even take a nap. The dorm was so small, and no matter what schedule he had, he spent a lot of time going to the shop early to get ready.

But here, he liked that there was no one to nag him for sleeping in. Besides, the food was good too.

‘Ah. Whale [slang for ‘really’ or ‘wow’].’

However, as he was rolling around, Rembrary belatedly realized that this was not the time for him to be doing this.

CEO Shin Jo-woon. He was caught by the palace maid ghost yesterday. Shouldn’t he go help him soon?

Rembrary yawned and got up.

He planned to go find him and remove the palace maid ghost that was attached to him.

He wanted to let him suffer a bit more, but… Rembrary had the generosity of a high priest.

A high priest should have the magnanimity to only retaliate by poking someone’s eye with his third finger after they slap one’s cheek. Rembrary had that kind of magnanimity.

Even though ghosts were said to be less dangerous than evil spirits or demonic forces, that was only relatively speaking. Even so, it was a ghost.

Even if the ghost itself had no intention of harming people, it was the same. The very act of them being next to a person had a negative impact.

Besides, Shin Jo-woon was an ordinary person, wasn’t he? If an ordinary person was tormented by a ghost for a long time, their body would weaken for no reason. He had to remove the ghost before that happened.

“Hmm······.”

Then, Rembrary suddenly realized that he also had an evil spirit attached to his shadow, and he looked down at the floor.

A seemingly ordinary shadow was clearly visible at his feet, bathed in sunlight. But it didn’t seem like an evil spirit was hiding there. Woo Yeon-woo, who was also captured by the evil spirit, didn’t seem to be visible either.

“Just what is your identity?”

Rembrary impulsively spoke to the shadow.

Of course, there was no answer.

“Whatever it is, clinging to me was not a good choice.”

Even when he sternly warned it, there was still no reaction.

Rembrary stared at the shadow for a while longer, then turned around and went outside to find Sang-sun.

“Hoo······.”

At that moment, the Sang-sun staff member was standing in the sunlight with a gaunt face.

He looked more confused and gaunt than he had the day before, probably because of what Shin Jo-woon had done in the middle of the night.

Then, feeling someone approaching, the Sang-sun staff member turned around and saw Rembrary, giving him a look that said, ‘I don’t know what to say.’

“Sang-sun.”

Even so, when Rembrary called out to him, Sang-sun sighed and approached.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Where do you keep my anchovies?”

“According to regulations, you are not supposed to meet anchovies here.”

“I’m not asking because of the broadcast. Didn’t you see the state of the anchovies yesterday?”

“!”

“I’m worried because the anchovies are a bit strange. Let’s go take a look for a moment.”

The Sang-sun staff member wanted to say ‘no’ firmly, but he couldn’t.

After Shin Jo-woon visited yesterday, the Sang-sun staff member couldn’t sleep properly all night because he was scared.

At first glance, Shin Jo-woon’s words seemed like just nonsense or a joke, and the viewers might have taken the situation as entertainment.

No, the other eunuchs and palace maids also heard Shin Jo-woon’s story and laughed with amusement.

But the Sang-sun staff member found this matter eerie and couldn’t laugh along with the others.

Besides, since he had been with Rembrary all along, the Sang-sun staff member remembered the series of events that had occurred before Shin Jo-woon became strange.

At first, Rembrary suddenly stopped somewhere and warned him not to wander around here at night.

After that, Rembrary gave a strange warning to Hee-bin at the pavilion. He told her not to tell anyone the way, even if they asked. That warning also didn’t seem to be made in jest.

Of course, even if he said it seriously, if an ordinary person had said these words on a variety show, they could have been easily dismissed.

But since Rembrary, who had already had several chilling rumors circulating about him, said those words, it felt even scarier. The Sang-sun staff member was also easily frightened.

Then last night, Shin Jo-woon, who came barefoot wearing only a dragon robe [robe worn by the emperor], showed a different attitude towards Rembrary than usual.

At first, he thought it was a joke, but then Shin Jo-woon suddenly seemed to regain his senses and changed his attitude once, and then he was tormented with a face full of self-loathing.

The way he was so embarrassed when Jang Tae-ri teased him gave him the conviction that he absolutely did not want to talk about royal favor.

There was definitely something strange about it.

In the end, the Sang-sun staff member hesitated and decided to be flexible.

“I understand.”

“Good boy. Should I give you a sardine?”

“No, thank you.”

Rembrary first washed his face, got dressed, and then went to Shin Jo-woon’s residence.

However, when he went to Shin Jo-woon’s residence, Shin Jo-woon had already gone somewhere.

Shin Jo-woon’s Sang-sun staff member had also followed Shin Jo-woon, and only the eunuch role applicant was left.

“Where did Jo-woon go?”

The general applicant playing the role of the eunuch was flustered when Rembrary suddenly appeared and asked him, but he answered according to the setting.

“He said he was going for a walk. Has Your Highness already arrived?”

He went for a walk.

“I see.”

Rembrary answered naturally and entered Shin Jo-woon’s residence.

Was Woo Yeon-woo allowed to enter Shin Jo-woon’s residence? The eunuch looked at Rembrary’s back in confusion, but the door closed firmly with a thud.

The eunuch was even more flustered, but Shin Jo-woon’s Sang-sun staff member, who would tell him what to do in this situation, had gone for a walk with Shin Jo-woon.

The eunuch hesitated, then decided that they would edit it well on their own.

Besides, if the setting was that the three kings were indistinguishable, shouldn’t he not even know that Woo Yeon-woo, not Shin Jo-woon, had just entered the room? He didn’t need to worry.

* * *

Rembrary, who had entered the room, looked for the golden jar full of onion cookies that was only supposed to be in Jang Tae-ri’s room, but there was no cookie jar in Shin Jo-woon’s room either.

The onion cookies were clearly slipped in by a staff member who was a fan of Jang Tae-ri.

Come to think of it, he didn’t get to eat the onion cookies yesterday. What did they taste like? Did they really taste like onions? Rembrary became dejected and sat blankly in the middle of the room.

How long had he been like that? After what felt like 30 minutes, Shin Jo-woon finally returned.

Shin Jo-woon raised his eyebrows as if he was surprised to see Rembrary, but instead of asking why he had come to the room, he greeted him in a friendly manner.

“Good morning.”

Rembrary didn’t have any energy, but he greeted him back.

“Is that friendly greeting to hide yesterday’s embarrassment?”

“You’re subtly good at talking down to people?”

“It seems like you want to change the subject.”

“······.”

It didn’t take a minute for the friendly smile that had been on Shin Jo-woon’s lips to change into a smile that looked like he was smiling but wasn’t.

However, Rembrary didn’t see the change in expression because he was looking for the palace maid ghost that was attached to Shin Jo-woon.

Since his purpose was the palace maid ghost, he was going to quickly remove the palace maid ghost and go back to sleep.

But did he abandon it on his walk? The palace maid ghost was nowhere to be seen.

‘Did it fall off on its own?’

If that was the case, it was fortunate for now… Rembrary felt relieved for the time being and got up from his seat.

Then, he looked at Shin Jo-woon to say ‘I’m leaving now.’ But Shin Jo-woon’s eyes were a bit different than usual.

Should he say they were more full of curiosity than usual?

‘Is he possessed by the palace maid ghost like yesterday?’

The change was quite clear, to the point where Rembrary inadvertently reached out and waved his hand in front of Shin Jo-woon’s eyes.

However, Shin Jo-woon didn’t react at all.

He asked Rembrary with that strange look, without even blinking.

“Pig. Can you perhaps see ghosts?”

At the blunt question that didn’t beat around the bush, Rembrary stopped waving his hand in front of Shin Jo-woon’s eyes. His hand was fixed in the air.

A sullen gaze turned to Shin Jo-woon. Shin Jo-woon was still smiling.

Rembrary was flustered. He had only thought about removing the palace maid ghost, he hadn’t planned on being questioned like this?

His mind started racing.

What is it? How does he know and say such a thing?

Is Shin Jo-woon also part of that group called Nakru?

But for a Nakru, he was getting along well with the ghost?

Then is it another group besides Nakru? He thought he was possessed by the palace maid ghost, but was he deliberately taking it with him?

Like the man in the suit who walked around with that unknown evil spirit on a leash, is this a group that takes care of ghosts one by one?

However, it was difficult to know because several assumptions were plausible.

There were so many such groups in this world, and their purposes were subtly different, and above all, all of those groups were secret societies.

If it became like this, it was difficult to know who belonged to which group because they were confused. Of course, they might not belong to any group at all.

However, what was certain was—

“Can you see ghosts?”

If he couldn’t see ghosts himself, he wouldn’t ask such a question at this timing. There is a time for jokes. Shin Jo-woon had just been taking a ghost around with him yesterday, hadn’t he?

Besides, Rembrary had flattened the ghost yesterday. If Shin Jo-woon didn’t know how to see ghosts, he would probably just think that Rembrary had simply patted his shoulder.

All of this could be a coincidence in terms of timing, but if coincidences overlap repeatedly, he had to suspect that it was not a coincidence.

A smile appeared on Shin Jo-woon’s lips.

But before he could answer, someone knocked rapidly on the door inside the closed old-fashioned wardrobe.

Rembrary and Shin Jo-woon’s gazes turned to that side at the same time.

After a while, the wardrobe door opened and the palace maid ghost appeared from inside.

Her features were still distorted, but her eyeballs weren’t spinning as fast as when they first met.

[Here······ it’s cramped······.]

The palace maid ghost muttered and came completely out of the wardrobe. It seemed she knew how to hide in such a place.

However, the palace maid ghost showed strange behavior. When she saw Rembrary, she flinched, then hurriedly went back into the wardrobe and closed the door again.

While Rembrary tilted his head at her quick action.

Shin Jo-woon narrowed his eyes and looked at Rembrary’s profile.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hwan-shin was recording the broadcast that Rembrary was on and was constantly impressed.

An evil spirit, who was sitting on a nearby one-person sofa reading a newspaper upside down, complained about the act of replaying, replaying, replaying, and replaying again.

[What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you planning to do?]

Hwan-shin pointed to the TV instead of explaining and asked.

“Do you see that scene?”

[My eyes are here. I have eyes. I’m just hiding them.]

“Who said you didn’t?”

[······]

“Look at that.”

Hwan-shin turned back to the scene he had been watching again.

As the time in the screen flowed backward, the scene where Rembrary tapped Shin Jo-woon’s shoulder came out. As soon as he did, the ghost on his shoulder flattened and ran away.

Hwan-shin’s eyes lit up as if he liked the scene very much and asked.

“As soon as the king was possessed by a ghost and said nonsense, the white-haired man immediately slapped the ghost and caught it. What kind of scene do you think that is?”

[Assault. Corrupt. Isn’t that our department?]

“Does an evil spirit retreat when another evil spirit hits its head?”

[Absolutely. No! If it’s strong······.]

Hwan-shin smiled with satisfaction.

“I said before. The white-haired man’s 8 [referring to a specific characteristic or power] is strange, 1 is occupied by a person, and 1 is occupied by something like you. Perhaps that demonic part occupies a small space, but it is very strong or······.”

[Or? Or? Or?]

“8 may be exorcism or a divine type.”

The moment Hwan-shin finished speaking.

The evil spirit’s features slowly emerged.

His lips were stretched out horizontally in a long smile. He had a very happy face.

[Is he an enemy? He’s an enemy? He might be an enemy.]

However, instead of answering, Hwan-shin tilted his head and frowned.

“But there’s something strange.”

[Again? What is it? Always?]

“That 8 part I’m talking about. Looking at the ghost retreating, the possibility that it is an exorcism or divine type is definitely high. But as I felt it, it was definitely not a divine type.”