Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 333

333. Is This Him?

Daeju stated that Redrine Hunter Company’s current financial situation was ambiguous. If the founder or sponsor officially announced that it was Redrine Hunter Company, they could establish an institution and provide lodging for those in need. However, it wasn’t feasible to handle all of this with anonymity and goodwill alone.

“Why is that? The expenses are the same.”

“If we reveal the name and act, it will benefit Redrine, even if it’s a financial loss. It may seem like a loss now, but it won’t be in the end. Redrine will become stronger. But if we help anonymously… our hearts may be full, but it won’t help Redrine at all. Rather, it will help the gods here. Some of them may already have religions. Those people will thank their respective gods.”

“I should have brought some jewels when crossing the rift.”

Rembrary recalled the mountains of treasures piled up in the Great Temple’s vault and rooms, regretting it again. He came with nothing but himself. When he had it, he didn’t appreciate it, but now… Who is using it? Surely not the demons. No, they probably are.

“High Priest, peaches, green grapes, apples, which one shall I get?”

“Apples.”

In the meantime, Daeju pulled out a canned drink from the vending machine and handed it to Rembrary. Rembrary muttered while opening the can.

“Anyway, I can’t just leave Jugyeong there without a guardian…”

Daeju checked the watch on his wrist and said,

“Should I look for the child’s parents or relatives? The training center is already looking, but the city and non-city [referring to areas outside the main city] are far apart. The location is also very different here. We might find them faster if we look separately.”

“Would you do that?”

“Yes.”

“But why do you keep looking at your watch?”

“I’m sorry. I have an appointment. And I’m a bit late for it now…”

“Appointment? Where are you going?”

“Actually, I was on my way to review a speech.”

“Then why are you here? Go quickly. Go quickly then.”

“Yes. I’ll make sure to talk about Jugyeong. I’ll definitely pass on any news as soon as I get it.”

As Rembrary waved his hand, Daeju stood up, bowed to Rembrary, and disappeared back down the hallway he had come from at a brisk pace.

Once Daeju was out of sight, Rembrary sat cross-legged and poured the last sip of the drink into his mouth. Shin Jo-un and Jang Tae-ri came to mind.

‘I should give Jugyeong’s details to those two as well.’

Both are from this world and have experienced social life in more diverse ways, so they might know better than Rembrary himself. Probably.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ardor and the Eastern High Priest fought tirelessly against the pink-haired demon. It was such a relentless battle that even the onlookers were exhausted. When the demon felt overwhelmed, it immediately sent electricity towards the other side. Ardor and the Eastern High Priest had to dodge them quickly with gestures, eye movements, and intuition while also attacking.

That wasn’t all. Teamwork required coordination, but since they were working together for the first time, they could accidentally attack each other while trying to cooperate. Ardor and the Eastern High Priest had to be careful of each other as well. It was a complicated situation.

However, the demon, who had been dealing with the situation with a smile, gradually lost his composure as time passed. But that didn’t necessarily help the Eastern High Priest and Ardor. Both of them had already exceeded their maximum stamina. They had been fighting like this for almost a day, so it was surprising that they hadn’t collapsed from exhaustion.

Feeling that this couldn’t go on, the Eastern High Priest became annoyed. He came to catch that guy, not to be a team. Why is he doing this here? Eventually, he couldn’t help but get annoyed when he stood back-to-back with Ardor.

“You’re a priest. Ha. In this situation, ha. Why do you keep ha. Shooting only?”

“Why are you so [making a ‘hissing’ sound] when you talk?”

“I’m out of breath, out of breath!”

But getting annoyed only made him more annoyed, and the situation didn’t improve. As expected of a Redrine Temple follower, that low-ranking priest was very annoying when he spoke.

At that moment. During the brief moment when the exhausted two turned their anger towards each other, the pink-haired demon suddenly flew in an unexpected direction. At the end of that direction was a long arm. An arm with a hand attached from below the shoulder. That arm with a unique pattern on the palm. The arm that tried to come out of the frog eggs alone. The pink-haired demon was trying to grab that arm, which Ardor was surprised to see, in this gap.

“Stop him!”

“Don’t order me!”

Perhaps because they didn’t expect the proud and arrogant demon to run away with only his arm while fighting, Ardor and the Eastern High Priest hurriedly started running towards that side. However, just as they arrived about three steps away from the demon almost simultaneously, the demon had already snatched up the arm.

And when the two priests took another step forward, he had already taken two steps back with the arm. The demon was faster when running away than when fighting, so the two priests chased after the demon diligently, but they eventually missed him.

“Damn it!”

Unable to chase any further, the Eastern High Priest swung his fist and then stopped, shaking his hand. The recoil caused his body to spin halfway around, and he soon placed his hands on his knees and gasped for breath. As the enemy finally ran away and the tension eased a bit, the fatigue that had accumulated all day suddenly rushed in, and he suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous. He felt so bad that he felt like he was about to vomit. In that position, the Eastern High Priest asked Ardor with his head bowed.

“Who was that guy earlier?”

But even though he waited, there was no answer. Even the Eastern High Priest, who had asked the question, was silent. The Eastern High Priest had stopped talking for a moment to suppress the nausea that had risen almost to the back of his throat. After a while, he closed and opened his eyes forcefully and asked again weakly.

“Who was that guy?”

Again, there was no answer.

“Hey.”

The Eastern High Priest frowned and raised his head. But there was no one there. It wasn’t that there was no answer, but there was no one there. He was sure he had come here together, but he couldn’t see where he had gone in the meantime.

“Where’s the Redrine priest?”

The Eastern High Priest, who was dumbfounded and whose nausea subsided in an instant, asked, and the Grim Reaper, who had come to his side, pointed a finger in a certain direction.

“He was running away somewhere with a smile.”

“With a smile? In the midst of a high-ranking demon appearing? Is that guy part of the Demon King’s gang?”

“If you ask me that, how would I know? I’m not Redrine.”

The Eastern High Priest’s expression turned fierce at the Grim Reaper’s innocent answer.

“That’s right. You’re not Redrine, so you wouldn’t know if that guy is part of the Demon King’s gang. But you’ll know where his body went when he fought the demon. Right?”

“!”

“Let’s say you can’t fight humans here because of the rules. Answer me, Grim Reaper. Isn’t it okay to fight demons? Where did you go and now you’re showing up? Did you think I’d thank you if you showed up out of nowhere and handed me a handkerchief?”

* * *

Even after several days, the issue related to Jugyeong was still sluggish and not properly resolved. However, it would have been even stranger if they had found Jugyeong’s parents in just a few days, even with a much larger number of people, when the training center had been searching for a long time without success.

Still, whenever Rembrary went in and out of the Redrine headquarters, he made sure to ask Daeju about the progress of the matter, so that Daeju wouldn’t forget about it.

But today, the situation was a bit different. Maeng Woo-shin was behind Daeju. Although he was wearing a large hat that covered half of his face, Rembrary immediately recognized Maeng Woo-shin and opened his mouth to say “Maeng.” Of course, he didn’t say the rest, being mindful of the situation.

As Maeng Woo-shin stared at Rembrary with his mouth half-open, worried that Rembrary would say something else, Rembrary quickly omitted the rest and asked Daeju.

“Still no news?”

But why did Maeng Woo-shin come here? It seemed like Maeng Woo-shin was still hiding the fact that he believed in Redrine from people. Is there a reason to come here? Rembrary glanced at Maeng Woo-shin and waited for Daeju’s answer. Daeju, perhaps because of Maeng Woo-shin, omitted the usual “High Priest” and answered.

“Yes. There is still no news.”

Regardless, Daeju, who had answered calmly on his own, bowed goodbye to Rembrary and gestured with his chin for Maeng Woo-shin to go quickly. Seeing that the direction was towards the lobby, it seemed like they were going to leave the headquarters altogether. It seemed like he had brought Maeng Woo-shin to use his defensive abilities.

“Ah, just a moment.”

At that moment. Rembrary suddenly remembered something else to ask and called Daeju again. Daeju, surprised, immediately turned around and looked.

“What is it, Trainee Rembrary?”

Rembrary approached Daeju and asked in a slightly lowered voice.

“Do you happen to remember Senior Im Yu-han?”

He had been repeatedly asking Daeju if he had found Jugyeong’s parents, so he remembered asking where Senior Im Yu-han was before.

“Im Yu-han?”

But the question was asked to Daeju, but Maeng Woo-shin answered first.

“You know Yu-han?”

Rembrary recalled that Maeng Woo-shin seemed relatively close to Im Yu-han in the past and hesitated whether to answer honestly, but he decided to keep his mouth shut, fearing that he might say something wrong and he would notice something strange.

Maeng Woo-shin seems to have a bad memory, but he seems to have a surprisingly good sense of catching even the smallest clues from moment to moment. In this situation, it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

But the answer that came back was unexpected.

“You know he’s missing, right?”

“Vaguely?”

“He hasn’t returned yet, but I think I heard that his younger sibling became a hunter.”

* * *

A few days later. Rembrary finally received news from Jang Tae-ri about Jugyeong’s relatives.

[I don’t know what happened to the family yet, but I found one on the uncle’s side.]

“Then that side might try to take Jugyeong away!”

Moreover, according to the address, that uncle was near the city where Shin Jo-un was staying.

[Since I don’t know what kind of person he is, I’ll have Jo-un go and find that person.]

Rembrary was relieved and asked him to do so, and Jang Tae-ri whistled and sent Shin Jo-un the person’s photo and address. Also, whose photo and address this was, and why it was sent to Shin Jo-un first.

However, Shin Jo-un, who had answered readily, tilted his head repeatedly while looking at the photo of Jugyeong’s uncle that Jang Tae-ri had sent him. He had seen it somewhere. Where had he seen it?

Then he slowly lowered his cell phone. Right in front of him, his ‘dog’ was quietly sleeping. Shin Jo-un tilted his head and stared down at the dog’s face.

‘Is this him?’