Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 335

335. I Need to Meet Him Myself

Lim Yu-seol gripped the straps of her backpack tightly.

“Do you really have to go?”

Lim Yu-han’s manager gripped the steering wheel, leaning her head out the window to ask. Her worried voice didn’t sound like empty words.

“Thanks for the ride, sis.”

Lim Yu-seol closed the car door and stepped back. The sound of her stepping on leaves made the manager flinch.

“You can go in now. I’ll find my way up.”

Lim Yu-seol glanced behind her and muttered.

There are two types of Awakened: those with ‘eyes’ and those without. I don’t know what makes the difference, but what’s certain is that Lim Yu-han’s manager was neither.

That was a relief. If the manager had seen ‘something’ with a tail nearly 2 meters long wrapped around a tree, dangling down, she would have absolutely stopped Lim Yu-seol from entering the forest.

“Yu-seol, I don’t want you to go.”

Of course, even without seeing the monster, the manager kept trying to dissuade her. No, she had been trying to stop Lim Yu-seol even before they left, and all the way here in the car.

“You saw what happened when Yu-han went missing. How hard it was on your parents. If something happens to you, how could I ever face them?”

“Just don’t look at them.”

“Lim Yu-seol!”

“Just kidding. Don’t worry. It’s not like I haven’t done this before.”

“That’s exactly why I’m worried.”

“It’s okay. I’ll just take a quick look around. This is what Hunters do, you know.”

But no matter how earnestly the manager tried to persuade her, Lim Yu-seol had already made up her mind. She smiled brightly, waved to the manager, and turned away.

Lim Yu-seol walked into the dark forest path with a light step, as if taking a stroll. But to the manager, her retreating figure looked nothing but anxious, and the car couldn’t leave the spot for a long time.

* * *

The trail leading into the forest. Once frequented by countless hikers, the path was now a mix of human and monster footprints, causing a sharp decline in visitors, and now appeared completely unmanaged.

Walking along that trail, she finally came to a very small village where houses were sparsely scattered.

A village so small that you could count the number of houses at a glance, and most of them were in poor condition. Perhaps it was difficult to find and transport materials for repairs, or perhaps monsters attacked regularly, but many of the houses had wood patched haphazardly onto the walls, making them look both sturdy and fragile.

Among them, there was a sign that still read ‘Pajeon [Korean savory pancake], Acorn Jelly Specialist,’ indicating that it had once been a restaurant.

“Excuse me.”

Lim Yu-seol approached an old man who was squatting under a large tree, dozing off. She wondered if he would wake up, but the old man immediately opened his eyes wide.

“You here for the pajeon?”

“Ah, so you’re the owner of the place. I’ll have the pajeon on my way back. I heard there’s a lake around here where mermaids appear.”

“You came to see the mermaids?”

“Yes. Do you know about it?”

At Lim Yu-seol’s question, the old man grinned, revealing his teeth.

“Are you a Hunter, miss? We’ve had a few young people like you come by. In a world where monsters roam everywhere outside the city, I don’t know why they have such a fantasy about mermaid-like monsters. They come all the way here to see them. We’re just glad we can keep making a living in this remote place thanks to them.”

The old man said he was glad, but he didn’t seem very happy. Lim Yu-seol awkwardly laughed along.

“I guess so. Still, I was curious because I heard there’s a mermaid who looks like a celebrity.”

“Well, there’s talk like that.”

“Is it true…?”

“No one’s ever seen her.”

“Ah.”

A look of disappointment flashed across Lim Yu-seol’s face. The old man immediately noticed it and clicked his tongue.

“You didn’t come here to see the mermaids, did you? I can tell by your expression.”

“Pardon?”

Lim Yu-seol’s eyes widened at the pointed remark. The old man scrutinized her face sharply and advised.

“Is there a monster that looks like someone you know? Be careful, miss. If monsters resemble someone, it means they killed and ate that person and stole their appearance, not that the person turned into a monster.”

It was a scary thing to say, but Lim Yu-seol smiled faintly and pointed in the opposite direction from where she had come.

“If I go further in from here, there’s a lake where the mermaids appear, right?”

No matter what the old man said, she intended to go. She had no choice. Lim Yu-seol was looking for her older sister, who had suddenly disappeared a few years ago.

While others might have come to see a mermaid who looked like a celebrity, she had come to find her family. Like other rumors, there was a high possibility that this was just nonsense, but she still had to go and see.

If she was going to turn back just because she was scared, she wouldn’t have quit her stable job and become a Hunter in the first place.

“Thank you for the information. I’ll buy the pajeon on my way back.”

Lim Yu-seol smiled amiably and walked back in the direction where she guessed the lake would be.

The old man stared intently at her retreating figure, shaking his head as soon as Lim Yu-seol was completely out of sight.

“I guess I won’t be selling any pajeon today.”

* * *

Rembrary was worried that Ardour might take out his gun and shoot the Lion Lord. It wasn’t like the Lord would be hurt by it, but shooting a gun would damage the room. He didn’t like damaged rooms.

But unexpectedly, when Rembrary told him to continue the story about the demons, Ardour immediately returned to the original topic.

“I’ve already told you the important parts.”

Rembrary crossed his arms and became serious. This alone was already huge.

The Demon King inside Woo Yeon-woo was one thing, whether he somehow followed when he crossed over, or got attached, or got sucked in, whatever, he inevitably came along. But a new part had crossed over.

Moreover, this time it wasn’t a fragment of the soul, but a fragment of the body. Not only that, but a high-ranking demon had come to retrieve it. That meant they already knew that a part of the Demon King would cross over here.

‘Is this a pre-planned event?’

The Lion Lord, avoiding Ardour who kept glaring at his beard, looked at Rembrary, who was unusually serious, as if wondering what was wrong.

“What’s wrong? Why do you look like that?”

“Get lost, heretic.”

“Who are you to tell me to get lost?”

“Despicable…”

While the Lion Lord and Ardour were bickering, Rembrary finished his thoughts and took out his phone.

“What are you doing?”

The Lion Lord asked, even as Ardour was giving him the side-eye, but Rembrary was too focused on this matter to pay attention, and just raised his hand to signal ‘later’ and continued to focus on his phone. Soon, the ringing continued, and finally someone answered the phone.

[Hey, Rembrary. I told you not to approach people around me, right?]

The person Rembrary called was Jong-woo, but the person who answered was Woo Yeon-woo.

Judging from Jong-woo’s voice beyond Woo Yeon-woo’s, saying, “Hey, it’s my phone, why are you answering it! Give it back!”, it seemed that Woo Yeon-woo had taken Jong-woo’s phone without permission when Rembrary’s name appeared on the caller ID.

But it didn’t matter.

“I called you.”

After all, the person Rembrary wanted to talk to was Woo Yeon-woo.

[Why me again?]

Perhaps it was an unexpected remark, but Woo Yeon-woo’s flustered voice was clearly conveyed. Rembrary sat on the bed and proposed.

“Let’s meet.”

It was quiet for a moment, but soon Woo Yeon-woo started yelling.

[Are you crazy? Why would I meet you? What kind of scheme are you planning!]

There was no particular scheme. Rembrary just wanted to meet the Demon King fragment inside Woo Yeon-woo and hear why the Demon King’s body had crossed over here.

But if he said that, Woo Yeon-woo would definitely not come out. Wasn’t Woo Yeon-woo’s animosity towards Rembrary also due to the fear of being possessed?

That fear wouldn’t just disappear when it came to the Demon King, so Woo Yeon-woo probably wouldn’t like the idea of the Demon King taking over his body either.

Meanwhile.

The Lion Lord, seeing that Rembrary wasn’t even paying attention to him and was only focused on the call, approached the refrigerator in the corner of the room and opened the door. He knew that Rembrary kept a stash of snacks and drinks inside, so he wanted to take one out.

“Huh?”

But when he opened the refrigerator door, he saw a camera placed among the various snacks and drinks.

“Rembrary, why is there a camera here?”

The Lion Lord asked as he took out the camera, but Rembrary couldn’t hear him properly because Woo Yeon-woo was yelling so loudly over the phone, and just waved his hand.

“You can eat it.”

Ardour, who had adapted quite well to this world, glared at the sulking Lion Lord, but became curious when he saw the camera and approached.

“Rembrary said you could eat that, right? Are you sure you’re supposed to eat that? A food that looks like a camera?”

“…It just looks like a regular camera to me.”

“You don’t understand words very well, Lion. Saying you can eat something you can’t eat means you’re telling them to eat and die.”

“Rembrary has an unexpectedly clueless side. He probably forgot and left it here.”

While the two of them were fiddling with the camera, Rembrary, unable to bear listening to Woo Yeon-woo’s loud voice any longer, tapped his phone to cut him off and interjected.

“I didn’t want to do this, but I have to get you out this time, so I’ll do it once.”

[What! What!]

“If you don’t come out, I’ll spread rumors about us to people.”

Beyond the phone, Woo Yeon-woo’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he raised his voice.

[About us? About us? What are you going to say?]

* * *

At that moment.

One of Rembrary’s fans went to Rembrary’s broadcast channel, but was disappointed to see that both the room channel and the self-cam channel were turned off again, and cursed Kim Mu-rok.

“Kim Mu-rok has lost his touch. He went all the way to cover Rembrary, but why is he covering some cult company 24 hours a day that no one is even curious about?”

But just as he was grumbling, the word LIVE appeared and the screen turned on.

“Wow! Rembrary is broadcasting!”

Rembrary’s fan, who had been about to turn off the computer, retracted his hand and took out some puffed rice cakes while checking whether Rembrary was broadcasting from the self-cam or the room camera. He had to watch while eating.

But…

‘A lion?’

What he saw in front of him wasn’t Rembrary’s face, but a lion mask. Moreover, judging from the way the screen was rolling around, the lion mask was holding the camera in its hand and rolling it around.

No, what’s wrong with him? Just as Rembrary’s fan, who was feeling dizzy for no reason, was about to frown, Rembrary’s voice was heard beyond the dizzying screen.

[What would people say if they knew that the national hero Woo Yeon-woo was once mixed up with me?]

‘Huh?’

Rembrary’s fan put a puffed rice cake in his mouth and stared at the screen with wide eyes. What was that he just heard?