Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 347

347. Keeping Promises

“Why would that be?”

The moment he asked the question, something flew towards him at high speed. It was a shoe. The lab director quickly ducked.

The shoe flew rapidly towards where he had been standing, hitting the wall with a thud. As the shoe bounced off the wall and rolled near the lab director’s feet, he looked up in bewilderment.

“Hey, Rem…”

The moment he looked up, he saw Rembrary holding up the other shoe.

“Shoes come in pairs.”

“!”

* * *

The lab director blinked blankly. He did so several times without even registering the light, before he barely regained consciousness at the rustling sound next to him.

As his focus sharpened and he recognized the familiar ceiling pattern, realizing which room and floor he was on, the lab director abruptly sat up.

“You’re awake.”

The lab director quickly turned to the side. The person who spoke was Rembrary. The crisp, crunchy sound was from Rembrary eating a snack.

“What happened?”

“I hit you.”

“Pardon?”

“With a shoe. You.”

Rembrary was unabashed. The lab director carefully retraced the events before he lost consciousness.

Right, the monster brought in for testing was about to attack him… suddenly, the monster ran away to the corner… and then Rembrary threw his shoe…

“I was trying to see how many abilities I could bind together. It’s embarrassing that you attacked with physical strength and force.”

The lab director muttered in disbelief as he recalled everything, roughly fixing his disheveled hair with one hand while lying down.

Fortunately, his hair, well-fixed with mousse, was mostly intact, but Rembrary’s reply was not so fortunate.

“Why? Didn’t you find out?”

“All I saw was you throwing and swinging your shoe.”

“Exactly.”

“?”

“Didn’t you find out that you couldn’t seal anything?”

“!”

“Don’t tell me. You really thought I just threw a shoe?”

“You mean…”

“Oh dear. You don’t even know what ability I used.”

Rembrary smiled as if he felt sorry for him, putting another snack in his mouth. The crunching sound no longer sounded cheerful.

The lab director gripped the blanket tightly, shocked. Seeing his face stained with humiliation, Rembrary finally felt a little better from the sudden emotional downpour.

“The scenery here is nice.”

* * *

When the lab director, having regained some composure, went outside, his secretary, who had been pacing anxiously in the hallway, approached and asked.

“Director! Are you okay?”

Was he okay? Did he look okay? The lab director pressed his fingers to his temples, pointing to the closed door.

“I can understand me being knocked out. But why is that guy eating snacks while watching me?”

The secretary whispered quietly, so as not to be overheard.

“He said he’d take responsibility for waking you up since you fainted because of him.”

“And you… just let it happen?”

“He insisted he was the best at healing since he’s a healer.”

“You believed that?”

The lab director briefly wondered what criteria he had used to hire his secretary. First come, first served?

Even if the other person was a healer, he was knocked out by that healer in the first place. And they left him alone in the room with that violent healer? Who knew what that healer would do?

“Of course not…”

The secretary mumbled, discouraged.

“There was some kind of threat and trickery involved, so it ended up like this.”

The lab director was about to ask what kind of threat he had received that made him sell out his boss when there was a knock on the door.

Turning his head, Rembrary opened the door halfway and informed them.

“The soundproofing here isn’t great. You can hear everything anyway, so why don’t you just come in and talk?”

* * *

“Tell me honestly exactly what you want. That way, I can at least think about how much help I can give.”

Once the situation had calmed down somewhat, Rembrary said, tearing open a bag of emergency snacks that the lab director had kept separately.

His attitude was so natural that anyone would think they were his own snacks. The lab director was suddenly reminded of the moment he was hit with the shoe.

*I want to take his snacks away. I want to take them away even more because he’s eating so well.* The lab director’s fingers twitched as an uncharacteristic thought crossed his mind.

But only for a moment. He suppressed the impulse and answered with his usual friendly smile.

“You’re right. Listening to you, Rembrary, I should have done that from the start. Then, can I take an MRI and draw some blood?”

“No.”

“…Why did you suggest I ask if you were just going to refuse immediately?”

“So I’d be less surprised.”

The lab director frowned. For about two seconds. But he soon regained his composure and smiled again.

“I see.”

“…”

“…”

“Why are you suddenly silent?”

“I was thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“I can’t seal abilities with my own power. And you don’t seem willing to cooperate willingly. So, what should I do now? That’s what I’m thinking.”

“It’s not that I have no intention of cooperating at all.”

“You look like you have no intention at all.”

“No, really, I don’t have none.”

He was serious. He needed to search every corner of this lab to see if his people were trapped here.

Rembrary recalled the three-eyed monster that had been asleep when wearing something that looked like an oxygen mask, but immediately became active when it was removed.

It wasn’t one of his people, but it was clear that this lab was holding ‘monsters.’

People from another world could easily be mistaken for ‘monsters’ immediately after hatching from their frog eggs, so the possibility of his people being held here was high, judging by that monster case alone.

“Then, you first, Rembrary. Tell me where and to what extent you can cooperate.”

“Let me see the inside of this place. Every single place.”

“Including classified locations?”

“That would be nice.”

At Rembrary’s suggestion, the lab director smiled with a twist in his eyes.

“This isn’t cooperation from you, Rembrary, is it? Isn’t it cooperation from me?”

“Right. I said it first. Is it not allowed?”

“If I show you the inside, what will you give me in return, Rembrary? Something equivalent?”

“What do you want?”

“For example, blood.”

“I said blood is out of the question.”

“Then how about saliva?”

“!”

When Rembrary frowned and stared at him, the lab director shrugged and asked.

“Then how about giving you President Shin Jo-woon’s blood?”

“Why the anchovy?” [Referring to Shin Jo-woon’s ability to transform into an anchovy.]

“He’s the second most interesting Awakened to me.”

“The anchovy is?”

The anchovy’s abilities seemed unremarkable. Wasn’t he weak?

The lab director had clearly said that Rembrary was the first and Team Leader Ham was the third most interesting Awakened. So, Shin Jo-woon was in between…

The woman named Team Leader Ham had an ability that interfered with other people’s abilities, and it seemed closely related to the research topic, so it made sense that the lab director was interested in her.

But Shin Jo-woon could freely control his abilities, but compared to other people’s abilities, there was nothing particularly unique about him, was there? Besides, his ability seemed unrelated to the lab director’s research topic.

His ability to transform between an anchovy and a whale was amazing, but that wasn’t an area that a scientist could research and find out. Maybe a psychologist could study it.

“How is it?”

The lab director asked, testing Rembrary, who was lost in thought. He didn’t want to be a research subject himself, but he’d be okay with others being research subjects? That’s how he seemed to be thinking.

The Rembrary he saw was someone who easily answered questions about other people’s affairs if it wasn’t his own business.

Rembrary thought for a moment and decided to meet his expectations.

“Okay. I’ll give you the anchovy’s blood. That’s fine.”

* * *

After promising to sell out the anchovy, Rembrary was guided by the lab director to various places inside the building.

He wondered if that guy would do something strange again, but perhaps because his schemes had failed twice, fortunately, nothing like that happened. But…

‘There’s nothing here.’

The lab was so ordinary that Rembrary didn’t see anything he wanted. No monsters roaring in cages, no people from another world trapped in rooms with only a small window.

Of course, there were people involved in the research.

“The red clothes lined up over there are Awakened [individuals with supernatural abilities], and the blue clothes are non-Awakened.”

But they were also participating voluntarily without any restraints. There was no scene like Rembrary had expected.

“To properly understand the difference between Awakened and non-Awakened, we take blood, hair, nails, CT, and MRI data from both sides and examine them. Of course, we also provide compensation for that.”

“I see. There seem to be a lot of applicants.”

“Because it’s a tough world to make a living in.”

But Rembrary was sure that what the lab director had shown him wasn’t everything.

It had to be. A few hours ago, Rembrary had been attacked by a monster that had its powers sealed. But now, even that monster was nowhere to be seen. Clearly, there was a part of this place that the director wasn’t showing him.

‘Should I bring the Lion Lord? But the Lion Lord’s ability is so unique that you can immediately tell who it is if you look at the CCTV. Everyone knows that the Lion Lord is traveling with me now.’

If he brought the Lion Lord to a national institution secretly at night, wouldn’t that be classified as theft or trespassing? Then the Redrine image, which had just begun to rise, would fall…

Rembrary sighed, but nothing changed.

* * *

After touring the lab once like that, Rembrary was about to return without any particular gain.

“Come again anytime.”

The lab director smiled as he saw him off, but since neither the lab director nor Rembrary had gotten what they wanted, that smile probably wasn’t a real smile either.

“Okay. I’ll come if I’m sleepy.”

“Yes. I’ll prepare more sleeping pills.”

Rembrary clicked his tongue and went outside the lab. The car he had come in was already there, and the same driver was waiting for him.

The driver was happy to see Rembrary again and smiled brightly. Rembrary quickly approached him.

“Mr. Rembrary.”

But the lab director called out to Rembrary once more as he was about to get into the car. With one foot already in the car, he turned his head, and the lab director was standing at the entrance, smiling.

Seeing those eyes, Rembrary nodded, realizing ‘Oh, right.’

“Ah, right. I have to keep my promise.”

After saying that, Rembrary muttered, “I’ll give it to you now,” and approached the lab director right in front of him.

“Now?”

*Does he usually carry Shin Jo-woon’s blood around?* As he wondered, Rembrary grabbed his hand and made him open his palm.

“The promised anchovy. Take out the blood and use it yourself.”

Then, he took out the prepared anchovies, which he carried around in small portions in plastic bags, from his pocket and placed them on his palm. The lab director stared down at them with a stiff expression before blankly raising his gaze.

As their eyes met, Rembrary smiled brightly and folded his fingers one by one to make him hold the anchovies tightly.