Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 352

352. Gourmet Ability User

Rembrary was about to answer, but before he could, the other hulks rushed towards Shin Joong-woon.

“You bastard, die!”

“Come at me, all of you!”

‘Shouldn’t ‘Come at me, all of you!’ be said by the smaller group?’ Rembrary thought, but in terms of raw power, the smaller group was definitely those hulks. As soon as they took a vigorous step to charge, they all lost their balance and toppled forward.

Rembrary was slightly worried if their noses were broken, as the hulks fell painfully.

Before they knew it, the area around their knees had transformed as if they were wearing belts made of ice.

As some of them writhed and turned to face forward, Rembrary discovered that their mouths were also frozen as if they had wide ice tongs inserted.

While the hulks writhed like toppled dominoes, Shin Joong-woon took the paper from the first hulk whose hand he had frozen. It was the paper that Rembrary had signed.

Shin Joong-woon scanned the letters written on the paper, looked at Rembrary’s signature at the bottom, tilted his head, and asked Rembrary again.

“What is this?”

Rembrary, who had missed the timing to speak, quickly replied at this opportunity.

“It’s my autograph. But you don’t seem to like it.”

“…….”

“What seems to be the problem? Is my autograph too idol-like?”

“Hmm.”

Shin Joong-woon narrowed his eyes.

Rembrary pointed to the ;; next to the emoticon with his finger.

“Is the problem the sweat droplets next to the idol emoticon?”

Shin Joong-woon frowned for a moment, thought about it, and gave Rembrary, like a former entertainment agency president, a tip.

“Yeah. The sweat droplets seem to be the problem. It’s better to remove them.”

“What about the other parts?”

“It’s well-written.”

“Then why are you so angry?”

“How many people are there, and you only gave them one? They must have been begging for more.”

“Ah.”

As Rembrary nodded, Shin Joong-woon folded the paper, kept it, and pulled Rembrary closer, saying that he didn’t need to sign autographs for these kinds of guys.

Then, he gave the bodyguard a look that said, ‘Clean up,’ and the bodyguard hurriedly replied, “Yes, yes!” and rushed towards the hulks with their legs and mouths frozen.

Rembrary was impressed by Shin Joong-woon’s appearance, who suddenly appeared and cleaned up the situation.

“Anchovy, you’re smart!”

When Shin Joong-woon heard that, he clenched his lips tightly and lowered his gaze. Rembrary thought he was shy because he had been praised after a long time, and poured out more compliments to boost his self-esteem.

“Will you become my henchman? You have talent.”

Instead of answering, Shin Joong-woon took out an anchovy, put it in Rembrary’s mouth, and asked.

“Why did you come here?”

“I came to see Uncle Joo-kyung. What about you?”

“I came to find him too.”

“I came because I thought it would be better to find out the detailed situation rather than just giving you the address. I didn’t expect you to come right away.”

There were still some suspicious aspects, but Rembrary accepted it for now.

The two went together to the house where Uncle Joo-kyung had moved.

“Anchovy, do you happen to know that Uncle Joo-kyung is a Fallen Being [a being who has fallen from grace or a higher state of existence]?”

“Really? I didn’t know.”

“He is a Fallen Being.”

“How did you know that?”

“I went there and saw Woo Sung-woo.”

“Woo Sung-woo. Ah, Woo Sung-woo.”

“How have you been with Woo Sung-woo these days? Do you keep in touch?”

“Is there a need to do that?”

“Don’t you hate Fallen Beings?”

“…….”

At Rembrary’s words, Shin Joong-woon suddenly became silent.

Rembrary carefully moved his feet to avoid the unidentified black mass and looked to the side.

Shin Joong-woon was following along well beside him. He had a subtle smile on his lips. But why did he suddenly stop talking?

Besides, what was that unsettling smile on the corner of his lips? Just as Rembrary was about to ask, Shin Joong-woon suddenly smiled as usual and pointed somewhere with a nod.

“That’s the place. We’ve arrived.”

Rembrary looked in the direction Shin Joong-woon was pointing.

There was a shabby house where the gray paint on the lower part of the wall was all peeled off, and there was even a fist-sized hole in one side of the wall, revealing the steel frame structure.

The door looked so weak that it would open if kicked a few times, and the walls also had holes here and there, so it was far from being a security measure and looked more like an indoor climbing facility for children.

“He moved there?”

Compared to the house where Uncle Joo-kyung used to live, the appearance was incomparable, and Rembrary became even more suspicious.

Uncle Joo-kyung had a good job and lived in a good house even within the city. But such a person moved to a poor house in a dangerous non-urban area because he didn’t want to raise his nephew……?

“Let’s go in for now.”

When they arrived at the house, Shin Joong-woon knocked on the door. After waiting for a while, a man came out from inside.

“Who is it?”

The man was wearing neat training clothes, and his age seemed to be just like Uncle Joo-kyung.

“Do you happen to have a nephew named Joo-kyung and a child?”

When Rembrary asked, the man frowned and asked in an even more unpleasant voice.

“What is it? Did my brother send you?”

“Is he your nephew?”

“There might be a kid named Joo-kyung or Joo-young. Why?”

‘Is he really Uncle Joo-kyung?’ Rembrary frowned and looked at Shin Joong-woon.

Shin Joong-woon was looking at Uncle Joo-kyung with a calm face.

Then, when he felt Rembrary’s gaze, he looked over and asked, “Why?” with a simple smile.

Rembrary shook his head and spoke to Uncle Joo-kyung again.

He told the story of how he met Joo-kyung, Joo-kyung’s current condition, where he is staying now, and whether he wanted to take responsibility for Joo-kyung, etc.

“What? No way. Why would I?”

“Your nephew…….”

“So what if he’s my nephew? Even if it were the other way around, my brother would have done the same, right? It’s been over ten years since we cut ties. Do you know what kind of person my brother is? He didn’t give me a penny for hospital bills when I was having a hard time. But I’m supposed to help my brother’s child? No, why would I?”

However, Uncle Joo-kyung showed a similar reaction to the one Shin Joong-woon had conveyed.

The only difference was that Uncle Joo-kyung explained his feelings in more detail than Shin Joong-woon had.

Then, Uncle Joo-kyung grabbed the doorknob as if he was trying to go back inside quickly.

However, Rembrary reached out and grabbed his wrist.

Uncle Joo-kyung looked at him with eyes that said, ‘What is this again?’ and Rembrary asked.

“Why did you move here?”

“What? What’s it to you?”

“A good job, a good house, a safe neighborhood, why did you abandon everything and come here?”

He had confirmed that everything Shin Joong-woon had said was true, but he still couldn’t understand his actions.

However, Uncle Joo-kyung, who had been answering well all along, frowned at Rembrary’s question.

“I’m asking what’s it to you! Did he tell you to investigate me?”

Uncle Joo-kyung shouted and shook off his arm, then slammed the door shut and went into the room.

As Rembrary slowly lowered his hand that was floating in the air, Shin Joong-woon wrapped his arm around Rembrary’s shoulder.

“It’s okay. You’ve cared a lot already. Why bother persuading him when he doesn’t want to?”

“I’m not trying to persuade him…….”

“Even if you force him to take responsibility when he doesn’t want to, both of you will be unhappy.”

“I’m not trying to entrust him…….”

“Let’s go use the free tasting tickets Tae-ri gave us. Huh?”

* * *

Jang Tae-ri gave two tasting tickets, so Rembrary was planning to use both of them alone.

However, as he followed Shin Joong-woon, one of the tasting tickets was used by Shin Joong-woon.

Rembrary didn’t like that, but he suppressed it inside, thinking that arguing about it would damage his broad and benevolent image, and entered the building where the event was taking place.

The building was full of people, and the interior was a bit unique.

There were many tables, but no chairs, and each table was set with different foods along with empty plates. The food plates were covered with transparent lids, so people who wanted to eat could open the lids and put the food on the empty plates.

“Are you not receiving customers yet?”

“They’re only doing the tasting event. The official opening is next month.”

“You speak as if you know?”

“I get news about this and that. Especially regarding hunters.”

However, as Shin Joong-woon and Rembrary went up from the 1st floor to the 5th floor, taking a little bit of each type of food,

“President Shin Joong-woon. Mr. Rembrary.”

Someone called out to the two of them in a voice as soft as the cream puff they had just eaten.

When they turned around, a blonde chef with a complexion as pale as a persimmon stood there with a faint smile on his lips.

When the two looked at him, the chef put his hand in front of his stomach and greeted them.

“It’s an honor to have you two come here in person. I’m Clotte, the chef here.”

While Shin Joong-woon was exchanging greetings with the chef, Rembrary frowned and stared intently at the blonde chef.

‘That guy……?’

The chef, Clotte, who received his gaze, looked at Rembrary again and asked kindly.

“Do you like the food?”

“It’s delicious. Very much so.”

“I was originally good at cooking. But now that I have the ability to make it ‘ten times more delicious,’ there’s no way it can’t be delicious.”

Chef Clotte smiled pleasantly, saying that unless an Awakened person of the same type with a higher stat appeared, there would be no chef who could make more delicious food than him.

Then, Clotte suddenly made a suggestion to Rembrary.

“Mr. Rembrary, you like cooking, so you must be good at it?”

“No.”

“Have you ever tried it?”

“I don’t know.”

“People who like cooking are naturally good at it. Mr. Rembrary might be good at cooking too. Would you like to go into the kitchen and try it?”

People who were tasting around them looked at this scene and whispered among themselves.

“The person with President Shin Joong-woon, he’s a healer, right?”

“The gourmet Awakened is using his head. He’s trying to look good to the healer.”

“That makes sense. I would do the same if I were him.”

It was an unexpected suggestion, but Rembrary thought about it for a moment and accepted the offer.

“This way.”

The gourmet Awakened asked Shin Joong-woon to come with them, but Shin Joong-woon received a call from his secretary and went outside to talk for a while.

Rembrary followed Chef Clotte into the kitchen alone without Shin Joong-woon.

If it was a large five-story restaurant, there should be a lot of chefs, but perhaps because they were cooking with their Awakened abilities, there was no one in the kitchen.

“Do you work alone?”

“That’s not the case, but during the tasting event, we only need to prepare the food once. But there are fewer chefs than in other restaurants.”

Rembrary looked down at the frying pan. On top of it, sugar powder was hardened and clustered together, and a faint burnt smell and sweet smell mixed together.

Rembrary looked down at it and finally asked the question that he had been wondering since he saw Chef Clotte earlier.

“The Devil’s Chef. Vampire Clotte. When did you come here?”

Rembrary slowly turned his head back.

Behind him, Chef Clotte was standing with his mouth open, revealing his white fangs, aiming for his neck. When their eyes met, he smiled.

“I was sad that you kept pretending not to know, High Priest.”