Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 353

353. I’ll Help You

“Why are you acting so familiar?”

“You were the one who pretended not to know me first.”

“I just acted according to what I know. Actually, we’re closer than you think.”

“I told you to get close beforehand.”

“You’re still good at acting familiar.”

“You seem to know a lot about me. Are you sure we’re not close?”

Rembrary looked down at the frying pan again. What would happen if he hit that guy with it? Probably only the blackened sugar would fall to the floor, and the guy would likely dodge it. But wouldn’t that guy clean up even the sugar dust?

Rembrary suppressed the frying pan impulse. Right. What was important now wasn’t winning a short-lived argument with that guy.

“Why did you show up here?”

That was what mattered. At Rembrary’s question, Chef Clot took the frying pan that Rembrary kept glancing at and asked back.

“Why are you asking if we’re not close?”

“Let’s say the first fragment of the Demon King crossed over by chance. But the second fragment came from a frog egg. Doesn’t that mean it crossed over properly? Besides, a high-ranking demon took that fragment as if they were waiting for it, and you even set up a large restaurant and disguised yourself as an Awakened One [a person with supernatural abilities]. Two high-ranking demons and two fragments. Doesn’t that seem strange?”

“You’re very interested in our affairs. Aren’t you disguised as an Awakened One too? Is it okay for you but not for me? From the perspective of the people on Earth, aren’t you and I in the same boat?”

“You occupied our world when it was perfectly fine. Why did you bother chasing us all the way here?”

“Are you asking because you feel wronged?”

“I don’t understand.”

“How could someone in the center of light understand us?”

Clot smiled faintly.

“Wasn’t your goal to take over our world? Isn’t that goal almost complete?”

“Soon……”

Soon?

“Oops. Almost said too much.”

“!”

Clot covered his mouth and grinned, and Rembrary frowned. In fact, he had been trying to use ‘The Honest Bet’ [a technique to force someone to tell the truth] since earlier by constantly asking questions. However, Clot wasn’t falling for it.

In order to use ‘The Honest Bet,’ the other person has to answer a question that can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when asked ‘Is that the truth?’ But Clot was cleverly avoiding those answers.

In the end, Rembrary put aside using ‘The Honest Bet’ and used ‘Divine Majesty’ [a powerful divine ability] to look at Clot. He would suppress him and get an answer.

“Wow.”

But Clot only sighed briefly, rubbed the back of his neck, and swallowed hard once. He didn’t react as much as others who succumbed to Divine Majesty.

Seeing that, Rembrary frowned, and Clot pressed the center of his lips upward with his hand and smiled.

“Sorry for the weak reaction, High Priest. But our Demon King usually emits that kind of energy, so I’m used to it. It’s scary, but bearable.”

‘Divine Majesty’ is similar to the energy emitted by the Demon King? Rembrary was even more surprised by Clot’s words than by the fact that ‘Divine Majesty’ didn’t work for the second time.

But recalling the past incident when the Demon King, who briefly appeared in Woo Yeon-woo’s body, was unharmed even after directly receiving ‘Divine Majesty,’ he could combine the two pieces of information and form a plausible hypothesis.

Could the fact that divine power doesn’t work on demons and that Divine Majesty is perceived as similar to the Demon King’s aura be due to similar reasons?

“You seem very surprised, High Priest.”

“……”

“Don’t worry. I won’t harm you today. This is a chance encounter for me too.”

“Today?”

“For the time being. A local demon here told me not to mess with the High Priest. That was the Demon King’s order.”

Local demon. Oh Wan immediately came to Rembrary’s mind. The Earth-born demon who was disguised as the new road manager for Wild Animal.

Following that, he also recalled what the Demon King, who briefly appeared in Woo Yeon-woo’s body, had said to Rembrary.

‘What are you plotting……’

* * *

“Did you not like the food very much?”

On the way back to the Redrine headquarters, Shin Jo-woon glanced sideways at Rembrary, who was sitting in the passenger seat and kept taking out gum to chew.

After coming back from a brief phone call, he saw Rembrary leaning against the counter with a frustrated face, and the gourmet Awakened chef was nowhere to be seen.

He briefly thought, ‘Did they fight?’ but Rembrary smiled, saying, ‘It’s nothing,’ so he just passed it by. But with Rembrary not saying a word like that on the way back, he began to suspect that they really had fought.

“Or do you not like the person?”

“Anchovy.”

“If you don’t like the person, should I just pack the food and bring it to you? He’s definitely good at cooking.”

“Anchovy.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t go to that restaurant in the future.”

“Not ‘Let’s go to that restaurant from now on’? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not kidding. Really. ……Don’t go there. It’s better to stay away from him.”

Besides, he was pretending to be an ordinary chef, but that demon was a vampire. Those who live by drinking human blood.

“Aren’t you weak?”

While waiting for the signal, Shin Jo-woon turned to Rembrary, puzzled. Rembrary had a serious expression. He didn’t seem to be joking.

* * *

Rembrary returned to his room, turned on the computer, and sat in his chair.

However, even with the bright sandy beach background automatically set on the monitor, Rembrary only rested his chin on his hand and pondered, without touching the computer any further.

As time passed and the monitor screen turned black in lock mode, Rembrary still didn’t move.

A few hours ago. The news that Redrine had conveyed to Rembrary was good news. The news that Redrine’s power was gradually increasing.

It was said that Rembrary’s efforts were greatly helping to change people’s perception of the ‘Redrine Hunter Company.’ Redrine was still weak compared to her power in the original world, but the situation was improving rapidly.

But to hear such unsettling news right after hearing good news. Rembrary blankly shook the mouse to bring color back to the darkened monitor screen.

At that moment. He felt someone coming over the window. Turning the rotating chair towards the window, he saw a tiger-headed and a bull-headed beast.

Remembering the instructions he had given them, Rembrary quickly jumped up.

“Did you search the lab? Any abnormalities? Did you find anything?”

As Rembrary poured out questions, the tiger-headed beast answered.

“[There was no one trapped in the lab.]”

Rembrary was disappointed, but the tiger-headed beast’s words didn’t end there.

“[But there was definitely more space below it. They might be there.]”

“Space?”

“[We tried to follow as we went down, but someone had set up a barrier, so we couldn’t go in.]”

“A barrier? There’s a barrier set up in the lab that you can’t enter?”

There were plenty of people who were Awakened but didn’t even have the ‘eyes’ to see monsters. But there was someone who not only saw monsters but even set up a barrier to prevent them from entering?

“Who set it up?”

“[We couldn’t tell. It was already completed.]”

“A barrier……”

“[Call us when you find out how to remove the barrier. We’ll spy inside again then.]”

It’s too daunting…… How do I find someone who can remove the barrier? Rembrary fell into *go min* [Korean: 고민, meaning deep thought or worry].

As he was doing that, the tiger-headed beast was about to take the bull-headed beast and leave, but as if something came to mind, he turned back and informed him.

“[Great High Priest. You asked me to go and see inside somewhere before, didn’t you?]”

“Oh, yeah.”

He had asked him to spy on Daeju’s headquarters. Because he couldn’t completely trust Daeju at the time.

“[The barrier I saw then was similar.]”

* * *

As soon as the two beasts left, Rembrary went straight to Daeju.

“Ah, Daeju-nim [honorific title]. What should I do? Daeju-nim has gone to another non-metropolitan city for a while on other business.”

But when he asked the secretary because Daeju was not visible, it was ‘going on the day of the market’ [idiom for bad timing], and Daeju happened to be away.

“When will he be back?”

“I’m sorry, Rembrary-nim [honorific title]. Daeju-nim leaves his seat irregularly like this, and sometimes he comes back quickly, but sometimes it takes a while. No one knows exactly how many days it will take.”

Come to think of it, when I first came here, Daeju was away, so I couldn’t reach him right away. Besides, I remember that it took quite a while to go to World Boom through the training center at that time. It’s not a very long period, but.

Rembrary greeted the secretary and returned to his room and sent a text message to Daeju.

“[Daeju-ya. I have something to ask you about the barrier. Are you busy now?]”

But he must be very busy because he didn’t get a reply right away. In fact, the reply arrived after Rembrary had spent twelve hours diligently, such as talking to Joo Kyung and managing SNS.

“[I’ll help you, Great High Priest]”

A text message full of typos. There was no next reply.

‘It sounds like he’s asking for help?’

Surprised, Rembrary quickly called him on his cell phone.

“[The power is turned off, so after the beep, sound source……]”

But when he called, this time the power was completely turned off.

‘It seems like a serious matter.’

Rembrary tried calling Lion Lord, but Lion Lord was still recovering from the wound on his pride, so he didn’t answer the phone either.

Rembrary went back to the secretary, told her this story, and asked.

“I sent a text message to Daeju, and he replied that he needed help. The power is also turned off. It seems like something happened. It seems dangerous, so shouldn’t we go find him?”

The secretary checked the text message that Rembrary showed her. However, unexpectedly, instead of saying that she would go to help right away, she hesitated with a troubled face.

“Why is that?”

Rembrary asked because the expression was unusual, and the secretary hesitated and explained.

“Actually, Daeju-nim told me not to look for him no matter what when he goes out alone irregularly like this.”

“Even in a dangerous situation?”

“Even before, there was a time when I couldn’t contact him for about fifteen days, so I went to the place that Daeju-nim told me he would go to. I couldn’t find him, though. Besides, I was only scolded by Daeju-nim when he came back later.”

Is it because he’s afraid of showing the process of bringing in people from another world? Rembrary could guess why Daeju gave such instructions, so he didn’t urge the secretary any further and asked.

“Then just tell me the location. Where did he go? I’ll go.”

“Ah…… well……”

“What now?”

“It’s a non-metropolitan city a bit far away. But if you’re going to Daeju-nim, I can’t provide you with a driver. All the drivers are hunters belonging to this place, so they’re under Daeju-nim’s command.”

The secretary added, looking at Rembrary’s face.

“Rembrary-nim can’t drive, so it’s better to stay here……”

Rembrary then thought, ‘I should take Shin Jo-woon.’ Shin Jo-woon doesn’t need to follow Daeju’s orders and is good at driving.

However, he soon realized that he couldn’t take Shin Jo-woon for the same reason that he couldn’t take people from the Redrine Hunter Company.

‘Ah, Senior Maeng.’

The second person that came to mind was Maeng Woo-shin.

‘It seemed like Daeju took him with him at times like this. Then it might be okay to take him.’

However, when he called Maeng Woo-shin, his phone was also turned off, as if Daeju had already taken him.

‘Did he already take him?’

If it comes to this…… there was no other way.

“I’ll drive.”

“Yes?”