Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 368

368. Yama’s Decision

“No.”

Lumena refused outright. Startled, Rembrary asked, “You can’t grant my request?”

“If you suddenly bring me here after a car crash and then ask for a favor, who would grant it?”

“I didn’t crash on purpose, Lumena. I just got a little confused between the accelerator and the brake.”

The staff, who had been watching with narrowed eyes, were dumbfounded by Rembrary’s excuse, their mouths agape. If he was mixing those two up, he shouldn’t be driving at all.

But Lumena accepted it immediately, as if she’d expected it.

“There’s no way someone who’s never even driven a carriage could be good at driving.”

“I’m good at riding horses, though.”

“Then you should ride a bicycle.”

“Horses have four legs, bicycles have two, and cars have four, though?”

Lumena looked around and sighed when she noticed everyone taking out their phones and pointing them at them.

“Let’s talk somewhere else. Too many eyes here.”

* * *

As soon as they moved to a room cafe [private karaoke room] nearby, Lumena created a barrier to prevent eavesdropping and asked, “What kind of favor requires you to come to me? What about that bastard you follow?”

“Redrin isn’t answering right now. I think he’s busy.”

Lumena’s lips immediately curled up at the mention of Redrin.

“He must be busy. Running around trying to stop the rifts while also avoiding being caught by the gods here—how busy must he be?”

“Then you could help a little.”

“You want me to join the war of the gods without a high priest?”

“No, I mean help me.”

“…….”

Lumena stared at Rembrary for a moment before sighing.

“To think you haven’t changed this much even after coming to another dimension. Should I see this unchanging attitude as admirable or pathetic?”

There was a somewhat lonely aspect to Lumena’s tone, and Rembrary unintentionally brought up the story of the Eastern High Priest, which he hadn’t planned to.

“If you help me, Lumena, I will bring you Kkokko. So you can talk to her.”

Lumena’s eyes wavered for a moment, but she soon smiled and shook her head.

“It’s no use meeting someone who’s already turned away.”

“Wouldn’t she come back if she saw you, Lumena?”

“If she were the type to come back just by seeing my face, she wouldn’t have turned away in the first place.”

“Lumena… to think you’re suffering so greatly from the aftereffects of not having an eye for talent.”

“Rembrary, you said you had a favor to ask of me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should study up on the proper attitude for asking a favor first.”

Was it a mistake to bring up the story of the Eastern High Priest? Lumena, who had been smiling gently, suddenly stood up to leave.

Rembrary quickly reached out and grabbed the hem of Lumena’s pants, bringing up the story he had been saving until the very end to protect Lumena’s pride.

“There’s a child who has been forgotten by their relatives because of your mistake, Lumena.”

“!”

* * *

The employees of the Mirage Hunter Company jumped up and down, saying absolutely not when Rembrary tried to take Lumena home.

“No, how long has it been since you were hit by that healer? Why are you going to that house?”

“Please reconsider, CEO! It’s too unsettling!”

“Who knows what she’ll do this time.”

It was only natural for them to react that way, since Rembrary had just crashed into Lumena with his car right in front of them.

However, they couldn’t forcibly stop Lumena since she herself said she would go along.

In the end, Rembrary succeeded in bringing Lumena to his house in a good school district, and as soon as Lumena stepped inside, he quickly brought Daeju and Siyoung in front of Lumena, lest she change her mind.

“These are the two children, Lumena.”

“One is a child, but the other isn’t.”

“There are many children in this world who grow up very quickly.”

“No matter what, they wouldn’t grow to be nearly 190cm [6’3″] at the age of seven.”

Daeju, who had been brought along in a daze because Rembrary had suddenly told him to come, touched Rembrary’s sleeve, bewildered.

“Healer, what’s going on? Who is that person?”

Rembrary pointed at Daeju and muttered, “He’s not usually like this. He’s a priest,” and the high priest stared intently at Daeju’s head before eventually clicking his tongue and sitting on the sofa.

“Good grief. First, take that real child back. The fact that the human called Sindo 305 can’t recognize that child is his problem, not the child’s.”

Lumena had an unhappy expression, but she began to restore the memories of the people Rembrary brought one by one, starting with Daeju.

Rembrary admired her once as he watched her flick her fingers over people’s heads, and he admired her twice as the group who had regained their memories stood blankly for a moment before running to their rooms in shame.

“It seems like the memories are still there, Lumena!”

“Yes. But it’s best not to announce it out loud. Especially to that… Maeng something human.”

* * *

“How on earth did things end up like this? It wouldn’t be easy to get like this.”

Once the work of restoring everyone whose memories had been mixed up was finally finished, Rembrary took Lumena to his room to explain the situation in more detail.

This was because the only stories Rembrary had told Lumena on the way here were the stories of Sindo 305 and Siyoung.

“The person you saw earlier named Daeju. I went to save him, and there was a fog coming out of the cave. If you inhaled that fog, your memories would get mixed up with those of the people or animals nearby.”

Rembrary recalled Daeju, who had shaken off his shame and come to greet Lumena first.

Daeju didn’t have all of A’s memories like before, but he remembered that he had pretended to be A after inhaling the fog.

He also remembered everything he had said, done, seen, and heard while pretending to be A.

However, he had no memory of what A had said and done when A was pretending to be New Daeju.

‘Of course, I still have the memory of seeing that guy imitating me with my body,’ he added. Perhaps because of that, Bbaebsae did not avoid Rembrary even after his memories returned.

“At first, I just thought it was the work of a monster that came out of an egg. But when I looked closely inside the cave, the fog was coming out of a magic circle drawn by a demon.”

“Hearing your words, it seems like there was someone with that ability in the Demon King’s army.”

“The Demon King’s fragments are coming over here one by one. Traces of the Demon King’s close aides are also constantly being discovered. Two of the Demon King’s six closest aides have definitely come here, and it seemed like they were trying to make contact with the demons here as well.”

“Hmm.”

Lumena nodded carefully, and Rembrary asked worriedly, “Are they targeting Earth too?”

“I can only think so. They wouldn’t come for a group tour, would they?”

“I don’t know why they would bother repeating the same thing here after taking over our world.”

“You said the first Demon King fragment followed you here, right?”

“Yes. I think so.”

“Could it be that they became interested in this world after seeing it then?”

“Interested? Interest… it might be interesting, but would they go so far as to abandon our world and move straight here?”

“I don’t know. It could be for someone. Maybe they have so much power left over that they want to take over two dimensions.”

“Please help me, Lumena. It will be difficult to face both the god here and the Demon King with Redrin’s power alone.”

At this point, Rembrary naturally expected Lumena to say that she would step in. However, Lumena smiled awkwardly and shook her head.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the power to help. I can’t exert my authority as a god here because I don’t have any followers here.”

“Lumena…”

“I’ll be able to protect and defend the humans nearby if they’re in danger. But that’s about it. That’s all I can do in my manifested state.”

After the conversation, Lumena went straight to the front door to leave, but this time Rembrary couldn’t stop her.

However, Lumena acted as if she was about to leave at any moment, but when she actually arrived at the front door, she lingered, putting on her shoes halfheartedly.

Rembrary wondered why, but he waited for Lumena to speak first. It seemed like she had something to say.

Then, after a while, Lumena asked in a heavy voice, “Is my high priest doing well?”

“Shall I call her? I don’t have a way to contact her directly, but I know a way to get in touch.”

She was following the Grim Reaper, so if he called, he would bring her. Rembrary thought it wouldn’t be difficult to call the Eastern High Priest because he already knew Sajamjae’s phone number.

“Never mind.”

But Lumena shook her head sadly.

“It’s enough if she’s doing well. What’s the point of seeing her face? She’ll be uncomfortable seeing me.”

* * *

At that moment.

In the underworld, Yama was deep in thought.

“Redrin’s power is gradually increasing because of the priests of the otherworld god. The rift is growing bigger as a result. And things that we can’t handle are coming over one by one…”

“What are they? I didn’t even know they existed at first, but their numbers are gradually increasing.”

“They felt similar to demons. Could they be demons from that side?”

“There were also bizarre beings that couldn’t be called demons. They were like monsters wandering through dimensions.”

Yama was troubled and sighed deeply, pressing his forehead with one hand.

He was already a saint who was disrupting the balance of this place just by existing. Now that things had come to this, he had become an even more troublesome existence.

It was even worse because Redrin had committed the atrocity of replacing the Grim Reapers as soon as he arrived.

After much deliberation, Yama called his subordinate and gave instructions.

“There’s no other way. Kidnap Rembrary. We need to reduce Redrin’s power, even if it’s just a little.”

It wasn’t the best choice, but he couldn’t think of any other way right now.

He had no choice but to think about the aftermath later.

* * *

The atmosphere in the house was very strange right now.

This was because the people who had regained their memories were avoiding each other throughout the meal, acting as if the other person wasn’t there.

In particular, Maeng Wooshin’s face was red as he ate, and whenever he made eye contact with Ardor, he bared his teeth and grumbled, “When did I ever do that!”

Rembrary also had a lot to think about, so he spoke less than usual, and since Mullu was originally taciturn, only the voices of the two children could be heard in the dining room.

‘I should ask about the person who knows how to cast barriers later.’

But just as the meal was about to end, Rembrary raised his head and stared intently in one direction.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Just a moment.”

The moment Rembrary waved his hand at the group who were giving him puzzled looks, people in black suits appeared around Rembrary in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, Rembrary realized that he was bound by strange chains.