Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 372

372. Black Priest

The Eastern High Priest stared at the slender hand reaching out to him. It appeared empty, but it wasn’t. It held unseen possibilities.

Though the Eastern High Priest only stared at the hand without taking it, the Demon King didn’t withdraw. He simply waited patiently.

The Eastern High Priest squeezed his eyes shut. He saw Lumena smiling in his mind’s eye. But when he opened his eyes, it wasn’t Lumena he saw.

She was gone. She had become a handful of light dust, scattered beyond endless dimensions.

Gods are immortal and do not die, but if you can never see, feel, or touch them, and can’t even know how they are doing, what difference is there between that and death?

“Can I… take revenge on a god?”

The corner of the mouth before him lifted slightly.

“That’s my specialty.”

Listening to the Demon King’s calm reply, the Eastern High Priest slowly raised his hand.

“Even on the King of Hell?”

But his hand, raised as if to grasp, still couldn’t grasp the Demon King and only twitched in the air.

Unable to retreat either, he continued to fumble between the present and the future.

The path from Lumena to the King of Hell was a path from god to god, but this path was one away from god, so his hesitation only grew longer.

The Eastern High Priest blankly stared at the handkerchief fluttering in his hand—the handkerchief that should have been stained with his tears. Looking at the handkerchief, his clenched palm slowly opened.

Just then, a stronger gust of wind blew the precariously fluttering handkerchief away into the river beyond. At that moment, the Demon King’s hand, which had been so close yet unmoving as if waiting for him, moved first and grasped his empty hand.

The Eastern High Priest, who had been distracted by the handkerchief flying into the dark river and disappearing from sight, slowly turned to the Demon King, who tilted his head with a gentlemanly smile.

“Congratulations on becoming my High Priest, Lapsus.”

His greeting initially sounded ordinary, but soon it completely enveloped his ear, as if being pulled into his eardrum, gripping his brain tightly like a spiderweb.

Feeling a pungent black smoke spewing out from within his body, the Eastern High Priest staggered, lost his balance, and fell forward. Because he was holding the Demon King’s hand, he didn’t fall completely, but the Eastern High Priest was briefly draped over the Demon King.

“What does it feel like?”

The Demon King whispered softly into his ear, which had lost its strength and drooped. The Eastern High Priest blankly looked down at the ground before slowly raising his gaze.

The streetlights that had gone out were only visible as dark shapes, and the noisy lights of cars and streetlights were floating far away.

“Drunk… feeling. Floating… feeling.”

Muttering, the Eastern High Priest put strength into his legs, moved away from the Demon King, and slowly stood on his own. The pupils of his eyes, which had stood up, had turned black, and a black pattern had appeared on his forehead.

His white uniform instantly turned black from the center, taking on a completely different form.

Seeing this, the Demon King smiled with satisfaction and muttered.

“I will give you ‘addiction’.”

“Addiction…”

“People will crave you. Even if it’s not right.”

* * *

“In the past, when the Demon King was a god, humans called the priests of Redrin and Lumena White Priests, and oppressed the Demon King’s priests, calling them Black Priests.”

Someone said in a bright voice.

“Are we going to hear that Black Priest nonsense again this time? Well, it doesn’t matter, though.”

The Demon King hugged the fainted Lapsus and looked towards the source of the voice.

Clotte, who had come from somewhere, was standing on the railing in a chef’s uniform with an apron, looking down at Lapsus in his black priest robes. When he made eye contact with the Demon King, Clotte fluttered the handkerchief in his hand and boasted.

“A souvenir.”

The Demon King snorted and lifted Lapsus, whom he was holding, once before putting him down, showing off.

“My souvenir is bigger.”

*That’s not a souvenir, is it?* Clotte raised his eyebrows, but he couldn’t dare say anything to the Demon King and let it go. Instead, he asked the question he had wanted to ask all along but couldn’t.

“Congratulations on the creation of a High Priest after 1020 years, Demon King. But is it okay? As far as I know, that guy’s ability isn’t ‘addiction’.”

When the Demon King looked at him with a ‘what’s the problem?’ expression, Clotte smiled as if saying, ‘Do you really not know that?’

“If you forcibly grant an ability that doesn’t suit you, your lifespan will be greatly shortened. The High Priest you barely obtained might die before long, and that would be such a waste.”

* * *

Silence fell over the usually noisy house, and even the voices of children laughing and chattering couldn’t be heard. Everyone seemed to be living as usual, but even the delivery man who had just brought the *jajangmyeon* [Korean black bean noodles] felt that they weren’t their usual selves.

“Thank you. Goodbye.”

After 305 transported the *jajangmyeon* and dumpling dishes to the table and went up to the second floor, Joo-kyung sat at the table, tearing apart the wooden chopsticks, her nose twitching and sniffing.

She thought that everyone in the new family was strong, so no one would disappear anymore. But when the angel, whom she believed to be the strongest, disappeared, she suddenly became afraid of everything.

Just then, she heard the sound of the doorknob rattling, and Joo-kyung stopped tearing the chopsticks and looked towards the living room.

*What is it?* As she watched in confusion, the sound of the lock automatically releasing, ‘Ziiing,’ rang out.

“Sister?”

Thinking that Mullu, who had gone to search the area, had returned, Joo-kyung put down the chopsticks and ran to the front door. But the moment she saw the person who appeared after opening the door, Joo-kyung was so surprised that she shouted.

“Angel!”

The person who appeared was Rembrary. When Joo-kyung ran to him, Rembrary looked down at the floor as he came in, then raised his head and called out, “Joo-kyung-ah,” before squatting down and opening his arms.

His appearance was no different from before he was captured by the strange people, so Joo-kyung hugged Rembrary and burst into tears.

“Angel! Where did you go! Where did you go! I, I really thought you, you really disappeared suddenly!”

Joo-kyung couldn’t even speak clearly as usual because she was crying so much. Feeling sorry for the child who was crying so sadly, with tears and snot running down her face, Rembrary took Joo-kyung to the kitchen, tore off some tissues, and wiped the child’s face.

“Blow your nose.”

“Hmph!”

“Good job, good job. Our Joo-kyung blows her nose well too.”

“Huuu… If the angel disappears again…”

“It’s okay. It’s okay, so stop.”

“It’s not something you can control! You can’t control tears!”

“Yes, yes, then cry until you can control them.”

When Joo-kyung started crying again, Rembrary couldn’t even ask where the others were and just wandered around the table, trying to soothe the child. How long had he been doing that?

“Joo-kyung-ah, has Mr. Mullu not come back yet?”

Hearing the voice coming down the stairs, Rembrary went out to the living room, and 305, who was covered in sawdust and dust as if he had been doing something, was surprised and dropped the hammer he was holding.

“Benefactor! Benefactor!”

Surprised, 305 couldn’t even think of picking up the hammer and shouted, his face crumpled as he ran to Rembrary.

“Oh my gosh, benefactor! Mr. Rembrary! How! How did you come back?”

Excited, his face turned red as he threw out questions, and before he could even hear the answers, he started crying like Joo-kyung earlier. When his face became covered in tears and snot, Rembrary tore off some tissues from the kitchen again.

While 305 and Joo-kyung took turns blowing their noses, Rembrary looked sadly at the table where he had been captured.

It took almost 30 minutes for 305 to calm down, and Rembrary was finally able to ask where the others were.

305 explained while emptying the trash can, which was full of used tissues.

“Mr. Mullu went out to patrol the area just in case, and Mr. Ardor went to find someone named Ninling. He said that we need to bring that person to save Mr. Rembrary. Si-young has been suffering all along, and with Mr. Rembrary’s incident on top of that, he’s been under a lot of stress, and his immunity has weakened… He’s in the hospital now.”

“Hospitalized?”

“Yes. His fever won’t go down. Me, Mr. Mullu, and someone named Dae-ju are taking turns nursing him. Ms. Dae-ju is probably there today.”

“What are you doing that your clothes are like that?”

“Before Mr. Ardor left, he caused a ruckus and shot a hole in the roof with a gun. I’m just repairing that….”

Two hours later, Mullu, who returned with the Lion Lord, didn’t cry as much as 305 and Joo-kyung, but his lips were tightly closed, and his eyes were glistening before he eventually ran up to the second floor.

When he came back down, his expression was no different from usual, but his eyelids were swollen.

Afterward, Rembrary went to the hospital where Si-young was hospitalized, healed the child, and brought him back home after he was discharged, and thanks to that, the rumor that Rembrary was fine spread quickly from the hospital.

It seemed like everything had returned to normal. For a while.

* * *

“I heard that before, before the Cataclysm, there was a barrier in your hideout that prevented monsters from entering. Is that correct?”

“How does Mr. Rembrary know about that…?”

“So it’s true.”

“Yes.”

“I heard that there is a similar barrier in the research center. Can you tell me who set up that barrier?”

“Of course.”

Dae-ju was puzzled when Rembrary mentioned the barrier, but he told him about the monk who had set up the barrier in his hideout and gave him the monk’s contact information.

Afterward, Dae-ju wanted to ask Rembrary how he had escaped from the Grim Reapers, but when Rembrary shook his head with a slightly different atmosphere than usual, he didn’t ask and left.

After Dae-ju left, Rembrary closed the door and squatted down on the edge of the bed. In that state, he didn’t think about anything and just sat there blankly. He couldn’t fall asleep, strangely enough.

Then, after seeing the sunrise, Rembrary remembered that Jang Tae-ri had called him at night, but he hadn’t been able to answer, so he sent her a text message to thank her for sending the ice cream.

[Let’s talk on the phone later, Tae-ri >ㅅ< I have a lot to think about right now] But the answer that came back was unexpected. [I'm so glad you're backㅠ But Mr. Rembrary, have you seen Jo-un?] Rembrary raised his eyebrows. Shin Jo-un? [No. Why?] [It's nothing much. I haven't heard from him since he told me about Mr. Rembrary… I was wondering if he went to look for Mr. Rembrary.] [Haven't seen him@[email protected]] [Anyway, I'm glad Mr. Rembrary is backㅠ Get some rest and let's meet whenever you're ready to talk.] [Okay, thank you >ㅅ<] What is this about? Rembrary tried calling Shin Jo-un's cell phone. But Shin Jo-un really didn't answer the phone. He tried calling every 30 minutes for three hours, but it was the same. Eventually, a few hours later, Rembrary called Worldboom directly and was able to speak directly with Shin Jo-un's secretary. [The president knew that Mr. Rembrary was missing and kept contacting someone, then said he would be away for three or four days and left. We don't know exactly where he went….]