Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 390

390. More Prepared Than Expected

Why is the Head Researcher here? Seeing the Head Researcher suddenly appear from between the flower petals, Lion Lord frowned.

“What are you doing there?”

Lion Lord had once cooperated with the Head Researcher’s experiments to fix his mother’s eyes. It hadn’t worked at all, so their farewell wasn’t exactly amicable.

Instead of answering, the Head Researcher kept signaling ‘shh, shh,’ telling him to please be quiet. When Lion Lord closed his mouth, the Head Researcher gestured for him to bring his head closer.

As Lion Lord leaned in, the Head Researcher whispered in his ear, lowering his voice as much as possible.

“There’s… something strange moving around in here.”

“Something strange?”

“Keep your voice down.”

Lion Lord lowered his voice to match the Head Researcher’s and asked again, “Something strange?” The Head Researcher then tugged on his leg, signaling him to crouch down.

Lion Lord also crouched down next to the Head Researcher, who explained quickly but quietly.

“I knew Rembrary went into the restricted area, so I came to save him, but this happened in the middle of it. I don’t know why it turned out like this.”

“What does that have to do with ‘something strange’?”

“I don’t know. But anyway, the entire research center has become like this, so there’s no way anyone walking around here is a normal person, right?”

That was true. Lion Lord inadvertently agreed, then examined the Head Researcher’s appearance again and asked.

“Why are you hiding like this? You went to save Rembrary, so where is Rembrary?”

Lion Lord’s gaze swept over the coffins filling the room, as if worried that he might be inside one of them.

“Chains were trying to grab people who were running away, so I used my ability on myself to suppress all traces as much as possible and was lying down like a dead mouse. Thanks to that, I wasn’t caught.”

“Then why aren’t you leaving?”

“To get out of here, you have to go through the elevator, but the elevator isn’t working. There are no stairs here, so you can’t just leave.”

The Head Researcher asked Lion Lord, who was blankly nodding, “You can go up without a door, right? Please take me out of here.”

“I can go up, but I couldn’t get out either. The location wasn’t properly set.”

“Still, you’ll find a door if you wander around, won’t you?”

“That’s true.”

Lion Lord agreed and once again scanned the coffins lined up on the floor.

“But those people…”

“They’re not people; they’re human-shaped monsters.”

“Monsters?”

“They look like that, but they’re all Awakeners [people with supernatural abilities].”

It was already known that there were monsters that had human forms and imitated humans, so Lion Lord agreed without much question.

“Let’s get out of here first.”

As Lion Lord reached out his hand as if to help him up, the Head Researcher quickly grabbed his arm.

* * *

After repeating the ability usage dozens of times, Lion Lord finally found the door. As soon as he located it, he stopped using his somewhat uncontrollable ability and walked directly to the exit.

“It’s the Head Researcher!”

“Oh my gosh, he’s alive!”

“Please look over here!”

“What happened?”

“Why is the research center like that?”

“Are the other researchers all related to the monsters?”

As Lion Lord emerged from the research center with the Head Researcher, the reporters who had gathered in front of the training center rushed towards them, shoving cameras and microphones and bombarding them with all sorts of questions.

But in the blink of an eye, Lion Lord grabbed the Head Researcher and teleported them away from the chaotic scene.

“I always think, it’s a really convenient ability.”

The Head Researcher looked around in amazement as he suddenly found himself in an alleyway with no one around.

Meanwhile, Lion Lord’s phone kept vibrating, and wondering what was going on, he took his phone out of his pocket.

It was a flood of delayed text messages pouring in. The messages had been sent much earlier, but all of them were arriving now. There were also dozens of missed calls.

“Doesn’t the phone usually work inside the research center?”

“No. There’s no way.”

Could this also be related to the phenomenon that made it difficult to get his bearings inside the research center? Lion Lord wondered, but first checked his mother’s text message.

It said that Shin Jo-woon was looking for him.

Since Shin Jo-woon was the last person to call anyway, Lion Lord pressed the call button right away on his name.

Shin Jo-woon must have been holding his phone, because as soon as he pressed the call button, he answered immediately and got straight to the point.

[I need you to save Rembrary.]

Lion Lord ended the call and looked at the Head Researcher. The Head Researcher was picking off the flower petals on his clothes one by one.

Then, feeling his gaze, he looked up, and Lion Lord asked, “Can you go alone?” He nodded as if it were obvious.

*He’s a smart person, so he’ll handle the aftermath well.* Lion Lord was relieved by the answer and immediately looked for Shin Jo-woon, repeatedly using his teleportation ability.

Before long, Lion Lord arrived at Shin Jo-woon’s office in Worldboom.

Shin Jo-woon seemed to have known that Lion Lord would come and was standing near the window looking down. When Lion Lord appeared, he continued his explanation without even turning around.

“To save Rembrary, you have to catch Woo Yeon-woo and enter the research center. But Woo Yeon-woo doesn’t want to save Rembrary. To take Woo Yeon-woo in there without anyone knowing, I need your strength.”

Lion Lord was preparing to run away at any moment in case that bad-eyed bastard threatened him with ice again, but when Shin Jo-woon surprisingly gave a proper explanation, he was dumbfounded and said.

“I just came out of the research center.”

“I know. But it’s no use if you go in alone.”

When Shin Jo-woon looked at him with a look that said, ‘You’re not going to save him, are you?’ Lion Lord quickly opened the door to the president’s office first, signaling that he would go.

He didn’t particularly want to be with Shin Jo-woon, but Rembrary was a benefactor to him and his mother, so it was worth helping with this.

“Let’s go.”

Shin Jo-woon said that and opened the door to the president’s office and walked to the desk where the secretaries were. He was giving them various hints in advance in case he had to leave his seat for a long time.

Lion Lord awkwardly followed behind him.

But as Shin Jo-woon approached the desk, the secretary who was standing there approached him urgently and asked.

“President, are you doing this now to find Rembrary?”

“That’s right.”

“Is that why you went to see Woo Yeon-woo earlier?”

The secretary had taken Shin Jo-woon to Woo Yeon-woo’s apartment, so she knew that Shin Jo-woon needed Woo Yeon-woo to find Rembrary.

When Shin Jo-woon indifferently sent her a look that said, ‘Why do you keep asking that?’ the secretary hurriedly handed him her cell phone.

“Please take a look at this.”

Wondering why all of a sudden, he looked at it and saw a streaming video with the word LIVE on it. In the video, Woo Yeon-woo was sitting comfortably on the sofa, muttering to the camera by himself.

A complaining tone. Shin Jo-woon’s expression quickly hardened as he listened closely to what he was saying.

[I might get kidnapped. So I’m holding on to this. That way, you viewers can see who’s kidnapping me. I’m going to keep this on until I’m sure it’s safe.]

* * *

At that time, Rembrary, who had become Woo Yeon-woo again, was unexpectedly ordered by the Emperor to go to the Empress’s Palace.

The reason was unknown. While doing chores following Hye-kyul, Seo-bin suddenly called him and said that was all.

“The lower-ranking eunuch at the Empress’s residence is sick and will be away for a few days, so His Majesty has ordered Yeon-woo to go there and help out.”

After finishing speaking, Seo-bin paused for a moment, then raised the corner of his mouth and muttered.

“You can just bring a lower-ranking eunuch from anywhere, but the fact that he specifically called you, who is under me, means he has an ulterior motive. And that’s for a kid who died and came back to life and lost his memory.”

Rembrary kept seeing Seo-bin as Im Yu-han from historical dramas, so he stood there with as much strength in his eyes as possible to distinguish the two.

Anyway, no matter how uncomfortable the order was, a low-ranking eunuch could not refuse the Emperor’s order, so Rembrary ended up going to the Empress’s Palace to do chores.

“Hye-kyul.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Yeon-woo is prone to making mistakes because he has lost his memory, so you should follow him and help him by his side.”

“Yes.”

* * *

“His Majesty and the Empress are on bad terms. From our point of view, there’s no way His Majesty sent you to the Empress with good intentions, but from the Empress’s point of view, it’s a situation where His Majesty, who is on bad terms with her, suddenly sends a eunuch from another palace to her. Got it?”

“How many times are you going to say it?”

“No matter how many times I say it, that tone doesn’t change!”

“I fix it and use it when necessary.”

“Really be careful. The Empress will be upset just by the fact that we came by His Majesty’s order. You don’t know which side, His Majesty or the Empress, will find fault. Be careful even how you breathe.”

On the way to the Empress’s Palace, Hye-kyul, who was constantly nagging, frowned when Rembrary stared intently at a group of military officers passing by and was about to ask, ‘What are you staring at so intently?’

However, before Hye-kyul could say anything, Rembrary pointed to a military officer with his finger, tilted his head, and said with a smile.

“Tiger head.”

Hye-kyul was horrified and covered Rembrary’s mouth.

Fortunately, the military officer heard Rembrary’s words but went away without even looking at him as if he didn’t care.

Hye-kyul was nervous because his heart was pounding, but as the military officer walked away, he lowered his voice and snapped at Rembrary.

“That’s why I can’t rest assured! Why are you swearing at people passing by?”

“I didn’t swear; I just recognized him because I was happy to see him.”

“You idiot, if a passerby called you a dog head, would that sound happy to you?”

“Your swearing sounds happy to me, Hye-kyul. It’s so good to hear you swear.”

“You crazy bastard!”

As Hye-kyul shuddered and walked away, Rembrary smiled gently and recalled Hye-kyul of Wild Animal swearing from time to time.

“You’re most like yourself when you swear.”

Hye-kyul opened his mouth wide and gaped, but when an old eunuch passed by nearby, he realized and grabbed Rembrary’s wrist and dragged him away.

“This is not the time. We have to go quickly.”

But before arriving at the Empress’s Palace, Rembrary, who had been obediently dragged along, suddenly stopped again and raised his eyebrows while looking somewhere.

“Oh, what now!”

Hye-kyul called out in annoyance, but Rembrary didn’t answer and ran somewhere.

“Ugh, seriously!”

Hye-kyul was flustered and tried to grab him, but Rembrary was quite fast. Fortunately, Rembrary didn’t go too far and stopped, and Hye-kyul grabbed Rembrary’s back while panting.

“Let’s go. Please let’s go. Let’s see the world later and stop going. Please. Huh?”

Instead of going, Rembrary pointed to a small building not far away and asked.

“What is that?”

“A shrine! Let’s go. Quickly!”

However, Rembrary stood firm and kept looking at the small building.

It couldn’t be helped. He was feeling a familiar sensation from inside.

*It’s similar to Lumena-nim’s… feeling.*