Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 417

Lumena seemed ready to cross over immediately, but Rembrary stopped him.

“They’re not together right now. Don’t come yet.”

[I need to go find him.]

“You said you can’t stay long.”

[I just need to find his energy.]

“It’s tainted. It won’t be the energy you remember.”

[…….]

“I’ll find Lapsus and contact you through Redrin. Please come then.”

Redrin smiled contentedly at Rembrary’s suggestion, but Lumena muttered with a reluctant expression.

[He won’t want to see you.]

He was worried because he knew how Lapsus felt about Rembrary, but Rembrary smiled brightly, as if he didn’t care at all.

“It’s okay. Everything Lapsus does is all over the internet anyway.”

Yum-la briefly considered telling him, ‘I don’t think the otherworld god meant it that way,’ but Rembrary just kept smiling innocently, so he cleared his throat and drank his tea.

* * *

Recalling his meeting with Rembrary yesterday, Woo Yeon-woo sat alone on a swing in the playground.

He didn’t have any plans to do anything here. He wasn’t waiting for anyone either. He just didn’t want to go inside.

His members are there, and the manager comes and goes frequently, but… the Demon King can see everything that happens there.

Woo Yeon-woo wanted to protect even the 30 minutes he had left. He hoped the Demon King couldn’t see this small, insignificant space.

‘How is he watching me?’

As he kicked at the sand with his toes, the pre-set phone alarm went off. It meant it was almost time for the Demon King to appear.

Woo Yeon-woo opened the app, marked that he had safely filled another 23 minutes today, then grabbed his phone and got on the elevator.

If he went up to his room like this, he would check his condition until the 30 minutes were up, and then take time to be grateful that he had been awake for another 30 minutes.

Though he didn’t know who he should be grateful to.

But as he put the key in the front door, took off his shoes, and entered, Oh Wan was leaning against the refrigerator, staring intently at him.

Woo Yeon-woo stared back at him and didn’t go further inside. Oh Wan smiled like a harmless devil and gestured to the living room.

“Why are you standing there? Come in.”

Woo Yeon-woo didn’t take his eyes off Oh Wan, carefully moving towards his room, making sure his back wasn’t facing him.

Oh Wan chuckled at the futile caution, but didn’t stop him.

Then, just as Woo Yeon-woo arrived in front of his door and was about to go inside.

“You’ve been going out a lot lately.”

Woo Yeon-woo whipped his head towards the kitchen at the voice from behind.

Oh Wan was taking out a red juice from the refrigerator and pouring it into a cup. He wasn’t looking at him, but he was definitely talking to him.

Instead of answering, Woo Yeon-woo quickly opened the door and went inside.

“It could be dangerous to be alone, so call me when the Demon King isn’t out.”

Even though he closed the door, he couldn’t block out Oh Wan’s voice.

Woo Yeon-woo leaned against the door and wiped away the uncontrollable tears with his sleeve.

To suppress the rising fear, Woo Yeon-woo needed a punching bag. But the punching bag was in the living room, and that Lapsus guy was sitting on the living room sofa with a dying look on his face.

Even if that Lapsus guy wasn’t there, he wouldn’t be able to go out because he could see the living room from the kitchen.

Woo Yeon-woo paced anxiously between the desk and the window before belatedly checking the time.

‘Time to switch!’

* * *

Each time the knife blade fell on the cutting board, a clear sound rang out at regular intervals, ‘Tang, tang, tang.’

Oh Wan hummed as he placed the carrots, which he had cut into equal widths, into a pot on the gas stove next to him. Then, as he was about to cut the lotus root this time, someone knocked on the refrigerator door.

“I’m listening.”

Oh Wan answered without turning around.

The Demon King, who had knocked on the refrigerator, stared intently at his cheerful back, then put his hand in his pocket and took out a small, slender, finger-sized device.

Instead of calling Oh Wan, the Demon King pressed the button on the device. A degraded voice flowed out of the device.

[You’re a useless guy, but.]

[You—!]

[You are a pain in my side. ……Even if you didn’t ask me like this, I am protecting you.]

[What… are you saying?]

[Don’t worry.]

The sound of the knife hitting the cutting board stopped. Oh Wan put down the knife and turned around.

“That sounds like Rembrary’s voice. And one is…”

“It’s my voice.”

The Demon King, deliberately saying ‘my voice’ instead of ‘Woo Yeon-woo’s voice,’ smiled and turned off the small recorder, putting it back in his pocket.

“My prediction was correct. Woo Yeon-woo was meeting Rembrary every time I fell asleep.”

Oh Wan wiped the water from his hands on his apron and asked.

“What were they doing when they met?”

“It seems like they’re thinking of bringing Lumena.”

“Lumena? If it’s that otherworld god, wasn’t she already shattered and scattered in another dimension? She’s so weakened that she’ll be struggling to gather her own body for the time being, right?”

“Well. The recorder didn’t have that kind of story on it.”

“Ah, then—”

“They didn’t even talk about Lumena. It’s just my guess. If Rembrary is borrowing Redrin’s hand to get help from Woo Yeon-woo, it would be to find Lumena’s location.”

“Is that so?”

The Demon King raised the corners of his mouth as he recalled the moment he stabbed Redrin.

“I guess so.”

Oh Wan stood there stiffly like an awkward statue, then tilted his head.

“If Lumena is brought, it won’t be because of power. It must be to try to win Lapsus back. What should we do?”

Oh Wan’s gaze turned to the purple hair of Lapsus, who was passed out on the living room sofa.

“If Lumena comes, he might go back to being human again.”

Oh Wan’s voice sounded a little worried, but the Demon King just laughed as if nothing was wrong.

“If Lapsus dies, it doesn’t matter whether he goes back to Lumena or not.”

Oh Wan’s eyebrows went up.

“Does that mean…”

“Either way, that guy’s power is rapidly depleting. He’ll die soon even if we leave him alone.”

The Demon King said lightly, then walked to the living room and looked down at Lapsus, who had lost consciousness, with a smile.

“Make him use up all his power completely.”

The Demon King stroked Lapsus’s hair and whispered kindly.

“Reunite with your beloved god in death.”

* * *

It was easy for Rembrary to find out Lapsus’s location. As Rembrary had confidently said, his location was all over the internet.

The problem was his insane schedule.

It was as if Lapsus had no rest time at all, moving from place to place, singing only two songs or so, and disappearing. It was as if he was extracting all his soul into his songs and trying to get as many people as possible to hear them.

“His complexion has gotten worse.”

Even though they had mobilized the Lion Lord, they failed again. Rembrary clicked his tongue as he watched his performance video posted on the internet.

“It seems like he’s trying to let everyone hear his songs and then die.”

Even Nin-ling, who didn’t like the betrayed Lapsus, muttered with a reluctant expression.

Rembrary stared at the emaciated Lapsus in the video, turned off his phone, put it in his pocket, and asked Shin Jo-woon, who was in the driver’s seat.

“Anchovy, where did Cockroach say he was going next?”

“He said he’d contact me as soon as he found out, so get some sleep. You haven’t slept a wink either.”

At Shin Jo-woon’s words, Rembrary put his hand in his pocket and gripped his phone tightly.

“I need to. I have a bad feeling.”

“Feeling?”

“I hope we find him soon.”

Sa Gam-jae was listening to all this conversation from the passenger seat, and coldly muttered as he unfolded his register [a book of the dead] in the air.

“We really need to find him quickly. Humans who haven’t even reached the end of their lifespan are constantly being added to the register.”

At that moment, the sound of Rembrary rapping began to be heard from Shin Jo-woon’s pocket.

“Jang Tae-ri?”

Shin Jo-woon, who had checked the caller, quickly reached out and answered the phone. A moment later. Shin Jo-woon hung up the phone and said as he started the engine.

“I got a call from an affiliate connected to Jang Tae-ri’s volunteer group. They said they want to rent a large concert hall.”

Rembrary checked Lapsus’s account. There was nothing there. But in the meantime, the word had spread, and information about where he would be singing for free was circulating one by one.

Ordinary people wouldn’t move recklessly until they knew if the information was accurate.

However, for people addicted to Lapsus’s songs, this alone was enough motivation to move.

Rembrary grabbed his phone and grabbed the Lion Lord’s arm.

“No time to go by car. Let’s go ahead and wait for him.”

* * *

He succeeded in arriving first by asking Jang Tae-ri for the exact location, but this time he arrived too early again.

Lapsus hadn’t arrived yet, and the sound equipment wasn’t even properly installed.

“Yes? Mr. Lapsus? I haven’t heard anything about that yet.”

Some of the managers hadn’t even received the message.

“What are you going to do?”

At the Lion Lord’s question, Rembrary looked at the watch on his wrist.

Lapsus seemed to be getting worse and worse every time he performed, and the intervals between performances were getting shorter and shorter.

The performance here probably wouldn’t go through the proper procedures of preparing the performance, setting up the stage, rehearsing, and selling seats.

As soon as the sound equipment is set up, he will gather people and let them listen to the songs.

But even that sound equipment isn’t ready now, so maybe Lapsus will stop by somewhere else first and arrive here tomorrow or the day after.

In other words, Rembrary had to choose between waiting here for Lapsus, who might not come, and looking for Lapsus and coming back here when he heard that he was performing.

“What do you think?”

“No matter what, it should take at least a day to prepare this place, right? Even if we mobilize all the manpower.”

“…….”

“If you favorite a few Lapsus fan accounts, they’ll automatically notify you when the performance starts here.”

“That’s right.”

Rembrary, with the help of the Lion Lord, went up to the stage.

Nearby staff members were surprised and looked at them when people suddenly appeared.

Rembrary looked around at the tens of thousands of seats and the standing seats that would be filled with Lapsus, and asked the Lion Lord.

“Let’s assume that all these people are here. Would you be able to move through that densely packed crowd with your ability?”

“Will that many people gather?”

“Two or three days is enough for addicted people to hear the news. They’ll have their ears open to Lapsus.”

“I guess so.”

“The number of hearts on Lapsus’s songs on the music site I check often has exceeded 300,000. If it’s a normal good song, not everyone who pressed the heart will go to see the performance. But Lapsus’s song is addictive, isn’t it? Once you hear that song, you should assume that everyone is addicted. They’ll come to hear it.”

At Rembrary’s words, the Lion Lord also looked at the wide space and tilted his head, stroking his beard.

Rembrary checked his watch once again.