Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 444

◈ 444. Fear in the Mist

“Rembrary, are you there?”

“I am here.”

“Don’t let go of me, ever.”

“I won’t. I’m holding on tight.”

“You really can’t let go. I’m scared of so many things, and if I get lost… it’s a no-go.”

“I’m holding on tight.”

Yeon Seung-kyung, forced to overhear the constant back-and-forth between Rembrary and Duran, couldn’t help but scold them.

“Hey, crybaby. If that guy lets go of you, he’s the one who’ll get lost. *I’m* holding onto you!”

Duran started to sob again, so it was no use.

“Why are you getting angry?”

Yeon Seung-kyung felt like cursing, so he shut his mouth.

Duran drooped his shoulders, looking dejected.

The path, which seemed like ordinary mist from the outside, was completely different once inside.

The mist wasn’t the kind you’d see on a mountain in the morning or on a high peak.

It completely surrounded everything in white, making the person in the middle doubt whether they were even standing on solid ground.

Duran was sure that, starting today, mist would be added to the list of things he feared.

He was even more amazed at how the Demonic Cult members were moving along so well without making a peep.

How long had they been walking?

“Don’t you feel something strange?”

Rembrary seemed to mutter from behind, and then something brushed past Duran.

At first, Duran didn’t know what was happening.

But when he heard a scream from the direction of the sound, he was terrified and tried to step back, only to trip over something and fall.

“Agh!”

Rembrary, who was standing behind him, caught him before he could fall completely. Probably. He couldn’t see him, but he could tell it was Rembrary just from his tone.

“Are you alright?”

Duran was about to say he was fine, but with that last word, Rembrary disappeared.

“Rem, brary?”

Even if he couldn’t see him, he could definitely feel someone holding onto him.

But the force pulling on his clothes completely disappeared. Rembrary was gone.

“Rembrary! Rembrary?”

Duran shouted in terror, waving his arms wildly, but he couldn’t even touch Rembrary.

Yeon Seung-kyung grabbed and shook the confused Duran.

“Hey! Crybaby! Snap out of it!”

“Rembrary! He was behind me!”

“Follow me. Something’s wrong.”

“Huh?”

“Quickly.”

Duran, like a kite with a broken string, was dragged by Yeon Seung-kyung out of the mist.

But even outside the formation, the mist still surrounded them, so Duran couldn’t see Rembrary.

“Rembrary…”

Duran was about to tell Yeon Seung-kyung again that Rembrary had disappeared, sobbing, but he hiccuped and shut his mouth when he saw Yeon Seung-kyung staring coldly at something.

“Someone seems to have tampered with the formation.”

“Yes?”

“You. Why did you almost fall earlier?”

“I heard a scream…”

“The formation was already affected from there.”

“Yes?”

“It wasn’t reality, but your fear.”

“What does that…”

Yeon Seung-kyung frowned.

“I heard a different sound. But when you grabbed me and fell, I knew. It was fake.”

Duran’s face turned even paler.

So, he was almost swept away by the formation, and Rembrary disappeared while trying to catch him.

Duran, feeling even more guilty, looked up at Yeon Seung-kyung with tears in his eyes.

“Then Rembrary is…!”

Yeon Seung-kyung, who had been annoyed with Duran the whole time, took this opportunity to flick him on the forehead, making a loud sound, and then turned around.

“Ouch?”

“It’s not your fault. Someone just changed the formation’s path and affected you.”

“But why did you hit me…? Where are you going? Should I follow you?”

“You stay there and watch out for that blonde foreigner in case he comes out of the mist.”

About half of the people who had escaped the mist followed Yeon Seung-kyung, and the other half remained here.

Duran nodded, not knowing who he was answering, and anxiously watched the mist.

“Rembrary…”

* * *

How long had he waited for Rembrary to come out of the mist?

Just when he was about to run out of tears, Grandmaster Yeon Seung-kyung returned before Rembrary.

“It seems that person hasn’t come out yet.”

Grandmaster Yeon Seung-kyung saw Duran squatting with a blank face and immediately realized that the blonde foreigner hadn’t come out yet, and clicked his tongue.

Meanwhile, the formation expert that Grandmaster Yeon Seung-kyung had brought was squatting at the beginning of the mist, examining the stones on the ground and clicking his tongue.

“Someone tampered with it. And they tampered with it from the inside.”

Grandmaster Yeon Seung-kyung walked over to him and asked.

“Did they tamper with it on purpose?”

“Yes. They broke it very subtly.”

“Subtly?”

“They made the effects seem similar. But they deliberately changed the location of the escape route. They were clearly targeting insiders—people who know the path to go back and forth without getting caught in the formation. Moreover, they subtly changed it in parts.”

The formation expert clicked his tongue again, and Yeon Seung-kyung’s expression hardened as he asked.

“Can’t you tell who did it?”

“We have to find out whether it’s the Orthodox Sect, the Blood Cult, or the newly rising Yumae [a rival faction] or their disciples. But we can’t tell who the culprit is with just this. It’s certain that there’s a spy.”

The formation expert kept moving his hands busily as he spoke.

Then, when he took his hands away, the hazy mist surrounding the entire Demonic Cult gradually began to be blown away by the wind.

In the place where the mist disappeared, Yeon Seung-kyung’s subordinates were standing or wandering around blankly.

Some of them came to their senses as soon as the mist disappeared, but others were standing there blankly even after the mist had disappeared.

Rembrary was one of the latter.

“Rembrary!”

Duran was surprised and ran to Rembrary. Yeon Seung-kyung clicked his tongue and followed.

The formation expert didn’t even know what that blonde foreigner was, but when the two of them went over there, he followed and explained.

“That person isn’t from here, right? He’s not able to get out right away because he’s experiencing it for the first time. The Demonic Cult members deliberately go into the mist several times when they practice going back and forth.”

Duran went right up to Rembrary and, seeing his face looking more inhumanly handsome than usual with his mouth closed, he teared up and asked the expert.

“Will he stay like this forever?”

The dance teacher muttered nearby, “Why? He’s better when he’s quiet,” but shut his mouth after receiving a fierce look from Yeon Seung-kyung.

The expert answered Duran.

“Now that the formation has been removed, he just needs to break free from the fear he’s trapped in. It’s not something to cry about. He might have some unpleasant memories and suffer from aftereffects, but that’s it.”

When Duran tried to touch Rembrary, the formation expert told him not to and then went in front of Rembrary himself, making a snapping sound with his fingers at several points in the air, and then asked.

“What’s the situation now?”

Duran thought, ‘How can he answer in that state?’ but before he could ask, Rembrary answered more slowly and clearly than usual, as if the sounds he had made had some effect.

“Not good.”

“He says it’s not good!”

Duran got scared, but the formation expert laughed and denied it.

“If he can answer, he’s in a good state.”

“Ah.”

“Hey, blonde. What was it, a beauty, Yeon Grandmaster?”

“Yes.”

“Right. Blonde beauty. How is the situation ‘specifically’?”

Duran wondered, ‘Why is he asking that?’ but Yeon Seung-kyung, annoyed in advance that the crybaby might start crying loudly again, subtly informed him.

“By talking like that, he’ll face his fears and realize that the situation is fake and wake up. It’s awakening the unconscious—to see the situation from a distance.”

Duran didn’t understand, but he kept his mouth shut because Rembrary had opened his mouth.

“Too many people have found out…”

Is that Rembrary’s fear? What he’s about to talk about now? Even a fear of wanting to hide something from others.

Duran lowered his head, feeling sorry that he was about to hear a secret he shouldn’t hear.

At the same time, he was relieved that he hadn’t been caught in it.

Because he also had many things he didn’t want to tell others.

“Has your secret been revealed?”

“Yes, I am great. I am amazing. I am excellent.”

“?”

The formation expert looked at Yeon Seung-kyung.

When Yeon Seung-kyung shook his head, the formation expert thought he had misheard something and asked again.

“Is it a scary situation?”

“I didn’t want to reveal all of my greatness.”

“?”

The formation expert looked at Yeon Seung-kyung again. Yeon Seung-kyung protested quietly.

“Even if he’s saying strange things, don’t look at me. He was like this even when he was sane.”

Duran watched the formation expert looking at the Grandmaster with distrustful eyes and asked, worried.

“How do you overcome that and get out?”

“That’s…”

The formation expert trailed off.

Usually, they would give advice or something to drive away the fear, and make them realize that the situation is completely fake and wake up.

But he had no idea what kind of advice to give to someone who was afraid that their greatness had been revealed.

In the end, the formation expert said he would wake up the other people first and went to the side, and Duran anxiously went in front of Rembrary and stomped his feet worriedly.

At that moment.

Rembrary opened only one eye.

“!”

He didn’t know how he could open only one eye so perfectly, but Duran was relieved because he thought Rembrary had woken up and smiled brightly.

But the moment he saw the white of Rembrary’s one eye was black.

Duran muttered, “Huh?” without realizing it. Was Rembrary’s eye originally like that?

Before his exclamation was over, the one eye that was facing forward looked at Duran and smiled, his eyes curving.

The moment Duran was surprised by that.

When Rembrary opened the eye he had been keeping closed, the black sclera regained its original color.

“Uh…?”

Duran rubbed his eyes at the unbelievable sight, but it was a phenomenon that appeared and disappeared so quickly that he couldn’t see it again.

Instead, Rembrary, who had completely come to his senses, asked Duran gently.

“Are you alright?”

Duran nodded blankly. What was that? Did I see something wrong?

* * *

Afterward, the formation expert and a few Demonic Cult members remained there, but Rembrary and Duran followed Grandmaster Yeon Seung-kyung and moved again.

Since there was no point in the two of them staying here, the Grandmaster seemed to be taking them to their original destination.

Fortunately, that strange formation didn’t appear again, and the three of them soon entered a black building located in a particularly high area.

“The scent is strong.”

It was a place where a strange scent floated throughout the building.

When Rembrary looked around, Yeon Seung-kyung explained briefly.

“He suffers from severe insomnia. He’s burning all the scented candles that are said to be good for sleep.”

“Could this be why he can’t sleep?”

“Of course not. Not being able to sleep came first.”

As he was explaining, Yeon Seung-kyung shut his mouth when he saw a tightly closed door inside, then went to the door and asked cautiously.

“Great Young Master. I’ve brought a new beauty.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened by itself with a whoosh.

Perhaps because of the insomnia, the surroundings were surprisingly quiet, and there was no one there.

Rembrary went to the center with curiosity.

Then he saw the Great Young Master.

It was a man sitting in a large chair that a black bear should be sitting in, with dark circles that seemed to be 5cm long.

He was exuding an aura of ‘I’m tired to death’ with his whole body.

If it weren’t for the dark circles, he would have had an imposing appearance that would have made him laugh and say he would dominate the world as the final villain in the game that Hye-gyeol often played, but perhaps because he looked so tired,

It seemed like he would catch a body ache before he could dominate the world.

However, even in this state, the Great Young Master was very picky, and he didn’t even try to look at Rembrary and Duran properly and immediately ordered.

“Did you bring beauties again? If you’re just going to come and make a ‘yang’ [positive energy] sound, I’m tired, so just take them away. I don’t even want to listen.”

“This time will be different, Great Young Master.”

“Do you think you’re saying that for the first or second time?”

When the Great Young Master spoke coldly, Yeon Seung-kyung quickly winked at Rembrary.

“Quickly, to the Great Young Master.”

Duran quickly grabbed the gold, and Rembrary nodded and stepped forward.

“Hello, I’m Rembrary.”

“No greetings.”

“Are you tired but can’t sleep?”

“No questions either! Sing!”

Yeon Seung-kyung showed off the amazing talent of shouting in a low voice, and Rembrary nodded.

“I understand. Then, song selection—”

“Just do it!”