Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 466

◈ 466. Truth, Coming Full Circle

‘God’s Majesty’ didn’t affect those strange creatures Iza controlled.

But Iza was human, no matter how you looked at it. There was no way ‘God’s Majesty’ wouldn’t work on him.

Knowing that the culprit who had just been hit by ‘God’s Majesty’ wouldn’t even be able to move properly, Rembrary dragged him to the corner of the wall and laid him down.

The culprit looked at Rembrary, his eyes filled with terror.

“It’s okay.”

Rembrary smiled gently, stroking the culprit’s hair.

“Be truthful, and nothing bad will happen.”

“Wh- Who… Who…”

The culprit couldn’t even move his tongue properly.

Instead of pressing him about his identity, Rembrary paused for a moment and asked, “Why did you try to attack us?”

“I… what are you talking about?”

This could be recognized as a lie without even needing the ‘Truthful Bet’.

Rembrary smiled and pressed his thumb between the culprit’s eyebrows.

As ‘God’s Majesty’ entered directly through his sense of touch, the culprit’s mouth opened wide in a silent scream.

The culprit even shed tears at the sensation of something enormous watching him fall straight down a bottomless cliff.

There was no pain, but the fear was overwhelming. He didn’t even know how this was possible.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

Rembrary asked kindly, then took his hand away and repeated, “Why did you try to attack us?”

The culprit sniffled.

He wondered what kind of crazy bastard his teacher had chosen as his successor, and how that crazy bastard was finding such crazy companions.

But as Rembrary raised his hand again to touch his forehead, the culprit involuntarily shouted, “I… I was going to kidnap you! Kidnap you and use you as hostages!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Really! Really!”

“Is that the truth?”

“Yes, I’m telling you! So please… that hand…”

“Swear to God, is it the truth?”

“Ah, please! It’s true!”

The culprit yelled.

No mark of falsehood appeared on his forehead.

Rembrary nodded, muttering, “Okay. It’s the truth.”

The culprit felt even more chilled by those words.

He had told the truth, but he didn’t understand how Rembrary could distinguish whether it was the truth or not and say such things.

Rembrary asked again, “Why did you want to take us hostage?”

“That’s…”

The culprit bit his lip and looked at Rembrary, filled with fear.

Rembrary had been smiling kindly from the moment they first met until now.

That made him seem even crazier.

The culprit burst into tears and sobbed.

* * *

“Where is the High Priest?”

At Ardor’s question, Hwasa, who was checking if the beard attached to his mask was lush enough, pointed with his chin at a dilapidated, gloomy building.

“Over there.”

Ardor tilted his head like a pheasant, hesitated, and then plopped down on the floor.

Hwasa tugged at his beard, then sneered. “I thought you’d follow him in right away. You’re not going in?”

“He told me not to come in. Said it would interfere with the investigation.”

“I still thought you’d go in, though. I don’t trust you.”

At Hwasa’s sneering words, Ardor looked down at him with an ‘Oh, you ignorant fool’ expression and chuckled. “High Priest’s interrogation boasts 99% accuracy.”

“Not 100%?”

* * *

Rembrary’s ‘Truthful Bet’ was useless in only one case: when the opponent tells a lie but doesn’t know it’s a lie.

Except for that, Rembrary’s ability was very effective at distinguishing heretics.

Not only heretics but also people who lie in general.

Of course, usually, there’s no need to go this far to find out whether someone is lying or not.

‘The Iza doesn’t know the lie as the truth.’

Rembrary looked at the person named ‘Gasora’ who was telling a long, drawn-out story and removed his hand.

The effect of God’s Majesty seemed to have lessened a bit, as the person trembled but crawled like a snail to the wall and stuck to it.

Rembrary crossed his arms and summarized the story the culprit had told him.

“So, you are a disciple of Lumeena and the leader of the Imperial Troupe Waman, with the family name Ga and the given name Sora. Is that right?”

“Yes…”

“You didn’t even know a successor would appear, but that successor kept avoiding you, so you tried to kidnap us, whom the successor was looking for, to use as hostages to call out the successor?”

“…That’s right.”

“That successor’s name is Shin Jo-woon?”

“Yes…”

Gasora’s voice diminished with each answer.

He tried to kidnap someone and use them as a hostage, sent strange creatures to attack in the process, and even the motive was evil.

But the opponent not only had strange abilities but also, upon investigation, was said to be a great physician whom the Emperor trusted the most these days.

Gasora thought Rembrary would either kill him right away, move him somewhere else to kill him, or speak badly of him to the Emperor.

Frankly, he would have done the same if he were in Rembrary’s shoes.

“Good. I will become your hostage.”

However, the words that came from the opponent were completely unexpected.

“Yes?”

Gasora asked back in confusion.

Not ‘Die,’ not ‘I’ll tell His Majesty,’ not ‘Get lost,’ not ‘I’ll forgive you just once’… but he’ll become a hostage?

“I will cooperate.”

He’ll cooperate?

Gasora blinked blankly. He didn’t immediately grasp what he had heard.

“That’s… what on earth…”

“I need to meet Shin Jo-woon too. If I’m a hostage, as you expect, the Anchovy [slang for someone easily caught or manipulated] will come on his own. Then I can meet the Anchovy, can’t I?”

Looking only at the result, that was true.

Still, isn’t being a hostage a bit much? Gasora still stammered, then asked, “Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable to be locked up…?”

“Of course, I won’t be locked up.”

“Yes?”

It’s a kidnapping, though? Gasora opened his mouth a little wider.

“I’ll live here as usual. Just lend me your name.”

“Yes?”

That’s not a kidnapping, though? Gasora’s mouth opened even wider.

‘Isn’t he saying he’ll borrow our name instead of lending his name?’

Rembrary asked kindly, “Do you dislike it?”

Gasora quickly shook his head. “That sounds like a good idea.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Seol-ryu, who couldn’t follow Rembrary into the palace and returned to Five Fort City, went straight to the Martial Arts Alliance Leader and reported the matter.

“I couldn’t chase Rembrary further because he went inside the palace. I briefly took out some other companions, but they soon went back in again.”

“Other companions?”

“Yes. A man wearing a lion mask and a silver-haired man. The three of them came out and then the three of them went back in, and the Hwachineon Troupe people moved separately to another place.”

“Hmm. The palace, huh.”

“Later, I overheard the troupe members whispering that the Emperor seemed to have a deep connection with him.”

“The Emperor?”

“Yes.”

He felt a bit sorry for touching someone else’s sore spot, but Seol-ryu also told the story of the Great Prince’s lullaby.

“Ah, and the Demonic Cult’s Great Prince was with him because of his song. The Great Prince has severe insomnia, but he sleeps well when Rembrary sings him a lullaby.”

“What?”

The Martial Arts Alliance Leader denied in embarrassment. “That’s all a scam. He’s deliberately hiding his ambition to—”

“While I was struggling to get into the Imperial Palace, that Great Prince was struggling along with me, Alliance Leader. His complexion was getting worse day by day… Just before I left, he had almost lost his soul. It wasn’t the face of someone running a scam, but the face of someone being consumed by a scam.”

“Oh dear. If that’s true… that’s a shame.”

It was at that moment.

Suddenly, a chilly energy seemed to circulate in the air, and then a man in jet-black attire, slightly more lively than a corpse, popped up.

Seol-ryu stepped back in surprise, but the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, after a brief flinch, did not run away and greeted the man in black clothes.

“Did you find your companion?”

Seol-ryu had heard the story of the Grim Reaper from the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, but he didn’t really believe it.

Who would believe that there was an actual Grim Reaper in the world?

But as soon as he saw the person who suddenly appeared in the air, Seol-ryu had to believe the Martial Arts Alliance Leader’s words.

The opponent’s atmosphere was extremely strange.

If he hadn’t heard the story of the Grim Reaper and met him, he would have thought he was a very weak person or that he had mastered a unique inner energy.

The Martial Arts Alliance Leader gestured for Seol-ryu to leave, as he was overly conscious of Sa Gam-jae.

As Seol-ryu bowed and left, the Martial Arts Alliance Leader offered Sa Gam-jae a seat and asked again, “Were you successful?”

“I was. That green hair, he was the person I was looking for.”

“I see. That’s good.”

The Martial Arts Alliance Leader said something he didn’t mean, glancing sideways at Sa Gam-jae.

If he found him, why didn’t he bring him? Did he leave him in the Blood Cult?

Or did he bring him out but not bring him here?

But would he even answer if I asked him this?

As he was thinking, Sa Gam-jae urged the Martial Arts Alliance Leader with a blank expression, “The other information. Is there anything else that came in?”

There was. Just now. He heard it from Seol-ryu. Even about three people.

But… should I tell him this story?

The Martial Arts Alliance Leader deliberately coughed and bent over to hide his hesitation.

It would have been better if he had organized his thoughts a bit before Sa Gam-jae came.

He happened to appear right after he received the report, so it wasn’t fully organized yet.

“You seem to know something.”

And the opponent had very sharp eyes.

The Martial Arts Alliance Leader stopped coughing and straightened his back, clearing his throat as if his pretense had been discovered.

Sa Gam-jae’s cold gaze stared intently at the Martial Arts Alliance Leader.

After hesitating for a moment, the Martial Arts Alliance Leader finally confessed honestly, “That young man you saw earlier found three people.”

“Three people?”

“One with golden hair and red eyes. One with a lion mask. One with silver hair and gray eyes. All three were together and are living in the palace.”

“The palace.”

Sa Gam-jae, who seemed to frown, disappeared from the spot in the blink of an eye.

The Martial Arts Alliance Leader looked around the room that had suddenly become empty and sighed.

Seol-ryu, who had not left outside the door, slipped back inside and asked, “Was it okay to tell him?”

He was at the door even though he was told to leave, but since the Martial Arts Alliance Leader and that Grim Reaper knew of his existence anyway.

But the fact that they didn’t tell him to go further meant that they were just pretending not to see him, so he came in to ask.

The Martial Arts Alliance Leader’s throat suddenly felt dry, so he poured some water and took a sip.

“If I hadn’t heard the story of the palace, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Is the palace important?”

“Very important.”

“?”

“If that golden-haired one is living in the palace, entangled with the imperial family, he’s someone involved with that side, not the martial world.”

“Ah.”

“So it’s better to let them gather and stick together and just send them on their way quickly. There’s nothing good for a martial artist to be involved with the imperial family.”

“I see.”

As Seol-ryu nodded, the Martial Arts Alliance Leader put down the water glass and instructed, “Still, just in case, go to the capital and watch the situation more.”

* * *

Meanwhile, at that time.

Lumeena, who had leisurely shared tea with the otherworld demigods, was now returning to the human realm.

Before searching for the traces of the ‘Sleeping God,’ Lumeena first set out to find the token where she had mixed her energy, in order to tell her companions what she had heard and the story about it.