Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 496

◈ 496. A Joyful Reunion

Rembrary’s gaze swept over the quiet living room and kitchen.

It felt like the children used to run around there. Even if the children weren’t around, at least one member of the family would pass through the kitchen or living room.

“Ah, the children are at school, and Nin-Ling went grocery shopping with Teacher Kim.”

“Who is this Teacher Kim?”

“Room 305, High Priest.”

“Ah… right. I remember.”

“I’m just resting at home because they told me I’ve been through a lot.”

Rembrary nodded, looking around his home in a good school district, overwhelmed with emotion.

It’s just a small house, but it’s still a home. It made him happy to be back.

Rembrary put his hands behind his back, smiling contentedly, and then suggested to Moolu,

“Moolu, are you hungry?”

“No. Are you hungry?”

“Let’s order a pizza, just the two of us.”

“Shall we?”

The two of them ordered a pizza using the phone that Believer Kim Jewoo from Room 305 had left behind. They sat facing each other on the sofa, happy at the thought of eating this food again after so long.

When the doorbell rang, Rembrary was so happy that he practically flew to the front door.

But when he opened the door, it wasn’t the pizza delivery guy standing there, but Joo-Kyung and Si-Young.

Even happier to see them than he would have been to see the pizza, Rembrary smiled broadly at the two children.

The children, who had come in without a second thought, saw Rembrary and their eyes widened, and they started hopping around.

“It’s Healer!”

“It’s Angel!”

“Are you here now?”

“Is all the work finished now?”

“You’re not leaving anymore, are you?”

“You’re going to stay, right?”

Judging by what they were saying, the children seemed to think that Rembrary had been away on a long business trip.

Instead of shattering their innocent beliefs, Rembrary reassured them, and then, belatedly noticing the difference in height between Joo-Kyung and Si-Young, he asked in confusion,

“No, Si-Young. Why have you shrunk?”

At those words, Si-Young’s eyes widened, and Moolu quickly explained from the side.

“Joo-Kyung has just gotten bigger, High Priest.”

Rembrary looked in surprise at the difference in height between the two peers, who were a hand’s breadth apart, and Moolu quietly informed him again.

“Joo-Kyung is growing quickly, but Si-Young isn’t… so she’s been stressed about it lately.”

As if that were true, Si-Young, who had been happy to see Rembrary, looked like she was about to cry when the topic of height came up.

Rembrary found the child endearing and comforted her with a smile.

“Don’t be upset, Si-Young. Even if you’re not growing now, you might grow later in life.”

Reassured by those trustworthy words, Si-Young asked,

“Then were you small when you were young, Healer?”

“No, I’ve been growing steadily since I was young.”

Si-Young’s pupils wavered, and Moolu gently grabbed Rembrary’s arm and shook it. Rembrary comforted the child again.

“But there are people who are small when they’re young and then grow later. Don’t worry.”

“Really? Who?”

“No one around me. I’ve never actually seen it.”

Si-Young’s pupils shook even faster than before. The child was struggling with the shock brought about by the gap between comfort and truth, and asked,

“Um… what if my height stops here? What if I’m like this even when I become an adult?”

“Then you’ll become a short adult.”

Si-Young finally started to sob, and Moolu, unable to watch any longer, quickly stepped forward, matched her height with the child, and said kindly,

“I was small when I was young, Si-Young. I grew late too.”

Hoping against hope, Si-Young asked,

“Really?”

“Of course.”

Moolu answered readily, and a smile finally returned to Si-Young’s face.

“Then were you as small as me when you were my age?”

“No, not as small as you. I was about as tall as Joo-Kyung…”

Si-Young burst into tears at Moolu’s last words.

Joo-Kyung was just laughing, finding it funny, and Rembrary and Moolu looked at each other, at a loss.

“Si-Young!”

Fortunately, the awkward situation was brought to an end as Nin-Ling stepped into the entrance.

Nin-Ling came over, casually kicking off her shoes, and picked up Si-Young in one arm, protesting,

“Seriously, why are you two grown-ups making a child cry!”

Nin-Ling expertly grabbed Joo-Kyung’s hand with her other arm and walked towards the kitchen.

Rembrary blankly watched Nin-Ling put Si-Young down and take out three ice creams from the refrigerator, giving one to each of the two children.

“They seem to have become close.”

Moolu, who had arrived a day earlier, explained quietly from the side.

Only after seeing the children eating their snacks quietly at the table did Nin-Ling approach Rembrary, respectfully offering him another ice cream and greeting him.

“I am glad to see you have returned safely, High Priest.”

As he was looking at the ice cream with a dubious expression, the front door opened again and Kim Jewoo appeared.

Kim Jewoo was carrying a basket full of groceries when he saw Rembrary and stopped in surprise for a moment.

“Benefactor!”

He shouted belatedly and quickly approached Rembrary, asking,

“I heard about it from Moolu yesterday. I heard you suffered a lot in a strange place.”

“I didn’t suffer that much. It felt like a trip after a long time.”

“There’s no way it wasn’t difficult. It was an unfamiliar place.”

Muttering nonchalantly, Kim Jewoo gave Rembrary one of the two small boxes he had been precariously carrying between his arm and side, and gave the other one to Moolu.

“What is it?”

“It’s a cell phone. It’s already activated, so you can just use it. I heard from Moolu yesterday that your cell phone disappeared while crossing dimensions. Moolu said that Benefactor would be returning soon anyway, so I got two from the start.”

Rembrary looked at Moolu, belatedly realizing the truth and widening his eyes.

‘Then is my cell phone still in that desert?’

Even so, there’s nothing he can do. He can’t go back to get it, and he can’t ask Lumena to bring it.

‘Anyway, I don’t have a charger.’

Rembrary soothed his disappointed heart and opened the box. Inside was a cell phone that looked a little different from the model he had before.

* * *

After asking Kim Jewoo a little about how to use the cell phone, Rembrary realized that the usage was similar to the previous model, and he quickly took it and went into his bedroom.

The bedroom was clean and dust-free, as if it had been well-maintained even during his absence.

Rembrary lay down on the bed and accessed social media.

‘I wrote that I’m back, so if those who are scattered see it, they’ll contact me, right?’

When he opened the post he had uploaded with Sajikjae’s cell phone, as expected. There were comments like ‘Where were you ㅠㅠ’ ‘It’s Rembrary!’ ‘Why haven’t you been on lately?’ ‘Where did you go?’

And at the very top were comments from Shin Jo-Woon and Jang Tae-Ri, whom Rembrary had favorited.

-Shin Jo-Woon: Where are you? Should I come pick you up?

-Jang Tae-Ri: The 15th happiest day in my life. My two friends are back ^^

-Shin Jo-Woon: Me and Pig are the 15th? What are the top fourteen?

-Jang Tae-Ri: ㅋ [Korean abbreviation for ‘kekeke,’ similar to ‘lol’]

-Shin Jo-Woon: Don’t have any? ㅋ

-Jang Tae-Ri: I do.

-Shin Jo-Woon: The day our parents were born is the first. The day me and my sibling were born is the second. I have everything.

-Shin Jo-Woon: The day I met you is the third, the day I met Pig is the fourth, and the day we came back is the fifth.

-Jang Tae-Ri: This person is funny? Why are you drawing my life graph?

-Shin Jo-Woon: Did I draw it well?

-Rembrary: Thank you for welcoming me back >ㅅ< ㄴRembraryㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ ㄴShin and Jang, go fight somewhere elseㅠㅠㅠㅠ ㄴRembrary, we'll welcome you! ㄴRembra, I even joined Redrin to see youㅠㅠㅠ I joined and went in, but you weren't thereㅠㅠㅠ An evil appeared, breaking through the roof during the oath ceremonyㅠㅠㅠㅠ I was so scared I thought I joined the demon cultㅠㅠ It was an enemy ㄴㄴAre you alive??? ㄴㄴWho do you think is writing this comment? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I killed them ㄴㄴWhat????? ㄴI'm not just a regular believer, I'm a hunter believerㅎㅎ Rembrary blankly looked at the comments on his post, then smiled gently and put down his cell phone. "……." But in the end, he couldn't last more than 30 seconds before picking up his cell phone again and sending a text message of protest to Shin Jo-Woon and Jang Tae-Ri. -I came back and you two are just fighting He sent the same text message to both of them at the same time and waited, and then he received a call from both of them at the same time. Rembrary was satisfied and picked up his cell phone again, bestowing grace upon the two people who were watching his every move. [Tae-Ri, I missed you >ㅅ< ] [Bring your body, Anchovy] While he was talking with the two of them, Rembrary remembered that he still didn't know Ardor's whereabouts, so he quickly went to Ardor's account. However, Ardor's account remained silent, as it had been before. Hwasa is a space-time ability user, so he'll be fine on his own, but Ardor... Rembrary was worried, so he left a comment on Ardor's SNS telling him to contact him as soon as he arrived, and then turned off SNS. He had only exchanged a few words while lying on the bed, but fatigue was rapidly setting in. * * * The next day. When Rembrary woke up and checked, Hwasa had sent him a private message on SNS. When he opened the message, there was a selfie of Hwasa with his mother. 'It looks like he went home safely.' Even though two days have passed, he hasn't bothered to stop by here, so it seems he doesn't want to get involved any further. Rembrary looked at Ardor's account again. Everyone's whereabouts have been found, but Ardor is still missing. 'Is he okay? ...I have to go to Redrin with Anchovy. I'll have to ask if he's safe when I go.' * * * Around the time he finished breakfast, Shin Jo-Woon and Jang Tae-Ri came to visit, and the house became noisy again. Jang Tae-Ri kept shouting happily when he saw Rembrary, and Shin Jo-Woon took Kim Jewoo, who seemed to have the most realistic wisdom among the people in this house, and asked him if there was anything he needed to live here. For the past two days, Shin Jo-Woon had been investigating the events that had occurred while he was away, before dealing with his backlog of work. The situation was not good. Places like this house, which are around schools and in school districts, were relatively safe because they were especially protected because of the children, and the areas around Shin Jo-Woon and Jang Tae-Ri's companies and homes were also relatively safe. However, other places were in worse shape than before he left. Powerful demons and devils had joined the places where awakened people and monsters were fighting. "It's okay here. President Jang has been stopping by two or three times a week to take care of things." "Tae-Ri did?" "Yes. But if you need anything urgently, please let me know." Kim Jewoo was grateful, but he didn't completely refuse the help, so Shin Jo-Woon nodded instead of asking any more questions. Meanwhile, Jang Tae-Ri was asking Rembrary what he had said to Shin Jo-Woon yesterday. "What do you mean by 'bring your body'?" "Tae-Ri, did you and Anchovy eat something delicious again?" "We ate something not delicious. Really." "There's no way you'd pay to eat something not delicious. The beginning was to go eat something delicious, right?" "...It's weird, but it makes sense." While Jang Tae-Ri was tilting his head, Shin Jo-Woon approached Rembrary and asked, "Why did you tell him to bring his body?" "Redrin needs it to summon the Great Anchovy." "Great? Ah. That guy." Shin Jo-Woon's expression became subtle. Jang Tae-Ri, knowing the situation already, asked from the side with an expression of half expectation, half jest, and a handful of concern, "Are you going to summon the Emperor who looks just like Jo-Woon?"