Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 524

◈ 524. Shocked Woo Yeon-woo

“Why is hyung, why is he washing dishes there?”

Woo Yeon-woo couldn’t close his mouth in bewilderment.

“Why is he?”

Since no one answered, Woo Yeon-woo’s gaze turned to Rembrandt this time.

“Why couldn’t hyung come out?”

While Rembrandt was choosing his words, Woo Yeon-woo looked at Rembrandt and each of his companions, shouting.

“Everyone else came out like this. Why is it only my hyung who’s missing!”

Rembrandt gently corrected him.

“Ah, it’s not just Sung-woo. There are a total of five people who couldn’t come out—”

Sagamjae quickly covered Rembrandt’s mouth.

However, Woo Yeon-woo had already heard what Rembrandt was trying to say.

“What?”

Woo Yeon-woo looked at Rembrandt, dumbfounded.

He knew that Rembrandt’s mouth wasn’t ordinary, but there were times when that extraordinary mouth was particularly infuriating. This was one of those times.

“There were some circumstances. It was more difficult than we thought.”

Sagamjae quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

“No matter how difficult it was, how could—”

But it was no use. Soon after, Woo Yeon-woo even teared up as he protested.

“How can hyung disappear after going in with this team?”

The people who had entered the dungeon heard the conversation and, realizing the situation, became somber.

They were all busy fighting to get out of there, but now they were all slowly regaining their senses.

Some of them recognized Woo Yeon-woo’s face and also realized that Woo Sung-woo was among those who didn’t make it.

“Woo Sung-woo must be dead.”

Someone muttered, and the person next to him hushed, covering his mouth.

Fortunately, Woo Yeon-woo didn’t hear the comment as he was continuing his outburst.

“If that crazy Ardor had gone with us, I would have thought it was because there was someone to draw aggro [monster’s attention]. But how could this happen with this team?”

Woo Yeon-woo looked back and forth between Sagamjae and Shin Jo-woon, and finally couldn’t hold back and shouted.

“You bastards!”

With the curse, Woo Yeon-woo kicked Shin Jo-woon in the shin and hurriedly ran to the car he had arrived in.

Then, he sat in the driver’s seat, started the engine, and drove off.

As the car sped away, Rembrandt stared blankly at the sight before asking Shin Jo-woon.

“Why did you just stand there and get hit?”

“I was thinking.”

“About what?”

“Why he’s only glaring at me when there are three people here.”

* * *

Team Leader Gu Se-ji, who had seen the whole situation through the camera installed at the entrance of District 1-1, rubbed his forehead.

“Oh, what should I do about this?”

Team Leader Gu Se-ji first called Woo Yeon-woo. He could see that Woo Yeon-woo was agitated even through the camera.

It would be dangerous if he encountered a monster suddenly while driving in that state.

Before the signal rang twice, a tearful voice burst out.

“Hello!”

Team Leader Gu Se-ji waved his hand in the air and hurriedly asked.

“I don’t think you’re okay, but I’ll ask anyway. Are you okay?”

Woo Yeon-woo immediately shouted.

“No!”

“Um. Yeah. I thought so. But I had to ask.”

“Hwaaa!”

As he heard crying sounds from the receiver, Team Leader Gu Se-ji became troubled and waved his hand in the air as if directing.

“Uh. Um. First… uh. Come here. Don’t go home. And it’s better to drive slowly.”

“Yes!”

Woo Yeon-woo shouted again and hung up first. His voice was not calm at all.

Team Leader Gu Se-ji sighed and pressed the emergency button to summon all the key personnel of the headquarters.

“This is a big problem. A big problem.”

* * *

Even after Woo Yeon-woo left, the three people continued to squat in front of the wall.

Rembrandt stared blankly ahead, and Sagamjae rested his arm on his knee and looked down at the floor.

Shin Jo-woon was holding his cell phone and kept typing something, and judging from the continuous vibrations, he seemed to be exchanging text messages.

How long had they been like that?

When a car stopped in front of them, all three of them looked towards it.

As the window automatically lowered, Jang Tae-ri was seen sitting in the driver’s seat.

Jang Tae-ri clicked his tongue as he looked at the three of them.

“Tsk, tsk.”

Even so, as he signaled them to get in, the two people and one grim reaper quickly got into the car.

“Squirt. Did you call Tae-ri?”

“No. I called my secretary. I’m telling him not to come now.”

“Then Tae-ri is…”

Rembrandt looked in the rearview mirror and made eye contact with Jang Tae-ri. Jang Tae-ri answered directly.

“Yeon-woo called. He told me to pick up three idiots.”

Idiots? Shin Jo-woon frowned at the word, and Sagamjae carefully asked.

“Am I included?”

“Since there are three, you must be included, right?”

“……”

Sagamjae looked ahead with a sullen face.

Jang Tae-ri clicked his tongue again and continued.

“I saw the situation on camera. Nakru shared it.”

All three became quiet.

“Yeon-woo is right. How can you go with that team and lose a key force? Tsk, you’re pathetic.”

Shin Jo-woon, Rembrandt, and Sagamjae chose silence, and Jang Tae-ri sighed and continued.

“The relationship with Nakru might be strained a bit. His voice was subdued.”

* * *

Yeomra [King of Hell in Korean mythology] sat cross-legged on a large jade throne, slowly turning the pages of a book, and raised his head when he sensed someone coming in.

Sagamjae was cautiously approaching.

“Judging from your expression, you’ve caused an accident.”

When Yeomra spoke after seeing his expression, Sagamjae replied less energetically than usual.

“It’s not an accident I caused, but something did happen.”

Yeomra closed the book and placed it next to him.

“What happened?”

“A human named Woo Sung-woo from Nakru is trapped in the dungeon. He’s quite a significant force.”

“I see. I think I’ve heard the name before. But how did that happen? Even with the Otherworldly Saint and you going?”

“It was a dungeon that sealed abilities in exchange for injuries and death becoming fictitious.”

“Oh ho.”

“Moreover, faces and voices change, and arbitrary aliases are assigned. Even personalities change.”

“It must have been difficult. Since you’re all not very bright.”

Sagamjae nodded, then looked at Yeomra with wide eyes, wondering if he was included.

“Ah. There is one exception, though.”

Then, Sagamjae thought, ‘That’s right,’ and agreed with Yeomra’s belated correction, but

“Was it Shin Jo-woon? The human who uses that unique ability.”

Sagamjae had to stop nodding again when he heard Yeomra’s following words.

“……”

“Didn’t use your head this time, I see?”

Sagamjae was dissatisfied with Yeomra’s high evaluation of Shin Jo-woon, but he put aside his personal feelings and answered honestly since it was a report.

“I heard on the way that the role assigned to him was that of an indecisive person.”

“That person?”

“Yes. He had a restriction that he had to unconditionally follow the opinions of the majority. Because of that, he only tried to act alone, so he wasn’t helpful when we were all together. Being apart might have been helpful in his own way, but…”

Sagamjae had nothing more to say since he knew that he himself hadn’t been very helpful either.

Yeomra nodded seriously, then said, “Wait a moment,” and closed his eyes.

As he watched, wondering what was going on, a gust of wind blew and blew a piece of paper placed in front of Yeomra.

“?”

Sagamjae grabbed the paper without thinking. At that moment. Yeomra opened his eyes and looked at him.

“The paper. It flew away.”

Sagamjae muttered apologetically, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, and placed the paper in front of Yeomra and let go.

“That’s it.”

Yeomra said strangely to it.

“Yes?”

As he wondered what he meant, Yeomra gestured for him to examine the paper.

Sagamjae looked closely at the paper he had let go of. It said ‘Discord’ on it.

“This is…?”

“Nakru seems to be upset with you. For leaving Woo Sung-woo behind.”

“Ah!”

“The beginning of discord, huh? They induced this and only took one person? They’re using their heads well.”

* * *

Rembrandt stared intently at his cell phone and tried calling Woo Yeon-woo.

He probably didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, but Woo Yeon-woo was so mentally small, soft, and delicate that he was worried.

However, the call was cut off before it even rang a few times.

“Did he shrink back even more?”

Rembrandt sighed, put his phone down next to him, and decided to eat the pancakes he had taken out earlier.

However, worries didn’t cease, not just about Woo Yeon-woo.

Looking at it overall, that was also the case.

Woo Sung-woo was Nakru’s ace. With Woo Sung-woo gone, the human side’s power itself had been greatly diminished.

Since there weren’t many Awakened people, and not all Awakened people were necessarily strong, this was disadvantageous to people.

‘It’s fortunate that not all the demons have crossed over here either.’

* * *

Ninring looked for Rembrandt, but hesitated and turned away when he saw that Rembrandt had already finished his pancakes and was leaning against the balcony railing, deep in thought.

‘What should I do? He’s not in the right state of mind to listen to me.’

A few days ago, Ninring had a phone call with Hwasaja.

It was a call that came when Rembrandt was in the dungeon, and unexpectedly, it was about Si-young.

Hwasaja told his mother about Si-young, and Hwasaja’s mother told him about a lord a few days later.

That lord was the lord of a non-city called ‘Rapping Grass,’ and he was someone who had lost twin daughters during the Cataclysm.

He had been bedridden for a week after being shocked, and then he had awakened. When he heard about Si-young and Joo-kyung, he volunteered to take care of the children.

Hwasaja suggested that it would be good to give the children a chance to meet him.

Ninring wanted to object, so he looked up information about the territory and lord of ‘Rapping Grass,’ but contrary to his intentions, he couldn’t find anything but good information.

It was known that the territory, despite its somewhat funny name, was one of the five most livable non-cities.

The lord was also known to be a dignified and kind person, and he was quite popular among the lords.

Ninring became gloomy and was heading to the living room when he saw Si-young eating pancakes and stopped, overwhelmed.

“Uh… should I give you some?”

When Si-young, who saw his expression, asked in confusion, Ninring sat weakly across from him and stared intently at the child.

The child didn’t know what was going on, but diligently cut the bread with a fork and ate it.

Ninring became depressed. If he parted ways with the children like this, it would be forever. That was too bad.

However, as Hwasaja said, if everything was resolved and he returned to his original world, it would be difficult to take the children with him.

That side was a world with a class system, and he was a holy knight living in the temple.

Moreover, holy knights had to use force more often than here.

But he couldn’t stay here either, could he?

“Should I give you a little? You look like you want to eat some.”

“No. Si-young, eat a lot.”

Ninring muttered dejectedly.

* * *

While Ninring was feeling sorry alone.

Rembrandt was now thinking about withdrawing, not whether to call Woo Yeon-woo or not.

And he thought of the person who imitated Shin Jo-woon, and did it very well.

Rembrandt already knew one person who imitated Shin Jo-woon the best in the world.

A person he had met before in District 1-1.

‘Emperor Shin Jo-woon. Was Cheol-soo perhaps Emperor Shin Jo-woon instead of a demon? Is that why he subtly told me who Shin Jo-woon was? Like he helped me in the ice cream domain before?’