Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 531

◈ 531. Rembrary, That Person

After agreeing to catch one each, Rembrary went back into the lake.

Even though it was his second time entering the black water, he felt like his mind was going to break. But seeing the frightened Hwasa and Sagamjae, he had no choice but to demonstrate first; otherwise, nothing would progress.

He had packed plenty of necessities, enough to last for months.

Once all the food was gone, Sagamjae and Hwasa would reluctantly go fishing.

However, considering Woo Sungwoo, Emperor Shin Jo-woon, and everyone else, it wasn’t the time to relax.

Besides, the Demon King was getting stronger as time passed.

Before the Demon King gained more power by making more people believe in him, he had to be sealed away no matter what.

‘But it’s really hard to see inside this lake.’

Rembrary swam into the water, then changed his mind and turned off his halo altogether.

This way, he wouldn’t have to see what he looked like when catching those fish with scary eyes, 30 times the size of cockroaches.

What you don’t know can’t hurt you; it seemed better to just catch them without looking.

‘This is better.’

Indeed. Turning off the halo made it impossible to see anything, but Rembrary preferred it this way and moved forward little by little.

Then, as soon as his fingertips touched something, he pulled it in and hugged it without even checking what it was.

‘Ugh.’

The fish, suddenly embraced by Rembrary, desperately flapped around, slapping Rembrary’s cheeks with its fins, but Rembrary didn’t want to do this again, so he simply held the fish and went up.

The slimy texture gave him goosebumps, but he absolutely didn’t loosen his grip.

As soon as he reached the surface, Rembrary gained momentum and leaped out of the water like a dolphin.

“Wow.”

Hwasa inadvertently applauded at the sight, but Rembrary still didn’t open his eyes.

Because his eyes were closed, he had to roll on the ground upon landing.

Rembrary kept his eyes closed and endured, then stood up abruptly as soon as he released what he was holding, finally opening his eyes.

“W-what is this?”

Standing up, Rembrary saw that he had caught a strangely shaped fish.

It wasn’t that nameless cockroach, 30 times its size, that had shocked Rembrary when he first entered the black lake.

This… it looked like a fish. It had fins… well, it seemed like a fish.

Its jaw was particularly large and protruding, with sharp teeth here and there, and it looked very angry.

But what was that huge antenna on the fish’s forehead?

As Rembrary stared blankly at it, he suddenly heard a chuckle from the side.

Turning around, he saw Sagamjae looking back and forth between Rembrary and the fish, laughing.

“Why are you laughing?”

Just before Rembrary entered the lake, he had been very upset.

Wondering why his anger had subsided so quickly, he asked, and Sagamjae smiled and told him.

“You caught an anglerfish. Did you catch it on purpose because I said you looked alike?”

“Anglerfish? This is an anglerfish?”

“It might not be, but it looks similar.”

Sagamjae’s voice was kind but sharp. Rembrary noticed that he wasn’t completely over his anger.

Rembrary’s gaze returned to the black fish with the antenna.

“…….”

Rembrary was half stunned.

* * *

After being in a daze like that, he came to his senses and realized that Hwasa was gone.

“Where’s the lion?”

When Rembrary asked, the black dragon pointed to the lake with his hand.

“Did he go in?”

Rembrary looked at the lake.

The surface, which should have been calm, was rippling here and there, as if something was moving quickly inside.

How long had he been staring blankly at it? Suddenly, Hwasa appeared before his eyes.

Hwasa, whose mask was soaked and unsightly, was holding something that looked like the cockroach, 30 times its size, that Rembrary had first seen in the lake.

“!”

Rembrary quickly moved away.

Hwasa put down what he had caught, whether it was a cockroach or a fish, and shuddered, retching, then suddenly.

He shouted at Sagamjae in a voice filled with resentment.

“It’s your turn! Go in!”

Seeing that his whole body was covered in scratches, it seemed that catching it was more difficult than he had thought.

Rembrary didn’t stop Hwasa and stared at Sagamjae.

Rembrary and Hwasa had each done their part. Now it was Sagamjae’s turn to share this pain.

However, after about 30 seconds of silence, Sagamjae suddenly turned and started running.

“Where are you going!”

Hwasa gritted his teeth and immediately ran to catch Sagamjae.

After hugging the cockroach, he seemed twice as brave as usual.

Rembrary cheered in his heart, hoping that Hwasa would catch Sagamjae.

* * *

Yum-ra was carefully discussing the Demon King’s intentions with his aides.

The Demon King approached Rembrary and said, ‘I will only attack Earth, so you leave,’ shaking the alliance between Yum-ra and Redrin.

Afterward, he kidnapped only one person from Nakru among the group that went to District 1-1 together, shaking the alliance between Nakru and Redrin’s followers.

Neither had an immediate effect, but such issues of trust usually crack little by little and then break all at once.

For now, everyone thought, ‘It’s the Demon King’s scheme,’ and tried to repair the trust, but what would happen if this was repeated several times?

Besides…….

“The difficult thing is this. Even though we know what the Demon King wants, we can’t be relieved. If Redrin actually accepts the Demon King’s claims, Earth will really be left taking the blame for someone else’s mess.”

“Exactly. We can’t pour all our strength into the Demon King because Redrin is still not trustworthy.”

Yum-ra sighed.

“The Demon King played his cards well.”

But just as he was about to say more, a strange prayer suddenly came from Sagamjae.

—Your Majesty! Please save me!

Yum-ra flinched and lowered his hand from his forehead.

“Sagamjae Saja [Grim Reaper Sagamjae]?”

—The Otherworld Saint and a crazy human are trying to kill me! The two of them have fallen for the devil’s trick and are trying to abandon me!

“Sagamjae Saja?”

As Yum-ra seemed to be talking to someone, all of Yum-ra’s aides fell silent.

Yum-ra called out “Sagamjae Saja?” a few more times, but when the other party didn’t seem to be in the right state of mind to talk, he hurriedly checked Sagamjae’s location.

He was thinking of sending other Grim Reapers there.

‘He’s inside the demon’s territory.’

However, Sagamjae’s location was very ambiguous, as if he was inside a territory created by a demon.

It didn’t seem easy to send a Grim Reaper there either, so Yum-ra eventually went to find Redrin.

Redrin was sitting in front of a Go board, holding a folded gibo [record of a Go game] in one hand and a Go stone in the other.

However, he wasn’t playing Go right away, but staring blankly ahead.

Then, noticing that Yum-ra had come, Redrin smiled faintly and asked.

“Otherworld King. What’s wrong?”

Yum-ra went right up to Redrin, sat across from him, and said harshly.

“You better stop your child. Your child is trying to kill my Saja [envoy/official].”

At the protest, a joyful smile appeared on Redrin’s lips.

“As a matter of fact, our child contacted me.”

“He’s killing my Saja?”

“Not killing him yet. He asked if he could kill him.”

Yum-ra grabbed the Go board, and the Go board immediately split in half.

“Are you saying you’re going to break our alliance!”

Redrin smiled and tapped Yum-ra’s hand with a Go stone, removing it from the Go board.

“King of this place. What I heard was up to the part where your child was whining about not wanting to catch a giant cockroach-like fish.”

“!”

* * *

While Yum-ra was talking to Redrin, and Sagamjae was being chased by Hwasa, desperately trying not to enter the lake.

Shin Jo-woon had just heard the news about Rembrary and was dumbfounded, so he came to see Dae-ju.

“I heard that Rembrary went into District 4 with the demons.”

As soon as Shin Jo-woon said that as soon as he came saying that he had a meeting, Dae-ju nodded willingly.

“I don’t know what that has to do with the meeting we need to have today, but that’s right.”

“I don’t know much about demons, but Dae-ju. I’m sure they’re not trustworthy people.”

“Maybe so.”

“But you just sent him?”

Dae-ju realized that Shin Jo-woon had come to get angry.

After returning from the racing area, he seemed to be buried in the pile of work that had accumulated from wandering through the maze twice in a row.

That’s why he heard the news now.

And as Dae-ju expected, ‘he came to get angry,’ Shin Jo-woon, who had come right in front of him, lowered his waist, made eye contact with Dae-ju, and said.

“Not being able to stop one person. It’s not like Dae-ju.”

Even while speaking, his voice was kind and there was a smile on his lips, but he didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

Dae-ju was annoyed.

“I tried to stop him.”

“You should have stopped him more.”

“I tried to stop him as much as I could. There wouldn’t be anyone there who wouldn’t try to stop him. But the demons approach even while hiding their identities, so the High Priest said it would be better to just take him openly—”

Just as he was about to speak, he heard a vibration, and Shin Jo-woon checked his phone and stopped speaking.

“Wait a moment.”

Shin Jo-woon’s expression, which seemed to be slightly distorted from the moment he checked his phone, was even worse when he checked the contents.

As his phone started vibrating again, Shin Jo-woon excused himself to Dae-ju and went outside to answer the phone.

Dae-ju spread his arms and looked at his back, then asked his secretary when the door closed and Shin Jo-woon left.

“Why does it seem like he’s leaving because he’s at a disadvantage?”

* * *

Unlike Dae-ju’s suspicion, Shin Jo-woon didn’t come out because he was at a disadvantage.

“Yes, I answered the phone.”

He just came out to answer a call from the High-End Hunter side.

Since there were mostly urgent matters when they called, Shin Jo-woon usually answered calls from the High-End Hunter side right away.

—I heard that Woo Sungwoo is missing.

The person who called got straight to the point. Shin Jo-woon frowned.

“Missing?”

—Is he dead? I’m calling to check if he’s dead or missing.

“If you’re curious about that, you can watch the news. It should all be out.”

—There’s a possibility that he was treated as missing because his death would demoralize people. I hope you don’t take it the wrong way. Shin Jo-woon, I made this call when you went missing too. Anyway, if he’s dead, we need to quickly fill the vacant spot with another hunter.

There were ten High-End Hunters, and the criteria for choosing the ten was relative strength.

Even if there was no one as strong as Woo Sungwoo, it was right to fill the vacant spot with another hunter to match the number of people.

“…….”

Shin Jo-woon thought for a moment and answered.

“He’s not dead. He’s missing. It’s missing in name only, and I know exactly where he is. It’s more certain that he’s alive, so it’s better to leave the spot vacant for about two years.”

—We can’t wait two years when we’re short on hands. Wouldn’t it be better to decide on the tenth member and then re-rank when Woo Sungwoo returns and demote one person to platinum again?

“What if he comes back in a week or two? Isn’t that unnecessary?”

—Then how about having an intern member?

“……Are we a company?”

—No, what I mean is. If we have someone as strong as a hunter but not a hunter as the tenth member, there won’t be any problems when Woo Sungwoo comes back later, right? If we give him credit for his experience and let him take the formal hunter, platinum route?

As soon as he heard that, one person came to Shin Jo-woon’s mind. Almost at the same time, the other party spoke.

—Rembrary. That person.