Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 541

◈ 541. Was It Intentional?

Siyoung ran, crying. His friends were running ahead, also in tears.

But with each step forward, their feet sank into the sticky swamp, making it impossible to gain any speed.

“Hurry up!”

“I’m going!”

“Run! Faster!”

Siyoung shouted from behind, tears streaming down his face. In truth, Siyoung could run faster than this.

If it weren’t for the kids, he would have been running much faster.

But since he was the only awakened one [a person with supernatural abilities], Siyoung couldn’t run any faster because he had to keep his friends ahead of him.

Then, as something huge leaped from behind, the children screamed simultaneously and tumbled to the ground.

Wails erupted from everywhere at once.

“Get up! Quickly! Move forward!”

Siyoung yelled, hitting the legs of the crying children.

It worked, and the children got up and started running again.

A long hand lashed out like a whip, just as one child stood up, and swept through the space they had occupied.

Siyoung cursed and started running again.

Something with twenty arms followed behind.

Siyoung glanced back and thought, putting strength into his legs. *How is that thing supposed to ‘grant wishes’?*

The monster’s lower body was submerged in the swamp, so it was impossible to guess its overall size.

But the monster’s upper body alone was three times bigger than the children.

Fortunately, it was a little slower than the children, but the problem was the monster’s twenty long arms.

Nineteen of the twenty hands were holding swords, and one hand was holding a soft, golden mist.

The monster wildly swung its twenty hands at the children.

If that monster had the ability to grant wishes, it would probably be in that one hand holding the golden mist.

But wishes aside, being in front of that monster meant a much higher chance of dying from the nineteen swords.

“Siyoung! Do something!”

“You’re an Awakened! Don’t you know anything?”

The children screamed. Siyoung responded with curses.

“Why don’t you try doing something!”

It wasn’t that Siyoung didn’t want to do anything; he couldn’t.

Siyoung was still clumsy at using his abilities, so the children had to buy him time to try anything.

But since the children couldn’t do that, he couldn’t even try anything.

Besides, Siyoung’s spatial ability required a specific space to be designated to work properly.

It was difficult to create a space randomly outside like this.

“Mommy!”

“Daddy!”

The children were now crying and running, calling for their parents.

When one child fell, the children around him stopped and helped him up, which broke their formation and caused them all to fall together.

Siyoung, who was running last, almost tripped over the children.

Barely regaining his balance, Siyoung grabbed the children again and pulled them up.

“Get up! Quickly! I’m leaving you behind!”

“Don’t leave me behind!”

“Then get up!”

At that moment, a large shadow fell over the children’s heads.

Siyoung, pulling up a fallen child, raised his head in terror.

* * *

It was when they were about to enter the 4-6 district.

“Huh?”

The phone rang. Rembrary, who was about to answer the phone as he went inside, stepped back when he saw that the caller was Joo Kyung.

Inadvertently, the whole group stopped.

“What’s wrong? Why don’t you answer it while going in?”

Meng Wooshin asked irritably. Rembrary shook his phone and answered the call.

“Hey, Joo Kyung.”

Rembrary thought Joo Kyung was calling to ask him to find Siyoung. But what Joo Kyung said was completely unexpected.

[Angel. A strange person sent me a message.]

“You should ignore messages from strange people.”

[But it has pictures of Dad and Angel. Just a moment.]

Wondering what she meant, Rembrary looked at his phone, and the pictures Joo Kyung received arrived.

Rembrary frowned as he looked at the pictures.

“What is it?”

Meng Wooshin came over. Sagamja and Hwasaja, who had been keeping a little distance from each other because of what happened in the Black Lake area, cautiously approached, wondering what was going on.

“What’s the matter?”

The four of them gathered around one phone, and as soon as they understood the pictures, they stared at Rembrary with eyes as big as chestnuts in 0.1 seconds.

“…….”

Rembrary stared blankly at the pictures and then brought the phone back to his ear.

“Joo Kyung.”

[Angel. I believe in you.]

“Good job, Joo Kyung. Actually, we were discussing whether we should tell you this or not.”

[What are you talking about?]

“It’s hard for an eight-year-old to understand.”

[I’m smart, so I can understand, Angel.]

“Joo Kyung, do you know about brainwashing?”

[Like shampoo?]

“?”

[Am I wrong?]

“Do you know about puppets?”

[I know.]

“Demons and devils are controlling Joo Kyung’s dad like a puppet.”

[Is Dad a puppet? Then the video message…….]

“Just a moment.”

Rembrary sent the scene where Joo Kyung’s dad was momentarily possessed by a demon and muttering to Ninling.

“Joo Kyung. Go to Ninling and ask her to show you the video I sent.”

[Just a moment.]

The sound of a child running and calling for Ninling was heard, and soon a faint sound like overlapping voices was heard.

Joo Kyung shouted back into the phone.

[Angel, Dad is talking in a strange voice!]

“Joo Kyung’s dad is being a puppet and then going back to normal. That’s why I couldn’t tell you.”

The sound of a child crying was heard. Hwasaja clicked his tongue.

“Growing up strong.”

Meng Wooshin looked at Hwasaja like he was crazy.

Rembrary waited for Joo Kyung to calm down a little, then anxiously checked the time and called out.

“Joo Kyung. Joo Kyung.”

[Yes, Angel.]

“The person who sent the message to Joo Kyung is a bad person trying to use Joo Kyung and Joo Kyung’s dad. Right?”

[Yes.]

“Our Joo Kyung is so smart that she didn’t fall for it. Right?”

[Yes!]

“Then let’s punish that devil. How about it?”

[Okay!]

“Okay. Then switch to Nin, no, Zeus.”

After a while, Kim Zeus’s voice was heard from the phone this time.

[Yes, Benefactor.]

Rembrary quickly explained the situation and then instructed.

“Pretend to be Joo Kyung on Joo Kyung’s SNS [Social Networking Service] and try to get information about the other party. Also, contact Daeju and let him know that there seems to be a spy inside Redrine headquarters.”

[Yes?!]

Rembrary anxiously looked at his watch again.

* * *

The moment the monster’s long hand swung its blade, a beautiful net spread over the children’s heads.

The blade hit the net and was blocked, unable to penetrate the net and reach the children.

Siyoung blinked blankly.

The one who blocked the monster with the net was a short, curly-haired man. A person with gray hair and even gray eyes.

“The little ones must have been surprised.”

The man whispered in a tone of pity as he made eye contact with Siyoung, then waved his hand.

With that simple motion, the monster covered in the net flew away somewhere.

The children who were running away were stunned by the sight of him easily dealing with the monster.

Soon, the children ran to the man, crying and chattering.

“Oh my. You must have been very surprised.”

The man soothed the children in a kind and gentle voice. Then he gave Siyoung a thumbs up.

“That kid over there is really brave. The bravest human I’ve ever seen.”

Siyoung was embarrassed by the sudden praise and unnecessarily brushed the mud off his clothes.

The man smiled at the sight and pointed in a certain direction.

“Little ones, let’s go out. Go that way.”

“Are we going by ourselves?”

“Can’t you come with us……?”

“If another monster appears…… it’s scary.”

When the children showed their frightened faces, the man, without the slightest hint of annoyance, told them to follow him and walked ahead.

Then Siyoung noticed something strange. They hadn’t even taken a few steps when a door appeared in front of them.

“This is the exit.”

Siyoung had often heard dungeon stories from Ninling and Mullu, so he knew how to escape a dungeon.

They said that you enter through a door, but when you come out, you automatically come out ‘in front of the door.’ Not like this, with an exit.

Besides, no matter how strong that man was, the way he dealt with the monster was also strange.

Come to think of it, the monster didn’t even attack that man from the beginning.

“Wait a minute.”

After thinking, Siyoung stopped one of the children from going out the exit and asked the man.

“Are you perhaps a demon?”

At those words, the children looked back and forth between the man and Siyoung, then hurriedly split in two directions.

Some stood near Siyoung, wary of the man, and some were angry that Siyoung was saying bad things to the person who had helped them.

Still, when Siyoung glared at them, the man chuckled, squatted down to match their eye level, and asked playfully.

“Is that not allowed?”

At that natural acceptance, half of the children next to the man moved back to Siyoung’s side.

“Demons are bad.”

When Siyoung said firmly, the man went directly to the door without any further argument and opened it.

When the door opened, they could see the scenery near the door the children had entered.

“How is it? Is this okay?”

When one of the hesitant children popped out, the other children followed suit.

They couldn’t hear the sounds from outside, but Siyoung could see the children who had gone out first crying and feeling relieved.

But it seemed that once they went outside, they couldn’t see this side, as none of the children looked back.

Siyoung was wary of the demon until the end, and when all his friends had left, he cautiously approached the door.

The man smiled and waved his hand.

“Goodbye. And don’t come again.”

“……Thank you.”

At this point, Siyoung felt like he was being too harsh on the person who had saved them, so he stood in front of the door, gave a small bow, and went outside.

* * *

Daeju was trying to figure out who could have stolen the CCTV [Closed-Circuit Television] records, taking only a few of his most trusted confidants with him to find the spy who had infiltrated Redrine.

As he was doing that, the phone rang. Hesitating whether to answer it because he was busy, he looked at his phone and saw that the caller was Ninling.

*Is another suspicious person trying to approach Joo Kyung?* Daeju immediately answered the phone.

“Yes.”

But this news wasn’t about Joo Kyung.

“Siyoung came out of the dungeon with the children? Already? With no one hurt? The Grand Priest just went in?”

[Yes. A gray-haired demon they met there helped them.]

“A demon?”

[Because of that, the children are saying that demons aren’t as scary as they thought, that they’re cool, and that they don’t seem like bad people.]

*What’s with the demon,* he thought, and then Daeju flinched. *Could it be. Was that the plan from the beginning?*

*Trying to alienate Joo Kyung by sending her messages that made her unable to trust her guardians.*

*Meanwhile, saving Siyoung and his friends to change the image of demons for the better?*

Once the demons save them, the children will think that demons are ‘not as bad as they thought.’

Just like Siyoung and the children who came out of the dungeon are doing now.