Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 553

◈ 553. Doubt

Looking at the name on his phone screen, Jang Tae-ri asked quietly,

“Why is Sa Gam-jae calling again?”

Before Shin Jo-woon could answer, Sa Gam-jae picked up the phone.

—Yes, hello.

Shin Jo-woon mouthed ‘later’ to Jang Tae-ri before putting the phone to his ear.

“Mr. Sa Gam-jae, it’s me.”

Sa Gam-jae was silent for a moment before asking,

—You’re calling unusually often today.

“I think I missed something earlier.”

—What did you forget to say?

Shin Jo-woon roughly wiped the wrecked car body with ice.

Jang Tae-ri looked at Shin Jo-woon with a slightly worried expression.

It wasn’t the ice-wiped car body that was the problem, but the fact that he suddenly called a grim reaper and spoke so provocatively.

“Me going to dungeons is because of Rembrary.”

—?

“But Rembrary disappeared. Now that this has happened, I don’t feel like participating in the fight between the demons and the grim reapers anymore. I don’t think there’s any need for me to step in.”

When Shin Jo-woon escalated from provocation to threat, Jang Tae-ri’s eyes widened.

Shin Jo-woon, removing ice from the car body, affirmed,

“So, I’m pulling out of the pillar-destroying business now.”

Sa Gam-jae’s flustered voice stopped him.

—Wait a minute!

Shin Jo-woon nodded as if to say, ‘Say more.’

Sa Gam-jae hesitated before asking,

—If you pull out now, the country will be a mess. The second cataclysm has already happened. And you’re saying you’ll pull out?

Shin Jo-woon replied dryly,

“It’s already a mess with two cataclysms. It can’t get any worse.”

With those words, Shin Jo-woon immediately hung up the phone.

Jang Tae-ri, who had been listening to the call with her mouth open, asked in disbelief,

“Are you really pulling out?”

Shin Jo-woon replied nonchalantly,

“If I pull out, I pull out. What about you?”

At his resolute words, Jang Tae-ri said as if it were obvious,

“I’m not pulling out. I can’t let my emotions dictate people’s safety.”

While Shin Jo-woon paused at Jang Tae-ri’s words, she asked Shin Jo-woon again,

“Are you really going to pull out?”

When Shin Jo-woon readily nodded, Jang Tae-ri stared at Shin Jo-woon intently before saying sharply,

“Don’t worry. I won’t criticize you for pulling out, you bastard.”

“You’re already cursing me behind my back, Jang Tae-ri? Even before I pull out.”

“It’s not my curse.”

“Then can I send it back to the owner?”

While Jang Tae-ri laughed and told him to try sending it back, Sa Gam-jae called again.

—Why do you hang up in the middle of talking?

“I didn’t hang up in the middle.”

Sa Gam-jae sighed.

—Mr. Shin Jo-woon, I don’t know what you’re misunderstanding, but Redrin really has Rembrary.

Shin Jo-woon hung up again. But when the phone rang again, he answered it again.

As soon as Shin Jo-woon answered, Sa Gam-jae asked,

—Where are you? I’ll just go there.

* * *

Not long after, Sa Gam-jae emerged from the bushes. He spoke before even fully revealing himself.

“I don’t know why you keep not believing me. It’s true that Redrin has Rembrary.”

Instead of answering, Shin Jo-woon pointed to the wrecked car with his eyes. And he shook Rembrary’s phone, which had a dead battery, holding it by the strap.

Sa Gam-jae was dumbfounded and clicked his tongue.

“What do you want me to do? That Saint makes any car he rides in look like this, doesn’t he?”

“Not the car. I’m talking about the phone.”

“…….”

“That kid usually takes good care of his phone.”

Sa Gam-jae had no choice but to reveal additional information.

“It’s true that Redrin has Rembrary, but Rembrary is currently unconscious.”

Since Yeomra [King of the Underworld in Korean mythology] and Redrin were allies now, he didn’t want to say anything that would make Redrin look strange if possible. But he had no choice.

Jang Tae-ri, who had been leaning against the car body, was surprised and stood up.

“In a coma?”

“No, he’s sleeping.”

“Huh?”

Shin Jo-woon frowned.

“Sleeping? For days? Can you call that sleeping?”

“He’s really sleeping. Redrin is putting him to sleep in his arms because he’s tired.”

At Sa Gam-jae’s words, Shin Jo-woon’s forehead furrowed even more.

“Putting him to sleep in his arms?”

“Exactly as it sounds.”

“Is he giving him a pillow with his arm?”

A god giving someone a pillow with his arm? Jang Tae-ri and Shin Jo-woon, both Earthlings, looked at Sa Gam-jae, filled with confusion.

“No.”

When Sa Gam-jae denied it, they were relieved. Of course, not that, right?

“It’s a lap pillow.”

“?”

When Jang Tae-ri and Shin Jo-woon stared blankly at Sa Gam-jae again, Sa Gam-jae hurriedly added,

“It looks strange to me too. I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that. I’m not that close to Lord Yeomra. That’s an otherworld style, not an Earth style.”

Jang Tae-ri tilted her head and asked,

“But Mr. Rembrary is a healer, isn’t he? He heals himself well on his own, right? And he sleeps too much if anything, so why does he need to be put to sleep like that?”

“I’m wondering about that too.”

Sa Gam-jae muttered quietly. It was quiet, but loud enough for Shin Jo-woon and Jang Tae-ri to hear.

Sa Gam-jae sighed and added,

“Anyway, Rembrary is currently in a realm that humans can’t go to. I don’t know why he’s being put to sleep like that… and he’s not in a bad state either. There’s no need to worry while looking at the wrecked car.”

As Sa Gam-jae left, Jang Tae-ri looked at Shin Jo-woon and asked,

“That’s what he says. What do you think?”

Shin Jo-woon shrugged and pointed to the mountain path they had come up.

“We have to go down. What else can we do?”

“You sound nonchalant, but you look annoyed.”

* * *

Shin Jo-woon wasn’t annoyed.

It was just that he didn’t like the fact that things so rarely went nowhere like this, even when he stepped in.

Knowing that Rembrary wasn’t in danger and couldn’t be brought back right away, Shin Jo-woon changed direction.

This time, he met Maeng Woo-shin, who had gone to the last dungeon Rembrary visited, and asked,

“Was Rembrary acting strange in the dungeon?”

“No. He was riding dinosaurs and having fun.”

“Dinosaurs? Ah, that dinosaur.”

When Shin Jo-woon immediately understood that he had seen the <5 Billion Project> video, Maeng Woo-shin asked awkwardly,

“I don’t know why you’re asking when you’ve seen all the broadcasts.”

“There must be things that weren’t captured on camera. There were significantly fewer cameras than people.”

Maeng Woo-shin thought for a moment and then said, “Ah,” as if something had come to mind.

“There was a kid who looked like him.”

“A child?”

“Yes. It turned out to be an illusion, though.”

‘An illusion?’

“Rembrary seemed curious at first. But he didn’t talk about it later.”

“?”

“But he wasn’t acting strange to the point where I was concerned.”

After that, Shin Jo-woon investigated the people who had participated in the project and focused on a person named Gong Do-hyun.

[Do you see that brown-haired guy over there? The one who saved people earlier. Wow. He said there seemed to be a kid, and he went that way as if he was going to save him. But when they said he’d be eliminated, he just came back. I guess he doesn’t want to be eliminated.]

Shin Jo-woon repeatedly watched the part where Gong Do-hyun called Rembrary ‘brown hair’ and gossiped about him to the camera before Rembrary revealed his identity in the early part of the project.

‘He went to save a child and just came back…. A child who looks like a pig. It turned out to be an illusion. He stopped caring after that. Are they all related?’

Shin Jo-woon called his secretary and instructed him to contact Gong Do-hyun, and a few hours later, he was able to talk to him.

The child was saved thanks to Rembrary, but Gong Do-hyun had already spent too much money treating the child before that.

In this situation, when Shin Jo-woon said that he would provide sufficient compensation if he answered a few questions properly, Gong Do-hyun squeezed his brain as much as possible and answered enthusiastically.

—Yes. I kept working with Rembrary in the early stages, so I remember a lot. Yes. Yes, of course. Yes. I saw the kid.

“Tell me about that part in detail.”

—At first, Rembrary said there was a kid and went to save him, but later he said it was an illusion and just came back.

“I saw that part in the video.”

—Ah, you did.

Gong Do-hyun’s voice trembled a little, perhaps because of what he had said at the time.

—There’s something that wasn’t filmed, though. Later, after everyone scattered because of the dinosaur, Rembrary and I were alone.

“Yes.”

—A blue demon and a red demon appeared there. They kept trying to show Rembrary something while doing a play or something with a kid who looked like Rembrary.

“Show him what?”

—It seemed like the content was about a kid in a dangerous situation being saved by someone?

“!”

* * *

Woo Yeon-woo was holed up at home, completely unaware of what was happening outside.

It was because of the shock that Woo Seong-woo might have become an ally of the demons.

Woo Seong-woo was Nakru, and he was a figure who had been in conflict with the demons even before people knew about them.

Woo Seong-woo suddenly became an ally of the demons as soon as he went missing? It was hard to believe.

But he couldn’t just keep doing this, so Woo Yeon-woo barely calmed himself down and decided to ask Rembrary about this directly.

“What is it.”

But Rembrary’s phone was turned off.

Even if he tried to contact him through social media, no photos or posts had been uploaded for days.

“Seriously, what is it.”

Woo Yeon-woo frowned. Why is he disappearing again? Did he go into a dungeon and his phone battery died?

In the end, Woo Yeon-woo decided to ask someone who knew Rembrary’s whereabouts instead and rummaged through his text messages.

The first person who came up was Ning-ning, but Woo Yeon-woo skipped over Ning-ning.

‘Let’s not get involved with this person. He’ll try to kill me if he finds out I was a fake high priest.’

The next thing that caught his eye was Jung Seo.

[Do you know Rembrary’s phone number?]

But Jung Seo didn’t even know Rembrary’s changed phone number.

[010-xxxx-xxxx]

Woo Yeon-woo replied to Jung Seo and rummaged through his text messages again, but there were few people he could contact to ask about Rembrary’s whereabouts.

There were many people he knew the contact information of, but didn’t want to contact.

In the end, Woo Yeon-woo called Gu Se-ji and asked.

When Woo Yeon-woo asked, ‘How is Rembrary doing?’, Gu Se-ji was dumbfounded and asked back.

—No, you’re close to him. I’m not very close to him. Why are you asking me?

“I can’t reach him.”

—He must be busy.

Gu Se-ji answered without much thought, but belatedly recalled a recent rumor and told him.

—Ah, now that I think about it, Rembrary doesn’t seem to be going to the Redrin headquarters these days either. There’s some talk about that.

“He’s not going to headquarters?”

—Yeah. He used to treat people there when he wasn’t going into dungeons. But he hasn’t been out for days.

But Gu Se-ji couldn’t know the situation in more detail. This was because Nakru couldn’t enter the Redrin headquarters because of the Woo Seong-woo case.

Gu Se-ji didn’t tell him this story, but Woo Yeon-woo guessed it on his own and hung up the phone gloomily.

‘What is it? Did something really happen while I was disappearing?’

Woo Yeon-woo was worried, but he took out milk, cereal, and a bowl to prepare to eat cereal.

But just as he was pouring cereal into the bowl and pouring milk, he heard a voice from the side.

“Give me some too.”

Woo Yeon-woo was startled and almost dropped the milk and fell to the side.

Rembrary caught Woo Yeon-woo with one hand while holding the milk with the other.

“You have to be careful.”

Woo Yeon-woo stared blankly at Rembrary while regaining his balance, and then screamed in surprise.

“When did you get here?!”