Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 555

◈ 555. The House Where Rembrandt Lived

[How have you been? My number suddenly changed, so I couldn’t contact you.]

[How have you been? You haven’t released any albums lately.]

[Looks like you checked, haha. Yeonwoo is a key member, but he hasn’t been active as a celebrity lately. Do you keep in touch with Yeonwoo?]

[Otherwise, would Yeonwoo have given you my number?]

[LOL]

[Shall I give you my home address?]

[Can I visit?]

[You’re welcome anytime.]

Should I also tell him I might not be home when he comes? Rembrandt thought while texting Jungseo, but decided not to mention it.

Jungseo is smart, so he’ll figure it out.

Rembrandt, imagining Jungseo being horrified and saying, ‘Tell me!’, put his phone on the bedside table, lay in bed, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

* * *

The next day, Rembrandt went to Worldboom headquarters to discuss which entrance to use.

An unexpected person was loitering in front of the building.

“Woo Yeonwoo?”

Wondering why he was there, Rembrandt approached him. Woo Yeonwoo frowned and said in a subdued voice.

“I can’t enter Worldboom headquarters because of hyung’s [older brother/friend] work.”

“Ah, I see. But why are you here?”

At Rembrandt’s question, Woo Yeonwoo’s face turned red, and he said,

“I’m going with you on this dungeon run.”

“Why?”

“When you destroy the first pillar, I want to go with you, to help save hyung. But with my current skills, I’ll only be a hindrance. I’m going to improve my skills.”

“So, you want me to take care of you until you improve your skills?”

Woo Yeonwoo flinched and got angry.

“Who said I wanted you to do that? I just want to come along! If you don’t like it, go separately!”

“You still have the guts of a sparrow.”

“What?”

Woo Yeonwoo was about to say more, but Rembrandt smiled kindly and went inside, so he couldn’t get angrier and quickly followed.

“High Priest. That young man is…”

Daejoo saw Woo Yeonwoo and looked at him with eyes that said, ‘Why is a Nakru affiliate following us in here?’ but fortunately, no one directly told Rembrandt that Woo Yeonwoo had to leave.

In the end, it was decided that Rembrandt, Shin Jo-woon, and Woo Yeonwoo would be the ones entering this dungeon.

* * *

The next day, before entering the dungeon, Shin Jo-woon and Woo Yeonwoo gathered at the Redrin headquarters cafeteria early in the morning to have a meal.

Woo Yeonwoo was uncomfortable coming here because of Woo Sungwoo, but he hated going to Worldboom headquarters or Rembrandt’s house where Ninrin was, so he had no choice.

It was early, but some hunters were already eating in the cafeteria, so Rembrandt, Woo Yeonwoo, and Shin Jo-woon took their food and sat down in a secluded corner where there were no people.

Woo Yeonwoo nervously swallowed saliva while spreading jam and butter on his bread.

If we enter area 3-5 this time, we can destroy a pillar when we enter 3-6 next time.

Finally, one of the five pillars in the demon’s domain will be gone!

Once area 3 is cleared, we’ll go to area 1. Area 1 is the next most cleared area after area 3. And when area 1 is cleared…

“Yeonwoo-ya.”

“Huh? Huh?”

“The thought of going into the dungeon with you and Anchovy fills my heart. Doesn’t it?”

Woo Yeonwoo, unable to bear the tension, kept drinking juice and stared strangely at Rembrandt, wondering what he was talking about.

“What? Why?”

“Tae-ri and Anchovy and I were in a love triangle, but in a way, we’re also—”

“Shut up!”

Woo Yeonwoo slapped Rembrandt’s mouth with a piece of bread that had no jam on it.

Shin Jo-woon didn’t stop them and silently drank his coffee, as if he thought it was a ridiculous thing to say.

Woo Yeonwoo was huffing and puffing, but then he realized that he was relieved of the tension and looked at Rembrandt, startled.

Did he deliberately say something crazy? Because he saw I was nervous?

“…”

Woo Yeonwoo looked at Rembrandt suspiciously and shook his head. No. This guy is sincerely talking nonsense. He would have talked nonsense even if I wasn’t nervous.

As he was thinking this, Rembrandt asked Shin Jo-woon,

“But Anchovy, how did you find my phone?”

Shin Jo-woon, who didn’t even have a stomachache from early in the morning, didn’t eat anything and just drank coffee, smiled and replied.

“I knew because it was registered in my name.”

“How?”

“If you call the car company and ask, they’ll tell you. Because it’s in my name.”

“Ah. Is that so? That’s amazing.”

What is that sly fish saying now? Woo Yeonwoo looked at Shin Jo-woon with a ‘that swindler’ expression, and then flinched when he met his eyes.

Shin Jo-woon smiled nonchalantly and handed Woo Yeonwoo a piece of bread.

Why is he suddenly giving me bread? Woo Yeonwoo was puzzled and took the bread, then remembered that he had shouted ‘Shut up!’ while hitting Rembrandt with the bread earlier.

‘Is he telling me to shut up too?’

That was definitely the meaning. Woo Yeonwoo didn’t like Shin Jo-woon, but he was also scared of him, so he decided to shut up for now and concentrated on his meal.

* * *

With thorough preparations, the group entered area 3-5.

“I hope this time it’s a decent dungeon.”

Woo Yeonwoo grumbled, nervous even though he was the one who wanted to come. But when he entered the dungeon, he was so surprised that his mouth dropped open.

Woo Yeonwoo looked around with his mouth open, and after a long time, he uttered a word.

“Wow.”

What unfolded before his eyes was an incredibly huge palace.

The number of windows visible from the front alone was so many that he lost count while trying to count them one by one. It was a huge palace.

In front of it was a huge garden like three or four soccer fields combined, and small carriages were moving around in the garden.

Woo Yeonwoo looked around at the fountain on one side of the garden and the maze-like space made of tall plants, and then took out his phone to take pictures.

“This is really cool this time.”

Shin Jo-woon didn’t say anything, but he seemed quite surprised and was looking around diligently.

“Wow, this is really cool. Right?”

Woo Yeonwoo didn’t want to ask Shin Jo-woon for agreement, so he looked at Rembrandt and spoke.

He wanted to share the overwhelming feeling he felt looking at the huge and beautiful palace with someone.

But Rembrandt was only frowning. He didn’t look overwhelmed at all. It was an expression that was hard to come by unless there was something wrong with his aesthetic sense.

“Rembrandt? Don’t you think that palace is cool?”

Woo Yeonwoo asked, finding it strange, and Rembrandt sighed briefly and said,

“I guess he’s going to come out openly now.”

“Huh? What? What is it?”

“This palace.”

“What about the palace?”

“It’s one of my houses.”

Woo Yeonwoo didn’t understand right away and blinked, then belatedly stepped back in horror.

“What? Really?!”

Shin Jo-woon also looked at Rembrandt, surprised.

“Is that true?”

“Would I lie about something like this?”

Woo Yeonwoo’s mouth gaped open. Not just ‘house’ but ‘one of my houses’?

Woo Yeonwoo remembered Rembrandt saying that Wild Animal’s first dorm looked like a dog house when he was inside his body.

Woo Yeonwoo looked at Rembrandt’s ‘house’ again. And he recalled the great temple where he had been trapped when he was inside Rembrandt’s body.

“…You really said that without malice.”

Even so, it’s still annoying.

“What are you talking about?”

“No. Never mind. More than that, why is your house appearing as the dungeon background?”

“I wonder. What could be the reason?”

Rembrandt muttered and started walking ahead, and Woo Yeonwoo hesitated and followed behind.

* * *

To enter the palace, they had to pass through a large garden.

Rembrandt, Woo Yeonwoo, and Shin Jo-woon walked and walked and walked along the long promenade in the garden under the scorching sun.

Woo Yeonwoo was so envious of the people passing by in carriages, but it was difficult to suddenly find a carriage that wasn’t there.

“It’s too big. Don’t tell me we have to pass through here in a few seconds or something.”

“If that were the case, it would have been stated as a rule by now.”

“What if ghosts come out inside…”

“Don’t worry. If they come out, they come out. There’s nothing we can do.”

“That’s not comforting at all.”

“Are you scared of ghosts?”

“Usually, I am.”

“Then hide behind Anchovy. Anchovy will protect you. Anchovy isn’t scared of ghosts.”

“?”

Woo Yeonwoo and Shin Jo-woon both thought ‘no’ at the same time.

How much longer did they walk like that? Just when the enormous size that had initially inspired admiration gradually began to become annoying.

“Ah, my legs. Ah. It’s too big. How did you live here?”

Woo Yeonwoo complained, and Rembrandt advised gently.

“Think of it as a stroll, not a walk.”

“That’s easier said than done… And a stroll is still walking, isn’t it?”

Woo Yeonwoo was about to protest how he could do that at will, but he stopped when he discovered another person for the first time on the endless promenade.

“Isn’t that a person?”

Woo Yeonwoo quickly went over there. Standing there was a woman wearing strange clothes and tying only a few strands of her hair together.

The woman looked around anxiously, and when she saw Rembrandt’s group, she said urgently.

“Have you seen the prince on your way here?”

“The prince?”

Woo Yeonwoo asked back, and the woman nodded and asked.

“He was taking a walk, but he suddenly disappeared on his own. Can you find him for me?”

It was difficult not to understand that the woman’s words were actually the rules of this dungeon, even though she was just asking nicely.

If she was really trying to find the child, who would suddenly ask a strange outsider to do this?

“We will.”

When Woo Yeonwoo agreed, the woman said again.

“The prince didn’t go inside the building. He’s only in the garden, so please only look within the garden.”

‘If you know his location, you can find him yourself, can’t you?’

Woo Yeonwoo shouted inwardly, but the woman was already gone.

Shin Jo-woon instructed Woo Yeonwoo, who was standing there with his mouth open, and Rembrandt, who was yawning.

“Let’s complete the condition first. There doesn’t seem to be any threat, so it’s better to split up and search. Pig, you know the geography here well, right?”

Ah. That’s right. He knows the geography here well. Woo Yeonwoo belatedly remembered and looked at Rembrandt.

Rembrandt nodded in agreement.

“I know it well.”

“Then can you take charge of that maze-like garden?”

“I will.”

Shin Jo-woon looked at Woo Yeonwoo this time.

“Can you go back to where we first arrived?”

“Yes? Why?”

“The terrain there was high. I could see everything below. Look at the whole area from above and send me a text message about where people might be. Except for the maze-like parts, I’ll take care of the rest.”

“If none of us can find him…”

“Let’s meet here again in four hours. We can eat and rest.”

“Let’s do that.”

When Rembrandt accepted, Woo Yeonwoo reluctantly muttered that he understood.

He had to go back to the starting point, but he could tell that he had been given the easiest role.

‘It must be because they don’t trust me.’

The group split up.

Shin Jo-woon watched Rembrandt walk towards the maze and Woo Yeonwoo walk towards the back, glanced at his watch, and then smiled as he looked in the opposite direction.

“Okay. The kids are all gone, so come out.”