Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 563

◈ 563. Ardor’s Scream

Finally, Klot finished cooking, and the Demon King, Rembrary, and Klot sat down at the dining table in a triangular arrangement.

Klot placed bowls filled with a thick, cabbage-laden concoction in front of the Demon King, himself, and Rembrary.

However, the Demon King only ate the black fruit with limbs that he had brought, not even touching the bowl Klot had given him.

Klot didn’t urge the Demon King to eat. Instead, he stared intently at Rembrary, his eyes asking, ‘Aren’t you going to eat?’

Feeling hungry, Rembrary picked up a spoon. Then, the choices appeared again.

—Follow the past

—Throw the spoon down

—Tell him to eat it himself

“?”

Rembrary raised his eyebrows for a moment.

‘What is this?’

The wording of the choices had become somewhat rough. The choices that appeared before the Demon King were fine, but these weren’t.

Suddenly, Rembrary remembered that this dungeon was Warion’s dungeon. If so, did Warion write those choices?

As he was thinking that, Klot’s illusion asked again.

“Aren’t you going to eat? I made it for you.”

Rembrary chose the usual option.

“Number one.”

“One? What?”

As he chose, his hand moved on its own, scooping up a spoonful of the thick, cabbage-laden concoction and bringing it to his mouth.

Rembrary didn’t want to eat this foul-looking thing, but his mouth opened on its own, and the cabbage went down his throat.

‘Redrin-nim!’

Rembrary shouted inwardly as soon as he ate it. It was a truly heretical taste.

Rembrary hadn’t actually tasted heresy, but it was like that as a metaphor.

It was foul, fishy, and sour. It was as if all the bad tastes had been gathered and squeezed into an essence.

But the young Rembrary chewed and swallowed it, as if his sense of taste had been destroyed.

Looking up, he saw Klot and the Demon King both put down their spoons and look at him with anxious eyes.

Rembrary really wanted to say it was terrible, but the young Rembrary didn’t. Instead, he gave a thumbs up and smiled.

“It’s delicious.”

“Really?”

Klot grinned and asked back, and the young Rembrary even nodded.

“Yes.”

As if tempted by those words, the Demon King cautiously took a spoonful from his bowl and put it in his mouth.

Klot, wanting to hear the Demon King’s praise as well, looked at the Demon King triumphantly.

“…….”

In return, the Demon King hit Klot on the head with his spoon.

“Demon King-nim?”

Then, as Klot covered his head with both hands and looked up in surprise, he said firmly.

“It’s a mess.”

Rembrary applauded inwardly. The Demon King was a liar, but that statement was true.

Klot frowned and protested.

“It’s my first time cooking!”

Ignoring the protest, the Demon King wiped his mouth with a napkin and said firmly.

“You are now in charge of cooking. Improve it.”

Then, he started tearing apart and eating the fruit with limbs that he had been eating.

“Why me?”

Klot protested unfairly, but the Demon King answered indifferently.

“Because you started it.”

“Ugh!”

* * *

“Is there any food that Ardor can eat?”

After the meal, Rembrary asked Klot, who was doing the dishes.

Klot, annoyed, shook his feet to distance himself from Rembrary and answered.

“Who’s Ardor?”

“My parrotbill.”

“Tell it to eat earthworms, earthworms.”

As the parrotbill Ardor went into Klot’s clothes and settled on his back, Klot stopped washing dishes and squirmed all over, eventually giving it the remaining cabbage.

“Here. Eat this. Seriously. Both owner and bird are a nuisance.”

Whether the parrotbill was satisfied with the cabbage or not, Ardor pecked at it.

Seeing it glance at the plate the Demon King had wielded his spoon at, it was clear that raw cabbage was better than that.

After the meal, Rembrary stood blankly, then followed the Demon King up the stairs and asked.

“Where do I sleep?”

“Sleep anywhere.”

The Demon King said that and went up the stairs.

Rembrary watched until the Demon King disappeared into the hallway, then checked that Klot was busy washing dishes in the kitchen before going out the door.

“Ardor.”

—Chirp!

“How can I get out of this dungeon?”

—Chirp!

“But your parrotbill form is really cute.”

As the parrotbill Ardor started shaking its tail feathers like crazy, Rembrary stroked its head with a pleased expression.

Rembrary held the parrotbill Ardor and slowly moved to the side of the mansion.

A dark castle could be seen beyond the mansion. It wasn’t far. A distance that could be reached even with a small body.

“The problem is, I don’t know what’s inside. If everything inside is an illusion, my abilities won’t work.”

—Chirp!

He also didn’t know whether going inside would lead him out of the dungeon or not.

As he was worrying, the door opened, and Klot poked his head out and asked.

“Hey, kid. What are you doing instead of sleeping? You might get caught!”

Should he observe the situation for now? Rembrary put the parrotbill Ardor on his shoulder and went inside the mansion.

“Sleep anywhere.”

After calling him in, Klot said something similar to the Demon King and went into the bathroom.

Rembrary stood blankly, then started looking around the mansion this time.

The inside of the mansion was an ordinary mansion. Not Earth-style, but the form of the place Rembrary used to live.

After finding several bedrooms, Rembrary went into the one he liked the most, brushed his teeth, washed up, and lay down on the bed.

The parrotbill Ardor quickly settled between Rembrary’s hair and lay down, preening its feathers.

* * *

‘……Ardor. You seem to be having fun.’

Redrin sat on a cloud and pressed his temples as he listened to Ardor shouting happily, ‘Redrin-nim, Rembrary-nim!’ ‘Redrin-nim, Rembrary-nim!’ ‘Redrin-nim, Rembrary-nim!’ in a loud voice.

Redrin frowned, tearing off pieces of the cloud and throwing them away.

He didn’t think Rembrary would be swept away by those demons, but…….

‘Still. I’m still lacking a lot of power.’

At that moment, he sensed Yama’s presence, and as expected. Yama appeared next to him with a serious expression, bringing a grim reaper who wasn’t Sagamja.

“King of this place. What’s the matter?”

Redrin was a bit annoyed, so he continued to tear at the cloud and asked listlessly.

The grim reaper who followed Yama was the one who had witnessed Redrin appearing here and turning his colleagues into pigeons.

Because of this, he had been nervous while following Yama, but he was a little embarrassed to see Redrin relaxing.

Yama sat opposite Redrin and asked.

“God of another world. Among the humans belonging to Nakru, there is someone who has gone over to the Demon King, isn’t there?”

Redrin thought for a moment, then succeeded in connecting Rembrary to Woo Yeon-woo, and Woo Yeon-woo to Woo Seong-woo in a line, and nodded.

“I know.”

“I heard that he told Shin Jo-woon about the reason he defected. Did you hear? I saw a prophecy that if the pillar collapses, chaos will come again.”

“…….”

“Do you have any idea? Is it true?”

As Yama asked repeatedly, Redrin raised his chin and frowned.

* * *

Rembrary, who was sleeping soundly, woke up to someone’s scream.

When he opened his eyes, Warion was standing in front of the bed in an awkward pose, shouting.

“There’s, there’s a strange kid in my bed!”

As Rembrary stared blankly, the door opened, and Klot came in and said bluntly.

“The Demon King picked him up somewhere.”

Warion asked in horror.

“But why is he sleeping in my bed?”

Klot said even more bluntly.

“The bed is big. The kid is small. There’s plenty of space. So it doesn’t matter. Sleep next to him.”

“No way!”

“Then put him somewhere else.”

Rembrary looked at the window at the sound of ‘Sleep next to him.’ He thought it was morning. It was dark outside.

Then is it still night? Rembrary thought for a moment, then remembered that the sky here was always night.

Anyway, whatever the standard is, it must be the sleeping time for the demons now.

As Rembrary stood blankly, Warion approached as if he was really going to pick Rembrary up and pulled back the blanket.

In that gap, Rembrary sent divine power to Warion, but this was also an illusion.

Klot clicked his tongue.

“This heartless guy. Trying to get rid of a sleeping kid.”

He had just told him to put him somewhere else and sleep. The words had completely changed in the meantime.

“Oh, what do you want me to do!”

As Warion got annoyed at the sound, Klot shrugged as if to say do whatever he wanted and left.

Rembrary stared blankly at Warion.

“What are you looking at!”

Warion shouted, but eventually brought a blanket from somewhere and walked to the sofa himself.

* * *

Rembrary, who had fallen asleep, woke up again to the sound of Warion making a fuss.

As soon as he opened his eyes, Warion, who had been pacing back and forth anxiously, quickly picked Rembrary up and said.

“Kid. You need to wash. I don’t like dirty things.”

Warion took Rembrary to the bathroom attached to the room, washed Rembrary’s face with him tucked under his arm like a pillow.

“Wash my hair too.”

“Did you leave your hands to me?”

Rembrary asked because it was surprisingly comfortable, but he shouted, but still washed his hair.

While Rembrary was sitting on a dining chair, Warion brought a towel from behind and rubbed Rembrary’s hair roughly to dry it, and Rembrary put the parrotbill Ardor on his lap and kept dozing off.

Klot seemed to be in the kitchen, but judging from the curses he heard from time to time, his cooking wasn’t going well today either.

When about 2/3 of his hair was dry, Klot finally brought the dishes with food.

Today there were four heads, so there were four dishes.

Whether it was fortunate or whether he should be afraid that another unknown taste was waiting, what was in the dish was not cabbage but something new.

While Rembrary was examining the dish with a spoon to figure out what the unidentified thing was.

The Demon King appeared leisurely and sat down, and Warion immediately asked.

“Demon King-nim, where did you pick this kid up?”

“On the cliff.”

“The cliff?”

Warion looked at Rembrary with a ‘no way’ expression.

“Humans can’t enter there because of the barrier.”

After speaking, Warion looked at Rembrary warily.

“Human kid. Tell me honestly. How did you get in here?”

Choices appeared again.

—Follow the past

—You scammer

—Liar

“…….”

But the state of the choices became even stranger.

‘It’s not a choice, it’s just a protest.’

Rembrary found it strange, but anyway, there was only one thing to choose from among these.

“Number one.”

“What?”

As soon as Warion asked back, Rembrary’s mouth moved on its own.

“I’m not going to tell you.”

The young Rembrary said firmly, and then scooped up the unidentified thing in the bowl with the spoon he was holding.

He was going to say he wouldn’t eat if a choice came up about whether to eat rice or not today.

It seemed that it was continuing as he had chosen earlier.

Rembrary didn’t want to eat this, but the young Rembrary put the food in his mouth again on his own.

Then he chewed the tasteless thing and gave Klot a thumbs up again.

Klot smiled, as if being praised wasn’t such a bad feeling, and gave a thumbs up together.

The Demon King didn’t fall for it this time, but when Warion saw that, he hesitated whether he was suspicious of Rembrary and secretly took a spoonful and put it in his mouth.

“!”

But Warion opened his eyes wide and spat the food back out, and Klot hit Warion with a spoon.

Warion and Klot bickered for a long time, and Rembrary continued to eat the tasteless thing because of his hand that moved on its own.

How long had it been? Warion suddenly said “Ah” to the Demon King.

“Demon King-nim, it seems like something’s going crazy on the human realm side right now?”