Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 567

◈ 567. Warrior’s Memory

“What do you mean, ‘establish’? It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“Obvious? Ah! You mean run away? Right. We should run away, shouldn’t we?”

“What? Run away?”

“Yeah, let’s run away. Before they find out we failed. Then no one will know. Only us. Somewhere far, far away, where’s the farthest? The East. Let’s go to the Eastern continent.”

Criminal A fell into a panic and started rambling. Criminal B watched him and then yelled.

“Run away? Are you crazy?”

“I don’t want to be crazy! That’s why I’m saying let’s run away!”

“What if we run away and the King says we’re kidnappers? What if he tells the countries in the East to catch us? No, even if he doesn’t say we’re kidnappers, he’ll find some excuse to kill us! They’ll try to silence us!”

“Then what are we supposed to do!”

“Let’s strike first.”

“Strike first? You mean confess……?!”

“Are you crazy?”

“You mean tell them the King ordered us to do it?”

“Who would believe us?”

“Then?”

“Let’s say we heard the Prince was kidnapped and went to rescue him.”

Criminal A, taken aback by Criminal B’s unexpected suggestion, asked hesitantly.

“We kidnapped him, didn’t we?”

“That’s right. But who knows that? No one but us and the King.”

“But…… would people believe us?”

“Let’s say we went to rescue him, but we saw the Prince being taken away by demons.”

“What, what are you talking about?”

“Let’s say the Prince followed the demons! Anyway, that Prince received an ominous prophecy at birth, right? If the Emperor resents us and tries to get rid of us, we can go to the temple that made the prophecy and seek refuge.”

“But, but there was also the opposite prophecy, wasn’t there?”

“There was. But what good is the opposite prophecy to us? It doesn’t help us! And since there are two prophecies, it’s good for us. The side that made the ominous prophecy will be happy when we come to them, right? It’ll prove they were right!”

“I…… I don’t know.”

Criminal A shook his head and started backing away. Criminal B, enraged by the sight, started ranting.

“You idiot. Don’t be scared! It’s the best option! If we run away, the King will catch us! If we confess, the Emperor will catch us! If we get caught, we’ll die!”

“Then what if we leave out the demon part…….”

“Then they won’t believe us! We need something sensational! Something else that will grab people’s attention!”

“Still…….”

‘The kid we have is the Prince, huh.’

Warrior clicked his tongue as he listened to the humans’ conversation.

He knew there had been talk of prophecies among humans a few years ago, but he hadn’t paid much attention since it had quieted down.

It seemed that the kid who fell off the cliff was the subject of the prophecy.

One temple had prophesied him as an ‘ominous child,’ and another had countered by saying he was a ‘child who would save the world.’

“What to do.”

Warrior pondered for a moment, then flicked his finger towards Criminal B, who was insisting on bringing up the ominous prophecy that had been made about the child.

With a wave of his hand in the air, Criminal B suddenly stopped moving his tongue, which had been working fine, and covered his mouth with both hands.

“What’s wrong?”

“Mmm. Mmmph.”

“What? Did you bite your tongue?”

Criminal B shook his head quickly, then took his hands away from his mouth and stuck out his tongue.

Criminal A, wondering what was wrong, looked at the tongue and screamed in horror.

“Ah! Your tongue! It’s turned to stone!”

Watching the commotion, Warrior muttered.

“I don’t like that guy either…… but he’s still better than the other one.”

As soon as he turned around, a subordinate cautiously asked.

“Will this be okay?”

Rembrary was startled, not even realizing someone was there, but he couldn’t look to the side because he was in Warrior’s memory.

Warrior, as if he knew someone was there, didn’t seem surprised at all and replied.

“At least he won’t spread any more nonsense. I’ll have to talk to the Demon King about the rest.”

* * *

Warrior grumbled about the cliff being too high, but he easily climbed down.

Meanwhile, Rembrary was only now realizing what had answered Warrior’s words earlier.

It was something that looked like a faint mist, with a very weak presence, but it was diligently following Warrior.

When Warrior landed at the bottom of the cliff, the surrounding dirt kicked up, but Warrior ran through it without even blinking.

‘He seemed like a pushover. But his physical abilities are definitely those of a demon.’

Warrior arrived at the Demon King’s castle at a rapid pace and went straight into the mansion next door, ignoring the main castle.

He entered through the side door and saw Clotte standing in front of the kitchen counter, juggling two kitchen knives.

Young Rembrary was clapping in front of him.

“Chef, you’re the best!”

“Why am I a chef?”

“If you don’t like it, can I call you Abraksio Kolbritata?”

“What’s that huge name?”

“It’s the name of a flower I used to love very much.”

“Used to love? Did it die?”

“No, I just started loving other flowers more.”

“……Are you sure you loved it? Never mind. Just call me Chef.”

Warrior watched the peaceful scene, then strode forward and announced firmly.

“Stop it, Kolbritata. Now is not the time to play with names.”

“Hey, Warrior. Look at this.”

Clotte, oblivious to the atmosphere, twirled the knife in front of Warrior, but Warrior, without any admiration, turned the knife into stone.

“I said this isn’t the time. I have urgent business.”

“Wow! How did you do that?”

“Oh, this? This is something only I can do―”

Rembrary was about to get caught up in the admiration, but Clotte knocked him on the head with the stone knife, bringing him back to his senses.

“Excuse me. Where did the urgent business go?”

Warrior quickly lowered his hand and asked.

“Right. Where’s the Demon King?”

Clotte answered sullenly.

“What. Wouldn’t he be somewhere?”

Instead, young Rembrary raised his hand enthusiastically.

“I know!”

Clotte frowned and asked.

“How do you know that?”

“He was watering the bed.”

“…….”

Clotte muttered something silently, then frowned, grabbed his forehead, left the kitchen door, and warned Rembrary.

“Hey, kid. Don’t touch the knives, okay?”

“Yes.”

Rembrary answered confidently and waved his hand.

But when Warrior, who was following Clotte out, looked back, the child already had a knife in his hand before the two demons could even close the door.

Warrior turned all the blades into stone before following Clotte to the Demon King’s bedroom.

He knocked on the bedroom door, and a voice from inside said, “Come in.”

When the two demons entered, they saw the Demon King looking down at the now-moist rose bed with satisfaction.

“Yes. What’s the urgent business?”

In that state, the Demon King asked before Warrior could even explain the situation. As if he had heard all the conversation in the kitchen.

Rembrary was surprised, but Warrior, used to it, wasn’t surprised and told him what he had seen on the cliff, then asked.

“I think that kid is the Prince, Demon King. It seems like he came here because of something bad…… Shouldn’t we send him back? I took care of things to ease my mind for now, though.”

Before the Demon King could answer, Clotte asked first.

“Would that be okay? If he falls from here and returns safely, many people will find it strange.”

“Why? It’s good if he’s safe.”

“Ah, right. The problem is that ordinary humans usually can’t enter the Demon Realm and die.”

Warrior glanced at the Demon King, then slyly extended his hand into the air and said.

“I put my energy on the criminals there for now. I’ll see how things go.”

Then a round crystal ball appeared under his hand, and inside the crystal ball, the figures of the criminals he had seen on the cliff appeared.

They were in a small room, showing Criminal B’s tongue to a doctor, but it didn’t seem to be working.

The doctor looked at the stone tongue and screamed in horror.

“This is not a disease! It’s a curse! Go to a priest, not a doctor!”

The doctor packed his medical bag and hurried out, even worried that the curse might be contagious.

As the door slammed shut, Criminal B grabbed his neck and cried.

Criminal A looked at him fearfully and muttered.

“We should do as you said. No, that Prince. There really is something…… ominous about him. How can a person’s tongue turn to stone? They say that cliff is an entrance to the Demon Realm.”

Whether he had gotten used to it or not, Criminal B took out paper and quickly wrote a reply.

“[If the kid jumped off that easily, it means he has something to believe in.]”

“You’re right.”

Criminal A answered, trembling.

It had bounced in a direction Warrior had never expected.

Soon, the criminals left the small room, and after a while, they had a scuffle in front of a large mansion.

After the scuffle, several criminals were guided by guards into the mansion to meet someone.

It was a middle-aged man wearing an expensive-looking cloak.

“So, you know the whereabouts of my nephew.”

At the middle-aged man’s words, the criminals looked at each other.

Then, the person standing next to the middle-aged man cleared his throat on purpose, and A, instead of B whose tongue was hardened, started the story as the representative.

“We are, we are mercenaries. We are mercenaries…….”

“Just get to the point. I don’t care if you’re mercenaries or who you are. If you can find my nephew, I don’t care if you’re thieves!”

But Criminal A’s words were cut off by the middle-aged man before he could even start.

Startled by the cold rebuke, Criminal A spoke even faster.

“We heard that the Prince was kidnapped here, so our mercenary group started looking for the Prince! Then we got some plausible information and went to the ‘Cliff of the Departed’!”

The middle-aged man asked urgently.

“Did you find the Prince?”

“We found him. But the Prince…… didn’t want to come with us!”

The middle-aged man looked at Criminal A with eyes that said, ‘What kind of crazy 소리 [sound/nonsense] is this?’

“The Prince was frolicking with strange monsters, and when we tried to bring him, he cursed my party.”

Once he started lying, Criminal A made up all sorts of stories, as if his mouth was moving as smoothly as a ship catching the wind.

“Are you calling that a story!”

When the middle-aged man rebuked him, Criminal A shouted, “Look at this!” and pointed to Criminal B.

Criminal B stuck out his tongue long and showed it.

The surroundings became quiet for a moment as everyone, including the middle-aged man who was about to get angry, gasped at the gruesome sight.

Warrior also felt the surroundings become quiet and threw the crystal ball against the wall, shattering it.

Clotte said firmly.

“You idiot. You made things even more complicated, didn’t you?”

Warrior opened and closed his mouth, then immediately shouted.

“I’ll take the kid and come back! Then it’ll be okay, right! If the kid says he didn’t do that, they’ll believe it!”

He glanced at the Demon King, and since he didn’t seem to be against it, Warrior quickly ran to young Rembrary.

Young Rembrary was fascinated by the stone knives, banging them against each other while playing.

Then, he found Warrior and smiled, handing him the knives.

“This is amazing.”

Warrior approached and hugged the child.

“Is it time to sleep?”

“Time to go home. Let’s go, baby. This doesn’t seem to be a place for you.”