Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 576

◈ 576. Leave Here

Rembrary stopped eating his fruit and stared at Shin Jo-woon. Shin Jo-woon nodded.

“That’s right. There.”

“Mirage… No, they’ve been acting strange since their CEO disappeared. Why would they attack us? What grudge could they possibly hold against us?”

Jang Tae-ri asked, puzzled, then sharply added, “Do they?” as if second-guessing himself.

Shin Jo-woon seemed a bit hesitant after he spoke.

“No way.”

Shin Jo-woon flatly denied it.

“Then why did they attack?”

This time, Shin Jo-woon looked towards Rembrary. Jang Tae-ri followed his gaze.

“Why are you looking at me? Is it something to do with me?”

“It doesn’t seem directly related.”

Did that mean it was indirectly related?

“Their deputy CEO. He seemed to know your religion was connected to the upheaval.”

At Shin Jo-woon’s words, Jang Tae-ri sighed and rubbed his forehead, while Rembrary quickly swallowed the fruit he was eating.

“How?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t directly catch or meet the deputy CEO. And in my opinion…”

Shin Jo-woon paused for a moment, then drew a line, saying, “This isn’t certain.”

“They might be sponsoring Kim Mu-rok.”

* * *

“I smell meat!”

“You went and ate meat alone!”

As soon as they saw Rembrary, the children keenly smelled the meat and felt disappointed.

Rembrary handed the kids the *galbi-tang* [Korean short rib soup] he had brought and returned to his room to contact Hwa-saja.

He wondered if Hwa-saja wouldn’t answer, but perhaps because the pillar had collapsed, Hwa-saja picked up the phone for once.

-Oh, hero!

He shouted excitedly when he answered.

-I saw the broadcast! You were the first to bring down a pillar!

“Is that so?”

-How did you do it? Was it easy? Arrrgh also went with you. Did he bring it down?

“Are you curious?”

-It would be nice if you told me! Mom’s curious too!

“Then come here. I will tell you.”

Hwa-saja was so excited that he appeared in Rembrary’s room within minutes.

He even had a still-warm bag of popcorn in his arms, as if to listen to the story properly.

Rembrary took the popcorn from Hwa-saja’s hand and placed it next to him, then grabbed his arm.

“Come, let’s go to Mirage together.”

“You said you’d tell me about bringing down the pillar?”

“I’ll tell you on the way.”

“!”

Hwa-saja looked at Rembrary with a betrayed expression.

But it wasn’t like Rembrary wasn’t going to tell him the pillar story, and he even offered to tell him on the way, so it was awkward to get angry.

“You try to use me as soon as you see me. Where’s Mirage? Where are we going?”

“Let’s go to the hunter company Mirage.”

“Why there?”

“I want to meet the deputy CEO.”

* * *

Once they started moving, Hwa-saja stopped asking about the Third Pillar and instead grilled Rembrary about Mirage and the deputy CEO.

He seemed puzzled that Rembrary, who had never shown any interest in that area, was suddenly visiting the deputy CEO in the middle of the night.

“It’s nothing much. I just want to confirm something and make a promise.”

“Ah. You made a promise?”

“No.”

“Huh?”

Hwa-saja didn’t seem to understand Rembrary’s words, but he still took him to Mirage headquarters.

“I think it’s here. The map said it was here.”

Hwa-saja stopped near the headquarters and muttered, looking at the building.

“But all the lights inside seem to be off? Don’t hunter companies usually operate twenty-four hours a day?”

“Let’s go inside.”

“What if we set off the intruder alarm as soon as we go in?”

“We’ll just come out.”

Hwa-saja felt uneasy but grabbed Rembrary and entered the building.

The inside of the building was also dark, like the outside, with almost nothing visible except for the faint green emergency exit lights.

“That’s strange. I heard they were still operating, even if they weren’t doing as well as before.”

Hwa-saja muttered, looking around. Rembrary tugged at Hwa-saja’s clothes a couple of times.

“Let’s check everything one by one.”

“Do you think the deputy CEO is in here with the lights off?”

“Maybe, who knows.”

“Then he’s a really weird guy. And we’ll be caught on CCTV [closed-circuit television].”

“That’s why I came prepared.”

When Rembrary took out sunglasses and put them on, Hwa-saja wanted to show him a mirror.

“Is that what you call a disguise? You stand out a lot because of your hair, even if you cover your face.”

“Am I the only long-haired blonde?”

“You’re the only long-haired blonde who hangs out with this teleporting guy.”

Rembrary took off the now-meaningless sunglasses.

But he had no intention of turning back, so he started wandering around.

“Are you really okay with this?”

“We’ve already been caught on camera in the main hall anyway.”

Hwa-saja was still worried, but Rembrary was so calm that he felt reassured and followed him.

“It doesn’t seem like they’ve completely stopped using it. There are signs of life. So, do they just close at night?”

They wandered around like that for a while. They had searched from the first floor to the third floor and were just entering the fourth floor when it happened.

In the middle of the dark hallway, only one place was brightly lit.

“Only that place has the lights on? Is someone there?”

Hwa-saja muttered.

Rembrary said, “Let’s go,” and walked towards it.

“Are you going? Really?”

“Didn’t I say I had someone to meet?”

“Ah, couldn’t we come during the day?”

Hwa-saja protested belatedly, but Rembrary was already walking towards it.

As they approached the light, they saw that the door was slightly open, and the light was coming from there. Rembrary knocked on the door.

‘Knocking doesn’t make sense at this point, since we’re trespassing.’

Hwa-saja thought to himself, but Rembrary even waited three seconds after knocking.

After a moment. Unexpectedly, a voice came from inside.

“Come in.”

Hwa-saja stopped Rembrary from grabbing the doorknob and slowly pushed the door open with his foot.

The door opened, revealing a person standing in front of a bookshelf.

A person with shoulder-length hair and a somewhat dark aura. A person with the impression of a long-legged crow.

The person closed the book he was reading, put it back on the bookshelf, and looked back and forth between Rembrary and Hwa-saja, muttering.

“I thought Shin Jo-woon would come. I didn’t expect the person himself to come.”

The other person spoke as if he knew Rembrary, but there were many people in the world who knew Rembrary.

Especially after he brought down the pillar, his face appeared frequently on the news, and even people who didn’t care about hunters would see Rembrary passing by and shout, “Oh! That’s him! The pillar guy!”

So, it wasn’t unusual for someone from the Hunter Association to recognize Rembrary’s face.

However, the fact that the other person was waiting for Shin Jo-woon was worth noting.

“Why were you waiting for Jo-woon?”

When Rembrary asked with his hands behind his back, the other person stared blankly at Rembrary before waving his hands in the air.

“That human took away two of my subordinates.”

“I don’t know what Jo-woon taking your subordinates has to do with coming here, but are you perhaps the deputy CEO?”

The long-legged crow-like person raised his chin and nodded, saying in a voice that sounded like a monologue but was still audible.

“Shin Jo-woon must have told you everything.”

“So, you’re the deputy CEO.”

Hwa-saja blinked, completely unaware of what had happened between Rembrary and the deputy CEO, or what role Shin Jo-woon had played in it.

It was certain that Shin Jo-woon had messed things up in the middle.

Hwa-saja recalled how Shin Jo-woon had immediately frozen a PD [production director] who had found out his secret. Was he doing that again?

Meanwhile. Rembrary leisurely walked to the sofa in the room, sat down, and asked.

“Why did Jo-woon attack?”

Hwa-saja revised his suspicions towards Shin Jo-woon. It seemed that the deputy CEO’s subordinates had attacked first this time.

But would the other person answer if he asked such a question? Hwa-saja went behind Rembrary and stood there, thinking.

“Because you were interfering with me.”

Surprisingly, the deputy CEO answered honestly.

“How did a minnow interfere with you?”

“My work.”

He was even very honest.

‘He looks like he has a clever scheme in his heart, so why is he answering all of this?’ Hwa-saja frowned and looked at the deputy CEO.

It was suspicious that the other person was being so honest.

“What is that work? Is it related to Kim Mu-rok?”

But Rembrary didn’t seem to find it suspicious and continued to ask.

Hwa-saja hesitated whether to tell Rembrary, ‘Don’t believe what that guy says right away.’

But this time, instead of answering the question, the deputy CEO said something meaningful.

“If I don’t answer. You’ll make me open my mouth somehow.”

It was a completely unrelated statement to the question Rembrary had asked, but it was the first time Rembrary looked surprised since entering the room.

It was as if the other person knew about the ‘True Bet’.

“You’re smart.”

Rembrary was impressed, and Hwa-saja became frustrated because he couldn’t understand the words the two were exchanging.

The deputy CEO smiled coldly, approached the sofa opposite Rembrary, placed his hand on the backrest, and proposed.

“Shall I make a suggestion? I don’t have any great malice or resentment towards you.”

‘It seems like he has a little malice.’

Hwa-saja thought at the deputy CEO’s words, but Rembrary nodded as if to tell him to continue.

The deputy CEO took his hand off the backrest.

“I don’t like taking the long way when there’s a short way. If you compromise with us, I think we can reduce the damage to each other.”

“You had your subordinates attack us. Now you want to compromise? What kind of compromise do you want to make?”

At Rembrary’s question, the deputy CEO smiled and said.

“Leave Earth.”

“?”

Rembrary was bewildered. Hwa-saja muttered, “Is he crazy?” and bared his teeth and swung his fist towards him.

At that moment. What Hwa-saja stirred was a stream of water. He floundered in the stream and stepped back.

“What is it?”

Hwa-saja looked around in confusion. It was an artificial waterfall. He and Rembrary were standing inside the artificial waterfall before they knew it.

Hwa-saja stood blankly under the stream of water pouring down from above, then grabbed Rembrary and went out of the lake.

Rembrary looked around and muttered.

“Do you know where this is?”

“I don’t know either. It’s like some kind of park. A park I don’t know.”

Hwa-saja frowned and took off his soaking wet mask, squeezing the water from his mane and beard.

“That deputy CEO. His ability must be to teleport others. I can only move what touches me. It seems like he’s the opposite.”

Hwa-saja, who had squeezed the water out of his mask, walked to a bench, put his mask on it, took off his top and squeezed the water out again, then turned to Rembrary and asked.

“Are you just going to stand there like that? You’ll catch a cold?”

“I don’t catch colds.”

Rembrary answered and sat down next to the mask, crossing his legs and muttering.

“More than that, isn’t that deputy CEO strange? He seems to know a lot more than I thought.”

“Know what?”

“Anything. More than what he said himself.”

Rembrary put the mask on his lap and pulled at his beard.

Hwa-saja was anxious that Rembrary would damage his mask, but when Rembrary didn’t pull his beard hard, he focused on squeezing the water out of his clothes again.

Rembrary blankly fiddled with the beard on the mask and narrowed his eyes.

“Only a very few people would know that I’m good at getting people to talk. He knew that. How did he know?”

Then, is he the one who told Kim Mu-rok about Rembrary and Redrin?

‘Even if Lumena favored him and told him various stories, I don’t think she would have told him every detail about my abilities…’