Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 579

◈ 579. Should I Save Him, or Not?

‘Is this his ability?’ Shin Jo-woon thought, watching Noir looking down at the letter as if the mirror were a window.

‘This is troublesome.’ Shin Jo-woon glanced down at the contents of the letter he had written.

It contained warnings to be wary of the Mazoku [demonic beings], whatever their purpose might be, and a reminder not to forget what had happened to Woo Sung-woo.

Whether those Mazoku were illusions or real, either way, they would find this letter suspicious if they saw it.

“To imitate writing. Is he a genius sloth?”

But unexpectedly, Noir in the mirror said this.

“Or… is it something transformed into a sloth?”

He added this afterward, though.

In any case, what was certain was that he couldn’t understand the writing Shin Jo-woon had written.

‘It’s probably not the handwriting. It’s messy, but not to the point of being unreadable.’

Fortunately, it wasn’t as if his brain’s processing speed had also become 0.25x speed along with becoming a sloth. Shin Jo-woon immediately realized the reason.

It was because the setting here, the background being manifested now, was not Earth.

The Noir currently visible was not the Noir who had crossed over to Earth, so naturally, he wouldn’t have learned this world’s language.

‘That’s a relief, at least.’

However, that didn’t mean he could let his guard down.

This place was, by Shin Jo-woon’s standards, a place where absurd monsters roamed. Like that Mazoku’s suspicion, something that transforms into a sloth might actually exist.

He might arouse the Mazoku’s suspicion in an absurd direction.

As soon as he made his decision, Shin Jo-woon decided to freeze the opponent and put down the pen.

Freezing the mirror wouldn’t seem to affect the main body, but there was no harm in testing it.

The problem was….

‘Too slow.’

He wanted to attack quickly, but even the speed of putting down the pen was slow.

His mind had already picked up and put down the pen dozens of times, but the pen hadn’t even touched the desk yet.

Shin Jo-woon was frustrated and felt like his insides were churning. He had never been this slow, even when he was very young.

Noir watched him, finding it amusing.

For about eight minutes.

“…How boring.”

But when it took Shin Jo-woon eight minutes just to put down the pen and reach out his hand, Noir eventually lost all interest first.

“My interest is gone. Well, your identity is probably just a suspicious sloth at best.”

Noir came to a simple conclusion, finding it so tedious, and with those words, his figure disappeared from the mirror.

Even after Noir disappeared, Shin Jo-woon spent a great deal of time retracting his hand.

Not only that, but he also had to discard the letter he had bothered to write.

Even though the Noir in the illusion couldn’t read this letter right now, the real Mazoku who were watching this situation might be able to see the letter.

The illusion Mazoku might also be able to interpret it if the real Mazoku changed the settings.

In all that slow process, Shin Jo-woon thought about various things. Or else he couldn’t bear the stuffiness.

One of those thoughts was about whether or not to follow Rembrary into the dungeon next time.

‘If I keep following him into other dungeons in this state, I’ll only be a hindrance.’

Following him was the fastest way to find out about the past, but what would happen if a battle broke out?

In this body, he would only be a burden. He couldn’t attack, defend, endure, or run.

Of course, there was the one thing, the photos that remained, but Shin Jo-woon didn’t like that.

‘That’s right. The photo I took earlier. I need to delete it before Jang Tae-ri gets it.’

* * *

The next day. When Rembrary opened his eyes, he found Shin Jo-woon the sloth asleep on the desk, covered in finely torn paper.

“Anchovy? Why are you doing this?”

He asked, puzzled, but of course, Shin Jo-woon couldn’t answer. Besides, he still seemed dazed, not fully awake.

“You’ve become quite the prankster since your body turned like this.”

Rembrary nonchalantly said words that Shin Jo-woon would find very unfair if he heard them. He threw the torn papers into the trash can, put the sloth on the lion’s back, and went to wash up.

Afterward, after eating the breakfast prepared by Clotte, Rembrary followed the Black Dragon and Eize to a village where people lived.

Having returned from a mission somewhere far away, the two Mazoku, the Black Dragon and Eize, seemed more familiar with the outside world than Warrior.

After traveling for a long time, around evening, they found an inn to stay in, acting as if they were familiar with the village, even though it was their first time there.

“We don’t allow animals in here.”

There was a bit of a problem when the inn staff were horrified to see the lion and blocked them.

“This sloth is a baby and too slow to go anywhere. Look. It won’t harm the other guests.”

“Hmm….”

“This lion is an adult but well-behaved and won’t go anywhere. Look. It won’t harm the other guests.”

In the end, after Rembrary persuaded them, they were able to agree to leave the lion in the stable and only take the baby sloth inside.

That was only possible because there were no other horses in the stable.

With the inn problem resolved, the Black Dragon went to the counter to get a room, and Eize took care of Rembrary, muttering as they entered the first-floor restaurant.

“I told you to leave the animals behind….”

“I can’t. They can’t eat properly without me.”

“They probably ate well even when you weren’t around.”

Rembrary put the sloth down next to him, wondering what kind of food he should give Shin Jo-woon.

Should he give him human food since he was originally a human?

The employee came to give them water glasses, saw the scene, and praised them with a smile.

“Your son is very well-behaved.”

“Son? He’s not my son?”

“Why are you like this, Dad.”

The situation became a bit strange when the server asked Eize if Rembrary was his son, but the Black Dragon appeared and quickly resolved the atmosphere.

“He’s my son, my son.”

“Ah. I thought so. I was thinking he didn’t look like you. …But the guest doesn’t look like you either.”

“He takes after my wife.”

“Ah, I see.”

As the server smiled and disappeared, Eize looked at the Black Dragon and shook his head.

Rembrary handed the sloth to the Black Dragon, who was trying to stroke his head, and poured himself some water.

After finishing their meal, they all went up to the second-floor guest room and played cards.

Shin Jo-woon wanted to tell Rembrary the answers since he kept losing, but before he could tell him anything, the cards were being flipped over so quickly that he couldn’t help at all.

After spending a couple of hours like that.

Just as Rembrary was thinking, ‘Why am I in a dungeon playing cards with these guys?’ the Black Dragon suddenly put down a joker card and laughed.

“He’s here.”

‘Here?’ ‘Who?’ He was puzzled, but since his hand wasn’t good, Rembrary put down his cards as well and asked.

“What’s here?”

“The human we were looking for.”

The Black Dragon grinned and got up, instructing Rembrary.

“You stay here, kid.”

Eize also quietly got up, nodded, and went outside.

As the two Mazoku went outside, Shin Jo-woon the sloth slowly looked at Rembrary. His eyes seemed to be asking what he was going to do.

Rembrary shrugged and was about to tidy up the cards when he saw the words floating in front of him and lowered his hand. Choices were appearing.

—What are they doing? Follow them.

—He told you to stay. Do as you’re told.

—But you’ll probably choose number one again.

“Number one.”

He didn’t want to obey the Mazoku, but nothing would progress if he stayed still, so Rembrary chose number one.

Then his body moved on its own and strode toward the desk.

‘Why isn’t he going to the door?’

Even as he wondered, his hand moved on its own and picked up a piece of paper from the desk.

Then he went to the door, put the paper between the floor and the door, and quickly swished it once.

“!”

He was checking to see if anyone was standing in front of it.

But when there was nothing in the way, the young Rembrary felt relieved and opened the door, taking Shin Jo-woon the sloth with him.

Shin Jo-woon, who had heard from Rembrary last night that his body would move automatically if he chose a choice, clicked his tongue. He seemed smarter when he was younger….

In that state, the young Rembrary headed to the second-floor railing, where he could clearly see the first-floor restaurant.

As soon as he took his place, Rembrary found Criminal B eating in one corner of the restaurant. It was that criminal whose tongue had turned to stone from Warrior’s curse.

‘How can he eat with his tongue turned to stone?’

He watched the man, who kept covering his mouth with his hand and frowning as if it was uncomfortable, but still kept putting something in his mouth. Then, Rembrary looked for Eize and the Black Dragon this time.

The Black Dragon wasn’t visible, but Eize was near the counter. He was talking to the employee at the counter.

Then, when the employee went into the kitchen, Eize took his hand off the counter and slowly walked toward Criminal B.

Walking slowly but naturally, Eize passed behind him and quickly sprinkled something on the top of Criminal B’s head.

Criminal B didn’t notice this, and Eize nonchalantly looked up at where Rembrary was.

But as if he hadn’t known he was there, Eize’s eyes widened as soon as he found Rembrary between the railings.

Perhaps sensing that movement, Criminal B, who had been focused on his meal, raised his head, looked back once, and then looked at Rembrary.

* * *

Meanwhile, Woo Yeon-woo, who had gone to the 1-3 district with Nin-ling, was in a situation that wasn’t much better.

‘Ah, damn it. I should have just not contacted Rembrary. No, I should have at least brought my phone. No, I shouldn’t have asked about Nin-ling’s story.’

Woo Yeon-woo repeatedly regretted it in his mind, recalling several moments where he could have prevented this from happening, but he couldn’t help that those events had overlapped and led to this.

Woo Yeon-woo bit his lip and watched Nin-ling carefully.

Nakru wasn’t comfortable either. They had come to meet Woo Sung-woo, but they didn’t expect Woo Yeon-woo to bring a Redrin person.

Naturally, the overall atmosphere itself became awkward.

In the midst of this, Nin-ling was the only one maintaining a friendly demeanor as before.

“Isn’t your luggage heavy? Should I help you?”

And Woo Yeon-woo was even more afraid of this aspect of Nin-ling.

Because when Nin-ling acted like this, he couldn’t guess whether he knew something and was acting that way, or whether he didn’t know and was acting that way.

‘So he still doesn’t know that I was a fake High Priest….’

That’s when it happened, as they were walking along.

He was pulling the heavy luggage and walking diligently when suddenly, from a very distant place, there was a sound like a giant knocking on a mountain.

With a faint vibration and a chilling sound that scratched at his instincts, Nakru stopped waving the placard and shouting “Woo Sung-woo. Woo Sung-woo” into the megaphone.

Woo Yeon-woo looked at the mountain far away.

At that moment. Just as he thought he heard that sound again, huge lumps like snowballs began to roll down from the mountain that had no eyes.

Those lumps like snowballs gradually turned into rocks as they came down, and later their size became so large that they were almost the size of dump trucks.

As those boulders rushed down at a rapid speed, the group had no choice but to scream and run back.

Woo Yeon-woo was the same. He cried and ran forward, ran and ran again.

At some point, he seemed to have lost his luggage, but he didn’t have the luxury to go back and get it.

Boulders kept rolling down behind him.

Then, Woo Yeon-woo tripped and fell as his foot got caught in a crack in the rock.

‘No!’

Woo Yeon-woo frantically pulled his foot out and barely rolled his body to the side before being crushed by the rock.

Fortunately, he wasn’t crushed by the rock, but this time his body rolled too far and gained speed on the slope.

Even in the midst of the chaos, Woo Yeon-woo desperately reached out and grabbed anything he could get his hands on, confirming that there was a cliff at the end of the slope.

Before his body completely fell off the cliff. Woo Yeon-woo barely grabbed onto a vine.

He gasped for breath, holding onto the vine tightly. He looked to the side and saw a dizzying cliff.

Woo Yeon-woo swallowed hard and shouted towards the cliff.

“Help! I’m going to fall! Please pull me up!”

But there was no answer, as everyone had been chased away by the rocks. In the meantime, the vine was moving downwards again.

Woo Yeon-woo screamed, “Ah, ah, ah,” and reached out towards the cliff, but couldn’t reach it.

At that moment. A shadow fell over his head. Someone appeared at the edge of the cliff.

Woo Yeon-woo was relieved and looked towards them, but he froze when he realized that it was Nin-ling looking down at him.

Nin-ling’s expression was blatant. Should I save him, or not?