Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 581

◈ 581. People Seeking Answers

The Hwasaja Lion stared at Rembrary, and the Shinjo Woon Sloth slowly began to turn its head towards Rembrary.

Even if the illusion demons were like that, the gazes of those two towards Rembrary seemed uneasy.

‘Why are they like that?’

Rembrary gave the same answer as always.

“Number one.”

What if I answered that I would stay here and ended up trapped in the dungeon?

But the moment he thought he had given the right answer, he heard a sigh of ‘Tsk’ in his ear.

‘Just now?’

As soon as he felt the doubt, the Demon King standing in front of him disappeared. Rembrary was standing in front of the wall.

Rembrary looked to both sides. The demons were also gone.

The Hwasaja had returned to being a lion standing on two feet, and Shinjo Woon had returned to his normal, handsome human form.

Area 2-1 had been cleared.

“What were those things?”

The Hwasaja asked Rembrary, then cheered when his voice came out properly.

“That makes sense!”

He seemed to have been talking even in his lion form.

Then, when he made eye contact with Shinjo Woon, the Hwasaja flinched, grabbed his head, and muttered.

“I… I don’t remember what I saw in there….”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. Why is this happening?”

As the Hwasaja was feigning illness, Rembrary was puzzled and injected divine power into his head.

“How is it now?”

“I still can’t remember….”

But in the first place, there was no way that Hwasaja, whose memory was fine, would be cured by receiving divine power.

The Hwasaja just wanted to keep Shinjo Woon from knowing that he had seen Shinjo Woon’s sloth form.

But Rembrary, unaware of Hwasaja’s feelings, muttered, “Oh dear,” and instantly showed him the phone’s lock screen.

“Don’t you remember this either?”

The lock screen featured a lion and a baby sloth wearing matching handkerchiefs.

The baby sloth was hanging on the lion’s head, looking displeased.

The Hwasaja, feeling a chill down his neck, asked without looking at Shinjo Woon as much as possible.

“What is this? What, what is this elite-looking sloth?”

“Elite-looking?”

However, when Rembrary asked, laughing excessively as if it were absurd, the Hwasaja shouted, “You clueless bastard!” and disappeared.

When the Hwasaja disappeared, Rembrary widened his eyes and asked Shinjo Woon.

“Why does he say I’m clueless?”

Shinjo Woon silently took Rembrary’s phone and tried to delete the picture.

* * *

The Hwasaja, afraid that Shinjo Woon would try to silence him, stopped moving when he arrived at a deserted place.

He looked around and sat on top of a pile of scrapped cars.

Sitting there cross-legged, the Hwasaja wondered what he had seen.

‘What on earth was that?’

Was it Rembrary’s past or just an illusion?

He wanted to infer something from Rembrary’s reaction, but Rembrary was calm from beginning to end, so he couldn’t guess.

‘It must be fake… right? If it’s real, he wouldn’t be against the Demon King. He didn’t seem to get along well with the demons. And he was almost in real danger before.’

* * *

“Jookyung, look at this.”

“Wow, it’s cute. What is it?”

“It’s a baby sloth.”

“Wow, wow, wow! Where did you take this picture?”

“Siyoung, look at this.”

“Wow, wow, wow! What’s its name?”

“It’s Myeolchi [Korean word for anchovy, often used as a nickname].”

“Oh! That’s the same nickname as Shinjo Woon!”

“Doesn’t it look alike?”

“Oh! The expression is exactly the same!”

Rembrary showed off the Myeolchi sloth picture he had protected from Shinjo Woon to the children.

Shinjo Woon grilled the meat while watching the scene as if monitoring it.

He frowned and flipped the meat, seemingly unconcerned by Ardor making loud knife noises in the back.

Rather, Shinjo Woon was more concerned about the events in that illusion, which had now disappeared and were no longer visible.

‘The important thing is whether those events are real or not.’

* * *

The opportunity to resolve that question came sooner than expected.

After receiving advice from Jang Taeri, Shinjo Woon began searching for someone from the Otherworld who had cut ties with the Redrin believers.

The first result of that search had now arrived.

Shinjo Woon checked the time and headed straight there instead of going home or to the office.

It was a non-city called ‘Sunset Slumber,’ the smallest of the non-cities [areas abandoned due to monster activity].

In fact, it used to be a large national park before the Cataclysm [a major disaster or event that changed the world], but due to frequent monster appearances, the park and its surrounding areas became a non-city.

According to the secretary’s investigation, a person with an unclear identity and unusual hair color was living in an abandoned apartment around the park.

‘Is it that way?’

As he approached the non-city, one of the hunters guarding the high wall approached Shinjo Woon’s car.

“I’m sorry. Entry is prohibited from here.”

Since it was directly adjacent to A City, hunters belonging to A District were in charge of security due to various safety issues.

“Shinjo Woon? Mr. Shinjo Woon?”

But when Shinjo Woon lowered the window, the hunters immediately recognized him and let him in.

As one of the few high-end hunters in the world, most hunters knew Shinjo Woon’s face.

“Thank you.”

Shinjo Woon thanked them and drove inside.

As he drove along the broken road, he could see people hiding and glancing at him.

Most of them were residents living in the apartments around the national park, who had settled there before the wall was built.

Since it was only a few minutes away from A City and the living conditions were generally good, a surprising number of hunters confident in their skills took the risk and settled in this area.

The person Shinjo Woon was looking for was likely to have settled here for this reason.

‘It’s over there.’

Shinjo Woon vaguely confirmed the location given by the secretary and got out of the car.

He put up ice barriers around the car to prevent monsters or malicious hunters from stealing or damaging it while he was away, and he heard whispers from several places, “Isn’t that Shinjo Woon?”, “Shinjo Woon?”

Instead of bothering to check those places, Shinjo Woon prepared himself to search all the large apartments and went inside.

* * *

Since the apartment consisted of several buildings and he didn’t know the exact number, it took Shinjo Woon almost three hours to find the Otherworlder he was looking for.

He even managed to find and catch him from afar thanks to the Otherworlder’s unique hair color.

The Otherworlder tried to run away when he saw Shinjo Woon, but when Shinjo Woon blocked his path with ice, he had no choice but to cooperate with the conversation.

Shinjo Woon took the Otherworlder into his car so that people couldn’t hear them and asked about Rembrary.

But it was no use.

“Do I know about High Priest Redrin’s childhood? Oh, I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? How?”

“Because I was a believer of Lumena.”

The Otherworlder’s answer was so absurd that he didn’t even feel like pressing further.

“……”

After getting out of the park. After driving aimlessly for a while, Shinjo Woon admitted his mistake.

Even though he had actually seen the god Lumena, he naturally assumed that all Otherworlders were Redrin believers.

‘What to do? The odds are getting lower with this method.’

If it was just curiosity about Rembrary’s past, there was no need to go this far.

But the demons wouldn’t keep dredging up Rembrary’s past just to show him memories.

Redrin silently keeping Rembrary with him, and what Woosung Woo said, were clearly actions with a purpose.

To do that, he needed to figure out whether the past the demons were showing was fake or real…….

‘It’s become difficult to follow him around directly, too.’

What good is it to turn into a sloth and be carried around like a bag when you don’t know what situation might arise? With that 0.25x speed.

Of course, he could still see the past, but if a dangerous situation arose, there would be no way to deal with it. With that damn 0.25x speed.

‘I think I can maintain my abilities if I transform into an animal other than a sloth…….’

* * *

The next day. Rembrary realized something as he watched Ardor go out to take the children to school.

“Ninring?”

Usually, Ninring was the busiest in the morning, preparing the children for school. But today, he was puzzled because Ninring was nowhere to be seen.

Mulu answered while eating soup.

“He went to protect Woo Yeonwoo under the High Priest’s orders.”

Rembrary shook his head.

“No, I know that. Hasn’t he come out yet?”

“No.”

“What about the phone?”

“When I called two days ago, he said he was fine.”

“What about yesterday?”

“I’m assuming he’s fine.”

“Then today…… you wouldn’t have called. I’ll try.”

Rembrary took out his phone and called Ninring. But Ninring didn’t answer the phone.

“He’s not answering.”

“It’s been a few days since he went in. The battery must be dead.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Oh, and High Priest. A broadcasting station contacted you. Daejoo received the call and passed it on to me.”

“What broadcasting station?”

Mulu took out his phone and read from a memo.

“PBS. They want to interview you, High Priest.”

Rembrary recalled that Kim Murok was investigating him and Redrin and asked.

“About what?”

“About the pillar removal.”

Rembrary searched for Kim Murok on the internet with his phone.

Since Kim Murok belonged to HBS, it wasn’t related to that documentary.

Still, there was no harm in being careful, so Rembrary thought for a moment and asked.

“Give me that phone number.”

* * *

“It doesn’t seem like he has any intention of showing up?”

At that time. Woo Yeonwoo was still wandering around inside the dungeon with the Nakru hunters.

He even made a placard and carried it around, shouting his name while bracing himself for enemy attacks, but Woo Sungwoo didn’t show up.

The hunters’ faces gradually showed disappointment.

“No, why did Woo Sungwoo just show up in front of Shinjo Woon, but not to us…….”

“Isn’t the third chaos just an excuse? He just switched sides to save his life, but he’s too embarrassed to say that……?”

As time passed without Woo Sungwoo even sending a clue, some people even suspected this.

Woo Yeonwoo glared fiercely at them when he heard them whispering. But Woo Yeonwoo was just as disappointed.

He thought his brother wouldn’t show up in front of him, but he really didn’t. Besides…….

‘I should avoid Ninring from now on.’

Ninring was friendly, but he stared so intently at times that it made people’s hearts drop every time he looked at them.

At that moment. A glittering ball rolled to Woo Yeonwoo’s feet.

‘Huh?’

Woo Yeonwoo was about to pick up the ball, wondering what it was, when he noticed that no one was looking at it.

It seemed that Woo Yeonwoo was the only one aware of the ball.

‘Strange.’

He didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t good. With his keen sense, Woo Yeonwoo didn’t pick up the ball and pretended not to notice it.

Then, feeling uneasy, he turned around and saw Ninring bending down to pick up the ball.

‘He can see it too?’

Then are we the only ones who saw this ball? The moment he thought that, Woo Yeonwoo’s eyes widened.

Ninring had disappeared.

“Uh!”

When Woo Yeonwoo shouted, the hunters became wary and looked around.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did something appear?”

“Ninring…….”

“What about Ninring?”

People asked Woo Yeonwoo and reflexively looked around for Ninring, then shouted in surprise before Woo Yeonwoo could explain.

“He’s not here?”

“Wasn’t he here a moment ago?”

“I didn’t see him leave either?”

* * *

Ninring, whom they were looking for, was in a strange space with black glass floors and walls.

Ninring put down the ball he was holding and looked around.

‘Is this a trap?’

Ninring recalled the disappeared Nakru hunters and Woo Yeonwoo and knocked on the mirror in front of him.

At that moment. The Ninring in the mirror smiled alone, knocked on the mirror two beats later, and asked.

“Shall I tell you what you’re curious about? Who was the fake impersonating the High Priest?”