Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 602

◈ 602. The Story of an Ominous Prince

“Water’s leaking?”

[They’re saying the ceiling’s completely soaked because of it, causing a huge fuss?]

“Ah, I know, I’m going over right n…….”

Sunwoo Shil stopped mid-sentence.

‘No. What if I run into them if I go there because of this?’

Unlike Rembrary or Woo Yeonwoo, Sunwoo Shil was one hundred percent confident in her abilities.

She believed that if a prediction didn’t come true, it was because someone had taken action to change the future, never because she had seen something wrong.

Sunwoo Shil anxiously bit her lip. What to do?

Her manager urged her with an urgent voice.

[Wooshil, Wooshil, Wooshil! You didn’t hang up, did you?]

Sunwoo Shil hesitated, unsure of what to do, and couldn’t answer right away.

[Why aren’t you saying anything? Is something wrong?]

“Just a moment.”

Sunwoo Shil considered both asking Rembrary to come home with her and having Rembrary go alone instead.

‘No. That’s not it.’

Sunwoo Shil shook her head.

Rembrary might get into trouble instead if he went alone, or they might both get into trouble if they went together.

The same would be true even if she asked her manager to go instead.

[Wooshil? Are you listening to me?]

When Sunwoo Shil didn’t respond, her manager called out again.

She wasn’t usually this urgent, so it seemed like the downstairs neighbor had been complaining.

After 고민 [a Korean word meaning ‘deliberation’ or ‘worry’], Sunwoo Shil decided to tell a little lie.

“Sis. I can’t go home right now because of some weird stalkers, okay? I’m at a friend’s house.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie, actually.

The manager was startled and exclaimed.

[Stalkers? Then you should report them! That’s dangerous!]

“I need to see how the situation unfolds first. So, sis, don’t go home either. Those guys know our address.”

The manager asked, troubled.

[Then what should I do? The downstairs neighbor keeps calling. They’re crying and asking me to do something.]

“I’ll send you money to your account, so could you please pass it on to the downstairs neighbor for me? Don’t go there, though. Meet them outside. Tell them about the stalkers, say it’s for the repair costs, and apologize.”

Sunwoo Shil talked to her manager a bit more and then hung up, relieved. That took a load off her mind.

But she was still worried. All her stuff was there. She couldn’t just never go home. She couldn’t keep living like this.

The best thing would be to book security with Worldboom, but she had vaguely heard before that Worldboom’s security bookings were already full.

“Ah…… This is driving me crazy. Who the heck are these guys?”

* * *

The downstairs neighbor of Sunwoo Shil confirmed that the repair money had been deposited and then called a plumber.

“Hello? Yes, yes. Yes. The entire living room ceiling is soaked. It looks like there must have been a flood upstairs. Yes. Yes. Yes. Please come as soon as possible.”

The downstairs neighbor hung up and stared at the basin, which was already filled to a precarious level.

“Seriously, what is going on? What kind of flood did they have upstairs to make it like this?”

The downstairs neighbor grumbled and brought out a large pot, taking the full basin to the laundry room.

She was very upset that her living room had suddenly been hit by a water bomb.

She diligently brought basins and dishes into the living room several times. Then, the doorbell rang.

“Who is it?”

“I’m here to repair the plumbing. You called, right?”

The downstairs neighbor was startled when she looked at the clock. It had only been ten minutes since she had called.

“Already? Yes!”

In any case, there was no harm in it, so the downstairs neighbor quickly opened the door.

A burly-looking man was standing there with a tool box, looking friendly. It was the leader of Team B of Nakru.

The downstairs neighbor, unaware of this, grumbled as she led him to the living room.

“Come this way. Look at this. It’s driving me crazy! Don’t you think this needs a major repair? I don’t know what happened in just one day.”

The team leader looked at the soaked living room ceiling and the water dripping from it and said.

“Indeed. But at this point, I think we need to go upstairs and check.”

“I heard she can’t come because of some stalker.”

The downstairs neighbor said, trying to suppress her annoyance.

“Ah, I see.”

The team leader smiled amiably as he replied. But in his mind, he was thinking, ‘She predicted it, as expected.’

* * *

The atmosphere at the dinner table in Rembrary’s house, located in a good school district, was a bit more lively than usual.

When Siyoung saw Sunwoo Shil, he seemed to be reminded of his father and sat next to her, showing her various crafts and drawings he had made at school.

Since Sunwoo Shil also had a nephew around Siyoung’s age, she surprisingly had good conversations with him.

Even so, Sunwoo Shil occasionally looked around the table, observing this unfamiliar space.

First, Rembrary. Rembrary was the same whether he was at his own house or here.

He was only focused on eating and hardly said anything while eating.

Mulu, the green-haired one, was clearly reducing the amount of food in front of him, but whenever she turned her head to look at him, he would stop moving as if playing “Red Light, Green Light,” which was strangely unsettling.

‘Why does he bother stopping his movements?’

Ninring, who was said to be from the same cult, ate politely and, whenever she made eye contact with Sunwoo Shil, smiled kindly and said a word or two. She seemed so sociable that it was hard to believe she was from the same cult as Rembrary.

On the other hand, Kim Jewoo seemed very ordinary and out of place in this group, but he blended in surprisingly naturally.

‘It’s strange, but it’s more normal than I thought, so that’s a relief.’

Thinking that, Sunwoo Shil praised the drawing that Siyoung was boasting about for the sixteenth time.

At that moment. Mulu, the green-haired one, finished his meal first and asked Rembrary, who had been eating quietly all along.

“High Priest. Will you be going to the dungeon alone this time as well?”

“Yes. That is more comfortable.”

“Everyone already knows of the High Priest’s divine power, but I am still worried.”

Sunwoo Shil glanced at the conversation and thought.

‘Uh…… This is a bit cult-like.’

“Do not worry.”

Sunwoo Shil looked back and forth between Mulu and Rembrary, but decided to think positively as much as possible.

It felt a bit cult-like, but it wasn’t scary to watch.

It didn’t seem like she couldn’t endure being in this house.

Because the house was so large, there was little chance of running into people, even with several people living there, and there was personal space and a bathroom.

Rembrary seemed a bit crazy, but it wasn’t awkward to be with him, which was actually an advantage from the perspective of someone staying at someone else’s house for a few days.

‘Bickering will help pass the time. I brought my laptop and charger, too.’

Then, Sunwoo Shil belatedly noticed something strange and put down her chopsticks.

She quickly turned to Rembrary and asked.

“Wait a minute. You’re going into a dungeon?”

“Yes, Senior. I’m going at seven o’clock this evening.”

Sunwoo Shil tapped the phone screen in horror. It was six o’clock in the afternoon. Sunwoo Shil shouted.

“You told me to come to your house!”

“Yes. That’s why you came.”

“But what are you going to do when you leave!”

“Make yourself comfortable.”

“No, how can the host leave after inviting someone to their house!”

Sunwoo Shil shouted, and her blood pressure rose again, so she touched the back of her neck.

Who invites someone to their house, tells them to stay with their family, and then leaves?

“Jookyung is here, and Siyoung, and Kim Jewoo, and Mulu and Ninring, too?”

But those people are all strangers! Sunwoo Shil opened her mouth wide, but she couldn’t yell in front of the children and was distressed.

Rembrary tilted his head.

“Senior, are you shy around strangers?”

Sunwoo Shil pounded her chest, feeling like she had indigestion.

* * *

Rembrary gave Sunwoo Shil his new cell phone number, telling her to contact him if anything happened, and then packed his bags and entered the 2-6 dungeon.

After passing through this dungeon, he would be able to eliminate the second pillar.

And if he managed the Fire Lion well, he might be able to clear the 4th dungeon from that side.

Since he only needed to pass through two of the 1st dungeons, he would be able to clear it soon.

‘Then I only need to destroy the hidden fifth pillar.’

What will happen after that? Will chaos return, as Woo Sungwoo said?

Is chaos an excuse for the demons to protect their dungeons?

Or do we have to go through that chaos to return to the original Earth?

Rembrary stared blankly ahead, thinking about that, and belatedly realized that the dungeon was different from usual.

In the past, the Demon King’s mansion appeared immediately. This time, there was no background.

Of course, he wouldn’t start there again since he had already left the Demon King’s mansion in the most recent dungeon he entered.

But why is it so dark?

Rembrary looked around, puzzled.

As he did so, the darkness, like a curtain, parted on both sides, and a large screen began to unfold in front of him like a movie.

‘What is this?’

On the screen, many people were gathered in a large conference room, talking.

Everyone had serious expressions, and Rembrary’s parents were at the head of the table.

The people gathered all raised their hands in turn and spoke.

“The Black Dragon is the Demon King’s dragon. For that Black Dragon to bring the Prince… This is an ominous sign.”

“There are more than one or two people who saw the Black Dragon appear.”

“Perhaps he was really born with an ominous fate.”

“People are whispering, Your Majesty. They are telling the story of the ominous prince.”

“There’s also the story that he ran to the demons himself…… Could it be that the Demon King is targeting the Prince?”

Rembrary thought that he seemed to have seen some of the people speaking somewhere.

He couldn’t remember their names, but there were definitely people he had glimpsed in the palace.

But at that time, they all had kind and gentle faces. At this time, they didn’t seem very friendly to Rembrary.

The only person Rembrary could clearly recognize among the ministers was the Prime Minister, who kept his mouth shut and didn’t say a word.

The Emperor listened to the story with narrowed eyes, and occasionally met eyes with the Empress.

The Empress grabbed the Emperor’s arm and shook her head, but Rembrary couldn’t understand what that meant.

Then, when the Empress gave a look to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, who had been silent all along, finally came forward and said.

“When the Prince was born, a high priest from the Redrin Temple came and said that the Prince had the talent to become a priest. If he were ominous, would they have said such a thing?”

When the Prime Minister defended Rembrary, a minister who had been unable to open his mouth because his opinion differed quickly sided with the Prime Minister.

“That’s right. Furthermore, Lumena gave the Prince a good prophecy. Iira periodically sends bad prophecies to the west and south. There’s no need to believe everything she says.”

“But he clearly came riding the Black Dragon!”

The timid minister immediately shrank back.

The Emperor, watching this, gave a look to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister, instead of stepping forward himself this time, gave a look to a taciturn minister who hadn’t said a word.

The taciturn but shy minister, upon receiving the Prime Minister’s gaze, hesitated awkwardly and opened his mouth at random.

“Perhaps Rembrary has a good fate, and they are deliberately trying to ruin it with bad, that is― you all know what I mean, right?”

The Prime Minister, unable to watch any longer, interjected.

“You mean the enemies might be trying to slander the Prince?”

The minister immediately exclaimed.

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

The Prime Minister nodded and then said politely to the Emperor, looking at him.

“This is the situation, Your Majesty. The majority are trusting in the Prince.”

Rembrary, watching this situation from beyond the screen, tilted his head and counted the number of ministers who spoke badly and the number of ministers who spoke well, one by one.

No matter how many times he counted, the number of ministers who spoke badly was much higher.

Still, the Prime Minister stubbornly treated some as invisible.

At this time. A minister who had been silent raised his hand and said cheerfully.

“In fact, what does it matter what the gods of the neighboring continent think? The most important thing is the opinion of our Redrin, isn’t it?”

The Prime Minister looked at him with an expression that said he didn’t know whether to consider this person an ally or not.

The minister calmly insisted.

“Let’s invite a high priest from the Redrin Temple to meet the Prince.”