Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 628

◈ 628. Unpleasant Face

Shin Jo-woon strained to recall what he’d heard, but the memory remained strangely hazy.

Meeting the demon, attempting to freeze it, the demon breaking free, and a voice whispering in his ear like the wind—these images were vivid. However, the demon’s specific words at that moment eluded him.

‘What did it say?’

Lost in thought, Shin Jo-woon fiddled with his malfunctioning phone before handing it to his secretary.

“Find out what’s wrong. It won’t turn on, and it’s not charging.”

“Yes, sir.”

The secretary took the phone and cautiously inquired, “Sir, do you remember buying a phone for Rembrary?”

Shin Jo-woon stared blankly at his secretary, then asked with disbelief, “I bought a phone for that guy? How old is he?”

“I’m not sure of his exact age… his appearance never seems to change. I’d guess mid-20s.”

“I bought a phone for a friend in his mid-20s?”

“Ah, well, there are… circumstances.”

You even bought him a house and a car. Or rather, lent them to him. The secretary hesitated to add that last part.

Shin Jo-woon’s reaction was alarming. If it’s this bad, it’s like partial amnesia. I wonder if he hit his head.

“It feels like everyone is deceiving me.”

Shin Jo-woon muttered, clasping his hands. He felt deeply unsettled. Everyone else knew about his friendship with ‘someone,’ but he was the only one in the dark.

If he couldn’t remember other things, he’d assume something was seriously wrong. But he remembers Jang Tae-ri perfectly well, which makes this even more absurd.

However, his secretary, the butler, and Jang Tae-ri weren’t the type to fabricate such things.

The demon he encountered two nights ago must have done something to him.

“Secretary Lee.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Find out about a demon wearing a suit and a dog collar around its neck, with no face.”

“A neck, a collar? A dog collar?”

“My memory has been strange since meeting that demon. Keep this confidential.”

“Yes, sir.”

The secretary, about to leave, turned back with a sigh. “Ah, that’s right, sir. Rembrary.”

“?”

“He’s quite famous, so there’s likely a lot of information about him online. He’s a polarizing figure, so there are many positive things said, but also many rumors. Perhaps seeing his face will jog your memory.”

“He’s famous? That person?”

“Rembrary is famous, and the fact that you, him, and CEO Jang are close is also well-known…”

“My friendship with that person is… that famous?”

The secretary smiled ambiguously and left the room.

As the door closed, Shin Jo-woon turned on his computer and typed ‘Rembrary’ into the search bar.

As if to prove the secretary’s words, the screen filled with an astonishing number of search results.

There were numerous related photos and videos, and his personal information was listed on the first page.

-Awakened. Famous as the world’s only healer.

Shin Jo-woon frowned as he saw his name mentioned frequently in the search results.

In particular, a post that asked, ‘Honestly, where did Shin Jo-woon and Rembrary go?’ caught his eye the most.

‘Did I really disappear with that guy?’

Clicking on the post, he saw a stream of joking opinions.

-Seriously, I think they went to work on something related to the Cataclysm [a major disaster or event], but it was confidential, so they lied about being missing.

-But wasn’t it said that a few more people disappeared, not just those two? That mad dog and the person with the green hair.

-The Lion Lord also disappeared around that time. He came back around the same time as those two. I think they all went to work on something related to the Cataclysm.

-Everyone’s so serious. Just me?

Shin Jo-woon scrolled through the comments absentmindedly, then went back up and clicked on another post.

“…….”

Shin Jo-woon frowned, closed the new post, and after a moment’s thought, clicked on a collection of images.

There, he chose a photo of Rembrary taken from the front and enlarged it, filling the monitor with the person’s face.

It was an unusual appearance. If they were really close, it would be hard to forget at first glance.

‘But he doesn’t seem like the type I’d be friends with.’

How did they become friends? As Shin Jo-woon wondered, his gaze stopped at a photo taken from a distance.

It was a photo of Rembrary holding a gun awkwardly, but the person facing him didn’t seem alarmed, so it didn’t appear to be a threatening situation.

The problem was…….

‘That face.’

Shin Jo-woon’s face turned pale instantly. In contrast, his eyes became bloodshot and red.

The corner of the desk he was gripping turned into thick ice in an instant.

His hand trembled as he held the mouse. Shin Jo-woon clasped his hands together as if in prayer. He took several breaths to calm himself.

The face in the photo… It was the face he saw when ‘that child’ died.

The running back, the road, the car passing between them… Shin Jo-woon squeezed his eyes shut, took a breath, and slowly lifted his eyelids.

The frozen desk returned to normal.

‘It can’t be this person.’

At that time, Shin Jo-woon was a child. That child was also. Time passed, and he became an adult, and Jang Tae-ri also became an adult.

But the criminal who killed the child couldn’t possibly look the same after all that time.

This wasn’t just being youthful. Didn’t the secretary say that Rembrary was in his mid-20s?

-He also said that his face doesn’t change.

Shin Jo-woon shook his head as if someone was whispering in his ear. This was nonsense.

However, it was hard to suppress the instinctive revulsion and disgust that arose when he saw the photo, so Shin Jo-woon closed the internet window and opened the window.

‘Tae-ri said he went into the dungeon. When he comes out, we’ll have a chance to talk.’

* * *

Inside the dungeon, Rembrary, unaware of the turmoil outside, was trying to escape as quickly as possible.

His method was to seek the other person’s understanding.

“Nameless Awakened, I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but I can see an arrow above your head.”

“I can see it too. It also says that only one of us can leave.”

“Then it’ll be easy to negotiate. I’ll be the one to leave.”

At the suggestion that left no room for discussion, the Awakened reflexively opened his mouth in a daze.

“Huh? You’re telling me to leave?”

The Awakened was so flustered that he misunderstood. Rembrary shook his head.

“I’ll leave. I need to leave quickly.”

The Awakened’s jaw dropped.

“I feel the same way, though?”

“If I get out of this dungeon, I can immediately destroy the first pillar [referring to a key objective or obstacle]. Then you can leave too. But if you leave, you’ll just be leaving alone, right?”

The Awakened, displeased by the unpleasant truth, shouted, “Why? I can go out and destroy the pillar too!”

Instead of answering, Rembrary took off his shoe and struck the opponent.

“!”

The opponent, knocked unconscious by divine power, immediately collapsed. Rembrary put his shoe back on and looked around.

He expected to be sent out, since he had eliminated one of the two. But he remained inside.

“Why aren’t I leaving?”

Then, the moment Rembrary asked aloud, the arrow pointing at the Awakened transformed into a sword.

“Are you telling me to kill him completely?”

The mark that had become a sword reverted to an arrow. Rembrary frowned and looked down at the fallen Awakened.

“I don’t know what you guys want from me. Do you want me to become as corrupt as you?”

At the meaningless words, the arrow changed into a smiling face.

Rembrary stared intently at the smile that Nuar must have sent, then took off his shoe again.

But the target wasn’t the fallen person’s head, but the smiling arrow.

The moment Rembrary’s shoe touched the smile in the air, a crack-like line appeared, and something shattered.

As if a delicate mirror door had been broken, a completely different landscape was revealed.

The corners of the broken smile flipped over, turning into a gloomy expression.

As Rembrary lowered his shoe, a voice heavier than the gloomy expression echoed from beyond the broken landscape.

“How did you know to break this place?”

The crack slowly began to spread throughout the world.

Rembrary stared at the precariously cracking autumn forest, then sat down on a large rock nearby and answered, “Just because.”

In fact, he definitely didn’t know ‘just because.’

Rembrary had been suspicious since this Awakened, who had ‘entered with two people,’ complained that he ‘didn’t know how to get out.’

This Awakened told Rembrary that he could see the arrow and the condition of ‘one of the two.’

Even though the condition was clearly revealed, the Awakened blurted out that he ‘didn’t know how to get out.’

In other words, he was saying, ‘I’ve already tried that method, but it didn’t work.’

Rembrary deduced that the friend who had entered with this Awakened hadn’t just disappeared, but that this Awakened had definitely taken care of him.

But even so, the dungeon wouldn’t have broken, and the Awakened would have been suspicious of the method the arrow suggested.

The reason the Awakened hid behind a tree and didn’t try to come out as soon as he saw Rembrary was because he had already attacked his friend to escape.

Because this Awakened, who recognized Rembrary’s name just by looking at his face, couldn’t possibly be unaware that Rembrary was strong enough to break through several dungeons.

The subtle lines that had been forming covered the entire world. Finally, the scenery of the autumn forest shattered, revealing a red stone floor.

Rembrary glanced at the sky. There was definitely a floor, but he couldn’t see anything above, not even the ceiling.

In the bizarre space, the most prominent thing was the giant red pillar.

The pillar was so huge that Nuar, standing in front of it, was barely visible.

But as Rembrary got closer, the situation reversed.

The presence of the giant pillar seemed to diminish, and Nuar’s confident smile became clearly visible.

As Rembrary stood right in front of him, Nuar smiled and asked, “Did you enjoy the world I created, High Priest?”

“If I subdue you here, there are only two pillars left now. But how do I get into the hidden fifth pillar?”

“You have to answer first?”

“The 4th entrance was the best.”

“Because it’s over as soon as you eat?”

Rembrary was about to tell Nuar, who was smirking, that the other dungeons weren’t all terrible, but he tilted his head.