Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 640

Noir smiled, observing Rembrary’s expression, and asked,

“You know?”

He appeared indifferent, yet a hint of unease flickered in his eyes.

Rembrary raised his hand and tapped the mirror where Noir’s shoulder was reflected.

There was no physical sensation, but it appeared as though Rembrary was actually touching Noir’s shoulder within the mirror’s reflection.

Rembrary grinned and stepped closer to the mirror.

“You guys messed up erasing the anchovy’s [a small fish, often used as a metaphor for someone insignificant or easily manipulated] memory, didn’t you?”

“!”

“You locked Tae-ri in the dungeon, erased the anchovy’s memory, and I was wondering why you were acting so rashly after separating me from my friends. It was because you hadn’t completely erased the anchovy’s memory yet.”

“…….”

“You have to make it so that even if the anchovy regains his memory, he can’t revert to his former self.”

Noir’s lips twisted into a sneer.

“You’re annoying, High Priest.”

“Should I annoy you some more?”

“No.”

“The method to regain memories isn’t that difficult, is it?”

The mocking smile Noir wore vanished as if it had been sucked away.

Rembrary waved at Noir, who was staring blankly from the other side of the mirror, then lifted his leg and kicked the mirror.

The mirror shattered with a loud crash, and Noir’s image disappeared.

Shin Jo-woon’s video continued to play, but Rembrary didn’t even spare it a glance as he descended the stairs.

Soon, Rembrary easily located the exit on the first floor.

“Huh?”

However, neither Shin Jo-woon nor Hwasa were at the exit.

Rembrary stared at the frozen exit door.

‘Judging by the state of the door, the anchovy has definitely been here. Why are both the lion [referring to Shin Jo-woon] and the anchovy gone? Did the lion, like me, wander off due to an illusion? And did the anchovy go looking for us? Or did they both go searching for me?’

After weighing the possibilities, Rembrary scratched his head, surveying the various paths.

It wouldn’t be difficult to find them.

But if Rembrary went searching and the two of them returned here first, the paths would become even more confusing.

Still, he was worried about Hwasa, even if he could tell himself, ‘They’ll find their way back.’

‘He seems surprisingly vulnerable when outnumbered.’

After much thought, Rembrary bit his finger to draw blood, then used it to write on the door.

―Stay here

‘Good. This way, even if we get separated again, they’ll wait here.’

Rembrary nodded and headed towards the escalator.

* * *

It was while Rembrary was checking each of the theaters on the second floor that he detected a faint scent of blood.

As he walked, stepping over the sluggish monsters, Rembrary stopped and tried to pinpoint the direction of the scent.

‘……I can’t really tell.’

It was difficult for Rembrary, who wasn’t a vampire, to trace the faint scent.

‘When Hwasa took the monster’s eyes earlier, there was blood. Did it smell like this then too?’

Rembrary tried to recall the memory, but it was hazy.

He had been too focused on the swarming, ant-like monsters.

Reluctantly, Rembrary resumed his search.

Fortunately, as time passed, the monsters that had been subdued by the divine majesty gradually regained their senses, but, perhaps instinctively, they no longer attacked him.

As he stepped over the monsters that were still feigning pain, Rembrary tried to concentrate on the scent of blood.

How long had he been searching? After scouring most of the second floor, only the secluded areas remained.

‘Is it gone?’

After confirming that the secluded areas were also empty, Rembrary turned to head to the third floor, but paused, sensing something amiss.

‘It’s not there?’

Clearly, no one was there. But a strange feeling lingered.

Instead of dismissing it, Rembrary thoroughly searched the area again.

First, he scanned the ground within his line of sight, then peered between the frozen fixtures.

Finally, something out of place caught his eye. Something that looked almost identical to ice, easily overlooked, but wasn’t ice. It was a shard of glass.

‘There’s blood on it.’

Rembrary picked up the glass shard. It wasn’t soaked with enough blood to stain his hands.

But it wasn’t old, dried blood either.

‘Hwasa? Anchovy? Did one of them get hurt?’

Rembrary held the shard and proceeded to the third floor.

Traces of Shin Jo-woon’s passage were also frozen on the floor of the third floor. But Shin Jo-woon and Hwasa were nowhere to be seen.

Besides, for some reason, the monsters no longer rushed at him.

‘Are the demons holding them back because they’re useless? Or are the monsters instinctively avoiding me?’

The divine majesty was, after all, borrowed, and it inspired a primal fear.

Even if the monsters lacked reason, they possessed instinct. That alone was enough to expect some effect.

‘Anyway, they’re not here.’

Eventually, Rembrary ascended to the fourth floor.

But as soon as he stepped out of the emergency exit, he sensed something hurtling towards him at high speed.

Almost simultaneously with Rembrary turning his head, an ice spear stopped just inches from his nose.

‘That scared me.’

Rembrary instinctively tried to unleash divine majesty, but stopped himself.

Then, peering around the ice spear, he saw Shin Jo-woon lowering his hand.

“Mr. Shin?”

At Rembrary’s slightly questioning tone, Shin Jo-woon dispelled the ice spear and glared at him.

“Why are you coming out of there?”

Shin Jo-woon approached, finding fault with him, but Hwasa wasn’t by his side.

Rembrary glanced past Shin Jo-woon’s shoulder and asked,

“It’s because you froze all the escalators. The emergency exit was easier to use. More importantly, where’s Hwasa? Wasn’t he with you?”

“They both disappeared, so I came looking for them.”

Rembrary clicked his tongue.

“You’re so clumsy.”

Shin Jo-woon’s eyebrows arched.

“I guess you don’t remember that I was in the front row [referring to being captured or in danger]?”

“Noir’s specialty is playing with mirrors. He must have used them to create illusions and lead us astray.”

“Noir?”

“Didn’t you meet him? The glass door was frozen. He has pink hair.”

“Ah.”

Shin Jo-woon nodded, as if he had encountered him.

“That’s the guy who was throwing out all sorts of tempting offers.”

But from his tone, he seemed to have forgotten about Noir as well.

Rembrary clicked his tongue.

“Is it because it’s related to me? You’ve forgotten about him too. I thought you might remember him separately since you’re enemies with him.”

“Enemies?”

“I had you sitting on my lap, and a demon took you away.”

Shin Jo-woon, who had been looking down at Rembrary, raised an eyebrow. The corners of his lips turned down. But unlike before, when he had been asking questions, this time he remained silent, opening and closing his mouth a few times.

Rembrary wondered if he should mention that he had once been a baby sloth, but he didn’t want to spoil the happy memories with Mr. Shin’s nonsense, so he omitted that part and calmly continued his explanation.

“So when I went to look for you, Noir had you tied up and was tormenting you.”

“Tormenting me?”

“He was forcing you to hold a pen.”

“?”

Shin Jo-woon’s eyes were filled with confusion.

“He tied me up and made me hold a pen?”

“You couldn’t hold a pen back then because your hands were small and lovely.”

Shin Jo-woon’s gaze fell to his own hands, which were large with long fingers.

“I was so angry when I saw that, I rushed over with majesty…… Aha.”

When Rembrary suddenly stopped his story at an ambiguous point, Shin Jo-woon immediately asked, as if bothered by it.

“Why did you stop talking?”

“No, when I think about it, it was Noir, but it wasn’t Noir.”

“What?”

“Um. It was ambiguous to call him Noir. Noir back then wasn’t the Noir he is now. Of course, that Noir was Noir, but it was a Noir created by Noir, not Noir himself.”

Shin Jo-woon frowned.

“I don’t understand at all.”

“Then there’s nothing I can do.”

Remembering how Shin Jo-woon had ignored him, Rembrary stopped explaining. There was nothing more frustrating than stopping mid-sentence.

Shin Jo-woon protested Rembrary’s abrupt halt, but Rembrary ignored him. Instead, he took out the mirror fragment from his pocket and showed it to him.

“I found this on the second floor. I thought you or Hwasa might have been hurt. Were you hurt by any chance?”

“No.”

“Then Hwasa must have been hurt.”

Rembrary clicked his tongue and put the mirror fragment back in his pocket.

“There wasn’t much blood on it. Hwasa usually doesn’t even get hit by attacks.”

“Is that so.”

“I’ve searched the third floor thoroughly, so let’s search here and go to the upper floor.”

Rembrary gestured in the direction Shin Jo-woon had been walking. But Shin Jo-woon shook his head.

“I’ve seen everything from the top floor down to here.”

“You saw it?”

“There was no one. I went straight to the top floor and then came down. I thought that would prevent us from getting separated.”

Rembrary and Shin Jo-woon stared at each other blankly.

One person came down from the top, and the other came up from the bottom, but they didn’t encounter Hwasa. It wasn’t good.

After a moment, Shin Jo-woon suggested,

“Let’s go to the place where you found that glass.”

“That’s better.”

Rembrary reopened the emergency exit he had come out of earlier. But before entering, a ‘thud’ sound echoed.

The sound didn’t come from the lower floor.

“The sound came from the same floor.”

Rembrary and Shin Jo-woon almost simultaneously started running towards the sound.

Unlike the faint scent of blood, this sound was quite loud, making it easier to pinpoint the location.

Rembrary, running as if sliding on ice, stopped near the escalator.

He grabbed the railing and looked down at the lower floor.

“Hwasa.”

Hwasa was lying on the floor below, having clearly been dropped from above.

Shin Jo-woon, who had caught up, also saw the scene and said to Rembrary,

“Get on my back. The escalator is like an ice staircase. I’ll take you just to there―”

Before he could finish, Rembrary jumped over the railing.

Shin Jo-woon ran to the escalator, belatedly realizing what had happened, and grabbed the railing in surprise.

“Hey!”

It was a height that could be fatal if he landed wrong. A height that could break his legs or arms even if he landed well.

Indeed, Rembrary staggered for a moment upon landing.

“What an idiot.”

Shin Jo-woon quickly descended the icy stairs.

But before he could reach the bottom, Rembrary was already in front of Hwasa.

He had thought he was lucky to have only injured his legs, but Rembrary’s gait was perfect.

He’s perfectly fine? Shin Jo-woon was momentarily distracted by the sight, then looked down at the fallen Hwasa as Rembrary knelt.

Hwasa’s top was untied, and his skin was covered in wounds that resembled pictures or letters.

Fortunately, he seemed to be breathing, but his condition looked precarious.

“Can you heal him?”

“They’ve played a lot of tricks with the child.”

“What?”

Rembrary clicked his tongue. Shin Jo-woon didn’t know, but the letters engraved on Hwasa’s skin were in the language of Rembrary’s world.

―Stay here

Noir had mockingly used the message Rembrary had left for Hwasa and Shin Jo-woon.

Instead of explaining the phrase to Shin Jo-woon, Rembrary immediately placed his hand on Hwasa’s wound.

“……It’s done.”

From the point of contact, Hwasa’s wound began to heal instantly.

Shin Jo-woon watched as the exposed wound healed completely without leaving a scar, then looked at Rembrary with a complicated expression.

Rembrary had already finished the treatment and was straightening up.

“It was fortunate that Hwasa could teleport. He seems to have adjusted the height somewhat while losing consciousness.”

Then Rembrary heard a chilling creaking sound from above and raised his head.

The ceiling of the building was cracking rapidly.

“!”