Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 666

◈ 666. The Whereabouts of the High Priest

“Hyung! Rembrary! Rembrary!”

Woo Yeon-woo started crying even before he stepped inside Woo Sung-woo’s apartment.

“Yeon-woo? What’s wrong?”

Woo Sung-woo hurried out of his study. Woo Yeon-woo was pacing between the entrance and the living room, sobbing.

“What is it?”

“Rembrary shattered and disappeared!”

Woo Sung-woo didn’t immediately understand. Shattered and disappeared? Rembrary?

“What are you talking about? What happened to him?”

Seeing his brother’s bewildered expression, Woo Yeon-woo realized that Woo Sung-woo didn’t know about the documentary’s release yet.

Woo Sung-woo hadn’t even gone online since the documentary was uploaded.

“Hyung, did you watch the documentary?”

“What documentary?”

“The one Kim Mu-rok was making, but Gu Ju-il took over.”

“They scrapped it, right?”

“Someone uploaded it online!”

Woo Sung-woo led Woo Yeon-woo to the kitchen, sat him down at the table, and gave him a glass of cold water.

“You’re crying because of that?”

“Who said it was because of that?!”

While Woo Yeon-woo drank, Woo Sung-woo unplugged his phone and turned on the internet.

Seeing how upset his brother was, Woo Sung-woo raised his eyebrows.

“How did things get this bad?”

“I don’t know! That idiot Rembrary lied, and then his clothes turned black and he shattered!”

“Shattered?”

“I don’t know! Suddenly, black snow fell, and his clothes turned black, and he disappeared!”

“His clothes turned black? The snow was black?”

“Yeah. As the black snow fell, the color spread…”

Woo Sung-woo could barely understand half of what his brother was saying through his tears and sniffles.

However, when he heard that Rembrary’s clothes had turned black, he remembered the prophecy of the Black Priest he had heard before.

“So it’s finally come to pass.”

“What?”

“The Black Priest prophecy.”

Woo Yeon-woo hadn’t considered that, and his eyes widened.

“Does that mean Rembrary sided with the demons?!”

“He must have thought that if he sided with the demons, people wouldn’t direct their anger towards the Otherworlders and their god.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

Woo Yeon-woo shouted.

“He didn’t come here of his own free will, so why is he taking the blame?!”

There was no point in asking Woo Sung-woo, as he wouldn’t know.

“What do you mean by shattered?”

“Just what I said. He shattered, okay? He just shattered in front of my eyes.”

As he spoke, Woo Yeon-woo’s emotions flared up again, and he wiped his eyes with his sleeve as he asked,

“He might be dead.”

* * *

Woo Sung-woo took Woo Yeon-woo to Rembrary’s house.

He couldn’t understand what Woo Yeon-woo meant by ‘shattering’.

Woo Yeon-woo followed, hoping his brother could somehow offer a positive explanation.

Since there were CCTVs [closed-circuit television cameras] installed in the house, the two decided to review the footage.

“The angle… I don’t think we’ll be able to see anything?”

However, when they arrived, all the CCTVs were pointed outside.

Woo Yeon-woo had seen Rembrary on the balcony, so it seemed impossible to see anything with the current setup.

“What should we do?”

As they were feeling troubled, one of the fake family members who had been staying there under Shin Jo-woon’s instructions approached and informed them.

“We installed additional CCTVs in the hallway. The president [Shin Jo-woon] told us to install them in the hallway and living room in case of external intruders.”

It seemed Shin Jo-woon had become more concerned about security, as many people angered by the documentary were extremely agitated.

“Can we see the footage?”

“Of course.”

Following the fake family member into the study, they saw numerous monitors displaying CCTV footage from inside and outside the house.

“Do you remember the location and time you’re looking for?”

“Yes. It was about… about an hour ago. Near the second-floor balcony.”

The fake family member found the CCTV footage of that area and played it on the largest monitor.

Woo Yeon-woo clenched his fist tightly and watched the screen showing himself passing through the hallway with a cake plate.

“Huh?”

However, Rembrary wasn’t visible on the screen.

“He was definitely there!”

He was clearly standing in front of the balcony in the screen, looking at empty air and talking, but Rembrary, who should have been in front of him, was not there.

He seemed to be talking to himself on the screen.

“Was he on the opposite side? Are you sure?”

When Woo Sung-woo asked, Woo Yeon-woo nodded quickly, feeling wronged.

“Yeah. He was definitely standing there. I even made eye contact with him, and snow piled up on his shoulders!”

As he said that, the fake family member watching the screen with them shouted, “Excuse me!”

“Yes?”

“Look there.”

The brothers looked at the screen the fake family member was pointing at.

“Look here. The cake plate that Woo Yeon-woo was holding suddenly disappears?”

“Oh, oh! That’s right! There!”

Woo Yeon-woo replayed that part and shouted, then grabbed Woo Sung-woo’s arm.

“That’s the part, Hyung! Rembrary shattered in front of my eyes at that part!”

* * *

Woo Sung-woo found it difficult to grasp the situation since Rembrary’s figure wasn’t visible even after replaying it several times.

He also didn’t understand what ‘shattered’ meant.

Seeing the cake plate disappear, it seemed clear someone had come and gone in front of Woo Yeon-woo.

But it was useless since the person who had come and gone wasn’t captured on the screen.

“It must be Rembrary who took the cake. Why isn’t anything showing up?”

Woo Yeon-woo muttered anxiously.

“Hyung. Could it be that it wasn’t Rembrary? Was it someone else? Did I see something wrong?”

It was a question, but his voice seemed to wish that were the case. He seemed greatly shocked by Rembrary disappearing before his eyes.

After some thought, Woo Sung-woo suggested.

“Let’s go to Redrine first. They’ll know more than we do.”

“There are so many people gathered there. Will we be able to get in?”

“We have to go. It won’t be so bad that we can’t get in at all. It hasn’t even been twelve hours since the documentary was released.”

Hoping for the best with Woo Sung-woo’s positive words, the two went to Redrine headquarters.

However, Woo Sung-woo’s comforting words vanished as soon as they arrived in front of the headquarters.

“This is…”

Woo Sung-woo clicked his tongue. The number of people gathered in front of the headquarters was much larger than he had expected.

Even when he saw posts or news articles about the situation, the number of people seemed large, but the number he felt in person was completely different.

The front was completely blocked by a wall of people, and he couldn’t even see inside.

“What should we do? Should we contact Dae-ju?”

“We should.”

Unable to enter, Woo Yeon-woo called Dae-ju.

“Dae-ju-nim [term of respect]. My brother and I are here right now. How do we get in?”

However, Dae-ju seemed to have no way either, and a quiet answer came back.

[I’m sorry. It would be best if you went back for now.]

“Go back?”

―It’s hard to get in or out right now. We can’t get out either. If you meet Hwasa-ja, ask him to help you get in. Thank you for your concern, but go back for now.

Woo Yeon-woo widened his eyes and looked at Woo Sung-woo, shaking his head. Woo Sung-woo took the phone and asked instead.

“Is it okay if we don’t help?”

―If it gets too difficult, I’ll ask for your help.

“It looks difficult now.”

―But there’s nothing we can do until people calm down a bit.”

Woo Sung-woo looked at Woo Yeon-woo, and Woo Yeon-woo shook his head quickly. He didn’t want to go back. Woo Yeon-woo mouthed ‘Rembrary’. Seeing that, Woo Sung-woo spoke to Dae-ju again.

“My brother says he has something important to say regarding Rembrary.”

―It’s not that I’m deliberately not letting you in. Can’t you just tell me over the phone?

Just then, someone honked the horn repeatedly from behind.

The brothers frowned at the loud honking.

Seeing the car, Woo Yeon-woo muttered.

“That’s Shin Jo-woon’s car?”

Woo Sung-woo asked back in a questioning tone.

“Shin Jo-woon?”

“Yeah.”

As the window went down, Woo Yeon-woo immediately ran towards it. As expected. What could be seen beyond the window, lowered about 2/3 of the way, was Shin Jo-woon.

“I’m going to drive in. Get in if you want to.”

Shin Jo-woon suggested, skipping the greetings as the window opened.

Woo Yeon-woo noticed red streaks all over Shin Jo-woon’s face.

They looked like traces left by something sharp passing by.

However, even though Shin Jo-woon knew where Woo Yeon-woo was looking, he didn’t offer any explanation, so Woo Yeon-woo immediately opened the door and got into the back seat, asking,

“How are you going to get in?”

Shin Jo-woon didn’t say anything until Woo Sung-woo got in after him and closed the door.

“Do you think people will move out of the way if you just drive in?”

Woo Sung-woo asked, but Shin Jo-woon didn’t answer either.

Instead, he backed the car up once, then immediately accelerated and started driving forward.

“!”

The two brothers widened their eyes in shock.

“Are you crazy? At this speed, they can’t avoid it even if they want to! People are clustered together!”

Woo Sung-woo shouted as the car moved so fast it seemed like it would run over everyone.

Woo Yeon-woo was already panicking and couldn’t make a sound.

“Shin Jo-woon!”

Woo Sung-woo shouted again as Shin Jo-woon increased his speed even more, as if showing off.

The gathered people thought the approaching car would stop nearby and didn’t move, but when the car didn’t slow down, they belatedly panicked and scrambled.

At this rate, a major accident was bound to happen.

Woo Sung-woo wondered if he should grab the steering wheel, but there were onlookers everywhere he could turn.

At this point, it seemed the only choice was to hit the reporters, the protesters, or the onlookers.

Just as the car was less than 5m away from the people, Shin Jo-woon’s car unexpectedly soared upwards.

“Huh?”

Woo Yeon-woo trembled and looked down below the window in surprise. It wasn’t just a feeling; the car was actually running above.

Woo Yeon-woo, pressed close to the window, realized the principle.

“Ice road?”

Shin Jo-woon was creating an ice road under the wheels and driving along it.

Safety walls were even created on both sides of the ice road to prevent the car from slipping.

As he watched the people below looking up with expressions that seemed to say, ‘What am I seeing?’, Woo Yeon-woo belatedly felt relieved and leaned his forehead against the front seat.

‘That crazy bastard Shin Jae-soo. He could have told me in advance!’

As soon as they safely landed inside the headquarters building, Woo Yeon-woo opened the window and went outside.

The ice road had completely disappeared.

Dae-ju, who had come out after hearing the commotion, stood there with his mouth open, then burst into a hollow laugh in absurdity.

However, there wasn’t the slightest smile on Shin Jo-woon’s face as he came out of the car. He asked Dae-ju with a serious expression.

“Rembrary sent Ardor to hold me back. What are you plotting?”

Dae-ju shook his head.

Shin Jo-woon took three large steps and looked down at Dae-ju, rebuking him in a low voice.

“I heard your voice over Rembrary’s phone. Speak.”

Dae-ju shook his head again.

“The original plan was for the High Priest to hold a press conference. We were going to leave the onlookers and protesters alone, let in only a few reporters, apologize for causing harm, explain that the Otherworld people were only chased here by the demons and didn’t intend to do it, and that we would work hard to restore the damage.”

“The video that was uploaded didn’t say it at that level, did it?”

“The High Priest knocked me out and proceeded with the work. I don’t know what he did. I can’t reach Redrine-nim either. I have no idea what’s going on.”

Woo Yeon-woo, listening to their conversation, couldn’t stand it and stepped forward.

“He came to my house!”

Dae-ju and Shin Jo-woon looked at Woo Yeon-woo at the same time.

“What?”

“Rembrary. He came to my house. But his clothes turned black and… he shattered.”

“!”

Fortunately, thanks to Hwasa-ja arriving, the group went to the house where Rembrary had been staying.

Woo Sung-woo, who had already been there, thought, ‘Even if we go, there won’t be any traces left,’ but he wisely didn’t say anything.

Dae-ju and Shin Jo-woon checked the CCTV installed in the hallway again, and Woo Sung-woo looked around the house.

It was then. Woo Yeon-woo, who had gone to the room he was staying in, suddenly ran into the study.

“This! This!”

He was holding a plate in his hand.