Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 682

◈ 682. Returning to a Place I Missed

“Then please come back here at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning. See you tomorrow, High Priest. Please take good care of the High Priest, Mr. Hwasa.”

As Daeju greeted Rembrary and Hwasa, Hwasa weakly extended his hand to the side.

Rembrary quickly grabbed his arm, and Ardord also excitedly clung to Rembrary.

“Goodbye.”

Woo Yeon-woo waved to Rembrary, and Jang Tae-ri also bid farewell with a regretful smile.

“See you later. Get some rest.”

After the press conference, Rembrary suggested they all gather to eat something delicious, but Ardord insisted that Rembrary must be tired and should rest.

Rembrary denied it, but Daeju and the others agreed that Rembrary needed to rest.

In their eyes, Rembrary had been missing for two years and had barely reappeared.

So, they decided to call it a day and part ways.

Thanks to that decision, Ardord’s face brightened, but Hwasa, who had come to say hello and inadvertently became Rembrary’s guardian, had the corners of his lips drooping.

“I was just going to see your face and go home.”

“Daeju, take good care of my phone.”

Rembrary greeted Daeju and signaled Hwasa to leave.

“Let’s go, Hwasa.”

However, just before the group left, Jongwoo, who had stepped aside to allow close friends to say goodbye, suddenly came forward and called out to Rembrary.

“Excuse me, just a moment!”

“What is it?”

When Rembrary answered Jongwoo kindly, Jongwoo stared intently at his expression and asked as if he had made up his mind.

“Could you perhaps talk to me for about… 15 minutes?”

As soon as he heard those words, Ardord’s dazed expression instantly turned beastly.

“No, you heretic.”

Ardord refused on his own and urged Hwasa to leave quickly.

“Let’s go. Quickly.”

Hwasa looked at Rembrary, gauging his reaction.

“What are you going to do?”

If it were the old Jongwoo, he would have stepped back, saying, ‘Then let’s talk later,’ when Ardord acted like that.

But today, Jongwoo didn’t. He kept staring at Rembrary, waiting for an answer.

‘Does he have something important to say?’

Sensing that his attitude was unusual, Rembrary opened his mouth to answer yes.

However, Ardord keenly anticipated Rembrary’s response and twisted Hwasa’s side as soon as Rembrary opened his mouth.

“Aaaagh!”

In the end, with Hwasa’s scream, the three figures disappeared from the room in an instant. Jongwoo, who had been very nervous, slumped his shoulders in dismay.

People stared at Jongwoo strangely. They were puzzled by Jongwoo’s sudden behavior, as he had always treated Rembrary with firm professionalism.

Yeonwoo, who knew Jongwoo well, was also bewildered and asked.

“What’s wrong? If it’s something urgent, should I pass it on?”

“That’s… no. It’s nothing.”

Jongwoo avoided answering and muttered, checking his wristwatch as if he were busy.

“Hey, we should go now too. You have your own schedule.”

Yeonwoo was puzzled by his evasive attitude and watched Jongwoo more closely, but Jongwoo didn’t explain and quickly grabbed his bag.

‘What’s wrong with him?’

Yeonwoo narrowed his eyes, watching his back.

‘What’s he up to?’

But Jongwoo had no ulterior motives. He was just embarrassed to tell anyone what he was thinking right now.

‘I’m crazy. Rembrary looks like Yeonwoo? That’s a really crazy thought.’

* * *

“What was Jongwoo trying to say earlier?”

Hwasa asked as he released Rembrary after arriving home.

He had moved quickly because his side hurt, but he was a little concerned about Jongwoo’s anxious expression.

“I wonder.”

However, Rembrary had been interested in what Jongwoo was going to say earlier, but as soon as he arrived home, his curiosity had almost disappeared.

“If it’s something he really needs to say, he’ll say it later.”

Rather, Rembrary, who was more pleased to be back in his house after two years, quickly opened the door and went inside.

But he stopped a few steps later.

“What’s wrong?”

Ardord, who was following Rembrary, quickly rushed over and asked.

Rembrary raised his hand and pointed to everything that had changed, starting from the familiar front door to the changed wallpaper, the changed clock, and the changed picture frame, stopping at the changed refrigerator.

“That. That. That. I’ve never seen any of those things before. Why does it feel so much like someone else’s house?”

As Rembrary asked in a bewildered voice, Hwasa thought to himself, ‘It is someone else’s house.’

But Rembrary wasn’t just saying that.

To others, it had been two years, but to Rembrary, the time since he had said goodbye hadn’t been that long.

So, this situation, where the house he had seen not long ago had completely changed, felt very strange to Rembrary.

Besides, even if it was a house he was seeing after two years, it wasn’t common for it to change so drastically in the meantime, was it?

Also, the smell. The smell in the house wasn’t familiar either.

It wasn’t a bad smell at all. Rather, it was a good fragrance.

But even though it was a good fragrance, he was bewildered by the unfamiliar scent in the house.

“Ardord, why is it like this?”

“That heretic is to blame. That heretic tried to take the house while Rembrary was away.”

Hwasa listened to Ardord whispering to Rembrary and thought to himself again, ‘It’s that bastard’s house.’

However, Hwasa seemed to be the only one who could think that way in this house.

When Rembrary looked at Ardord with a curious expression, Hwasa felt so wronged that he rubbed his temples.

“But this is also Mullet’s house? Is there really a need to do that?”

Fortunately, Rembrary seemed to be aware of who owned the house, and Hwasa lowered his hand.

Ardord also seemed to know, as he clicked his tongue softly.

‘That bastard who does that even though he knows is the worst.’ Hwasa cursed inwardly and walked to the kitchen because he didn’t want to listen to the conversation anymore.

In any case, he had only been frequently mobilized to find Rembrary for two years. He didn’t know how things had been going in this house, so he had nothing to say.

Meanwhile, Rembrary walked around the living room, checking the changed items one by one, and later looked into each room one by one.

However, Mullet’s room, Kim Je-woo’s room, the children’s room, and Nin-ling’s room had all been changed, which didn’t brighten Rembrary’s mood.

‘My room will be like this too.’

Rembrary felt empty and opened his own door, then paused.

In a house where many things had changed, only Rembrary’s own room was almost the same.

Rembrary, holding the doorknob, looked around the familiar room and slowly walked to the bed.

As he sat on the bed, he smelled the scent of freshly laundered sheets.

Smelling the familiar and cozy scent, he fiddled with the blanket, then lay down and closed his eyes.

His body wasn’t tired at all, but sleep came naturally.

* * *

[My child.]

Rembrary, who was sleeping soundly without waking up, heard Redrin’s voice and immediately opened his eyes wide.

Rembrary immediately sat up.

“Redrin?”

When he called out softly into the air, he surprisingly heard Redrin’s whisper right away.

[I sense a bad energy in that place.]

Redrin had rarely contacted him again after the Demon King transformation, but today, for some reason, his voice was clear.

He should consider it a good sign, but the words he was saying in that clear voice were so unsettling that Rembrary quickly asked inwardly.

‘Redrin? What do you mean? Is the Demon King’s seal already about to break?’

[No. It feels different from that one.]

‘Another Demon King or…’

[No, it’s not that type of energy.]

If it wasn’t that type of energy, did that mean it wasn’t energy related to Demon Kings or demons?

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

[I wish I could go and check myself.]

‘Should I ask Lord Yama [the King of Hell]?’

[I’ve already told them to check there too.]

‘Redrin. How are you doing now? Are you okay?’

Redrin’s response suddenly disappeared.

‘Redrin? Redrin? Why aren’t you answering suddenly when I ask how you are?’

He called out repeatedly and desperately, but there was no answer. Rembrary had no choice but to lie down again.

At that moment.

Rembrary opened his eyes wide and realized that he had just had a dream.

‘What was it?’

Rembrary immediately got up as he had in the dream and stood there blankly, then walked to the window and pulled back the curtains.

Through the window, he could see tall buildings shining in various colors in the distance. Of course, he couldn’t see the place where the Demon King was sealed from here.

The outside was peaceful, and he didn’t feel any bad energy.

As a cold wind blew, Rembrary tilted his head, closing the window again.

‘Is it just a dream? Or is it a signal sent by Redrin…? Just in case, I should ask Lord Yama if I can find my phone.’

* * *

The next day.

Rembrary woke up to the smell of food. The smell of freshly cooked rice and spicy stew was wafting in.

‘Rice!’

Rembrary quickly washed up and went to the living room in comfortable training clothes.

But surprisingly, he saw a stranger talking to Hwasa near the front door.

Through the archway leading to the kitchen, he could see Ardord busily moving back and forth, cooking.

As Rembrary stood holding the stair railing, Hwasa happened to spot Rembrary and called out.

“Oh, you’re awake. Good. Secretary Shin Jo-woon is looking for you?”

“Secretary? I’ve never seen him before?”

As Rembrary walked down the stairs towards them, the stranger smiled awkwardly and denied it.

“I’m not a secretary. I’m just a hunter from Worldboom [a fictional organization].”

At the sound of Worldboom, Rembrary’s face lit up and he asked.

“What’s going on? Did Jo-woon send you?”

Did he send someone to ask for help in reconciling with Jang Tae-ri?

“When Rembrary first went missing, his image wasn’t very good among the people. The president said that it shouldn’t be known where Rembrary and his family were living, so surrogate families lived here. Even after his image improved, they were told to stay here until Rembrary returned.”

However, what the hunter said had nothing to do with Jang Tae-ri.

But the vague feeling he had felt when he first saw this house yesterday was mostly resolved after hearing the hunter’s explanation.

“Ah. I see. So that’s why there were traces of other people living here.”

“Yes. Rembrary suddenly came back. As soon as we heard the news, we just cleaned up and moved out.”

“I see.”

“The president said that Rembrary must have been surprised, so he told me to let you know.”

As the hunter from Worldboom left, Rembrary woke up completely and asked Hwasa.

“Hwasa, how are Joo-kyung, Si-young, and Je-woo doing?”