Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 458

◈ 458. Yu Myeonghana’s Disciples

The Emperor’s eyes widened slightly. But just as he was about to speak,

The quiet, pleasant chanting of Buddhist scriptures by Elder Sunwoo ceased.

The Empress Dowager finally opened her eyes and asked the Emperor,

“You’ve brought a young man I haven’t seen before?”

The Emperor glanced at Rembrary, but when Rembrary continued to look straight ahead, he decided to postpone the explanation and replied,

“He is a skilled physician.”

“He doesn’t appear very old. What is his name?”

“Rembrary.”

“The naming style is unique. Is he a foreigner?”

“Yes. He comes from afar.”

The Emperor interjected, glancing at Rembrary once more.

“He is a very skilled doctor, Mother.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. But he doesn’t use conventional medicine. Therefore, I brought him separately, and I ask that you keep this young man a secret even after receiving treatment, Mother.”

The Empress Dowager looked bewildered, but instead of pressing for details, the Emperor turned to Elder Sunwoo.

He didn’t explicitly say, ‘Please step aside,’ but Elder Sunwoo understood the Emperor’s intent and smiled kindly.

“Then, this old monk has finished his prayers, so I’ll be on my way….”

However, as Elder Sunwoo rose, he paused when he saw Rembrary standing next to the Emperor.

At first, he hadn’t seen Rembrary because he was standing behind, and then because he was hidden by the Emperor.

But as he stood up, Rembrary’s appearance finally came into view.

Blonde hair. Red eyes. A strikingly handsome man.

As soon as Elder Sunwoo saw Rembrary, he realized that this was the young man Ardor had mentioned.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t paid much attention and had been listening absentmindedly, but his name was Rembrary.

A name that seemed to be from the same country as Ardor.

‘What a coincidence!’ Elder Sunwoo thought to himself.

“Venerable Monk.”

The Emperor, noticing his expression, immediately sensed something and asked the Elder,

“Is he perhaps an acquaintance?”

Sunwoo wanted to tell Rembrary about Ardor, but he decided that it wasn’t a story to be told in front of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, so he smiled and shook his head.

“No, he is not.”

As Elder Sunwoo left, the Emperor watched his retreating figure for a moment before turning back.

In the meantime, Rembrary was already approaching the Empress Dowager.

He didn’t seem afraid of the Empress Dowager, whom others were afraid to even look at.

Thinking, ‘He’s fearless,’ the Emperor watched him, but when Rembrary approached the Empress Dowager and placed his hand on her forehead, he belatedly realized.

‘Oh no. Pulse reading!’

He had said that he didn’t use conventional medicine, but he should have at least made him pretend to take her pulse! But it was already too late.

Fortunately, the Empress Dowager was thinking, ‘What is this child?’ but instead of scolding him for being rude, she assumed that the Emperor had brought an appropriate person and remained still.

Thanks to this, Rembrary easily placed his hand on the Empress Dowager’s forehead and infused divine power.

‘Her liver isn’t good.’

He couldn’t make an exact diagnosis, but Rembrary immediately realized that something was wrong and quickly treated the Empress Dowager, focusing on that area.

After infusing enough divine power and removing his hand, the Empress Dowager’s complexion noticeably brightened as she blinked, wondering, ‘What is this?’

“What on earth…?”

Perhaps feeling the change in her own body, the Empress Dowager mumbled dazedly and looked at Rembrary again with new eyes.

She had thought her son was resorting to folk remedies to treat her.

But just by touching her, the stabbing pain in her stomach and the stuffiness that had been bothering her disappeared completely, which was astonishing.

“Mother, do you feel better?”

“Not just better, Your Majesty. I haven’t felt this comfortable in a long time. No matter how strong the painkillers I took, the pain never completely disappeared. But now it’s completely gone.”

The Empress Dowager put her hand on her stomach and soon smiled, praising Rembrary.

“Amazing. I actually doubted you, thinking you were too young to be called a great doctor. I am ashamed of my doubts. You are truly a master physician.”

The Empress Dowager’s eyes began to shine with trust in Rembrary, but Rembrary, already accustomed to such gazes, maintained a dignified demeanor.

“Empress Dowager, I am not a master physician. I am more than a master physician.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course.”

“Indeed. To eliminate my symptoms, which the royal physicians couldn’t cure even after years of treatment, in one go, you must be far superior.”

The Emperor, watching Rembrary bask in the praise, narrowed his eyes.

Then, when Rembrary, having received enough praise from the Empress Dowager, went outside, the Emperor finally asked the question he had been wanting to ask all along.

“Rembrary?”

“What is it?”

“What did you mean earlier?”

* * *

“It means don’t be unreasonable.”

A monotonous yet sharp voice echoed within the stone chamber.

Those gathered around the long rectangular table looked at the Sixth Disciple with displeased eyes.

The Sixth Disciple, with his arms crossed and his gaze lowered, looked around the room and continued.

“He has the Master’s token and uses unique abilities. Whether you like it or not, you have to admit that he is the successor. Even if we don’t get along well. Denying him is just denying the Master’s will, isn’t it?”

The expressions of those gathered changed in various ways. Some were displeased, some reluctantly agreed, and some smiled.

After a moment, the Second Disciple, who had been smiling, clapped his hands a couple of times to settle the situation.

“Alright, alright. The Sixth Brother is right. Everyone’s stomach is twisted because a nobody we’ve never heard of has appeared as the Master’s successor, but that’s not the important thing right now. Right? What’s important? Finding the Master’s location. Right?”

When everyone quieted down, the Second Disciple smiled and asked the Fifth Disciple.

“Our Fifth Disciple has fought the successor directly, I hear. So, what was our successor like?”

In response to the Second Disciple’s question, the Fifth Disciple answered in a monotone voice, as always.

“He used strange abilities.”

“That’s already old news. I heard he uses ice. What else?”

“…He was surprisingly weak in *gyeonggong* [light body skill, a martial arts technique for moving swiftly]. No, it seemed like he didn’t know it at all.”

The impatient Third Disciple interjected.

“Then crush him with a speed battle!”

“I tried.”

“But you lost?”

“I didn’t lose.”

“You were trying to catch him. He was trying to leave. But you missed him. Then you lost.”

“….”

The Fifth Disciple frowned and retorted.

“Don’t talk carelessly when you don’t know. It’s always easy to talk. It’s true that he didn’t use *gyeonggong*. He was slow. But when I got close to him, I froze. The faster I approached, the faster I froze. How could I approach in that situation?”

The Sixth Disciple, seemingly curious, leaned closer and urged him.

“Freezing?”

The Fifth Disciple, recalling the fight, stared into the distance for a moment and explained.

“I don’t know what to call it. Literally, I felt like my body was gradually freezing as I got closer to him. When I moved away, I was fine. So I couldn’t get close.”

The Second Disciple whistled.

“He uses even stranger abilities than I thought. If those who are falsely accusing our Master of being wicked knew, they would be in an uproar.”

He seemed to be enjoying himself, but the other disciples were not.

Meanwhile, the relatively quiet Fourth Disciple asked the Fifth Disciple.

“The Master’s location? Did you ask him?”

“I asked.”

At the same time, the fellow disciples closed their mouths and focused on the Fifth Disciple.

“What did he say?” “What did he say?” “What did he say?” Similar questions popped out. On the other hand, an even deeper frown appeared on the Fifth Disciple’s brow.

“He said not to get angry because the Master went to grow flowers.”

At the same time, the disciples asked, “Flowers?” “Get angry?” “What are you talking about?” The Fifth Disciple twitched his nose, as if he felt bad and strange even after thinking about it again.

“And what did he say? To emotionally separate from the Master quickly.”

“!”

“I don’t know. Anyway, he only said unpleasant things and left.”

The expressions of the fellow disciples were not good. Everyone was upset by the words that sounded like mockery no matter how they were heard.

They already didn’t like the existence of the suddenly appearing successor. And that successor said such things and left.

Then the Sixth Disciple raised his hand again.

“Ah, brothers? Didn’t that successor say he was looking for someone?”

The Second Disciple also nodded.

“I heard that story too. When he first appeared with the token, he was describing the appearance of his companions in detail and looking for them. But he hasn’t been doing that since we clashed with him.”

The Sixth Disciple took over and continued.

“Then what if we find the guys that the ‘successor’ is looking for first and bring them here? Then the great ‘successor’ will have no choice but to come to us, right? Then we can have a proper conversation. Why did the Master suddenly disappear?”

The Fifth Disciple asked.

“It’s a good idea, but don’t we need to know who the successor is looking for first?”

It might have been a daunting task, but fortunately, the Fourth Disciple stepped forward and answered.

“I heard. One is a very handsome man with blonde hair and red eyes, one is a woman with green hair and a long spear. Another wears a lion mask, and when he doesn’t wear the mask, he’s a man with reddish-brown hair, and another is a man with silver hair and gray eyes, with a very gaunt impression. And another… this person doesn’t have many distinguishing features. A man with black hair and black eyes and very pale skin.”

I don’t know how he memorized it all, but except for the last pale man, it wouldn’t be difficult to find them because their hair color was unique or they were wearing a unique mask.

Their fellow disciples had become skilled at finding someone because they had been searching for Yu Myeonghana.

The Fifth Disciple said in a tone that everything was settled.

“Then that’s it. Let’s find those people. Let’s gather them and summon the successor.”

The Second Disciple nodded. But then the words that the Second Disciple spat out were so leisurely that they angered the fellow disciples.

“Oh dear, what a pity. It seems that the Second Brother and the Third Brother met one of them first? If I had known this would happen, I would have kept chasing him?”

The Sixth Disciple glared at the Second Brother with a fierce look in his eyes at the extremely light sigh.

“You met him? Who? Where?”

“The blonde-haired, red-eyed one. I think I met him where the Fifth Brother fought the successor?”

“Why are you telling me now!”

“Because today is the first meeting since the successor appeared?”

“!”

The Second Disciple smiled slyly and asked the Third Disciple, who was with him at the time.

“Come to think of it, that blonde-haired, red-eyed guy definitely mentioned the Master too. Right, Third Brother?”

“Yes. He seemed to be close to the successor and said he knew the Master.”

Just as the Sixth Disciple was about to say something, the Fourth Disciple suddenly raised his hand timidly.

“Maybe that blonde-haired, red-eyed guy… I might have met him too.”

“No, why did everyone only see the blonde-haired, red-eyed guy?”

As the fellow disciples stared at him, the Fourth Disciple muttered in a sad voice.

“He seemed to be a member of a troupe, so he kept traveling around. I couldn’t talk to him because of the attack from the Murim Alliance [a coalition of martial arts clans].”

The Sixth Disciple asked urgently.

“Where did he go?”

The Fourth Disciple shook his head.

“I don’t know. I only paid attention to him because he showed interest in the Master’s symbol. Then there was an attack right after.”

The Sixth Disciple put his hand on his forehead.

The Second Disciple and the Third Disciple looked at each other and decided not to say that they had chased the blonde-haired, red-eyed guy all the way to the Second Star, but they just came back because he was only working hard on the troupe’s work.

The fellow disciples would surely not be able to bear the frustrating excitement at that moment.

In the meantime, the Fourth Disciple became depressed and continued to mutter.

“Is that blonde-haired, red-eyed guy also the Master’s disciple, as well as the successor? Maybe the Master left us and made several more disciples? In a completely different group? Because he wasn’t satisfied with us? Because we were lacking? Is he trying to abandon us and go there….”

As even the other fellow disciples seemed to be shaken by those words, the Second Disciple patted the Fourth Disciple on the back to stop him.

“Stop it, Fourth Brother. Let’s find the successor or the people the successor is looking for first. We’ll know the answer when we’ve gathered them all.”

Then the Second Disciple asked, as if trying to divert attention on purpose.

“But what about the First Brother? He was supposed to come today, but why didn’t he come?”

With no presence at all, the Seventh Disciple answered blankly for the first and last time.

“The First Brother… He went to prepare for the new selection of the imperial troupe or something….”