Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 265

265. The Road Back (1)

Though he had spent months in another world, Rembrary knew the geography of the Great Temple inside and out. Calculating the shortest distance to where he was supposed to meet Nin-Ling, Rembrary walked quickly. Of course, he chose the most secluded paths possible to avoid encountering other demons.

However, it seemed there was a difference between the secluded paths Rembrary had in mind and those the demons considered secluded.

“What is this?”

Rembrary, who had been trying to be as careful as possible, was taken aback when he stumbled upon a gathering of demons in a place where even priests and ordinary believers rarely visited. He stopped in surprise.

‘Why are they all here?’

Rembrary wasn’t the only one surprised. The demons, who were gambling in their priestly robes, stared blankly at the High Priest who was supposed to be locked in his room crying, suddenly appearing with a plate of food. Perhaps it was because of the plate in his hand. They didn’t seem to realize he was trying to escape yet.

For a moment, they stared at each other strangely. Finally, one of the demons scoffed and mocked Rembrary, with a blatant sneer that anyone could recognize.

“What’s this? High Priest. Doing food errands now?”

‘I have no choice.’

Since it had come to this, there was nothing he could do. He wanted to hide the fact that he was escaping on his own as much as possible, but even if it made him look suspicious, he had no choice but to drive these guys away.

As soon as he made his decision, Rembrary put divine power into his voice and spoke.

“I’m thinking of saying my goodbyes.”

At that answer, the demon who had asked the question looked puzzled and asked back.

“So, this is a farewell gift?”

“!”

Rembrary was so surprised that he froze for a moment. Because the demon who answered seemed too normal.

No, it wasn’t just that demon. The other demons also looked bewildered, but they didn’t seem to be attacked. Yesterday, just yesterday, when Rembrary mixed divine power into his words and spread it, all eight demons around him were suppressed by his power and disappeared.

For a while, the High Priest and several demons stood there, not understanding each other. Then, belatedly, one of the demons finally realized the situation, glared, and jumped up.

“What, human? Were you trying to run away with that?”

Before Rembrary could answer, the other demons buzzed, “What?” “Really?” “At this time?” However, unlike the demons who were gradually grasping the situation, Rembrary was still in shock.

‘Why isn’t divine power working?’

In the meantime, the demons sneered at Rembrary.

“Where are you going after saying goodbye?”

“Are you saying you’ll say goodbye even when you’re running away?”

“Why are you taking food with you? To eat on the way? A lunch box?”

They spoke mockingly, but their expressions were all fierce.

“What are you all doing here?”

Rembrary barely suppressed his embarrassment and tried putting divine power into his voice once more. But the demons were still fine. Rembrary was genuinely flustered. Yesterday, he had clearly succeeded in weakening the demons’ power by mixing divine power into his voice. How could it not work in just one day?

“You… I didn’t know, but your voice is very nice.”

In the midst of all this, one of the demons even said this to Rembrary, causing chills to run down his spine.

‘My voice is nice?’

Of course, Rembrary had a good voice. It was something he heard often. Especially when he put divine power into his voice, it became very pleasant to listen to. When he was in Woo Yeon-woo’s body, he had gained popularity as a vocal gangster using this point, hadn’t he?

But… demons shouldn’t react like this. Demons should have been in pain or recoiling from a voice mixed with divine power. Not reacting that his voice was nice.

“Hey. Say something again.”

When even another demon said this to Rembrary, Rembrary had no choice but to come up with another method.

‘God’s Majesty.’

Rembrary first tried using a skill that worked on both allies and enemies alike. Fortunately, this worked, and the demons who were surrounding and teasing Rembrary covered their ears and staggered.

“Ugh, what is this?”

“My head…….”

The demons, caught completely off guard, couldn’t even finish their sentences properly. Rembrary took the opportunity to quickly get out of that direction. He sped up as much as possible, worried that the demons might regain their senses and chase him or call their comrades.

In the process, he saw a few other demons, but thanks to the fake Rembrary constantly crying while in this body, few people immediately suspected him.

Thinking that it was fortunate, Rembrary suppressed most of the people he encountered with ‘God’s Majesty’ and ran away.

As he was walking along, he heard a small voice calling, “Rembrary-nim.” Soon, there was a rustling sound from the direction of the voice, and Nin-Ling appeared with Moolu. Nin-Ling had escaped first and brought Moolu with her.

“Rembrary-nim…….”

Moolu’s eyes welled up at the sight of Rembrary after a long time. Rembrary also moved his lips, happy and pleased to meet his world’s Guan Yu [a famous general from the historical novel *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*] after a long time. But now was not the time to rejoice in their reunion.

“Later. Let’s go for now. The demons will know I escaped and come to catch me.”

Nin-Ling, who had planned the escape with Rembrary, asked suspiciously.

“Didn’t you say you’d sneak out?”

“I tried. It just didn’t work out well.”

Rembrary, who summarized the situation calmly, pointed his chin forward.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

As Rembrary had feared, the demons inside the temple soon realized Rembrary’s escape. They also realized that the High Priest, who had been unable to use divine power and had only been crying as if he had lost all his strength, was using some kind of power that terrified them all at the same time.

“The demons who disappeared from the village. Wasn’t that also the High Priest’s doing?”

“It’s highly likely.”

“No, that can’t be. If he had that kind of power, he would have done that to us too.”

“If you think like that, why would he have been playing the role of a doll under us until now if he had this power?”

“…….”

“Did he perhaps lose his power and then find it again?”

The demons looked at each other cautiously. That was a possible story. They had heard various stories about the abilities of the High Priests, and Rembrary was known as the High Priest with the best abilities.

They were embarrassed to find that he was a crybaby when they caught him, but if the High Priest story they had heard like rumors before they appeared was true…….

“No, he wouldn’t have just left us alone. He would have done it like in the village.”

“Does he become a crybaby when he loses his power, but changes like now when his power returns?”

“We have to bring him back. Tell the other demons about the High Priest’s escape.”

The demons, in a state of confusion, poured out only what they wanted to say. About half of them went out to chase Rembrary, and only about half were still in the meeting, but everyone was only saying their own opinions, making the entire white conference room noisy. As they were doing so, someone asked bluntly.

“But do we really have to rush to catch that High Priest?”

The others were so caught up in their own noise that they didn’t hear the question, but a few demons nearby turned to look at that demon.

As a few people paid attention to him, the demon who asked ‘Do we really have to catch the High Priest?’ continued.

“Humans don’t trust that High Priest like before anymore. Even if that High Priest escapes now, he won’t be able to gather the humans, so why are we even holding a meeting so urgently to find him?”

The answer was spat out coldly by the demon sitting across from him.

“Does trust only slip away? It’s not like that. You can rebuild the trust you’ve lost now.”

The demon next to him added a word.

“Trust or whatever. The Demon King told us to catch and hold onto High Priest Rembrary no matter what.”

“Won’t he be caught soon?”

“We have to catch him. But just in case, contact everyone else who is scattered and tell them to catch any guy who looks like the High Priest.”

* * *

Thanks to Moolu bringing one more horse just in case, the group moved away from the Great Temple at a fast pace. When they had distanced themselves to some extent, Rembrary asked Moolu.

“Moolu. Where is the location of the rift from here? Let’s go there.”

He was thinking of investigating the rift first. Even though the Eastern High Priest had directly taken people into it to evacuate, he couldn’t rest assured unless he checked what kind of place it was himself. The rift Rembrary had seen was a strange place where monsters popped out from inside.

However, instead of telling him the location of the rift, Moolu suggested worriedly.

“The location of the rift is about two hours away from here. But I think it would be better to go to the barrier in the Central Continent.”

“To the Central Continent? Isn’t that too far?”

“There are already demons all over the rift. But since even Rembrary-nim has escaped, the border there will probably be strengthened right away.”

“Why were there so many demons at the rift?”

“When people are cornered, they escape beyond the rift.”

“……Knowing what’s beyond it.”

“Because the situation is so bad that they’re willing to brave such fears.”

“!”

* * *

As night fell, Rembrary went to a nearby village and saw with his own eyes the ‘bad situation’ that Moolu had mentioned.

The streets were full of fighting people, and there were plenty of onlookers enjoying the sight. The clean roads were broken here and there, but there was no maintenance, let alone preparations for maintenance, and the children were not running around in the streets. The impressions of the people were all fierce, and the atmosphere of the village itself was gloomy. Even when there were no demons inside, the people were not at peace.

“Where are the demons?”

As Rembrary looked around at the scenery, Nin-Ling explained gloomily.

“The demons still lack numbers compared to the people. They are immigrating, but they don’t have enough heads to govern all the people one by one. So, those guys make deals with the human leaders, and most of them indirectly rule. There won’t be any in such a small village.”

Rembrary nodded and listened to the explanation, then stopped in front of a bulletin board. It seemed to be a bulletin board for announcing village news, but at some point, it seemed to be used to catch paladins or priests, and it was full of papers with bounties on them.

‘What is this?’

Among them, Rembrary also found his own face. It was the most recently posted one, so the paper was new and the location was at the very front, but the content was very absurd.

‘The High Priest has been kidnapped, so all those who kidnapped the High Priest are considered criminals. Kill them all and rescue only the High Priest.’ Moreover, the condition was not money or power, but a guarantee that they would not be slaves or food for life.

Rembrary thought, ‘Who would fall for this kind of thing?’ and looked around, then froze. Almost everyone who saw the post was in a tempted mood.

At that time.

“Hey, you three with hats.”

A burly figure like a bandit nearby shouted towards Rembrary, Moolu, and Nin-Ling.

“You three look suspicious, take off your hats.”