Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 732

732. Redrin’s Concern

“It’s faith.”

Sediter didn’t immediately understand Rembrary’s words.

“Huh? Faith?”

Why faith all of a sudden?

“You asked how I did it.”

After hearing Rembrary’s explanation, Sediter understood what the child had come to talk about.

“You came all the way to tell me this?” Sediter asked, surprised.

Rembrary nodded, looking at Sediter with the eyes of an accomplice, and said, “You seem loyal, Inquisitor.”

“Then, to show your loyalty to me, will you call me Inquisitor from now on?”

“It’s too long.”

“Then call me Sediter.”

“What’s that?”

“My name.”

Rembrary stared blankly at Sediter before nodding. “I will.”

Seeing that clever attitude, Sediter chuckled. Once Sediter mistakenly believed that Rembrary emitted white light through faith, admiration, curiosity, and pity arose within him simultaneously.

‘That child with high priest-level divine power must be that prince. That child must also receive a lot of jealousy. And that child Raidal too… must be hurt.’

Rembrary had only revealed the secret of the lie, so there was no way for Sediter to know his true thoughts.

Hiding his mixed feelings, Sediter reached out to the child. “Let’s go back for now. I’ll take you.”

This time, Rembrary readily took Sediter’s hand and asked, “Can I ask you something too?”

“What are you curious about?”

“How did you do that? Telling the real from the fake.”

“It’s divine power. You know what divine power is, right?”

Rembrary recalled the phenomenon of the monster’s thick blood becoming clear during the divine power vessel test and nodded. “I know.”

“It’s like that.”

“But there’s no blood.”

Rembrary’s question had some omissions, but Sediter understood Rembrary’s words well this time and explained, “Divine power allows each person to use different abilities, like magic.”

“Is it magic?”

“No, it’s different from magic.”

Sediter thought it would be too long and bothersome to explain in detail, so he only explained up to that point. *Anyway, this part was something you would learn while working as a novice priest.*

In the meantime, the two arrived in front of the large main gate of the Florandia Temple.

As the time to part approached, Sediter knelt down in front of the child, made eye contact, and asked, “In my opinion, Rembrary, you have talent.”

“I know. There’s nothing I can’t do.”

“Really? You already know?”

Rembrary nodded confidently.

Sediter laughed at the child’s bluff, stroked his head, and asked, “Then, will you apply to be an Inquisitor later?”

Rembrary didn’t think deeply and nodded again this time.

Sediter pretended not to know that Rembrary was lying. ‘If so, this person is flexible and a good person. A good person wouldn’t make a bad suggestion.’

“Wow. Then you might come in as my junior later.”

Sediter smiled and got up, then gestured for the child to go inside.

However, as soon as Rembrary turned around, Sediter grabbed the child and added, “That’s right, little prince. Be careful with your actions from now on. There seem to be several people in this temple who want to harm you.”

Rembrary stared at Sediter with wide eyes. It was hard to know if he understood properly, but Sediter patted the child’s back and said, “Now go inside. Keep my words in mind.”

Rembrary passed through the door and walked quickly, then glanced back.

Sediter waved at the child as he had done at the festival.

Rembrary hesitated, then waved back this time. He didn’t know what Inquisitors did, but if it was something someone like that did, it seemed okay to try.

* * *

The next day, the Florandia Temple regained its usual routine as the excitement of the summer festival faded away.

Novice priests continued to learn various things while living a regular life, and ordinary priests were busy taking care of the children while training themselves.

Lord Floran was relieved after the Inquisitor appeared and reassured him that the novice priests and the demons had nothing to do with each other.

Heather, the head of the temple, gathered the priests at the meeting and repeatedly told them to be careful about what they said. It seemed that everyone had returned to a peaceful state.

But that night, when all the children were asleep, Rembrary quietly got up and slipped out of the dormitory.

The temple at night, where no one was walking around, was mysterious in the areas where the lights reached, but bleak and scary in the areas without lights.

However, Rembrary sat in a corner without a single light, without any fear, and strengthened his resolve.

‘Redrin. The Inquisitor who visited yesterday told me there are several people in this temple who hate me.’

‘Redrin, Rembrary will find out who they are, because I need to be more careful.’

Rembrary pondered for a moment and added, ‘In my opinion, Redrin, I think that person is among those who are trying to attack me. That person… that person from yesterday.’

Rembrary recalled the familiar ordinary priest who had brought the Inquisitor to his dormitory.

He had forgotten his name, but anyway, that priest insisted on keeping the Inquisitor here even though Rishuer was angry.

He said it was for Rembrary’s sake, but his words and actions seemed contradictory.

‘Let’s investigate that person.’ Firmly determined, Rembrary curled his already small body even smaller and waited, then suddenly ran to the dining hall, which was in the next building.

The dining hall, which was usually crowded with people, was pitch black beyond the glass door at night.

Rembrary crouched behind the stairs and then quickly ran to the building on the right side of the dining hall. He had vaguely heard that everyone except the novice priests lived in that building.

‘That person must be there.’

Rembrary squatted in front of the low flower bed outside the building and stuck out only half of his head.

Perhaps because it was the dormitory for ordinary priests, there was a bright light in front of the dormitory, so it seemed difficult to enter easily here.

Rembrary curled up like a snail and watched the main gate on the first floor.

How long had he been doing that? Just as the feeling in his crouching legs was disappearing, he saw someone walking down the hallway.

‘It’s that person!’

And luckily, the person who appeared was the very priest Rembrary was suspecting of being a bad priest.

‘Redrin, I knew that priest would appear if I waited here. Bad people plot bad things among themselves when people don’t go around often.’

The bad priest who appeared yawned as he came out and looked around once. Then, he nonchalantly started walking down the road to the side.

Rembrary bent down and busily followed him.

Having often played around in the maze-like garden, Rembrary was confident in secretly following others.

Moreover, the bad priest didn’t seem to have any sense of tension, as if he didn’t think anyone would be chasing him, and he was walking briskly.

The bad priest only casually looked around once he reached the main building.

‘Who is he trying to meet?’

Rembrary stretched his upper body forward.

The main building was not closed, but the lights in the hallway were all turned off, so the inside was dark. Nevertheless, the bad priest walked in that direction. How suspicious!

Rembrary stealthily got up.

However, just before reaching the main building, Rembrary was blocked by someone’s arm and almost fell.

A large hand roughly grabbed his staggering body. When he regained his balance, he saw that it was an unknown priest.

‘Is he an accomplice of the bad priest? Or just a passing priest?’ Just as he was thinking that, the priest who grabbed Rembrary shouted, “You troublemaker! You should be sleeping in your dormitory at night. Where are you wandering around!”

“I came out for a walk,” Rembrary quickly tried to make excuses to the priest, but the priest who grabbed him didn’t change his expression at all.

“You came out for a walk, but you’re walking around so stealthily?” The priest shouted again.

Rembrary discovered that the bad priest who had entered the main hall was coming out of the main gate again after hearing the commotion.

The bad priest’s expression became ambiguous when he made eye contact with Rembrary.

‘Did he realize that I was following him?’

Rembrary was shocked that he had been caught right away even though he had been so careful.

Before that shock could subside, Rembrary was grabbed by the unknown priest and taken back to the dormitory, then made to write three pages of reflection in an empty room.

– I don’t know what I did wrong. I’ve never heard of a rule that says I can’t walk around at night. I think you should have told me about that rule in advance.

It’s wrong to punish me with a rule that doesn’t exist.

The unknown priest became even more angry when Rembrary wrote and submitted this reflection.

“Is this what you call a reflection? Don’t you know what a reflection is?”

“But I’m not reflecting right now.”

“Is that something to be proud of?!”

“Of course not.”

The unknown priest lost his temper and shouted at Rembrary again. “Write five pages of reflection!”

* * *

Rembrary felt unfairly treated and reluctantly wrote something similar to a reflection, but it was rejected five times.

In the end, the priest got tired of it first and gestured for him to go back.

“You got scolded?” When he opened the door and went inside, the tall blonde [Rishuer] hadn’t been sleeping and asked Rembrary mischievously.

“A little.”

Rembrary glossed over it and went back to his bed and lay down, but he couldn’t fall asleep.

Rembrary stared blankly at the shadow cast on the flat ceiling and pondered where he had gone wrong.

‘I’m small, so I shouldn’t be seen well if I hide.’

‘The prince is a genius at tag!’ Rembrary recalled the voices of his friends shouting at him and became sullen.

Then Rembrary thought of the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor had strange abilities, such as emitting strange light from his hands and distinguishing truth from lies just by shaking hands.

With that thought, Rembrary looked at the moon beyond the window with hope and prayed to Redrin.

‘Redrin, Redrin, is there also a divine power that allows you to follow other people without being caught? I want to have something like that too. Can you give it to me? If not, can you lend it to me?’

Lumena, who was listening to the prayer with Redrin, teased him. [That human child must have entrusted you with divine power.]

On the other hand, Redrin sighed with pity. [My child still doesn’t know much.]

Divine power naturally arose when one received the favor of God. But which ability would arise depended on one’s vessel. It was possible to forcibly grant a certain ability, but such things had great side effects.

But to want to have the divine power to track others…

Redrin kept brushing away the drifting clouds with his hands and continued to look down at the child he had liked for a long time.

[Why are you doing that?]

Lumena stopped teasing him because his expression seemed a bit serious and asked. [Even if it’s a child you like, you don’t have to grant everything they want. You know that.]

[I’m worried that the child will be in danger because they trust me and act recklessly.]

“That’s something to worry about,” Lumena agreed but said calmly. [Trust your children. Your children will protect that child.]

Redrin still kept looking below the clouds before slowly getting up.

[I think I need to go and see for myself.]