Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 753

753. Receiving Many Assignments

“Rembrary is scary?”

Because the child kept crying, Ridal took out his handkerchief and handed it over.

The child continued to wipe away tears, alternating between the handkerchief and his sleeves.

“Why is Rembrary scary?”

Ridal asked again. It was more than just a tantrum; the child’s eyelids were swollen. It was clear the child had been crying for a while before Ridal woke up.

“He dropped the hail. Rembrary did.”

The child whispered softly into Ridal’s ear.

“What?”

Ridal laughed in disbelief.

“How could Rembrary drop hail?”

“The brother was tormented by ghosts before he got hit by the hail.”

Ridal had heard rumors that a senior novice priest was suffering from ghosts. Ridal asked Liche about whether the rumor was true.

But Liche laughed, clutching his stomach as if he had heard a funny story.

“It wasn’t fake?”

So Ridal thought the rumor was false. If it were true, there was no way Liche would find it so funny.

“It’s real. The brother said so. And he said Rembrary summoned the ghosts too.”

The child’s voice grew softer.

“He said Rembrary did something to that brother a week ago.”

“Did what?”

“I don’t know.”

The child looked at Ridal earnestly.

But Ridal didn’t know how much of the child’s words to believe.

This child was the one who had lied about Rembrary’s feather ornament being his, which was why he was here.

The child disliked Rembrary and often lied. Could he just believe what such a person said?

“You don’t believe me?”

The child noticed Ridal’s contemplation and asked.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you.”

Ridal carefully chose his words so as not to hurt the child.

“But I don’t think Rembrary is the culprit. Rembrary is just a child like us. He can’t do that yet.”

Ridal pulled the blanket that the child had draped like a cloak and helped him cover himself properly.

“You’ll feel better when you wake up after a good sleep.”

* * *

Rembrary felt a slight respect for the chef at the Florandia Temple. To make even pudding tasteless! That was also a talent.

Rembrary put his hands together and prayed for the chef’s taste buds to return.

“Rembrary, you know.”

As he was doing that, Ridal quietly called Rembrary from the side.

“Yes?”

When Rembrary turned around, Ridal had barely touched his pudding either.

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

Ridal whispered.

“If there are people and souls, then of course there would be.”

Rembrary answered without much thought and cut the tasteless pudding in half.

“Can you control ghosts?”

Ridal asked seriously, but Rembrary still answered without much thought.

“I’ve never wondered about that.”

Ridal stared at Rembrary, who was focused solely on the food without paying any attention to ghosts or hail, then turned his head.

‘If I asked Rembrary here if he could summon hail, I’d feel like a fool.’

‘Why is he like that?’

Rembrary belatedly looked at Ridal with a puzzled expression.

* * *

After finishing the meal, Rembrary was writing a letter to send home next time.

“Rembrary?”

Liche approached and gently called Rembrary.

After going out into the hallway, Liche shook each of the hallway windows to check if they were closed properly, then bent his knees to make eye contact and said.

“Rembrary, the highest-ranking priest of Redrin has decided to meet the highest-ranking priest of Lumena.”

Rembrary recalled the person he had met at the Grand Temple.

“Is that so?”

But he didn’t know why Liche was telling him this story. Rembrary was writing about Niran’s death in the letter.

“Yes. But you’ve been involved in this incident twice now. So the highest-ranking priest of the Lumena Temple wants to examine you and told me to bring you.”

“Me?”

“Aren’t you tired because you have to go so far?”

“I’m not tired. But I’ve already told you everything that happened at the Inquisitorial Bureau [a religious court]. There should be a record, right?”

“Well, I guess they want to ask you directly. There might be parts that were missed while talking.”

“When do I have to go?”

“In about ten days.”

* * *

For ten days, Rembrary lived no differently from the other children.

He listened diligently in class, never missed a meal, sang songs, and prayed.

The use of the feather was still unknown, but Rembrary stopped taking out the feather and examining it alone.

There was also a change. The child who had insisted that Rembrary’s feather was his now began to slink away, afraid of even making eye contact with Rembrary.

“Do you know what kind of god Lumena is?”

The day before Rembrary left, Ridal asked Rembrary while giving him chocolate.

“What kind of chocolate is it?”

“I received it as a gift.”

“From whom?”

“From a child in another class.”

“Thank you.”

Rembrary quickly put the chocolate in his mouth.

Ridal rested his chin on his knees and watched him, then slyly asked.

“I heard you’re going to Heder and Lumena’s temple?”

“I don’t know if I’m going or if they’re coming.”

“Lumena is a god from the Eastern Continent.”

“Is that so?”

“Is it someone like Redrin?”

“I’m not really interested.”

Ridal blankly stared at Rembrary’s profile.

Ridal was amazed by Rembrary. Rembrary didn’t seem to have any intention of living up to people’s expectations of him.

Ridal thought that if he had the opportunity to meet the highest-ranking priest of the Lumena Temple, he would study hard and learn the etiquette for that temple.

“Aren’t you worried?”

“About what?”

“You’re going to meet the highest-ranking priest of another god.”

“I haven’t met them yet.”

Ridal still didn’t think Rembrary had summoned the hail and ghosts.

Rembrary’s divine power was an aura, and it was more about defeating monsters than attracting them.

Above all, Rembrary didn’t seem to be interested in anything other than eating.

A few days ago, during class, Liche had asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’

Everyone expressed various aspirations, such as wanting to become a high-ranking priest, a training priest, or going on pilgrimages with the paladins.

Ridal said he wanted to become a priest who helps people, and the children exclaimed.

Rembrary couldn’t answer right away because he was dozing off.

Only after Liche woke Rembrary up and told him to talk about his future aspirations did Rembrary answer last.

-Since I came here, I have no choice but to become a priest.

The children laughed, but Rembrary had a serious face.

Ridal was really curious about what Rembrary was thinking.

“You’re like a sloth.”

* * *

On the day of the trip, the children watched from their beds as Rembrary woke up early in the morning and packed his bags.

“Did you pack everything?”

Liche came in and asked, then carefully checked whether Rembrary had packed his bags well.

“I don’t have much to pack anyway.”

“Still, you have to pack well.”

Liche said that and handed over the booklets he had brought in.

“What is it?”

When Rembrary felt a sense of dread and didn’t receive them, Liche directly put the booklets into Rembrary’s bag.

“Homework.”

“!”

“You’re wandering around for too long. You’ve fallen behind a lot on your own. You know that, right?”

Rembrary was greatly shocked. Wandering outside was tiring, but the only advantage was that he didn’t have to study.

Rembrary liked the studies he liked, but honestly, studying the Holy Scripture wasn’t that fun.

‘This is all because Redrin made the Holy Scripture boring. If Redrin had made the Holy Scripture fun, everyone would have liked the Holy Scripture more.’

[ ! ]

Rembrary, who had shocked Redrin, closed his bag with a sullen expression.

Afterwards, at the time when the other children were having breakfast, Rembrary boarded a carriage with Heder, the priest in charge of the Florandia Temple.

As the carriage carrying Rembrary drove away, the children whispered among themselves.

“Rembrary must be special.”

“He’s leaving for the third time already.”

“I guess. Is it because he used divine power first?”

“Ridal has more divine power, but the adults only take Rembrary around.”

“There must be something about him.”

Ridal was just staring at the dining hall as if he couldn’t hear anything.

He felt a little envious. The first time Rembrary went to the Grand Temple, he also got on the carriage with him. He passed through fields and several villages in the carriage.

When he entered the large conference room in the Grand Temple, there were many adult priests, and everyone praised him.

But now he was in this place, and Rembrary was following Heder alone.

If he hadn’t run away with the coachman, if he had gone in to save the old priest together, he might have been there now too…….

“Ridal?”

Liche immediately noticed Ridal’s shrinking demeanor and called his name.

“Yes?”

“Rembrary is going to tell them the story because he saw the monster.”

Liche spoke softly and stroked Ridal’s head.

“Rembrary is in big trouble because he’s so behind, right?”

“……I ran away when the monster appeared.”

Ridal whispered in a small voice. Liche’s intention didn’t have a very good effect.

“Everyone runs away when a monster appears. Fighting monsters is what paladins do, right? I would run away too.”

Liche tried to comfort the child again, but Ridal’s shoulders didn’t rise.

“But Rembrary didn’t run away.”

“Okay, let’s go in! We have to go eat too!”

Feeling that it wouldn’t work, Liche quickly shouted to the children in a bright voice.

Even after entering the dining hall, Ridal was just picking at his food.

Liche clicked his tongue inwardly.

It was difficult because Ridal, who was superior in every way to all the other children of his age, was too conscious of Rembrary, who had lower divine power than him, and became discouraged.

* * *

Ridal envied Rembrary, but Rembrary was not in a position to enjoy the trip because he was suffering from the mountain of homework that Liche had given him.

“Priest Liche gave you too much homework.”

Heder laughed as he watched Rembrary lying on the swaying carriage seat and scribbling with a pen.

“Liche is too much.”

“Shall I help you?”

“Then shall we divide it?”

“Then it’s not homework.”

When Heder said jokingly, Rembrary looked at him with a shocked expression.

Heder felt a little sorry, but even if he helped with the homework, he couldn’t divide it up.

The carriage moved on peacefully, and this time they arrived at the Grand Temple without encountering any monsters.

Rembrary thought that the highest-ranking priest of Lumena might come to the Grand Temple, but the time they stayed in the Grand Temple was only one day.

The next day, Rembrary had to get on another carriage and leave again.

The difference was that this time, not only Heder but also the highest-ranking priest and the secretary priest were with him.

“Have you been well, Rembrary?”

The highest-ranking priest greeted Rembrary kindly as he boarded the carriage last.

“He must not be doing well because he has a lot of homework.”

When Heder teased him right away, the adult priests burst into laughter among themselves.

Rembrary didn’t laugh and quietly looked out the window.

“Still, you came all the way here and did your homework. Our Rembrary is amazing!”

The secretary priest gestured to his superior not to tease the child and spoke again, and only then did Rembrary turn his head from the window.

Then, he unfolded the homework he had done so far and showed the secretary priest how perfectly he had done the homework with perfect handwriting.

“Wow, Rembrary’s handwriting is pretty too?”

“Of course.”