Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 760

◈ 760. A Fractured Friendship

Having barely managed to calm the onlookers, Rishuer was finally able to proceed with the public lesson as planned.

Rishuer opened the Holy Book and explained the contents with a gentler voice than usual.

Then, Rishuer turned to the children and asked,

“Now, who can tell me about the flower that symbolizes Redrin?”

As soon as Rishuer asked the question, all the children raised their hands. This was because Rishuer had trained them to raise their hands no matter what he asked.

“Kentri, would you like to answer?”

When Rishuer pointed to the designated child, Kentri jumped up.

“It’s a rose!”

“Very good.”

As Rishuer pretended to clap, the onlookers all applauded together.

Kentri’s face turned bright red, and he plopped back down in his seat as if protesting.

“Now, does anyone know why the rose became the symbolic flower of Redrin?”

Rishuer asked a slightly more difficult question, looking around at the children.

This time, all the children raised their hands. Except for one person.

‘Lidal!’

The problem was that the one person who didn’t raise his hand was Lidal, who was supposed to answer this question.

Lidal was staring down at his desk, half in a daze.

It seemed that the onlookers’ praise of the child, mentioning what Rembrary had done, had embarrassed him.

Rishuer felt a strong urge to protest against some of the onlookers who were proactively throwing questions at the child.

“Well then, shall we have Lidal answer?”

However, he couldn’t do that. Rishuer had no choice but to call Lidal’s name nonchalantly, even though he hadn’t raised his hand.

Upon hearing his name, Lidal seemed to snap out of it and quickly raised his head.

“Lidal, why is the rose the symbolic flower of Redrin?”

Rishuer deliberately repeated the question one more time.

“Uh…”

However, perhaps because he was caught off guard by the sudden question, Lidal couldn’t answer as clearly as he had during practice.

“That is…”

Lidal originally knew the answer to this question. But due to the sudden situation, the child’s mind went blank, and he just stammered.

Rishuer’s mind also went blank.

He couldn’t decide whether to wait for Lidal to answer or give another child a chance.

If he were to have another child answer, he could simply change the name.

However, he was worried that if the child, who had already been discouraged by the onlookers’ actions, couldn’t even answer a question publicly, he would become even more disheartened.

“Is it difficult because it’s a question we didn’t learn?”

When Lidal’s ears turned red, Rishuer eventually made that excuse and explained it himself.

“The reason the rose became the symbolic flower of Redrin is because in the old battles of the gods…”

Rembrary was so focused on watching Lidal that he half-listened to Rishuer’s explanation.

‘Why is he like that?’

Even to the young Rembrary, Lidal’s condition seemed different from usual.

* * *

“Did you fight with Lidal?”

It was after finishing a busy day, eating a cake bigger than a person’s head, and returning to his room to rest.

Rembrary raised his head at the tall blonde’s question.

“No. Why?”

The tall blonde casually sat on Rembrary’s bed and said,

“You usually play with Lidal for at least 30 minutes separately. But today, you didn’t even talk to him.”

“We didn’t fight.”

Rembrary pushed the tall blonde’s back.

“Then why aren’t you talking?”

“Sometimes things just happen. We’re going to play cards tomorrow.”

The tall blonde lingered, wanting to talk more.

However, when Rembrary pushed his back with both hands, he reluctantly returned to his own spot.

After sending away the disturber, Rembrary lay down on the bed with his arms spread out.

* * *

Although he spent the last day of December so busily, the next day was just as busy.

This was because January 1st was the day when the priests gathered to take the Divine Power Vessel Test again. [A test to measure the strength of one’s divine power.]

Rembrary hadn’t participated in the last test because he had just returned from a long journey.

However, this time he had been staying at the temple for several weeks, so he had to be tested for Divine Power just like the other children.

The same was true for Lidal.

Rembrary entered the testing room, lining up with everyone else as before.

“Where’s Lidal?”

However, as soon as he entered the room, Rishuer asked from the doorway.

The children all looked at Rishuer. Rishuer counted the number of children and then went outside.

“Has anyone seen Lidal?”

Rishuer’s voice could be heard from beyond the half-open door.

“Where did Lidal go?”

The child next to him whispered to someone.

“I don’t know.”

The child who heard the question answered curtly.

Rembrary stared blankly at the vessel and then looked around at the children. The children were continuing to whisper among themselves.

‘Why didn’t Lidal come?’

Since Rembrary used a different room from Lidal, there were many times when he couldn’t see him before gathering in the classroom.

But today, he came straight to the test without stopping by the classroom, so he naturally didn’t find it strange that Lidal wasn’t there.

“Has anyone seen Lidal?”

Rishuer came back inside and asked again.

“Who uses the same room as Lidal?”

When Rishuer asked the children, ten of them raised their hands.

“When was Lidal last seen?”

As Rishuer asked, the children answered in a row.

“He was in the dining hall.”

“He ate first.”

“He left because someone called him.”

Listening to the children’s words one by one didn’t help much, so Rishuer went back outside.

“I’m sorry, Priest Rishuer, you need to hurry up and let us use the room. Our children need to use it too.”

However, as soon as he went outside, Rishuer was faced with another training priest who was holding back his anger.

Behind that training priest, a line of small children were standing, looking bored.

“That’s…”

Rishuer tried to ask for understanding, but it wasn’t just that priest who was waiting to use the room.

Rishuer had no choice but to go back inside.

“Okay, let’s just do it among ourselves.”

However, he couldn’t manage his expression, and the children were easily swept up in Rishuer’s confusion.

“Lidal seems to be missing.”

“Where did Lidal go?”

The children looked at the vessel, but they couldn’t concentrate on their Divine Power because they were talking about Lidal.

Unlike the children over ten years old who were taking individual tests, the children under ten didn’t yet attach great significance to the test.

To the children, the invisible Lidal was more important.

Only Rembrary was staring intently at the monster blood in the vessel.

However, when the blood in the vessel turned clear, even the children who had been distracted forgot about Lidal and cheered in surprise.

Even though it was the second time they had seen it, the children seemed amazed every time.

“Okay, let’s go.”

But Rishuer had neither the energy nor the time to be happy. He gathered the children and quickly left the testing room.

Then, he took the children to the classroom and went back outside alone.

“Something must have happened to Lidal.”

As he listened to the children whispering, Rembrary lay down on his desk.

‘Redrin. I was standing all day yesterday, and I’ve been moving busily today too. I’m so tired. Redrin, it would be so nice if I could do activities without getting tired. Wouldn’t it?’

Then, he dozed off. He heard the children shouting, ‘Lidal! Lidal!’

Rembrary woke up and raised his head blankly. Rishuer was finally bringing Lidal in.

“From now on, even if you’re going on an errand, tell someone before you go. Everyone gets worried when you suddenly disappear alone.”

Moreover, Lidal was even being scolded by Rishuer, which was a rare occurrence.

The children were amazed, their mouths open, because it was so unusual for Lidal to be scolded.

Then, Rembrary’s eyes met Lidal’s. When their eyes met, Lidal’s pupils shook.

Lidal recalled the story that the training priests had been whispering about on the way back from his errand.

“About this Divine Power Vessel Test. Even though Lidal was missing, they said that high-ranking priest-level Divine Power appeared?”

“Really? Did that Rembrary kid do it?”

“He definitely has Divine Power, right?”

“They say he emits a halo and defeats monsters.”

“So, both Lidal and Rembrary have a lot of Divine Power?”

“It would be nice if that were the case, but…”

“Maybe Rembrary had high Divine Power from the beginning, and people mistakenly thought it was Lidal?”

“But didn’t they say that some priest tested Lidal separately?”

“They did, but that was just that priest testing him ‘separately.’ No one saw it.”

They didn’t know that a small child was passing by beyond the wall.

The one who sent Lidal on the errand was Eliza, the priest who had come to class in Rishuer’s place before.

Late last night. When Lidal was standing alone and lonely in front of the dormitory, Eliza approached and asked what was wrong.

-People are misunderstanding the things that Rembrary did as things that I did. They ask me, ‘Are you Lidal?’ and then they mix up the things I did with the things Rembrary did and praise me. I tell them it’s not true, but they don’t listen. I can’t lift my face because I think Rembrary is watching.

-People didn’t come to praise the things Rembrary did. They came to praise the things you did. The people praised you.

-Everyone was talking about defeating the monster?

-No. People came to see you, who has high-ranking priest-level Divine Power.

Eliza comforted the crying child and then made a suggestion.

-Then let’s do this. When you take the Divine Power Test tomorrow, I’ll give you an errand. You can use that as an excuse to skip the test.

-Why would I do that?

-If you skip it, high-ranking priest-level Divine Power won’t appear in the test results. Once you confirm how outstanding your Divine Power is, you won’t be embarrassed by things like that. Everything Rembrary can do, you can do too, right?

Lidal nodded.

But the result was the opposite. Even when Lidal was missing, the monster’s blood was purified cleanly.

Lidal became distressed, thinking that maybe Rembrary was the outstanding one from the beginning, and he was nothing.

Lidal avoided Rembrary’s gaze and walked to his seat.

* * *

About three hours later. Rembrary walked to a corner of the playground at the appointed time.

Rembrary sat on the steps, waiting for Lidal to bring the cards.

After taking the test today, they would have free time, and they had previously made a promise to play cards together then.

“…”

However, no matter how much time passed, Lidal didn’t come.

Rembrary took out his pocket watch and checked the time. It was already 30 minutes past the appointed time.

Rembrary rested his arm on his knee and looked at the playground where the children were running around.