Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 777

◈ 777. Rembrary’s First Blessing

A sharp sword sliced through his neck. The prince fell like a fragile reed.

The assassin frowned, feeling uneasy.

The commission was several times his entire fortune, which was why he had accepted it, but killing such a young child was unsettling even for him.

It was even more so because the child was wearing the robes of a novice priest.

The assassin reached out to the fallen child’s neck. He was surely dead, but he had to make sure.

“Look over there!”

At that moment, someone shouted from across the alley. The assassin quickly turned his head.

There was no one in the alley. But someone had definitely shouted from there.

Just as he was thinking it was strange, people actually started entering the alley.

“Someone’s collapsed!”

“It’s a robber!”

“The robber attacked a child!”

The people who came into the alley screamed when they saw the assassin and Rembrary.

There was no choice. The assassin left the scene.

‘He’s dead, having suffered a fatal wound.’

No one could survive having their neck cut, not even an adult.

The assassin walked down the alley, took off his mask, threw it in a trash can, and quickly left the area.

Turning back to look at the street he had just left, he saw people and guards rushing toward it.

“What’s going on?”

He asked one of them, pretending not to know, and a spectator shouted with a pale face.

“Two people are dead!”

The spectator ran into the alley.

The assassin left the festival grounds and walked to a remote inn. He was supposed to meet the client in a secluded room on the second floor of the inn.

The client was not in the room. The assassin sat down on a chair in the center of the room.

How long had he been there? As he sat alone, the events in the alley came to his mind.

He felt uneasy. What was that first voice he had heard?

‘It wasn’t just me who heard it. Clearly, other people gathered after hearing that voice. Did someone shout and hide? Out of fear? But there wasn’t anything big enough to hide behind in that alley.’

At that moment, someone burst open the door.

“!”

The assassin was startled and stood up, then sat back down.

“Knock next time.”

The person who entered was the client.

“Ah, sorry about that.”

The client apologized perfunctorily and asked.

“The child?”

“Dead.”

He hadn’t confirmed it, but he was sure he was dead. Everyone said he was dead, and his neck was deeply cut.

“Good.”

“The balance?”

The assassin asked, getting up. The client held out a pouch.

“It’s filled with jewels.”

The assassin opened the pouch to check the contents. He thought he smelled a pungent odor, and that was his last thought.

As the assassin fell to the side, the client covered his nose with one hand and picked up the pouch with a gloved hand.

He had taken an antidote in advance, but there was no harm in being careful, as the poison in this pouch was very potent.

After confirming that the assassin was dead, the client put the pouch back in his pocket and went outside.

As he went down to the first floor, he heard people whispering.

“I heard a child and an adult were stabbed to death?”

“They say the man was a robber.”

“Why a robber?”

“I don’t know. They’re debating whether to stop the festival because of it. The dead child was a priest.”

“Oh dear. What should we do?”

The client ignored the people’s lamentations and left the store.

* * *

“I… I should have taken the child with me.”

Rishure knelt in front of the fallen Rembrary and wept bitterly.

“He has… many… enemies… in the world… I filtered out… all the… bribed… priests… I thought… he was safe… I was stupid…!”

The investigators were perplexed because Rishure was speaking too slowly as he cried.

But they couldn’t rush a priest who was sobbing over the death of the child in his care.

Ryder, as well as Ryder’s followers, were half out of their minds. They were scared to see Rembrary, who had been riding in the carriage with them just a few hours ago, covered in a white cloth.

“Our Rembrary, Rembrary, investigators, you must catch the culprit! Our Rembrary won’t be able to close his eyes in peace!”

Rishure shouted loudly and looked at the white cloth covering Rembrary, then gasped and closed his mouth. The white cloth had moved to the side.

“It moved!”

The weeping people and the investigators all fell silent.

“It’s a bit noisy.”

The people’s eyes widened.

The child who had been covered by the cloth was sitting up perfectly fine.

Moreover, it didn’t seem like the child had been resurrected through black magic. His skin had a good complexion, and his lips were full of life.

However, the white clothes below the child’s neck and around his stomach were soaked with blood.

As people stared blankly, Rembrary looked around at them and asked Rishure.

“Why is everyone here?”

Rishure’s jaw almost dropped.

“Rembrary…?”

“Rishure-nim. Your eyes look like a goldfish.”

It really was Rembrary speaking! Rishure gaped, then hugged Rembrary and burst into tears.

“Rembrary! Oh my, Rembrary!”

Rembrary blinked as he was held by Rishure, looking around at the people. Everyone had their mouths wide open.

When Rishure let go, Rembrary took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to him.

“Here.”

Then Rembrary was surprised to find that his handkerchief was stained with blood.

“Why is it like this? Rishure-nim. The color of my handkerchief is strange.”

Rembrary muttered, then discovered that his clothes were also stained with blood.

Rembrary recalled the robber who had tried to take the feather. And he also remembered someone who had killed the robber.

‘Redrin-nim [a deity in this world]. It looks like the person who attacked the robber attacked me too!’

“Rishure-nim. Someone attacked me!”

As Rembrary shouted, an investigator, who was already struggling with the strange situation, quickly approached.

“Do you remember anything?”

“We need to treat him first!”

Rishure shouted urgently.

The investigator held out his notebook, then hesitated. Outwardly, the child looked perfectly fine. But after hearing the priest’s words, there was no way the child’s condition could be normal.

Hadn’t he bled so much? It wasn’t close enough to be the blood of the robber who had fallen with him.

As Rembrary looked at the spot where the robber had fallen, people quickly moved to the sides.

Rembrary saw someone lying in the same spot where the robber had fallen, with a white cloth covering them.

“That person told me to hand over the feather. But a person with their face covered came and stabbed that person and attacked me too.”

Rembrary put his hand on his neck.

“I think my neck hurt.”

As Rembrary held out his neck, the investigator examined the child’s neck and asked.

“But you don’t have any injuries?”

When the investigator arrived, the child was motionless, and the robber was dead.

“I saw it!”

At that moment, someone ran up and shouted, staring intently at Rembrary’s neck.

“Oh my, investigator-nim. I was one of the first people to arrive here. I saw it very clearly. When I first arrived, blood was flowing from that child’s neck like this.”

“I saw it too!”

Another person raised their hand and shouted. People began to murmur.

“It’s a miracle!”

Someone shouted from within. Then another person followed suit from elsewhere.

“It’s a miracle! Redrin-nim saved his child!”

“That’s right, it’s a miracle. That child is a novice priest of Redrin-nim, isn’t he?”

The word miracle began to spread wildly from here to there.

Rembrary looked down at his blood-stained clothes and took off his outer garment. But all of his shirts were soaked with blood, so his clothes were still red.

As Rembrary made a tearful face, Rishure took off his own outer garment and draped it over the child like a cloak.

“It must be because of the feather!”

One of the novice priests who was watching shouted. Rishure was startled and turned his head. It was Wider.

“A feather?”

The investigator asked, holding up his notebook.

“Come to think of it, the child who was attacked earlier also mentioned a feather, right?”

“Ah, that’s…”

Rishure tried to gloss over it. He thought it would be dangerous if the worldly people knew that Rembrary had such a precious item.

But Wider quickly shouted.

“Rembrary has a feather that can heal even people who are dying. He said Redrin-nim gave it to him directly. It seems like he can heal himself if he has it!”

Rishure wanted to shut Wider’s mouth right away.

“Wider.”

Rishure called his name and shook his head, and Wider finally closed his mouth.

But people had already heard everything.

Rishure did not miss the fact that some people were looking at Rembrary with greedy eyes.

Good. That’s great. Wider thought to himself. Now the story about the feather will spread even further.

Moreover, the people who had been shouting that Rembrary’s survival was a miracle had now become silent. Wider was very satisfied with the change he had brought about.

“To give such a great item! Amazing!”

“That child must be a child that Redrin-nim loves very much!”

But as soon as Wider was satisfied, the direction shifted again to praising Rembrary.

“I’ve never heard of such an amazing item.”

“That child is a novice priest, but Redrin-nim is trying to save him no matter what.”

Wider closed his lips tightly.

Some people were even bowing to the sky.

The investigator inadvertently bowed along with them, then put his notebook in his pocket and asked.

“So you didn’t see the culprit’s face?”

“Yes. He was wearing a mask.”

“What about his build, ah, what was his body like?”

“He was wearing clothes.”

“Ah. No, I mean, was he tall or short, big or small?”

“He was as tall as that person over there. He was as big as that person.”

The two people who were pointed out by Rembrary hurriedly listed their alibis. The investigator recorded all of that as well.

About 30 minutes later. Heather and the other priests all arrived at the scene, and Rembrary, surrounded by people, investigators, and priests, stopped by a nearby clinic.

“He’s perfectly fine. This child is very healthy.”

The doctor examined Rembrary and said, looking at his long neck.

“Are you sure this child was attacked, investigator-nim? This child doesn’t have a single scratch.”

“Yes. There are several witnesses.”

Even though the investigator said it was true, the doctor couldn’t shake his disbelief.

“Redrin-nim did it, Redrin-nim!”

A fellow doctor with deep faith scolded the doctor and offered a prayer to Rembrary.

“?”

To the bewildered Rembrary, the fellow doctor continued to pray and then asked.

“You are the child saved by Redrin-nim, give me a blessing. I have very good judgment. You will surely become very great.”

Rembrary put his hand on the doctor’s shoulder and prayed to Redrin.

‘Redrin-nim. This person wants to receive a blessing from Redrin-nim.’

The blessed doctor was satisfied and gave him a free examination.

“Why do I do the examination and you get the blessing? And you take all the credit?”

The doctor who treated Rembrary was dumbfounded and fumed.

People burst into laughter at the sight, but Wider felt his blood run cold.

Rishure frowned and watched Wider.