Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 788

◈ 788. Not a Priest, but a Paladin

Rembrary followed the floating feather. With Divine Power infused, this feather always led Rembrary to where he wanted to go.

Rembrary believed that following the feather this time would also lead him to Cherub, just like when he found the Heretic.

‘Redrin, you want to save our Sir Cherub too, right?’

Rembrary thought as he stealthily moved, following the feather.

However, ‘following the feather’ wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Since the feather wasn’t a person, it sometimes took very difficult routes to follow.

Moreover, it even tried to pass through crowds of people.

Having snuck out, Rembrary was incredibly surprised to see the feather trying to go through the paladins.

Rembrary changed the feather’s direction this way and that, and the feather became annoyed, unsure whether the human child wanted it to find the way or not.

* * *

“Do you know what happens when you make a monster out of a paladin?”

Before the black magician spoke, Cherub was estimating her location by sensing the damp air flowing in from outside.

Cherub turned to the side. The black magician was putting unidentified dried plants into a large, black cauldron.

“It would be nice if I could show you, but you won’t see it. Because I’m going to make you into it, with your corpse.”

The black magician continued to put in plants, teasing Cherub with a tone of pity.

Cherub didn’t respond.

When Cherub silently turned her head, the black magician glanced at her and clicked his tongue.

“What, are you waiting for a comrade or something? But you better give up those vain hopes.”

Finally, Cherub looked at the black magician.

When Cherub reacted, the black magician chuckled.

“Do you know why? This place is located in a very secluded and complex area. Even I have difficulty finding it without a special method. Of course, the paladins can’t even come to the entrance here.”

“……”

Cherub realized that the black magician wasn’t lying. The black magician had a confident look on his face.

The black magician’s expression didn’t waver, at least not outwardly, so he lost interest and looked into the cauldron.

After a long while again.

“Damn it. Not enough.”

The black magician muttered and then looked at Cherub. Then, he began to hesitate over something.

Cherub pretended not to notice and just looked ahead.

After a while. Eventually, the black magician took out a cloak hanging on one side of the wall and put it on.

“I’ll have to go find some ingredients. There’s a bit of a shortage.”

“……”

“You want to become a proper monster since you’re becoming one anyway, right? It would be a shame if I went to the trouble of making you a monster and it turned out to be a strange failure.”

The black magician muttered to himself, checked his pockets, and went out of the cave.

Left alone, Cherub saw this as an opportunity and tried to get up.

Both hands were tied behind her back, and her whole body was covered in wounds, but Cherub endured the pain.

‘I can’t.’

However, her body, already severely injured, didn’t listen to her will.

In fact, if the injuries weren’t this severe, Cherub wouldn’t have been willingly trapped here.

Cherub tried to balance herself and get up, but she fell backward.

“Hoo……”

Cherub sighed and, instead of trying to get up again, let out a long sigh.

Cherub stared at the cauldron emitting heat.

Cherub thought that this life wasn’t so bad after all.

She saved her younger sibling at the end, and before that, she saved many other people.

Especially Rembrary, whom she last saved when she had Divine Power. That child was growing into someone who would save even more people.

What could be more rewarding than this as a paladin? Cherub leaned against the pillar and half-closed her eyes.

Everything was fine. Only her young sibling worried her.

‘Muru shouldn’t feel guilty……’

Cherub’s forehead kept wrinkling as she thought of her sibling, whom she hadn’t taken care of properly because she was always out and about.

Cherub closed her eyes and breathed evenly. Then, Cherub heard a presence not far away and reopened her closed eyes.

‘A person? An animal?’

It wasn’t the sound of wind passing through the cave. It wasn’t the black magician either. The black magician always appeared muttering to himself.

‘Who is it?’

As she stared with narrowed eyes at the direction of the sound, after a while. A small head popped out from behind a large rock.

“Rembrary?”

Cherub called out in a loud voice without realizing it. It was Rembrary who had appeared.

“How did you get here?”

Cherub asked, flustered. There was no other presence besides Rembrary. So, Rembrary came here alone?

But how? The black magician clearly said that this place was hard to find even for himself.

In fact, the only person Cherub had met since being captured here was the black magician.

“I came with skill.”

Rembrary answered smartly and began to skillfully climb over the rocks that protruded here and there, even with his small height.

“Came with skill?”

Cherub looked behind the child, even though she knew there was no one there.

Could it be that he came with someone else? She still couldn’t believe that the child came alone.

“There’s always a way.”

The child spoke vaguely and approached Cherub.

Cherub was half dazed. To see Rembrary here. It felt like a dream, even with the child in front of her eyes.

“Why did you come here alone? It’s dangerous!”

Rembrary came right up to Cherub’s nose and smiled.

“I’ll heal Sir Cherub.”

“!”

“You came all the way here to do that? It’s dangerous.”

Rembrary raised his small hand and placed it on Cherub’s half-broken shoulder.

Cherub felt a warm and cozy energy enveloping her soul. The pain disappeared in an instant.

“How is it?”

Rembrary asked, removing his hand.

Cherub examined her body here and there and muttered in surprise.

“Amazing. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

Cherub had received treatment from Rembrary not long ago. But at that time, the focus was on Divine Power healing.

Cherub was busy tasting a subtle sadness that she couldn’t continue to use Divine Power.

However, after receiving treatment for her external wounds now, Cherub was amazed by the child’s ability.

“I can move.”

As strength entered her arm, Cherub skillfully pulled out the rope that tightly bound her two hands and also untied the rope that bound her ankles.

And she grabbed her weapons, which the black magician had haphazardly gathered on one side of the cave.

‘Someone else is coming again!’

But before she could gather all her belongings, she heard another presence.

This time, it wasn’t a presence that suddenly appeared nearby. It was the sound of someone entering from outside.

“Rembrary. Hide for now.”

Cherub said to the child, who was standing blankly. The child looked around the cave.

“Here.”

When Cherub pointed to a recessed rock crevice, the child quickly went inside.

Cherub stood in front of it so that the child wouldn’t be visible from the outside.

She also placed her sword in the rock crevice below so that it wouldn’t be immediately visible.

As she was about to stay in that state, the black magician approached the area with the large cauldron.

As the black magician came closer, Cherub grabbed the sword she had placed below.

The black magician was about to take out the things he had brought in a sack and put them in the cauldron when he discovered her and stopped his actions.

“How did you get up? Your limbs should be useless?”

The black magician muttered with wide eyes. But soon, he burst into loud laughter.

“You still grabbed a sword, even though you were a paladin. It would have been nice if you had stayed still and become a monster. Did you have to go around and around?”

Instead of falling for the provocation, Cherub raised her sword higher.

“You’re acting like an idiot. You don’t even have Divine Power, do you? A paladin without Divine Power is like losing half of their strength.”

The black magician sneered and waved his hand. Then, monsters appeared in a row in the air.

The monsters made threatening noises at Cherub and landed in the cave.

“Half is enough.”

Cherub answered indifferently and calmly looked at the monsters jumping at her.

She held her sword and quickly slashed when the monsters came near her.

With each swing, the monsters were destroyed one by one.

Rembrary stared blankly at the sight.

“Unexpected.”

The black magician seemed surprised for a moment when Cherub slashed the monsters in a state where her Divine Power had disappeared.

“But I know your weakness.”

The black magician quickly regained his senses and chuckled, waving his hand.

“You can’t fight monsters that require Divine Power, can you?”

Then, a different monster, in a smaller number than before, was summoned and ran at Cherub.

Cherub swung her sword, but these monsters didn’t even get a scratch from Cherub’s swinging sword.

“Dodge!”

Cherub still continued to pour meaningless attacks at the monsters and shouted at Rembrary.

“Is there someone else?”

The black magician looked at the places where people could hide and smiled sinisterly.

At that moment. Suddenly, a pure white light was emitted.

“!”

The black magician squeezed his eyes shut.

Cherub realized that the monsters were completely still.

Cherub could see a little ahead because she wasn’t directly facing Rembrary’s halo.

Cherub slashed the monsters again. When the halo shone through the gaps in the wounds, even normal attacks were effective this time.

Cherub completely cut off the monsters’ breath so that they couldn’t get up at all, and then turned to Rembrary.

“Is it all done?”

Rembrary asked, turning off the halo.

“It’s okay to turn it off, right?”

The black magician, who had been closing his eyes, was surprised to hear the child’s voice and opened his eyes.

He was dumbfounded to see a real child coming out from behind the rock.

That child shot the halo that solidified the monsters? Not another adult, but that child shot it?

“All defeated.”

Cherub answered indifferently and pointed her sword at the black magician.

“Now, all that’s left is to catch that guy.”

The black magician tried to run away. But the paladin, whose body had recovered, was no match for him in a physical fight.

The black magician felt a strong impact on the back of his head and immediately lost consciousness.

* * *

Rembrary met the rescue team while returning with Cherub after capturing the black magician.

“You? Aren’t you the one who kept following us, asking if you could come along?”

The rescue team members muttered in disbelief when they saw Rembrary.

“Did you finally come?”

They had identified the location where Cherub was presumed to be, but they were circling around the entrance because it was difficult to enter.

However, they were perplexed when the child they had left behind came out with Cherub from inside.

Moreover, Cherub, who was said to be injured, was standing perfectly fine. She was even carrying the unconscious black magician on her shoulder.

“Sir Cherub! Are you alright?”

When one of the rescue team members hurriedly ran up and asked, Cherub put the black magician down on the floor and pointed to Rembrary with her eyes.

“I’m fine. Rembrary healed me.”

Since Rembrary had previously healed those injured in the training camp, the rescue team members already knew the child’s healing skills.

But they couldn’t figure out how the child had gotten here first.

“How on earth did you get here?”

One of the rescue team members asked Rembrary again with a bewildered voice.

“Just because.”

At Rembrary’s answer, the rescue team members stared at each other with blank expressions.

The training camp commander was also surprised when Rembrary appeared with Cherub, the black magician, and two other rescue team members.

“Rembrary!”

Heather had been urging all the paladins, saying that she had to find Rembrary, and quickly ran to the child.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course.”