Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 802

◈ 802. Monster’s Heart

“Come up with a plan? How?”

Knight 2 asked, intrigued.

“They’ve already seen our faces at both the Lumena Temple and the Redrin Temple. If we go to the Redrin Temple, we’ll end up in the Inquisition [a powerful religious court], and if we go to the Lumena Temple… it won’t be any better. They’ll likely punish us severely for bringing shame to Lumena.”

However, Knight 2 soon despaired and muttered. He couldn’t see any way out of this.

“Damn it. This is ridiculous. We were just trying to deal with the monster!”

Knight 4 said angrily in a low voice.

Knight 1 agreed.

“If it weren’t for that brat Rembrary, who would turn a monster back into a person? How could we have known there would be an exception only for him? And now they’re punishing us for it.”

They believed they were simply eliminating a dangerous possibility.

Since there had never been a case of a monster turning back into a human, they thought they were just acting accordingly.

“That’s why we need to come up with a plan. We can’t be unfairly punished. We were lucky that kid healed him, or else he would have been blamed for risking danger out of affection. We can’t be punished for something that isn’t our fault.”

Knight 3 said calmly, and Knight 4 asked urgently,

“Do you have something in mind?”

“Too many paladins saw what we did. How can we come up with a plan?”

Knight 1 threw cold water on the idea, but Knight 3 stubbornly shook his head.

“We can’t do it with just the four of us. But what if we use the situation?”

“Use the situation?”

“The monsters might attack nearby villages, right? We can lure them to attack here instead.”

Knight 4 jumped up.

“What? Then we’ll be in danger too!”

“Of course, we need to slip away discreetly. Then, after the monsters have swept through… there won’t be any survivors. And no one will know what we did.”

Knight 1 pondered the idea for a while before asking in a frightened voice,

“What if there are survivors?”

“They’ll be exhausted.”

Knight 4 still looked skeptical.

“But they won’t trust us anymore. I don’t know if our comrades will listen to us…”

Knight 3 smiled confidently and resolutely.

“That depends on how we tell it.”

* * *

Rembrary, unaware of the discussion behind him, was sitting face to face with Lydal, doing homework.

Rembrary felt that he had lived diligently and done many great things since coming to the Central Mansion, so he shouldn’t have to do homework.

However, Gaieger relentlessly ordered him to complete all the assignments.

So, Rembrary had no choice but to catch up on the homework he had missed while Lydal was a wolf cub.

“I don’t understand why I have to do homework when I’m so smart.”

“If you’re smart, you should do your homework even better, Rembrary.”

Lydal, who usually did his homework diligently, couldn’t do it when he was a wolf cub, so this time he had to catch up on the piled-up assignments with a sense of dread, just like Rembrary.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and Gaieger came in to announce,

“Rembrary. Lydal. The plan has changed.”

Gaieger’s face was dark.

“Homework?”

Rembrary asked hopefully, but Gaieger shook his head.

“No. Location. The paladins are coming here, and you two are going to the village.”

“Why?”

Lydal also put down his pencil and asked, puzzled.

As the children understood it, the paladins expected the monsters to attack one of the villages.

So, most of them had gone down to the nearby villages, and only the three children and a few others remained in the Central Mansion, studying peacefully. But now they were changing locations?

“The decision was made that it’s better to fight at the Central Mansion than in the village. That way, the villagers won’t be harmed.”

“Can we lure the monsters to the village?”

“Good point, Lydal. We can’t lure them if they don’t come down from the mountain. But we can lure them on the way down. We can use blood.”

Lydal, who had been tricked by the paladins once before using blood, turned pale and nodded.

“I see.”

Seeing his pale face, Gaieger decided not to tell the children that he had obtained animal blood from the village butcher shop.

Lydal tried to relax. Whether he waited here or in the village, it didn’t make much difference.

Then, he glanced to the side and saw that Rembrary seemed to have no thoughts at all.

In any case, the two began to prepare to leave after hearing the announcement.

“When are we leaving, High Priest?”

“The sooner, the better. Let’s go now.”

“Are we taking all our luggage?”

“No. It won’t take a few days, so just the essentials.”

As the children packed their bags, Gaieger opened the door, urging them to hurry.

Then, when they reached the stairs on the first floor of the Central Mansion, Rembrary spotted purple hair coming out of the hallway in the other direction.

The purple-haired girl was also carrying a suitcase.

“I can help too. I’m strong.”

The purple-haired girl had been arguing with the Lumena paladins to let her come, but when she met Rembrary’s eyes, she shut her mouth as if nothing had happened.

Then, she looked at Rembrary as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she passed by without saying anything.

* * *

When Rembrary and Lydal took their bags and went outside the mansion, they saw several small carriages.

“Get in.”

Gaieger went inside, and Lydal and Rembrary also got into the carriage.

Gaieger nagged throughout the journey.

“Rembrary. Lydal. Especially Rembrary. This time, absolutely no causing trouble and stay quietly locked in your room. Got it? I’ll come to pick you up as soon as it seems safe.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t worry, Gaieger.”

Satisfied with their obedient answers, Gaieger added once more to Rembrary.

“I’m different from Rishur High Priest or Heather. If you disobey me and cause trouble, I’ll give you a hundred times more homework than you have now. I’ll give you at least a year’s worth of homework. Got it?”

“I refuse.”

“It’s not your choice, Rembrary.”

Before getting out of the carriage, Gaieger gave Rembrary and Lydal a stern look.

Rembrary took his bag and followed Gaieger out of the carriage.

Gaieger went into the largest inn and left Rembrary and Lydal on the third floor before returning.

The room Gaieger rented was large, with three desks and three beds, making it a comfortable place to wait for the paladins.

However, given the situation where the paladins might be fighting a large number of monsters, Lydal found it difficult to sit still.

“If you keep doing that in front of the door, you’ll get tired later.”

On the other hand, Rembrary said nonchalantly while rolling around on the bed.

“I guess you’re right.”

Lydal didn’t feel like lying down on the bed, but Rembrary’s relaxed demeanor calmed him down a little.

Lydal thought Rembrary’s words made sense, so he sat down at the desk and opened his homework.

About 30 minutes passed. Someone knocked on the door.

“Did it get resolved already!”

Lydal quickly opened the door. But the person who came in was the purple-haired girl.

“We meet again here.”

When Rembrary greeted her, the purple-haired girl’s face turned red, and she got angry.

“I didn’t want to come here!”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You looked at me like you were asking why I came!”

“That’s not true. I just thought that if you were going to come down anyway, you didn’t have to pretend you didn’t know me earlier.”

Seeing Lapsus about to faint from anger, Lydal intervened.

“There’s an extra desk and bed, so it’s okay. Let’s stay together. It’ll be less scary.”

Lapsus grumbled and put her bag down next to the empty bed.

How much time had passed? Lapsus, who had been checking the time, got up and walked to the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m curious if there’s a fight at the Central Mansion. The monsters might be gathering there by now. I want to fight too if I can.”

“Is that so?”

Lapsus didn’t say that she wanted to be a great help to people like Rembrary.

But when she opened the door forcefully, she saw a burly guard.

Not just one. There seemed to be about five guards.

Seeing this, Lapsus grabbed the doorknob and widened her eyes, and the guard right in front of the door smiled and said,

“Apprentice High Priest. We have instructions from the High Priest to keep you inside and not let you out until the situation is resolved.”

“I just want to go to the front for a moment.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t allow it.”

The guards were smiling kindly, but their refusal was firm. Lapsus sulked and closed the door, returning inside.

Then, when she met Rembrary’s eyes looking at her, Lapsus got annoyed for no reason.

“It’s your fault!”

“What did I do?”

“Because you don’t listen and wander around-”

Lapsus, who was talking, lost her balance and fell over due to a sudden shaking.

The writing Lydal was doing was skewed to the side, and Rembrary, who was lying sideways on the bed, fell to the floor.

“What is it?”

Lapsus quickly got up and ran to the nearby window. Rembrary and Lydal also ran to the nearest window and opened it.

“What… is that?”

The three children gasped simultaneously.

About three houses away, the head of a giant monster was slowly rising upward.

The monster seemed to be emerging from the ground.

“Didn’t they say they were luring the monsters to the Central Mansion? Why is a monster appearing here?!”

Lapsus shouted in a panic, but there was no one to answer her.

* * *

While the children were in chaos, the Central Mansion was peaceful.

“The monsters aren’t coming this way.”

“That’s right. Did they go in a completely different direction?”

“Perhaps the Demon Realm gate is slightly open, but they don’t intend to invade immediately. Maybe they’re conserving their strength to use it all at once.”

The paladins who were on the mansion roof for guard duty gradually relaxed and whispered among themselves.

“What is that?”

Then, one of the paladins pointed to the village and asked. Smoke was rising from the village closest to the Central Mansion.

It was also the place where the three children, a few non-combatant priests, and the paladins had been evacuated.

“Smoke… isn’t it?”

Another paladin answered casually, but soon his eyes slowly widened.

“That’s… a monster?”

The paladin shouted. A giant monster’s head was indeed rising between the smoking roofs.

“Damn it! It’s appearing over there!”

The paladin yelled and hurriedly went down the stairs.

“A monster has appeared on the side where the children were sent!”

* * *

Although it was almost completely hidden between the houses, the giant monster was a terrifying and gruesome sight even in part.

“Rembrary. Shine your halo from here.”

Lapsus stared at the ever-growing monster with her mouth open and said urgently to Rembrary.

“From here?”

“Yeah.”

“Will it reach?”

“You can shoot it strongly. Like in the mountains.”

“Then it’ll be blinding. People won’t be able to escape.”

Lapsus’s eyes widened. She hadn’t thought that far.

“I’ll try using it weakly first.”

Rembrary stared at Lapsus like that, then leaned out the window and turned on his halo.