Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 813

◈ 813. Rembrary’s Birthday

“Rembrary, are you perhaps uncomfortable with temple life?”

Heather suddenly asked a rather strange question. Rembrary wasn’t sure why she was asking, but he answered dutifully.

“The food is a bit bland.”

“Eating bland food is good for you,” Heather corrected, then, realizing her mistake, asked again, “No, not the food. Is there anything else that makes you uncomfortable? For example, anything about the other children.”

“I wish we had separate rooms.”

“Hmm.”

Heather rubbed her forehead. That wasn’t the question she wanted to ask. She had called Rembrary because of what Liesel had told her.

“Heather, what’s wrong?”

Rembrary noticed Heather’s hesitation and asked shrewdly.

Sometimes sharp, sometimes completely oblivious, his intuition seemed to be working well today.

“Actually, Rembrary, Liesel is very worried about you. She said the other children are jealous of you and treating you badly…”

Heather, after hesitating, finally spoke directly.

She was a little worried about being too blunt with a young child, but conversely, she felt she had to be direct because he *was* a child. If she beat around the bush, he might not understand.

“It can’t be helped, Heather. A huge wall like me has appeared, so they must be feeling down.”

Heather’s lips quirked in a smile. Fortunately, he didn’t seem discouraged.

If Liesel had told her, the atmosphere must be very bad. But Rembrary didn’t seem any different from usual.

But just because he could endure it didn’t mean the child wasn’t getting hurt.

“Rembrary, how would you feel about living in another temple?”

“The Grand Temple?”

“Not that one.”

“The place where they interrogate heretics?”

“Not that one.”

“Then I’m not interested.”

Heather chuckled softly.

“I mean a normal temple with fewer novice priests. There aren’t as many children in those places. And there would be fewer novice priests saying bad things to you.”

“It’s okay. I can stay here.”

Rembrary answered readily.

Shouldn’t he think about it a little more? He seemed to have no hesitation, to the point that Heather was worried.

“Moving might be better than you think. You’re special, after all. If you go somewhere else, you might get a training priest dedicated to you.”

“It’s really okay.”

Rembrary smiled calmly.

Heather couldn’t persuade Rembrary any further.

The children were bullying Rembrary, but she couldn’t force Rembrary to leave if he didn’t want to.

‘That child Abit said he would leave, so it will get better.’

* * *

Things didn’t go as Heather expected.

Abit, who had said he would quit being a novice priest because he was scared of Rembrary, changed his mind when the other children in his class insulted Rembrary and took his side.

“Where is your house? I’ll contact them to send someone to take you away.”

To Liesel, who said this, Abit changed his mind and said he would stay.

“You thought well. Rembrary can’t harm people. They say Rembrary’s halo only works on monsters.”

“How could he bully you with that great healing ability of his?”

The children flocked to Abit as if he had made a very great and courageous decision and took his side.

Abit, whose reputation had been tarnished by the feather incident, nodded, feeling both embarrassed and pleased as the children surrounded him.

“If you have anything to say to Rembrary, say it. We’ll go with you.”

“Yeah. We’ll go with you and tell him.”

The children egged Abit on, as if he was about to fight Rembrary openly. It was hard to fight directly, but it was easy to cheer someone on from the sidelines.

“No. It’s okay. Why fight again.”

“He tried to kick you out, threatening you.”

“Still, it’s over if I don’t leave.”

Abit persevered, knowing that the children were disappointed.

Abit knew a few more things about Rembrary than the other children did.

Rembrary could hail down ice and didn’t even stagger when hit with a chair.

He even admitted that he wasn’t human himself. Ask him to fight such a child? Was there a need to do that?

Liesel knew this atmosphere, but it was awkward for him to step in.

If he told the children to ‘be friendly with Rembrary,’ would they follow his words? Liesel didn’t spend all day with the children.

* * *

Even in the midst of this, time flew by quickly in the Florandia Temple.

Heather, the head of the temple, and Gaia, the deputy head, still had headaches due to the black magicians and monsters, and the uncooperative attitude of the Kamuel and Yira temples, but this had nothing to do with the children.

Rembrary, who was at peace after healing Cheru, also lived leisurely, and finally celebrated his ninth birthday.

As soon as Rembrary opened his eyes in the morning, he was busy constantly telling Redrin that it was his birthday.

Rembrary even ate the bland pudding and the tasteless bread without complaint.

But Liesel felt his heart sink as he watched the excited child.

To quell the children’s anxiety, the Florandia Temple had started taking special care of children who had birthdays a few months ago.

As instructed, Liesel had the other children sing a congratulatory song for the birthday child and gave them a delicious cake separately.

Perhaps because temple life was so uneventful, the children enjoyed even this small celebration.

However, as Rembrary’s birthday approached, Liesel felt overwhelmed. The children’s dissatisfaction with Rembrary was almost blatant.

The more the believers who came to see Rembrary praised and defended him, the more the children seemed to resent him in response.

In this situation, would the children willingly celebrate Rembrary’s birthday? But it would be strange to skip the birthday song procedure only for Rembrary.

While he was anxious, breakfast time ended, and it was time to study the Holy Scriptures in the classroom.

Liesel took the children to the classroom, and after they sat down, he opened his mouth as normally as possible.

“Okay, everyone. Today is Rembrary’s birthday!”

“…….”

“Shall we all sing a birthday song for Rembrary?”

Liesel, who suggested with a bright smile, gave the signal to start the congratulatory song, saying, “One, two!”

Normally, as soon as the signal was given, the children would raise their voices as if competing to see who could sing louder.

“Happy birthday, a day Redrin is pleased…”

But today, the number of children singing was noticeably small. Kentry and Lydal, and the two who shared a room with Rembrary. Only four in total.

Liesel was so embarrassed that his face turned red.

The children seemed to enjoy this situation, exchanging glances and grinning at each other.

Liesel couldn’t even look at Rembrary properly. When class was over and it was break time, Liesel was completely fed up and left.

“He’s so pathetic. No one is congratulating him.”

As soon as Liesel left, someone muttered, and the children began to laugh loudly, making sure they could be heard.

Lydal grabbed the arm of the child laughing next to him and shook his head.

Still, as the child laughed wildly, Lydal frowned and looked at Rembrary.

Rembrary was smiling faintly, no different from usual. It was as if he was watching the fallen leaves rustling at his feet.

As always, the children were even more angry at Rembrary’s expression, but they were too scared to say anything more.

‘That’s a relief,’ Lydal sighed inwardly.

Now that Rembrary was nine years old, he could take the Holy Power test alone next year. Everyone knew that Rembrary had Holy Power.

Rembrary would go straight up to the rank of ordinary priest, so he would have nothing to do with these children at that time.

‘Then I’ll be ten years old… I’ll go somewhere else too. This year will be the only time Rembrary and I live together.’

Lydal, who was relieved, felt sad when he remembered that he would be like that too when Rembrary became an ordinary priest and went to another temple.

While Lydal was lost in thought for a moment, he heard a commotion around him.

‘Are the kids making fun of Rembrary again?’ Lydal frowned and turned his head.

However, the children were not gathered around Rembrary, but around the window.

“Wow… what is that?”

“I don’t know. Is the temple doing construction?”

“There are so many things!”

As the children stirred, Lydal became curious and approached the window.

Beyond the window, a row of carts was entering the wide road leading from the main gate to the main building. The carts were full of things.

“It’s like Rembrary’s birthday before.”

One of the children muttered suddenly as he watched it. The children were reminded of the day Rembrary’s birthday when all the beds in the dormitory were changed.

The children glanced at each other. Were Rembrary’s parents going to do something again?

The children’s expressions became complicated. It was a happy thing that life was becoming more comfortable, but they didn’t like that Rembrary was at the center of it.

“He’s throwing money around only on his birthday.”

“I guess he thinks we’ll be grateful if he does this.”

“He’s doing this to look good to us. By mobilizing his parents.”

The children were angry and whispered to be heard.

“Stop it. If you don’t like Rembrary, you can refuse whatever Rembrary’s parents send. Give the bed back too.”

Lydal couldn’t stand it and stepped forward to say something. And then, just as he was about to say something more, the door opened and Liesel came in, calling, “Rembrary!”

The children became quiet and looked at Liesel.

Rembrary couldn’t respond right away. It was because Redrin’s voice was barely audible. Rembrary had been focusing on it while sitting in the classroom.

“Rembrary!”

When Liesel called again, Rembrary finally came to his senses.

“Huh?”

“Rembrary. Would you like to come out for a moment?”

“Why?”

‘He’s probably going to do that because his parents sent a gift,’ the children thought to themselves and sneered.

“The Lumena Paladins have come with gifts.”

However, Liesel’s words were something everyone didn’t expect. Lumena Paladins? Not Redrin Paladins, but Lumena Paladins?

“Rembrary, it looks like the paladins you ‘saved’ before have come!”

Lydal shouted loudly, thinking this was the perfect opportunity to show support.

The children exchanged glances. Rembrary saved the Lumena Paladins?

“Ah.”

Rembrary also remembered the incident and quickly got up.

“I have to receive the gifts.”

Rembrary was so happy that he ran out quickly. The children’s expressions immediately darkened at the sight of Rembrary’s noticeably happy appearance.

As Liesel took Rembrary away, the children hesitated and followed behind.

As Rembrary followed Liesel to the entrance, the Lumena Paladins standing there waved their hands with a smile.

“Rembrary!”

“I heard it’s your birthday today?”

“How did you know?”

Rembrary ran to them excitedly and hugged the biggest gift box.

“Your birthday was easy to find out,” one of the Lumena Paladins chuckled and replied. After the situation stabilized, they did a little research to thank the child, and that alone was enough to find out the child’s birthday right away. It was thanks to him being a prince.

“I heard everything in that cart is your gift? It’s a gift from the people you healed.”

Rembrary couldn’t handle the gift box, which was twice his size, and was teetering back and forth. When someone supported the box from behind, he barely stopped.

“Thank you.”

Rembrary put down the box and took a step back, then discovered the person who had received the box and smiled brightly with joy.

“Sir Cheru!”

Lydal watched this from afar and was relieved. ‘That’s a relief. Rembrary was not congratulated by 25 people, but he was being congratulated by twice as many people.’

Lydal muttered again. ‘I’m so glad.’