Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 827

◈ 827. Is He Really Human?

Redryn stared intently, not even blinking, causing Camuel to immediately shrink back.

[If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be… (a fatalistic expression)]

Redryn ignored Camuel and said,

[Lumena has an excellent chick (referring to a young, promising cleric), and I have an outstanding child, so we’ll soon have four high priests. Then we can get through this invasion more easily than the last time.]

Camuel grumbled but didn’t argue.

Lumena smiled contentedly and nodded, then belatedly frowned and looked at Redryn.

[Your child is a child, but why is my child a chick?]

[You’re a chicken (implying cowardice or foolishness), so wouldn’t it be stranger if your child wasn’t a chick?]

[You son of a…]

While Lumena and Redryn bickered, Camuel called Redryn’s angel and subtly asked,

[Lift the veil a little and see who Rembrary is.]

Watching her fellow gods bickering among themselves, Irid quietly sipped her beverage alone.

Am I the only one who misses our old friend who isn’t here?

* * *

The carriage moved peacefully.

Rembrary gazed out the window at the colorful, fallen-leaved trees, recalling the meals at the Great Temple he had eaten before.

Now I won’t have to eat tasteless food anymore.

Ridal was dozing off while reading a book, and Gaieger kept holding onto the Holy Scripture even while yawning.

The carriage, moving at a steady pace, entered a forest path. Although it was a forest path, it was a safe route as other carriages frequently traveled there.

The coachman checked the sky and occasionally glanced at the map placed next to the driver’s seat.

There were still several hours before sunset, and they could pass through this forest within that time.

This forest was geographically elongated on one side, so they could pass through it very quickly if they followed the carriage path.

The arrow flew in at that moment. The coachman, turning his head at the sound of a stone hitting nearby, screamed when he saw the arrow embedded in the carriage.

“Arrows! We’re under attack!”

The paladin who was riding next to him had already grabbed his shield and stood up. The two paladins who were riding alongside on horseback also drew their swords.

Rembrary widened his eyes and leaned his head out the window, but Gaieger grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back in.

“Don’t stick your head out!”

Gaieger commanded firmly, then handed thick books to the children.

“Put these on your heads and keep your backs low. Quickly!”

Ridal received the book and created a barrier inside the carriage.

A glass-like sheen appeared around them, making Gaieger feel awkward. He had completely forgotten that Ridal used defensive abilities.

“I guess you don’t need to keep your back low.”

Gaieger listened to the sounds outside the window and asked,

“Is it okay to open the windows?”

“It’s okay.”

Gaieger opened all four windows and looked outside. Rembrary and Ridal also peered out of different windows.

People wearing black clothes and masks were fighting with the paladins.

Rembrary watched their fight and flicked a feather towards the masked man who was swinging his sword at the coachman.

The feather flew instantly and pierced the masked man’s hand.

“Ugh!”

The masked man screamed and staggered, and the coachman quickly jumped into the carriage in that gap.

“The distance from there to here was too far,” the coachman said, pointing alternately at the driver’s seat and the passenger seats, shivering.

“How did you do that?”

Ridal had seen Rembrary flick the feather, so he asked curiously.

“Just because.”

“Just because?”

“I thought it might work.”

The coachman stared blankly at Rembrary’s nonchalant words for a moment, then frantically rubbed his arms, feeling a chill despite himself.

Rembrary watched the fight again, and when a paladin was injured and fell towards the carriage, he reached out his hand and healed him.

“Thank you.”

The paladin, feeling the pain disappear, rushed back at the masked men.

Fighting in this way, the three paladins were naturally able to defeat the ten masked men.

Even after the fight ended, the paladins checked the surroundings for any other ambushes before opening the carriage door.

“You can come out now.”

The masked men were all unconscious.

Gaieger peeled off the mask of the nearest intruder and clicked his tongue.

“It’s a waste of even Redryn’s spit on these bastards. I’d like to send them all to prison, but it’ll be hard to take them all.”

The coachman muttered in a still-frightened voice.

“What should we do? We can’t just kill them, and if we let them go, they might attack again…”

Then the paladin who seemed to be the highest-ranking among them suggested.

“Since this is a frequently traveled road, we can tie them up and leave them with a letter explaining the situation.”

Ridal asked cautiously.

“What if the carriages coming behind us are in a similar situation?”

After much deliberation, the group parked the carriage on the side of the road and waited for the masked men to wake up.

When the masked men woke up, the paladins asked them who was behind them.

The masked men, of course, did not answer.

The paladins tried threats and intimidation in their own way, but getting them to talk was the specialty of the Inquisitors, not theirs.

All the paladins could tell was that they were definitely not black magicians, so there was a high probability that they were worldly enemies targeting Rembrary.

In the end, as initially suggested, the group took only two of the attackers and left the forest.

It was around evening when they arrived at the village closest to the forest.

“I’ll hand these guys over to the guards here, so please go to the inn first,” the two paladins said as they dragged the attackers out of the carriage, one each.

Gaieger agreed and told the children to go inside the inn.

“Can I talk to them? Just me and those people.”

But unexpectedly, Rembrary suddenly stepped forward.

“Talk to them? You mean talk to those attackers?”

Gaieger asked in surprise.

“Yeah.”

Rembrary answered calmly.

Gaieger exclaimed in disgust.

“No way. You’re the most likely target of the attackers, what’s with the talking!”

Gaieger refused firmly and said to the paladins, “Take them away quickly.”

“I want to talk to them more because they targeted me.”

However, Rembrary, who had been quiet and hadn’t caused any trouble the whole way, grabbed Gaieger’s arm and resisted for once.

Even after Gaieger scolded him a couple more times, Rembrary didn’t back down.

Rembrary was curious because the criminals kept targeting him. He was curious to know who was targeting him so persistently.

And Rembrary was confident that he could find the answer.

“Wouldn’t it be okay to let him handle it once?”

As Rembrary continued to pester him, the coachman cautiously sided with Rembrary.

“No way.”

Gaieger stood firm with a stern expression.

“I think it would be okay too. If we tie them up tightly in the corner of the room and Rembrary stays in front of the door.”

However, when one of the paladins who had been healed by Rembrary also sided with Rembrary, Gaieger finally backed down.

“I don’t know.”

As Gaieger stepped back, the paladins took a room at the inn and tied the attackers from their toes to their shoulders with ropes.

They were tied so tightly that the attackers looked almost like cocoons.

In this state, even Kilhiss, the strongest mercenary in the world, wouldn’t be able to move.

“Will this be enough?”

Gaieger finally felt relieved when the paladin asked.

After some commotion, Rembrary was left in a room with the human cocoons placed on either side of the wall.

The intruders, left alone with Rembrary in the room, tried to make a friendly expression.

“Apprentice priest. Be a good boy and untie us, okay?”

“There was a misunderstanding. We were trying to attack someone else. It just so happened that the carriage you were in showed up at that time.”

“Apprentice priest. You know that priests should always be kind to people, right? We’re also followers of Redryn. We can even memorize some of the Holy Scripture.”

Rembrary approached the intruder on the right. As the child approached, the intruder tried even harder to make his expression gentle.

“Yes, be a good boy…”

A gentle smile that the intruder wanted to create appeared on Rembrary’s lips.

The child’s expression was innocent, but the intruder felt a strange fear for a moment.

* * *

Almost 30 minutes had passed since they were left alone in the room, and Rembrary hadn’t come out, so Gaieger couldn’t stand it anymore and came up the stairs.

“We’ve been waiting a long time. That should be enough conversation.”

The paladin didn’t insist anymore and knocked on the door.

“Rembrary, can we come in?”

Gaieger waited anxiously for the child to answer. He was planning to go in even if the child didn’t answer.

“Yeah.”

Gaieger grabbed the doorknob just as he couldn’t stand it anymore, and an answer came. Gaieger thought it was good and immediately threw the door open.

As soon as he opened the door, Gaieger almost screamed.

“Rembrary!”

Rembrary was standing right in front of him and bumped his forehead against the door. As the child staggered backward, Gaieger was surprised and grabbed Rembrary.

“Why are you standing there!”

Rembrary rubbed his forehead and asked.

“Priest, is the food here delicious?”

“Shouldn’t you be asking a different question?”

“Priest, is the chef here skilled?”

“…”

At least Rembrary didn’t seem to be hurt by the harsh words or curses that the intruders were spewing.

Gaieger thought that was enough and stepped aside, saying.

“Ridal is in the dining room on the first floor, so go see him. He said he’s eating some sugar dish that you’ll like.”

As Rembrary disappeared in the blink of an eye, Gaieger shook his head and looked at the intruders, but this time he bumped the back of his head against the door frame.

“What’s wrong?”

The paladin who saw it turned around and looked inside, then widened his eyes.

They looked at each other.

The smooth-talking intruders, who had kept their mouths shut no matter how much they were questioned and pretended not to be attackers, were all sweating profusely.

Their faces were pale, and their eyes looked hollow.

Above all, they were desperately looking down at the floor.

The paladin walked towards them and called out to the intruders. The intruders finally looked up after the paladin called them four or five times.

“Why are you acting weak? Are you afraid of being handed over to prison?”

The paladin deliberately taunted them casually, even though he thought it was strange.

He didn’t voice his thought that their condition seemed to have changed before and after talking to Rembrary.

The intruder raised his eyes, which seemed to have lost all their energy, and looked at the paladin.

“That apprentice priest.”

As his eyes met, the intruder opened his mouth in a trembling voice.

“Is he really… human?”

“!”

* * *

Ridal was eating alone when he saw Rembrary coming down the stairs.

Ridal quickly ordered two dishes that he thought Rembrary would like from the waiter.

As he waited, Rembrary stopped coming down the stairs and just turned around and looked up.

“Rembrary? What’s wrong?”

When he couldn’t wait any longer and called his name, Rembrary finally came over and sat across from him.

“What did the intruders say?”

Ridal couldn’t help but ask. He was also curious about what kind of persistent enemy was tormenting Rembrary so much.

“They told me who hired them.”

“They told you that easily?”

Ridal widened his eyes.

Rembrary nodded.

“Who was it?”