Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 830

◈ 830. A Headlong Rush

As Rembrary was walking out, conversing with the secretary priest, someone suddenly appeared in front of the door and shouted.

“Benefactor!”

Rembrary stopped. A young child with messy silver hair sticking out in all directions was wide-eyed.

Raidal recognized him as soon as he heard the word ‘benefactor’ and burst into laughter.

“So you’re the one. The kid who kept shouting ‘benefactor, benefactor’ while singing.”

However, he immediately stopped laughing because the silver-haired child glared at him fiercely.

*Why is he looking at me like that?* Raidal wondered, feeling deflated, and then tilted his head. *But I feel like I’ve seen that kid somewhere before?*

In the meantime, the secretary priest inquired.

“Who are you?”

The silver-haired child shouted with a bright face.

“I’m Ardor!”

Then, the child pointed at himself again while looking at Rembrary.

“I’m Ardor, benefactor! Do you remember me?”

“No.”

The silver-haired child looked shocked at Rembrary’s blunt answer.

Even Raidal, who thought the silver-haired child was a bit strange, was surprised by the shocked expression, feeling a surge of sympathy for a moment.

“Benefactor! Look closely at my face!”

At that moment, the silver-haired child suddenly tried to rush towards Rembrary’s face. Raidal reflexively pulled Rembrary back.

The secretary priest blocked the child’s path.

“Wait a minute. Who are you?”

“Ardor!”

The child shouted again.

“Who *is* Ardor?”

The secretary priest tried to keep in mind that the other person was a child, but he ended up raising his voice in a fit of exasperation.

It was because the child kept moving around, trying to get to Rembrary.

“The benefactor saved me!”

The child answered, sounding annoyed, as if he was angry that the secretary priest kept blocking him.

“Rembrary has saved more than one or two people. He won’t understand if you just say it like that.”

The child’s face brightened at the secretary priest’s straightforward words.

“The benefactor’s name is Rembrary?”

The secretary priest sighed and instructed.

“I don’t know why you’re doing this here, but go back for now. Or come back later. It’s rude to rush in like that.”

“Benefactor, look at my face! If you look into my eyes, you’ll remember our first meeting!”

The silver-haired child shouted again.

The secretary priest raised his eyebrows, wondering what this kid was all about.

“Ah!”

At that time, Raidal, who had been tilting his head all along, stepped forward and exclaimed.

“I remember. You’re a trainee paladin from the Lumena Temple. You came to the central mansion. Right?”

“I don’t need *you* to remember!”

“!”

Raidal was embarrassed and opened his mouth wide. *What’s with him? I was just trying to be friendly because I remembered him.*

“Do you know him?”

Rembrary asked Raidal. Raidal was upset and shook his head. He didn’t want to tell him about the silver-haired child because he was feeling resentful.

“A paladin from the Lumena Temple. Now that I see it, he’s wearing their uniform.”

However, the secretary priest guessed the child’s identity just from Raidal’s brief shout and asked.

“Why did a Lumena Temple trainee paladin come here?”

The silver-haired child tried to repeat the same words as before, “Benefactor-“. But suddenly, he rolled his eyes once and changed his words.

“I came here to join!”

The people who had gathered to watch the commotion widened their eyes in surprise. *What’s with that kid? A Lumena Temple trainee paladin wants to come to the Redrin Main Temple?*

The secretary priest was also taken aback and asked, “What?”

However, the silver-haired child’s face brightened at what he had said, and he repeated.

“Please accept me here too. I’ll become a Redrin priest!”

The secretary priest opened his mouth and looked down at the child before saying firmly.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t be a Lumena paladin and a Redrin priest at the same time. I don’t know if you’re here to play or if you’ve run away from home, but go back.”

The secretary priest said that and continued walking along the corridor, shielding Rembrary with his body.

“Then I’ll quit!”

However, the child shouted right before he could even take a step.

The secretary priest, Raidal, and the onlookers were all taken aback and stared at the silver-haired child. *What did that trainee paladin just say……?*

“It’s not that easy to quit.”

Although he wasn’t a member of the Lumena Temple, the secretary priest still spoke sternly to the child as a fellow servant of God.

*If that kind of child was a Redrin trainee paladin, he would have been very angry.*

“Why?”

The silver-haired child asked, and then a burly old man was seen running towards them like a bull from over there.

The secretary priest, seeing the old man with muscles that looked three times bigger than those of most adults running at a fast speed, moved Rembrary behind him this time.

“You rascal!”

However, the old man wasn’t aiming for Rembrary. The old man ran to the silver-haired child and grabbed his ear.

“What are you doing!”

“Master!”

The old man immediately let go of the child’s ear, but the child looked surprised when he saw the old man.

“Why did you come here, Master?”

“Because you talked about the Redrin Main Temple! I came to find you!”

“Master, I’ve decided to become a Redrin priest.”

“Nonsense!”

The old man shouted and lifted the child up before leaving.

The secretary priest blinked at the commotion that had happened in the blink of an eye. *What was that? What just passed by?*

As soon as the child and the old man disappeared, Rembrary asked the secretary priest.

“Do you know them?”

“That’s what I want to ask.”

Raidal knew who that child was, but he kept his mouth shut.

He felt a little guilty, but Raidal comforted himself by remembering that the strange child didn’t seem to be of any help to Rembrary.

*But that strange kid was shouting about becoming a Redrin priest. He wouldn’t actually come here, would he?*

“Then let’s go eat cake quickly.”

As Rembrary urged, the secretary priest walked towards the dining hall.

Raidal quietly walked along with them and couldn’t help but ask, unable to bear his anxiety.

“Priest, priest. That kid said he wanted to become a Redrin priest, right? Can a Lumena paladin become a Redrin priest?”

* * *

“Ouch, ouch, ouch. Master, Master!”

Ardor shouted loudly as he was dragged away by his master.

But the master didn’t stop.

“He’s dragging a child away.”

People looked at them and whispered, but the master still steadily moved forward.

This was because he would tighten his grip on the child’s hand if Ardor tried to run away, but otherwise, he was only holding the child’s clothes.

When Ardor’s feigning didn’t work, he later shut his mouth and glared with his eyes wide open.

The master took the child into a guest room of a nearby inn that he had secured. As soon as he closed the door, he scolded him, having endured it all along.

“You really! You could have waited until after the festival and asked me to take you to your benefactor! But you just ran away on your own like this!”

“You weren’t going to take me anyway.”

“Does that mean you should run away?! How turbulent is the world these days that you come this far alone!”

Ardor didn’t seem to think he had done anything wrong at all. Seeing those confident eyes, the master became even more heated.

“You don’t seem to be repenting at all!”

“It’s not something to repent for, Master. I want to be a Redrin priest.”

“What, what?!”

The master shouted and grabbed the back of his neck. His blood pressure rose rapidly to the top of his head, and his head was dizzy.

He knew that his disciple was stubborn, but it was rare for him to act like this.

“You are a Lumena Temple paladin. The only disciple of one of the five paladin commanders! But what are you going to be?”

“A Redrin priest.”

“Ardor!”

“I’ve already made up my mind.”

The master jumped up at the child’s firm words.

“Absolutely not!”

He didn’t raise his disciple like gold and jade [precious and cherished] to send him to another temple.

“Why?”

“Because it’s not allowed! The believers may come and go freely, but priests and paladins can’t.”

“Is it forbidden?”

The master wanted to lie. He wanted to say firmly that it was absolutely impossible.

But this could be found out to be a lie with just a little bit of investigation. The child would be disappointed if he found out that his master had lied.

“It’s not forbidden. But the process of moving temples is complicated. You have to get permission from the Lumena Temple and permission from the Redrin Temple. Even if you go through that process, you’ll never be able to rise to a high position. No matter how talented you are, there will be a limit.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re a traitor from another temple.”

Ardor pouted.

The master poured a glass of water and handed it to the child.

“Drink this and think about it. You have talent. But how wasteful would it be if your talent was buried because you moved temples.”

“If I really have talent, it won’t be buried.”

“Your benefactor, yes. It’s good that you have a deep respect for your benefactor. A naive child like you wants to repay the favor.”

The master thought that his disciple being too naive was the root of all this.

*How many people in the world would throw away their entire lives to repay a favor?*

“Think about it, Ardor. Lumena is a god. Your benefactor is a person, even if he is a benefactor. Will you abandon God because of a person? You have talent, so you will rise to a high position. If you rise to a high position, you may be able to help that child with your skills and that position. Maybe that would be more helpful.”

Ardor listened to his master’s words while drinking water and smiled brightly. He had an expression that said, ‘Master is right.’

The master was delighted. *As expected, my disciple is reasonable!*

“If the benefactor worships a god, that god must be more amazing, Master.”

“!”

*No! His disciple was not reasonable at all. Moreover, he was spouting such blasphemous words!*

“You, you-! Are you saying that Redrin is more amazing than Lumena right now?”

The master asked with wide eyes. The two gods were on good terms, but that didn’t mean it was okay to say such things.

“I don’t know exactly because I haven’t seen them in person. But wouldn’t the benefactor’s eyes be better than other people’s?”

Ardor’s confident remarks caused the master’s blood pressure to rise again. He grabbed his neck and trembled before shouting, unable to contain his anger.

“How sad would Lumena be if she heard that! That’s why you still don’t have divine power! From now until the end of the festival, pray to Lumena and think about how presumptuous your words were!”

The master slammed the door shut so hard that it made a loud noise and instructed the two Lumena paladins he had brought.

“That child might run away again, so you two should guard the door in shifts. Bring him drinks and food regularly.”

“Won’t he run away through the window? Even at the training center……”

“The windows at the training center were low. This is the third floor. He wouldn’t jump from the third floor unless he was crazy.”

*But Commander, that kid is crazy.* The two paladins thought at the same time.

At that moment, there was a crashing sound from inside the door, and then someone screamed outside.

“Someone fell!”

“A child! A child fell! A doctor!”

“!”