Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 865

◈ 865. Rembrary’s Declaration

Amidst the chaos, the sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Tap, tap.

The sound of footsteps, unwavering in their rhythm.

Jeremi, clutching his arm, tried to look ahead with trembling lips, but his head kept drooping.

As if shrinking from intense cold, his body instinctively cowered.

What is this? Is this phenomenon caused by the owner of these footsteps? Black magic? Or…

The footsteps grew closer.

Clean shoes, untouched by dirt, came into view below his lowered gaze.

Jeremi still couldn’t lift his head.

The closer the other party got, the heavier his neck felt.

“……”

The other person seemed to look down at him for a moment before passing him and entering the reception room.

No sound came from the reception room.

Jeremi realized that the black magician’s situation was similar to his own.

Even that great black magician couldn’t move or speak in the face of this oppressive force.

Before long, the soft, solid sound of wood and porcelain colliding could be heard faintly.

Then, the footsteps from before grew closer again. The footsteps approached him… then faded away.

The footsteps didn’t stop at all as they passed him. Jeremi noticed that the footsteps sounded slightly heavier than when they had arrived.

Again, the sound of the door opening and closing echoed, and the oppressive feeling vanished in an instant.

Still, Jeremi couldn’t move and remained in the same position. Cold sweat poured down his neck like rain, dripping to the floor.

How much time had passed? With trembling hands, Jeremi barely managed to move and touch the wall.

He leaned against the wall, supporting himself with both hands as he struggled to stand up.

“What was that just now? What was it?”

With trembling legs, Jeremi barely made it back into the reception room.

The black magician had his forehead pressed to the ground.

“Hey? Are you alive?”

Jeremi flinched and shook the black magician.

“Agh!”

The black magician screamed and tumbled to the side. He was alive.

But seemingly out of his mind, he crawled to the window and tried to cover his face with the thin curtain.

“Hey, get a grip.”

Jeremi called out again, and only then did the black magician’s trembling hands stop. Without removing the curtain, the black magician asked,

“That thing? Is it gone?”

“That thing?”

Jeremi looked around. Raidal was gone.

“Raidal? Or that… the footsteps?”

“The footsteps.”

The black magician replied in a whisper, as if speaking louder would bring the footsteps back.

“It’s gone.”

Only then did the black magician slowly lower the curtain that covered his face.

Jeremi stared at the black magician, and when their eyes met, he chuckled.

“I thought you had incredibly fearsome abilities, but you’re the same as anyone else in the face of even greater power.”

“!”

“To tremble like that just from hearing footsteps. The reputation of a black magician is ruined.”

Jeremi shook his head and looked down at the intricately tangled white magic circle.

“This is useless now.”

“It’s not useless.”

Jeremi ran his hand over the edge of the magic circle, smudging the lines, before turning his head. At the same time, something that looked like a large bag struck him on the head.

The black magician, looking down at the wide-eyed Jeremi, bit his lip.

“There’s another ingredient right in front of me.”

Jeremi’s eyes gradually lost focus. The black magician pushed his shoulder, and he collapsed.

The black magician confirmed that Jeremi was no longer breathing and sneered.

“You talk too much.”

The black magician clicked his tongue and placed Jeremi in the center of the magic circle, then placed the mana stones he had brought in six different locations.

* * *

Rembrary carried the fallen Raidal and walked down the street.

The gazes of the busy people naturally turned to Rembrary.

Rembrary, who stood out even when walking alone, was now carrying a fainted priest, leaving everyone bewildered.

“Did a monster appear?”

“A monster—”

As people began to whisper, Rembrary quickened his pace.

At any other time, he wouldn’t have cared if people stared, cheered, marveled, or admired him, but being mistaken for a monster was an exception.

The startled people might run around and get injured.

Fortunately, Rembrary spotted a hospital sign not far away and headed towards it.

As Rembrary entered, an employee rushed over, pulling an empty hospital bed. Rembrary placed Raidal on the bed.

“Did he collapse?”

The employee asked in surprise, noticing the blood covering Raidal’s abdomen and back.

“Maybe?”

Rembrary answered vaguely, causing the employee to stop tearing Raidal’s clothes and look back at Rembrary.

“Probably.”

“A monster attacked……”

“A person.”

“The culprit?!”

“Oh dear, I was in such a hurry that I didn’t pay attention to that.”

“Excuse me?!”

The employee couldn’t understand half of what Rembrary was saying, so he opened his mouth and looked up.

“Maybe crawling around.”

Rembrary muttered and turned around.

“Wait a minute! Where are you going?”

“To work.”

“Excuse me?”

The employee stared at the priest’s robes Rembrary was wearing and hurriedly grabbed paper and a pen from the counter.

“You need to write down your name and address so we can show it to the patient when he wakes up later.”

“Ah. It’s okay.”

“Pardon?”

While the employee was still bewildered, Rembrary went outside.

The employee, who had been swayed by the urgent situation and the other person’s strange atmosphere and inhuman appearance, belatedly jumped up. I’m not okay with this!

“What should I do?”

The employee scratched his head and approached the patient’s bed.

Fortunately, the patient had regained consciousness and was sitting up on his own.

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

The employee asked worriedly, seeing the priest in his robes continuing to cry. The patient shook his head and smiled.

“No, I’m not hurt.”

“Yes……?”

* * *

[That child… emitted almost all of your energy!]

Lumena, who had shouted vehemently, couldn’t say anything for a while.

Until Rembrary left Raidal at the hospital and returned to the Grand Temple, both Lumena and Redrin remained silent.

As soon as Rembrary entered the Grand Temple, he began to boast about his greatness.

Only then did Lumena relax her shoulders and nudge Redrin’s elbow.

Redrin’s lips curled into a satisfied smile.

[My child is incomparable to your chickens.]

* * *

After revealing the betrayal of High Priest Iira at the Camuel Grand Temple, the world became quiet for a while.

Monsters were still rampant, but there were no more stories of additional passages being opened to summon the Demon King.

This was the case on every continent, so people began to feel a little relieved. The priests can stop the black magicians.

The peaceful time passed quickly. And two years later, Rembrary finally turned 16.

“Happy birthday, Rembrary.”

The High Priest smiled brightly and handed Rembrary a birthday present.

Rembrary received the gift while eating cake in the dining hall.

“What is it?”

The High Priest looked at the line of baggage carts entering outside the window and muttered timidly.

“Oh, it’s nothing much.”

The baggage carts were filled with Rembrary’s gifts sent from various places.

Usually, when Rembrary’s birthday approached, such gifts would start arriving two months in advance, and gifts would continue to arrive for a month after his birthday.

Now, not only the priests but even ordinary people believed that ‘Rembrary, the High Priest in the Grand Temple,’ would become the Grand Priest.

The result was those overflowing gifts.

“We only see the High Priest like this around this time.”

The secretary priests laughed among themselves as they passed by.

Rembrary smiled as he watched the peaceful scene.

And as the laughter subsided, he quietly opened his mouth.

“I was going to visit you anyway, High Priest. It’s convenient that you came to me first.”

“What is it?”

The High Priest abandoned his playfully intimidated demeanor and asked kindly.

There were only two things Rembrary would come to him for: important matters and matters concerning the diet.

“I’m sixteen years old now, High Priest.”

“That’s right. Happy birthday, Rembrary.”

“I’m old enough to become an Inquisitor now.”

“…….”

The High Priest, who had been smiling gently, and the secretary priests, who had been happily watching the scene, froze simultaneously.

“What?”

The High Priest asked back after a long pause.

“An Inquisitor.”

Rembrary elegantly wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, smiling with his eyes.

“You told me a few years ago. That I could become an Inquisitor from the age of sixteen. Did you forget?”

The teasing tone caused all the surrounding priests who were listening to the conversation to freeze. That’s right. They had all forgotten.

Rembrary’s statement about becoming an Inquisitor had only been made once, briefly.

Since then, Rembrary had perfectly fulfilled his role as the one and only healing priest in the world, and as a High Priest.

They had forgotten that Rembrary had ever said he wanted to become an Inquisitor.

“Did Rembrary mention that before?”

A newly arrived secretary priest asked with wide eyes.

“Yes.”

As Rembrary answered kindly but firmly, the High Priest rubbed his forehead.

What to do? It seems he really wants to become an Inquisitor.

* * *

The Redrin Grand Temple was in chaos.

The secretary priests remembered the past when they had searched through the temple’s history books and lists of Inquisitors to persuade Rembrary.

While Rembrary was asleep, the secretary priests held an emergency meeting.

“It can’t be, High Priest. Rembrary is now a universally recognized candidate for Grand Priest. He has possessed divine power that wouldn’t be strange for a Grand Priest to have for several years now. But if he becomes an Inquisitor… all of this might be ruined.”

A secretary priest who had watched Rembrary since childhood argued worriedly.

“That’s right. There hasn’t been a Grand Priest from the Inquisitors, has there? Not only in the Redrin Temple but also in other temples.”

Another secretary priest firmly opposed.

It wasn’t that Inquisitors had weak divine power.

But they often had to do cruel and frightening things in their work.

People respected priests but feared Inquisitors.

“Rembrary has walked the best path from beginning to end. It’s already as good as decided that he will become a Grand Priest after working as a High Priest like this. We can’t let him stray from the path now.”

But even after searching through the history books and laws again, they couldn’t find an item to hold Rembrary back this time.

After much deliberation, they sent someone to the Florandia Temple, where Rembrary had spent his apprenticeship.

A few days later, Rishua, Rembrary’s training priest from the Florandia Temple, and Heather, the person in charge, and Gaieger, the second person in charge, arrived.

The Grand Temple staff whispered as they watched the three priests getting out of the carriage.

The High Priest is determined to keep Rembrary here. Will Rembrary’s heart waver now that his former teachers have come?

But it wasn’t just one carriage that came. Other carriages continued to arrive in a line.

At first, people thought those carriages were just the carriages of believers.

However, the moment the carriages stopped and the flags attached to the end of the carriages stopped waving. People opened their mouths in embarrassment.

Attached to the end of the carriage was the emblem of the Inquisitorial Order.

A secretary priest came out to greet the Florandia priests but was embarrassed and ran towards that side.

He opened the carriage window, had a brief conversation with the people inside, then turned his head and shouted.

“The Director of the Inquisitorial Order and five executives have also arrived!”