Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 872

◈ 872. Recent News

That was an explanation about a High Priest from a long time ago.

Rembrary pulled the page right up to his face.

“The greatest High Priest of all time.”

That’s what was written in the book.

Not ‘the greatest High Priest among the High Priests of Iyar,’ but ‘the greatest High Priest of all time’.

—Before humanity reached its plight, Tesien was just one of the ordinary high-ranking priests.

Although he possessed an immeasurable amount of divine power, Tesien never showed anyone how he used it. People lamented that his talent was only half realized.

—When Tesien became a High Priest, even the highest-ranking priests of Iyar couldn’t understand it. All three High Priests of the same generation were said to be among the strongest High Priests to this day…….

—High Priest Tesien always claimed that he had abilities. No one believed Tesien’s words. People thought the High Priest was a braggart.

—When the Great Demon appeared, Tesien’s ability was demonstrated for the first and last time. Tesien’s ability was to seal all the evil in the world at once.

“The ability to seal evil all at once.”

Rembrary read that part repeatedly before closing the book.

He had no interest in the High Priests of Iyar from the past, but he was interested in this person.

If a Demon King appeared now, could this person’s ability seal it?

* * *

“Ridal! Mail’s here!”

Ridal, who was brushing his teeth, went from the bathroom to his room and then ran to the front door.

A fellow priest who shared the next room was shaking five letters.

When Ridal arrived, the fellow priest held out the letters.

“I’m really curious about the day you don’t get any mail. You should honestly pay the postman extra.”

Ridal was the only one who received letters every time the postman came once a week.

Ridal smiled with his toothbrush in his mouth, checking the names written on the envelopes one by one.

Then, Ridal paused when he found one name.

Seeing this, the fellow priest inadvertently checked the sender on the envelope and screamed.

“Rembrary?!”

Priests who were passing by with tired faces gathered one after another when they heard the scream.

“Rembrary, you say?”

“What about Rembrary?”

“Is Rembrary coming?”

The fellow priest pointed to the envelope Ridal was holding and looked back and forth at the gathered priests.

“The sender’s name on the letter to Priest Ridal is Rembrary!”

“No way, that’s a lie.”

“That can’t be.”

“Why would Rembrary write a letter to Priest Ridal?”

The priests came closer with smiles, but when they saw the sender’s name with their own eyes, they gasped and stepped back.

“It’s real!”

Ridal smiled awkwardly, tucked the letters under his arm, and moved to the public bathroom.

However, the other priests who saw Rembrary’s name followed him to the bathroom.

Ridal, who rinsed his mouth, spat out what he had wanted to say all along.

“Stop following me.”

“But Rembrary’s name is on the sender!”

The fellow priest pointed to the letter between Ridal’s arms with a trembling voice.

Another priest quickly approached and asked.

“Priest, that’s not really a letter from *that* Rembrary, is it? It’s someone else with the same name, right?”

“Who’s that Rembrary?”

Ridal asked in disbelief, and the priests began to recite the rumors they had heard about Rembrary as if they had been waiting for it.

“A High Priest candidate.”

“The only one with divine power who can revive the dead.”

“An oddball who only took the elite course but suddenly gave it all up and left to become an Inquisitor….”

“I heard he’s achieving a 100% success rate even there. They say he interrogates in a very strange way.”

Ridal let them talk to their heart’s content. And when everyone finished speaking and looked at him, he shrugged and said proudly.

“That’s right, it’s that Rembrary.”

“No way!”

The priests screamed in surprise again and then asked again.

“Why is *that* Rembrary sending a letter to you?”

“Are you two acquainted?”

“Are you friends?”

“Is it for official business?”

This time, Ridal waited for the priests to talk enough and proudly shook the envelope.

“The ‘that Rembrary’ you’re talking about is my friend.”

This time, all the priests became silent.

While they were frozen, Ridal quickly went into his room across the hall and locked the door.

Seeing this, the fellow priests belatedly knocked on the door, begging him to tell them more, but Ridal never opened the door.

He sat on the bed and opened the envelope Rembrary had sent.

* * *

—Ridal, how are you doing? I think Ridal will do well anywhere. I’m not just saying that, I mean it.

—Ridal, to confess now, I liked baby wolf Ridal more than human Ridal. About 10 times more. But it’s not my fault. Baby wolves are really cute. But Ridal isn’t cute. Ridal is a good friend, but never cute.

—Ridal, I like baby wolves, but I also like big wolves. But Ridal is neither. That doesn’t mean I hate Ridal.

—Ridal, how are you doing? Did I tell you I’ve become an Inquisitor? Should I tell you about the menu here?

—Ridal, how’s the food there?

* * *

Ridal laughed a few times as he read the letter. Most of it was about food.

‘He must like the food there.’

Ridal shook his head.

Even though it had been several years since they parted and he had fully adapted to this place, seeing the letter made him feel like he and Rembrary were still fourteen-year-old young priests.

Ridal quietly smiled as he recalled his daily life at the Great Temple after a long time.

Those were the days when he was running endlessly, only looking up.

His friend running next to him was leaping forward at such a fast pace that he was too busy following him to even be conscious of it.

But when he thought about it, it was also just as enjoyable. That time was probably the most emotionally fluctuating period in his life.

Ridal put the letter back in the envelope and carefully stored it separately inside the drawer where he kept his precious belongings.

Then, when he tried to write a reply, he didn’t have any stationery.

‘Oh, dear.’

Ridal looked at the door, which was now quiet, sighed, and grabbed the doorknob.

As soon as he pulled the doorknob, the fellow priests who had been leaning against the door stumbled back and pretended to be doing something else.

“Do you think I’m going to read the letter out loud?”

Ridal asked in disbelief, and the priests smiled awkwardly before surrounding Ridal again and asking questions about Rembrary.

Ridal ignored their questions and walked to the office.

* * *

The next day, Ridal, who had finished writing a letter to send to Rembrary, walked to the mailbox in the early morning hours to avoid his colleagues.

But when he put the letter in and turned around, the fellow priest who shared the next room was grinning and staring at him.

“What?”

Ridal asked, pretending not to know, and the fellow priest said in a teasing tone.

“You not only receive letters but also write them. You must be very close.”

“I always wrote back to my other friends.”

“This time it’s different. The other person is *that* Rembrary. Why didn’t you say you knew Rembrary?”

The fellow priest followed Ridal, asking questions.

Ridal realized Rembrary’s status once again.

Rembrary’s name was often heard in this continent as well. But as soon as he said he was friends with Rembrary, everyone was bothering him like this.

“I’ve never mentioned my other friends’ names either. There’s no need to specifically mention Rembrary’s name.”

Ridal was sorry, but he drew a firm line.

“Okay, okay, I get it. Don’t get angry. I’m just curious.”

The fellow priest grumbled, but as he said, he didn’t ask any more about Rembrary.

Instead, he stared intently at Ridal before sighing and muttering.

“Still, it’s a shame.”

“?”

“Priest Ridal became a high-ranking priest at the age of sixteen, too.”

“…….”

“It’s not as much as Rembrary, but Ridal’s speed is also crazy. Besides, since you say you know Rembrary, it’s a pity. If you two are friends, you were in the same temple, right? Wouldn’t it be nice if you both stayed in the Great Temple? Why did one person come to another continent and the other go to the Inquisitorial Office?”

Recalling the days when he was suffering because his divine power was blocked and wouldn’t rise, Ridal smiled involuntarily.

“Rembrary has his own plans.”

“An Inquisitor has plans? Still, isn’t it too bad that a High Priest candidate became an Inquisitor?”

“He must have his reasons.”

Ridal recalled Rembrary, who would often suddenly pop out and get lost in thought.

“Thoughts we don’t understand are also thoughts.”

* * *

Again! I got rejected again!

Ardor took off his shoes, threw them down, and lay down haphazardly on the grass.

“Damn it! What’s so bad about being from the Lumena Temple?”

Ardor muttered, tossing the fallen leaves he grabbed into the air.

His master had said it would be a difficult path, but it was really more difficult than he had imagined.

The biggest reason was that he hadn’t been able to get a recommendation letter from the Lumena Temple.

No temple was willing to accept Ardor, who was from another temple and didn’t have a recommendation letter.

On the other hand, Rembrary’s name was becoming more and more prominent as time passed.

He was already famous, but now, if you didn’t know Rembrary’s name, you would be suspected of being a monster imitating a human.

Some people even claimed that ‘even the demons know Rembrary’s name.’

“Will I even be able to reach him…….”

Ardor sighed, got up again, picked up his shoes, and unfolded the map.

There were dozens of X marks drawn on the Redrin Temple on the map. Those were the temples he had been rejected from for several years.

Ardor stared at the Great Temple, which had several X marks drawn on it, and pointed to it.

“I should go here one more time.”

A few days later, Ardor arrived at the Great Temple and peered at the main gate.

“Hey, that guy’s here again.”

He had stopped by so many times that the Holy Knight guarding the main gate of the Great Temple recognized him and muttered.

Ardor ignored the Holy Knight and looked around beyond the bars.

“Hey, Rembrary is at the Inquisitorial Office, why are you still coming here?”

“Rembrary will eventually return here anyway. If I come in here and prepare the ground in advance, I’ll be able to greet him very naturally. But if I come in later after Rembrary comes back, it’ll look like I’m following him.”

“Are you crazy?”

Ardor was having a meaningless conversation with the Holy Knight, trying to find a gap to enter.

A carriage passed by and stopped near Ardor. Soon, the carriage window curtain was lifted, and someone inside peeked out.

“Oh, aren’t you the trainee Holy Knight who came from the Lumena Temple before?”

It was the Secretary Priest he had seen when Ardor was causing a ruckus a few years ago.

Ardor jumped up and stuck his face out the window.

“That’s right!”

The surprised Secretary Priest jumped out of the carriage in shock.

After a while, the Secretary Priest listened to the Holy Knight guarding the main gate and Ardor himself about the situation for the past few years and lamented.

“I see. So you left without a recommendation letter and have been wandering around ever since.”

The Secretary Priest remembered Ardor being dragged away by his master, so he clicked his tongue and muttered.

“He must have really been a Lumena Holy Knight.”

The Holy Knights guarding the front of the Great Temple only knew Ardor as a strange person, so they whispered to each other in amazement. “Is that the kind of kid they have as a Holy Knight in the Lumena Temple?”

Ardor looked at the Secretary Priest earnestly and pleaded.

“Priest, is there any way? If you just let me in, I’m confident I can somehow receive Redrin’s divine power.”

The Secretary Priest felt sorry for Ardor’s situation and thought for a moment before suggesting.

“Hmm. Then I’ll vouch for you, so why don’t you try going to Igrasil?”

At the sound of Igrasil, the Holy Knights widened their eyes and looked at the Secretary Priest.