As I cling to Ralph’s back, my legs dangling, the gates of the outer wall come into view.

  The outer wall was built to protect the town, so it’s considerably taller than other buildings nearby. It’s about two or three stories tall by Japanese standards, and it’s quite thick. It has gates at each of the cardinal directions, at which it seems that several soldiers are stationed in order to check incoming travelers.

  The gate ahead is the south gate, and I can see several soldiers standing there. One of them is probably my father. I can’t tell which one is him, but it looks like Tory knows. She clutches the bundle close to her chest, and runs forward, waving her arm.

  “Father!” she calls.

  Our father looks surprised. “Tory, what’s the matter?”


  “You left something at the house!” says Tory, beaming as she hands over the bundle. “We came to bring it to you.”


  Tory, you’re so kind. You’re too kind! If it were me talking to my previous father, I wouldn’t have said anything nearly so kind. My true feelings would probably have slipped out, something like “Mom would be pissed if she found out you’d left this at the house, and that would be a huge bother. Did you forget what happened this morning?”


  “Ahh, I’m saved!” he says, reaching out to take the bundle with a sigh of relief. “…Hm? Did you leave Maine by herself?!”


  Father scowls. It seems that he hadn’t noticed anyone except for his beloved daughter Tory, so he had completely ignored Ralph’s group and missed me, his other beloved daughter, clinging to Ralph’s back. Tory shakes her head vigorously, and points over at Ralph.

  “Nuh uh, she came too! Look, she’s riding on Ralph’s back.”


  “Huh? Oh! I see.” He glances around, feeling a little embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed us, then pats Ralph on the head. “Sorry you had to carry her all this way, Ralph.”


  “We were going to the forest, so it was on our way,” says Ralph, looking a little bothered by how my father is ruffling his hair. He sets me down, then goes to collect the stuff that Fey and Lutz were holding for him.

  “Thanks, Ralph,” says my father. “Lutz and Fey, you too.”


  We see off Ralph and his friends as they head through the gate on their way to the forest, then Tory and I head to the gate’s waiting room. The wall here is thick enough that you could probably put a three meter by four meter room in it. This room isn’t nearly that large, so it looks like there’s both a waiting room and a room for the night watch in here. The waiting room is very simple, with a table, a few chairs, and a cabinet.

  I look around excitedly, feeling like I’m visiting a foreign country for the first time. After a little while, one of my father’s coworkers brings us some water.

  “You two are such good kids, bringing your dad something he forgot.”


  It took us about twenty minutes, going at Tory’s pace, to get from our home to the gate, so I’m incredibly grateful to finally get some water. I gulp back all of the water in the wooden cup I’ve been given, then let out a huge sigh.

  “Ahhh, delicious! I’ve been revived!”


  “Maine,” says Tory with a frown, “didn’t you barely walk at all?”


  At those words, everyone starts laughing. I try to look upset, but I really can’t object since everyone saw Ralph carrying me in. I help myself to another cup of water as everyone laughs at me.

  Another soldier enters the room. He grabs a wooden box, which seems to be some kind of toolbox, from the shelves, then immediately heads back out. Unintentionally, I frown a little at how hectic things seem to be.

  “Daddy,” I ask, “Did something happen?”


  “It’s probably just someone who needs special attention coming through the gates. Nothing to worry about.”


  My father may be waving his hand dismissively while saying not to pay it any mind, but I can’t help but worry a little when I see a busy situation like that. Are things really okay?

  I mean, this is a gate. The gatekeepers are riled up, you know? Isn’t this a danger flag?

  In contrast to my worries, Tory is just sitting there, looking like there’s no danger at all, with her head tilted to one side. “What kind of person needs special attention?” she asks. “Have I seen them before?”


  It looks like Tory can’t think of anyone who would rile up the guards like this, even though she travels through this gate fairly often. Our father rubs thoughtfully at the stubble on his chin for a moment before answering.

  “Uhhh, perhaps its someone who looks like a bad person who committed a crime. Or, maybe, it’s an arriving aristocrat that we need to inform the lord about.”


  “Oh…”


  If he says that someone looks like a criminal, then it seems like they pass judgement just based on how someone looks. Although, if I think about how things work around here, it seems unlikely that they have any real way to transmit information around, so they probably have no choice but to stop and investigate every suspicious-looking individual.

  “We’ll have them wait in another room while the higher-ups decide if it’s okay to let them into the city.”


  Ahh, so that means that there must be several waiting rooms around the gate. I get it now. Surely, there must be significant differences between the rooms for the nobility and rooms for criminals, from the size of them to the quality of the furniture. Life’s unfair, no matter what world you’re in.

  While I contemplate these things, the young soldier returns, bringing back the wooden box as well as some sort of cylindrical, pipe-like item. There wasn’t even a trace of any tension on his face, like you’d expect from an emergency situation. Looks like my father was right, this is no big deal.

  The soldier, with cargo in his left hand, walks up to my father, raises his right fist, then thumps the left side of his chest twice. My father stands up, straightens himself, and returns the gesture. This is probably this world’s salute.

  “Otto, I’ll leave the report to you,” says my father, with a stern, commanding expression that I’ve never seen at home.

  “Ohh,” I murmur, appreciatively. I haven’t seen him do anything but laze around, so this is really fresh. His expression is sharp, and he actually looks really cool.

  “Count Lowenwalt wishes for the rampart gates to be opened, sir,” says Otto.

  “His seal?”


  “Has been verified, sir.”


  “Right, he can pass.”


  Otto salutes once more, then sits down in the chair across from me. He sets the wooden box down on the table next to him, then uses both hands to spread the other thing out. It isn’t as smooth as paper, and it has some sort of smell to it, but my eyes snap to it immediately.

  Parchment?!

  I don’t know if it really is parchment, but it definitely is some kind of paper that has properties like it was made out of animal skin. I can’t read anything it says, but there are words written there using the alphabet of this world. Before my staring eyes, Otto takes from the box an inkwell and a reed pen, then starts to write something down on the parchment.

  Whoooooooooooa!! Writing! There is a person who can write here!! This is the first civilized man I have met in this world. I absolutely want him to teach me how to read this language!

  As I think, my gaze is fixed on Otto’s hands as if I were going to devour them. My dad places a hand on my head and ruffles my hair. “What is it?” he asks.

  I look up at my father, then point at the parchment-looking thing. If I don’t figure out what it’s called, I won’t be able to ask about it in the future. “Daddy, Daddy! What’s that?” I ask.

  “Ah, that’s parchment!” he says. “It’s a paper made from the skin of goats or sheep.”


  “What’s this black stuff?”


  “That’s ink, and that’s a pen.”


  As I thought! I’ve found paper and ink, so I can make books. I’m so happy that I could start dancing, but I try to stay calm. I clasp my hands tightly in front of me, look endearingly up at my father, and start begging with all my might.

  “Hey, Daddy. Can I have that?”


  “No, Maine, that’s not a kid’s toy.”


  Even though I’d tried to project every last mote of adorable little girl charm, he rejected my pleas immediately. Of course, just because I’ve been shot down, doesn’t mean I’m not going to stop trying.

  When it comes to books, I clamp down on them like a snapping turtle and stick to them like gum on a shoe. You really shouldn’t underestimate my adhesion!

  “I wanna write like this! I really do. Pleeeease!”


  “You just can’t, Maine! You don’t even know how to write.”


  Certainly, if you don’t know how to write, then you don’t need any paper or ink. For this very reason, now’s my greatest chance to twist my father’s words back around.

  “Ah, I’ll learn if you teach me! If I learn, then can I have that?”


  The younger, lower-ranked soldier can write, so it’s likely that my father, who seems to be his superior, can write as well. I never would have thought that someone who knew how to write would live in a house without a single sheet of paper, but I’m happy to have been proven wrong. If my father can teach me how to read and write, then reading the books of this world is no longer an impossible dream.

  As I sit there with a huge smile plastered over my face, feeling like I’ve gotten one step closer to realizing my ambitions, someone lets out a muffled snort. I look around, trying to find the source, and see Otto barely holding in his laughter, as if our father-daughter conversations about pen and ink are almost too much to bear.

  “Ahahaha, ‘teach me’, she says… heh heh, sir, aren’t you pretty bad at writing?”


  With a sharp snap, cracks spiderwebbed throughout my ambition. My smile freezes on my face, like someone’s dumped a bucket of ice water all over me.

  “Huh? Daddy, can you not write?”


  “I can read, more-or-less, and write too. My job involves paperwork, so I need to know how to read, but I’ve never really needed to know any characters outside of the ones I use at work. Just enough so that I can write down the names of people who come from far away, after I hear them.”


  “Ohhh…,” I sigh, staring at my father with a sullen expression on my face as he makes his excuses. So, it seems that my father’s literacy level is such that he’s only got a basic grasp of the alphabet to the point where if his class assignment was to write out his friend’s names then he could. The young Otto, though, said “pretty bad”, so he must be on the level of a first grader, who’d still make some mistakes with his classmate’s names. To be frank: worthless.

  “Hey now, don’t look at your father like that!” says Otto, the person who caused my opinion of my father to drop so dramatically, with a nervouse look on his face as he scolds me. Then, as if he’s covering for my father, he starts to explain the duties of a soldier.

  “The job of a soldier is to keep the peace in the town, but when there’s big events that the nobility put on, the knights usually are the ones who get the written instructions, and for smaller events all of the coordination is done verbally. We don’t really see a lot of different characters. Just being able to write people’s names is enough.”


  My father had a chance to pull himself together while Otto was covering for him, and has pulled his pride back together. It seems like my unimpressed stare hurt his feelings unexpectedly much.

  “Barely anyone knows how to read amongst the peasantry, except for the village leaders. I’m pretty amazing already, you know!” he says, his chest puffed out.

  “Whoa, you really are amazing, Daddy! Can I have this? Pleeeease?”


  You’re amazing, Daddy, so you want to give your beloved daughter with a hundred sheets of paper as a present, with fanfare. I stare into his eyes as I layer on the extortion, but he wavers a little and retreats a step.

  “……One page would make an entire month’s wages disappear, so giving it to a kid…”


  What did you say?! An entire month’s wages?! Wh… how much could parchment cost?! This… even though I’m not a child, this is not the kind of thing that you should dangle just out of my reach!

  The reason why there’s no paper in the house, the reason why there’s no bookstores in this town, they’re all the same. The price just isn’t one that us commoners can afford to pay. No matter how much I beg for paper, my family barely makes enough money to keep us fed. Nobody’s going to buy me paper.

  I drop my shoulders, a defeated look on my face. Otto pats me gently on the head, trying to cheer me up.

  “Paper’s not the kind of thing you can find in stores that commoners can enter, anyway. It’s the kind of thing that’s only used by the nobility and the people they work with, like important merchants and government officials, so it’s not something that kids can use anyway. If you want to learn how to write, why not use a slate? How about I give you the one I used to use when I was just learning?”


  “Really? That would be great!”


  I immediately nod, and graciously make arrangements to get the slate. I’ve waited so long, and I really want to learn how to write too, so I’m going to figure out how to press Otto into serving as my teacher.

  “Thanks, Mr. Otto! Please, could you teach me how to write? I’m counting on you!”


  As I pressure Otto with my adorable smile, my father looks back and forth between the two of us with a pitiful expression on his face, but I’m not paying attention.

  Being able to practice writing, getting a slate to write on, these things are enough to set my heart soaring, but what I truly want, books, require paper. After all, you can’t preserve anything on a slate. A slate is something that you write on and erase many times, like a chalkboard. It’s great for practicing how to write, but you can’t use it as a book.

  It hadn’t even crossed my mind that paper might be something that just wasn’t sold to commoners. Hmm, how can I make any books if I don’t have any paper? If I can’t just acquire any paper, what should I do? What can I do?

  Can’t I just make it myself?

  Before I make any books, I’m going to need to start by making my own paper. However, making paper really isn’t all that simple. I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that I can just pass off as a kid playing around.

  Grr, the road to books is long!!

  (157) 158: Rescue and Reprimand (I)

  I tried to raise my left hand as high as I could to keep the blood from dripping, and shouted for help. Almost at the same moment the ring gave off a blue light, which shot straight into the sky.

  Then I heard the sound of wings and something was falling from the sky. Boom! I felt a slight impact from the soles of my feet. I tried to look down and saw that there were many black arrows at my feet, and Tronbay stopped as if it had lost its strength.

  "Head Priest!"

  Seeing the familiar arrows, I looked up again. The winged lion was coming down straight for me. With the arrows of the Head Priest, I had no more to worry about.

  But that was just my wishful thinking. Tronbay stayed quiet for only a few seconds, and after absorbing my dripping blood, it grew fast again. From my waist to my belly, from my belly to my chest, I felt the branches slowly climbing over me. Fear seized me again.

  "Head Priest, hurry…"

  The lion glided to the ground and the Head Priest sprang down. He rushed towards me with a long black bow in his hand.

  "Maine, how did this happen?!"

  "Priestess, sorry to keep you waiting!"

  Perhaps the god of darkness had finally answered his prayer, Damuel wielded his black knife and began to try to save me. The effect of his knife, however, could not be more different from that of the black arrows of the Head Priest. No matter how he attacked, Tronbay didn't stop.

  "How did blessings not work?!"

  "It's not that the blessing didn't work, it's that Tronbay recovered in an instant! Why?!"

  After being struck by the arrows, Tronbay only stopped for a moment and immediately resumed his activities. Though its growth slowed, it showed no sign of withering. The Head Priest continued to shoot black arrows at it in disbelief.

  "Head Priest, it is blood. It is my blood that makes it…"

  "Your blood?!" "After I told him why Tronbay was growing so fast, he suddenly raised his voice. I couldn't see his face, but I could tell by this alone that his eyes must have widened.

  "What do you think I was doing to keep you out of the battle? I even sent guards to protect you! Thoes guards are useless fools!"

  These words were uttered angrily by the Head Priest, and they severely rebuked the two knights who had been left to guard me. Now Damuel was fighting Tronbay with a knife, and Skicossa was trying to get the blessing of the god of darkness. After all, it was Skicossa who ignored the order of the Head Priest and threatened me, who was supposed to be protected, that led to this situation, so the Head priest was absolutely right.

  Moreover, after listening to the complaints of the Head Priest as he attacked Tronbay, I knew that my blood contained considerable magic. Not only Damuel, he muttered, but even half the knights with blessed weapons would not be able to save me.

  "There is no point in our attacking Tronbay now. We must stop the bleeding first. Where is your wound, Maine?!"

  "Here."

  I tried to stretch my left hand. At the sight of the wound, the Head Priest groaned and whispered a spell: "Interverrugu."

  His black bow turned back into a wand. Then he muttered another spell and waved his wand, and a jet of red light shot skyward. The red light was probably a signal, because I noticed that other knights coming when they saw it.

  "What comes next will hurt, but you mustn't cry. Tears, like blood, have a magical power."

  As he reminded me, he ran his wand slowly over my wound. As soon as the wand, which emitted a dim glow, touched the wound, my body shuddered.

  "Ah!"

  A sense of conflict and pain as someone else's magic forced its way into my body made me tremble. My eyes involuntarily welled up physical tears. I looked up and kept breathing deeply, trying not to let the tears fall. I felt the wound begin to burn. The magic in me began to flow into the wound, fighting with the magic the Head Priest had injected into me, making it glint a yellowish light. As the light faded, the blood stopped.

  "My wound…"

  "This first aid is only going to stop the bleeding for a while. Your wound is not healing. Releasing magic around Tronbay would be like committing suicide, but there's nothing else I can do."

  Thus said the Head Priest, in his exhaustion. My wound was no longer bleeding, but Tronbay was more alive than ever.

  "Head Priest…"

  "In order to stop the bleeding, I have lost the blessing of the god of darkness, so I have no weapon against Tronbay. Rescue should have come…"

  Said the Head Priest, looking up into the air, and shouting at the knights who were coming this way: "Too slow!". He had always been so aristocratic that he never showed any real emotion outside the Secret Room, so it made me shiver to hear him roar now.

  "Lord Ferdinand, that signal for help… What happened?!"

  As soon as the knights landed, they were stunned by what they saw.

  "Castid, it's the incompetence of the guards you chose that caused this! Save Maine now! I had lost my blessing to stop her bleeding, and now had no weapon against Tronbay. The branches are about to wrap around her neck. Hurry up!"

  "Yes!"

  With no weapon to confront Tronbay, the Head Priest turned aside to make way for the knights. Knights in metal armour charged with black weapons and stormed it. Explosions rang out all around me, sending up clouds of dust and debris.

  I began to cough uncontrollably.

  "Don't hurt Maine, Castid! Her blood will make good food for Tronbay!"

  The Head Priest gave his order and walked slowly to Skicossa and the attendants. I could only see his back, but there was no need for expressions or eyes to convey his burning anger.

  Although it was Skicossa who was at fault, he was an aristocrat of high standing. Under the rigid class system of this world, will I in the end bear all the responsibility? At any rate, will they punish or question me, as my blood has caused this unexpected battle?

  … It's possible.

  My mood darkened as I thought of what might happen next. The knights gathered around me, attacking the roots of Tronbay without a moment's rest.

  "… the blessing begins to take effect."

  Damuel sighed with relief. Because the wound on the back of my hand no longer bled, Tronbay lost its nourishment and stopped growing.

  As a result of being attacked by weapons with the blessing of the god of darkness, the Tronbay around me began to wither, just like the giant Tronbay. Freed from the fear of strangulation, I settled for a moment.

  "Oh, it's really hard to use!"

  "Damuel, you're the only one here with a knife. Be careful!"

  It seemed that the blessed weapon could not change its form, and so it fell to Damuel with the knife to cut the branches around my neck, while the other knights had to slowly and deliberately cut the surrounding branches with the large weapons they had used in their crusade against the giant Tronbay.

  "Damuel, trainee priestess… is your name Maine? How did this happen? It's the first time I've seen Lord Ferdinand so angry."

  Castid asked me in a low voice as he cut a branch at my feet.

  "Well……"

  Damuel turned his head to look at Skicossa. But he seemed unwilling to tell on Skicossa, and for a long time he faltered and said nothing. I felt an inexpressible restlessness at his ambivalence.

  How harsh the class system was here!

  The branches around my neck had been cleared away, so it would not be difficult to tell the truth in my present state, but whether Castid believed me or not was another matter. In a world where status was everything, I didn't know how much he would hear or believe what I say as a commoner. After all, he was also an aristocrat.

  … What should I do?

  "I must know the truth. Come on!"

  Castid, driven by our silence, urged us through gritted teeth.

  Then I remembered that the Head Priest had said to him angrily: "Castid, it's the incompetence of the guards you chose that caused this!" He was now anxious to know, in order to save himself, why the Head Priest was so angry; perhaps he would listen to me.

  "If I tell you what happened, Lord Castid, will you keep me safe?"

  I asked gingerly, also wanting to make sure that Skicossa was behaving in a way that was acceptable to the aristocrats. At least they wouldn't suddenly kill me before the ceremony had done, I figured. At last I made up my mind to speak to Castid. "Even if I confess everything," I said, "would an aristocrat be allowed to seize me by the hair, throw me to the ground, and threaten to gouge out my eyes with a knife, if I displeased him?"

  "What do you mean?… did you do these things to her?!"

  Castid took off his helmet with a loud clang, and showed his angry face. He glanced sharply at Damuel, who seemed frightened and began to defend himself with all his might.

  "It wasn't me! It was Skicossa who threatened her with a knife. I wanted to help her, but Skicossa wanted me to remember who I was…"

  "Idiot! No wonder Lord Ferdinand was furious!"

  Castid tore off the branches that had become extremely fragile. The branches cracked with a clatter. It seemed that not only the Head Priest, but Also Castid was angry at the guards' behavior. In this case, even if I had told the truth, I should not have been suddenly hacked to death. I made my own judgment and turned to face Castid's pale blue eyes, which were brimming with anger.

  "Speak quickly, Maine. But you must swear to the gods that you will speak the truth without any falsehood."

  "I see, Lord Castid. I swear to the gods that there will not be a lie in what I say next."

  "Wait a minute…" Damuel interrupted me, but Castid pushed him aside. Convinced that Castid was serious about hearing my story, I gave a full account of what the two guards had done, and stated that the attendants, who were present at the time, could testify for me.

  It took the Order quite a long time to get me out of the tangle of branches without hurting me, so long that I could not get out of it until I had told all the details.

  "Hey, are you okay?"

  "I don't think I'm okay. Call my attendant, please."

  It was a long time before I was free again. I looked as miserable as a lamb. My new ceremonial dress had been torn, and the blood-stained cloth was riddled as if it had been corroded. I felt pain all over my body, and probably because I had fought so hard, I couldn't muster any strength.

  "Where is the attendant of the trainee priestess?!"

  Volume 6 8: The Dedication Ritual

  I was playing reversi with the High Priest (who finished his paperwork early today). He suddenly pushed a sound-blocking magic tool towards me. I stretched my arm to grab it while he placed his black piece on the playing board.

  “Myne, the Dedication Ritual will start on the next Earthday.”


  “Right.”


  I kept staring at the black piece he placed on the board, pondering my next move when I heard Ferdinand whispered under his breath.

  “…Make a bad move.”


  I looked back up at him, confused at what he meant then. He warned me to not look away, that I did not need to put my shocked expression on display.

  “I told the High Bishop that typically, you will only have seven to eight stones worth of mana left after offering twelve stones worth of mana. He will believe that twenty is your limit before you pass out. But of course, you have much more than that…” His words trailed off as he reached for another reversi stone. We were using square wooden blocks with one side painted black as reversi stones. He never broke his line of sight from the board.

  “If you show him your full capability by accident, he will probably think that we had lied to him or that we were trying to hide your powers. So it would be to our advantage that you hold back to filling a maximum of twenty stones everyday for the Dedication Ritual. It would be better if you feign weakness after that.”


  “I have no problems with that, but wouldn’t it mean we were actually deceiving him?”


  It was not a big deal for me to control my mana, but then it would make High Bishop’s misunderstanding true that we were truly deceiving him. However, my comment only made the High Priest smirk.

  “It will not be considered a misunderstanding if we had actually lied to him, right? I also dislike it when people lie to me, but we can always disprove his claims by saying that we truly did deceive him. Of course, it will always be better for us to take a precaution by making you hide your full powers. It would be foolish of us to reveal everything to him. To defeat your enemies, you cannot reveal all your tricks, and in this case, you cannot reveal all your powers.”


  “I see…”


  I got High Priest’s point, but my imagination went straight to the scene of High Bishop yelling “You deceived me!” and the High Priest responding with a “Yes we did”.

  …Yup, High Priest is a bad guy…


  ~~~

  On the Earthday that the Dedication Ritual began. Delia woke me up early in the morning for a bath and cleaned me up. Then, she helped dress me in my ceremonial robes. The blue robes had embroidery of blue thread that resembled waves and flowers, it had gold threading at the sleeves and was finished with a silver cloth around the waist. There were smaller red decorations, red represented winter religiously. The colour symbolised a hopeful life that weakened the cold.

  “Delia, I will be using the new hairpin today.”


  I stopped Delia from taking the old hairpin from the closet and took out a cloth from my table drawer and handed it to her. Tuuli jad brought over a few days ago

  “Hey! You can’t leave the hairpins in your drawer! Who knows if you’ll mess up all the flowers?!”


  Delia shook her head as she carefully took out the hairpin. The hairpin had the same design as the one I wore at my baptism ceremony, but this time it used red and green thread that would suit the winter and spring rituals. It had three large red flowers and a long strand decorated with many small green leaves, it used the same concept I did for the small white flowers.

  My family made me a new hairpin for temple work after seeing how sad I had been after my other one was ruined from the time I worked with the Knight Order. This would comfort me over my lonely winter in the temple.

  “The hairpin looks really good on you, but the other went well with your hair colour, Sister Myne.” said Rosin who was standing from a distance. She twinged with some regret after I had tied up my hair with the new hairpin.

  “Unfortunately, there’s nothing to be done about it. I made a request to use the symbolic colours for the upcoming winter and spring rituals, so we can’t do anything about it not matching my hair colour.”


  After my hair was done, I waited for Damuel to walk me to the High Priest’s room.

  The High Priest’s attendants had a difficult time summoning me because my room was the only one this far away from the nobles’ area of the temple. He urged me to wait in his room before the ceremony to save time.

  My robes were made of the finest fabric available, it provided much warmth and was light, it made a very satisfying swishing sound everytime I moved.

  “Those clothes definitely look like the insane price they cost,” said Damual in amazement as he looked at my robes, he was definitely thinking about the money he spent just to cover a quarter of its price.

  It was different from my first set that was made from available cloth, this one had been made from scratch that was more expensive. I was curious and asked Damuel how much he had spent, and they had cost triple of the first one I had bought.

  Damuel was from a laynoble family that was not very affluent, they were not much better than commoners. It turns out he had passed out when he found out the amount he had to pay. He tried asking his family for help, so in the end it was his older brother’s concubine who ended up bearing most of the cost.

  “I heard that you paid for your first set, apprentice. I’m impressed that you have that much money.”


  “They were made out of the cloth someone gave me, so it’s not as expensive as you think it is.”


  “I see, but even so…”


  We finished our conversation when we arrived at the High Priest’s chambers. The High Priest was absent because he had to attend the ritual, but he left behind some attendants to tend to me.

  “Good morning, Sister Myne. Arno will come over after the other blue priests are done with the ritual. Please make yourself comfortable until then.”


  I had to fast until the ritual was over, so there was nothing for me to do but wait. I sat in the chair offered to me while Fran and Damuel stood behind me. It felt kind of weird that Damuel who was a noble, was standing while I sat. I turned my head to ask him.

  “Are you not going to sit down, Sir Damuel?”


  “Apprentice, a bodyguard cannot seat as he would be unable to move fast enough when needed. An emergency could pop up any time.” His serious tone made it definitive that he was not going to change his mind, so I had no choice but to keep seated, even though it felt so uncomfortable.

  I waited quietly, and Arno did come for me.

  “Sister Myne, please follow me now,” he said.

  I got up to follow him, along with Fran and Damual who tagged along behind. We left the High Priest’s room, we walked past several other doors then the High Bishop’s room before we turned a corner. Arno walked faster than my attendants who usually slowed down to match my pace.

  Fran noticed I was struggling to keep up and he called out to Arno.

  “Apologies, Arno, may I request that you slow down?”


  “Oh, I see. I was walking too fast for Sister Myne,” he said before slowing his steps. “I’m sorry.”


  A gray priest slowly opened the door at the end of the hallway as we moved towards it. Seeing that he was looking inside the room, he probably was not opening it for me, but for those inside heading out.

  The first person that emerged was a large man dressed in white robes with a golden ribbon around his waist. Those robes looked familiar, there was only one man who could wear them, so I recognized him instantly.

  “…High Bishop.” I bluttered his title without a second thought. I almost forgot about him since it had been a while since I last saw him after entering the temple, but there was no doubt he still saw me as an enemy. His face grimaced with disgust when he looked at me and he approached us with that crude face.

  This was the worst coincidence, his room was behind us so he would return there now. If we delayed our departure from the High Priest’s chambers, we would not have to cross paths as The High Bishop would have retreated to his chambers.

  I stepped aside, knelt down and placed my arms across my chest. Arno, Fran and Damuel followed along. I heard High Bishop’s footsteps and swishing of his robes approaching me. I filled with dread because I knew he despised me and might do something to me. My heart was pacing around as I quietly waited for him to pass by.

  I kept my eyes on the floor and soon I saw his white robes pass me. I was thankful that he only let out an arrogant snort before moving on. I kept my knees to the ground and my head down until I heard his door shut. I gave a relieved sigh and got up.

  Arno continued guiding me to the ritual hall door that was still open.

  “Sir Damuel, please wait here. Only priests and shrine maidens are allowed into the ritual hall.” I turned around when Arno spoke, but he gestured me to head in, signaling that the High Priest was waiting inside.

  And as expected, when I walked in, I saw the High Priest alone in the room standing in front of the altar.

  The ritual hall looked like a small chapel. It’s ceiling was taller and wider than the High Priest’s room. The walls were painted white with gold-plated ornaments fixed at equal distances. The walls had white pillars with gold pieces engraved at the top like that of the chapel. Between each pillar were windows and there were metal torches set alite

  On the wall at the other side of the room, there was an abstract wall decorated with striking art in bright colours. In front of the wall was an altar with different levels, with torches on both sides. A long red cloth that looked like carpets was laid down the centre of the hall and it continued up and over the altar. On top of the altar were various divine objects but there was not a single statue of the gods.

  The top of the altar was the King and Queen of gods, along with the Light Goddess crown on the Dark God’s cape. At the centre of the step beneath it was a huge gold chalice surrounded by several smaller ones on. The small chalices were returned from the farming towns by the blue priests during the Harvest Festival, they needed to be filled with mana during the Dedication Ritual. They would be returned after winter during the Spring Prayer. On the next level was the divine staff, spear, shield and sword.

  The last step had an array of offerings to the gods - plants that symbolised the coming of spring, fruits that celebrated a plenty harvest, incense that welcomed peaceful times, and cloths that displayed their dedicated faith in them.

  “You arrived sooner than I anticipated, Myne.”


  The High Priest turned around. He was donned in his own ceremonial robes, a different one from those he usually wore. Though they were blue, there were lots of embroidered leaves on it, it was accompanied with red decorations, the colour of winter and a gold sash worn by adults.

  “There doesn’t seem to be any other blue priests,” I commented.

  “We have sufficient mana that they don’t need to be present,” replied the High Priest. I only thought about how they would only be insulted when they saw a commoner girl they mocked could offer more mana they could ever hope to have. I was completely unbothered about their absence, being around them was not a nice experience for me anyways.

  “But this is not for their pride,” the High Priest remarked, as though he had seen through me and I was surprised by what he said… “When individuals come together for the same goal and say the same prayers, their mana will flow together, speeding up the process because te mana is able to leave the body more easily. If the blue priests were to become entangled in the mana you release, they might get trapped in it and get injured.”


  “.I see.”


  “I am the only one who can do this with you. We shall begin.”


  The High Priest knelt down in front of the altar, he touched the cloth on the floor while I did the same behind him.

  The most important ritual in the temple was the Dedication Ritual. It was here that we priests and shrine maidens replenished the divine instruments with the mana needed for next year’s harvest. We make mana flow into the divine instruments only by praying and placing with our hands on the crimson cloth on the floor and over the altar. This was because the cloth was made from thread imbued with mana.

  “I offer my prayer and thanks to the gods who have created this world.”


  I recited the prayer after the High Priest, whose quiet, methodical voice boomed across the ceremonial hall.

  “O mighty King and Queen of the immortal sky, and the mighty Eternal Five who rule over the mortal realm. O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, O Goddess of Earth Gedulth, O God of Life Ewigeliebe. We honor you who have blessed this land with life, and pray for your continued blessings from your divine powers.”


  With every word I spoke, I felt the mana coursing through my body. The cloth began to glow and within the light, I saw my mana flowing through it towards the altar.

  “Myne, enough.” ordered the High Priest as he gracefully removed his hand from the cloth. I followed him and cut off the mana, witnessing the last spark fizzle out into the chalice.

  ~~~

  The High Priest said, “That should be all for today.” after looking at the small chalices. “There was a lot more mana than I expected.”


  We had filled seven today, and some quick math told me that we would only take eight days to fill them all…


  “If you were not here, I would have had to fill these all by myself, even though I have other responsibilities in the Noble’s District…” The High Priest sighed in exhaustion, which was a rare sight.

  I also looked at the chalices on the altar and nodded along.

  So that’s why the High Priest was so nice to me. It would be exhausting for anyone to have to fill all of these by themselves. I’d always wondered why he gave so little mana during our regular offerings, and now I know why, it’s because he works in the Noble’s District that I don’t have to. That’s rough.

  As a result, I did the Dedication Ritual everyday. It was only me and the High Priest every time, no other blue priests would be present. This went on for almost a week, and then the High Priest brought in ten new chalices just as we were about done.

  “Myne, the ritual will have to go on longer. May I request for your assistance?”


  “Did something happen?” I asked. He told me that the neighbouring duchy had a severe shortage of mana that was worse than ours, and requested for our help if we had anymore mana to spare.

  “We can use this chance to win some political points and favors from them. It will be tiring, but it will be wise to seize this opportunity.”


  “…Uhm, haven’t we already established a good relationship with them?”


  “Yes, indeed, but that is exactly why we need to strengthen our foothold by regulating assisting them. There is no point maintaining a good relationship is we are not the ones in power.”


  …Politics sure is scary.

  I realised that my own idea of friendship didn’t apply to that here when it comes to establishing a good relationship with another duchy, needed to protect one’s own duchy. Two duchies with good terms did not translate to two people going well together. I understood all these but I still had trouble accepting it.

  Even if there was no politics behind this, I had no problems offering help needed by the archduke. Moreover, I had too much mana that I barely used because I did not know how to or have any feystones or magic tools for personal use.

  ““I offer my prayer and thanks to the gods who have created this world.”


  Both of us poured our mana into the little chalices, but we were interrupted in the middle by the creek from the chamber door opening.

  “I see that you’re praying well.”


  Both the High Priest and I stood up and turned around. The High Bishop who had never stepped into the hall for the ritual was now in the room. He strolled to the altar while carryig a bag filled with something unknown.

  “Did something happen, High Bishop?” asked the High Priest, but there was no reply.

  The High Bishop just silently took out a few small chalices from his bag, he placed them on the altar one by one. After lining up ten of them, he turned back to us and gave a polite smile, the same one I had seen before he learned that I was a commoner.

  “Now then, Myne. You will fill these with mana too. Orders from the archduke himself.”


  “I have not been informed of this.” The High Priest looked at the High Bishop in suspicion. The High Bishop gave a piercing gaze but his smile remained the same.

  “The request is not for you. I am asking Myne. Don’t tell me your orders are superior to mine, the High Bishop’s.”


  I had to make my choice to obey or to not, but I already had so many enemies so it would not be a good idea to disobey an order from the High Bishops. Disobeying him will cause me more trouble.

  In the end, I just looked at the High Priest for help. He understood why I looked at him and gave a troubled look back before nodding slowly.

  “We are done with today’s ritual. If you allow us, we will do it by tomorrow.”


  “Do not forget what you said.”


  The High Bishop’s smile turned into an ugly one before he made his way out of the ritual hall. One of the gray priests shut the door after he left. The hall was finally quiet, but the silence was broken with the High Priest’s sigh.

  “I was worried that you would get emotional again. But it is evident that the archduke was not behind these extra chalices.”


  “So, so we have to fill them? I don’t mind trying to gain some favours…” The High Priest was silent as he pondered on, after a while he gave his answer with a frown.

  “We will continue as we have done so previously. Leave this case to me, I will approach the archduke about this matter but the snow will delay the time it will take. It would be best for you to follow his orders. May I ask for your cooperation?”


  “Of course.”


  After which, my days were occupied with having to fill the small chalices which were increasing in numbers over time.