by Miya Kazuki
“Looks like they’re good now. Once we wash them to get the lime off, start the boiling.”
“...Huh? Myne, what’re you doing here?” Lutz, having finished lunch at Benno’s (and thereby having finished giving Benno his report), blinked in surprise after seeing me in the workshop. It was rare for me to visit the workshop multiple times in one day, since I wasn’t allowed to participate in the work myself.
“The Gilberta Company sent over rugs today, remember? Delia’s head over heels excited to redecorate, so... she kinda kicked me out.”
“Huh. Well, that’s convenient. Master Benno told me to tell you that your robes are done and to visit Corinna when you can. Why not go now, if you can’t be in your room? I’ll drop by to get you on my way home,” suggested Lutz, and I nodded. It would be dangerous for me to just stand around outside on a cold autumn day. Benno’s store would be a safe refuge for me.
“I like that idea. I’ll take Rosina with me to Corinna’s, so could you bring Fran with you when you come get me? I won’t make Rosina go back on her own.”
“Alright.”
“Lutz, you go wash the hides,” added Gil. “I’ll take Sister Myne to her chambers.”
I returned to my chambers with Gil, only for Delia to yell a hearty “Geez!” at me since they had already started moving furniture. It seemed that messy chambers were a disgrace, and for that reason masters must not return until the redecorating is finished.
“I just heard they finished my ceremonial robes. I’ll be going to the Gilberta Company now, and then I will go straight home. You’ll at least have to let me get changed first. Also, Rosina, could you accompany me to Corinna’s?”
“Of course, Sister Myne.” Rosina left to get changed into her outside clothes, and Delia changed me while excitedly informing me that the redecorating would be finished by tomorrow.
“Sorry, Fran, but Lutz will be dropping by later to take you to the store. I just couldn’t bear to send Rosina back alone so late in the day.”
“Understood. Until tomorrow, Sister Myne. I humbly await your return.”
After Fran saw us off, I walked down the chilly city streets with Rosina, who was wearing her freshly purchased rouge outfit. Fran often walked me home or to the Gilberta Company, and Gil often went to the forest, but Rosina rarely had the opportunity to walk outside. The way she was peering around curiously despite having to scrunch up her nose at the smell was very cute.
“You know,” I began, “I think Wilma’s art would improve if she walked outside like this.”
“She might develop the courage to do just that sooner or later. It wasn’t too long ago that she trembled in fear from afar whenever a gray priest drew water for our soup, and now she is giving them instructions.”
It seemed that Wilma was conquering her fears bit by bit now that she had been entrusted with the orphanage and its children. I was glad to hear reports of Wilma’s growth through Rosina.
“Hi, Mark. I’m here because Benno called for me.”
“The master is presently in a business meeting. If you would wait here for a moment, I will go contact Corinna directly.”
I sat in the chair offered to me by Mark, and Rosina slid into position behind me. An apprentice brought me tea at Mark’s instruction. I drank it and took a deep breath.
“Lady Myne, please follow me.” Mark addressed me as “Lady Myne” since I had Rosina with me and I was visiting Corinna as a customer. We left the store and climbed the outside stairs to the third floor.
“Corinna, Lady Myne has arrived.”
“Hello there, sweetie.” Corinna greeted me with a dreamy smile after Mark opened the door for her. Her eyes then widened in surprise after falling on Rosina. “Oh, you’ve brought an attendant with you? Should I call you Lady Myne, then?”
“It doesn’t matter to me, but it does to Rosina, so maybe you should.”
“Aha. In that case, Lady Myne, please follow me.” She guided me to the usual parlor, and there I found my ceremonial robes hung on a clothing rack, spread out wide in front of me.
“Wow!” She had positioned the rack such that light streaming from the window hit the robes, which brought out the seasonal flowers and the wavy embroidery, which had been sewn with the same color thread as the cloth. The light actually made the embroidery with its little sparkles of white thread look like water, so much so that I found myself at a loss for words.
“...It’s splendid.” Rosina’s breathless praise brought me back to my senses.
“Corinna, this really is beautiful. I thank you ever so much.”
“Why, I must thank you myself.” Corinna held down her slowly growing belly with one hand while gently removing the robes from the rack.
“Please, try them on. Forgive me, miss, but could you please help? It is a bit hard for me to move with a belly this large.”
“But of course.” Rosina took the blue robes from Corinna and put them on me. She was fast and efficient, which made sense given that she served another blue shrine maiden before me.
The robes had been dyed completely blue, with embroidery of the same color. The sleeves and hem were lined with silver, and there was fancy gold embroidery beneath the neck. On top of that, the crest of the Myne Workshop was embroidered with gold in the center of the outfit when viewed from the front.
I stood in place, frozen by anxiety. I felt like a bride wearing her wedding dress or something. I had to act graceful and elegant. I couldn’t let them get dirty at all. It felt like the clothes were wearing me, and demanding that I live to suit them.
“Here is the sash.” It seemed that sashes for ceremonial clothes differed based on age; apprentices had white sashes with silver embroidery, while adults had white sashes with gold embroidery. Corinna explained that the embroidery contained words of prayer from the bible.
“Excuse me, but this cloth seems to be exceptionally heavy...?” Rosina looked up at Corinna as she wrapped the sash around me, and Corinna gave an explanation with her bright smile not faltering for an instant.
“If you sew multiple layers of cloth into the robes ahead of time, they can grow along with Lady Myne. I fashioned them in this way after learning the techniques she described to me. It was a risk, but surely one that will be beneficial for ceremonial robes that she will rarely use.”
“...You surprise me as always, Sister Myne.” Rosina let out an awed murmur after Corinna explained that she had made the robes at my instructions, rather than devising them on her own.
Rosina then stood up, having finished dressing me, and gave a firm nod after looking me over from every angle. “This robe truly is splendid. Every time you move, it reveals more of the flowers and water, and they will surely draw the attention of all those around you.”
Rosina had served Sister Christine and still gave these robes her utmost approval. Corinna, having been tense about using a new technique on such important robes, visibly relaxed.
I had my ceremonial robes and my chambers were being redecorated for winter. We had preserved our food, made candles, and stored them both in cellars with firewood.
The hide glue was placed in an area where cool wind blew, and the workshop was hard at work making paper and ink for our second round of printing.
And finally, we knew what tools we needed for winter handiwork and they were all being bought.
The orphanage’s winter preparations were more or less complete.
Summons from the Knight’s Order
The time for the Harvest Festival ended and the blue priests returned to the temple. I hadn’t seen them arrive myself, but I could indirectly tell by the increased amount of divine gifts in the orphanage.
The High Priest had been sent to a relatively close town and thus returned quickly compared to the other blue priests, which meant that I was back to helping him again every day after third bell.
“High Priest, I finished the math on these sheets.” Just like usual, I was blasting through the math the High Priest assigned to me.
/> I looked up after finishing a stack of sheets, just in time to see a white bird flying straight towards the window. “Oh no! It’s going to hit the window!” I cried on instinct, only for the white bird to pass right through the glass and do a loop inside the room. It flapped down to the High Priest’s desk and folded its wings politely.
“B-Bwuh?! What’s going on?!” I was panicking with wide eyes, but everyone else here seemed to know what the bird was all about. The High Priest’s attendants were eyeing it with only a little caution.
“Be quiet, Myne.” The High Priest chastised me as he touched the bird, and the moment he did, a male voice began to speak from the bird’s mouth.
“Ferdinand, the Knight’s Order calls for the temple to perform its duty. Prepare to set out at once.” The message was repeated thrice, then the bird disappeared into thin air and dropped a yellow stone onto the table.
The High Priest took out a shining baton-looking thing from somewhere and lightly hit the stone while murmuring something. The stone immediately began growing in size with its shape twisting, until moments later it looked like the same white bird as before.
“Understood,” spoke the High Priest at the bird with a wave of his baton, and in turn the bird spread its wings wide. It then flew out of the window through the glass just like it had when entering the room.
...Wow! So fantasy! I wiggled with excitement at the magic the High Priest had just performed, only for him to glare at me. That made me realize that the previously still attendants had stopped working and begun cleaning up, preparing for something.
“Myne, the Knight’s Order calls upon us! Get changed into your ceremonial robes and head to the Noble’s Gate at once!”
The High Priest looked so serious that I replied with an enthusiastic “Yes sir!” even though I had no idea where the Noble’s Gate was. “...Um, where is the Noble’s Gate?”
“I will guide you,” said Fran as he did the cross-armed salute to the High Priest, then he picked me up before immediately leaving the High Priest’s room. He strode quickly down the halls.
“Sister Myne, have you memorized the ritual prayer?” asked Fran, and I nodded while clinging to his shoulder.
“Delia, Rosina! Prepare the ceremonial robes at once!” The moment Fran opened my door, he let out a loud shout unlike anything I had heard from him before. He didn’t stop moving as he yelled, either. He strode right up the stairs at high speed. Upon arriving on the second floor, he set me down, turned around, and sped back down the stairs.
Delia ran up to me with the robes and set them on the table before immediately starting to take off the blue robes I was wearing.
“B-Bwuh?!”
“Geez! Please stay still!” Delia’s blue eyes glared at me hard after I reeled from the abnormal intensity of her undressing.
While I froze in place, stunned by how much of a rush everyone was in, Delia slid the ceremonial robes onto me. Rosina began tying the sash while I was getting my arms through the sleeves. Delia went and got a yellowish strap of cloth, which Rosina tied around my sash as further decoration.
...Have they rehearsed this? ’Cause I mean, wow.
Just as Rosina finished tying the sash, Delia pulled out my hair stick in one smooth motion. Rosina sat me onto a nearby chair before my hair even had time to finish falling down.
“Sister Myne, you will be dealing with the Knight’s Order. No matter what happens, you must not allow any displeasure to show on your face.” As Rosina stood behind me and brushed my hair, Delia took the fancy hair stick I wore at my baptism out of the closet.
“Sister Myne, please wear this one.”
I took the hair stick and bundled up my hair like usual.
“Sister Myne is ready!” called Delia, and Fran immediately rushed up the stairs. He was wearing a pouch on his waist, and he set the tools he had been using in the High Priest’s room for work onto the table.
“Rosina, please put these away. Forgive me, Sister Myne, but we must hurry,” said Fran, and he picked me up once again and strode out of my chambers.
“Fran, where is the Noble’s Gate?”
“It is located at the back of the noble area of the temple. It connects to the Noble’s Quarter and is used for blue priests returning home or entering the Noble’s Quarter on church business.”
Considering that I had been taking long detours around the noble area of the temple to avoid seeing blue priests and that I had no business in the Noble’s Quarter, the Noble’s Gate had basically been irrelevant to me up until now.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
We passed through a door within the noble area and found the High Priest clad in silver armor, along with Arno holding the staff that was the Goddess of Water Flutrane’s divine instrument.
The High Priest’s entire body was covered in plate armor, and on top of that he held a full helmet beneath his left arm. The helmet wasn’t very decorated, but it was styled like a Corinthian helmet from Ancient Greece, where there was a T shape in the front which covered the nose but left the eyes and mouth visible. To top things off, his gleaming silver armor had a blue cape covered in vibrant designs.
In front of them was a tall wall that seemed to separate the temple from the outside, with a large two-doored gate that seemed impossible for human strength alone to open. Each were made of the same white marble as the temple, and under the sunlight they were so bright it was hard to look at them.
“Are those your ceremonial robes?” The High Priest looked me over from head to toe after Fran set me down, then spun his finger in a circle to instruct me to turn around. I held out my arms and spun so he could see more of it. “That is a somewhat unusual design, but it is better than I expected.”
The High Priest’s expression softened, then he called for Arno, who came this way and held out something towards me. “Myne,” continued the High Priest, “you were born in summer, as I recall. I will lend this to you for now. You would do well to put it on your middle finger.”
Arno had given me a ring with a large blue gem in the middle. The ring was clearly too big for me, but I took it and said my thanks before putting it on my left middle finger as instructed, expecting it to slide right off. But once it was on, the gem shone with a bright blue light and the ring shrunk to fit my finger perfectly.
“B-Bwuh?!”
“Cease gawking over every little thing.”
“I-I mean, can you really blame me...?” How could I not be surprised? These weren’t “little things” to me.
The High Priest lending me this ring meant that it would be important where we were going. And we were going to a land of fantasy, where nothing I knew would apply.
“Wait here,” instructed the High Priest, who then walked to the gate with his armor clanking. Upon reaching it, he placed a hand upon a door.
A massive magic circle immediately sprung into the air, just like the one that appeared over the hidden door in his room. The gate then began to open on its own, slowly but surely. And despite being used to automatic doors from my Urano days, the sight of that made my heart jump with surprise.
“Bwuh?!”
“Your commoner origins are painfully obvious. Could you at least try to remain silent?”
The High Priest was expecting too much from me, an actual commoner. But Arno and Fran seemed unfazed by the opening gate, likely due to having accompanied the High Priest to the Noble’s Quarter before as his attendants. If this was normal for nobles and something that both they and their attendants experienced on the regular, then the Knight’s Order would doubtlessly view me with suspicion if I were to keep letting out embarrassing cries of surprise. I pressed my lips together to try and contain them.
“Follow me.” The High Priest began walking through the open gate. Arno followed, and so did Fran after picking me up.
We passed through the gate and into the Noble’s Quarter, and my eyes widened in shock. It was like passing through the gate had taken us to another world. There was a large
fountain in the middle of a paved stone plaza. The plaza gleamed white as it reflected the sun’s rays, and the street was made of the same stone.
In the lower city, tall buildings were crammed next to each other. But here, ivory stone paving and lush green parks stretched on as far as the eye could see. And unlike the filthy lower city, I couldn’t see a single trace of grime here. The Noble’s Quarter was startlingly clean and beautiful. Even the air was cleaner, perhaps due to something keeping it separated from the lower city.
There were twenty-some knights in the ivory plaza, each wearing silver armor similar to the High Priest’s but distinguished by yellow capes instead of blue. They were undoubtedly the Knight’s Order. And they must have noticed the gate opening, as they gathered together and formed four rows.
“Sister Myne, please act like a noble,” whispered Fran in a quiet voice with me still held in his arms. I nodded and attempted to make a graceful smile like Rosina’s.
Only the lone knight who stood in front of the others had a helm under his arm. He was a somewhat stocky older man with reddish-brown hair. Each movement he made was trained and precise, almost beautifully so, but he had the furiously intense air of a warrior.
He walked up to the High Priest and knelt before him, which signaled all the knights behind him to kneel as well, filling the air with the sound of clanking armor. “Lord Ferdinand, I am pleased to see you well.”
“Same to you, Karstedt.” The man talking to the High Priest seemed to be named Karstedt, and it wasn’t hard to guess that he was the captain or something of the Knight’s Order. “Not many knights with you today.”
“There are many who have not returned from the Harvest Festival.”
“I see,” murmured the High Priest in a resigned tone before lifting his hand. Fran set me down, and gently pushed me from behind so that I would stand in front. “Karstedt, this is Myne, the apprentice shrine maiden who will be performing the ritual. Keep an eye on her, if you would.”