Apprentice Shrine Maiden Volume 2 (Premium)

by Miya Kazuki

  “Myne, can you hear me?”

  “Wha? I can hear you, High Priest. Where are you?” Ferdinand had expected her to be afraid or disgusted, but instead she reacted normally like nothing was odd at all. He once again fought back the urge to chastise her.

  “I am synchronizing our minds right now. You had far more mana than I anticipated. You say that you were educated in the world of dreams, and it is now necessary for me to determine whether you intend to bring harm or good upon this land. Forgive me, but I will be investigating your memories.”

  “Okay, that’s fine. I don’t mind,” responded Myne casually, and nobody in the world could blame Ferdinand for reeling in disbelief. She showed no resistance whatsoever to someone intending to look through her memories.

  “To be clear, I will be seeing your actual memories. Do you truly not mind? Is that not an uncomfortable breach of privacy to you?”

  “Well, I mean, it doesn’t feel great, but... you seeing my memories is the safest bet for me to stay alive. I would much prefer this to being executed for nonexistent treason. And I mean, you’re doing me a favor by using this magic tool on me instead of just executing me outright, aren’t you?” said Myne.

  Due to their minds being synchronized, Ferdinand could tell that she really meant it. Should he praise her for her wisdom or scold her for not being more suspicious...? Likely the latter, but the lecture could wait. The synchronization seemed like it would be quite tiring, and the sooner he finished it the better.

  “In that case, would you take me to the world of dreams you spoke of? We should be able to go there if you bring up memories of it.”

  “Wait, does that mean I can go anywhere I want?”

  ...Why?! Why is Myne so excited despite the fact that her memories are being searched?! Myne’s eager feelings of excitement were sent straight to Ferdinand, who felt nothing but worry about them. This is bad. I feel that this is quite bad indeed. Will I be able to stop Myne if she loses control? If I do not steel my mind, she might end up dragging me all across her memories.

  “Myne, you need to show me only what I came here to see. First, show me the source of your knowledge.”

  “No problem! I’ll start by taking you to my beloved library!” Myne replied in a bright voice, and suddenly Ferdinand was standing before a large, unfamiliar building. He wanted to look up to see just how tall it was, but he and Myne were sharing the same eyes, and what he could see was limited by where Myne was looking. What he could see was a beautifully paved stone road, and what he could feel was the gentle wind on her skin. Judging by the lack of filth and the resulting smell, they weren’t in a lower city. The building must have been somewhere in a Noble’s Quarter.

  “Aaah, it’s been so long!” Myne’s voice echoed and through her eyes Ferdinand saw that they were moving into the building. She was waxing nostalgic while skipping into the building without any hesitation. There was no doubt whatsoever that this was the world she spoke of. An unbelievably clear glass door slid to the side with a whirring noise, despite the fact that she hadn’t touched it or poured mana into it.

  “Myne, does magic exist here too? I seem to recall you saying that the Dewey Decimal System lacked a section for mana.”

  “Aaah... There’s no magic here. This is an automatic door that operates on different principles.” They lacked magic, but had something that worked like magic. That was strange and intriguing.

  “What country is this, Myne? It does not seem to be any country I am aware of.”

  “It’s called Japan. I used to live here in the past, until one day I was crushed to death by books. When I woke up, I was Myne.”

  Ferdinand could hardly understand what Myne was saying. But he could feel that she was speaking the truth with no intention to hide anything. It was the first time Ferdinand had ever found it difficult to understand someone precisely because they were being so honest.

  “...You died, from being crushed by books?” The idea of her being crushed to death was equally hard for him to believe. He couldn’t even imagine there being enough books to literally bury someone. But suddenly, he found himself in the middle of massive bookcases stuffed full of books.

  “...Where is this?”

  “The local public library I used to always go to.” It was a library where books lined shelves as far as the eye could see. Even the library in the Royal Academy didn’t have this many books. Certainly, with this many books, being crushed to death by them would not be impossible.

  “These are all... books?”

  “Uh huh, this is a library. Oh, but libraries have started carrying (videos), (CDs), and (DVDs) too lately. Aaah, I’m so happy. This is it! This is the paradise I’ve been chasing after!”

  Ferdinand could feel that Myne really was so happy she could cry. She immediately raced past the rows of bookcases, perhaps heading to her favorite spot. There was a soft carpet covering the library’s floor, stifling her footsteps entirely. Ferdinand felt dizzy just imagining how much it would have cost to build this library.

  ...I see. Given that she loves books this much and has memories of a library this grand, I can somewhat understand why she began to sob after finding the temple’s book room. It seemed that in this world books were very beloved, in contrast to his own world. The books here were not chained, and Myne was picking up each book she wanted to read, each made with designs like the ones she had made in the temple. There were men, women, the elderly, and children in the library. Some wore fine garments that made their wealth clear, some wore raggedy clothing that made their poverty clearer. All of the clothing he saw as Myne made her way through the library was fairly colorful, but even the ones with raggedy clothing were touching books. In Ferdinand’s eyes, it was unthinkable that poor people would be allowed to touch books.

  “Myne, is that woman out of her mind? Should madwomen like her be allowed to touch books?”

  “A madwoman? Who?” Myne looked around the corridor.

  “To the left. That woman is exposing her knees despite being an adult. She must be too poor to afford more cloth, but she is dyeing her clothes. Why doesn’t she just stop dyeing her clothes? I simply do not understand.”

  “In this world, women can wear skirts of any length. Everyone’s just wearing the clothes they want, don’t worry about it. But still, this dream is just amazing. I can feel and even smell things.”

  Myne, having quickly lost interest in the woman, returned her gaze to the bookshelf. The lined-up books were similar to the paper books Myne had made, but they were more beautiful and in larger quantities than Ferdinand could have ever imagined.

  Myne, after deliberately looking from one end of the bookcase to the other, took one book off of the shelf. After hugging it tightly, she began inhaling its scent. Due to their minds being synchronized, Ferdinand also smelled the scent of paper and ink while Myne’s satisfaction was forced onto him. He wanted to end the synchronization right there.

  Myne eagerly sat in a comfy chair at the end of the bookcase and began reading. It wasn’t just a board with a sheet strung over it. The chair was actually soft and extremely pleasant to sit on. Ferdinand had felt nothing like it before.

  Still, Myne’s sight only let him see the book, the floor, and a bookshelf. He could see the open pages, but they were filled with tightly placed letters he could not recognize. The book had probably been printed in the manner Myne discussed earlier. It was black and white, just like hers.

  “Do the books in your dream world not have pictures?”

  “Wha?! Huh? Who is... Oh, right. It’s just you, High Priest.” Myne let out a surprised noise after Ferdinand spoke to her.

  ...This fool is unbelievable. She is completely absorbed in her own world, despite the fact that I am watching.

  “Ummm, pictures, right? If you want to see pictures, there are (artbooks) and (photo albums) here too.” Myne took out a large book filled with colorful pictures. The illustrations were so colorful and detailed it was hard to believe. Ferdinand was enr
aptured by their brilliance, but Myne shut the book in the blink of an eye.

  “Can I keep reading now, High Priest?”

  “No, you may not. Is this a children’s picture book, like the one you made?”

  “This is an (artbook), a collection of art drawn by a famous person. The kid’s corner is over here,” said Myne as she resumed walking through the library.

  “This is a picture book, and it’s what Cinderella is actually supposed to be.” Comparing the art of the picture book to the story Myne brought him just confused Ferdinand more. No human in the world had eyes that dominated the majority of their face, nor would one dress like that with hair like that. Or, well, perhaps a human like that did exist in this world.

  “...The story seems even more comical now that it has art attached, but regardless. Even this book has quite vivid colors. You need to put color in your books as well.”

  “I would like to, you know. It’s just that ink is so expensive. I’m trying to get it made, but it’s not easy. I wish I could just buy all the stuff I need here,” said Myne, and suddenly they teleported to a place where strange things were lined up on shelves. Not books this time, but oddly shaped... things covered in letters and various colors.

  “Oh, now we’re in an arts and crafts store. High Priest, if I buy things here can I take them with me when I wake up?”

  “Of course not, fool. Where are we?”

  “An arts and crafts store that my mom often took me to. This is paint.” Be it books or paint, Myne’s world was overflowing with all manner of things. The quantity and quality was enormous. He only knew what he had seen through Myne, but the wealth of culture in her world was enough to send his mind reeling.

  “There certainly is a wide variety of paint available.”

  “Uh huh. There’s all kinds of stuff here. Though I like bookstores more than arts and crafts stores.” The second Myne said that, they shifted locations once again. It seemed that Myne’s thoughts were as erratic as her behavior. Or rather, it would be safe to say that her behavior was erratic because her thoughts were.

  “Where is this?” It was a place with shelves full of books, just like the library. But unlike the library, loud music was playing, and it was so bright it made Ferdinand want to squint.

  “A store that sells new books. Eheheh, time to check for the new releases... Wait, nooooo! I can only see the ones I remembeeeeer!” Myne shouted something incomprehensible and got depressed out of nowhere. Being forced to experience the rapid ups and downs of her emotions was exhausting. Perhaps she collapsed so often due to the intensity of her mood swings.

  “Myne, why is it so bright despite the fact that we are inside a building?”

  “Oh, that’s because of the (electricity).” Myne looked up, and above the sea of bookshelves was a row of tiny suns, shining bright white light.

  “How do those things operate?”

  “Umm, they turn on once you flip a (light switch). But just like I wouldn’t understand an explanation about magic, you wouldn’t understand an explanation of how it works without doing a lot of research first.”

  Myne’s eyes once again locked onto the bookshelf. If she didn’t look around, he would only be able to see books. He could see interesting, unknown things out of the corners of her eyes, but she made no move to look at them. Their synchronization was hardly proving to be fruitful.

  “Myne, it is about time for you to stop looking at books.”

  “Awww, but why? I just want to see books. I can’t have dreams this realistic on my own.” Myne was nothing but unsatisfied. She truly only had eyes for books.

  Ferdinand never would have thought that peering into her memories would show him nothing but books. If he didn’t force her to think about something else, this journey would end with nothing but more knowledge about her world’s books.

  “Myne, do you remember why I am here?”

  “I would like to forget, but... fine. What do you want to see?” Myne let out an extremely heavy sigh. Ferdinand thought about it, then asked what he was personally most curious about.

  “Very well. I would like to see the place where you were educated.”

  Their surroundings shifted in an instant. They were inside a somewhat small room with desks lined up from corner to corner, each with identically dressed people sitting at them and writing. On the top of the small desks were books with strange letters and symbols on them, bundles of beautifully thin paper, and metal boxes with several colored sticks inside. The people occasionally looked up as they wrote letters with the sticks, using them like pens. At the front of the room was an adult, writing something on a large slate while presumably explaining what he was writing. That was likely the teacher of the school building.

  “Myne, what is happening here?”

  “We’re sitting in class. This is a memory from (high school), I think? It’s math class. Being here again is nostalgic, but I never really liked math. I liked Japanese class more, I think.” Their surroundings shifted again. They were in the same room, but now a somewhat older woman was walking around the room while reading a book.

  “Everyone in the country learns in a place like this. We start before baptism age and keep going to adulthood.” The room changed again and again as she spoke. Each room looked similar with students studying, but their age and the instructor teaching them changed each time. They really did learn from childhood to adulthood.

  “Do you do nothing but study?”

  “Umm, there’s a lot of subjects we study. Some are more hands-on.” Their environment shifted rapidly. They were outside where identically dressed students were running around a track. A nearly naked man was diving into water. A group of students were playing a song he had never heard before on strange flutes.

  “So you received musical training as well...”

  “That’s right. Though schools don’t go too far with music. The song I played on the harspiel wasn’t actually one I made myself, it was a song I learned here.”

  Now Ferdinand knew why she could play a song on the first harspiel she had touched. Myne’s exceptional talents were thanks to this world’s knowledge and the strict education she received here. It made sense that she would be completely different from normal commoners.

  “The country’s educational program was put in place by the government, so everyone knows how to read and do math. I want to introduce this kind of education to the orphanage so everyone there can learn to read, write, and do simple math.”

  “For what purpose?” Ferdinand could not understand the point in teaching everyone to read. Myne responded to his confusion without missing a beat.

  “The more people who know how to read, the more people there are to read books. Not to mention that people need to know how to read to write books in the first place. If I want to enjoy a life of reading books in your world, I’ll need to start by teaching people to read.”

  Up until now, Ferdinand had to some degree questioned if there was some dark underside to her actions, some plot driving her forward, but now that they were synchronized he knew for sure that she was utterly devoted to reading books with nothing more to it than that. In some ways that was relieving, but in other ways that made his head hurt. In any case, many of his doubts and questions had been answered by seeing her memories.

  “...I had thought you learned your letters exceptionally fast, but I see now that is because you are used to learning.”

  “Used to learning? Well, I suppose so. I never really thought about it like that, but I’ve been studying for my whole life. Plus, I wanted to read books so much that I just threw myself at learning letters.”

  Ferdinand absorbed every inch of what he could see. The students were all calmly studying together, organized and wearing the same clothes. The building was clean without any visible filth anywhere.

  “Myne, this building is quite pretty.”

  “That’s because it was just recently built. But what’s really great about this school is that it has the big
gest library out of all the nearby schools. It’s why I applied to go here.” Their surroundings changed into a library once again. It was no doubt the school library she had been so happily talking about. There were many old books here, as evident by the distinctive dusty smell in the air. Myne was happily inhaling it all. Ferdinand was fairly tired of smelling books by that point.

  “Myne, enough with the libraries. Take me outside.” Their surroundings morphed into a quiet, breezy garden. There was stone pavement, grassy lawns, and flowerbeds next to lined-up trees.

  “Is this inside a Noble’s Quarter?”

  “Mmm, not exactly, but something like that. I think all of Japan is more like the Noble’s Quarter than the lower city. There’s stuff just like magic tools all over the country, after all.” The idea of a world having things like magic tools without having magic itself intrigued Ferdinand.

  “Oh? Like what?”

  “Well. There’s our vehicles, for instance.” Myne looked up and pointed at a white thing in the sky. It was flying high in the sky while making incredibly loud noise. She then turned to the side, looking at clumps of metal speeding along roads next to each other.

  “What are those? It must take quite a lot of mana to move that much metal at such high speeds.”

  “Like I said, these aren’t magic tools running off mana. They run off something else. Honestly, gems changing shape from mana and moving around is a lot weirder than this.” Now that she mentioned it, magic stones changing shape and moving certainly would seem odd to Myne if she had no prior knowledge of magic. She reacted with constant surprise when they were traveling with the Knight’s Order.

  “What other such devices exist here?”

  “Mmm, I guess most (electronics) will be in a home?” murmured Myne, and then they stood inside a building.

  A thin lace cloth was covering the windows. Using a lace pattern that elaborate for mere curtains indicated that they were in the home of an archnoble. There was faint light streaming through the curtains, but there was also a so-called “lightbulb” brightening the room. There was a leather couch, and in front of it was a tall black rectangle on top of a short cabinet.