Apprentice Shrine Maiden Volume 2 (Premium)

by Miya Kazuki

  “Sister Myne will appreciate your efforts to improve, just as she rewarded those who worked hard in the orphanage on that first day. There is not much more I can do for you than listen to your woes, but I wish you all the success in the world.”

  Ever since that day, I began studying to do paperwork as Sister Myne’s attendant, facing my mathematical fears in the process. All so that I could serve as her attendant, rather than continue to strive to be Sister Christine’s attendant.

  The first thing I learned was that Sister Myne was abnormally good at paperwork. Despite her young age she was vastly superior in mathematics to me, and she was more useful when helping Fran than I could hope to be. The paperwork would be manageable with Sister Myne’s assistance, but she had religious matters to attend to, not to mention her education and training as an apprentice blue shrine maiden. Fran told me that I had to work hard so that Sister Myne could have more time.

  “Rosina, please give these to Wilma.”

  “Understood.” Unlike Sister Myne, who was not used to hiding one’s emotions and reading the expressions of others, Fran could to some extent see through my facade and tell when I was beginning to grow exhausted from work. When those times came, he sent me to the orphanage or the workshop on errands, or otherwise gave me a break by teaching Sister Myne about the gods.

  I put away the pen and ink, then headed to the orphanage. It was my first time going to the orphanage since resolving to change myself to serve as Sister Myne’s attendant. I would need to thank Wilma for advising me to change my own way of thinking rather than try to change Sister Myne.

  “Is Wilma here, by chance?” I asked Lizzie, who was by the door to the orphanage. She pointed to further into the dining hall and replied that she was watching the children eat.

  First, blue robes such as Sister Myne ate, then their attendants ate. The food was taken to the orphanage, where once again the food trickled down according to status: the adults ate first, then the baptized children, then the pre-baptism children. This meant that the youngest children were the last to eat. Much time had passed since I’d had lunch, but it seemed that the children were just now beginning to eat. I could see Wilma sitting at a back table with six children.

  “Does everyone have their food? Good, then let us praise and thank the gods for their divine blessings. O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies who doth grace us with thousands upon thousands of lives to consume, o mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, I offer thanks and prayers to thee, and do take part in the meal so graciously provided,” chanted Wilma, and the young children all chanted back before throwing themselves at their lunch.

  They ate quickly, likely due to having empty stomachs. Wilma had already eaten, so she spent her time instructing them on table manners while cleaning up their spills, but it seemed that taking care of six children at once was a bit too much for her.

  “The food is always so good now. I love this soup,” said one child.

  “Judging by all the neatly cut vegetables, I guess Lizzie was cooking?” said another.

  “We can make this soup thanks to Sister Myne teaching us the recipe, taking us to the forest to gather food, and buying the rest of what we need with the money earned by selling the paper she taught us to make.”

  “That’s what you always say, Wilma. Let me finish for you. ‘You all need to thank Sister Myne,’ right?” laughed the first child.

  It was thanks to Sister Myne that the pre-baptism children could happily eat in the dining hall together without being stuck starving in the cellar. It was also thanks to her that even on days with few divine gifts, bowls of soup could be lined up on the tables.

  Sister Christine never even looked at the orphanage, and if she had seen the starving children in the cellar she likely would have just scrunched up her nose and left, not wanting to look at ugly things any longer than she had to. She never would have thought about rescuing them, much less acting on those thoughts.

  I began to notice the good things about Sister Myne after trying to change myself. I had once thought that her connections to the lower city, her operation of the workshop, and her efforts to improve the orphanage were all just getting in the way of her art education, but both I and those in the orphanage had been saved by her actions.

  “Oh my, Rosina. How did things go after all that?” Wilma noticed me and stood up to walk this way. I smiled while handing her the boards Fran had given me.

  “I have been learning to do the math I hate ever so much. And... Sister Myne has praised the gracefulness of my speech and behavior, saying that she wishes to work hard to mimic how I act. Did you ask her to say that, Wilma?”

  “All I said was that you had spent longer with Sister Christine than anyone else, and would be a better example to learn from than anyone in the temple.”

  One of Sister Myne’s finer points was her willingness to ask to be taught things she did not know or understand. I myself always hesitated before asking Fran questions.

  “Wilma. I have begun to think that it is good of me to work to conquer my flaws, and in the orphanage director chambers I have found some small joys.”

  “Oh my. Small joys, such as?”

  “Perhaps because Sister Myne is a commoner, she knows many songs and lyrics that I have never heard before.”

  I would occasionally see Sister Myne singing a song I had never heard before, while bobbing her head to keep the beat. She often hummed or sang in a quiet voice that made the song itself hard to catch. But when I heard the song, I would find myself subconsciously stopping my work to listen, much to Fran’s bemusement.

  “Furthermore, Delia seems to have grown interested in harspiels, and at times she watches me play.” I was allowed to play music until seventh bell. As of late, I had begun to spend the time before bed with Delia, playing music. I found it somewhat distasteful that she aimed to be a concubine, but she was a hard enough worker to agree with Sister Myne’s assertion that Delia was quite dedicated to improving herself, regardless of what end that improvement was for.

  “I see. I am glad to know things are going so well. I find your dedication to conquering your flaws quite beautiful, Rosina. I am sure that Sister Christine would try to preserve your efforts in art,” said Wilma with a giggle. My efforts would not be preserved in art, but in the end they would be preserved in Sister Myne’s paperwork.

  “I’m sorry for worrying you, Wilma. But I will be quite alright now.”

  Apprentice Chef in the Temple

  While everyone in the orphanage was going off to butcher pigs, Hugo and I were teaching Monika and Nicola—the two apprentice gray shrine maidens that would be helping me over the winter—to cook.

  Nicola had her overflowing amount of orange hair, so bright it was close to red, braided behind her. She loved to cook and she was a real cutie, smiling all the time while she worked. Monika on the other hand was a quiet, serious girl who had her dark-green hair bundled behind her head. I was teaching them carefully since they would be helping me throughout the winter while Hugo was gone, and honestly they were both fast learners.

  Nicola asked me something while she, Monika, Hugo, and the new chef Todd were eating lunch. “Ella, why did you decide to become a temple chef?” she asked.

  Hugo averted his eyes, knowing my circumstances, and Todd leaned forward curiously. The sight of that made Monika lower her gaze a bit.

  “Those in the lower city really don’t like the temple, right? It’s hard not to notice that on the way to the forest. But you came to the temple anyway. You’re even teaching us to cook without looking upset about it. I find that really strange,” she continued. I thought back to my meeting with Benno, the man who had made it all happen.

  ...Wow, he’s super rich. At my uncle’s request, I was visiting the Eatery Guild to ask for an extension on the due date of our taxes, and there I found myself looking at a man sitting in the best seat in the guild. His clothes were way more expensive than anything you would normally ever see in the Ea
tery Guild. I stared at him and, wondering why someone as rich as him was here, strained my ears to hear what he was talking to another guild member about.

  “Did you find anyone willing to be Hugo’s assistant?”

  “Mmm... I think it’ll be too hard of a job for Hugo to do alone, but I’m telling you, Benno, nobody wants in on this.”

  Judging by their conversation, the rich guy was named Benno and he was at the guild to look for an assistant chef. I felt my heart thump. I clenched my fists as I felt my pumping blood heat up with excitement. ...Could this be the guidance of Cuococalura, God of Cooking?!

  “I’m telling you, Ella, we can only wait so long... Hey, are you even listening?” The guild member I had been in the middle of talking to called out to me.

  I looked back at him in surprise, having forgotten about him, then pointed at Benno and whispered hurriedly. “Hey, hey, is that rich guy looking for a chef?!”

  “Huh...? Oh, Benno. He’s looking for a chef for the eatery he’s about to build, but not just any chef. He wants someone to train in the temple to learn to cook food for nobles.”

  “...Wait, the temple?”

  The temple was a place that nobody in the city wanted to deal with if they could help it. Who knew what would happen if nobles got their eye on you. There was an orphanage in the temple, and anyone sent there would be worked like slaves by nobles. It was said they could kill anyone they wanted without any punishment. I had even heard that the girls there were forced to sleep with nobles.

  ...But how was that any different from most waitresses, really? I was working as an apprentice chef in a nighttime bar my uncle owned. At the moment I was just helping to cook the food, but when I came of age I would be assigned to work as a waitress. My cousin Lea—his daughter—had been sent out as a waitress right after she came of age, so why would I be any different? The men in the store would leer at me, catcall me, and pay my uncle so that he would send me to their rooms.

  No matter how much I hated that, it was the family business and I couldn’t escape from it. My choices were to do a killer job helping a noble’s chef, or save up enough money to start my own store before coming of age. My current goal was to be like Leise, who had performed so well as a noble’s chef that the guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild hired her to be his head chef. If I trained in the temple, maybe I could learn to cook noble food just like she did.

  “Hey, mister. Do chefs in the temple work as waitresses too?” I called out to Benno, and he blinked his dark-red eyes in surprise. But his surprised expression soon turned into a grimace as he looked me over with piercing eyes.

  “...Nah, they don’t work as waitresses. Apprentice shrine maidens have well-trained attendants to serve them. Not to mention that you’d be exclusively cooking for a shrine maiden, and shrine maidens don’t want that kind of service. In fact, they don’t want commoner chefs talking to them at all.”

  I couldn’t imagine anything better for me than becoming an apprentice chef for a rich noble girl who didn’t need me to work as a waitress. “I’m still an apprentice chef, but I think I can help out. I’m pretty good, if I do say so myself.” I slapped a hand against my arm with a smile.

  Benno looked back at the guild member he was talking to and pointed my way. “How good is she?”

  “Ella’s got all the basics down. You’d want someone a bit more skilled to serve a noble right away, but she’d do just fine learning while serving as Hugo’s assistant. Her goal is actually to be a noble’s chef, so she’ll have the motivation and guts you’re looking for.”

  “Hmm...” Benno fell into thought while looking at me, and the guild member I had been talking to hurriedly called out to him.

  “Wait, Benno! Taking a guy to the temple is one thing, but a girl? You’ll ruin her chances to get married in the future. Ella, you’ve gotta think about your future here. Don’t just jump at the first opportunity you see like an idiot!”

  I pursed my lips at him. I wasn’t being an idiot, I knew what I was doing. It may have been the family business, but I didn’t want to be a waitress. I wanted to find another path in life.

  “I’m going to be forced to be a waitress at my uncle’s place once I’m an adult anyway. The temple won’t be any different. Plus, he said she’s a blue shrine maiden. That means she’s a rich noble girl. I’ve been thinking my whole life that I want to become a noble’s chef to get out of my uncle’s store. I don’t mind going to the temple to make that dream a reality.” I spoke my mind while Benno watched on with dark-red eyes. He nodded in satisfaction at my determination.

  “...Alright then. I’ll hire you.”

  “My uncle fought back hard, but Mom gave me her full support. Mom had no choice but to work as a waitress when my dad died, so she was just happy that I had found another path in life...”

  “Oh, so being a waitress is like offering flowers here. We can’t refuse if a blue priest we serve asks us to offer flowers, so I completely understand why you would want to find another way to survive,” replied Nicola.

  “We’re cooking here partially so that Sister Myne gets to know us better, in hopes that one day she asks us to serve as her attendants,” added on Monika.

  It seemed that the rumors were true and that the gray shrine maidens in the orphanage really were forced to work like waitresses were. I could really relate to how Nicola and Monika were striving to improve their situation to avoid being forced to offer flowers.

  “That ‘Mom’ person sounds quite kind,” said Nicola, and Monika nodded with a smile. They seemed so sincere I had to hold back the urge to laugh and explain their mistake. Families were so normal to me and everyone I knew that I had no idea how I should explain them. All I could do was continue after brushing off their comment with a smile.

  “I’m underage, so I can’t change stores without Mom’s permission. She went to the Eatery Guild with me to sign a contract with the Gilberta Company, and that’s where I met Hugo for the first time.”

  Nicole and Monika both looked at Hugo, who gave a small smile. “I didn’t think I’d be working in the temple with an underage girl like Ella, so man, seeing her sure was a surprise.”

  “I was just glad to see that you were a nice person, Hugo.” Hugo was my coworker and my teacher. He had chestnut hair and brown eyes that gave him a friendly look.

  “And I’m always stuck being just a nice guy ’cause of the way I look!” moaned Hugo, blaming that for his lack of a girlfriend. Nicola and Monika blinked in surprise.

  “Is it not good to be a good person? Is there something inconvenient about that?”

  “Not for me,” I explained with a laugh while looking at Hugo. “And not for you two, so don’t worry about it.”

  Hugo had broad shoulders and the muscular arms that most chefs had thanks to all the heavy stuff they had to carry, plus calluses on his hands from gripping knives so much. When we shook hands at our first meeting, I had seen that his hands had the same calluses that mine did.

  I noticed that he was looking at my hands too. I grinned, and with his lips curved into a smile he said “Not bad. Looks like you pass, for now.”

  ...That was a pretty cool line. He looked cool when he said it, and he looked cool while he worked too. He always had a sharp and serious expression when he was cooking. There was something uniquely cool about a guy who had a job and did it well. He probably only didn’t have a girlfriend because there had been no girls at the restaurant where he worked.

  “I signed with the Gilberta Company and decided to work in the temple to escape being a waitress, but there’s been nothing but surprises here. Right, Hugo?”

  “Yup. I’m used to it now, but those first days were crazy. This place is just way different from the city,” said Hugo, and Todd gave a big nod.

  “I’m still getting my mind blown every day. My hands get so shaky and sweaty when I think that a noble might see me that I can hardly work at all.”

  “Todd, that’s kinda bad. You could stand to chill out a
little.”

  Life as an apprentice chef in the temple was entirely unlike what I was used to. I never expected that I would be taught about washing my hands, keeping myself clean, and hygiene in general before learning more about cooking. When we had been instructed to clean ourselves before entering the orphanage director chambers, Hugo and I had actually looked at each other with wide eyes before processing what we had been told.

  “You will be expected to maintain a high degree of personal hygiene,” began Fran. “The Italian restaurant that Sister Myne is investing in will demand just as much cleanliness, so the faster you adjust to this the better. As you are now I cannot introduce you to Sister Myne, and you will not be able to perform your duties.”

  “Hugo, Ella. This is Fran, the head attendant of the shrine maiden you’re gonna be serving,” explained Benno. “You’re gonna want to listen to everything he says. Fran, I’ll be waiting in the hall. Do me a favor and teach these two how things work in the temple.”

  Benno then went into the chambers first and left us with Fran. It seemed that we would be continuing our relationship with Sister Myne even after we started working in the Italian restaurant. Nothing we could do but get ourselves clean.

  Fran guided us to a well. After giving us a thorough look-over, he had us wash our hands and faces over and over. He was so thorough that I honestly wanted to complain about how much soap we were wasting. We had both bathed the night before since Benno warned us we needed to be clean before meeting the apprentice blue shrine maiden (given that she was a noble), but even so, Fran seemed displeased with how we looked. I could only imagine what a disaster it would have been if we hadn’t bathed at all.

  “Please bathe the night before when you are expected at the temple in the morning.”

  “Wha? Wait, does that mean we need to bathe every day?” I asked, and Hugo murmured “Seriously?” beside me. I couldn’t believe it either. During the summer we could manage since it was just carrying water, but during the winter we would have to heat the water over a fire before we could clean ourselves with it. Hugo and I flinched at the idea, but Fran just nodded like it was the most normal thing in the world.