Chatper 25: Temple excursion
The ball was rolling fast. The day after the lecture on Rozemyne’s compression method, her bus-sized Lessy with thirty-plus children on board landed in the temple’s grounds. This kind of public event, attended by dozens of children, should help even with the attitude of the adults. Maybe.
At the very least, Vanessa had told me that there hadn’t been much resistance among the castle’s staff who had been assigned to escort this field trip.
I watched all their highbeasts landing around Lessy in a synchronized fashion. Their faces weren’t exactly happy. It felt more like an “I’m here on business, and if you disrupt it, you will die” look. It was definitely prudent that all priests and shrine maidens had been advised to avoid the foreign nobles.
Though, I couldn’t idle there for too long. After a few moments, I turned around and headed inside to prepare for my performance. To be honest, I was a bit nervous as Erenit was among the visitors, and I really wanted to rock this.
“…and there you can see the divine instruments displayed…” Rozemyne’s tour-guide voice reverberated in the Worship Hall.
Seeing the group of kids slowly moving through the place made me recall trips to various museums. And hey, unlike all those trips, almost everyone seemed to pay attention.
“Oh, Mila, perfect timing,” Rozemyne remarked nonchalantly as I knelt in their presence.
It totally looked like a coincidence and not just me waiting with overflowing mana after I had downed a strong rejuvenation potion.
Rozemyne turned towards the children. “As a blue shrine maiden, Mila offered her mana to the gods through these instruments. If you supply enough mana, you gain the ability to morph your schtappe into their exact replicas. Mila, would you be so kind as to demonstrate?”
“As you wish,” I replied politely.
Everyone stared at me with curious eyes. The adult knights and attendants still sported their business look, but even they seemed to glance my way.
“Lanze!” I exclaimed firmly and produced a fully powered Leidenschaft’s spear.
“Oooh,” a bunch of impressed voices sounded in unison.
“It can slay the Lord of Winter, right?” one of Erenit’s friends remarked.
I mean, Rozemyne didn’t just fill it—she also overcharged it. And the knights weakened it somewhat during that ingredient gathering. I wasn’t exactly sure on that math. “I guess you would need at least two such attacks at minimum,” I mused with a finger on my cheek.
“Awesome!” The children exclaimed.
I suppressed the urge to smirk, and instead, I spun the spear above my head and then kept flipping it around myself in a reenactment of one of Henrietta’s techniques. The tip of the spear swished around me in multiple curves, making it look as if I had drawn three sets of blue figure eights under different angles. I finished with a simple thrust forward.
Naturally, with no mana attack. I didn’t want to annihilate half of our visitors. Although, the move still caused a subtle heat wave that pushed through the crowd, making a few kids giggle.
“Rucken. Streitkolben!” I said with an unperturbed voice. “Flutrane’s staff is often used for healing the land, but it can just as well be used for healing multiple wounded at once during a battle.”
Erenit’s bright red eyes were sparkling in awe.
Yep, this is great. I grinned inside my head. As far as I was concerned, this whole trip was already worth it just for that look alone. A great success.
After my “improvised” presentation, the crowd continued towards the altar. Some children were already proclaiming that they would get the spear or the sword. Wilfried even declared that he would be certainly able to make them the moment he gained his schtappe.
Our plan worked quite well, at least with the children. I still wasn’t sure about the adults. Though, I couldn’t stick around to find out. There was another industry meeting on my schedule, so I wanted to go over my notes before I would attend. I departed from the hall and headed towards my room.
However, as I was closing in on my quarters, I noticed Fran waiting for me in front of the door.
“I am sorry to interrupt,” he began apologetically.
“Not at all. I always have time for your requests.” I smiled in a friendly manner.
He looked quite uncomfortable, so I wanted to put him at ease.
“Brother Egmont has just requested a new attendant, and insists on proceeding today. However, the High Priest isn’t present, and the High Bishop is currently attending to noble visitors.”
Fran, you are serving the archduke’s daughter. You can literally flip him off and continue with your day.
Naturally, I didn’t say anything. It would have been unfair to complain to a gray robe that they were afraid to act against those of higher status. It had been drilled into them their whole life. Sure, he was completely safe, but from his perspective, it might have looked completely different, and I didn’t want to demean him.
“Oh, would you be so kind as to lend me your time in the High Bishop’s chambers?” I smiled. “Suddenly, I feel the need to inform myself on the proceedings of attendant replacement in case I ever wanted to enact change in my staff.”
“I am grateful.” Fran crossed his arms and knelt.
“One moment, please.” I entered my room.
Iri and Caroline were waiting inside for my return. “Caroline, would you please escort me to the High Bishop’s chambers?” I widened my smile.
I’m pretty certain that I know what kind of meeting this will be.
The report Rozemyne made in preparation for today’s event had mentioned that Ferdinand hadn’t wanted to waste his time with “visitors bumbling around.” He was attending to other duties elsewhere for the whole day.
It wasn’t like he spent every day in the temple, but there was an important distinction between a time when someone wasn’t here but might show up, and a time when someone for sure wouldn’t show up. Especially if a certain priest wanted to avoid them while still claiming that he really tried quite hard to reach them the whole day, but “sadly,” could interact only with the gray robes.
Rozemyne was here, but surrounded by dozens of unfamiliar nobles. That pretty much meant that she was unreachable to the gray robes, even though she was in the same building.
Since the blue priest had tried to exploit this fact and pushed Fran personally to get his way quickly, completely ignoring the usual three-day waiting period, it was pretty obvious that his new attendant wasn’t going to be from the boys’ side of the orphanage.
Having Caroline present in the same room during his request would be perfect.
I sat leisurely in the High Bishop’s chambers, looking forward to my laid trap, when the priest announced himself.
Here we go.
He entered with an uncaring expression, but the moment he noticed me, a frown showed on his face. However, it was quite short-lived. As his eyes fell on Caroline, he reflexively made a step back.
I almost chuckled. Though, my attention switched to a person behind him. He was escorted by a gray shrine maiden who looked completely dejected. Her eyes were facing the floor.
“I have come to return her. She is defective,” the blue priest announced dryly, though his eyes were flicking nervously around the room. “That is all.” He turned around and left hastily.
It seemed that he had decided that he didn’t need an immediate replacement.
Is she…? I glanced at the shrine maiden who remained in place.
She wasn’t horribly disfigured, so the only thing on my mind calling for a “return warranty” was pregnancy.
Her eyes were puffy, no doubt from crying. I could guess that she thought her life was over.
We brought dozens of kids to show how proper the temple is, and you bring a pregnant gray robe?! I glared at the closed door. Seriously?!!! I was just showing my little sister how cool this place was!!! The more I thought about it, the more I was fuming inside.
“That’s it!” I muttered under my breath. The temple literally doesn’t need you. There was no way he could provide enough mana in his lifetime to equal the reputation damage to the temple. Hell, even Tia alone probably supplied enough to offset him missing. There was no “mana drought” in the temple.
“Fran, there is no point in assigning a new attendant to Brother Egmont, even if he comes some other time. You can inform both the High Bishop and the High Priest of his upcoming departure,” I remarked nonchalantly.
“As you wish,” Fran replied with a confused look.
“Could you also call Tia here?” I asked.
He nodded and left the room.
Is it too tacky to ask her for help? She had “experience” with dealing with pregnancy in these conditions, but at the same time, wouldn’t it be just a painful reminder?
I sighed. Even after all my nagging and explanations of how mana levels factored into conception, we still ended up in the very same miserable situation. I improved nothing. This whole thing felt so hopeless.
Couldn’t you just wait like a day or two after the donation?! I glared at the door again before looking at the shrine maiden. “You do not have to worry about the orphanage. It has gotten much better in quality. There is enough food, and the building is properly warm even during winter.” I tried to comfort her
She gave me a polite nod with a forced smile. There probably weren’t proper words to put her at ease.
Though, as she nodded, I finally realized something that had bothered me about her. Despite being an adult, she had a wide, wavy ponytail.
Couldn’t you have returned her after she put her hair up?! I screamed in my head. This wasn’t even some noble etiquette that blue priests were ignorant about—everyone followed this custom. Honestly, at this point, I wasn’t even angry, just exasperated with the utter disregard.
Thankfully, Fran and Tia came pretty soon, and the latter didn’t seem uncomfortable, which was relieving. Her look was rather sympathetic as she approached the girl and helped her fix her hair before escorting her outside.
Hmm, from this angle… The color of the girl’s hair was dark orange, almost brown. It wasn’t an exact match, but seeing the hairstyle from behind, before it got put up, kind of reminded me of Estelle. I shuddered.
Whatever. I refocused on Caroline once the door closed. She was doing a really good job with her facade as her smile was quite solid. But I could feel how furious she was.
“Caroline, would you be so kind as to contact the priest’s family? I wonder whether they would perceive it as a problem that someone of their blood managed to conceive a child with a commoner? That is something one would expect of a laynoble house on the brink of collapse, shortly before leaving the Noble’s Quarter for good, not a mednoble house. Am I wrong?” I began with a nonchalant voice.
Caroline’s smile widened a little. “Indeed, even weak mednoble children who aren’t baptized should amount to at least laynoble mana.”
“Right?” I smiled as well. “What would other mednoble houses think of such an occurrence? Would they want to seek marriages with a house that produced offspring equivalent to commoners? There might be something defective with their bloodline.”
We just needed to frame it properly to create a strong flaw. A house without connections was on thin ice; I knew that from experience.
“It would definitely be a problem if there was tangible proof of such an occurrence,” Caroline remarked, already fully adopting a fake concerned voice.
“We can only expect greater public scrutiny with each passing day. Right now, three archduke candidates, multiple nobles from the castle, and children from dozens of various families tour the very same place where a blue priest from their family visited the High Bishop’s chambers with a gray shrine maiden blessed by Beischmacht. He is almost asking to spread this kind of weakness to the whole of noble society.”
I mean, that’s not even me threatening at this point. The Nobles were visiting, and they liked to spread gossip. That was just a fact.
Caroline nodded. “I am definitely concerned about their future reputation. It could prove deadly.”
It was nice to have a noble professional in my service. She was already fired up for the role.
“Wouldn’t it be better if they recall him home and use him as a servant, out of sight?” Or you can make him climb the stairs. If they wanted to get rid of the evidence. I certainly didn’t care.
At this point, Caroline and I were just escalating the random threatening remarks with refined giggles to improve our mood.
When I glanced Fran’s way, he was watching us with a really tense smile.
Oh, sorry, we will take this elsewhere. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, so we vacated the room.
I had preparations to do for a meeting anyway, and Caroline, similarly, had a lot of preparations to do before expressing her “concerns” about a certain family’s reputation.