Now then, let's get all the smelly work done before the blue priests come back.
The day after pork processing,
At my house, we'd only ever made cottage cheese by adding vinegar to milk bought from a family that kept cows. But Lutz's family was able to get milk fairly regularly by trading eggs for it, and they apparently also made natural cheese that was left to ferment and age.
"Since it keeps better, that kind of cheese would be better for the orphanage, right?"
"I don't really get it, but having more food for winter sounds good to me."
Lutz and
Inside the workshop, where I arrived with
"Lutz, Gil, how's it going?"
"
"Pretty much on track. The pig skins are over here, candle-making is over there—we've melted everything down once and are filtering out the meat scraps. The rendering hasn't been done yet."
In the pot in front of Lutz and Gil, I could see the inner skin—its outer layer already peeled off—floating in limewater. It had only just been placed in, so it was nowhere near swollen up yet. Where Lutz was pointing, three gray priests were working together to filter melted tallow.
"The skins need to sit a while longer. The salting out might be a bit of a hassle, but it cuts the smell down a lot and produces better-quality oil, so I'd appreciate it if you'd bear with me."
Lutz's family apparently didn't bother with salting out. We only started doing it at our place after I suggested it and it actually turned out to reduce the smell. It didn't seem to be very common around here.
I figured it was probably because most of the people I knew were from the slums, and while it was better than other spices, salt was far from cheap.
"Oh, and if you chop up dienbu and rumoza herbs finely and mix them into the melted wax, they'll cut the smell. But don't use gieli or sarukorero—those will double the stench. Be careful about that."
When I shared my tips for reducing the animal smell in candles, Lutz blinked in surprise for a moment, then shook with quiet laughter.
"Ahh, so these are stories from Myne's failures?"
"Ugh… Failure is the mother of success, you know. Success is born from lots and lots of failures."
"Wow, that's amazing, Myne!"
Gil's eyes lit up as he nodded earnestly at my words. My attendants were so cute. I hoped he'd stay that way.
"By the way, Myne, what's rendering? Is it difficult?"
"It's a bit more work and a pain, but nothing complicated. Simply put, you add brine, simmer it on low heat for a while, then strain out the gunk several times. Once you leave it alone, it'll eventually cool down, and the oil will separate and solidify on top with the brine below. When it's turned completely white, you drain the water underneath and use only the oil from the top."
As I explained the steps simply, Gil nodded along. Lutz was also nodding as he listened, but then he suddenly blinked.
"Hey, Myne. Don't we need to account for the soap here?"
"Since it comes as a divine gift, we can put it all toward candles."
At our place, we made soap in the spring and set aside some of the oil for that. But here, soap was supplied as a divine gift. It was important for gray priests to keep their clothes and bodies clean, so they were given soap quite generously. I'd rather have more food than soap, but for blue priests, the priorities were apparently different.
"Oh, right. Gil, the cloth you're filtering right now probably has lots of tiny chunks of meat stuck to the fat. If you put those in tonight's soup, it'll taste better. Make sure to tell the gray priests."
Gil nodded vigorously and ran off to the filtering priests. The priest who unfolded the cloth to peek inside exclaimed "Meat!" in a delighted voice. Lutz and I exchanged glances and let out small laughs.
"Well, meat is important after all."
After nodding in agreement, I looked around the workshop. Beyond the glue and candle work, I could also see gray priests and apprentices using a press to squeeze oil from nuts—the same oil used for lamps, which of course could also be used for cooking. We wanted lots of it. The orphanage basically only made soup, so we had no use for cooking oil ourselves, but still.
And the usual star of the show had been pushed to a corner today. Paper mid-process—still being pressed for moisture—and partially dried whitebark and blackbark were visible along the edges. I let my gaze rest on the paper that was already finished and stacked up.
"What is it, Myne?"
"Hey, Lutz. How much paper does the workshop have right now?"
Lutz looked at the same spot as me and narrowed his eyes.
"We just printed the picture book recently, so I think there are fewer than 300 sheets. Won't know the exact number until we dry the ones we're pressing. Do you need some?"
"Yeah, I want to print the second volume of the children's Book of Prayer, and I want to print a big batch at once so we don't waste any printing blocks. So I need lots of paper. …If we made more starting now, how much could we get?"
To avoid wasting the printing blocks, we needed large quantities of both paper and ink. I'd already ordered more linseed oil from
What we needed was paper.
"Forin isn't the best tree for firewood, but its bark should be getting tougher soon with the season changing. I'll check with the lumberyard. Even using up all the whitebark and blackbark we have, we'd probably get around 750 sheets?"
"Okay, then please make as much as you can."
"Leave it to me."
Since Lutz had taken it on, I'd leave the paper situation to him.
"Myne, if there's still time before the skins need soaking, want to go check on the cheese-making?"
I nodded at Lutz's suggestion and headed to the basement of the female building, bringing Fran along.
"You make cheese in the female building?"
"Yeah, the pots. …I mean, it'd be a bit much to use the same pots for making paper and making cheese, right?"
"Fair point."
I thought to myself that making preserved food in a pot used for boiling ash and tree bark sounded like a terrible idea, but around here, most people said it was fine as long as you washed it. A little ash mixed in wouldn't be a problem, apparently. It might be edible, but I still found the thought unpleasant.
The orphanage children were used to eating noble leftovers anyway, so as long as there were enough separate pots to go around, keeping things separate was the safer choice.
"Done!"
"Next, dry these for me."
When we reached the female building, children were drying fruits and mushrooms they'd gathered in the forest, while shrine maidens and apprentice shrine maidens were hard at work making cheese, soup, and jam—simmering wild fruits with honey to reduce them down. A sweet smell hung in the air, completely different from the animal stench in the male building.
"Even making all this, it'll be gone by lunchtime."
"I wish the Harvest Festival would end sooner. Making this much soup multiple times a day is really tough."
During the Harvest Festival, when the divine gifts handed down by blue priests were fewer, the cooking staff had their hands full, apparently having to make nearly twice the usual amount of soup. I couldn't help but smile at the sight of the girls pouting as they chopped vegetables and stirring pots with wry grins.
"Oh! Myne!?"
The children who spotted me hastily stopped what they were doing, crossed both hands at their chests, and bowed at the waist.
When I told them to "please continue your work," they resumed with stiff, tense movements—quite different from before.
…I'm really scaring them.
The priests working in the workshop occasionally came and went for meetings with Lutz or to see new projects, so they'd gradually relaxed around me. But I never showed my face in the female building's soup-making area, so I could tell they were completely on edge.
"Lutz told me you were making cheese, so I came to see how things were going. Is everything progressing well?"
"The milk has only just started to warm up."
The girl stirred the pot slowly with a slightly oversized wooden ladle, smiling awkwardly. Lutz peeked into the pot and gave a slight nod.
"It's fine to heat it slowly, but let me know when small bubbles start forming along the rim of the pot."
"Yes, sir."
After observing the pot and the fire, he seemed able to estimate the timing pretty well. He murmured, "This should be fine," then called out to the children drying fruit.
"Hey, runts! I need to pick up shipments from the store, so head over to the workshop!"
"Okay!"
The children stopped drying the fruit and began carrying the baskets back to the female building's basement.
"Shipments keep coming in, so we need to grab them while we can. Myne, go back to your room. People get tense when you're around."
"Okay, understood."
I let out a sigh of relief that everything was proceeding smoothly and returned to my room. At this rate, the important work would be finished before the blue priests came back. Once the smelly tasks were done, we could take the rest at a leisurely pace.
In my room's kitchen, they were also working on salting and confiting the large amount of pork that hadn't been smoked the day before, all alongside the usual meal preparation. The cook was running around like crazy.
Glancing at the busy kitchen as I passed, I went upstairs to find
"Should I work on more printing blocks?"
I was considering joining the two of them when Fran came in with a smile, carrying a wooden tag. He held it out toward me while shaking his head.
"No, Myne. Before the printing blocks, let's review your prayer recitation so you're ready to respond at a moment's notice to any summons from the Knight's Order."
The Knight's Order was, naturally, a gathering of nobles, so apparently even the slightest mistake wouldn't be forgiven when dispatched on a summons. What Fran was most worried about wasn't the orphanage's winter preparations—it was a call from the Knight's Order.
"…When will the summons from the Knight's Order come?"
"It hasn't been officially scheduled. However, it happens once or twice every year before winter, so it could come at any time now."
"I see…"
Normally, apprentices never appeared at ceremonies. No one wanted an unskilled apprentice conducting an important ritual. That was precisely why I, as a blue shrine maiden, had never participated in the baptism ceremonies, coming-of-age ceremonies, or Star Binding Ceremonies held at the temple.
Fran explained that, as a rule, a summons from the Knight's Order was also a ceremony normally attended by adult blue priests. The Knight's Order was a male group, so blue shrine maidens were apparently kept at a distance to avoid rumors.
However, there were currently no blue priests with enough mana to perform the rituals, which meant that I—an apprentice blue shrine maiden, someone who should have been the farthest removed from the role—had ended up taking on the responsibility.
"But Fran, that doesn't make sense. Doesn't the High Priest have abundant mana?"
Even if not me, there had to be someone more qualified. The High Priest should have had by far the most mana among the blue priests currently remaining at the temple.
"…He does. However, depending on the circumstances, the High Priest must sometimes prioritize his duties as a noble over his duties as a priest."
A shortage of nobles wasn't just a temple problem—the Knight's Order was in the same situation. Many of the talented knights had been pulled to the center, just like at the temple. Fran quietly explained that the reality was that nobles who, by their natural mana levels, shouldn't have been able to join had ended up in the Knight's Order.
In that situation, the High Priest—a distinguished noble who had graduated from the
…My very first mission as a shrine maiden being a summons from the Knight's Order—could this possibly be a huge responsibility?
As I chanted the prayer recitation while breaking into a cold sweat at the approaching summons, Fran suddenly looked up.
"…Myne, what about the ceremony outfit?"
"The basting is done and it's in the final sewing stage, so I think it'll be ready soon?"
After the basting,
"Is that so. Then please bring it to the temple as soon as possible, so you can be ready to go immediately if a summons comes."
As Fran and I reviewed the prayer recitation, Gil returned to the room carrying a box. A shipment from the
"Fran, could you give me a hand? There are some heavy packages."
"Understood. I'll go right away. Delia, Rosina, I'll leave the unboxing to you. Myne, please stay here and continue your review."
Fran stood to answer Gil's request, and Rosina and Delia followed him downstairs. Delia and Rosina began unpacking the packages in the small hall, while Fran and Gil headed to the workshop to collect more.
"Oh my! The floor coverings have arrived!"
Delia's excited voice rang up from below—she loved decorating and rearranging rooms.
"Now we can get this room ready for winter too. Let's start right—"
"Delia, it's almost lunchtime. Let's save the redecorating for after the meal."
Rosina's words stopped Delia's rampage in its tracks. It had been decided, then, that the afternoon would be spent on a thorough cleaning and redecorating of the room.
"Now then, Myne, why don't you head to the workshop with Gil?"
After lunch, I was cheerfully kicked out of my room by Delia.
Since the High Priest was away for the Harvest Festival, I couldn't enter the library even with Fran present. Once I was unable to stay in my room, the only option was to go to the workshop.
And since Fran was a valuable male attendant, Delia told me it would be a problem if he were dragged along. So Gil would be my escort to the workshop.
"The skins have puffed up a lot, and Lutz said he wanted you to take a look. Myne, let's head to the workshop together."
"Gil, you're so kind."
When we arrived at the workshop, it was nearly empty—everyone was apparently still eating. With no one to stop me, I walked right up to the pot and peeked inside.
"It looks about done. Wash it well to get the lime off, then keep it simmering away."
"Got it."
"…Huh? Myne, you came?"
Lutz, who'd finished his lunch and reporting at Benno's, spotted me in the workshop and blinked in surprise. It was unusual for me—who technically wasn't supposed to be working—to show up at the workshop multiple times in a single day.
"The floor coverings arrived, didn't they? Delia's going to redecorate the room, and she's all fired up… I got kicked out because I was in the way."
"Heh. Then this works out perfectly."
"Huh?"
I tilted my head, and Lutz shrugged lightly.
"The ceremony outfit is ready, and Benno asked me to pass along a message to Myne: if you have time, go see Corinna. Since you can't stay in your room, how about going to Corinna's place? I'll come pick you up on the way back."
I nodded at Lutz's suggestion. Standing around outside in the cooling autumn weather was dangerous. If I had somewhere to take shelter, I should go.
"I'll do that. I'll bring Rosina with me, and when you come to pick me up, bring Fran too. Rosina alone couldn't make it back."
"Got it."
"Lutz, start washing the skins for me. I'll see Myne off."
When I returned to my room with Gil, Delia scolded me with a "Geesh!" since she'd already started moving the big furniture around. I apparently wasn't allowed back until the cleaning was done—a noble couldn't be shown such a mess.
"They say the ceremony outfit is ready. I'll head to the Gilberta Company and go straight home today. Please just change my clothes. Then, can I leave Rosina to accompany me to Corinna's place?"
"Understood."
Rosina went to change into outdoor clothes, and Delia, cheerfully saying "I'll have the room in order by tomorrow," quickly changed me into a fresh outfit.
I descended to the first floor wearing the cochineal-red one-piece dress I'd just bought, with Rosina by my side.
"Fran, I'm sorry to trouble you, but when Lutz heads back to the store, he should come by to let us know. Could you come along to the store as well? I can't send Rosina home alone after dark."
"Understood. Please have a safe trip, Myne. I'll be waiting for your early return."
After being seen off by Fran, Rosina and I walked together down the main street, where the sunshine was warm but the wind had turned cold. Unlike Fran, who walked with me to the store and made the trip to my house, or Gil, who came along to the forest, Rosina rarely had the chance to go outside. Watching her look around with curious interest was adorable.
"If Vilma could walk outside like this too, I think she'd have even more things to draw…"
"She may work up the courage eventually. At first, even watching gray priests carry water while she made soup in the basement made her tremble, but now she's giving orders."
Vilma, who had been entrusted with the orphanage and the children, was gradually growing stronger. From Rosina's reports, I could see the changes in Vilma little by little, and it made me happy.
"Hello,
"The master is currently in a meeting, so I'll take you directly to Corinna. Please wait here."
Mark offered me a chair, and Rosina stood quietly behind me. An apprentice that Mark had directed brought tea. I sipped it and let out a breath.
"Myne, right this way."
Because Rosina was with me and I was visiting Corinna as a customer today, Mark addressed me with polite formality. We exited the store and climbed the outside stairs to the third floor.
"Corinna, Myne is here."
"Welcome, Myne dear."
Mark knocked, and Corinna greeted me with her usual gentle smile. Then she noticed Rosina and raised her eyebrows slightly.
"You've brought your attendant today, I see? Should I call you 'Myne' with the honorific?"
"Personally, I'm fine either way, but for Rosina's sake, it might be better."
"Hehe. Then, Myne, right this way."
I was led into the usual sitting room, where the furniture normally used as a coat rack had been repurposed as a kimono stand. The ceremony outfit was displayed in full across it, right in the center.
"Wow!"
It was positioned to catch the light from the window, and the water-flow pattern and seasonal flowers—embroidered in the same color of thread—seemed to float to the surface. The thread caught the light just slightly, glowing white in a way that truly looked like flowing water. For a moment, I was struck speechless.
"…It's magnificent."
Rosina's admiring voice brought me back to myself.
"Corinna, it's truly beautiful. Thank you so much."
"The pleasure is mine."
Corinna smiled gently, one hand resting on her slightly growing belly, and carefully, with delicate movements, took the outfit down from the stand.
"Would you like to try it on? I'm afraid, with my belly as it is, would you mind if I had some help?"
"Of course."
Rosina took the blue robe from Corinna and began dressing me in it. Having served as an attendant to an apprentice blue shrine maiden before, her hands moved without a hint of hesitation.
The robe was dyed entirely in blue, with embroidery in the same color, silver thread along the sleeves and hem, and gold thread at the neckline. And there, right at the center where it would be visible from the front, the crest of the Myne Workshop was embroidered in gold thread.
…I'm nervous.
It felt like being dressed in a coming-of-age kimono. I had to be ladylike. I mustn't get it dirty. The compulsion was overwhelming.
"Here's the sash."
The sash to go with the ceremony outfit was, according to tradition, white with silver embroidery for apprentices and white with gold embroidery once you came of age. Corinna explained that the embroidery was stitched with the same prayer text as the Book of Prayer.
"Um, the fabric feels quite thick, doesn't it?"
Rosina, who was adjusting the sash while dressing me, looked up at Corinna. Corinna maintained her smile and explained the pleating technique incorporated into the ceremony outfit.
"By folding and sewing the fabric in advance, the outfit can be expanded as you grow. …This was originally requested by Myne. It's unusual, but for a ceremony outfit that's rarely worn, it makes perfect sense, wouldn't you say?"
"…Myne never fails to surprise, does she?"
When Rosina learned that the innovative design wasn't Corinna's idea but mine, she let out a sigh of understanding. Rosina then stood up after finishing the dressing, examined me from various angles, and gave a single satisfied nod.
"It's a wonderful outfit, Myne. The water and flower embroidery will appear to rise as you move, drawing the attention of everyone around you."
Having received the seal of approval from Rosina—who had once served
The ceremony outfit was ready. The room was redecorated for winter. Preserved foods were being made one after another. Candles were produced and carried with firewood to the various cellars. Glue was poured into wooden boxes and set in a breezy spot to begin drying.
In the workshop, large quantities of paper were produced for a second printing, ink was prepared, and the tools needed for winter handicrafts were inventoried, with anything lacking purchased to make up the difference.
And so, the winter preparations for the orphanage that I needed to be involved in were nearly complete.
That was the end of the winter preparations I needed to be involved in.
Next time: a summons from the Knight's Order.