It was almost simultaneous—me raising my hand to keep even a drop of blood from falling and screaming for help at the top of my lungs, and the ring lighting up. A streak of blue light shot straight up into the sky.
With a flutter of wings, something black descended from overhead. Bon, bobon! Small impacts echoed at my feet. When I tilted my gaze down, several black arrows were embedded in the ground around me. The Trombe surrounding me went quiet, as if losing all their strength.
"High Priest!"
Recognizing the arrows, I looked up. I could see a white lion-like creature with its wings spread wide gliding straight toward me.
...With those arrows, I'd be fine now.
But my relief at seeing the High Priest lasted only a few seconds. The Trombe had gone quiet only for the moment, and with the blood dripping from my hands, they immediately began activating again.
The Trombe that had been still started moving once more, spreading from my belly up toward my chest. New shoots sprouted one after another, winding tighter, and the constriction around my legs grew worse.
"High Priest, please hurry..."
The High Priest leaped from the white lion-like creature that had glided down, his movements surprisingly light for someone encased head to toe in metal armor. In his hand was a black arrow blessed by the
"
"Apprentice Shrine Maiden, sorry to keep you waiting!"
"The blessing isn't working!?"
"It's not that it isn't working! The Trombe just regenerate right away! Why is that!?"
After the High Priest stabbed with his arrows, the Trombe would go quiet for a few seconds, but they'd immediately regain their strength and start moving again. Their growth rate had slowed, but they showed no sign of decaying. Clicking his tongue, the High Priest kept stabbing with arrows.
"High Priest, the blood—my blood is making the Trombe..."
"Your blood is the cause!? This is the worst!"
When I told him my blood was what activated the Trombe, the High Priest's voice turned harsh. Just from that, I could picture his face inside that helmet—eyes blazing wide, brows pulled up in fury.
"What exactly do you think I pulled you away from the scene and assigned guards for!? What was the point of the guards!? You incompetents!"
The High Priest spat out those words as he berated the two knights who had been left behind as guards. Damuel was fighting with his black knife, but
Ignoring their superior's orders, they had drawn blades on the person they were supposed to protect, injured her, and created this entire situation. By any standard of bodyguard duty, they were unmistakably incompetent.
And from the High Priest's complaints as he controlled the Trombe with arrows, I learned something—my mana was apparently quite considerable. The High Priest murmured that not just Damuel, but possibly half the knights in the entire order might not be effective even with blessed weapons.
"No matter how much we suppress them, it's meaningless if we don't seal the wound. Myne, where's the wound!?"
"Right here."
I extended my left hand as far as I could. The High Priest glanced at the wound, clicked his tongue lightly, and murmured "Entwurfung." The black bow transformed into a baton that glowed faintly.
Immediately the High Priest murmured "Roat" while waving the baton, and a streak of red light shot up into the sky. Whether that red light was some kind of signal, other knights began flying in one after another.
"This will hurt, but you had better not cry. Tears and blood both contain mana—it amounts to the same thing."
With that warning, the High Priest slowly traced his glowing baton over my wound. The moment the hazy light from the baton touched the wound, my entire body shuddered.
"Hyah!"
It felt as though something that wasn't me was forcibly trying to push its way inside, and the alien sensation and pain raised goosebumps all over. Physiological tears welled up. I tilted my head back to keep them from spilling and slowly let out a long breath.
The wound grew hot, and I could feel the mana inside me surging toward the wound all at once, as if to repel a foreign invasion. My mana and the mana the High Priest was trying to flow in collided, and the wound glowed a pale yellow. By the time the light faded, the wound was completely sealed.
"The wound..."
"Just emergency treatment to seal it. It's been sealed with mana, not fully healed. More to the point, releasing mana over a Trombe is essentially suicide, but there was no other choice."
The High Priest sighed as though exhausted. The wound had been sealed, but the Trombe were more active than ever.
"High Priest..."
"I cut off the blessing to seal your wound. I have no weapon left that can fight the Trombe. Reinforcements should arrive soon, but..."
As he spoke, the High Priest glared up at the sky and shouted "Too slow!" at the knights descending toward us. His fury—so out of character for someone who was fundamentally noble in bearing and never showed anything resembling real emotion outside his hidden room—made me flinch even though I couldn't move.
"Lord
Knights who arrived one after another spotted the second Trombe, saw me trapped at its center, and their eyes went wide.
"
"Yes, sir!"
Without a weapon effective against the Trombe, the High Priest pulled away from me. In his place, a figure in metal armor wielding a black halberd rushed in and brought the weapon down in a single devastating swing. With a booming explosion, dirt and small fragments of Trombe flew into the air.
"*Cough*... *cough*..."
"Karstedt, don't lay a single scratch on Myne! She'd make perfect bait."
Having ordered them to clear the tightly wound Trombe without injuring me at the center, the High Priest walked away toward Shikikoza and the attendant. Anger practically radiated from his back, and it was terrifying.
Perhaps, given the pretense of status difference between nobles and commoners, I'd end up bearing the full blame for Shikikoza's crimes and get chewed out without question. Perhaps I'd be punished or held accountable because the Trombe had been activated by my blood.
...Entirely possible.
Growing depressed as I considered what might happen next, I found myself surrounded by a large number of knights. Knights wielding black halberds drove their weapons into the ground over and over, cutting through the Trombe roots without pause. At the same time, knights with black knives carefully trimmed the stems that had begun coiling around my neck.
"...The blessings are starting to work."
Damuel let out a voice full of genuine relief. With the wound on the back of my hand sealed and no more blood dripping, the Trombe had no way to activate—they stopped growing.
With weapons bearing the blessing of the God of Darkness, the Trombe would turn black at the point of contact, just like the giant one before, and decay from where the weapon struck.
Having escaped the terror of being strangled by the Trombe, I too let out a sigh of relief.
"Tch, this is hard to work with!"
"You're the only one with a knife. Be careful, Damuel."
It seemed that once a blessing was received, you couldn't change the shape of the weapon. The knights used their large weapons—the kind designed for felling the giant Trombe—to carefully cut away the branches around me little by little.
"Damuel, and... the Apprentice Shrine Maiden—Myne, was it? How did things end up like this? I've never seen Lord Ferdinand that angry before."
Karstedt asked in a hushed, rapid voice while cutting the branches at my feet with his great halberd.
"That's..."
Damuel made a grating sound of metal scraping and looked toward Shikikoza. But he seemed unwilling to actively accuse him, and his words came out vague and muddled.
With Damuel's unclear attitude, I felt an indescribable frustration along with the harshness of this status-bound society, and I weighed my own options.
...What should I do?
The Trombe that had been creeping toward my throat had already been cut away up to my chest, so I was at least in a state where I could talk. Telling everything would be easy.
But whether I'd be believed was another matter entirely, and it would probably come down to status. I had no idea how much weight my words would carry, or whether they'd be trusted. Karstedt was a noble too. There was always the risk of this situation playing out the same way all over again.
"I want whatever information you can give. Speak clearly."
Karstedt growled in a low, irritated voice through gritted teeth, pressing both Damuel and me to talk.
Come to think of it, the High Priest had also directed his anger at Karstedt for "choosing incompetent guards." If Karstedt was now trying to trace the source of the High Priest's fury, he might actually listen to my account properly—for self-preservation if nothing else.
"Lord Karstedt, if I tell you everything, will my safety be guaranteed?"
"What do you mean?"
I asked Karstedt to confirm whether Shikikoza's behavior was considered normal for a noble. As long as the ceremony wasn't over yet, at the very least I shouldn't be killed on the spot.
"As a commoner, even if I speak honestly, if I say something displeasing, a noble would grab my hair and swing me around, or gouge my eyes out, wouldn't they?"
"What are you talking about? ...Don't tell me you actually did that to the Apprentice Shrine Maiden!?"
Karstedt clanked as he flipped up the face-covering portion of his helmet. His fury-filled, stern eyes locked onto Damuel. Damuel, startled by the force of Karstedt's anger, desperately tried to defend himself.
"It wasn't me! Shikikoza drew a knife and threatened the Apprentice Shrine Maiden! When I tried to help, he told me to 'know my place'..."
"You fool! Lord Ferdinand's anger is entirely justified!"
Karstedt ripped through the Trombe that had grown black and brittle with sheer brute force. The vines cracked and snapped.
Not just the High Priest—Karstedt was furious at the guards' actions too. If that was the case, I probably wouldn't be attacked simply for telling the truth. Just as I was reaching that assessment, Karstedt turned his sharp gaze on me.
"Myne, talk. Everything, exactly, without a single lie—swear it before God."
"Of course, Lord Karstedt. I swear before God that I will not tell a single lie."
I raised my hand as if to say "wait," but Karstedt brushed it aside. Sensing that he was genuinely willing to listen, I detailed everything the two guards had done, emphasizing that my attendant could corroborate the account.
Extracting me from the intricately tangled Trombe without causing any injury took considerable time. By the time I finished telling everything, they still weren't done.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"...No. Please call my attendant."
Having been wrapped up in Trombe, I was in tatters. The ceremonial outfit I'd just had made was frayed and torn in places, and the parts soaked with blood had holes as if eaten through by the Trombe. My whole body ached, and from fighting so desperately, I was completely drained of energy.
"Where is the Apprentice Shrine Maiden's attendant!?"
Karstedt hoisted my limp, powerless body. My being in the way was apparently slowing the thorough cutting of the Trombe roots. Being carried in metal armor hurt in various places, but I didn't have the energy to complain.
"Myne-sama!"
I turned my gaze to
"High Priest, she has a fever!"
"As to be expected. Let her rest over there and give her that medicine. She's lost blood, and quite a bit of mana too, no doubt."
The High Priest, who had been questioning Shikikoza, merely glanced our way before turning his gaze back. Having removed his helmet so his expression was fully visible, he looked even angrier than before.
"Yes, sir."
Fran carried me to a warm, sunny spot, sat me down, and took a small bottle of pale green liquid from his bag.
"Please drink this, Myne-sama."
"What is this?"
"It is medicine from the High Priest."
I was scared to put something I didn't understand into my mouth, but if I didn't drink it properly, they'd probably force it down my throat anyway. Reluctantly, I reached for the bottle.
"Sorry, Fran. I can't. My arms won't go up."
Both arms I'd been desperately holding up to keep blood from dripping were as heavy as lead, and I couldn't lift them on my own.
Fran propped up my back, uncapped the bottle, and brought it to my lips. The smell—like boiled herbal medicine—made me choke. The concentrated scent of stewed herbs hit me full in the nose.
"Fran, is it really safe to drink this?"
"The High Priest drank some earlier himself. He said it was a restorative he prepared for fatigue and mana recovery."
When told it was for fatigue recovery, I had no choice but to drink it. At least if the High Priest himself took it, it probably wasn't poison. Grimacing at the overpowering stench, I poured it into my mouth.
"Ngh!?!"
I hurriedly clamped a hand over my mouth to keep from spitting it out. Tears surged up instantly, and my whole body trembled. My tongue went numb, and the back of my throat burned. The bitterness was so violent and overwhelming that I wondered if I'd lose the ability to taste anything for a while.
Seeing me trembling and whimpering with my hand pressed over my mouth, Fran went pale and ran to the High Priest.
"High Priest, Myne-sama appears to be in considerable distress..."
"Sacrificing the taste is the trade-off for immediate results."
The High Priest said it without even glancing our way.
And he was right—the exhaustion and heaviness drained from my body, and I could feel the fever receding on its own.
"...Incredible. The fever is going down..."
It was an insanely effective medicine. But they say good medicine tastes bitter, and this was taking it way too far. I wanted to demand they improve the flavor. Though the High Priest had flatly stated he'd sacrificed taste for effectiveness, so there was no chance he'd agree to improve it.
While I rested and recovered, the knights finished exterminating the Trombe completely. Unlike the giant one, no crater had opened up. One of the knights said that was because it had germinated from my mana.
Naturally occurring Trombe burrow underground and spend months—sometimes even years—absorbing the surrounding mana, storing it up before germinating. As a result, their roots spread far and deep, making them exhausting to deal with.
"All troops, assemble!"
The knights who had finished eliminating the Trombe lined up at Karstedt's command. The only ones not in formation were the two who had been assigned as my guards. They stood before the High Priest with their helmets removed, kneeling with heads bowed low.
"Myne, come here."
Now able to move, I was called over, and everyone gathered in one place. I stood half a step behind the High Priest as instructed. Because I was so short, I happened to make eye contact with the two guards, who had raised their faces slightly. Just as their voices had suggested, both were still teenagers—not yet fully adults.
Shikikoza had aggressive yellowish-green hair and deep green eyes brimming with hatred. His features were sharp but his expression was one of pure arrogance, and his eyes eloquently proclaimed that every bit of this was my fault.
Damuel had plain brown hair and gray eyes that looked troubled and apologetic, fixed on me. I couldn't tell with his helmet on, but somehow he radiated the unmistakable air of a kid who gets bullied.
"Now then—Shikikoza, Damuel. If you have anything to say in your defense regarding this incident, speak."
At the High Priest's words, Shikikoza raised his head.
"...There is nothing requiring defense. She is a commoner. That alone should suffice."
I pressed my chest lightly at his brazen, fully confident assertion—as though this were simply how the world worked. If the other party was a commoner, there was no need to defend yourself. That was the rule here.
"I believe I gave orders not to lay a single scratch on her?"
"A commoner who stood up on her own and injured herself—I fail to see why I should be held responsible for that."
Shikikoza shook his head flatly, even at the High Priest's anger-laced voice. The High Priest murmured "I see," then shifted his gaze to Damuel.
Under the High Priest's piercing stare, Damuel flinched once, then looked down and spoke all at once.
"Shikikoza told me to remember my place, and I couldn't resist. I am truly sorry."
The High Priest exhaled softly as Damuel spoke with his head still lowered.
"Indeed. As you both claim, one must know one's place."
"Then..."
Shikikoza raised his face, now alight with satisfaction, and looked at me triumphantly. I gently touched the holes in my ceremonial outfit, biting down on my frustration.
The High Priest took one step forward.
"Who here has the highest status, Shikikoza?"
"Lord Ferdinand, naturally."
Shikikoza answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. But he couldn't read the High Priest's intent, and tilted his head slightly.
"Yes, that is correct. And it was I who gave the order. To protect the Apprentice Shrine Maiden without allowing a single scratch on her. If you truly understood the difference in status, you would know what must be protected and what must take priority. It is you who must learn to recognize status!"
Shikikoza looked up at the High Priest as though struck by a thunderbolt. His face was stunned, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"But she is a commoner. A foolish child disrupting the temple's order..."
"Since you clearly have no grasp of the situation, allow me to spell it out. Myne is indeed a commoner, but she is an Apprentice Shrine Maiden who has been granted blue robes. The temple desired her because of her abundant mana, secured the lord's permission, and bestowed upon her the blue robes. To grumble about that is tantamount to grumbling about the temple and the lord—engrave that into your heart!"
At the High Priest's words, not only Shikikoza and Damuel, but several of the knights lined up behind them gasped.
"As you all should know, our country currently suffers a shortage of nobles. That means a shortage of those who can handle mana. Shikikoza—you, having returned from the temple to noble society, should understand this particularly well."
Wondering what connection he had with the High Priest, I learned that Shikikoza had originally grown up in the temple as a Blue Priests' apprentice. Understanding that, I could see why he would react so strongly to a commoner like me wearing blue robes. The Blue Priests in the temple were constantly incensed at being treated on par with commoners, after all.
"In truth, the only people in the current temple who can carry out this ceremony are myself and Myne. If there were Blue Priests who could perform it, an Apprentice Shrine Maiden who was a commoner would never have been placed here. I am astonished by your failure to grasp even that much. I will say it once more—Myne is here as the Blue Apprentice Shrine Maiden needed to perform this ceremony. The person you harmed was not merely a commoner. She is an Apprentice Shrine Maiden who has been granted blue robes."
The High Priest emphasized again and again that I was a Blue Apprentice Shrine Maiden. This was the flip side of the coin—if I were merely a commoner, Shikikoza could not be held accountable.
I gripped my blue robes tightly.
"You violated orders, abandoned your duty, harmed the person you were assigned to protect, caused a magic tree to appear that should never have materialized, threw the Knight's Order into chaos, and increased their workload. And by having a guard who was supposed to protect someone actually harm that person, you have wounded the pride of the Knight's Order. Do not expect this to be treated lightly. A determination on your punishment will follow from the lord."
The High Priest turned his gaze from the two of them and whirled to face the assembled knights. He looked down with cold eyes at Karstedt, who knelt at the front.
"Karstedt."
"Yes, sir!"
"For choosing such incompetent guards, and for insufficient training of newcomers who don't even know how to follow orders—these are your failings. Your punishment will be determined later."
Karstedt, who had been told the High Priest's anger was well-founded, had apparently also steeled himself for punishment of his own. Without a change in expression, he quietly bowed his head to the High Priest.
"This disturbance is the result of my own inadequacy as leader of the Knight's Order. I humbly apologize for having caused you trouble, Lord Ferdinand."
As Karstedt bowed deeply, the knights lined up and kneeling behind him all bowed to the High Priest in unison.
This time, the High Priest was the real hero.
Because he was the highest-ranking person present, they all ended up being punished—but if he hadn't been there, Myne would have been made to bear all the blame.
Next time: the ceremony. Repair work on the crater.