The way the High Priest and Chief Priest's eyes were gleaming made me shrink back. Noticing the pained expression on my face, the Chief Priest brought out the Holy Book.
They decided to have me read the Holy Book while waiting for
"A boy named Lutz who says he's here to pick up Mine is at the Gate."
The Gray Priest entered the room a while after the fifth bell rang. Hearing that my long-awaited ride had arrived, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"Lutz! Thanks for coming to get me!"
"W-what!?"
The moment I saw Lutz waiting outside the
As I rubbed my head against Lutz's shoulder, he let out a sigh.
"Did you do something again, by any chance?"
"...Probably. I don't really know what I did, but I think I pulled off some kind of maximum-level self-destructive stunt."
Lutz, who had been patting my head lightly, gave me a bright smile.
"The Master is waiting for you with a smile that's about to burst a blood vessel."
"Huh? ...Can I just go home already? I'm exhausted today."
"He said I should grab you by the scruff of the neck and drag you there if I have to, and with the color of your face right now, you'll probably make it."
"Aaahhhhh..."
I'd already worn my nerves ragged at the Temple, and now I had no choice but to charge straight into
Led to Benno's shop with all the enthusiasm of a calf being dragged to the slaughter, Benno was already lying in wait. He had me shown straight to the back room.
When he told me to sit in my usual seat, I found Benno sitting across from me,
"It's been a while, Mine."
"...Yes."
"Now, there's a mountain of things I want to say..."
Feeling like whatever was about to come out would take forever, I tensed up. Benno slowly exhaled and opened his mouth.
"Before I get into that, here's a message from Corina. She wants to see the Festive Clothing and hair ornament you wore at the
"It was just a refitted version of Turi's old clothes. There was no deeper meaning. I have no problem showing them, but as for taking the outfit out, you'd have to ask the mother who made it."
"Is that so? Then ask her, will you."
After brushing that off lightly, Benno clasped his hands on the table, leaned forward slightly, and fixed me with a hard stare.
"All right, let's hear everything from the top. Depending on what happened at the Temple, we need to figure out how to handle you from here on out."
"Huh? Didn't Lutz already tell you?"
Several days had passed since the Baptism Ceremony. I assumed he'd already heard everything from Lutz, but apparently not.
"Information relayed through someone else always gets distorted. When I can hear it straight from the source, why would I bother going through Lutz? Besides, there might be things you're deliberately keeping hidden."
His eyes had taken on the look of a predator that had spotted its prey, and I swallowed a small whimper. This was going to be a tough interrogation.
"...Where should I start?"
"After you collapsed at the Baptism Ceremony. Tell me everything that happened after you split off from Lutz, and don't leave anything out."
I told him about how I'd collapsed, wandered around looking for a water source, gotten lost, stumbled into the Noble's Area, been picked up by a Shrine Maiden, and discovered the Library. Benno's eyes widened in surprise.
"A Library? Something like that exists in the Temple...?"
"You didn't know about it either, Benno?"
"Normal people don't wander dangerously into areas meant for Nobility. Realize how much of a fool you were. What were you thinking, walking straight into danger like that?"
"Ugh..."
He was absolutely right that it wasn't a place ordinary people should be going in and out of. Discovering the Library through getting lost there had been a wonderful thing from my perspective, but still.
"The Shrine Maiden told me that nobody besides Temple personnel could enter the Library, so I figured the quickest way in would be to become a Shrine Maiden Apprentice, and I appealed directly to the High Priest to grant permission."
"Use your head a little! You brainless girl!"
"Ouch, ouch!"
Benno leaned forward and pinched both my cheeks hard. Mark and Lutz wore expressions that said this was perfectly natural and didn't lift a finger to help.
As I held my stinging cheeks, Benno urged me on with a sour expression.
"So? Did you get the permission?"
"They said if my parents agree and I make a donation, they'll make me an apprentice."
"A donation? Did you make one?"
Benno's brows furrowed tightly and his expression turned severe. I could tell immediately that he was worried I'd gone ahead and made an imprudent donation that might not even get me the permission.
Trying to put Benno at ease, I puffed out my chest and answered.
"Not yet. I calculated roughly how much the books cost versus how much savings I have, and I said I could probably manage one large gold coin as a Library usage fee—but that's all. I haven't actually donated anything yet. I'm not stupid enough to hand over money when I haven't even decided to go through with it."
I'd meant to reassure him, but Benno, Mark, and Lutz all grabbed their heads as if they had splitting headaches and slumped their shoulders.
"The amount is so absurd it's beyond words."
"It did make them treat me quite nicely, though..."
"Of course it did!"
I'd guessed it would be a high amount, but apparently, the donation I'd proposed was so astronomical that even a master merchant was reduced to clutching his head.
"So, when I went home and told my parents, they got really angry, saying that Priests and Shrine Maidens are orphans, so it's out of the question."
"That makes perfect sense."
"The Chief Priest said there are Nobles' children among them, though."
Tilting my head because I didn't understand why Dad was so furious, Benno scratched his head vigorously and explained the situation with the Priests.
"You know how the Priests and Shrine Maidens wear blue clothing and gray clothing?"
"Yes."
"Those in blue are Nobles, and the gray ones are orphans. The Gray Priests and Shrine Maidens work at the Temple like slaves, without pay, as attendants and laborers for the Blue Priests and Shrine Maidens."
"What!?"
I'd thought the color difference was just a gap between apprentices and full Priests, but I never imagined it was something like that.
"The only way someone like you, who isn't a Noble, could enter the Temple would be as a Gray Shrine Maiden Apprentice. No parent would agree to that."
I nodded. Now I understood why Dad had been so livid. It was definitely not work I could handle, and a father who loved his daughter would naturally be horrified at the idea of her entering the Temple.
"So, Lutz said you were going there today to refuse, but did you actually manage to refuse?"
"...Well, when I told them about the Self-Eating, they brought me something like a golden Holy Cup that a statue in the chapel was holding, and when I touched it, it glowed, so I ended up receiving an invitation for my parents."
Benno rubbed his temples in slow circles and let out a deep sigh.
"...You've been completely drawn in. All we can do is be glad your life has been extended. You're lucky."
"Lucky?"
Being told I was lucky to be drawn into the Temple, I tilted my head. Ignoring my confusion, Benno fell deep into thought.
He raised his head with a snap and fixed me with a serious stare.
"Mine, would you be willing to exchange Contract Magic? I'll handle the products you create."
"...Why?"
The sudden mention of Contract Magic put me on guard. Benno rubbed his chin while looking at me.
"Even if it doesn't happen right away, you will certainly be absorbed by the Nobility. To keep them in check, Contract Magic is essential."
"...Did you think from the very beginning that I'd be taken in by Nobles?"
"No, back then it was just an insurance policy. I didn't know what kind of child you were, and what I wanted most was to draw a clear line. ...But there was always the possibility that you were a Self-Eating. For Mine to survive, you'd end up needing to contract with Nobles. I thought Contract Magic would be an effective way to keep the contracted Noble quiet."
So the reason he'd exchanged Contract Magic with me and Lutz, despite our vastly unequal standing, was that he'd been anticipating the involvement of Nobles all along.
"I'm not going to contract with any Noble, though?"
"Up until now, you haven't been in contact with Nobles, so your own will was enough. But once you're taken into the Temple, that won't be possible anymore. Act with the assumption that you will be taken in. There's no Noble who wouldn't want to get their hands on a Self-Eating who can produce that many products. Especially right now."
"What do you mean, right now?"
After prefacing that this was information that had only recently made its way to him, Benno lowered his voice slightly.
"This region's Lord stayed neutral, or rather maintained a hands-off attitude, so the fallout was minimal. But larger territories got pretty deeply entangled in the political power struggles of the Central Government. I hear there were large-scale purges, and the number of Nobles has drastically decreased."
"Huh?"
This had suddenly taken a dark turn. I tried to pull up what historical knowledge I had, but I couldn't immediately figure out what era this was supposed to be or what developments lay ahead. I had no information, and as someone stuck in the middle of it all, I had no bird's-eye view of the situation. I simply couldn't tell.
"Naturally, to fill the gaps left by the plummeting Noble population, people have been scrambling to find collateral relatives, arrange adoptions, broker marriages—new connections and power grabs, with people, money, and goods all on the move. With fewer people available, the Blue Priests and Shrine Maidens who had been tossed into the Temple like nuisances will now be recalled en masse into Noble society. And when that happens—do you have any idea what becomes of the Temple?"
Benno glared at me expectantly. I tilted my head. I sent a look to Mark and Lutz for help, but Mark just gave me a placid smile, and Lutz tilted his head in the same way.
"Well, is there really anything that goes wrong when Nobles leave? I don't know enough about how the Temple works or what they do to imagine it. Wouldn't fewer people bossing around the Gray Priests be a good thing?"
"First, donations would dry up. Second, with fewer people using the orphans, the orphans would be out of work. They'd have trouble even surviving."
"That's terrible!"
The words flew out of me before I could stop them, and Benno shook his head with a sigh.
"There's something even worse. You said you touched the Holy Cup. The Temple people call it a sacred artifact, but in reality, it's a Magical Tool. The Blue Priests and Shrine Maidens channel their Magic Power into it to build up reserves for use in the Spring Prayer Ceremony. But if that power can't be accumulated anymore, the crop harvests will decline."
"What!?"
I'd never imagined that the Holy Cup was connected to something so critical. I'd been surprised when it glowed, but I'd only thought of it as an expensive decoration meant to display divine authority.
Crop harvests were absolutely essential for survival. If yields dropped, the ones who'd suffer most would be poor people like us living in the city.
"Before the political upheaval, Nobles' children were essentially surplus. A Self-Eating was nothing but an eyesore to Nobles who wanted to monopolize Magic Power. But now that Nobles have decreased and it's become difficult to use Magical Tools, the Self-Eating has become a highly valuable presence to the Temple."
"Um, is there some connection between Self-Eating and Magic Power?"
My question made Benno look so shocked his jaw could have hit the floor. He grabbed his head in disbelief.
"You didn't know? Self-Eating refers to a state where the Magic Power inside your body goes out of control."
"What!?"
"You transfer Magic Power into Magical Tools to bring it into a state you can control with your own power."
"That's the first time I've heard any of this."
So I'd been a little witch all along. A magic user—wasn't that like one of the standard Reincarnation perks? Did this mean I'd finally get my moment? Would I be able to blast enemies away with overflowing magic power or cast flashy spells? ...Wait—enemies?
My mind drifted a little as I processed this new information, but Benno rapped me lightly on the head. "Listen," he said.
"Among Nobles, the higher-ranking ones tend to have strong Magic Power, while lower-ranking Nobles tend to have weak Magic Power. And poor Nobles who don't have the money can't prepare Magical Tools for all their children. It's not uncommon for them to keep only the heir with the most Magic Power at home and send the rest to the Temple."
So in other words, the Blue Priests currently at the Temple were Nobles whose parents had abandoned them because they couldn't afford to raise them. They were necessary, but it was a sad existence.
"So up until now, Nobles with not-so-strong Magic Power had been pooling their numbers to perform the religious rites through sheer manpower. But with the population plummeting, the burden on each individual has grown immense. Right now, they might not even have enough to go around. How many Blue Priests were at the Baptism Ceremony?"
"About ten."
The memory of their dazzlingly coordinated group still made my stomach muscles ache from laughing.
"There are usually about twenty, and it's down to ten. And the ones with strong Magic Power are being called back home, so you can imagine what the Magic Power level of the remaining young ones is like. They'd be desperate for a Self-Eating with strong Magic Power. However, this is probably only temporary. Think of it as a brief window—until the Noble population recovers and the next generation grows up."
"Mm."
If it was only for a short period, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to serve at the Temple providing Magic Power. If I offered a trade—Magic Power supply in exchange for Library access—would they take it?
Hmm, I was mulling this over when Benno, who had somehow circled behind me, started grinding his knuckle into the top of my head.
"Are you listening to what I'm saying?"
"Ow! Ow!"
"You have both Magic Power and products that generate money. Get a proper sense of how profitable a catch you are to the Nobles!"
His serious tone made me instinctively straighten up. Benno let out a breath, pulled his fist away from my head, and waved his hand dismissively.
"That's exactly why you should get the contract done before the Nobles get their hands on you."
"...What kind of contract?"
"A contract saying you'll have Lutz sell the things you create."
"Huh? What for?"
I had no idea what any of this had to do with Self-Eating and the Temple. Was he just trying to profit from the chaos? When I furrowed my brows, Benno sat back down in his chair and began explaining carefully.
"For now, it's just insurance. In case you, who are reckless, short-sighted, and thoughtless, get caught in a Noble's scheme and dragged off beyond the City Wall, we'll have a way to stay in contact. And think about it beyond that—what happens if a Noble forces a contract on you? You need permission to cross the City Wall. You know that, right?"
"Yes."
I knew that crossing the City Wall required permission, since I'd worked at the Gate. When I nodded, Benno made a slightly bitter face.
"The Guild Master's granddaughter can meet her family even after crossing the Wall—her family is a merchant house recognized by the Nobles. But what about your family?"
I could only answer with silence. The reason I'd turned down a contract with Nobles was precisely because I wouldn't be able to see my family. There was no way I could.
"I don't think your family would be allowed to cross the City Wall. So wouldn't it be better to establish a connection with Lutz before the Temple or the Nobles can get to you, using Contract Magic that Nobles can't interfere with? That way, I can use that contract as a pretext to bring Lutz inside the Wall."
I looked up at Benno, startled. I looked at Lutz. The two of us exchanged glances, and they both gave me a small nod.
"If Lutz acts as a go-between, you can exchange letters, messages—some form of contact. You'll be able to learn about your family's situation. More than anything, knowing what's happening through Lutz would give your worried family at least a small measure of peace. Well, if you'd rather contract with me instead, that's perfectly fine too."
"But if it's with you, Benno, I wouldn't be able to find out about my family's situation, would I?"
I didn't want to imagine being taken in by Nobles, but if the worst did happen, having a setup where I could meet Lutz wouldn't be a bad deal for me. Frieda had said that just being able to see your family gave you strength.
But was it fair to drag Lutz into this?
"What do you think, Lutz?"
"If it means I can go to the Noble district, I'd like to try it. And being a messenger, well, it's not that big a deal. I'm more worried about leaving Mine alone. Thinking about what kind of trouble she might get into gives me a headache."
With just a casual shrug, Lutz made it clear he was already on board with the contract. But this was a contract meant to keep Nobles in check. When I thought about the burden it would put on Lutz as the other party, I couldn't just agree so easily.
"Signing a contract isn't exactly a casual thing, is it? What if you end up in danger or have to deal with something unpleasant? And wouldn't the contract barely benefit you at all, Benno? If Lutz gets poached, that's the end of it."
When I pursued my lips, Benno let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head slowly.
"You're not in a position where you can afford to worry about others. It's fine as long as Lutz benefits too."
"What kind of benefit is Lutz supposed to get?"
"You don't need to know that. Mine, just think about your own benefit. Honestly, if you've received that invitation, there's almost no time left to make the first move."
With all his information and his broader view, Benno seemed more anxious than I, the person actually involved, was. He laid out what needed to happen before the Temple could take me in.
"First, set up the Mine Workshop, register it with the Guild as a Workshop Head, and secure sales channels for your products. If money can change your situation, create an environment where you can get money and negotiate with the Temple. They'll want money too, so it should be negotiable."
It was true that large sums of money were a form of power. Just proposing a large donation had gotten me courteous treatment, so for my own protection, it was better to have money on hand.
And even if I made products, if the Temple took everything, there'd be nothing left in my own hands. A trustworthy sales channel was essential. He tested me and tricked me from time to time, but Benno was still the person I could trust most right now.
When I nodded, Benno nodded back.
"For the Nobles, a single Commoner is practically worthless, so be on your guard. Prepare every escape route and survival path you can think of. Set up as many layers of insurance as you can to protect yourself."
"Yes."
They'd placed the Holy Book on my lap and read to me, treated me courteously—I'd had the vague impression he was a decent person. But there was no harm in having insurance and escape routes prepared. Preparedness prevents peril. What frustrated me was that I didn't know enough about the common sense and knowledge of this world to figure out what I even needed to prepare.
Benno kept staring at me intently as he continued.
"Even now, there must be ten Nobles at the Temple. Don't just let yourself be exploited by them—look for ones you can work with. Instead of just being grabbed and kept as a pet, you have a slightly wider range of choices. Look carefully. Choose. Think. Don't just drift along mindlessly. Fight to survive."
"Why are you going to all this trouble for me, Benno..."
The strategies and warnings he'd laid out weren't something you could come up with without gathering considerable information and thinking through countless possibilities. I couldn't understand why he'd go to all that trouble for someone like me, who couldn't even become an apprentice at his shop.
"If you survive, I get new products. If we maintain a connection, that benefits my business. And you're able to receive information this way too—so it benefits you as well. Accept it gracefully."
Mark, standing behind the frowning Benno, gave a soft, gentle smile.
"The Master is just worried. She's always been so reckless, always stirring up unexpected trouble. Watching over Mine is genuinely hard on his heart."
"Mark, shut it."
Benno turned and said that, but Mark kept smiling faintly as he continued.
"The children who enter apprenticeship programs have received basic education from their families and are entrusted to us. Until now, the Master has never had a child this close to him who required this much looking after. He can't quite bring himself to say he cares for her like his own child, but he's worried about her with the same concern he'd have for a relative's child. And of course, so am I."
"Thank you, Mark."
"Mark, seriously."
I thanked him with genuine emotion, and Benno huffed in irritation. Mark and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"Of course, I'm grateful to you too, Benno. ...I'd like to proceed with the Contract Magic and the Guild registration for the workshop, please."
And that was Benno's lecture—a man driven to exasperation.
Next time: Contract Magic and workshop registration.