The tour itself ended without incident.
I did have a strong premonition that I'd be scolded or interrogated by the Chief Priest later, but for now, it was over.
However, whatever had been discussed during the meeting, Benno—who had returned together with Sylvester—looked thoroughly exhausted, fatigue clearly written all over his face.
After the tour ended, Benno came to my room and slumped down, looking completely drained. It seemed like he wouldn't even have the energy to go home without resting first.
"Benno, what did Sylvester say to you? If he said something truly awful, I can report it to the Chief Priest. I'm willing to help."
There was almost nothing I could actually do, but if things were bad enough, the Chief Priest would swoop in and dish out punishment. That was what I was thinking when I made my offer in good faith, but Benno stayed stubbornly silent and started grinding his knuckles into the top of my head.
"Ow, ow! What's that for suddenly?!"
"...It's your fault."
Benno said that quietly with a menacing expression, raising his fist again. I glared at him through teary eyes while shielding my head.
"What did I do wrong?!"
"I can't say. I can't say, but it's your fault."
"Did he give you a hard time because I didn't agree to a cook exchange?"
If Sylvester was giving Benno grief because of me, that was the only thing I could think of. But Benno's eyes widened slightly before he let out a long sigh and shook his head.
"Completely wrong."
"Then what is it?"
Benno looked at me with a resentful expression, then roughly mussed up his neatly styled hair and groaned, "Ugh."
"...Never mind. All I know for sure is that an incredible opportunity has come my way. Whether I can actually take advantage of it, I have no idea."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but good luck."
I encouraged him as best I could despite not understanding, but for some reason that didn't sit right with Benno, and he pinched both my cheeks firmly with his hands.
"...Benno, would you like to stay for lunch?"
"No, I want to go home and sort through my thoughts."
Benno said that, then stood up with a clatter and shuffled off with the exhausted gait of a beaten-down office worker. What on earth had Sylvester said to him?
That afternoon, two letters arrived at my room.
The first was an invitation to the Chief Priest's lecture room from the Chief Priest himself. The date was the day after tomorrow afternoon—a summons before I'd be allowed to go home. If I could look forward to doting on my family after the lecture, I'd manage to endure it somehow. I immediately wrote back my acceptance.
The second letter was from Sylvester, thanking me for the tour and ordering me to take him into the forest tomorrow. He gave the order so casually, but going to the forest wasn't something I could do easily—physically, or when it came to the need for an escort.
"
I flicked the letter with my fingertip and muttered, and Damuel—who would have to accompany me as my guard—raised his shoulders slightly with an exasperated look.
"A Shrine Maiden Apprentice couldn't even walk to the forest, surely?"
"I can. I used to walk to the forest before my baptism. ...It took a while, though."
There were rarely any adults patient enough to match my pace, and lately I'd often end up being carried, but that didn't mean I couldn't walk. I was just a little slow.
"Whether you can walk or not, let's set that aside. Even considering the security concerns, it's not advisable for a Shrine Maiden Apprentice to go to the forest. Wouldn't it be better to have someone guide you?"
The person in question was the free-spirited Sylvester. If my father had the day off, I could ask him, but his day off was the day after tomorrow. Turi had told me she'd arranged for him to have time off so he could pick me up. Since Turi would be coming along to pick me up as well, she was definitely working tomorrow.
"I suppose I'll have to ask
It was already planned that Lutz would take the kids to the forest tomorrow if the weather was good, so I had no choice but to ask him.
When it came to handling Sylvester, I'd ideally ask
"
After the second bell rang, I was to eat breakfast and
However, when I went to open the workshop today, Sylvester was apparently already there, wearing a dingy set of secondhand clothes and waiting eagerly in front of the building.
How much was he looking forward to this? He was like a child heading off on a field trip.
Gil came to report in a panic, so I stopped practicing my feytool and headed to the workshop with Damuel and Gil.
By the time I arrived at the workshop, it was about the time the orphanage would be finishing breakfast. The grey priests, all deference and apology, and the children who had prepared by strapping baskets to their backs for the forest trip, were beginning to gather at the workshop. Among them was Sylvester, conspicuously holding an impressively ornate bow and arrows.
"Good morning, Sylvester."
"You're slow, Myne."
I didn't know what to do when he glared at me like that, clearly displeased.
"Sylvester, you're too early. Not everyone's here yet. ...Besides, I can't go to the forest. I'd just be in the way."
"You would be in the way, wouldn't you? Then who's going to guide us?"
Sylvester looked around with his deep green eyes full of excitement, his strongly blue-tinged purple hair tied together and swaying at the middle of his back. His silver hair ornament clashed completely with his secondhand clothes.
"Lutz and Leon, who are apprentices at the
I told him to sit on the wooden box in the workshop, but Sylvester kept pacing around restlessly. I let out a slow sigh.
"Are you really going to the forest, Sylvester?"
"Of course. I even had these dingy clothes prepared for the occasion. See? They suit me better than you'd expect, don't they?"
Sylvester grinned and spread his arms to show off the secondhand clothes. They didn't suit him at all. The shabby clothes only stuck out more. From any angle, he just looked like a rich man enjoying a disguise that wasn't fooling anyone.
Still, one thing was perfectly clear: he wanted to hunt. The secondhand clothes for going into the forest. The slightly worn leather short boots—he'd probably judged that wooden clogs would be too restrictive. And what he held in his hands was an exquisitely beautiful and ornate bow, the kind you'd rarely see around here. He really did look like hunting was the only thing on his mind.
"Sylvester, if you're really going to hunt in the forest, promise me you'll do as Lutz says."
"Hmm?"
Sylvester's expression tightened slightly as he looked at me.
There was a difference in status between nobility and commoners, but as fellow blue priests, we were nominally equals within the temple. With the Chief Priest not present, I was the only one who could speak up to Sylvester.
"Just as the noble forests have their rules, the lower city forest has its own rules. The gathering areas and hunting areas are kept separate, and there are rules about encountering other hunters. If you can't follow those rules and plan to throw around your noble privileges when something happens, then I'd rather you hunt in the noble forests from the start."
The lower city forest had numerous unspoken rules that allowed everyone to use it, including pre-baptism children who could go gathering as helpers. Hunting without following those rules was a dangerous act that could result in someone getting hurt. If his attitude was going to be "who cares about the lower city's rules," then I'd have to ask the Chief Priest to put a stop to it.
Sylvester listened to my explanation with a serious expression, nodded, and agreed.
"Since it's my first time there, it's only natural to listen to those with experience."
When Sylvester nodded magnanimously as he said this, Lutz and Leon arrived. Both of them were dressed for heading into the forest today.
"Morning, Myne. It's rare to see you at the workshop."
"Morning, Lutz. Good morning, Leon."
"Good morning, Myne."
After exchanging greetings, the two noticed Sylvester standing tall and imposing and hurriedly bowed in greeting.
Seeing the two goggle-eyed, wondering why yesterday's blue priest was here, I relayed Sylvester's request to go hunting in the forest today.
"Lutz, I'm really sorry about this, but please look after Sylvester. Leon and Gil, I need you two to watch over the children's gathering group today. ...It should be fine to leave it to you now, right?"
"Yeah, we've got it."
"Understood."
Sylvester headed off into the forest with Lutz and the others, carrying his ornately beautiful bow and arrows that clashed so badly with his shabby clothes, joining the group of orphanage children that Lutz was leading.
"This is worrying."
"He probably has some kind of plan. Let's go back to the room, Shrine Maiden Apprentice."
Sylvester sure didn't look like he had any kind of plan, but I murmured to myself as I returned to my room.
"Myne, can I borrow a cook? There's a huge haul of game."
Lutz burst into my room saying that just as the sun was beginning to set, close to the time the sixth bell would ring.
Asking the cooks to take on more work when they'd be heading home soon made me hesitate, but an experienced person was overwhelmingly faster at butchering game. I couldn't expect the orphanage children who had only just started wielding knives to handle all the prep work.
"
When Damuel and I arrived at the workshop, what greeted our eyes were plucked feathers scattered everywhere, spots of blood on the ground in front of the workshop, and children industriously plucking away at feathers with fierce concentration.
Hugo and
"...That's incredible."
Hearing that mutter, Sylvester puffed out his chest proudly and came striding over.
"How about that? Amazing, right? I took them all down myself."
"Welcome back, Sylvester."
"Myne, look! A massive haul."
Sylvester was in astonishingly high spirits. He'd managed to bring down four birds and a small deer, and Hugo and Ella immediately set about butchering the deer that was laid out on a platform.
"Looks like most of the bleeding's done, so just remove the innards that spoil quickly. We don't have time today, so we'll process the meat tomorrow."
I watched the two of them work through the butchering with skillful hands from a slight distance, while the children—with beaming smiles—chattered away, plucking feathers and giving me a report on the day's events.
The children, who had only ever known cooked meat, and I, who had grown enough to talk about all this without trembling—we'd all come so far.
"Myne, it was amazing! A bird flying high in the sky suddenly came crashing down, and it turned out one of Lord Syl's arrows had hit it."
"They kept hanging more and more birds from branches to let them bleed out."
"It got so red everywhere!"
"He even took out a beast that came charging in after the birds! He said the meat would be tough and tasteless, so he left it, though."
The children excitedly took turns telling tales of Sylvester's exploits, but imagining how the forest must have been was a little frightening.
However, Sylvester was basking in the children's admiration and grinning happily.
"It really is impressive to hunt this much in a single day. What are you planning to do with all this? Wouldn't it be better to have it sent to your kitchen, Sylvester?"
I suggested leaving it to the cooks at his place, and Sylvester shook his head so fast you'd think having it sent to his kitchen would be a problem.
"No, I don't need any. This—yes, let's just feed it to the orphans."
"Yay! Lord Syl, thank you!"
"Lord Syl, you're amazing! Please let us go to the forest with you again!"
Children who didn't normally get much meat were overjoyed at the massive haul. Their eyes sparkled with hunger as they praised Sylvester.
"...Um, Lord Syl?"
The children said it so naturally, but wasn't that form of address disrespectful? I timidly asked Sylvester about it.
"Ah, Sylvester was hard to say, so I made it easier. But don't you use it."
"Why not?"
When I tilted my head in puzzlement, Sylvester looked down at me as if teasing me and snorted.
"The orphanage children would never see me outside of my posting here, but you'll run into me elsewhere, like at the Dedication Ritual. Someone as scatterbrained as you would probably get the name wrong at a critical moment."
I was hurt to be called scatterbrained even by Sylvester, whom I barely knew, but he wasn't wrong. I could only hang my head slightly and agree.
"You're right."
Sylvester chuckled and poked my cheek.
"Today was fun for the first time in a long while. Myne, as thanks, take this."
Sylvester thrust his clenched fist in front of my face. I half expected him to be holding acorns or bugs he'd picked up in the forest, but what he had was a necklace set with a jet-black stone that looked like onyx.
"Oh, thank you. ...What is this? A Magical Tool?"
"It's a type of Magical Tool, yes, but owning it doesn't mean you can use magic. Pray to the gods all you want and nothing will happen."
I understood—it was one of those Magical Tools with a fixed, predetermined purpose, like the eavesdropping-prevention kind—and looked up at Sylvester.
"What does it do?"
"I'll be away for a while, so this is a talisman for emergencies. If you find yourself in a bad situation, press a Blood Seal on the gemstone part. I'll come rescue you."
I had no idea whether I'd ever actually need Sylvester's help. I figured that if I cried to the Chief Priest, things would work out to some degree. But if he was offering, I'd accept.
"Turn around. I'll put it on for you."
I did as I was told and turned my back, but Sylvester clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Move your hair. I can't put it on like that. Have you never received jewelry from a man before?!"
"I have had someone put a hair ornament on me before."
I think Benno had put a hair ornament on me once.
But I'd never been in a situation where a man gave me a necklace—not in this life, and not in my previous life either. Actually, in my previous life, I'd never received jewelry from anyone outside my family.
Come to think of it, not even eight years old yet and already receiving hair ornaments and necklaces—Myne really was something.
...Was it really about the face? Was appearance that important? If I lived as Myne, would I finally experience the popularity that I'd been told would never come for "that delusional bookworm with the hopeless way of thinking"?
"Does it suit me?"
"There's nothing to suit or not suit about a talisman. As long as you don't take it off, that's all that matters."
You'd think he could at least try to give me a compliment, even if it was just to a child.
When I puffed out my cheeks in dissatisfaction at Sylvester's blunt honesty, Sylvester cupped both my puffed cheeks in his hands and squeezed firmly.
Air whooshed out of my mouth. Even so, Sylvester didn't let go. If anything, his grip on my cheeks tightened.
"Myne, wear this at all times. Got it?"
"Mmh."
Sylvester's deep green eyes, fixed on me, were more serious than I had ever seen them.
Benno, hang in there!
I received a necklace with a black stone from Sylvester.
Next time: The Chief Priest's lecture and going home.