……What am I going to do?
Even when she scolded me for being too soft regarding Deria, and even when she scolded me about the distance between us, she'd never gotten this angry.
I knew that Fran served me well, but for Fran, the Chief Priest still outranked me, and I never expected her to get this furious over the orphans' rudeness toward me.
When I saw the unmistakable fear on Toor's face, I hurried to stop Fran.
"Fran, that's enough. It's fine now."
"But, Lady Rosemine—"
I stepped between them, but Fran's anger hadn't subsided, and she took another step forward.
"I know you were angry on my behalf. Thank you, Fran. Your hand must hurt, right?"
Making Fran raise a hand when she'd never resorted to violence before was my fault. I gripped Fran's sleeve to hold her back, then cupped her reddened palm in both of mine.
When Fran's gaze shifted to her own hand, I turned to Toor, who was clutching his cheek where Fran had struck him, and
"Toor, Rick. I understand your desire to protect your families — it hurts me just thinking about it. And I understand the fear and anxiety of arriving in a world where your common sense doesn't apply at all."
I had seen countless worlds with different norms — the gap between my life as Reon and this world, the difference between craftsmen and merchants, between the lower town and the
"But you're not alone, are you? Even if you can't sleep together, you can still be together all the time, can't you?"
When I continued with, "After all,
"If you absolutely must be together, the dining hall is an option. But wouldn't Nora and Marte feel safer resting in the girls' dormitory, where no men can enter at all, rather than sleeping in a public dining hall where anyone might wander in? What do you two think?"
Toor had been desperately insisting on keeping his sisters together, but he hadn't once asked Nora and Marte what they wanted. When I looked toward the two girls, Nora gently lowered her long lashes.
"Toor, I'm going to sleep in the girls' dormitory, so you and Rick go to the boys' dormitory."
"Sis!?"
"I don't want the dining hall. I can't sleep somewhere strange men might be lurking around. ……It's been so long since I've been able to sleep feeling safe. Please understand."
The exhaustion visible behind Nora's faint smile made it immediately clear how many tense days she'd endured. Toor bit his lip in frustration.
"Me too…… I'll sleep with Nora, big brother."
Marte tugged at Rick's sleeve with a desperate expression as she said this. It was unusual for her to assert herself, and Rick stared down at her in surprise.
"Are you sure?"
"……Yeah. It's not that scary here."
Marte gave a small smile and let go of Rick's sleeve.
Once Nora and Marte both said they wanted to sleep in the girls' dormitory, Toor and Rick had nothing more to say, and they accepted it readily.
"Well then, let me explain the other facilities……"
Relieved that everything was settled, I turned to head toward the basement of the girls' dormitory, but Fran's hand stopped my words.
"First, an apology."
"Huh?"
"You are the High Priest, Lady Rosemine. I demand an apology from anyone who has been disrespectful to the High Priest."
……Oh my, she's still angry!
Fran's quiet fury was stubbornly persistent. Personally, I wanted to just brush it off and move on. But Fran made it absolutely clear through her expression and demeanor that she would not let it go. It was my first time seeing Fran like this, and I couldn't bring myself to intervene.
I wasn't the only one whose face had gone pale at Fran's anger. Nora gasped and forcibly pushed Toor's head down. Toor knelt on the spot, and Nora knelt beside him, and together they apologized to me.
"I'm sorry. Come on, Toor, apologize too!"
"……I'm sorry."
They apologized, so it's fine now, right? I appealed silently as I looked up at Fran.
Fran met my gaze and let a faint smile cross her face. It wasn't her usual gentle smile — it was the kind that sent a chill right through you.
"Lady Rosemine, I'll have
"Um, Fran?"
"There is something I must discuss with you privately. Gil, Nicola — take the four of them and go ahead."
Urged by Fran, Gil and Nicola snapped to attention with a crisp "Y-yes!" and hurried the four orphans down the stairs as if fleeing.
……Wait. Don't leave me behind!
I screamed internally, but Fran had already spun on her heel and marched away from the blast of cold air. Left behind were Fran, me, the two guard knights, and the Chief Priest.
The Chief Priest was wearing the exact same bone-chilling smile as Fran. A cold sweat broke out across my body.
"Well then, Lady Rosemine. Let's go to your room and have a nice, long talk."
"That's right. We need to make sure she understands thoroughly."
"……Y-yes."
……These two, former and current head attendants, were way too alike. This was genuinely terrifying. Someone, please help me!
Of course, no one was going to help. This was exactly the kind of moment I wished someone would protect me, but the two guard knights refused to even make eye contact.
Fran had never come close to the hidden room opened by Magic Power in the head priest's office, but either her anger had consumed most of her reasoning, or the different location didn't bother her — she entered without a moment's hesitation, her expression unchanged.
And the first thing she said, with a severe look on her face, was: "One must not tolerate disrespectful behavior from orphans."
Fran went on to say that I was already young, smaller than average, and prone to being looked down upon, so if I tolerated disrespect, the other party would only grow bolder. On that point, the two guard knights seemed to agree, giving slight nods.
"What I fear most is that Lady Rosemine, as the Lord's adopted daughter, will tolerate rudeness, causing the other party to become arrogant and emboldened, which will ultimately lead to Lady Rosemine becoming displeased."
"And when you get angry, your Magic Power goes out of control. The collateral damage is enormous," the Chief Priest added.
I couldn't even argue with Fran's words or the Chief Priest's supplementary comment, and I drooped in defeat. I'd only meant to be kind to the newcomers, but apparently that wasn't good enough.
"With anything, the beginning is what matters most. Lady Rosemine, kindness is a virtue, but it must not be confused with softness."
"……I'll be more careful."
I wanted to make sure I never created a situation where Fran would have to raise her hand to someone again, and never provoke that terrifying anger that the two of them radiated side by side.
"Rosemine's leniency is something we must address as well, but educating those orphans is the more urgent matter. What was with that manner of speech? And their table manners were unbearable to watch."
Remembering the meal, the Chief Priest's brow furrowed in distaste. In the slums of the lower town, none of that would be particularly unusual, but I couldn't press the point any further. They had entered the Temple, so the only option was to educate them.
"It's so bad I don't even know where to begin. Do you have any educational policies in mind? How does the
The Chief Priest asked about the lower town as he understood it, but the Gilberta Company was a large establishment by lower-town standards — they basically only took in children from shops that had dealings with Nobility. The only one who'd been at the same level as these orphans was probably
Fran looked up as if struck by an idea.
"Since there are only four of them, wouldn't it be better to bring them to the Temple?"
Her proposal was to take them not here, but to the Temple's orphanage, where everything was already done a certain way, so perhaps they'd pick it up naturally. In terms of educational environment, it might be good, but until they'd grown a bit more accustomed to the Temple's peculiarities, it would only pile on stress. I myself had been overwhelmed by the differences in common sense when I'd first entered the Temple, but I'd had a home to return to — family who would listen to my complaints and indulge me, plus Lutz and the others. Having someone who could shout "This is incomprehensible!" in agreement was invaluable.
If they had no refuge, and their family was equally stressed by the environmental change, it was unclear whether they'd even have anyone to lean on.
"Let's wait a bit before taking them to the Temple. It's better if they get used to the Temple's ways a little at a time while staying on familiar ground. If things stay as they are, there will be many clashes at the Temple, and I think it's wise to leave them a path back to the town master's place if it truly doesn't work out."
"Lady Rosemine?"
Fran tilted her head in puzzlement — she'd never considered leaving the Temple.
"We don't know if everyone can adapt to the Temple's ways, do we? The girls will probably say they'd rather stay at the Temple than be sold, but the boys might think the town master's place offers more freedom."
The "freedom" I'd arranged for them at the orphanage amounted to gathering expeditions in the forest and Papermaking. The town master's place probably offered far more room to move about.
"After the Harvest Festival, if everyone chooses to stay, we can bring them to the Temple for the winter. By then, they should be accustomed to life here."
"Then how shall we go about educating them? Young children are one thing, but children who enter an orphanage at that age are exceedingly rare, so I don't know what the best approach would be."
In the lower town, children who had completed the
While very young children who hadn't yet undergone the Baptism Ceremony might occasionally be left at an orphanage when no relatives would take them, it was virtually unheard of for children old enough to already be apprentices to end up there.
"Don't the children around here work as apprentices?"
"If the parents are farmers, the fields are confiscated the moment they die. The fields allocated to a minor might not be enough to live on. I'm not entirely sure of the details," the Chief Priest said with a light sigh.
He explained that he'd only ever looked at the relevant documents for tax purposes and had never actually seen farmers' lives firsthand, so he didn't know much about the orphans' living conditions.
"……For now, we have no choice but to start from the very beginning and teach them patiently, as if they know nothing."
"Start from the very beginning?"
"Even serving meals…… the methods are probably different from what they're used to. The Temple often follows the customs of noble households. They won't understand unless we teach them everything from how to handle cutlery upward."
In the lower town, eating with one's hands wasn't unusual. It was the orphanage that taught proper table manners to keep up appearances that was the oddity.
"And cleaning methods, too. The priests' cleaning was efficient, fast, and thorough, and Lutz raved about it. The town master's cleaning methods wouldn't fly in the Temple."
Lutz had told me he learned the cleaning methods from Gil and then taught them to the apprentices at the Gilberta Company.
"However, no matter what we teach, please teach all four of them together. When going to the forest to gather materials, when teaching them about Papermaking, when teaching them to cook — don't split them up; teach them as a group."
The Chief Priest, who had been about to assign individual instructors for the four orphans — considering there were also six priests and Shrine Maidens — raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Why is that?"
"Because they grow faster together. Having companions to study with sparks their competitive spirit, and they can teach each other as well. The power of a group is nothing to scoff at."
When I brought up the example of the karuta cards the children had learned through competition, the Chief Priest narrowed his eyes and murmured, "Something like what the Noble Academy fosters, perhaps……" Then he looked at me and wore an unsettling smile. I had a bad feeling that some strange plan was taking shape in his head.
"At any rate, let's prioritize helping them adjust to life here. The Temple is an unusual place, so please keep in mind that newcomers won't acclimate quickly, and teach them accordingly."
"Understood. I'll convey that to the grey priests as well."
Fran's expression returned to its usual gentleness.
"Well then, let's return to the Temple and do a bit more investigating into the town of Hesse."
"Huh? You've already investigated it, haven't you?"
The officials and the people from the Gilberta Company had already conducted the investigation, and I'd been informed of the results. When I said so, the Chief Priest tapped his temple with his index finger while looking at me.
"You fool. What we investigated before was from the perspective of building the workshop — land, population, primary industries, and so on. That's not what I mean now. I'm talking about what noble backing that petty tyrant has, how he grew so emboldened, how much influence he wields, and if we're to remove him, which of his associates need to be eliminated and how, and how to fill the void left behind…… These are the things we didn't investigate when planning the workshop."
The Dark Chief Priest was apparently making his move. I didn't really understand what was going on, so I decided to leave it to him. This kind of scheming wasn't my forte.
When we finished talking and left the room, Gil and Nicola were waiting with worried expressions. When I smiled to let them know everything was fine, their faces relaxed in relief.
The four orphans had been just as concerned, and they showed visible relief at seeing Fran's expression return to normal.
"I'll come back in five days to check on things. In the meantime, I'll investigate which noble the town master here is connected to, how much influence he has, and so on. For food, I'll ask
When I left things to the grey priests, they answered from their kneeling positions with a polite "Understood." All four of the orphans were now kneeling just as still.
"……This place is protected by defensive magic, so even if the town master comes here, you'll be safe as long as you stay inside. You won't be protected once you leave, so please be careful."
My words prompted a more tense and solemn nod from the orphans, who actually knew the town master.
Upon returning to the Temple, the Chief Priest immediately summoned Benno. It was to hear the details about Hesse and its town master. Benno arrived at the Temple with remarkable speed, as if he'd known he would be called.
"So you took in orphans. The reception you received was quite something…… Benno, you knew about that, didn't you?"
"Yes, the reception was always quite something. That's precisely the kind of thing that happens because it's Hesse."
Benno said this with the corner of his lips turned up. It seemed that his failure to inform the Chief Priest and High Priest about the orphans had been deliberate — he'd been looking for an opportunity to speak with the Chief Priest about it.
According to Benno, Hesse was a special case, and the town master wielded extraordinary power.
Since it was less than half a day by carriage from Ehrenfest, nobles departing Ehrenfest passed through Hesse on their way to the town of Dinkel for lodging. Because of that, nobles had no reason to stop in Hesse unless they had urgent business, outside of the Prayer Ceremony and the Harvest Festival. There might be travelers on foot, but ordinary nobles didn't visit.
Moreover, because it was close to Ehrenfest, the merchants' goods in town were valued lower than elsewhere. If they wanted, they could go to Ehrenfest's Market to buy things, and merchants heading from the provinces to Ehrenfest always passed through Hesse, so goods could be purchased from them as well.
On top of that, Hesse had a winter lodge. Since the Prayer Ceremony and Harvest Festival were held there, people from the surrounding farming villages gathered during winter. The town master managed all those people, which gave him considerable influence in the area.
"From the Noble District, you can reach it quickly by riding beast, without going through the Gate. I don't know exactly which noble the town master is connected to or how, but it seems to be someone of fairly high rank."
"Hmm. What's certain is the former High Priest."
"The High Priest again?"
At the Chief Priest's sigh-laced words, my face crumpled. The High Priest had actually been less involved when he was alive and avoiding me inside the Temple — now that he was dead, he showed up everywhere. The nuisance.
"That former High Priest could only operate within carriage distance, since he didn't have a riding beast. He was probably flaunting his position as the Lord's uncle and doing as he pleased. His methods were identical, and the fact that he defied the new High Priest and Chief Priest proves it. I believe he calculated that even if something went wrong, he could rely on the High Priest for protection."
The Chief Priest said that the former High Priest's subordinates must have seen him and me during the Prayer Ceremony when we visited the winter lodge as blue Shrine Maiden apprentices, and recognized us as being under the former High Priest's umbrella. Apparently, even among the blue priests who had served as the High Priest's lackeys, there were those who looked down on the Chief Priest like foxes borrowing a tiger's authority.
"Could it be that the town master doesn't even know the former High Priest has been captured? Benno, how much information about the former High Priest has reached the lower town?"
"None at all."
At Benno's immediate answer, the Chief Priest's eyes widened slightly. After furrowing his brow, he opened his mouth with a complicated expression, searching for words as if reluctant to say them.
"……Surely not absolutely none? The High Priest has changed. There must be some word……"
"The rumors that have spread are that the new High Priest is the young daughter of the Lord and a true saint blessed with divine power. But regarding the former High Priest, there is truly nothing. The general understanding seems to be that he retired because of his age, or that his position changed."
So my saint legend really was spreading throughout the town. I'd been told in advance that it was necessary for credibility now that I'd assumed the role of High Priest, but it still made me unbearably embarrassed.
"Regarding the noble connected to the town master, I suspect that official as well. He seemed to be having some kind of private meeting even after we left the town master's estate."
After hearing everything from Benno, the Chief Priest fell deep into thought. Deep furrows creased his brow, and he tapped his temple silently, lost in contemplation.
After thinking for some time, the Chief Priest finally spoke, murmuring softly: "This is going to become troublesome. Annoying even after death……"
Fran's lecture and the decision on educational policy.
And as expected, it was all the High Priest's fault.
The former High Priest had been more active after his exit than during his tenure — he'd been involved in all sorts of things, so his absence had repercussions everywhere.
Next time: the Temple's defenses.