After finishing our pleasant meal, we returned to the
"Chief Priest, wouldn't traveling to
If it were just the Chief Priest and his party, they could ride on their magical beasts and fly there in a straight line. But all the luggage was another matter entirely.
"Ahrensbach should have arranged things on their end to some degree. During the
A second shipment would contain many valuable items, which normally he would manage himself while traveling. However, waiting for the snow to melt and then traveling to Ahrensbach afterward would make it impossible to complete all the wedding preparations before the next Lord's conference.
"...Shall I transport things to the Border Gate using a Lessahva?"
"There may be times when I'll need to ask you. If you carry the goods, at least the risk of someone slipping dangerous items in among the valuables and food supplies is reduced."
The Chief Priest glared in the direction of Ahrensbach as he murmured that.
"High Priest. Chief Priest."
"We were expecting your return."
The Temple gatekeeper, who had opened the gate for our carriage to pass through, spoke in a somewhat relieved voice that I could hear even from inside the carriage. A strange sense of unease crept over me, and I stared at the carriage door.
"Did something happen at the Temple?"
"What do you mean?"
"Usually, we're not greeted like this. I'm concerned something may have occurred that the attendants couldn't report without us present."
"Hm," the Chief Priest tapped his temple lightly. "If it's something the gray priests serving as gatekeepers know about, the attendants overseeing the orphanage would have reported it immediately. Go back to your room and wait. And whatever you do, don't open the carriage door to question the gray priests yourself."
"Yes, sir."
I had been thinking about doing exactly that, but he'd locked me down before I could. I had been about to lean forward, so I straightened my posture and sat back properly.
Once we passed through the gate and the carriage stopped at the main entrance, I could see
"Welcome back, Lady
"Was it difficult preparing the welcome by yourself, Nicola?"
"Not at all.
As we headed back to the room, I asked about how things had been during my absence. Since everyone knew we'd be stuffing ourselves at the Italian restaurant today,
"With Monica and the others away, I got
With harsh winter approaching, several more children had arrived at the orphanage. Nicola had spent her time there listening to
"Was there anything unusual at the orphanage or among the gray priests?"
"Now that you mention it, today was unusual—
The moment I heard "Egmont" and "new attendant," my mind immediately jumped to a single conclusion.
"...Don't tell me he got another attendant pregnant?"
I had nothing but the worst impression of the blue priest Egmont, who had ransacked the Temple Library, gotten Lillie pregnant while she was sleeping in Lebewo, and then dumped her at the orphanage. I must have let my voice come out sharp, because Nicola hurried to add: "That's not what happened at all. With
"I see."
So he hadn't gotten an attendant pregnant after all. More importantly, he apparently intended to take his assigned work seriously. Perhaps I should revise my opinion of Egmont in a positive direction.
"He's considering whether to make his request to the current Chief Priest or the new Chief Priest."
It was true that during this transition period, both were serving as Chief Priest, so it could be confusing. But then again, it meant he could ask either one.
"Since Egmont is a blue priest I don't have a particularly favorable impression of, and Hartmut already has his eye on him, I think applying to the current Chief Priest now would make it easier for his request to go through."
"I understand. I'll pass the message along to Egmont's attendant."
Hartmut's saint praise knew no bounds. "Lord Hartmut does tend to be a bit over the top, but he's not wrong, so it's hard to correct him," Nicola said with a soft chuckle.
"How were Gil and Fritz doing?"
"The two of them were eating quickly at the orphanage with the gray priests. Apparently the workshop is very busy right now—they need to finish before winter's social season begins."
This was the period for a last-minute push, as they needed to have several books ready to show at the Noble Academy. The two working at the workshop had apparently chosen to eat a quick lunch at the orphanage rather than returning to the High Priest's quarters for their meal.
"If Fran finds out I ate at the orphanage while we were already delivering lunch, she'll scold me, so please keep it a secret."
Fran apparently would say that since the master's room was properly available, eating there was the natural duty of an attendant, and that proper conduct as an attendant mattered more than saving time. Just as Nicola whispered this to me in secret, a chill crept through the air.
"I can hear you, Nicola."
"Eek!"
Nicola and I both jumped and turned around. There stood Fran, carrying a wooden box, her expression icy, and
"Truly, the moment I look away, you immediately start disrupting your routine. Lady Rozemyne, please be more careful as well. Poor conduct by the master has a strong influence on those beneath her."
Apparently, the attendants prioritizing efficiency over proper living habits was my fault—for I myself had been trying to disrupt my own routine in order to start reading more efficiently. I hadn't known that.
Feeling awkward, I shrugged and entered my room, which Nicola had opened for me. The moment I stepped inside, I felt as though a faint, sweet scent drifted past me.
"Hm?"
I stopped involuntarily and looked around the room. But nothing seemed to have changed. The sweet scent was gone.
"Lady Rozemyne, is something wrong?"
"...No, it must have been my imagination."
I shook my head and let Monica and Nicola change my clothes. Then I gave permission for the attendants who had been out to return to their rooms and change from their outdoor clothing into their priest robes.
While everyone was changing, I sipped the tea Nicola had prepared and slowly looked around my room. There was a subtle sense of something being off. I couldn't say exactly what was different, but something felt amiss.
If I had to compare it to something, it was like the feeling in my Shosen-era library when my mother had come in, casually pulled a second book from a pile, and taken it away. If a thorough cleaning had been done, it would be obvious at a glance that someone had entered. But there were no traces of anyone having been here—the scene was almost entirely unchanged. I couldn't pinpoint what was different, but the fact that it was ever so slightly different from the last time I'd been here—that subtle, inexplicable eeriness was unsettling.
...What could be different?
"Nicola, may I ask you something?"
"Yes?"
"While I was away, did anyone enter my room?"
Fran, who had just returned and changed from her outdoor clothes into gray priest robes, called Nicola over the moment she arrived.
"No. There was no reason for me to go into Fran's room, and if anyone needed to enter the master's room, they would ask Gil or Fritz."
"Right, of course. I see."
Fran looked unconvinced, and I felt she must be experiencing something very similar to what I was feeling. I couldn't help but speak up: "Fran, did something happen?"
"I felt as though there was a faint scent of a fragrance used by women when I entered my room."
That was probably the same sweet scent I had noticed the moment I stepped into my room.
"I also noticed a faint sweet scent the moment I entered. It's possible someone entered while we were away. Let's have the luggage put away, check whether anything has been stolen, and then consult with the Chief Priest."
"As you wish."
Fran went to retrieve the key, and Zahn left the room to contact the Chief Priest. Immediately, Damuel used an ordonnance to call the guard knights who had returned to the castle. In an instant, the High Priest's quarters became bustling with noise.
"Someone may have broken in, you say?"
"I can't say for certain—like, this is missing, or this has been moved. But something is definitely different."
I added to my explanation the unease I'd felt upon returning, and the fact that a quick check hadn't revealed any obvious missing items. By the time the Chief Priest was frowning in thought, the guard knights and civil officials summoned by ordonnance had arrived on their magical beasts.
"Lady Rozemyne."
While I was explaining to the Chief Priest, Monica approached and spoke to me quietly.
"Wilma is requesting an urgent audience."
"Is this about the gatekeepers you found suspicious? Very well, I'd like to hear what she has to say. Send her in."
At the Chief Priest's words, I nodded and gave permission for entry. The moment Wilma came in, her eyes went wide at the sheer number of people present, and her body stiffened momentarily at how many of them were men. I had thought she'd be all right, since she'd been coming to the High Priest's quarters regularly lately, but it seemed the distance and the number of people were still intimidating for her.
"Wilma, over here. If you couldn't wait until the evening reporting time, then something significant must have happened?"
I guided her toward where the women were gathered as much as possible and urged her to speak. Wilma knelt beside my chair, her face pale as she compared the Chief Priest sitting across from me to me, and began her report.
"The gray priests who were serving as the day gatekeepers have all vanished."
When the next shift arrived at the gate, no one had been there. Gatekeepers were typically stationed in groups of four where the commoners entered. When a carriage came, the driver would speak to the gatekeepers, two would open the carriage gate, one would go to the noble quarter to announce the visitor, and the other would guard the commoner gate. There was always supposed to be someone at the gate.
"Gray priests serving as gatekeepers have never simply disappeared before. Furthermore, according to the gatekeepers who took over, the carriage gate wasn't properly closed."
Knowing we were returning, they had gone to open the carriage gate, only to find it hadn't been shut. Or rather, it had been closed, but in a different way than usual.
"So in other words, a guest with a carriage came while we were away?"
"And secretly, at that."
"Hiding four gray priests—it can't have been all that secret, could it?"
When I let out an exasperated sigh, the Chief Priest shook his head lightly.
"Before you became the orphanage director, the words of gray priests in the orphanage rarely reached the blue priests. In the past, if the gatekeepers simply vanished, the secret would have been kept."
The gray priests, who couldn't raise their voices even when suspicious, unless directly questioned. The skill to seize the window of opportunity when the room was unoccupied and execute their goal swiftly. The clever method that left only a subtle unease, with nothing obviously missing.
The Chief Priest said it wouldn't have been discovered at the old Temple.
"You yourself said you felt a subtle unease, but without Wilma's report, and if nothing happened over the next few days, that faint unease would have been lost in the routine and forgotten entirely."
That was probably true. It was the kind of unease you could dismiss as imagination. If I'd gone to sleep and woken up, I probably would have forgotten about it.
The Chief Priest tapped his temple lightly, his expression growing troubled.
"Whoever did this likely believed that no one would care if a few gray priests disappeared, and that they had enough power to erase all traces. This was the work of a noble."
I recalled the scene from when the Chief Priest had destroyed evidence regarding the former High Priest's attendants, and a cold sweat ran down my spine. Had the four gatekeepers been erased just as thoroughly, without a trace?
...If the culprit were here right now, I might have lost control of my anger.
"They must be in league with a blue priest, but they don't know that the head of the orphanage reports to you daily. We should find out which blue priest received a visitor, and whether anyone saw a carriage entering the Temple. The culprit is probably thinking they've perfectly covered their tracks and bought themselves time."
At the Chief Priest's words, I stood up abruptly and turned to Damuel. There was absolutely no way I was letting them get away.
"Damuel,
"Yes, ma'am!"
Damuel and Angelica immediately dashed out of the room. I turned my gaze to Wilma, who was still kneeling.
"Thank you for letting us know, Wilma. Please report to Gil that there was an intruder, and have him contact the commercial guild, the Otmar Trading Company, the Gilberta Trading Company, and the Platan Trading Company. I want them asked whether they've seen any carriage belonging to a noble."
The Otmar Trading Company in particular was right next to the Temple. They might have seen something. Wilma nodded repeatedly at my words and stood up.
"Also, please ask everyone at the orphanage. Did anyone see a carriage entering during purification rituals or while drawing water? Did anyone spot a gray priest heading to the noble quarter to announce a visitor? Did anyone overhear any conversations? Depending on what we learn, we might be able to narrow down the timeframe. Right now, any information at all is valuable."
"Lady Rozemyne, I'll go to the orphanage as well. It would be difficult for Wilma alone to interview everyone, and drawing out this kind of information is the work of a civil official."
"I'll leave it to you, Philine. Make sure to check whether
"As you wish."
There was also the possibility that, depending on the situation, Conrad could have been removed. This was no mere stranger's problem for Philine. She showed a slightly stiff smile, then left the room with Wilma. Seeing this, Roderich grabbed his own stationery as if struck by urgency.
"Lady Rozemyne, I also—"
"Roderich, no. You haven't been showing your face at the orphanage at all, so you'd only make everyone nervous. Philine, who's familiar with the orphanage, is the best person for this."
Against nobility who would become overwhelming powers, gray priests kept their mouths shut. They carefully judged how far they could speak, whether the listener was someone they could trust with their words, and basically remained silent around anyone they hadn't thoroughly vetted. Roderich going would accomplish nothing.
"Ah..."
As Roderich paled and uttered that small sound, Hartmut picked up his own stationery.
"That's what I told you, wasn't it? The orphanage, the workshop, the merchants in the lower city—they are all Lady Rozemyne's hands and feet. If you don't become thoroughly acquainted with every part of the Temple, you cannot be of use."
"What will you do, Hartmut?"
At Roderich's question, Hartmut gave a satisfied smile.
"I could question people at the orphanage, but I have work that only I can do. To summon a blue priest for questioning, one needs the title of Chief Priest."
Only the Chief Priest or the High Priest could summon a blue priest, as Hartmut said. Even if summoned, it would take time for them to arrive, and they would try to weasel out of answering. Hartmut, a noble and capable civil official, was perfectly suited to drawing information out of blue priests.
"I'm counting on you, Hartmut."
"Leave it to me. Lord
At Hartmut's words, the Chief Priest made a pained face.
"I feel like you've just pushed the most troublesome job onto me, but fine. Use the room and the attendants as you wish."
"Much obliged. Let's go,
Hartmut called out to one of the attendants the Chief Priest had brought and left the room. I turned my gaze to Fran.
"Fran, let's thoroughly investigate what in this room has been changed. Our opponent went to the trouble of making gray priests vanish—they must have had something they were determined to accomplish. You felt as though someone had entered your room too, didn't you? Is there anything missing or out of place?"
"Among the things in my room, anything that a noble might need..."
Fran began to say, but Zahn raised his hand to stop her.
"Could the target be the key to the key box? The only important things that Fran, as the head attendant, manages are roughly that. In other words, I believe it's highly likely that items in places requiring keys were the target."
"Lady Rozemyne, we checked earlier, but let's go over the locked areas once more with special focus."
Monica lifted her chin and looked up at Fran, who immediately went to her room to fetch the key, then returned with the key box.
A thrill filled my chest—the absolute determination that we would find it. I was about to stand up to check my document shelf again, but the Chief Priest stopped me.
"Rozemyne, leave the visible checks to the attendants. You search the places that can't be seen with the eyes."
"The places that can't be seen with the eyes?"
I didn't understand and tilted my head. The Chief Priest slowly moved his hand in demonstration.
"If the intruder is a noble, it's possible that nothing was stolen but rather a dangerous Magical Tool was planted. Investigate."
I had been assuming the intruder was simply a thief. The idea that a dangerous Magical Tool might have been planted had never occurred to me. From what I'd seen, there was nothing missing or added in this room.
"Um, Chief Priest. How exactly do I search for Magical Tools?"
"Spread your Magic Power thinly, as thinly as possible. If there's a Magical Tool filled with Magic Power other than your own, you should be able to sense it as something foreign."
It was similar to sensing someone else's Magic Power within a material. If that was the case, I understood the method.
"There are also Magical Tools that activate when they detect a certain threshold of Magic Power, so really, thin it out as if diluting it with water, spread it as thinly and widely as you can."
"You certainly are well-versed in that kind of Magic Power usage, Lord Ferdinand. There aren't many opportunities in daily life to carefully check whether something is someone else's Magical Tool."
As he looked down coolly at the attendants, the Chief Priest murmured, "It was a daily necessity for me." I quickly understood whose hand had created the living environment that required constant vigilance against others' Magical Tools, and I couldn't hide my sigh.
"All attendants, please stand along that wall."
Everyone's Magic Power here would also register as foreign, so I wanted them grouped together to minimize interference.
Once the attendants stood along the wall, I took a deep breath and then spread my Magic Power as thinly as I could. Just as the Chief Priest had instructed, I diluted the concentration as if thinning it with water, sweeping across the entire floor.
From the attendants clustered against the wall, from
Strangely, I felt almost no repulsion from the Chief Priest, who remained seated in his chair across from me. Perhaps it was because, between the Hairpin I'd just received and the various Magical Tools I wore, I had become too accustomed to the Chief Priest's Magic Power.
Spread thinly across the floor, there was no particular response. I slowly lifted the Magic Power from the floor upward. Sensing the repulsion of the attendants against the wall, the Chief Priest's attendants in front, and other sources of Magic Power, I fixed my gaze on each point of repulsion and slowly moved closer.
"Lady Rozemyne?"
I leaned in to peer at the key box Fran was holding. A number of keys were arranged inside. Among them, one key gave off repulsion.
And there was one more source of repulsion. I turned my gaze toward the altar and pressed my lips together.
"...I found it, Chief Priest."
"What is it?"
The Chief Priest put on leather gloves that wouldn't conduct Magic Power and came closer.
"The Holy Book and its key are not mine."
I didn't know what had been changed. They looked completely identical. But the Magic Power registered on them was different—both the Holy Book sitting on the shelf and the key that was lined up in the key box as though it had always been there repelled my Magic Power.
"A Holy Book and a key? What on earth is the purpose?"
"I don't know the culprit's purpose, but mine is now clear."
...I will never forgive the culprit.
The Holy Book was stolen.
The entire lower city has been mobilized to gather information.
With the gray priests made to vanish and her Holy Book stolen, Rozemyne is in full rage mode.
Next comes the hunt for the culprit.