Cinderella and a Book for the High Priest

I needed to change into my blue robes once arriving at my chambers in the temple, but I wasn’t allowed to change on my own. Delia would throw a tantrum whenever I tried. I had to bend and extend my arms as she pulled the robes over me.

At the start, our cooperation was so poor that it would have been a lot faster for me to change on my own, which was reasonably frustrating. But lately it was going pretty smoothly. Maybe I’m finally learning to act like a rich girl now, I thought while Delia did my hair with lowered eyes.

“It was even more splendid than I imagined,” she murmured, but I had no idea what she was talking about. I said “What?” with clear confusion, and she glared at me with her light-blue eyes narrowed.

“Geez! The picture book you asked me to read first! You’re the one who said you wanted to hear my thoughts on it, Sister Myne!”

“Oh, the picture book. I just wasn’t sure what you were talking about for a moment. Thank you for your thoughts. Did you read it all the way to the end? You must have made a lot of progress with your letters.” As far as I knew, Delia was studying on her own and thus learning to read a fair bit slower than Gil. I honestly didn’t expect her to finish the whole book so quickly.

“...I had Gil help a little. He showed me the karuta.”

The thought of Delia wanting to read the book so bad that she asked her rival Gil for help made me smile. As I was grinning to myself, Rosina entered the conversation with a somewhat stern expression.

“Sister Myne, please finish your discussion post haste so that we may begin our harspiel practice. There is not much time.”

“What’s wrong, Rosina? You look a bit tense.”

“The High Priest has instructed you to perform the second song during your meeting.” Rosina’s answer explained everything. Of course me playing in front of the High Priest would make her tense.

“I suppose I will need to take practice especially seriously for a bit, then. When is the meeting?”

“After lunch,” she replied. The lack of a date made me extremely uncomfortable.

“Um, Rosina. After lunch on what day?”

“Today. The meeting is after lunch today.”

According to Fran, who read the letter sent in reply, the High Priest would soon need to travel to a nearby farming town for the Harvest Festival. He wanted to finish our meeting now while he still had the time. I appreciated the fast assistance, but I wasn’t emotionally ready to play the song yet.

“Panicking is not very graceful, Sister Myne. Please take care not to show others the fear in your heart.”

After practicing nonstop like a madwoman until third bell, I went to the High Priest’s room and assisted his paperwork until fourth bell with a completely casual expression, silently signaling to him that I wasn’t nervous about playing the song at all. Once that was done I scarfed down lunch and resumed my blisteringly intense practice with Rosina until the very last moment. I would hope that my behind-the-scenes labor is appreciated.

I was in fact getting better thanks to taking my practice seriously, but playing in front of someone still made me nervous. Especially since this time I had to play a song of my own—one I remembered from my Urano days. It was originally a romance movie’s theme song, but I changed it to a classic song I used to sing in music class. Translating the lyrics directly was a nightmare, but making up lyrics of my own was just too hard. I changed the lyrics bit by bit each practice session, and Rosina always got exasperated when I started humming out the English lyrics directly.

“You will be fine if you just stay calm,” advised Delia. “You’re better at it than I am, Sister Myne.”

“Thank you, Delia. I will do my best.”

Delia encouraged me as I went to the High Priest’s room with Fran carrying my children’s bible and the text for Cinderella, and Rosina carrying my small harspiel.

“My apologies for the short notice. Now, allow me to hear how much you have improved,” said the High Priest with a flat expression that spoke volumes about how sincere his apology really was. He gestured towards the table in the center of the room. I took my harspiel from Rosina and rested it between my thighs before taking a deep breath.

With my heart beating so hard I could feel it in my ears, I played the assigned song, then sang “Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree,” a classic children’s song. I went ahead and swapped out “chestnut tree” for a more local tree to avoid suspicion. The High Priest nodded at both songs, giving me very high praise.

“You’re quite the fast learner. Here is the next song for you to learn. And I must say, I found the song you composed to be very interesting. Prepare another for next time.”

I looked over the sheet music he gave me. It was depressingly hard, but I was mainly just relieved to have survived this encounter.

“Here you are, Rosina.” I handed Rosina my harspiel and reached out for the tea Arno had prepared. Tea always tastes better after a stressful event. The High Priest did the opposite and set his tea cup back on the table, having finished it while listening to me play.

“Now then. You said you finished your children’s bible?”

“Yes. Here is the picture book.” I looked at Fran, who nodded and smoothly presented the picture book to the High Priest. He looked at it and tapped a finger against his temple.

“This, a book? What have you done to the cover?” The High Priest largely remained expressionless when we weren’t in the hidden room, but his sharp tone made it clear he wasn’t impressed. What about that cover would make him mad?

“What have I done...? It’s just paper.”

“I can see that. Why is there a flower in the paper?”

“Um, because I put it there?”

“I could guess that. I am questioning why you put it there.” The High Priest’s voice sharpened further with frustration due to my failure to give him the answers he wanted. I had no idea why his mood was plummeting like that. Benno thought the flower would please the daughters of nobles, but maybe it was actually banned to put flowers in paper.

“I put it there because it looks cuter with a flower. Is there a problem with that?”

“Because it’s cuter...? No, that is not what I... Nevermind. Follow me.” The High Priest shook his head with sheer disbelief, then stood up and headed to the hidden room beside his bed. I stood up too, just as confused.

“Sister Myne, take this.” Fran hurriedly held out the paper with my Cinderella story written on it. I thanked him and took it from him, then followed the High Priest through the doorway.

The hidden room was as messy as ever. I went to the same bench as always. When I started moving aside the documents on the bench, I realized that they might be the legendary magic documents themselves.

“Stop. I believe I told you not to look at those.” The High Priest noticed what I was trying to do and pulled the documents out of my hand, stacking them on his desk. No doubt all the documents on his desk pertained to magic. I looked around the room, and oddly enough it felt like an entirely new place now. The High Priest furrowed his brow while bringing over his chair.

“Do not get distracted either.”

“Sorry. So... what are we doing here?”

“I was asking you how you fit a flower into paper. I won’t force the answer out of you if it’s a trade secret, but you must admit that putting flowers into paper is strange.”

“I don’t think so. You just scatter them into the pulp when swishing it around.”

“...You scatter them?” The High Priest didn’t understand me at all, not even when I wiggled my fingers to act out scattering flowers over a suketa. Only then did I realize the High Priest was only familiar with parchment, paper made from animal skin. Of course flowers in paper would be strange if you only knew how to make parchment. Wrapping flowers within a tangle of fiber just wasn’t possible with parchment.

“Well, plant paper is made in an entirely different way from parchment, so if you really want to know, you’ll probably want to watch it being made in the workshop.”

“Indeed, that would be for the best. It is impossible to glean anything from your explanations.” The High Priest gave up on getting an answer from me and crossed his legs, putting the children’s bible onto his lap. He opened the front page, and upon seeing the first illustration immediately grimaced and glared at me.

“Books are works of art. They must be beautiful, with gold and gems in their leather covers and their pages filled with color. This book has little value as art. You are wasting this high-quality art by leaving it in black and white. Add color.”

It seemed that the High Priest viewed books as works of art created by calligraphers who provide beautiful writing, artists that provide illustrations, and leather craftsmen who provide the covers. Thinking back to the books I had seen in the book room, I could understand what he was getting at.

“Adding color would be the waste here. Just how much money do you think that would cost? I’m going to use these to teach the orphanage kids to read. I would rather make more than add color to some.”

“Books are works of art, and each is one of a kind. I don’t understand what you are saying,” said the High Priest, and I wanted to shoot that right back at him. And so I did, without really thinking about it.

“I don’t understand what you are saying, High Priest. Books aren’t just works of art, they’re crystallizations of knowledge and wisdom. I’m not trying to make art to look at here, I’m trying to mass produce affordable books that everyone can read.”

“Mass produce? You intend to make people write them en masse? That could work if you teach all the orphanage children to read, but it will still take a staggering amount of time to produce that many books.” The High Priest rubbed his temples and tapped his fingers, bemused. But I was focused on printing, not the kind of mass production he was thinking of that would take forever.

“No, you’re misunderstanding. I’m going to mass produce them through printing. I’ve already made thirty picture books just like this one, and—”

“Wait just a moment.” The High Priest interrupted me, an eyebrow shot upwards. His golden eyes were opened wide in surprise as he looked at me in disbelief. “Do you mean you already have thirty books just like this one?”

“Like I said, I printed them.”

“Elaborate.” It seemed the High Priest didn’t have a grasp on what was going on in the Myne Workshop, perhaps because he’d never asked, or perhaps because Fran didn’t really understand either. I thought that Fran would have reported everything to him since we were providing income reports and paying the temple its cut, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. The High Priest was lacking such critical information I didn’t even know where to begin.

“Do you know that the Myne Workshop is producing plant paper?”

“Yes.”

“We’re making thicker paper, then cutting out letters and the black parts of art from it using a... very thin, precise knife. The resulting paper is called a stencil template.”

“You cut out the paper?” The High Priest’s tone rose in a way that made it clear just how abnormal cutting out parts of paper was. I pretended not to hear. What’s done was done.

“Then, we put the template over a blank piece of paper and roll ink onto it. Only the paper beneath the cut out parts of the template get ink on them. We move aside the finished paper and place another sheet of fresh paper beneath the template, then roll more ink onto it. That results in two identical pieces of paper. We repeat this process thirty times for each page of a book, and that’s thirty books.”

About halfway through my explanation, the High Priest had stopped reacting at all, freezing up like a crashed computer. I asked if he was listening and waved my hands in front of his eyes.

“...I am listening. I am, but...” The High Priest, having come back to life, shut his eyes tightly and let out a heavy sigh. Not even Benno reacted like that. It kinda made me worried.

“Umm. Is everything okay?”

“...You certainly have done something drastic.”

Have I really? I thought, thinking back over what I had done to make the paper. The most drastic thing I did was probably cut off the woodblocks to focus on stencils instead, but I doubted that’s what he was referring to. I couldn’t figure out what he considered so drastic. As I fell into thought, the High Priest let out yet another sigh.

“In summary, by printing you mean cutting out paper and applying ink onto fresh paper?”

“For right now, at least.”

“Cutting out paper is unthinkable in itself, but it’s also hard to believe that you are using so much ink.”

Parchment was so expensive and scarce that I guess nobody had ever cut out parts of it. Plant paper was similarly expensive, but the Myne Workshop produced it and I knew how stencil printing worked, so it didn’t seem like a waste to me. The High Priest and I would never see eye to eye on the matter given what we expected from our books, but I knew for sure that making stencils and printing books would be a better use of money than fussing over leather covers.

“Frankly,” I said, “I find it hard to believe you would spend so much money on the cover. As for the ink, it was fairly cheap since I made it out of the soot that the priests gathered for me.”

“You actually did make ink out of the soot?”

I had explained previously when he got suspicious about the soot gathering that I wanted it for ink, but it seemed he had expected me to fail. The stunned look on his face honestly threw me off.

“...Is it that surprising?”

“Of course it is.”

“Benno said that his head hurt when I gave him his book, but he immediately shifted over to calculating prices and talking about my next book, so I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

All things considered, Benno was used to the things I did and could lessen the shock of a new invention by focusing on the profit as a merchant. The High Priest’s shock was probably a more normal reaction. As I thought that over, the High Priest slowly shook his head, then looked up at a window with a somewhat distant look in his eyes.

“...Benno might have it much harder than I thought. I can only imagine the emotional burden he must bear if you consistently invent things of this caliber.”

“Bwuh?! I mean, he’s a merchant, he wants things to sell. He does have it hard, but that’s because he goes out of his way to get involved in things. It’s not all my fault. Maybe.”

Benno himself had chosen to fight with the Parchment Guild by establishing a Plant Paper Guild, and he had chosen to compete with Leise by constructing an expensive Italian restaurant. But the High Priest just let out a dismissive “hmph” with his lips curving into a grin.

“I will have to ask Benno about this, not you. But first. Did you just say something about a next book?”

“I did. What about it?”

“Be absolutely certain to report to me before you begin making it. I would not like to be surprised in this manner again.”

If it’s something big enough to surprise you, I think you’ll be surprised no matter when I report it to you, I replied silently before holding out the sheet of paper that Fran had given me. It would be ideal for him to look it over directly.

“I was thinking of making my next picture book about Cinderella here, but what do you think?” I showed him the Cinderella story I wrote yesterday, and after skimming it the High Priest rubbed his temples.

“In what world would a rich commoner be allowed to marry a prince? Are you daft, or do you simply not understand social status?”

“I understand status, but... Well... How high in status would she have to be for you to accept this? Keeping in mind the idea is her getting lucky with marrying above her status, since that’s what people want for themselves.” If it was bad enough for him to call me daft, it would probably be better for me to look for a compromise. I asked for a middle ground and the High Priest put a hand on his chin, falling into thought.

“...When it comes to a prince, even the daughter of an archnoble would need to be quite well-raised and special. Marriage upwards is simply out of the question. Have her become his mistress instead. That would still be quite the lucky boost in status, no?”

“No no no! Where’s the romance in her becoming a mistress? The hopes, the dreams?!”

“Dreams mean nothing. Face reality.” The crux of the story was a dramatic marriage upwards, but the High Priest wouldn’t budge on the matter. That was too cruel. We read books to see dreams, not cruel reality.

“Um, what about a small-time archduke instead of a prince? Could someone of lower status marry him? Could that work as a story?”

“Hmmm. It depends on the size of his territory, but he could potentially marry beneath him. If he was willing to face the resistance of his family and other nobles, of course.” A couple defying status and overcoming resistance to successfully get married was a classic story with a classic happy end. I let out a sigh of relief, glad to have found a compromise.

“Okay, I’ll make him the son of an archduke instead.”

“Make Cinderella the daughter of a mednoble as well. Being wealthy enough. And what is with this magician? In what world would these bizarre chants result in any magical effect? Even considering your ignorance of magic, this is painful to read.”

Due to the High Priest’s thorough criticism of Cinderella, the story ended up being one without magic where the daughter of a mednoble was abused by her stepmother until a noble related to her birth mother assisted her entry into high society, where the son of a minor duke fell in love with her at first sight. There was hardly a trace of Cinderella in it anymore, but most of my readers were going to be nobles at first so I would take his advice gladly.

Oh, and as an aside, there were three tiers of nobles: laynobles, mednobles, and archnobles. They were the low rank, middle rank, and high rank of the nobility respectively. A laynoble would be too low in status to marry an archduke’s son, but it seemed that a mednoble just barely managed to cut it.

“However. You say that they lived happily ever after, but that will certainly not be the case for them.”

“What?”

It turned out that after pushing through with their marriage, the archduke father would most likely banish them from his lands. Even if he forgave them in an act of unprecedented generosity, the son would lose his right to succession and would end up in a support role for his little brother at the very best. I didn’t intend to write that part of the story, but in any case, thanks to the High Priest’s utterly merciless follow-up, the version of Cinderella I was about to write would have no happy ending at all.

This was a valuable learning experience for me. Since this is an actual fantasy world with magic and such, the people here won’t look kindly on my biased, made-up fantasy. It might be harder to write stories for my books than I thought.

A Discussion About Winter Preparations

“High Priest, there is one more thing I want to discuss.” I turned to look at the High Priest while organizing the rewritten Cinderella pages on my lap. He noticed my look and set the documents he had been looking over onto his desk. “It’s about the orphanage’s winter preparations.”

“Winter preparations...? Ah, yes. I predict that the amount of divine gifts and firewood will be largely unchanged from last year, but I will have Fran give you a more detailed report later. I won’t have a clear answer until the blue priests return from the Harvest Festival, but the weather has been favorable and there haven’t been any widespread crop diseases. There shouldn’t be any less food than last year.”

“Oh? You can predict it?”

I’d assumed that he wouldn’t have any idea until the blue priests returned. How could he make a prediction when he hardly ever leaves the temple? I thought, blinking in surprise. I got my information from my family going to the market and all the rumors that flowed through the Gilberta Company alongside its merchandise, but I couldn’t recall the High Priest leaving the temple since I got here.

“The weather is one thing, but how do you know about the state of the crops in farming towns? You haven’t left the city before, have you?”

“I have my connections. I may not enter the lower city, but I do go to the Noble’s Quarter.”

My view of the city was founded in the lower city, but the High Priest’s view was founded in the Noble’s Quarter. That explained where he got his information from. This was complete bias on my part, but I had no doubt that there was a devious war of information that went on between nobles at all times.

“Myne, would it be correct for me to assume that you have begun to prepare the orphanage for winter on your own?”

“Yes. I’ll be getting tools and supplies through Benno. And since we’re doing it for ourselves, both the gray priests and the children will be helping.”

“...By children, you mean the pre-baptism younglings?” The High Priest widened his eyes in surprise. As a noble, he didn’t have the concept of someone working for their own food. And up until now he had been forced to keep the pre-baptism kids more or less locked in the orphanage, so the idea of having them work never occurred to him.

However, that kind of thinking wouldn’t fly with us poor people. The principle of working for your own food had permeated through the orphanage and the hungry boys all fought to do the most work and get the most food. The young kids were no exception, since the divine gifts went to them last.

“This is normal in the lower city. Even young kids can help. Though I’ve never been much help myself since I always end up bedridden.”

“I can imagine.”

“Anyway, the pig butchering itself will be done in a farming town, but I’ll want to make hide glue and candles from cow fat afterwards. I imagine it will stink pretty bad, which might cause problems...” I peered at the High Priest timidly and he grimaced a little.

“The blue priests certainly would complain if the orphanage began to stink up the temple.”

“Figures.”

Both the hide glue and the candles would smell extremely bad, so my plan had been to make them outside the workshop. The noble section of the temple was a fair distance away from the orphanage, but no way would the smell go unnoticed. My backup plan was to do it in the original Myne Workshop, the old storage building, but there wasn’t enough space for everyone and moving the tools back and forth would be a nightmare. I wanted to keep working in the orphanage if at all possible.

“This would normally be a difficult situation, but... well, most of the blue priests will be absent for the next ten days due to the Harvest Festival. The stench could be overlooked during that time. But once they return, expect to have no opportunity to cause such a smell in the temple again.”

I wasn’t sure if the pig butchering could be finished during the Harvest Festival. I didn’t have the pigs or the tools ready. But maybe I could make something work if I talked to Benno.

“Understood. I’ll talk to Benno.” I clenched my fist in determination, having finally seen a glimmer of hope, and the High Priest brushed aside his bangs.

“...Myne. Will you be able to afford winter preparations for that number of people?”

“I’ll be using the money they earned themselves in the Myne Workshop, so it’ll be fine.”

“Good, I would not have liked for you to bear that immense burden all on your own. But to think that you truly enabled them to earn enough to support themselves...”

“It’s still mostly thanks to the divine gifts, though.” I shrugged at the High Priest’s impressed tone. If not for the divine gifts, the Myne Workshop wouldn’t be earning enough to support the entire orphanage. We were honestly kind of a shady place that ran on child labor for cheap.

“It is still good news for me. I had been anticipating this winter to be truly brutal on them.” The High Priest gave me rare praise with an uncharacteristically warm expression. I smiled, happy to know that my efforts to help the orphanage hadn’t been fruitless.

“There will be no issue with the orphanage’s winter preparations if you can finish them in ten days. I myself am more concerned with your winter preparations,” explained the High Priest, which confused me. I would be doing my winter prep at home. Or more accurately, my family would since I would just get in the way. I would try to do a bit more this year since I had grown a little and Mom was pregnant, but I doubted the High Priest would be worried about that.

“I don’t follow. My winter preparations will be done at home.”

“That won’t work. There is the Dedication Ritual in the winter. You know of this one, yes?” The High Priest leaned forward, focusing his light-gold eyes on me.

The Dedication Ritual was one ritual the High Priest had told me about, with a firm note that I would need to attend no matter the circumstances. It was a ritual where we of the temple prayed for life to bloom once again in spring, prayed for safe growth, and completely filled all the divine instruments in the temple with mana. If we didn’t fill them with mana to the brim, there wouldn’t be enough mana to offer to the farming towns during Spring Prayer, which would harm the next crop harvest.

“As the Dedication Ritual requires a large amount of mana, you absolutely must participate. You must not be allowed to miss it due to blizzards. Therefore, you will be staying at the temple over the winter.”

“I understand that blizzards could get in the way of me offering mana to the divine instruments. But staying here would worry my family to death. I really do get sick often in the winter, so...”

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I was allowed to be a blue shrine maiden entirely due to how important the Dedication Ritual was, so I could understand where the High Priest was coming from. But me staying in the temple all winter was a different matter. What would I say to my family?

“I can sympathize with how your family would feel. Thus, I will permit them to enter your chambers to check up on you over the winter. That is the largest compromise I can make. Do not slack on preparing your chambers for winter.”

The High Priest told me not to slack, but preparing for winter was a big enough deal that laziness hardly entered the equation. Preparing my own chambers for winter on top of the orphanage was a huge, unexpected expense. I left the High Priest’s room feeling ill.

...Nooooo! My winter prep is going to be harder than the orphanage’s!

“Sister Myne, you seem quite pale...” observed Rosina.

“I am fine, Rosina. I just happen to be a little disturbed. Fran, I heard from the High Priest that I must spend the entire winter in the temple.” I responded to Rosina with a smile, then spoke to Fran about winter preparations. He gave a slow nod of understanding.

“Given the Dedication Ritual, it will be difficult to allow you to commute from home.”

“...I didn’t anticipate having to do my own winter preparations at all. What will I need?”

“We are already planning to buy firewood and food for the orphanage, so we need merely buy more. There should be little problem with buying just a little extra of everything.” Fran saying that it wouldn’t be a big deal was enough for me to let out a sigh of relief. Still, I wouldn’t know just how much extra it would cost until we crunched the numbers.

“...Rosina, forgive me, but could you go summon Lutz from the workshop?”

“As you wish.”

Upon arriving back at my chambers, we continued our winter preparations discussion while Delia prepared tea. I wrote onto my diptych the things I would need for my day-to-day life, what I would need for winter handiwork, what I would need for gathering parues, and then thought about anything else I might need. Fran went to talk to the chefs to learn their plans and see if they could live in my chambers over the winter.

Before long, Lutz came back from the workshop, brought by Rosina. “What’s up, Myne?”

“Quick question. I don’t know this since I’ve never really been involved with it, but do you think we can finish butchering the pigs within ten days?” I told Lutz about what the High Priest had to say about our plans, which made him grimace.

“You don’t think that’s rushing it too much? I don’t even know if we’ll be able to rent a smoke room.”

“It’s definitely rushing too much, but right now while the blue priests are gone is our only chance. If it’s not possible we can make the hide glue in our old storage building, but it’s small and bringing tools there would be a pain, wouldn’t it?” The storage room was only about ten square meters large, not nearly big enough for the work we’d be doing. Lutz wrinkled his nose at the thought of that.

“I’ll go to the store and see what Master Benno thinks. If it’s gonna come down to us working in the storage building, I’m sure he’ll at least check with the farming towns about doing this fast. Have Fran walk you to the store on your way home.”

“Okay. Thanks a lot, Lutz.” After watching Lutz dash off to the Gilberta Company, I looked down at my diptych and got back to writing. My presence here really did have a significant impact on how much stuff we needed to order. Even a little girl needs a lot of food to survive several months.

...This is bad. I might not actually have enough money for this. I need to hurry and finish Cinderella.

“You’ll need new clothes too, Sister Myne,” chimed in Delia.

“Don’t worry, I was actually planning to go clothes shopping as soon as possible. It hit me that the orphanage kids and my attendants will need them too. Mmm, but if I’m going to be buying clothes for that many kids, maybe I should take my attendants with me?” I thought aloud and heard Delia let out a loud cry of excitement. It seemed she was very interested in shopping for winter clothes.

In contrast, Rosina seemed a bit unenthusiastic. She would no doubt rather stay at home playing her harspiel. “...The orphans have their divine gifts,” she observed. “I do not believe they will need winter clothes when they do not need to go outside.”

It was true that they had survived up until now on divine gifts, and if they stayed inside the temple they would probably be fine. But I wanted them to go gather parues on sunny winter days.

“There are some winter days where they will need to go to the forest, which means they will need hats and gloves.” I had at my disposal a large group of people who were used to gathering in the forest. How could I not take advantage of this? Especially considering that my mom couldn’t go to the forest this year, due to being pregnant. I fully intended to have Tuuli lead the children in a heroic charge to secure our fair share of parues.

...I’m abusing my power? Say whatever you want, sweet food is rare in the winter and I’m not about to miss out on parues.

They would need warm clothes for this, and sleds to carry their sweet loot. Metal sheets and spatulas for cooking the parue cakes would be nice too. I wrote down everything that came to mind onto my diptych. After adding up the prices, I confirmed that I didn’t have enough money for it all.

“Sister Myne, it seems that Ella will be willing to stay over the winter if you have a room for her.” Fran had successfully negotiated for Ella to take the lead as head chef while we were snowed in, with orphanage kids who were interested in cooking helping her.

“Rosina, please ask Wilma who would be good helpers for Ella. She’s always the one who makes the soup. Fran, Lutz went to the store ahead of us. Please take me there.”

“As you wish.” Rosina and Fran both replied at the same time.

I noticed Delia kind of fidgeting behind them, and apparently she had been waiting for us to finish talking. She piled on question after question while undoing my sash and pulling off my robes.

“So, Sister Myne. Where will you be shopping? Will you buy winter clothes for me too? Will you pick out your own clothes? How much will you buy?”

“You’re getting too excited, Delia. At this rate you won’t be able to sleep tonight.” I couldn’t help but smile at Delia’s overbearing enthusiasm.

“Geez! Of course I’m going to get excited! This is shopping we’re talking about!” declared Delia, her light-blue eyes shining.

“Delia, you need to hurry and finish changing Sister Myne. Fran is waiting down below,” chided Rosina. Delia hurriedly got back to changing my clothes and finished as soon as possible.

“Now then, I believe we will be going shopping for winter clothes tomorrow. I would like for all of you to come to the Gilberta Company at third bell. Wilma can come as well if she wishes, but I do not believe she will.” I explained to Delia my plans while climbing down the stairs, and after opening the door for me she spun around with a broad smile.

“Third bell tomorrow? As you wish. Have a good evening, Sister Myne!”

Fran and I smiled at how excited Delia was, then left. I felt the cool evening air on my skin as I talked to Fran about what I had written on my diptych.

“Fran, could you tell Gil to bring five of the children’s bibles in the workshop to the Gilberta Company tomorrow?”

“...Certainly, but may I ask why?” asked Fran, blinking in surprise. He knew how firm I had been about using the books as textbooks for the orphans. Given that he was basically my secretary at this point, I decided it was best to tell him everything.

“I won’t have enough money unless I sell them.”

“...Pardon me?”

“The High Priest didn’t seem to think it was a big deal, but me needing to stay in the temple over winter came completely out of left field for me. I need to order everything from Benno as soon as possible, but there’s not enough time to make the second batch of picture books, and I can’t sell the paper or ink we have since I need them for the picture books... My hands are tied.”

Fran didn’t seem to know how to reply to my brutally honest confession. He froze up, his mouth opening and closing with no words coming out. He sure freezes up like the High Priest does when he’s confused, I thought while looking up at him. Fran shook his head.

“Is that fine? I mean, not having money. I don’t, erm, fully understand what it means to not have any money. Does it mean... we cannot go shopping?”

As someone who had been raised in the orphanage and served a noble wealthy enough to bring five books with him to the temple, Fran had apparently never ran out of money before. He said that only after beginning to serve me did he learn that not everyone got what they wanted, that even his master would have to settle for less without money, and that one had to work to earn their money.

“It will be fine, Fran. We’ll be selling Cinderella soon, and I’m confident we’ll earn everything back through winter handiwork. It’s just right now that I don’t have the money to spare. And Delia was so happy to go shopping. So don’t tell the others about us running out of money. Just say that Benno really insisted on us selling some since the picture books were that good. It would be a shame to spoil the shopping mood, wouldn’t it?”

“...As you wish.”

The Gilberta Company came into distant view just as our conversation wound down. I could see someone standing in front of the store. He turned this way and waved, at which point I realized it was Lutz.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Lutz.”

“No prob. Let’s go home.”

“Thank you for coming with me, Fran. Please return to the temple once the sun begins to set. See you tomorrow.”

Fran nodded with a conflicted smile, then crossed his arms in front of his chest and gave a tiny bow before turning around. Lutz and I headed home while talking about how his discussion with Benno went.

“Master Benno said he’s gonna try and work something out with a farming town. All depends on how many of the smoke rooms are reserved.”

“Okay. I sure hope we can finish the hide glue before the blue priests get back...” I trailed off with uncertainty, which made Lutz shake his head with exasperation.

“Myne, you should be more worried about the pig butchering than the hide glue. It’s gonna be a bunch of newbies, yeah? The store’s winter prep comes later, so there’s not gonna be many people with experience to help out. Master Benno asked a butcher to send some help, but it’s gonna be rough without some more experienced people.”

Our initial plan had been to do our winter prep with the Gilberta Company, but now that we had to speed things up, we would be doing it all separately. That alone meant there would be a lot fewer experienced people to help. We would have a bunch of people who didn’t know what to do, almost all of whom had never seen a pig killed before. It was hard to think they would be that helpful, especially considering how little help I tended to be.

“...I’ll try and get Dad’s help, but it’s kind of hard to ask when we don’t even know when the butchering will happen.” Mom was out of the question due to her pregnancy, but it would be nice if Dad and Tuuli could help. The only thing was that I couldn’t even bring it up with them until I knew when it was happening.

“Yeah, true. But, uh... are you gonna be okay? Pretty sure Gunther’s gonna get ticked about you staying in the temple all winter.”

Indeed. After dinner today would be our first family meeting in a long time. They wouldn’t have any choice but to accept it, but I could already picture how worried and angry they would be. It kinda made my stomach hurt.

“Don’t sweat it, though. Your job’s offering mana. I think you’re gonna be better off staying in the temple too. Your chambers are a lot warmer than your family’s place, which’ll help stop you from getting colds, and Fran’s gotten a pretty good grasp on your health by now.”

“Thanks, Lutz. I’m going to tell them you said that. My family trusts you waaay more than me, for some reason.”

“Good luck,” said Lutz, and we split ways at the well. I reluctantly climbed my way up the stairs.

“So, Myne. What happened?”

The moment I said I had something to talk about, everyone’s expression darkened in an instant. Thinking about it, I never really brought any good news home. It was always stuff like the limit of my lifespan, me entering the temple, the letter from the temple... I could hardly blame them for being anxious.

“Ummm, well, the thing is... the High Priest had some bad news for me. The temple has an important ritual during the winter, and they can’t afford for me to miss it due to blizzards. He wants me to start staying in the temple once snow starts to fall.”

“What’s the big idea?! He said you could stay at home!” As expected, Dad hit the table and exploded with anger. Tuuli and Mom both nodded alongside him.

“He did, but the Dedication Ritual is really important. If we don’t fill up the divine instruments with enough mana, next year’s harvest won’t go well. Less crops would hurt a lot of people, wouldn’t it?”

“Wha? The temple does stuff like that?” asked Tuuli, full of surprise, and I nodded. I hadn’t known any of the rituals performed by the temple until I became an apprentice shrine maiden. Most people in the temple didn’t really go to the lower city, and most people only ever went inside for their baptisms and adulthood ceremonies. The temple itself didn’t publicize everything it did, either, so most city people didn’t think very highly of it.

“Still, your health’s more important. You might die if they just lock you up in the temple.”

“Lutz said that Fran has gotten really good at watching my health now. And you’ll be allowed to come check up on me. The High Priest said letting you in the temple to see me was the biggest compromise he could make.”

Dad ground his teeth together. It was painfully clear that although he understood the importance of the ritual and that the High Priest was doing everything he could, he still didn’t want to give his permission.

“What do you want to do, Myne?” asked Mom, rubbing her stomach gently to calm herself down. I already gave the High Priest my reply and had multiple people helping me to get my winter preparations done. I only had one answer for her.

“...I want to stay in the temple. It’s my job to be there.”

“Myne!” shouted Dad, but I just shook my head slowly.

“Dad, don’t forget that I’m the orphanage director now too. I have to take care of the orphans. And they only let me be a blue robe at all because I have mana, remember? If not for this, I would be forced to do hard labor.”

Dad clenched his fist tightly. He ground his teeth, swallowed his words, and shut his eyes tight.

“The High Priest accepted all of our conditions. I have to keep my word and go to the ritual that needs my mana. You know how I haven’t been collapsing from the Devouring at all lately? That’s because I’ve been donating my mana. This is for my sake too.”

I would probably be dead or close to it by now if not for the temple’s magic tools. I was only alive thanks to offering my mana up to the divine instruments in the temple.

“What’ll you do if you get sick there?”

“I have a bed in my chambers, and my attendants will make sure I’m not left all on my own. Though I’ll want Tuuli to teach them what to do when I get a fever.”

“That bed really is fluffy and nice,” murmured Tuuli, who had been in my room in the temple before.

“I can do that,” said Mom. “I’ll want to look over your room there, too.”

“You can’t move around much right now, can you? Please don’t push yourself, Mom.”

“I’ll be fine. Pregnancy isn’t a disease, you know. My morning sickness has been getting better too.”

Mom decided all on her own to look over my chambers and introduce herself to my attendants once she was feeling a little better. She was already operating on the assumption that I would be staying there, now that she knew I wanted to. It was too late for us to go against decisions made by the nobles in the temple.

Dad scratched his head, a look of defeat on his face. “...You said we can go check up on you, yeah?”

“Uh huh. And please do, I’ll miss you.”

“I was gonna go to the orphanage over the winter anyway since I’m the sewing teacher, so that’s fine! I’ll still see you all the time!” Tuuli talked about her plans in the orphanage with a bright smile, which made Dad give a sullen frown and glare at me.

“Why are you always asking Tuuli for help, Myne? You should ask your dad for help sometimes.” He was starting to get pouty since he wanted me to rely on him more. I hurriedly searched for something he could do.

“Umm... Could you help me teach the orphanage how to do winter handiwork, then? Like cutting wooden boards, carving grooves into them, and all that. It’s too much for Lutz to do all on his own.”

“Alright, you can count on me. Anything else?”

He wasn’t a professional, but he was good with his hands, so I asked him to teach the orphans the art of woodcrafting. He accepted with a grin. If he was that eager to help, well, there was no end to the things I could ask him to do.

“Also, um, we haven’t settled on a day yet, but I would like your help butchering pigs for the orphanage. Nobody in the orphanage has done it before, and that meat will be our food for the winter.”

“Sounds pretty serious. I’ll see if I can get the day off work once you settle your plans.”

“Also, could you tell me more about what we need for winter? I don’t really know what winter preparation is like since I’m usually sick during it. Who knows what my chambers might be missing...”

After that, we all started talking about what I would need for winter and things to check. Most of what they said had to do with my poor health, and I wrote it all down with an exasperated smile.