The Healing Ritual

The Healing Ritual

The Healing Ritual

“Myne, we will finish the ritual while the potion is in effect.”

Once he had finished reprimanding Shikza, the High Priest flourished his cape, touched his right gauntlet, and turned the stone into his white lion thing. The knights all stood up in turn and began bringing out their own creatures to ride.

“Come here.” The High Priest held out his hand. I walked up to him as gracefully as I could, then extended my own hands. He lifted me up and this time I grabbed the lion’s reins so that I wouldn’t lose my balance. After nimbly jumping on behind me, the High Priest raised a hand. “Depart!”

He gripped the reins and the once statue-esque white lion began moving as if it had been given life. It extended its wings far and flapped itself into the air, heading towards the ruins of where the giant trombe had just been rampaging. The trombe from a second ago had sucked the mana it needed out of my blood instead of the surrounding earth, so that was fine. But the giant trombe had left a huge crater where it had been, and if I didn’t perform the Healing Ritual to fill the ground back with mana, not even grass would grow on the crater.

“...I feel that I have wronged you.” The High Priest spoke to me in a quiet voice from behind, perhaps because now that we were in the air he didn’t have to worry about other people hearing him. “I did not intend for you to be hurt, and I did not intend to expose you to such malice. And finally, I did not intend to put you in such a state that a potion was necessary just to give you enough temporary strength to perform the ritual. It was my foolish mistake for not ever expecting the Knight’s Order to go against my orders.”

His tone was dripping with frustration and remorse. The guards meant to ensure everything proceeded smoothly had in fact done the opposite, and he was regretting assigning them to me at all. But he wasn’t responsible for Shikza going berserk, the malicious rumors about me being spread, or even my poor Devouring health.

“It’s not your fault, High Priest.”

“It is. All matters related to you are my responsibility,” he said, his voice firm. Given that the temple could not function without me, commoner or not, he considered it part of his job as High Priest to facilitate my assimilation into the temple. He was indeed the kind of perfectionist that couldn’t trust work to other people and ended up making life harder for himself by trying to do it all on his own.

“Is the potion working, Myne?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then. I know very well that the ritual will place a great burden on you. But it is vital that we show the Knight’s Order that you are capable of performing your duties as an apprentice shrine maiden. I will protect you. Show them that you are fit to wear the blue robes. Shove it in their faces that you are essential to both the temple and the Knight’s Order, the protector of the lands. If the Knight’s Order recognizes your importance, you will have more tools to protect yourself.”

The High Priest had protected me by stating that I wasn’t a normal commoner, I was an apprentice blue shrine maiden. I needed to do my job well enough that they accepted that I was worthy of the position.

“...I’m nervous about it, though. This is the first time I’m performing the ritual. I don’t know if I can do it right.” I knew I had to do it, but I was terrified that I couldn’t. It was my first time performing a ritual.

And yet, the High Priest blew away my worries with a short laugh. “Hmph. You don’t have anything to worry about. I will prepare the stage such that the Knight’s Order will have no choice but to accept you.”

“...What?”

“I only start fights that I know I can win.” His chilly voice sent shudders down my spine. It seemed that his anger at his plan being thrown out of order had not faded at all.

“...Um, Damuel was really kind to me, and he did try to save me. He even yelled at Shikza for my sake, so please don’t take it all out on him.”

The giant trombe had left a large disc of exposed earth in its wake, which made it look like someone had put a massive brown plate on top of the forest.

“It feels like there’s enough space to found a farming town here once plants are growing again.”

“A farming town here would make it quite difficult for the priests and nobles heading out for the Spring Prayer and the Harvest Festival. The earth will lose its strength once again without the Spring Prayer,” added the High Priest. It certainly would be difficult for the priests and nobles to go all the way deep into the forest to perform the ritual, not to mention the townsfolk who might want to go to town.

The almost-lion descended to the center of the crater, and the High Priest escorted me to the ground. The Knight’s Order landed one by one, their animals returning to their gauntlet as they hit the ground.

Once all the knights were lined up, they took off their helmets and knelt. It seemed that watching the ritual with helmets on was disrespectful to the gods. The High Priest took off his helmet as well, setting it down by his feet. The ground beneath us wasn’t the kind of black earth we saw back in the forest. It was reddish-brown and dry dirt, like you might find in a school’s sports ground.

“High Priest, the staff.” Arno held out a staff a bit longer than a full-grown man, which the High Priest took.

It was a divine instrument—the symbol of the Goddess of Water Flutrane—and it was necessary for this ritual. The staff was made of gold and the tip held a large magic stone, clear green and about the size of an adult’s palm gleaming in the sunlight. The handle was dotted with magic stones lined up next to each other, and most were colored. At a glance, I could see that it was charged up with plenty of mana.

“Shikza,” the High Priest called out to the knights. Shikza rushed this way, his armor clanking as he speed-walked. The High Priest faced him and held out the divine staff. “You will perform the ritual.”

Shikza blinked in confusion. The High Priest looked down at him coldly, then gave an exaggerated sigh. “You abandoned your duties, did you not? You must have plenty of mana in reserve. My initial plan was to begin the ritual myself to show how it is done, but due to your tomfoolery giving me extra work, I do not have mana to spare.”

...That’s a lie! You definitely have tons of mana to spare! The unfathomably foul-tasting potion he had concocted was as effective as one would expect from how hard he sacrificed the flavor. There was no way he didn’t have spare mana after drinking it.

“Surely you are capable of this. Show Myne the power of a real noble.” The High Priest basically forced the divine staff into Shikza’s hands. He was clearly thrown off by this unexpected development, but the moment he noticed me looking at him, he glared at me and straightened his back.

“O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O twelve goddesses who serve by her side.” Shikza began chanting the prayer in a loud, clear voice. The large stone in the staff began to shine, and the ground around Shikza began to darken with the bottom of the staff at the center. Not long after the ground darkened, fresh green buds started to pop out.

I couldn’t help but let out an excited “Wow!” I never thought that just gripping the divine instrument and chanting a memorized prayer would bring about such palpable change to the earth. It was like a science experiment I had seen in an educational video back in my Urano days.

The earth changed color as it was filled with mana, plants blooming bit by bit. But the growing circle stopped once it hit a radius of about ten meters.

“Keep going. The crater is far from filled.” The High Priest slammed Shikza once he tried to stop, refusing to allow him to let go of the staff, which continued to drain his mana as long as he was holding it. Shikza’s head was getting heavy from all the mana that had been drained out of him, and soon he collapsed right onto his knees.

“Hmph. Despite all your arrogance, this was the best you could do. I see that the Knight’s Order truly had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to fill out their ranks.” Without even looking at Shikza, the High Priest grabbed the wavering staff before it fell. He then beckoned me over while holding it up. “You are the only one left, Myne. It is time to do your job.”

I planted my feet far apart to steady myself and grabbed a hold of the staff, which was so large it would fall over if I relaxed my grip for a moment. Shikza had given a live demonstration of what to do, which eased my fears about messing up.

...The High Priest was basically telling me to show off, so I guess I should pour in as much mana as I can? I tightened my grip on the staff and lowered my eyes, breathing deeply. I took off the top of the box I usually kept tightly shut to contain my mana, allowing it to go free inside my body. I could feel the overflowing mana surge towards the staff in search of an exit.

“O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O twelve goddesses who serve by her side. Please hear my prayer and lend me your divine strength. Grant me the power to heal your sister, the God of Earth Geduldh, who has been wounded by those who serve evil.” The green magic stone embedded in the staff shone brightly. My mana whirlpooled around me, kicking up a swirl of wind with me at its center. The wind lifted up my hair while my robes fluttered.

“I pray that holy music be granted, casting ripples of the highest order. May I be filled with the royal color to mine own heart’s content.” My mana burst into the staff, seeping into the earth through the staff’s magic stone. The circle of dark earth shot outwards, with fresh greenery sprouting and blooming before my eyes.