Ascendance of a Bookworm

Volume 6, Chapter 18: The Orphanage and Workshop’s Visitors (Part 1)

One day after my return from the Spring Prayer, everyone worked together to clean the orphanage and the workshop. Time passed quickly, and it was the day of the visit. Sylvester and the High Priest would arrive on the third bell, so everyone rushed to clean at daybreak.

“Sister Myne, can ya come here? Uhm, I mean, do you have a moment?”

“Yes I do, Gil. You’re doing a good job.”

When I returned back from the Spring Prayer, I learnt that Gil had been trying to improve his manner of speech when I was gone. The gray priests who used to be attendants were teaching the kids better behaviour, and they would help Gil with his speech when they were in the workshop.

“The children told me that since I am your attendant, I seriously need to work on my way of speaking so that I don’t make you feel embarra— Uhm, kehum. I mean, I need to speak politely so that I do not bring shame to you.”

I was happy that the children were interested in changing their manner of speaking for their own sake, but I found it understandable why Gil didn’t like how they were making fun of him.

“It is true that as my attendant, you would need to learn the proper way of speaking. It is very admirable for you to do this.”

“Sister Myne, I will work my hardest… I don’t wanna— Uhm, I do not wish to be replaced.”

Gil knelt in front of me. His brows were all scrunched up, I could tell he was vexed at himself, but I felt that his worries were needless.

“What? Wait a moment, Gil. Have you been worried about that the whole time?”

“There are plenty of people who are better than me,” his voice sounded strained as he said this, and he looked pitiful with his head hung down.

He explained that the other children wanted to become my attendants after seeing that a troublemaker like him who frequented the detention room become one. They said if someone like him could become one, they could do the same too. He was anxious that he was easily replaceable and did his best to work on himself to best the kids.

…Was that the reason why he spent so much time in the workshop? He wanted to learn new skills and because of that he also saw Lutz as his rival?

Because I was sitting down, I was at the perfect height to pat Gil’s head. I stretched out and gently stroked his flaxen hair.

“I know you have been going your best, Gil. I may hire more attendants depending on the circumstances, but you are irreplaceable to me.”

“R-really…?”

His face relaxed up with relief. Being an attendant was a tough job because they were replaceable to their masters. The thought of replacing Gil never occurred to me because he was quite good at his job.

“Anyways, did you not want to speak to me about something, Gil?”

“Yes. Should we continue our work in the workshop when the priests arrive?”

“Yes, we will. They are here to see what we have been doing in the workshop. I know that everyone gets jittery with me in the room, and I imagine that it would be much worse when the High Priest and the other blue priest are here. But I hope that everyone will do their best. Will you please tell them that?”

“Yes, master.”

~~~

Shortly after Gil left, Fran returned with a few people from the Gilberta Company. The group consisted of Benno, Lutz and Leon. Mark was not around because he had to look after the store.

“Good morning, Sister Myne. It is my honor to be able to receive an invite on such a nice morning.”

I led them to the second floor of my chambers and told Rosina and Delia to make their way downstairs. This was so that they would not hear us speaking casually.

“Here you go, Myne. I got the clothes you needed. I decided to get a pair of shoes too.”

“Thanks, Lutz.”

I received the set of clothes and shoes, these needed to be given to Sylvester later today. Until then, I kept them on my work desk and walked back to the table. Benno was wearing formal clothes he usually wore to meet nobles today, and he was glaring at me now.

“So, what do you know about this other blue priest?”

“Nothing, really.”

“Seriously?” Benno looked even more unhappy.

I knew he was desperate for more information about Sylvester, but I seriously didn’t have any information he wanted.

“It’s not like I would know anything about Brother Sylvester’s family, would I?”

“You could have asked him. You need to learn how to get information for your own sake, fool.”

It might be important for a merchant to get information about a customer’s family, but not for me, I just wanted to know how to avoid Sylvester. But I knew Benno’s scolding awaited me unless I said something, so I told him as much I had learnt about him from the Spring Prayer.

“He’s kind of a weirdo. I’d use someone else’s way of describing him, that is he might seem bad on the surface, but he has a good heart deep inside.”

“Come on, I don’t care for that. I need to know his family, who they are connected with, his status in the noble society, and any other beneficial information that will help me get him to buy my stuff and earn me some money.”

“Oh shoot, my bad. I just spent the entire trip avoiding him as much as possible, so I can’t help you there.”

I told him how I felt about Sylvester from the get go, which made Benno drop his head in disappointment.

“You can learn all you want from him when I introduce you two to each other at the workshop. I’m sure that’s much better than hearing about him from me, Benno.”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have set such high expectations for you. I will just be glad that you still remembered to introduce me to him. I should be glad that you didn’t panic over their visit and forget to inform me of it,” Benno nodded to himself.

I could say anything against that, which made me kind of disappointed in myself.

“Right. I’ll see you later. Try not to mess up.”

Benno’s interrogation with me turned out fruitless, so he left for the workshop with Lutz and Leon .

~~~

The third bell rung in the middle of my harspiel practice. I got up from my chair, sweating in nervousness. Fran took the set of clothes Lutz had bought under my request and walked in front while Damuel and I followed close behind.

“Rosina, Delia, I trust that you both will look after my chambers.”

“Yes, Sister Myne. We will wait for your safe return.”

We arrived at the High Priest’s chambers, he was busy writing something at his desk while Sylvester was chilling in the room, seemingly prepared to leave anytime.

“Pardon my tardiness,” I said.

“Ok, let’s go,” Sylvester gave a short response.

He looked so excited as though he was about to go off on some great adventure or a major quest of sorts. I didn’t know why he was acting that way because I didn’t think the orphanage and workshop would be that fun. Maybe it was because the Noble’s District did not have a workshop and this would be his first time seeing one.

“Brother Sylvester, before we make a move… I have the clothes you requested for and prepared some wooden shoes that commoners wear in the lower city.”

“You’re quite the fast one, ain’t ya? Not bad.”

“They’re secondhand clothes. So we didn’t have to get them made.”

Fran passed the clothes and shoes over to Sylvester’s attendant, who had a very complicated expression.

I know you don’t want to touch a commoner’s secondhand clothes, but your master is the one who wants it.

“You will all remain here. Fran and Damuel will suffice. The rooms will be too cramped if everyone tags along,” Sylvester ordered Arno and his own attendants. The orphanage was not that small, but it would be a little claustrophobic if everyone squeezed into the workshop.

“Alright, let us depart.”

The High Priest had completed his work and we made our way out. Fran was the guide, while the High Priest and Sylvester walked behind him, and Damuel and I stayed in the back.

When we were walking to the orphanage, Sylvester could no longer stand my walking speed. He turned around and pointed at me to say “Damuel, grab her. She’s ridiculously slow.”

“…Couldn’t you have been more tactful about it? You could have used the term “carry” instead.”

“A bodyguard should always have their hands free, but since I’m stronger than Damuel everything will be fine.”

Even though Sylvester had said all that, I was trying the hardest I could to walk faster. It was because of Sylvester and the High Priest’s height that they walked much faster than my maximum running speed, so I struggled to keep up. Thankfully, Damuel was now carrying me because I was getting breathless.

“This is the orphanage,” Fran announced as he opened the squeaky doors to the dining hall in the girls’ building.

Inside the hall, we saw Wilma, two gray shine maidens and gray priests kneeling at our arrival. Behind them, the children who had yet to have their baptism started gathering. They were a little hard to see because of their size, but I could see them kneeling onto the ground. Benno advised us to stop the children from working today because it was kind of illegal for pre-baptised children to work.

“Welcome, we are extremely honored by your visit to the orphanage.”

“High Priest, Brother Sylvester. This is my attendant, Wilma. She oversees the affairs in the orphanage and is the sole caretaker of all the pre-baptised children.

The High Priest gave an impressed look and nodded.

“If my memory serves me right, you must be the artist for the art in Myne’s books. Your work is outstanding.”

“T-thank you for your praise.”

Wilma was surprised at having been praised by the High Priest, so her voice sounded a little wobbly. She was surprised that the High Priest would remember a mere gray shrine maiden.

Her hair was neatly tied up high on her head, so her crimson face and ears were in full view.

“I expected the orphanage to be messy because of the children but it’s surprisingly clean.”

Sylvester had walked right to the middle of the room and spun around.

“Well, it’s because everyone here always does their best to keep it spick and span,” I declared with pride.

The orphanage was always this clean thanks to Wilma’s efforts, she took charge of the cleaning here and taught the kids how important it was to keep themselves clean.

“Are all the kids here as small as you? There’s no one younger here?”

“…No…”

There were no more littler ones because they had died of starvation and prior poor conditions. Sylvester should be aware of that, I was angry at how he playing the fool, but there was no point telling him off because that would not bring the dead back.

“Rather, you seemed to have forgotten this again, Brother Sylvester, but I’ve had my baptism already.”

“So? You’re still just as small as them.”

When summer comes, it would mark one year since my baptism, yet I was still shorter than most of the children here. Sylvester ignored me who was puffing my cheeks in anger and drifted off to the other side of the dining hall. The boxes piled in the corner of the room had caught his attention.

“Myne, what are in these boxes?”

“They store all the books and toys that are used to teach the children how to read. These were all made here.”

Sylvester fished out one of the children’s bibles and flipped through them. He then turned towards the karuta and the playing cards before frowning. The High Priest had also been looking at the toys, he picked up a set of karuta cards and gave me a glare.

“Myne, I did not hear of these.”

“They are called karuta. A type of card game for learning words. I initially made a set for my attendant who wanted to learn to read, but I decided to make more for the orphanage. I did not tell you about them because I didn’t think they would be important, they can’t be mass produced after all— Wilma has to draw all the art on every card manually.” I explained to the best of my ability.

The High Priest pondered about something as he rubbed his chin.

“…I would like to double check this, so you have not been selling these?”

“Yes, though I did patent them to Benno, he is not planning to make them anytime soon.”

Benno said that the cards were profitable, but I knew he was not planning to put them in the market yet. It might be because he’s having trouble finding a talented artist.

“Anyways, it was because I had to read the bible that I learnt the names of all the gods and their divine tools, that I could make the karuta cards. The orphans are quite adept in this game, they have memorised all the cards.”

“Really? Then I would like to see a game in person. Go on.”

Sylvester had made a demand out of the blue, which sent the children into a nervous fit as they looked frantically between me and Wilma. I had a strong feeling that Sylvester was going to say that, so I was quite calm. I picked up the karuta cards and gave a gentle smile to the children.

“I will go ahead and read the cards, will everyone handle the rest themselves?”

“Yes, Sister Myne.”

The children were very nervous around the unfamiliar blue priest, but they started to relax when they fell into the beat of the game.

“This child took the most cards, so she wins.”

“Well done,” Sylvester praised the winner.

The High Priest watched the children pack up the karuta cards. He bowed his head down to look at me.

“Myne, you can remember all of these? And the children can read all the words on the cards?”

“Yes, the children can read the cards and the children’s bible too. They learnt how to over the winter.”

“… Just over the winter? Seriously?”

Sylvester got a huge shock that his eyes widened. I was proud of the children and bobbed my head up and down.

“That’s right. There’s nothing much to do when you’re stuck inside because of the snow, right? The older kids could work in the workshop, but not the little ones, so they just studied the books and played karuta. The other set of cards helped them learn the numbers too. They can now do some simple calculation.”

With my head held high, I listed the impressive feats the temple school achieved over the winter. But the High Priest did not seem impressed, instead he just held his head between his hands.

“Myne…” he sounded extremely troubled, but I was sure Fran had reported this to him.

“What’s the matter, High Priest?”

He hesitated to say more, he just let out a sigh and said “It can wait” instead.

He looked like he was trying his best to hold back.

…Why does it feel like I’m going to get scolded? Something feels really off.

I dropped my head to the side, expressing my confusion. Just then Sylveter patted my shoulder.

“Anyways, let’s go to the workshop.”

“Sure.”

I continued walking at my usual speed and made my way down the stairs of the girls’ building to the back exit.

“Sister Myne, I do not think it would be appropriate to bring a guest through there…” WIlma told me with an anxious voice.

I realised what she was referring to and froze before turning back around. It was definitely not appropriate to take a guest there. But my movements earned the suspicion of the two priests that I was trying to conceal something from them. This made their faces turn grim as they looked down the stairs.

“Wait. What are you hiding behind that door?” the High Priest interrogated me.

“It’s just a back exit to the workshop we usually take from the orphanage. Since you and Brother Sylvester are visitors, it is only appropriate that I guide you there in the right manner. It just slipped my mind,” I explained.

This made the High Priest frown.

“…An orphanage with a back exit? I have never heard of such a thing.”

“We will go through there.”

And so we went down the stairs with Wilma in the lead, followed by me.

The kitchen was located in the basement of the girls’ building and they were cooking lunch right now. We could hear lively chatter and a pleasant smell wafted into our noses. The chattering stopped when they saw Wilma rushing down the stairs. When the priests and I arrived in the kitchen, the large pot filled with soup was unattended and boiling, and everyone had lined up against the wall, kneeling.

“Hm, so this is where you cook for the orphans?”

“Yes, but we only make soup here most of the time.”

I began telling them we needed the soup because the divine gifts were too little. The two priests had likely never stepped into a kitchen their whole lives because they kept staring at the pot like a curious cat.

“This soup looks just like the one we had during the Spring Prayer.”

“It is, I gave them the same recipe.”

Sylvester squinted his eyes to glare at me.

“I don’t see why orphans should be eating this every day?”

Those words made me angry. The reason why the orphans had been forced to enter the forests to earn their share of money and cook their own food was because the number of blue priests and priestesses had been dwindling, such that they did not have enough divine gifts. But there was no point telling all of these to Sylvester.

“Anyways, I heard that you make commoner sweets of sorts here, am I right? Damuel reported that to me.”

The High Priest words made Sylvester dumbstruck.

“Sweets?! That’s going too far!”

“You might think that we are going overboard, but these are not the sweets that use the sugar and honey the nobles buy from stores. We can only make these sweets when we get the necessary fruits on clear winter mornings. They are rarely made. The orphanage has so many children that each person can barely get a mouthful. But the sweets are worth the effort because of their amazing taste. You think so too right, Sir Damuel?”

Damuel nodded his head fervently as he looked back and forth between Sylvester and the High Priest, they both stared daggers at him. Sylvester’s gaze was particularly violent because he was jealous of Damuel.

“It must be nice here, hm Damuel?”

“I very seldom get to come here. I have suffered more, really.”

Damuel had a tough job being my bodyguard, his soul would leave his body everytime I passed out and he was so traumatised whenever with these nobles glared at him.

“The soup will get burnt if we stay any longer, we move on to the workshop.”

I was trying to urge them out of the room because I didn’t want Sylvester making another unreasonable demand that he wanted to eat a parue cake.

We walked past the chapel towards the boys’ building.

“We have arrived at the Myne Workshop” Fran announced and pushed the door open.

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