To the Baptism Ceremony
Everyone was busy the morning of the ceremony. Mainly Mom, though. We needed to hurry and eat breakfast, clean up, and get me changed into my outfit, so she got mad when I overslept and ate my breakfast slowly. I basically shoved my food into my mouth and changed in the bedroom with Tuuli while Mom cleaned up my dishes.
Mom and Tuuli had been adding little touches to the outfit over time, so now it wasn’t just looking fancy with the cloth bundled up to add waves. They had decorated it with flowers made during our winter handiwork, which made it look more decorative. If Benno hadn’t given us more thread than we needed for the flowers, we wouldn’t have had the money to spare for them.
After putting on the dress like I would a t-shirt, I wrapped the blue sash around my waist and tied it into a bow. The end of the sash hung by my leg.
“Myne, weren’t you going to double loop the sash?” asked Tuuli, pursing her lips. I undid the sash and wrapped it around my stomach twice. But despite being able to somehow manage it in the winter, it was now just a little too short for that.
“Oh? Did I eat too much? Is my stomach sticking out?”
“Nuh uh. You just got bigger, Myne. We made it so the hem would go beneath your knees a little, but now it’s exactly at your knees.” It seemed I had grown during the spring. That was normal for most children, but the Devouring slowed my growth so much that I wasn’t used to it. I was struck by a sense of awe, moved at my own growth, but Tuuli was more focused on practical matters. She took a look at the sash and thought about how to fix it.
“...It’s just not the right length. Letting it hang like that would look bad. Maybe we should cut it?”
“No way, that would be a waste. I’m only wearing it for the baptism, it won’t be too long. I can just double it up.”
“But you couldn’t do that just now.”
“Not the wrapping, the bow.” I wrapped the sash around my stomach and gave it a double bow knot. Once it was all tied up, I shifted the sash so the ribbon-esque knots were behind me.
“So? Does it look good?”
“So cute! Wow! How did you do that?!” I started to explain how double bow knots worked to Tuuli when suddenly my mom came into the room.
“If you’ve finished changing your clothes, Myne, hurry and get your hair ready. I need to change too.”
“Okaaay. I’ll tell you later, Tuuli.” We moved to the kitchen. Everyone had used rinsham last night, so my whole family had silky smooth hair. Even Dad had seemed interested yesterday, so I washed his hair for him. I asked what had gotten into him and it turns out Otto had bragged about washing his hair with Corinna. As always, Dad was competitive in the weirdest of places.
“Myne, I don’t know how to bundle up hair with a hairpin, so at least let me brush your hair and stuff.” Tuuli’s eyes started shining after she saw me brushing my hair. I had braided Tuuli’s hair for her baptism and it seemed she wanted to return the favor however she could. I nodded and gave her the brush. She started brushing my hair while humming, seemingly in a very good mood.
“Myne, your hair is so straight and pretty. It smells nice, too.”
“Your hair smells the same way, doesn’t it?” I thanked Tuuli for brushing my hair and bundled it up like I usually did, making sure not to crush my swaying hairpin. More complex hair styles wouldn’t really work for me since any strings I tried to use would just come right undone.
“Okay, that’s that.” Despite the special hairpin, I was still putting my hair up the same way that I always did. It didn’t take very long.
The hairpin was noticeably heavier and I could feel the small flowers shaking when I moved my head at all. I shook my head, amused, and Tuuli clapped happily.
“Wooow! So cute! It looks so good on your hair, Myne! I love the way it shakes when you move.”
“That looks wonderful on you, Myne,” Mom added.
“How’d this little rich girl end up here?” Dad said jokingly. “You’re gonna be the cutest girl in the whole ceremony, Myne.”
Once I was dressed, my parents came out of the bedroom and flooded me with praise. I appreciated the compliments, but it felt kind of embarrassing too.
“Dad, you said the same thing to Tuuli.”
“’Course I did. Both my daughters are the cutest,” said Dad, lifting up Tuuli and I with one arm each. We flailed and giggled to try and get away, but he just tightened his grip while cackling.
“Gaaah! My hair’s gonna get messed up!”
“Goodness! Enough playing, we need to go outside,” said Mom. Dad let us go, but it was too late. Mom looked at my hair and sighed.
“Myne, your hair will fall apart if you don’t set it up again.” Dad shrugged and said he was sorry. I laughed and took out the hairpin so I could redo my hair. My hair wasn’t good for complex hairstyles, but it didn’t tangle much, so a quick brush was all it took to fix it back into shape.
“Everyone’s by the well already.” Tuuli, who had run downstairs to check, threw the door open and gestured us outside. We went down the stairs to the plaza and indeed a ton of neighbors were already there.
“There’s Ralph and the others. Lutz is wearing a hand-me-down, as expected.” I looked to where Tuuli was pointing and saw Lutz surrounded by a huge crowd, wearing hand-me-downs from Ralph. I hadn’t seen what Ralph was wearing so I didn’t know it was a hand-me-down, but Lutz was wearing a white shirt with white pants and a light-blue sash. Zasha, the oldest brother, had probably worn the same thing. The outfit and sash had been made for him.
“Lutz.”
“M-Myne?! Gracious, what’s with that outfit?! You look like a rich girl!” Karla caught me on my way to Lutz. Her loud voice drew attention to me and other neighbors approached. It seemed I wouldn’t make it to Lutz without giving an explanation.
“This is a hand-me-down from Tuuli.”
“That’s a hand-me-down?!”
“Uh huh. It was too big for me, so we bunched it up and sewed it together so that the skirt would be just long enough for me. It was a really simple fix.” I explained what we had done briefly and wife after wife gathered around me. I was much shorter than even kids my age, so it was a bit scary to have a crowd of adults squatting all around me to be on eye level with me. I subconsciously grabbed my Mom’s skirt behind me.
“I wouldn’t have guessed this was just a remade outfit. Your clothes look really fancy.”
“Let’s see here. Guess you could do this ’cause you’re so much shorter than Tuuli. Couldn’t do the same myself.”
“Ahaha, I thought this was a super fancy sash, but you just had to double the bows up ’cause it’s too long.”
Everyone said what came to mind. Some people threw in celebratory congratulations, but they didn’t feel too sincere to me.
“That hairpin is a real piece of work, too. How expensive was it?” The topic shifted to the price of my hairpin. Mom shook her head with a smile.
“We made it ourselves, it didn’t cost anything. Since we just altered Tuuli’s outfit instead of making a new one from scratch, we had extra thread left over.”
“My daughter’s asking me to buy one for her baptism. Could you tell us how to make them ourselves?”
“They take a really thin needle to sew the thread. If you have one of those, the rest is simple.” They must not have expected to hear that we made the hairpin ourselves. All the questions shifted to Mom instead. I stealthily slid away while she was flooded with question after question.
...Okay, escape successful. The moment I let out a sigh of relief, I was surrounded by a group of girls interested in my clothes and hairpin. They were mostly older girls who had finished their baptism before I started going to the forest, so unlike Tuuli I had basically never interacted with them before.
“Kyaaah, so cute!”
“Let me see, let me see! Tuuli made this hairpin, right? Woooow!” A girl who did indeed seem to know Tuuli touched my hairpin, which made it slide out of my hair and undo my bundle.
“Ah, s-sorry. What should I do...?” The girl held my hairpin and paled, having completely undone my hairdo.
“It’s okay. I can fix it really easily.” I held out my hand and smiled. She gave me the hairpin and I redid my hair. I scooped it up, wrapped it around the hairpin, and twisted the hairpin before digging inside.
“Wha? Wha? How’d you do that?! Isn’t it just a hair ornament?”
“Eheheh. It’s an ornament and a hairpin. That’s just how great Myne is.” Tuuli puffed out her chest with pride and smiled for some reason. The girls proceeded to observe and tug my clothes all other in awe while Tuuli proudly explained how it all worked. They were squealing and having fun, but they were basically doing and saying the same things that the older wives were.
I slid out of that circle too and sighed. It wasn’t normal for so many strangers to talk to me at once. Honestly, I was a bit exhausted already. In search of a place to rest, I headed in Lutz’s direction.
“Luuuutz!”
“Oh, Myne. Finally got away from Mom, huh? Took you lo—” Lutz turned around to see me and gasped, freezing up in place.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
“Nah, it’s nothing. Just...” Lutz faltered and Ralph walked up, pushing him aside.
“What’s with that outfit? It’s a lot different from what Tuuli wore.”
“We remade what she wore so it would fit me, and... Hyaaah! Let me down, Zasha!” Before I could finish explaining my outfit to Ralph, Zasha stuck his hands beneath my arms and lifted me up.
“Congrats, Myne. You’re still so tiny and cute. Not like Lutz’s, he’s all cheeky and mean now. Not cute at all.”
“’Grats, Myne! That outfit looks great on you! But seriously, you are friggin’ tiny. Don’t look old enough for a baptism at all.”
“You may not be able to tell, Sieg, but I’ve gotten a little bigger!” I went to Lutz for peace and quiet, but his older brothers were tossing me around. I pouted to show I was getting mad and Lutz started to panic a little.
“C’mon guys, stop! Look at Myne, she’s getting sick!”
“C’mooon, Myne. Get a grip. You don’t wanna pass out before your baptism!” I let the strength drain from my body as Zasha kept me held up high. Zasha was reaching adulthood tomorrow and was basically as strong as an adult.
“Lutz, I want to go home.”
“You haven’t even left yet.”
Suddenly, the temple bell rang three times, each ring echoing and sending vibrations through the city. That was the signal for the baptism ceremony to begin. Out of all our neighbors, only Lutz and I were going to this baptism ceremony. Celebrating adults surrounded us in an instant.
“Let’s go, Myne! To the main road!” Dad pulled me out of Zasha’s arms and lifted me up high, leading the crowd to the main street. Lutz hurriedly chased after him, and I could see over Dad’s shoulders the rest of my family and the adults following us. I looked around and, just like during Tuuli’s ceremony, kids and their families and neighbors were pouring out of side alleys to flood the main street.
“You feeling okay, Myne? I’ll carry you to the temple, get some rest.”
“Okay. Thanks, Dad.” And so it was decided that Dad would carry me to the temple. That seemed like the best idea to me. I still couldn’t walk at the same speed as the procession and the ceremony would be ruined for me if I passed out on the way there.
I heard loud cheers approaching our direction. It seemed that the procession had reached us. The families were following the rows of kids from behind, so Dad’s plan was to wait and try to get to the very front of the parent section. But if Lutz followed us there, he’d get buried and lose the ability to see anything past the crowd.
“You can go up front, Lutz.”
“Nah, if I lose you two we’ll have to search each other out at the temple. I’ll stick around.”
“Maybe you should stick to the side, then? So you can see Benno’s store along the way.”
“...Good point. I’ll try that.” The procession passed by in front of us. We joined in with Lutz beside us. I was so high up in the air that unlike that time, I could see the city around me.
People on both sides of the main street waved enthusiastically, whistling in support as they cheered us on. The windows of the buildings facing the main street were thrown open and cheers rained down on us from above as people stuck their head out. I could see the kids in front of me waving back with proud smiles so broad they barely fit on their faces.
“You wave back too, Myne. That’s how you say thanks.” Dad urged me to wave back, so I clung to him with one arm and used my other to wave while smiling. I tried to visualize how the Japanese Emperor and his family waved to people, so I could copy what they did.
...Right! Peaceful smile! Calm attitude! Dignity! I wasn’t able to wave with the same regal grace as an emperor, but just having an example I could copy gave me some ground to stand on. At the very least, nobody here would mock me for trying to copy the emperor. I smiled as peacefully as I could and tried waving my hand as gracefully as I could.
...Oh no, people are pointing at me! Why are so many of them looking at me?! Maybe because Dad was lifting me up, it felt like I was drawing a lot of attention. Though it was likely I was just imagining things since everyone was looking in the direction of the procession.
“Myne, my arm’s getting tired. I’m shifting you to the other side.” He shifted me over while we waited in the main plaza for the other processions. I had watched Tuuli’s baptism up until this point. Once everyone was gathered in the plaza, we would walk to the temple by the inner wall.
The temple, visible from the plaza, was made of white stone and was as tall as the inner wall, which was even taller than the outer walls. It was a large and magnificent building, but judging by the tall, narrow windows lined up near the top and the way it was built into the wall, I could guess that it was originally built as a fortress or otherwise as part of the wall’s defenses.
Mmm, but would they really use a military building for religious purposes? I would imagine in times of war the church participates as well, but this is a temple used during peace as well, it was probably built with donations raised from believers, so...
Ultimately, though, my thoughts were founded in Japanese knowledge and no amount of thinking would give me a reliable answer in this world. All I could do was have fun looking at the temple, which I hadn’t paid much attention to before now, and try to guess what it was used for based on how it had been constructed.
The processions from other streets fused with ours, so we headed to the temple. The kids coming from buildings around here looked noticeably different. Cloth that was visibly more expensive than others and embroidery decorating their otherwise solid white clothing.
A bit of walking later and the Gilberta Company came into view. Benno, Mark, Otto, and Corinna were standing in front of it along with a crowd of familiar faces. Otto wrapped his arm around Corinna with a grin and waved at us. Corinna did the same, wearing a gentle smile.
“Lutz, there’s Benno and Mark. Everyone came out of the store to see us!”
“Really?” Lutz wasn’t being held up in the air like me, so he couldn’t see Benno’s store yet. It was funny watching him jumping repeatedly to try and see.
Once Lutz finally found Benno’s store and started waving, Mark rose a hand and all the employees started cheering.
“Lutz! Myne! Congratulations!” I had been caught off guard by how much they stood out among the crowd, but everyone cheering us on made me so happy that I waved back hard along with Lutz. I was so pumped that I wasn’t even thinking about acting like the emperor anymore.
“I think we should drop by and thank’m on our way back from the temple,” said Dad as he rustled Lutz’s hair, seeming just as happy as I was. Naturally, both Lutz and I nodded.
“Hey, Myne. Is it just me or is Benno looking kinda annoyed?”
“You think so too?” Amid all the broadly smiling workers waving at us, Benno alone was rubbing his temples and scrunching his face up while looking in our direction. It was the same expression he wore when exasperated at something I had done. Mmm, I wonder why Benno is making that face? I haven’t done anything, I promise!
We were finally approaching the temple. From the distance it had looked pure white, but as we got closer I could work out more details. Reliefs were carved into the walls and there were four statues on either side of the entrance. I couldn’t tell if they were decorative statues or if they represented various gods.
We passed by Freida’s house as the front of the procession began entering the temple. I could see the guildmaster and his family by the side of the main street. Leise and Jutte were there too.
The guildmaster lifted Freida up, as if competing with my dad. Freida blinked in surprise, then waved at me with a smile, yelling “You look splendid, Myne!” loud enough for me to hear through the crowd.
“Congratulations, Myne!” It was so nice to have people I know congratulating me that I yelled back while waving.
“Freida! Everyone! Thank you!”
Guards in firm poses stood in front of the gate blocking the temple steps. They wore simplified armor over blue clothing. I could tell from the ornaments decorating their well-polished, shining armor and the beautiful thread composing their blue clothing that they were wearing ceremonial outfits as well.
The two wooden doors that served as the entrance to the temple steps were twice as tall as an average adult and had reliefs carved into them as well. We passed through the gate and saw a plaza of white stone spread out before us.
In front of us was a large building about five stories tall with smaller buildings about three stories tall on either side of it, all connected by passageways. Each building was made of the same white stone as the inner wall, and only the inner building had reliefs and decoration.
“This is as far as I can go. Myne’s in your hands now, Lutz.”
“Yeah, leave her to me.”
Dad let me down. I took Lutz’s hands and walked at the end of the procession towards the wide-open temple doors. The once noisy, excited children fell silent as soon as they entered the temple, which meant it was getting rapidly quieter as we walked. Which was exactly why Lutz was louder than I expected when he spoke.
“Hey, Myne.” I looked at Lutz and quietly whispered “What?”, leaning my ear towards him as if we were discussing secrets. I kept looking forward and Lutz whispered back.
“Those clothes and the hairpin look super good on you. You’re so cute I couldn’t believe it.” When the others praised me I just smiled and said thanks, but him whispering that right before we entered the temple threw me off.
“Wha? Bwuh? Why now...?” I reflexively looked up at Lutz and he smiled at me with a truly relieved smile.
“I didn’t get the chance before since my brothers got in the way, so I waited until now.”
“O-Oh, really? Okay, thanks.” I held my pounding heart down and kept walking up the steps while holding Lutz’s hand.
Since we were at the end of the procession, everyone in the plaza could see us even if they couldn’t hear us. It was only after I came home that I learned that Dad had been gritting his teeth while people had said “How cute, it looks like they’re getting married” as they watched Lutz and I enter the temple holding hands.
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