Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 2.1 - Chapter 2

A Shrine Maiden’s Job 

“Thus ends the fealty ceremony.” 

“Okay, I’m off to the book room.” 

“Stop. We’re not done here.” At the High Priest’s direction, I left the altar and moved to the front of his desk. Fran brought me a chair, so I sat down. 

“Thank you, Fran.” 

“...Your gratitude is wasted on me.” Fran grimaced a little, looking surprised. Maybe it was wrong for me to thank my attendants. It would probably be smart to ask Freida about how to act like a noble. 

“Are you ready to listen?” 

“Yes, go ahead.” I wasn’t sure what they were for, but the High Priest’s desk was covered with stacks of wooden boards and pieces of parchment. He looked over a few of them and glanced at me. He was acting entirely like a teacher with a textbook lecturing a student. 

“As you know, all the blue robes in the temple are of noble birth. You should operate under the assumption that none of them are pleased with a commoner such as yourself wearing blue robes as well.” 

I had guessed that myself, but hearing it said to my face sent a chill down my spine. When I first asked about being an apprentice shrine maiden, I had half a year of life ahead of me at best. I would have been happy if I could just read books in the book room until I died. But the temple had magic tools. By becoming a blue apprentice shrine maiden, my lifespan had been extended, and my life in the temple no longer had a time limit. I would need to think hard about my future, and not through a lens of self-destruction. 

“At the moment there are few enough blue nobles that everyone understands our need for those with mana, so their hostility will likely end with them ignoring you. But that will not last when more noble children come to the temple. You would do well to plan ahead.” 

I clenched my fists in my lap and bit my lip. If I messed up when dealing with nobles, my whole family would be affected. I needed information to survive in the temple safely. 

“In particular, the High Bishop was opposed to allowing even this fealty ceremony. The other blue robes have not met you, so their feelings will be founded on their scorn for commoners. For this reason, I have elected to take on the role of your overseer myself.” 

I, as a commoner who had both mana and money despite my low status, basically stomped on the nobility’s sense of pride and privilege just by existing. No way would any of them like me. I knew that. But despite saying that nobles wouldn’t like me, the High Priest was being quite kind warning me about all this. 

“Do you not dislike me yourself, High Priest?” 

“I value those with competence. At the moment my workload has increased due to the lack of priests and shrine maidens. I know that you, skilled with paperwork as you are, will be helping lessen that load. Why would I despise you?” He let out a laugh, and the dark smile on his face made me freeze. 

The fact that he knew I was good at paperwork meant that he had finished the investigation he had mentioned before. He already knew more about me than I might ever know. I now lived in a world that didn’t even know the meaning of “privacy protection.” As a noble, if the High Priest asked for information, any commoner would give it to him on the spot. Just what did he know about me now? It was scary to think about. 

“I’ll do my absolute best, but what work will you be giving me? If there’s something I should be doing, please tell me.” 

“Of course. Your work, primarily, is serving as my assistant and helping complete my paperwork. This is your most important job. You will be doing paperwork here throughout the morning. Next is prayer and offerings. As a shrine maiden, you will need to learn to pray properly.” 

“I understand prayer, but what do you mean by offerings?” 

“Pouring mana into the divine instruments. Fran, the shield.” 

Fran nodded and returned with a shield about fifty or sixty centimeters in diameter. It was circular, seemingly made of gold, and carved with such elaborate reliefs that its status as a divine instrument was immediately obvious. In the center was a bright yellow gem about as big as my palm, wavering a bit on the inside as if it contained burning fire. The outside ring of the shield was studded with similar gemstones about as big as marbles. Half those gems were yellow, whereas the other half were clear like crystals. 

“Touch the magic stone in the center. Envision yourself pouring your own mana into it.” 

Apparently it was a magic stone, not a gemstone. With my heart trembling with excitement at how fantasy-like that was, I touched the stone with my right hand, which made the entire shield start to glow a golden color. The text carved into the shield let out yellow-green light and floated about a wrist’s length from the shield, though I had never seen the letter-like symbols before and couldn’t read them. 

...Wooow, it’s like a magic circle! So cool, so cool! I tried reading the mysterious shining symbols, my heart racing with curiosity, when suddenly I felt something like the heat inside of me being sucked out by a vacuum cleaner. It was the same thing I felt when Freida used a magic tool to save me when the Devouring had me on the verge of death. 

Figuring that I may as well go all out, I opened up the metaphorical box I always pushed my mana into. The Devouring heat flooded out, raced to my palm, and got sucked into the stone. I entrusted myself to the pleasurable feeling of the annoying heat getting sucked out, but soon snapped back to my senses. 

...This isn’t going to break the shield, is it? I remembered how I had broken Freida’s magic tool and, getting scared, reflexively pulled my hand back. I then squashed the slightly reduced mana back inside of me. I had only let out mana for a short period of time, but still, I felt a lot better. Like a heavy stone on my back had been lifted. 

“Hm. Seven minor magic stones’ worth, then.” The High Priest’s musings made me look at the shield, and I saw that more of the small magic stones were yellow than before. Apparently they changed color when filled with mana. You could tell at a glance how much mana was left inside of it. 

...Somehow, it felt like I had become a portable battery charger. 

I opened and closed my right hand, which I had used to pour in the mana. The Devouring heat really is mana, wow. It’s surprisingly easy to control when there’s a clear exit for it, I thought, and soon the High Priest peered down at me with a somewhat worried look on his face. 

“Myne, how do you feel?” 

“Ummm, a little relieved? It feels like I’m lighter than before.” 

“...I see. Be sure not to overburden yourself when offering your mana.” 

It seemed that recharging divine instruments with mana would be pretty easy work. The praying would be the hard part, since standing on one foot was hard for me in my current body. Especially since I couldn’t hold out my arms to maintain balance, as I had to hold them diagonally upwards. I could imagine that I would receive strict instruction on the angles of my arms and how long I should maintain the position. 

“And finally, your last job is to read the bible and memorize its contents,” concluded the High Priest in a fairly quiet voice, but my ears perked up immediately. Read the bible and memorize it. I wasn’t too confident in my memory, but reading it? Leave that to me. 

“I’ll do it! Let’s go to the book room right now!” I stood up and shot my hand into the air to show the High Priest how enthusiastic I was. But the High Priest didn’t even look at me, instead choosing to pick up another piece of parchment and skim it. 

“Before that, I would like to discuss the matter of your donation. Please sit. Arno, my ledger.” 

Money discussions were very important. I had been curious about the subject of my donation too, since I had offered to pay such an abnormally high amount. Mainly, I was curious as to how I would pay and where it would go. 

“You said that you would donate a large gold, as I recall.” The High Priest gave me a light glare. 

I recalled a discussion I had with Benno. He said something about there being a ceremony held several times throughout the year where the Merchant’s Guild gathered money to donate to the temple, though he had never donated directly himself. He also said, what was it... “You’ll stick out in a bad way if you pay that much. How ’bout you split it up and pay in bits? A rich idiot handing out too much money too fast is just gonna annoy everyone.” 

“Ummm, if you demand I pay that much, I will, but I think it would be better if I donated a small gold coin every month.” 

“We do not dictate how much one should donate, so that is possible if you so wish, but what reason do you have for doing so?” 

“A wise person I know told me that if I suddenly paid the full amount, people might be overwhelmed by the large sum and start spending more money than they otherwise would have. Well, either way, I want to discuss it with you first, since you know all about the temple’s finances and how donations work and so on.” 

Naturally, I didn’t reuse Benno’s exact words. But the High Priest understood what I meant and thought for a bit, then sighed. 

“Half of every donation is spent on the temple’s upkeep, whereas the other half is distributed to the blue priests. The amount given to each priest depends somewhat on their status. As the one that manages this, I think you would do well to donate five small golds at first and then donate the remainder over the following months one small gold at a time.” 

“Why that much specifically?” I tilted my head in confusion, and the High Priest held out a bundle of parchment to me. I ran my eyes over it and learned that it was part of his ledger. I blinked in surprise and he pointed at a part of them. 

“The temple’s income can be broadly separated into funding from the Archduke, donations gathered during certain ceremonies, and finally, financial support from the families of blue priests. This means that fewer blue priests results in less income. To put it in terms easy for a merchant to understand, the temple is currently operating in the red. For this reason, the High Bishop was yelling about squeezing money out of you. It would be a significant help to me if you were to donate a large sum at once to satisfy him.” 

I got the feeling he was kind of spilling a lot of secrets to me. Was it really okay for me to know that the temple was losing money? 

“Ummm, High Priest. Is that something you’re supposed to be telling me?” 

“Your work will involve these issues in a matter of days, telling you now impacts nothing.” It seemed that while helping the High Priest I wouldn’t just be doing the math like I was with Otto, I’d be sticking myself head-first into the temple’s inner workings. 

“...Okay. How should I give you the money? I usually use my guild card to transfer money, but I don’t think you have one.” 

“You need merely bring it here, no?” He made that sound simple, but I really had only ever dealt with large sums of money through my card. I had never held any gold coins with my own hands. As a kid, walking from the Merchant’s Guild to the temple with that much money on me was terrifying. 

“That might be easy for you since you’re used to dealing with money, High Priest, but that’s way too much for me to carry. The very idea is scary.” 

“What in the world do you think your attendants are for?” 

Um... Wait. Attendants? I reflexively turned around and looked at the attendants lined up behind me. No way would I entrust that much money to these maliciously picked meanies. Well, Fran would probably obey if I framed it as an order from the High Priest, but Delia and Gil would probably waste the money on something to spite me. Judging by their attitudes toward me, I couldn’t yet trust them as attendants. 

“I don’t want to involve other people and then be responsible for mixups, like the Guild saying they gave the money but the attendant saying they didn’t get the money.” 

“...Do you not trust your attendants?” he said, confused, which made me confused as well. Are nobles capable of trusting strangers who clearly don’t like them, to the point of having them carry around gold coins for them? Or maybe the attendants were bound by some kind of contract magic that prevented them from betraying me. I thought back to when the attendants were introduced to me, but I was pretty sure we hadn’t signed a contract or anything. Magic contracts involved blood, and that wasn’t something I would forget. 

“You’re calling them my attendants, but to me, they’re strangers who I have no control over. How could I trust them with that much money? That’s beyond me.” I mean, they’re not even friendly or anything. No way, no way. Compared to these three, I would much rather trust the guildmaster, even. 

Personally, there weren’t many adults I would trust with money. Maybe I could get Benno or Mark to come here. The High Priest was a noble, so Benno would probably agree on the basis of forming connections. That would be nice. 

“I would like an adult I can trust that’s used to dealing with large sums of money to bring the donation. Would you permit him to enter the temple on my behalf?” 

“Who is this adult?” 

“Mr. Benno of the Gilberta Company, the one who’s serving as my guardian in the business world.” 

“...Hm. Very well, then.” 

I’ll stop by the store and talk about this once Lutz comes to get me. While I’m there I can ask him if he knows how to use attendants properly. Maybe it’s similar to how he uses his employees. As I fell into thought, the High Priest closed his ledger and handed it to Arno. 

“That is all I have to talk about today. Any questions, Myne?” 

“Yes! Lutz is coming at fourth bell to get me, and I would like to read books in the book room until then. Can I enter the book room? I would love to do the final part of my job and read the bible to memorize it!” 

“Lutz is the boy managing your health, as I recall. From now on, have your attendants manage your health in his stead.” 

Despite asking to enter the book room, the topic shifted to my health management. I looked at my attendants again. Gil was scratching his head with a clear lack of enthusiasm, Delia was staring out the window absentmindedly, and Fran was looking at the High Priest over my shoulder. It was hard to imagine any of them learning to manage my health. 

“My family has told me to stick with Lutz until my attendants can manage my health. I too would like that to happen as soon as possible, so Lutz doesn’t have to worry about me as much. I hope my attendants work hard to make that happen. But anyway. Can I go to the book room now?” 

“Fran, take her there.” 

“As you wish.” Fran crossed his arms and nodded with a slight smile. His proud expression was entirely different from the one he wore when looking at me, and it was clear who he considered his true master to be. 

But still, Fran was better than the other two. He probably wouldn’t do anything problematic since he was so enraptured with the High Priest. I came to this conclusion while following him to the book room, skipping as I walked. 

...It’s finally tiiime, for the book rooom! This is my jooob! My jooob! Delia and Gil followed me from behind as I skipped with excitement. After we were some distance away from the High Priest’s room, Gil spat out some insults. 

“Why d’ya even wanna go to the book room? You’re friggin’ stupid.” 

Gr! If you don’t get why books are amazing, you’re the stupid one! I spun around and glared at Gil. He wrinkled his nose and got ready for a fight. 

“What’s with that look? You’re not a noble, you’re nothing but a commoner. You’re just like us, but you’re being all smug with those blue robes. You’re not my master. I’m never gonna listen to you and I’m gonna make your life crap!” 

Just like Gil didn’t think of me as his master, I didn’t think of him as my servant. It would be a waste of my time and energy to try and whip him into shape. So, I ignored him. “Sure, okay. Same to you.” 

“...Ngh?! Whaddaya mean okay?! You makin’ fun of me?!” 

As Gil shouted in anger, I turned my back to him and walked off. The moment I did, I heard the high-pitched voice of a girl speaking up. 

“This whole situation is stupid.” Delia let out a “hmph,” the smile completely gone from her face. I had thought she would hide her true personality around the other attendants since she seemed like the type to butter men up, but that was not the case. It seemed I would need to change my evaluation of her. Maybe she wasn’t the kind of girl that used her beauty to flatter and manipulate men. Or maybe she was the kind of cold-blooded hunter that only wooed the men she had her sights set on. 

I gave Delia another look and she lifted up her chin arrogantly, her dark-red hair rustling in the process. It was hard to think she was only eight years old. Honestly, it kind of scared me to think what led her to being like this. 

“Aaah, geez! I finally got to be an apprentice serving the High Bishop, but now I’m stuck with a little girl who my charms won’t work on. And a dense commoner girl at that. This is just the worst.” 

It seemed that the High Bishop had sent Delia. That explained why she wasn’t friendly. But... what did she have to gain from announcing that she was a spy? Did the High Bishop tell her to do that? 

“Okay, I’ll get someone to take your place.” Confused by her revelations, I suggested that I would have her replaced with someone else, which for some reason made her burst into anger with arched eyebrows. 

“Geez! You really are stupid. Don’t switch me out for anyone. What are you even thinking?!” 

Um... That’s my line. What are YOU thinking? 

“The High Bishop himself asked me to bother you. If I get switched out, he’ll think I’m incompetent!” 

Despite speaking the same language, we weren’t understanding each other at all. I simply did not get her. Now that I knew the High Bishop had directly ordered her to bother me, there was no way I would go anywhere near her if I could help it. I would obviously try to get her replaced. 

Suddenly, I realized something. Even if I got rid of Delia, the High Bishop would definitely just send another attendant to spy on me. It would probably be safer for me to stick with Delia, who didn’t think twice before revealing her intentions, than risk getting a spy who was good at hiding things. As I fell into thought, Delia jabbed an accusatory finger my way. 

“I’m not afraid of you just because you have blue robes! I have the High Bishop’s approval and soon I’m going to be his mistress!” 

Either I misheard her, or for some reason nobles these days really loved to make little girls their mistresses. I thought back to how shocked I had been to hear Freida say something similar, then thought about how old the High Bishop was and felt a little sick. I thought that the gray shrine maiden with the bookish sex appeal had been his type, but I guess not. 

“...Um, should you really be proud about being a mistress?” 

“Obviously. Don’t you know being a mistress is the best thing we girls can hope for? Or did you seriously not know that? Well, if you’re not as cute as me you can pretty much give up on it, anyway.” 

“Bwuh? Being a mistress is the best thing you can hope for?” That was definitely different from what I was used to. In Freida’s case, at least, I understood that we were both using the word “mistress” in the same way. She hadn’t seemed proud about it, and it wasn’t her life goal. 

I stood there, blown away by how different Delia’s world view was from my own, at which point Gil shot a mocking smile at me and shrugged. 

“Like, duh. If you’re a blue robe’s mistress, you get to have gray robe servants yourself. The High Bishop’s mistresses are like on another level from us gray robes. Man, girls sure are lucky. But for real, is your head alright? This stuff’s basic as heck, how do you not know this already?” 

Despite him mocking me for being ignorant, I couldn’t feel mad. I didn’t want to know that girls in the orphanage only had one way to be successful in life. I didn’t want to know that they had to become the mistresses of powerful people or waste away. Nobody I had ever met considered becoming a mistress to be the limit of their potential, but to the orphans, to those living in the temple, that was life. They wouldn’t listen to me no matter what I said. We were just from different worlds. 

“Gil, you’re overstepping your bounds!” Fran raised his voice as I held my head in my hands. But Gil didn’t flinch at all. He just laughed derisively at me. 

“It’s her fault for being stupid. Everyone knows this stuff.” 

“...Sister Myne, the High Priest instructed you on what to do in this situation. He said that you should reprimand your attendants when they behave improperly.” 

“Uh huh, he sure did. Are we at the book room yet?” I really just didn’t care. I didn’t have the energy or motivation to reprimand or punish Gil and Delia. 

Fran was enraptured by the High Priest and probably wasn’t too happy about being stuck as my attendant. Delia was aiming to be the High Bishop’s mistress and fully intended on making me miserable. Gil looked down on me and from the very start didn’t intend on serving me at all. It would be more productive for me to read books than to try and figure out how to get on good terms with these three. 

“I will have to report this to the High Priest.” 

“Go ahead. That’s your job, I imagine.” 

Fran sighed, then opened a door and walked inside. My heart jumped for joy after I saw the paradise behind the door. I reached out nervously and searched for an invisible barrier while walking into the room. Unlike last time, I managed to get inside with nothing blocking my way. 

“Wooow!” The air clearly changed once I was completely inside. Trembling with emotion, I filled my lungs with the kind of dusty air you could only find in book storage rooms. The smell was a bit different from what I was used to, probably due to the usage of parchment and the number of wooden boards. The ink was probably made differently too. The smell of ink and old paper was so nostalgic for me that tears of happiness actually formed in my eyes. 

There weren’t many bookshelves in the room. Some had tightly shut doors while others were packed with nigh-overflowing numbers of boards and scraps of paper. Shelves for managing scrolls were elsewhere, with parchment wrapped up like carpet rolls that had their names written on labels that hung off them. A bit further into the room were cylindrical containers shaped like barrels that had entire series of scrolls inside of them, with labels attached to them to identify the contents. 

The light shining in from the spaced-apart windows was bright, and there was a long desk by them that looked like one you might see in a college library. The top of the desk had a slanted book reading section which had several books lined out, chained to the desk but still begging to be read. 

“This is the bible.” At Fran’s guidance, I touched the leather cover of one of the chained books. I then unfastened the belt that was keeping it closed. Immediately, the book opened a bit with the cover lifting up on its own. That was normal for moist parchment, but it seemed to me like the book was begging me to read it. 

Aaaah... How long has it been since I’ve just opened a book and read it? I opened the cover, and the clank of chains echoed throughout the book room. My fingers trembled as I flipped through the yellowed pages. I traced my fingers over the distinctively handwritten text and began reading a book myself for the first time in a long time.

“Hey, come on. It’s noon. Time for lunch.” 

Despite the fact I was dwelling in the long-missed bliss of reading, someone came to interfere. I could have ignored them if they just kept calling out to me, but I was forced back into reality by them shaking my shoulder. 

“Gil, no talking in the library. If you can’t be quiet, get out. I’m reading right now.” 

“Friggin’ what?! It’s lunch!” yelled Gil in stunned surprise, but I didn’t even need to compare the importance of lunch with the importance of books. With a book in hand, I could go two days without eating before getting hungry. 

“Apparently I’m not your master, so what do you care? Go away and eat on your own.” 

Despite giving him the freedom to eat on his own, his eyes opened wide and he tried to say something else, but I cut him off. 

“Listen closely, Gil. Don’t. Get. In. My. Way.” I intentionally unleashed my mana and let it course through me before he made me snap with anger. I kind of got the knack of controlling mana during the offering earlier, and now was as good a time as any to try letting it out. Fran immediately grabbed Gil and Delia by the scruffs of their necks and dashed out of the book room with them. 

Mmm. Nice and quiet. I forced the mana back into me and resumed reading. Nobody else bothered my reading until Lutz came to get me.