The High Priest’s Letter of Invitation
...What could I do about Lutz? It seemed like the best thing would be for Lutz and his family to sit down, face each other head on, and say what they had to say until everyone could forgive each other. Lutz and his family had ended up so distant from each other because they had kept their feelings inside for so long.
“...Hm. Myne. Are you listening to me?”
I came back to my senses from my shoulders being shaken, and I looked up at the High Priest in confusion. He looked down at me while rubbing his temples and pointing a finger at my stone slate.
“You’re not making any progress.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I apologized and got back to doing math. Once I finished a chunk of calculations, I let out another sigh. Maybe I was only so invested in fixing this because I was blessed with a good family. Who could say if it would be better for Lutz to stay separated from his family if they were making him so unhappy? It was hard to say. What path would lead to Lutz’s happiness?
“Myne, you’ve stopped again.”
“Huh? Oh, I finished this part.”
“Then begin work on this.”
The most immediate solution was Benno adopting Lutz. That would give him a strong ally and let him focus on work, and it would provide him with a good living situation. But Benno couldn’t adopt Lutz without parental permission, and he had already said that his hands were tied here.
I considered inviting Benno, Lutz, and Lutz’s parents to one big meeting, but I doubted they would all get together to talk. And if the conversation heated up so much that Benno or Lutz’s dad lost control of the situation, who knew what would happen. I just couldn’t see it ending well.
“...I really am useless, aren’t I...”
“You certainly are. For once, you are entirely correct.”
I looked up, surprised that my murmurs had been responded to, and saw that the High Priest was looking down at me with a scary look in his eyes. He jutted his chin toward the bed.
“Follow me.”
“Um, High Priest. What about your work?”
“Fixing the calculator comes first.”
It’s not very nice to call people calculators, I complained silently while following the High Priest into the lecture room.
It was as messy as ever, so I moved some stuff off of the bench to secure a place to sit. The High Priest brought his chair over again and sat down heavily, glaring at me with frustration. He always got a bit more emotional in here, as evidenced by how his glare was twice as sharp as before.
“What in the world are you thinking about? You have been letting out depressing sighs the entire morning.”
“I’m sorry. It’s not related to you or our work or anything. I’ll try to focus on work more.” If I told him I was too worried about Lutz to focus, the lecture would last even longer. I therefore tried to end the lecture as soon as possible while showing that I was sorry, but the High Priest just rested his head on his fist and eyed me with annoyance.
“As it is interfering with our work, it is not irrelevant.”
...Can’t argue with that. I averted my gaze from his narrowed golden eyes. If speaking meant being called a thoughtless idiot, it was better not to say anything at all. I kept my silence and eventually the High Priest stood up with a sigh, walked up to me, and pinched my cheek.
“How do you expect me to do my work while there is a depressed child beside me?”
I hadn’t noticed since he treated me like a walking calculator, but apparently he was, in fact, worried about me. I looked up at the High Priest, who was as aloof and hard to understand as ever, when suddenly it struck me. He had been raised as a noble. I knew that due to a political purge the number of nobles had decreased drastically, leading to those in the temple being adopted and married away. That probably meant the High Priest knew a lot about adoptions.
“High Priest, do you know if there’s a way for someone to get adopted without parental permission?” I asked, causing the High Priest to raise an eyebrow in surprise.
“What? You’ve chosen to leave the family you care so much about?”
“Sheesh! I’m not talking about me, duh!” His unexpected misinterpretation surprised me so much that I dropped my noble dialect entirely. I slapped a hand over my mouth, but the High Priest just murmured “Naturally” without a word about it. He adjusted his place in his seat, put his arms on each armrest, and linked his fingers in front of his stomach.
“...Then who? There are some methods for that, depending on the situation.”
“There are?!” I stood up in surprise, and the High Priest nodded while gesturing at me to sit back down.
“My position here gives me a degree of authority, which can be used to bend the rules. Though I will not do so for just anyone.”
“It’s about Benno adopting Lutz.” There was now a glimmer of hope for improving Lutz’s living situation. I sat up straight and looked at the High Priest with hopeful eyes.
“Those are both very important people to you, I believe. Tell me more.”
I gave the High Priest a summary of events, answering question after detailed question until he was satisfied. He closed his eyes to organize his thoughts, then slowly opened them.
“Hm. Lutz’s family opposed his employment as an apprentice merchant and refused to allow him to leave the city, which ultimately led to him running away from home. Benno hopes to adopt Lutz given his bright future, but his parents refuse even that. Your hope is to improve his living situation, with your ideal solution including a resolution to the conflict with his family. You believe the fastest solution will be to have Benno adopt him. Everything correct so far?”
“Yes.” The fact that he remembered all that without taking notes showed just how good his memory was. My awe for his memory distracted me, but the High Priest kept going.
“Lutz’s father said to ‘not bother’ with Lutz since he was going to work, yes? He didn’t say that Lutz couldn’t come back?”
“...I don’t think he did, at least. But this is all hearsay from Tuuli, I can’t say anything for sure.” The most unfortunate part about explaining the situation to the High Priest was that I only had secondhand exposure to the thoughts of his parents. I had talked to Lutz and heard Benno’s thoughts. But I only knew his parents’ opinion from Lutz, Ralph, and Tuuli; I hadn’t spoken to them myself.
“...It would be somewhat tenuous, but if Lutz is taken into the orphanage as an abandoned child, the director of the orphanage could give permission in the place of his parents, enabling Benno to adopt him if he applied to the orphanage.”
“What?! And I’m the director of the orphanage! Let’s go ahead and send Lutz to the orphanage!” Wow, I’m amazing! I’m glad I decided to be the orphanage director! I stood up with pure excitement, but once again the High Priest gestured at me to sit down.
“Contain yourself. Myne, you need to learn to listen until the other party is finished. Perhaps you fail so often because you jump to conclusions and do not let others finish speaking.”
His extremely accurate and reasonable assertion forced me to sit down without any room for argument. You know. Somehow, I feel like the High Priest is starting to understand me better than I do.
“Although you have been given the position of orphanage director, you are still a minor. Your signature alone would not be sufficient to approve an adoption.”
“In that case, what happens if someone actually does come to adopt an orphan?” I’m the orphanage director, but not even my signature is useful... I slumped my shoulders sadly, but in the corner of my mind I knew it would be unreasonable for a kid reliant on their parents to bear that much responsibility.
“As your signature will not suffice, the duty will fall on me, your superior.”
“High Priest, please. Sign the papers for Lutz’s adoption.”
The High Priest let out a deliberate sigh. “I do not mind providing the signature. But you spoke entirely from the perspective of Lutz, a child. I will not decide that a child has been abandoned from his word alone. In order to bring him to the orphanage as an abandoned child, I will need to talk to his parents.”
“Wha? But how?” He made it sound so simple, but I wasn’t sure how he intended to talk to Lutz’s parents. I tilted my head in confusion and he looked at me with utter disbelief.
“What do you mean, how? If you wish to talk to someone, you need merely summon them. What is there to be confused about?”
“...I forgot just how powerful authority is.” If you wanted to talk to someone, just summon them to you. That was common sense in the temple. I slumped my shoulders, remembering how my parents had been summoned to the temple themselves. Why had I even bothered worrying about securing a place to talk?
“I will grasp the situation in full, and if I find your position agreeable, I will assist in Lutz’s adoption.”
“I thank you ever so much.” I looked up, feeling enormously relieved. The High Priest was giving a rare smile. Yet it wasn’t a chivalrous smile, but instead the grin of someone who had thought up something devious.
“To that end, you will need to do paperwork in the afternoon as well. No book room for you today.”
“...Bwuh?” As I froze in shock, the High Priest curved his lips into an even more amused grin.
“I heard from Fran. This will be more effective than the repentance chamber.”
“NOOOOOO!” Fran, you big meanie!
After I tearfully worked through the afternoon, the High Priest gave me the letters of summons as promised. One for Benno, one for Lutz, and one for his parents.
“Please deliver these.”
I took the wooden boards with a broad smile, knowing that they would help Lutz’s living situation, even if only a little bit.
Since Lutz couldn’t come get me anymore, I left the temple with Fran. If I handed the letters of invitation over with Gil, it would look like we were children playing around instead of an actual summons. Lutz’s parents would probably take it seriously with an adult like Fran by my side.
“I suggest we deliver the letters to Master Benno and Lutz first.”
At Fran’s suggestion, we stopped by the Gilberta Company on the way back. Mark guided us to Benno’s office and called Lutz for us.
“Mr. Bennoooo. Who’s the best? I’m the best. Cause... Check it out!” I ran up to Benno with a spring in my step and took out his letter of invitation with a flourish. Benno suspiciously took the board, ran his eyes over it, then immediately thundered at me with a furious expression.
“A letter of invitation from the High Priest?! What did you screw up this time?!”
“I talked to him about Lutz running away to see if he could arrange an adoption, and here we are. Why are you so mad?” My thoughts were that I had done something extremely helpful, so Benno’s sudden thundering just left me confused and blinking rapidly.
“What have you done?!”
“Bwuh? Wha? Did I do something wrong?”
“Don’t involve nobles in problems like this! You could get us all killed, or worse!”
Benno was furious, but I really didn’t understand why. The High Priest was certainly a noble, but he was a reasonable person, and despite his aloofness making it hard to understand, he did all this out of worry for me.
“But I mean, the High Priest said he needed to do this to repair his calculator... Not to mention that I wanted to help Lutz out however I could.”
“I appreciate the thought, Myne, but come on. Getting a letter of invitation like this is just scary.” Lutz hung his head as he looked at the letter of invitation I handed to him. Benno, likewise, was cradling his head with his letter of invitation still in hand.
“You try to help Lutz, and the next thing we know the High Priest is sending out letters of invitation... haaah.”
“Don’t blame me. You said you couldn’t help, Mr. Benno, so I just asked another adult for advice.” I pouted my lips unhappily and Benno glared at me, his dark-red eyes gleaming with a monstrous light.
“Alright, alright. If I had used all my power to threaten Lutz’s family and blackmail them into approving the adoption, this wouldn’t have happened. My mistake.”
“Wh-What are you talking about?! That’s terrifying!”
“...Myne, if Master Benno wanted to, that wouldn’t be a problem for him at all. My family’s been damaging his store’s reputation, and you shouldn’t even need to think about whether he’s stronger than my parents or not.”
Lutz’s words snapped me back to reality. By this point I was just casually visiting the Gilberta Company, but Tuuli felt nervous about going to the north at all. There was a distinct difference in power and authority between the north and south. Karla coming here directly for Lutz had been a real act of immense courage, and Lutz’s family not being punished for the problems they had been causing was simply because Benno had mercifully forgiven then.
“I was trying to resolve this peacefully for Lutz’s sake, and yet here you go...”
“The High Priest will be peaceful too! He’s even thought of a way to make the adoption work out!”
“Say what?!” Benno and Lutz both looked at me simultaneously.
I explained to them what the High Priest had told me. “If Lutz seeks refuge in the orphanage under the claim that his parents have abandoned him, then we’ll only need your signature and the orphanage’s approval for you to adopt him, Mr. Benno.”
“And that’s where you come in, as the orphanage director.” Benno looked at me with a grin. I hated to disappoint him, but my signature was meaningless.
“I’m still a child, so it will be the High Priest providing his signature. But first he wants to talk to you and Lutz’s parents to understand the situation in full. Hence the letters.”
Benno looked at the letter in his hand while stroking his chin, looking conflicted. “Y’know, seems like the High Priest has really taken a liking to you, huh? Most nobles wouldn’t bother to deal with us commoners.”
“I’m apparently a very valuable calculator. His work efficiency changes dramatically based on how well I’m functioning.”
“Now that you mention it, Otto said something like that too. I might need to thank you for this, but I don’t really want to. Why do I feel so exhausted...?” Benno let out a tired sigh and scratched his head. “You should go give Lutz’s parents theirs.”
“Sorry, Myne.”
“It’s okay. I was going to tell Karla about this anyway. But remember, since this is all based on you being abandoned and coming to the orphanage, be sure to come to the temple tomorrow.”
I waved Lutz goodbye and left the store, beginning my walk home with Fran. I planned to go straight to Lutz’s place, but found Karla walking around aimlessly by the well.
“Mrs. Karla!” I called out and Karla’s head shot up. She came running this way immediately. Her once round face had thinned with exhaustion and I could see dark circles beneath her eyes.
“Took you a while, Myne. Did you see Lutz? How was he?”
“He was doing his job. He seemed fine.”
“That’s good.” Karla’s heavy sigh of relief made me painfully aware of just how concerned she was for Lutz. It made sense that she wouldn’t approve of the adoption so easily.
“Um, this is a letter of invitation from the temple’s High Priest.” I held out the letter to Karla. She looked at it with eyes wide in disbelief, her face visibly paling.
“...Why the temple?”
“Lutz asked to go to the orphanage. Since he was abandoned.”
“He’s the one who ran away from home!” yelled Karla, but yelling wouldn’t make the letter go away. A letter of invitation from a noble couldn’t be refused.
“After that happened, the High Priest said he wanted to talk to Lutz’s parents before accepting him into the orphanage, so... Please come with your husband. Since you might need to take a day off work, it’s scheduled for three days from now. He wants you to come to the temple at third bell.”
I explained the contents of the letter to Karla, since she couldn’t read. She squeezed the wooden board in her hand while looking between it and me.
“...Third bell three days from now?”
“Uh huh. If you show this letter to the guard, he should take you where you need to go.”
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