One Wilma, Please
“Eheheh, heheheheeeh. Good morning, Lutz. Let’s stop by the store before the temple today!”
When Lutz came to get me, I greeted him while humming. Lutz took a quick step back as if he had seen something horrifying, then looked at Mom for an explanation.
“Myne, I’ll explain to Lutz. Hurry and get your stuff ready,” said Mom while rubbing her temples, so I went to the bedroom.
What were some good books for babies? Thinking back to best-sellers, I was pretty sure there was one where it was just a series of pages alternating between someone hiding their face and showing their face. A game of “peekaboo,” but in picture book form.
...But I didn’t know what the equivalent of peekaboo was in this world. I could guess that the process of hiding one’s face then showing it was universal, but I didn’t know what they said to the baby. Maybe I could ask someone and they would know what I meant. Eh... I think it’ll be best to just turn one of Mom’s stories into a picture book. That seems like it’ll be for the best.
“I’m sorry, Lutz. She got a little too excited over becoming a big sister, so maybe she shouldn’t go outside today...?”
“Nah, she’s gonna end up like this when the baby’s born anyway. She takes after your husband.”
“You’re right. Gunther got just as excited.” Mom shook her head with exasperation, but her smile was still a happy one.
“Okay, I’m ready. Bye, Mom. I’ll be back. Don’t push yourself when you’re feeling bad. I’ll work hard and make lots of money so you can take it easy.”
“Myne, your father said the exact same thing this morning.”
I left home while Mom giggled at me. First, we were going to the Gilberta Company. I needed to report that I was becoming a big sister and along the way order karuta for the orphanage. I talked to Lutz at length about picture books as we walked.
“Tuuli’s going to make clothes and diapers for the baby, so I’m going to make (picture books).”
“What’re those?”
“Books with pictures that are easy for kids to read,” I explained while puffing my chest out with pride, which led to Lutz sighing and shaking his head.
“...C’mon, a kid that’s just been born won’t know how to read.”
“Reading aloud to kids is important! I’ll read lots and lots of books to him. We’ll probably need to make thick paper first. But since babies like to put all sorts of things into their mouths, I think maybe thin boards will be better than paper. Or maybe we could make a book out of cloth? Oh, but I’ve never seen (felt) here before. And I won’t be able to help at all with cloth books. Lutz, what should I do?” I looked up at Lutz, but he was avoiding eye contact, his gaze wavering.
“I mean, uuh...”
“I’ll be sad if I don’t get to help make a picture book. But paper picture books will tear easily or maybe even get chewed up, and just thinking about ink in a baby’s mouth is... aaah! It’s too dangerous!” I cradled my head, imagining a baby with ink in its mouth and chewed-up paper everywhere.
Lutz sighed with exasperation and slapped a hand on my shoulder. “Calm down, Myne. It’ll be next spring before he’s born, right? It’s not happening tomorrow.”
“But I want to make lots of prototypes and improve, improve, improve until I have something perfect!”
“You going crazy never ends well. You’re just gonna end up on the floor. Calm down and listen to what people tell you.”
We arrived at the Gilberta Company as Lutz admonished me. Mark was inside the store as always, working briskly.
“Mark, is Benno here? I want to go to Sieg’s carpentry workshop again to order more wood boards for karuta sets.”
“I’ll handle it. You certainly seem pleased today, Myne.” The moment Mark said that while getting out supply order boards, my hype shot up so high I could feel it.
“Eheheh. Guess what, Mark? I’m going to be a big sister! I’ll be really busy making books, karuta, building blocks, and all sorts of things in preparation.”
“Oh, a book for a baby, hm? While you’re here, you may want to inform the master of this.” Mark took us to the office with a smile and I immediately ran up to Benno.
“Good morning, Benno. I’m going to be a big sister when spring comes. So, I’m going to make a (picture book) for the baby!”
“Huh? What’s that?”
“A book for kids!”
“A book for kids, huh? But kids can’t read.” Benno said the same thing Lutz did. Picture books were perfect for building bonds between parents and children; just looking at the pictures was fun on its own, and they helped kids get used to letters from a young age. Why did nobody appreciate their glory?
“Reading aloud to kids is important. It’ll help them learn letters from a young age.”
“Hmm. One of those might be a good gift for Corinna. But who’s gonna be drawing the art?”
“Me, of course! Filled with love!” It was going to be a gift for my little brother or sister. Of course I would make it myself.
“No. Use the artist you got last time. Otherwise you’ll mess with the kid’s taste in art. They might never recover.”
“So mean!”
“The truth hurts. You should thank me for warning you.”
Benno forced me to promise to use the same artist as last time, Wilma. I headed for the temple feeling pouty, as if my love as an older sister had been rejected.
“Hey, Myne. If you’re gonna be making lots of picture books from now on, maybe you should hire that artist full-time or something? I’m guessing one picture book won’t be enough for you.”
“It definitely won’t.” If I was going to end up getting Wilma’s help for a countless number of picture books, it would be wise to make her my attendant.
“Morning, Fran. Guess what? I’m gonna be a bi—”
“Watch your language, Myne. And that can wait. My report comes first.” Lutz interrupted me, pointing out that I was talking too casually, then explained to Fran why I was excited and warned him that I might collapse at any time. “I’m guessing she won’t calm down until she gets a fever at least once. You can just let her be and wait for that to happen.”
“...Understood. I will guard her with caution. However, Sister Myne, please take care not to inform Delia about the baby. The High Bishop has not made any moves as of yet, but he is certainly continuing to gather information on you. Judging by your excitement, I believe the pregnancy and baby will become significant weak points for him to exploit.”
Fran’s warning made the blood drain from my face. If something happened to Mom or her baby now, I had no confidence that I could hold my mana back.
“There should be no issue with discussing your new products or the Myne Workshop, but your little sibling should go unmentioned. In the temple, the birth of newborns is not a joyous occasion.”
I felt my excited mood plummet as I thought back to what happened to the flower-offering gray shrine maidens who ended up pregnant. Fran, trying to cheer me up a bit, changed the subject. “You are planning to make many books, surely. Perhaps now is the time to ask for Wilma?”
“You’re right. I would like to make Wilma my attendant if possible, but I’m not sure how to go about it.”
Fran fell into thought, then suggested we seek the High Priest’s permission first. I wrote a letter stating that I had a request, then asked Fran to deliver it to him and get a date for a meeting. At fourth bell, after work was done, the High Priest skimmed the letter then looked at me.
“Myne, what is your request? I have the time to answer if it is a minor issue.”
“High Priest, please give me Wilma!” I made the request as short as I could, which for some reason made the High Priest rub his temples.
“I do not understand what you’re saying. Be more clear.”
“Please give me Wilma, the girl with the smile of a saint, a talent for art, and a deep compassion for others.”
I tried explaining who Wilma was to the best of my ability, but the High Priest just looked at Fran with utter bafflement. Fran seemed to understand what he wanted just from a glance, and began his explanation immediately.
“She would like permission to make Wilma her attendant. Wilma is a gray shrine maiden specializing in art who once served as Christine’s attendant.”
“Ah, she served that art-loving shrine maiden... I believe an expert of music will be more fruitful to Myne’s education than an artist. There was a gray shrine maiden talented in music, was there not? Select her instead.”
“Rosina is the musician, I believe.”
Before I knew it, the conversation had shifted from Wilma becoming my attendant to Rosina. I hurriedly interjected before it was too late. “High Priest, I need Wilma’s help, not Rosina’s. How could I make (picture books) with music?”
“What are those?”
How many times had I been asked that question in one day? I would have thought that picture books for kids would at least exist in a place with book-owning nobles, but the High Priest was furrowing his brow hard enough to engrave wrinkles into it.
“They’re books for kids with pictures in them. Surely nobles have books like that.”
“With books as expensive as they are, it would make no sense to make any for kids that might treat them poorly. Books are for learning, and they need only present their information clearly and concisely.”
It seemed that books aimed at children simply didn’t exist at all. Since paper was expensive and each book had to be hand-written from the ground up, each page was packed to the brim with letters. Putting aside the charts and maps necessary for teaching, no books were built around pictures.
I nodded, now understanding why picture books didn’t exist here, and for some reason the High Priest also nodded in understanding.
“I understand that you desire an artist to craft books with pictures. But what you need is education and enrichment. Make both Rosina and Wilma your attendants, not just one.”
“Bwuh? I couldn’t take on two new attendants at once, that’d be so wasteful. Not to mention that I don’t even have an instrument, much less the opportunity to play one. I don’t have the funds to buy an expensive instrument and I don’t feel the need for music to be involved in my religious education.”
“I see. You certainly cannot practice music without an instrument.”
I went ahead and nodded with the High Priest, but I didn’t have much interest in music either way. I liked listening to it, but I had never wanted to play any myself—even if it would be a lovely skill to have, I would rather spend my time reading than practicing to learn an instrument.
I expressed my need for an artist and got approval to make Wilma my attendant, so that was that. I started to leave the High Priest’s room with satisfaction.
“Now, Fran. Let us go to the orphanage this afternoon to see what Wilma thinks of all this.”
“What Wilma thinks? Are you not making her your attendant?” Fran blinked in confusion at my statement.
“...She might not want to serve me because I’m a commoner.” My attendants had all been ordered to serve me and not a single one of them had wanted to. Not Fran, not Gil, not Delia. It wasn’t too long ago that Gil was telling me to my face that he didn’t want to serve a commoner.
Things were going so well now that I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s mood by taking in someone who would be unhappy about serving me all the time. Wilma could keep doing the art for me even if she didn’t want to be my attendant, though I’d end up constantly nervous about someone stealing her away.
“Sister Myne, you wished to talk to me?” Wilma, who normally discussed how the orphans were doing and what the orphanage needed with a calm smile on her face, looked at Fran and me anxiously.
“Wilma, would you consider being my attendant? This isn’t an order, but a question. You can say no if you like.”
Wilma’s eyes wavered nervously, then she sighed and lowered her eyes. “...I truly appreciate the offer, but it would be wise to ask Rosina instead.”
Wilma glanced at Fran, then looked away with a troubled expression. She furrowed her brow a bit, then slowly opened her mouth, as if she really didn’t want to say what she was about to say.
“In the past, I was... I was once fooled by a blue priest and taken to a flower offering. My mistress Christine noticed my absence and arrived in time to rescue me, but ever since then I have been uneasy around men. I will obey if you order me to be your attendant, but if you do value my desires, I would like to stay in the girls’ building of the orphanage. There are only children and girls here.”
In the Noble’s Quarter, the rooms of attendants were separated by gender and located completely separately from their master’s room. But in the orphanage director chambers, they were separated only by floor and the girls upstairs had to pass through the first floor to leave. Visitors like Lutz and Benno often came to the second floor, not to mention Fran and other gray priests. It was far from an environment with no men. I understood Wilma’s position, but there was something I didn’t get.
“Isn’t there a chance you’ll be selected to offer flowers if you stay in the orphanage?”
“There is not a blue priest whose eyes would fall on a girl as plain as myself.” Although Wilma probably kept her hair bundled tightly to stop it from standing out, her hair was an orange color that was noticeable no matter what she did, and anything that might be considered plain about her just served to make her seem more chaste. There would definitely be at least a few blue priests whose eyes fell on her.
“In that case, Wilma, I will ask the High Priest to allow you to serve me as an attendant in name only, allowing you to stay at the orphanage. I intend to make many books for children containing art, so I will need your assistance no matter what.”
“I believe it would be simpler just to give me an order...”
“I don’t want to force you to do work in an environment that will make you unhappy.” I personally didn’t like people ordering me around, and since attendants moved into their master’s chambers, their entire lives became their work. She would become consumed with anxiety if she felt awful every hour of every day while working.
“If I do not need to leave the orphanage, then I would love to be of assistance to you, Sister Myne.” Wilma spoke with a bashful smile.
I pumped myself up, preparing to convince the High Priest at any cost so I could protect Wilma’s smile, but Fran spoke out before it ever came to that.
“Sister Myne, attendants always move to their master’s chambers. She cannot stay in the orphanage. How do you intend to convince the High Priest?”
I looked between Wilma and some nervous children watching from some distance away. “There are not many gray shrine maidens to look after the young children right now. It is not uncommon for the children to catch sudden fevers in the night, and as the orphanage director, I would like my attendant to keep an eye on them. How is that?”
“...I see you didn’t come here without thinking things through first. I find that somewhat relieving.”
That was pretty rude of him to say, but at the very least Fran wasn’t just being stubborn. The High Priest would understand if I had reasoning to back me up.
“Do you think he would allow me to leave Wilma in the orphanage as my attendant?”
“Doing so would be unprecedented, but given the current state of the orphanage and Wilma’s situation, I believe that the High Priest might possibly allow it if told all the details.”
With Fran’s approval, I wrote a letter requesting a meeting with the High Priest. He sent back a reply saying we would discuss things in my room, since he wanted to hear Fran’s thoughts as well.
Over the five days leading up to the meeting, I worked with all the vigor I had. I was having Gil make the thick paper that would be necessary for picture books in the Myne Workshop, with the promise that I would buy them through Lutz once it was ready. At the same time, I was telling Mom’s stories in the orphanage so that I could see which were well-received by the kids and which would make for good picture books.
But the kids ended up asking what words meant so frequently that they never got to enjoy the story, and Wilma told me she wouldn’t be able to draw art for them since she didn’t know what life in the city was like. There was a bigger gap in cultural understanding between those in the temple and commoners than I had expected.
On top of that, those in the temple had no innate understanding of anthropomorphism—animals acting and talking like people—so not even stories like The Three Little Pigs or Momotaro went over well with them. They just kept asking how animals could talk. It seemed that not even my own Japanese children’s stories would go over well as picture books. Despite everything Benno said, I still thought it would be best if I drew the first picture book for my little sibling myself.
In other news, Hugo and Ella learned almost all of the recipes for the Italian restaurant, so we brought in a new chef. A man about the same age as Hugo was getting pumped about the food while shouting shocked exclamations just as his predecessor had. Ella, who was helping him, told him not to worry and that he’d get used to it soon, her expression making it clear that she was reminiscing over how far she had come.
Finally, the day of the meeting arrived. The meeting was at fifth bell in the afternoon, so I didn’t get to go to the book room like normal. I stayed in my chambers while learning how to welcome the High Priest into my room and what his preferred kind of tea was. Eventually, a significant amount of time before the meeting, a bell signifying a visitor rang outside the door.
“That would be one of the High Priest’s attendants,” said Fran while standing up and heading to the first floor. I couldn’t tell the difference myself, but apparently different sounds and ways of ringing the bell signified different things. Maybe the High Priest was so busy he had to change the time of the meeting.
“I have brought a gift from the High Priest. Where shall I take it?” said the servant, who sounded like Arno.
“To the second floor,” replied Delia. “Our mistress will receive it right away.”
Hearing their conversation, I hurriedly plastered the dignified smile of a noble on my face.
“Please excuse me, Sister Myne.” With Arno at the lead, a group of gray priests brought in large boxes at Delia and Fran’s instructions. Arno wrinkled his eyes nostalgically and looked around my room. “...I see you have left the room unchanged, Sister Myne.”
“Wha?”
“Oh, pay me no mind. Three large boxes, two small boxes. That is everything.”
“Please tell the High Priest that I thank him ever so much.” I spoke to Arno with a smile and a nod. The gray priests lined up and left the room, once again at Arno’s lead. Fran watched them go, shut the front door behind them, then hurriedly climbed back to the second floor.
“Let us open them immediately. The High Priest will be here before long. Delia, go to the workshop and summon Gil.”
“Understood. Geez! Why did he have to deliver the gifts so soon before the meeting?!” Delia ran off and Fran began to hurriedly open the boxes. Delia quickly returned with Gil and started helping Fran. Inside one big box was a bedding set. The other two boxes each contained an instrument, one adult-size and one child-size. The smaller boxes had various tools for maintaining the instruments. It seemed that the High Priest intended to educate me no matter the cost.
Woooow. I turned him down because I don’t have an instrument, so he gave me two instruments. What a sight to behold.
“So, Fran. Did you hear anything from the High Priest about all these gifts?” The sheer quantity of the gifts made me feel more conflicted than pleased. Especially the bedding set. Nobody had ever given me one as a gift before and it kind of felt like a bit much.
Fran also looked conflicted. “He became furious when you collapsed in the repentance chamber, questioning why you had no bed prepared despite your tendency to collapse from weakness, but I still did not expect him to send bedding in its entirety...”
I had also thought that I would need at least a mattress in the temple since I collapsed so often, but I hadn’t expected the High Priest to gift me one. I walked up the bed which Gil and Delia had prepared, pressing down on the mattress to see how it felt. The bedding the High Priest had prepared wasn’t a straw-packed mattress like I was used to, but a high-quality mattress like the one I had used at Freida’s house. The silky smooth sheets felt nice to the touch and were covered with fancy embroidery. The cloth and embroidery alone would run an enormous cost. I got dizzy just thinking about how expensive it must have been.
“Fran, is it commonplace for nobles to send this manner of gifts to each other? Or do I now owe a debt to him which I will need to pay later? What if he asks for the payment and I cannot afford it...?”
“I believe that this is his apology for sending you to the repentance chamber and leading you to collapse in ill health. You should be fine simply expressing your gratitude.”
“My gratitude... How should I thank the gods this time?” If I had to learn yet another new god’s name just to express my thanks, I would lose my mind. Fran stifled a laugh with a hand over his mouth.
“This time, please thank the High Priest, not the gods.”
After finding a place to put the tools and instruments, I offered the wooden boxes and cloth within them to my attendants, as was customary. Fifth bell rang not long afterwards, and the High Priest came immediately with Arno. I welcomed and greeted him just as Fran had taught me.
“You faltered as you spoke, but at least you’ve learned what to say,” commented the High Priest. The lack of any harsh rebuke meant that maybe I did sound more like a noble girl now.
“High Priest, I thank you ever so much for the comfortable bedding you have gifted me.” I thanked him after we reached the second floor, and for some reason he cradled his head. “Um, did I do something wrong? I just thanked you, didn’t I?”
“Indeed, but there was no need for you to state the contents of the gift. In the future, be vague when giving your thanks. ‘I appreciate the wonderful gift, you have granted my wish,’ and so on.”
Okay. Don’t say the contents of the gifts, I repeated on the inside, at which point the High Priest grimaced and lowered his voice. “Furthermore, tell no one that I gifted you bedding. Under normal circumstances, a man will only gift bedding to their family, their fiancée, or... their mistress. Stating it in public will invite unthinkable misunderstandings.”
“Bwuh?! Wh-Why would you do something so easily misinterpreted?!” The High Priest didn’t seem like the kind of person to do something so thoughtless. He wasn’t me, after all. I didn’t understand why he would run the risk of doing something that could be misunderstood like that.
“You are at fault here. Despite having collapsed in the temple several times before due to your poor health, you have refused to prepare bedding for yourself. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Fran rest your unconscious body upon the boards of the empty bed. If I had done nothing, I imagine you never would have prepared your own bedding,” he said with a glare.
I avoided eye contact, since I only ever thought about getting bedding at the exact moment I needed it, and then immediately forgot afterwards. “...Aww. I’m sorry.”
The High Priest gave a fake cough and glanced at the table. I remembered that I hadn’t offered a seat to him and thus did so at once. As our visitor this time was the High Priest, Fran prepared the tea instead of Delia. Despite using the same water and same tea, the tea Fran made always seemed to taste so different. Delia watched Fran carefully so that she could learn from his fluid, almost beautiful movements.
“Aah, it’s been so long since I’ve had your tea, Fran. It smells as splendid as ever.” The High Priest’s expression softened as he enjoyed his tea, which made Fran smile a little. Gil brought in a tray which Delia took and set onto the table.
“High Priest, would you like cookies with your tea? They are less sweet than normal, to suit the palate of a man.”
After eating a cookie, the High Priest’s eyes widened. The fact that he immediately went to take another one meant he probably liked them.
“...Myne, where did you get these?”
“At the moment, they are being made exclusively in my kitchen. I intend to serve these cookies in my Italian restaurant with tea, with the option to buy individual ones to take home.”
The moment I said that, the High Priest began rubbing his temple as if trying to understand the implications of what I had just said. “You have your hands in not just paper and rinsham, but in cooking as well?”
“Yes. There are plans to hold a taste-testing session before the restaurant opens in full. Please come if you have the time. It will be a restaurant that offers food fit for the nobility. Fran has already assured us of the quality, but I would like to eat the food of a true noble at least once.”
I practically yelled Please invite me to a meal! in the roundabout style of a noble, and the High Priest was experienced enough in reading between the lines that he picked up on my intentions. He lowered his eyes in defeat and promised to invite me to lunch sometime in the near future. I pumped my fist below the table. That was one entry on Benno’s list of problems settled. While at lunch with the High Priest I would thoroughly check the contents of the meal, how it tasted, and what the service was like.
The High Priest jumped straight to the point of the meeting after he had tried the tea and cookies. “So, you wish to discuss Wilma?”
“Would you permit Wilma to stay in the orphanage even after becoming my attendant?”
The High Priest frowned in confusion. Attendants, as their name implied, were expected to attend to their master. Those in the orphanage all wished to leave, and it was unheard of for an orphan to wish to stay there if given the opportunity to escape.
“There isn’t anyone there to look after the pre-baptism children, so I would like to use my authority as orphanage director to leave Wilma there so that she might take care of them. Wilma herself wishes for this as well.”
“High Priest,” added Fran, “I support her request. The children are in poor health and frequently have fits in the middle of the night. Wilma and Sister Myne are both very worried about them.” Fran’s follow-up made the High Priest stroke his chin in thought.
“...Wilma staying at the orphanage will be all the more reason to make Rosina your attendant as well. I have prepared the instruments already. That should settle your complaints.” He glared at me, but I still just didn’t agree.
“Why is it so important for me to learn to play an instrument? Will I need to play music in religious ceremonies?”
“It will not be important whatsoever in the temple. There are many blue priests with no appreciation for the arts,” said the High Priest while taking out a small magic tool and placing it on the table. It was the anti-eavesdropping magic tool. I reached out and clenched it in my hand as the High Priest did the same with the other half.
“Your future will inevitably be one intertwined with that of the nobility. It is best you prepare to enter noble society now.”
“...But I have no intention of leaving my family.” Hence only commuting to the temple rather than moving here completely. However, despite knowing that I had let my mana go on a rampage to protect my family, the High Priest was confident enough to say that I would inevitably enter noble society.
“You may not know this, but only couples with similar quantities of mana can have children. You have enough mana to comfortably offer ten small magic stones during an offering, and you can enter my hidden room. In other words, you will only be able to have children with a noble. It would be extremely difficult for you to marry in the lower city.”
Speaking of which, Delia had mentioned something about equivalent amounts of mana being needed for a couple in the past. I hadn’t really thought about it since I was so mad at the cruelty of the blue priests, but the same rule applied to me. Regardless, I found it hard to care.
“I’ve never had any hope of getting married, so I don’t think that’s a significant problem.”
“Wait. Why do you say that?”
“As you know, High Priest, I am very weak. No man would want to marry a girl who can barely move and catches fevers all the time. I would just be dead weight to them.”
The first requirement for being a good wife in our poverty-stricken part of the city was being healthy. A pleasant personality and a working spirit came afterwards. One’s beauty depended on their sewing ability and such, but I was out of the question before it came to that. Not that it mattered to me; after all, love and romance had hardly been a part of my life even in my Urano days. I would be fine with a life of just making and reading books here.
“Commoners and nobles are fundamentally different. The mana of a child is largely influenced by their mother. You have so much mana it is hard to believe that you are a Devouring child born by chance. Due to the diminished quantity of nobles, when you come of age, nobles with similarly significant mana will flock around you. You have only been ignored up until now because you are so weak you might die at any moment, which would be a waste of all the money spent on raising you. You will not be able to escape from the families of every blue priest here.”
I hadn’t thought that I was being seen that way. There were about ten blue priests here, and who knew how far their extended families went. It would be impossible to deny all of their advances in my weak position. A shudder ran down my spine. I hadn’t thought of my future from that perspective. Benno had said that I would likely be kicked out in five years once the number of nobles began to increase again, so I always thought I would just leave the temple when the time came. I would have been fine extending my lifespan with taues. I never thought that nobles would be after me as a convenient mother for their children.
“Laynobles will not have enough mana. You will likely be used as a tool to form connections with archnobles. Whether you end up as a prisoner kept alive to make children or as a wife with a respectable status within the family depends entirely on whether you can conduct yourself like a noble. Education is vital if you intend to protect yourself.”
“...Understood. I will make Rosina my attendant and educate myself as best I can.”
The High Priest replied with a firm “Good” and set his magic tool on the table. That signaled the end of that conversation. I set my magic tool down too and smiled at the High Priest.
“While you’re here, could you show me what you mean? I would like to know what degree of artistic ability is expected from a noble.” I pointed at the instrument and asked him to play it. He sighed as he put the magic tools away.
“Fran, bring me the harspiel.” The two instruments he had gifted me were apparently called harspiels. The larger one was for adults and the smaller one was for kids, as expected. It was like a combination of a lute and harp, most resembling a bandura. Its body was shaped like a pear cut in half, with the back half of it curving a bit. The front half had a sound hole like a guitar, which was as ornamental as it was functional. The adult-size one had straight lines decorating it, while the kid-size one had a pattern of growing vines.
At a glance, they seemed to have about fifty to sixty strings strung on them. The pins of the instrument which all the strings were wrapped around were made from something like ivory, giving more color to the wooden instrument. The head was adorned by a carving of a horse’s head, which made me want to joke about it being a morin khuur (a Mongolian horse-head fiddle), but that reference was just too obscure. Not that they would understand what I meant in this world anyway.
The High Priest adjusted his posture a bit, put his legs together, and rested the harspiel between his thighs a little. He supported the instrument’s neck with his left hand and plucked a string with his middle finger. The air trembled and music resembling a guitar’s reverberated through the room. He brushed his right hand’s fingers against the strings like one might play a harp, melting the air with high, clear notes.
The instrument had seemingly already been tuned, so the High Priest lowered his eyes with the harspiel in its position. His right hand played the main notes while his left hand brought out the low notes that served as a bass. His longer fingers danced, starting a song I had never heard before. It was my first time hearing the instrument being played and I had never heard the song before, but I could immediately tell that the High Priest was an expert musician.
...He was good. The minstrels loitering around the east gate couldn’t even compare.
Incidentally, I didn’t like minstrels too much. The music didn’t really resonate with me, and it was always hard to understand what they were singing. It felt like attending a fancy play as a child and catching nothing.
“The vast blue sky...” The High Priest began to sing with the song. It was a song about growing plants and praising the sun’s blessing, and the lyrics readily brought forth images of a lively summer landscape. I had always thought he had a deep voice that carried well, but when he began to sing, it became almost frighteningly beautiful. Maybe this was normal for songs you hadn’t heard before, but I found myself absorbed in it and completely focused on listening to the lyrics. When the final chord was struck, I couldn’t help but let out an awed gasp. The High Priest handed the harspiel to Fran.
“That should do it. What did you think, Myne?”
“I think no girl would reject you if you sang a song of love to them.”
“What is wrong with you?” The High Priest glared at me, which made me realize I had accidentally said what I was thinking with no filter. I hurriedly put a hand over my mouth and tried to recover.
“It was such a beautiful song that I found myself absorbed in it. But I don’t think I’ll be able to play on that high of a level.”
“Education is not accomplished overnight. You will need to practice on a daily basis. Give it a try.”
I naturally had no way of escaping the studious High Priest, and thus a music lesson began out of nowhere.
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