Delia’s Progress
I had ordered the tools we needed to make wax stencils from Johann, but it would be some time before they were done. In the end, Wilma finished her art for the next picture book before the tools were ready. It was a story about Flutrane the Goddess of Water and her twelve subordinate goddesses, themed around spring.
“Hey, Lutz. Since it’ll be a while before the tools are ready, should we just start working on the next picture book?”
Wilma had been working on the art for these since before we had finished color ink, so the stencils had all been made under the assumption that the illustrations would be printed in black and white. As a result, we were planning to print this round of books in black and white.
If we were printing in black and white with plain stencils, we could print without needing to wait for the tools to be done. We still didn’t have much paper since we had only resumed production in spring, but we could always just buy some from the plant paper workshops Benno had made.
“I want to use the printing press since we finally have one ready, but—”
“But the High Priest said no. Give up on it and just get to cutting out the stencils.” Lutz shot me down immediately, so I simply sighed in defeat and got to cutting. It was a true shame; we had worked so hard to make metal types and a printing press, but it was all for naught.
“There’s a lot of stuff you can do before resorting to using the printing press you were specifically ordered not to use, right? You need to talk to Fran and the High Priest about the colored ink being done, and you should tell Wilma about it as soon as possible so that she can draw art with color for your next picture book. She’ll have to think about that and the printing method when planning her next illustrations.”
“You’re right. I haven’t had much time to properly sit down and talk with Wilma since she’s been so busy looking after Dirk. I’ll try to go to the orphanage this afternoon to see her.”
Lutz and I walked down the street while talking. A mother with a child on her back passed us, which made me realize something. I stuck my hand in my tote basket and took out a bag with two wooden tubes and some small stones in it. Dad had carved and hollowed out the tubes, and I had thoroughly cleaned the stones.
“Lutz, could you put the stones in these tubes, then glue the caps on?”
“...Sure, but why?” Lutz blinked in confusion at the stuff I had given him. Both tubes were identical, and once the stones were inside they’d function as rattles.
“They’re baby toys—one for Kamil and one for Dirk. They make noise once you put the stones inside and shake them.”
“Oh yeah, I know of something like that. They look kinda different, though.”
“I’d like to color these and make them look cuter, but I don’t want to put ink on something a baby will probably be putting in their mouth...”
A baby as few months old as Kamil and Dirk wouldn’t be able to see colors that weren’t vibrant enough, so I would want to cover them in bright red ink. But I felt resistance toward putting ink on something that would be going inside a baby’s mouth. Ink made out of edible materials was always an option, but then I would have to worry about bacteria growing inside the ink.
“Well, they’re not gonna last long either way, right? We can just use some of the ink we made out of edible materials back in the workshop. What else are we gonna use the colored ink we spent so much time on? It’ll be a while before we can print with it anyway.”
“Okay then. Could I ask you to do that, Lutz?”
“Sure. I’ll get them to you this afternoon.”
I said my goodbyes to Lutz in front of the workshop before heading to my chambers, where Rosina was waiting with the harspiel in hand.
“Good morning, Sister Myne.”
I gave a bemused smile at Rosina’s brimming enthusiasm, then looked at Delia as she played with Dirk. “Delia, I would like to change clothes. Do you have a moment?”
“As you wish. Dirk, I will be back as soon as I’m finished. Wait just a moment.” Delia regretfully separated from Dirk, then speedily started changing me. She put my blue shrine maiden robes on as quickly as she could, tied the sash, then immediately returned to Dirk.
“Dirk, I’m back.” Delia spoke to Dirk with an absolutely shining expression that I had never seen on her before. She was head over heels for Dirk.
...What’s with that cute smile? I’ve never seen her smile like that before.
Delia already had a beautiful face, so seeing her smiling actually took my breath away. Her smile was so filled with love that I actually felt a bit jealous of Dirk.
“Sister Myne, Dirk seems like he’s almost ready to roll over. I would expect nothing less from my little brother. He’s such a wonderful little boy.” Delia sat next to Dirk and stroked his head as he tried his hardest to turn over. To her, everything else in the world seemed to fade away. Not even ten days had passed since Dirk had come to the temple, but she was already caring for him like a real sibling.
“Sister Myne, it would be wise to leave Dirk to Delia so that we may begin harspiel practice.”
At Rosina’s prompting, I picked up the smaller harspiel and began practicing. I played the piece I was currently learning a few times, at which point the door opened. Breakfast had finished in the orphanage and Wilma, having seen the children off to the workshop, was here to collect Dirk.
“Good morning, Sister Myne. I have come for Dirk.”
“Good morning, Wilma. Thank you as always. And while you are here, I plan to visit the orphanage this afternoon to discuss picture books with you.”
Wilma nodded with a brief “Understood” in response to my plans, after which she talked to Delia while getting Dirk. She had to ask how he had been last night and how much goat milk he had drunk so that she could predict and prepare for the next time he was hungry.
“We do not have any gray shrine maidens who have experience raising children. If we don’t think of what to do with babies offered to the gods, the orphanage will most likely be unable to function in the future.”
There were no longer any gray shrine maidens raising their own children who could look after the babies, and considering where those children came from, it was in our best interest for gray shrine maidens to continue not having children. I needed to talk to the High Priest to discuss what to do with future babies given to the orphanage. It wouldn’t be reasonable—or possible—to have my attendants bear the burden of every baby that ended up in the orphanage for the rest of time.
“I always feel so lonely when Dirk leaves,” Delia said, rubbing his head regretfully before eventually giving him to Wilma. The energy always drained from Delia the moment Dirk went to the orphanage, leaving her slumped and melancholic, but Rosina always looked relieved. Their reactions were on the exact opposite ends of the spectrum.
I practiced harspiel until third bell, at which point I went with Fran to the High Priest’s room where I would help him until lunch. After lunch, Fran and Rosina now went to their respective rooms to rest. They had both started to look a bit better now that they were getting regular naps in the afternoon, but the exhaustion was still clear on their faces.
“Rest well, you two.”
“Please excuse our absence.”
Now that Fran and Rosina had gone to have their afternoon rest, Delia was the only attendant left in my room. She had finished cleaning and was working on her math, while I was busy making stencils at my desk, waiting for Lutz to arrive. It didn’t take him long to finish his lunch at the Gilberta Company and come over with the finished baby toys.
“Here, Myne. They’re all done.”
“Yay! Thank you.”
Lutz shook the darkish-red rattles to show that they were finished. I really hoped they would make the babies happy. Kamil wasn’t quite old enough to really get excited over anything, so my plan was to see what Dirk thought first.
“I’ve ordered the paper from Master Benno too. He’ll be ready to supply whenever you want to start printing.”
“You work fast, Lutz.”
“Nah, I still have a long way to go. Mark’s always telling me how much time and effort I waste when doing things.”
It seemed that Mark’s education was really bearing fruit; Lutz was saying that he couldn’t yet compare to Mark, Benno, or Leon, but at his age it would be unreasonable to expect him to be that skilled.
“Myne, don’t forget to bring the stencils from Wilma. I’ll start getting the workshop ready to print.”
“Uh huh, leave it to me.”
After seeing Lutz off, I put one of the rattles into my tote basket. I then walked downstairs with the other one to talk to Damuel, who was in the small hall on the first floor.
“Sir Damuel, I would like to go to the orphanage.”
“Sure, not a problem,” he replied.
I power walked to the door where he was waiting for me, but before I got there he looked around and gave a stern frown. “Wait, apprentice. Where are your attendants? Are you really planning on leaving your chambers without one?”
“...Bwuh?” I had thought that wouldn’t be a problem since Damuel was around, but apparently bodyguards didn’t count as proper accompaniments like attendants did. It would be extremely unladylike for me to leave without one, so my hand was forced.
“Delia, I have something to discuss with Wilma in the orphanage. Please accompany me.”
“Sister Myne, I...” Delia turned around with a stiff expression, but swallowed her words mid-sentence and bit her lip in frustration. She wanted to refuse me, but couldn’t due to her position. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t want to force her to do something she wasn’t comfortable doing, but with a knight like Damuel waiting on me, I couldn’t waste any more time.
“You would only need to accompany me up to the orphanage door. Does that sound manageable for you? I can instead ask Wilma to accompany me on the way back, if you so wish.”
“...As you wish.”
Delia took the lead, dejectedly advancing down the hallway. I could tell even while following from behind that her shoulders were stiff and her footsteps heavy. Her face was out of view, but I could imagine the desperate expression she was probably wearing.
When we arrived at the orphanage, Delia stopped in place. “Well then, I’ll be leaving now.”
“I think not, attendant. Open the door before you leave. You would make your mistress, the apprentice, open it herself?” Damuel’s harsh voice rang out as Delia turned to leave. I couldn’t open the door myself, and couldn’t make a knight open the door for me either. Attendants existed so as to relieve their masters of such a duty.
Delia, having been told to open the orphanage door, paled to the point that her face was pure white. Still, she looked at Damuel with no change in her stiff expression, then reached for the door. She shut her eyes tight and grit her teeth, pushing the door open with a trembling hand.
It opened with a heavy creak. Large tables were lined up across the dining hall, which was right in front of the entrance. At the furthest end was a large cushion on which Dirk was laying, surrounded by gray shrine maidens, all of whom looked this way upon hearing the door. They turned their backs on the pillow and knelt at my presence, arms crossed over their chests.
“Sister Myne. I’ll be leaving now,” Delia murmured, her head lowered so as to avoid seeing inside the orphanage.
“Of course, and I apologize for making you uncomfortable. Thank you, Delia.”
“It was nothing.” Delia glanced once in Dirk’s direction, then started to turn around. But her eyes suddenly shot wide open and she spun around, running straight for the cushion at the far end of the dining hall. “Dirk!”
He had almost successfully rolled over, with half of his body now over the side of the cushion. If he kept going and made it, he would fall right off. Delia thrust her arms beneath where Dirk would be right as he burbled and toppled over the edge.
“Geez! What would you have done if Dirk had rolled off and hurt himself?! Keep a better eye on him!” Delia’s eyes were flared up in anger as she set Dirk back down in the center of the cushion. Her complaint came from a good place, but the gray shrine maidens had no choice but to kneel and keep their heads down when a blue shrine maiden arrived. All I could do was shake my head at Delia losing herself over Dirk’s cuteness.
“...Well, now that you’re in the orphanage, why don’t you stay and watch over Dirk yourself?”
“Ah?!” Delia’s eyes widened as she realized just where she was standing. She hurriedly straightened up, and I handed her the rattle I had brought with me.
“This is a toy that makes noise. I was going to give it to Dirk myself, but why don’t you give it to him instead? I think he would be happier to play with you than he would with me.”
Delia looked at the red rattle in her hand, a conflicted expression on her face.
“He should be old enough to follow after this red color with his eyes now. Or would you rather I give it to him? I think he would be happier to receive his first toy from his older sister, but...”
I reached to take the rattle from Delia, but she gripped it firmly and held it up high—too high for me to reach.
“You can give it to him, then. Wilma, do you have a moment to talk? Everyone else can return to what they were doing.” I headed to a table within view of Dirk’s cushion with Wilma while the kneeling gray shrine maidens returned to work.
“Dirk, this is a toy Sister Myne gave us. Can you see it?” Delia said gently, shaking the rattle in front of him. Dirk followed it with wide-open eyes; it was obvious that he was attracted to the color and the sound it was making. I had wanted to see Dirk’s reaction so that I could determine whether Kamil would be ready for it, and he really did seem enraptured. No doubt Kamil would be really happy to see it too.
“Wow, he’s looking at it,” one shrine maiden said.
“I wonder whether he would like music as well?” added another.
The shrine maidens were all looking at Dirk and Delia with great interest, having little experience with babies themselves. That made Delia realize she was in public with other people around who could hear her. She stood up and glared at me, her cheeks blushing red.
“Sister Myne, I’m going back to your chambers! I’ll be leaving Dirk in your care, everyone.” Delia pushed the rattle into the hands of a nearby shrine maiden before charging out of the orphanage. Now that she had gone inside once, I would imagine that if she very gradually spent more and more time here, she would adjust to leaving her comfort zone like Wilma had.
“Sister Myne, will Delia be quite alright? I know she has lasting trauma from her time in the orphanage,” Wilma said anxiously as she watched Delia hurry out the door.
“...I wonder. I feel like she’ll be fine, assuming Dirk’s cuteness keeps influencing her. She thinks she hates the orphanage due to the memories she has of her time here, but the cellar Delia was living in is nothing like it used to be.”
Delia had spent all of her time here in a miserable cellar, and had then been sent to the High Bishop’s room on the day of her baptism. To her, the orphanage in its entirety was just that neglected cellar. Before today, she had only passed by once or twice at most; Delia would need to really feel for herself that the orphanage had changed, and if she got used to coming here then it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for her to at least enter the dining hall. Besides, if she didn’t get used to visiting the orphanage soon, she would no longer be able to see Dirk at all. He would be moved to the rooms where the pre-baptism children stayed once he was old enough to sleep soundly through the night.
“I just hope she doesn’t end up separated from her cute little brother,” I added.
“Each day when I go to get Dirk, Delia delays handing him over for as long as possible, all the while wearing the loneliest expression you’ve ever seen. I can’t help but feel that we are doing something wrong by taking him away. It would be sad for both of them if they were to be separated, so I certainly hope that Delia adjusts to the orphanage as soon as possible.” Wilma gave a faint smile, her features lacking the exhaustion that could be seen on Rosina’s and Fran’s faces.
“You do not seem very tired, Wilma. Is that because of all the people here who are able to help you?”
“I only look after Dirk during the day, and I do have others help me. Rosina and Fran end up all on their own when looking after him at night, correct? That sounds quite difficult to manage.”
It seemed that although Wilma only looked after Dirk during the day, some of the younger children felt like he had taken her from them and were acting like babies themselves. Some would cling to her at night when she tried to put them to bed.
“You are like the mother of this orphanage, Wilma. It must be difficult having so many needy children to look after.”
“I recall my loving mother taking care of me in the cellar before my baptism, and I want to give these children who lost their mothers the same love I received. Nothing makes me happier than them thinking of me as their mother.” Wilma smiled, brimming with love for the cute little children, and at that moment I was thankful from the bottom of my heart that I had assigned her to manage the orphanage.
With that topic over, we moved on to discussing the picture books. I began by telling Wilma that I wanted the stencils, since we would be starting a new round of printing for the picture books soon. I then explained that we had finished making colored ink and that I wanted her to plan her future art around it. As we were using the same format of printing as before, that meant we would need a stencil for each color. Finally, I told her that once I had finished making the wax stencils, she would be able to draw more detailed art.
“You truly do love books, Sister Myne. To think that you would continue inventing so many new techniques for this... I will put my absolute all into drawing for you.”
“Thank you, Wilma.”
By the time we had finished our discussion and I had the stencils from Wilma, Dirk had gotten hungry. He began to cry, but even without Wilma saying anything the other gray shrine maidens were already speedily bringing goat milk from the cellar and preparing to feed him. They were used to the process by now. If they could look after Dirk without Wilma, then it was probably best for me to return to my chambers sooner rather than later; they all had to be extremely conscious of me while working, which was beyond distracting for them.
“I know it is a heavy load on you all, but please continue taking care of Dirk. Wilma, could I ask you to walk me back to my chambers?”
Having spoken to the gray shrine maidens, I started to make my way back from the orphanage.
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