chapter 4
You bind it?
Roberta asked reflexively.
Is that possible?
"It's not that I've only lived a long time."
Just as she was about to grumble about him bringing up his age again, a strong gust of wind blew from outside, rattling the tent flap open.
Turning her gaze, she saw children peeking their heads in through the tent's entrance. With bright, curious eyes, they were spying on what the two were doing.
"Our talk has gone on for a while."
Ulrich smiled at the children.
"Now, that's enough talk. Let's get up."
She looked up at him for a moment before standing. At the same time, she shook her head to clear the thoughts that filled it. Almost none of her questions had been answered. Instead, one question just led to another. Her mind was a mess, to the point of frustration.
But she decided not to press him further. It was hard to accept, but she had no other choice for now. He was clearly not an imposter but the real Lord, yet how had he performed the Sacrament without being ordained? What had happened with his predecessor? Asking would not elicit a clear answer from him.
'It's fine. I have plenty of time, anyway.'
There was no need to rush. Hadn't Alonso said as much?
Her only duty was to fulfill her responsibilities as the head priest.
She had only just been assigned to Dithmarschen. Unless the Pantheon ordered her to a new post, she would be here for at least a decade. She could afford to wait for the truth to come from the Lord's own lips.
Ulrich stepped out of the tent and gathered the people who had been resting. "We will resume the Infant Sacrament." At his words, they each took a baby into their arms and gathered around him.
'Let's see just what it is you're hiding.'
Roberta was uneasy about entrusting the Sacrament to someone who wasn't a priest, but she decided to watch quietly. She had already seen the Sacrament performed without issue, and she thought she might find a clue if she observed.
And if a problem arose, she, an ordained Priestess, was here.
Come to think of it!
Suddenly, Roberta looked around and realized something.
Weren't there rites that must be observed for the Sacrament?
"Are you proceeding with the Sacrament just like this?"
As she asked, she retraced her memory. When Ulrich had performed the Infant Sacrament earlier, had there been a brazier? There hadn't. He had performed the Sacrament without a single wisp of smoke.
"That's the plan."
"You should at least light some smoke and prepare the holy oil."
"Why?"
Why? She blinked.
"Because... that is the proper rite. To honor Hestio-nim and ensure the Sacrament is performed safely. If the rites of the Sacrament are not observed, the names may not be properly recorded in the Register in the Heavens."
Her voice trembled with bewilderment as she answered.
When the gods made their palaces in the sky and dwelled there, among them was Ganimea. That god had an adopted son, and his name was Hestio.
One day, Hestio looked down upon the earth from the Heavens and saw a group of humans huddled in a cave to escape the rain. In those days, the Dwarves and Elves had built sacred civilizations, but humans had only just come down from the trees and begun to wander.
Hairless monkeys who didn't even know how to make fire and were liable to freeze to death when the weather turned cold—that was what humanity was in those days.
It was said that Hestio gave fire to the shivering humans, who were clinging to one another, allowing them to endure the cold, and after the rain stopped, he taught them various skills.
Ever since, when performing rituals, humans created several rites to honor Hestio and receive his blessing. The most representative of these was to light a fire at the beginning of a Sacrament and to extinguish it at the end to create smoke.
"'Honoring' is the wrong word."
Ulrich shook his head.
"Pardon?"
"It's not 'honoring.' It's 'summoning.' That's the correct term."
More strange talk.
Heedless of her thoughts, he continued.
"The reason you make smoke—no, the reason you light a fire and then put it out—was to summon Hestio. Because when the fire went out, Hestio would come down again and light it for them. He taught them how to make fire, but it wasn't an easy thing to do."
........
"He, for his part, came each time to light the fire to save them the trouble. But the humans of that time interpreted it differently. They thought, 'If we put out the fire, that being will come.' So whenever they wanted to find Hestio, they would put out the fire to make smoke."
It was a time when language was clumsy, so it couldn't be helped, Ulrich added.
"I told Alonso this as well."
She had never heard of it.
"Making smoke, anointing with oil, immersing the body in water—all those rites were created in such a way. But think about it. What meaning is there in an act the gods never taught them to do? Do you really think something like this helps the Sacrament?"
He then spoke like a teacher instructing a student, saying, 'Humans are merely using the legacy of the gods, but they do not know the principles. That is why they cling to utterly meaningless acts, packaging them under the name of 'rites'.'
She couldn't bring herself to cut him off, but she gave him a look, her expression slightly crumpled. He, however, poured out everything he had to say. Roberta narrowed her eyes into slits and asked.
"You haven't forgotten that I am a Priestess, have you?"
"I am well aware."
"And you say such things, knowing that?"
He scratched under his chin with his thumb and looked down at her.
"So? Are you going to arrest me? As a heretic?"
"And you say such things, knowing that?"
He scratched under his chin with his thumb and looked down at her.
"So? Are you going to arrest me? As a heretic?"
......
She pressed her lips together firmly.
She couldn't refute him. She had no intention of doing anything to him. To be honest, her interest outweighed her concern. A Priestess of deep faith would have had a fit at his actions, but she was different.
After all, wasn't it common in the human world for people to walk the path of the clergy out of a desire for worldly things? She was just one of those people.
"Watch. See if I'm wrong."
He took a baby from another young man.
The child was sleeping so soundly it didn't even know it had left its parent's hands. Ulrich gently stroked the baby's head and touched his forehead to the child's. Then, a light shone.
Just like the baby Roberta had seen before, light emanated from the forehead and spread throughout its entire body. Even though it was her second time seeing it, she was in awe.
'Except for not following the rites, it's perfect.'
If she checked the baby's pulse, she could feel a faint flow of Mana from the child. Just as blood circulates through the veins, Mana was now circulating within the body, meaning the Infant Sacrament was perfectly complete.
"Is there really no problem at all?"
Ulrich didn't answer with a 'yes'.
"Try it yourself."
Instead, he handed her a child who had not yet received the Sacrament.
"Perform the Sacrament for all the children here, without the rites. After you've finished, check if there are any children whose names haven't been entered into the Register. Then you might be able to believe my words a little."
She looked down, and the baby in her arms looked up at her and giggled. It was an adorable sight that made one want to break into a goofy grin. Just as Ulrich had done, she stroked the baby's head.
She did not touch their foreheads together. There was a moment of hesitation, a temptation to perform the Sacrament while ignoring the rites. But it was fleeting. A voice of impulse mocked her from within—*What's the point now, after not stopping the Sacrament of an unordained man?*—but it failed to move her to action.
Even if she had become a Priestess for worldly gain, a Priestess was a Priestess. Her faith might not be deep, but she had trust in the rites. And was it truly rational to discard rites that had been practiced for thousands of years without side effects, swayed by the words of some eccentric?
"That's alright."
She spoke firmly and returned the child to its parent.
"I will follow the rites of the Pantheon. However, since you began this ceremony, Lord, I will entrust its completion to you. From now on, I will preside over all Sacraments."
"Do as you wish. If that's what you want."
He readily accepted.
"But know this. Alonso did it too."
Roberta frowned at his words.
"Alonso-nim never taught me this method."
When she spoke with defiance, he gave a faint smile. A smile that felt bitter, or perhaps pitiful, she thought.
"In the land of the one-eyed, one has no choice."
"In the land of the one-eyed, one has no choice."
After the Sacrament came the feast.
In a world with high infant mortality, it was not uncommon for a family line to end even after having three children. Moreover, the environment in Dithmarschen was said to be harsher than in other regions, a place where even adults struggled to survive.
For this reason, it was said that a child was not considered a life until it was old enough to receive the Infant Sacrament, or until after the Sacrament was complete.
But how could they, after carrying a child in the womb for a year? The parents hugged their babies, who had completed the Sacrament, and smiled, unable to contain their overflowing joy.
The people of the domain gathered together in a large tent. It was a tent more than ten times the size of the one where Roberta had spoken privately with Ulrich. A feast was laid out inside, and a stove had been set up just like the other, warming every corner.
Around the stove, adults in comical attire stood up, dancing and singing as they circled. Children ran between them, adding to the clamor.
"Ugh..."
Roberta stuck out her tongue at the taste of the Songhwacha and shuddered violently. It was a taste she could never get used to, no matter how many times she drank it. It seemed even the locals, who must have had Songhwacha at their lips their entire lives, couldn't adapt, as there wasn't a single person who didn't grimace.
'It's his calm drinking that's strange.'
She glanced at Ulrich.
They were sitting in a circle, so there was no real seat of honor, but elderly men had taken their places on either side of where Ulrich sat.
From her spot quite a distance away, he would occasionally nod and smile at the old men chattering beside him, simply sipping the Songhwacha as if it were plain water.
She had intended to finish their conversation, but at this rate, it seemed she wouldn't get a chance today. She smacked her lips and, with a grimace, drank the tea again. Ugh.
A sound escaped her involuntarily as her body trembled.
"Priestess."
A voice cut through the commotion.
"Are you tired?"
An old man approached and spoke to her. It was the same elder who had guided the two of them to the tent when she sought a private audience with Ulrich. He had introduced himself as Brase, an elder of the clan.
"Yes, it was a long journey..."
"Shall I arrange a place for you to rest?"
"No. It's not that bad."
When she shook her head, the elder nodded in understanding and sat down.
"Do you have more to say?"
"Please don't press him too hard."
She sighed inwardly. *Of course.*
"That wasn't my intention."
Her voice rose unintentionally.
"I apologize if you were offended."
The elder bowed his head and offered her a cup. It was wine. When she tasted it, she was surprised by its depth of flavor. It was a fine vintage, the kind rarely tasted even at the Grand Temple.
"The Lord gave it to me as a gift long ago.
Is that so?"
"I apologize if you were offended."
The elder bowed his head and offered her a cup. It was wine. When she tasted it, she was surprised by its depth of flavor. The kind rarely tasted even at the Grand Temple
"The Lord gave it to me as a gift long ago.
"Is that so?
She took another sip. The feeling of her mouth puckering was accompanied by the thought that it was a waste to simply drink it. There was no way wine could be made in this environment, so where did he get it from? How much would it cost? And he gave it as a gift?
"I was sixteen. I went hunting with the adults, but we ended up being hunted by a monster. I put the injured adults on a sled and fled, and Lord Ulrich praised me for my bravery and bestowed this gift upon me."
Brase's face was full of wrinkles. Even considering that nomads age faster than their years, he had to be over sixty. That meant she was drinking wine that was at least fifty years old.
"You've kept it well."
"The Lord kept it for me. As you know, we are a wandering people. We don't know much about wines like this. At best, we just chug the distilled spirits sent from the south to warm our bodies."
The elder refilled Roberta's cup.
"When I received this, a thought occurred to me. It was like when, after my coming-of-age ceremony, I saw the rocking horse I rode as a child. I decided I would drink this when my life was nearing its end."
She paused as she was about to tilt her cup.
"And today, he returned it to me."
She could not mistake the meaning of his words. As she looked at him, her smile fading, the elder chuckled and said it was a kind of reminiscing.
"To be honest, this old man had forgotten. It was half a century ago, wasn't it? I can barely remember what I did yesterday, let alone so long ago. But he remembered. I was so surprised when he gave me the bottle! The moment I saw it, the memory of that day came flooding back."
The elder's gaze left her and sought out Ulrich.
He was just getting up from his seat. Perhaps he felt the two of them looking at him. He glanced at her and the elder for a moment, but only for a moment, before leaving his seat.
"It is only natural for you to be suspicious, Priestess. You must have many questions. Is someone else pretending to be the Lord? How can a human maintain such youth? Could he be connected to an evil god? The Priestess before you, and the one before her, they all had their doubts. It can't be helped. You Priestesses are different from us."
"Different?"
"Yes. Different. You have just been appointed as the head priest here. This is the first time you have seen him. But we have grown up seeing him, ever since our Infant Sacrament. To us, it is natural that his time flows differently from ours."
"Have you never thought it strange?"
"Before I answer that question, I would like to ask you something first."
Elder Brase gestured to the empty seat where Ulrich had been sitting.
"If a person could live for a very long time, if this person were a being beyond aging and death, and if they possessed wisdom, patience, and virtue deeper than others, and if your ancestors had served this person for generations·•
what would you think?"
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