Chapter 8: The Dawn at the Central Temple (1)

Early in the morning, Sarah’s parents came to Archelio Monastery. They wanted to collect Sarah’s belongings that were still in the monastery. It was painful to watch the last traces of her disappear before their eyes.

“Sarah…….”

It was as if she had never been there, and I realized that I would never see her again. If I close my eyes, I think I can hear her cackling laughter.

“Sarah, if you’re out there somewhere, please answer me, what am I going to do?”

I decided not to give Victor much credit for helping me, because if I did, I would be overwhelmed with personal feelings and all my plans would go awry. My resentment and anger toward them was the only thing that kept me going.

I stared down at the empty bed and the clean desk in silence, and didn’t slip out of the room until after sunset.

“Sister Alicia.”

Father Edwin, who was standing on the railing of the second floor, called out to me. The priest’s room was surely on the first floor, so I wondered why he was up on the second.

“Father Edwin?”

“If you have a moment, I would like to speak with you.”

“Yes, sir.”

Father Edwin’s usually neatly groomed hair was ruffled like cotton wool. He hadn’t slept in days, and he must have woken up after a few moments of catching his breath.

“Were you asleep?”

His shoulders twitched, as if he’d been stabbed in the back.

“…How did you know that?”

“There is a thing.”

As I watched Father Edwin’s face as he tidied up his hair, it reminded me of a bobcat in molt. A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and Father Edwin scratched his head in amusement.

“I’m glad to see you seem to be feeling better.”

His words brought back memories of Sarah’s final moments, which I’d barely managed to put out of my mind, and he was at a loss for words as he watched me sulk.

“…Thank you for your concern, and thank you for coming to pick me up that day.”

He forced the corners of his mouth upward into a smile.

“I was just doing my job as a priest of the monastery.”

I didn’t even get to thank him properly that day. I thought of Father Edwin, who must have walked all the way from Jared’s aid station to Archelio Abbey alone, carrying me in his arms.

I knew he had walked around the monastery for nearly an hour, carrying me, trying to comfort me.

“…But thank you so much.”

In response to my tearful thanks, Father Edwin didn’t answer, only turned on his heel and walked away. He stopped on the roof of the monastery. It was here, not long before, that he and Sarah had been washing the quilts, alone together.

He remembered the image of her kicking her feet up and down on the quilt, covered in foam.

“I’ve seen what I can do to get you a reading position, but I think you’d better find another way to get into the palace.”

“…Is it too much to ask?”

It was the only thing I could think of at the moment.

“It’s not that there aren’t cases where nuns have been conferred the title of reader, but they were all nuns of the Central Shrine, and the only person who could confer the title was the Bishop of the Central Shrine.”

“Does that mean I have to go to the Central Shrine?”

Father Edwin’s face darkened sharply at my question.

“No, you can’t. Don’t even think of going if you’re going to die. I’ll pretend I didn’t just hear that.”

I grabbed the end of his sleeve as he finished firmly.

“Father, please let me go.”

“What else will that old man do to you? Have you forgotten what he did to you?”

Of course she hadn’t forgotten. She’d been taken by the hair in those wrinkled hands, placed in the Saint’s seat, used for show, and then turned away as soon as the real Saint showed up.

To avoid owning up to his mistake, Father Revencio framed me as a witch and my father as a power-hungry fraud. I want to forget, but I can’t.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re going to go after the man who sent you to your death. Are you serious?”

“If that’s the only way, I don’t have a choice, and since the Saint has already been taken, no harm will come to me.”

“Not only that, but the old man is……!”

I didn’t have to ask him what he was worried about.

“Have you forgotten, Father, I’ve been through all that pain, and I have nothing to fear anymore.”

I was branded with a horseshoe on my back, crawled on all fours like a beast, and toured the palace. My tongue was cut out with rusty scissors, and I was hung upside down on a stake and burned alive. My ragged soul no longer feared anything.

“…I’ll find another way if you want, but I hope you don’t have to go to such extremes.”

Father Edwin was a caring man, and I knew he was helping me with his few hours of sleep, but I couldn’t leave him without a sure way forward.

***

‘Really, you are quite stubborn.’

‘It would be harmful if I were to take her with me, so please go with Father Marco.’

Despite Father Edwin’s long-standing dissuasion, I decided to go to the Central Temple to receive the lector position. It wasn’t as if I would be staying at the Central Temple forever; I only needed to stay until I was awarded the position.

Even so, Father Edwin insisted vehemently that if Father Revencio so much as laid a finger on me, I should pack my bags and come back immediately. His fierce determination reminded me of an angry wildcat, and a faint smile spread across my lips.

As I quietly chuckled to myself, the kind, curved lips of Father Marco, who sat across from me in the carriage, formed a gentle smile.

“Father, I’m sorry. You must be uncomfortable, and yet you boarded the carriage because of me…”

“It is an honor if this old priest’s presence can be of help. The Lord will surely be pleased as well.”

Father Marco had few teeth left, making it difficult for him to conduct Mass alone due to his now slurred speech.

The need for a nun to read the scriptures during Mass on behalf of Father Marco was a rather plausible reason for receiving the lector position.

“Father Marco, do you know Father Revencio?”

“…We were seminary classmates, but the bishop now is not the same person I once knew.”

The Father Revencio I remember was nothing more than a devil wrapped in the skin of a kind old man. I had never imagined what he might have been like in the past.

“In the past, he was a man with low self-esteem but was more dedicated and tender-hearted than anyone.”

Dedicated and tender-hearted? That didn’t match the Father Revencio I knew at all. He was a selfish old man who would ruthlessly discard even his followers for his own gain.

“Everyone changes over time, but thinking of how he used to be is truly heartbreaking.”

With a pleasant laugh, Father Marco chuckled, and the carriage came to a stop.

“…It seems we’ve arrived already.”

I gathered my skirt and carefully stepped out of the carriage. Taking Father Marco’s hand, I gently helped him down, mindful of his limited mobility.

Father Marco placed his wooden cane on the ground and looked up quietly at the expansive Central Temple.

“…Still the same as ever.”

Not long after, Father Revencio himself came out to greet us. His face, lined with wrinkles and shaded with gray, looked just as I remembered. Through his narrow, folded eyelids, his bright yellow sclera peeked out.