~Chapter 8~
“Norah, you brought the most, didn’t you? What’s with bringing twelve obscene novels!”
“Hey, Gianna, you brought a whole collection of erotic paintings! Where on earth did you even get something like that back then?”
“Hey, ‘back then’ isn’t that long ago—we’re only forty years apart, you know?”
The first Saint, Elenore, couldn’t stand the commotion any longer and shouted.
“Everyone! Be quiet!”
Her voice was so loud that Selen felt as if her hair was being blown away.
“You fools! Do you think fighting among yourselves will solve anything? Stop squabbling and start thinking! Think!”
At her older sister’s roar, the argument quickly subsided.
The sixth Saint, Bella, said in a sulky voice:
“Elenore, even if we think about it ourselves, what good will it do? We’ve all just been following orders, listening to confessions.”
The eighth Saint, Daphne, agreed with that.
“Right. The smartest among us might be the youngest. She’s read all the books in the library. What could we possibly know?”
Elenore glared at the two of them.
Then she cast a sharp glance toward Selen, signaling her to watch her words in front of the girl.
Bella and Daphne sheepishly nodded.
“But it’s strange. In my time, there wasn’t a single case like this.”
Elenore’s sudden remark drew agreement from the second Saint, Miriel, and the third Saint, Gianna.
“I’ve never even heard of such a disease.”
“Right? Black spots covering the whole body… just imagining it is horrifying.”
The usually blunt seventh Saint, Hannah, spoke her mind without hesitation.
“Wouldn’t it be fine if they bathed in holy water?”
Norah, the fifth Saint, who often clashed with Hannah over her nagging, snapped back eagerly.
“Do you think just saying that makes it true? How can you bathe with that precious stuff?”
“No! Why not! During Elenore’s time, you could just enter the Athenes Hall!”
“Hey, we don’t even know if that’s true!”
That remark made Elenore flare up.
“You little brat! How many times do I have to tell you it’s not a lie! When I first came to the Main Hall, the doors of Athenes Hall were wide open!”
Sometimes Selen felt the older saints’ stories sounded like legends.
After all, more than 600 years had passed since the founding of the Arthenia Empire.
“Really, could even commoners go in?”
“Of course. Anyone could just walk in.”
The later saints had difficulty believing Elenore’s words.
Currently, access to Athenes Hall was strictly restricted.
Only the High Priest and a few senior priests could enter, and even saints couldn’t go freely.
Surprisingly, the second Saint, Miriel, and the third Saint, Gianna, also found it hard to believe Elenore.
“No, sister. Does it make sense that anyone could just walk into the sacred space dedicated to the goddess Athenes?”
“Why not? She is the goddess of freedom. She probably allowed people to come and go freely!”
“But what if someone stole the Holy Grail?”
“Don’t the holy knights do their jobs? If they get paid, they should work, right?”
The eighth Saint, Daphne, tilted her head while watching the first to third saints bicker.
She asked the second Saint, Miriel:
“So, Miriel, you didn’t get to enter Athenes Hall either?”
“No, I did. In my time, all the priests could go in.”
“And you, Gianna?”
“I also got to go in once.”
All eyes then turned to the fourth Saint, Pelia.
The one who had been caught having a relationship with a priest and expelled from the temple—a warrior of love.
Heh heh heh.
The seventh Saint, Hannah, smiled slyly.
“Pelia, be honest. You got caught doing it there, didn’t you?”
“Hey! I know when and where to do things! I didn’t do it there!”
“Someone who knows when and where to act still did it in the temple?”
“Anyway, I didn’t do it there!”
“Did it, didn’t it? Because of that sister, we can’t enter Athenes Hall.”
“No! Not there!”
Pelia’s face reddened as she waved her hands frantically.
The fifth Saint, Norah, said with disappointment:
“Ugh. I wanted to see it too. I wanted to see that Moonlight Flower or whatever.”
The third Saint, Gianna, shook her head.
“Among us, only Elenore has seen it.”
The first Saint, Elenore, often recounted her first day at the temple.
Her favorite topic? The Moonlight Flower.
She gazed into the air with a dreamy expression and said:
“I can’t forget that sight. The Aurora spread over the floating Holy Grail, and the Moonlight Flower filled the hall, sparkling so brightly that it was as bright as daytime, even at night.”
“Sister, the flowers really shone?”
“Of course. The color was exactly like moonlight.”
“They say if you eat those flowers, any illness can be cured?”
“Yes. An old man staggered into the hall with a cane, chewed some Moonlight Flowers, and walked out on his own two feet.”
“Wow…” Hannah, the seventh Saint, let out a soulless exclamation.
“Why does it always sound like a lie when we hear it?”
“It’s not a lie! Do you want to die?!”
Elenore flared up and threatened them all.
Then, for the first time, the ninth Saint, Sophia, timidly raised her hand.
She was shy and usually just listened rather than joining the conversation.
“Um… Elenore… sister…”
“What! What!”
“You can’t kill me… because I’m already dead…”
There was no malice in Sophia’s words.
That drained Elenore’s energy even further.
“Uh… alright then…”
Just as Elenore’s spirit was about to return to the massive spider lily tapestry, the seventh Saint, Hannah, spoke her mind again.
“But if it’s something even potions can’t cure… could it be that there’s a problem with the holy water?”
Blink.
Blink, blink.
Selen lay in bed, planning to pretend to sleep until Mia came to wake her.
Yet her mind grew sharper, and her eyes remained wide open.
—Could it be that there’s a problem with the holy water?
Hannah’s last words wouldn’t leave her mind.
She also remembered what Kirien had said about the Seth Temple.
The fact that young priests at Seth were researching potion improvements meant the potions weren’t perfect.
Thoughts spiraled, feeding Selen’s growing anxiety.
If there really was a problem with the holy water…
We’d all die!
Selen jumped out of bed.
She took out the cloak she had used when delivering the Bluebird Letters.
A cloak enchanted to make her look completely different.
She also took a potion to change her voice.
—There must be some place that no one dares to enter, assuming “no one would dare sneak in here.” Such places often have surprisingly lax security.
It was time to check if Kirien’s words were true.
She hadn’t expected to come this quickly, though.
Athenes Hall was located at the innermost part of the Main Hall, perched on a mountainside.
It symbolized the goddess Athenes watching over both the Main Hall and the Empire.
Selen climbed the slope while practicing her acting.
If she met a holy knight, she would pretend to be a grandmother.
The cloak made her look like an elderly woman.
“Oh dear, I must have misread the sign. Now, where exactly am I?”
But she didn’t really need to practice.
The entrance to Athenes Hall was completely empty.
Selen looked around in surprise and noticed a small tent beside the hall.
From inside, the sound of someone snoring leaked out.
The holy knights, who were supposed to guard the hall, were fast asleep.
She thought, I need to tell Elenore—Arthenia’s holy knights really don’t work.
Selen entered the hall confidently, without any hindrance.
“Wow…”
What is this?
Nothing Elenore had mentioned was here. No Aurora, no Moonlight Flowers shining like the moon.
The empty hall was desolate and barren.
Only one thing remained: the Holy Grail floating in midair.
Selen removed her magical cloak and cautiously approached the Grail.
It was slightly larger than a regular cup.
She’d heard it was small, but she hadn’t expected it to be this tiny.
“So this is why potions are so precious…”
Every morning, the High Priest scoops a little holy water into a small silver goblet, then distributes it to four senior priests of the Healing Division.
They add their divine power to the single drop of holy water to make potions.
The holy water is replenished daily at sunrise, but the rule is to take only as much as one silver goblet each time.
The first verse of the Athenes doctrine says: “Guard against freedom becoming license.”
The Athenes Church believed that abusing holy water would misuse the goddess’s grace, and if the Grail ran dry, it would incur the goddess’s wrath.
Dawn was approaching.
Then the High Priest would enter, scoop the holy water into the goblets, and the ritual would proceed.
Selen intended to check the Grail before he arrived.
If it was full, it would mean there was no problem with the holy water.
The Grail was within Selen’s reach.
She stretched out her arm and lightly tapped it with her fingertips, expecting a sloshing sound.
Huh?
But the Grail made no sound.
Selen gripped the Grail and shook it harder.
Still, she felt nothing.
All she could feel was the cold touch of metal.
No weight, no liquid spilling out.
Could it be… the holy water has dried up?
No holy water would mean the goddess Athenes has abandoned us.
Thump… thump… her heart started racing.
Selen stood on tiptoe atop the altar.
She tilted the Grail slightly.
She had to at least check if there was any water, or she would never sleep peacefully again.
