Chapter 53
As if I were meant to have a long, long dream, she asked me with clear intent.
“Ah…….”
“You don’t have to lie to me.”
“……How did you know…… that I had a dream?”
“Because it wasn’t a dream. And because I experienced it too.”
Even though her eyes were covered with a hood, I had the illusion that she was smiling.
“You’re saying the Vice Priestess experienced it too……?”
“What did you see there?”
“A story that felt real, yet not quite real. A story of a very distant…… far-off future. It sounds completely ridiculous, doesn’t it…….”
Even as I said it, it felt utterly unreal. Seeing the future in a dream—truly, it was a ridiculous story.
‘But it felt far too real to say it wasn’t reality. And yet, it wasn’t like something out of a novel either.’
In the novel, the masterminds—the twins—were only described as having died. They were killed in ways befitting them, and the Grand Duke’s household fell. That was the final course of events given to them in the story.
So this had to be one of two things.
Either a story born of my imagination, or something that had truly happened.
“There’s nothing impossible about it. Far more things happen in this world than we tend to think.”
“……Ah…… then what did you see, Vice Priestess?”
“Well. Let’s talk about that later.”
She looked sadder than before, lifting her faintly trembling lips into a smile as she looked at me. It was so forced that I could almost feel it.
“But Priestess…… could that really not have been a dream? I’ve never experienced anything like that…… I couldn’t even experience it.”
Because it wasn’t something of the present. It was, it was…….
“It’s something you experienced.”
“How can you be so sure? You don’t know what kind of dream I had…… and if you didn’t experience it yourself either…… ah.”
I spoke with negativity in my voice. But her expression changed more and more. Though her eyes were covered, she was someone whose emotions were fully visible. To my negative words, she answered with her expression.
That she had dreamed the same dream as me.
“Aisha, didn’t you sometimes have dreams? Dreams of a time completely unrelated to who you are now.”
“……Sometimes…… I did.”
Dreams I had never had while I was at the orphanage—I began having them only after we moved to the Grand Duke’s household.
“For something that’s merely imagined, didn’t those dreams…… continue in a strangely coherent way?”
As if she were trying to explain it so I could understand, she gently stroked my head.
“……Ah…….”
“Dreams that felt as though they were showing you yourself from another time…… you must have had dreams like that.”
“……I did.”
“And within those dreams…… didn’t you perhaps wish for something, Aisha?”
I accepted her touch, as gentle as a mother’s. Strangely warm and kind, enough to make me feel sleepy.
“What kind of thing……?”
“Didn’t you resent God, or earnestly pray to God?”
“How do you know that?”
I straightened up. How could she know? That in that dream…… that the adult me had desperately wished for something. That the twins of the Grand Duke’s household would live without being hurt, loving and being loved.
That I had wished for that.
“I’ll…… tell you a story. Originally, this was a story I was meant to tell you much later.”
“Ah…….”
“Originally, it was something I should have told you only after receiving a clear answer from you, Aisha.”
“A clear answer?”
When I tilted my head, she smiled awkwardly.
“To become a priestess. To come to the temple as one chosen by God, endowed with special power, and receive training as a candidate for the next Vice Priestess. That’s the answer I should have received. But…… even if I say this now…… I think Aisha will still take my hand. Even if a dreadful future awaits.”
“Me……?”
“Aisha has someone she must protect, and I can make that person better. I think I can become a strong support behind Aisha.”
I looked at her silently. The way she spoke, as if she knew everything, made me feel like I shouldn’t say anything carelessly.
“Even if you don’t want to hear them, there are stories that keep reaching me. And within those stories are tales of the young lord and young lady that Aisha likes. But since those two children, and Aisha as well, have no one backing them up, I’ll do that.”
“Vice Priestess…….”
“I’m saying I’ll become their godmother. I’ll restore the young lady’s body to health. Even aside from that, I think I can be of help. Honestly…… I don’t feel good about making a deal like this with such a young Aisha…… but I need Aisha.”
“You need…… me.”
It was a strange feeling. The words the Vice Priestess needs me made my heart keep pounding. Could I really become someone who was needed?
“Then I’ll present my conditions. And I’ll tell you my story—why I want to keep Aisha by my side.”
Like a grandmother telling a tale, she lightly patted her leg as if telling me to lean comfortably against her.
“It’s going to be a long story.”
I moved closer and leaned against her. Strangely enough, the Vice Priestess was someone who gave peace of mind. Someone who made me feel like it was okay to do this.
So, leaning against her, I quietly listened.
“God…… sometimes does capricious things.”
“God…… huh.”
“A god who doesn’t care what happens among humans will, on very rare occasions, respond to human words. It’s God’s cruel caprice.”
“Ah…….”
Her hand stroked my head more quickly than before.
“Some call it God’s blessing, and some call it God’s curse.”
“Mmm…….”
“I want to call it a curse.”
“A curse? Even though God responds to human words?”
She firmly shook her head at my question.
“There is no god who listens to humans without conditions. God always takes as much as He gives.”
“Then what does God take?”
“Everything…… of humans.”
They were words I couldn’t understand. Even though my mind was no longer that of a child, most of what she said didn’t make sense.
This time, she too seemed to be organizing her thoughts, remaining silent for quite a while.
I quietly waited.
And finally, the Vice Priestess spoke.
“Everything a human can give to God. Time, faith, and so on…… He takes those things.”
“Ah…….”
“Would you like to hear…… the story of a young girl from the distant past, who had everything taken from her by God?”
“Yes!”
And with that, she began her story.
[There was once a young lady named Loren from a minor baronial family. Loren had a younger brother and a younger sister. Though they were five years younger than her, Loren took meticulous care of them.
That was unavoidable, because Loren’s father was a man utterly devoid of ability—he brought not a single coin into the household and indulged in gambling.
There was no adult to care for the three children. Loren’s mother had left the household when Loren was still young. She left because she couldn’t endure her husband’s infidelity, and the mother of the two younger siblings was someone even more steeped in luxury than Loren’s father.
Moreover, she harbored deep hatred toward Loren, who had been born of her husband’s former wife.
Time passed, and Loren grew into an adult. In the meantime, she met someone she loved. The two promised to marry.
However, Loren’s father sold his marriageable daughter for a high price, and she was forced to become the concubine of an old noble. Even so, she tried to adapt and live well, but Loren’s father continued to demand money from her, even after she became pregnant with the old noble’s child. And then…… Loren’s elderly husband passed away.
He had children who were already adults, and they detested Loren, their young stepmother, to an extreme degree. Fearing that Loren’s child would take their inheritance, they drove her out mercilessly—casting her out while she held a newborn child who could barely even cry, a sickly child. She begged them to spare at least the child, but no one listened…… and once again, she met her father, who had come to extort money.
She begged her father to save at least the child, but now that Loren could no longer bring him money, he coldly rejected her. In the end, the child died without ever receiving treatment…… and Loren…… begged. She begged for her child to be spared. She begged that at least her child…… be allowed happiness. If the child had any sin, it was only the sin of having met her. She wished and wished with all her heart.
And God responded.
In exchange for taking all of your life, I will return to you the time of your childhood…… He said.
But it was not decided which point in time she would return to. Should she go back to a very early childhood and run away, or should she return to the time before her marriage? But Loren…… chose to return to the time when she was pregnant with the child. Because she wanted to save her child.
This time, she left that household early, before giving birth. Because she wanted to save her child. Once again, her husband would die early, and his children would drive her out—she knew that.]
