Apprentice Shrine Maiden Volume 4

by Miya Kazuki

  We were all confused by this revelation, and so decided to try visiting the High Priest’s room once more. At the very least, we would have to interrogate Arno as to where he had gone; Damuel made it clear that the situation was bad enough to demand that level of drastic action.

  “Apprentice, hold onto this.” Damuel, as if suddenly remembering he had it, took a ring out of a small pouch on his hip and placed it in my hand. It had a small, slightly murky gem attached to it. “This is evidence I got off of the man from before. See the noble’s family crest on it?”

  “I shouldn’t have something this important!”

  “It’s small and not that high in quality, but it’s got a feystone. Hold onto it in case something happens. Unlike Lord Ferdinand, I don’t have any decent feystones I can lend to you.”

  Apparently, as a noble on the poorer end of the spectrum, Damuel didn’t have enough feystones to be able to lend one to someone else. I put the ring on, figuring that it would be better than nothing, even if it did belong to a criminal. It didn’t change size to fit my finger, perhaps because it wasn’t a magic tool like the ring the High Priest would always give me.

  “...It might be broken. The crest is all we need for evidence, and there’s no point in putting it on if you can’t use it. Can you put mana in it?” Damuel asked.

  I tried pouring mana into the ring. “Umm, it looks like I can. Just a bit.” Likewise, unlike the ring the High Priest always lent me, I could barely put any of my mana into the ring.

  “That’s a low-quality stone. It might shatter if you put too much mana into it at once. Be careful.”

  I clenched my fist so as to not let the half-broken ring slip off of my finger as Fran prepared to take us to the High Priest’s room. I was positioned directly behind him, with Dad and Damuel on either side of me.

  “Gil, watch over my chambers for me.” As a child with no fighting experience, he would be staying behind. He had been taught his whole life that violence was wrong, and the shock of seeing someone killed in a spray of blood today had really gotten to him. He looked sick and it was obvious that he wasn’t in a good state of mind, but as much as I wanted to stay with him, that simply wasn’t an option right now. So we left the room, a stiff-faced Gil seeing us off.

  “Sister Myne, please be careful. Please.”

  We entered the noble area of the temple just as the High Bishop and a group of people turned into the same hallway. Beside the plump-bellied High Bishop was an ugly, toad-like man who was just as overweight. He wore different clothes, but he was the spitting image of an evil minister or some other politician. They were followed by gray shrine maidens and some plainly dressed servants, bringing their party up to about ten people.

  Fran smoothly turned a nearby corner to avoid the High Bishop’s group, taking us into a hallway that led to the Noble’s Gate. It would be a long detour to the High Priest’s room, but that was better than meeting the High Bishop along the way. Dad picked me up, Damuel scanned the area, and Fran led the way as we power walked to the High Priest’s room.

  “Sir Damuel, who was that with the High Bishop?”

  “Count Bindewald. He’s the archnoble from another duchy who used a forged permit to enter the city. We can guess he’s here for you,” whispered Damuel in a quiet voice, causing Dad to tighten his arms around me. “We might be able to catch him if the Knight’s Order or even Lord Ferdinand were here, but I don’t stand a chance alone. He’s of a much higher status than me and has much more mana. He may not know how to fight like we knights do, but that doesn’t matter when he can just overwhelm me with mana.”

  The door closest to the Noble’s Gate came into view. We turned the corner to head to the High Priest’s room, only to see the High Bishop’s party blocking the hallway; we had intended to avoid them, but they had seen us and backtracked to get here first.

  “Count Bindewald, that is the blue apprentice shrine maiden, Myne,” the High Bishop said with a nasty grin and a finger pointed at me. Bindewald’s lips twisted into a frog-like smile as he looked me over from head to toe.

  “Ohoho, I see...”

  His disgusting gaze sent goosebumps all over my skin, and I subconsciously squeezed Dad tighter. I honestly deserved praise for holding back my urge to shout “Don’t look at me!”

  “Hmm. We were told she had left, but here she returns to her guardians. I suppose they failed, then. Useless fools,” Bindewald muttered in a frustrated tone before extending a hand my way. “Myne, I shall grace you with a contract.”

  “...I respectfully refuse. I am already promised to someone.”

  “Hmph. You may be in his custody, but I imagine you’ve signed no contract. All I need to do is get your blood on one first.” The toad let out a disturbing cackle, and his stomach bounced as he took a step forward.

  “Are you going to adopt Sister Myne too, Count Bindewald?” Delia, stepping out from behind the High Bishop with Dirk in her arms, spoke in a bright tone ill befitting the situation. “How wonderful, she and Dirk will be one big happy family. They’ll both be graced with the blessings of the nobility.”

  The toad snorted derisively at Delia’s words. “Me? Adopt a filthy commoner? Never.”

  “But sir, you already adopted Dirk.”

  “I did not adopt him. What I have with that baby is a submission contract.” The count cackled and took out what looked like a proper adoption contract, but across its title one could see there were two layers of parchment. A broad smile spread across his face, he peeled off the front layer to reveal the text beneath: Submission Contract for a Devouring Child.

  “What? Does that mean... Dirk will...”

  “He will be kept as a slave for the rest of his life and used as a living source of mana to charge magic tools for Bindewald,” I said.

  Delia squeezed Dirk tighter and shook her head in fear before desperately looking at the High Bishop. “That can’t be true! Sh-She’s lying, isn’t she, High Bishop? You said Dirk and I would be staying together, didn’t you?”

  “Fear not, Delia. The baby’s mana will be used for our sake, but he will be raised here in the temple. He will not be taken from you,” the High Bishop said in a gentle tone, his face that of a kindly grandfather. “This is merely a trade. I will keep that baby, and in return Myne will leave the temple.”

  Delia paled, looking between Dirk and I. “Sister Myne will leave the temple in Dirk’s stead...?” she murmured in disbelief.

  Then, a fat belly blocked her from view. “This is your submission contract. Sign it. You have made me lose many of my pawns, both today and in the spring. You will be filling the hole left by them yourself.”

  The count took a step forward, and we all took a step back. The door to the High Priest’s room—and perhaps our only hope of being rescued—was behind them.

  “High Priest...” I whispered.

  The High Bishop smirked. “Unfortunately, your guardian, the High Priest, is absent. No cavalry will be coming to your aid. Give up already, so that I never have to set my eyes on you again.” He turned to look at the toad standing a few steps in front of him. “Count Bindewald, with both the archduke and the High Priest gone, this is our best opportunity—you may take Myne and I will pretend I saw nothing. Capture her and leave the city as soon as you can.”

  At those words, the tension in the air grew thick. Dad carefully set me down, took one step forward, and readied his spear. Damuel readied his weapon as well, clenching his teeth in preparation of facing a noble more powerful and of a higher status than him. Even Fran took out a dagger from the pouch on his hip.

  “...You can kill everyone but the girl. Get her.” On the frog’s command, three men from their group stepped forward. They all carried themselves like the man Dad had killed, and they were like living examples of what happened to people with the Devouring who signed with nobles.

  “Apprentice, get back!” Damuel blocked two of the men who jumped at us while Dad and Fran handled the other one. The count’s personal sol
diers weren’t as capable as Damuel, a formally trained knight; it took them longer to build up mana for simple attacks and they weren’t able to fight as well as him. But taking on two people at once was still difficult, and while Damuel was just barely managing, one wrong move could cost him his life.

  Dad and Fran seemed like they should have been able to dominate the other guy, but since they had no defense against mana, it wasn’t as simple as that. Dad would have won in no time had it just been a sword fight, but there was nothing a commoner could do when attacked with mana. The man’s ring lit up, and just as a beam was shot toward Dad and Fran, Damuel whipped out his wand and swung. A sharp noise like the clash of metal rang out as mana deflected mana.

  “That’s a noble...?!”

  The moment Damuel made his wand appear, both the toad and the High Bishop hardened their expressions. The High Bishop bore down on Delia, spittle flying out of his mouth as he yelled.

  “Delia! Who is that?!”

  “The knight assigned to guard Sister Myne,” Delia squeaked out in a quiet voice, too scared to think straight.

  The High Bishop’s eyes widened and he pointed at Damuel. “That shabby-looking man is a knight?!”

  The High Priest must have been hiding information from him; although the High Bishop knew I had been assigned a guard, he didn’t know that Damuel was a noble, nor that he was a knight, and the fact that he was still wearing his plain clothes for visiting the lower city had made that even harder to guess.

  “We won’t have much time if the Knight’s Order is alerted. I will have to make him disappear as well.” The count had previously just been watching with a grin, but now poured mana into his ring with a grim expression before whipping his hand through the air. A light-blue ball of mana shot out of his ring, heading straight for Damuel.

  “Look out!” I swung my hand as well, copying his motions. A whitish ball of mana shot out, hitting the count’s glowing blue mana and knocking it away. His mana struck the wall with a loud bang, but the wall itself was completely unscathed, as though it had just absorbed the mana.

  “How dare a Devouring commoner oppose me?” the count said frustratedly, putting even more mana into his ring. I watched his hands carefully and did the same, taking care not to pour so much mana into my ring that it would break. The most I could do with a ring this weak was send a small burst of mana that would knock his mana off course. And yet I had to do something—Damuel was busy with two men already and didn’t have the leeway to do anything about the count.

  ...This is a lot better than physical combat, at least. If Bindewald leapt at me or came swinging I would lose in an instant, but in a mana duel I could at least buy some time.

  “Just how long will you last using a pathetic amount of mana like that?” The count let out another toad-like cackle, launching ball after ball of mana at me, like a lion teasing a small animal.

  “Eek!” I knocked them away using as little mana as possible, so as to not break the crappy ring on my finger. Damuel, Dad, and Fran were all busy fighting the people in front of them; the power balance would crumble in an instant if Bindewald started launching mana at them. Losing wasn’t an option, and realizing that made my breathing harder and cold, anxious sweat start running down my back.

  “Hmph...” After knocking away so many balls of mana that I lost count, Bindewald stopped launching them and glared at me with disgust. I had probably lasted longer than he expected.

  ...I can keep going. Clenching my fist so that the loose ring wouldn’t fall off, I eyed Bindewald head on. It was then that his eyes fell on my ring.

  “Hm...? What’s that I spy? To think you were already wearing a submission ring. Aha, what a joke. There was never any need to bother with this; I’ve already won.”

  Bindewald burst into laughter. I was apparently wearing a ring given to those with the Devouring who had signed a submission contract which, once worn, made them unable to attack their master. Furthermore, it couldn’t be removed until their master—in this case, Count Bindewald—voided their contract. The rings were vile; the master could pour his own mana into them to inflict pain on any slave who disobeyed him.

  Bindewald gave a smug cackle and looked down at me. “Obey me if you don’t want to suffer!”

  I took the ring off right before his eyes. It probably wasn’t functioning as intended since we hadn’t signed a contract and it was already half-broken. “Just saying, it comes right off.”

  “What?!” The toad widened his eyes. Behind him, the High Bishop’s balding head was bright red with anger.

  “Insolent girl!” he shouted before ripping Dirk out of Delia’s hands.

  “Ah!” It happened so suddenly that Delia could do nothing but stare, her eyes wide as the High Bishop forcefully drained mana out of Dirk using a feystone. The baby’s face paled, and he started convulsing in the High Bishop’s tight grip.

  “Dirk!” Delia screamed, reaching out to take him back. But the High Bishop just clicked his tongue and knocked Delia’s hands away.

  “...Babies never have enough mana,” he snorted after finishing stealing mana from Dirk. He then swung his hand and shot out a ball of mana. I hurriedly put the ring back on and deflected the shot, then glared at the High Bishop with clenched teeth.

  “How dare you do that to Dirk!” Anger filled my entire body. But before I could Crush him, the High Bishop thrust the now-limp and exhausted Dirk out in front of him.

  “Hmph! Are you capable of attacking this baby? Do you have it in you to ruin Delia’s life?”

  “Stop! Sister Myne, please stop! I’m begging you!” Delia screamed in terror, her face contorting miserably as she saw Dirk being used as a human shield. I couldn’t Crush anyone with her begging desperately like that.

  I sucked in an anxious gulp of air, not knowing what to do. And then it happened—one of the High Bishop’s shrine maidens grabbed me from the side, having stealthily walked over while everyone was distracted.

  “Eek?!”

  “Myne?!”

  “Yes! Good job, Jenni! Keep holding her down!” the High Bishop exclaimed before throwing the limp Dirk at Delia. I could see Delia crying and hugging Dirk out of the corner of my eye.

  “Let go of me!” I screamed at the shrine maiden.

  “No. While I was taken in by the High Bishop and forced to offer flowers day by day, Rosina and Wilma were taken in by you and allowed to experience the comfort we once had under Sister Christine. That is simply not something I can forgive.”

  Jenni’s singsong whispers were tinged with sweetness, but the seething hatred hidden beneath it all sent an icy chill down by back. If I was taken away from the temple, Rosina and Wilma would be sent back to the orphanage. Jenni wanted nothing more than for them to be miserable there, and I knew there was nothing I could say that would make her let go of me.

  “We can consider the contract done then,” Bindewald said with a throaty laugh. He started walking this way. Jenni’s grip didn’t loosen no matter how much I struggled. She was lithe with slender arms, but a weak child like myself couldn’t even come close to overpowering an adult woman’s grip.

  Bindewald took out his shining wand and turned it into a knife. The look in his eyes as he brandished it was the spitting image of how Shikza had looked at me; they were the eyes of a noble who believed that, as a commoner, I was inferior to him, and that me submitting to him was the proper way of the world.

  All I could do was tremble in fear, just like I had when Shikza had pulled a knife on me. The tip of the glowing blade grew close, then cut my fingertip.

  “Ow!” Unlike the shallow cuts Lutz would make for blood stamps, Bindewald had dug deep into my finger, paying no mind to any pain or lasting damage. Blood almost instantly began to seep from the wound.

  “Open your hand.” He took out a contract and pushed it toward me, wearing a nasty grin all the while. His toad-like face only got more disgusting as he came up close to me. I glared at him, squeezing my hand shut as hard as I could
in defiance, but there was no stopping the blood from dripping out.

  “I told you to open your hand.” I flailed about, trying to avoid him grabbing my hand and wrenching it open. I was weak enough that it would be over as soon as his hands were on mine.

  “No, no, no! Go away! Ow!”

  “LET GO OF HER!” I heard a roar, and a second later Dad kicked Jenni from behind as hard as he could. The sheer force sent us both flying toward Bindewald. I slammed into his fat belly, knocking us all onto the ground, and for a second I couldn’t breathe, squashed between Jenni and him as I was.

  Within seconds, Dad raced over and pulled me out from between them before picking me up and holding me in one arm. “Sorry about that, Myne. Did I make it in time?” he asked, not looking at me. He pulled Jenni up a bit with his free hand as she gasped for air, then kicked up into her stomach. She flew off Bindewald with a gurgle, vomit spewing from her mouth.

  “Th-That was just cruel...” muttered the High Bishop. Both he and his attendants were trembling at the sight of violence that was never normally seen in the temple.

  Dad gave them a cold look. “So you’re saying it’s not cruel to stab a little girl with a knife and force her into a slave contract she doesn’t agree to?”

  “S-Silence, commoner!” Bindewald, whose face was bright red in humiliation as he sat up on the floor, angrily swung his ringed hand. He shot out a larger blast of mana than ever before, and the massive ball of shining blue mana came right for us. It was too close for me to launch my own blast of mana to deflect it.

  ...I’m dead! I squeezed my eyes shut as the ball shot toward me, but Dad was braver. He grabbed me in a hug and immediately leapt to the side, rolling as he hit the floor.

  “Ngh!”

  “Dad?!” He hadn’t completely dodged the mana attack. His left shoulder down to his elbow was bright red, as though he had been burnt. The sight of him groaning in pain flipped a switch inside of me.