Ascendance of a Bookworm

Chapter 113: Job of the Attendants (2)

"What happened, Maine? You are late."

When I enter the Head Priest's house, he looks at me with his sharp eyes.

"… I'm really sorry, Head Priest. What is the work of attendants?"

"Fran."

The Head Priest asks Fran for an explanation before answering my question. Fran briefly tells him the dispute between Rosina and Delia.

The Head Priest also feels speechless when hearing Rosina refuses to do other work except art-related work.

"… Ah. I wonder how a gray-robed priestess apprentice can be so elegant and well educated. It turns out that they used to live a life better than the well-bred ladies of lower-rank nobles."

"Sir, what kind of person is Miss Christine like?"

The Head Priest stands up, rubbing his temples, and then takes a book from his bookcase. It looks like a file about blue-robed priests. After leafing through the file with his long fingers, he finally stops at a document which he is looking for.

"This one. Christine is the daughter of a concubine, but she has strong mana. Her father wants to get custody of her. Because his lawful wife objected firmly, he sent this daughter to the temple for better education and protection."

"For education?"

The Head Priest closes the folder, hands it to Arnaud, then turns round and looks at me.

"Well, she thinks she will go back to her father someday. So private teachers and art tutors often go to her room. Compared with those blue-robed priests who are left with no financial power or weak mana, she really has a different life."

So, she is a special blue-robed priestess, who brought up the special gray-robed priestess. So, it's better not to treat Rosina's advice as that of a normal gray-robed priestess.

"Excuse me, Sir. I cannot feed an attendant who knows nothing but art. May I ask her to do the same work as Delia does?"

To tell the truth, I don't need an attendant who does nothing but play the Fespiel and lives an elegant life better than mine. I also want to spend all my days in the library, but I have to work.

"It is natural that different masters have different demands on their attendants. It's alright to say so to Rosina. Didn't Fran say anything to her?"

Fran shakes his head slowly, with a bitter expression.

"She doesn't listen to anyone. Rosina doesn't regard herself as an apprentice. She even talks with me in a bossy way. She seems to look down upon the gray-robed priests."

"… Well, that sounds awful."

All the routine duties of my house are directed by Fran. If she refuses to follow Fran's direction, I cannot take her as an attendant. I really want her to return to the orphanage as soon as possible.

"What troubles me the most is that she plays the musical instrument till late at night. I can endure it at the first night, because I know she has not played it for a long time. But the next day she continued. That's indeed … I'm not able to stand it while I live on the first floor. Delia who lives next to her may feel it more intolerable."

She is a noisy girl. Besides, she does not work.

"Sir, may I return her to the orphanage when I have no choice? If I can do nothing to make Rosina change her mind, would you please take her back? I will pay the tuition, so it will be better if I go there to practice the Fespiel in training hours."

"… Attendants who refuse to follow their masters are useless. Even I don't want to take her back."

Hearing the Head Priest's words, I have an eye contact with Fran, and nod slightly.

"Gather all our attendants after lunch. We will have a meeting. Before that, I want to learn the opinion of Wilma, another attendant in the orphanage. Thank you very much. We have to go now, Sir."

"Well. It is important to learn the opinions from all members. See you."

"Has she grown up a bit? No, I still need to watch her for a while." While the Head Priest is murmuring, I get out of the house and head for the orphanage.

Wilma and Rosina served the same master before. So maybe she will give me some advice on Rosina's side.

I send someone to call Wilma and decide to have a talk in the dining hall. Fran goes into the room to take the board for making cards. Wilma can talk freely when Fran is absent. Because he is an adult male.

"… I want to learn the opinions of all my attendants this afternoon. You are unwilling to live in my house, so I come to ask for your opinion. I wonder whether you do not want to do the rough work to avoid hurting your hands as well, since you and Rosina served the same master Christine before."

The first one who rushes to wash children's dirt always is Wilma. Though I don't think Wilma will reject the rough work, I still want to know the response of Miss Christine's another attendant.

"Miss Maine, my job is to take care of the children. I'll not get this done if I don't want to do rough work."

Looking at me calmly, Wilma answers. Seeing her firm eyes, I breathe a sigh of relief, and then ask her about Rosina.

I'm really glad that Wilma is not the type of person who doesn't want to do rough work. I wonder if it's only Rosina who doesn't want to do the rough work.

"… That's right. I think maybe Rosina just has a stronger sense of self-respect compared with other gray-robed priestesses," Wilma thinks for a while and says so.

"I was chosen to become an attendant apprentice when I was ten. But Rosina was chosen not long after she left the orphanage and almost did no rough work before she returned. When she was at Miss Christine's house, all the chores and heavy work were done by the gray-robed priests, as Rosina said."

When Rosina was a child, there still were gray-robed priestesses who took care of the children before their baptism. Then it's not because Rosina really doesn't want to do the rough work, but because she was brought up like that. She is more like a girl from a well-off family compared with me.

"… Because Miss Christine is simply absorbed in arts, she gives preferential treatment to the attendants who good at arts, not just according to their seniority. It was natural for us at that time."

That's why Wilma said they were always devoted to performing arts to buy the master's delight.

"After Miss Christine returns to the nobles' society, Rosina was surprised at the life of the orphanage. It is only when I return to the orphanage to hear what others told me, that I came to know that our experiences were different from theirs by then."

Wilma, who had the experience of rough work before she was ten, could accept the reality of her special experience. But Rosina could not face the grim reality.

"Rosina wanted to go back to her life of music, but there was no opportunity. She understood that if she was chosen by a blue-robed priest as a flower offering priestess, her life would be completely different. But this time she is chosen by you - Miss Maine, a priestess apprentice like Miss Christine, so Rosina becomes obsessed with an idea of living the same life as before."

"Thank you very much for your valuable opinion, Wilma."

Noticing that Fran has been back, I get up and ready to leave. Wilma crosses her hands in front of her chest and bows slightly.

"Miss Maine, if possible, please give Rosina some time to think and correct herself."

"… This is a request from Wilma. I will consider it as much as I can."

I will consider, but I do not intend to change the basic attitude that I do not need an attendant who does not work. As it is said by Gil and the children of the orphanage, "no work, no food."