Chapter 4
All that was left was to pair up, wring the water out of the blankets, and hang them on the line. Daphne wiped the sweat from her brow just as she and Thalia were wringing one out.
“What about you, Daphne?”
Marianne called out to her, her face flushed from putting her whole body into wringing the blanket.
“Isn’t there something you want to do? Bishop Isabella said you’re the only one who hasn’t applied to leave the order.”
At her words, everyone stopped wringing their blankets and turned to look at Daphne in surprise.
“Daphne, are you really not going to leave?”
“Are you really going to stay here?”
Whenever they chattered among themselves about their futures after leaving the order, Daphne would only listen quietly and never say a word. They had all privately assumed she would ultimately leave as well. After all, they had endured life at the prayer house only by looking forward to the day they could leave.
The prayer house was a harsh place to live alone.
This was Abba’s prayer house, where temperance and devotion were virtues, but they still had to do everything themselves. The Grand Temple, their mother church, provided a few basic supplies, but only enough to keep them from freezing or starving to death.
They hadn’t been allowed to leave the prayer house grounds until they were grown, and it was only recently that they’d been permitted to come and go under the pretext of helping in the cathedral kitchen. Until then, it had been the same day over and over. They slept huddled together for warmth, then woke and made do with limited food and resources.
They had no choice but to count down the days until they could leave the order and be free. That was why they thought Daphne would want it even more. As the saying went, only those who’d tasted meat knew how to enjoy it. Unlike the others, who had been dedicated to the temple before they could even walk, Daphne had lived in the secular world until she was ten.
They had quietly assumed that even Daphne, the most devout among their cohort, must want to go outside. They made no effort to hide their bewilderment.
“Will you be all right? You’ll be left here all alone.”
Daphne nodded and answered Marianne with a clear smile.
“I told Bishop Isabella I want to take charge of the next priests-in-training. She said it might take some time for official permission to come through, but… Thalia. I think that’s enough. Let’s hang it on the line.”
“Huh? Oh…”
While her fellow trainees stared in shock, Daphne checked that the tightly wrung blanket had stopped dripping. She swung her arms wide to hang it on the line.
“…Ah!”
“…!”
Just then, Thalia, still lost in thought, moved a beat too late, and one end of the blanket nearly fell to the ground. Panicking, Daphne lunged toward the falling blanket.
No! I don’t want to wash it again!
Washing the blanket all over again would be worse than bathing in cold water. Managing to catch it in her arms, she braced for the coming impact.
But it felt strange against her back. No, against the back of her head.
…Squish?
It was… firm? She didn’t know how to put it. It was plump and yielding, yet it also felt solid at the same time.
It was so much softer than the hard dormitory mattress, and it felt reassuring. Daphne found herself thinking she ought to feel it with her face, not the back of her head.
“Ah…!”
She opened her eyes in a daze and saw her fellow trainees gasping. Their faces were so stunned that she blinked.
Why do they look so shocked?
It was a far more startled reaction than when she’d said she wanted to take on the juniors’ ministry, leaving her bewildered.
Just then, a shadow fell over her head.
She looked up and saw golden eyes gazing down at her through slightly tousled silver hair.
Theodore Valentino.
The young Cardinal and Watcher of the Three Stars had one arm around her shoulder. His deep voice dropped from beneath his high-bridged nose.
“Are you all right?”
“…!”
Startled, Daphne jerked away from his arms as if a spasm had hit her.
Oh god…! Did I just think, with my head against the Cardinal’s chest, that it would be nice to feel those springy chest muscles with my face?
To think she’d had such a shameful thought instead of showing gratitude!
Daphne, you lunatic! How dare you think something like that about the Cardinal?
If he hadn’t caught her, she would have tumbled to the ground. Flushed, Daphne clutched the blanket tightly and bowed her head.
“T-Thank you, Your Eminence. Thanks to you, I’ve been spared the trouble of doing the work all over again.”
Theodore said nothing.
As the silence stretched on, Daphne swallowed hard.
Was that not the right thing to say?
She cautiously lifted her head and met those golden eyes, still boring into her. He was clenching and unclenching the hand that had caught her forearm.
Why is he looking at me like that? It’s embarrassing.
Daphne was going out of her mind. She kept remembering how those chest muscles had felt against the back of her head, firm but soft. She didn’t want to remember it, but it had been such an intense moment and sensation that she couldn’t get it out of her head.
She squeezed her eyes shut and asked in a small voice.
“W-What brings you all this way…?”
God, that was humiliating. She was so nervous that her voice was cracking. Daphne pressed her lips together.
A Cardinal’s proper duties were to assist the Pope, lead the bishops, and preside over worship, including blessings, but they also watched over those who, like her, bore original sin, and decided their punishment.
If he had come to the prayer house in person today, there had to be a reason.
Don’t tell me he found that place? No, no. Even if he did, he wouldn’t know it was my hiding spot. And if I’d really been caught, I would have been dragged off already.
Daphne’s mouth went bone-dry as she remembered her secret that no one knew. What on earth was he taking so long to say?
Even as she told herself she couldn’t have been found out, her lower belly twitched with a strange anxiety. She cursed herself for being so hopeless.
Maybe he’s taking so long because he’s deciding what punishment to give me.
Daphne’s tightly clasped hands trembled. Only then did Theodore open his tightly shut mouth.
“The ground is still frozen. You could have been seriously hurt. Please be careful.”
“Ah…”
Good heavens. Cardinal Theodore was worrying about her.
“Thank you for your concern, Your Eminence.”
Theodore didn’t reply.
“…Is there anything else you wished to say?”
Theodore still had one hand clenched in a fist and kept clenching and unclenching the other. At Daphne’s cautious question, his lips moved.
“Well…”
“Oh, Your Eminence!”
He hesitated for several seconds. Just as he opened his mouth again, an urgent voice rang out from nearby. It was Bishop Caleb. The elderly man’s half-bald forehead gleamed in the midday sun.
“W-We’ll be going now.”
“Take care, Your Eminence!”
The priests-in-training, who had been frozen stiff when Cardinal Theodore appeared, seized the chance and scattered. Just as Daphne was about to flee after them…
Theodore’s large hand seized her arm.
The heat of his body burned through her vestments. Startled, Daphne nearly dropped the blanket.
“Is… Is something the matter…?”
Daphne looked up at Theodore, her face gone pale. He had been about to say something, but he pressed his lips together. Only when Bishop Caleb had come right up to them did he release her arm and speak.
“Tell me if you find yourself in need of anything for the ministry of the next priests-in-training. I shall help you to the best of my ability.”
Daphne’s eyes went round at the unexpected words. How had he known she wanted to take on the ministry? Only Bishop Isabella should have known.