“Did you watch the Baptism Rite yesterday?”
“Obviously. Is there anyone who didn't? I even got an audience ticket and went to see it in person!”
“Damn, I'm jealous. The atmosphere must have been incredible.”
Raellum, the city where the Church's central seat and the Holy Emperor's Court are located.
As the capital of the Elion Holy Empire it had always been crowded, but right now every street was packed to bursting with people.
A day had passed since the Baptism Rite, and the whole Empire was still buzzing about yesterday.
“Handkerchiefs with the crest of House Ludersk, for sale!”
“Blue mufflers, the Ludersk symbol color, right here!”
“I'll take all of them!”
The day after the Baptism Rite and the party had all ended.
It had been a single day, but the quick-witted had already started selling Lian Ludersk merchandise.
“I bought pretty much every Ludersk item this time.”
“You're a die-hard anyway, you already have them all. And you bought more?”
“I didn't have a single thing with this year's rookie Lian on it!”
A man with a bandit's face, his entire body dyed blue, shouted in excitement.
“Fair enough, this Baptism Rite really was on another level. Everyone around me went all-in on cheering for Lian too.”
Just as they said, most of the crowd had at least one blue item gripped in hand.
The street was, quite literally, filled with a wave of blue.
A little apart from those crowds.
“Wow, there really are a lot of people.”
There were children gathered in a cluster to see the festival.
“And so much blue.”
The Baptism Rite is held on the last day of the year. And the next day brings the festival celebrating the new year.
'Like the New Year's Eve bell.'
That is why the Baptism Rite was able to become an event the whole Empire enjoys.
“Wow! New Year's festival!! Let's eat something good!!”
“Ha. After all that chaos yesterday, food still goes down for him, apparently.”
When Adrian bounced about in excitement, Lumiel scolded him. Without stopping him, though.
Unexpectedly, the two of them got on well.
Lumiel started dispensing backseat advice at Adrian's side about picking barbecue skewers.
“Hey, you said you didn't get much pocket money. Then buy chicken.”
“Huh. But I want to eat pork.”
“Chicken's cheapest. The seasoning's the same anyway. Buy pork and your money will be gone before you're full, you know?”
“Aha! Then should I just go with chicken?”
It went like that.
“Corin, do you want some too?”
“Ah, no. I'd rather just look around...”
“Oh my!”
A merchant recognized us.
“You're Lian, yesterday's rookie!”
“Yes, that's me. Thank you for recognizing me!”
I gave her a bright smile and the mood warmed right up.
“Aw, aren't you polite. Pick whatever you like. This auntie will throw in plenty extra.”
“Wow! Thank you!”
Oh. Sweet.
Becoming a rookie shot my name recognition up. The greatest beneficiary was Adrian.
Adrian, an armful of chicken and pork skewers in both hands, walked the square chewing.
“Children, take some of this while you're looking around.”
“Hahaha! The rookies! Take some of this too, future priests!”
The closer we got to the festival's main street, the more people recognized us.
At some point Adrian, having polished off the meat, had both hands filled with different food again.
'What is this. It's like being at an all-you-can-eat place.'
We were being given more than we bought with money.
“Wow, Lian, you really do have a lot of people cheering for you.”
“There were plenty cheering for you lot too.”
Hehehe. Heheheh.
The children snickered, unable to hold it in. In the end I burst out laughing too.
The popularity would be a flash in the pan, but being stamped into people's minds during candidate season was fairly significant.
“Freshly baked bread!”
We shared out bread given to us by a generous auntie and went on taking in the street.
“Lian, what are you aiming for when you get to the academy?”
Corin asks, tearing off small pieces of bread.
A career path.
It was a subject I had actually been mulling over for a long time, and as of yesterday I had settled it.
“Well... the Inquisition Bureau, probably?”
My guess is that properly undoing the Saint's seal will inevitably mean colliding with demons.
Since I'm going to the academy anyway, I intended to learn the know-how for dealing with demons properly.
“Th-then you're aiming to be an Inquisitor like your mother...?”
“No, not that.”
I cut him off flatly before Corin could finish.
Apologies to Mother, but interrogation isn't to my taste.
“I'm going to be an inspector priest.”
“Aha.”
Corin nods slightly.
'I'd have thought a battle priest suited Lian better than an inspector priest...'
Though inwardly he was thinking something else.
“Corin, you're aiming for healing priest, right?”
“Mm-hm. It seems like what I'd be best at...”
Well, having inherited the Dalopes family's blood, that's only natural.
“Me! I'm going to be a battle priest! With Lumiel!”
“Argh! You're heavy, get your arm off!”
Adrian's arm, slung heavily over him, flattened Lumiel.
'When did those two get that close.'
They must have talked about all sorts of things at the party the day before, while I was away meeting Archbishop Nagrim Hilloriven.
“There is a great deal I am truly curious about regarding you, young Lian.”
“Yes, sir...”
'That beaming, smiling face was far too much pressure.'
The conversation itself was nothing much.
What surprised me was that Nagrim and my parents had anticipated in advance that I would be the prophet.
Shaking off the recollection, I found the children's expressions had gone oddly flat.
“So I'm Holy Care Bureau, Lumiel and Adrian are the Clerical Governance Office, and Lian is the Inquisition Bureau.”
“Our academy dormitories will be split up all over the place.”
Osten Academy.
An educational institution for raising the children who have received baptism.
The unusual part is that dormitories are divided according to each student's chosen path.
At Lumiel's remark, everyone falls silent for a moment.
'Huh. They're this glum about it?'
We were only on the same team for a single day yesterday?
'Elly, these kids really are babies, aren't they. Extremely sentimental.'
-Lian. Are you a T, by any chance?
'It was one day at a Baptism Rite!'
-Lian is cold-blooded.
No! What did I even do!
It took a little longer for the mood to brighten again.
***
I came home.
Cleaning up after the demon's rampage took another day, so we enjoyed two whole days of the festival.
'They were terribly reluctant right to the end.'
Playing with the children for two straight days let me get fairly close to them.
Corin especially.
“So now all that's left is preparing for the academy.”
Haa.
Twelve years of public education and four years of university, and here I am entering school again.
And I'll be going in at seven, a year earlier than before.
'At least the academy only goes up to ninth year.'
I console myself with the shorter duration, at least.
From the end of the Baptism Rite to enrollment there is a one-year preparation period.
That period gets filled with finding and honing whichever of the specialty talents surfaced at the Baptism Rite is outstanding, or preparing the necessary equipment.
'Every attribute line came up as a specialty for me.'
The base attribute of holy power follows Elysian's attribute.
Following Elysian, god of light, the base attributes are the light attribute everyone has, plus purification and blessing.
But attributes can be converted.
'The conversion is the talent.'
Whether or not you can change into another attribute line. That much alone is innate talent.
The lines divide into the Holy Aura line, the Healing line, the Enhancement line, the Manifestation line and the Condemnation line.
For example, having talent in the Manifestation line means holy magic or constructing a barrier becomes possible.
-How are you going to prepare?
'First, I have to make a steel pipe.'
-The classic pick, of course.
It was the fundamental weapon I used back in Seo Utak's day. Nothing else sits in the hand like it.
-But can you even make something like a steel pipe here? Wouldn't a wooden staff be better?
'Even reinforced with a talisman, the innate hardness is different.'
-Hmm.
Elly makes a dissatisfied face.
Understandably, since a wooden staff was Elly's specialty.
Of course, a big part of why I chose a steel pipe back then was that it was a surprisingly easy ready-made to obtain.
But I did also choose it because the hardness is high. Yes.
Knock knock—
“Lian, is it all right to come in?”
“Yes, Mother.”
At the knocking on the door I straightened my posture.
“Did you rest well? And you're not tired.”
“Yes, not tired at all.”
Mother and Father were still fussing and worrying about my physical condition.
Understandably. It was a major incident in which I was attacked by a demon.
“Ahem. My son. You know you have to enter the academy now, don't you?”
“Yes.”
“Before you enroll, we need to have equipment made that suits you, Lian.”
As expected. Equipment production comes first.
Because the academy is fundamentally a place where you learn through competition, you enroll fully outfitted with personal equipment and the rest.
'They do offer rentals, but you can assume almost nobody rents.'
Since your training direction has to be set to match your equipment, this was the first order of business.
Which means I have to press my own opinion...
“Ahem. Surely a mace would be best? It is the most commonly used weapon in the Inquisition Bureau.”
“Lian is good at throwing, so wouldn't a throwable weapon be better? A dagger, perhaps.”
“Ah! Of course!”
My parents are barking up the wrong tree.
Given that the fighting I've shown them so far has only been that sort, it's unavoidable.
'At this rate my equipment is going to end up bizarre!'
A dagger? My aim isn't especially good.
“I want a steel staff!”
“Hm?”
“A staff made of metal!”
“A staff?”
“Yes!”
Not a sword, not a mace, but out of nowhere a staff?
My parents' faces are full of puzzlement.
-A staff really is the best.
Elly is nodding along with satisfaction.
Elly's former name was Danmok the Celestial Maiden, a name given to her because she handled a single staff spectacularly well.
My staff technique was all learned from Elly.
This is what I'm best at, so there is no reason to switch to another weapon.
“Hmm... a staff made of metal would be very heavy, wouldn't it?”
“The inside has to be hollow! Like a straw!”
“Lian, if you do that the strength will be poor and it will hardly work as a weapon, will it?”
“And you have never once been taught the staff.”
Oh no.
My parents are launching a joint attack to block my will of the staff...!
'If you'd just make it for me I could show and prove!'
How do I persuade them?
-Just show them. Any staff will do anyway.
'Ah.'
That's true too.
-And while you're at it, show them you can make it lighter as well.
Plus the strategy of teaching them talisman arts on top!
Good.
“Mother, Father. Let me show you.”
“Hm?”
“I'll show you the reason it has to be a staff!”
The armory at home has a variety of weapons prepared.
Among them, naturally, there are staves too.
Not made in a child's size, of course. Which is to say.
'They're extremely heavy.'
“Urgh!”
With a child's strength I couldn't even lift it properly.
“Can you really manage with that...?”
I ended up receiving a worried look even from the servant who had fetched the staff.
“Yes!”
I said it confidently, then set it down on the floor.
“?”
“...?”
Ah. That's not it.
“I'll — I'll make it lighter!”
I hurriedly raised a hand and gathered holy power.
A sharply honed blade of holy power forms at my fingertip.
“!!”
“!!!”
'He can control it like that already?'
It had been about a week since the Baptism Rite.
Which meant it had only been a week since his holy power crystal was formed.
And yet being able to make use of holy power this well already meant Lian's talent was that outstanding.
Leilaik and Lilliad's eyes meet.
'For now...'
'Shall we keep watching?'
With the two of them watching, I wrote out the letters.
Lightening.
Three characters, and that's all there is to write.
'Inscribing letters really has been far easier since the holy power crystal formed.'
I'd felt it when purifying the Saint's pendant too.
Even with one more character it was no strain. The lines come out smoothly.
'Maybe... thirty percent of my old skill restored?'
My talisman-making was fairly good.
It'll take a while longer for that skill to come back, by the look of it.
Elly's divine power seeped in smoothly too. The amount lost along the way has clearly dropped a lot.
***
Meanwhile.
The eyes of the married couple watching Lian's work grew wider still than before.
'What is that?'
'A drawing? No, letters? What is it?'
Their gazes collide once again.
And then they realized.
'The angel!'
'It's the angel!'
A gleam of realization settled in both their eyes.
'It rather looks as though he learned an ancient magic circle from the angel, doesn't it?'
'He seemed to use something similar before that too. But seeing how completely it changed after the Baptism Rite, I think you are right.'
Whisper, whisper.
The two of them lowered their voices and pressed on with their deduction.
The two were under the misapprehension that the letters being inscribed on the staff were an ancient magic circle.
Completely wide of the mark.
What he had inscribed on the bottle and the fountain pen before had been faint and light-bled, so they hadn't noticed.
While the misunderstanding grew and grew on one side.
'Heh heh. Perfect lightening.'
The letters were completely inscribed. The time it took dropped sharply too.
I lifted it with a hand and it comes up easily.
“!!”
“!!”
Both of them are shocked.
Heh heh heh heh.
“I'll show you.”
I took up the staff and settled into a stance.
It was an adult's size and far too long, but it had gotten light enough to handle.
'Something to demonstrate with...'
I turned my head slightly and saw the newspaper Father had come in holding.
I picked up the newspaper.
And tossed it lightly upward.
“Hup!”
With a shout I drove the steel pipe forward lightly.
Whoom— it swept cleanly down through the air.
“Huk!”
“!!!”
Fwip—
The newspaper, split into two, fell to the floor.