Baptism (3)
Four figures walked the narrow path the guards had formed by standing with their backs to the endless crowd.
The path stretched all the way to the temple’s main gate.
Anna tried speaking to him several times, but Roy, lost in thought, barely answered. At last the girl seized the boy’s arm and shook it.
"Roy! Royyy!"
Startled, Roy leaned in and whispered sharply against her ear.
"Anna. What do you think you’re doing in front of all these people!"
"You ignored me when I was talking to you!"
"Huh? Ah—sorry. The crowd was so loud I didn’t hear. What is it?"
"Here. Take this."
Glancing at the baron and baroness, Anna pulled a small paper packet from her pocket and pressed it into Roy’s hand. The couple, walking ahead and waving to the cheering citizens, never noticed the exchange between their children.
The packet was tiny enough to slip neatly into the vest pocket of his formal clothes.
"What’s this?"
Anna leaned so close her breath tickled his ear. It was maddeningly itchy, but with so many eyes on them and the need to maintain a noble’s dignity, he endured it.
"Cookies Misha and I made in secret."
"Why give them to me now?"
"To eat. In case you get hungry later."
"We’re at a baptism. Eating these would be rude."
"That’s why you have to eat them secretly. The whole thing takes forever and they don’t even feed you."
"Really?"
"Yep!"
Roy stared at her for a long moment, then nodded and tucked the packet away. There was no need to continue the conversation any longer.
Before they knew it, the lord’s family had reached the temple gates.
The crowd could stand no closer than twenty paces from the entrance. On the opposite side of the path Roy had just walked, a long line had formed—mostly family groups, each including a child around Roy’s age. Those children, it seemed, were also to be baptized today.
While Roy watched them, the baron explained in his place.
"Children outside the lord’s family must go through verification before entering the temple. Their names are entered into the register. After the ceremony, parents or guardians are called for confirmation, and only then does the baptized child become a formal resident of our territory."
"So without baptism, you can’t become a resident?"
"Exactly. Some poor farmers deliberately skip it to avoid taxes, but most make the effort to come here. Do you understand why?"
"Because they judge that becoming a resident is worth it?"
"Sharp as ever. Non-residents can’t trade within the territory, can’t seek justice if wronged, and receive no protection from the monsters that appear now and then. There are more reasons, but you’ll learn them yourself in time."
Roy thought most of the “benefits” the baron listed were really just ways to avoid the disadvantages of not being a resident.
There must be even more disadvantages… discrimination beyond that. That’s why even farmers who live far away take the time to come.
Registering the baptized children seemed to require not only temple staff but a large number of territorial officials. Several bureaucrats who usually reported to the mansion every day were visible among them.
Even after the Empire fell, taxes are still impossible to escape.
Just then someone emerged from the temple and bowed toward the baron.
"My lord, you have arrived."
"It has been too long, High Priest."
After exchanging greetings and pleasantries with the baron, the man turned his gaze to Roy.
"A pleasure to meet you, young master Roy. I am Geras, High Priest of the Parolas Temple. Please, follow me inside."
Roy told his family he would be back soon and followed the High Priest into the temple. Behind him Anna called out a cheerful farewell, but Roy never looked back.
The High Priest soon introduced Roy to a priestess. Her face, however, was already familiar. She had visited the mansion several times before.
"It’s been a while, young master Roy. So you’ve finally turned seven."
She was the same priestess who had treated Anna and Geren after the mansion was attacked. At the time Roy had been sleeping underground and never met her properly, yet she had come on other official visits, and he remembered her face well enough.
"It’s good to see you again."
She smiled brightly at his greeting. Given the day’s importance, even the High Priest could not personally escort the lord’s son the entire time. Roy was shown every corner of the temple by the familiar priestess instead.
As they walked, a question formed in his mind.
The temple was impressively large, yet it hardly seemed capable of holding every child born each year across the vast territory all at once. Many children died of illness or accident before baptism, but even so the number gathering from the entire barony could not be mere hundreds. At minimum it must exceed a thousand. Commoners who took only one wife still usually had five or more children, after all.
"Roughly how many children are baptized each year?"
"Well, it varies, but this year it should be around fifteen hundred. Greenhilt is a good place to live. The grain grows well."
That had been the southern territories’ hallmark since Imperial times. Abundant food meant rapid population growth—the opposite of the frozen north.
"So fifteen hundred children are coming here today?"
"Pardon? Pfft… You really are the lord’s son. Your questions are nothing like the other children’s. Today is only the first day of baptisms, so only children of high status like yourself enter. The ceremonies continue for ten days, so you needn’t worry."
Roy recalled the scene outside the temple. Indeed, no one there had looked especially poor.
So they were all nobles…
Quite a few nobles lived in the Greenhilt Barony, though most held no formal title. Occasional baronets existed, but they carried little weight. The nobles who truly held their heads high in this region were almost always Greenhilt kin or those tightly bound to the family. The territory was too large for the baron to manage alone, so parcels of land were often granted and lesser lords appointed. Naturally those appointees came mostly from the Greenhilt collateral lines. In this world nothing was more trustworthy than blood—though exceptions always existed.
"Then are the nobles being made to wait in line outside?"
"Ah, the line at the entrance? Those people aren’t nobles. Mostly merchants and wealthy households. The noble children are already inside."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Anyone who hasn’t arrived yet will enter the same way you did, without lining up. Of course they would have been waiting for the lord’s son to enter first. Now that you’re here, the next ones should follow soon."
"Are there many noble children?"
"Hmm… the numbers fluctuate wildly year to year. This year I believe there are only four, including yourself."
Far too few…
Roy clicked his tongue. On this continent, being a noble meant possessing a bloodline strong in mana.
"Would it be possible to learn who they are?"
"Of course. Shall I find out for you? They’ll come introduce themselves to you first anyway."
"Are they all Greenhilts?"
"Yes."
The priestess answered with a bright smile.
All Greenhilts…
Even better. Children who carried Greenhilt blood would possess decent mana aptitude. After watching his eldest brother Eric’s recent movements, Roy had decided it wouldn’t hurt to begin building his own faction a little earlier. He intended to stake his claim on promising raw gems while they were still uncut.
If I’m going to do it anyway, why wait until I’m fifteen?
"You said most of the people in line outside are merchants?"
"Merchants, officials…"
"Don’t tell me they let people in based on friendship with Father or how much money they have?"
The priestess hesitated.
"I won’t tell a soul. Please be honest."
"Well… yes. Most of them want to be baptized alongside the nobles today because of you, young master. They hope to build connections from childhood."
So I’m not the only one thinking that way.
Roy put on the innocent face of a clueless child.
"Me?"
"Well… it isn’t really my place to say, but the ceremony is quite long. There are rest periods in between. When those come, even if you simply stand still, the other children will flock to you. They’ll want to become friends."
Roy grinned at the news. A good idea had just occurred to him—completely unaware that the priestess was staring intently at his face.
"Does the ceremony really take that long?"
"Yes. But it should finish before sunset."
"What? You mean they don’t even give us food?"
The priestess answered with a bitter smile.
"Once the baptism begins, you may drink only water until it ends. Food cannot be brought into the sacred rites of the Sun God."
Only then did Roy understand why Anna had slipped him the cookies.
After the baron’s carriage departed from the temple front, another carriage of similar make soon arrived. It too bore the Greenhilt crest.
Only a woman and a single child stepped down—a girl.
Compared to the moment Roy had appeared, the surroundings were relatively quiet. Yet the people had not stopped talking. They merely covered their mouths and whispered among themselves.
The woman spoke a great many things to her daughter, then climbed back into the carriage and vanished down the street in an instant. She did not even escort the girl to the temple gate.
Because the guards still held the path open, walking alone posed no real difficulty. But the watching eyes and the sharp whispers stabbed at the girl with far greater force. Head bowed low, the solitary girl walked on and disappeared into the temple.
The last glimpse of her face suggested tears would spill at any moment.
Her name was Bella.
Bella Greenhilt.
It would take considerable time for every child scheduled for baptism that day to enter. Unlike the nobles, commoners required individual verification—perfectly natural. Judging the delay an excellent opportunity, Roy decided to introduce himself in advance to the collateral children who would follow him inside. There was no need to wait for them to approach first, even if noble custom held that the lower-ranked party should make the first move upon meeting.
Nobles never brought children who had not yet been baptized to social gatherings, so every child Roy would meet today would be a complete stranger.
This should be interesting.
While the priestess who had been guiding him stepped away briefly to prepare for the ceremony, the first child finally appeared along the same path Roy had taken.
A girl.
"Hey!"
Roy walked straight up to her without preamble. She was surely nervous at meeting him for the first time, but he was not the sort to make allowances for that.
"What’s your name?"
"……?"
"I asked for your name."
"Bella…"
"Do you know who I am?"
The girl quietly nodded.
"Nice to meet you. How about we go over there for a bit and talk?"
Roy told the priestess assigned to guide Bella that he would take over and that she should return to her duties. The priestess looked troubled, yet under the boy’s urging she had no choice but to accept. He was, after all, the lord’s son—young, but already guided by a senior priestess.
Once he confirmed the priestess had vanished around the corner of the corridor, Roy immediately ordered Bella,
"You said your name is Bella, right? Turn around for a moment. Don’t look this way until I give the signal. Understood?"
Bella obeyed without protest. From early childhood she had been taught never to earn the dislike of a direct-line child, so refusal was impossible. She moved with the same passive obedience she showed her mother.
Standing with her back turned as the boy had commanded, she heard muttering behind her.
"Oh, not bad at all."
Bella started. Was he praising her? Curious about the meaning of the inexplicable remark, she turned her head without thinking.
Their eyes met by accident.
Eyes dyed entirely in gold.