The Festival Revival: Changes Beneath the Surface
"…Just what in the world is this hideous thing?"
A wooden statue carved in the shape of a phallus had been erected in the center of the village. Even if I had not been a member of the clergy, that shameless, mortifying spectacle would have made anyone wrinkle their nose.
Setting aside my physiological disgust as a woman, this was almost certainly a physical manifestation of classic phallic worship. Such blatant idolatry was something I, as a priestess of the Light Church, could never tolerate.
"Ah, this is the statue we'll be using for the festival's finale. I will admit it came out a bit… overly well-crafted. Hahahaha. Frantz put quite a bit of work into it."
"Have it removed at once."
At my declaration, the village chief's face darkened in an instant.
"Wh-what? Why? Is something about it bothering you?"
"Of course something is bothering me. This is a clear remnant of ancient phallic worship. Unmistakable idolatry. The only gods the Light Church recognizes are the seven deities consecrated in the pantheon and their lesser spirits. There is no god among them whose motif is a penis. Tear it down immediately."
As a priestess of the Light Church, I had intended to give him a chance to recant his sin as gently as possible. The village chief, however, made a mockery of that consideration.
"Oh, come now, Reverend. What are you saying? This is just a statue. Who would sincerely 'worship' a thing like this? It's nothing more than part of the festival… part of the festivities. Couldn't you let something this small slide?"
He isn't going to listen.
I gathered divine power into the staff in my hand. If he would not reflect of his own accord, I would simply have to make him understand by force. It would not take much power to smash a scrap of wood like this. I was about to shatter that false idol then and there and deliver a stern rebuke.
Yujin lightly caught my wrist and stopped me.
"Reverend. I know you might be angry, but please calm down just a little. The chief might have his reasons, don't you think?"
"…You're right."
Yujin's youthful voice soothed the anger inside me, if only a little. He was right. No matter the circumstances, resorting immediately to violence was hardly becoming of a priestess. Perhaps all the recent stress had been making my behavior more extreme.
"Very well. Let's hear it, then. Chief, in my judgment, this object is an abomination that I, as a cleric of the Light Church, cannot simply overlook. Explain to me what meaning it holds in the festival."
The village chief may not have been able to sense the divine power that had swirled around my staff, but he certainly caught the anger in my voice.
"Y-yes, of course! Reverend, is it not true that the most perfect good is only revealed by the existence of evil, and that brilliant light is only known by the presence of darkness? Darkness and evil exist so that, in their defeat, they may proclaim the greatness of their opposites. This statue is the same."
Even the chief of a backwater village like this was, I supposed, the sort of man who got elected as a representative for a reason. He had at least managed to spit out a sophistry that sounded plausible enough.
"And therefore! When the festival reaches its peak, we intend to hold a ceremony in which we burn this statue. Through that act, we shall discover ourselves bidding a more decisive farewell to the superstitions of the past. For the sake of that rite, just for a little while — couldn't you acknowledge the existence of this… unsightly object?"
"…Hmph."
The reasoning was as thin as a thread, but it was not entirely without sense. I had heard that in certain regions they carved statues of dragons — symbols of the devil — and held ceremonies to slay them. …Though a dragon and a phallus make for a rather awkward correspondence, whether you look at them in terms of appearance or meaning.
"…Very well. But this obscene appearance is hardly fit to be left out in the open. Cover it with a tent at least, and keep it hidden until the festival."
"Of course, Reverend! Right away!"
Afraid I might change my mind, the village chief immediately had the young men throw a tent over the phallic statue and haul it somewhere out of sight.
"I'm glad we were able to settle it amicably. See? When you actually talk things through, you can close the gap in your opinions, right?"
"…Yes. I suppose I have a great deal to learn from you. Honestly, I still question whether they needed to make something like that in the first place… but at the very least, it wasn't something that had to be smashed apart with violence."
The saying that one must not be ashamed to learn from those beneath them existed, I supposed, precisely for moments like this.
"Thank you for understanding. Heheh."
I stroked the head of Yujin, who was smiling without a trace of guile. If only everyone could keep a heart as pure and kind as this child's.
As the village's one and only priestess, I was deeply involved in its affairs both great and small — but of course I could not neglect the fundamental duties of my office either.
One of those duties was to hear the villagers' confessions of sin, guide them toward repentance, and counsel them so that they would not sin again. That said, those so-called confessions of sin were, more often than not, nothing more than the same tired, repetitive complaints about everyday failings. In a village this small there was hardly any opportunity to commit a truly grave sin, and even when someone did, they were usually found out before long and punished with a beating. So what I ordinarily did was take in their grumbling, dole out a scolding, and in doing so transfer the sourness in their hearts over to myself to be dealt with.
That was how it usually went. Today, however… something about the atmosphere in the village felt a little strange.
"Um, Reverend? I've come to confess my sins."
A familiar woman's voice reached me. Pretending not to recognize it, however, was a basic principle of the priesthood.
"The Light holds all people within Its sight. Therefore the Light already knows the entirety of your sins. By not concealing a sin that will inevitably come to light, and by confessing it before the God of Light, you have wisely avoided the additional sin of concealment. Now, do not hide the sins you have committed. Confess them. The merciful Light will surely forgive you."
I recited the standard formula and waited for the confession, hoping that this time I might hear a sin that was even slightly different.
…But that, it seemed, had been too much to hope for.
"Ugh, um… I have committed the sin of lust."
Again?
I barely managed to swallow the sigh that tried to escape. The girl had summoned her courage to confess, in her own way, and I could not crush that courage with a sigh. Even so, I could not help feeling stifled by the procession of village maidens who had come to confess the exact same sin — seven times in this single day alone.
Just what is going on?
A woman, not a man, confessing the sin of carnal desire. That in itself was not particularly surprising. Men tended to treat their own lust as a matter of course and brazen it out without a shred of shame. But the frequency of late had been a little… abnormal.
"In what manner did you commit the sin of lust? Did an unmarried maiden surrender her body to a man, or something of that sort…?"
"Th-that can't be! I would never commit a sin that grave, no matter what!"
"Is that so? Then what sin was it? A confession that is not properly spoken does not constitute a confession at all."
"Nnh, um, well… I-I think a demon must have gotten into my soul. Last night I, um, had a dirty dream."
At that answer I was able, however faintly, to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Dreams are not something a person can control by their own power, and therefore they cannot be called a sin. So you may set your mind at ease."
"N-no! It is a sin! I truly believe I have sinned. Because the contents of that dream were so lewd they shouldn't even be possible."
"…If confessing it will loosen the knot in your heart, then as you wish."
"Ahh, thank you."
Having received my ambiguous encouragement, the penitent launched in earnest into a detailed confession of exactly what kind of dream she had had.
"In the dream I was standing naked in front of a huge number of men. And they were all faces I knew, too. I mean, the men I can even imagine are pretty much all the same people, right? In a situation like that I should have been incredibly ashamed and wanted to run away — but the me in the dream wasn't like that at all. I was even tasting this strange excitement. I… I might have been born with that kind of perversion from the very beginning."
"A dream is only a dream. There's no need to think that deeply about it."
"Y-yes. You're right. Anyway, the village men in the dream demanded that I show them how I comforted myself sexually. And I felt like that was… like that was a proper duty that had been assigned to me. So without any doubt at all I spread my legs and, in front of everyone, started to… haah… masturbate."
It might have been my imagination, but the penitent's breathing had grown ragged, and the heat in her voice was rising.
"Just thinking that the men were watching me made that, that part of me feel so incredibly good, even though it was a dream… haah… every time their mocking stares came flying and pierced into me I got goosebumps… I really shouldn't be like this, but being a spectacle for the men felt as if it were my very mission…"
"Yes, yes, that's quite enough. Quite enough. If it was something like that, then feeling a sense of guilt is only natural."
In truth I was not supposed to cut a penitent off mid-confession, but if she kept going I felt my ears would only grow dirtier. I preached to her on the emptiness of lust and the true happiness she would meet in the next life, and sent her on her way. The thought that I would be running into her around the village often enough from now on, and that I would have to treat her as if I knew nothing, made my chest feel tight.
"Thank you, Reverend… Um, I know it's a bit much to ask this after the confession is over, but may I ask one question?"
"Go ahead."
"Even if I end up committing the same sin over and over again… you'll forgive me if I confess, right?"
"…A confession is completed by the will and the promise never to sin again. You mustn't already be thinking that way."
At my principled answer, the penitent promptly left the confessional.
"Haaaaah… It is only natural that men and women possess the instinct to be fruitful and multiply, but lately things have been a little strange."
It was almost certainly that Guild, or whatever they called themselves, exerting a corrupting influence on the innocent country maidens. Those filthy creatures could hardly be expected to drip their poison exclusively onto the men.
The village girls who had been visiting the confessional of late were all too ready to complain of a sexual desire that boiled up inside them. Among them were some for whom it did not end at erotic dreams — girls who had comforted themselves, and even one who had torn her own hymen while masturbating and come to ask whether that was a sin that would send her to hell.
…And though this was only speculation, there were surely some among them who had already lain with a man and were playing dumb about it.
"I tried to prevent sexual corruption and license before they could take root, but perhaps I was already too late. …No. No, that isn't right. There is no such thing as already too late."
Once the commotion of the festival settled down, I would gather every last maiden in the village and put them through a thorough education in chastity. That, too, was the work of a priestess whose duty it was to guide her flock.