A Furball Curses the World
The interior of the temple was, on the whole, hushed and still.
Even as I followed the High Priest deeper inside, I caught hardly a glimpse of another priest.
At this point, isn't this place basically his private vacation home?
I thought that, watching the man's back. His silver hair, grown all the way to the small of his back, shimmered like holy water held in a chalice.
Is this the sort of air all High Priests carry with them? Mysterious, ineffable — and yet, well, it didn't make me want to get any closer.
The truth was, I'd never even met a High Priest back in the Tenasis Empire. No — more accurately, I had never once been able to set foot near a temple at all.
Ordinarily, whenever a campaign was scheduled, the imperial knights would stop by the temple for a blessing before marching out. I had never done so, not a single time.
Of all the knights in Tenasis, I'm probably the only one who's never been inside a temple.
Part of it was my nature — I simply didn't believe in gods — but the bigger reason was that Serhin despised the temple with a passion.
"The priests of the temple hate people like us — humans who live by the sword and the blood on it. You most of all, Sia. If you'd rather not be branded a heretic and hunted down like a witch, don't so much as breathe near them."
"……"
"Did you think I didn't know the burn scars on your face weren't from some mere accident? I let it slide, so it stays slid. Even if rebel blood does run in your veins, you're already my friend. ……But do you believe the temple would see it that way?"
Heretic.Witch hunt. Words that were horrifying just to hear.
I had answered that it was more than enough. I understood, after all — which meant I would never go anywhere near the temple or its priests, so he could spare me the rest of the lecture.
Thinking back on it now, he really did have a vile personality.
What on earth possessed him to threaten me so bluntly, when he could just as easily have phrased it kindly?
Recalling the narrow gleam of Serhin's eyes and that glacial voice of his, I shuddered. Brrr.
How long had we walked? At some point, I found myself standing before the entrance to the temple's great hall. Its doors appeared to be carved from pure white marble, and the hall's soaring ceiling made the doors themselves tremendous in height — which was perhaps why they closed with such a ponderous, weighty boom.
"Butler."
Before stepping into the great hall, the Grand Duke turned back to look at me. The High Priest stopped as well, following his lead. The Grand Duke said he had matters to discuss with the priest.
"Wait here. If you grow bored, you may go run about in that garden we passed on the way."
"……"
Who exactly are you calling a foal that can't tell heaven from earth?
Offering up a smile painted on for the occasion, I answered with nothing more than a slight bow of my head. When I lifted it again, my eyes happened to meet the High Priest's, and I tipped my head once more in his direction by way of greeting.
The moment the two men passed into the great hall, the doors swung shut behind them on their own.
Kuuurrrrumble—. The sound of their closing shook the silent temple.
……
I straightened my back and took up position beside the doors to wait for the Grand Duke.
One minute. Five. Ten……
Their talks seem to be running long.
I shot a sidelong glance at the ornate doors of the great hall — then quietly shifted my weight and set off.
The garden. Let's pay the garden a visit.
This was my first outing in two years. The Grand Duke's watchdogs — Sir Allen and Ed — were nowhere in sight, his personal surveillance was absent, and I even had his blessing to frolic. What more was there to deliberate?
Calling to mind the entrance of the temple garden I'd spotted on the walk over, I quickened my pace.
Heehee.
— The God's Garden —
Now that's a refreshingly plain name for a garden.
Well, it wasn't as though the temple had a garden for anyone else.
I paused for a moment, regarding the sign that bore the garden's name. A suitably clean branch had been cut, the name carved into it, a hole bored through the top, a cord strung and tied — then hung at the entrance, by the look of it.
Ordinarily wouldn't you gild it, add flourishes, engrave some ornamental patterns?
Thinking this, I found myself picturing the High Priest. That face without a speck of worldly greed, smiling so generously. For some reason, I had a feeling the sign might well be his own handiwork.
Tearing my gaze from the sign, I stepped into the garden.
"Oh."
The admiration slipped out of me before I knew it. The instant I passed through the garden's entrance, the season turned on a dime. One breath I had been standing in the depths of a long winter; the next, the warmth of full spring wrapped around me.
You could've told me this was another world and I'd have believed you.
Some manner of temperature-regulating apparatus, no doubt. The Grand Duke's wine cellar and tea-leaf storage had similar devices for controlling heat and humidity.
I strolled at my leisure between flowers of every color and perfume. How long had it been since I last breathed in nature like this? I drew a deep lungful of air and let it out slowly, savoring the freedom I had left.
And then, all at once —
Hold on.
I stopped in my tracks, a grave expression settling over my face.
Isn't this, by any chance, an escape opportunity I may never get again?
No Sir Allen or Ed posted by the Grand Duke, no direct oversight from the man himself. Right now, I was a body of perfect liberty, answerable to no one's watchful eye.
Hmmmm……
But I soon folded the idea of bolting away again.
The Grand Duke is no fool.
He would have prepared for every contingency — including my running for it. Especially with that dog collar.
Flicking the blue gem set into the collar with my fingertip — ting, ting — I resumed my stroll through the garden.
This is the man who can throw you in confinement and release you again with the snap of a single finger.
Underestimating him would be a mistake.
Really, though, there was no need to be so impatient about it. I had already spent two years of my life at the Grand Duke's estate, and the place was so vast that it had never once felt like imprisonment.
Back in Tenasis, I never went anywhere but the imperial palace and the battlefield anyway.
Besides, if we were talking about confinement, Serhin had been far worse. Serhin would not tolerate me vanishing from before his eyes. He kept me within his line of sight to a degree that made you wonder how he'd ever survived a moment without me.
……I wonder if he's doing all right?
Seeing me drop dead in front of him must have been quite the shock. Then again — surely not more of a shock than for the actual dead party, namely me.
Perhaps it was the leisure I so rarely enjoyed, but thoughts I normally never entertained came swirling up and cluttering my head.
And then —
…Huh?
Startled by the voice that came from nowhere, I glanced all around.
I wasn't alone?
Yet there was no human shape to be seen, and no human presence to be felt, either. Had I misheard it? Was I finally so far gone that I'd started hearing things?
Unable to pin down the source of that voice, I went back to walking the garden.
But then it came again.
There it was again — that voice. Vowing to curse people even beyond death? A genuinely unsettling thing to say.
Who on earth is that?
Goosebumps rippled up my arms. Of all places, I had to be standing in a temple. The temple — the one said to sit upon the boundary between the living and the dead.
Don't tell me…… I'm not listening to a dead man's voice right now, am I?
An unaccountable chill crawled all the way up to the nape of my neck.
But scary was scary, and —
I still have to find out where that sound is coming from.
Curiosity was the one thing I could never resist, so I began striding through the garden in quick pursuit of the voice's origin.
"……"
"……"
"……"
A very small voice chattered on without end. It sounded like a young child's, and yet the tone carried the bitter grievances of a grown adult, brimming with resentment toward the world.
The strength was draining from the voice, little by little — like a candle guttering toward its end.
It's been complaining about the pain this whole time.
Where was it hurt?
And then, at a corner of the garden, I spotted something and came to a halt. Beneath the shadow of a great tree sat something I'd never have noticed without looking closely.
Charcoal?
A round, jet-black thing — from a slight distance, it looked for all the world like a lump of charcoal. But as I drew a little closer, I could make out that it was an animal covered in black fur.
A beast……?
Incredulous, I swept my gaze around the garden once more. Could its owner have been nearby?
It wasn't as if a furball the size of my fist could talk, after all.
I approached the little ball of fur. And then —
In an instant, the furball — curled into a tight round ball — lifted its head and looked at me. Our eyes met, precisely and unmistakably.
Having noticed me, the furball puffed out its fur, putting on a grand show of wariness. It was a creature with fur black as soot from head to toe, pointed ears, and eyes of blue.
The truly peculiar thing was the marking on its forehead: the patch of white fur there was shaped like a star. And not some rough approximation of a star, either — it was a star, vivid and unmistakable.
I stared at that star for a moment, then turned my attention elsewhere. It's hurt. Patches of fur were missing across its body, and in places the skin beneath had been torn open.
I took another step forward to assess its condition — and the thing shrieked "Kyyaaaak!" baring a set of sharp, blindingly white teeth in threat.
"……"
What a temper.
I ignored the warning and closed the distance further, and sure enough, the ferocious roar of a beast of prey came flying at me.
I'll rake them right across you if you take one more step. Got it?! It'll hurt a WHOLE lot!
The creature splayed its round, cotton-ball toes wide, flashing a set of needle-sharp claws as it shouted.
"Myew! Mya-ow! Myaaaang!"
It was a cat.