Off the coast of the kingdom of Alveia lies the humble town of Porthros, where the Tower of the Seer stood in the middle of a wide river, guarding the passage from evil spirits. That was the official reason for the tower, but it’s more or less a glorified lighthouse.

The Seertower, as they called it, was maintained by the local Porthros temple, a sect that followed the teachings of the protector god Helm. The priestesses of Porthros devoted their lives to the tower, living for nothing else.

The temple of Helm also doubled as an orphanage, where young girls of war were taken in and raised as priestesses.

In all honesty, Nentonia didn’t really care much about the tower. She was a devout follower of Helm like the rest of them, but she thought that the priestess’ work was boring. She sat in her room, looking out her window that faced the river. She could see the tower in the distance. It was pure white, which made it stand out.

The sisters said that if a priestess is good enough, they will become a high priestess once they turn fifteen, and they’ll be sent to the tower, where they’d spend most of their lives praying, never being allowed to leave.

“What’s so fun about that?” she muttered to herself. Reading books was way more entertaining than praying. “Why do gods need so many prayers anyways? They’re really needy.”

“Hey now, if you badmouth our god like that, you won’t get lunch.”

An older lady draped in white robes entered the room and managed to overhead Nentonia.

“Sister Ava, what brings you here?” Nentonia asked as she stood prim and proper in front of her.

“What, am I not allowed to see my favorite little troublemaker?” she said as she placed down a bunch of laundry on Nentonia’s bed. “So? Have you been behaving?”

“Of course I have!” Nentonia replied proudly. “I’ve been the behavest I’ve ever been!”

“Oh dear, is that so?”

“Yep! So does that mean I’m not grounded anymore?”

Ava crossed her arms. “I wonder about that...”

“What if I promise not to pull pranks again?”

“Please, we both know you’d break that promise come morning. You’re staying grounded for two more days.”

“Oh...”

Nentonia’s shoulders slumped upon hearing that. In all honesty, she was fine just being in a room reading books. But staying in one place for too long was painfully dull.

“...Is what I wanted to say,” sister Ava continued. “But a certain someone convinced me to reduce your grounding period by two days. Which means you’re free.”

Nentonia’s head perked up. “Pardon?”

As she said that, a figure appeared from behind Ava; a girl Nentonia’s age, smiling widely. “It wasn’t easy you know?”

“Jaysie!” Nentonia beamed as she ran to hug her friend. Jaysie returned the tight embrace. The two of them laughed, glad to see each other after a whole three days of being separated.

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After releasing each other, Jaysie grabbed Nentonia’s wrist and pulled her outside. “We’re going to the library!”

“Hey, no running!” Ava warned, to no avail.

The two of them spent the rest of the day with each other, finding interesting stories and reading them to each other until the sun began to set. Jaysie was one of Nentonia’s only joys in life. After all, she was one of the only ones who would talk to her. The other orphans distanced themselves from her, and among the sisters, only Ava stayed by her side. As a result, the both of them got varying degrees of ostracization themselves. They were labeled as the “weird” and “naïve” ones for choosing to associate with Nentonia. “Too kind for their own good”, they’d say.

But even so, they stayed by her side. She loved them more than anyone else in the world.

“Still, I think you went a bit too far with that last prank, Nenny,” Jaysie said. “That knee wound Argani got was pretty bad.”

“She just tripped! It’s not that bad. And didn’t you help me set up that prank?”

Jaysie sighed. “I didn’t think it’d result in that, so...”

“Besides, even though I still don’t know any healing spells, I mended her torn clothes, didn’t I? All’s well that ends well. I guess. Sort of.”

Nentonia was one of the few there that were blessed with natural clerical magic. She was a prodigy, able to use minor spells since she turned eight. Having cleric abilities would usually automatically qualify someone for the position of high priestess, but...

“I still think it’s unfair,” Jaysie said. “You’ve got such great powers, yet they’re not allowing you to be a high priestess candidate. They’re not even letting you use the Brava surname.”

“Phooey. Like I wanna be one anyway.” Nentonia rested her head on the table. “It’s all praying and praying and ... what else do they do there again?”

“More praying, I think.”

“Geh. I’ll pass. I don’t know how you could look forward to that, Jaysie.”

She laughed nervously. “Well, it is what it is.”

Jaysie was one of the lead high priestess candidates. She was currently thirteen, and in two years, she’d probably be sent off to the tower to pray for the rest of her life.

“How can you be fine with it?” Nentonia asked.

“This orphanage is everything to me. I was born here, I’ll live here, and I’ll even die here. It’s not strange for me to want to do the duties the orphanage has for me.”

“But don’t you want to explore? Like all those adventurers we read about?”

“That would be nice. But I don’t think having a quiet life at that tower would be so bad, either.”

Jaysie—Jayceran Brava was always like this. Always trying to find the bright side in everything. She didn’t care what she was doing, or where she was going. She always did everything with a smile.

Nentonia didn’t know why, but her smile always felt hollow.

“Jayceran!” a sister passing by called out. “It’s time for you lessons!”

“Coming!” she yelled back, then turned to Nentonia. “Sorry. Duty calls.”

“Have fun, or whatever,” Nentonia sarcastically replied, which got a chuckle out of Jaysie.

She ran out the library, the sound of her footsteps receding farther and farther away. And just like that, Nentonia was alone again. She rested her chin against the table. “I’m bored,” she muttered.

Having nothing else to do, she grabbed the nearest book and opened it. It was a ballad about a hero and a princess from long ago. The hero was a commoner, so the two of them couldn’t be together.

The hours passed as she got more and more engrossed in the story. Things got more and more intense as the hero resisted against the princess’ family who kept them apart.

Finally, when night finally fell, she closed the book, having read everything. It wasn’t a particularly long read at all.

“...Woah.”

Still, the story resonated with her. This was her first time reading a romance novel. She’s always read fantastical stories about adventurers going on intense journeys. Other times, she’d read historical accounts of actual heroes in the past. She never really got into romance novels, but Jaysie would read them as if she was breathing air. She’d read anything and find some entertainment in it, to be honest.

“Still, that ending,” Nentonia said, gazing at the book in her hands. “The princess’ family never accepted the hero, so in the end, the two of them fell into an eternal sleep in each other’s arms...”

She could feel her heartbeat getting faster just thinking about it. It wasn’t the same thrill she’d get when she read stories of heroes fighting beasts. This was something else, something she never knew about.

But what was love? She’s never fallen in love before, so she wouldn’t know. She’s heard of some of the other orphanage girls going out and meeting boys their age. They’d never stop talking about boys. Nentonia wasn’t allowed outside, so she never got to meet any.

Still, with the way they talk about it, it must be nice.

“...What a beautiful ending,” she says with a smile.