"So, What do you do for a living?" Lizz asked her date in front of her. Projookta (or Riya as she likes to be called) had bright eyes and a kind but nervous smile, Lizz didn't know what she was so nervous about, someone as beautiful as her must have had gone on dozens of equally hot people like her.
Why was she so nervous of Lizz?
"I'm currently getting my MSc in Geography." Riya said, her voice sounded like wind chimes to Lizz's ears, "I'm currently here on scholarship and not working, what about you?"
Her? "I work at Biosphere, a pharmaceutical company." It was a pretty well-known company, atleast in the US it was… but Riya probably wasn't from the US and didn't know about-
"Oh Biosphere?" Riya said, her face turned to neutral, Lizz felt her heart sink, there went her date with the cute girl… "I know a guy in my class, his Dad owns the company, I don't like him."
O-oh? Was she looking dissapointed because of her classmate? "I… Uh-"
"- Is it true that they have discovered some 'miracle drug' that reverses aging?" Riya suddenly coughed into her napkin, "Ah… sorry about that, I shouldn't be bringing up weird rumors like that…. On the first date…"
"Oh no it's fine!" Lizzy yelped, trying to salvage the situation, "I'm not that high up in the corporate ladder 'cause I only joined the company two years ago, so if anything like that had been discovered… I wasn't told."
The scene started to shift and swirl, it became harder and harder to hold onto the dream…
----------------------------------------
Minerva woke up… It was that dream again… fourth time this week… Minerva grinded her teeth together as she got up to start the day.
She had a difficult time picking out what to wear, so she started to weigh her options, maroon or periwinkle blue shirt? Did it even matter?
Riya would have given her a kiss by now and told her she’d look good in any shirt but then would tell her to wear the blue shirt because the blue shirt would have matched her eyes or something equally cheesy-
Minerva halted that line of thinking and chose to wear the maroon shirt.
Stupid memories… She was supposed to be better than this… the past was supposed to be in the past… She started to make her way to the mess hall, in front of the doors to the mess hall, she started to calm herself.
Deep breaths, the others didn’t need to see her moment of weakness.
3…
2…
1…
1…
2…
3…
3…
2…
1…
1…
2…
3…
There… her breathing was even… She stood in front of the doors and the pearly white doors started to move apart from each other. Minerva walked in as she scanned the room.
There weren’t many people in the mess hall at the moment, that was expected, it was only seven am.
“You’re a little later than usual," Diana said as she sipped on her orange juice, "Was it that dream again?”
"No." Minerva lied, "I was simply looking through today's agenda and making sure everything was in order, that's all."
"Hmm… Sure you were."
Minerva didn't like Diana, the tall dark-haired woman was too perspective for her own good, she didn't like how her eyes seemed to have this dark, calculating, belittling look all the time, nor did Minerva appreciate her cold smile. "I was."
"Hmm… You do know, I saw something very… particular during last night's night watch which included someone you know… and love."
Do not react, do not react, do not react, "Really? What happened?" Minerva internally cursed as she asked in concern, she was not concerned, she wasn't! She just… She would have just liked to be in the know, make sure nothing went wrong.
"Oh you know… The usual things…”
“What usual things?” She asked.
“Oh… You know… The Subjects One, Two and Four through Twelve trying to build their own little piece of Paradise, Subject Twelve asked Subject One to do something very… Peculiar last night.”
Oh for the love of- “- What did he ask?”
“Well, You know how Subject One used to be an Urban Planner?”
“...Yes?”
“He wanted her to ‘survey the land’ or whatever.”
“...” He what?! But- but Riya was in her first year of college right now! “What did he expect her to do?! Make a detailed map of the area?”
Diana shrugged, “Who knows? Pretty sure she’s going to fail though. Also she’s pretending to be an Angel or whatever so when she fails, she and her colleagues are definitely getting executed once they realise she was lying about her origins, why? You still care about them?”
Minerva scowled, “I don’t. I-”
Minerva immediately shut up when she saw who walked into the room, “Good Morning, Pluto.” She said with a nod as she tried to maintain eye-contact with him and not at his gauntish nor his eyebags.
“Goodmorning, Pluto.” Diana said, suddenly as sweet as sugar. “Are you well?”
“Hmm? Oh yes yes.” Pluto said off-handedly, “The Spring conference is coming up, the logistics of it is a nightmare, as usual.”
Minerva stopped focusing on the conversation and started thinking, executed? Sure she did feel betrayed… And so the others had been banished… and their memories had been sealed… But… That didn’t mean that… She didn’t want Riya or the others dead…
She needed to do something.
After finishing breakfast, instead of going to the pharmaceutical labs, she went to the storage rooms.
Room -1004…
…Room -1006…
…Room -1008…
…Room -1010.
Minerva took a deep breath before entering the room, and suddenly, she was hit with so many memories…
Little trinkets were piled up inside the room, photo albums… files… and there, in the corner, were those long dark-plastic tubes in which Riya used to keep all her maps.
As she reached out to the tubes but then… Hesitated…
Should she really be doing this? She could get into trouble if she did… But then again… If they get themselves executed, then who will increase the quality and quantity of harvestable Mana?! So really, she was doing Jupiter a favour.
Minerva nodded to herself and looked at all the tubes, which one’s were Riya’s and which ones were Ma- Subject Twelves? Minerva wasn’t sure, so she found a jute bag and placed all twenty-nine of the plastic tubes into it and stealthily walked towards the transportation docks.
The transportation docks were huge with twelve transportation circles making up the majority of the transportation docks, each transportation circle looked like they were at least twenty-fifty metres long length wise, not unexpected seeing as they were used to transport at least fifty to sixty metric tonnes of Manastones each year.
Minerva slowly made her way to the smallest transportation circle, a small circle usually used to receive delegates or whatever high-and-fancy politician coming to see Jupiter to sway him into public recommendations for the next election or whatever.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Minerva gently placed the bag into the circle and walked towards a small screen on a stand a few metres away.
Weight (kg) 5.2/120 Choose Location [Insert Location Here]
She manually typed in ‘Schola Regalis Sapientiae’, afraid that if she spoke, someone would hear her.
Location Chosen Schola Regalis Sapientiae, Sovereignity, New Rome, Aeria Confirm Location YES / NO
She tapped yes.
Location Confirmed, please be on standby.
Minerva watched as the bag and its contents disappeared before her eyes.
----------------------------------------
“So this is a Temple…” Sally wasn’t very impressed by the one-storey-tall building in front of her, while it was wide, and looked like something straight out of a movie about ancient Romans, She had seen grander buildings in life (mostly on tv) And she did visit Notre Dam with her parents when she was seven-years old.
“Yes, My lady.” Her Head attendant - Estellina - said, “My Lady… It isn’t my place to say… but please reconsider entering such a place…”
“Why?” She asked a bit confusedly, weren’t temples Holy places?
“I'd like to know, too.” Edward, one of her knights said, “Will My Lady be in danger?”
“The temple… Is a dirty place…” Estellina said, “In Aurelia… The temple is a place where those that were not able to match the Mana needed for their status were sent here…”
Sally thought about what Estellina was saying, she wasn’t lying to her as far as Sally was aware. The contract wouldn’t allow it. Which made the situation all the more confusing, in Requiem of a Shrine Maiden, only those who were the most talented, beautiful from a prominent lineage and had high levels of mana were allowed to set foot in the temple.
What changed? Is it that different Prefectures had different views and customs? Were they in a slightly alternate universe that is not true to the Trilogy? Or was it something else? She mentally noted the thought down. It will be investigated later, for now… “The Temple is a Holy place as it is a place where the Gods reside, do tell me more about how the former Aurelian Aubs have sullied the temple and disgraced the residence of the Gods.”
Estellina looked nervous and bowed, “My Lady it the news may be too hard for a Lady to bare-”
“-Don’t think of me as some fragile flower, Estellina, I wouldn’t have survived this plain of existence as long as I did if I was.” Sally frowned, she started to think through the contracts Jayden wrote, while it he did remember to write into the contracts that each and every retainer could never lie to their respective employers, she couldn’t remember if he added any clauses that said they must answer any questions their employers ask them nor could she remember if they closed any loopholes in the contracts like ‘lying via omission is considered lying and is not the truth’.
Estellina bowed again, “Forgive me, My Lady, I forgot my place…”
“Please be more mindful next time.” Sally said. Before she could ask her question again, she noticed an Aeromorph (an animal-shaped car that could fly in the sky) landing near them.
“[Sorry I’m late!]” Jayden said as he got off the bear-shaped Aeromorph, “[I had to deal with something! I’ll tell you later! Let’s just get on with the tour!]”
Sally nodded, very well, she could wait. “Very well, Head Priest? If you will…”
The pudgy looking man in front of her nodded his head so fast Sally’s own neck started to hurt. “Yes! Please follow me, Your Grace…”
The Temple looked clean, she was slightly more impressed with the interior of the Temple rather than the exteriors, the walls had murals of Gods and Goddesses painted onto them with floral and fauna borders that would change depending on which God or Goddess was on the mural.
“This is the Prayer room, Your Grace…” The Head Priest said.
Sally studied the room carefully, the room had this blood-red rug that lead from the entrance to the end of the fifty metres - something room where there stood an alter with golden chalices, surrounding the altar was marble statues of fourteen Gods holding a golden weapon in one of their hands, from what she remembered from A Shrine Maiden's Requiem, the Marble statues were supposed to depict the Olympians while the golden weapons in their hands were Holy weapons.
Sally was about to comment that they moved onto the room which had The Flame of Vestia when she noticed something… Odd. How strange, “Where is everybody?” Jayden asked, voicing her concerns. Where were the Priests And Shrine Maidens? The not-noble Nobles that weren’t able to make it into Noble society because they lacked the Mana? Where were their servants? The White Brothers and the White Sisters?
“Everywhere in the country is going through a Mana shortage, My Lady, to combat this The Sovereignty issued an emergency rule where all Priests and Shrine Maidens above Laynoble mana where allowed to enter Schola Regalis Sapientiae during the off-season if their Noble families permitted and the Sovereignity’s own temple lacked personal, My Lady, So they took most of the remaining Priests and Shrine Maidens.”
….How strange…. She never received a notice for such a thing… she made eye contact with Jayden and he subtly shook his head, he also never received any notice like this.
Perhaps someone else from the group got the memo instead? If they did… Wouldn't the person let the group know? Sally took a deep breath, later. That can wait till later. Right now they had more worrying matters to attend to. “So you… and the Vice Priest are the only ones in the temple… Correct?” She asked. This was very worrying. There were six losing Prefectures, five of them joined together to form Harmonia, each of the losing Prefectures had their own temple with their own number of chalices and their own fourteen Holy weapons to provide mana to and tend to Vestia’s flame.
If there were no more Priests or Shrine Maidens… Who was going to take care of the holy items? Who was going to look after the Flames? The Aub was expected to fill the Prefecture foundation and the farmlands, but the Priests and Shrine Maidens were expected to look after the holy items and The Fire of Vestia because otherwise the Prefecture 'would be doomed'.
These people were quite the superstitious bunch. A little fire goes out and suddenly there's anarchy.
“N-no, My Lady,” The Head Priest bowed, “A few priests whose families neither claimed them nor the Sovereignty... They continue to dwell here..."
“How many?” Jayden asked.
“Pardon me, My Lord?”
“How many Priests still reside within these halls?”
“Five, My Lord.”
“And before? How many Priest and Shrine Maidens resided here before?”
“Four hundred and six Priests and fifty-seven Shrine Maidens, My Lord.”
Sally suddenly got a sick feeling in his stomach, “So many, left? What will happen to the White Brothers and the White Sisters without a Master or Mistress to serve?”
The Head Priest looked confused for a minute before he laughed a deep, dark laugh. “Oh ho ho~! Them? Well they’re currently in the process of being sold of course!”
…What…
“Except for the White Sisters that are expecting, executing them is a much more stress-free option, there’s barely any buyers for those whores, My Lady”
“Where are they.” Jayden said, his voice full of steel and barely contained fury.
The Head Priest didn’t seem to notice. “The whores, My Lord?”
“Everyone. Where are the unbaptised children? Where are the other White Brothers and Sisters?”
“The White Brothers and White Sisters are currently locked up in the East wing, the unbaptised children on the other hand, they’re still in the shed, My Lord”
“Which. Shed.”
“The one behind the Temple, My Lord.”
That was enough information for Sally, she called on her knights to do their duty. “Edithia, Ranunkel. Go look for the White Brothers and White Sisters and free them. Siegfried. Arrest this man for selling Prefecture property without the consent of any of the Aubs. Albert? Take in the Vice Priest for interrogation. Estellina and the rest. Follow me.” She was going to make sure those children were ok. She looked at Jayden.
Jayden immediately understood what she wanted to convey, “My retainers and I shall fly to the other four temples to make sure the other Head Priests are not thieving away property that rightly belongs to the Prefecture, Sally.”
“Very well. Now go.”
“You can’t do this! This is my right-”Seifried quickly tackled the Priest to the ground.
Sally looked at the piece of trash in front of her, “Siefried? Make sure to leave him in the third level of the White Tower. Not only did he sell Prefecture property without the consent of any Aubs, he also is talking back to us superior Nobles with such righteous anger! Do not forget your position Priest. I am your Aub. Siegfried? Take him away.”
Sally walked towards the back of the Temple where the shed was located, her teeth locked together in anger. That absolute bastard! How dare he! How could he?! Participating in slavery like this!
Sally shivered at the thought, slavery was legal here. When she first read Merchant of Antonia, she wanted to chuck the book far away or throw it into a vat of concentrated H2SO4. She tasted bile in the back of her mouth as she remembered how commoner parents would sell their children to the nobility for a shiny gold coin and how Augusta (the Shrine Maiden in A Shrine Maiden’s Requiem) purchased a seven-year-old child that looked like Augusta and basically pushed the child towards the direction of a Priest that was her stalker and wanted to sleep with her but she didn’t and to stop him from harassing her she did… that…
It made her feel disgusted… Especially so because she grew up hearing stories about how… hard life was for her great-great-great-great grandparents.
The shed looked old and worn down from years of neglect, the once - probably white - paint was peeling in layers and Sally could see the old dark, rotting wood underneath, weeds sprouting around the property, vines and trees had wrapped around parts of the fence and walls as nature was reclaiming the area that was once hers.
It didn’t look like a place anyone would live in, let alone children. Which made Sally’s stomach feel all the more queasy, especially when she noticed the large, rusted padlock on the door. “Marcelle, break it.”
Two swings from Marcelle’s sword was all it took to break the padlock. Without prompting, Marcelle opened the door for her.
She smelt them before she saw them.
The only source of light was coming from the now wide-open door, but that was enough for her to make out the emaciated, dirty and barely moving bodies of the fifty-seventy kids in the rooms.
Sally felt anger swell up inside of her once again, not towards the kids, but towards the Head Priest.
Were the White Brothers and White Sisters also kept in this sort of condition?
That about the other Temples? Did the left-behind Priests and Shrine Maidens also keep their ‘lessers’ in such a condition?!
“Uhh…” She heard multiple groans from the kids, some of them even feebly trying to block the sunlight with their thin hands.
That snapped Sally out of her thoughts, right, these kids needed food, water and a bath. She only had her Knights and half of her Attendants with her while her other half of the Attendants and all of her scholars were doing her paperwork back at the Palace. “Marcelle? Go ask one of the cooks to make porridge enough for fifty kids. Estellina? Take five attendants and six knights with you and bring back five pitchers of drinking water and ten barrels of water and a few soap bars. Cerisea and Fiona? Look over the children for any injuries or illnesses and treat them as required. Rodrick? Bring parchment, ink and some quills.”
She was going to make a record of the children she found.