Chapter 47 — In which we have talks with superiors

Phlox walked down the Universe Temple corridor with a heavy stack of papers in hand.

‘A quiet, sunny spot… Yeah, I need some sunlight… That’s what I need.’

She quickly recalled the complicated architecture of the Universe Temple, which bordered on the labyrinth, and turned around to find a sunny spot to sit down.

In a short moment, she stepped into an indoor garden with a small pond full of pale lilies fostered to be later offered to the souls of those, who departed too early.

Phlox stopped for a moment in front of the pond, her eyes lingering on the lilies.

There was one yellow lily among them, shinning like a small sun.

Phlox put down the papers, far away from the water, and then bowed deeply to the flowers.

“May you rest in peace.”

With a quiet whisper of a wish she finished the ritual, picked up the papers again and went a bit deeper into the garden to finally sit down under a round rooftop window.

There she took one piece of paper and mumbled with a frown:

“Seriously, you can’t catch a break…”

What she was currently dealing with was His Excellency’s schedule for the week.

After she committed a sin of mistakenly allocating ten hours of night gods rituals during Seven’s jailbreak appointment and was thoroughly educated by His Excellency on math, she has sworn to herself she would never commit the same mistake again.

‘But no matter how I count, there is no way to do them all in one week…’

She looked at the list of the events that His Excellency needed to participate in.

Tasting wine, which will be offered to the moon gods during the next ceremony.

Judging the youths in the competition for the main dancer of the upcoming fire play event.

Selecting the poem to be engraved on a new tablet in the Temple of Artistic Aspirations.

Supervising the development of the new plaza for food stalls… of course, the food is for gods.

Resolving the dispute over the superiority of the triangle kites and square kites.

Consoling the families of recently deceased priests.

Counseling on the phrasing of the love letter…

Phlox squinted at the last one.

Was it really something that one should bother the Saint with?

She quickly looked up notes about this request.

Apparently it was from one of the higher ranking priest of the Gods of Love temple… or rather their subordinates, who were very frustrated with their boss being completely unable to express their love to their crush.

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There was also a note from His Excellency attached, going into a great detail how, though it seems inappropriate for the Saint to do, it would greatly boost the morale of the love gods’ priests, who already have it very low, because they get constantly yelled at by unhappy couples or rejected amors.

And below there was an additional point: ‘Besides, the gods are really cheering for them to be together.’

…

It seemed to be a divine mission sent by the gods themselves!

Phlox put it on the top priority list.

‘But His Excellency is doing so much every day…’

Checking the schedules from the past, Phlox discovered that Amara didn’t seem to rest at all.

The closest thing he had to rest in his usual schedule were when he strolled the temple’s public garden to bless visitors with his divine presence, or when he was making a short break to drink tea.

Whether he was healthy or sick, Amara spent his every moment awake doing something.

It was as if he was running away from something.

‘It seems to have gotten worse recently…’

According to the records, His Excellency was always a workaholic, but in recent days his work seemed to have doubled.

When Phlox expressed concern about it, Amara stated with a gentle, reassuring smile:

— I need to appear like I want to run away from you, so Rasin doesn’t suspect that I’m willing to cooperate with you. Please don’t worry, Priest Phlox, I can handle this much.

Phlox though, didn’t feel reassured at all.

But she couldn’t say anything when the head priest was involved.

“Priest Phlox.”

Speak of the devil.

“Ah, head priest Rasin.”

She quickly stood up and bowed.

“Excuse me, I was so deeply focused on work I didn’t notice you.”

Rasin nodded with a gentle smile.

Phlox thought that the head priest may have been trying to imitate Amara’s smile, but it was an imitation so poor, she couldn’t even properly recognize it.

“It’s alright. I just wanted to check how are you doing.”

“I’m doing fine, sir. Thank you very much for your concern.”

Phlox bowed her head again.

Mostly to hide the disgust on her face.

“Indeed. You seem to be doing very fine. You’re doing a splendid job keeping a pulse on our excellency’s work.”

Rasin glanced at the papers scattered on the ground and then looked at Phlox with an even more gentle smile.

“I was worried at first about your appointment, because of your past.”

“My past?”

Was he talking about her burning down something?

Which burning down he was hinting on?

“Yes, I heard about your childhood. About the orphanage. It was very tragic. So many innocent children had died in that fire brought by those sinners…”

Rasin sighed deeply, as if filled with endless regret, and then turned towards the direction of the pond full of lilies and bowed.

“May you rest in peace.”

He then turned towards Phlox, whose expression seemed to turn into stone, and spoke:

“I’m glad that past doesn’t seem to hold you back, priest Phlox.”

He then wished her farewell and left.

Phlox observed his back for a long time, until he completely disappeared from her vision.

*-*-*

Saffra sat down in front of a very bewildered knight captain.

The poor man didn’t seem to be able to wrap his head around for what reason the young lady went all the way to visit him in his own office.

She could just call him.

A knight captain office, though nowhere poorly equipped, was not a place for a young lady like her.

“My sister and I are going on a trip. We're going to need an escort.”

Mimosa had her own people to protect herself, but if she was going to travel with her little sister, it was a custom that she had to take a family affiliate knight.

“Ah!” The knight captain immediately nodded his head and sighed in relief as he finally realized what it was about. “I see. Understood. I’ll immediately arrange a work schedule to fill in the escort for you, Young Lady. But there was no need to come all the way here for something like this, Young Lady…”

“Actually, I’m here because of those work schedules you mentioned, Sir.”

“Yes?”

“Sir. I think Sir Citrie works too much!”

“… Yes?”

There was a strange light in Saffra’s eyes as she declared:

“I had this suspicion when I saw Sir Citrie work as father’s guard, then as my night guard and then again as my day guard, so I observed him for some time and confirmed. Sir Citrie is doing double of the work hours he should be allocated. Sir, this is a break of fundamental worker rights. Even if he is young and strong, you can’t make him work like this, Sir!”

For some reason the knight captain felt a shiver go down his spine.

“Yes, yes. Of course, I was wrong, Young Lady. I promise it will never happen again.”

He quickly nodded his head and then asked the Young Lady to note down all her observations about Citrie’s horrible work schedule.

She completed this request very swiftly and with great precision.

The entire timetable was thoroughly filled.

“Thank you for understanding, Sir.”

She smiled sweetly, sending another shiver down the knight captain’s back, and left the office.

The captain spent a few minutes staring down at the time reference written down by Saffra, as if it was a deadly creature.

“Uh? Sir, are you alright?”

The bringer of the disaster appeared in the doorway.

The knight captain looked up at Citrie with a pale face and said:

“Citrie. Can you please stop stealing other people’s work before you kill us all?”

“… I’m sorry?”

From that day on, the knight captain sent Saffra’s all work schedules for her to confirm.

*~*~*