Even though the entirety of Holy Throne was out there, Schrodinger never really left the Vatican.

Of course, he wasn’t allowed to leave it to begin with. At least not unaccompanied. After all, Holy Throne was a very large city, and Schrodinger was simply too young to wander in a place like that all by himself.

But still, the biggest reason why he almost never left the Vatican was because he didn’t need to. Everything he needed, every aspect of his life so far, was already contained within the walls of the Vatican. He and his family lived there, the school he went to was there, and even his mother’s workplace was there… although he wasn’t sure exactly where.

Still, that was the life he had, and he knew he wasn’t the only one. Living inside the Vatican, and having parents that were somehow connected to the Theocracy or the clergy, was true for many children. It certainly was true for Kali, for example. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the Vatican by itself was like a small town, both in terms of size and activity.

To be honest, even though the Vatican was a single, castle-like structure, it was still an enormous one. And even though he had lived there his entire life, Schrodinger knew that he had not yet seen more than a third of the place.

So, it was no surprise that one of his most prominent pastimes, whenever he was free, was to wander around the castle and explore it.

And he was not alone in that regard.

“Hey Scotty, are you still mad at me?” Kali asked with a serious expression, her arms crossed.

To which Schrodinger couldn’t help but answer with… suspicion. Raising an eyebrow, even, at the suddenness of her question. Kali never asked him stuff like that.

“Do you care?” he asked back, staring at her for a few moments and wondering if there was anything wrong with her.

“No,” she answered without skipping a beat. “But it’s a lot easier to just ask than for me to try and figure it out.”

And there she was, the callous and selfish Kali that he knew so well. He made a show of rolling his eyes at her, but he knew it wouldn’t make any difference.

“Besides, I can never tell what expression you have on your face when you’re like that,” she continued nonchalantly. “So, it would be hard to figure it out even if I wanted to.”

Schrodinger looked down at himself, only then remembering that he was indeed in his cat form. But given how comfortable he was, lying on a wooden bench and basking in the sun, he could hardly blame himself for having slipped into that form at some point.

Still, he answered her by turning back into his boyish form with a sigh.

“No, I’m not mad at you. It’s been three days already. And I also know by now that being mad at you doesn’t make any difference,” he said, feeling only a twinge of irritation when the girl nodded in agreement with a satisfied expression. Acting as if he had just said something sagely and wise.

“Well, I’m glad you have seen the light. Although I have to say, this was an unusually fast cooldown from you. Oh, I know, did the princess help you get over your hurt feelings?” she asked, saying those last few words in a rather childish, mocking tone.

“You do realize, Kali, that you calling Marianne a princess is rich, right? I mean, you’re the Courser’s daughter. If anyone here is a princess, it’s definitely you.”

In an unusual display of defeat, the girl answered him by simply sticking out her tongue. Waving a hand for him to move a bit from the bench he was lying on so she could sit next to him.

“Anyways, where is that girl? Doesn’t she know that it’s rude to be late?” she said idly. But Schrodinger simply shrugged, closing his eyes and simply relaxing under the light of the sun.

For all intents and purposes, the place they were in was actually a place of worship. The wooden bench that he and Kali were sitting on was just a few paces away from a small altar of Dango, fitted with a nearby station that could play hymns or generally assist with prayers. The ground was grassy and soft, with stone steps leading all the way to the altar, and the entire place was surrounded by tall trees. To the point that they felt like they were on a clearing, inside a forest.

And all of that was by design. That small site was indeed meant for silent prayer and reverence, with the midday sun shining down on the altar at a perfect angle. And it was definitely not an area where two children should be lounging about.

But, in their opinion, that was exactly what made that place ideal for them.

Because the Vatican was very large. It was large, its towers were tall and imposing, and it stood as a monument of faith at the center of Holy Throne. However, for all its grandiosity, the Vatican wasn’t exactly at the very center of everything. After all, the Vatican itself was also shaped like a ring, to the point that, when seen from a distance, its towers gave the impression that the whole structure was like a gigantic crown.

However, within the great ring that was the Vatican, enclosed within its walls and guarded on all sides by its spires, was a garden.

Although calling it a mere garden would be a disservice. Like saying that a lake was just a puddle, or that a lion was just a cat. Because the garden, or “great garden” as some called it, was incredibly large. So large, in fact, that it had several different areas to it. Some parts of the garden had the more traditional and manicured flowerbeds one might expect at the front of a person’s home, while others were like small forests, with nothing but stone steps to guide one’s path and with tall trees that blocked out the sun.

The garden occupied the entirety of the empty space within the ring-like Vatican, but despite its size it was still lovingly kept by a dedicated branch of the clergy. After all, it existed and was maintained at the request of the Pope himself. And given how the gates of the Vatican were located at its south, and the Archcathedral of Dango was located at its north, the gardens acted like a final pathway that all pilgrims shared in before finishing their journey.

But of course, despite all the zeal of its keepers, it was almost impossible to perfectly care for something of that size.

“Guys… I’m sorry… I couldn’t find the way here and…”

Schrodinger opened his eyes, realizing that he had somehow been napping. It took him a few moments to understand that he was listening to Marianne’s voice, and a few more seconds after that to notice that Kali had already gotten up from the bench.

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And like always, Kali’s impatient voice was completely at odds with Marianne’s apologetic tone.

“You couldn’t find your way here again? C’mon, we hang out here all the time!”

“Sorry, sorry…”

Schrodinger sat up, shaking his head as he looked towards the direction their voices were coming from.

The garden they were in existed first and foremost for the enjoyment of the Pope. And it was not unusual for His Holiness to stroll around it on the rare occasions he was on the planet, after whatever missionary efforts he was leading on some distant planet. However, given how many pilgrims made their way through it every day, it was also dotted with places of worship. Shrines, small churches, and even plain resting areas where people could stop during the long trek through the garden.

In fact, there were so many small shrines sprinkled through the garden that some of them were simply forgotten by the gardener clerics. Some of them, especially in the forested areas, were quite literally cut off from the rest of the garden, the clearing around its altar surrounded by trees and the stony steps that led to them overtaken by roots.

And that was exactly where they were at that moment. At a small shrine in the forested area of the garden that had probably not seen a pilgrim in months, or perhaps years. One where the surrounding trees weren’t large enough to block the sun, and that was relatively close to the edges of the Vatican itself. They always met there, whenever they had a day off, treating that place like a secret clubhouse of sorts.

Blinking his drowsiness away, Schrodinger watched as Kali once again emerged from the tree line. Forcing her way through a pair of bushes without a care in the world, as she dragged along a very unkept Marianne, her dress dirtied and her brown hair filled with stray leaves.

“And I keep telling you, stop dressing up on the days we don’t have school! You know we’re gonna be doing this kind of stuff,” Kali said as she finally let go of the girl’s hand. “Wearing a skirt like that is just begging for you to get scratches on your legs.”

“But mom says that-“

“I don’t care what your mom says. Start wearing pants!”

Schrodinger was about tell Kali to stop being mean to Marianne when he finally noticed he had whiskers. He must have changed back into a cat after dozing off, he thought. He immediately turned back into a boy as he stood up from the bench, which caused the two girls to stop arguing. Or rather, it made Kali stop telling Marianne off.

“Oh, hi there Scotty.”

“Look who finally decided to wake up.”

Ignoring Kali’s words, he said hi to Marianne. Making his way towards her without thinking much about it, while he shook off his drowsiness, to help her pick off the leaves that were still stuck to her hair. Nodding his head idly as she thanked him under her breath

“Anyways, now that we are all finally here,” Kali continued saying as she made her way to the center of the clearing, “let me tell you two what we will be doing today!”

- - -

“Scotty…”

“Yes Marianne?”

“I think Kali might actually be a bad influence…”

“You’re figuring that out just now?”

Schrodinger and Marianne were both whispering to each other as they talked. Although, to be honest, they were doing it for entirely different reasons. The girl was whispering because she was afraid the subject of their conversation might hear what they were saying. Schrodinger, on the other hand, was just focused on what he was doing.

“Please don’t make fun of me like she does, Scotty.”

“Oh, no, that was actually an honest question. I thought you realized that several months ago. I mean, look at what we are doing right now.”

He had the vague impression that Marianne pursed her lips as he said that, but he couldn’t be sure. He really was concentrating on the thing he was working on.

The three of them were, technically, still inside the garden. And the three of them were, very technically, still in a place where they were allowed to be. After all, they were inside one of the many small chapels of the garden, even if it was one that was out of the way and rarely visited by either the clergy or passing pilgrims.

However, no amount of technicalities could save them from the fact that they were doing something that they shouldn’t be doing.

Because although the chapel itself was open to the public, the heavy door that led to its backroom definitely wasn’t. In fact, said door was not only originally hidden behind a large painting of the Pope, but it was also chained shut and locked by a large padlock that glowed with magic.

And said padlock was the reason as to why Schrodinger was so focused to begin with. After all, he was trying to pick the padlock, using a few hairpins that Kali gave him. He was trying to pick the padlock while Marianne held it with her ungloved hands, so the locking magic couldn’t trigger, and while Kali kept watch by the entrance doors.

“A few months back we would just hang around the castle and explore places we had never seen before, or maybe go pilgrim-watching,” he said, pausing for a few moments as he gently pushed a hairpin at a particular angle, “then Kali decided that was boring, and started dragging us to places we weren’t supposed to go.”

“That’s exactly my point,” Marianne said, her voice so tense that he could feel the effort it took her to keep whispering. “What we are doing is bad, Scotty. And what if we get caught? What if we get in trouble? This feels like that whole hangar day all over again.”

Schrodinger stopped his lockpicking for a few moments, finally looking up at Marianne. But not because of what she had just said. After all, he was already used to the younger girl worrying about basically everything. Instead, he stopped because he could tell she was actually getting upset.

The tone of her voice was trembling. The frown on her face was heavier than normal. The magic of the padlock, that she was touching with her skin, was so weak he couldn’t even feel it anymore.

“Marianne,” he said, looking her in the eyes, “I promise you we aren’t doing anything bad, and I promise you we won’t get into trouble.”

“But… But we-“ she said, her hands shaking slightly as she nodded towards the heavy lock she was holding. But he continued to talk before she could finish that sentence.

“I really mean it, Marianne. I know that what we are doing looks bad, but I promise you it isn’t. If this was a place we weren’t supposed to get into, then three kids with a hairpin wouldn’t be able to open it in a few minutes.”

She hesitated at that, and he could see that Marianne was thinking about what he said. About how that was just a backdoor of a small chapel, in the middle of the wide-open gardens. However, he also saw that she was just afraid. And that really pushed something inside of him, more than anything else.

So, he took a short glance at the entrance to make sure Kali wasn’t listening in on them before he continued to speak.

“On top of that, I promise you I will take the fall if anything happens. If we are caught, which we won’t be, I promise I’ll tell everyone I forced you to come along, and that you didn’t want to do any of this. But much more importantly…”

Schrodinger stopped talking for a short moment, as he very carefully let go of the hairpins that were inside the padlock. Leaving them precariously in place as he took Marianne’s hands on his own. He saw the girl’s eyes widen as he did that, and he felt that strange and warm sensation he always felt from her skin. But he knew he didn’t have any magic in his body, so he didn’t really care about doing that.

“… much more importantly,” he said, still looking at her, “we really, really aren’t going to do this if you don’t want to. So, if you want us to stop, you can tell me right now and we’ll stop. I’ll tell Kali I couldn’t pick the lock, and she will just have to be mad at me like always. So, what do you say?”

He could almost see the opposing thoughts battling behind Marianne’s eyes, watching her fidget slightly as they both held on to the padlock. But he patiently waited for her to come to a decision.

“Scotty, why… why do you go along with the stuff she does? Why are you fine with us doing this kind of thing?” she finally asked. And to his surprise, he didn’t really need to think about his answer at all.

“Well, because the three of us are best friends, so sticking together is something we are supposed to do. And besides, someone has to keep an eye on her.”

Marianne let out a short laughter at that, which made the two of them quickly look towards the entrance, worried that Kali might have heard it. But thankfully, there was still no sign of the other girl as she kept her lookout on the outside of the chapel. So, Schrodinger turned his attention back to the younger girl again.

“So, what do you say? Can I finish up this lock, or do you want us to stop?”

“Fine,” she said after taking a deep breath, “but uhm… I don’t want you to get into trouble either. So, um, you don’t need to lie if anything bad happens.”

As he heard that, it was Schrodinger’s turn to let out a small chuckle. He couldn’t help but notice how slightly embarrassed her voice was, as she said that, but he made sure not to mention it as he went back to working in the lock.

“I’ll think about it,” he muttered under his breath.

And a few moments later, the padlock was finally unlocked.