“Ah. Ah! Aah! High Priest, wh-what should I do? I mean… there aren’t any sharp objects within my reach.”
For Yan, who had lived his life taking pride in always being sincere and honest, lying was far too difficult. But Rou was just as unaccustomed to deception.
“…Really?”
“Yes. If you remember later, please tell me again.”
“Okay.”
Rou let his long hair down again with a look of disappointment. Yan braided the hair thoroughly and tightly, making the ends dangle at Rou’s waist. Though it didn’t have the same sacred atmosphere as when his hair was loose, he was such a beautiful creature that no hairstyle could fail to suit him. He was simply beautiful.
Yan stepped back and signaled to Jes with his eyes. Jes followed the gaze and turned to look beside him, discovering gardening scissors used for flower arranging stuck in a corner, completely rusted. He tried to hide his inwardly startled feelings while concealing the scissors in his sleeve.
“Then please rest well, High Priest. I’ll come visit again tomorrow.”
Jes retreated quickly, walking backwards. He kept reminding himself that this wasn’t deceiving the High Priest, nor was he committing a sin. The Goddess wouldn’t want that sacred body to be harmed either.
“Okay. See you tomorrow.”
Rou, languidly sprawled before the fireplace, waved his hand slowly at Jes. Through the gap in the closing door, Jes could clearly see Yan’s triumphant eyes. Jes gazed quietly at the closed door, realizing it wouldn’t be easy to drive out that attendant. At the same time, his harsh evaluation of Yan was revised slightly.
‘At least he’s a child who knows how to care for the sacred body well.’
Jes picked up the rusted scissors with his index finger and thumb as if they were an unclean object possessed by evil spirits. Then he threw them into the hearth of the most distant, secluded room from the High Priest’s chamber.
Completely unaware of the two humans’ secret machinations behind his back, Rou simply looked forward to tomorrow. He wanted to meet Brukisel every day and become close enough to hear his innermost thoughts, and to grant his wish so he could be happy.
Rou closed his eyes tightly with a small smile on his face. Thinking that everything would work out well, Rou imagined a sweet future and at some point fell into a deep sleep. It had been too busy a day for a bumblebee to handle, so Rou didn’t hear Yan’s exclamations of admiration that even his sleeping form was beautiful.
The next day, Rou was jolted awake by someone continuously talking right beside his ear.
“…High Priest! High Priest!”
The man’s voice was quite desperate, but to Rou it felt distant.
“High Priest?”
He wanted to sleep more, but kept hearing a voice urging him. Rou wondered who this High Priest was that they kept calling out like that into his ear.
Come to think of it, something was different from usual. Unlike the Goddess’s smooth voice that always woke him, the human voice was anxious and broken at the ends, not beautiful to hear. Only when he recalled that he had descended to the human world could he understand who they were calling.
‘Ah. I’m the High Priest.’
Rou rubbed his eyes and struggled to get up. Unlike when he leisurely spent time in the greenhouse, his head was foggy and his body heavy. Rou wasn’t used to the fatigue weighing him down, so even after getting up, he pressed his eyes for a long while.
For Rou, whose entire daily routine consisted of collecting a single drop of honey from the fields and dropping it into a teacup, human activity levels seemed too excessive.
“Are you all right? I didn’t want to disturb your sweet sleep, but… it’s already well past lunchtime…”
A worried voice came to his ear. Rou felt sorry for worrying a human so much younger than himself and got up, but had to press his forehead again for a long while due to dizziness that made his vision spin.
During the week he stayed in the greenhouse, Rou’s routine was peaceful. He would quietly lie down as a human or transform into a bumblebee and fill his belly with the sweet honey pooled in flowers. Not realizing at all that he had come north, only after being hit by the fierce snowfall yesterday and experiencing changes in his body did he finally feel it keenly.
If only his body had been sturdy, he could have somehow overcome the fatigue. But this soft and tender body was, as Rou expected, far from strong and solid.
“If there’s anywhere you’re feeling unwell…”
“No, no! I’m fine.”
As Rou said this and stepped out of bed, he immediately froze solid at the rushing cold. Trembling shoulders and burrowing back under the blankets, he looked exactly like someone experiencing the cool northern dawn air for the first time.
“You’ll feel much better after drinking warm tea.”
Rou couldn’t even answer that he was fine to that. It felt strange to long for warmth like this. Wasn’t warmth always something that touched the skin?
When Rou wrapped his arms around both shoulders and trembled, Yan hurriedly burst out the door and soon came running back holding a kettle with warm steam rising from it. He never expected there would come a day when tea, which he didn’t enjoy because of its bitterness, would feel so welcome.
Rou wrapped both hands around the hot teacup. The warmth that started in his palms slowly spread throughout his body. Yan looked around the room searching for a tea table to set down the kettle, but there was no way such an item remained in this temple that had long been suffering from financial difficulties.
Jes coughed while glancing sideways at the narrow table beside the bed that had barely escaped becoming kindling, and Yan moved perceptively. Rou reached for something that stood out particularly vividly to his eyes. The container was labeled “sugar” in sweet lettering.
Rou carefully opened the lid with eyes full of anticipation, but couldn’t hide his disappointment. He had thought it was quite heavy, but inside was completely empty. Rou spun the container around in regret and discovered a single sugar cube stuck to the inside corner, carefully peeling it off.
He lifted the sugar cube high, then realized there was one sugar cube but three mouths, and quietly lowered it again. Jes, who had been watching the actions of the High Priest he revered without a word, quickly spoke up.
“I must avoid sugar… Please have it, High Priest.”
When Jes yielded, those eyes sweeter than honey turned toward Yan.
“I don’t enjoy tea! Please have it, High Priest.”
Rou’s relief was visibly evident. Thinking it would be a waste to put the only sugar cube in his tea, he secretly placed it on his tongue while the two humans were exchanging words. The sugar cube instantly melted away, leaving only a tingling aftertaste before disappearing.
Of course, both humans had already seen the High Priest quickly pop the sugar into his mouth. Jes was saddened by the poverty of this vast temple, and Yan resolved to go back and thoroughly search through the storage.
When the blanket slipped down his shoulders, Rou pulled it back up and wrapped himself tightly. For Rou, who had lived as a bumblebee and spent more than half his life napping, he still lacked sleep.
Rou looked extremely languid. If left alone, he seemed ready to fall asleep in the chair, so Jes finally brought up the reason he had to wake the soundly sleeping High Priest.
“High Priest. Actually… there’s a visitor who came to the temple from early this morning.”
“Hm? A visitor… do you mean a believer who came to pray? The prayer room should always be open to everyone.”
“No. It’s…”
Jes felt as if his already white hair would crumble away from turning even whiter. To have to confess such an embarrassing truth to the High Priest sent down by the Goddess. He felt guilty and ashamed.
“There’s someone… earnestly requesting to meet you directly, High Priest.”
“Really?”
For Jes to say this much. Who could it be? Rou came to harbor a hope of ‘could it be…’. Could Brukisel have come from this early morning? To see him, no less?
As if noticing that Rou had just harbored hope, Jes quickly denied it wasn’t that.
“It’s not His Imperial Majesty the Emperor.”
“Ah. I see.”
“Yes… The person who came to see you, High Priest, has been very helpful with the temple’s operations. If you could just show your face once…”
“Hm? Sure.”
Rou nodded calmly. From Jes’s explanation alone, there was no way to judge whether this visitor was a devout and faithful believer, or an irreverent person demanding blessings while holding donations hostage. And the person who came to the temple today was decidedly the latter. The man who ran a fairly well-known merchant guild in the south was a nouveau riche who had struck it rich with a new trade route.
In truth, this temple desperately needed a source of funds right now. More precisely, they desperately needed the offerings and goods he would provide. Now that a new High Priest had been declared, ideally the Emperor should announce that joyful fact to the entire continent, but there was no way that extremely wicked bastard would do so.
In the end, the only method was for the temple itself to announce the new High Priest. It was a tremendously great blessing that one who received the Goddess’s abundant love had become High Priest, and Jes also wished, if possible, that everyone living on the continent would know this fact.
However, the problem was that the temple didn’t have the funds for that.
Just as Jes was about to explain about that rude Nick with a troubled face, someone boldly threw open the door and entered Rou’s bedroom. Jes was struck speechless by the shameless attitude, as if permission had already been obtained.
If greed were born as a human, would it look like this? The man’s attire was so gaudy.
The man swept his sleepy eyes across the room. As if greatly offended that Jes wasn’t welcoming him, barely concealed irritation and anger filled his eyes.
However, the displeased nouveau riche’s expression changed dramatically when he discovered the snow-white face languidly tilting a teacup. He moved his short legs diligently. Unlike the dull sound of the gold trinkets hanging around his neck clinking against each other, his footsteps were frivolous.
The thick necklace and shiny fabric were considerable, but what drew the eye even more was his hair. His hair was so shiny that Yan initially thought he was wearing a very unique hat.
“High Priest! To come all the way to this cold and desolate north! Shouldn’t you refrain from such impulsive travel considering your age?”
The nouveau riche spoke as if for Jes’s sake, but his manner was intolerably presumptuous. And before Jes could even introduce him, he thrust his face in front of Rou.
“And who is this tremendous beauty? You don’t seem like someone who should be in this shabby temple.”
“Nick! Greet him properly! This is the new High Priest sent down to this land by the Goddess!”
“What? A new High Priest. Then, Jes, does that mean you’re now just a worn-out old geezer?”
“Ahem…”
Nick looked once at Jes, once at Rou’s still peaceful face.
“I wondered what late-life wanderlust had struck when I heard you suddenly headed north, but what a coincidence! What an honor!”
“Ah. Hello.”
Rou’s greeting was quite bland. Though he didn’t expect enthusiastic cheers, it was an embarrassingly short greeting. So Nick, steeped in his inferiority complex, had a twisted thought at that moment.
‘Is he looking down on me now because my status is lowly?’
The tremendous beauty had a completely relaxed expression with his back straight even before Jes. Nick wanted to shatter that composure to pieces. That it wasn’t him but himself who could afford to be arrogant now. There was a definite need to establish the pecking order.
‘Without the donations I give, you’d be on the street immediately, yet you dare raise your face? When you should be groveling and it still wouldn’t be enough.’
Nick looked at the soft hands holding the teacup. The snow-white hands, like they were made from tanned calfskin, didn’t have a single blemish. His eyes glittered with malice. The thought of crumpling that beautiful face seemed to already bring him pleasure.
