Published: August 3, 2025
My name is Wilma. I will be turning 17 in the fall, so I am currently 16 years old.
As a chief attendant to blue shrine maiden apprentice Myne, I was entrusted a few days ago with the task of caring for the children before their baptism ceremony.
“Has everyone received their portion? Then, let us pray and give thanks for the divine blessing. We offer our gratitude and prayers to the highest god who rules the lofty and majestic sky, who nourishes us with thousands upon thousands of lives; to the five great gods who govern the vast and boundless earth; and to the will of the gods. With this, we commence our meal.”
Following me, the little children chanted in unison, and then all began to eat lunch at once. They seemed very hungry, eating with great focus. Since I had finished earlier, during their meal I only taught them how to eat properly and cleaned up any spills, but looking after six children all at once is surprisingly demanding.
“Today’s meal is delicious, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
The meals brought to the orphanage are first eaten by the adult priests and shrine maidens, then by the apprentices, and only the leftovers are given to the young children before their baptism ceremony. So, the children eat last.
Because they have to wait quite a while, it’s pitiful that they get so hungry. Yet compared to times when there was barely any food left for them, it’s a blessing that they now always have something to eat.
“The soup is tasty.”
“Maybe Lizzy was here today since the vegetables are so plentiful?”
Whether the days bring abundant divine blessing or not, soup always appears on the table. Whenever I see it, I think of Myne. Everything that changed about the orphanage’s state seems to be contained within this soup.
“This soup’s recipe was taught to us by Myne, and the ingredients are bought with money earned from selling the food and paper everyone gathered or made in the forest.”
“Wilma, you always say that. Then you say, ‘Be grateful to Myne,’ right?”
The children tease me in unison like that, laughing, but the ones who are most thankful to Myne are none other than these children themselves. They are purified, given food, and even taken out into the outside world—the forest.
Cleaning thoroughly wherever the blue shrine maidens or priests pass is part of the chores, but the orphanage, where blue priests do not enter, had never been a place subjected to such diligent purification. If the surroundings were too dirty, it would take longer for them to purify themselves, so they only occasionally cleaned their immediate area.
Therefore, while rooms and the dining hall for apprentices and above were kept fairly clean, no one ever thought about purifying the area around the children before their baptism ceremony. Caring for these children was always assigned to gray shrine maidens who had given birth, so neither their sight nor awareness ever really included the young children.
I don’t think I was the only one surprised to hear from Fran, Myne’s attendant, about the situation of the children before the baptism ceremony. We were told that no shrine maiden had been taking care of them and that the apprentices only left a small portion of their leftovers in a plate for the children. This was information brought in from outside the orphanage.
“Wilma, may I go to the workshop now that I’ve finished?”
“Yes, but first put away your dishes and cleanse your hands and face. If you dirty the paper, Gil will scold you.”
“Lutz is scarier than Gil.”
I often hear tales of Gil scolding people or even kicking them out of Myne workshop, but I only know Lutz, the apprentice merchant who comes and goes in the workshop, as a boy Myne trusts deeply.
“Exactly. He yells, ‘Do you know how many days and effort went into this one sheet!?’”
“No, for me it’s more like, ‘How much do you think this will sell for? Don’t touch the merchandise with dirty hands!’ I was scolded before I could even touch anything. If I dirtied something, I wouldn’t be taken to the forest for a while.”