Chapter: 62
The Grand Temple.
It was the headquarters of the Imperial Church, a place known as one of the Empire’s three great powers alongside the Imperial Family and the Noble Council.
It was also a place where one could see even more nobles than at the Noble Council.
The reason was roughly as follows.
Unless a family, like the Claudius Ducal Family, possessed two or more titles, second sons onward could not inherit a title, so they had to figure out how to make a living on their own.
Of course, the vast majority simply lived idly off their family’s money, but occasionally, those with ambitions for honor would usually join the knights or become clergymen.
There were also cases where they married a lady who possessed a title and inherited their wife’s title through an agreement between the two families.
But the other family wasn’t exactly full of fools. Wouldn’t they generally prefer to pass the title down to their own daughter rather than to their son-in-law?
Yes, that meant I had been that fool…
‘Anyway.’
The families would also make generous donations to the temple in hopes that their children serving as clergy would be looked after well.
And, of course, there was the prestige of being the headquarters of the Imperial Church.
For various reasons, the Grand Temple was decorated in truly dazzling splendor.
Under the afternoon sunlight, the delicately constructed building of pure white marble shone so brightly that it almost hurt my eyes.
Looking at its magnificent appearance, I somehow felt overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, Lady Sanchez exclaimed with an extremely excited expression.
“I heard that High Priest Evans works in the main building of the Grand Temple!”
Lady Sanchez looked around with sparkling eyes before making an excited suggestion.
“So, shall we visit the main building first?”
“Wait a moment, Lady Sanchez.”
Lady Sherwood swallowed a sigh and asked,
“Ordinary people aren’t allowed to enter the main building, are they?”
The Grand Temple was divided into the chapel and the main building.
Ordinary people were permitted to enter the chapel, where they could pray and offer tributes.
The main building, on the other hand, was where the clergy lived and carried out their duties, so only authorized personnel could come and go there.
But Lady Sanchez was being completely unreasonable.
“It’s all right. I have a method I use quite often for situations like this.”
Having said that, Lady Sanchez suddenly put on a troubled expression.
Then she cried out in an exaggerated voice,
“Oh my, where on earth did my handkerchief go?!”
“……”
I stared at Lady Sanchez with cold eyes.
Surely she wasn’t planning to use that classic and childish trick of pretending to have lost something so she could go look for it…?!
“It was a precious handkerchief my parents gave me, but the wind must have blown it toward the main building~!”
Then she hurriedly scampered toward the main building!
For the record, Lady Sanchez’s acting skills were far from impressive…
“L-Lady Sanchez?!”
“Wait, that’s…!”
Was she really allowed to do that?
The ladies exchanged uneasy glances before hurriedly following Lady Sanchez.
I stealthily glanced at the young lady.
Although the young lady wore a bright smile, judging from her stiff eyes and trembling lips…
‘She wants to snap at her right now, but she’s desperately holding herself back.’
Perhaps it was because of what had happened earlier that had made the atmosphere so cold.
Apparently, she was being careful about her behavior.
‘Hmm. The young lady said that she was rather uncomfortable around the High Priest, didn’t she?’
If so, I should make sure to avoid getting her involved with the High Priest as much as possible…
With that judgment in mind, I subtly stepped in front of Lady Sanchez.
“Um, Lady Sanchez. I understand that you want to meet High Priest Evans, but since we’ve come to the Grand Temple, shouldn’t we still follow the Grand Temple’s rules?”
“Pardon?”
“I think we should visit the chapel first and offer our tributes.”
“But… I don’t think we’ll be able to meet the High Priest in the chapel.”
Lady Sanchez looked displeased.
No, did she have honey smeared all over High Priest Evans or something?
I suppressed the sigh that was about to escape.
“If you really must meet the High Priest, I think it would be better to request an audience with him directly another time.”
I shrugged.
“Wouldn’t it be even more troublesome if you rudely entered the main building without permission and ended up offending High Priest Evans?”
“……That’s…”
“High Priest Evans is also a member of the Grand Temple, so surely he would want visitors to show proper respect to the Grand Temple.”
I deliberately mentioned High Priest Evans again as I tried to persuade her.
“I think Lady Ansi is right.”
The young lady added her support.
“That’s right. We all came out today to get a change of scenery.”
“Of course, it would be nice if we could meet the High Priest, but that doesn’t mean we should be rude inside the Grand Temple…”
The other ladies also agreed with me.
With the young lady and the other ladies all backing me up, Lady Sanchez looked dissatisfied, but she could no longer insist.
And so, while we were heading toward the chapel,
I moved close beside the young lady and whispered softly,
“Are you all right, my lady?”
“Hm? About what?”
The young lady turned toward me with an expression as though nothing was wrong.
But the tense line of her lips didn’t seem likely to relax anytime soon.
Seraphina had gone out to get some fresh air for the first time in a while.
She had wanted to shake off the gloomy mood brought on by the Peony Society and the matter concerning Gregory.
The place she had settled into was a coffeehouse near the Grand Temple, famous for being frequently visited by gentlemen.
After ordering a cup of tea and sitting quietly while pretending to read a poetry collection,
the gentlemen gathered in the coffeehouse flocked toward Seraphina.
“My goodness, isn’t that Lady Lopez?”
“You look absolutely beautiful today as well.”
“I can’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Lady Lopez here. I’m truly delighted.”
“Would you please allow me the honor of treating you, Lady Lopez?”
The gentlemen surrounding Seraphina showered her with all sorts of sweet words.
Listening to their flattery, Seraphina finally felt her previously low spirits improve a little.
But thenā
“Have you heard?”
One of the gentlemen casually opened his mouth.
“I heard that the Young Lady of the Claudius Family visited the Grand Temple today.”
What?
In an instant, Seraphina’s eyes sharpened as she stared at him.
The startled gentleman hurriedly added,
“Well, what does the young lady matter? The most pristine lily of high society is standing right before my eyes.”
“That’s very kind of you to say.”
Seraphina answered before gracefully rising from her seat.
“However, I think I should be going now. I just remembered that I have something urgent to attend to.”
“Pardon?”
“Let us meet again another time. Well, I shall be going now.”
Seraphina slipped out of the coffeehouse with graceful yet hurried steps.
The gentlemen stared blankly at her retreating figure before turning murderous glares toward the gentleman who had first brought up the young lady.
“Honestly! Because of that young master, Lady Lopez’s mood was ruined!”
“We finally had a chance to spend some time with Lady Lopez…”
A short while later.
‘How dare he mention the young lady in front of me?’
Seraphina ground her teeth furiously, but hurriedly climbed into her carriage.
‘Still… I need to figure out what’s going on somehow.’
Perhaps this was actually for the best.
The Grand Temple was an easy place to arrange a meeting while pretending it was a coincidence.
Seraphina spoke urgently.
“Take me to the Grand Temple.”
Multicolored light poured down beneath the chapel decorated with stained glass.
At the entrance to the chapel, incense candles and pure white gerbera flowers were being sold as offerings to God.
There were also gorgeous vases filled with bouquets of gerbera flowers, and the prices of those vases were truly outrageous…
Judging by the fact that they even wrote the donor’s name on the vase, it seemed to be a way of accommodating wealthy people who wanted to show off that they had ‘made a donation.’
‘Hmm.’
I wasn’t such a devout believer, so I simply bought a single flower.
The other ladies were similar to me.
As I was writing in the guestbook, the priest standing beside it suddenly looked startled.
‘Hmm.’
I wasn’t such a devout believer, so I simply bought a single flower.
The other ladies were similar to me.
As I was writing in the guestbook, the priest standing beside it suddenly looked startled.
