After Melissa left us, we settled down at our table for four in the cafeteria (which, by now, was more or less our designated spot) for lunch.
As I elegantly cut the impeccably sliced carrot glacé before me into bite-size pieces, I could hear Colette groan above me.
“So, just who is this Priestess of Eltania, anyway? From her name, I assume she’s connected to the Lord Eltania in some way.”
As to be expected, the topic of conversation was Melissa.
She had long disappeared from our presence, but the girl who was spying on us—on me, rather—had been referred to by Albert as the Priestess of Eltania.
Eltania was the kingdom in which we resided, and it was also the moniker of its namesake deity. The “Eltania” in the title “Priestess of Eltania” likely referred to the god, not the kingdom.
“Yes, quite right,” Albert said. “Throughout the ages, the Priestesses of Eltania have been known as the Lord Eltania’s most devout believers. They’re also said to possess a unique supernatural ability that allows them to receive fragments of the Lord Eltania’s divine prophecy.”
It seemed my guess was generally correct. Though I wouldn’t have thought they could receive messages from a god. My lips twisted into a sneer, putting my skepticism on full display against my will.
Albert shot an awkward smile at me before continuing, “That’s right, Miss Mylene, you don’t believe in God. But the Priestesses of Eltania have predicted countless natural disasters and hardships throughout the years. In addition to natural disasters like the Great Flood of Imron, the Eruption of Mt. Zevent, and others, they even prophesied conspiracies like the Case of the Silver Spoon.”
The prince felt sad that I denied the existence of the god he still believed in. But I guess I needed to open my mind a little, too. All the names Albert had just dropped were events that had come up in my very basic education as a daughter of nobility. That was just how significant those disasters and conspiracies were.
Yeah… Now that I’ve heard Albert’s explanation, knowledge tucked away in the back of my memory is coming to the surface.
The disasters Albert mentioned had been mitigated with minor casualties because people were evacuated and precautions were taken.
Aha…up until now, I thought God couldn’t possibly exist, but I need to come to terms with the fact that maybe there is one.
I still didn’t believe in the Lord Eltania. Not that I didn’t believe Eltania existed, per se. Rather, I had a hard time believing in the god’s personality—if you could call it that—or the actions He took.
Why and how did the Lord Eltania bestow a bitch like Mylene with such abilities? If He’d chosen a less shitty person, the former timeline would have had a much nicer ending.
“It was her…Melissa… She was the one who prophesied those events, wasn’t she?”
“Yes. She belongs to the sole bloodline who can make sense of the enigmatic words of the Lord Eltania.”
That aside, if Melissa really had such a power, could it be that the reason she’d started surveilling me now was because she sensed something?
“Hmmm…,” Colette pondered. “None of the stories of the Eltania faith are ringing any bells for me.”
“I suppose someone from Colorne would see it that way, since your country has religious freedom and many faiths coexist. Are there any teachings you believe in, Princess Colette?” Albert asked, a smirk on his face.
“Not really, no. You make your own path in life. I’m not anti-religion, but I don’t believe in anything I can’t see or feel with my own senses.”
That’s why Albert was smirking—he knew Colette would say that. (Then again, I felt the same way as her.)
“But you cannot deny the fact that people like Pearlman exist,” Albert argued.
“Mm…fair point.”
But now, I had to accept the existence of deities. And ironically, it was a cult with an intense hatred of the Lord Eltania that had made me a believer.
The fact was Pearlman wielded powers that could only come from a god. In that regard, the existence of beings beyond human knowledge was a practical explanation.
“However, I agree with the princess—we have the power to pave our own path in life.”
“Yes, Mylene, I knew you and I were cut from the same cloth.”
The fact also was I had seen with my own eyes how the Lord Eltania hadn’t lifted a finger to save His “Gift” when she was condemned to die, His people when they were suffering, or His own kingdom the very moment it burned to the ground.
And many years ahead, there would come a time when Eltania would forsake even the clan of Priestesses who had been devout and true to Him all throughout history.
I ignored the melancholy smile on Albert’s face and sipped my tea.
But if that frightened rabbit of a girl truly did have such powers, I was now faced with a plot development I never asked for.
“You do pave your own path in life. Having said that, I’ve developed quite an interest in this Melissa girl,” I stated.
I had no idea what powers a Priestess had, if any. The Priestesses might foresee major events by their own powers, not from God, or it was possible that they orchestrated these events themselves.
But if their abilities were genuine, I might be able to glean some new information about the Fall of the Kingdom of Eltania from Melissa.
In other words, I could learn something about the looming threat—Gods of the Moon.
“I would most definitely love to speak directly with her,” I reiterated.
“From the look of her, that’s not going to be easy,” Colette said, gesturing with her chin to Melissa, who had returned and was lurking in the corner.
She knelt beneath a table where students were eating, peering up at us with languid eyes. I’d discovered that she was surveilling me just a little while ago. Yet, the reason she hadn’t entered my line of sight was—
“……!”
—because whenever our eyes met, she would run away.
“Seriously. This doesn’t bode well…”
“Oof!” In her haste to flee, Melissa had banged her head on the table. As I watched her run away, tears glistening in her eyes, all I could do was heave a deep sigh.