It would’ve been nice if there was a library or something around here. Books must’ve been a rare commodity, because I barely saw any. Thanks to that, I had to rely on hearsay, which didn’t give me the same juicy details a book would. Now that I had the real deal in front of me, though, I could get the valuable information I needed straight from the horse’s mouth for free.
“Hm, let’s see... Put simply, I’m a priestess who can fight. I offer prayers to our god and slay monsters and demons.” As expected. “I guess there’s some other stuff I do, but that’s the gist of it. Anyway, we’re here!”
I looked up at Sister Sensei’s behest. Before us stood a grand building. Its spires had a unique, eye-catching design. It wasn’t as fancy as a castle, but it was obviously rather different from the other buildings in this town.
The building consisted of arch-like structures and resembled the architecture seen in medieval Europe. It had been constructed with white bricks, which were laid very snugly against each other. However, though the entire building was uniformly white, the ornate carvings on its pillars and arches still provided visual interest.
I’d seen it from a distance a bunch of times, but this was my first time seeing it up close. I was honestly impressed.
“I’ll show you the proper etiquette, so just follow my lead. Let’s go!”
I’m surprised by how much responsibility she’s taking for me. I entered the church after her, taking care not to breach etiquette. In the chapel, there was a statue of a beautiful lady. If I had to guess, it was the goddess they revered. Next to that statue were two comparably smaller ones.
There were no benches or chairs in the chapel. The floor was made of marble, or some other kind of beautiful stone. The chapel was lit faintly by rays of the sun that came through the skylight. There wasn’t a single speck of dust or dirt—they must’ve been thorough with their cleaning.
People prayed while standing up, and apparently it didn’t really matter where in the chapel you prayed. There were a decent amount of people here, but since the chapel was so tall, it didn’t feel crowded. The craftsmanship of the arches and pillars here wasn’t as good as that of the ones outside, and their graven images depicted various mythical scenes.
“Very well—I will now instruct you on the proper way to pray.” The way she was speaking to me had changed so much, I was tempted to comment on it. Instead, I silently nodded.
The chapel was quiet, and even the smallest noise reverberated across the dome. Sister Sensei herself spoke in a very quiet voice. Most likely, her new tone was the way that nuns were supposed to speak.
“Straighten your back and place your hands firmly together. Close your eyes, spread your fingers, and commence your prayer. It should last around ten seconds. When you are finished, kiss the tip of your middle finger.” As she explained, she demonstrated each step.
I already kind of knew how to pray from what I’d read about it. Apparently, each finger was associated with a different element. In order, starting from the thumb, they represented earth, fire, light, wind, and water. By spreading your fingers, you demonstrated your devotion to each of those five gods. By kissing the middle finger, you showed that you were praying to the chief god—the goddess of light.
Dark was said to be the element of demons, so by an unspoken rule, it was generally ignored. Nobody wants to talk about how people with an affinity for light also have an affinity for dark? No? Okay.
“Why don’t you give it a try?”
“Okay.” I nodded and attempted to mimic what she’d done. I straightened my back—well, kinda—put my hands together, closed my eyes, and spread my fingers. I’d always found it ironic that my name, Inori, can mean “pray,” but I neither believed in God nor prayed at all. This might have been my first time praying, actually. Also, I probably shouldn’t have been thinking about other stuff when I was supposed to be praying.
Closing my eyes made the silence of the chapel more obvious. Even my ears, enhanced by Detect, could only pick up the slightest of sounds being made. I didn’t care much about deities, but I was really digging the silence. It made me feel extremely relaxed.
But also...what was this strange feeling? It’s not like I was a believer. I was only going through the motions, but I still felt like my soul was being connected to the heavens. Why was that? On a whim, I decided to use Detect to search the area. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, physical or magical. So was that connection all in my head? But my instincts were never really wrong...
Maybe it wasn’t exactly a connection that I was sensing. It felt more one-sided... Like I was being searched. Wait, was someone searching me? I didn’t care who they were. They had the nerve to try and peer into my soul! Anger swelled in my gut. How dare you touch me without my permission. Screw you!
“I dunno who you are, but you better stop.” I tried to imagine the connection to me and then reject it with the force of my will. I thought I heard the sound of something snapping, and then suddenly it was gone.
I opened my eyes, falling out of my state of concentration. Waiting for me was Sister Sensei, her eyes glowing with pride.
“You must be more devout than I thought. That was a very fervent prayer!” she exclaimed—quietly, so that only I could hear.
Had she not felt the same thing I did? I surveyed the people around us, but all I saw were people with their eyes closed in prayer. Nothing was out of the ordinary.
Afterwards, I left the church with Sister Sensei. Everything seemed normal, and it was as if the weird feeling I’d had was just a dream. I was sure it was real, though. Someone had tried to search me. But who? And why? The method they’d used wasn’t something that Detect could pick up on.
The church itself was probably not capable of something like that. Just in case, I’d Appraised everyone there, but there wasn’t anyone suspicious. The only ways to beat a Divine Blessing like Detect were to have the same Divine Blessing, an Artifact, or a magic tool that the mage from the previous generation of heroes had made. And it still wouldn’t have been easy. Apart from that, the only other possibility was...God.
This was just a theory, but was it possible that a god or two used the church as a way to peer into the world and investigate it? What if they used the information they gained to manage the world? I had no proof or information about this being the case, but it was certainly possible. My instincts were pointing me in that direction as well.
If I was right, it’d mean that the gods used churches as a way to search the hearts of the people who visited them. That could be a problem. If they really did connect to everyone who prayed to them in the chapel, that’d mean they might pay more attention to me, since I’d disrupted their connection.
Then again, if I’d really managed to cut their connection, then they probably hadn’t gotten any information on me. Thinking about it like that, I felt as if I’d made the right decision. Either way, there was no way for me to have known how the church worked before going there. It was better that I’d learned about it sooner rather than later.
On the other hand, it would’ve been nice to make contact with them later rather than sooner. I was still weak, and I had a feeling that, one day, I’d have to seriously face the gods of this world. Or at least that was what my instincts were telling me—and when had they ever been wrong?