It was a typical financial trap, not genuine assistance. That much was clear just by considering how despised Joam was.
“But, why.. why would you nominate me?”
My master is speaking softly.
“Because we have no choice but to reject their offer. If we accept it, they’ll swallow us whole. We’ll have to repay the loan, and of course the interest rate will be terrible.”
Joam was the one we saw visiting Alice while we were there. Almost everyone will be in heavy debt right now, only someone like him can be as fat as the dogs right now. But that’s clearly not how my master would want things to end. Alice can see that too. She scratches her nose and takes in a deep breath before continuing.
“We want you to be there to bargain, with the identity we just gave you.”
She’s still being vague. Clearly she’s not skilled with words either. But then, there’s only so much my master can take in at once, so maybe Alice’s approach is for the best.
“To bargain?”
“Exactly. At first we were going to use a merchant, to keep arguments from happening when problems came up. After all, a war could happen if we aren’t careful. But if we can get the Church involved, and claim we only want to deal with true believers, then things will be even safer for us. I mean, who wants to pick a fight with the Church? We might even be able to just turn them away that easily.”
It makes sense now. I’m quite impressed, and look over at Joseph. It makes sense that he would nominate my master as assistant priest and have Alice talk to her.
“You’ve been nominated.. because the bishop is stuck here. We need someone in his place. Of course, we suggested someone in town, but the bishop knows these situations better than any of us do.”
Alice sighs, and looks quite tired. And that’s not just my impression of her, she’s clearly exhausted. Looking back at the others who were in the room a few minutes ago, they were also important people in town. And just like Alice, they weren’t chosen. They were too old or too young, and simply couldn’t replace the bishop.
“Of course if we do this, Retzel might seek to bring the Church in on their side, too. That’s why we can’t pick someone from town. It would be too obvious a ploy. We wouldn’t be able to trap them that way. Damn, they’re so obnoxious. You’ve heard of Retzel, right? They’re like barbarians, they even carve their gemstones like arrowheads. Such bad taste.”
Just as Alice angrily says this, it’s like my head’s been knocked hard. Everything comes into focus. I remember the attackers, and our warm reception when we got to Gustav. They’ve been trying to refuse Retzel. And Joseph was almost killed after promising to help them. Even my dimwitted master should be able to understand what’s going on.
Alice opens her eyes and opens her mouth as if to speak, but doesn’t say anything. She just nervously looks over at Joseph. It seems he never told her who attacked him. Which was a wise choice. If he told her that it was Retzel, this town would flare up like cornered mice and go off to a war they couldn’t win. So he kept his mouth shut.
“So you see, you’re the one we need. A traveler, and one in excellent standing with the Church.”
Alice looks up at my master.
“I.. I see..”
Ruvinheigen is called the Church city, but it’s an even darker place than here. We worked so hard to escape there, and now I’m being hit with the realization that every city is like that. My master seems to be quite disappointed too, and also looks up as though she’s finally realized something. If I could cover my face with my paw right now, I would.
“Um..”
“Yes?”
“I get it.. so this is why you told me to give up on being a seamstress the first time we met?”
My master hasn’t forgotten her own dreams, and she just has to ask this embarrassing question. Alice is probably wishing she could cover her face in embarrassment like I am. My master only said that to be kind.. she can’t talk very well either, but she has kindness to make up for it.
“..it’s because we need you to be the assistant priest in our bargaining, like I said.”
“Alright.”
“But even after that, if you want to become a seamstress..”
Alice stares at my master, as if hoping she understands. She doesn’t get an immediate response, but it comes after some thought.
“Oh!”
My master finally cries out softly.
“You see? It’s impossible!”
Alice sees it necessary to spell it out to her. My master risked coming here to become a seamstress, and Joseph knows that. He’s clearly going to feel ashamed. But sometimes, protecting the flock means sacrificing one of the sheep. And he’s the shepherd who had to make that decision. But he still made the master of the tailor’s guild ask her. No one’s to blame, and it has to be done.
“But still..”
Alice breaks the silence.
“Sorry for my attitude yesterday.”
My master is surprised by that, and waves her hands for Alice to stop.
“No, I mean.. I should be the one apologizing. I was only thinking about myself..”
My master apologizes with her head bent in shame. Alice stares at her, obviously feeling terrible.
“I can’t believe Joam’s so angry at you.. I mean, I feel like such a jerk.”
“Huh?”
“It’s just.. I’m not a very good talker. You did your best to come here to become a seamstress. You took that kind of risk, and I just shut you down. What’s wrong with me? I could only see the faces of the people who died..”
Her words are jumbled, but that just shows that she’s talking from the heart. She might act tough, but Alice really is a gentle person. She’s looking around like someone who’s too soft to look into the eyes of the person they’ve wronged.
“But I know we can’t go on like this anymore..”
Alice takes another deep breath, stands tall and looks up right at my master, with the same toughness and determination she usually had as the tailor’s guild master.
“So, I’ll ask again. Please help us. I know this will end your hope of working as a seamstress here, but we need your help. We won’t ask you to be an assistant priest forever, but just this once. Will you help save our town?”
Alice’s right hand clutches at her chest as she stands tall. My master lowers her eyes to the ground. Merchants in Ruvinheigen stand like Alice when they want to prove they’re friends of the Church. But in spite of that, I feel respect for Alice right now. I just don’t know how my master feels. I look up in worry, but immediately regret doing so. I shouldn’t have doubted her. Even if her dream comes crashing down, she still sits tall and gently smiles.
“If this is the will of the Lord.”
“Th-then..”
“Yes, I’ll help.”
Nice people always lose first in this world. But I don’t want to serve a master that only thinks about themselves. Alice relaxes, perhaps touched, given that there are tears in her eyes. She reaches a hand out to my master, who takes it and keeps smiling. I’m still just a dog, but my master’s noble conduct is amazing to me. She hugs the sobbing Alice while smiling at me. It’s a forced smile, though. I can tell she’s thinking she just made a reckless promise. But my tail is wagging in appreciation.
* * *
It’s easy to say you’ll do something, but actually doing it is difficult. Especially when it’s becoming an assistant priest. That’s what seems to be occupying my master’s mind tonight in the inn. Under the candlelight, she looks like a dried-out fish.
“..oh, so tired..”
She just crumples down in bed without even bothering to avoid me. I leap out before she lands on me, wondering if exhaustion turns her evil. Soon I settle on “inconsiderate like a child” rather than “evil.” She grabs me with her hands regardless.
“Enek, I’m so tired.”
She holds me so tightly, and rubs my head so fiercely that she clearly doesn’t care what I feel.
I’m worried she’s going to rub off my skin. Now both of us are uncomfortable. I can smell ink on her face when she buries it in my neck fur. She told the people here that she worked for a church in Ruvinheigen, but all she knows is the same prayers they always say. When they heard the truth from her, Alice and the other women taking care of Joseph nodded. I don’t really know what happened next.
Craftsmen and companies have their own patron saints, and company owners often lead their entire workforce in prayer like a priest. While Joseph recovers, these women have to teach my master how to hold a mass. At least she’s literate. Well, she can read. But she’s not very good at writing. I know it’s silly for me to say that, when I don’t know anything about words. But even I can tell her handwritten words are clumsy. And Amon and the others are utterly dumbfounded.
My master actually used the tip of her staff to practice writing, when we were shepherding. But it wasn’t enough. She can draw a sheep or a dog pretty well that way, but words? Not a chance. That’s why the people in the church are teaching her how to write properly in addition to the various prayers and things she needs to know to be an assistant priest.
That’s also why I can’t be next to her much right now. No matter how much she begs me with her eyes. But that just breaks her concentration, so I’m usually shooed away. The last thing I see is the hopeless and defeated look on her face. It makes me feel bad, but I have to leave her alone for now. So I was ruthless, and let the others lead me back to our inn.
And now, finally, my master has turned her face away from me and is staring at the ceiling. She stretches, and I hear the crumbling of the hay in the mattress under her. I sniff her hand, and detect a weak scent - probably the wax from the desk she was working at.
“I hope I’ll be as relaxed as you are someday, Enek.”
She suddenly begins fretting as I lick her hand. When she’s this tired, she’ll endlessly complain.
“Tomorrow I have to learn how to bargain, and what to say when I’m questioned about being from the Church. Jeez, can I really do this? I don’t think I can even remember what I learned today..”
I lower my ears in response to her grumbling. I know I can’t ignore her worries. I am a knight, after all. I have to help my master out, no matter how dangerous the situation.
“Well well.. heh. Alright. I’ll stop now.”
She smells of ink and candles, but I still rest my nose in her hair and sniff her head. I do so intentionally, so the noise makes her giggle. She plays with me even with her eyes closed, like a newborn pup. After a while, as usual, she stops with a determined look on her face. It seems she’s thrown her useless worries out the window again.
“My dream is farther away again, but I’ll work hard for these people’s dreams for now.”
She then looks at me. My master’s eyes are gentle but firm, the eyes of a shepherd.
“They’ve already apologized and thanked me so much that I really don’t have the will to be depressed about it anymore.”
She smiles and takes my front paw in her hands. She just rubs it, and nothing more.
“Mr. Amon said that I can work for his company, too. They’re known in a lot of cities, and he wants to help me, and he says he’ll do what he can for me.”
Her eyes then close, like she’s letting every word she just said sink in. The look on her face is the same as the one when she’s intentionally standing in the rain in midsummer. She has a problem: she’s too kind to turn down a request for help. In my eyes, she’s not even able to help anyone. She has no money, she’s weak, she’s not even well-educated. She’s just a normal girl. She’s a good shepherd, but that hardly changes anything.
This is just like it was with that traveling peddler and that wolf. She knew it was a dangerous deal, but she couldn’t turn down the peddler’s request for help. She’s only inactive when it comes to her own interests. So when that peddler tempted her with a large cash prize, and I saw her actually being swayed by it, I wasn’t angry. It actually comforted me.
“They asked me if I could keep on being an assistant priest until everything is normal here in town again.”
This doesn’t comfort me. I look up at her in response.
“I don’t think I can.. there should be someone else who was here before me.. but..”
She smiles at me again. I know she doesn’t want to obey the Church. Her face betrays how amused she is by all of this. She pulls my paw to her mouth and continues.
“I still want to become a seamstress if I can.. is that asking too much?”
I shift my body. My paw pushes against her lips and distorts them. She shows a bit of anger, but also an impatient smile. Her eyes close, and she makes sport of me by opening her mouth and pretending to bite my paw. I instantly recoil, but she won’t let go of my paw. She sits up as though she’s going to punish me.
Luckily, someone knocks on our door. My master replies, and raps my head gently. She was joking, right? She hops down from the bed and opens the door to reveal Alice.
“Sorry to disturb you this late..”
“It’s alright.”
My master observes Alice as she replies. Alice’s facial expression is a bit strange, maybe from coming so late.
“I know you’re tired, so I hope you’ll forgive me. Can I come in?”
My master nods and lets her in. Alice then brings in object after object until my master finally closes the door and stares at her. I jump off the bed and look at Alice. What in the world is she up to? A thick shadow covers her face in the candlelight, but she looks less dangerous than energetic. It’s quite surprising to me.
“I just stopped over at Mr. Kerrick’s place and got this.”
“Got this what?”
“This.”
Alices spread the white linen cloth. It’s quite nice.
“This is a piece of the high-quality linen they use for priest’s robes. It was the guildmaster’s originally, but hey! That’s me! Anyway, looks like it’ll be good.”
Alice squints as she eyes the cloth. I rarely see cloth that looks this pretty, and I can only wonder how good it’d look spread out properly. I’m actually impressed.
“You realize, I hope, that’s it’s just a tablecloth.”
My master is stunned, and even I’m surprised to realize that’s why I was smelling fish and mustard.
“We don’t have much time, so let’s take your measurements tonight.”
She folds the cloth skillfully, then takes out a small rope with markings on it. She then takes as many measurements of my master as it seems she possibly could.
“If we actually had time, I’d love to do a proper job. But we don’t, so this is the best we’ll be able to manage. Of course, once you’re properly ordained, it won’t just be a tablecloth. You’ll get a proper frock made from new cloth.”
She keeps talking as she directs my master on how to stand while she measures her height and the length of her limbs. My master laughs, but not just from how itchy the fabric is. A few days ago, she would never have fathomed someone using an noble’s table cover to make her a costume. It’s just too funny to her. Her life has just changed in a weird way.
After a while, Alice suddenly asks her a question.
“Say, why do you want to become a seamstress?”
She’s direct as usual, and my master replies just as directly.
“If I’m not going to be able to wear pretty clothes, I’d like to be able to at least make them.”
Alice spins my master around to take some more measurements, and as she hears the answer she spins her around again to mess with my master and look her in the eyes.
“Making beautiful isn’t easy, you know. You’d even start off making those uniforms worn by sweaty old men.”
My master is obviously surprised.
“And that’s not all! New apprentices aren’t even allowed to touch needles or thread. By the rules, it takes six years of training. Year one, you clean. Year two, you buy supplies. Year three, you can fina
lly touch the tools, but not the cloth. You can only practice on old clothes. Year four you finally start making proper clothes, and by year five you finally make your first set. You’re only done after six years. But even when you’ve passed the exam, you’re still far away from that. The master - I mean former master - only made bridal gowns in his twelfth year.”
Alice finally measures my master’s chest. Her most sensitive part. She mutters the wrong number intentionally, but she can’t fool me. But I’m not sure why she lied. Was she thinking she was growing that quickly, or did she just not want to hurt my master’s feelings?
“Twelve years..”
My master is counting on her fingers as she repeats. That’s far longer than she’s been together with me. In twelve years I’ll be dead.
“Yeah, but lucky me, I can make a priest’s get-up before I’m in my twelfth year!”
My master didn’t seem to think she’d be that lucky. In fact it looks like she’s already giving up on becoming a seamstress. After Alice jots down all the numbers on some paper, she smiles in apology.
“This is only temporary, but you have to be a priest, right? I think God’s blessing is with you.”
Only someone who’s been through the training could comfort my master right now, and sure enough, my master nods and smiles with an “mhm!”
“And if you have the time, you’re welcome to swing by my studio. I’ll teach you what I can.”
“Oh?”
“It’ll be rough, but if you’re going to wear it, you should help make it, no?”
Alice points at my master’s normal outfit. It’s obviously been mended numerous times. She reacts by stupidly trying to hide her clothes in embarrassment, looking at the ground. She was so confident she could be a seamstress, but the reality isn’t that optimistic.
“I can teach you the basics, even if I’ve still got a lot to learn from the old master.”
Alice, the girl taking her measurements, is a great seamstress. She’s thin, probably because she doesn’t eat enough. But the way she handles clothes and takes measurements makes it obvious that she’s talented and determined. She’s a young, professional seamstress.