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Chapter Text

It had been two years since Sister Rozemyne became their new master, according to the deal between the High Bishop and her family. As a faithful attendant, Mia couldn't help but worry for her mistress after her latest mana fever Sister Rozemyne started to act strangely and only speak about her dream world.
After they failed to reserve time to dedicate her mana to the divine instruments, she began to fear the worst as even the promise of more stories and even an extrusion to the temple bookroom couldn't keep their master from the embrace of Schlaftraum for long. During her sickness, they could only pray to Glucklitat for help, as Rozemyne's condition was beyond the domains of Flutrane and Heilschmerz.

"Mia, are you feeling all right? The God of Darkness cape fell over a sky long ago." The sound of someone's voice broke Mia's worry from spiralling further. "Why are you still acting as if His Wife's crown shines for you alone?"

"Oh, forgive me, Emi. I was praying for our master's success over Glucklitat trails."

"Again? Mia, I know you blame yourself, but it isn't your fault that Entrinduge blessed the Zent's sword, but Anwachs withheld his blessing for their—" But a sudden hard pillow cut her off by landing on her face.

"Stop before somebody hears you, you dunce!" Whispered now pillowless Mia, who sacrificed her pillow for a worthy cause.

"Fine, but it isn't like anyone can refute that. You should finish your prayers quickly. We have to share the blessing of Mestionora with apprentices before the Goddess of Light receives complete control over the skies from her husband."

"You are right. I know that Sister Rozemyne will survive until the dedication ritual, but I wish she would have to bear such a burden and pain."

"I know, I know. You know I know it, but you should know that we can't do much about it. Sister Rozemyne's family gave her a budget "worthy of her and her mana." And yet they have the gal demand of her to uphold their prestige." Emi sat at her bed, frowning, towards a southern window.

"Quite an order for a 3-year-old, no matter how blessed by Mestionora." After a moment of painful silence, she continued. "Not that they know about that about Sister Rozemyne."

"I should allocate more funds for pillows because your tongue gets loser during the night." Although Mia was scolding Emi, one could easily hear in her tone that she did agree with her fellow shrine maiden.

"You should because I am not giving this one back until tomorrow evening." Emi said with a giant grin on her face.

"I should've expected that." Mia sighed deeply.

"But you are correct, for Schlaftraum has been expecting our arrival long enough. Once again, I pray to all the Gods for blessings that will help Sister Rozemyne."

"Go to sleep already. You will scare the little shumil if you stay up any longer." Yawned Emi, whose patience was already running low from the day of dealing with a rotting place known as the temple.

"My pillow would help."

"I know. " Said Emi while falling asleep on both pillows.

Mia loved the sight of skies when the God of Darkness longed for his Goddess. It was a beautiful and peaceful time when she could gather her strength and thoughts for the coming day, but the sudden sound of something falling in sister Rozemyne's room was far from routine.
Sufficed to say, Mia's work started long before the first bell that day.

She swiftly moved to find out what had transpired there but froze in the doorframe when she saw a tiny body crawling near the bed.

"Sister Rozemyne!" she moved as if with the Ordoschnell's blessing to check her master's state.

Rozemyne's golden eyes were unfocused, vaguely looking at Mia's blue hair. She was also muttering in a strange tongue and had a problem with taking a breath.

"Sister Rozemyne, can you hear me?" She grasped her master's tiny shoulders and gently shook them, but Rozemyne wasn't responding; then grabbed her head in pain and let out a pained gasp.

"Sister Rozemyne, focus on my voice and look into my eyes. Take a deep breath, please." Mia's plea was a sign of devotion that was honest enough that gods seemed to listen to it.

"...Mia." That one word was enough for Mia to breathe once more and collapse from her knees to her bottom. Thus she missed the moment when something settled inside her Rozemyne.

"Sister Rozemyne, are you feeling any discomfort or pain?" After a brief moment of weakness, Mia recollected herself and focused purely on the well-being of her master, whose golden eyes were closed once more.

"...My head still hurts. I want to, uhm, go to see Schlaftraum again."

"As you wish, Sister Rozemyne. I will ensure that nobody will disturb you until the 1st bell." Mia picked up the little shumil of a master and tucked her into her bed. And quietly left the bedroom chamber and went back to the dormitory to wake up Emi and the apprentice grey priestess whose training starts today.

"Emi, your time with Schlaftraum came to an end." Mia started with her fellow grey priestess, but she wasn't willing to leave the domain of the God of Dreams without a fight. Thankfully his divine protection was strong enough to survive a theft of the pillows and a blow with one to the stomach.

"What was that for!" Emi said after shooting straight out of her sheets.

"For taking so long to wake up, dunce! Sister Rozemyne woke up with a weaker fever than before, and then she decided to return to the embrace of Schlaftraum. Thus we have until the first bell to prepare everything for her day." Mia quickly briefed sleepy Emi on the current state of their master while omitting less dignifying parts of Rozemyne's condition when she found her.

"Yawn, sure, I will get everything ready on my side. Do you need help with apprentices, or will you get them sorted to be presentable to our shumil master alone?" Emi asked Mia as she grabbed her attire from where her pillow once was.

After pondering for a moment, Mia answered Emi while they made their beds. "I should get them sorted. You can recall lesson plans for them and Sister Rozemyne but forgo physically draining training until Sister Rozemyne recovers her strength."

"Don't worry. I do not enjoy seeing shumil collapse in the middle of my training. We will do light stretches and play Harspiel."

"Good, we will manage, but please check on her as soon as you are ready. I am a bit worried." Mia asked her as she started recalling all the tasks for today.

"No problem, I will check on her in a moment. Stop spiralling; it never helps you or Sister Rozemyne. Go, get apprentices out of the orphanage. The sooner they are out, the sooner we get help with chores, and the sooner they stop worrying about their next meal."

"Right, I will go now. Please check on Sister Rozemyne." Mia once more asked Emi as she swiftly exited both dormitory and chambers of Sister Rozemyne as a whole. She moved through the corridors of the noble part of the temple and headed north towards the orphanage.

Thankfully the most decadent of blues were still sleeping, so Mia arrived at the orphanage without issues. And to show that Glücklität was smiling upon her that day, she found a familiar face guarding the doors.

"Brother Linus, I am overjoyed that our threads of fate were woven together once again, even though we now longer serve the same master."

"Sister Mia, it is a blessing to see you once more. Can I assume that you are here to take apprentices for Sister Rozemyne as agreed with the High Bishop?" Linus spoke familiarly with Mia as the first bell could be heard through the temple.

"You may. And here are previously agreed 2 Small Silvers and 2 Large Coppers for apprentices Nalu, Ann, Tia and Rose." Mia took out coins from her braid and placed them in Linus' hand.

As soon as Linus checked coins, he entered the orphanage, and after a few short moments, he exited with four girls who definitely needed to be made presentable.

"We pray for a blessing in gratitude of this fortunate meeting, ordained by the fruitful days of Schutzaria, the Goddess of Wind." Young girls said as one which shows a promise of potential behind them. And as such, Mia answered them with glee.

"May our united prayers reach Schutzaria, the Goddess of Wind, and may she protect our young mistress and this new stage of your life. We will depart shortly." After returning the greeting, Mia exchanged goodbyes with Linus and left with the girls.

They once again were graced with Glücklität mercy and arrived in Sister Rozemyne's chambers without incidents despite the traffic of grey priests in the corridors. "Before I can show you to Sister Rozemyne, I need to make you presentable. First, we will head to the dormitory and eat the Divine gifts presented to us by lady Rozemyne. Then, I will correct your looks, understood?" Fortunately, they quickly answered with rapid nods.

After Mia and the girls finished what they could and sent the rest as divine gifts for the orphanage, Mia started to clean the girls starting with the oldest, Nalu and ending with the youngest, Tia. She scrubbed all the dirt and worse from their bodies, washed their faces as much as possible, set aside their old clothes and put them in their new apprentice attire. She then started to comb through their hair with her trusty comb and style green, silver, red and blond hair.

After a bell rang for the 2nd time that day, Mia was satisfied with the appearance of her and Emi's apprentices and decided to check on Sister Rozemyne and Emi before introducing the girls.

"Sister Rozemyne, it's Mia. May I intrude on your lesson with Emi?"

Chapter Text

After Mia left the room, I had a minor panic attack to finish.

Why it had to be me, I finally landed my dream job, and I could be paid for a life surrounded by books.
I know I told Shuu that I would love to die surrounded by books, but why it had to be when I could finally brag to mom, she could finally be proud of me.

Why aren't there any books in my room? Why is my bed so hard and coarse? Why is Mia's hair violet? Why is MY hair dark blue? Why are my hands so small and pale? Why am I so cold and hot? Why did I have to die? Why? Oh, why? WHY?

I am calm, I AM FINE! I will work things out. I only need to go through Rozemyne's memories to find my answers, and I can work from there to get more books. After all, besides the crappy bed, this room seems like one of those fancy western mansions from the middle ages.

I began to slowly digest Rozemyne's many memories. I thought back as far as I could, but I couldn't remember much outside those white walls of my new home. I remember a giant with dark hair. And a giant woman with blue hair similar to mine. I believe those two are my parents, but I recall a lot of noise. Were they mad at something?

After that, I can't recall them anymore. Did something happen to me? Or did something happen to them?

I wish I remembered more, but I guess I was a baby (I think), so I should be happy to remember that much. Good job, Rozemyne. You deserve a new book for all the hard work. Hehehee.

Anyway. After that, I think I somehow ended up with Mia and Emi.

Wait! Where is Emi? Did something to her? Right, Mia promised to tell her to let me sleep in. Yay! Mia, you are the best!

What was I...? Right, digesting my memories! Focus Rozemyne!

After ending up with Mia and Emi, they took care of me, was I adopted by them? They seem to like me, but Mia is somewhat stiff around me.
Their language seems complex. I understand what they are saying most of the time, but why do they need so many euphemisms? I hope those were euphemisms; otherwise, the outside world is bizarre(and scary).

What else? I think I only left my home a few times, but things seemed fuzzy around that time? Was I sick, then?

Anyway, I think the outside has books! A few(?) days ago, Mia and Emi mentioned the bookroom! I love them, to be aware of the greatness of books and to have a room dedicated to them in one's house.

I have a few big holes in my memory, but I think I get the basics covered, but I hope I can act as Rozemyne not to raise any suspicions.
Now there is still some time before I need to wake up again, so time to reward nap.

"Pwee!" I was woken up by a sudden finger touching my cheek.
"It is good to see that you finally left Schlaftraum alone, Sister Rozemyne." After I opened my eyes, I saw a beautiful lady with teal hair.

"Pretty..." It slipped out of my mouth. And I saw the lady, Emi, smiling at my words. "I see you are back to your charming self Sister Rozemyne. I swear gods were merciful on all of us that you are a girl because otherwise, you would make all the girls into the flowers beg you to accept their rafel."

"Emi, what is rafel?" I asked because I didn't recall it being part of the flower from my biology class. It could be in this world. I mean, the hair colours are already wacky, so why not?

Emi froze after my question and put on quite a funny expression. "You see, it is not the time for little shumil in early spring like you to think now about summer."
"What do you mean? I thought that autumn had only started? Did I sleep through half a year!"

Emi started to laugh at my distressed questions. It was frankly rude for her to laugh at my earnest questions.
"Don't worry, Sister Rozemyne, you were only asleep for a day. I just meant that you are too young to think about rafels." She gently started poking my checks with her finger.

"Pwee! Okay, but it still doesn't answer my question what is rafel?"
"Well, it is a name of a fruit. You can have it after your breakfast if you want."
"Okay, but why would girls turn into (Pwee!) flowers to give me a fruit if I was a boy?"

This time both Emi's face and her finger completely froze. "Sister Rozemyne, aren't you hungry? You should eat. You didn't eat since yesterday, and even that wasn't much. Let me pick you up and get you ready. We will have new apprentices grey-priestess to show you, so we need to review how you should act during introductions."

I wanted to protest and bring the conversation back to the flower, but my rumbling stomach betrayed me. And gave up for now and allowed Emi to ready me for the day. I need to start paying attention to those euphemisms Mia and Emi use a lot of them, and I don't want to misunderstand them if they ask me if I want to read. That would be the worst.

After, Emi washed me in a stone tub in cool water and dressed me in a blue robe that seemed rather expensive but was too big for me; by a lot.
Frankly, the whole situation was really embarrassing. At least Emi worked quickly and managed to make a 7-year-old's robe fit a 3-year-old.

When we exited my bedroom and entered the main chamber, I saw many parts of the room that I don't remember using were under a layer of dust. The ceiling was really high, and the white walls were difficult to clean.
The different decorations were complicated, some seemed delicate, and the room was gigantic. I don't recall anyone besides Mia and Emi, so it makes sense that some parts are a bit dirty, but why is this chamber bookless!?

"Sister Rozemyne, you have already left the realm of Schlaftraum, so you should stop sending him letters and start eating before the food gets cold." While I was skimming around the room looking for more books, Emi put me before a massive amount of food. I didn't see that much at once since my previous life when mom, Shuu and I celebrated getting a scholarship at university. And this is breakfast, I dreed how big the dinner will be. And what was worse was that this food didn't smell yummy at all.

"Emi, this is a lot of food... I can't eat it all... Will you help me?" I turn to Emi, my only hope to not end up as a burst water balloon.

"Of course, I will help you, Sister Rozemyne. After all, what you can't eat will end up with us, your attendants, as your divine gift for us. Remember we were talking about it some time ago." Emi patiently explained the concept of divine gifts to me; while she patted my head. She reminded me of my preschool teacher from Japan. Now, if only she would teach me how to read too.

"Now, be good like shumil and eat until you are full, Sister Rozemyne. After you finish, we will review how to greet your new apprentice attendants. Alright?" She picked up a spoon and was about to start feeding me breakfast, but my pride as an adult was at stake here.

"Emi, I can feed myself."

"I don't know Sister Rozemyne, can you?"

"Of course, I can. And I want you to eat warm food with me!"

"Alright, I will eat with you if you can eat without making a mess. It will be our little secret. Just don't tell Mia."

"Yay!" I'm acting slightly childish, but I need to share a meal with someone. I wouldn't eat a thing alone. Not now.

After breakfast, Emi took me to another table where she would teach me how to greet new apprentice attendants, it was complicated, and I made a few mistakes, but after I got it right 7 times in a row, Emi gave me rafel as a reward for my hard work. It tasted like something partway between an apple and a pear and was the best thing I ate that day.

"We still have some time before Mia gets back with the apprentices, so how do you feel about asking Anwachs, the God of Growth, for help with your health and growth? After that, I could tell you a story with the blessing of Mestionora."

Despite asking for my opinion, I could feel the pressure the Emi emitted, and I knew that I could only nod. Thankfully this time, it was only light stretches and breathing exercises. We quickly finished them, and soon after, I could listen to Emi's story about the seasonal Gods of this world.

It wasn't a book, but Emi has a talent for storytelling. Her voice was lively and passionate, like a coursing river. Her story was full of details and action. I could feel immersed in the tragic tale of Ewigeliebe's obsessive love and familial love of Geduldh's siblings and their unending struggle for what they all think she needs the most. Emi had to stop a few times to wipe my tears away. She was so good.

It wasn't a book, but it was pretty close.

Soon after Emi finished her story, we both heard a knock at the outside doors. And soon after, we heard Mia's voice.

"Sister Rozemyne, it's Mia. May I intrude on your lesson with Emi?"

Oh, right, it was a lesson about mythology.