Chapter 37
Chapter 37. The Past is Like a Shadow
In a small, peaceful village in eastern Veshnu, an orphanage affiliated with the temple stood atop a small hill covered in colorful wildflowers.
Although there was a priest due to its temple affiliation, he was little more than a formality as there was minimal interaction with the temple.
Barmando, the aging priest nearing seventy, received a letter bearing the temple’s seal for the first time in a very long while.
He unfolded the letter with his wrinkled hands. Along with the familiar phrases praising the temple’s deity, it contained a summons to the Grand Temple.
It also requested information about an abandoned temple that had collapsed in a flood long ago, barely a year after he had been appointed as a priest.
“So there are no eternal secrets after all…”
The priest who had trained him said that the events of that place should be buried in secrecy forever, but Barmando knew this day would come eventually.
How could mere humans hope to keep the miracle of the gods, the matter of Sefitiana, hidden forever?
But he was too old and ill now. He wasn’t sure if his body could withstand the journey to the Grand Temple.
Coughing hoarsely, Barmando gestured towards the tallest boy among the children playing outside.
Soon, a boy entered his room.
“You called for me, Father Barmando?”
“Yes, Nemil. I have something important to tell you.”
Nemil sat in the chair opposite Barmando and nodded with a somber expression.
It had been 8 years since he came to the orphanage. Now at sixteen, he had reached the age where he should leave.
Though he had some vague ideas about where to go, Nemil wished to stay here if possible, caring for the children alongside the priest who had taken him in.
“I know what you’re worried about, but that’s not it. Cheer up.”
“Then…”
“I became a priest at exactly your age. Do you remember the story I told you recently?”
“Yes. About the abandoned temple that collapsed in a flood, right?”
Nemil recalled that story Barmando had once shared – too specific and dark to be dismissed as mere legend.
“Yes. It’s good that you remember.”
Barmando handed Nemil a small box. Nemil’s expression shifted to surprise, joy, and bewilderment as he opened it.
Inside was a neatly folded white robe, simple but pristine – the vestment of a priest he had longed for.
“Go to the Grand Temple in my place. I’ll write you a letter of recommendation, so you can receive your appointment and return. If you haven’t neglected your studies, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“Th-thank you, Father Barmando.”
“I trust you because I’ve watched you for a long time. You’ll surely become a better priest than I am.”
Nemil shook his head vigorously.
“That’s impossible. The kind of priest I want to be is just like you, Father Barmando.”
“…I’m not such a good priest.”
Barmando handed Nemil the letter from the temple.
“This is partly for your appointment, but you’re also going to the temple in my stead, so you might encounter some unfamiliar situations.”
“May I ask why?”
“I don’t know the details either. But I’ve told you everything I know, so that should be enough. My body is too old for such a long journey.”
“Don’t say that, Father Barmando. You need to stay with us for a long time…”
“Boy, don’t talk nonsense. The journey is long, so prepare right away. The capital will be chillier than here, so pack extra clothes to layer.”
“Yes, Father Barmando!”
As Nemil left the room with a bright face, Barmando turned away.
Recalling the past he had forgotten, he gazed at the cloudy sky and closed his eyes.
“Oh God. If you must punish someone for hiding Sefitiana, please let it be only this old human…”
* * *
Aksha, the priest of the Grand Temple where Sefitiana was kept, ventured outside the temple for the first time in a long while. The air in the streets felt unfamiliar, as she had stayed within the temple to avoid remembering the time she had wandered the slums.
She carefully clutched the letter in her bosom. Having heard her benefactor’s desperate wish, she couldn’t simply remain idle in the temple.
“Lady Eurene…”
Of course, she was not without worry. But feeling through the letter how much she was struggling and falling apart, how could Aksha not grant her request?
Stepping back into that cesspool once more for the sake of the one who had pulled her out wasn’t too difficult a task.
Aksha walked through the back alleys of the slums with familiarity. Memories she couldn’t forget naturally guided her steps.
Wrapped in a tattered cloak and walking with a hunched back like a hunchback, Aksha only straightened up when she arrived at an old door.
She knocked on the round, paint-peeled handle three times, then tapped it once with her hand. As a slot at the top opened, Aksha spoke the password she had secretly overheard as a child.
“A gold coin for the mouth of a dying beggar.”
“…Destination?”
“The other side of the river, crossed by boat.”
After Aksha answered the voice from behind the door, it finally opened.
Hiding her tension, she entered to find the interior arranged like an ordinary shop with various items on display. However, Aksha knew that every single one of these items was prohibited within the empire.
An old man who had been organizing items in the back looked surprised when he saw Aksha’s face as she pulled back her hood.
“Well, well, who do we have here? What a reunion.”
“It’s been a long time, Old Man.”
Was there a child in these back alleys who hadn’t received help from ‘Old Man’ at least once? He would occasionally gift the alley children a sip of water when they were on the brink of dehydration, or a piece of bread when they were about to starve.
It was just enough charity to help them overcome one crisis without becoming complacent, but back then it felt like a miracle from the gods.
“I thought you had died when you suddenly disappeared, but it seems you’ve managed to survive.”
“I even have a name now. Aksha. It’s the name my benefactor gave me.”
“Not a bad name, but once you’ve left the back alleys, it’s best not to get involved here again. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.”
“As you wish. I’ll get straight to the point. I came because I need something. I thought you might be able to get it for me.”
“Hmm.” The old man put down the box he was holding and sat at a table in the back. Aksha stood in front of him.
“So you’re saying you’re a customer. Well, that changes things.”
A sharp glint flashed in the old man’s wrinkled eyes – the gaze of a merchant who had been dealing in secret in the back alleys for decades.
“Tell me what you need.”
“A person…”
Aksha hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“I need something that can make a person appear as if they’re dead.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just kill them outright? There are plenty of items for that. Even affordable on a junior priest’s salary.”
At the old man’s words, Aksha flinched and lowered her gaze. She hurriedly closed her cloak when she noticed that a glimpse of her pure white clothing had become visible.
The old man rose from his seat, his eyes crinkling.
“You needn’t worry about anything leaking from me. I’m more concerned that you, serving the gods, might go to confession somewhere.”
“…That won’t happen.”
After rummaging through a shelf filled with mysterious vials for a while, the old man finally pulled out a small bottle containing a red liquid.
“Just because it doesn’t kill doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. Sometimes people mistake the living for dead and bury or cremate them.”
It was an unsettling statement. Aksha received the bottle from the old man with a grim expression.
“The person who drinks this can’t get hurt. Is it really safe?”
“Yes. When dissolved in water, it becomes a colorless and odorless drug, so it’s undetectable. Depending on the dosage, half a bottle should wake them up in about a week.”
“A week…”
“The one who drinks it will be like a corpse. It’s closer to magic than a pure drug, which is why it’s possible. The price will be all the gold coins in the pouch you brought.”
Aksha pulled out the pouch from her bosom with an incredulous look. As expected, the back alley dweller had an uncanny nose for money.
“All of this?”
“If it were for you, I could give it for half, but since it’s not, I have to charge a premium.”
“You’re only quick to notice such things…”
“What danger could you, who’ve entered the temple, possibly put anyone in? Unless you’re doing this at someone else’s request.”
“I have no intention of endangering anyone. That person wouldn’t do such a thing. I just need it to buy some time.”
The old man shook his head at Aksha’s words.
“Well. In my experience, the intentions of those who needed items sold in places like this have never been good.”
“She’s different! She’s…!”
Aksha huffed and handed the pouch to the old man.
“I’ll be going now. Take care, Old Man.”
“You too. I hope we don’t meet again.”
“Likewise.”
Pulling her cloak back over her head, Aksha navigated out of the back alleys with familiarity. The vial in her possession was barely the size of her palm, but it felt like she was carrying a heavy burden.
‘No. Lady Eurene is different. She’s just temporarily strayed due to her emotional distress, but she’ll soon return to her true self.’
As she boarded a carriage bound for the capital of Tessibania, Aksha recalled the letter from Eurene.
[Help me. So that I can kill that devilish woman.]
The urge to ask who she meant rose to the tip of her tongue, but she only guessed. Probably some noblewoman.
“A noble’s funeral lasts for a week… That should be enough time.”
If things went well, she could turn the heart of the man she loved during that time, and if not, at least it would be enough time to calm her troubled mind and regain her former vitality.
Since she knew that they preserve the body with magic, surrounded by expensive and rare flowers, the problems the Old Man had warned about shouldn’t occur.
“Nothing will go wrong…”
But why did she feel so uneasy?
Just in case, Aksha took out the holy water she had brought from the temple. There was a folk belief that it repelled evil, but in reality, it was just a fabrication to comfort those who possessed it.
It was meant to be drunk while praying for peace towards the gods in times of hardship, or sprinkled on one’s head to cleanse sins.
Aksha hoped that Eurene would choose the holy water over the poison. She prayed that nothing would happen, that Eurene would let go of her anguish.
“Oh God, please watch over Lady Eurene. Let her regain the joy of life and her former innocence…”
Aksha clasped her hands together, murmuring a prayer that might not reach its destination.
