“Rozemyne will be educated and trained in her father’s mansion until her baptism ceremony. There will be an inauguration ceremony for her afterward, which all of you will need to prepare for as her attendants. The High Bishop’s room will also need to be prepared for her. These chambers will be used as a meeting place when residents from the lower city such as those from the Gilberta Company are summoned.”
Out of all of the baffled attendants, Fran was the first to recover. “What is needed for the High Bishop inauguration ceremony?”
“Your job is simply to prepare the High Bishop’s room for Rozemyne’s use. I will prepare the clothes myself.”
Fran nodded, took out his diptych, and began writing something. Meanwhile, the High Priest turned to Lady Rozemyne.
“Rozemyne, I have already discussed this with Benno, but we will need to look into other orphanages that we can use to spread your printing business to other cities. Those sent need to understand the inner workings of your orphanage workshop. Who would you choose for this job?”
Lady Rozemyne looked around at her attendants, and a smile touched her lips as her gaze fell upon Gil, whose eyes were shining in anticipation. “I think I might ask Gil to handle this. He is more deeply involved with the workshop than anyone else, and has spent the most time with the Gilberta Company.”
That surprised me. It was truly hard for me to believe that she trusted Gil enough to do work outside of the city. I had been sure that she would send Fran, but perhaps he wasn’t needed here as much as I thought.
“Fran, you have to train Nicola and Monika on top of preparing the room for me, don’t you? I know this will be putting an extra burden on you, but without Gil here, I will need you to keep the workshop running as well.”
“As you wish.”
Oh. He was instead being crushed under the burden of all of the remaining work. That pleased me, but the small smile on his face was infuriating. He was serving a blue shrine maiden, just like he had been when he served Sister Margaret as an apprentice attendant, and yet he seemed much happier following Lady Rozemyne’s orders. It was a stark contrast to the Fran who would bite his lip and frown tearfully whenever Sister Margaret gave him orders. It made no sense to me.
“...If Gil will need to travel outside the city to help establish workshops, should I select a gray priest to manage the orphanage’s workshop in his place?” Lady Rozemyne asked.
“That is not something you need to decide right away. It is more important that we get a musician for the baptism, as there will be many tea parties and feasts in your future. I was thinking you could buy Rosina as your personal musician. What do you say to that?”
“Sister Myne— Erm, Lady Rozemyne. Please, oh please buy me.” Rosina’s face beamed with excitement. It was exceptionally rare for shrine maidens to be purchased as anything but servants, with music teachers being no exception to that. It seemed the High Priest truly did respect her talents as a musician.
“That seems fine to me. I would love to have Rosina as my musician, especially as it will be nice to have someone I know by my side. But I would like for her to continue helping Fran until I move to the Noble’s Quarter.”
“I thank you ever so much,” Rosina said. Her leaving Lady Rozemyne’s attendants would greatly increase the burden on Fran, especially since she had just come of age and become used to her work. It was clear that Fran wanted to congratulate her but could not, and his conflicted expression brought a smile to my face.
“Moving on—here. Benno sent these for you.”
Lady Rozemyne scanned the documents given to her, then put a hand on her cheek. “I was planning on taking Ella with me to the Noble’s Quarter to make sweets for me, and Hugo and Todd will be sent to Leise’s place to learn more noble recipes for the Italian restaurant. I wonder whether I can leave the cooking here to Nicola and Monika.”
“They may not be skilled enough to serve you yet, Lady Rozemyne, but they should be fine as long as their food is edible for us attendants,” Fran replied. It seemed that her attendants were forced to cook as well. Just how low on manpower were they?
I blinked in surprise, but the High Priest just shook his head in exasperation. “Rozemyne, that is nothing to worry about. You can just take on more attendants as needed.”
“High Priest, this is the best I can do with my income.”
“Think, fool. You now have an archnoble as your father, and will soon become the High Bishop with the archduke as your adoptive father. Up until now you have had to earn all of your money yourself, but it should be obvious that this will no longer be the case,” the High Priest said, the exasperation in his tone now much clearer.
Lady Rozemyne was attempting to settle things using exclusively her own money despite becoming both the daughter of an archnoble and the High Bishop. It seemed she was having difficulty adjusting her mindset to her new circumstances.
In any case. Lady Rozemyne becoming the High Bishop meant that Fran would become the head attendant of the High Bishop, which in turn would make him of a higher status than me. That was not entirely pleasing. It reminded me of how Sister Margaret had given him more affection than she had given me, and valued him more as an attendant.
...Allow me to correct myself: it was extremely displeasing. In fact, it was so frustrating that I would not be content simply bullying and
