The Acolyte Makes A Deal!

As the morning light roused Hilda’s consciousness from its shallow slumber, she stared at the hard, rocky excuse for a pillow that served her last night.

Throughout the entirety, fearing the worst should it slip off while she slept, Hilda leaned against the statue. Her feet and legs got to enjoy the warm, soft carpeting, while the rest of of her was stuck bracing against a pedestal.

Needless to say, she was frazzled. Sleeping in such awkward conditions wasn’t part of her training.

“Still… on… are you… stupid thing… disrespecting the Goddess like that…”

Exhausted and sore, Hilda grit her teeth and gripped onto the talisman adorning the Gryphon’s head, as if she wanted to rip it far away.

Such brutal intent evaporated swifter than the morning dew when the moment she pulled it off, the statue’s eyes glowed bright and seemed to swivel right back at her.

As if it dared her to keep it off.

“Ahhh… whoever prepared this tea, thank you…”

Naturally, Hilda was thanking herself.

Having woken up properly from that scare, Hilda, one eye trained on the statue, stared at the pot of water bubbling atop the fire pit with the other.

As she saw the day before, there was a jar of dried elderberries and cloves of cinnamon arranged on the sole counter in the shrine, alongside some utensils.

For various reasons she knew how to make tea.

Before long she would be enjoying a drink and resuming her minimal duties. There wasn’t much to do at the shrine besides make sure the talisman didn’t fall off, so she found herself with plenty of time to think.

Once the pot was bubbling hot, she pulled out a ceramic cup and began pouring the mixture inside.

One second later, Hilda was struggling to pull the pot back onto the fire pit. After much struggle, she managed to set it down without spilling it all over the rug.

“Haaah… stupid thing… Is this some test?”

Hilda caught her breath before she picked up the cup and began drinking slowly from it.

“Ah~h, the carpet feels nice but there’s nothing to read here… not even the Book of Life… I’ve seen other shrines before but nothing like this… someone show up…”

Hilda was still a growing girl and needed to eat sometimes; she hadn’t expected to dip into fasting practices when she was brought along, but she wasn’t much of a hunter.

This wayside shrine wasn’t located along the main road, it was well off the beaten path. Hilda briefly hoped a caravan would pass by; though she had no money to spare, acolytes of the Goddess were generally afforded pleasant treatment in most territories.

Then she extinguished her hopes with her own hand.

“…But this path leads to a highway of the Empire.”

That place was considered hostile to the Church. Acolytes weren’t banned - but Hilda didn’t fancy her chances of help.

It was less likely than her willingly dousing the fire pit.

Autumn meant the nights were starting to get colder; though she wasn’t good at hunting, Hilda could hear the hedges rustling in the dark.

Without the talisman’s protection, forget keeping monsters away, Hilda could only imagine herself wriggling all over the shrine like a caterpillar at night.

Like that, she passed her time drinking tea in silence, her gaze flitting between the talisman, the teacup, the outdoors, and herself.

Then there was something Hilda didn’t realistically expect to happen. Nobody would assume it, especially her, but it became true.

Click-Clop-Click…

“Speak of good fortune… Is it a trick…”

There was no mistaking what Hilda heard; someone was coming.

Her eyes snapped from her cup to the statue.

“Ahyhya, don’t fall off now!”

A simple carriage full of goods came trundling past the shrine, coming to a stop when it was already half past. A few minutes later, a young woman walked in.

She had a low-cut dress with long boots, designed more for travel and adversity than the ballroom, hair trimmed up to her ears, and her overall attire reminded Hilda of a merchant, but in her opinion she loved eyeshadow too much.

‘A raccoon?’

The raccoon-eyed girl raised an eyebrow as she stepped in.

“Why are you standing like… that?”

“Ohh, haaha, nothing, it’s nothing! Th-this is… Church business.”

That wasn’t technically a lie. Hilda, leaning slightly forward over the statue, kept her hands firm on its forehead.

Somehow it felt harder for her to hold the talisman on right now.

‘Does this have a mind of its own!?’

While she kept her mind occupied, the merchant only saw a girl awkwardly fiddle with a statue.

“Ohh, it’s a surprise to see a girl your age with such pale skin out on a journey, but you dress like one from the Church. My name’s Avessi, what about yours?”

To Hilda’s relief she believed her, but that would soon be met with a poor reminder.

“Y-yeah, nobody comes by here so it seemed safe. My name is Hilda!”

That answer was enough to make the gray-haired girl lean closer.

“Pale skin, pink hair, Hilda… By any chance, are you-“

Even out here, people knew about that aspect, which could only make the acolyte blink in disbelief.

“Y-yeah, but how did you know? I’m only an acolyte…”

“Right, right, but you’re a real rising star. People love boasting of what they know and you’re a good learner, despite only being fifteen you’re almost as good in Church as your sister is in-”

“That’s ff-fifteen, six months, and two days!”

“Family troubles, huh. I’ve got a new rumor from the girl herself. I won’t pry.”

‘You just said you were going to pry…’

Already fighting off her regret, Hilda stood up straight as the talisman seemed to stabilize.

“Working as an independent merchant right now’s given me a lot of experience. The other day, I was coming right out of the Empire…”

The acolyte hissed internally when the E word dropped. Once she heard it she was looking over Avessi, trying to see if she could spy a raindrop anywhere.

“…and after I sold these batches of honey, I was going to head over to a village past Empire territories and try to hire some guards. I chose the backroads hoping to avoid a jump… but I didn’t expect to see an acolyte trying to learn my fit.”

“Whaaa-“

“I’m joking. You should learn to work on your observation.”

“Fhu-fuh-“

There was no counter to that. Hilda hung her head in shame.

“Sorry…”

“Don’t be, I had to give you a once-over to make sure you were as innocent as you acted. Now it looks like you want something, and it happens that I have some goods I’d love to donate to the Church.”

“Really!? What?”

The prospect of help was like a panacea to her soul.

So relieved that at first she didn’t notice the glint in the merchant’s eyes…

For the next two hours, Avessi attempted to “bargain” with Hilda. The girl quickly suspected she was trying to offload junk onto her; she couldn’t afford to make a shrine to the Goddess look like a trash dump.

The first proposition was a clay bar.

“You keep holding onto that statue. Why?”

“U-uh… this talisman on it keeps slipping off.”

“You’d want an adhesive.”

“Right…?”

“Then you’ll want this clay!”

Avessi brandished a pair like weapons.
Hilda waved her arms up like a cornered rabbit. Without one exchange done she felt ready to capitulate.

“I-it’s not like I need…”

“You don’t know! It’s free! Why are you hesitating!?”

“That’s heavy, a-and it’s not like I need much for this sta-“

“Last chance!”

“Fiiine!”

“Good.”

Avessi tossed the bars at her. Hilda scrambled to catch them, put them on the table, and put her hands back on the statue.

“Ahh, it slipped off!”

“Interesting, it glows..?”

“T-That’s a secret! W-was there anything else?”

“Do you have any secret supplies? Because otherwise…”

Avessi held a basket full of rations for travel at her.

“I know you acolytes love to boast about your fasting, but you’re already drooling…”

“H-aam not! I wasn’t prepared, that’s all! A week won’t kill me!”

“A week, you say? Would the Goddess want one of her devoted servitors starving to death?”

“T-there’s elderberries everywhere!”

“Out of season!”

“Don’t rub it in!”

“Rubbing elderberries in… that’s a good product idea.”

“Don’t use me as a sounding board!”

“Anyway, take these.”

“Sur-“

Once more, Hilda was effortlessly outmaneuvered. Avessi was kind enough to put it on the table this time.

“How about this?”

Avessi pulled out a wooden pole that had to be at least seven feet long.

“Why would I need-“

“Could use it to fish. Try it.”

“F-fine! Leave it there!”

When she agreed to that, Avessi’s expression darkened even as she kept smiling.

“You know… You’re what we call a mark.”

“A… I’m marked!?”

“Means you can agree to a lot. The Goddess doesn’t like loans, does she?”

“Of course nott! You’re free to accept charity but that’s different! D-Do you think I’d sign up for any stupid scheme if someone bullied me enough!?”

“How about you sign this right now?”

“With wha-ahhhh!”

…

Hilda got some items that day. Not only that, but Avessi gave her a pouch with “something useful” in it; unfortunately, no copy of the Book of Life.

With nothing to lose, in fact too much gained, Hilda asked her about the raindrop people, trying to probe out what she might know.

“Say, have you heard of anyone that has a raindrop pattern on their body like…”

“While I might be a weird merchant who bullied you into taking a bunch of free stuff, that doesn’t mean I’m a criminal!”

“Who called anyone a criminal!?”

In spite of her initial protest Avessi slumped her shoulders and became more forthcoming after Hilda pouted long enough to make it clear she wasn’t happy with that joke.

As it turned out, Avessi’d encountered one of them while she was on the way here.

Thinking quickly, Hilda pressed her for more info.

“On the big side, or maybe not, it was hard to tell because he looked like he was bent over and had a mask.”

Now something else was making Hilda scared. It was the same man who saw her off here.

“D-Do you recognize that man?”

“Sounds familiar? Well I dunno, he was at least two days away here, close to the Empire’s border. Might be from one of those splinter groups in the Church, shouldn’t you know?”

“Y-I mean yeah but I don’t have any way to contact anyone and, and, I’m supposed to be guarding this for a few days. Could you try to find some info and bring it back…?”

At that exact point the last thing Hilda needed to see was her lifeline frowning.

“Not sure I’ll be back this way!”

“Huaawa…”

Once more, after Hilda was getting too flustered to play along, Avessi sighed as she smirked. It felt more assuring than condescending.

“But I can’t let another girl like me venturing out into the world to prove herself alone! I’ll see what I can find and get back to you. I might get something I can bring back to sell at the Empire..”

When Hilda saw her off, she felt a little excited about what the days would bring.