As we entered Dietmarschen, it was summer. Being adjacent to the far north, often called the Ice Peninsula, the feeling of summer was faint. Even when the sky was clear and the sun shone brightly, the fierce northern winds chased away the heat.
The central city of the territory was the small town of Freieiche, which, long ago, when the old name of this region was forgotten and it was considered part of the Ice Peninsula, supposedly originated from a fortress on a hill built to prevent the descent of the evil god's creations.
As the temperature rose and the snow melted, humans naturally migrated here, and Hilde, the lord before Ulrich, used the fortress as a base to develop the surrounding area, making it the center.
Priestess Roberta saw the panorama of the city on the hill from a distance.
'I heard these people live like nomads, and it's true.'
Tented houses were pitched below the hill.
They were round tents commonly seen in nomadic cultures, called gers or yurts, made for easy assembly and disassembly by nomads who moved their residences according to the season.
The territory of Dietmarschen is vast, but with the exception of the southernmost part, the environment is difficult for farming. As a result, they had no choice but to make a living through animal husbandry and hunting. The lord resides in Freieiche Castle and governs, while the people live like nomads.
'There are no walls either.'
So, there was only a small castle on the hill, with no outer walls to protect the surrounding residences. After all, when the weather changes, the entire settlement moves away.
'The temple must be inside the castle, right?'
A question bordering on anxiety suddenly arose.
If one of those tents was the temple, it meant she would have to live a nomadic life throughout her tenure. A mobile temple? It was something to be expected as a military chaplain, but at least she hoped her first assignment would be a small stone building.
She chuckled at her own selfishness and spurred her horse on.
"Where are you from?"
A guard stopped her at the castle gate.
"As one who serves Ganimea, I have come to see the lord."
Roberta took off her glove and showed her palm.
A blue pattern appeared on her bare palm. It symbolized Ganimea, one of the gods of the Pantheon, and proved that Roberta had been ordained as a priestess.
"Please wait a moment."
The guard went inside the castle and soon returned with a middle-aged man. The middle-aged man had distinct southern features, with brown skin and red eyes.
'He's incredibly tall.'
He was also bald and quite tall.
'Did he mix with giant's blood or something?'
Roberta was also quite tall, so men tended to avoid standing next to her during temple ceremonies, but he was at least two heads taller than her.
"Did you say you are a priestess of Ganimea?"
His voice was a low, gravelly rumble. It was hard not to be intimidated by a giant looking down with red eyes and a deep voice. She calmed her startled heart and gave an awkward smile.
"Yes, I am Roberta. I was sent by Alonso, the prelate of the Nua Grand Temple."
"Alonso?"
The middle-aged man raised his voice.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is your relationship with Alonso...?"
"Alonso is the one who took me in."
"Ah, I see! He's still a man of great affection."
His voice was filled with joy.
"Is Alonso still in good health?"
"Of course. He told me to tell you that he wanted to come himself."
"It would have been wonderful if he had. It's a shame."
He kissed the back of her hand.
"I'm late with my introduction. I am Bernhard Maier. Please call me Bern. I am serving Lord Ulrich by his grace."
Bern introduced himself as the butler of the Dietmarschen family.
"Alonso came here earlier than I did. I remember he was just over thirty at the time... Now, the time has come for someone to follow in his footsteps."
He said, as if recalling memories.
"Time seems to flow so quickly. When I think of Alonso, the memories are still vivid. He never shied away from hard work, and he would sometimes give snacks to the children who were struggling with chores. He was a truly kind person."
Compared to his imposing appearance, his tone was surprisingly gentle. Roberta thought that he might be a kinder person than he looked, but the way he was acting was the same as when Alonso was deep in thought, so she quickly spoke up.
"I would like to see the lord."
"He is away for a while. It will take quite some time for him to return. If you're okay with it, I can show you the temple first."
Roberta was about to say yes when a question arose.
Considering the lord's age, shouldn't he be bedridden?
"May I ask what it is for?"
"He went to perform a Sacrament."
"A Sacrament?"
A Sacrament refers to all religious rituals. Rain prayers, funerals, and priestly ordinations (or ordinations) are representative, and there are various types, ranging from as few as 6 to as many as 23, depending on the sect of the Pantheon.
This was a ritual that only priests could preside over.
"Was there another priest?"
She wondered if the missing priest had returned. But that couldn't be. He hadn't shown up for almost a year, so what reason could there be other than death?
Did they invite a priest from a neighboring territory? It was a common method when the responsible priest was not present and the Sacrament could not be postponed.
However, Bern shook his head.
"No. The lord will perform it himself."
"What do you mean...?"
Her eyes widened.
"Did the lord even receive priestly ordination?"
Bern's face flashed with a look of realization. Then he closed his mouth and subtly averted his gaze. Roberta's eyes widened even more than before. What is going on, she screamed inwardly.
"Are you really performing a Sacrament? The lord, directly?"
"Yes."
Roberta felt her mouth dry up. Like someone who had to check what happened to a person who fell off a cliff, she forced her reluctant mouth open and asked.
"W-What Sacrament is it?"
"It's the Infant Sacrament."
She swallowed a scream and clutched her head with both hands.
'Of all things!'
The Infant Sacrament was the most important ritual among the Sacraments.
In the beginning, the world was covered in fire. Back when the land had not yet taken shape, the gods came and drew water to put out the fire, raised the earth, and brought life.
However, life was fragile and could not easily grow, so the gods scattered power into the world so that life could adapt to the harsh environment, and that was Mana.
The Infant Sacrament was an act of connecting a life with the heavens so that Mana could dwell within a person. Some even expressed it as registering the name in the heavens.
It is a ritual that must be performed immediately after birth unless the body is too weak or the baby has been abandoned somewhere in the mountains. By receiving the ritual, one is truly recognized as a person. Conversely, it also meant that a person who had not received the Infant Sacrament was not treated as a person.
This was the Infant Sacrament, and therefore the most important ritual.
'What on earth is he thinking, performing the Infant Sacrament without being a priest!'
What happens if someone who has not been ordained as a priest performs the Infant Sacrament? Usually, no problems occur even if the ritual is performed, but occasionally, very rarely, they come into contact with an evil god.
Evil gods are beings who clashed with the main gods of the Pantheon over the direction of creation and were banished to hell. There is no need to explain what it means to become their servant.
"If a human who has not been ordained presides over a Sacrament, they could be branded as a heretic! You must know that, right? Ah, no, let's stop this story."
She got back on her horse.
"Where is the lord? I need to see him right now."
Roberta glared at Bern. He scratched his head awkwardly. He seemed to know what the problem was, but unlike the heretics she had seen, he did not panic or make excuses. Neither he nor the guard next to him showed any reaction.
'What is this...'
She was dumbfounded by their attitude.
"It's not that far. Here, they gather the babies born last summer and perform the Sacrament all at once next summer. You can see him if you go down about half a day from here."
Bern gestured to the guard. As he got on his horse, Roberta quickly followed.
#
They went back the way they came.
Whether it was bad luck or not, the ritual was taking place in a location slightly east of the path Roberta had taken. She saw a group of people and a flock of sheep grazing nearby.
'Those aren't sheep. Is it mixed with the blood of a monster?'
From a distance, they looked like sheep because of their fluffy white wool, but up close, they resembled cows covered in wool. She had never heard of such an animal, so she judged that it was mixed with the blood of a monster.
Dietmarschen, the uninhabited zone above it, and the Ice Peninsula are lands where the descendants of monsters born before history still live and breathe. It would be common for grazing livestock to mate with monsters.
However, usually, the wildness of the monsters is inherited, making domestication impossible. She had never heard of them being tamed to the point where they could be grazed like this.
'The lord must have done this too.'
She frowned. With the disappearance of the chief priest, the heretical Sacrament, and even monsters, it was difficult for her to think of the lord in a positive light. If it hadn't been for Alonso's recommendation, whom she regarded as a father, she might have run to the Pantheon and filed a complaint right away.
She spurred her horse on.
People were gathered in a place a little away from the herd. Even from a distance, she could tell that some kind of ritual was taking place.
'If it's still in progress, I have to stop it.'
In the middle of the group, a woman was handing a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes to a young man. The baby struggled not to be separated from the woman who seemed to be its mother, and burst into tears when it was held by him.
"—! ——!"
It was so loud that it reached Roberta's ears. He patted the baby and soothed it. The baby's cries, which had been loud enough to tear the sky, subsided as she got closer to the group.
"Where is the lord?"
Roberta turned her gaze from the baby to the crowd. She had to find the lord. She had to find the rogue who was three hundred years old and performed the Sacrament as he pleased.
But there was no old man in the crowd who seemed to be the lord.
She slowly rode around the outside of the crowd, shifting her gaze, but only an unknown anxiety piled up in her heart. There was no old man who she could confidently say was him.
"He's over there."
Over there?
When she turned her head again, the man from before was about to lift the baby and touch foreheads. From the outside, it looked like he was playing with the baby because it was cute.
Roberta was about to ask the soldier who had guided her where exactly he was, but at that moment, her eyes widened.
"What..."
Red streaks, like tattoos, spread in all directions on the baby's face.
Light emanated softly from the forehead touching the young man, and the light permeated the baby, flowing through its blood vessels. The crowd sighed at the sight. And she unconsciously let out a sound.
Only the baby, unaware of what was happening to its body, giggled as if it was ticklish and slapped his cheeks with both hands.
'No way.'
Roberta couldn't believe it.
Mana does not dwell in people who have not received the Sacrament. If someone tries to transfer the Mana they have in their body to another person, Mana will temporarily dwell in them. However, it is only temporary. When the force that compels the Mana disappears, it naturally scatters.
But the baby's appearance was that of accepting Mana coming from the outside as its own. Because it was a young body, the amount of Mana it could hold was extremely limited, but it did not expel it to the outside.
Why would that be?
Why would Mana dwell in the baby?
Because it was registered in the heavens, because its name was engraved in the sky, because it had the qualifications. 'This life is qualified to wield the power that the gods have scattered into the world,' which meant that the Infant Sacrament had been performed. And not as a connection with an evil god, but as a connection with the heavens.
"H-How?"
How could he register the name in the heavens without being a priest?
She muttered, unable to even think of closing her gaping mouth, saying that it was impossible. The suspicion that had been smoldering in her heart began to transform into conviction.
'The lord said he went to perform a Sacrament.'
Then who is the young man performing the Sacrament in the middle of the group?
The old priest had said. The oldest half-elf he had seen was three hundred years old, and the duke's appearance was like a mummy.
Roberta had also seen half-elves, and their appearance was similar. Half-elves cannot avoid aging. Even if the blood of the fairy does not contain aging, the blood of humans does.
When the blood of two races is mixed, their descendants become beings subject to the passage of time.
'Then, the lord of Dietmarschen?'
The young man returned the baby to its mother and turned around. The crowd standing behind him stepped back, opening a path. Roberta remained frozen on the saddle until he reached the front of the horse.
"Did you come because you were worried? Bern must have slipped up again."
Roberta suddenly remembered her conversation with the old priest.
She understood why the old priest had tilted his head when she referred to the lord as an old man. She also understood why he had called the lord strange.
No matter how she looked at him, he was too young.
He didn't look like he had aged at all.
"······."
Roberta opened her mouth to say that you, she was going to say that you were the lord of Dietmarschen. But even when she opened her mouth, the words caught in her throat and did not come out.
Looking up at her, he said.
"Yes. I am Ulrich, the lord of Dietmarschen."