It must have seemed both irritating and ridiculous that a teenager or a Saint who had been in the temple for less than two years, would apply for that difficult exam.
“Miss Elaine, aren’t you mistaken? This exam has nothing to do with academic performance.”
“Yes, I know, Priest.”
“Do you know what a chaplain is?”
“It’s a person who lives in a noble family’s mansion and helps them with their prayers, and the exam is to see if you’re worthy of the qualification.”
Elaine answered clearly, but the expression on the priest’s face as he took the applications did not improve.
The older saints around Elaine who were filling out the application forms were also whispering among themselves.
It had never happened before that a saint with less than four years of membership had taken the exam to become a dedicated chaplain, and no one believed it was possible.
You had to be able to recite at least 45 prayers, only five of which were taught in the first year, and ten in the second.
The priest, who had been staring down at Elaine, sighed deeply and dropped an application form in front of Elaine.
“Fill it out.”
Judging from his unfriendly behavior and the mocking looks from the saints around her, Elaine could guess how they viewed her.
‘You’d think that a kid who doesn’t know anything would come and cause trouble.’
‘But I didn’t mind. In fact, it was more than welcome.’
‘I’ll make it even more misunderstood, so that neither the priest watching me nor Newt will think it’s a big deal.’
Elaine acted like a child who was drunk on the praise of being a ‘good student’ and took the test with a childish mind.
“If I pass this test, I might even receive special privileges like the blessing of holy relics. Right, Priest?”
“That’s not true, but…”
“Even if that’s not the case, wouldn’t I be praised if I did well on the test?”
“hah…Well, that could be the case.”
The priest hurriedly accepted the application form as if he didn’t want to bother with the child’s attitude and handed the receipt to Elaine.
Elaine felt a little self-conscious because she had the mentality of an adult, but it was a small price to pay to get out of the temple safely and without Rabes’ help.
* * *
Elaine didn’t reveal that she was taking the exam for the chaplain. If rumors got out, Newt might intervene.
Thanks to this, the other applicants who encountered Elaine in the temple office seemed to have forgotten about her existence, and she was never mentioned again.
But a week before the exam, there was no stopping the list of candidates for this year’s chaplain exam from falling into John’s hands.
“Huh? Elaine Newt? Why is this saint’s name on the list?”
John asked the priest, noticing the disparate number “18” in the candidate’s age field, which was usually filled with 20-23.
“That saint has nothing to show to her family other than her academic performance. She must have been happy about being chosen for the last holy relic blessing ceremony, so she must have applied this time as well, believing that she would be able to achieve something great. That’s childish.”
“Well, that makes sense.”
John was immediately convinced by the priest’s explanation.
As Elaine had been kicked out by her uncle and entered the temple because of her family, she needed to do something to prove her worth.
However it was difficult for an illegitimate child to make connections among the nobility, so the only thing she could do was excel in her studies.
“Shall I reject her application?”
“No. Isn’t it the job of adults to help children understand reality?”
For a moment, the thought crossed his mind, ‘Should I tell Newt?’, but John quickly stamped the document the priest handed him.
‘There’s no need to explain every little thing about her.’
Thanks to John’s consideration, Elaine was able to successfully take the test.
And to announce her plans to leave the temple, Elaine recited the spell she had been holding back.
‘Rekuro, Rabes!’
A warm feeling spread from the center of her forehead to her whole body.
‘I’ve never used Rabes’ magic before, but the warm feeling is so addictive that I’ve actually wanted to recite this spell over and over again…’
And before the warm feeling disappeared, Rabes, in the form of a young dragon, appeared before Elaine’s eyes.
Rabes looked anxious, perhaps surprised by the sudden call.
[what’s going on?]
“Rather than saying something happened, I have something to tell you.”
Elaine calmly explained to Rabes, who was worried, why Lark had come, why she had decided to leave the temple, and her plan to use the chaplain service.
[Why do such a bothersome thing? You can easily get out by using my own power.]
“How?”
[Why can’t you just go out? I can buy you a place to stay and give you a ton of money]
“The temple will raise an issue, and Newt will not stay still. The police will come to investigate where all that money came from.”
[Just get rid of those annoying guys, what’s the problem?]
That’s why she didn’t want to borrow Rabes’ power as much as possible.
The way Rabes solved problems was so simple that the unspoken rules and common sense of the human world were not taken into consideration at all.
‘If you get rid of one or two annoying people, the situation will only get worse.…’
“I have to continue living in human society, so I can’t do that.”
[That’s right…is it your taste to live and suffer…?]
Rabes grumbled, but he didn’t ignore Elaine’s opinion. In the current situation where he didn’t know how much power the dragon that was acting as the Count had, it would be too early to create a situation where Elaine would be too noticeable or to reveal his presence or power.
[Anyway, so if you pass the test you mentioned earlier, you can leave the temple right away?]
“No. I have to be chosen from a chaplain selection meeting.”
[chosen? By whom?]
“By the nobleman who came because they needed a chaplain. It’s like a job interview, and if you don’t get selected there, you can’t become a chaplain, even if you pass this test.”
So people who really wanted to be chaplains also paid considerable attention to their appearance.
This was because it was a golden opportunity, especially for young people from poor or impoverished families, to find their partner through their own abilities.
“When the number of families who need a chaplain is less than the number of people who passed the exam, there are often quite a few who fail. However, once they pass the exam, they can go straight to the next selection without taking the exam.”
[Is the test difficult?]
“It’s hard enough to get over the standard in the written test, but it’s harder to memorize 45 prayers correctly.”
[Are you confident?]
“I guess I’ll have to try it.”
Even though she gave Rabes an uncertain answer, Elaine’s steps toward the examination room were light.
The moment she opened the door to the examination room and entered, everyone’s eyes were on Elaine, but she walked in with an innocent smile on her face.
Everyone shook their heads or looked away with disinterested faces at Elaine’s expression, which seemed to show no sign of thinking.
“We will now begin the 128th Dedicated Chaplain Service Examination.”
With the declaration of the older priest, several pieces of paper were placed in front of the candidates, and in the meantime, one of the priests began to write this year’s questions on the blackboard.
There were low sighs coming from all over the room, but Elaine, who rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment, quickly wrote down her answers.
‘I guess it’s because it’s not a priest exam, so the level of the questions is average. If I stand out too much, it’s problematic, so let’s just write it at the level of a standard answer.’
After all, they wouldn’t expect a chaplain to have a priestly level of theological knowledge, so she’d just have to meet the standard.
Elaine relaxed and wrote her answer.
In fact, in the chaplain test, the prayer memorization test was more important than the theological written test.
She had to choose 45 of the 65 prayers from the scriptures and memorize them without stopping, and if she made more than seven mistakes, she failed.
The prayer memorization test was conducted in three separate rooms, and the hallway where candidates waited was filled with the sound of muttering as they practiced their prayer.
Elaine turned the wooden rosary beads she had received when she entered the temple over one by one, reciting the prayers in her mind.
However, the two saints next to her sneered at her, perhaps because she didn’t look like she was practicing at all.
“It’s absurd that I have to take the test with a kid.”
“Shouldn’t we make a suggestion to the priests? Why did they turn the chaplain examination room into a playground for children?”
“Yeah. I don’t understand why they accepted her application.”
Elaine, who was listening to their conversation, felt both pathetic and irritated at the same time. They reminded her of so many people who had dismissed and criticized her for nothing because of her background or circumstances.
They even blamed Elaine for things that happened to them that were their own fault.
At the time, she kept her mouth shut, pretending not to hear, but after a life of hanging out with rough people in the soup kitchen, she could retort without hesitation.
“Maybe you should spend more time practicing your recitation instead of arguing about that.”
“Look at this kid. What did you just say?”
“I’m not doing you any harm by taking this test, which means you have no reason to criticize me.”
“I can’t concentrate because of you!”
“Oh my god, what kind of study do you do with that kind of mental strength? It’s absurd that I have to take the test with people like that.”
“This kid!”
“Lower your voices. Everyone is practicing their recitation.”
The faces of the saints next to Elaine turned red as they saw her clicking her tongue and shaking her head.
But the surrounding saints’ gazes were too harsh to Elaine.
As Elaine said, the two saints sitting next to her were the ones who spoke the loudest in that hallway.
“After all, you are the one who’s going to be eliminated at the lowest point anyway. Let’s just wait and see.”
“Okay, then.”
Elaine, who had answered in a calm voice, got up from her seat when her name was called and entered the recitation examination room.
Aside from the two saints earlier, there were so many eyes staring at Elaine’s back that her back started to tingle.
* * *
