“Please sit down.”
The stern-looking priest offered Elaine a seat without even looking at her. He was checking the documents Elaine had submitted.
“Your name is Elaine Newt. You joined last year. So you probably haven’t learned many prayers yet.…The total number of prayers requested for recitation is… 65?”
Only then did the priest’s head rise.
Only 45 prayers were required for the exam, but the more you memorized, the more points you received.
But even so, not a single saint had ever been able to memorize 65 prayers.
The priest’s eyes, peeking over his thin glasses, were filled with irritation, and there was not the slightest hint of goodwill in his expression or voice.
“Did you accidentally write it down wrong? This wasn’t asking for the number of prayers in the scripture, but rather the number of prayers you would recite today.”
“No. I have written it correctly. If it is alright with you, priest, I’ll recite a total of 65 prayers from the scripture.”
“Hah!”
The priest sighed and snorted.
“Okay, let’s hear it. You know that if you make seven mistakes, you’re out, right?”
“Yes, let’s begin. First, the Lord’s Prayer.”
Elaine took a deep breath, turned the beads over, and began to recite the Lord’s Prayer.
Perhaps because it was a prayer that everyone had memorized, the priest’s expression did not change at all.
But when Elaine moved past the five Lord’s Prayers and began to recite the five prayers of the main scriptures, the priest sat up straight.
The priest was impressed, for she hadn’t made a single mistake while reciting the twenty prayers.
But from then on, Elaine continued to recite the prayer without making a single mistake.
“I’ll just drink a glass of water.”
After reciting the forty prayers, Elaine felt a little thirsty and drank some water from the glass next to her.
By then, the priest was just staring at Elaine with a blank expression, and Elaine, who had quickly emptied her small glass of water, cleared her throat again.
“The forty-first prayer for healing from the Bardo Gospel in the minor Scriptures. Lord Bara, who created all things from darkness and light, please bring harmony to the bodies of the poor people.…”
Elaine recited the long healing prayer, which is not usually chosen by saints, without making a single mistake. But when Elaine finished reciting the prayer, the priest who had been absentmindedly staring suddenly came to his senses and raised his hand.
“You made a mistake.”
“Huh? That can’t be.”
“It wasn’t a big mistake, but one letter was wrong. In the part where it says, ‘The seed takes root and becomes a stem, and flowers bloom and bearing fruit,’ it should be ‘The flowers bloom and bear fruit.’”
The priestess looked as if he was sure he remembered, but Elaine shook her head.
“What you said is grammatically correct, but the prayer in the Bardo Gospel is written as ‘bearing fruit’, which is slightly grammatically incorrect. You can check it out.”
The priest was embarrassed by Elaine’s appearance, so he looked through the scriptures he had brought as a reference book. Then, he found the relevant part and began to read it while muttering.
“The seed takes root and becomes a stem, flowers bloom and bearing fruit.….”
It really was.
The priest, who was soon to be in his fifties, was shocked to discover that he had been reciting the prayer incorrectly all this time and was amazed to see that the saint, who had only just begun learning the prayers of the scriptures this year, had memorized even such minute details.
“I’m sorry. I…I was mistaken.”
“This is a part that many people misunderstand. Then, can we move on to the next prayer?”
“Oh, yes.”
The priest’s face turned red with embarrassment, but Elaine paid no attention and began to recite the next prayer.
After a considerable amount of time had passed, the priest began to suspect that he was seeing the real descent of a saint.
The eighteen-year-old saint, who had only been in the temple for two years, had memorized all 65 of the prayers without getting a single word wrong. It was something that even the most aspiring priests would find difficult.
“I have never seen a saint memorize all the prayers perfectly like saint Elaine since I became a priest….and that too after only two years of joining….”
“Did I pass the exam?”
“No, what’s important right now is not passing the exam.…”
“That’s more important to me.”
The priest once again made a dumbfounded expression at Elaine’s smiling face, asking only whether she had passed the exam.
“Of course, you would pass. By the way, do you have any plans to become a priest?”
“No.”
“Instead of answering so lightly, why don’t you think about it again? I’m sure your family will be pleased.”
“I’m sorry. There isn’t. I’m sure other candidates are waiting for their turn, so I’ll excuse myself first.”
The priest held Elaine as if he were a professor recommending her for advanced study at the Theological Academy, but then realized that he was now in the chaplain examination room.
And while he was dazed, Elaine got up from her seat, paid her last respectful greetings, and left the room.
* * *
[What do you think? Did you do well?]
“I think I did well enough to pass without a hitch.”
Having memorized all 65 prayers, it would have been hard to fail the written exam without screwing up badly, but being a common-sense, socialized human being, Elaine answered humbly.
But to her embarrassment, the results of the exam went better than she expected.
“The first place in the examination for the chaplain was a saint who entered last year. Ah! There she is! It’s her, it’s her!”
“No way! She got first place?”
“Hey, no way.”
It was a first for a second-year saint to get first place in the 128 examinations for chaplain.
‘I thought I only took the written exam to the standard answer level.….’
The recitation test was pass or fail, so there was no way that Elaine’s memorization of all 65 prayers would ever be known. She thought she could avoid drawing too much attention to herself by taking the written exam in standard level answer, but apparently, the “standard” level pleased the examiners.
[I’ve been getting a little confused about you lately. At first, I thought you were stupid. But maybe you’re not stupid by human standards? Or maybe I just felt like you were stupid because humans in general are stupid?]
“I told you I’m not stupid.”
[I guess you are. You just got first place on a very difficult test, didn’t you?]
“That….is, although I didn’t mean to.”
Elaine sighed heavily again.
‘Because I did so well on the test, it was only a matter of time before this reached Newt’s family.’
But the water had already been spilled, and she was going to leave the temple as a chaplain no matter what Lark said.
Actually, it wasn’t a bad thing, if only Elaine wasn’t worried about Newt’s reaction.
After the test results came out, Debbie and her friends found out that Elaine had taken the exam. They criticized her for keeping it a secret, but they were even happier and congratulated her.
“When on earth did you prepare for the exam? You didn’t even tell us.”
“That’s really amazing, Elaine! We knew you studied hard, but to top the dedicated chaplain exam!”
“Let’s have a celebration party! This is something to celebrate!”
Although she tried to stop her friends who were so excited that they were about to throw a party, Elaine, who was receiving ‘congratulations from her friends’ for the first time, was so happy that she even shed tears.
Rabes was even more smug beside her, and if they could have seen him, they would have burst out laughing.
[Anyway, I guess it’s okay to leave the temple now?]
“Probably so. Can I stay in another noble house?”
[Yeah, it’ll be fine. I’ve already stocked up quite a bit of power, so if you leave the temple as a chaplain, I’ll follow you to where you are.]
‘It was a good opportunity in many ways, as it gave me time to think before making a wish for life to Rabes and go out to this temple.’
Although Elaine was a little uneasy about the lack of response from Newt, she was glad to be leaving the temple and started packing her bags little by little.
Two days later, nobles began to gather in the temple’s small chapel in search of a chaplain.
“There won’t be many people who fail this selection meeting, right? The number of nobles and those who passed the exam seem to be roughly the same.”
“Wait a minute. One, two, three….hmm, only one will fail.”
“One person? Wow, it would be so embarrassing if I were the last one left. I just wish it weren’t me.….”
When the saints who had been counting the number of nobles who had come through the curtains informed them of the situation, the candidates for the chaplain became anxious, fearing that their hard work in studying would be in vain.
But Elaine, who had topped the test, was confident.
‘There’s a high chance that I’ll be chosen first. I might get selected from several places at the same time. Hopefully, it’s not a family close to Newt.’
Naturally, the nobles also wanted chaplains with excellent test scores, so they gave priority to those with the highest scores possible.
A guidebook containing the candidates’ test scores, family origins, ages, etc. was distributed to the nobles in advance.
“Candidates, please come over and stand here.”
The priest who had been arranging the place came to pick up the candidates. The selection meeting finally began.
* * *
