Agni here. Sorry for slow release. I tried to keep up with one-week-one-chapter schedule, but I think I couldn"t. Let"s just hope I won"t get any slower than this...
Btw my translation is not getting better, it was full of correction from Yami-sensei... haha...ha.
... My deepest apologise to you Yami-sensei, I hope you won"t get fed up with me.
Okay. Enjoy chapter 6!
As Cella waited for Lynes in her room, no one else came to visit.
Does the woman called Celiastina always spend her time like this?
Cella really had nothing to do, it was a boring time. What awaits next was a meaningless and uninteresting ceremony. Then when that ends, she would pa.s.s her time idly again. Surely, if it repeated every day, soon she would get tired of it.
Of course, it"s true that even when she was still Yuna, dramatic events did not occur everyday. But, if it is just some small delights here and there, she had those.
She grew medicinal plants by herself, and lined them up on shop front for display. Made her friend entertained by studied various vegetable cuisine. Took care of a baby which was born in relative"s house. None of those were special, but for Yuna, those were one of the treasured moments she had. Yet, such things felt so distant away now.
“Haaaaah&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip; so boring”
She did nothing but just slump and lay down on her bed.
What in the world should she do until noon. What would the previous Cella do? As far as she could see, this room was empty. There was only seemingly luxurious furnitures arranged coldly there. Lynes reminded her to behave obediently but was it absurd to move around actively in the room?
(Aaaa, so that was how it is)
Cella realised. This room did not feel like anybody was living here. It was vacant. The only gentleness in this room was merely the sunlight which can be felt through the big window. At that moment Cella became aware of her loneliness.
(No way, I don’t want to stay in this room)
However this was the only place Cella belonged to. Now --- and surely her “past” too.
---That Celastiana, what was in her mind, what did she feel?
Exactly as he said before, around noon, Lynes came to meet Cella.
He taught how to behave as Saint Celiastina-sama while on the road to give blessings.
She was told to act somehow proud, lazy, sarcastic&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip; again with this kind of talk, isn"t there any decent advice for her to be more of an ideal person?
“This was no more than a formality, but don"t move when you are on the altar. The other person will greet you first, then you do not return the greeting and just speak a few words of blessing. There will be seven people altogether, coming back-to-back. When everyone finished, they will once again greet you before taking their leave. Simple, isn’t it?”
“....but what kind of word is appropriate for blessing?”
“Don"t worry about that, just say some proper sarcasm. You should not think over it too deeply”
Like h.e.l.l there was something like proper sarcasm! She couldn’t think of anything which could appear as proper sarcasm. However, since it was wasted effort to respond to him, Cella chose to remain silent.
Pa.s.sed through a courtyard in royal palace, she was heading to the place where the blessing would take place.
After arriving at the entrance, Cella entered alone.
The blessing chamber was unexpectedly small, being only six feet big. It was hexagonal in shape and the walls were painted in a pure white that gave an indescribable sense of holiness. The ceiling which have a sharp point up above was decorated with several big skylight, where natural light fell, illuminating the entire chamber. From the entrance a stairway could be seen inside, leading to a s.p.a.ce above which seems to be the altar. A simple and plainly designed chamber, but it looked so divine in her eyes.
She climbed up onto the top of the altar.
Somehow the s.p.a.ce around her made her remember "that moment". The s.p.a.ce when Cella’s life was greatly derailed. The happy-go-lucky angel that brought this much agitation in her, right now, what was she doing?
“Excuse me”
Suddenly a voice could be heard, following that the gate was opened majestically. A middle-aged man with elegant attire made a deep bow as he came into the chamber. Following behind that man were six other n.o.bleman who imitated him, giving deep bows before entering.
Cella understood immediately that the ceremony had started. She psyched herself up and tried to somehow make a listless expression. However, when trying to psyche herself up, she had the suspicion that she had already gone past the level of languor. Such a matter was ignored by Cella’s mind, and the ceremony continued on without incident.
In front of the altar, the n.o.blemen stood side by side in a line. Observing them, everyone seems to be a personage with quite high status. For the commoner Cella, she couldn"t help but sense an intimidating air just by them lining up.
“Saint-sama, I am called Georges - Evans”
The first man on her right hand side suddenly opened his mouth.
“Please give me a blessing”
How terribly direct. Towards his forwardness, Cella"s mind became blank. Sarcasm. While inside this place with such a holy aura, she had to think about sarcasm. Impossible. For Celiastina to be able to bring out a topic about wig in this situation, she much rather show respect.
“.....umm”
Cella became fl.u.s.tered, she hesitated. However, the seven person before her did nothing but keep their heads low and didn"t interrupt her at all.
“.....May the blessing of G.o.d Veda be upon you”
Being unable to endure the awkward atmosphere any longer, she accidentally chose the most ordinary, commonplace words to say. The man who introduced himself as Georges raised his face with an astonished expression.
Silence.
“......I, I am, called Beretta - Mischler. Saint-sama, please give me a blessing”
The second man spoke, he seems able to somehow pulled himself together.
“............May G.o.d Veda always be by your side at every moment in your life”
When she had given her blessing, the second person looked like he was about to cry.
They were frightened. Completely afraid of me.
Cella was aware of that, but she had no slightest idea how to react in such a situation. She gave up thinking about it and simply finished her blessing until the sixth person in the same manner. But, up to then, the n.o.blemen dismal only appeared to grow proportionately. Everyone’s expression was ghastly pale and stiff. How harsh were they abused by sarcasm usually that their became frightened by a mere proper blessing? Celiastina seems to be a woman beyond her imagination.
Not good. As expected, being upright was not good. In her mind, Cella was hiding such a pathetic thought.
“Sa, Saint-sama, I am called Claude - Trevathan. &h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;.ple, ple, please give me a blessing”
The man curled himself to a degree that he looks so pitiful. Certainly this man must be a powerful n.o.ble who lived as he pleased in his territory. And yet, now, the exact same child, rather than man, was trembling pathetically.
“You ----”
With a look filled with pity, Cella began to talk.
“----You looks like a peac.o.c.k wearing a flashy scarf, are you a fool?”
In that instant, the whole place seems to be completely frozen.
*****
“I had it. I really had it.”
“Calm down, Cella”
Kukuku, Lynes came into the blessing chamber while enduring his laughter.
“Even so, for me, this was absolutely unreasonable! Something like Celiastina, I wouldn’t get accustomed to it at all!”
“Well, really, that is a masterpiece”
With a quivering shoulder, Lynes wiped the tears that gathered at the corner of his eye. Such behaviour made Cella very angry and she gave him a piercing glare.
“Wasn’t it strange that they became frightened simply by my ordinary way of speaking? That was totally weird!”
“What exactly are you angry about? To me, all I saw was a clown who made a blunder during a performance at a big stage being angry at the audience?”
“I am a clown you say?! Because of whom do you think I act like that??”
“Now, now, you did well. I didn’t expect that you would go all the way like that before doing what you did at the end....kuh”
“Please don’t laugh anymore!”
It was really terrible. Because she was losing her mind at the last moment and blurted out all that, it made the place wrapped up in a cold atmosphere.
Being the only person mocked at, the peac.o.c.k man, Claude - Trevathan, seemed to unable to comprehend what was happening and was at a loss.
The others were taken aback and could only switch between looking at Cella and Trevathan, in silence. Being unable to stay any longer in the soundless confusion where not one soul spoke a word, Cella uttered "Get out". The n.o.bleman quickly scattered in all direction in haste like baby spiders. When Cella opened the gate in a deep self-hatred, she found Lynes who had been secretly peeking at how the blessings were going from the outside, and was laughing while holding his side.
“If you had maintained your style from the start, it would have gone down peacefully”
“Such a thing, I cannot do it normally”
“But in the end you made it, didn’t you? ---Come on, the point is you have to get accustomed to it. Besides, since there are mountains of such similar ceremonies, eventually your sarcasm will start to come out naturally, I think."
“Is that a good thing ....?”
Without answering her muttering, the man with an unfathomably strong stomach only presented a chuckle on his face.
“More so, maybe you have more talent than the real Cella. Compared to equally insulting everyone, the method of showing contempt for just one person was much more powerful"
“Therefore let just stop this argument now”
“Please keep up with it Cella, I believe you can do it if you try.”
It would have been better if I couldn’t do it after trying. She thought so, but Cella didn"t have any strength left to refute him.
Light Beyond Chapter 6