Father Agathon

The following day, Laemno had slept very little.

At dawn, his caretakers were already waking him up to prepare for his usual activities, starting with a bath.

Hygiene-wise, he had been pleasantly surprised by this world's advancements. He would have been very pissed if an easily avoidable illness wiped him out after managing to evade his upcoming sacrifice—a matter that left him rather anxious until now.

They used a primitive form of soap, namely a mixture of fats and ash, to clean his body in the hot baths, and then they smeared his skin with a strange ointment that smelled faintly of olive oil and marjoram.

Laemno had never been this pampered in his previous life, so he immensely enjoyed the new experience. The steps leading to it, though, were a little more awkward.

His caretakers were two beautiful girls in their late teenage years called Aspasia and Charis. Through his fragmented memory, he remembered them being Adonal Virgins that usually served Hierapetra's Hallowed Sovereign.

When they first brought him to the temple's baths and started taking off his clothes, Laemno had been quite flustered, and even his dark gray skin couldn't hide his blushing cheeks. Although that earned him a few chuckles, he had quickly gotten over it and focused on his main objective—gathering information!

Since the date of his Sacrificial Ceremony was near, he had been dismissed from his regular classes, which included History, Geography, Philosophy, Theology, Arts, Mathematics, and a broad subject encompassing both Astronomy and Astrology. They had abruptly stopped since the seven-pointed star appeared unusually early, so his primary duties were now purely religious.

As a Celestial Offering, Laemno was considered a symbol of absolute purity. Hence, his presence was required to bless vestments, books, and various items that held ritualistic importance for future upkeep as holy relics by reciting specific verses from the Sidereal Revelations. Fortunately, most of the clergy was occupied preparing for what he suspected to be the Sacrificial Ceremony, meaning he had plenty of free time.

None of the Adonal Virgins showed any abnormal reaction when they saw me this morning. Aspasia is an obvious airhead and doesn't seem dangerous, but Charis keeps stealing glances at me. Does she suspect something? My reaction at the baths today was sudden... still, that should be expected of a growing boy. Maybe I'm overthinking it?

Laemno kept walking through the sumptuous halls, silently followed by his caretakers. To his right, sacred murals depicting Hierapetra's Hallowed Sovereign sprawled endlessly, sometimes showing her slaying twisted monsters with a stellar spear and other times raining golden blessings on her worshippers. To his left, silver-and-bronze statues of the same deity lined the corridors, looking glorious and solemn with her dress of flickering stars and her nebulous veil.

Beyond those effigies, over the floor-to-ceiling windows that let in the aurous sunlight, he saw two white-and-silver buildings that reminded him of ancient Greek temples. However, they had a more circular architecture with a sparkling obelisk sitting at the top. Their massive columns had seemingly random protuberances that mimicked orbiting celestial objects, either planets, moons, or stars.

Between them stood an erected golden statue of a woman with a burnished dress, holding a divine spear made of translucent, reflective jewels that sparkled like a thousand suns. She had a long veil of ethereal tissue, only glittering at certain intervals under the ebbing waves of sunlight.

She was Adonaios, Mother of Dawn and Goddess of the Celestial Sphere, as well as the Hallowed Sovereign of Hierapetra.

After his preliminary inspection, Laemno discovered that he lived inside the Great Sanctuary of Priene, specifically in its Inner Monastery. The temple comprised three circular buildings forming an imperfect triangle atop the city's largest hill. The Outer Monastery and the Luminous House stood on either side of Adonaios' giant statue, the former acting as a public place of worship while the latter serving as the living quarters of the pontiffs, archbishops, bishops, and the rest of the clergy.

The Inner Monastery was relatively isolated due to being mainly used by ascetics from the Temple of Stars. Since most of them chose to live as hermits outside the walls of Priene, it was often empty and deemed suitable to house the Celestial Offering.

This is good and bad at the same time. On the one hand, I can move anywhere I wish so long as I stay within the confines of the Inner Monastery, but on the other, I'll have to pass through the Outer Monastery or the Luminous House if I want to escape. Both are heavily monitored, so I guess I'll have to jump down the hill... Laemno inwardly sighed, already dreading the future.

He stopped in front of a large opening whose edges ended in swirls, framed with what looked like white wood. Beyond that entrance, rows of expensive-looking shelves sprawled to either side, forming a labyrinth of glittering cages that housed countless books. He noticed the same chandelier as the one in his chamber hanging under the library's ceiling, refracting sunlight to every corner of the room.

Near the entryway, a bald man with a cascading grey beard cast his gaze toward Laemno with a stern look. However, it soon turned into a beaming smile as he approached with quick steps.

"Wait for me here," Laemno told his caretakers before entering the library.

He didn't turn around but somehow felt them bowing with pious respect. "Understood, Honored One."

"Laemno! It's been a while, my boy!" The bald man lunged at Laemno with unexpected agility, trapping him in a bear hug. "How have you been? I haven't seen you since they ended your classes. Oh, you're not one to loiter around books anyway, hehe."

That might change very soon, old man.

Laemno stifled a grimace as he extricated himself from the elder with practiced movements. It was like his whole body still remembered how to do it.

Poor Laemno must've suffered quite a number of bear hugs.

Then, carefully controlling his facial movements, he widened his lips to show the most sincere smile he could muster. "Yes, it's really been a while, Father Agathon!"

The bald, grey-bearded elder in front of him was an ascetic that greatly enjoyed the company of musty-smelling tomes and the gritty touch of dried papyrus. He was also Laemno's Geography and History teacher, though since he spent so much time in the Inner Monastery's library, he was considered its unofficial keeper.

According to the real Laemno's memories, he could be seen as the closest thing to his father figure.

Few would dare speak casually with a Celestial Offering, and even fewer would address him by name instead of using the standard honorific Honored One. This ecstatic elder did both and even initiated physical contact, which would usually be considered taboo.

Of course, this sense of familiarity would normally make him a primary suspect, but we haven't seen each other for quite some time. I can't completely rule him out due to my defective memory, but he's the least likely to be the would-be "killer."

Staying near him should lessen the probability of the assassin acting rashly and stabbing me from a random corner. Oh dear, that would be terrifying. Thoughts quickly flashed in his mind while he peered into the elder's gentle gaze.

"I don't have much to do lately, so I got bored. I figured I could find something to read here. You don't mind, I hope, Father Agathon?" He mimicked the real Laemno's soft voice and mellow temperament.

"Of course not, hehe! The thirst for knowledge is hard to quench, but I've always taken you as the kind of boy to throw books around rather than read them. However, the day of the Sacrificial Ceremony is coming upon us..." His tone turned grave for an instant. "Are you sure you don't want to play around more, my boy? There's hardly anyone in the Outer Monastery around this time, so I don't think they'll stop you from spending a few hours in the gardens."

Laemno, who had prepared his speech, solemnly traced a line from his stomach to the top of his chest with his finger. That was the holy symbol of the Goddess of the Celestial Sphere—the Luminous Spear.

"I am ready to meet the Gods Beyond, Father Agathon. The thing is, I realized that I'm the youngest ever Celestial Offering to be sacrificed, right?"

Agathon nodded and opened his mouth to say something, but Laemno quickly continued.

"I know that Celestial Offerings are strictly educated so they won't disgrace our nation in the realm of the Gods Beyond, but I thought about it and... since I stopped my studies at eleven years old, I'll be lacking compared to the others, won't I?"

Laemno pressed down his eyelids, squeezing out a few tears. "I don't wish to be the one who brought shame on our glorious Kingdom! You understand, don't you, Father Agathon? I want to gather as much knowledge as I can. Please, won't you help me?"

"W—What purity! What innocent ardor! Ahh, Laemno, you truly are the descendant of the Nameless Saint!" The elder ascetic held out his arms as if praying to the sky, pearly droplets glittering in the corners of his eyes. "Such are the blessings of the seven-pointed star! To bring forth the wisdom hidden in our minds, the piety in our souls!"

Laemno held himself from creasing his eyebrows, somehow overwhelmed by Agathon's reaction. Behind him, he could even hear the whimpering of his caretakers, similarly moved by his request.

Did I go overboard? Ahh... No, they're just too zealous in their beliefs. I guess you would be, too, if deities openly trod the land.

Father Agathon suddenly caught Laemno by the shoulder, dragging him towards the lustrous shelves. "Your wish is my duty, O Honored One! Let us browse this ocean of knowledge together!"