"...Yes, yes, I saw this child looking lost on the street. It was rather pitiful, so I brought it here."
Qila silently listened to the conversation between the foreigner auntie and another young foreigner man dressed in white robes.
This was... a temple.
Like the Temple of Heaven, the temple was a trapezoidal structure in the center, simple yet magnificent.
Foreigners and foreign species alike came here to worship. Standing before the square... Her Highness, the Princess of Chi, was really inside?
To Qila, meeting the White Clan's holiest ancestor was an incredible thing... The people and events here were far beyond its understanding.
—White Demon.
The foreigner auntie had called Qila's white scales White Demon, a rare disease. Rare did not mean unseen. Patients with White Demon disease occasionally appeared in Crimson City, and there had even been records of cures.
Qila did not disbelieve her... It simply found it difficult to accept.
White scales were an important sign that it had the qualifications to become a priest among the White Clan. It could not accept that such an important feature was considered an illness by the people here.
"All right, I understand. You can go back first. Leave this child to me." The white-robed foreigner smiled as he spoke.
"Stay here and behave." The foreigner auntie pressed a hand to her forehead, then tapped Qila between the brows... It seemed to be some kind of ritual. "It's all right. Priest Jenice will take good care of you."
It stood there, at a loss.
The foreigner auntie was leaving. Qila instinctively opened its mouth, as if trying to keep her there, but the auntie merely gave it a reassuring look. "I have to go back and prepare the offerings, too."
...Offerings?
"...How many Divine Princesses are there?"