This afternoon's class was one of the few specialized courses first-year students at the Seminary could take.
So Iver and Lily didn't put on their usual blue-and-white uniforms. Instead, they changed into the Seminary's exclusive uniforms—the white robes that looked and functioned exactly like Clerical Robes, except that they bore no indication of holy orders.
—Because the course was called Prayer Studies.
It mainly taught the rites and procedures for offering different prayers to the Nine Pillar Gods, using different materials on different occasions according to different purposes and needs.
Scriptures, prayers, sacrifices, rituals, taboos...
The course wasn't difficult at all. The only challenge was the sheer amount of memorization. Because there was so much to memorize, the course began in the first semester of the first year and continued until the third semester of the second year.
The reason Bishop Mathers hadn't taught Iver the Sacred Art of "Prayer" was that it simply couldn't be taught. The main purpose of the Seminary was to spend two years teaching these future priests how to pray to the Nine Pillar Gods. Apart from restoring mana, some ritual divine arts could only be used through prayer.
Although priests mainly relied on the Candlebearers, they were still priests who served all Nine Pillar Gods. In other words, they also needed to understand and manage the beliefs, traditions, and rituals of the other eight Pillar Gods. During festivals related to the other Pillar Gods, priests would change into their garments and hold the corresponding ceremonies.
For that reason, priests were considered the profession that first came into deep contact with knowledge of the other Nine Great Paths.
And the lecturer of this course, "Ms. Maya," looked quite young.
She had dark-brown curly hair tied into a ponytail, draped over the front of one shoulder.