The High Priest

The brief exchange had allowed Neph to sense the attitude of Zaphir and the Moon City he represented.

There was a little friendliness, a little respect, a little anticipation, and considerably more probing and distrust.

Conventional ways of dealing with their probing and distrust would take too long. Neph knew how cautious Colin Iliad, the Chief of the City of Silver, was, and she did not think the High Priest of Moon City would be any less so. Perhaps she needed a sufficiently exalted identity.

-But I can't say it outright.

The best answer was always one people arrived at themselves. Besides, the True Creator's gaze could fall upon her at any moment. If she happened to be saying something too outrageous then, such as impersonating one of his angels, well... the blank canvas might not be able to protect her.

Moreover, what she had said when introducing herself, along with her bizarre origins, was probably enough to spark associations already. Zaphir next door might even have reported it.

All she needed to do was reinforce that impression.

...Come to think of it, if I'm an angel serving the True Creator, what kind of angel should I be called?

Neph lowered her head to look at the blank canvas. It was rectangular, about the size of a sheet of A4 paper, and cold to the touch. It felt like canvas, but seemed rigid-perhaps it had frozen.

Only a single ink dot stood out on the pure white canvas. Neph stared at it for a few seconds, and the title of a King of Angel sprang to mind.

...White Angel?

Neph recalled that pure white space and fell into a somewhat awkward silence.

-This Pathway really does seem to have a profound connection to the color white.

That brief flight of fancy soon ended, and Neph tensed up again. She picked up the food she had set down earlier, sighed, then wrapped it back up and returned it to the doorway.

-She needed to create the illusion that she did not need to eat.

And what if she could not find a suitable source of food? Neph figured that, once she was truly starving, she probably would not be picky. As for how she would explain her need to eat then... Oh, I want to experience your way of life. Is there a problem with that?

Once she had finished, Neph sat back down on the bed. She thought she ought to appear relaxed and unconcerned about her current circumstances, so after a little consideration, she let her hair down.

Before boarding the high-speed train to school, Neph had worn her hair in a neatly woven fishtail braid, without a single stray strand. The long braid extended past her waist, barely reaching her backside.

When she had awakened before that grayish-white barrier, her hair had still been reasonably tidy. Now, however, after she had lost consciousness and been carried around, it was thoroughly disheveled. Had she not been so tense, she would have rebraided it long ago.

This was a good opportunity. Neph loosened her hair and began braiding it again, little by little. She was not actually sure whether the people of Moon City were monitoring her through sound or some other means, but judging by the current situation, she did not think there was anything resembling a surveillance camera in the room.

Only when Neph was two-thirds of the way through her braid did Zaphir's voice ring out:

"Your Excellency, you're back?"

Neph gave a hum of acknowledgment, and Zaphir immediately continued:

"I called out to you several times just now, but you didn't respond. I thought something had happened to you..."

"Now that I've awakened, of course I must inform the Lord of my circumstances," Neph said as she braided her hair.

Only after finishing the last section, tying it off, and tossing it behind her did Neph continue, "Do you need me to stay here for fifteen days?"

It was a deftly phrased question. After a brief pause, Zaphir replied:

"...No.

"High Priest Nim would like to meet you. Would you be willing?"

High Priest Nim... is he the one I know?

Neph realized this was a preliminary sign of trust. She had no objections and nodded slightly. Then, remembering that he might not be able to see her, she added:

"Let him come."

It was unmistakably the manner of someone in authority.

Zaphir showed no reaction and merely acknowledged her words. Neph did not initiate another conversation. She sat quietly on the bed until the door opened and an old man dressed in animal hides walked in.

His grayish-white hair hung in untidy strands. The wrinkles on his face made Neph understand what people meant by wrinkles deep enough to crush a mosquito-his might go a step further and crush a fly.

Neph's gaze fell on his aged face. Then she rose and hurried forward, reaching out to support him before he could bend down to bow.

"No, you don't need to do that," Neph said gently. "The Lord has abandoned you on this land for so many years, yet you have never complained. You have even continued to uphold your promise to him. I should be the one who feels ashamed..."

Neph's expression softened as she spoke. Supporting Nim had been an instinctive reaction. The upbringing she had received made it impossible for her to watch an elderly man bow to her. The words that followed were an explanation, but they were not without sincerity.

Their nearly four thousand years of steadfast devotion in the original novel had once shaken Neph. Now, standing here in the very real Forsaken Land of the Gods, she recalled that same feeling. She thought that, if she truly were that long-delayed messenger, she would indeed feel ashamed.

Unfortunately, she was not.

Neph looked at Nim before her. His features were surprisingly normal, and there were no grotesque tumors on his face. He was merely short enough that the top of his head reached her chin-if her height had not changed, she should have been 167 centimeters tall without shoes.

Nim remained silent as well. His black eyes were deep and dark. Amid that tranquil atmosphere, Neph remembered that this High Priest should be a Sequence 4 Nightwatcher of the Evernight Pathway.

But he hasn't entered my dreams... it doesn't seem anyone has entered my dreams?

Neph was certain this was not a dream. Otherwise, when she, the still-lucid owner of the dream, wanted to awaken, it should at least have shown signs of breaking down. As for the possibility that someone had previously entered her dreams without her remembering...

Well, she probably would not have had the chance to sit here telling lies.

In that dark stillness, Nim finally asked, "How should I address you, Your Excellency?"

Neph paused in surprise, but faced with the same question, she still answered:

"Neph. The Lord once called me Neph."

"Your Excellency Neph," Nim said, "are you the Lord's messenger?"

"Yes," Neph said with certainty. She felt this ought to count as the truth. "It was the Lord who brought me before you."

She paused, then suddenly looked at Nim and said softly, "Zaphir called you the High Priest... you must be Moon City's current leader?"

"You could say that," Nim replied.

Thus, Neph turned the tables, looking at Nim with a scrutinizing

gaze as she said:

"The Lord once told me that, when I walked out of that grayish-white barrier, I would hear a certain sentence.

"The people who spoke that sentence would be his people."