Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 3

To the Baptism Ceremony

Everyone was busy the morning of the ceremony. Mainly Mom, though. We needed to hurry and eat breakfast, clean up, and get me changed into my outfit, so she got mad when I overslept and ate my breakfast slowly. I basically shoved my food into my mouth and changed in the bedroom with Tuuli while Mom cleaned up my dishes.

Mom and Tuuli had been adding little touches to the outfit over time, so now it wasn't just looking fancy with the cloth bundled up to add waves. They had decorated it with flowers made during our winter handiwork, which made it look more decorative. If Benno hadn't given us more thread than we needed for the flowers, we wouldn't have had the money to spare for them.

After putting on the dress like I would a t-shirt, I wrapped the blue sash around my waist and tied it into a bow. The end of the sash hung by my leg.

"Myne, weren't you going to double loop the sash?" asked Tuuli, pursing her lips. I undid the sash and wrapped it around my stomach twice. But despite being able to somehow manage it in the winter, it was now just a little too short for that.

"Oh? Did I eat too much? Is my stomach sticking out?"

"Nuh uh. You just got bigger, Myne. We made it so the hem would go beneath your knees a little, but now it's exactly at your knees." It seemed I had grown during the spring. That was normal for most children, but the Devouring slowed my growth so much that I wasn't used to it. I was struck by a sense of awe, moved at my own growth, but Tuuli was more focused on practical matters. She took a look at the sash and thought about how to fix it.

"...It's just not the right length. Letting it hang like that would look bad. Maybe we should cut it?"

"No way, that would be a waste. I'm only wearing it for the baptism, it won't be too long. I can just double it up."

"But you couldn't do that just now."

"Not the wrapping, the bow." I wrapped the sash around my stomach and gave it a double bow knot. Once it was all tied up, I shifted the sash so the ribbon-esque knots were behind me.

"So? Does it look good?"

"So cute! Wow! How did you do that?!" I started to explain how double bow knots worked to Tuuli when suddenly my mom came into the room.

"If you've finished changing your clothes, Myne, hurry and get your hair ready. I need to change too."

"Okaaay. I'll tell you later, Tuuli." We moved to the kitchen. Everyone had used rinsham last night, so my whole family had silky smooth hair. Even Dad had seemed interested yesterday, so I washed his hair for him. I asked what had gotten into him and it turns out Otto had bragged about washing his hair with Corinna. As always, Dad was competitive in the weirdest of places.

"Myne, I don't know how to bundle up hair with a hairpin, so at least let me brush your hair and stuff." Tuuli's eyes started shining after she saw me brushing my hair. I had braided Tuuli's hair for her baptism and it seemed she wanted to return the favor however she could. I nodded and gave her the brush. She started brushing my hair while humming, seemingly in a very good mood.

"Myne, your hair is so straight and pretty. It smells nice, too."

"Your hair smells the same way, doesn't it?" I thanked Tuuli for brushing my hair and bundled it up like I usually did, making sure not

to crush my swaying hairpin. More complex hair styles wouldn't really work for me since any strings I tried to use would just come right undone.

"Okay, that's that." Despite the special hairpin, I was still putting my hair up the same way that I always did. It didn't take very long.