Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 3

A Quiet Commotion

"Woooah! Holy cow!" I couldn't hear their voices from the outside, but the second I went into the temple the shrill cries of the children echoed through the temple and made my head hurt. I reflexively stopped in place, but Lutz pulled me forward.

"There's still steps, watch your feet." I looked at the ground and took a few steps, whereupon the doors closed behind us with heavy creaks. I turned around in surprise at the sudden darkness and saw priests wearing gray robes closing the door.

"Oh, right. We were the last ones in." A blue-robed priest walked slowly to the front of the tightly shut doors. He then held up a wind chime-esque bell with a strangely colored stone on it and rang it. Immediately, the children fell silent, with only the echoes of their voices still reverberating through the temple.

"What, happened?" Lutz couldn't speak either. Or more precisely, he couldn't speak above a bare whisper. Judging by his expression and body language, he was trying to speak in a much louder voice. He was surprised by his own quiet voice and held a hand over his throat.

"Maybe it's a magic tool? It happened the second the blue-robed priest rung the bell." Likewise, my voice only came out in a whisper. But I was calm since I had seen the priest ring the bell and could guess what had happened. Lutz calmed down a bit once I explained. Realizing the same thing was happening to me seemed to have done the trick.

At the back of the procession, I let out a sigh of awe and looked up. The temple's ceiling was high in the air like an atrium, and rows of round pillars carved with complex designs were lined up next to each other. At about four floors worth of height there were tall windows from which light streamed in. The walls and pillars were white aside from the gold used to decorate them, which made the area look brighter. Only the inner wall was colorful.

Unlike the Christian churches I had seen in photos and the like, there weren't any paintings on the walls or stained glass in the windows. Everything was made of pure white stone. It didn't even feel like a Japanese shrine or temple. As far as I knew, it didn't resemble the religious architecture of Southeast Asia either.

The wall furthest inside was covered in colored designs from the floor to the ceiling and had a divine aura to it thanks to the light shining on it, which somewhat resembled mosques, but there was a staircase of about forty steps leading up to it and the statues dotting it didn't feel Islamic at all.

...Maybe that staircase is supposed to symbolize a staircase to the heavens and gods? The statues kind of remind me of the emperor and empress dolls used in the Japanese festival Doll's Day.

At the top of the stairs were two statues, one male and one female. They seemed liked a couple, and since they were at the top of the stairs, I could guess that they were the king and queen of the gods. They were both pure white statues, but the male god was wearing a black cape made with sparkling gold scattered like stars, and the goddess was wearing a golden crown with long pointed tips that resembled light shining from the sun in all directions.

...The Goddess of Light and the God of Darkness, I guess? Or maybe the Goddess of Sunlight and the God of Night? Either way, their crown and cape make them really stand out from the other statues.

A number of steps down was a statue of a peaceful, plump woman with her arms wrapped around a gleaming yellow grail. Beneath her was a woman holding a staff, a man holding a spear, a woman holding a shield, and a man holding a sword all lined up. It was odd.

All of the statues were pure white, except the one colored object they were holding. I could imagine there was some deeper meaning resting within what statues were holding what objects.

...Maybe those are like, the holy grail and the holy sword and so on?

Further steps below had statues surrounded by flowers, fruits, clothes, and other items that could be offerings. The more I looked, the more I thought back to Doll's Day.