"You look amazing." Gunther said, trying at his usual prideful voice, only for it to fall a little short.
"Thanks dad." Tuuli replied as she looked at her reflection in the mirror that Myne had bought, the memories of the confused talk between her and the family at the waste of money echoing in the back of her mind, dragging up painful memories.
All of it was painful.
The mirror which Myne had bought for her.
The pretty white dress with the subtle blue hues created by thin pieces of fabric, designed by Myne for the sole purpose of Tuuli's baptism.
The hair style, undoing her long braid and curling her hair into waves before braiding her bangs and tying them back with a hairpin resembling a white lily with the same blue hues as her dress. Tuuli felt as though she could feel Myne's fingers in her hair as her mother had set it for her.
The meals they ate. The house they lived in. It all reminded her of her little sister.
And on that day, the day of her baptism, Tuuli couldn't help but feel that it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that Myne had to suffer the way that she had. It wasn't fair that she had never got to reach her own baptism.
"Tuuli." Effa said as her daughter started to tear up, giving her a hug in hopes of comforting her, Gunther walking behind them and holding onto them both.
They stood like that for a few moments, until a voice interrupted them. "Tuuli, you can't cry on your big day. You're going to ruin your pretty face."
Tuuli blinked in surprise, her head swinging about as she thought she was hearing things before she saw that the mirror was now glowing a pale yellow.
"Myne?" Tuuli said, both her and her parents going into shock.
"I told you I'd always be looking out for you, didn't I? I'm not the kind to break a promise to my cute older sister." Myne's teasing voice said, coming from the mirror.
"Myne, is that really you? But how?" Effa asked in disbelief.
"You never looked at the back of the mirror, did you?" Myne said and they could almost see her shaking her head. "Did you really think I would buy something like this just to look at my own reflection? I'm not that vain."
"But you died." Tuuli said.
"I know, but I don't really have enough time to explain." Myne said apologetically. "I just wanted to see you today and tell you that I am still rooting for you, Tuuli."
"Myne… I'm sorry." Tuuli said, the tears coming fast now. "I'm sorry for what I said. I just… I didn't know that…"
"That's alright. You said it because you were worried about me." Myne replied. "The words hurt a little, but they also made me glad. So don't worry yourself over them. I don't want you to beat yourself up because of me."
"Myne."
"I'm sorry Tuuli, but I don't have much time left. So please, let me be the first to bless you on this day." Myne said as the mirror's glow turned from gold to blue. "O God of Fire Leidenschaft and the exalted twelve of Summer. Grant my sister your protection. May her life be filled with warmth. May her spirit be light and strong. Grant her courage and help her grow to meet any obstacle. Bring her all that is promised by the Summer sky."
Bright blue light came from the mirror, washing over Tuuli and her parents, seeping into her skin and warming her as she felt her sister's love for her inside of her chest, her tears evaporating from her cheeks.
"I love you all. So go out there and do your best." Myne said before the light faded away.
Rin shouldn't have done that. She knew she shouldn't have.
But when she had checked in on her family through the mirror she had left in the apartment, wanting to see her sister's face as she was all dressed up for her big day, only to see her family crying, she couldn't help but to call out to them.
She shouldn't have done that. If they started to talk about their dead child calling out to them through a magic mirror, it might get them the wrong kind of attention. She hoped they knew better than to talk about it. It would also be bad if they realized she was alive and started trying to look for her.
Still, Myne was glad that she was able to talk to them again and tell them that she loved them.
"Lady Tohsaka!? Lady Tohsaka, it is time for the orphan children's baptism!" Lizzie's voice called out from outside of Rin's secret room.
Rin wiped away her tears and removed any trace that she had been crying before going out to face the world.
…That night, Tuuli would sleep with a small warmth in her chest because of Rin's blessing. A warmth that would stay with her in the days to come. A warmth that would get slowly stronger bit-by-bit. A warmth that would soon begin to devour her.
Rin would learn to regret that blessing.
Rin was mildly surprised when she received a few special requests from the noble district to perform a private baptism.
It was apparently common that nobles either have private baptisms, or are baptized in the Winter, rather than the baptisms in mass that they see in the lower districts. The families of the children would pay for a Blue Robe to perform the ceremony, the higher rank the family, the higher rank the Blue Robe requested, with Archnobles always requesting either the High Priest or Archbishop.
Only, it seemed everyone believed that the daughter of the Archduke was of a higher status still. Or maybe they just wanted an excuse to meet with her.
In the end, she just turned them all down, saying she was technically just an Apprentice Blue Priestess and not yet baptized herself, and therefore wasn't qualified to perform such a ceremony. Until Angelica herself asked her to perform one of the ceremonies, the baptism of her little sister, Lieseleta.
The little sister that Angelica was disinherited for before the younger girl was ever even baptized. Not that Angelica seemed to care. She still loved her sister anyways.
Well, if anyone ever accused Rin of favoring Angelica over an archnoble… they'd be right anyways. And anyone capable of saying no to Angelica's puppy dog eyes should probably check to make sure that they had a pulse.
"Thank you for agreeing to do this." Angelica said, brimming with happiness, standing right behind Rin on stage in her capacity as a guard, despite being a member of the family.
"I'm glad you are happy, but I hope your sister is okay with all of this." Rin said quietly as she looked out over the crowd of people.
Usually, whenever a noble held their own baptisms, the number of people who showed up and where it was held was determined by the person's status. A Laynoble would just have a small event in their own house. A Mednoble like Lieseleta would normally only additionally have extended family and any Laynoble attends they might have. It wasn't until Archnobles that you got parties of a hundred or so people.
But because Rin was the one performing the ceremony, it was being done at the Castle's Grand Hall, and over five hundred people had shown up to witness the event.
Rin had to loan out her cooks from the Temple and paid for the ingredients, just so that Angelica's family wouldn't be overburdened having to serve them all. Ironically, this meant that Rin spent more money overseeing the ceremony than she made. Not that she really minded. It wasn't as if noble food was stupidly expensive and this one party was going to blow enough money to feed the orphanage for a month.
Stupid bastards. She'd need to do something about the cost of sugar.
The country didn't have the right kind of climate for its production locally, not if you used the sugar cane equivalent that was used by the country of origin, but there were other types of sugar. Rin just had to find one, and if she couldn't, genetic engineering was on the table. Though that wasn't her specialty.
…Or maybe 'importing' it herself, from herself. She had been working on recreating the rituals necessary to send messages between worlds. If she could make contact with a Rin on the other side, she could open trade with them, exchanging Feystones for other goods. She'd finally be able to get herself a cup of coffee!
Though she was still another year off at least from being able to do that.
Still, those nobles really didn't have any mercy at all, forcing themselves into the audience of a young girl's baptism.
Lieseleta had been told beforehand she would be getting baptized in front of around thirty people who she was rather familiar with. Now she had to put on a show that people would remember her for for the rest of her life in front of half the Duchy.
Rin was going to owe the girl a massive apology after this.
"Lieseleta will do fine. Unlike me, she's very competent. Our parents are always praising her." Angelica said with certainty.
Rin resisted the impulse to wince at the implication that their parents had never had any praise for their eldest daughter. Honestly, Angelica was too pure hearted. Or maybe just too scatterbrained.
Either way, the time for talking was over and the ceremony started as the door to the hall opened and Lieseleta came walking into the room.
This was Rin's first time seeing Angelica's little sister, but there wasn't exactly anything else she could be.
Despite Lieseleta having green hair and eyes, the pair looked very much alike. Though Lieseleta's hair was tied in a long single braid, wider than Tuuli's, which left to hang over her right shoulder.
There was also something different about them that was harder for Rin to put her thumb on. They both wore the same noble smile, gracious and beautiful, but there was a difference in the air about them.
It was in the way that they moved, with Lieseleta having the sharper, more purposeful step, compared to Angelica, who seemed to glide about like the wind, never losing her center of balance. Her delicate appearance hid the battle readiness that seemed to come so naturally to her that she never even had to think about it.
Maybe Lieseleta was nervous about having so many higher rank nobles there on her big day, but if she did, it didn't show on her face, where her smile was as bright as Angelica's own.
Rin was momentarily taken aback by the sight of her, having two people with faces just like Saber's in the same place was uncanny, even if Lieseleta's more complex hairstyle decreased the likeness a bit.
But by the time the girl's parents had led her up to the stage, Rin had recovered and started the ceremony in full, telling the story of creationism, by the mythology of this world, before handing Lieseleta a magic tool which started to glow, showing that Lieseleta had a base level of mana high enough to become a noble.
While this surprised no one, as you didn't get this far if your parents knew you didn't, people still clapped politely. After that, Rin held up a citizenship metal, which Lieseleta would mark with her magic power.
These metals were actually pretty messed up things, being used in executions, but you weren't considered a citizen of a Duchy until you had one. Even commoners would all get one during their baptism, though theirs would be marked with blood, instead of a magic tool.
Rin thought that the creation of so many metals was a waste of valuable materials, but traditions and all that bullshit.
Lieseleta touched the metal with the wand-like magic tool and the metal started to glow green and yellow.
"You have the water and wind attributes." Rin told the girl.
Her father then came forward with a ring-type magic tool, putting it on the middle finger of the girl's right hand, indicating that he claimed her as his child.
Then, Rin gave the child a blessing, maybe one a little stronger than necessary, but she wasn't sure how much to give, as received a small one in return from the young girl who was giving a blessing for the first time.
And with that, the ceremony was over, and socializing could begin.
"You did an excellent job." Florencia said, greeting Rin as she came down from the stage, while the entire event was reorganizing itself, food being brought out and a line forming for people to introduce themselves to the newly baptized girl.
Of course, said line couldn't start moving until the Archduke congratulated her, since he was the highest status here, and as such, he had to be the first in line.
"Thank you for the flattery, though it was really nothing." Rin said with a gracious smile.
"Nothing? I'm sure you must have studied hair to memorize the entire speech for the ritual." Sylvester said with a chuckle.
"Not at all. I didn't have to study it, because I already knew it from prior readings." Rin said, puzzling her adopted parents. Seeing their looks, she turned to Rihyarda, who was carrying the copy of the scriptures she had used for the ceremony. "Rihyarda, please turn to a random page in the book and read the first line you see in it."
"Yes, Milady." Rihyarda said, doing as she was told.
She opened up the scripture and read a line, and Rin picked up from there, continuing for five more lines before stopping, leaving everyone around her visibly taken aback.
"You've memorized the entire scripture?" Sylvester said in disbelief.
"I have memorized every version of the scripture I have read, as well as every other document that I ever read with the intention of memorizing it." Rin said with a smile. Though in her opinion, that wasn't such a big deal, as she had to consciously save the information within her mana flow, rather than it being a passive thing like Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works. It also wasn't nearly as detailed, as memorizing the entire context of a book wasn't impressive compared to the exact composition of a sword, every scratch on it, its entire history, and it's very soul. "It is a useful skill that saves time looking things up, but it isn't as useful as you would think. Remembering the information and knowing when and where to use it are two different things. I know thousands of facts, but until a problem is placed in front of me requiring me to piece them together, they are just random information." The nobles were all slack jawed but had no choice but to just accept what Rin said as fact. "We need to greet Lieseleta so that the party can get started."
"Right you are." Sylvester said, resisting the urge to scratch his head in frustration. "Come on dear, let's congratulate the girl on her big day."
Sylvester, Florencia, their guards and attendants, Rin, Angelica, Brigitte and Rihyarda all came up, with the three Archduke family members in front.
"Congratulations on your baptism." Sylvester said, standing proud in front of the child, making Rin want to elbow him in the gut.
She knew that the Archduke couldn't kneel before anyone, but he could at least slouch a little. The girl was freshly baptized for heaven's sake.
But Lieseleta didn't seem to mind and just bowed to him gracefully. "Thank you for arranging this day for me and coming to my baptism, Aub Ehrenfest. Words can't express how grateful I am. Someone of my stature usually couldn't even dream of something this grand."
"Tohsaka is the one you should be thanking, not me. It was she who arranged all this." Sylvester said, pushing it all onto Rin.
'Thanks a lot, dad.' Rin thought bitterly as she smiled. "Angelica asked for me to make the day special for her little sister. I hope the surprise wasn't too overwhelming."
"Not at all. I was moved to know that you care so much for my sister that you would do this for us." Lieseleta replied with a shake of her head, placing her hands over her heart. "Lady Tohsaka has already done so much for my family, there is no way that we would ever be able to repay you, but I hope that you will allow me to join my sister in your service someday."
Rin froze up a little, as people whispered about the girl's boldness.
"I thank you, but are you sure that is what you want?" Rin said cautiously, leaving Lieseleta confused. "If you were an inspiring knight, I could help you train. If you were an inspiring scholar, I could mentor you in research. If you were the family of a Giebe, I could invest in your territory. But Lieseleta, you are the heir to a highly regarded family of attendants, and while I am a member of the Archduke's family, I am an outsider to the territory, and almost certain to one day be married off to another Duchy."
This got more murmurs through the crowd, as they realized that RIn's time in their Duchy was likely to be limited. Slyvester's eyes turned to saucers, as if he hadn't even considered that fact.
"If you were to become my attendant, you will either have to leave my service, which will hurt your future prospects, or join me whenever I get married, leaving your family's legacy to fade." Rin told the girl. "With your parent's track record and your talent, you could easily get a job serving Lord Wilfried and his future wife. Are you sure you wish to give that up?"
"...I thank you for even now looking out for us. But I am sure. You saved my sister and have helped her grow. I would feel honored to be allowed to repay that debt." Lieseleta said with that radiant smile that so much resembled her sister's.
"...If that is the case, I will gladly accept. Though I want you to know that you could leave my service at any time, and I would not hold any hard feelings." Rin said after a moment's consideration.
"Thank you so much." Lieseleta said brightly.
…Rin had to. She couldn't let a beautiful girl like Lieseleta be stuck working for a guy. What if they did something to her? For her own safety, Rin would make the girl her retainer.
It had nothing to do with the pouting stare from Angelica that was so powerful that she could feel it pressing into her back. Not at all.
Was half way finished with writing the scene when I realized that Lieseleta was actually one year older than I thought, and born in Spring. But I want to keep this because it both doesn't make much of a difference, and because I want a reason to introduce her to the story.