Due to Renee’s fluency in multiple languages, she was given the position of a translator, as there were some people who didn’t speak the common languages. As Anise had advised her, she did not tell the temple that she had magic.

The world had started with only the ancient language, but the pronunciation was too hard and the linguistic rules were too complex to master quickly. Thus, the common tongue was formed, a simpler, more abridged version of the ancient language that soon became the main language in the land. 

However, as people began to migrate to every corner of the continent and form their own kingdoms, the common tongue also gave birth to Lianese, Selanic, Hyperion, Carovanish, and Asterian. However, the common tongue remained the main language in the continent. Nowadays, only people with access to high-quality education can afford to learn the ancient language.

For the rest of the day, Renee was given a mentor, an older woman named Marisol, who gave her a tour of the temple as well as a brief history of the temple. 

“As you know, Elysia is the only land in the world to not be ruled by a king. Elysia is governed by the high priests, who were all elected into this position by the other priests. The head high priest is the closest thing we have to a king, except that they are elected into that position instead of inheriting it. However, the saints ultimately have the most authority in the world, even higher in rank than a king, but I’m sure you know that part already. The only thing that outrank them are the goddesses.”

Renee nodded along despite being fully familiar with everything already. 

“Elysia is a sacred land. We do not pursue power or wealth the way other kingdoms do.” Marisol turned up her nose in distaste when she said the last part. “The temple sustains itself on donations and tithes from everywhere, and we focus very heavily on philanthropy and worship of Eislyn.”

“I see.” Renee nodded along.

The temple was quite large, practically the size of a castle. They passed not one, but three libraries, along with a chapel, a ballroom, and many other rooms.

“That wing is reserved for priests only. Of course, if you want, you can pursue the path of becoming a priest…”

“What about the university?” Renee asked. “How does the temple coexist as two things at the same time?”

“Even before the university was established, education was a highly prioritized value in the temple. We had many classes set up in this building, and the number of students were increasing every year. Eventually, we realized that we needed to establish an official university to keep up with the demand, so the University of Elysia was established in the year 1342. Just think of it as two branches of the same organization.”

“Has there ever been a clash between the temple and the university in all its years of coexisting together?”

“Not at all.” Marisol said proudly. “Both serve the purpose of bettering humanity, so what is there to clash over? Oh, look. It’s getting pretty late. I should show you to your room now so you can prepare for your first day of work tomorrow.”

Renee was given a room with a few other female temple workers of similar ranks. 

“You’re lucky.” One of her roommates commented when Renee first moved in. “Our room is much nicer than what the temple hands have. I heard that it’s even nicer than the university students’ rooms.”

“Really?” Renee asked. “What are the temple hands’ quarters like?”

“I heard that up to ten temple hands share a room.” The same girl replied.

“Personally, I can’t imagine living with that many people, but I heard it’s pretty common in Asteria because of the cold.” Another girl added in.

“Well, this isn’t Asteria.” The first girl replied back. “The temple is just too small to support all its workers. I keep telling the high priests to expand their organizations to other buildings as well, like what they do for the students. I don’t mind traveling a bit of distance to work if I can have nicer housing.”

“Sera, the students pay for their housing. We have ours for free.”

Sera scowled. “Shut up, Julia. It’s a shame I don’t have magic, or I’ll get a single room all to myself.”

“What roles do magic users have?” Renee asked. “I heard the temple gives them special treatment?”

“That’s right.” Julia grumbled. “They get their own room, the finest food, and the finest clothes. They don’t have to do menial labor like the rest of us here. They get called on to do some magic mission or something, then they can spend the rest of their time just relaxing.”

Renee was amused to hear how similar that was to the way the saints live. “Being successful isn’t about the amount of money or possession you have. It’s about having true leisure.”

Sera and Julia both giggled at her statement.

“So, how did you all end up working here?” Renee asked them, changing the conversation.

“I’m only here so I can get a letter of recommendation from them later.” Sera admitted. “I don’t really need this job. The pay is shit.”

Renee snorted in amusement.

“I was actually raised here.” Julia said. “My parents were both immigrants, so when they died in a carriage accident, they didn’t have any relatives to take me in. I started off as a temple hand but I was promoted to an attendant instead. What about you, new girl?”

Renee related to Julia a lot. She also didn’t have any close relatives, and she also had both parents comatosed because of a car accident.

“I’m a refugee from Lianru, and I have yet to find a job or place to live. I know that the temple takes in refugees, so I showed up here and got hired as a translator.”

“A translator?” Sera exclaimed. “That’s so impressive! What languages do you know other than Lianese and common tongue?”

Renee shrugged and answered evasively. “A little bit of this and that. Also sign language.”

“That’s more than me.” Julia praised her. “Why did you leave your kingdom in the first place?”

Renee hadn’t thought that far into her lie. “Let’s just say that an arranged marriage was involved.”

“Oooh,” Sera grinned. “That must be very interesting.”

“It’s good that you decided to come here.” Julia nodded. “Elysia is very generous when it comes to offering asylum.”

“And the best part is, we have the chance to see a saint in person up close every once in a blue moon!” Sera crowed. “They’re all very handsome.”

Renee snorted again, then tried to cover it with a cough. Little do they know, there was already a saint right in front of them.

“What?” Sera protested. “They are!”

“What are you swooning over?” Julia made fun of Sera. “It’s impossible for you to marry one.”

As Sera and Julia bickered to one other, Renee felt a pang of guilt for lying to those two sweet girls. She was living a lie within another lie. Why did she keep making things complicated for herself?

After some further conversation, the girls then retired to bed and were soon asleep. Renee, on the other hand, was wide awake. As an awakened saint, she no longer felt the need to sleep or eat, although she continued to do so out of habit like the other saints. Sleeping helped her recover from mental and physical fatigue better, and eating was more of a socially bonding behavior. 

She debated whether she should go out and sneak around the temple for a bit, but decided to wait until she knew what she was looking for. Perhaps nothing suspicious was going on after all, and she went undercover for nothing. However, if her intuition was correct and the temple was having some sort of shady dealings, then she should properly observe them so she can report them to the other saints. After she came to that decision, she decided to go to sleep.

The next day, Renee and the other workers had breakfast together in the dining hall. She was given new clothes, including the uniform of the temple workers. 

When she entered the dining hall, she was surprised by the sense of camaraderie in the air, as if they weren’t just workers working for the same people but one large family. In a way, it made her miss the other saints. She wondered if they noticed her absence by now, and how they are reacting to it. Perhaps she can find some time to sneak away from her work and send a message to them about where she was and tell them not to look for her.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Renee spotted Anise at one of the dining tables, and instinctively approached her with her plate of food.

Anise whipped her head up when she detected Renee’s presence. Her eyes widened when she recognized Renee from the day before.

“Hello, is this seat taken?” Renee asked, pointing to an empty chair beside Anise.

Anise smiled and shook her head. “Did you become a temple worker just to gain access to the library?”

“Well, I’m going to need to use it more than just once, so why not?”

Anise giggled a little. “So, are you also a temple hand?”

“Actually, I’m a translator. Do you know what kind of duties I’ll be performing?”

Anise thought for a moment. “You’ll mostly be translating books from one language to another. You might also have to translate for people who can’t speak the common language.”

“And what do the temple hands do?”

“We take care of the younger children, we clean up after them and everyone else, and we run errands for people in higher positions. We do a lot of different tasks that nobody else wants to do. We're at the bottom of the hierarchy.”

“What about the magic users?”

Anise stiffened slightly, but Renee still caught her reaction. “We called them magicians. They are separate from the rest of the temple workers and only associate with the priests and high priests. As for their position… it’s hard to say because they are isolated from the rest of the temple workers.”

“Why are they isolated?” Renee asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“I don’t know.” Anise replied, but Renee intuitively knew it was a lie. However, she decided not to push it lest Anise become too guarded against her for asking so many questions.

She wondered if she should contact one of the saints to help her with her undercover investigation, then decided against it. The people here probably knew all the faces of all the saints by heart, given how much influence the saints have. 

As for now, Renee decided that her next step is to get in contact with one of those magicians.