Little Priest's Cat Diary

Prayer of the sea.

This is a ceremony for priests to gain the approval of Sepul, the god of the sea.

In the royal city of Podoyas, the Temple of the Sea God holds this ceremony every year.

For ordinary priests, this is their coming-of-age ceremony, and only after performing this ceremony can they officially assume the duties of priests.

The ceremony was held by the sea, and they had to walk step by step from the altar on the shore into the sea, and stand in the sea in the sunshine to pray to Sepul.

During their prayers, the rough waves will continue to beat their bodies, symbolizing Sepul's test for them.

After finishing their prayers, they held a handful of seawater in both hands and poured the seawater in their palms into the center of the altar.

In this way, the ceremony is complete.

It's not difficult and it's not dangerous.

It is purely a symbolic ceremony.

However, this year is different from previous years. It should be said that as long as there are a few festivals to participate in the 'Prayer of the Sea', it is different from ordinary ceremonies.

The young priest is the future high priest.

He is the one who received the gift of Sea God Sepul.

He is Sepul's agent in the world.

Therefore, he must be recognized by Sepul in the 'Prayer of the Sea' ceremony.

The young priests who are not recognized will fall from the clouds to the lowest place, and from then on they are no longer favored by the gods, but people rejected by the gods.

Over the past thousand years, such minor sacrifices have occurred several times, and all of them ended in despair or misery.

And the way for Shao Ji to be recognized by the Sea God is...

…………

Fadagaro River, the mother river that feeds Portoyas.

It meanders over the land of Portoyas, nourishing the land with its abundant water.

Legend has it that Sepul, the god of the sea, put the bracelet around his wrist on the land of Podoyas, and the bracelet turned into this beautiful river.

The Fadagaro River runs through the royal city and then flows to the sea.

Together with the sea and the Temple of Poseidon, you can take a boat down the Fadagaro River from the Temple of Poseidon and you will soon reach its end.

At the end of the Fadagaro is a huge bay, shaped like a crescent.

The sun is soft and bright in the spring day, and the gentle breeze blows across the earth.

The bay under the sun is blue and clear, looking from a distance, it looks like a sapphire embedded in the earth.

The sea water is extremely clear. When you dive into the water, you can clearly see large areas of ruby-like coral below, colorful small fish swimming in groups, and emerald green seaweed fluttering gently in the water like silk.

It was an underwater world as beautiful as a fairyland.

In the middle of the crescent moon coast, there is a huge altar.

The stone statue of Sea God Sepul stands high in the center of the altar, holding a spear symbolizing strength in one hand and floating waves symbolizing softness in the other.

His face was majestic and there was a bit of kindness, his eyes looked down at the earth, and several stone sculptures of dolphins surrounded his feet.

In the center of the crescent-shaped bay, there happened to be a reef standing high out of the sea, facing the stone statue of Sepul.

At this moment, dozens of people were already standing on the round altar.

Only high-ranking priests are qualified to participate in this ceremony. They stand on both sides of the altar, wearing dark gorgeous robes, holding a scepter embedded with aquamarine, looking solemn and serious.

There are more than a dozen drenched teenagers standing under the altar, they are the young priests who have completed the ceremony.

On the high platform on the other side of the altar, everyone was already seated.

Sitting on the white stone seat in the middle is of course King Davies, who is still tall and burly, with a stiff figure and a firm face as always. His eyes staring at the sea are sparkling, but his temples have grown out under the urging of the years. A few strands of white hair.

Crown Prince Pastor was sitting on his left side. He lowered his eyes, and the shadow of black hair scattered in front of his eyes covered his eyes, making it difficult for people to see the expression in his eyes clearly.

The stone seat to the right of King Davies is still empty, and Princess Opelina still hasn't appeared.

Everyone has long been used to this, the princess has always lived in a simple way, and will not show up easily.

Except for these two sitting, all the other civil servants and military generals stood at the back, and the old general stood behind the crown prince as usual.

The time is up. It stands to reason that the carriage carrying Young Sacrifice is about to arrive, and then the most important part of the ceremony will be carried out.

Suddenly there was a horse neighing from under the altar, which attracted everyone to look at it.

On the snow-white steed, the boy turned over and jumped off, and walked briskly along the road in front of the altar to the sea.

All eyes were on the boy.

Several old priests standing on the altar frowned indistinctly, obviously displeased with Mia's behavior of riding a horse instead of a carriage.

For this maverick young priest, the old and staid priests in the Sea God Temple have always looked down on him.

They always felt that, whether it was in terms of dress or behavior, this young priest did not look like a priest at all, and even went to practice martial arts without regard for decency and dignity!

In today's such an important ceremony, this guy still does his own thing.

They looked at each other and sighed silently.

This is probably the most outrageous one among the previous young sacrifices.

Even in today's extremely important ceremony for him, Mia still didn't wear a gorgeous and solemn robe. As usual, he only wore a pure white short robe, which was simple and refreshing, with sky blue patterns on the cuffs. It is the same tone as the sky blue belt around the waist.

He didn't have any luxurious treasures on his body, except for a pure gold armband on his left arm, and only a sea blue streamer stone that was as bright and blue as his eyes hung on his neck.

The pale golden hair flew back slightly as he walked forward, and when the sun fell, the jumping light spots seemed to merge with his hair.

I don't know if it's because the young man's complexion is too fair, or because he is only wearing a pure white robe. When he walks in the sun, his whole body seems to have a faint gleam.

Like a light source, even if there is no luxury clothes and treasures, people can't help but focus on him.

When Mia walked towards the sea, Sardis, who came here with him, walked towards the high platform next to the altar.

The dark boots under his feet made steady footsteps on the stone steps. On the way up the stone steps, his gaze kept on looking at Mia in the distance.

It wasn't until he walked up to the high platform and walked up to King Davies that he cast his eyes lightly on King Davies.

"Father."

He shouted, his tone flat, without any emotion in his voice.

King David looked at Sardis, the child who had hardly lived by his side.

Fast forward four years, the once childish and pretty boy has been completely transformed into a heroic and majestic young man.

During these few years, the name of Sardis's bravery resounded throughout the land and became known to all.

As the child's father, he should have been proud of it, but as Sardis grew more and more outstanding, his mood became more and more complicated.

He didn't know what to say in front of this child whom he had almost never gotten along with.

It was the same a few days ago. After four years, when Sardis finally came to see him, the atmosphere in the room was only silence, and the father and son were relatively silent.

They are obviously father and son, but they are strangers to each other.

No... Maybe not even a stranger.

"……sit down."

After being silent for a while, King David said so.

Sardis took a seat directly on the right side of King David. He glanced at Pastor on the other side, and saw Pastor sitting quietly with his eyes downcast.

He looked back.

Since that day, his elder brother never harassed Mia again, and he was very satisfied with that.

Count him acquainted.

Sardis thought so in his heart, and turned his gaze forward again.

Mia had already walked into the sea along the straight stone path in front of the altar. The waves swayed gently and surged onto the white sandy beach, gently wrapping the boy's fair calf.

A golden boat was parked by the sea, and besides the paddling attendants, there were also two young priests standing on it, one of whom knelt on the boat and stretched out his hand.

Mia supported the man's hand, stepped onto the boat, and stood in front.

Afterwards, the golden boat moved slowly, heading towards the reef in the center of the bay.

Unlike the rough coast outside, Crescent Moon Bay is very calm, the cliffs surrounding it block the wind and waves, and the storms and waves that are common in the surrounding seas are extremely rare here.

In this jewel-like turquoise bay, the central reef is the only existence out of the sea.

From a distance, the reef looks like a huge palm protruding from the sea, with five fingers spread out and the palm facing upwards, as if holding something.

In the ancient legend of Podoyas, the high priest of Podoyas received a revelation from the gods, saying that there would be a person who received the gift of God, and this person would lead Podoyas to prosperity.

But at the same time, there will be another person who is sheltered by the god of deceit and lies, who will try to replace the god-given person and lead Podoyas to destruction.

Then, two people appeared, both claiming to have received a revelation from God, saying that they were the real next High Priest.

People can't tell the truth from the fake.

After the high priest prayed to Sepur for ten days, he received a response from Sepur.

According to Sepul's revelation, he tied both of them to a rock in the sea.

With the high tide, the sea water overflows the reef little by little.

The two men who were tied to the reef began to sing the praises of the god of the sea, praying for Sepul's protection.

A man's singing called the dolphin, and the dolphin rescued him and carried him back to the shore.

And another man's song called the shark, and the shark bit and devoured his flesh and blood.

This is the origin of the 'Prayer of the Sea' ceremony.

And in this legend, the Song of the Sea bestowed by Sepul that can summon dolphins has been passed down from generation to generation in the Sea God Temple.

…………

"So, when the time comes, your task is to sit on the reef and sing and call the dolphins."

When he brought Mia here for the first time, the High Priest Itit once said this to his disciples, with an unconcealable schadenfreude in his tone.

He looked at Mia with a smile and said, "How about it, isn't it very similar to the legendary mermaid?"

Mia and him stared at each other, then smiled slightly, and said, "It seems that you have a deep understanding, teacher, after all, you were a mermaid back then."

Itit: "..."

The master and apprentice beat each other hard and hurt each other.

…………

"Let's pay homage to Your Excellency."

The low calling sound around him awakened Mia from the memories of the past, he smiled and walked forward.

He had planned to jump onto the rock by himself, but as soon as he lifted his foot, one of the priests on the boat suddenly extended his hand graciously and helped him.

In the end, Mia was pulled and swayed. He said no to the priest, and went to the rock by himself.

The priest who diligently went to help him lowered his eyes to cover the strange light in his eyes.

He bowed his head and stood up obediently, and returned to the coast with another companion in a small boat.

The sun shone on the sea surface, shimmering, as if covering the blue sea with a layer of golden brilliance.

The bay is very quiet, only the shallow sound of the waves echoing.

The boy sitting on the reef closed his eyes, took a light breath, and then opened his mouth.

Accompanied by the sound of waves, melodious singing came from the sea.

It was an extremely clear singing voice, beautiful and moving, faintly carrying a kind of depth and distance from ancient times.

It is the singing voice of man, but it is not the language of man.

In the melodious tone of voice, there was a certain mysterious and mysterious atmosphere.

In the sound of the waves, instead of being suppressed by the sound of the waves, it blended with the sound of the waves, as if it spread to the depths of the ocean along with the waves.

The boy's upper body leaned against the reef, his legs were immersed in the water, and the sea water gently surged under the boy's feet.

Under the water, groups of colorful little fish seemed to be attracted by the singing, and the group of sea elves surrounded him and started playing.

A beautiful singing came from the sea, Pastor closed his eyes, the singing lingered in his ears.

He had also heard Mia sing this song.

He can play other songs with the lyre after listening to them a few times, but this song is said to be the song of the sea bestowed by the gods. He can't play it no matter what, and he can't sing it himself.

That seems to be a note that does not belong to the world, it is the sound of the sea.

Only those who are favored by Sepul can sing the song of the sea.

He was listening quietly with his eyes closed, when suddenly, with a click, he felt something fall on his face.

Click again.

Pastor opened his eyes, raised his hand and touched the water marks on his face.

Papapapa, a few more drops of water fell on his hand. He raised his head and found that the sky, which was still clear just now, suddenly became cloudy at some point.

Bean-sized raindrops fell from the gloomy sky and hit people.

what happened?

Pastor looked around suspiciously.

Suddenly, a gust of wind whizzed by, blowing him so hard that he couldn't open his eyes.

He subconsciously raised his hand to block his eyes.

And at the moment when he closed his eyes, with a bang, heavy rain poured down.

Whoa!

clap clap-

Suddenly, there was a strong wind in the sky, and the calm sea suddenly became choppy, with huge waves hitting the sea heavily one after another.

On the altar, a group of priests showed surprised expressions. They stood in the rainstorm and looked up at the sky where the rainstorm was falling.

"what happened?"

"It was fine just now, why did it suddenly rain?"

"What's the matter, this bay has never had a storm? Why is it suddenly..."

"But Your Excellency Shaoji is still in the sea! It will be dangerous to continue!"

"What about the ceremony? Do you want to interrupt it?"

"But if it is interrupted, it means that the ceremony has failed—"

While the priests were arguing, the strong wind had raged fiercely across the sea, setting off monstrous waves, like the roar of a giant beast.

"The ocean is angry."

An old priest said in a deep voice.

"It's Sepul who's angry."

With a palpitation in their chests, the quarrels of the crowd stopped abruptly. With different thoughts, they all cast their eyes on the reef in the center of the bay.

A storm broke out in the usually quiet bay, just at the moment when Shaoji held the ceremony.

Sepul was outraged.

Is it—

On the reef in the center of the sea, Mia had already stood up.

The torrential rain poured down, and the sea suddenly swelled, and the sea that was barely soaking his legs was already below his waist.

He decisively interrupted the ceremony and climbed up the reef.

He had just climbed up a little bit, and a huge wave hit him, drenching him completely.

The pale golden hair was wetly attached to his cheeks, and the bean-sized raindrops hit his body, making his cheeks hurt.

He opened his eyes, and through the rain curtain, he vaguely saw a group of things swimming towards here in the distance.

The jet-black triangular fins stood up in the raging waves.

One by one, a large group, swimming straight towards his direction.

... a dolphin summoned by song?

The group of triceratops got closer and closer, closer and closer.

wow.

The waves rose high in the strong wind, exposing the group of gray-black figures hidden in the sea to everyone's sight.

The pupils of Mia who was climbing on the rock suddenly shrank.

"shark!"

"Not a dolphin!"

"Young Master summoned a shark——!"

"Semple is angry!"

There was an uproar on the coast for an instant.

In the storm, Sardis on the high platform suddenly stood up and rushed down——