CH 71.2

“…”

The head nun speechlessly pointed to her chest cutoff, revealing the upper part of her meaty bosom.

“This is because… I-I sweat a lot…”

“No excuses for even half a penny! Our saintess candidate has been travelling around in a outfit like that?!”

“N, Not really. I wasn’t actually traveling around…”

“Shut up! How can you even put on such an unbecoming attire?! The scandal didn’t go around just like that, did it? No, no, I can’t let it go happening. If I hadn’t seen with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have known better, leaving you to your own devices! Follow me. That messed up brain of yours! I will fix it again.”

“U-Uhh?!”

“I’m sorry, Hero, but may I take Ophelia with me for an education session? I won’t hold onto you for long. Ten days or so.”

“What do you do during this education session?”

“It’s nothing special. We just pray for ten days straight.”

Ophelia was startled by the head nun’s words.

Indeed, they just prayed but the prayer she was talking about only included praying and more praying. No sleep, and minimal amount of food and water.

‘Do I-I have to do it again?’

Ophelia’s hair stood in horror.

She wanted the hero to excuse their way out, but…

“So praying, huh? That’s good. I’ve seen Ophelia becoming less frequent with her prayers these days, so I was worried she might lose her faith.”

“Hero?!”

“Why? Am I wrong? You sometimes forget to pray before meals.”

“No, that’s…!”

At Cloud’s words, Ophelia couldn’t hide her resentment. Why was he pushing her down this deep rabbit hole!?

Wasn’t it because of Cloud, who didn’t even give her a chance to properly eat and rest in the dungeon that she formed this habit?

Ophelia remembered it vividly.

After the hard fights, whenever she asked them to pray before meals, the cold eyes of Neria and Eri used to pierce on her.

In Cloud’s case, he used to ignore her words and get straight to eating.

With nobody to accompany her and the tumblings of stomach distracting her, sh-she only sometimes forgot to pray!

But Ophelia was not given time to make excuses for herself.

“Y, You don’t pray before dinner?! Y, You actually don’t pray!!?”

The head nun’s eyes opened wide as she gagged out those words. Before Ophelia could plead, the head nun grabbed her by head.

“H, Head nun! Please release me! I can’t talk this way!”

“Shut up. You don’t even have the right to open your mouth. You will be spanked for hours tonight!”

“Hick, hick?!”

The head nun’s spanks, they were particularly reserved for nuns who broke rules.

The spanks were not done by hand, not by a wooden cane either, but an iron bat studded with small thorns.

The head nun would mercilessly slap their ass with that bat. Whether the flesh got torn and blood trickled, or bones got broken, her spanks did not stop.

As for the inconveniences caused later to the punished nun? Wasn’t there the Goddess granted ‘Heal’ spell?

While Ophelia was startled, her face turning pale by second; Cloud, ignorant of the reality, just sighed deeply.

“Are you afraid of spanks even at this age?”

“It’s because the hero doesn’t know! The nun’s spanks are… aih?!”

“Hero, please, leave us. I will even contently leave my designation if granted the chance to teach this stupid saintess candidate.”

“Alright. Please teach her properly. As much as you can.”

“Hero, save me! Oops!!!”

“You stay still, Ophelia!

The head nun gagged Ophelia’s lips with one hand and loaded her over the shoulders at the same time. She seemed very familiar with the movement as she was done with the action in one swift motion.

Cloud looked at her and smiled for a moment, then glanced back.

His eyes coldly scanned the archbishop’s chambers.

* * *

The archbishop’s chamber after Cloud left.

“Are you sure you aren’t kidding me? So, I came all the way here only to be rejected?”

“Sorry, I’m really sorry.”

A nun rebuking the archbishop.

Such an unbelievable sight was unfolding. But to them, it was natural.

Because the nun wasn’t just a nun, and the archbishop wasn’t a faithful archbishop either.

One was a demon and the other a traitor.

“I really didn’t know that the hero had forgiven the saintess candidate. I thought he was compelled to accept her because he had no other substitutes…”

“Maybe he noticed the bullshit about changing the candidacy of a saintess early on.”

“The hero said he refuses because he doesn’t like pink hair…”

“You actually believe that, hah? See and think, it’s just an indirect way of saying no! He already knew it was bullshit all along! Which servant of the Goddess has the authority to change the candidacy of a saintess that the Goddess had chosen herself, huh? If he thought about it for even a little bit, he would have realised the problem. It was a poor plan that relied on the emotions of that hero Cloud in the first place.”

“…sorry.”

The archbishop bowed his head.

Seeing this, the nun clucked her tongue.

“Whatever you do now, do it well. In particular, if the lies you wove about the Prince get blown away, the cause would be disrupted. What will happen to you if something like that happens… you know well, right?”

A turbid energy emanating from the nun crushed the Archbishop’s body. As for the Archbishop, he did not dare to push the energy away. All he could do was keep his head lowered as much as he could.

“Y-Yes, I will do my best!”

“Show the results. I need results, not words.”

Having said that, the nun turned her back on the archbishop.

She left the chamber and walked down the hallway.

Her steps were filled with deep irritation.

‘Damn it. Nothing’s happening right.’

The subordinates who she had ordered to retrieve the Behemoth’s soul lost contact, and their plan to infiltrate Cloud’s suddenly-rising party was in torn pieces.

Just when the nun was scratching her hair which felt more awkward with her body today.

She realized something was wrong around her.

‘…why is it so quiet?’

No matter how dark it got after the sun went down, the sounds of patrolling steps were ever-present. But currently there were none.

– Tuck. Tuck.

Except for her footsteps as she walked down the hallway. When—

Cloud appeared from the edge of darkness where the light of the torch could not reach.

Seeing him, the nun smiled gleefully.

“Hero? You come back? Have you changed your mind?”

Cloud didn’t answer.

He simply scanned the nun up and down, as if admiring her figure.

“There is really nothing wrong no matter how many times I look. You look just like a human no matter which angle I use.”

“…what do you mean by that?”

The nun kept her smile present while her body strained for any possible attack.

“Don’t waste my time. You are a demon, I know. And of the same species as those octopus heads that were loitering about the Behemoth’s corpse. You guys smell the same.”

The nun’s face hardened coldly.

“You know K’Challa and Knella?”

“I do.”

“What did you do to them?”

“I killed, after asking a few questions.”

Cloud drew his sword.

“I have a lot more to ask you too.”