Chapter 92
Chapter 92
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Your Past
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“What the hell is going on here?”
I burst into the dining hall where the abbess was having breakfast and immediately confronted her.
The other nuns turned their startled gazes toward us, but the abbess stood up with a grim expression, as if she’d been expecting it.
“Let’s talk outside.”
“No need. Spill it. All the nuns here already seem to know about Stella.”
At my words, the nuns all bowed their heads, pretending not to have heard.
Did they know the saintess’s future would end up like this and still choose this path?
I was left with nothing but incomprehensible doubts.
Seeing I wouldn’t back down, the abbess let out a deep sigh and finally relented.
“You’ve probably already heard from her. It’s the demon’s curse.”
“What did you do to let it get this far?”
This was the church’s responsibility for failing to protect the saintess.
Abandoning her just because she lost her holy power could only be described as biting the hand that fed them.
But the abbess seemed to have her own side to the story. Looking indignant, she stepped toward me and shouted.
“Do you think we just sat by and watched her deteriorate like that? After stepping down as saintess, Stella vanished for years.”
“……Vanished?”
I gave her a subtle look, and she answered with a bitter expression, as if chewing on something sour.
“She left only a letter saying not to look for her. That’s why the church didn’t search! She deserved to rest!”
“…….”
“But just a year ago, when Stella returned here, she was already in that state!”
The abbess choked back tears and bowed her waist. The other nuns gathered around her frail form, sharing in the sorrow.
But I remained cold, looking down at her.
‘Doesn’t seem like a lie.’
Their embrace, sharing grief and pity, was quite touching.
Yet they wouldn’t forget that one among them was a demon.
It’d probably throb in their minds like a cavity.
“Whew.”
For now, I left them and stepped outside. I didn’t want to get caught up in the flow of turning breakfast into a tearful hug-fest that led to a prayer meeting.
Outside, the smell of roasting meat wafted everywhere.
Pindenai was grilling some wild game she’d caught somewhere over a bonfire lit early in the morning, Iluania was preparing side dishes beside her, and the Black Necromancer stared blankly at the flames.
I had no idea how this group came together, but each had such distinct personalities.
One was the resistance leader.
One was a former back-alley prostitute, now pregnant.
One was a necromancer turned ghost.
You’d need to drag in a circus troupe for a lineup like this.
“Ugh, did I sleep wrong last night?”
Pindenai stretched with a groan, while Iluania, having shed her maid outfit for a nun’s habit provided by the convent, stood nearby.
The convent had prepared separate lodging just for the pregnant Iluania, so Pindenai and I had slept in the carriage we arrived in.
We’d shared the same space multiple times on the way here, so it wasn’t anything unusual.
“Ah, you’re here! Have some food!”
Iluania sliced the meat, seasoned it, and plated it carefully on the dish she’d brought.
The savory aroma mixed with a sharp spice—it was exactly the northern flavor I remembered.
The north was cold, so the food had that intense kick to warm the body.
It had been overwhelming at first, but now I was used to it.
The three of us finished our simple meal and sat around the bonfire to discuss the current situation.
We’d told the two about Stella only under a vow of secrecy.
“For today, I plan to do individual interviews.”
“You think talking will reveal the demon?”
Pindenai asked, clenching her fist to suppress the itch for a smoke.
“No. But we might as well talk.”
If worst came to worst, I’d use the Holy Grail I brought. Holy power was poison to demons.
But the moment I used it on the demon, the others would notice and swarm me to destroy it.
Stella’s wounds would look like a joke compared to the brutal fight that would ensue.
Using the Holy Grail on a demon was a last-resort option.
Truth be told, I was skeptical about that too. Was this incident urgent enough for me to risk drawing all the demons’ attention by using the Grail?
‘No.’
Stella was pitiable, the demons repulsive, but I had no intention of bleeding out near death for it.
“Should I fetch them one by one?”
Iluania jumped up. She never missed a chance for these little errands.
As Iluania went to call the nuns, I instructed Pindenai to sit quietly beside me and listen.
Her beastly senses were quite sharp.
Then, one by one, five nuns came in order.
“Actually, there’s one slightly odd nun.”
The first, with a round nose, said with her eyes squeezed shut.
“Mella’s been acting strangely lately. I’m next door, and I hear her door opening every dawn.”
The second had fine skin and slender fingers that stood out.
“This is awkward to say, but Mella seems suspicious. Exhausted, maybe?”
The third had her hair in a long braid.
“She was closest to the two dead nuns, so…… I wonder.”
The fourth was a slightly plump nun who served the goddess Demeter.
“Not sure, but during prayers lately, Mella’s the weird one. She was even trembling just now.”
The final fifth.
Mella, whom every nun had suspected.
Her eyes were hollow, dark circles deep, her gaunt frame unfit for a nun.
“Someone suspicious? Uh, no. Really, no one.”
Having heard them all, I turned my gaze to the bonfire.
The crackling sparks sounded cheerful, and my thoughts seemed to flow with them.
“How’d it go?”
Iluania approached after summoning them all, her face beaming with pride at a job well done. I praised her and turned to Pindenai.
“What do you think?”
“Hmm.”
As leader of that unique resistance group, she was seasoned at spotting traitors.
Especially with her animalistic senses, few could compare.
“Smoking would help me think better.”
She hinted slyly, but I ignored her. The answer was already clear; she just wanted an excuse to smoke.
“Sigh, you’re thinking the same as me, right, Master?”
“……Seems so.”
Our conclusions matched. Were these simple nuns, unaccustomed to lies in this remote convent, that easy to read?
Discerning truth from lies was easier than expected.
“They’re all lying.”
Iluania gasped in surprise, but Pindenai nodded slightly.
“Yeah, including that Mella bitch.”
The four who suspected Mella were lying.
But Mella, who said no one was suspicious, was lying too.
“Shall I call them back?”
“No need.”
I stood abruptly and headed back to the convent. Their lies grated, but pressing again would just make them clam up.
And their lies carried a strange greed.
Clicking my tongue, I entered the convent and climbed to the attic again.
On the way up the stairs, the second floor buzzed with the nuns’ studies. The abbess taught energetically, shouting instructions—an impressive sight.
She was a woman with pride in herself. After all, she’d essentially raised Stella and even Lucia.
Two saintesses by her own hand, so it was justified.
Perhaps that’s why she had this subtle obsession that the next saintess must come from here, evident even in her small gestures.
She even had a switch for corporal punishment, suggesting strictness.
‘Abbess.’
She couldn’t be ruled out as a suspect, but I hadn’t shown any intent to investigate her.
I wanted to see what she’d do when convinced she wasn’t under suspicion.
Back in the attic, I unlocked the padlock with the key from the abbess and entered.
Stella, whom I’d greeted earlier, welcomed me with a smile.
“Looks like you knew yesterday’s me?”
Perhaps from my reaction then, Stella grasped the situation immediately.
“What did yesterday’s me talk to you about?”
“Nothing much.”
I briefly recounted yesterday’s conversation, and Stella nodded attentively with a bright smile.
The short explanation ended.
“I see. So what do you want to know?”
“I want to hear what happened after you lost your holy power and stepped down as saintess.”
“Hmm.”
“Why leave the church? Even if they were foolish, they’d have desperately protected you, their former saintess.”
“Of course they would.”
Stella smiled faintly and nodded slightly.
“But was that right?”
“What?”
She gripped the rosary of Goddess Hertia tighter.
The smile on her lips showed no sign of fading.
“Holy power is tricky to handle. Lucia, newly saintess then, couldn’t protect me. She’d have been in danger herself.”
Having briefly wielded holy power directly through the Grail, I nodded instinctively.
Holy power wasn’t as friendly as it seemed.
“This might sound boastful, but I worked diligently as saintess. I exorcised countless demons, drove them away, saved people.”
“…….”
“When I lost my holy power and a new saintess couldn’t wield hers yet—that’s actually the most dangerous time.”
Now I got it.
Finally understood what Stella meant.
“My final duty as saintess. Leaving while bearing all the demons’ grudges and resentment. The only gift a senior could give the brilliant new saintess.”
Her role as saintess was over.
But she remained one to the end.
“Buying time. While their eyes were on me, Lucia mastered her holy power.”
“…….”
“Hehe, feel foolish?”
“Yes. You didn’t need to bear it alone.”
But noble.
Bearing every burden alone, she was.
Truly a holy woman.
“Shall I tell you how the demons got me after?”
Stella asked mischievously, but I agreed.
“Yeah, please.”
A good chance to learn demon tactics. It might be the clue to finding the infiltrator.
At my response, Stella smiled, gripping her rosary, and raised her right hand.
She snapped her fingers and made a condition.
“In exchange, since I’m sharing my past, share yours.”
“My story?”
She’d forget it all by tomorrow anyway. She knew that.
Yet she wanted it still.
It was easy.
I figured telling her how I overcame Deus’s debauched past and started anew would suffice.
But with a smile beyond her fingers, she struck the core.
“How did you end up possessing that body?”