Not a Nun
In the religion Joni knew from reality, priests and nuns were ranked equally in the Edel Church.
That meant the authority and abilities granted to each rank were also the same.
...Then why bother separating them at all? was Joni’s question, and Celine’s answer was this:
“Their rank is the same, but their genders are different.”
“Is it because it gets in the way of training?”
“That’s not entirely without merit, but fundamentally, it’s because their duties are different. For example, caring for children who have lost their parents is the role of nuns like me.”
“Ah...?”
“Mm... though it’s also true that the distinction has blurred quite a bit compared to long ago, so as you say, it may be more convenient not to make such a strict separation. If we return, I may suggest it to the others....”
“N-no, I was just saying it offhand, so you don’t have to do that...! No, please don’t!”
At Joni’s frantic waving, Celine gave a soft little laugh.
“I was only joking.”
“...If you joke twice like that, you’re going to get hauled away as a heretic.”
“Oh my. Surely not. Lady Edel is merciful.”
“I really hope so.”
With a sigh, Joni wrapped her arms tightly around Cana, who sat in front of her.
“Heehee. Soft little Cana, you’re the best....”
“Let go if you don’t want to fall off your horse.”
“Just a little longer. Ssshh, ahhh.... Ehehe, this is so nice—ow!”
Joni, who had even tried to sneak her chin onto Cana’s head, let out a scream.
Cana, who had caught her off guard and landed a blow, snorted coldly.
“If I tell you not to do it, then don’t do it.”
“I-I wansn’t gonna....”
I thought you were soft!
Joni stuck out her tongue, which had nearly been bitten off in the surprise attack, and made a pitiful face.
Celine was perfectly capable of conversation, but she rarely started one herself, and Cana, for her part, did even less talking—she did not initiate conversation, and even when she did speak, it was never for very long.
So aside from the moments when Joni was teasing or they were engaged in some small talk, the journey had a generally quiet atmosphere.
As they rode along, they often encountered other travelers.
Sometimes they were rough-looking mercenaries, sometimes merchant caravans loaded down with goods, and sometimes nobles from a nearby small kingdom.
Those who had watched them with wary eyes always relaxed and greeted them warmly once they saw Celine’s clothing.
How many days passed like that?
Squinting into the distance, Celine suddenly called out in a bright voice.
“Ah, I can see the Holy Kingdom....!”
“Waaah! Finally!”
At her words, Joni lifted her head with a jolt, her face lighting up.
Just as Celine had said, a massive barrier was slowly coming into view at the edge of the horizon.
Joni stared, unable to close her mouth for quite some time at the majestic sight.
“Hehe. It seems this is your first time here.”
“Huh? Ah, yes...! I’ve only heard about it, but this is my first time seeing it in person... it’s really incredible.”
The Holy Kingdom was a kingdom in name only; in truth, it was little more than a city built around a sacred site.
In fact, there were no other cities within the Holy Kingdom besides Sedes.
It was just that its scale was so enormous that no ordinary fief could hope to compare.
“Is that also holy magic?”
“Yes. It’s a divine barrier made from Lady Edel’s holy power flowing from the sacred site.”
Instead of raising walls like other cities to fend off foreign invasion, the Sedes Holy Kingdom had erected a vast divine barrier to serve the same purpose.
To think a barrier could encompass something that large.
...Well, I guess it’s impressive, even if I don’t really know how impressive.
With that thought, Joni looked up at the divine barrier gleaming in the distance.
Cana’s reaction, however, was a little different from hers.
Joni couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but Cana was staring at the barrier with a face worn down to the bone.
Though the two sat side by side on the same horse, their reactions could not have been more different, and Celine gave a quiet snicker.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Getting into the Holy Kingdom was easy.
So easy, in fact, that Joni felt compelled to ask, “Is it really okay for us to be let in this casually?”
Honestly, even calling it easy felt a little strange.
All they had done was exchange a light greeting with the holy knight standing at the completely open entrance, then walk into the barrier.
“You two are my companions. I vouched for your identities, so we were able to come in so easily.”
Celine’s answer was simple.
“So that means it’s more complicated for other people?”
“Of course. Didn’t you see the people ahead of us?”
Joni remembered the merchant caravan that had entered the Holy Kingdom just before them.
“Ah... I thought they were being thoroughly inspected because they were a caravan. Maybe to prevent them from sneaking in things they weren’t allowed to bring....”
“Mm, entrance control is handled by the holy knights, so I don’t know the details either. Still, it’s certain that other people can’t pass through as easily as we did.”
“I see. ...Wait, if they let us in this easily, then could it be....”
“Yes?”
“Is it because Celine is some incredibly high-ranking person?”
“...Hehe.”
At Celine’s laugh, which seemed to be hiding something, Joni gasped.
“It was true?!”
“How could that be? I’m just an ordinary nun.”
“People who say that are almost never ordinary....”
“It’s true. Even if you had been traveling with another priest or nun instead of me, it would have been the same.”
Celine deftly changed the subject, slipping past Joni’s suspicious stare.
“More importantly, do the two of you already have a place to stay tonight?”
“No. Cana and I are both visiting the Holy Kingdom for the first time, so we don’t really know what’s where. If you know a decent place, could you recommend one?”
“Hmm. With the Advent Festival right around the corner, most of the inns will already be full....”
“It hasn’t even started yet, and they’re already full?!”
“That just shows how meaningful Lady Edel’s descent is, doesn’t it?”
“....”
Joni was left speechless by the answer, which practically dripped with piety.
Come to think of it, even in reality, during peak season, getting lodging or transportation was like trying to pluck a star from the sky.
Thinking of it that way, it wasn’t so hard to understand.
Joni nodded in reluctant acceptance.
“...I see!”
Meanwhile, Celine, who had been talking with her, seemed preoccupied with something else entirely.
Crossing her arms, Celine narrowed her brow slightly.
“An empty inn, then....”
“Um... if we look hard enough, there should be one or two, right?”
“I can’t promise that. Even if there are, you’ll probably have to wander around quite a bit to find them.”
“Ugh... what should we do? Should we just sleep outside?”
“There is a temporary lodging set up by the Order for those who couldn’t find accommodations....”
“Really?!”
“It’s temporary lodging in the literal sense, so it may be somewhat uncomfortable. Is that all right?”
“...That sounds ominous.”
Joni couldn’t immediately say yes to a suggestion that came wrapped in such an ominous tone.
A picture was worth a thousand words.
As the saying went, one look was better than hearing it a hundred times, so Joni and Cana followed Celine’s guidance to the Order’s temporary lodging.
And when they finally got a look at its true form, Joni said, “This is impossible.”
Then she turned to Cana and asked, “What do you think, Cana?”
Cana shook her head.
It looked like she didn’t even want to speak.
The so-called temporary lodging was a large tent big enough to hold dozens of people.
It could shield them from wind and rain, but there was no place to wash, and not even the barest partition to protect anyone’s privacy.
Neither of them wanted to sleep crammed together with dozens of strangers in a place like that, so Joni and Cana turned away from the tent at the same time, neither willing to go first.
“It really is temporary lodging.”
“The free lodgings the Order set up for pilgrims are already full, too.”
“Can’t be helped. I’ll just have to search hard for an empty inn....”
I don’t know about me, but Cana has to sleep indoors.
Joni clenched her fist and made up her mind.
If she had to sleep on the bare ground, the worst she’d get was some debuff or other, but she couldn’t let a native of the world of Silia sleep like that.
Cana is a child. I have to protect her.
If she just wore a path into the ground, she was bound to find at least one place.
She had just steeled herself and was about to say goodbye to Celine when Celine, who had been thinking something over, suddenly clapped her hands.
“Ah, how about this? If the two of you are all right with it, I can lend you an empty room in the temple. I wouldn’t be able to give you two separate rooms, though, so you’d have to sleep together in one.”
“That’s more than okay!”
Overcome with joy at the suggestion, which came just as she was running out of options, Joni nodded so hard she seemed afraid Celine might change her mind.
“If anything, we should be the ones asking whether you’re okay with it. Thanks to you, we got through inspection easily, and now you’re even providing lodging.... I’m starting to feel guilty for leaning on you so much.”
“Hehe, leaning on me? Not at all. I was able to return comfortably thanks to the two of you, wasn’t I? You even endured the inconvenience and showed such consideration.”
Prffft—
The horse gave a soft snort through its nose at Celine’s gentle touch.
After confirming that Joni had also gotten an okay from Cana, Celine was just about to set off, saying, “Then I’ll guide you,” when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Then, as if she had remembered something she had forgotten, she spoke in a voice tinged with mild embarrassment.
“Ah, but there is one thing you should know before we go—”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Haa....
I looked down with complicated eyes at the neatly arranged items laid out before me.
I wasn’t wary because I didn’t know what this thing was.
On the contrary, the problem was that I knew it too well.
As I stared down at it with all my conflicted feelings laid bare, Joni, who had been wandering around humming to herself, poked her head in close.
“Cana, aren’t you going to wear it?”
....
I have to wear it.
I do have to wear it.
“A little nun Cana, huh? I’m so excited....!”
Thump-thump.
I ignored Joni, who was making strange noises with her mouth, and sighed again.
That’s right.
The item in front of me was clothing—specifically, a nun’s habit.
Why in the world did I, who wasn’t even a nun, have to wear one?
“Why, indeed? That was the condition for letting us stay here, remember? That while we were staying, we had to live in nun’s habits.”
“...I didn’t say anything.”
“It’s written all over your face.”
At that, I reflexively lifted a hand and touched my face.
Of course, nothing came off on my hand.
“Ahahaha! You really thought it was written there?”
“No, I didn’t.”
I had only been checking whether my expression was really that easy to read.
But Joni didn’t seem inclined to believe me in the slightest.
I gave up on trying to convince her, her face lit with that annoyingly pleased smile, and instead rummaged through the habit for no good reason.
To rewind time a little: when we had looked at the temporary lodging, which gave me absolutely no desire to stay there, and fallen into despair....
Celine had made us an offer.
She would let us use one of the temple’s spare rooms.
Only, the spare room was in the convent, so while we were staying there, we’d have to live in nun’s habits.
I figured nothing would happen, so I said sure, but now that it was right in front of me, I really didn’t feel like it....
It wasn’t revealing, and it wasn’t the sort of outfit that looked adorable on paper but terrible in practice, so why did I dislike it this much?
Knock, knock.
“Are the two of you ready? Dinner will be starting soon.”
“Ah, just a moment! Cana still hasn’t changed yet! Cana, dinner time is almost here. If you don’t hurry and put it on, you won’t get to eat. Or should I dress you myself~?”
“Ugh....”
In the end, unable to withstand the pressure, I shut my eyes tightly and lifted the nun’s habit.