Not a Nun
“...What?”
Jerni frowned at the curt retort.
It was a far more dramatic change in expression than the one she wore while eating vegetables.
“So, Kana, you—”
“Do you think I’m asking because I don’t know?”
“...Right, of course?”
Jerni broke into a nervous sweat at the noticeably sharper tone than usual.
Without meaning to, Kana’s hand had drifted to her waist. Finding nothing there, she folded her arms instead, the gesture slightly stiff.
Does she hate it that much?
Honestly, Jerni didn’t really get it.
What Celine had asked of Kana was simple: pretend to be a nun.
“Why on earth do I have to become a nun?”
“I’m not saying you have to become one, just pretend to be—”
“Pretend, whatever. Why do I have to do it?”
At the perfectly reasonable question, Celine answered.
“As I mentioned earlier, a private prayer room is, by default, a place open only to the faithful of the Church.”
“So?”
“If we’re letting an outsider into such a place, we can’t exactly ignore appearances, can we? It’s to secure the bare minimum of justification.”
Kana listened to Celine’s explanation, translated by Jerni, without uncrossing her arms.
“Of course, there are cases where outsiders have been allowed in before. If someone has done the Church a great service, or if the matter is extremely serious, permission is granted.”
“An extremely serious matter?”
“Most notably, something like a war between races.”
If it were that serious, I’d go and make a petition to the Pope myself.
When Celine said that much, Kana fell silent for a moment.
What came out of the girl’s mouth a moment later carried an unspoken refusal.
“Then what counts as doing the Church a great service?”
“Donating a vast sum of money, or spreading Edel’s light far and wide... things like that.”
Lady Kana, would you happen to fall under one of those cases?
Kana’s answer, naturally, was no.
If that was the rule, then what more could she say?
In the end, it was Kana who backed down first.
From the start, this had been a battle she couldn’t win—asking a favor while standing on someone else’s home turf.
Still, she wasn’t completely broken.
Kana made one final desperate stand.
“The Coming-of-Age Festival is a huge event, so the Empire will be here too. I’ve got bad blood with them, so I can’t just show my face carelessly.”
“As you can see, this convent doesn’t allow outsiders in. You two are the exception. And if anything goes wrong, our Church of Edel will help you.”
“...If outsiders aren’t allowed in, then there’s no reason to worry about being seen.”
“Seeming isn’t always just about outsiders.”
“...”
No matter what she said, Celine answered as if she’d prepared for it, and Kana’s words dried up almost immediately.
“...What do I need to do?”
Jerni saw the image of a puppy with its tail tucked between its legs in Kana’s dejected voice.
“Don’t worry. This is only about securing a justification, so we won’t ask anything difficult of you.”
“...You’re not lying, are you?”
“Of course not.”
As she said that, Celine’s eyes curved gently.
Sensing the black hand reaching toward her, Kana gave a violent shudder.
* * *
“Please sweep from here to there, and when you’re done, just wipe it all down with this rag.”
“...Mm.”
Cleaning.
“We need to do the laundry... Could you help me?”
“Okay.”
Laundry.
“Oh dear... We need to tidy up, but we’re short on hands...”
“...Want help?”
“Ah, Sister. Thank you for the offer, but it’s all right. These things are rather heavy, so it would be hard for a young sister like you to help.”
“I’ll help.”
“Ahh! No, please don’t! You might hurt yourself... Huh? How...?”
“I can lift this much.”
“Good heavens...”
Storage room organization.
I performed all sorts of odd jobs around the convent while dressed in a nun’s habit.
Sweeping, wiping, laundry, organizing... I worked hard through them all.
Watching me bustle from one task to the next, Jerni had this to say:
“...What is this? Why is she so good at it? I was expecting Kana to be a total disaster...?”
Like slipping while mopping and falling flat on her face.
Or smashing a dish to pieces during the washing up.
Or carrying an armful of things, dropping them all, and making a pitiful face.
“...I was expecting the clumsy little novice-sister routine!”
“...”
Wasn’t that not clumsy, but just hopeless?
“After making one mistake after another, she’d get scolded by a senior sister, lock herself in her room, and cry her eyes out. Then the senior sister who scolded Kana would open the door, step inside, and hug her warmly...! Heh heh...”
“...Have you finally gone insane?”
At this point, the delusion was basically a medical condition.
I shook my head.
Up until now, I’d lived a life as far from a nun as could be imagined.
That was true in my past life as well.
If anything, by distance alone, my past life had been even farther removed than this one.
Back then, because of the barrier of sex, I couldn’t even have taken on the job of a nun in the first place.
But what I was doing now was less the work of a nun and more the kind of petty labor a maid would handle.
Celine had kept her promise not to give me anything difficult.
Does this even mean anything?
It shows that you’re not one of the faithful, but you’re devout enough to try novice-nun training.
I told you, didn’t I? It’s the bare minimum of justification.
That was what Celine had said with a smile.
Anyway, for that reason, I wandered through the convent and handled whatever odd jobs were scattered here and there.
The convent was enormous, so there was a fair amount of work, but after already seeing the world beyond the world, it wasn’t much of a challenge for me.
If I’d been the kind of person who gave up over something like this, I never would’ve lived with Garid in the first place.
Living with Garid had made me more than familiar with most household chores.
So Jerni’s fantasies had never stood a chance of coming true to begin with.
Besides, even if I’d managed to make a mess and been scolded for all sorts of things, there was no way I’d lock myself in my room and cry.
“If you’re going to say weird things, then go away.”
“Hm? You’d be fine without me?”
“...Don’t go away, just be quiet.”
The reason Jerni kept trailing after me even though she had no need to pretend to be a novice sister like I did—since she had no intention of using the private prayer room—was simple.
Everyone in the Holy Kingdom speaks Arkish, right? And Kana still isn’t very good at Arkish.
It was under the pretense of translating for me, since without her I’d have serious trouble communicating.
She’d been brought along for that reason from the very beginning, so I had no reason to refuse, and naturally I’d accepted.
I didn’t mind if she just followed along and helped quietly, but the constant chatter was getting a little annoying.
Still, I couldn’t exactly ditch her.
What a difficult person to deal with.
You must be bored. Are you sure you’re okay?
Come on, it’s only a few days. If it’s for Kana, I can put up with that much.
...Hmph.
...Still, I was a little grateful.
* * *
Whoosh—
Spraaash.
I wrung the rag hard with both hands, and the water it had soaked up poured out in a stream.
It was already the third day since I’d started pretending to be a nun.
Celine had said it wouldn’t take more than four days at most, no matter what, so today was supposed to be my last day of pretending.
...Please let that be true.
I wonder if it really will be...
“Ah, Sister! Are you finished?”
When I was wrapping up the cleaning and putting things back in order, the nun who had assigned me the work greeted me with a bright smile.
“...Not sister.”
At her words, I repeated once again the line I’d been saying for days on end.
I knew that “sister” wasn’t only a term for nuns.
But still.
“The habit suits you so well. What a pity.”
“...”
When they spoke to me, it was clear they meant it that way.
Even though they knew perfectly well I wasn’t a real nun, despite wearing the habit and working alongside them, they treated me exactly like a newly arrived youngest sister in the convent.
...Why?
I’d asked Celine that very question, but all she did was smile and refuse to answer.
“You’ve worked hard. Would you like a piece of candy?”
“Ah—”
Nom.
Well, I did want the candy.
Munching away, using my mouth instead of my dirty hands, I rolled the sweet treat around on my tongue and glanced down the corridor.
The hallway sparkled.
Anyone who walked in and saw it would never be able to say the place hadn’t been cleaned.
If someone did say that, they’d have to be one of two kinds of people.
Either they just enjoyed bullying other people regardless of the result, or they had a completely inverted standard of cleanliness compared to everyone else.
The nun standing before me was neither.
“Every time I see it, Lady Kana, I can’t help but admire your cleaning skills. It’s almost enough to make me feel guilty about stepping on the floor.”
“It’s basic stuff. But, what’s up?”
It didn’t seem like she’d come to inspect whether I was doing a good job.
“Ah, right. My apologies.”
The nun clapped her hands lightly.
“Sister Celine asked for you.”
“...!”
...Finally.
Celine had said so, but work didn’t always go the way you wanted it to, did it?
I’d been prepared for the plan to go off track and for me to end up working another day.
I’m glad it turned out the way Celine said.
“Good news! Right, Kana?”
“Yeah.”
Jerni was clearly trying not to show it too much, but by the day she was growing increasingly bored.
She wasn’t even passing the time by working like I was.
She must’ve been so bored that later on, without even being asked, she’d taken up a broom on her own and started cleaning alongside me.
For once, Jerni and I were of one mind, and we hurried off toward where Celine was waiting.
...Wait a second.
She never told us why we were being called.
Surely she wasn’t going to call us over just to say, “Please keep working a little longer,” right?
“You’ve both worked very hard all this time.”
Fortunately, my worry didn’t become reality.
“You may use the prayer room now... Would you like to use it today?”
“Can I?”
“Yes. If you’d like, you may use it right away.”
“Then I’ll go now.”
Even if this was already far later than I’d expected, there was no need to delay it any longer.
“I’ll be waiting in the room, so take your time and go!”
After Jerni saw me off, I followed Celine to the prayer room.
For all that the gods were gods, there was no way communication would fail just because we spoke different languages.
“Then, I shall take my leave...’’
Once Celine, who had escorted me all the way here, departed as though her work was finished, the prayer room became a space with only me inside it.
Well, it was a private prayer room. It would’ve been weird if I weren’t alone.
After all the trouble I’d gone through to get in here, too.
There was only a single statue in the likeness of Edel, and one cushion.
That was it.
Whether to call it bleak or simply immaculate, I couldn’t decide.
Feeling something oddly solemn, I carefully knelt on the cushion.
“Hmm...”
Imitating what the faithful of the Church of Edel did, I clumsily brought my hands together and thought for a moment.
How was I supposed to begin?
I had plenty of things I wanted to ask, but now that I was actually sitting in the prayer room, I had no idea where to start.
“...Hello.”
After thinking it over, the greeting I chose was a casual one I might have used with a friend.
If she had a problem with my greeting and answered back, that would be good in its own way, wouldn’t it?
“...”
No answer came.
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t disappointed, but I had been prepared for it, so it wasn’t a crushing disappointment.
I sighed and opened the eyes I’d closed.
And then.
“...!”
“Oh? Is it already over?”
I met a pair of eyes looking down at me, smiling in a slow, teasing circle.
...Wait a second.
...Arkish?