To the Infula Holy See (2)
Yona woke to morning sunlight filtering through the carriage window.
Truth be told, her mind had been awake for a while now — she'd just kept her eyes shut and lain there grumbling, unwilling to get up.
But it was finally time to rise, so Yona carefully unbuttoned her sleeping bag.
Rubina, asleep in her arms as always, was drooling, and the front of her habit was soaked through.
It was nothing serious — she could just wash it — but the problem was that Rubina clung to her so tightly, and for some reason slept while nuzzling at her chest and, inexplicably, suckling on it right through the habit.
'Maybe I could sleep a little longer, using Rubina as an excuse…'
How many people in this world can honestly claim to resist the temptation of morning drowsiness?
And Yona was already a heavy sleeper on top of that.
But after last night's whole commotion, she'd been under quiet scrutiny, and if she started dawdling at the crack of dawn too, she'd never hear the end of it. So Yona gently peeled Rubina off, laid her down inside the sleeping bag, and slipped out of it without a sound.
As she straightened her back and stretched, her whole body popped and cracked.
Out of habit, she closed her eyes again and took a deep breath.
She felt a warm current stir somewhere near her lower abdomen, then burst out and spread through her entire body in an instant.
'Safe and sound again today.'
Hehe.
Chuckling inwardly, Yona circulated her holy power.
A warm energy flowing through her whole body.
It seeped into her right arm and blossomed softly around the Holy Shroud wrapped there.
'Holy power's fine…'
It was the hour before dawn, with no one else awake yet.
Yona eased the carriage door open as quietly as she could and stepped outside.
Over at the Crusade Knights' makeshift barracks a short distance away, a few knights were already up, bustling about as they prepared breakfast.
"Hm."
As she watched them while doing a light stretch, Yona suddenly thought of the maces they'd been swinging around.
Not maces — morningstars, probably.
Those morningstars had truly been a sight to behold.
While jogging in place to shake off the fatigue that had accumulated overnight, Yona suddenly realized that the Crusade Knights' attention had turned toward her.
'Never seen anyone stretch before?'
When you wake up in the morning, nothing beats stretching for loosening up a stiff body.
Granted, Yona was probably the only one here who'd even know the word "stretching"…
Either way, limbering up with calisthenics was something everyone did.
And among those exercises was this very kind of jogging in place — so she couldn't quite understand why they were all staring like they were witnessing some marvel.
The knights were gradually gathering, one by one, all looking this way. Or more precisely, all looking at Yona.
Some of them were standing there frozen mid-motion, half-bent and awkward.
"Whew."
Taking a long, deep breath, Yona mused quietly to herself.
That she really ought to learn some kind of weapon technique.
The Crusade Knights was an order that scrutinized everything down to the finest detail before admitting anyone — one's personal martial prowess, of course, but alongside one's faith, one's entire family history, and if you were an orphan, even your full record of life in the orphanage.
Getting in was that demanding. And once you were in, once you received your morningstar as the badge of a Crusade Knight, that weapon became, quite literally, a symbol of honor and faith.
Vantein was a newcomer who had joined the Crusade Knights not long ago.
The order made no distinction of rank among its knights, but since there was inevitably some difference based on one's class of entry, he had ended up as the so-called youngest.
And as the youngest, he was saddled with every dirty, thankless chore the order had to offer — one of which was preparing breakfast whenever they were out on field duty.
Waking up at the crack of dawn to rush around preparing breakfast for his seniors and the high-ranking guests in that carriage over there — even the mildest soul would grow irritated at that, never mind a wide-eyed rookie.
On top of that, the breakfast roster included a lowly adventurer. For a proud Crusade Knight to have to prepare a meal for an adventurer — it was positively infuriating.
And yet, at least in this one moment, Vantein felt none of that irritation at all.
He'd grown up in a cathedral orphanage as an orphan, and from that day to this, he had never once had anything to do with women.
And so the staggering, jaw-dropping jolt happening right before Vantein's eyes was, to him, nothing short of an earthquake.
The chest of her habit was bouncing like it was about to tear right open, but the white-haired nun herself seemed utterly oblivious to what she looked like, continuing her calisthenics without a pause.
"…Whoa."
Vantein didn't even notice the senior knight who had come to stand right beside him — not until that small sigh of awe sounded at his ear.
"Se-, sen—"
"Quiet."
Shutting down even a greeting, the senior knight went on staring at the nun like a man in a trance.
And it wasn't just that one — several more seniors had emerged as well, silently watching the nun.
And then, the moment the nun started jogging in place—
"…Wow. Seriously. Heavenly God above."
"Tell me about it. Heavenly God above."
"Heavenly God…"
The Crusade Knights sighed in unison, helpless against it.
The sheer undulation was every bit as overwhelming as the stir it caused among them.
"Ah— aaah…?"
"Oh no…?"
The nun was approaching them.
Seen from a distance, striding toward them through the brilliant morning sunlight, she was beautiful enough to steal anyone's soul, if only for a moment.
Even accounting for the fact that a great many Crusade Knights had zero defensive capability against women, she was exceptionally beautiful.
That loveliness, which only grew more striking the closer she came, was more than enough to plunge the knights into utter chaos in an instant.
Had they been staring too openly? How could they help their eyes wandering? Surely she'd noticed their whole group gawking at her?
While such thoughts churned through their heads, the nun walked right up to them, close enough to touch.
And with a flick of those crimson lips—
Just as the Crusade Knights swallowed hard, wondering what beautiful utterance was about to grace their ears—
"Hey, mister. Don't stare at a person like it's some kind of show — it's embarrassing. I've got a favor to ask you."
And the nun spoke, wielding vocabulary rough enough to shatter that fantasy on the spot.
"We-well, that's normally forbidden, you see."
"I know. Whew, this thing is heavy… seriously, it's way too heavy, this is."
The favor had been simply to hold a morningstar, just once. Under normal circumstances it would have been an absurd request — the problem was that few men alive could refuse a beautiful woman's plea all the way to the end.
With his seniors' blessing, Vantein handed his morningstar over to the nun, who had introduced herself as Yona.
But this was a weapon wielded by Crusade Knights, and as such it was closer to a lump of iron. The moment Yona took it, far from lifting it with one hand, she was barely managing to hold on without dropping it.
Two hands might have managed it — but her right hand couldn't hold a weapon, leaving her effectively with her left alone, and with that, the whole thing was hopeless.
"Like this, it's no good at all."
Yona concluded that this simply wouldn't work.
What was the point of a weapon she couldn't even lift properly, let alone swing?
"May I ask what brings this on?"
"Ah, well…"
Yona hesitated for a moment.
She wondered whether she should tell the truth — but really, it wasn't anything worth hiding anyway.
"Fighting the undead made me realize — I should probably have some way to defend myself, at least a little."
And it's honestly more surprising that she doesn't already.
Vantein kept that thought to himself.
Yona, for her part, had her own rebuttal ready.
Not a single adventurer out there demanded combat ability from a healer.
Even Alec hadn't.
A healer's true duty was the power to heal — and likewise, the power to survive.
To outlast everyone else and support the survival of the party.
Every time a party member took a wound, to catch it quickly with a wide field of view and immediately reach out with a healing hand.
That alone made a healer more than worth her keep, and demanding that a healer fight on the front line was nothing short of madness.
But after yesterday, Yona had decided she needed to be able to protect her own body, at the very least.
She'd been utterly crushed by Scarlet, reduced to trembling like a leaf, and only gotten to breathe again after Alec stepped in to shield her — it had been unbearably humiliating.
"Then the morningstar is unsuitable."
Vantein declared it flatly.
A morningstar's weight is absolutely, hopelessly skewed toward the head. You need the strength and grip to hold on through a full swing without ever losing your grasp, and on top of that, the sense to recover it when an opening appears after the swing.
That's why even Crusade Knights had to undergo further training specifically for this weapon even after receiving theirs.
For this beautiful nun to swing one? Impossible.
"I have never seen a woman properly use a morningstar. It's a difficult weapon to handle — I would strongly advise against it, Sister."
"I see. Understood."
Yona gave the morningstar back with both hands, straining, and turned away without a shred of regret.
That was a weapon she couldn't use. So she'd have to think of another way.
Something she could swing one-handed. Something she could handle with her left hand. And something fast.
As she walked, Yona flipped back the hem of her habit on the left side.
She heard someone behind her choke, but paid it no mind.
Strapped to her pristine white thigh — a hunting knife.
This might actually work, she thought.
And besides, this knife carried a special meaning.
'The one that guy gave me—'
"Yona! What do you think you're doing over there?!"
Alec was calling her.
Yona, who had been toying with the hunting knife, shoved it back into its sheath and hurried over.
"Coming, coming! Keep your pants on!"
Things were about to get busy.
Today was the day they returned to the Infula Holy See.