The Incubus Who Visited the Church #4
The Incubus Who Visited the Church #4
I looked at Kate with a baffled expression.
"You don't actually believe what I just said, right? Making a scene in the chapel is a huge deal. I'd get beaten up and thrown out by the church folks."
"It's just... you look like the type who could pull that off and still be fine."
"Me? What'd I ever do?"
Just then, I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass window behind Kate.
It was undeniably the face of a blonde delinquent who looked a bit unhinged.
I looked like I might pull any kind of crazy stunt.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I may look like this, but I don't do crazy shit."
"What a relief."
Kate immediately let go of my sleeve, looking reassured.
Then she quickly put on a prim and proper face and spoke to me.
"Weren't we supposed to get the Holy Water tomorrow? You said Sunday is busy, so you deliberately pushed it to tomorrow. Why did you come looking for me today?"
"That's..."
I hesitated for a moment, then decided to be honest.
Admitting Rebecca was sick wasn't really a big deal.
"My party member's down with a body ache. It was her first escort quest, so I guess she had a hard time adjusting. That's why I wanted to bring her some Holy Water."
"A party member... which one are you talking about? The older halfling? Or the red-haired swordswoman who's always sticking with you?"
"The red-haired swordswoman."
"Ah... that person? Her name was Rebecca, right? The one who absolutely reeked of a newbie adventurer."
Kate seemed to remember Rebecca.
"It's fascinating. An incubus forming a party with a female. And she was incredibly beautiful too. The kind that male adventurers would steal glances at."
"I got lucky. She was a newbie, so we got closer while I taught her the ropes. Eventually, we formed a fixed party."
"A fixed party... I'm a little jealous. I want to form a fixed party with a dealer who suits my tastes, too. But a dealer matching my taste never seems to show up."
"A dealer that suits your tastes?"
"Someone who clears quests all on their own while I do absolutely nothing. A cool dealer who just tells me to sit there and keep breathing—."
Freeloading bitch.
That's not a party member, that's a bus driver.
This heal-slut really wants to coast through life as an adventurer.
Sure enough, even during the escort quest, the moment trouble brewed, this woman would erase her presence and vanish like a ghost.
Does she have the concealment skills of a terminal short-timer?
"You damn heal-slut."
"Heal-slut? So you don't want me to heal you, then?"
Kate retorted with a totally shameless expression.
Just seeing that face made the back of my head throb.
If I stayed on this topic any longer, I figured I might end up wanting to punch her in the gut, so I hurriedly urged her to bring me the Holy Water.
"Just hurry up and get the Holy Water. I want to take it and go back."
"It's in the basement storage. There are thirty bottles, and it's a bit hard for me to get them all out by myself. Please come with me. I'm asking you, Mongma-nim."
I had no choice but to follow Kate to the church's basement storage.
A frail nun might drop the bottles if she tried carrying them all alone, and that would be a disaster.
Since the Sunday service was in progress, there was almost no one outside the chapel. Kate and I moved to the basement without anyone bothering us.
"This is the basement storage. It's where we nuns keep our personal supplies. There are exorcism tools here too, so don't touch anything carelessly. Mongma-nim might end up attaining nirvana."
"Hey, not everything with horns is a demon, alright? I'm not going to attain nirvana just from being showered with a bit of Divine Power. If anything, it'd recover my stamina."
"Really? You were perfectly fine the last time I sprinkled Holy Water on you, that's true."
Kate wore a slightly surprised expression.
She still seemed to be misunderstanding Dream Demons as something similar to demons.
A moment later, Kate led me into the basement storage. I went inside and briefly looked around. It was a sealed space, so the air inside the storage was dry. A magic lamp hanging from the ceiling cast a faint light down from above.
Countless lockers lined the storage room.
Kate approached the locker with her name on it and took things out.
It was a locker where absolutely nothing was organized, and things were just crammed in haphazardly.
It felt a bit strange because it looked just like my personal locker back in my university days.
"You live quite messily."
"I remember where everything is. And what concern is it of yours how someone else lives?"
Kate reached her hand deep into the locker and started pulling out the bottles containing Holy Water one by one.
The Holy Water came in small glass bottles, about the size of perfume bottles.
I took the bottles from Kate as she handed them over and lined them up one by one on the floor.
Just as the bottles that had been steadily piling up reached twenty-nine.
"Huh...?"
Kate, who was rummaging through the locker, suddenly murmured to herself.
"What's wrong?"
"One bottle is missing. The one I just took out was the last one? How did this happen...?"
"Don't tell me it was stolen? See, this is why you should manage your things properly."
"Who would steal something at a church? Everyone here is sickeningly innocent. This is... I think I just miscounted. I forgot I broke one while carrying them last time."
Kate glanced at me furtively as she spoke.
"Is it okay if we're one short? It's just one bottle missing out of thirty. Don't be so stingy."
"Of course it's not okay. We have to settle the accounts properly. If you don't have it, make it right now. You said yourself it's easy to make about one bottle a day."
"Tch."
Kate sighed and nodded. She told me to stay put, then took a small glass bottle out of the locker.
It was an empty container, with no Holy Water in it.
"Wait here in the storage for a moment. I'll go fill it with water from outside."
"No need. I can make water."
"You can make it? Ah, right—you're a mage, aren't you?"
I created water droplets right in front of Kate's eyes and filled the glass bottle.
Kate stared at me with a fascinated expression.
"An incubus using magic... I've never even heard of such a thing. I heard incubi are all too busy indulging in pleasure and having fun."
"I'm different. Even for an incubus, I live quite diligently."
"I don't know about diligent, but you do seem to handle water magic well. You swung around something like a tentacle when we fell into the river."
"It was a whip, not a tentacle. Damn."
"Ah, it was a whip. A tentacle-like whip."
"I said it's not a tentacle."
"Isn't it better than me calling it a whip-like tentacle?"
"Ha. Let's just stop talking."
Before I knew it, the bottle was full of water.
After finishing her observation, Kate placed the glass bottle filled with water on the floor and knelt in front of it.
Then, in a praying posture, she began to exert her Divine Power.
"...Lord Baldur in heaven. Please, let me borrow your glorious name for a moment. Grant this young lamb the grace to handle sacred power."
Contrary to the delinquent image she had shown so far, Kate's process of making Holy Water was quite serious.
Bowing her head as if God truly resided here, Kate recited the prayer.
Pop! At that moment, something like tiny grains flowed out of Kate's body. The tiny grains made of light were absorbed into the glass bottle filled with water. As if by magic, they passed right through the glass and began to mix with the water.
'So this is how nuns make Holy Water? I've never seen it before.'
My curiosity was piqued, and I wanted to reach out and touch a grain with my hand, but I couldn't because it might disrupt the process. Kate was sweating profusely as she emitted the grains. Messing with someone working so hard would prick my conscience.
After roughly 10 minutes.
Kate told me the Holy Water was complete. I reached out my hand to take the glass bottle. But for some reason, Kate clutched the Holy Water and wouldn't hand it over.
I frowned and spoke. Kate and I were both gripping the glass bottle, and it felt like it might break if we put too much pressure on it.
"What are you doing? Let go, quickly."
"Mongma-nim, you'll just leave after receiving this, right?"
"Of course. What else would I have to do here at the church?"
"Before you leave, could I ask you one favor?"
Kate looked at me and gave an awkward smile.
It didn't look like she was going to let go of the bottle at all, so I decided to hear her out first.
"What kind of favor?"
"Seeing you use water magic gave me an idea. Give me some more water. Water made of magic. I want to try making more Holy Water with it."
No way. Is fetching water just too much of a bother for her?
Is her heart truly set on freeloading through life?
At this point, I seriously wanted to give her a lecture about the value of hard work, but fortunately, Kate quickly opened her mouth to explain the reason.
"Actually, water infused with magic power helps increase the efficacy of Holy Water, albeit subtly. It's not a huge difference, but it's better than using regular water. You can just whip up water from thin air anyway, Mongma-nim. Since you're here, just do me this extra service."
"If it only helps subtly, why are you bothering to ask? You could just use water from the well."
"Because it helps when I take the nun promotion exam... If I fail the exam again this month, it'll be my third consecutive promotion omission."
Kate averted her gaze slightly as she spoke.
For a split second, I thought I saw something sly flicker across her eyes.
"If I increase the Holy Water's efficacy with magic-infused water, I can fool them into thinking my Divine Power has increased, even if just a little. Plus, the examiners are all old men with fading eyesight."
I was so dumbfounded I was speechless.
Is she trying to pull a fast one again? This serial liar?
"Are you really a nun?"
"Yes. Is there some law that says a nun can't lie? I've already suffered promotion omission three times. If I slip up again now, I'll be a laughingstock among my fellow nuns. Do you know the pain of getting a 'Prom-omission'? For your information, Prom-omission is short for Promotion Omission."
No clue.
I was a Class-A soldier, in my own way, back when I was on active duty.
I've never experienced something like promotion omission, and the officers were constantly encouraging me to stay in longer.
Unlike my past self, this blonde nun here seemed like a complete washout.
Deadbeat Nun Kate, was it.
The list of derogatory nicknames for her just grew.
"Mongma-nim. Please give me some water. I'll even pay you a small fee. I'll give you 2 Cooper for each glass bottle filled to the brim."
2 Cooper, huh.
My expression shifted at Kate's meager offer of a fee. If she's paying, I can't just keep staring at her with pity. 2 Cooper is worth one goblin fang. That didn't make Kate any less pathetic, but I decided to treat her as a customer now.
"2 Cooper sounds reasonable. How many bottles do I need to fill?"
"First... shall we try about 10 bottles? I'll test those out, and if the effect is good, I'll ask you again next time."
Kate took out ten empty glass bottles from the locker. I formed a hand seal and immediately filled the bottles with water. To think I could earn money just by bending my fingers a few times. Being a mage was truly a great profession.
"Your hand seal speed is quite fast."
"Is that considered fast?"
"It's not my first time partying with a wandering mage, you know. They always take forever whenever they form hand seals. At that speed, I'd say it's fast, wouldn't you?"
My speed is fast?
I couldn't really get a sense for it just from words.
I've never partied with another mage up until now.
Even when I went to the Magic Tower for a quest, I never really got to see much magic.
I was always stuck in the waste disposal area.
Still, getting complimented on my magic use didn't feel bad at all.
I filled the ten glass bottles with water to the brim.
"It finished so quickly. I thought it would take about an hour... Anyway, here's your fee."
Kate handed me the coins with a look of admiration.
It was twenty copper coins in total.
Honestly, I wasn't sure if that look of admiration was really admiration.
She's such a compulsive liar, how could I ever trust her?
"Where do you live, Mongma-nim? I'll come find you if I need more water later."
"You're saying you'll come to my place?"
"I can't keep letting you into the church, can I? There's bound to be a commotion, just like today."
"True enough."
I told Kate the location of the inn where I was staying.
Come to think of it, I just gave my address to a beautiful blonde nun, but I don't feel my heart flutter at all.
Religious fanatics showing up at your home are never a welcome sight.
"So everything's done now? I'm going."
"Ah, wait a moment. I'll lend you a pouch you can put the Holy Water in. Return it when you come to pick up more water later."
Kate generously lent me a wide pouch, so I packed the thirty glass bottles inside it.
The bottles were small, so once I shoved them in, they almost all fit.
I could just stuff the leftovers loosely into my pockets.
"Now it's really finished, so leave quickly. Your party member is sick, isn't she?"
After passing me the pouch, Kate finally let me go.
The church's Sunday service was still in progress.
I was able to leave the church without receiving any dirty looks from the believers.
Out in the fresh air, I felt as refreshed as if I'd just escaped from a dungeon.
'Rebecca is probably resting well, right?'
I hurried back to the inn where Rebecca was staying.
The whole way back, all I could think about was giving her the Holy Water quickly.
She needs to get better soon so we can do the next quest.
And do a belly dance in sexy clothes right in front of me.
'I could fucking jizz even while limp.'
'Just thinking about it gives me a raging hard-on.'