Welcoming the Guest at the Holy Dormitory (3)
The girls seemed far more enchanted by the impromptu ice cream cake than by fiddling with someone like me. How should I put it… it felt a little relieving, yet also slightly jealousy-inducing, as if I had lost to mere ice cream.
Anyway, thanks to that, I managed to escape the frenzy of the “touch the hero, stroke her, sniff her” game and could once again enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of a simple tea party.
I shared stories I couldn’t have told in the hall where we attended the service—trivial adventures from my journeys, personal anecdotes from my time in Riaska, whether I’d had a boyfriend, how many, and… whether I’d done that with those boyfriends. All those intimate, personal tales.
When I spoke of Iskil, several girls sniffled with tears. When I mentioned Karik, a few girls drooled with ominous expressions on their faces. I prayed it was just my imagination, but if not, Karik might need to prepare himself in a few years to greet unwelcome guests armed with holy power from across the river.
I deliberately hid the days I spent in the basement of Mittenburg, my time working at Arto’s brothel, and the so-called “happy hours” in the insect den. Telling children such harsh stories would only harm their faith.
“Alright, everyone! That’s enough!”
Though it was filled with bright young girls at the age who loved to play, a seminary was still a seminary. It wasn’t packed with arrogant students burning with academic fervor and rivalry like the magic academy, but the dormitory rules themselves seemed stricter than those of the magic university.
Just as the girls were finishing off the hastily made ice cream, the dorm mother priest clapped her hands three times. The moment they heard her stern command, the girls scattered like leaves in the wind and headed straight to their rooms.
Even so, just under ten students clung to the dorm mother, begging for something. Malinka, the one who had brought me here, was among them.
“Dorm Mother Priestess, we request permission to use the Room of Purification for tonight!”
Representing the hesitant children, Malinka made her request in a careful yet firm and resolute tone.
The Room of Purification…?
“…Do you understand what you’re saying, Malinka?”
“Yes, I understand perfectly!”
“But… no matter how dire her circumstances as a wanderer may be… Well, given what Sister Pirel said, I suppose she would accept it favorably…”
The dorm mother seemed greatly flustered. She hesitated in front of the students, then turned to look at me.
“Very well. I shall ask her myself.”
As I tilted my head in confusion, not understanding what was happening, the dorm mother approached and asked politely.
“Lady Kaira, did you enjoy the evening welcome party? We prepared it in hopes it might offer you even a little comfort after your long journey.”
“Yes! Thank you for showing such hospitality to someone like me… a fugitive. I will never forget the kindness of the denomination’s members.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Well, the thing is… those girls…”
I glanced over the dorm mother’s hesitant shoulder at the roughly ten tense girls.
“They expressed a desire to invite you, Lady Kaira, to a sort of pajama party to welcome the new students. Since it would go past bedtime, I could normally approve it under my own authority, but as you are an outsider, I must ask your permission. If you can forgive their rudeness, I will grant it.”
If it’s something done after pushing back bedtime with the dorm mother’s permission… it’s basically like a study hall or something, right?
I nodded vigorously without much thought.
Being treated like a stuffed animal at my age was… of course embarrassing, but truthfully, it made me happy. It meant there were still people in the world who saw me that way. Even knowing I was a witch wanted by the empire, there were places that welcomed me.
So even though I was now at an age where it no longer suited me… it would be fine to join the girls’ pajama party, right? Yes, it was fine. I wasn’t embarrassed. My mind had aged, but my body was still that of a girl. If we were going to talk about mental age, we’d have to start counting from when Lee Sun-hyeon’s memories returned at age ten.
“It’s fine. I’m actually happy that the students thought to invite me.”
Though I answered that way, the dorm mother stared at me with a strange expression for a long time before letting out a sigh and finally nodding.
“Understood. Then I grant permission. …I pray you do not regret this, Lady Kaira.”
“Pardon? Regret…?”
What was there to regret about joining a noisy nighttime gathering with the girls? The dorm mother’s cryptic remark left me slightly uneasy, but I decided to interpret it as a warning not to act awkward among children despite being thirty years old.
“Hehe. The dorm mother sister has given her permission. Now please change, Lady Kaira!”
I widened my eyes and mulled over Malinka’s words.
“Change…? Into what?”
“The dorm mother told you—it’s a pajama party! So of course you have to wear pajamas.”
“But I’m a traveler… I don’t have proper pajamas. All I have is a light camisole I wear to sleep…”
“That’s fine! That’s more than enough to get us—”
I thought I heard something strange just now. I looked at the girls with slightly suspicious eyes.
“Ah, no. You more than qualify to participate! We’ll tell you the location, so just change quickly and follow us!”
I stared in the direction where the girls had hurriedly made their excuses and vanished, then sat alone for a long time in the now-empty hall. With no other choice, I eventually took out the camisole from my backpack and put it on, trying hard not to dwell on the strange sense of unease.
A place for new seminary students to undergo the “Purification Ritual.” Also used by students who have committed wrongs. Or simply by sisters seeking to forget the hardships of seminary life for a while and enjoy themselves.
Click. The sound of a lock turning. It felt strangely unfamiliar now that I thought about it.
A door lock was actually quite a complex mechanism. It involved difficult-to-make springs and all sorts of parts. Even in the polished black stone palace of Cashel Groa, where unimaginable effort must have gone into its construction, there were no doors fitted with such mechanical devices.
As expected, the Light Denomination is truly wealthy…
With that thought, I closed the door, but what awaited me inside was only darkness. I wasn’t alone. I could sense the rustle of the girls’ clothes and the sound of their breathing, but the room was utterly devoid of light—an unnaturally dark space.
Darkness doesn’t suit the Light Denomination at all.
It was a sticky, clinging darkness that felt out of place in a holy sanctuary. Perhaps because of what I experienced in that insect den four years ago, pitch-black darkness had become somewhat frightening to me. So without thinking, I gently cast a magical light.
“Huh…?”
All I could do was let out a stupid sound.
What lay before my eyes was something completely different from the elegant and sacred name “Room of Purification.”
The floor was neatly finished with warm, grain-rich wood. The walls were built with perfectly aligned white bricks. There was a fireplace that would burn in winter to add warmth, and beautiful sacred paintings depicting the blessings bestowed by the God of Light… up to that point, it was fine.
What caught my eye from the beginning was something made of wood. It was a triangular prism laid on its narrow isosceles face, fitted with ropes and shackles that clearly served no purpose other than to restrain a person so they couldn’t escape.
Chains lined the walls as well. At roughly shoulder height—within arm’s reach if I stretched—and two more near the floor for each person’s width. At the ends of the chains dangled heavy-looking manacles.
On the wall without chains, a neat wooden shelf, carved and lacquered, stood out. The problem was what sat upon it. Gags, restraints, a collar for the neck, ankle shackles, a portable wooden restraint frame, and terrifying-looking whips…
That… that’s shaped like a man’s… isn’t it? There’s no way something that big could fit inside. It must be… just a decoration, right? It couldn’t possibly be made for actual use… could it?
Even though I wanted to deny it in my heart, they were unmistakably dildos—including one as thick as a forearm.
Suddenly, a teasing remark Azalea had made to me while arguing with Pirel flashed through my mind.
“If you wish, you may experience the punishment the nuns receive. There’s a triangular wooden horse, a nine-tailed leather whip, sturdy leather straps to bind the whole body, a mouth gag that blocks even the throat, and a blessed wooden phallus for girls who have already lost their virginity. Are you interested?”
That… so…
It wasn’t even the slightest bit…
a joke… was it?
I stood there stunned for a long time, staring at the room that could only be described as a torture chamber. Then two female students grabbed both my arms tightly. The only martial arts I knew were what I’d learned from the magic academy instructors and Bishop Lumina, but I could tell this was a technique meant to immobilize someone.
“W-wait… just a moment…? You said it was a… pajama party…?”
Malinka answered with a bright smile. Her voice carried laughter, but it only sent chills down my spine.
“Yes. It’s a fun game you play while wearing pajamas. So it is a pajama party. And that was just the dorm mother’s polite way of explaining it. We never said anything like that.”
Unable to figure out how to react to the suddenly changed situation, I could only stand there with a dazed expression, mouth opening and closing stupidly. Malinka continued.
“Hehe… Sister Pirel told us. That ‘cute big sister Kaira’ seduced countless men throughout their journey together, secretly having orgies behind her back. And on days she couldn’t, she would fall asleep after masturbating while staring lustfully at Sister Pirel’s body. It’s hard to imagine that such a pure-looking face and such a slender body could hide such a filthy mind.”
“T-that… that’s… well, I did… do that, but…”
Even though my body was firmly restrained, I tried desperately to turn my flushed face away to hide it.
“Lady Kaira. This is where new seminary students undergo the… ‘Purification Ritual.’ It’s also where students who have done wrong are sent. Or sometimes it’s used by sisters who simply want to forget the hardships of seminary life for a while and enjoy themselves.”
“I-I’m not a new student, and I haven’t done anything wro— mmph!?”
One of the girls forced a gag filled with holes and fitted with a penis-shaped rod attached to a sturdy leather strap into my mouth. With my body held tight, I couldn’t resist properly and my mouth was helplessly sealed. As soon as it was plugged, drool began to spill out uncontrollably.
Malinka looked at my miserable state with a strange smile—one that looked as if she were staring at a delicious prey that made her mouth water—and approached me.
“So this is the perfect place for an irreverent unbeliever like you, Lady Kaira, a mage who has lived a life of sin and lewdness, believing that as long as you please others with your body, whether man or woman, it’s fine. It’s time for you to repent and be purified.”
With that, she flicked my breast, lightly brushing my slightly hardened nipple.
“Hngh?!”
“See? Throughout the entire welcome party, you gave off that lewd scent—like the fragrant food filled with each of our memories—and seduced us. You wanted this, didn’t you? You wanted us to do this to you, right? Hehe, cute Lady Kaira…”
Malinka’s cheek brushed against mine. Her skin, much warmer than my slightly cold body and soft like a girl in her prime, felt like silk as it grazed my cheek… it was so intoxicating…
Ah, no, I have to pull myself together…
“Your body feels even better than what I heard from Sister Pirel. So soft, pleasantly cool, and cozy… Are you ready?”
Terrified, I shook my head violently, but all that happened was my drool flying everywhere.
“Hngheuuup!?!?”
The only thing that echoed in the room with no one to help me was my muffled scream.