Chapter 3
For a lifelong single virgin like me, voyeuristically watching someone else have sex was an unforgettable, incredible experience.
When you witness the process firsthand, you feel a wall that even cheap porn on a screen could never overcome.
In my case, I only heard the sounds from beyond a partition without seeing anything….
Anyway, I quickly left the mansion, took a long, winding route, and returned to the church.
Then I went into the bathroom, scrubbed myself thoroughly, brushed off my shoulders, took out the salt I'd set aside for the service, and sprinkled it all around the church.
Just thinking about the incident caused by meeting those people who looked so… no, were incredibly normal made me think about it.
A short encounter lasting less than an hour had left a tremendous impression.
“…I'm jealous.”
The more I thought about it, the less angry I felt and the more my pure envy grew.
From the coldly charismatic beauty Karina, to the dark-elf gal Vika, and even the gloomy-type beauty Mira.
That bastard Acard had flowers in both hands—and flowers between his legs, too.
“Damn it….”
The fact that people like that existed even when the world changed dimensions.
As someone who had followed the stereotypical lifelong-single-virgin route since modern-day Korea, I was jealous enough to go insane.
“Sister?”
“Hmm…? Roxanna?”
As I sat in the chapel praying to God to please do something about that smug bastard, I heard the little one's voice, changing the mood.
“What are you doing awake at this hour, our little squirt?”
“I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about youuu….”
Roxanna scampered over, nestled herself into my arms, and began acting cute.
“Still, you need to go to bed early if you want to grow big, our little squirt.”
“Nngh…. I don't wanna growww….”
When I offered her the sort of blessing adults routinely give children, Roxanna puffed out her cheeks and made an offended little nasal whine.
“I wanna be your little sister forever…! I don't wanna, I don't wanna!!”
“…Sniff.”
“Sister?”
“Ah… No, it's nothing….”
I finally understood why everyone in the world said it would be nice to have a much younger little sister.
Roxanna was so cute—so incredibly cute—that hearing her whine made me forget every sorrow and pain from my past.
Anyone would want a little sister like this.
“…No one takes care of me like this except Roxanna.”
“Because I like you that much!”
“Sniff….”
With tears of emotion pouring down my face, I stroked Roxanna's hair again and again.
The incident with those men and women that had sullied my thoughts was sent away to the far reaches of my memory.
Since I'd been considering joining the church ever since I came here, I decided to bring it up casually.
“Roxanna, should I join the church?”
“…Gasp! R-really?!”
Roxanna's eyes grew round, and she began to stammer.
“You're not lying, right?!”
“Yeah. Really.”
“Really, really?!”
“Yeah. Really, really.”
“Really, really, really?!”
“If you keep asking, I won't join.”
“O-okay!”
Seeing Roxanna jumping up and down so happily that she even had a runny nose put me in a good mood.
“Wait a second, Sister! I'll get the church membership contract!”
Unaware that her nose was running, Roxanna hurried out of the chapel, making a clattering noise.
“You're really joining the church, Sister Ria?!”
“…?”
The person who appeared holding a church membership contract wasn't Roxanna, but middle-aged Sister Dimecus.
“Yes, that's right…?”
“At last…!”
I had no idea why, but Sister Dimecus handed me the contract with an extremely happy expression and began explaining all sorts of things I needed to know upon joining the church.
Everything from the nuns' twenty-four-hour schedule and clothing to their rules and pay.
“Huff, huff…! You understand, right?!”
“Yeees.”
After listing every detail about the church without hardly stopping to breathe, Sister Dimecus finally handed me the contract.
“Where should I sign?”
“Just sign down here…!”
Scribble, scribble—.
Using the letters I'd learned in this world, I crookedly wrote the name Ria and officially completed my entry into the church.
…Now I could say goodbye to life as a beggar.
I was a proper member of the clergy now!
Although I'd spent my entire life on Earth without a religion, I'd possessed a body in another world and seen the church's priests borrow the power of God.
For me, atheism no longer existed at all.
“All right, now follow me.”
“Huh…? Yes?”
As I basked in the satisfaction of obtaining a proper job after two months of living as a beggar, Sister Dimecus began dragging me somewhere by the arm.
“Where are we going?”
“Now that you're a member of the church, Sister Ria, you can't sleep here anymore.”
“Ah…!”
No wonder we seemed to be heading toward the nuns' quarters.
At last, I could sleep in a warm, comfortable bed…!
I entered the nuns' quarters for the first time, having only ever seen inside from the doorway, and walked down the long, sprawling corridor until we reached the room at the very end.
“Sister!”
“Roxanna!”
When the door at the end opened, Roxanna sprang out, threw herself into my arms, and spun around.
“You and I are in the same room! Roxanna decorated it!”
“…Really?”
“Uh-huh!”
Inside the room were two beds, each with an incredibly fluffy mattress and blanket stuffed with goose down.
As a bonus, there was even a beautiful rose sitting on top of the dresser, presumably because it suited Roxanna's tastes.
“See you tomorrow, Sister Ria…!”
“Sister Dimecus! See you tomorrow!”
After saying good night to Sister Dimecus as well, only Roxanna and I remained in the room.
“Our little squirt!”
“Kyahahah!”
I scooped Roxanna up, then flopped down onto the bed with her.
My body sank so deeply that it felt as though I was being sucked down into it.
…So this was what a bed was.
A realization struck me: all the countless beds I'd slept on throughout my life on Earth hadn't been beds at all. They'd just been scraps of sponge.
“Now I can sleep with you, Sister!”
“That's right! Let's sleep together every day!”
After playing with the energetic Roxanna as she leaped around on the bed, we soon wore ourselves out and fell asleep together in the same bed.
I deeply regretted my past self for having said I wouldn't join the church sooner.
If only I'd known a bed could be this comfortable….
Whew.
….
“Sister! Wake up!”
“Mmm….”
I was on my way to dreamland, scratching my crotch in my sleep as usual, when I woke up.
“We have morning service!”
“Yeah… I know….”
I think Sister Dimecus had explained that the nuns gathered every morning for worship.
Now that I was a proper nun, I braced myself for a sore back and heaved myself upright.
“…?”
“Sister?”
“My body… isn't stiff?”
I was able to greet the morning without any back pain.
Whenever I rose from a chair in the chapel in the morning, the pain felt as if my back were being shattered, making every morning a nuclear war.
“Is this… the power of a bed?”
Ergonomics, my ass—waking up without pain in an incredibly soft bed stuffed with goose down stirred tremendous emotion in me.
“Sister! Get up quickly!”
“All right… just a moment!”
Perhaps she was frustrated by how I was pressing on the soft, goose-down bed with my hands like an idiot, because Roxanna's impatient urging reached me and I hurriedly got up.
From now on, I was never sleeping rough again.
Even if someone put a knife to my throat and told me to sleep rough, I still wouldn't do it.
I hurriedly straightened my clothes, and when Roxanna led me to the lobby in the nuns' quarters, morning service began at once.
“We thank you for this gracious morning, God—.”
Morning service was nothing much.
We offered God a simple morning prayer of thanks, then bread and savory-smelling soup were distributed and the meal began.
Milk was provided once our throats started to catch, too.
“Delicious…!”
The church's food was wonderful because they didn't hesitate to add sugar by the handful.
Just as any man would follow a woman without hesitation if she offered to buy him malatang or dessert, a woman's body needed sugar and spicy food every day to gain the strength to live.
So the church's food was truly perfect for my body.
“Hehe….”
Since it had been so long since I'd had a proper meal, I quickly polished off four servings, leaving my stomach bulging outward.
Beyond a sugar rush, I was hit by a sugar crash and ended up hugging Roxanna with a dazed expression.
“Sister. You'll get fat.”
“I don't get fat…!”
“But your belly's already sticking out.”
“It's all going to my breasts, so it's fine!”
In any case, this body didn't gain weight no matter what I ate or how much I overate, so I could overindulge whenever I wanted.
Even so, just in case, during the roughly two-hour break after the meal, I took Roxanna, who said she was going to study doctrine, back to our room and went for a walk alone.
I also looked around the flower garden behind the church.
I gave a polite bow to the men who were already working energetically since morning.
Then I went downtown and was admiring the figures of pretty older ladies as part of my routine.
“….”
I spotted a noticeable group in the distance.
A tall swordsman in platinum armor, and a ponytailed knight in bright-red armor.
A dark-elf rogue wearing short shorts and leather armor resembling a sports bra.
An astrologer whose face was hidden beneath a thick robe.
And finally, a tall, handsome man wearing impressive armor.
The group consisted of the men and women who had caused me so much trouble last night.
…They look surprisingly normal gathered outside.
They just give off the vibe of a textbook adventurer party.
It was astonishing how different their atmosphere was from the chaos of last night.
…So basically, they walk around perfectly normally in the morning, then turn into a full-blown Animal Kingdom as soon as night falls.
“Tsk….”
A wave of envy-fueled jealousy came over me again.
I wanted to spend time with pretty women like those too….
I could keep every conversation that cheerful, too….
No matter how intensely I glared at Acard in secret, the fact that I was a loser wouldn't change.
I could at least be grateful that I got to feast my eyes on pretty women……
……?
“Huh?”
Didn't they seem to be getting closer?
Weren't they far away just a moment ago?
I blinked, wondering if I'd seen it wrong.
One step, then two.
“…!!”
In the time it took me to blink twice, the distance had narrowed to less than five meters.
“Eek…!”
Just as I was about to run away, chilled to the bone by the thought of meeting them again—
Tap—. My pathetic body failed to notice the stone jutting up beneath my feet.
“Ugh!”
Crash! My foot caught on it, and I fell noisily onto the ground.
“Are you all right…?!”
As expected, Acard, the party leader, immediately ran over upon seeing me fall, displaying the good nature peculiar to extroverts.
“Huh…? Ms. Ria…!?”
“…Damn it.”
Having failed to escape in time, I ended up kicking off Season Two of our awkward encounter.