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“Oh my, Sophia? Is it really you, Sophia de Chazel?”

At the sudden sound of a familiar accent and voice, Sophia instinctively turned her head toward the source. There stood a familiar nun-priest.

“Good heavens. Isn’t that Priest Clomang?”

Sophia’s face lit up with joy as she approached the nun-priest.

“I heard you were on a medical pilgrimage, but I never expected to see you here. I almost forgot your face!”

“Haha, you haven’t changed a bit, from your face to your way of speaking.”

The nun-priest, who greeted her with a laugh, was none other than Jeanne Clomang.

Jeanne Clomang, the nun-priest, was the one who had saved Sophia from a village devastated by the plague during her childhood. After that, Sophia followed her to live at the Saint Manuel Monastery and eventually became a nun knight at the suggestion of the abbess. In a way, Priest Clomang was Sophia’s benefactor and the starting point of her current life.

“Hmph, I’m still in my prime, aren’t I? It’d be troublesome if I changed too easily.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“Hmm. By the way, could you stop using formal speech? It’s been a while since we last met, and it feels a bit awkward to stick to formalities.”

Sophia, who had always been free-spirited, found it uncomfortable to converse with Priest Clomang in such a formal manner, especially since she had become a nun knight. Although Sophia understood why Priest Clomang was using honorifics, she couldn’t stand the stiffness that came with formal titles, especially in a private conversation with someone she had a close relationship with.

“How can I not? You’re a nun knight now, a position treated on par with a bishop.”

“It’s making me uncomfortable. In a private setting like this, it feels awkward to address each other so formally. Please treat me as you used to.”

“Sigh… If you insist, I suppose I have no choice.”

At Sophia’s insistence, Priest Clomang sighed and switched back to her old way of speaking. Even she seemed to find the formal tone uncomfortable, as a natural smile appeared on her lips as she sighed.

As they chatted, Sophia turned her attention to a nun standing beside Priest Clomang.

“By the way, who’s the friend next to you?”

“Oh dear, I was so excited that I almost forgot.”

At Sophia’s question, Priest Clomang slapped her forehead in embarrassment.

“Sophia, this is Agnes Oblige, a nun I took as my disciple. I found her during my medical pilgrimage after you became a nun knight. Agnes? This is Sophia de Chazel, a paladin of the Church Order. She’s your senior from the Saint Manuel Monastery.”

Following Priest Clomang’s introduction, the nun with calm brown eyes, who had been standing a step behind, stepped forward and bowed her head in greeting.

“I’m Agnes Oblige. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I’m Sophia de Chazel. Since you seem to be a junior from the Saint Manuel Monastery, don’t call me ‘knight.’ Just call me ‘senior.'”

“Yes, Senior.”

As they exchanged greetings, Sophia, who had been observing Agnes closely, suddenly asked Priest Clomang a question.

“Is this junior from Luxembourg, by any chance?”

“Huh? Yes, she is. How did you know?”

“This girl has the innate blessing of Caledona. Such a trait is rare outside of the witch families of Luxembourg.”

Sophia’s words surprised Priest Clomang.

“You figured that out just by looking? That’s right. Agnes is from the Oblige family, one of the most traditional witch families in Luxembourg.”

At Priest Clomang’s words, Sophia looked at the young nun with newfound interest.

“Witch families have long passed down the ability to communicate with spirit gods through their bloodline. And spirits have always favored purity and innocence.”

This concept of purity and innocence was slightly different from what people commonly thought.

For example, spirits preferred untouched, uncivilized lands and favored virgins who had no knowledge of the opposite sex.

This tendency was clearly evident in the existence of the famous horned spirit horse, the unicorn.

In short, unicorns were something men avoided at all costs. Unicorns would try to carry anyone, male or female, as long as they were virgins. If a man was seen being followed by a unicorn, it would be a humiliating proof of his virginity.

Of course, women also got angry if a unicorn followed them past marriageable age.

“The blessing of Caledona is the most extreme manifestation of such spirit tendencies.”

Caledona was the spirit goddess of thunder, lightning, gems, and steel, and also a virgin goddess. As her name suggested, this blessing had extraordinary characteristics.

“It’s a blessing that maintains physical and mental integrity, invincibility, and indestructibility under the condition of preserving one’s virginity. Isn’t that a true blessing?”

‘And also, it could be considered a curse.’

As long as one maintained their virginity, their body and mind would grow flawlessly, never be injured or broken, and remain untainted and unharmed.

At first glance, this might seem like a blessing, but on the other hand, it could also be seen as a blessing that made it easy to grow into an inhuman personality due to its excessive perfection. The condition that all these blessings would be revoked if one lost their virginity was almost a relief.

The problem was that the outwardly visible abilities of the blessing were too useful for the prosperity of the family. Because of this usefulness, witch families began to manage the relationships of their young witches who had the blessing of Caledona extremely strictly to prevent them from losing their virginity outside of their control.

Knowing this, Sophia gave Priest Clomang a suspicious look.

“How on earth did a girl from a witch family become a nun, and even your disciple? I can’t even begin to guess.”

“Well, haha, it’s a long story.”

Priest Clomang awkwardly laughed and trailed off. However, under Sophia’s persistent gaze, she eventually had no choice but to explain the whole story.

“You know I was originally on a medical pilgrimage, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

Among the clergy, depending on their main field of work, there were often pilgrimage routes unique to them. For example, the Purity Sect had pilgrimage routes commemorating the deeds of the Grand Priest and his disciples, while the Shrine Path followed the traces left by ancient hero gods and spirit gods.

The Alchemy Sect had various pilgrimage routes depending on their main field of study, and Priest Clomang’s medical pilgrimage was one of them. Essentially, it involved traveling to holy sites, treating poor patients along the way, and learning new medical techniques when possible.

“One of the regions I had to pass through on my medical pilgrimage was Luxembourg.”

“Indeed, Luxembourg is the land where Saint Hieronymus passed away.”

Saint Hieronymus, who was said to have first mastered spirit healing, cured hundreds of plague patients in a week before his death in Luxembourg. And Luxembourg was also the land where Saint Hieronymus’s spirit healing techniques had been passed down through generations.

“When I arrived in Luxembourg…”

According to Priest Clomang, when she arrived in Luxembourg, the region was in the midst of a competition among the witch families who served the spirit gods. At the time, Agnes was participating as the representative of the Oblige family.

However, the situation was quite complicated both within and outside the Oblige family. Typically, the representative witch of a family was chosen based on the blessings of the spirit gods, and before Agnes was born, another witch had held the position.

But one day, Agnes was born with the highest-ranking blessing of Caledona, and the family elders quickly passed the position of representative witch to the young Agnes.

This sudden shift in power naturally caused discontent within the family, and other families, wary of the Oblige family’s sudden rise, began to view them with suspicion.

Amidst this internal and external conflict, the seeds of discord sprouted during the competition, and in the midst of the chaos, Priest Clomang ended up protecting Agnes, who was in danger.

“Actually, the reason I had to cut my medical pilgrimage short and come to Bordeaux is related to that incident.”

During her medical pilgrimage, while treating the poor, Priest Clomang discovered traces of an illegal human trafficking organization in Luxembourg. These organizations were buying children from slums or kidnapping people for profit—truly despicable individuals.

However, as a relief priestess focused on medical work, Priest Clomang had no special skills to track down such organizations. If not for a twist of fate, she would never have abandoned her pilgrimage to pursue them.

But fate intervened. What Priest Clomang witnessed was members of the organization luring people under the guise of treating their illnesses, only to kidnap them.

It didn’t take long for Priest Clomang to decide to abandon her pilgrimage and track the organization. That very day, she reported the organization to the Church Order and began moving with their support. Her meeting with Agnes Oblige was one of the many events that occurred during this time.

“After that, I kept tracking them, and eventually, I ended up back here in Aquitaine.”

As she listened to Priest Clomang’s story, Sophia couldn’t help but feel admiration. Although Priest Clomang was a nun-priest from the monastery and had some combat skills, she was nowhere near the level of professional warriors. Yet, she had made the brave decision to pursue such a dangerous organization.

And to have tracked them all the way here without major incident was also impressive. She probably owed a lot to Agnes, her disciple. With the blessing of Caledona, Agnes’s body was impervious to blades, making her more than capable of protecting her mentor in dangerous situations.

“So, what do you plan to do now?”

“I heard that the hideout of the organization we’ve been tracking is here in Bordeaux. It might be difficult for us to handle this alone, so I think we’ll need to find help from an adventurer’s guild or something.”

At Priest Clomang’s answer, Sophia fell silent for a moment. Suddenly, she felt a vague sense of connection forming in her mind.

The attempted theft of the Replica of the Royal Scepter of Changhae by the Sphiyagons, the existence of an illegal human trafficking organization in Bordeaux, and the conflict among the witch families in Luxembourg.

However, with insufficient evidence, the connections she was drawing were filled with logical leaps and vague assumptions, leaving her with nothing more than a fleeting thought. It made her hesitate.

‘But since when have I ever hesitated to act?’

She soon spoke to Priest Clomang.

“I have a better idea.”

A sly smile crept onto Sophia’s lips.

“Rather than hiring a bunch of strangers, why not go with me instead? What do you think?”

With a mischievous grin, Sophia smiled.

 

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