"Miss Nun, I'll see you off here. Going further isn't really on our way."
"Yeah, my wife would definitely scold me for coming home so late."
The two male Adventurers, carrying the wheat ale Renia had bought, brought her to the edge of the town center.
They scratched their heads and spoke to Renia with a hint of apology.
"I'm already very grateful that you could see me this far."
Renia responded to the two men beside her, instinctively bowing politely to thank them, highlighting her courtesy and etiquette as a nun.
"Then we'll be going."
"We'll come to church and worship with you sometime."
The two male Adventurers left after speaking, not seeing her all the way home, but their actions showed consideration for themselves while giving Renia the respect and distance she deserved.
Two men going home with a young girl in the middle of the night? They might not have an issue, but the girl might feel scared.
The older Adventurers, though often boisterous and unrestrained in their words, knew their limits. Renia understood and appreciated this.
Those who didn't know their limits? They had already become corpses under Renia's feet.
The otherworld had no laws to protect or indulge fools.
Renia easily picked up the box of 20 bottles of wheat ale. The otherworld had no cans; they used cheap, disposable wooden containers.
20 bottles here contained far more than 20 bottles of beer from her previous life, enough for Renia to drink heartily for at least a week.
Besides the wheat ale, there were several beautifully packaged small desserts on top of the box. Since she was already out, she couldn't just buy alcohol and go home.
Passing through the forest, she arrived at the western outskirts of Shiguan Town. Renia walked directly towards the location of the goddess of stars Church.
A faint scent of blood lingered at her nose, and a hint of confusion arose in her heart.
Blood? Someone came to the church?
Were they just passing by? Or was it... a bad thought flashed through her mind. Renia didn't slow her pace until she reached the church entrance.
The smell of blood emanated from inside the church, exceptionally strong.
Someone had broken into the church.
Renia could confidently make this guess, her body tensing involuntarily. She didn't put down the ale in her hands, planning to pretend she wasn't yet aware of the other party's presence.
Pushing open the church door, a new outline immediately entered her perception.
The other person was in the church hall, sitting in the worshipper's seats below the pulpit, with no intention of hiding herself.
What did she mean?
What did she want to do?
Renia instantly dismissed many thoughts that the other party was a bad person intending to harm her; confusion occupied her mind.
Moreover, the other person's outline was tiny, a human child?
Before Renia could speak, the Elf proactively spoke, confirming her presence:
"I'm very sorry for intruding. My name is Elarind."
Renia heard the soft, girlish voice and instinctively reduced some of her hostility and vigilance. Her mind whirred, but she couldn't remember the other party's name.
"Miss... Miss Ai? May I ask if you need the blessing of the goddess of stars? Or perhaps prayer? To listen to the goddess's holy words?"
Elarind, as an Elf, was forced to leave her tribe for the first time. Her tribal education taught her to treat others with sincerity, lacking experience and cunning.
She didn't hold back much and stated her predicament: "I am being pursued by an evil dragon. I beg Miss Nun to take me in for a while. I will leave on my own once my injuries heal."
"Hmm..." Renia thought for a moment:
"No."
"That's great, take me in... Eh?"
Elarind showed clear astonishment. The nun's answer was completely different from her expectations.
Didn't they say nuns were all kind people?
She raised her head, barely making out Renia's face in the moonlight from outside the door. The faint smile on her face was full of tolerance.
Appearance reflects the heart; this warm, gentle, Older Sister-like expressiveness, yet she didn't accept her plea?
"Taking you in offers me no benefit whatsoever," Renia said without changing her expression.
"I would also have to worry about the evil dragon you mentioned coming to my doorstep. I must refuse your request."
Kind nuns liked to take in children in distress and extend a helping hand to those suffering.
However, Renia had no overflowing sympathy, nor was she a traditional nun.
If becoming a nun required an examination, then Renia, if she were to take the examination again, would be 100% unqualified to be a nun.
"Then let's make a deal!" Elarind bit her lower lip, clasped her hands tightly, and fell into thought. After some hesitation, she spoke resolutely:
"I am a princess of the Elf Race. Once I recover and return to my tribe, I will gather some Elves to worship the goddess of the church you belong to! Including myself!"
After speaking, Elarind panted, as if she had completed an exceptionally difficult task that had exhausted all her strength.
The Elf Race had their own Elf goddess whom they needed to worship.
Abandoning the Elf goddess and turning to worship another goddess was an act of betrayal and defiance of their tribe.
Even worshipping two goddesses simultaneously was a situation not accepted by outsiders.
Impurity of faith was simply a lack of faith.
Elarind's statement gambled with a belief crucial to an Elf.
But how could Renia, who had only transmigrated four months ago, know such important information?
"Ha?" Renia scoffed indifferently, then continued:
"What does your calling people to worship this damn goddess have to do with me?"
"Eh?" Elarind showed a hundred times more shock than before.
A believer, a nun, speaking so recklessly, describing a goddess as "damn"? Such disrespect towards a deity, was she serious?
She had never seen, nor even heard of, such a nun.
As Renia's words fell, the statue of the goddess of stars behind the pulpit seemed to stir unhappily, but no one knew.
"There's one condition for me to take you in," Renia said.
"What... condition?" Elarind nervously swallowed her saliva.
What kind of terrible condition would a nun who disrespected deities demand, opening her mouth like a lion?
"Tell me, in full detail, your experience of escaping to Shiguan Town."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"Okay."
Elarind hesitated and nodded. She had thought the nun would demand her life or body parts to sell, or perhaps want her to become a slave.
In the end, the request was so simple that she felt a bit disbelieving, suspecting if the nun in front of her harbored other schemes.
Renia put down the wine box and approached Elarind step by step. As their distance closed, Elarind finally noticed the black cloth wrapped around the other's eyes.
Her breath brushed against Elarind's face, tickling slightly, but Elarind didn't retreat.
"How old are you?" Renia asked.
"Converted to your human age..." Elarind pondered for a moment:
"I'm 16, an adult. Wh-what are you doing, getting so close?"
"Nothing, I wasn't asking about your age. Getting close was just to sense the size of your chest," Renia said truthfully.
"?!"
Elarind crossed her arms over her chest and abruptly pulled a significant distance away.
Her face suddenly turned crimson, and she cursed the nun in front of her:
"Shameless! Pervert!"
"Where's the pervert?" Renia calmly replied.
"Who would do something like this the first time they meet! If I asked you to show me your panties, would you just expose them?!" Elarind retorted indignantly.
"You want to see?"
Renia, expressionless, slowly hooked a finger under the slit fabric of her nun's habit, letting it fall. Her dazzling thigh and the lace fabric were reflected in the little Elf's eyes by the moonlight.
"Ah ah ah ah ah! You shameless nun!"