The Priest Wants to Retire

EP.187 There’s a Space Behind the Pillar

Moldy altar painting. A broken crucifix. Stained glass with cracks here and there.

An old, shabby building that barely meets the standards of a church.

In the middle of it all, Beltein suddenly sat down, engrossed in an unexpected prayer.

“Lord. Holy Lord. Please forgive my sins. Look kindly upon this poor little lamb…”

Her hymn was pristine, but each syllable trembled with an evident unease, betraying a turmoil she couldn’t shake off.

It was a sort of struggle.

If she didn’t calm her heart with pious prayers, the memories of last night, stuck like glue in her eyelids, would devour her whole.

She thought she should distance herself, and she indeed had done so.

As someone who had lived her entire life as a nun, Beltein couldn’t easily accept having become involved in something she considered frivolous, inappropriate, and once even contemptible.

Particularly since the other party was her life’s benefactor whom she could never repay, her only blood relative chosen as protector.

No matter how much everything had unfolded under her younger brother’s initiative.

As a nun who should strive for purity, the fact remained that she had intertwined her body with him, who was also a priest.

“Lord, oh, giver of gifts…”

Despite the sun now rising high in the sky, the aftereffects of her actions still clung to Beltein’s body.

A little church just a tumble away from her lodging.

The journey to get here hadn’t been smooth.

Her body felt aflame as if she had drunkenly drowned in wine, and the intense pain in her lower back had rendered her almost unable to walk without a cane.

She had heard the notion that the pain of the day after would be worse, but she never imagined it would be to this extent.

Her body throbbed in places she hadn’t anticipated, and she found it hard to rein in her restless heart.

Wasn’t experiencing this level of ache after her first time something that happened only in erotic novels?

Amidst all the knowledge she had accumulated about sex, Beltein couldn’t discern what was right or wrong anymore.

However, there was something else that tormented Beltein the most right now.

“Uuuh…”

Unlike the intense but distant memory of last night, she was met with the very clear spectacle that filled her retina the moment she opened her eyes.

Not the frail, soft body of a child, but the mature and solid body of an adult.

It still held some traces of childhood, yet within that neat skeleton lay well-defined muscles, and she found herself involuntarily swallowing.

The first complete view she had of a man’s naked form.

The moment Regis awoke, she hurriedly pretended to be asleep, and she was lucky.

Had Regis not awakened, she might have spent the night mesmerized by his nakedness.

“Lord, please take this calamity from me…”

Even her once fervent prayers started to lose their charm as time passed.

Just the stunning visions of last night were enough to leave her breathless.

Adding the flesh-toned panorama rooted deep in her retina made it nearly impossible for Beltein to regain her sanity.

Staring at the elegant jawline, she carelessly noticed the pronounced Adam’s apple.

Tendons bulged prominently on arms as solid as wooden boards.

His formidable abs practically oozed heat, different in texture from her soft skin.

Up to the squared-off hipbones.

All of them radiated a heat that was more than enough to melt away every ounce of Beltein’s iron-willed composure.

Even when her body was small, it was already this intense.

What would it be like if her body were larger?

“Uuuh!”

She shook her head vigorously to erase all the fuzzy thoughts floating in her mind.

From that impulsive movement, the calm demeanor she usually possessed was nowhere to be found.

“What do I do… I don’t know…”

A voice so quiet it seemed to fade below the sound of ants crawling.

With her red face hidden behind her hands, while occasionally shaking her upper body adorably, who could think of Beltein as a nun serving a deity now?

Her current state was undoubtedly a sight one couldn’t bear to see with open eyes.

She could only imagine how her disgraceful appearance would be perceived by others.

How long had it been?

Even though she had only been sitting all day, her heart was pounding as if she had just been running, and she faintly heard the sound of fluttering wings.

“Peeei─!”

The melodic chirping of a golden finch brought Beltein’s consciousness back to reality, forcibly yanking her from the depths of chaos.

“T-This is… an emergency contact hornet…?”

Her eyes widened in astonishment upon identifying the sudden noise.

And that emotional upheaval quickly turned into shock when she confirmed the contents of the letter entangled in the hornet’s feet.

◈◈◈

“So, this is the Vatican…?”

“Yes, according to the letter, it seems… that would be the case…”

The sister, while initially affirming my doubt-filled question, clearly lacked conviction in her voice, which was easy for me to pick up on.

But that wasn’t all.

Her voice trembled like a candle about to extinguish, as if she was more shocked than I was, definitely no less surprised.

The Vatican’s hornet had unexpectedly flown into our midst.

Tied to that unwelcome messenger was a gemstone no bigger than a thumbnail, a projection-type magical tool used to show recorded scenes to others.

So rare in material that the number possibly made was extremely limited, and it was strictly forbidden to use for trivial purposes once a scene had been recorded, marking it as a precious treasure among precious treasures.

Since rumors spread about how a few high-ranking members of the Vatican had abused this magical tool to record their nocturnal escapades, this was the first time I had ever seen the real deal.

The scenes captured by the magical tool were as shocking as the contents of the letter.

A massive, pure white pillar stood majestically in the territory of the Vatican.

That was the capital of the system, the place where the meeting room lay.

It was gradually engulfing the central area of the city we had occupied just a few weeks ago.

A Dungeon Disaster.

The author of the letter was convinced that this bizarre phenomenon was a type of Dungeon Disaster.

Gulp.

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine alongside a heavy swallow.

The reason was simple.

Even I, with extensive knowledge gained from traversing all sorts of dungeons with my comrades, had never seen a Dungeon Disaster of this scale before.

The largest Dungeon Disaster recorded in the history of the system barely consumed a single village.

There was no need to further explain just how exceptional and preposterous this disaster engulfing the Vatican was.

“Moreover, this is…”

“…”

The sister quietly nodded in agreement to my half-formed thoughts.

Both she and I had previously witnessed a similar event firsthand.

It bore resemblance.

Saying this after just catching sight of its shape might be a hasty judgment, but.

This dungeon bore a striking similarity to the one that had swallowed the hero just before.

“Most of the letter was illegibly scrawled, making it impossible to discern the sender by handwriting, but the seal closing the letter was from the Light family.”

“Reigis…”

He was once someone I genuinely wished dead.

Perhaps it was because of the grudge I held against him.

Knowing that something unfortunate had befallen him left an uneasy feeling in my heart.

“R-Reigis…”

“…”

I crossed my arms and fell into thought for a moment.

It was just a fleeting moment when the thought struck me that this was divine punishment.

There would surely be countless people wishing to see their terrible job collapse as soon as possible, but no one would want the shards to hit innocent civilians.

With the Vatican being the most powerful entity in the system next to royalty being caught up in a Dungeon Disaster, chaos in the system was all but certain to follow.

Therefore, knowing this information ahead of others, the actions we needed to take were twofold.

“Sister. Please call the Hero and the others here right away.”

“Y-Yes, understood. Reigis.”

First, gather our minds to think.

And then.

“And please also bring a few tools the blacksmiths use for forging.”

“Huh? Why that…?”

It was merely about questioning someone who might have an inkling of what was going on. No, it was an interrogation.

“Eek!?”

Right after that.

The terrified voice of a woman echoed softly from the holy sword securely tied at my waist.

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