A Powerful Martial Artist Reincarnates as a Nun Knight - Chapter 14

The feast that began at dusk continued all night long. During that time, parents and child shared their parting affections, while Sophia regaled the three with stories from her worldly travels as drinking accompaniment.

There was an incident where Setanta brought out hidden beer and honeywine, leading to Cali scolding him – “So the whereabouts of the missing barley have finally come to light!” – but in the end, such moments were precisely the kind of memories and romance one could only find in a drinking session.

The night-long feast finally came to a close at dawn. The heavily intoxicated had to stumble off to their rooms, unable to even tidy up the disorderly scene.

It was half a day later that Sophia and Conra finally departed from the forest. Somehow having managed a brief rest, Setanta and Cali rose to hand Conra the travel pack they had prepared in advance.

Realizing his parents had packed his travel bag even before Sophia’s visit, Conra glared at them with resentful eyes, but Setanta and Cali simply smiled nonchalantly as they said:

“Haha, you still haven’t awakened your foresight, have you? Despite learning my druidic arts and Cali’s alchemy.”
“Well, your divination and my scrying work on different principles. It was probably difficult for Conra to fully master both while learning them simultaneously.”
“Hmm, when you put it that way, I suppose so.”

Listening to their exchange, Conra was rendered speechless. He accepted the proffered pack with a sullen expression. It was then that Conra suddenly realized Cali had embraced him.

“Be careful not to get hurt. Take care of your health on your travels. Always make sure to get proper rest. Never skip meals. Be wary of food poisoning and colds. Above all, never forget that your parents are always on your side.”
“Ugh, I can take care of my own body, you know?”
“Hey now, don’t you know to properly heed your mother’s advice? It all comes from care for your well-being, you know? Even your father tries his best to follow your mother’s words most of the time.”
“What? That’s not what I heard just yesterday when you secretly diverted the barley stock to brew beer behind my back?”

As Setanta clumsily tried to support Cali, only to be completely shut down by her razor-sharp rebuttal, Conra found himself unexpectedly snickering.

On one hand, laughter bubbled up, while on the other, his eyes reddened as Setanta’s large, rough hand came to rest on Conra’s head.

“Have you heard the saying that a man cries only three times in his life?”
“…Yes.”

Sensing where Setanta’s words were headed, Conra hurriedly tried to calm his reddening eyes. But before he could, Setanta continued:

“That’s all a lie.”
“Huh?”
“Think about it. If we say a man cries once at birth, does that mean all his crying as a newborn counts as just that one time? Is that all? And if the second time is when his parents die, does that mean you can’t cry until we’re gone? And you can’t seriously be thinking of just crying once more after we die and leaving it at that, can you?”
“…Well, no, of course not.”

Conra replied with a somewhat gloomy expression. Watching this scene, Sophia let out a wry smile. This Setanta was indeed an eccentric. Who else would quibble over how many times their child should cry after their own death? Well, it was amusing nonetheless.

“So cry when you feel like crying. Cry as much as you need until you no longer feel the urge to. And once you’re done crying, laugh. Laugh joyfully, as if you’ve conquered the entire world. The true victor is not the one who doesn’t cry, but the one who cries their fill and laughs in the end. Understand?”

Setanta’s words gave even Sophia food for thought – he did indeed seem like a proper druid despite his appearance. Conra too seemed to find meaning in his father’s words, silently mulling them over.

Eventually, after shedding a few tears and wiping them with his sleeve, the young boy looked up at his parents with a brighter smile than ever before. Seeing this, Cali murmured “Oh my” as she covered her mouth, while Setanta smiled proudly and approvingly.

“Though father says that, my tears are still too precious to carelessly waste.”

At Conra’s casual retort returning to his usual brashness, Setanta’s smile instantly turned wry. Naturally, the “This kid…” expression on Setanta’s face made Cali and the nearby Sophia chuckle as well.

“Still, I will keep your teachings in mind. No matter when, I will be the one wearing that final, triumphant smile. This much I can promise you.”

The young boy thumped his chest firmly in front of his parents in declaration.

“So don’t worry and just wait for me. I will learn much following Master, grow to be dependable, and return. Until then, both of you, please take care of your health and await me.”

At their departing child’s promise, Cali’s eyes finally reddened, unable to hold back any longer. Setanta embraced her shoulders with one arm as he addressed his son, his own voice carrying a slight tremble, though he may not have realized it himself.

“Understood. Your father and mother will gladly await our Conra’s return as a fine, upstanding man. So you must surely keep your word.”

Saying this, Setanta extended a clenched fist. Conra met it with his own fist, the two lightly bumping their fists together in a promise.

After bidding farewell to his parents, Conra turned without hesitation. It was now time for him to follow his master and teacher Sophia out into the world, as his parents had intended.

As the backpack-laden Conra approached, Sophia asked:
“Have you said your farewells? Any remaining regrets?”
“It would be a lie to say none. But I’ll save that part for our next reunion.”
“Ah, well put. Then let us depart.”
“Yes!”

With those words, the two began leaving the clearing with the hut and great oak tree. Unlike their arrival, there was no will-o’-wisp to guide them, but it was fine – neither Sophia nor Conra were dull enough to lose their way in the forest.

The remaining Setanta and Cali gazed unwaveringly at the departing duo’s backs until they were out of sight, even as they rode off on the mare “Janghwalljang” Sophia had left tied outside the forest.

+++++

It took the two less than half a day to reach the location of the castle moat contaminating the aquifer after leaving the forest. However, that brief time was enough to utterly exhaust the young boy.

The reason was more or less this: After leaving the forest, the two soon mounted Sophia’s mare Janghwalljang to travel. The problem arose because when Sophia had initially come to the forest, she had ridden alone, leaving only Janghwalljang as their mode of transportation.

Fortunately, Janghwalljang was sturdy enough to carry both Sophia and Conra together without issue, so Sophia suggested they both ride her.

Thus, with Conra seated in front of her, Sophia took Janghwalljang’s reins. In other words, during their journey by horseback, the young boy had to maintain a posture embraced by the female knight’s bosom.

Even as a boy who had just turned eleven, Conra had dutifully received sex education from his parents and was at an age where the onset of puberty would not be unusual. Moreover, having lived in the forest with only his parents as company, when could the boy have experienced such close contact with the opposite sex?

For such an innocent young boy, being embraced by a beautiful female knight’s bosom while riding a horse was an excessively high hurdle of stimulation. This was despite Sophia being clad in armor, so the sensation against the boy’s back was merely cold, hard metal plates.

Even setting aside the feeling of bared flesh obscured by metal plates, there were still plenty of stimuli – the scent of the knight’s hair wafting in the wind and tickling the boy’s nose, the sound of her breathing against the back of his neck, and so on.

In any case, upon arriving at the site where the aquifer met the castle’s moat, Sophia and Conra immediately moved to inspect the situation. Though utterly drained, Conra regained his vigor once dismounting, his expression turning serious as he surveyed the problem area without pause.

Conra remarked:
“Wow. You warned me, Master, but this is really serious, isn’t it?”
“Which is why your skills are needed. Situations like this are precisely the expertise of druids and alchemists, right?”
“That’s true. You found the right place. Fortunately, I think I can resolve this. Leave it to me.”

With that boast, Conra immediately set to work, taking out various tools from his backpack. Reagents seemingly for alchemical use, an alchemy kit, dolls and implements that appeared to be for druidic spellcasting, saplings, plant seeds, and more emerged from the pack.

The young boy quickly combined a few reagents on the spot, sprinkling one over the moat surrounding the keep and another on the ground above the aquifer’s flow, then planted a few saplings on the moat’s embankment and the aquifer’s path.

“The conditions are quite poor, so it doesn’t seem like I can handle it all at once. I’ll need to use druidic arts to rapidly grow these saplings, then harvest more from them to replant, and so on.”

Saying this, Conra took out some seeds, scattering them towards the moat before raising the spear he had brought. The next moment, the young boy placed the spear’s butt on the ground and lightly tapped it with a thunk.

The instant Conra tapped the ground with his spear, Sophia saw a verdant green light radiate outward from him in concentric circles.

When the radiant light touched the two saplings Conra had planted and the seeds scattered in the moat, an astonishing phenomenon occurred. The seeds in the moat sprouted and grew into a large cluster of cattails, while the saplings planted on the moat’s embankment and above the aquifer instantly grew into massive oak trees.

Conra closely examined the grown trees, selecting and cutting off one of the thickest, freshest branches to replant a short distance away.

“Master, could you please clear out the cattails?”
“Oh, that’s easy.”

With those words, Sophia extended her arm towards the moat. In an instant, a stream of ether summoning and psychokinesis combined, enveloping the entire moat area. Soon, following her gestures, the vast quantities of cattails began being drawn out, their roots clinging to the moat’s accumulated pollutants they had absorbed.

Seeing this entire process occur with just a single gesture from Sophia, the young boy’s jaw dropped open.

“Master, was that just now a spell?”
“Spellcasting elements were involved to an extent, but it’s fundamentally a slightly different technique. Why, would you like to learn it too?”
“Of course! It looked incredibly stylish and powerful!”

Sophia chuckled at Conra’s reaction. ‘This brat, he knows a thing or two.’ This was because the very reason she had conceived and mastered this combined ether summoning and psychokinesis technique was precisely because it seemed far more stylish and befitting a powerful figure. In this regard, Sophia had not changed much from her previous life as Lee Bum-seok.

In any case, Conra retrieved seeds from the cattails Sophia had gathered and scattered them in the moat again. The young boy then tapped his spear once more on the ground, releasing another verdant ripple that caused saplings to grow into oaks and cattails to proliferate in the moat.

After repeating this process several times, the stagnant water in the moat had become completely purified, shining with a transparent brilliance.

“Phew, it seems the aquifer purification is more or less done too. I’ve used up most of the spells I memorized this morning. From here, just tidying up the moat’s connection should allow the land’s natural purification ability to handle the rest.”
“So our work here is complete?”
“Yes, for the most part?”
“Then we should change locations soon.”

Conra readily nodded in agreement. Of course, with nothing left to do here, they would return to the village Sophia had departed from the previous day. Suddenly struck by an ominous premonition, the young boy looked at his master with trembling eyes and asked:

“Um, Master, if I may ask, what mode of transportation did you plan to use on our return journey?”

Faced with the quivering lamb-like squire, the nun knight chuckled mischievously:

“Of course, we’ll travel by horse as before. We came all this way on Janghwalljang, after all.”

Needless to say, upon hearing this nonchalant reply, the young boy’s expression stiffened with dread.