A Powerful Martial Artist Reincarnates as a Nun Knight - Chapter 2

In the southern part of the Kingdom of Frangia, there was a small village called Chazelle located in the Duchy of Akiten. The de Chazelle family that ruled this village was originally a family of huntsmasters managing the Duke of Akiten’s hunting grounds.

Although not a noble family, the de Chazelles were treated as vassals equal to the knight class, serving as the village headman and bailiff overseeing five nearby villages for generations. They even had the authority to command a ranger unit of around 30 men, making them a local influence with considerable power in the area.

…At least until about 20 years ago.

The year when Sophia de Chazelle turned five coincided with a major plague outbreak in southern Frangia. The Duchy of Akiten was also groaning under the plague’s impact, and the village of Chazelle could not escape it either.

To put it bluntly, the only person left in this world associated with the village of Chazelle or the de Chazelle family was the sole Sophia de Chazelle. Everyone else had been struck down by that plague, never to return.

In any case, the options for that lone five-year-old child survivor were limited: become a beggar, get adopted by a kind adult, or rely on the Church’s poorhouse. Those were the three choices.

Since none seemed very appealing, the five-year-old Sophia de Chazelle chose a somewhat different fourth option.

At the southernmost tip of the Duchy of Akiten stood the Sainte-Marguerite Convent. Sophia de Chazelle chose to enter this convent and receive education as a nun. Moreover, the Sainte-Marguerite Convent was one of the rare official convents in Frangia to have a bishop-ranked nun priest dispatched and ordained by the Church.

So by living as a nun here, there was a high possibility of formally receiving the vows of a nun priestess.

Fortunately, the priest Jeanne Clamecy who discovered and treated the sole survivor from the village of Chazelle happened to be from this very Sainte-Marguerite Convent. Sophia naturally followed her to the convent and was raised among the nuns.

As expected, convent life suited Sophia extremely well. The monotonous, repetitive lifestyle pattern that most girls would find unbearably dull was more like peaceful respite for her.

Sophia remembered her past life.

The year she turned five, when everyone from the village of Chazelle and the de Chazelle family succumbed to the plague and left the young Sophia’s side – at that very moment when she too fell deathly ill from the plague and her feeble breath was about to expire, some force forcibly kept her breathing and the memories of her past life as “Lee Bum-seok” surged back into her mind.

It was by relying on those past life memories that she clung to life until the visiting priest Jeanne Clamecy could treat her illness and bring her to the convent. Truly, everything that shaped the current Sophia de Chazelle stemmed from that fateful day at age five, twenty years ago.

In any case.

To summarize Lee Bum-seok’s past life succinctly, his youth was spent struggling in a world utterly incompatible with his true self, while his old age was plagued by those unsightly underworld bureaucrats hounding him relentlessly. Compared to that life, his current monastic existence was like a tranquil utopia without worldly troubles.

‘The only inconvenience is that while my past self lived as a full-fledged man, my present self is a woman.’

For someone who lived an entire lifetime as a man, starting anew as a woman brought an unexpectedly great sense of unfamiliarity and discomfort. From bodily functions to secondary sexual characteristics and more, many things felt strange and uncomfortable.

If not for his innate “Injagang” constitution carried over from his past life, this issue could have escalated into an identity crisis triggering depression and severe mental disorders.

Fortunately, just like her past life, she was born with physical and mental attributes hovering at the upper limits of her species. She exhibited no mental instability from hormonal imbalances or the like – Sophia de Chazelle was simply too robustly healthy for that.

Sophia’s life took a turn the day the convent’s mother superior, Bishop Agnes Lefebvre, suddenly summoned her.

‘I should have flatly refused whatever the mother superior said back then.’

Bishop Agnes Lefebvre’s purpose for calling Sophia was this: a vacancy for a “Paladin” would likely open up soon, and she wanted to recommend Sophia for the position.

Being unfamiliar with the qualifications, duties, and authority of a “Paladin,” Sophia vaguely thought the mother superior was recommending her for a good position and readily agreed. Over time, she ended up becoming the current Paladin operative, a wandering nun knight – from her present perspective, that had been an utterly unfair deal.

The little lamb who had been enjoying a rustic, repetitive healing life in a closed environment now found herself a special operations knight battling evils across the savage, unforgiving world.

But what good would it do to yearn for the past? She had already grown far too accustomed to the consecrated armor adorning her body and the holy sword in her hands, too used to cutting down demon kin and their followers.

Even at this very moment, that was the case.

“Speak.”

Gritting her teeth, Sophia spoke. In her grip, a demon follower grotesquely disfigured by foul magic trembled, head seized.

“Wh-What should I say?”
“Where did that bitch demon Erzsebet flee to?”
“Khi hi, I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
“You don’t know? You helped her devour over 40 villagers cleanly, but you don’t know where she fled?”
“Th-That’s right. I, I don’t know anything.”
“Oh, is that so?”

Crunch.

As Sophia tightened her grip, the trembling demon’s head burst open. Simultaneously, the crimson blood cursestone it had preciously guarded within its skull shattered into powder from the evil force. At the same time, the grotesque body of the demon follower sprawled on the floor dissolved into sand and scattered.

Hmm, I’ll have to perform a consecration ritual in this area separately later. Sophia casually made this mental note.

“It seems you believed in the incarnation ability of the blood cursestone, but you didn’t know that such tricks can’t escape me.”

In that tightened grip that simultaneously obliterated the demon follower’s head and blood cursestone, a pale, ghostly figure was seized and thrashed about.

{L-Let me go! This can’t be! I’ve never heard of Paladins having such power!}
“Of course, my brothers and sisters don’t possess this ability. But you really hadn’t heard anything? I thought I had become quite famous recently for causing a ruckus.”
{Just what nonsense are you spewing?}
“Haven’t you heard? Three months ago, I infiltrated the ruling class of the free city of Parel and interfered with their funeral rites, then stopped the demon who was trying to offer their flesh and souls as sacrifices.”
{…Wait, could it be?}
“That’s right. It was me who ruined it.”
{Hihihi, who would have thought even a lowly follower like me would encounter the Light’s Executioner?}
“Yeah, I’m the… Huh? What machine?”

Sophia felt herself unconsciously tighten her grip on the follower’s soul slightly.

{Ggk!? Kkhiaaaahh–?!?}

“Ah, my apologies. It seemed like you said something strange for a moment. Anyway, back to the main point. Where did Erzsebet go?”
{Kkhuhuk, Lady Erzsebet went east!}
“East from here? There’s only the border fortress town in that direction?”
{I’ve told you everything! So please, let me go!}

The demon follower’s soul pitifully sobbed and begged for its life. However, Sophia’s gaze holding that soul was cold and indifferent. It was only natural – this demon was originally a village idler who had been completely enthralled by the demon Erzsebet, offering up his entire village to her and receiving the baptism of foul magic to become a follower.

“Well, since you confessed obediently.”
{You’re sparing me?}

Crunch.

The soul burst apart in her grip without even a scream. Pafff, she scattered the remnant soul fragments with a burst of holy light, then let out a deep sigh.

“It’s always like this, isn’t it?”

Although the demon kin had been driven from the continent, they had not abandoned their ambitions towards it. They constantly sent vanguards to create more demon followers and procure sacrifices for the alien fiends through them.

As Paladin operatives, the nun knights constantly traveled across the continent to stop such demons and followers. But no matter how tight the net, there were always gaps, and trying to cover everything inevitably led to holes.

Moreover, mankind’s base desires lingered inherently in all, high and low alike. Anyone could potentially succumb to evil temptations, yet the innocent could not be persecuted either.

In any case, having learned the demon’s trail, she would have to pursue it urgently.

“Ah, a wanderer’s life again. Thanks to these revolting vermin, I can’t settle down in life.”

A sigh welled up from her chest. But in the end, Sophia had no choice but to dispel the lingering soul fragments on her hands with a burst of holy light, click her tongue, and hurry eastward. She had to stop more innocents from being offered as sacrifices to fiends by that demon.