A Powerful Martial Artist Reincarnates as a Nun Knight - Chapter 8

{Do not think this ends with my death! As long as human sin exists, we shall endlessly spread!}

Leaving that curse, the demon perished by Sophia’s hand. Its body steeped in nefarious energies was incinerated by the consecrated holy fire, reducing it to ash. The space invaded by the demon’s magic power was purified by priests dispatched from the Church to prevent further repercussions.

Bishop Joannes Bettel, witnessing a space contaminated by a demon’s miasma for the first time, turned pale and repeatedly sought the Holy Spirit, the Great Savior, and the Light’s guidance while suppressing his nausea. Sensing a slight increase in the bishop’s luminous power, Sophia somewhat revised her evaluation of him.

‘Truly vile darkness polarizes one’s reactions. Either they succumb to and indulge in the darkness, or they reject it and seek the light.’

If the bishop had been slightly more depraved, his spirit would have been drawn to the demon’s traces, naturally resulting in a diminished luminous power.

‘Contrary to my first impression, he seems quite serviceable after all.’

Sophia decided she would report about the bishop when she next visited the Order’s headquarters.

Though Paladin knights roamed the entire continent purging evil according to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, they did have a designated place to return after completing a set number of missions – the Paladin Headquarters within the Holy City of Kairum’s Order Headquarters.

While traveling to battle demons, the Paladin knights freely roamed the continent. The chronically understaffed Order naturally made use of these wandering monastics.

As a result, Paladin knights had to handle truly diverse tasks and duties depending on the situation. Inspection reports on various dioceses fell under such duties as well. It was an open secret among the Order’s core higher-ups that evaluations of Paladin knights were partially reflected in the personnel reviews conducted at the central headquarters.

Even with his pallid complexion, the bishop led the priests in burning away the demon’s traces. Amid this, he noticed Sophia approaching and greeted her with a bow.

The bishop spoke first:

“I apologize for before. I did not fully understand the work of Paladin knights.”

The bishop’s face was contorted with a strange mix of dejection and embarrassment. He sincerely regretted the friction – or rather, the quite subtle one-sided discord – between him and Sophia previously.

“I don’t know if you’re aware, but I am not a formally ordained bishop who underwent the Order’s regular training. Due to Strasbourg’s unique political circumstances, I somehow ended up in this bishop’s seat. I may know a bit about secular politics, but I am still a novice when it comes to the clergy.”

He spoke in a somewhat self-deprecating tone. He seemed quite shaken by witnessing firsthand the miasma spread by the demon he had only heard about. His expression, showing a hint of self-loathing and contempt for his previous dismissive attitude, made Sophia briefly sigh inwardly.

‘Now I have to provide mental care too? Well, it’s better to put in a bit of effort now rather than regretting ruining a decent person later.’

Gathering her thoughts, Sophia gently said:

“No one can seriously consider what they have not experienced. Humans usually either dismissively scorn what they are ignorant of until greatly shocked, or vaguely fear it and fail to properly respond. Everyone is like that. That’s why the first experience is so important.”

She paused for a moment, looking around. Following her gaze, Bishop Joannes Bettel surveyed the surroundings as well.

“Do you see? Through that first experience, those who were optimistic and dismissive finally learn to become wary and prepared, while those who excessively feared learn to stand up and confront it.”

Sophia met the bishop’s eyes again, speaking as she looked him straight on.

“If you don’t know, then learn. If you know, remember and become well-versed in it. Your Excellency has just now taken the first step. Those who wish to battle the evils of this world must know evil well, yet also be able to scoff at it. You have the quality for it.”

The bishop did indeed have the quality. Knowing politics meant understanding human malice, and now after witnessing demonic wickedness, he still sought the light instead of succumbing to it. Only such people could fight against evil and preserve goodness from it.

Filled with such meaning, Sophia’s comforting advice seemed to gradually restore the bishop’s strength.

“Then what should I do from now on?”
“Do what you do best, Your Excellency. Ponder deeply what you are good at, what you must do, and what you wish to do – then find your own ‘way of fighting’ accordingly.”

With a contemplative expression, the bishop took Sophia’s words to heart. Feeling she had said her piece, Sophia bowed and walked back to the scene. Suddenly, the bishop couldn’t help but think Sophia’s retreating back looked remarkably dignified.

+++++

The cleanup in Strasbourg lasted three full days. This was because the demon slain had considerably dispersed its power in the area to seize control of the city.

‘In fact, if not for that, facing it would have been a bit troublesome.’

While Sophia had clearly overwhelmed her during their earlier battle, that was only due to the total force concentrated in her alone. The size of the blood cursestone manifested in Erzsebet’s “Demonic Realm” at the time was truly immense. If she had not dispersed that power throughout the Demonic Realm, Sophia might have faced quite a difficult fight.

In that case, the Whip of Indecency that Erzsebet had wielded would have been a dreadfully obstructive nuisance.

Sophia quietly imagined herself succumbing to sexual pleasures.

In his past life as Lee Bum-seok, he had roamed in pursuit of power, experiencing many adventures in the process – including occasionally pursuing pleasure. Originally, sexuality was considered a path to mystery, and the more ancient a lineage, the more likely it incorporated elements of primal sexual union and exaltation.

Having encountered arts like the Kama Sutra and The Guide to Heaven in that process, the former Lee Bum-seok did have some insight into sexual pleasure.

But that was only when he was a man in his past life. As a reborn woman in this life, it would be a somewhat different story. It would have been different.

However, as Sophia stroked her chin while mentally illustrating thin adult content from 21st century Earth far too inappropriate to share with minors, she suddenly nodded seriously in agreement.

“This would definitely be unsightly.”

Sophia agreed without the slightest hint of embarrassment, as if it were someone else’s matter. To be frank, it was true that she was quite a beauty. Even during her days as a nun, if she simply kept her mouth shut, she was called a beautiful maiden. Her figure was also, well, quite the bombshell type when not concealed by armor.

On top of that, her setting was just the kind to be unsightly. A nun + female knight – wasn’t that an outright pandering setup? One could retort. If it were the past life Lee Bum-seok, he would have purchased any lewd manga featuring a character like Sophia at Seoul’s Comic World without hesitation, provided the artwork style suited his tastes.

“However, from the standpoint of performing my duties, it would be quite inconvenient.”

If she ended up with the kind of sensitive physique fitting for erotic manga or doujinshi, it would undoubtedly hinder her ability to carry out her duties properly. Becoming the kind of character who deliberately seeks out demonic beasts for sexual pleasure, like in some erotic tales, would be highly problematic.

Moreover, as Paladin knights, they were irreplaceable superhuman combatants for the Order and humanity. While it seemed unlikely such a serious world-setting would really feature such a scandalous development…what about that erotic whip the prostitute demon had wielded?

In the end, better safe than sorry. Sophia decided to consider countermeasures.

In any case, after destroying the blood cursestone and removing the demon’s traces, Sophia rested two more days at Strasbourg’s church for personal maintenance before promptly setting out again, guided by the Holy Spirit.

After the Golden Age waned, the creatures of that era became Holy Spirits. Only the souls at the moment of death filled solely with the peace, holiness, and transcendent bliss of being one with nature, without any lingering attachments or impurities, could become Holy Spirits.

Thus, the Holy Spirits acted to protect the world that had granted them blessed lives, aiding those of similar natures.

Within the Order, few received such guidance from Holy Spirits. Unless one was born with an innate nature to attract Holy Spirits, only those who underwent the Order’s formal education to attain high luminous power would be visited by them.

As an exception, each Paladin operative, be they monk knights or nun knights, was accompanied by a Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirits understood that this was necessary for the Paladins to smoothly carry out their duties.

Sophia too had a Holy Spirit accompanying her. This Holy Spirit named Jibrail would sometimes assist Sophia in wielding her luminous power, warn her of impending dangers, or guide her to places in need of her strength.

The issue was that this Holy Spirit was excessively sensitive. Just earlier, when Sophia had mentally illustrated a thin adult story using herself as the subject, Jibrail, presumably perceiving this, had turned an assumed facial area bright red in embarrassment and thoroughly lectured Sophia.

It was quite comical how Jibrail failed to notice Sophia’s listless reaction, taking it in one ear and letting it out the other, but at least that insightfulness and premonition were genuine as a Holy Spirit.

Following Jibrail’s guidance, Sophia always encountered those in need of aid and witnessed evils to be purged. When weary, she could quickly find places to rest, and the same applied to food and drink.

Moreover, when traveling to regions of the continent with different languages, Jibrail kindly provided simultaneous interpretation. This allowed Paladin knights to travel anywhere on the continent without suffering language barriers.

So there must have been a reasonable cause for Sophia’s current Holy Spirit Jibrail to prompt her to move now as well.

And after following Jibrail’s guidance for several days, what Sophia encountered was, for some reason, a village where a plague had begun to spread.