To Inpula Church Territory (2)

Yona opened her eyes to the morning sunlight shining through the carriage window.

She had actually been conscious for a while, but was reluctant to get up and had been lying with her eyes closed.

But now it was really time to get up, so Yona carefully unbuttoned her sleeping bag.

Rubina, who as always had been sleeping in Yona’s arms, had drooled, soaking the front of Yona’s nun’s habit.

This wasn’t a big deal as it could be washed, but the problem was that Rubina was tightly hugging her, kneading Yona’s breasts and for some reason sucking on them over the nun’s habit while sleeping.

‘Should I sleep more using Rubina as an excuse…’

How many people could resist the temptation of morning sleep?

Moreover, Yona tends to sleep late in the morning.

However, she was already feeling somewhat self-conscious after last night’s commotion, and if she dawdled when getting up in the morning, she’d likely hear some unpleasant comments. So Yona carefully detached Rubina, laid her down in the sleeping bag, and slipped out of it.

As she straightened her back and stretched, her whole body made cracking sounds.

Out of habit, she closed her eyes again and took a deep breath.

She felt a warm energy stirring near her lower abdomen before spreading throughout her entire body.

‘Safe for another day.’

Hehe.

Smiling inwardly, Yona circulated her holy power.

A warm energy flowing through her entire body.

And it seeped into her right arm, faintly rising around the sacred robe covering her arm.

‘Holy power is fine…’

It was still early dawn, with no one else awake yet.

Yona carefully opened the carriage door and stepped outside, trying not to make any noise.

At the temporary camp of the Crusader Order not far away, a few knights were already up and bustling about preparing breakfast.

“Hmm.”

While doing light stretches and watching them, Yona suddenly thought of the maces they had been swinging around.

Not maces, but morning stars, probably.

The majesty of those morning stars had been truly impressive.

While doing jumping jacks to shake off the fatigue accumulated overnight, Yona suddenly realized that the Crusader Order members’ gazes were directed at her.

‘Have they never seen someone warming up before?’

Stretching is best for loosening up stiff muscles after waking up in the morning.

Although Yona might be the only one who knows the term “stretching”…

Anyway, warming up with calisthenics is something everyone does.

And these exercises include jumping jacks like this, so it’s a bit hard to understand why they’re staring at her like it’s something strange.

The number of Order members gradually increased, all staring in this direction, or more precisely, at Yona.

Some of them were standing somewhat awkwardly.

“Phew.”

Taking a deep breath, Yona thought quietly.

She thought that she should learn some weapon skills.

*

The Crusader Order is a place where one can join only after a very thorough examination of not only one’s martial arts skills but also faith and family history—even the orphanage life history for orphans.

It’s that difficult to join, and once you join and receive a morning star as a symbol of being a Crusader Order member, that morning star becomes literally a symbol of honor and faith.

Vantaine is a newcomer who hasn’t been in the Crusader Order for long.

Although there’s no difference in rank among Order members, there’s inevitably a difference based on when one joined, so he became what’s called the youngest.

Being the youngest meant he was in charge of all sorts of menial tasks in the Order, one of which included preparing breakfast during field missions.

Getting up early to prepare breakfast for the seniors and the important people in that carriage was bound to be irritating even for the youngest member.

Moreover, the breakfast group included lowly adventurers, which was very annoying for a proud Crusader Order member to have to prepare meals for adventurers.

However, at this moment, Vantaine didn’t feel annoyed at all.

Having grown up in a church orphanage as an orphan, Vantaine had no experience with women.

Therefore, the tremendous bouncing in front of Vantaine’s eyes now was truly shocking.

The chest area of the nun’s habit looked like it was about to burst as it bounced, but the white-haired nun herself seemed unaware of how she looked and continued doing calisthenics.

“…Wow.”

Vantaine didn’t even realize a senior knight was standing right next to him until he heard a small exclamation.

“S-sen—”

“Be quiet.”

Stopping him from even greeting, the senior knight was staring at the nun as if in a trance.

Not just that one senior knight, but several other seniors had come out and were quietly watching the nun.

And when the nun started doing jumping jacks—

“…Wow, really. Celestial God have mercy.”

“I know. Celestial God have mercy.”

“Celestial God…”

The Crusader Order members exclaimed involuntarily.

It was a bouncing as overwhelming as their commotion.

“Uh, um…?”

“Oh…?”

The nun was approaching them.

With the morning sunlight shining brilliantly in the distance, the appearance of the nun approaching them was beautiful enough to make them lose their senses for a moment.

Even considering that many of the Crusader Order members had no defense against women, she was particularly beautiful.

Her beauty, which became more prominent as she approached, was enough to throw the Order members into a state of confusion in an instant.

Thoughts like “Didn’t we stare too obviously?”, “What can we do when our eyes are drawn to her?”, “Did she notice that we were all staring at her?” crossed their minds.

While they were having such thoughts, the nun came right up to them.

And as she moved her red lips—

Just as the Crusader Order members were swallowing hard, wondering what beautiful sound they would hear.

“Mister, don’t stare at people like that, it’s embarrassing. Please do me a favor.”

And the nun spoke, using coarse vocabulary enough to shatter that fantasy.

“Well, it’s not usually allowed, but…”

“I know. Whew, this is so heavy… Really too heavy, this is.”

It was a request to hold the morning star just once, which would normally be out of the question, but the problem is that there aren’t many men who can refuse a beautiful woman’s request to the end.

With the permission of his seniors, Vantaine handed his morning star to the nun who had introduced herself as Yona.

But since it was a morning star used by Crusader Order members, it was close to a lump of iron, and Yona could barely hold it without dropping it, let alone lift it with one hand as soon as she received it.

It seemed she might be able to lift it with both hands, but since her right hand couldn’t hold weapons, she effectively only had her left hand, which was clearly impossible.

“This won’t work either.”

Yona thought this wouldn’t do.

What’s the point if she can’t even lift it properly, let alone swing it?

“May I ask why you’re doing this?”

“Ah, well.”

Yona hesitated for a moment.

She wondered if she should tell the truth, but actually, it wasn’t something worth hiding anyway.

“While dealing with the undead, I felt that I should have some means to protect myself.”

It’s more surprising that she doesn’t have any.

Vantaine didn’t voice this thought out loud.

Yona, for her part, had something to say as well.

None of the adventurers expect combat ability from a healer.

Even Alec was like that.

A healer’s primary duty is healing ability and survival ability.

To survive longer than anyone else and support the survival of party members.

To quickly notice with a broad view whenever party members are injured and promptly extend a healing hand.

That’s already enough to fulfill the role of a healer, and asking a healer to fight at the forefront is tantamount to madness.

But after yesterday’s incident, Yona thought she should be able to protect herself at least.

It was too shameful that she could only tremble before Scarlet and only feel relief after being protected by Alec.

“In that case, a morning star is inappropriate.”

Vantaine declared.

The morning star’s weight is absolutely biased towards the front.

One needs the strength and grip to hold it and swing it without ever letting go, and also the sense to recover when an opening is created after swinging it.

As such, even after receiving this morning star, Crusader Order members had to undergo further training suited to it.

It’s impossible for this beautiful nun to wield it.

“I’ve never seen a woman properly use a morning star. It’s not an easy weapon to handle, so I absolutely wouldn’t recommend it to you, Sister.”

“I see, I understand.”

Yona barely managed to hand back the morning star and turned away without lingering regret.

That wasn’t a weapon Yona could use, so she had to think of another way.

A weapon that can be wielded with one hand, can be handled with the left hand, and can be used quickly.

As she walked, Yona swiftly lifted the left side of her nun’s habit.

She heard a gasp from behind, but Yona paid no attention.

The hunting knife strapped to her snow-white thigh.

She thought this might be possible—

Moreover, this knife had great significance.

‘That guy gav—’

“Yona! What are you doing there?!”

Alec was calling.

Yona, who had been fiddling with the hunting knife, pushed it back into its sheath and hurriedly moved her feet.

“Coming, coming! You baldy!”

Things were about to get busy from now on.

Today is the day they return to the Inpula Church Territory.