I Have Been Reincarnated

1.

Beneath a hill where gentle breezes lingered, stood a humble cathedral.

The Edel Nunnery.

A place where unmarried women who served the Celestial God gathered to live, and it also ran an orphanage that cared for girls abandoned by their parents.

It was here that I was reincarnated.

Elia.

Without knowing my surname.

Without knowing my parents’ faces.

Just a young girl with only a name.

At first, I couldn’t distinguish reality and thought it was a lucid dream following death.

But this was no dream.

A day passed.

A month passed.

As time went by, I became aware of reality.

I don’t know why.

What was certain was that I was living as a girl in the nunnery when suddenly my memories of my past life returned.

“Haaah…”

Attending the service at the very back of the chapel, I covered my mouth with both hands and yawned.

…Peaceful.

Peaceful was definitely a good thing, but for a knight who had spent her entire life on a battlefield reeking of blood, a peaceful afternoon was a difficult time to get used to.

I wonder if the front lines are holding up well…

The Imperial Army was being pushed back by the Demon Lord Army.

They had expanded the front lines to the southern desert of the Demon Realm.

But as the Demon Lord himself joined the battle, the tide turned.

I wonder what the situation is after the defeat at the Battle of Black Sand.

But it’s hard to hear news from the battlefield in this countryside. And because I only live in the nunnery, there were even more limitations to the information I could get.

Occasionally, when I go to the village a little away from the nunnery for volunteer work, picking up and reading newspapers abandoned on the street is almost the only way to gather information.

“Elia!”

It was when I was about to return to my room after finishing the afternoon service.

A woman’s voice mixed with anger caught me.

I turned around.

A woman with clear wrinkles around her eyes was standing there.

It was Sister Bertina, my guardian.

“You dozed off during the service again, didn’t you?”

Judging by the look of it.

A lecture lasting an hour and a half was expected.

“No, Sister.”

I smiled brightly like a child and gathered my hands neatly.

“I was praying to God with my hands together like this, and, ouch!”

I was flicked on the forehead.

Flicked on the forehead by a Sword Saint.

If my adjutant had seen this scene, he would have been horrified.

‘That crazy bitch! I’ll bite her throat out!’

The image of my adjutant growling like a stray dog was vivid.

I had stopped his hot temper so many times.

Thinking back to that time, I almost chuckled.

“I told you that if you doze off during the service again, I’ll make you clean the bathroom, didn’t I?”

I stroked my head.

This body is too weak.

In my past life, I was fine even after being pierced in the abdomen by a spear.

But just one punch from a woman made the top of my head tingle.

Tears even welled up.

“I studied too hard this morning… I must have dozed off without realizing it.”

I rubbed my eyes as if I was tired.

“I heard from Sister Giana. You slipped out in the middle of class today and came back around the end of class, didn’t you?”

I got caught.

I had crawled on all fours to sneak out.

I had never been caught before.

Someone must have snitched on me.

Tch.

It’s true that I skipped class, but it’s not a lie that I studied hard.

I went into the forest next to the cathedral and practiced swordsmanship.

Swinging thick branches around.

I am engraving the movements of my past life into this body one by one.

I needed to adapt to the new body.

Although it is still a young body, a woman’s body is different from a man’s in many ways.

The skeleton.

The muscles.

Even a small mistake in movement can determine the outcome of a battle. So I have to get used to this body.

Because I’m going back to the battlefield.

There is still something I have not accomplished.

To cut off the Demon Lord’s head.

For that, I will take up my sword again.

“Elia, if you want to become a nun, you have to study hard.”

Sister Bertina said, seriously encouraging me.

The girls here aim to become nuns.

To be exact, it means becoming a formal clergy member of the Celestial God Church.

When they become adults, they have to become independent.

So, until then, they have to develop the ability to live on their own.

The easiest way to do that is to take classes at the nunnery and become a nun.

Of course, there are other paths.

To do business.

To learn a skill.

Or to enter the Imperial Academy.

The Imperial Academy.

A place where all the talented people from the five kingdoms, including the Empire, gather.

Swordsmanship Department.

Magic Department.

Divinity Department.

The biggest dream these girls can have is to enter the Divinity Department of the Imperial Academy.

If they graduate from the academy, they can go straight to the Grand Cathedral.

Then their lives will be wide open.

The academy…

If I want to go to the battlefield, there is also a way to enter the academy.

Enter the Swordsmanship Department or the Magic Department.

And after graduating, enlist in the Imperial Army as an officer.

But I plan to apply to the Imperial Army as soon as I become an adult.

It doesn’t matter if I’m not an officer.

I just need to get to the battlefield.

No, it was better to start from the bottom ranks.

Because I can freely cut down the Demon Lord Army on the front lines.

As the rank goes up, I will be stationed in the rear.

Because I have to command.

But I’m better at using my body than my head.

So, I left the command to my adjutant and rushed to the front lines, and I had to be called by the Emperor several times and scolded.

‘Adrean! As the Chief of Staff, have some responsibility!’

‘Isn’t it enough if we win?’

‘Victory is important. But I’ve told you so many times that victory isn’t the only thing that matters!’

That’s how it was back then.

“You can definitely become a great nun.”

Sister Bertina gently stroked my soft cheeks.

I chuckled inwardly.

I wonder what she sees in me to say such a thing.

It’s just what adults say when they want children to become great adults.

I will become a knight.

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t feel the need to say it.

But I should answer out of courtesy.

“Yes.”

“You’ll listen to the class well from now on, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll concentrate well during the service too?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then go clean the bathroom now.”

“Yes?”

Sister Bertina put the cleaning tools in my hand.

I blinked and looked at the cleaning brush in my small hand.

I thought I would get away with it naturally in this atmosphere.

“To become a great nun, you must first take care of yourself before taking care of others. If you have done something wrong, admitting and reflecting on your mistakes is also one way to take care of yourself.”

It started.

Sister Bertina’s hour-and-a-half-long lecture.

What a nun is, what a nun should have, and so on.

“I’ll go clean the bathroom!”

I ran away to the bathroom.

I get exhausted if I listen to all of that lecture.

It’s not that she intends to harass me, but it’s at the level of harassment.

I’m seventy-one years old.

I’ve eaten as much as I can.

I’m as old as I can be.

And I’m cleaning the toilet bowl.

2.

Once every fifteen days.

I go to the village beyond the forest for volunteer work.

The Village Where Breezes Dance.

A small village where people who make a living from agriculture live.

A subtle floral scent permeates the entire village.

Children are running around, giggling.

It’s really peaceful.

“Grandfather, does your shoulder feel cool?”

“Oh, it’s cool.”

Volunteer work doesn’t mean doing anything grand.

The nuns provide free medical care.

The girls provide free massages.

Of course, I am in charge of massages.

I was already massaging the shoulders of the ninth person.

It seems that word has spread among the elders that I am good at massaging shoulders.

This is really… Hehe…

It’s troublesome.

It’s troublesome.

I know the hardships of the elderly well, so I found and massaged the places that were likely to hurt based on my experience, and I got regular customers.

“Can you massage me a little too?”

A middle-aged man approached, tapping his shoulder.

He was the village chief.

This person is also one of my regulars.

“Of course.”

I nodded, smiling innocently.

Let me rest a little! Get lost!

This is child labor exploitation!

I wanted to say that, but I couldn’t.

I moved my small hands busily and massaged the village chief’s shoulders.

“Oh, it’s cool.”

His shoulders are tightly knotted.

It’s the weight of responsibility for not only farming but also handling various tasks in the village.

He is the most difficult customer to massage among the regulars, but he is also my favorite customer.

Because I can hear stories about how the world is doing from time to time.

“Village Chief, do you have any interesting stories today?”

“I do!”

The village chief’s eyes lit up.

It was as if he had been waiting for me to say this.

…I know that feeling well.

As you get older, you enjoy telling stories to others.

Should I say you become a chatterbox?

I used to have a taciturn personality when I was young, but as my hair faded, I enjoyed telling my subordinates stories from my youth.

The village chief began to tell various stories.

Most of them were about his past.

What I want to hear is not old stories.

“What’s been happening lately?”

“When I was doing business in the Eastern Kingdom…” He was about to start the next story, but I quickly changed the subject.

“Lately?”

The village chief stroked his chin, humming.

“Ah! There is one!”

He lifted his chin as if something had come to mind.

“I heard that someone recently saw a Magical Beast in the forest.”

“A Magical Beast?”

I immediately showed interest.

I like peace, but.

It was good news for me, who needed someone to test my swordsmanship.

“A wolf Magical Beast with very sharp fangs is hiding in the forest and…”

The village chief raised his hands like a wolf and turned around.

The other girls who were listening on both sides screamed.

“So? Is there really a Magical Beast in the forest?”

I asked, shining my eyes brightly.

Was he hoping for my scream?

The village chief continued to speak with a sullen face.

“I confirmed the footprints. There were footprints the size of a human palm on the ground.”

I can hear the voices of the frightened girls on both sides.

The village chief nodded, smiling as if he was satisfied with the reaction.

“But don’t worry too much. It doesn’t appear during the day and only appears at night. And I’ve also commissioned the Adventurer’s Guild. It will probably be resolved in… four days, or a week at the latest.”

“When did you commission them?”

“The day before yesterday.”

So that means there are at least two days left.

I chuckled.

My heart was pounding with anticipation that I might be able to meet a Magical Beast after a long time.