Ailita fled behind Joen.
The plump nun who had been chasing her hesitated for a moment when she saw Joen’s imposing, muscular physique.
Joen caught a glimpse of Ailita’s shiny, moist lips out of the corner of his eye.
…She must have eaten it.
After a long silence, Joen stepped aside and spread his hands.
“I don’t know her. Be my guest.”
Liya chimed in with a smile.
“Same. Who is she? Not familiar.”
“Wah!” Ailita clutched her chest, pretending to be deeply hurt.
“You guys are so mean! What happened to being brothers for life?”
“I don’t have a brother who won’t own up to his mistakes. Ma’am… would you like me to help you pick up these throwing weapons?”
Joen bent down and picked up a spatula, handing it to the nun.
The nun, seeing that Joen was a Holy Knight, burly and tall, yet not at all rude or arrogant, and was even this gentle to a General Affairs Nun like her, felt her heart skip a beat.
She quickly blushed and waved her hand.
“N-no need, I can do it myself…”
However, when she saw Ailita making faces behind her, she got angry again.
“Do you know what you’ve done? Wasting ingredients! ‘Just that? Not as good as elven magic and hard work?’ Ingredients! That serious? I’m telling you, this thing tastes—”
“I’ll be penalized! I’ll have my allowance docked for a whole year!”
The nun’s eyes reddened, and the corners of her eyes began to moisten.
“Those were the precious fruits the Bishop was using to entertain honored guests!”
“So it was you who stole it! You admitted it!”
The nun cried out in tears.
“Ailita.”
Joen called out her alias (she was an elf in disguise here) and warned.
“Compensate her immediately. Also, if you cause any more trouble for others, I’ll throw you out of here all the way to the Dry River Territory.”
“Wow, that sounds exciting.”
Ailita smacked her lips.
Seeing that Joen was about to actually do it, she jumped aside in fright, casually pulled out a large handful of Gold Coins from her pocket, and stuffed them into the plump nun’s hands.
“I know, I know, I was just joking.”
She muttered.
The nun was dumbfounded.
Although the Empire Capital was a place where every inch of land was precious, not everyone was that wealthy.
There were always some out-of-towners or people who had fallen on hard times wandering around.
Gold Coins still had strong purchasing power in the capital.
After dealing with that, Ailita, dressed in her pure nun’s uniform, continued to secretly taste things.
“What’s this? Om nom—”
‘Blech—ptooey, ptooey, so gross. How can normal humans eat something that smells this fishy?’
Liya watched as Ailita took a bite of a gardenia flower, her small mouth slightly open, her pink eyes frozen for a long moment.
She couldn’t help asking Joen.
“Do you think she’d even dare to taste shit?”
Joen’s face also turned pale.
“Hard to say.”
With half an hour left before morning prayers, the three sat under the shade of a tree sharing intelligence.
At some point, Ailita had sneaked back, holding a handful of melon seeds, crunching away.
Liya first finished telling what happened to her last night, then Joen.
He shrugged.
“Nothing happened to me last night. A few other trainees sharing my quarters picked a fight with me, but I taught them a lesson.”
He paused, then added.
“Also, the money stash hasn’t been touched.”
“It’s only been one night; it probably hasn’t even been logged yet. Wait a couple more days, no rush.”
Liya consoled him.
“Mm.”
Joen nodded.
“I didn’t find out any intelligence.”
Ailita cheerfully raised her hand.
No one replied.
Joen and Liya both looked at Fei Bi.
Fei Bi was silent for a long time before finally opening her mouth, hesitantly and with a bitter smile.
‘The nuns here… are more perverted than I am.’
She didn’t voice this heartfelt complaint.
Instead, she chose a more tactful phrasing.
“They have bold personalities, very outgoing.”
—So outgoing that last night she had talked with them all night about which Holy Knight was more virile, which grove was best for sneaking into, who was hooking up with the Bishop…
Topics like that.
The boldness even surprised her, a Puppeteer trained by the Shadow Guard.
These pretty girls even fooled around in the confessional with believers who came to confess, under the gaze of the Goddess Jade Statue, not even bothering to take off their nun habits, just lifting the hem and then…
After finishing, they would continue listening to the next believer’s confession on behalf of the goddess.
She had heard before that some nuns of the Church of Light were passionate and charming, but she never expected it to be this passionate!
“How bold and outgoing?”
Joen clearly didn’t understand, asking curiously.
“Well… um… they might be too focused on matters of love.”
Fei Bi’s eyes drifted upward, her jade finger tapping her lips in thought.
“That’s normal, isn’t it? Boys and girls of this age are supposed to be concerned with love.”
Joen continued.
“But life isn’t just about love, is it? Focusing too much on it isn’t good either.”
Fei Bi said instinctively.
However, Joen’s next unexpected question made her shoulders tremble in fright.
“Miss Fei Bi, what are you more focused on?”
Joen’s bright eyes stared at her like a blazing sun.
Fei Bi’s palms tightened instinctively, clutching the hem of her nun’s habit.
Her snow-white thighs were increasingly exposed, even the outline of her buttocks beginning to show.
But now she couldn’t care less about such small issues as “flashing.”
Because what Joen was actually asking was not what she was focused on internally, but—
Why did she seem to have different views than what her identity should have?
A daughter of a servant who grew up in the Prince’s mansion, barely ever leaving, struggling on the edge of survival, and uneducated—at this age, what else could she focus on besides love, eating, and dressing?
“As a nun of the Goddess, one should naturally focus on the teachings imparted by the Goddess. Equality, fraternity, mercy, kindness…”
She suppressed her trembling heart and answered with a calm demeanor.
This response wasn’t great, but she couldn’t think of anything better at the moment.
“Oh.”
Joen nodded, seeming to accept the explanation.
As morning prayers approached, everyone dispersed.
Only Joen still had Liya on his shoulder, preparing to take her to the training ground.
As a Holy Knight of relatively high status within the Chapel, he had the authority to assign a General Affairs Nun to serve him.
“Lily, Lily, I think Fei Bi is off.”
He whispered to Liya.
“Wow wow wow—”
Liya, upon hearing this, barely suppressed her surprise, but her neck kept leaning back.
“H-how did you figure that out?”
“Logically, she should be a Commoner, but I feel she doesn’t act like one at all. That faint noble aura—a Commoner couldn’t fake it.”
Joen pointed at himself.
“You know why those nine trainees picked a fight with me last night? They said: ‘Stinking outsider, come to the capital to beg for food? Look at me, I’m a Duke, but I still act like a hick. Look at you, radiating poverty.'”
Liya almost couldn’t hold back her laugh. She didn’t expect hell jokes to follow her to another world.
“Maybe it’s a noble temperament.”
Liya thought for a moment and casually made an excuse for Fei Bi.
She didn’t want to reveal too much too soon, mainly because she was afraid Joen would spill the beans and ruin the act.
Joen shook his head.
“I thought so at first, but many things are really strange. Now that I think about it, could it be that the Second Prince deliberately arranged for us to meet her at the Second Prince’s Mansion?”
“Possibly?”
Liya pretended to be uncertain.
“But it could also be a pure coincidence. Let’s observe a bit more. If she is the Second Prince’s mole, she’ll slip up eventually.”
“True. Let’s keep watching.”
Joen nodded.
The training ground quickly gathered over two hundred people, all burly men with strong builds.
Joen wasn’t even the most muscular among them.
There were several “human tanks” that were two meters forty-five tall.
The morning prayer content differed between nuns and Holy Knights, and between Holy Knights and nuns.
Although they all recited scriptures and prayed to the Goddess, for Holy Knights, it also included physical training and sparring.
A square-faced man who looked like an instructor, fully armed, sat imposingly in the center of the training ground, supervising these intimidating Tough Guys as they pushed their physical limits.
Occasionally, he would sternly shout.
“Put in some effort! Don’t slack off! This is the most important moment of the day! The Goddess will bestow Sacred Light to heal your wounds. After your bodies are tempered by Divine Power, they will become even more indestructible!”
His peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of Joen, who was training earnestly, and then noticed Liya on his shoulder.
His face darkened.
“Who’s that? Newbie, why did you bring a pet here?”