The Priest Wants to Retire

EP.254 Epilogue. The Saint smiles silently. (1)

The room, with breathless excitement now extinguished, was eerily quiet.

The chill of the breeze blowing in from the window made my barely-clad body shiver.

It was a moment when I desperately craved a warm blanket, but it seemed like the only one was already claimed by someone else, so unfortunately, that was not an option.

“……”

“……”

Our gazes met once more, but the unbearable silence continued to linger.

The aftertaste of the previous night’s events still clung to our bodies, heavily contributing to the uncomfortable atmosphere.

“Um, umm…”

“EEEK!”

I tried to cough softly, but it immediately turned into a startled moan in response.

That reaction pierced my heart like a dagger, but I forced myself not to show it.

For now, sorting out this chaotic situation was my top priority.

“I-I’m so sorry, Sister. I… I didn’t mean to…”

“Oh, no! Please don’t bow your head, Regis Priest! It is I who has truly committed an enormous breach of etiquette!”

As I knelt and earnestly tried to apologize, the Sister hurriedly stopped me in panic.

She was flustered enough to almost toss off the blanket draped over her body.

“Regis Priest, you did nothing wrong! It was my fault for trying to, um, seduce you with such an indecent appearance from the very start!”

“Wait! Wait a moment, calm down! Sister!”

I urgently intervened as she rambled on with a face as red as a tomato.

Seizing the moment, I tightened the blanket precariously hanging on the Sister’s shoulders.

Thanks to that, her attire turned into a comically scanty cloak worn over a naked body, but it was still better than being completely nude.

“EEEK!”

With an unexpected hiccup, the Sister was abruptly silenced.

I thought she had calmed down somewhat, but seeing her face swelling with heat, it was clear that wasn’t the case.

“Ah, ahh… Aah…”

After fidgeting for some time, her eyelids finally squeezed shut.

Only then did I realize how absurdly close our faces were.

“I apologize. I shouldn’t have been so careless…”

“No! P-please don’t worry about it! It’s too late for that now…”

Though she tried to maintain a calm tone, it was evident from her demeanor that she was still deeply shaken.

In fact, my own feelings weren’t much different, even if they weren’t openly visible.

“Haha…”

“……”

Silence returned like a broken record.

I forced a smile to lift the mood, but it didn’t resonate.

“……”

“……”

The awkward air, now heavier than a lead balloon, began to make breathing difficult.

Or rather, if I could breathe normally, that would be the odd part.

Even if it was just a temporary duty, I was a man who had promised a lifetime of companionship to a church’s Pope and had spent the night with another woman.

One could skip the religious trial and be immediately impeached; truly, this was a grave offense.

There had been a similar incident before, but back then, I wasn’t married, which at least gave me an excuse.

If word of this were to reach the Hero’s ears…

Just imagining the aftermath sent shivers down my spine, and my stomach twisted painfully.

With each heartbeat, the guilt piled on like a snowball, evoking the urge to smoke a cigarette I had long stopped.

“Ugh…”

“Are you okay, Regis Priest? Is something wrong?”

As I covered my face with both hands and let out a groan, suddenly, the Sister asked about my well-being.

“I’m fine… How about you, Sister?”

“Oh, yes… I’m okay, except that I can’t seem to put any strength in my waist…”

“Ah…”

Though the Sister trailed off, I understood what she was hinting at without needing to hear the rest.

That only made my already distressed heart even more troubled, but I took a deep breath to calm down and slowly moved my parched lips.

“Um, Sister… just to clarify, could you tell me how much you remember? Like, from where to where?”

I asked gently, as if walking on thin ice.

At that moment, the Sister’s shoulders twitched slightly.

“Uh…”

Her head drooped down.

That was the end of her response. Still, her embarrassed behavior spoke volumes.

“I see… I remember… um…”

She nodded, stammering.

Thanks to that, I could save myself the effort of explaining everything that had happened, but it wasn’t much comfort.

“It must have been the work of the Saint, right…?”

“Yes… probably…”

Figuring out who was responsible for this situation wasn’t too difficult.

The immense Holy Power that had been overflowing from the Sister’s body.

Neither I nor the Sister could possibly mistake its source.

No wonder things had been quiet lately.

Even in an unexplained sleep, having an incomplete consciousness, the Saint’s talent allowed her to pull off such ridiculous acts, leaving me in awe.

I had wondered for a while why the Saint seemed so eager to turn me into a lustful monster.

Of course, I couldn’t ask her while she was asleep; it remained an unsolvable mystery.

“I really can’t handle this…”

“Well… the Saint probably didn’t intend for this to happen…”

Just as my thoughts finished, the Sister jumped in to defend the Saint.

It’s not good to unconditionally shield a child’s mistakes.

With matters connected to the Saint, the Sister’s usual intellect vanished without a trace, making her seem particularly pitiable today.

“More importantly… you really have no issues with your body, right?”

I squinted, asking again about her condition.

It was an afterthought that struck me.

With that much Holy Power circulating in her body, it seemed strange that the only result was a minor strain in her waist.

To smooth over the consequences of the Saint’s mistake, we had to mitigate the damage as much as possible.

The Sister I knew was certainly capable of doing much more than that.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Really, it’s nothing.”

She evaded my gaze excessively as she spoke.

This person. Was she really this bad at lying?

Her innermost thoughts were so transparent that it was like looking through a clear window; they were as evident as her attire.

“Is that so? Then, let me check for a moment.”

“Eh? Huh?”

As I stood up suddenly and approached her with long strides, the Sister showed a fierce look of confusion.

Her eyes widened in surprise, but it seemed she couldn’t move from where she sat, indicating that her waist injury might really be true.

“I-I can’t! You shouldn’t! Regis Priest! I’m fine! EEK! I really am fine!”

“No! Logically speaking, there’s no way that much Holy Power would all be nullified in just one night!”

After easily subduing the Sister, who was flailing about like a small dog afraid of getting its nails clipped, I carefully placed my hand around her neck.

Having neutralized countless Saint Candidates’ Holy Powers before, I had become adept at predicting how long it would take contact to neutralize the power.

If my memory served right, the Holy Power surging within the Sister needed about a month of constant contact to neutralize fully.

For an average person without immunity to Holy Power, just touching it would be enough to bleach accidents clean away.

Without a doubt, immediate action was needed, and any notions of shame or face were secondary concerns.

After some time scrubbing the blistering red skin around the Sister’s neck, a massive question mark suddenly floated in my mind.

“……Huh?”

I felt no Holy Power.

Just a night ago, the Holy Power that had been surging through the Sister’s body was nowhere to be found.

Could it be that everything from last night had been a dream?

A fleeting hope flickered in my mind, but the clear bite mark on the Sister’s pristine neck quickly dispelled that illusion.

“───!!!”

The Sister, hiding her face between her hands, silently cursed me with her eyes.

She couldn’t say anything, merely sweating coldly.

Now that it was confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the Sister’s body, I was left as nothing more than a lecher who had indiscriminately touched a young woman’s body.

“I apologize…”

THWACK!

I belatedly offered my apologies, but the Sister, still pounding my chest with her tightly clenched fist, didn’t seem to be calming down at all.

A sudden sense of unease washed over me.

I felt like I was missing something.

An anxious feeling prickled at me as if the light beyond the thick fog was right in front of me but just out of reach.

At that moment, while I was deep in thought and confusion…

“Where are you?! Priest! It’s already morning!”

The Hero’s voice calling for me from outside the door announced the impending doom.